Silas turned and began to walk away, unable to acknowledge the effects of having slain all the shop occupants. Those four were significant to the story, with the manager being a prime reason for how one portion of it ended. Now that they were gone, it wouldn`t matter much. Two of them were artificial souls, while the other two had been banned from returning to the Soul Society.

　　There were only so many groups that even knew of their existence. One such group was the Visoreds. Kisuke had helped them over a hundred years ago. But since then, they have rarely made contact with them, seeking revenge on Aizen more than anything. And as far as Silas was concerned, they weren`t aware of the latter`s death.

　　Silas had no other choice but to slay the shop occupants. Because he had slain Yoruichi, Kisuke had made the connection that he wasn`t an ally—something Silas knew was going to happen. And it wasn`t just Yoruichi who had died; the rest of the Kurosaki family was also dead. Things like those weren`t easy to hide for long.

　　Moving onto his next objective, Silas took one step forward. A sudden pain pricked his heart. He felt as if he had lost his breath. Trying to compose himself, he furrowed his brows and began sweating profusely.

　　One light inhale later, he seemingly returned to normal. Something had happened. He scanned the area but hadn`t seen or felt anything. That was the problem: he hadn`t felt anything.

　　No matter where or what he was doing, he could always feel one thing: Zangetsu`s presence. He unsheathed the sword and stared at it. Water slid down the blade, showing the reflection of his cold gaze. He tried to communicate with it but couldn`t even form a connection.

　　Something was undoubtedly wrong.

　　He considered what had happened. His spiritual powers were still intact and at their maximum potential.

　　`Was it Tessai?` he thought. `No& he died before the spell formed.`

　　Then something registered in his head. During his battle with Kisuke, at the moment he was being bombarded with Senju KMten TaihM, the shopkeeper had also sent a barrage of other spells!

　　`He died with that twisted grin... the snake knew I never saw the unknown seal he`d used on me.`

　　Silas`s deductions were correct. Kisuke replicated a move once used against Aizen, one that worked even with the HMgyoku`s power. But Silas, ever vigilant, was prepared for such a trick. Then he understood—a spell he`d never encountered before—and his heart sank.

　　He tried to release Zangetsu, but it proved to be of no avail. Whatever seal was placed on him was so powerful that it couldn`t even allow him to communicate with his ZanpakutM. As for why it took a late effect, that was likely due to the requirement: to wait for the next time he drew upon its power so it could be locked for good.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

　　Kisuke understood how dangerous Silas`s Bankai was. So even if it meant him dying, he was going to have the last laugh.

　　Silas`s body didn`t feel good. He felt lethargic, hardly able to even stand. It was like the time he severed his binding chain, removing Rukia`s Soul Reaper powers. There was no blood this time around; it was simply an intense feeling of lightheadedness mixed with nausea.

　　All he could think about was how to keep himself straight. The world was producing triple images of everything. He could barely walk. Brows furrowed, he managed to walk into the shop.

　　Inside, the Gigai he sensed had already deflated. Yet things didn`t fare much better. He began rummaging the store, looking for something—anything that could help him identify what spell was used. If he could at least find what it was, he could overpower it himself. But this proved to be difficult.

　　Whatever sort of scrolls or books he stumbled upon were too blurry to make sense of. He could barely see what he was reading!

　　Suddenly, his Hollow powers began to leak. He couldn`t control it. Whether it was the seal causing this or Zangetsu was still somewhere inside trying to communicate, it wasn`t making him feel any better. He gripped his chest, trying to contain his spiritual power. Then his vision became blurrier.

　　He felt dehydrated, so he stumbled to the bathroom for some water. Turning on the faucet, he gathered the water in his shaking palms and slowly took a sip. He then closed his eyes to calm down. The cool liquid running down his throat felt soothing.

　　Each second that passed, he could feel his spiritual pressure getting under control. When he opened his eyes, he noticed something peculiar in the mirror. His brown pupils were now yellow!

　　Not just any shade of yellow, they looked like a Hollow`s. This was bad. Very bad. If Rukia sees this, she might make the connection. And even if she doesn`t, he didn`t want to deal with her suspicions.

　　He tried to communicate with Zangetsu once more, but felt that same nauseous feeling again. It was no good. He could feel Zangetsu`s presence now, but at the same time, he couldn`t feel it.

　　Silas remained calm and started salvaging the entire shop from top to bottom. There wasn`t anything inside related to seals. Although he might have trained on how to execute kidM spells, he never learned how to unbind them. He was at a loss.

　　Time was of the essence. For the next few hours, he spent them trying to hide the corpses. The matter proved difficult since not all of his strength could be controlled. There were times that he couldn`t even tell where Tessai`s and Jinta`s heads were, despite them clearly being near their bodies.

　　He was so disoriented that he didn`t have enough control over his powers to fly. Everything inside the shop to help him travel required some amount of spiritual power—something he couldn`t properly use at the moment. And because he was in his Soul Reaper form, he couldn`t interact with bystanders from the world of the living.

　　Contacting Uryk after the events that unfolded was also a terrible idea. As for Rukia, she was more or less still asleep. He had to absolutely return to his body before she arose. But the hotel was approximately thirty miles away!

　　There was only one thing he could do in this state: walk.

　　For as long as Silas had been in this world, he had never felt so defeated. He remained calm and collected, starting his journey back on foot.