That night, a Hell Butterfly flew through the air as five more flew through Seireitei with each Hell Butterfly flying past a division, from the 2nd Division to the 13th Division, summoning everyone to an emergency meeting. As another Hell Butterfly flew towards the moon, several Shinigami gathered on top of Sokyoku Hill, of all places to have their meeting.

"Ukitake!" called Hitsugaya, who just arrived with his Lieutenant.

"Hitsugaya-taichou." greeted back the said man.

"What's going on here?" he asked. "Why are we here?"

"I don't know." replied the 13th Captain before looking at the others, who were as confused as them. "No one's heard anything about this meeting. And..."

"And?" repeated Hitsugaya.

"Huh?" said Rangiku when her eyes landed on someone she didn't expect to see. "Kuchiki?" The said woman turned around to see who called her. "Were you summoned, too?"

"Yes." she replied. "I'm not sure why, but I received a summon."

"What's with this gathering?" wondered Shunsui before his gaze went to Yumichika and Ikkaku. "Are you here to represent you Captain?"

"We weren't here as representatives of our Captain." corrected the latter.

"Well, our Captain and Vice-Captain are out, so we're the only ones who can attend the meeting anyway." explained his partner.

"Where'd they go?" asked the 8th Captain.

"Don't know." replied Yumichika. "They always do this."

"Goodness, and at a time like this!" sighed Kurotsuchi, annoyed. "Why do you think the Captain-Commander summoned us?"

Renji looked around and realised that his view was starting to be obscured. "Damn this stupid fog!" he cursed.

As the fog thickened, the ropes on the bridge connecting Sokyoku Hill to the main building creaked as someone walked across it. The fog cleared up, and those assembled turned to see Sasakibe with his arm outstretched. "Sasakibe-fukutaichou, what's going on?" asked Izuru. "Where's Captain-Commander." However, the said man didn't replied any of those questions, and alarmed everyone when he collapsed. Izuru immediately went over with Hisagi and Hinamori.

"T-Taichou!" called the panicking Omaeda.

"Don't let the slightest aura slip by." she said while grasping the hilt of her Zanpakutou.

"He's gone into cardiac arrest." said Unohana, who knelt next to him with Isane to examine his condition. "This is bad! Cast a resuscitation spell immediately!"

"Right!" responded the latter.

At that moment, everyone heard someone snorting in derision, prompting Ukitake and Hitsugaya to turn around with surprise. "Your Captain-Commander won't be joining you." he said when the moonlight hit his face to reveal his identity to everyone present.

"Who the hell are you?" demanded Hitsugaya before Rangiku, Sentaro and Kiyone appeared in front of their Captains in a defensive stance.

Just then, the 7th Captain Komamura stood in front of the smirking man. "You said the Captain-Commander isn't joining, didn't you?" he said.

"Taichou!" called Iba.

"Scum!" cussed his Captain while glaring at the man. "What have you done to Genryusai-dono?!" The latter didn't respond and kept smirking, only infuriating him even more. "No answer? Then, I'll force you to answer!" Komamura's hand grasped the hilt of his Zanpakutou and attempted to slash at him. But the latter leapt back in time and held his hand out at the Shinigami, surging against them using strong blasts of wind.

"What a jerk!" said the grinning Ikkaku. "This looks fun!"

"Wanna join them, Ikkaku?" asked Yumichika.

"Stop it!" ordered Iba, who appeared before them with his hand held out to prevent them from interfering. "My Captain's already going to fight him! You'll get hurt if you jump in!"

"Bankai!" commanded Komamura. "Kokujo Tengen Myo'o!" With a glow of spiritual energy, he brought forth a giant that resembled an armoured samurai, which stood at about a hundred meters tall. It wielded a sword with a guard similar to its master, and had a string hanging from the hilt. Komamura himself wielded a katana in its form. "You will tell me where Genryusai-dono is!"

"That attack won't hurt me." stated the mysterious man.

"Ridiculous!" yelled Komamura before raising his own blade.

As his Bankai followed, Ukitake expressed surprise when he noticed something before yelling, "Look out!" Komamura heard him and looked back as the blade of Kokujo Tengen Myo'o crashed down upon him.

"Taichou!" called the worried Iba. As the dust cleared, Komamura got up right next to the enormous blade.

"What just happened?!" asked Hitsugaya, who was as shocked and confused as the others.

