"At a time like this, you're still going to hide...?" Rukia Kuchiki shook her head. She looked away from Sode no Shirayuki and stepped onto the stairs, drawing closer to Muten Natsu. "Then keep hiding."
Crystal-clear snowflakes hung motionless before her, blurring her sight.
Rukia Kuchiki brushed the snowflakes aside and moved through the frozen world.
[What can you do by going over there? What do you want to do? What can you even do?]
"That isn't something I should be thinking about right now..." Rukia Kuchiki climbed the steps one by one. The frozen wind and snow pressed against her with tremendous resistance, trying to stop her. "It's something I can only answer once I'm by his side."
The hand pushing through the snow grew colder and colder, but Rukia Kuchiki's pace only quickened.
Everything Rukia Kuchiki had done until now had been to avoid repeating the helplessness of that night.
She wanted strength. She wanted to become powerful. She wanted to help Muten Natsu so he would no longer have to risk his life in battle.
But not everything goes the way people wish, and hard work does not always bring a reward.
Just like that thatched hut. No matter how long Muten Natsu and Rukia Kuchiki worked on it, when the wind and snow came, the hut still collapsed.
The hut would not stay standing just because they did not want it to fall.
The wind and snow would not stop just because they longed for warmth.
But holding each other in the storm allowed them to share their warmth and withstand the cold that seeped into their bones.
In that half-collapsed thatched hut, Rukia Kuchiki had not stayed by Muten Natsu's side because she was able to warm his body.
She had been able to warm his body because she stayed by his side.
Just as he had warmed her.
Just like now.
Rukia Kuchiki was not walking toward Muten Natsu because she knew what to do.
She would only know what to do once she reached his side.
When she finally reached Muten Natsu, Rukia Kuchiki's numb hand trembled as it grasped Sode no Shirayuki.
First, she would use Tsukishiro to seal Muten Natsu's burning body, then strengthen it with Hakuren to slow the damage the Hell Flames were doing to him. After that, she would use White Dew to sever the hands reaching out from Hell...
In an instant, Rukia Kuchiki decided what she would do next. Whether it would actually work...
Even if it did nothing at all, that was fine.
Long ago, in that half-collapsed thatched hut, in that warm embrace, Rukia Kuchiki had already prepared herself to sleep forever with him in the wind and snow.
Rukia Kuchiki turned slightly and raised Sode no Shirayuki.
A cold hand overlapped with hers.
The breathtakingly beautiful face of a woman in a white kimono with long furisode sleeves appeared beside Rukia Kuchiki. Her snow-white palm overlapped with Rukia Kuchiki's like a phantom and closed around Sode no Shirayuki.
The frozen flow of time suddenly resumed. The motionless snowflakes vanished. The flowing phosphoplasm churned. The icy Hell Flames on Muten Natsu's body blazed fiercely, and his flesh and blood broke down in the fire.
Her frozen arm had lost all feeling, but Rukia Kuchiki felt Sode no Shirayuki move beyond her control. In an instant, its snow-white blade turned as clear as ice.
"Bankai." Rukia Kuchiki repeated Sode no Shirayuki's soft whisper by her ear and swung the transparent blade. "Hakka no Togame!"
The transparent blade swept through, trailing magnificent snowflakes.
In that dark space where pitch-black phosphoplasm surged, a wisp of graceful snow-white radiance bloomed like mist, followed by a warm rainbow glow.
Almost everyone's movements froze in an instant. The biting cold coated everything in a layer of beautifully patterned white frost.
Even the Hell Flames burning on Muten Natsu's body were extinguished at once, but the Gates of Hell did not open any further, because still more frost had sealed them shut.
The hand reaching out from Hell was cut off by the transparent blade. It broke away from Muten Natsu's body, fell, and shattered with a faint impact against the ground.
Rukia Kuchiki's figure was reflected in Muten Natsu's eyes.
The transparent Sode no Shirayuki was held in her hand. The white ribbon on the hilt had split into two. The clothing on Rukia Kuchiki's right arm had turned completely snow-white and was wrapped in a layer of transparent furisode sleeves. Even her hair had turned snow-white, while her once deep purple eyes now shone a jewel-like pale violet.
Such terrifying power was controlled with remarkable precision. As the snow-white radiance swept past, the blade severed the arm extended from Hell, the overflowing cold froze the Gates of Hell, and the Hell Flames burning on Muten Natsu's body went out.
Behind Muten Natsu, Orihime Inoue, who was only inches away, was covered with nothing more than a thin layer of frost.
Her breath turned to white mist. Orihime Inoue seized the chance and used Sōten Kisshun to speed up the repair of Muten Natsu's body.
The Gates of Hell began trembling again.
Muten Natsu's eyes shifted. He stamped his foot on the ground, and the spreading Hell Flames wrapped around the scattered fragments.
They were the fragments formed when the hand reaching out from Hell had shattered. Now, under the Hell Flames, they slowly changed shape, turning into layered, stark-white arm armor that attached to his left arm, enclosing his left shoulder and left hand together.
The phosphoplasm surging out from the Gates of Hell could no longer assault Muten Natsu's body. Instead, it was completely absorbed by the pure-white Spirit Weapon and became part of Muten Natsu's power.
Powerful energy coursed through his body, poured into his arms, and acted upon the Gates of Hell.
With a low growl, Muten Natsu forced the opened crack in the gate completely shut.
Beneath the Gates of Hell, the Hōgyoku oozed writhing black mist. Tentacles extended again and clung to the Gates of Hell.
Muten Natsu reached out to grab it again, but just like before, his hand closed on empty air.
"Orihime!" Ririn called out. "Use Sōten Kisshun!"
Orihime Inoue controlled Sōten Kisshun, enveloping the Hōgyoku. The tentacles dissolved inside the golden, spindle-shaped barrier. The surging black mist retreated back into the Hōgyoku, roiling as it shrank, until it finally disappeared completely.
Fine cracks spread across the Gates of Hell, crossing over one another to form a spiderweb of fissures. With a crisp sound, the gate shattered completely and dissipated into the air.
The Hōgyoku was no longer murky. It shone with a deep-blue light, and no more twisted tentacles extended from it. It fell to the ground with a clear sound.
A black, one-eyed monster face appeared beneath the Hōgyoku and opened its mouth, biting the Hōgyoku between its teeth.
...
"You really thought I couldn't get out of here?" Zommari, who had been trapped inside Senkei by Byakuya Kuchiki, smiled. He raised a hand and knocked Byakuya Kuchiki back, then vanished and reappeared outside Senkei. The monster face biting down on the Hōgyoku floated beside him as he entered the chaotic Garganta. "This... was my real mission."
Muten Natsu wanted to pursue him, but he did not dare move recklessly.
Cracks opened across Rukia Kuchiki's right hand, the one holding her blade. Not a drop of blood flowed from the crimson wounds, as if her hand were thin ice that would shatter at the slightest touch.
"I'm... fine..." Rukia Kuchiki noticed the worry in Muten Natsu's eyes and tried to reassure him, but after saying only that much, even more cracks appeared across her hand.
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