CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

A jet-black wind rotated the gears.

A jet-black wind scattered the new leaves.

As though claiming their equivalency, the wind simply circulated life and death.

“Offer.”

He felt as though he had heard a voice.

At some point, Hisagi realized that he was standing on top of a gigantic tree.

When he looked around, he felt almost as though he were in a forest, as a vast swath of green leaves surrounded him and thick branches gathered at his feet, through which he could see glimpses of the ground. The view of the ground was far enough down that it looked hazy. The place could fittingly be called the world tree—the existence of a wooden giant like this would be unfathomable in the real world.

“Oh… I ended up here.”

Hisagi immediately understood that it wasn’t the real world.

“Tsk…I guess this hasn’t happened since I got done in at the Reiokyu.”

Recognizing the sound of rusted iron and a thunderous machine behind him, Hisagi quietly turned around, at which point he saw a gigantic windmill standing on top of a vast plain made up of the gigantic boughs.

Though he thought of it as a windmill, this was a far cry from the pastoral word—an existence clad in rust and the smell of oil contrasted with the embodiment of nature that was the world tree. The rust-covered windmill creaked as its exposed gears, pulley mechanisms, and the chains that connected those parts and synchronized their revolutions moved. Based on the mixture of emotion and corruption in that space, Hisagi knew that it was the spiritual world that interwove his soul with Kazeshini.

Then a black wind raged around him.

The leaves changed color before his eyes as they were buffeted by the wind, drying and falling while the windmill precipitously revolved and started to come alive as it moved.

“Offer.”

Once again, the voice resounded.

In reaction to the familiar voice, Hisagi answered as usual, “It’s always the same thing. I’m not going to become what you want me to become. I’m not fighting in order to feed you my enemies’ blood.”

As though ignoring Hisagi’s words, the black wind continued to thunderously blow.

The space, which had turned gloomy, was illuminated by a lamp that had been set up in the windmill.

The foliage had made him feel as though life had withered away and turned into death, and the rust-colored windmill that had also reminded him of death now seemed to have a different aspect, as though it were a symbol of life.

“Seriously, I thought we’d reached an understanding.”

Then the wind writhed and transformed into a dark humanoid shape behind Hisagi that spoke to him.

“What you thought you reached an understanding with was this form of me, wasn’t it?”

“Huh?”

When he turned around, sure enough, there was the form of Kazeshini that had materialized in the real world in the past.

“Well, it’s fine. I am your shadow and I am the shadow of the world you view. Form and words change depending on how the light hits. But, well, if I’m going to talk with you, I’m fine with taking this form.”

Hisagi clucked his tongue as though he were irritated by the words of the shadow, which he had the longest memory of conversing with.

“Is that how it is? If you’re going to change your nature and your form, then doesn’t that mean our previous conversations were all meaningless?”

“That’s not true. You really did understand an aspect of me, and you learned my name. That’s exactly why you can use your shikai and why I…can call you out to this entire Kazeshini world.”

In the next moment, the shadow once again turned into a black wind and went through Hisagi’s body.

As it did so, it stirred words of intense craving in Hisagi’s soul itself.

“Quickly, offer me blood and life that fill my soul.”

≡

Throne Room

“Ugh…”

Hisagi, who had regained consciousness, quietly gritted his teeth.

“Damn it…are you telling me to kill the enemy again?”

Since he had first learned its name, Kazeshini had requested blood and life countless times. Though he was a far cry from the ranks of captains such as Kenpachi, Hisagi had enough combat experience to be called a veteran by the general soldiers. He had killed enough enemies that he could no longer count them, but his zanpaku-to’s voice never waned.

“Are you saying I should have killed Hikone?”

Or perhaps it was that the zanpaku-to’s voice was pointing out his own vulnerability.

“Like I’d let you use me. The only ones I swing my sword for are the Court Guards.”

He didn’t intend to say that his own actions constituted an act of justice. He didn’t have the qualification to say that. However, the one thing he could not do was renounce his beliefs.

He was a Soul Reaper.

Soul Reapers did not kill Hollows out of hatred. They killed them in order to purify them.

As he considered whether certain actions were appropriate as a Soul Reaper, Hisagi thought that slaying Hikone was not the correct choice for him as a Soul Reaper, or personally as Shuhei Hisagi. Then again, he didn’t think that Hikone was an opponent he could kill even if he resolved to do so.

But still, I can’t run from this.

Hisagi rose unsteadily and immediately started to search for the exit.

“There aren’t any doors. How’d Hikone even get out?”

The walls around him as well as the ceiling were all sealed, and he couldn’t even guess how someone would exit or enter from outside.

“Ah well, guess I’ll just have to break through.”

Hisagi prepared himself to smash through the wall using kido…

“I believe it will be difficult for you to destroy that wall with your abilities.”

“Huh?!”

Hearing a woman’s voice behind him, Hisagi put himself on guard and turned around, only to find the woman he had just met in the world of the living standing there.

“Aura…Michibane!”

“It is such an honor that a prodigy assistant captain such as yourself would remember my name.”

“At this point, that doesn’t even qualify as sarcasm.”

Hisagi had been extolled as a prodigy in his Shinoreijutsuin days and had cultivated an excellent record. However, when compared to the genius of Hinamori’s kido and Hitsugaya’s sword techniques, he understood that his natural gifts were next to nothing.

He hadn’t been dispirited by that revelation and had reached his current position by continuing to study without pause, but Hisagi himself was saddled with the anxiety of wondering whether he deserved to be an assistant captain. Consequently, he never shirked his training, in order to ensure he was worthy of holding the title.

Even so, there were certainly domains that existed that he would never be able to reach.

Hisagi recalled Hikone’s words from earlier.

It’s true that someone like me might not be able to win against Hikone or this woman.

However, for Hisagi, that wasn’t a reason to stop walking the path he was on.

Once he readied his zanpaku-to, he turned to Aura and asked, “Where is Mr. Urahara?”

“Please don’t be worried. We have not harmed him in any way. Our goal isn’t to hurt him.”

“I see… Then I’ll change my question. Where’s the exit? And where the heck is this place?”

He wanted to pressure her to release Kisuke Urahara immediately, but Hisagi decided to gather information first instead. Even if he did manage to defeat Aura here, he wouldn’t be able to just walk out of the place, which made this plan a nonstarter.

“This is the protective throne. It has been made so only Lord Hikone and Lord Tokinada may enter or leave, to ensure Lord Hikone is not attacked by insurgents. Though I can pass through the walls to enter.”

