“Whew!”
Seeing that the Hollow had been purified, Rukia breathed a long sigh of relief.
A wave of exhaustion washed over her.
During the battle, her body had automatically suppressed the fatigue, but now that it was over, she couldn’t hold it back anymore.
Struggling to move, she leaned against a tree.
Rukia was too exhausted; the continuous high-intensity use of Shunpo had severely overloaded her legs.
Her calves were shaking, and she could barely stand.
The weakness from her depleted spiritual pressure was unbearable, making her feel lightheaded as if she hadn’t eaten for days.
Just then, the system’s voice rang out:
“Ding!
Congratulations to the host for defeating a Gillian-class Menos Grande for the first time.
Achievements ‘First Hollow Purification’ and ‘Gillian’ unlocked.”
“Reward: Skill Enhancement Scroll x1, Bloodline Limit: Sharingan.”
Rukia felt a surge of heat from her brain that spread to her eyes.
Even her spiritual pressure recovered slightly, and her mind cleared.
Rukia condensed a mirror of ice.
Her eyes had turned red, with two tomoe slowly spinning within them.
Awakening with two tomoe?
Rukia was a bit surprised.
But on second thought, it made sense.
She was a transmigrator with a soul stronger than average.
This was the Bleach World, where soul power was the focus; it would be embarrassing if she only awakened with a single tomoe.
She deactivated the Sharingan.
The spiritual pressure she had just recovered was gone again.
If she continued, she would overtax her eyes, and she didn’t want them to bleed—that would be very painful.
“Host, please be prepared.
A large amount of spiritual pressure is moving toward you!” the system warned.
‘That should be the Shinigami Renji and the others found.
I’ll leave the rest to them; I can finally rest for a bit,’ Rukia thought.
After a while, a squad of Shinigami in shihakusho appeared in Rukia’s sight, along with a student in the Spiritual Arts Academy uniform.
It was Kira, who had gone for help.
“Rukia, are you okay?
Where’s the Hollow?” Kira spotted Rukia leaning against the tree and rushed over in concern.
“I’m fine, just out of spiritual pressure.
The Hollow has been purified.
Thank you, Izuru.”
Then, the group of Shinigami stepped forward, and their leader said:
“Arrest them!”
“Hey, what are you saying?
What did we do?
Why are you arresting us?” Kira asked, confused.
“Hmph, I might as well tell you.
By my master’s order, we are simply inviting you to be guests at our home!”
“Your master?
That Kasumioji?” Rukia thought carefully and realized the only noble she had offended was that Kasumioji.
“Wait, how did you know I was here?”
“After my master returned, he ordered us to find three people: two Spiritual Arts Academy students—one with red hair and one with yellow hair—and a girl with black hair and purple eyes.”
“Then I ran into him while he was seeking help.
I didn’t intend to pay him any mind, but I noticed his hair color was exactly as my master described.
So, I decided to investigate.
Once I heard his description of your appearance…”
“I decided to pretend to come to the rescue so I could bring you before my master.
I might even get some credit for clearing out an invading Hollow while I’m at it!”
With that, the Shinigami closed in on Rukia.
Kira tried to resist but was knocked out with two strikes to the neck.
Rukia, depleted of spiritual pressure, had no way to resist and could only watch as they bound her with reishi-suppressing restraint straps.
“I must say, you really are beautiful.
No wonder even my master would be interested.”
“Don’t you even check someone’s identity before arresting them?” Rukia said angrily.
“What does it matter how important your identity is?
Once you’ve signed a contract of indenture with my master, no status will help you.” The male Shinigami laughed triumphantly and gagged Rukia before she could speak further.
Rukia struggled violently upon hearing this, but to no avail.
Her spiritual pressure was exhausted, and her recovery rate had dropped to its lowest point.
“Men, take them away!”
Just then, an extremely cold voice rang out from the sky: “I dare you to try!”
The Shinigami followed the sound and looked up at the sky, only to see Byakuya Kuchiki standing in the air, holding Renji by the scruff of his neck.
It turned out that after Renji returned to the Spiritual Arts Academy, he discovered that the captain who was supposed to teach the class had already left due to pressing matters.
Renji felt somewhat desperate as he walked down the street.
Suddenly, he spotted Byakuya on his way home not far away.
“Where is she?” A simple sentence that conveyed his current mood.
Following Renji to the room where Rukia had her first battle with the Hollow, they found it empty.
After sensing Rukia’s trail, Byakuya found Renji too slow and simply grabbed him, rushing to the location.
“Captain Kucihki, even if you are a captain, you need to at least give us a reason to release her, right?” the leading Shinigami said.
“The fact that she is my sister!
Is that reason not enough?” Byakuya said coldly.
“This…” The male Shinigami looked extremely shocked.
Although the Kasumioji were high-ranking nobles who could do as they pleased in front of Lord Zetsu, the Kuchiki Family was clearly incomparable, even if three Kasumioji families were added together.
He turned back to look at Rukia with an expression that said, “Why didn’t you say so earlier?”, but Rukia simply rolled her eyes and turned away to look elsewhere.
“I heard everything you said just now.
Not to mention anything else, the mere act of attacking someone from the Kuchiki Family is enough to doom you for eternity!” After saying this, Byakuya landed on the ground, set Renji down, and flashed to Rukia’s side.
He drew the Zanpakuto from his waist and cut all the restraints on Rukia.
He released a surge of spiritual pressure to check her condition and breathed a sigh of relief upon discovering that she was merely exhausted.
“Be grateful that you didn’t do anything else.
I will let you go today, but tomorrow, I will make the Kasumioji Clan give me an explanation!” With that, he scooped Rukia up in a bridal carry and turned to leave, while Renji followed behind Byakuya, carrying the unconscious Kira.
Seeing the four leave, one of the Shinigami said: “Damn it, we were so close to succeeding.
Captain, what should we do now?”
“It’s over now.
The matter has been exposed, and the family will definitely use us as scapegoats and hand us over.
We have no choice but to flee!” the leading Shinigami said with resentment.
He then glared fiercely in the direction where Byakuya and the others had left before leading the group of Shinigami toward the Senkaimon.
“Things are getting interesting.” Somewhere unknown, Aizen watched the development of the events and revealed that iconic smile.
“What kind of reaction will occur from the combination of a Soul Society genius and a Hollow?
I am very interested, Rukia Kuchiki!” After saying this, Aizen closed the screen in front of him and exited his dimly lit room.