Rukia was forced to tilt her head back, compelled to stare into those Rinnegan eyes radiating an eerie purple glow.
Even with her chin restrained, the pride of a Shinigami pushed her to speak, drawing on the last of her strength.
"Who… who are you?!"
Her voice trembled despite herself.
"A monster like you shouldn't exist in the Living World. Erasing Hollows without authorization violates the iron laws of the Soul Society! The Soul Society will—"
"Heh."
A cold, mocking laugh cut her off.
Uchiha Tobirama looked down at her as if she were a struggling insect.
"The Soul Society?" he said disdainfully. "Even if all of them came at once, they'd be no match for me. A mob, nothing more."
The six tomoe in his eyes began to spin.
Buzz!
A terrifying pull erupted where his fingers touched her chin.
"Ah—!"
Rukia cried out as a wrenching sensation tore through her very being. What little spiritual power remained within her was ripped away, flowing irresistibly toward him.
"My… my Shinigami power—stop!"
She struggled in vain.
In mere moments, it was over.
Her Shihakushō dissolved into scattered reishi, leaving her in ordinary clothes. The spiritual presence that defined her as a Shinigami was gone entirely.
Rukia collapsed, her eyes unfocused.
"…It's gone."
She had been stripped of everything that made her a Shinigami.
Nearby, Kurosaki Ichigo saw her fall and rushed forward in panic.
"Hey! What did you do to her?! Let her go!"
He charged without hesitation.
Tobirama didn't even turn his head.
A faint ripple of pressure spread outward.
Boom!
Ichigo was slammed into the ground as if struck by an invisible weight, the asphalt cracking beneath him. His consciousness vanished instantly.
"Pathetic," Tobirama said flatly.
He shifted his attention back to Rukia.
"You will come with me."
With that, he gestured toward the center of town.
"Wood Release: Serial Pillar House Technique."
The ground roared.
From the earth burst towering pillars of wood, vines and massive trunks intertwining as they surged upward. In moments, a vast palace of living wood took shape, rising above the ruined district like something out of myth.
Rukia stared in disbelief.
This wasn't Kido.
This wasn't anything she understood.
With a single technique, he had reshaped the land itself.
In the next instant, space blurred.
They reappeared inside the palace, in a quiet, spacious chamber high above the city. Tobirama set her down and stepped back, his expression once again indifferent.
"This place will serve as your confinement," he said calmly. "You will remain here while I decide what to do with the Shinigami world."
Rukia clenched her fists, fear and frustration mixing in her chest—but she said nothing.
She understood now.
Before this being, resistance was meaningless.
And so, under the shadow of a power that surpassed gods, her fate entered an uncertain new chapter.