Boom.
Boom.
Boom.
Even ordinary people, those incapable of sensing spiritual pressure, could guess the scale of the battle unfolding above the dome just by looking at the sky. The canopy over Las Noches had already split with visible cracks, as if some force beyond human understanding were trying to tear the world open from the outside.
And beneath that shattered sky, the palace was in no better condition.
The Tenth Espada, Yammy, had already entered his Resurrección and was locked in combat with the remaining Soul Reapers. Alex, however, had not used the original concept of having Yammy advance from the Tenth Espada to Number Zero after transforming.
In the original work, that revelation had never carried the impact it should have. Yammy simply had not looked worthy of standing at the peak of the Espada, especially when an injured Kenpachi and a weakened Biakuya had still been able to deal with him.
If that was supposed to be the highest level among the Espada, then the entire organization's prestige would be dragged down with him.
Here, however, the circumstances were different. With Biakuya deprived of his Bankai, Yammy had far more room to crush the enemies before him.
"What's wrong? What's wrong?! Is that all you've got?!"
Yammy's arrogant laughter thundered through the ruined hall as his colossal fists, heavy as mountains, came crashing down again and again. At that moment, only Kenpachi could still meet him head-on.
With his jagged blade raised before the others, he held the defensive line through sheer brutality, barely keeping everyone from being swept away in a single blow.
But even he was beginning to give way.
"Urgh...!"
Kenpachi clenched his teeth, the muscles in his arm trembling beneath the crushing weight of the strike. The force drove him down to one knee, cracking the ground beneath his feet.
"Looks like fighting that idiot Leorio Sguario burned through a lot of your strength, Soul Reaper!" Yammy sneered. "But don't think I'm going to go easy on you because of that!"
He opened his monstrous mouth. Golden energy rapidly condensed inside it, spinning into a sphere before erupting, in the next instant, as a devastating pillar of light.
Cero.
"Captain Kenpachi!"
Rukia, Renji, and the others behind him shouted in shock. The beam surged forward like a sentence of death, about to swallow Kenpachi whole.
Then a female silhouette, far too familiar to the audience, descended from above.
In the next instant, Yammy's Cero seemed to be struck by something unseen. The column of energy split cleanly in two, sliced from top to bottom with terrifying precision, before dissolving into the air as scattered fragments of light.
For a moment, no one could react.
"No... no way."
Inside the series, Rukia and Renji stared wide-eyed. Beyond the screen, millions of viewers around the world had exactly the same reaction.
The woman who had blocked that attack was none other than Retsu Unohana, the captain whom nearly everyone had viewed, throughout the previous two seasons, as nothing more than the group's gentle healer.
The gale stirred up by the severed Cero swept through the hall and loosened the braid Unohana usually wore over her chest. Her black hair spilled free, long and straight, parted down the middle, falling around her face like a dark curtain.
It was the exact image she had shown in the trailer for the final season.
"Diane looks insanely cool like this," Mark murmured, eyes fixed on the screen. "It reminds me of that old drama she did with Alex, The Snowblade Valkyrie."
Since his script had no direct scenes with Diane, this was also Mark's first time seeing the actress in her loose-haired version of Unohana in Bleach.
"Wasn't the Fourth Division captain supposed to be just a healer?" Liam asked, utterly stunned. "She's this strong?"
At that moment, ninety-nine percent of the fans around the world were thinking the same thing.
Cutting a Cero in half with a single slash... even among captains, very few could do something like that.
"Tch. I could've handled it myself. You didn't need to interfere."
Kenpachi sounded annoyed, but strangely enough, he was the only one among them who showed no surprise. No shock, no disbelief, no hesitation. It was as if he had known from the very beginning what that woman truly was.
"I don't remember you ever becoming this weak," Unohana said, turning only her face toward him. Her voice was low, cold, stripped of every trace of its usual softness. "Or do I need to show you how to swing a sword?"
She raised her blade horizontally.
Her gaze froze the air.
"C-Captain Unohana is going to fight?" Rukia murmured, unable to believe it.
