XX-level Hokage

"Shut up! Of course I know!" Mayuri Kurotsuchi roared, his strange eyes fixed on the ever-decreasing curve of the virtual numbers on the screen.

This is neither purification nor natural extinction. This is complete "annihilation".

Someone is systematically and deliberately eradicating Hollows on a large scale. And the one capable of doing this is neither the Shinigami nor the Hollows themselves.

"This method..." Mayuri Kurotsuchi bit her nails, a name long buried by the dust of history flashing through her mind, "Could it be that group that has long been extinct..."

...A fire-quelling master?!

In the present world, Karakura Town.

Night fell over the city, and the faint glow of neon lights spread across the wet asphalt.

Kurosaki Ichigo, dressed in his Shinigami armor and carrying the massive Zangetsu sword, stood atop a tall building, surveying the area. Since regaining his powers, especially after fusing with the Perfect...

After realizing his technique and his own spiritual pressure, his perception of spiritual pressure became exceptionally sharp.

"What's going on... It's unusually quiet tonight." Ichigo frowned, looking at the empty street.

Normally at this time, a few reckless creatures would pop up, but tonight, a suffocating silence filled the air.

Just then, a strange footstep sounded suddenly behind him. "Who?!" Ichigo turned around abruptly, and Zangetsu was instantly drawn from his sword.

Standing behind him was a tall man in a white military uniform. He wore a half-mask on his face and held a strangely shaped weapon in his hand, looking down at Ichigo with a condescending gaze.

"So you're Kurosaki Ichigo?" The man's voice carried a hint of arrogance. "Nothing special."

"Who are you? An Arrancar?" Ichigo asked warily. The spiritual pressure emanating from the other person was strange; it lacked the putrid stench of a Hollow, and it wasn't as pure as a Shinigami's. Instead, it carried a certain...

"Arrancar? Don't compare me to such lowly creatures." The man sneered, raising his hand, and the surrounding spiritual particles instantly began to converge on him frantically. "I am Azkielro Ibon. Remember this name, because it will be the last name you hear."

Before he could finish speaking, Ivan swung his weapon down, and a massive beam of light shot out:

Ichigo glanced around and activated Shunpo, barely dodging the attack. The beam struck the control platform beneath his feet, instantly leveling half the building.

"This attack method..." Ichigo landed on a nearby telephone pole, a strong sense of unease rising within him. "It's not a Cero... it's more like... Uryu Ishida's arrow!"

"You're a Quincy too?!" Ichigo blurted out.

Iban didn't answer, but instead gathered his spiritual particles again, a cruel smile playing on his lips: "Enough talk, release, Kurosaki Ichigo. Let me see what your release tastes like."

He seems to be deliberately trying to induce Ichigo to use his unlocked form.

Ichigo may be passionate, but he's not stupid. After the trials of the Aizen arc and the Fullbring arc, his battle instincts are now far superior.

"Want to see my solution?" Ichigo gripped the Moonlit Blade tightly, his dark red spiritual pressure surging. "Then let me see if you're qualified!" Soul Society, First Division Barracks.

The morning sun had just begun to shine into the courtyard when Yamamoto Genryu Shigekuni sat upright at his desk, reviewing a mountain of documents. As usual, Chojiro Sasakibe stood quietly to his side, grinding ink for the Captain-Commander.

Everything seemed so orderly, filled with majesty and tranquility.

However, this calm lasted only a moment. "BOOM—!!!"

With a deafening crash, the heavy door of the First Division, a symbol of absolute authority, was blasted open from the outside! Amidst the billowing dust, seven figures clad in white robes and wearing masks appeared like ghosts in the office. "Who goes there?!" Chojiro Sasakibara reacted swiftly, instantly drawing his Zanpakuto, Genryumaru, and standing in front of Captain-Commander Yamamoto. "So this is the Captain-Commander of the Gotei 13?"

The leader of the intruders spoke in a cold, theatrical voice, “Looks like nothing more than an old man about to be buried.”

"Insolence!" Chojiro Sasakibara roared, his spiritual pressure exploding. "How dare you trespass into the First Division! Unforgivable! Release Huang Huang Yanling!" To protect the Captain-Commander, this usually low-profile vice-captain unhesitatingly unleashed a power he had honed for a thousand years, a power he had never displayed before.

The most powerful solution!

Golden lightning exploded indoors, transforming into a massive lightning bolt that blasted towards the seven intruders with destructive power. However, the next second, a scene of utter despair unfolded.

The leader of the intruders simply raised a strange badge in his hand and aimed it at the sky full of lightning. "Buzz—"

The terrifying lightning, powerful enough to alter the heavens, was forcibly absorbed and sealed by an unusual force the moment it touched the badge! What?! Chojiro Sasakibara stared wide-eyed in disbelief.

