Silas had killed Hollows before, and they had never dropped a fragment.
And this was a Hollow’s Spiritual Pressure Fragment, of all things.
Was it because unlocking the Hollowfication ability let him draw fragments from killing Hollows?
While Silas was turning it over, the several third-years behind him finally came back to themselves out of the fact that they had survived.
Sato’s mouth hung open, his gaze darting between Silas and the empty ground where the giant Hollow had dispersed, trying to make sense of what had happened.
“Where’s the Hollow? Where did that huge Hollow go?”
There was a note of the absurd in Sato’s voice.
As a third-year with fairly good marks whose goal was the Gotei 13, he knew perfectly well what that Hollow had meant.
It was the kind of enemy he might only be able to put down once he was a full division member, working with several teammates, through careful planning and a bitter fight.
In front of this fifth-year senior, it had been as fragile as a block of tofu.
Sato stumbled and only steadied himself by leaning on Yoshida, his face paper-pale and his forehead running with cold sweat.
He saw Yoshida beside him staring hard at Silas’s back.
The leftover fear in his eyes had been replaced by a near-fanatical admiration.
“Vane-senpai is so strong…”
Yoshida’s voice trembled slightly with excitement.
Off to the other side, Kobayashi, slumped on the ground, was completely dazed.
She was the youngest of them, and the terror of the Menos Grande’s attack had come close to breaking her nerve outright.
Right now the exhaustion of having survived and the impossible thing in front of her eyes were tangled together, and her mind was a total muddle.
She sat slumped where she was, her fingers scratching unconsciously at the tiles beneath her, her eyes glassy.
Then she shuddered several times all at once, as if she had just been pulled out of ice water.
She looked at Silas, then at the place where the Hollow had vanished, and suddenly clapped a hand over her mouth.
Her shoulders began to shake beyond her control, and the tears came out like a broken dam.
“We… we survived…”
By contrast, the reactions of the fifth-years, Harada and Nanao, were a good deal steadier.
Once the first shock passed, Harada forced the horror down, drew a deep breath, and got his emotions back under him.
Then he set about his duties as a senior and started calming the juniors who were still shaken.
Nanao did the same, going to Kobayashi’s side and patting her shoulder gently to settle her.
Inside, though, neither of them was anywhere near as calm as they looked.
Harada was a fifth-year too, and his overall marks in class ran slightly higher than Silas’s.
Nanao felt something close to strangeness toward this man she had spent more than four years beside, day in and day out.
She thought suddenly of how often he had disappeared over the past while, and of this so-called training with Shiba Kaien.
At the time she had vaguely sensed that his strength was rising.
But could he possibly be this strong?
In that moment, Nanao’s heart wavered.
It seemed…
she didn’t truly know the real Silas at all.
The thought surfaced quietly, and it made her heart skip.
The next moment, though, Silas in the distance seemed to feel her gaze, met her eyes, and gave back a slightly lazy smile.
His usual indolent manner overlapped with the powerful, composed figure standing before her.
It felt as though a trace of that warmth still lingered on the top of her head.
And the fear and confusion in her chest were dispelled on the spot.
Warmth and safety, mixed with a flutter she couldn’t name, spread quietly through the depths of her.
Silas hadn’t changed.
He was still himself.
He was the one who had protected them.
Nanao drew a deep breath, the cool air rushing into her lungs and helping her press down her still-hammering heart.
She made herself focus and let her reason come quickly back.
Now was no time for stray thoughts.
She had to finish what she was supposed to do.
As for Silas.
Once they were back in the Seireitei, she would naturally make him explain everything he had been keeping from her.
With that settled, Nanao reined in every extra emotion, and her face recovered some of its usual calm.
Only the slight pallor in her cheeks gave away the unrest still sitting in her.
She took the denreishinki out of her robe quickly and began contacting Hasegawa, the instructor for their konsō internship.
Once her report to Hasegawa was done, she put the device away and looked at Silas again.
Under the moonlight, his white hair seemed to carry a faint glow.
Something stirred in Nanao, and that complicated feeling from before surfaced once more.
Having settled Kobayashi, she stood up in silence and, without quite meaning to, took a few steps toward Silas.
Elsewhere, not far from that district, in shadows the moonlight couldn’t fully reach.
Hasegawa switched off the device in his hand and looked to the side.
“Lord Aizen, that student is far stronger than expected. It seems there’s no need for me to step in.”
Aizen Sōsuke stood quietly beside him, his eyes behind the lenses calmly watching everything unfolding in the distance, as though enjoying a carefully staged play.
The night wind stirred his brown hair.
He hadn’t expected Silas to bring him more surprises than he had counted on.
“My lord, Captain Hirako has been moving quietly on a number of fronts lately. I fear he’ll trace matters back to me before long. Some things won’t stay hidden much longer.”
Hasegawa’s voice came again.
At that, Aizen’s gaze finally settled on him.
“And what do you intend to do, Shinjirō?”
Hasegawa looked at Aizen, a trace of remembrance in his eyes.
“Back when I was nothing but a minor soldier out in the Rukongai, you were the one who pulled me out from under the nobles’ boot.”
“You even raised a lowborn man from the Rukongai all the way to this position.”
“Through arrangements I was able to make, my brother took a guard post in the Seireitei, and my sister married into a good family. Things we couldn’t have imagined before.”
“I am well content with the life I’ve had. I could never repay what you’ve done for me.”
Hasegawa knelt on one knee and bowed his head slightly.
“You wished to test the depth of this student, my lord. If the Hollow couldn’t manage it, then let me do it.”
“Hasegawa Shinjirō, Sixth Seat of the Fifth Division, embittered at being pushed aside by the nobles, conspired with Hueco Mundo to harm his own colleagues. After attacking Shin’ō Academy students in the Human World, he sought a chance to defect and died in the Dangai.”
“Every thread will end with me. There will be no witness left to testify.”
“In the time ahead, please move as discreetly as you can, and don’t rush the Hōgyoku experiments. As for Captain Hirako, if I may be so bold, he should be removed as soon as possible.”
Aizen looked quietly at the man in front of him and let out a soft sigh.
“You have been a fine aide. A pity…”
Aizen lifted his eyes slightly to the deep night sky.
The sky was full of glittering stars, brilliant and remote.
He turned and patted Hasegawa gently on the shoulder.
“I will remember your sacrifice, Shinjirō.”
At that, Hasegawa bowed his head deeply.
“I ask only that you, my lord, come at last to stand upon the Throne of Heaven.”