"Huff.... huff...."
"Hmm, is that it already? I'm a bit disappointed."
Chika Shihoin, the Captain of the 2nd Division, chuckled as he looked down at Bazzard.
Not a single speck of dust could be found on his scarf or his Shihakusho.
In contrast, Bazzard's body, crawling on the ground, was a wreck of fractures and bruises.
His left arm was broken, and every joint in his fingers throbbed with a bone-deep ache.
"You charged in like you were actually someone important, but you couldn't even graze my clothes."
"Shut... up...!"
Bazz-B spat out blood-stained saliva and tried to stand, but his legs trembled and refused to obey.
Inside him, a gnawing question sat heavier than his rage.
With a single wave of a hand, elite units were being slaughtered.
They were being murdered without even the chance to resist.
How could Yhwach have been unaware of such an overwhelming difference in power?
And above all, what he couldn't understand was...
'Ichigo.... Why on earth...!!'
The Reiatsu he had felt from across the battlefield—Ichigo's Reiatsu.
It was no longer that of a Quincy; it had been completely overwritten by that of a Soul Reaper.
"Tsk, tsk. I can't tell if you're stupid or just weak. So arrogant for a mere insect."
"......."
Chika clicked his tongue and approached slowly.
Bazzard forced his aching legs to creak as he pushed himself up.
In this moment, he desperately tried to empty his mind of all distractions.
He purged his doubts and hatred toward Yhwach, and even his sense of betrayal toward Ichigo.
Right now, he thought of only one thing.
'I'm going to land at least one hit on this bastard...!'
If he didn't, he would feel far too pathetic compared to Ichigo, who had sacrificed everything by using the Letzt Stil.
Somewhere deep in his chest, a hot flame flickered.
His fingertips throbbed as if they were about to ignite.
Just as something latent was about to awaken—
—Thwack!
"Gah...!"
There was no time to react.
Chika's fist slammed into Bazz-B's abdomen, sending him flying into the air before he crashed back into the ground.
The flickering flame began to cool rapidly.
"It looked like you were trying to show me something, but that's as far as it goes. Train for another thousand years, and maybe you'll be able to reach my toes."
Chika, brushing the dust off his hands, raised his foot to crush the fallen Bazzard's head.
At that moment.
—BOOM!!
"...?"
A massive pillar of Reishi erupted from the spot where Bazzard lay.
.
.
.
"Cough...! Huff...."
"Are you alright, Bazz-B?"
Bazzard, having been pulled into the pillar, gasped for breath and looked around.
The air was cold—familiar, yet somehow strange.
It was the Sternritter training grounds, now shrouded in darkness.
'Silbern? How...?'
Currently, the only being among the Quincies capable of connecting the Soul Society and the World of the Living was the Emperor, Yhwach.
But hadn't Yhwach just been defeated by the enemy's Captain?
Then where was this?
"Jugo. This place is..."
"We are still inside the Soul Society. To be precise, we are within its shadows."
Beside him, Haschwalth was catching his breath, his complexion pale and sunken with exhaustion.
He looked even more weary and drained than usual.
"Dammit.... They tore through Blut Vene like it was nothing. It wasn't even a fight."
Bazzard staggered, clutching his broken left arm.
He wanted to grab Haschwalth by the collar and shake him right then and there, but he barely managed to keep himself composed.
"What happened, Jugo?"
"....Before the war, His Majesty gave the order. He spent months surrounding the entirety of Silbern with Reishi—"
"I'm not asking because I want to know that crap."
Interrupting Haschwalth, Bazzard stepped forward and looked him in the eye.
Suppressing the boiling heat inside him, he spoke.
"Why did we lose so miserably?"
"Our preparations were insufficient. You knew this. The Sternritter was only recently completed, so the preparation—"
"Don't give me that bullshit! The preparation was perfect. The problem was that it wasn't even a battle to begin with!"
—Grab!
Bazzard seized Haschwalth's collar.
His blood-stained gloves soiled the white uniform.
Haschwalth looked at Bazzard calmly, though his eyes were filled with sorrow.
"...It is all according to His Majesty's plan."
"Jugo, you... do you honestly think that makes any sense?!"
—Slap!
"...Let go, Bazz-B. Do not doubt His Majesty's words."
Haschwalth brushed off Bazzard's hand and whispered coldly.
"His Majesty's omniscience saw through everything. He has never been wrong."
"Ha! Sure, I bet. So he even foresaw his own death and started this war anyway? He foresaw us being slaughtered?"
"...."
As Bazzard spat out his words in mockery of Yhwach, Haschwalth's brow furrowed.
Even seeing that, Bazzard ground his teeth and poked at the Quincy Cross pinned to Haschwalth's uniform.
"Tell me this much. Why did Ichigo's Reiatsu change into that of a Soul Reaper?"
Before Haschwalth had rescued him from within the Soul Society...