Renji could not hide his shock either. They were still young, still too new to the Thirteen Court Guard Squads, and their impression of Retsu Unohana was almost identical to that of the fans watching from beyond the screen: serene, compassionate, almost maternal. Someone who healed wounds, not someone who split bodies open.
"Rukia. Renji. Step back."
Biakuya's voice rang out, deep and restrained. Even without his Bankai, even after being pushed back by Yammy until that very moment, he still maintained his usual cold composure.
"If you get caught in her battle... you will die."
The sentence landed like a stone.
Rukia and the others turned toward him in disbelief. Biakuya was proud to his bones. For him to give such a high evaluation of someone was, by itself, terrifying proof.
"Hey, woman!" Yammy finally snapped out of the shock of seeing his Cero cut in two. His voice roared through the hall again, but now there was something forced beneath the arrogance. "Are you in such a hurry to die?! That was just carelessness on my part! Don't tell me you actually think you blocked my Cero with your own strength!"
He was speaking too loudly.
Loudly enough to try to convince himself.
Because inside, Yammy was not calm. Not at all.
The spiritual pressure coming from that woman was wrong. Deep. Ancient. It did not feel like the presence of a healer. As she walked toward him with her sword in hand, Yammy saw something absurd, something almost instinctive: red, nothing but red, and mountains of corpses piled as far as the eye could see.
"AAAAAAH!"
Seized by a terror he refused to admit, Yammy roared to drown out the fear in his chest. His colossal fist came down with all its force, crushing the space before him.
Even Kenpachi, with his eyepatch removed, had only been able to withstand that kind of blow with difficulty. And although Yammy had been worn down by the battle, his strength still could not be underestimated.
But then came the sound.
A clean, dry cut, like fabric being torn.
In the next shot, Yammy's massive body, large enough to nearly reach the ceiling of Las Noches, opened along a colossal wound. From his hips to the crown of his head, a vertical line hundreds of meters long split his monstrous form in two.
Around them, the members of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads stood frozen, their jaws nearly hitting the floor.
Unohana, her hair loose, slowly turned around. Her expression remained cold and unchanged as she sheathed her sword with the same calm one might use to end a formality.
In midair, Yammy still tried to speak. His voice, once explosive, came out broken and incredulous.
"Who... are you...?"
Before he could finish, his body separated down the middle and collapsed in two halves onto the ground. Even then, he did not die immediately. With a voice growing weaker by the second, he completed the question, as if the answer frightened him more than death itself.
"...really?"
Under the stunned gazes of Rukia and his own lieutenant, Biakuya revealed Retsu Unohana's true identity in a low voice.
"This is the strength of the first captain of the Eleventh Division... Unohana Yachiru."
A single sentence.
And yet it exposed far too much.
Three seconds after Unohana sheathed her blade, the streaming page was already drowning in question marks. Moments later, Bleach fans across the internet erupted. Some screamed that "Sister Unohana" had a level of prestige far beyond anything they had imagined. Others pointed out that Kenpachi had not shown the slightest surprise, which made it obvious that the two of them shared some unknown past. Some latched onto the name Yachiru Unohana, calling it far too imposing to be a coincidence, immediately remembering the little girl who always stayed by Kenpachi's side and wondering whether there was some connection between them. And of course, there were plenty of comments saying Alex would never give an ex-girlfriend a throwaway role, that he had hidden this card until the final season just to blow the audience's mind at the perfect moment.
The discussion soon slid into behind-the-scenes gossip. To many people, it was now easy to understand why so many beautiful actresses in the industry were still willing to date Alex. At least with his exes, they said, he was genuinely generous. No wonder several of them, even after breaking up with him, never seemed eager to "hand the position over" to someone else. Others responded with sarcasm, saying that was obvious: if someone else took his place, Alex would probably cut off the benefits. The man could be romantic when he wanted, but no one would ever call him naive.
In the original work, the battle between Biakuya, Kenpachi, and Yammy had been handled rather casually, almost brushed aside off-screen. The so-called Espada Number Zero had never received a display of power truly worthy of the title.
After thinking it through for a long time, Alex ultimately decided to turn that hot-tempered brute into the perfect stepping stone for revealing Unohana's true majesty.