Aura chuckled as she said that, but Hisagi kept up his guard. “So you really do intend to make a Hogyoku to make Hikone the Soul King.”

“Because that is what Lord Tokinada wishes.”

“So you’re planning on using the Hogyoku’s power to destroy the current Reio? You’re trying to do the same thing as Aizen…”

“Hm?” At that point, Aura seemed puzzled, then after a few seconds, she nodded as though she understood. “Oh…I apologize. It seems that you are not aware, Mr. Hisagi. You seem not to know what kind of being the Reio is.”

“Hm? No, I know that. The previous Soul King was killed by Yhwach, but thanks to Mimihagi…the right arm of the Reio that was in Captain Ukitake, I thought things turned out fine in the end.”

Though in truth Hisagi had not readily believed the thing that had risen from Ukitake’s body into the sky had been the Reio, the fact that the world continued to exist even now meant that he must still have been supporting it even after Yhwach died.

Yet Aura’s words troubled him.

“What? Are you saying that’s not true?”

“I see… While you are not entirely incorrect…with Lord Hikone becoming the Soul King, the world will become even stronger. What would you do if that were the case?”

When Aura asked that as though changing the subject, Hisagi answered seriously, “That’s not something I can decide lightly. But if Hikone said that they wanted to become the king on their own, then first of all, I’d try to stop them.”

“And why is that?”

“Because…that kid still doesn’t know anything.” Hisagi gripped his sword and spoke in a somewhat regretful tone. “Hikone told me that they have only the world that Tokinada gave them. If that’s what the kid decided after seeing the whole big world on their own, then I wouldn’t say anything. If, after that, they said they were going to become the Soul Reapers’ enemy, then I’d be ready to stand in their way as an enemy too.”

After stating that clearly, Hisagi continued, “But that kid only knows the world through Tokinada. It’s like he’s being manipulated. So…I need to teach the kid that there’s a lot more world out there.”

At that point, for some reason, Hisagi remembered Tosen’s face, and after hesitating slightly, he added, “Well…on the other hand, I’d like to know what the world looks like to that kid. Then I’d decide whether I approve or not.”

“…”

“So I’ve got to see this Tokinada guy face to face.”

“Are those your words…as a journalist? Or as a Soul Reaper?”

When Aura asked that, her smile gone, Hisagi affirmed, “All together, those were my words as Shuhei Hisagi.”

Aura heard him out, then continued after a slight pause. “You can’t be sure Hikone would be happy after learning about the great big world.”

“Huh?”

“In some cases, happiness is to live and die confined in a tank without knowing anything. There are some who realize they are unhappy only when they find out about other worlds.”

Aura’s words, which seemed oddly sincere, left Hisagi bewildered for a moment. Then, as though something had just occurred to him, he scowled and said, “You’re not…talking about yourself, are you?”

Aura neither confirmed nor denied his suspicions and continued as though testing him. “Don’t you think that’s the case for Hikone Ubuginu?”

“I thought so too until just earlier, but…that kid has their own will too. It’s just…the kid’s lacking one thing. I just want to tell them that, is all.”

“…”

“If you’ve come here to kill me, I’ll fight with all I’ve got. In exchange, if I win, I’ll make you release Mr. Urahara.”

When he turned the point of his zanpaku-to toward Aura, she appeared to be deep in thought. Then she broke into a smile and walked toward Hisagi.

“Huh? Hey, what’re you going to do?”

“Please don’t get the wrong idea. I simply have one request for you.”

“A request?”

He was cautious, but he didn’t feel anything like hostility coming from her. Not knowing what her intentions were, Hisagi was apprehensive as the woman gently brought her face close to his.

“--------------”

She whispered something only Hisagi could hear.

“Huh?”

Not understanding what she meant, Hisagi was perplexed for a moment. However, before he could ask, she disappeared.

“Hey, where did you…”

When Hisagi looked around, he noticed something.

A door that hadn’t been there just a moment ago had appeared in the wall of the room and was partially open.

≡

Above the Palace Courtyard

Ikomikidomoe had turned into a monster and was battling the Arrancars while Liltotto and the Quincies faced Hikone Ubuginu overhead. The spiritual pressure Hikone contained was astonishing as the child rapidly fired an endless stream of arrows with enough power to kill a Quincy with one hit. On the other hand, when the Quincies attacked, Hikone used a combination of Hierro and Blut Vene to mitigate almost the entire attack. Liltotto clucked her tongue at their immeasurable opponent.

“This is getting close. This kid isn’t as bad as Ichigo Kurosaki, but they’re pretty big trouble.”

“Since they’re trying to actually kill us, we might be the ones in more danger. That is scary….” Giselle spoke as though she were talking about someone else while she fired several arrows from her Heilig Bogen. “There we go.”

When Hikone swept all of those aside with one arm, Candice tried to strike the child with a thunderbolt.

“Was that lightning?! It’s so tingly and fun!”

With those short words, the matter was settled, and Hikone easily dispersed the electricity.

Meninas McAllon took that momentary opening to bring down her fist with full power, however…

Although Hikone dropped toward the ground several dozen meters after taking that hit on the elbow, they fixed the reishi under them in place and held steady while a scraping sound rang out in the sky.

“You’re built pretty solid.”

Though she had been the one doing the punching, Meninas’s fist was warped and crushed with several broken fingers.

Hikone turned their eyes upward toward the Quincies after receiving the blow from the woman whose specialty was brute strength and saw that there were several reishi clumps around them.

“Huh!”

These were reishi bombs made by the zombified Bambietta. When Hikone touched them, the child was caught up in a chain explosion.

The explosive fire brilliantly lit the sky, but not a single one of the Quincies let their guard down. They knew the power of Bambietta’s blasts, but based on the sense they had gotten thus far, they didn’t believe they had killed Hikone.

In fact, once the smoke cleared Hikone appeared, merely sooty.

Bambietta’s power turned the reishi of the parts it touched into bombs. A person on the receiving end would experience their skin itself turning into an explosive, but perhaps because Hikone’s recovery abilities were similar to a Hollow’s, Hikone’s skin seemed to undergo the same superfast regeneration. In addition, it seemed that Hikone had defended against most of the damage from the blast itself, and it didn’t appear as though their actions had been impeded.

“That’s nice. I’d like to make that kid into a zombie. I think then we’d be invincible too.”

“The kid’s got Hollow spiritual pressure mixed in them. Nothing good’s going to come of that.”