"His Zanpakutou attacked its master?!" said Soi-Fon with disbelief.

"Impossible." said Shunsui.

"What the hell just happened?!" questioned Renji.

"Now isn't this fascinating?" said the intrigued Kurotsuchi.

As Komamura stood up, a powerful gush of wind blew through the area as Muramasa chuckled. The wind stopped blowing before the Captain turned around and to his feet while staring at the person behind him. The large, muscular red-skinned man had red skin, spiky blue hair, and an ornate golden headpiece on his forehead. He had large blue eyebrows that merged with his sideburns, and his eyes were filled with a bright yellow light. His neck and shoulders were covered by a thick and segmented black shawl, and he wore a strip of golden fabric connected to a red pauldron on his left shoulder, which crossed his body diagonally and covered his upper legs. He wore a thick black rope tied around his waist in a semi-ornate bow, and wore a red cloth with a yellow border over a black kilt with a ragged hem. He also wore a large two-toed wooden shoes, a black gauntlet on each wrist, and a black bracelet on each bicep.

"Who in blazes are you?" asked Komamura. But when fire cackled within the huge man's mouth, the former's eyes widened with realisation. "Are you Tenken-?!" At that moment, Tenken attacked him, forcing Komamura to block before pushing his blade away and slashed at him, only for Tenken to move away and wrap a pair of fiery bolas around Komamura's arm. As a growling Komamura struggled against the rope, Tenken pulled him forward before slashing him with a flaming sword, visibly shocking the other Shinigami. "What... the hell...?"

As soon as he collapsed, his Lieutenant called out his name and was about to rush over, only to be pulled back by Yumichika. "Wait!" he said.

"Let go, Ayasegawa!" demanded Iba.

At that moment, Hitsugaya leapt into the air with his Zanpakutou raised up high. "Sit upon the frozen heavens, Hyorimaru!" he commanded.

Soi-Fon, too, unsheathed her Zanpakutou and commanded its release, "Sting all enemies to death, Suzumebachi!"

However, Hyorimaru didn't enter its Shikai form, which didn't go unnoticed by its master, and Tenken used this opportunity to strike at him with his whip. Dodging in mid-air, Hitsugaya landed in front of him. "Taichou!" called Rangiku.

"I can't go into Shikai form." he said with confusion while staring at the blade.

But he wasn't the only one facing this problem. "Impossible!" muttered the shocked Soi-Fon as she stared at her Zanpakutou.

Seeing that both Captains' Zanpakutou didn't transform into their Shikai form, the Lieutenants immediately unsheathed theirs as they attempted to release the Shikai forms of their Zanpakutou. "Howl, Zabimaru!" commanded Renji, who wasn't able to get it into its Shikai form.

"Growl, Haineko!" commanded Rangiku after unsheathing her sword, but she couldn't as well.

"Growl, Hozukimaru!" shouted Ikkaku, who also failed to have his sword transform into its Shikai form.

"What's going on?!" demanded Renji while staring at the katana in his hand. "I don't feel any reiatsu in my Zanpakutou!"

"Why, Tobiume?!" asked the confused Hinamori, who also held her Zanpakutou in her hands.

"Wabisuke!" said Izuru as he was worried about his.

"There isn't any reiatsu in it." noted Kurotsuchi while holding up his unsheathed sword before looking at the man standing across them. "What's going on?"

"It's quite simple." said the man with a smile. "Your Zanpakutou are no longer with you. I freed them from you Shinigami."

"Our Zanpakutou..." trailed off Isane before turning to her Captain. "Can someone really...?"

Just then, a tear of blood dripped from his right eye before gesturing with his arm, followed by several explosions occuring behind him across the Seireitei. "What the-?!" responded Rukia, who was as shocked as the others.

"Damn you!" cursed Renji. "What did you do?!"

"It wasn't me." clarified the man. "Your Zanpakutou did it themselves."

"No way!" gasped Hinamori with disbelief.

"They have been freed from your imprisonment." he added before laughing. At that moment, a child's voice suddenly called from behind him, ceasing his laughter before he glanced over his shoulder. "What is it?"

"Can I play a game with them?" asked the child. Just when the man was about to protest, he pleaded, "Please! It won't take long!"

Sighing, the man said, "Do whatever you like, but be quick."