After all, Sosuke Aizen's side was running out of pieces on the board. Every character had to be used to their fullest.
"Now I understand why Director Alex cast Diane for this role," Liam said, still deeply impressed.
A mature actress, beautiful without seeming artificial, experienced without carrying any tiredness, and skilled enough to support such a brutal reversal. That kind of presence was rare in the industry. Among the women Alex knew, few could deliver it. There was Claire as well, of course, famous for her elegant role in that classic court drama that marked an entire generation, but to achieve something this fierce and refined at the same time, Diane was practically the natural choice.
She had already created several iconic images of cold, lethal heroines throughout her career. Add in the fact that she was Alex's ex-girlfriend, and the equation became simple.
If not her, then who?
"Diane's Unohana is ridiculously stylish," Liam said, a trace of nostalgia shining in his eyes. "Speaking of which, her character in The Snowblade Valkyrie was one of my childhood goddesses."
Mark let out a dry laugh.
Childhood goddess, sure.
For Liam, she was a memory on a screen. For Alex, she was someone he had simply gone out and won over. They were not even playing in the same league.
"Kid," Mark said, half joking and half serious, "if you ever get the chance to join one of Director Alex's productions, do yourself a favor: stay away from his exes. When those women start a silent war... well, let's just say nobody walks away untouched."
Liam raised both hands immediately, surrendering without the slightest hesitation.
"Relax, bro. I could have nine lives and I still wouldn't have the guts for that."
The next day, episode 11 of Re:Zero aired without a hitch.
It was the episode where Rem, completely and irreversibly, gave herself over to what she felt for Subaru. The image she had of him ceased to be that of a stranger who had barged into her daily life and became that of someone who had crossed not only into her world, but into her heart as well - a man who had risked his life to save her, and who, in the darkest and most desperate moment of her existence, had given her comfort, courage, and a reason to keep moving forward.
On the surface, it could easily be mistaken for just another familiar romantic setup: the hero saving the girl after a crisis, followed by love at first sight. At first glance, it seemed like the kind of development built on far too many convenient coincidences.
But was it really coincidence?
Every murder, every trap, every dead end that Subaru Natsuki seemed to avoid so effortlessly had been paid for with his own life. Every piece of information he held, every correct decision, every step taken at exactly the right moment had been bought through previous loops - through weeks of death, pain, and failure piling one on top of another.
That supposedly ordinary man, the one so many dismissed as mediocre, had been killed twice by Rem's own hands.
And even so, when she - crushed after failing in the battle against the demon beasts, only surviving because Subaru had thrown himself recklessly into the swarm to drag her back - murmured in a low voice that her sister surely would have done better than she did… his answer came without hesitation, without theatrics, and without the slightest trace of pity.
Maybe that was true. Maybe her sister really would have done better. But the one standing by his side was her. She was the only one he could see. Having her there with him was something he was genuinely grateful for. And because of that, all he wanted was for her to smile.
Beneath the soft light of morning, Subaru's face and Rem's smile were etched not only into the scene itself, but into the hearts of countless fans watching in front of their televisions.
It was almost healing.
After the first loop marked by the curse…
the second, with the curse followed by a brutal death…
the third, with a savage beating and decapitation…
and the fourth, ending in a suicide by freefall…
that resolution in the fifth attempt allowed anime fans across Japan to feel, almost physically, the weight of what it meant to be rewarded after relentless struggle.
The moment the episode ended, the name "Rem" shot straight to the top of the trending list on the NatsuYume forums.
"Damn… I'm so jealous of the protagonist."
"If you're not going to marry her, then stop messing with her feelings. If Emilia is already obviously the main heroine, then why keep making Rem fall harder? Subaru, you idiot, knock it off. Rem is mine."
"Funny how you people are acting now. Weren't you the same ones trashing Rem a few weeks ago? Watching you switch faces like this makes me sick."
"One thing was one thing, and now this is this. Who could've guessed that Rem and Ram's entire village had been wiped out by the Witch Cult? After seeing the full mansion arc, all I can think is that if I were in their place, I probably would've snapped too after running into someone reeking of the Witch the way Subaru did in the third loop."