Liltotto scolded Giselle for coveting Hikone’s power. Though at first glance it appeared as though they were self-assured, in actuality, they were toeing a fine line. The “Cero arrows” that Hikone sometimes fired as a counterattack were rather strong, and in addition, Hikone could feint using Bara between attacks.

At present, the five of them were able to attack and retreat, but with their fatigue accumulating, that balance would eventually collapse. If even one of them made a mistake, the battlefront would crumble in the blink of an eye. Since Liltotto had made that assessment, she hoped to settle things promptly.

However, Hikone, who had fought and defended in silence until then, smiled and piped up, “I’ve learned how you attack now.”

“What?”

In the next moment, Hikone’s movements clearly changed. While earlier Hikone had been fending off Heilig Pfeil directly from the Quincy, they started to intercept those with their own arrows.

In the time that five of the Quincies fired arrows, Hikone fired the same number in the same amount of time. On top of that, Hikone’s rapid fire showed no sign of abating, and their deflection shots seemed to anticipate the Quincies’ Hiren Kyaku movements, following Liltotto and the others like guided missiles.

“…This is close.”

At the same time, Liltotto realized something. Though the Quincies had been dispersed while attacking Hikone, now the child was herding them into one location.

In the next moment, just as she feared, she realized an extraordinary amount of spiritual pressure, different from any before, was gathering in Hikone’s right hand.

The timing was such that it would be impossible to evade.

Determining that, Liltotto activated her own ability and, just as she had earlier, attempted to eat the reishi of the Cero.

Oh, this thing might make my stomach explode.

Feeling as though the surrounding space itself was being condensed into Hikone’s hand, Liltotto imagined her body scattering in all four directions.

However…

Something that exceeded that spiritual pressure, creating a chill that seemed to freeze them on the spot, ran through the sky of the Kyogoku.

“…Oh!”

Hikone stopped, with the spiritual pressure they were going to release for the Cero still pent up in their hand, and slowly turned around. Death itself in human form stood before them.

“I only got to see a little of it, but…you’re the strongest here, aren’t you, kid?”

Kenpachi Zaraki looked at Hikone and grinned.

An expansive amount of spiritual pressure overflowed from within the man. The additional spiritual pressure that he pressed together into a foothold was unable to withstand the spiritual pressure coming from Kenpachi himself and would crumble as soon as it solidified.

Since he had never learned proper Hoho, the way he fixed reishi in place was haphazard, but he was able to continue standing in the air regardless, likely due to the many years of battle experience he had cultivated.

“…”

Rather than answering Kenpachi, Hikone turned the Cero stopped in their hand at Kenpachi and shot it. The twisted Cero, which contained black undulations within bluish white light, warped the space around it as it assaulted Kenpachi. However, Kenpachi mowed it down with a single swing of his zanpaku-to that was not even in shikai form, and the pressure from his blade was enough to disperse the Cero’s light.

A portion of the scattered light pierced the earth, and the affected area burst as though a meteorite had struck.

Witnessing that, Candice groaned and said to herself, “What is with that guy? He’s literally a monster.”

“’Course he is. He’s the guy even Gremmy couldn’t kill.” Liltotto, who had been saved by a hair’s breadth, spoke impassively while experiencing complex emotions.

Yumichika appeared behind them then and, as though voicing Liltotto’s thoughts, said, “That’s irony for you. The fact that he couldn’t kill the captain ended up being your salvation.”

“To be honest, we were ready to assume you might stab us in the back.”

Connections ran deep between the Quincies and the Eleventh Company. Half a year ago, during the war, Liltotto and the others had assaulted Kenpachi after he was wounded in the battle against Gremmy and, at that time, had injured and killed a large number of the Eleventh Company.

Though Yumichika hadn’t witnessed that scene directly, he had heard about it from the surviving members of the Eleventh Company after the war. He had already seen the zombies of his friends that Giselle had created en masse during the war.

“I wouldn’t do something as ugly as that—I’m not like you.”

“Is that supposed to be pride? That’s sure kind of you.”

In the past, when she had partnered with the Soul Reapers to defeat Yhwach, Liltotto had been just as cautious, but in the end, she hadn’t been stabbed in the back while working.

Then again, Kenpachi and the others had been in the bathroom when they had gone through the gate and disappeared partway through, so they actually hadn’t ended up working together.

“According to the captain, he was most unable to forgive himself for ‘not being able to stand after an attack like that.’” In a matter-of-fact tone, Yumichika continued, “I’ll just say this, but don’t think it extends to us too. Especially when it comes to that zombie tamer, after she toyed with everyone in the company. I don’t think anyone’s feelings about her will change no matter how many times they cut her down. I don’t know how long the agreement is going to be valid for, but you better be thankful the Captain General compromised with you.”

Though he spoke in a calm tone, there was a steeliness in his words that indicated he wouldn’t take no for an answer. However, it was likely that it went against his personal philosophy to ignore the will of the captain and kill them.

As Yumichika looked at them coldly, Liltotto shrugged with a cold look in her eyes as well.

“You are definitely holding a grudge though, aren’t you?”

“Hey, hey, Lil.”

“Don’t, Gigi.”

“Tsk. I didn’t even say anything though.”

Giselle, being Giselle, harbored a strange hostility toward Yumichika for reasons unknown, so Liltotto was at the point of wanting to withdraw temporarily in order to avoid any unnecessary discord.

Madarame, who had just joined them, said with a sour look, “Either way, we haven’t got time to squabble with you right now. It’s not like I’m completely on board with this either, but you’ve already got an agreement with the Captain General.”

A majority of the Eleventh Company were battle-crazy. In Madarame’s case, he had fought under Kenpachi Zaraki and thought that if he were going to die, he wanted it to be in battle.

In the past, he had preached to a Fullbringer boy, “If you’re going to risk your life, then do it for someone who would die for you,” but if one were to ask Madarame himself who he wagered his life on, in one important aspect it wasn’t for others so much as for his own sake.

Many of those who wore the yarrow company insignia wished to meet their end in battle as their ultimate form of self-righteousness, and Madarame also staked his life persistently on his own dignity. He wasn’t dying for Kenpachi’s sake, but instead wished to fight until his last moment under the visage of his revered captain.

It was said that Komamura, who had in the past also claimed that he “left his life with Genryusai Yamamoto,” in the end did not risk his life for Genryusai himself, but for the Seireitei, the place the Captain General had been protecting.