"Is this your solution?" The intruder toyed with the badge in his hand, his tone full of disdain. "Thank you for the treat."

The next moment, a beam of light pierced through Chojiro's chest. "Chojiro!!!"

Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni let out a deafening roar, and the terrifying spiritual pressure that had been suppressed for thousands of years, like an active volcano, erupted completely at this moment!

The entire First Division building collapsed instantly under the impact of this spiritual pressure!

However, when the smoke cleared, the seven intruders had already vanished without a trace.

Only the body of Chojiro Sasakibe, lying in a pool of blood, and the words left behind by the intruder before he left, echoed in the empty ruins:

"I hereby announce... In five days, the Wandenreich will annihilate the Tokishiro world." Third Division, Mashiro's private garden.

Unlike the tragic scene at the First Division, this place remains peaceful and serene.

Mashiro sat on the veranda, holding a cup of tea, her gaze calmly fixed on the cherry blossoms falling in the courtyard.

Behind her, Tia Harribel, Matsumoto Rangiku, and Liluka Dokukamina stood quietly in their signature maid outfits.

After this period of "**", they seemed to have gotten used to this identity, at least on the surface, and no longer showed any fierce resistance. "Master," Heribel suddenly spoke, her voice trembling slightly, "that spiritual pressure just now..."

As the former Queen of Hueco Mundo, she had a deeply ingrained memory of that spiritual pressure. It was the natural enemy of Hollows, a terrifying force that had once annihilated Hueco Mundo.

"Hmm, can you feel it?" Mashiro gently blew away the foam on the teacup, her tone indifferent. "That's the smell of a Quincy." "A Quincy?!" Rangiku and Riruka exclaimed simultaneously.

"But... weren't the Quincy killed by the Shinigami Rangiku two hundred years ago?" Before she could finish speaking, Mashiro interrupted her.

"Those who were eliminated were only the visible enemies." Mashiro put down her teacup, a cold light, seemingly piercing through fate, flashing in her deep eyes. "And..."

True terror often lurks in the shadows.

Just then, a black hell butterfly stumbled in and landed on Mashiro's fingertip. From inside came Captain-Commander Yamamoto's voice, filled with suppressed rage and grief:

"All personnel, Level 1 combat readiness! Chojiro Sasakibe has been killed in action. The enemy is... the Quincy!" This news struck like a bolt from the blue, leaving Rangiku and Riruka completely stunned.

That low-profile but unfathomably powerful First Division Vice-Captain... is dead? And in the First Division barracks, right in front of the Captain-Commander?

"It seems the curtain has been raised." Mashiro slowly rose, her white haori fluttering in the wind.

She turned around, looking at Harribel with a hint of amusement in her eyes: "Harribel, you should be able to sense it, shouldn't you? The current state of Hueco Mundo." Harribel's face turned deathly pale.

Yes, she could feel it. Just now, a deathly, mournful cry echoed through her connection with Hueco Mundo. Tia Harribel's subordinates, and the Arrancar remaining in Hueco Mundo... were being slaughtered.

“That’s…hunting.” Harribel gritted her teeth, her eyes blazing with fury. “Those guys…hunting Void!”

That's right. Mashiro walked up to Harribel, reached out, and gently stroked her long, golden hair, her movements as tender as if she were soothing a vulnerable animal.

The startled pet exclaimed, "That man... Yhwach, he's awake!"

Yhwach? "It's an unfamiliar name, but just hearing those words sends a chill down your spine."

“He is the progenitor of the Quincy, and also the son of God sealed away by the Soul King.” Mashiro’s voice became deep and resonant. “Nine hundred years ago he regained his heartbeat, ninety years ago he regained his consciousness, nine years ago he regained his power… And now, he will use the time of nine trials to seize the world.”

"Then... what should we do?" Liluka clutched the doll, trembling slightly. Although she possessed Fullbring, this level of warfare was clearly beyond her capabilities.

"What should we do?" Masashi smiled, a smile devoid of fear, only a heart-pounding excitement and anticipation. "Of course...we should go and welcome His Majesty's return."

Mashiro turned around, looked at Rangiku, and a deep meaning flashed in her eyes: "Rangiku, go and get my sword."

“Yes… Master.” Rangiku answered instinctively, then realized, “You mean… Zero White?” “No.” Mashiro shook her head, “It’s the other one.”

Rangiku paused for a moment, then her pupils contracted sharply as if she remembered something. She knew which sword Mashiro was referring to—the long black sword that had been sealed in the deepest part of the Third Division's underground, a sword that no one was allowed to touch, and which exuded an ominous aura.