"Ah, whatever. Let the past stay in the past. Better to just move forward."
"The hard part is choosing between Rem and Emilia. Which one would be the number one wife?"
"Go touch grass. Stop daydreaming."
"Does anyone know when the Emilia and Rem figures are coming out? And when's the Re:Zero BD release?"
"I heard it's early October. Both Re:Zero and Dragon's Breath are releasing their first BD volumes in October. And since Re:Zero's licensed merchandise is being handled by Noriko Animation, the figures should launch at the same time too. No need to worry."
"Noriko Animation's products are great quality, sure, but the prices hurt too."
"You get what you pay for. And apparently the first-edition Rem figure is limited to one hundred thousand units nationwide. If you keep hesitating, you'll miss the preorder."
"If it sells out, it sells out. I don't care. I'm on Team Emilia."
"Guys, let's show Re:Zero some support in October. In terms of ratings, it's probably still too early to talk about surpassing Dragon's Breath right now. Maybe once the autumn cour starts we'll see if that becomes possible. But for BDs and figures… I do not want us losing again."
"You can say that all you want, but ratings speak volumes. They determine the size of the actual viewer base. If Re:Zero wants to turn the tables in BD sales, it needs to overtake its rival in both buzz and ratings."
In early September, with the broadcast of episode 11, the mansion arc of Re:Zero officially came to an end.
That episode's rating closed at 5.09%.
A week later, episode 12 aired.
Driven by the fans' continuing support, it finished with a 5.16% rating.
This was the episode that marked the beginning of the cruelest and, at the same time, most brilliant stretch of the first season: the Royal Selection arc.
It was also the arc that, in Sora's memory, had transformed Re:Zero into a legendary work in his previous life.
The reason he believed so firmly that the latter half of the first season would surpass Dragon's Breath was simple: he had lived through it. He had been one of those viewers who waited week after week for the next episode with the kind of anxiety that came from knowing they were watching something special unfold. He had seen with his own eyes how the series started under a cloud of mixed reactions and skepticism, only to explode completely once it reached the Royal Selection arc and Rem's defining moments - until the entire site was flooded with videos, essays, edits, and tributes dedicated to her.
Episode 12 showed Emilia, Subaru, and Rem heading to the royal capital, where the five candidates to inherit the throne - including Emilia herself - were introduced.
To Sora, that episode served as the perfect conclusion to the first half of the season. It closed one stage cleanly while leaving behind a massive hook: the promise of the Royal Selection arc opening up before the audience.
At the end of the episode, a preview for the second half of the season aired, scheduled to begin on October 3.
Alongside that, the release dates for the first Re:Zero BD volume and the nationwide launch of the series' licensed merchandise were announced as well.
Saturday, October 11.
That date had not been chosen at random. It was the result of calculations Sora had made with painstaking precision.
By that point in the broadcast schedule, the story would have reached the part where Rem was attacked by the Sloth Archbishop of the Witch Cult and brutally murdered while trying to save Subaru.
Just thinking about that sequence made Sora feel physically uncomfortable.
Even while writing the script, that stretch of the story had unsettled him more than once. He was deeply attached to Rem. Even knowing everything that came afterward, even knowing the full structure of the story, that did not make the scene any easier for him to accept.
And if even he reacted like that, then the viewers following the anime week after week would have an even harder time swallowing it.
When that episode aired, discussion around the series would undoubtedly explode.
As for what kind of final sales result the first BD volume would reach…
That was no longer up to him.
From there on, it had to be left to the market.
Inside the office, Sora's thoughts slowly pulled away from the entire production schedule and rollout plan surrounding Re:Zero. His gaze dropped to the stack of scripts resting on his desk.
It was the first draft of 5 Centimeters per Second.
In practical terms, writing a script was not the sort of work that wore down the body. The real burden came from mental effort. The exhaustion did not build in the muscles, but in the mind.
And in the case of the version he was writing now, it was not as simple as copying the original work and calling it a day.
The original 5 Centimeters per Second film did not even reach one hour in length. Turning it into a commercial feature film in that state would have been impossible. But there was an obvious solution: Makoto Shinkai's original material contained a wealth of narrative details, emotions, and supplementary scenes that could be woven into the screenplay. By carefully expanding those elements, Sora could shape the Yume Animation version into a full-length animated film without betraying the heart of the original.
