Chapter 678 F*ck The Protagonist's Dad, F*ck The Protagonist's Mom

Although Gin hadn't personally participated in the second extermination campaign against the remaining Quincies in the Living World two hundred years ago, which was led by Yamamoto,

As a Captain, he had heard that pure-blooded Quincies could perform a special ability called [Vollständig], akin to a Shinigami's Bankai release, elevating their power to an entirely new level.

In that state, a Quincy's Reishi control precision and combat ability underwent a qualitative leap, far beyond White's current crude, chopping-blade style usage.

White's use of Quincy power was like swinging a cannon around like a baseball bat.

Aizen smiled without commenting.

During that Quincy extermination campaign,

He had still been a nobody who had just joined the Gotei 13.

And it was through that battle that he had first learned the name 'Yhwach'.

If Shinigami and Hollow powers each accounted for roughly forty percent of White's composition, then the Quincy power was probably only twenty percent, or even less.

That proportion of Quincy power simply wasn't enough to manifest the high-level ability known as [Vollständig]. It could only remain at the most basic level of Heilig Pfeil and Reishi Weaponization.

"There's no helping it. Every Quincy we salvaged from the Technology Development Bureau was a hybrid."

Psykos's tone carried clear dissatisfaction. "Pure-blooded Quincies were almost completely wiped out in the massacre two hundred years ago. All I got were hybrids whose bloodlines had been diluted for generations. If they had been pure-blooded..."

Boom!!!

Her words were cut off by a deafening explosion.

On the monitor, White had fired a Cero that precisely hit the exhausted Isshin.

The 10th Division's Captain was blasted away, his body tumbling through the air before slamming heavily into a pile of rubble. Broken concrete and rebar crashed down on him, kicking up clouds of dust.

"Damn it! Where's the support?!"

Isshin, covered in wounds, struggled to crawl out of the ruins.

His Captain's Haori had been torn to shreds. His Bankai, Tensa Engetsu, had been knocked out of his grip and was now embedded in a pile of debris a few meters away.

'Was the only option left to use a final Getsuga Tensho?'

Isshin gritted his teeth.

"Raaaaargh—!!!"

White leaped high into the air, descending from the night sky like a black meteor.

Blue-white Reishi light blazed from the blades of its arms again. The two Heilig Pfeil cleavers crossed into a giant cross, plummeting toward the helpless Isshin in the ruins.

"Hey! Enough already?!"

Yoruichi could no longer hold back. She grabbed Makoto's arm.

White was clearly going for the kill on Isshin. This had gone beyond the scope of 'testing strength'. If this continued, that idiot uncle would really die.

Just at that critical moment, a change occurred.

Several blue-white Reishi arrows flew in from the side of the battlefield without warning, accurately striking the descending White.

White's momentum was suddenly halted. It had to swing its blades back to shatter the incoming arrows.

It turned its head, its hollow eye sockets beneath its horns locking onto the direction the arrows had come from.

'Those were Quincy Heilig Pfeil?!'

Everyone, including Isshin, whipped their heads toward the arrows' origin.

About half a mile from the battlefield's center, on the rooftop of a residential building, a high school girl in uniform stood firmly, bow drawn and arrow nocked.

Reishi rapidly condensed on the bowstring, forming the outline of a second Heilig Pfeil, aimed at White's head.

White and the girl locked eyes for a brief moment.

Then, something happened that no one had expected.

White abandoned its dying prey without hesitation, turning abruptly and charging straight toward that Quincy girl.

Seeing this, the expressions of Aizen's trio shifted subtly.

Even Aizen himself showed a rare look of surprise.

They had given White clear orders to prioritize the Shinigami Captain as its primary target.

But now, White was ignoring the heavily wounded Isshin, who could have been finished with just one more blow, and instead charging at a girl it had never seen before.

It was as if something about her was irresistibly drawing it in.

"Raaaaargh—!!!"

White's roar grew even higher, carrying an urgency that could almost be called 'hunger'.

"Ishigami."

Makoto's voice echoed in the monitoring room.

Yu, who had been waiting outside the research facility, was already prepared.

He leaped to the rooftop of another tall building. At the moment the command was given, he fired. A high-speed armor-piercing round precisely struck one of White's legs.

White's right leg was blown off at the knee. Its black torso lost balance in midair, tumbling and crashing onto the roof of a low building.

"Don't do anything outside the plan, you piece of trash."

Yu, his gun arm still smoking, cursed coldly.