"Really... do we have to use that knife?" Rangiku's voice trembled slightly.

Ordinary toys are useless in the face of that "omniscient and omnipotent" emperor. Mashiro's gaze was directed towards the direction of the First Division, where towering flames were dyeing half the sky red.

"Moreover," she murmured softly, as if speaking to someone in the void, "Aizen-kun, you must have seen it in the Abyss, right? This is... true despair."

Squad 12, Technology Development Bureau.

The alarm was still blaring, but Mayuri Kurotsuchi stopped operating the system. He looked at the image on the screen, the one coming from the First Division—it was a picture of Chojiro Tokiwa.

"Dead?" A glint of madness flashed in Mayuri Kurotsuchi's eyes. "Even their Release was taken away. Do these Quincy possess some kind of technique for stealing Releases?"

“Interesting…so interesting!” He let out a piercing laugh. “If we could analyze this technology…no, if we could capture that Quincy and dissect him…”

In the present world, the Kurosaki family.

Ichigo had already rushed back to Urahara's shop. After failing to induce him to release his powers, Azkielro Ibun had escaped using the power of shadows. "Mr. Urahara, who exactly is that guy?" Ichigo asked anxiously.

Kisuke Urahara lowered the brim of his hat, concealing the gloom in his eyes: "Those are... people from the Wandenreich." "The Wandenreich?"

"Simply put, it's the Quincy army." Urahara's voice was extremely heavy. "The Soul Society... has probably already been attacked."

Ichigo's heart sank. He thought of Rukia, Renji, and everyone in Tokami World. "I'm going to Tokami World!" Ichigo said without hesitation.

"Don't rush, Mr. Kurosaki." Urahara stopped him. "Going now would be suicide. The enemy's abilities are unknown, and... they seem very interested in your understanding."

"So what? Do you expect me to just watch everyone get killed?!" Ichigo roared.

Just then, Ichigo's Substitute Shinigami badge received an urgent communication request. Upon answering, a voice, choked with sobs, roared from the other end:

"Ichigo Kurosaki! Can you hear me?! This is the Research and Development Bureau! Soul Society has been invaded! First Division Lieutenant Sasakibe Bejiro has been killed in action! The enemy claims they will completely annihilate Soul Society in five days! Requesting reinforcements! Requesting... *buzzing sounds*"

The communication was interrupted by a burst of static.

Ichigo's hand, gripping the agency certificate tightly, bulged with veins. Five days.

There are only five days left.

“Urahara-san!” Ichigo suddenly looked up, his eyes burning with a resolute flame. “Send me to Soul Society! Now! Immediately!” Urahara looked into Ichigo’s eyes, finally sighed, and nodded.

“Alright. But Mr. Kurosaki, you must remember… this enemy is completely different from Aizen.” “They are not after ‘change,’ nor are they after ‘evolution.’”

"They are driven by revenge and destruction." The storm has arrived.

Chapter 326: The Beginning (Part 1)

Seireitei, First Division Barracks.

That "declaration of war," which lasted only a moment, was like a red-hot branding iron, burning the hearts of every member of the Gotei 13.

Chojiro Sasaki's spiritual pressure completely dissipated. The vice-captain who had served Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni for two thousand years, the man who was always taciturn but could unleash his full power at crucial moments, was slaughtered like a dog by the organization called "The Unseen Empire" in broad daylight, right in front of the Captain-Commander.

The rain started falling sometime earlier than I realized.

Yamamoto Genryu Shigekuni stood in the rain, letting the cold rain wash over his wrinkled face. His only remaining hand gripped the handle of the Ryujin Jakka tightly, the veins on the back of his hand bulging.

The old man's voice was as deep and muffled as thunder rolling from the ground.

"They said they would annihilate the Soul Realm in five days." "That's just talk."

A clear, cool voice came from behind the rain. Mashiro, holding an oil-paper umbrella and wearing the haori of the Third Division Captain, slowly walked to Yamamoto's side. Behind her, Harribel, Matsumoto Rangiku, and Riruka, dressed in their conspicuous maid outfits, appeared unusually solemn in the rain.

Mashiro gazed at the fading traces of spiritual particles in the sky, her eyes deep: "For the raiders, declaring war is the clarion call to attack. The so-called five days are nothing but bait to lure us into collapsing in fear."

Yamamoto turned his head sharply, his eyes, brimming with fury, fixed on Mashiro: "You knew they would come."

“I know.” Mashiro didn’t deny it; she reached out and caught a falling raindrop. “Just like I knew Aizen would betray us. That’s history.”