Ishida Sōken was dumbfounded, his jaw nearly dropping to the floor.
Although he had spent his early years in the Wandenreich, since leaving the Soul Society and joining the Human World's Quincy faction, he had hunted his fair share of Hollows and Menos Grande that appeared in the city.
His understanding of the Hollow species was no less than any other Quincy's.
Therefore, if his eyes weren't deceiving him, that pitch-black blast that devoured even the light itself had to be one of a Hollow's signature abilities—a Cero.
But that begged the question: how could Lord Naraku, a Soul Reaper, use a Cero?
Inexplicably, a chill crept up from the depths of his heart.
'Is it too late for me to abandon ship now?'
While he was reeling in delayed fear, Aizen also fell silent.
It was his first time seeing someone in such a rush to throw their life away.
Speaking of which, Tsunayashiro Tokinada was quite unlucky. Had he faced literally any other Soul Reaper, the outcome wouldn't have been this disastrous.
Opening with an anti-Soul Reaper Kidō barrier and following up with Enzō's mind control—such a devastating combo would have forced even Yamamoto to suffer a bitter loss.
Unfortunately, he ran into someone who didn't fight like a Soul Reaper.
A Zanpakutō was certainly important to Naraku Sora, but missing that piece of the puzzle didn't mean he was powerless.
As for Enzō, which drew upon negative emotions, it was completely useless.
Once Hollowfication was activated, any negative emotions were simply rendered moot.
A single Cero had directly claimed half of Tsunayashiro Tokinada's life.
Even though his hastily cast Bakudō and Reiatsu defenses had offset some of the impact, taking a Cero head-on left his surface flesh looking as if it had been scoured by a wire brush.
His bones were fractured, his chest caved in, and his internal organs endured agonizing, unbearable pain.
He was a mangled, gruesome mess of flesh and blood.
His bloodshot eyes stared fixedly at the wild figure ahead.
The black Reiatsu swirling around Sora crackled with distorted arcs of lightning, exuding a heart-palpitating pressure.
Bare-chested, Naraku Sora stepped forward across the cracked earth. The smoke at his fingertips dissipated on its own. As he slowly clenched his hand, the popping of his knuckles exploded like thunder.
Even the surrounding atmosphere was compressed, forming visible ripples.
Feeling that suffocating pressure, despair bred in Tsunayashiro Tokinada's heart. His lips trembled, and his indistinguishable, mangled face turned deathly pale.
"This is the price you pay for trying to cheese the fight."
"Tsunayashiro Tokinada, are you ready to die?"
Faced with this undisguised threat, Tsunayashiro Tokinada gritted his teeth, producing a sharp cracking sound. Even though he had reached a dead end, he still refused to give up.
He was the man destined to become the Spirit King; how could he fall in a place like this?
How could he die at the hands of a Soul Reaper who wasn't even a Captain?!
"Hadō #88: Flying Dragon-Striking Heaven-Shaking Lightning Cannon!"
Catching Naraku Sora off guard, he abruptly raised his left hand, pointing it straight ahead.
He decided to risk it all in one final gamble.
In an instant, an explosive roar erupted. A beam of azure light, coiled with violently crackling electricity, surged forward, obliterating everything in its path.
Rubble and dust were entirely wiped out.
It rushed toward Naraku Sora with overwhelming, destructive momentum—and then came to a screeching halt.
The destructive beam, composed of Reishi, was forcefully stopped against Sora's palm. As his five fingers clenched, the sound of shattering glass echoed endlessly.
Until it completely shattered, scattering into the sky as countless motes of light.
The residual impact spread across the ruins, causing dense, spiderweb-like cracks to spread across the already devastated earth.
Dust billowed into the air.
By the time the Reiatsu blew the dust away, Tsunayashiro Tokinada had vanished from his spot, leaving behind only a puddle of blood mixed with dirt.
Spreading his Pesquisa, Sora instantly captured the fleeing figure.
Naraku Sora: "..."
Even with his self-proclaimed peerless intellect that easily crushed his contemporaries, he still couldn't fathom Tsunayashiro Tokinada's thought process.
Running away when you couldn't win was understandable, but why run in *that* direction?
Mid-air, Tsunayashiro Tokinada dry-heaved violently, coughing up fragments of his internal organs. His breath was weak, his injuries severe to the extreme.
But the more dire the situation, the clearer his mind became.
He definitely couldn't win in a fight. Naraku Sora was simply a monster, not someone a normal person like him could oppose.
If he took another Cero like the last one, he'd be reporting straight to Hell.
And if he tried to flee, he likely wouldn't escape either.
During the battle, Tsunayashiro Tokinada had witnessed Sora's absurd Flash Step speed.
It was impossible to react to.
If he chose to expose his back to the enemy now, it would only lead to a dead end.
Therefore, his only chance of survival was to take the Soul Reaper who had come with Naraku Sora hostage, using the kid's life as leverage to buy a final glimmer of hope.
He could only pray that Naraku Sora wasn't a cold-blooded creature like himself, and that the kid was important enough to him.
Ishida Sōken's expression changed drastically as he instantly realized Tsunayashiro Tokinada's intentions.
Recalling the relationship between Naraku Sora and Aizen, he gritted his teeth and prepared to step forward to intercept the man.
However, before he could make a move...
A surging black torrent erupted from the ground, extending layer by layer like stacked data. A crushing Reiatsu descended, causing the surrounding atmosphere to wail.
It appeared exactly in Tsunayashiro Tokinada's inevitable path. Terror flashed through his single remaining eye.
"No!!"
A despairing wail rang out, but before he could take another action, the black coffin completed its seal.
A black sarcophagus, dozens of meters tall, stood imposing over the ruins, exuding a majestic aura.