He rose to his feet and pushed open the office door.
Outside, the entire company was buried in work.
Between mid-September and early October, Re:Zero would go on a two-week broadcast break.
Even so - or perhaps because of it - Yume Animation was even busier than before.
At the meeting the day before, Sora had already presented the scripts for the first ten episodes of Re:Zero Season 2 and sent them off to the relevant departments for review and evaluation.
The reviewers at Southern Union TV had spent the entire night studying the first half of the new season.
That morning, their answer came by phone: they were extremely satisfied with the initial draft.
The practical result did not take long to arrive.
Shortly after that call, ten million yen was transferred into the company's account.
According to the agreement Sora had reached with the broadcaster, the total licensing fee for Season 2 - forty million yen - would be paid in four installments across the production period. This was the first one.
Everyone in the company already knew.
A new production team would be formed.
Re:Zero Season 2 was officially moving forward.
And once Sora had money in hand, he naturally stopped working with the hesitation of someone forced to second-guess every move before making it.
At the beginning of October, Re:Zero merchandise - figures, BDs, and everything else - would hit the market on a large scale, and he was confident that the fifty million yen invested in the series would begin returning in force within a short time.
Those freshly transferred ten million yen from the broadcaster would be used to launch, at the same time, the production of Re:Zero Season 2 and the animated film project for 5 Centimeters per Second.
After that, once the profits from the first season started coming in, he would gradually fill out the remaining investment for both productions.
And on that particular day, the script meeting would be held for the animated film whose concept he had been mentioning for an entire week - despite the fact that no one in the company even knew the title of the work yet.
The three major shareholders had to be there.
Beyond them, the entire upper management of the company would also attend.
Altogether, there were more than a dozen people in the meeting room.
By the time Sora walked in, everyone was already seated.
He had timed his entrance precisely. In his arms was a thick stack of freshly printed pages, still warm from the printer.
After handing a copy to every person present, they were finally able to see that plain cover and the title scribbled across it in Sora's disastrously ugly handwriting.
5 Centimeters per Second.
Neither Sumire nor Yumi had the slightest idea what to expect from a title like that.
Their first impression was simply that it sounded strange - awkward, obscure, and hard to interpret.
But before they could open the material properly, the company's Kantoku of photography - one of the people in charge of the visual side of its animation productions - muttered under his breath,
"Only five centimeters… and per second, no less?"
In an instant, the rigid atmosphere in the room collapsed.
The tension dissolved, replaced by a wave of suppressed laughter and expressions straining to maintain some shred of professionalism.
Sora cleared his throat.
"That's enough. Stop letting your minds wander. The purpose of this meeting is simple. First, I want everyone to understand what kind of film our company is about to make. Second, if there's anything in the script that feels strange, misplaced, or unconvincing, I want you to point it out without hesitation."
In the original, the story had unfolded in a different part of Japan.
But for the version he intended to produce now, a great many things had to be adjusted so they would fit naturally within the chosen setting, the cities, the train routes, and the regional sensibility he wanted the adaptation to carry. For that reason, Sora had spent a great deal of time researching cities, rail lines, and travel routes that aligned with the progression of the story, rearranging everything into something coherent.
Even so, he knew he might still have overlooked something.
Some minor geographic inconsistency.
Some small local detail that did not quite fit.
After all, no matter how careful he was, he had not grown up immersed in those realities the same way the others in that room had.
That was why he wanted their opinions.
With the thin script booklet in their hands, Sumire and Yumi still felt a little too embarrassed by the Kantoku of photography's interruption to look at the title naturally.
But when they opened to the first page, the sentence that met their eyes dissolved the joke in an instant.
They say this is the speed at which cherry blossom petals fall.
Five centimeters per second.
So that was what it meant…
As the meaning settled in, Yumi lifted her gaze for a brief moment, looking first at the Kantoku of photography, then at Sora.
Silently, she thought only one thing.
The gap between people really did begin at the level of their thoughts.
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