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"What?!"
"How is that possible?! Fifth place on the ranking… him?!"
As the new round of rankings began,
And the latest lines of text became clear,
The entire world erupted in shock almost simultaneously.
The World of the Living. Hueco Mundo. Soul Society. Even the Wandenreich.
But nowhere was the reaction stronger than in Seireitei.
The barracks of the Gotei Thirteen exploded into chaos in an instant.
"The strongest Shinigami of the last thousand years…"
"The founder of the Gotei Thirteen…"
"One of the oldest Shinigami in Soul Society…"
"And the wielder of the strongest fire-type Zanpakutō, Ryūjin Jakka…"
"Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto!"
Inside the First Division's office.
After trembling his way through the final words,
Chōjirō Sasakibe's face turned deathly pale. He nearly fainted on the spot.
How could this be?!
The Captain-Commander was only ranked fifth?!
It was shocking. Absurd. Completely unacceptable.
At that moment, Sasakibe suddenly felt an intense wave of heat beside him.
Clearly, after reading the same subtitles, the old man seated calmly at the desk had finally snapped.
"Outrageous!"
Three seconds of suffocating silence followed.
Then, for the first time in a very long while, a clear expression crossed the Captain-Commander's stone-like face.
Beneath his pale eyebrows, his eyes burned with boundless fury, like an ancient volcano on the verge of catastrophic eruption.
"It's over…"
"The old man is furious…"
...
Outside the office,
Every seated officer and squad member of the First Division felt the terrifying pressure pouring out from within.
Their faces changed dramatically.
How long had it been?
Nearly a hundred years?
Aside from the incident when the Visored captains were branded as traitors, the Captain-Commander had never displayed such rage.
And sure enough—
Just as dread seized everyone's hearts,
A deafening explosion tore through the air.
Boom!
The office doors were blown apart.
Blazing spiritual pressure surged outward, brilliant and scorching.
This wasn't just an invisible force anymore.
It was visible to the naked eye, fully manifesting as flames.
As the shattered wood flew through the air, it couldn't withstand the searing heat of that pressure.
In an instant, it burned to ash and scattered across the floor.
Even more suffocating—
The Captain-Commander's wrath was so vast and overwhelming that it didn't just engulf the office.
The entire First Division barracks was swallowed by pressure like that of a primordial volcano.
Only a handful of veteran officers, those who had served under him for hundreds or even thousands of years, barely managed to endure it.
The rest—
Especially those closest to the office—
Collapsed on the spot, overwhelmed by the crushing force.
By the time they lost consciousness, every drop of moisture in their bodies had already evaporated.
And this—
This was merely the spiritual pressure he released unconsciously.
Not even the true power of Ryūjin Jakka itself.
It made one thing painfully clear.
The terrifying might of the strongest Shinigami in a thousand years.
And just how dark and furious the old man's mood was at that very moment.
At the same time.
Fifth Division, underground chamber.
"Hm?"
"Captain Aizen, did you feel that?" Ichimaru Gin, who had only just managed to recover from his shock, suddenly stiffened. "That terrifying pressure… it feels like it's coming from the direction of the First Division!"
A wave of scorching air swept past him.
He turned his head on instinct, staring toward the First Division, his eyes flickering with complicated emotions.
"Looks like the old man's finally angry."
Nearby, Aizen's lips curved upward into a faint, amused smile. "Gin, isn't that only natural? Forget the Head-Captain himself. Even I was surprised when I saw those rankings."
This time, Aizen wasn't putting on an act.
He genuinely meant it.
Yes.
He had always believed he could surpass the Head-Captain, that sooner or later he would claim the throne of heaven through sheer power alone.
But that was only a possibility.
The premise was that he would first obtain the complete Hōgyoku and perfectly fuse his soul with it.
And yet.
The Head-Captain was only ranked fifth.
Didn't that mean… that his future self would inevitably stand above the strongest Shinigami of the past thousand years?
The thought made the curve of Aizen's smile deepen.
Deep in his heart, his resolve to betray Soul Society grew firmer once again.
"Yeah…" Gin drawled.
"Who could've imagined it? Someone as strong as the Head-Captain, the man every Shinigami respects and fears, couldn't even make it into the top three."
"That result really knocks the wind out of you."
Gin had voiced what almost everyone was thinking.
Honestly speaking, after all the ranking videos revealing fragments of the future, the strength of each faction had more or less come into the open.
Clearly,
the Arrancar army was at the bottom.
Not a single one of them made the list, and many were repeatedly killed during the rankings.
Next came the captains of the Gotei Thirteen.
They each displayed immense power, along with abilities and secrets no one had ever seen before, and every one of them had impressive battle records.
And finally,
there were the pure-blood Quincy of the Wandenreich.
Especially the four Schutzstaffel, whose absurdly broken abilities had disgusted viewers so badly that curses flew nonstop.
Because of that, in Gin's eyes, Yhwach, the Quincy King, was absolutely guaranteed a spot in the top three of the entire Bleach world.
No question about it.
Thinking of that, Gin frowned slightly, puzzled.
"Strange… then aside from Aizen and Yhwach, who are the other two mysterious figures standing above the Head-Captain?"
"Squad Zero? That seems unlikely."
"Those show-offs didn't they all get shot in the head and die?"
"Or could it be…"
"That monk who flashed across the screen for just a moment?"
Gin's memory snapped into place.
The big-eyed monk seemed to be the leader of Squad Zero, and he had never shown his strength before.
If it was him, then yeah, it made sense that he might be stronger than the Head-Captain.
So then…
Who was the last one?
Gin wracked his brain and came up completely empty.
Thirteenth Division.
"Ukitake…"
"You were shocked by this result too, weren't you?"
Kyōraku Shunsui took off his floral haori. His back was soaked through with cold sweat, and his bearded, weathered face was twisted with uncertainty.
What was going on?
The old man could only place fifth?
There were actually four people in the future who would be stronger than him?
No way.
As the Head-Captain's direct disciple, Shunsui felt the impact more deeply than anyone else.
All this time, the old man hadn't just been a guide on the path of the Shinigami. He was the absolute leader of the Gotei Thirteen, the spiritual pillar in every Shinigami's heart.
"Ryūjin Jakka is the strongest."
"Head-Captain Yamamoto cannot be defeated."
For thousands of years, that belief had been carved into everyone's soul.
Even now,
after watching so many ranking segments,
no one had ever seriously doubted that the old man wouldn't be in the top three.
This was unprecedented.
Just as Shunsui was still trapped in his shock, unable to pull himself out,
the subtitles slowly faded away.
The scene shifted, and the pitch-black screen abruptly changed to a new battlefield.
At the same time,
the Head-Captain's furious voice rang out, heavy with anger:
"Kyōraku Shunsui."
"Ukitake Jūshirō."
"From long ago, I never once imagined losing to cowardly brats who run away. Let alone to the two of you, who aided a Ryoka and threatened the stability of Soul Society."
"Come, my two students."
"There's no need for empty words. Draw your Zanpakutō and settle this with steel."
After hearing those words,
Shunsui's already shaken mind completely blew apart.
"..."
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