The air of the Seireitei tasted of stale salt and old prayers. It was different from the burning ozone of the Shinobi world. Here, the very ground was made of spirit particles, and to me, it felt like standing in a buffet of infinite energy.
I looked at my hand. My skin was so pale it was almost translucent, pulsating with the silver light of the Hogyoku. I didn't feel the weight of my past anymore. Hinata's face, my father's smile, the smell of ramen—they were just data points in a deleted file.
"You're looking at your hands like you've never seen 'em before, kid!"
The roar belonged to Kenpachi Zaraki. He was a mountain of jagged Reiatsu, his eyepatch gone, his golden aura clashing against my silver Void. His sword, Nozarashi, was buried inches deep in the ground where I had just been standing.
"I am observing the efficiency of the conversion," I said. My voice sounded flat, even to my own ears. "Your Reiatsu is loud, Captain. It is inefficient. It wastes too much energy in the form of heat and sound."
The Erasure of the Beast
Kenpachi laughed, a sound like grinding stones. "Efficiency? I don't give a damn about efficiency! I want to feel your blade bone-deep!"
He lunged. The speed was impressive for a soul, but to my Void-Sharingan, he was moving through water. I didn't draw my sword. I simply stepped into his guard and placed a palm against his chest.
"Void Style: Internal Hollowfication."
I didn't blast him. I injected a single drop of my silver Reiatsu into his heart. Kenpachi's golden aura instantly turned black. His eyes widened as his own power began to eat him from the inside out. The "Beast" of the 11th Division fell to his knees, his sword crumbling into white ash.
"What... did you do?" he wheezed, blood—black and cold—leaking from his mouth.
"I gave you what you wanted," I replied, looking down at him without a shred of pity. "I gave you the end. There is no more thirst where you are going."
The Arrival of the True Shadow
As Kenpachi's soul began to dissolve into the white sand of the Sōkyoku Hill, a shadow fell over me. It was cold. Darker than my own.
I looked up. Ichigo Kurosaki was floating there. His mask was different from the others—it had long, curved horns, and his hair had grown into a wild, orange mane. His Reiatsu was staggering. It wasn't just Soul Reaper or Hollow; it was something that touched the edge of the Transcendent.
"You killed Kenpachi," Ichigo said. The dual-tone of his voice vibrated in my teeth. "He was a monster, but he was our monster."
"He was an obstacle," I said, finally reaching for the hilt of my obsidian blade. "Master Aizen requires this world to be silent. You are the loudest thing left."
The Final Getsuga vs. The Absolute Cero
Ichigo raised his blade, Zangetsu. The sky above us split. "I've seen your kind before, Naruto. You think the Void is the answer because you're afraid to feel the pain of being human. But my blade... it carries every memory of everyone I've ever protected."
"Memories are ghosts," I said, unsheathing my sword. The blade didn't reflect the light; it drank it. "Resurrección: Sol de la Nada." (Sun of Nothingness).
My form shifted. My silver wings expanded until they blocked out the sun of the Seireitei. My hollow hole, located right over my heart, began to glow with a terrifying, white-hot intensity.
Ichigo gripped his sword with both hands. "Mugetsu: Void Version."
The two of us collided in the center of the sky. It wasn't a clash of steel; it was a clash of concepts. His black darkness, born of sacrifice, against my silver light, born of erasure.
I felt a faint ripple in my chest—a ghost of a heartbeat. For a microsecond, I saw a flash of a blond boy in a bright orange jumpsuit, smiling at a girl with lavender eyes.
I crushed the thought. I pushed the silver light harder.
"Goodbye, Ichigo Kurosaki," I whispered. "The sun is setting on the Soul Society."