Because of that, Madarame thought that to fixate on revenge for his own selfish reasons would only be an insult to his companions who had fought fiercely and were lost in battle. Of course, it depended on what the fight was, but he narrowed his eyes as he stared Giselle down and said, “We’ve also killed several of your friends, haven’t we? I don’t like the mouth on that zombie prick, but that’s what battles have always been like.”

“…Zombie prick…?”

“Calm down, slut. This isn’t the time for that.” Liltotto heard Giselle mutter with a superficial smile but with absolutely no sign of emotion in her eyes and sighed as she soothed her companion. “Well, regardless of the circumstances, it means we’re allies right now. But don’t expect us to go as far as cooperating with you.”

As though he hadn’t had any use for cooperation from the start, Madarame put on a bold smile and turned his eyes to Kenpachi.

“Fine, just stay back. Anyone who gets in the way of the captain’s fun—even us—won’t make it out in one piece.”

Hikone had released several Cero arrows, but Kenpachi repelled most of them. Though one in five arrows hit him directly, they didn’t seem to have much of an effect.

“What’s wrong? That can’t be all you’ve got?” Kenpachi said, quickly approaching and swinging his blade.

Hikone met the attack with the top of their shoulder, but it passed through the Blut Vene and Hierro, easily sinking into the child.

“…Guh!”

Hikone immediately moved away, but the blade had already torn through their flesh. Fresh blood flitted in the Kyogoku’s air. However, the spiritual pressure that circulated the Blut Vene in them immediately stopped the bleeding.

“That Kurosaki also had a strange way of stopping his bleeding. You related to Ichigo or something?” Remembering the first time he had fought Ichigo Kurosaki, Kenpachi smiled.

“I’m so pleased to be compared to such a famous hero! Mr. Ichigo Kurosaki is supposed to be the same as me, so maybe his Quincy blood did that. Does that mean that you might be Mr. Kenpachi Zaraki?”

“Now that you mention it, I never told you my name. You know about me?”

“Yes, sir! Mr. Shuhei Hisagi informed me about you earlier! He said that if I fight Kenpachi Zaraki, I’ll die, so I shouldn’t do it!”

Madarame and Yumichika reacted to those words even before Kenpachi.

“Hisagi…? Hey, wait. Hisagi’s here?”

At that point, Hikone twisted just their head around to peer at Madarame and smiled, saying, “Yes! He’s in the throne room, so I just made him faint and came here! Yes, indeed!”

“What could that man possibly be doing…?” Yumichika seemed shocked as he spoke, then he looked up. “The throne… You don’t mean he’s in that tall, floating building, do you?”

“What’ll we do? Should we go save him?”

Yumichika started to nod at Madarame’s words, but…

“I’m very sorry, but you cannot do that.” With a hollow smile, Hikone rebuffed Madarame and Yumichika. “Yes, because I was told to kill you all immediately!”

Before Hikone finished speaking, the child disappeared. In the next moment, a tempestuous wind passed between Madarame and Yumichika.

“…Guh!”

It was the zanpaku-to pressure from Kenpachi bringing down his sword and cutting Hikone as the child went around to the Soul Reapers’ backs.

“You two are in the way. I almost chopped you up with the kid.”

Madarame and Yumichika looked at Kenpachi as he clucked his tongue. It was then they realized that they had almost been ambushed by Hikone, who was behind them.

“Sorry.”

Breaking into a cold sweat, Madarame and Yumichika immediately backed down.

“That was amazing! I was so close to piercing their hearts though…”

Hikone uttered that disturbing phrase with a smile on their face, and Kenpachi said in irritation, “Quit being greedy. You’re in the middle of a fight with me.”

“You’re right. It looks like I need to kill you first.”

Hikone narrowed their eyes and leapt at Kenpachi.

When it came to speed, Hikone was like quicksilver. With Soul Reaper shunpo, Quincy hirenkyaku, Hollow sonido, and Fullbringer konpaku subjugation all combined in their motions, they had reached the pinnacle of movement techniques.

Just as Kenpachi thought Hikone had disappeared, the child was running on a crash course toward him.

The zanpaku-to that Hikone presently carried had transformed into a monster and was taking position on the ground. In other words, though Hikone was empty-handed, by using Hierro and Blut Arterie to enforce their limbs, they were able to create slashing attacks that far outstripped the average zanpaku-to.

In the span of a blink, from beginning to end, Hikone assailed Kenpachi’s body with karate chops and kicks. Though Kenpachi swung his sword lightning-quick between the attacks, Hikone just barely avoided the sword and hit with yet more successive attacks.

However, Kenpachi’s body was also abnormally steadfast. A Soul Reaper with normal spiritual pressure wouldn’t be able to leave a mark on his steel physique even using a zanpaku-to. Though his skin was slightly cut and he was bleeding from Hikone’s attacks, they didn’t come close to inflicting a fatal wound.

Madarame and Yumichika watched from afar, confident in their captain’s supremacy, and actually admired Hikone’s skill and spiritual pressure in being able to wound Kenpachi Zaraki even slightly. However…

“I’ve finally gotten used to how hard you are!”

Once Hikone said this, which almost seemed like something Kenpachi Zaraki himself would say, they saw Hikone cut deep into Kenpachi’s flesh, and their admiration was overcome by shock.

A spray of blood spattered through the air, and Ken-pachi’s captain’s jacket was dyed red. However, as Kenpachi was enshrouded in the scarlet mist flowing from his very own body…

As one who carried the Kenpachi name, he laughed.

“Thought so…”

In the middle of the successive attacks, just as the eye patch that had fallen off fluttered through the air, the billowing spiritual pressure that boiled up from under it vigorously agitated the pronounced reishi in the Kyogoku.

Then, the human form that had transformed into a mass of pure violence that might even destroy the concept of death itself, opened its mouth.

“You seem like you’ll be the most fun.”

≡

Reiokyu Hoohden

“Oh, so there you were.”

When the Manako Osho high priest, also known as Ichibe Hyosube, called out to him, Oh-Etsu Nimaiya, who had been sitting on a cliff of Hoohden while looking at the empty space, shrugged and stood up.

“Oh my, my, what could possibly be the matter, Osho? It’s pretty rare for you to take a stroll all the way over here.”

“Well, I thought it was rarer still not to feel your presence in Hoohden or at that bar filled with all your sword maidens.”

When the Osho stood next to Oh-Etsu, he looked at the empty space that the man had been gazing into earlier in the same way and stroked his deep black beard as he said, “Hm…so Ikomikidomoe is in the Kyogoku?”