Ishida Sōken stared blankly at the terrifying sight. His neck turned with a creak, like rusty machinery.
He saw Aizen standing with one hand resting in front of him, emitting an almost imperceptible fluctuation of Reiatsu. Seemingly noticing Ishida Sōken's gaze, Aizen glanced sideways and offered a polite smile.
Only then did the chanted Kidō sequence finally arrive.
"Hadō #90: Black Coffin."
Ishida Sōken instantly felt his scalp go numb.
'Sure enough, only monsters can play with monsters,' he thought.
As far as he knew, even an average Soul Reaper Captain couldn't perform a #90 Hadō without an incantation.
Yet this Mr. Aizen had maintained a relaxed and casual demeanor from start to finish, as if he had merely done something entirely trivial.
It was simply terrifying.
After completing a wave of strangulation, the black coffin dismantled.
Tsunayashiro Tokinada collapsed to the ground, completely losing the ability to move.
His body was in tatters, as if he had suffered the death of a thousand cuts, already entering a near-death state.
In truth, after taking a Cero head-on, he hadn't had much combat capability left, so Aizen had deliberately controlled the power of the Black Coffin.
He wanted to avoid killing the man outright.
Right now, there was no internal strife, and the Soul Reaper Captains were all diligently fulfilling their duties, making it hard to find a reason to strike at them.
Now that an excellent experimental subject had delivered himself to his doorstep, he couldn't let it go to waste.
Speaking of which, it was quite a pity about the current head of the Tsunayashiro Clan.
After being eroded by the Spirit King's power, the man had been almost completely drained, greatly reducing his research value.
Tsunayashiro Tokinada's timely arrival would perfectly fill that vacancy.
After deactivating his Hollowfication, Naraku Sora sensed his surroundings briefly. Confirming there were no lingering negative emotions, he used Sonído to appear directly in front of Tsunayashiro Tokinada.
"Why go through all this trouble? Why bother?"
"Did you really think Sōsuke was some kind of saint? Compared to a professional villain, you're lightyears behind him."
"Now that you've fallen into his hands, even death will become a luxury."
Tsunayashiro Tokinada was already on the brink of death. Hearing these sarcastic words and recalling all the effort and preparation he had put in recently...
Rage directly attacked his heart. His vision went black, and he completely lost consciousness.
Aizen: "?"
'Was that really my image in this guy's eyes?' His blood pressure spiked.
'Perhaps I should have thrown that Black Coffin at a certain someone instead.'
Watching the powerful Soul Reaper being toyed with by the duo, Ishida Sōken silently buried his previous thoughts of jumping ship deep in his heart.
'Perhaps Lord Naraku Sora isn't adept at scheming and is a bit easier to fool.'
'But this Lord Aizen is clearly not the reckless brute type.'
'With enemies like these, His Majesty Yhwach must be losing sleep, right?'
At the same time, he recalled the hymns of the Holy Emperor that had always circulated within the Wandenreich, and his loyalty deepened.
'The only ones who can save the Quincies of the Human World are the two men standing before me.'
'For the continuation of our race, I absolutely have to cling tightly to their coattails.'
Aizen expertly sealed Tsunayashiro Tokinada with Bakudō. He planned to put him in a life-support pod for emergency treatment once they returned, just to stabilize his vital signs.
Then, he would hand him over to Naraku Sora to go through the usual procedures.
Speaking of which...
It seemed that every time this guy brought back a captive, he had to take them for a spin through the Shino Prison, and later, the newly built prison in Las Noches.
He kept claiming it was for justice, but knowing Naraku Sora as well as he did, Aizen was very aware of the man's flexible bottom line.
Rather than upholding justice, it was more accurate to say he just couldn't stand certain people and certain things.
As the person who understood Naraku Sora best, Aizen had discovered something incredibly fascinating.
Every time he escorted a sinner to prison, Naraku Sora's strength would increase to varying degrees.
Mainly because every time he improved even a little, the guy would come over to gloat smugly. That ugly, boastful face was still fresh in Aizen's memory.
What left the deepest impression on Aizen, however, was the constantly growing Hollowfication index.
The man was constantly loitering right under his nose and had absolutely no opportunity to come into contact with Hollow souls.
Yet the intensity of his Hollowfication kept changing.
He was absolutely certain that Urahara Kisuke and the others hadn't yet researched a power that could break the boundaries of souls.
That was an absolute taboo in the Soul Society.
Even an extrajudicial fanatic like Kurotsuchi Mayuri kept a respectful distance from it.
Thinking of this, Aizen's mood became somewhat subtle.
If it were in the past, upon discovering someone with such a special ability, he would have definitely found a way to capture them and lock them in a basement for slow, meticulous research.
But now, he surprisingly lacked that sense of urgency.
'When exactly did I start to change?'
While he was lost in thought, Naraku Sora had already given Ishida Sōken some precautions and told him to clean up the ruins of the Karakura District.
Then, he expertly hoisted Tsunayashiro Tokinada over his shoulder and casually opened a Senkaimon leading to the Soul Society.
"Let's go, Sōsuke."
"Old Man Yama has been keeping a tight watch on me lately. If we don't hurry back and he finds out, I'm going to get another severe beating."
"Oh, right, that tofu dish you mentioned before? I had Kisuke invent it. When you're free, you can come over and try our prison food."
"Also, hasn't your Hollowfication research hit a bottleneck recently? Feel free to use my hundred-plus pounds of flesh however you want. I'll let you draw a tube of blood when we get back."
"Bah, no need to thank me. Just consider it a father's profound love."
Hearing the noisy chatter in his ears, Aizen shook his head with a chuckle and stepped forward to follow him.