Chapter 265: Stranded

(Ryoto's pov)

A few years have passed since Masaru activated his Bankai.

Good news.

The scar that he left was near my tattoo that I would already need to hide, so that's good.

Better news.

It makes it look as if the dragon is breathing fire, so that's cool.

Bad news.

Masaru started his depression arc, but thankfully, he is feeling better now.

He felt like it was his fault that he lost control, which is, but I'm not going to tell him that. He is already blaming himself enough. Besides, who could have predicted that it would happen? He is also now banned from using Bankai for obvious reasons.

There were also a few eventful... events that happened. Little Byakuya married, and our big family was invited to the wedding. Yukima cried, but in the end, was happy for her friend even if her heart had been broken before.

I am proud of my daughter and her maturity.

I love going to the weddings of my friends or their children. It allows me to tease them quite a bit.

Also, Sojun, Byakuya's father, stepped down as the head of the Kuchiki clan and let Byakuya take over. He'll still support his son, though, with decision-making and giving advice from time to time.

Now into the bride. Hisana became sick with some kind of unknown sickness, and with the help of Isane, I was able to cure her.

Once again, the Kuchiki owes me a favor. At this rate, the entire clan will be indebted to me.

Update alert.

Rukia, Renji, and some others joined the academy.

Update alert.

Rukia was adopted by the Kuchiki clan at Hisana's request, and Byakuya obliged, even to the displeasure of the elders. Hisana, however, is too ashamed to face her sister for now, so she hides and watches her from afar.

Update alert.

Rukia joined Squad 13, and that only means one thing. Another important event will soon unfold, which I plan to stop.

I'm, of course, talking about Kaien Shiba's death. To be honest, I'm not sure if I'm even needed at this point. Jushiro-senpai is healthy now, so he can deal with the problem by himself.

There is one issue with that. He would be able to save Kaien, maybe. Ukitake-senpai has that thing with two types of battles, which I disagree with, but that's not what I mean.

If I remember correctly, Kaien's wife was a victim of Aizen's Hollow, and even if Jushiro-senpai would stop it from killing his lieutenant, his wife would still be dead.

That's where I come in.

I come in, kill the Hollow, save the day.

To not make myself suspicious of coming into 13th Division territory, I was visiting them for the last year quite often. When I'm there, most of my focus is on sensing oddities.

In the meantime, I'm spending time with my senpai, my sister-in-law, and some members of the 13 Division, including Rukia and Kaien.

At this point, it's the waiting game.

---

The waiting game has ended, and I felt something, so that could mean only one thing. Something I didn't do for a long while.

I'm going for a walk.

---

It didn't take a long time to get to the Hollow with some masterful Shunpo, and I was able to save Kaien's wife, whom I didn't remember the name of and her entire squad.

I allowed them to retreat, but the Hollow wouldn't just stand around. He wanted to kill and eat them, not necessarily in that order.

"Hado #33, Shakkaho!"

I fired one of the weaker Kido I know between the Hollow and the Shinigamis to allow members of Jushiro-senpai's Division to escape.

Having his meal interrupted, the Hollow turned to me.

"Hee! Hee! Hee! Hee! And who might you be? A brave little Shinigami?"

"I'm not little. I'm well above average! OK, that sounds wrong, but in my defense, it was on purpose."

The Hollow tilted his head, confused by what I said.

"You are a strange one. I wonder how you taste." He let out his long tongue and moved it around.

"My wife says that I taste bitter. Didn't check myself, though."

He seemed to get bored of our small talk and rushed at me.

He was painfully slow, and I easily dodged him with a quick Shunpo. I didn't want to touch his tentacles for two reasons.

One, because it's gross, and two, because if I touch it, my Zanpakuto would be destroyed, and I don't want that to happen. That's why I'm going to fight from a distance, something I'm not very good at, but with someone so weak, it doesn't really matter.

---

I killed the Hollow with no difficulty, and it was honestly very anticlimactic. Not that I complain.

I was ready to leave, but suddenly, I got this strange feeling. Something was wrong.

I took out my Zanpakuto, ready for a fight to happen. I looked carefully around as I tried to sense someone or something with Haki, but there was nothing, and that was concerning in it itself because I trusted my gut feeling.

I was slowly moving, trying to find the source of my uneasiness with no avail, until I felt something in the sky.

Moving my eyes upwards, I could see cracks. The dark sky was being forced open. Garganta was starting to open, and it was big. Bigger than the Garganta opened by Menos Grande that I saw many years ago.

One, two, three, in, and I counted more than 50 Menos Grandes. They were crawling out of the hole they created but weren't going out with their whole body from there. It was strange.

I could see them preparing to do something, presumably to attack.

I saw them attacking me, and I moved instantly and made an attempt to dodge it, but there wasn't any need for that as they weren't aiming for me. Before I realized I was surrounded by four square-like beams of light without any way to escape.

It was the first time I saw this in person. Negacion. It is Hollows' ability to help their kind, and if something is inside of it, there is no way to break it, and I'm currently surrounded by four of them in a way that I couldn't escape the fifth light beam that was presently being aimed at me.

I'm fucked.

The beam of light reached me, surrounded me, and started pulling me up. I was being kidnapped by the Hollows, and I can think of only one reason why that was happening.

Aizen. He must think of me as a threat big enough to pull off this plan, but I have suspicions that it wasn't him. It doesn't have this Aizen signature that most of his plans have.

Most of the time, Aizen stays in the shadows and manipulates others to do his job. He never went after someone because they were dangerous. If that was the case, there are more dangerous individuals than I am. Yamamoto, Shunsui, Jushiro, and Unohana, for example, but he didn't move a finger against them until the battle. He prepared for them, yes, but he didn't take any action against them.

The Vizard incident wasn't because of the vendetta against these captains and lieutenants, but it was just an experiment for Aizen, and he didn't care who would be his victim.

Then, who the hell is trying to get rid of me.

With these thoughts, I vanished inside Garganta and shortly after was left on the endless desert with white 'sand'.

I was stranded in Hueco Mundo.

...

...

...

Fuck.

(3rd's pov)

Ryoto was right in his suspicions. Aizen wasn't involved in this incident this time around, but it was someone close to him.

Where Ryoto once stood now, one could see a young man with silver hair. He stared at the destroyed ground with a solemn look.

Akio was the mastermind behind Ryoto's banishment. He was aware that it wouldn't solve his problem. He knew that his dad would return somehow. He didn't know how, but he was sure of that. His father was unpredictable and had many cards up his sleeves, but he hoped that he had bought at least some time for his mom to relax.

"See you later... father." With these words, Akio left the crime scene.

(E/D: I am thinking Akio gets killed for... character development.)

---

END

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