“You don’t have to ask, do you? You are the Osho, after all. You see everything in this world—you see, all see, see you again, am I right?”

“Mhmm. I have no idea at all what you’re saying, but it’s exactly as you say.”

After that absolutely meaningless exchange, the Osho spoke about what he sensed with his own eyes.

“Karma is a strange thing. A beast that once called itself a Menos among the Menos that did not break its mask fights Vasto Lorde Arrancars that progressed on a different route of evolution from itself.”

“You sure we don’t need to help? That Tsunayashiro bad boy and the Fullbringer princess seem like they’re having free rein.”

“Don’t mind them. Our role is to strive to make sure the world’s bottom continues on as it ever has. For even if the ones who rule the various gardens change, it is not as though the foundation of all creation will change.”

“As always, you’re quite businesslike when it comes to these things.”

“No, no. While I do not intervene in the matters of the world below, I do like the current Court Guards and the world of the living. If we aid anyone, it would be the Kyoraku family’s tender lad. Though we have a connection with the Tsunayashiro ancestors who are part of the Four Great Noble Clans, we have no reason to favor their many descendants we have never met.”

The Osho crossed his arms at that point and nodded firmly as he surveyed the lower world from high above in Hoohden.

“Whether they have free will or not is one matter, but as long as we have someone who stands atop the heavens to act as a linchpin and continues to center the world as it is now, all is well. All quiet in the world, it might be said.”

Then, turning slightly, he fixed his sights on the Reiokyu that floated at the center of the five Squad Zero Riden and the thing that was enshrined at its center. The Osho grinned and murmured, “Don’t you think so, Yhwach?”

≡

In the far ancient days…

Before the Seireitei had formed into the shape it is today, and before the Soul Reapers had wielded the weapons that it may be said had given them their roots, a single Menos Grande plagued Hueco Mundo.

It was the dawn of the Hollows as the world formed into the shape it is today, and all evolution was in chaos.

That Hollow was a powerful being above all the rest and evolved into an Adjuchas. The Adjuchas remained an Adjuchas, not wanting to take humanoid form. The old, wicked spirit continued to remain in its monstrous form out of its own tenacious volition.

Barragan Ruizenban and many other powerful beings that had existed even longer than him had evolved to attain forms as Vasto Lordes and Arrancars. When Barragan and the others had their power struggles in Hueco Mundo, the gigantic, sentient beast growing in the sea of reishi sand did not take the side of any group.

A torrent of sinister power, he continued to devour all according to his desires, eventually leaping out from Hueco Mundo to stretch his hands to the konpaku-abundant world of the living and the Soul Society that was crowded with Soul Reapers clad in thick spiritual pressure, continuing to destroy and consume everything like a tempest.

He could not evolve, but the sinister metastasis continued his infinite growth.

Though a Gillian carrying a similar factor later appeared and obtained an ability called Glotoneria, finally becoming known as the Nueva Espada, that is a separate matter.

This Hollow was different—no matter how many he ate, he did not take on their abilities and never acquired further powers than those he was equipped with from the start. In exchange, the spiritual pressure he devoured would accumulate into an inexhaustible supply within his gigantic body. The number of Hollows that Adjuchas devoured finally approached the number of grains of sand on a beach, and eventually, he started to become known even within Hueco Mundo as the “willful calamity.”

The gigantic beast that would continue to grow infinitely and Barragan, who had the power of destruction that went by the name of “senescence,” had a quandary in that they would end up in a draw due to their affinity. So an implicit understanding was formed between the two that they would not meddle in the business of the other.

In that time, he devoured the multitude of spirits that entered his vision and made them into his own flesh and his own blood.

However, that way of things could not go on forever.

He tried to scale the skies in an attempt to consume the Reio, but as a result of the battle with Soul Reapers such as Shigekuni Yamamoto, who was still a youthful hero at the time, he was defeated at the hands of the Manako Osho and Oh-Etsu Nimaiya.

“已己巳己巴” was his name.

“Since we have the opportunity, how about we give him an elaborate name?”

“You are but a nameless lump of Hollow that only devours those similar to you—已己巳己.”

“It is fitting that without reaching any place, you con-tinue to cannibalistically eat yourself indiscriminately.”

“That is, until something appears that can tame all those fragments.”

Through the Manako Osho’s zanpaku-to Ichimonji’s ability Shinuchi Shirafude Ichimonji, the empty monster’s name was painted over as 已己巳己巴, Ikomikidomoe.

Because of his singularity and his expansive spiritual pressure, he could not be entirely destroyed. After his name and existence had been remade, through Oh-Etsu Nimaiya’s hand, he was kneaded into a zanpaku-to and was simply sealed away.

Oh-Etsu had initially planned to hold back the thing by turning him into a full Asauchi, but the Soul Reaper was still in the process of doing that research and was not capable of entirely erasing individuality in those days, so the monstrosity ended up becoming a demonic sword with the ability to devour his own wielder’s konpaku.

Since his origins were as a Hollow that had condensed countless konpaku together, he was also not easily purified, and if they destroyed him as a Quincy would, the scales of the world might have tipped.

As a result, they had ended up sealing him away at the bottom of Hoohden’s seafloor until a Soul Reaper with the tenacity and spiritual ability to properly use him appeared.

A thousand years had flowed by…

The monstrous sword’s seal had been undone, and he had been passed into the hands of a certain child.

A young child, who had been born not long ago.

Into the hands of someone who was created to become the Soul King, the being that the sword had attempted to devour of his own volition in the past.

≡

The Kyogoku Palace Courtyard

The vast garden had been reduced to a wasteland by Ikomi-kidomoe’s violence.

Grimmjow, who stood in front of it, breathed raggedly as a bold smile broke out on his face.

“Hah…that all you’ve got?”

He spoke as though he were tough, but he was a mess of wounds.

“How insolent, for a mere lowly soldier…”

It wasn’t only him that collided with the monster head-on, but Halibel and Nelliel, as well as all the members of the Corpse Unit, on whom deep wounds had been inflicted.

Had Ikomikidomoe simply been a gigantic Hollow, he would have been a small fry to Grimmjow and the other Arrancars. However, this monstrosity called Ikomikidomoe that had been turned into a zanpaku-to was a singularity that contained all the advantages of a Gillian’s largeness, the variation of an Adjuchas, and also the density of a Vasto Lorde’s spiritual pressure.

