Ichibei still had his Shinigami garb, but strangely enough, he didn't have his brush. He had a pair of fly wings sticking out of his back, and there was black paint covering the majority of his body and face.
As Kisuke was falling, Ichibei suddenly opened his eyes, which were pure black sclera with pure white pupils, and looked in his direction.
In the next instant, Kisuke also released the aura that he had been repressing and opened all of his senses to gather as much information as possible. He was discovered, so there was no point in holding back and keeping things quiet. First of all, he had to secure his path of retreat. After taking note of all the routes he could possibly take, he went and started observing the pulsing flesh and Ichibei, who was sitting on top of it.
Against his expectations, the worms and flies present didn't even react to him and continued to mind their own business of taking care of the eggs attached to the walls of the cavern.
Kisuke adjusted his fall and landed on a relatively flat surface on his feet. His eyes were on Ichibei, who was also looking at him, but his attention was on the overall situation. 'No response, huh? This should not be the case if it's just those insects. Does that mean he's in full control of these things? Another question was the gravitational pull. Are there more things under us, or is it just space warping in a strange way?'
[I was expecting you.] All of a sudden, Ichibei's voice resounded inside Kisuke's mind, which immediately alarmed him. 'Benihime, Tiamat.'
[We got it.] Benihime's voice immediately replied, and the presence of Ichibei from Kisuke's mind entirely disappeared.
"Hooh... Impressive. Most people wouldn't be able to defend their minds like that." This time around, Ichibei's voice echoed throughout the entire cavern. "You've learned various techniques that are supposed to be impossible due to how the world itself was arranged. Did you come from the outside?"
Kisuke was quiet and didn't immediately reply. Ichibei, on the other hand, was still calm and just let Kisuke probe everything around and patiently waited for him.
'Hmmm... Pissing him off won't yield any results, I guess?' Thanks to the time that Ichibei has graciously given him, Kisuke was able to fully scan his immediate surroundings. So he replied, "I wonder? Wouldn't slipping into Hell without your awareness and studying how to make use of the strange new energy be a more feasible thought?"
"I would have... If not for that black being who can transform into anything helping you out."
Kisuke immediately flashed a grin, "Must be frustrating, isn't it? You could have never expected someone to just completely disregard your naming ability by shapeshifting back to what she originally is."
This time, it was Ichibei's turn to be quiet. Kisuke tried to detect anything from him but failed to do so. Soon enough, Ichibei spoke again, "But I don't see that friend of yours now. Have you come here to die?"
At that point, Kisuke was already certain that Ichibei has no ability to see through everything due to the fact that he doesn't know about Flanna's existence. 'His eyes are probably limited to what these insects could see.'
"And I'm surprised you haven't gotten rid of that paint. I was certain that you wouldn't be able to defeat Kirio with that on," Ichibei added.
Kisuke just shrugged his shoulders and said, "It was due to those assumptions of yours that you've been cornered this much. But well, it's really hard to remove. It's still weighing me down right now, and I was hoping that getting rid of you will finally free me from this."
While he spoke casually, Kisuke was really glad deep down. 'So he can't see it too? Good.'
Ichibei, seemingly done with him, raised his hand. Almost instantaneously, thousands of giant flies gathered and formed a hand in midair before slamming down on Kisuke.
Kisuke used Flash Step and dodged the overly simplistic attack, but the moment he stepped out of the technique, he found hundreds more hands reaching out for him.
He furrowed his brows and continued using his Flash Step to close the distance between him and Ichibei while dodging the hands made out of insects.
Kisuke was wondering what the use of these useless attacks was, and he soon reached within striking distance of Ichibei, thinking that all of this was just an elaborate trap.
Even then, Kisuke didn't hold back and brandished Benihime and directly aimed at Ichibei's neck. While watching out for any strange occurrences, Benihime reached Ichibei's neck and went through it, cleanly detaching his head from his body.
Kisuke knew that something was wrong and immediately retreated while checking Benihime's state. Once he was sure that nothing foreign got into her, he saw that Ichibei's head became suspended mid-air and slowly floated above his body before reattaching itself.
"...Hahaha..." Kisuke let out a wry laugh, "Looks like I'm in for a long run here. I hope this doesn't take all week."
Kisuke clutched Benihime hard and thought, 'I only have one chance. Just one opening.'
.
.
.
Two days later, the evacuation efforts were 99.9% done, and various defensive lines were put up, including those in Soul Society and Hueco Mundo.
During the past two days, a few worms had been making their way to all the worlds, and they didn't really pose any significant risk as they were dealt with rather easily. However, the true horror was about to arrive when the "main body" of the corpse-eating insects started showing itself.
Ichigo, Uryu, and Chad stationed themselves on top of a tall building in Karakura Town, feeling the mounting pressure of the silence in the normally bustling town.
"I thought we were done after the Quincy's Invasion... But to think we'd have something worse than that..." Chad muttered to himself while watching the sky full of iridescent holes.
Uryu pulled his bow and generated a blue arrow before releasing it in a certain direction. The next second, they heard the gruesome cry of a worm, "On top of that, we still don't know what exactly is going on despite the world on the verge of ending. What a shitty situation."
More time passed, and Uryu shot a dozen more worms that found their way into the Human World, and it was also at that point that they noticed that Ichigo had been quiet, "Are you worried about Inoue and Kazui?" asked Chad.
"I am..." Ichigo answered without turning around, "But I was thinking of something else."
"About what?" asked Uryu.
"If we don't know the situation, let's ask someone who knows." Ichigo pointed to his side while turning his head towards them, "That young girl that we met in Urahara Shop is not far from here."
"How did you know?"
"I've been learning this Magic thing, and I'm getting the hang of detecting presences using it."