Masaki, the Quincy girl who had suddenly appeared on the battlefield, was also startled by the sudden turn of events.

She had prepared herself for a desperate battle against that monster. She hadn't expected a random shot from somewhere to blow off one of its legs.

But she quickly seized the opportunity, raising her Reishi bow again. The string was drawn taut, the second Heilig Pfeil ready to fire.

"Tier."

Simultaneously, Makoto gave another command.

A lithe, graceful figure shot out from the direction of the research facility, closing the distance in a few Sonídos and appearing behind Masaki.

Harribel grabbed her by the shoulder, holding the Quincy girl firmly in place.

"Don't interfere."

"Eh?!"

Masaki whipped her head around, meeting Harribel's emerald eyes. She was startled.

Seeing the mask on the other's face, Masaki's pupils contracted sharply.

'A Hollow?!'

Before she could react, Harribel had already lifted her off the ground and quickly moved her away from the center of the battlefield.

"Are you and that monster allies? Why are you doing this?!"

Masaki, tucked under Harribel's arm, struggled and shouted in protest.

"Huh?"

Harribel looked down at her. Her emerald eyes above her mask held no emotion. "I'm a Hollow. He's a Shinigami. Isn't it normal for us to take care of him?"

Then, a hint of curiosity flickered in her eyes. "By the way, you're a Quincy, aren't you? Your clan is in such a bad state precisely because of the Shinigami. Why help him?"

Hearing this, Masaki was momentarily stunned into silence.

It was just her nature. She had never been able to stand by and watch someone in distress.

"Get rid of that Shinigami. Or I'll get rid of you."

Yu's voice echoed in White's chaotic consciousness.

But even with one leg blown off by Yu, White still struggled up from the ruins.

Its hollow eye sockets looked past Isshin, fixed on the Quincy girl being carried away from the battlefield by Harribel.

Then, it charged recklessly in that direction.

Everyone was stunned.

'What's going on?'

'Why was it so fixated on that Quincy girl?'

Seeing White charging toward her, Harribel's expression also changed.

She instinctively reached for her blade to counter, but the Kurosaki Masaki in her arms made it impossible to fight and hold a prisoner at the same time.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Just as the two sides were about to collide, three consecutive gunshots exploded in near unison.

Yu fired three times.

White's remaining three limbs were simultaneously severed. Its massive torso, losing all support, crashed to the ground. Black fluid seeped from the severed ends.

It was still struggling, but its eye sockets remained fixed on Masaki's direction.

Yu leaped down from the tall building, landing steadily beside White. He pressed his gun arm against White's nape, pinning it to the ground, and said curtly to Harribel, "Let's go."

Harribel nodded, tearing open a Garganta with one hand.

She glanced at the still-struggling Quincy girl in her arms, hesitated for a moment, then took her along.

Their figures quickly disappeared into the Hueco Mundo passage.

Only the injured Isshin, collapsed in the ruins, was left behind.

And Ishida Ryuken, who had just arrived at the scene, staring blankly at the devastated battlefield, along with his maid, Katagiri Kanae, who was holding an umbrella.

Bang—!

Inside the research facility's monitoring room, Tosen slammed his fist on the table, roaring in fury, "What the hell?! A complete failure! Not only did it disobey orders, but it also attacked an off-plan target!"

"That's not the case."

Aizen raised his hand to cut him off.

A meaningful smile curled at the corner of his mouth.

"Although it deviated from the original objective, in a way, it has exceeded our expectations."

"An entity largely composed of Shinigami and Hollow power, yet it actively chose the Quincy, which is the most incompatible with it. Isn't that interesting? It seems things are about to get even more intriguing."

Makoto didn't respond.

He just stared with interest at the freeze-frame of Masaki on the monitor.

In the original work, on the surface, it was Masaki who used her own body as bait to defeat White.

But in reality, according to Aizen's explanation to Ichigo years later, it was White that had actively chosen her during the battle.

An entity born from the fusion of Shinigami and Hollow power had abandoned the stronger Isshin and instead lunged at a Quincy girl.

That choice itself defied a Hollow's instincts and battle logic.

And it was precisely because White had chosen Masaki that Aizen later became intensely interested in her child, Kurosaki Ichigo.

The screen froze at the moment Yu subdued White and Harribel evacuated with Masaki.

Makoto stared at the struggling Quincy girl on the screen, the corner of his mouth curling slightly. 'So... why Kurosaki Masaki?'