The Hollow’s large form did not seem to slow him down in the slightest, and the way that he could simply move using sonido was just a nightmare, considering how massive he was. By hurling himself at a speed undetectable to the eye he could break several bones, and even if his target dodged him, his talons were like gigantic trees, raining down on them with the speed of a zanpaku-to.

The scene looked like humans wielding Japanese swords against a Japanese chimera, but it wasn’t as though Ikomikidomoe was entirely unwounded. Though he continued to instantly regenerate, the spiritual pressure he consumed to do that surpassed the spiritual pressure that he could take in from his surroundings. Then again, those around him could clearly see that if they eased up on the offensive even slightly, his wounds would immediately heal.

“Oh well, this is so inelegant. I think at this rate all we can do is make you exhaust your energy in vain,” Dordoni said, analyzing his enemy’s fighting ability.

Next to him Halibel agreed. “I share the sentiment. This isn’t the type of opponent we can stop with one effort.”

“Yes, there’s no reason to be stingy with him.”

Looking at Nelliel, who was standing some distance away as she spoke, Dordoni broke into a smile and shrugged.

“Well, well. I would never have believed I’d be fighting alongside the person who stripped me of my number three. I suppose I should think of fate as a way to savor the deep flavors of life, like fruit liqueur in a chocolate latte.”

“I don’t really understand the metaphor, but that sounds kind of good,” Nelliel replied with a deadpan look on her face. “I have many opinions about you, but this isn’t the time, I suppose. I’ll take my time paying you back what you deserve next time.”

Nelliel was staring at him with a strange pressure, and Dordoni was flustered as he called out, “Huh?! Pay me back?! For what?! Did I do something to you, Nelliel?!”

“When I was small, you did plenty of things, didn’t you? Like trying to blow me away, trying to kick me to death, and worst of all, trying to use me in order to bring out Ichigo’s powers.”

“What are you talking…oh, well, wait just one minute! This spiritual pressure and the color of your hair… You couldn’t possibly potentially be… Wha?!”

As though a strange thought had just come to him, Dordoni was plainly confused, but before he could re-spond, Ikomikidomoe’s talon rained down and gouged at the surroundings.

“My my, to not allow us even the time for banter is the epitome of inelegance, beastie. However, it has been a while since I have had an invigorating battle. It is unfortunate this is not a duel, but let us dance to our heart’s content!” Dordoni yelled, then unleashed his own abilities.

“Whirl, Giralda!”

A tornado wriggling like a two-headed snake surrounded Dordoni, and two giant beaklike bone fragments at the end of each tunnel of wind struck at Ikomikidomoe’s gigantic form.

Because of the mods Szayelaporro and Mayuri Kurotsuchi had added to him, his base power was vastly increased from when he fought Ichigo Kurosaki. The speed of his wind was several times faster than before, and their very existence gouged into the ground around him. The earth and sand intermingled into the pair of rampaging wind whips, turning the wind into gales that seemed as though they would smash apart everything within range.

“Fool. You think something as piddling as that could… Hm?”

Though Ikomikidomoe calmly attempted to flick away the attack, the tornado gradually began to transform. As though syncing with Dordoni’s tornado, Halibel had drawn turbulent waters close to it. The eddy of water and wind mixed to turn into a waterspout of rampaging hell with cold fangs crossing through it as it surrounded Ikomikidomoe.

“Curse you…you impudent mites…”

After his irritated voice rang out, Ikomikidomoe’s gigantic eye once again started to glow. Though Ikomikidomoe animatedly moved to try to release an explosive multi-directional Cero to blow away the whole waterspout, suddenly a section of the waterspout near his eyes exploded and turned into vapor, robbing him of his vision.

“Hm?!”

“Ugh, he reattached stuff I already ditched. That perverted scientist is so aggravating,” muttered Cirucci, who was in Resurrección form a slight distance away.

The woman, who bore gigantic birdlike wings, had shot her iron Golondrina blade into the waterspout. Her blade, whose rotation had drastically increased in frequency of cycles due to her mods, would instantly scatter any water or earth they touched. She had used that to create a smoke screen from earth, water, and spiritual pressure to blind Ikomikidomoe as she pierced his body.

“…What insolence!”

Ikomikidomoe’s enraged bellow resounded.

That smoke screen was able to blind his senses for a mere moment.

However, for the battle-seasoned Arrancars, that was more than enough time.

Nelliel’s quiet voice crossed the storming, rampaging space as though permeating through it.

“Lanzador Verde.”

The waterspout, vapor, spiritual pressure, and even the space itself was drilled through by the lance that had emerged from her zanpaku-to. It headed toward the enemy in a straight line as it plunged forward. Then, the attack that had once even penetrated through the Hierro of Nnoitora, whose pride was being the hardest of the Espada, deeply pierced Ikomikidomoe’s solitary central eye.

“-------------”

Ikomikidomoe raised a scream beyond words and bent back dramatically. Chuhlhourne, who had been stationed behind him, struck a pose while speaking in a singsong manner. “My, oh my, oh my! You seemed so high and mighty just earlier. That was such an ugly scream you made there. You had so much to say about Lord Barragan, but too bad for you! Your power and dignity are a far cry from his… And you don’t even compare to me as far as beauty is concerned! My condolences!”

Chuhlhourne followed this needlessly long preface by unleashing Reina de Rosas.

“Rosa Blanca.”

A black briar expanded and started to wrap around Ikomikidomoe’s huge form.

Of course, the briar was unable to cover all of his gigantic mass, but it entangled half of him and rapidly started to draw up the reishi in his body.

“You…all of you…curse yoooooou!”

Regardless, that did not immobilize Ikomikidomoe. Using up all his power, he kicked up off the earth and leapt into the sky in order to tear off the thorns.

However…

“Sorry…this road is closed.”

Using a hammer throw with no regard for her broken fingers, Meninas slammed Ikomikidomoe’s gigantic body the opposite direction into the ground.

Ikomikidomoe reflexively created offshoots of himself directed toward the sky. However, all of them were disposed of by way of Liltotto’s fantastical mouth.

“Gross… Ah, well. Guess we’re beating this guy up first.”

The Quincies, who had come down in order to avoid getting caught up in Hikone and Kenpachi’s battle, shot Heilig Pfeil at the ground all at once from high in the sky.

“Hah, now just get down and grovel!”

Candice shot down a successive Galvano Javelin, and the dazzling flash of lightning harshly lit the surroundings.

“Whoa. That’s super festive. Why don’t you give him some fireworks too, Bambi?”