Bazzard had been watching Ichigo use the Letzt Stil to half-destroy the Seireitei and suppress a Captain, thinking he was incredible.
Ichigo had given up everything to fight a powerful enemy for the sake of victory and pride.
["Ichigo's Reiatsu... has vanished...?"]
Immediately after, when the Letzt Stil's effect ended and Ichigo's Reiatsu could no longer be felt, Bazzard had experienced an indescribable surge of emotion.
Initially, there had only been jealousy and hostility, but after spending time together, they had become friends. Ichigo's 'death' had fueled Bazzard's hatred and desire for revenge against the Soul Reapers, which was already burning as his other comrades fell.
And then, as he was resisting the Soul Reaper soldiers, he began to feel it from behind him...
A Reiatsu wavelength identical to Ichigo's, but transformed into the energy of a Soul Reaper.
Then, at the moment Bazzard was in danger from Chika, Haschwalth had rescued him.
"That guy was definitely a Soul Reaper. But how did he use Quincy powers? No, was he both a Quincy and a Soul Reaper from the start? Then what about his lineage? Was he a spy all along? Is that why we got trashed like this?!"
"...Bazz-B."
"Answer me!!! Why did His Majesty enlist a spy and go as far as calling him his son!!!"
As Bazzard grabbed Haschwalth's collar again, a heavy silence fell over the area.
".......Bazzard Black. Before we are friends, we are also a Grandmaster and a soldier."
"....Everyone's dying anyway, so why the hell does that matter now?"
As Haschwalth looked at him coldly, as if warning him not to cross the line, Bazzard smirked self-deprecatingly.
Instead of answering, Haschwalth reached into his uniform and pulled out a neatly organized bundle of notes.
"You will understand once you read these."
"Notes... no, a whole bunch of 'notes'?"
Bazzard clicked his tongue and snatched the notes from Haschwalth's hand.
A moment later, as he unfurled a few and scanned them, his pupils shook.
"Th-this..."
[Ichigo]
[Kaiser Gesang]
[Letzt Stil]
[Sternritter Roster]
...
"What the..."
"His Majesty predicted everything. I told you, Bazzard."
Haschwalth, having straightened his uniform that had been dirtied by the blood on Bazzard's gloves, placed a hand on the ground. Simultaneously, blue Reishi began to gather once more.
"His Majesty's omniscience sees through everything. Even his own defeat."
"......."
Bazzard said nothing, opening the notes and reading them one by one.
With every note he unfolded, his fingertips began to tremble slightly.
Past, present, and even the future.
They were filled with information he could never have known.
"....Ha, this is ridiculous."
After a long sigh, Bazzard muttered as he crumpled a note.
"Ichigo is a hybrid of Soul Reaper, Quincy, and Hollow...? And what's this 'Fullbring' nonsense? He even knew Ichigo would use the Letzt Stil..."
The note labeled [Ichigo] listed information about Ichigo that he hadn't known.
And the note labeled [Letzt Stil].
It contained a method, never before revealed, to restore Quincy powers lost to the Letzt Stil.
It meant Yhwach had anticipated all of this.
".....Does he even know what our goal is?"
"Most likely."
Bazzard looked away from Haschwalth, who had given a short response to his rhetorical question.
"...Where's Ichigo?"
"He's still alive. We will rescue him soon. But first... the other survivors."
Immediately after, back in the Seireitei, pillars erupted behind the surrounded Quincies.
"...Ichigo."
Bazzard could only stare at the pillars of Reishi.
.
.
.
A short while later.
Ichigo, rescued from the Soul Reaper Captain, collapsed onto the training ground floor.
Bazzard's worried expression hardened as he slowly knelt and reached toward Ichigo's chest.
The Soul Reaper's Shihakusho, draped over the shredded Lichtreich uniform, felt somewhat chilling.
".....Dammit, he really is a Soul Reaper."
Bazzard pulled his hand away from Ichigo, whose power felt purely like that of a Soul Reaper, and sat on the ground, clutching his forehead.
The truth he hadn't wanted to know—the confirmation—was bitter and stinging.
To think that the comrade he had trained with, eaten with, and trusted with his back, possessed the blood of the Quincies' enemies.
"What are you going to do, Jugo?"
At Bazzard's words, Haschwalth glanced around.
The Sternritter who had survived the Soul Reapers were all paralyzed with terror and dread.
That fear now extended to Ichigo, the Vice-Grandmaster of the Sternritter.
"....Bazz-B. Take Ichigo to the infirmary. There may still be Quincies left who haven't been brought back."
"Yeah, yeah. I get it. You can't trust anyone else with him, right?"
Slowly standing up, Bazzard carefully hoisted Ichigo onto his back and began heading toward the infirmary.
"Be careful, Jugo. I haven't made up my mind yet, either."
"......."
Only silence remained in the training grounds of the Lichtreich after Bazzard left.
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