"Yay!" cheered the child before taking a step forward to reveal himself. The smiling boy standing across the Shinigami had pale skin, short black hair, and prominent dark circles underneath his pale green eyes. He was wearing a black robe with shredded hems that was bound by a red obi. "Hey, do you wanna play a game with me?"

"What's with this kid?" muttered Ikkaku with a raised brow, though he was feeling suspicious about how innocent this boy was despite the chaos happening.

"It's called catch." began the child excitedly. "The rules are simple: If you catch something that I'm going to throw at you, you win!" Without waiting for the Shinigami's response, he pilled out a hiltless dagger and randomly threw it at them. "Catch!" As soon as he said that, the dagger glowed before a puff of cloud appeared around it. And to everyone's surprise when the cloud cleared up, an unconscious Asa was flying towards them. She was bruised from head to toe, few parts of her Shihakushou had been torn or shredded, and a large wound was found on the left side of her abdomen.

"Asa-san!" cried Izuru, who then quickly rushed over to catch her.

"Yay!" cheered the child while jumping up and down. "You win!" He then turned to look at the man and hopped to his side. "Okay, I'm done. See? It didn't take that long, right?"

"Asa-san!" called the Lieutenant worriedly as he tried to wake her up. "Please hang in there, Asa-san!"

Seeing that the said woman's condition was even more severe, Unohana rushed to her while leaving Isane to take care of Sasakibe, and knelt down to inspect her wounds. "She's losing a lot of blood." she noted. "If we don't hurry, she'll die in a few more minutes." She then quickly placed a hand over her wound and started the healing process.

"Damn you!" cursed Hitsugaya while glaring at the man standing across them. "What have you done to her?!"

"This is merely a greeting." he said while wiping away the bloody tear, ignoring his question. "This is so you will understand how powerful my comrades are." He then turned around and held his arm out, as if to present someone, or rather some people, to them. "Behold, the true forms of the Zanpakutou you thought you owned!" As soon as he turned back around and held both his arms out, several spirits manifested before the Shinigami.

"Is he saying that the Zanpakutou have taken physical form?!" said Hitsugaya with realisation before Hyorimaru manifested next to him and began walking towards the rest.

"No way!" yelled Renji.

And at that moment, another spirited manifested before his master and walked forward. This spirit, which turned out to be Senbonzakura, had long dark brown hair tied up in the back with a white ribbon in a long ponytail which reached his lower back, and had two chest-length bangs framing his face. His face was covered by an ornate mask featuring golden teeth, black lips and fangs, a gold protrusion on either side, and a gold headpiece shaped like three cherry blossoms. He wore a long light purple kimono with white stripes running down the center and sleeves, which was tied at his waist with a long piece of white fabric that hung down in two long loops in the front. He wore a red-gold pauldron on each shoulder, which were connected by a gold band with strips of red fabric hanging from it and two interweaving strips of red fabric above it. He wore red elbow-length gauntlets and red greaves.

Soon after that, another spirited manifested before his master and joined the others. Ashisogi Jizo had the appearance of a small, yellow humanoid creature with several vertical lines around its eyes and a small amount of blue hair, which lied in a curl on top of its head. It had butterfly-like wings with a large halo floating behind them.

"But that's..." trailed off Ukitake as he watched the remaining manifested spirits walk forward.

"My, my." muttered Shunsui while closing his eyes.

Haineko manifested near Rukia and began walking forward. Walking up to Rangiku, she put her hand on her shoulder and leaned towards her Master before shoving her. "Move it!" she said as she continued walking.

"You're-!" exclaimed Rangiku, who was shocked by her Zanpakutou's rudeness. The latter merely snickered before moving away, just as the other Zanpakutou spirits gathered.

"Nii-sama?" called Rukia when he took a few steps to stand in the front line with Ukitake.

"Who on earth are you?" he demanded.

"My name is Muramasa." introduced the man. "Tonight brings the end of Shinigami rule. From now on, the Zanpakutou will rule over the Shinigami!" He then manifested his sword form and stabbed it into the ground, causing the ground to rise up in segments that allowed the Zanpakutou spirits to tower over the Shinigami.

Meanwhile, somewhere behind the group of Shinigami, a toddler with a pair of black eyes with red irises was peeping among the shadows before he went back inside, teleporting himself to a forest where a hooded figure waited for him. "The coast is clear." he said before grabbing the person's hand and began dragging them away. "Let's go!"