Giselle gloated delightedly while she continued to shoot Heilig Pfeil, and in reaction Bambietta smiled, her eyes still blank.

“Okay…I’ll try hard. Ha ha… A festival…with everyone… How fun…”

Bambietta’s smile was not uncertain so much as filled with childlike innocence as she shot down a massive amount of reishi from her hand. That reishi light turned into a rain as it poured down and turned into explosive fire when it reached Ikomikidomoe’s surface, making a dazzling ensemble with the lightning that embellished the waterspout and briar.

“Seriously…I can’t believe more of you keep getting in the way of me and my prey,” said Grimmjow as he suddenly released the spiritual pressure he had built up in the claws of both his hands and created gigantic reishi claws of five pillars each to his right and left.

Normally he would have fixated on fighting one on one, but just this time, he felt a strange nostalgia and thrill. It might have been his instinct as a beast to occasionally hunt in a pack. Or it might have been that he had remembered others he had walked with in the past who had called him their king.

Then again, Grimmjow himself didn’t think about the reason. He simply turned to the enemy at hand and brought down his own attack.

Luppi, who was off on his own and watching from the side of his eyes as Grimmjow used his trump card, smiled.

“That’s my line, Grimmjow. I’m going to destroy that goliath.”

He started to gather a significant amount of spiritual pressure into the eight tentacles of his Trepadora.

“Not yet… You think this is enough to destroy me?!”

Ikomikidomoe, sensing the abnormal spiritual pressure gathering in front of him, once again created a massive number of offshoots from his body and tried to form a shield of flesh, but…

He stopped abruptly.

When he felt as though everything had gone numb, Ikomikidomoe was bewildered.

It wasn’t just that the offshoots he intended to create were not appearing—he couldn’t even move a single one of his limbs. One who had been hiding themself until that moment addressed the monster as he succumbed to the paralysis. “Seriously, you just change your spiritual pressure willy-nilly. I had a heck of a time making the adjustments… But it looks like you got complacent.”

“…?!”

“You wrote me off and were planning to get to me later, weren’t you? That irritated me, but because of that, I had plenty of opportunity to observe you.”

The man who had appeared behind the bewildered Ikomi-kidomoe manipulated his fingers as he continued, “Nakk Le Vaar would probably put it this way, wouldn’t he…?”

As he pointed at Ikomikidomoe, whose gigantic body he had immobilized, a delighted smile formed on NaNaNa Najahkoop’s face as he spat out what had been the favorite phrase of one of his former associates, “You know what? That was fatal.”

“-------------”

Somewhere in his immense form his vocal cords were paralyzed, and Ikomikidomoe could not even let out a shriek.

As his body lost all capacity to resist attack due to Najahkoop’s ability the Underbelly…Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez’s Desgarrón and Luppi Antenor’s eight-fold rapid fire Gran Rey Cero kicked in.

Those two acts of violence that were furnished with the “destruction” form of death drove into him simultaneously.

≡

Overhead

“…Ikomikidomoe…”

Hikone murmured that expressionlessly as Kenpachi brought down his sword on the child.

“You think this is the time to worry about someone other than yourself?”

“Oh! I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to!”

Apologizing and dodging by a paper-thin margin, Hikone waited just a moment before saying to Kenpachi, “Will you please give me just a little bit of time?”

“Hunh? What’re you getting up to?”

Kenpachi was dubious, but Hikone smiled innocently and answered, “Why, of course, I’m getting ready to kill you! Yes, indeed!”

“…Interesting. Are you going to use a bankai or somethin’?”

A standard strategy would be to kill the opponents before they could use their trump card. However, those kinds of tactics held no interest for Kenpachi. And since only Madarame and Yumichika were beside him, no one was around to scold him for it. Had Kyoraku been there, he would have used that opening to at least try to stab Hikone from behind, but the Soul Reaper was on the ground and fighting Tokinada.

“A bankai… Yes, that might be what it is, but I’m not sure.”

“Hunh?”

“Since it’s Ikomikidomoe, it might need to be called a Resurrección.”

Before even finishing their sentence, Hikone nosedived recklessly to the ground.

≡

The Ground

“Impossible… How could I be defeated by urchins such as you?”

“You’re still kickin’? You sure are a stubborn dirt bag,” Grimmjow said in exasperation as he moved forward to serve the finishing blow.

Ikomikidomoe’s gigantic form was at last mostly destroyed and had turned into a statue that could only groan his resentments.

“Curse you! If I just had my name! If I could just get back my true name, what I could do to you…!”

“Hunh? I don’t know what you’re grumbling about, but you really want those to be your last words?”

Grimmjow used his own fangs to cut his fingertip and started to accumulate spiritual pressure in his hand mixed with his blood to shoot a Gran Rey Cero. However, before he could release the Cero, a voice addressed Ikomikidomoe from above their heads.

“You already have a name, don’t you?”

“Huh?”

At Hikone’s voice, everyone turned their eyes to the child.

“Ikomikidomoe, you’re my zanpaku-to!”

Almost as though he were frightened of that innocent smile, Ikomikidomoe’s voice quivered.

“No…not that name…do not call me by that name…”

Ignoring these pleas, Hikone said to those nearby, “Thank you very much! Thank you for weakening Ikomikidomoe to this point!”

“Hunh…?”

Grimmjow knitted his eyebrows, not understanding what that meant.

Hikone simply held their hand out toward Ikomikidomoe and called that last name.

“Ikomikidomoe, Eight Views of the Fall of the Phoenix.”

“------~~~~~……”

The monstrosity’s gigantic body glimmered, and right as it seemed to crumble away, it turned into a yin and yang wind of black and white that wrapped around Hikone.

In the next moment, Hikone’s body transformed into a form like an Arrancar wearing a shihakusho, like a fusion of Hollow and Soul Reaper. The shadow of Hollowlike reishi seemed to crawl and wriggle under the child’s skin.

The once-transformed monster Ikomikidomoe had returned to the form of a Japanese sword. Within the pure white of that sword, a blotchy pattern intermixed in the zanpaku-to grasped in Hikone’s hand.

It was not only the child’s form that had changed.

It was almost as though all the missing pieces had perfectly snapped into place, evolving Hikone’s spiritual pressure into something on an entirely different level. Ikomikidomoe’s spiritual pressure hadn’t simply been set over the top of the child’s. As though that ancient Hollow’s spiritual pressure had become a key, it seemed to be unlocking limiters that had been in Hikone all along.

Just by being in proximity to the child, a stinging despair seemed to penetrate the skin of everyone around. Those who felt the peculiar spiritual pressure, which was different even from Aizen’s, recognized not with words but through instinct… that the child in front of their eyes did undoubtedly have the qualities to become the Soul King.

“Well then…I’ll take care of you all afterward!”

Though the child had obtained such expansive powers, their character had not changed a bit from earlier. That consistency made everyone around the child feel an ominous sense of intimidation, and as a result the group hesitated a moment too long.

Using that small opening, Hikone once again leapt high up into the sky.

Hikone reached a height that a normal Soul Reaper could not reach in one breath with nearly the same force as a cannonball. Then, after simply solidifying the midair reishi, they ran through the Kyogoku's sky with the swiftness of a god.

They ran to the man waiting in the sky who was their greatest opponent in that place.

They ran in order to sever the life of the one who bore the title of the strongest Soul Reaper, Kenpachi Zaraki.

≡

Inside the Castle in the Air

“What is this spiritual pressure…?”

As Hisagi ran to the exit of the vast, multistory building, he sensed the robust spiritual pressure coming from below and reflexively stopped. His whole body oozing cold sweat, Hisagi realized that a spiritual pressure he had encountered earlier was mixed within that vast spiritual pressure.

“Is that…Hikone?”

≡

Palace Interior

We rewind the time to just slightly earlier…

While Grimmjow and the others faced Ikomikidomoe, Kyoraku and Nanao were confronting Tokinada, who carried his zanpaku-to in shikai form.

Looking at the zanpaku-to that Tokinada carried, Nanao shivered from a strange chill.

It has no blade?

No, that’s not right.

I feel an ominous spiritual pressure…

There really is a zanpaku-to in front of that hilt.

If that were the case, why couldn’t she see it? Based on the earlier flash, was it in fact a zanpaku-to that manipulated light? In that case, she could believe the reason why they couldn’t see the blade body was because he was using the refraction of light, but that wouldn’t explain why the wound on Tokinada’s abdomen had disappeared.

As Nanao’s doubts piled up, Kyoraku looked at Tokinada with calm eyes as he said, “It seems that isn’t any normal zanpaku-to. Do you feel like telling us what its ability is?”

“You really think that I would?”

“I don’t suppose you would.”

Tokinada of course continued to smile, looking down upon them and simply remarking, “Don’t worry, you’ll probably know soon enough.”

While still holding the hilt of the missing zanpaku-to, Toki-nada then said, “In exchange for your life, Shunsui Kyoraku.”

“You sure are deranged. I’d like to settle this as peaceably as possible though.”

“Did you already release the Pinky Promise? You want peace at a time like this?”

“Of course I do. There’s nothing better than settling things through litigation. If you end up dying, the upper-class aristocratic dignitaries will be up in arms about it.”

When Tokinada appeared dubious, Kyoraku, who was an upper-class aristocrat himself, smiled cynically. “After all, it would be the trial of the head of the Tsunayashiro family—the head of the Four Great Noble Clans. We cannot allow for the one in a million or even one in a billion chance of being wrong. We do have to protect the Soul Society’s million-year history.”

“…”

“Please have no fear. We will have an aboveboard, proper trial. We will bring the truth to light, even if it takes a million years.”

“Kuh!” As Kyoraku spoke these words in a courteous, formal way, Tokinada blurted out in laughter, “Kha ha ha ha! So that’s what it’s come to! You plan to strip me of my wings with such nonsense, Kyoraku?!”

“The Four Great Noble Clans have their wings stripped the moment they are born. Since in exchange for great power, they themselves become the linchpin that supports the Soul Society of their own volition…or rather they offer their bodies to become the supporting pillar that holds up the three worlds.”

Kyoraku’s words were mixed with sarcasm.

To Nanao, Kyoraku seemed to be speaking about the responsibility that he took as an aristocrat, but Tokinada seemed to understand what was really meant by the words. Complex emotions crossed his face as he smiled and fixed a stare on Kyoraku.

“Should you really say that, as the descendant of those who only accepted the benefits without sullying their own hands?”

“I can say it. At the very least, there are those who agree with me, even those who are in your position.”

“What?”

In that instant, Tokinada felt a chill behind him and reflexively leapt to the side. Because of this motion, the attack on him was somewhat mitigated, but he was still sent flying as a result of the roundhouse kick Yoruichi had landed from behind.

“Guh…”

“The conversation’s gone on for too long. See, my foot just slipped.”

Another Soul Reaper was waiting where Tokinada had been sent flying.

“Bankai…Tekken Tachikaze!”

“Uh!”

From beside Tokinada, who was attempting to stand up, Muguruma’s fist and his fist-hilt shaped zanpaku-to stabbed deep into Tokinada's body. Then, a chain of destructive blasts exploded between Muguruma’s fist and Tokinada, shredding his organs as he was flung the other way.

“Oh, that was a clean hit. Pretty good teamwork for the short lead-in.”

At Yoruichi’s aloof words, Muguruma regarded Tokinada guardedly. “Is he dead?”

“Best if we don’t get careless. The guy tried to drive his sword into my foot armor more than once even in that state.”

“Oh! So it really is an invisible blade then, huh?”

They doubted that was its only ability, but at the very least, it gave merit to their caution if it was invisible.

“Well, I felt like I could see the blade for a moment. Any-way, we can’t give him the opportunity to use its ability…”

Though Yoruichi had started to run in order to pursue him, she suddenly stopped.

“What…?”

The foot armor that had been cut by the invisible blade had become abnormally heavy.

In the few moments that she hesitated to observe this, Tokinada chuckled, and he stood up.

“Dear me…didn’t I tell you that I am terrible when it comes to fights?”

The only thing about him that was torn apart was his kimono. They could not detect a single scratch on him at all.

“You’re…unscathed?”

Muguruma’s eyebrows knit together—he was sure he had felt something hit his hand.

The group, who knew they did not have the time to use Kaido, firmed their guard as Tokinada gripped the bladeless zanpaku-to in front of them and broke into a merciless smile.

“So, please do die quickly.”

Then, slowly, he readied the zanpaku-to’s hilt as he made a contradictory request. “And make sure you suffer as comically as possible.”

The statement was contradictory and twisted.

When they heard him say that, Kyoraku and the others shuddered with a sudden chill.

It was not just them.

Ikomikidomoe’s fight had ended, and the Quincies and Arrancars that were watching Hikone head toward the skies also felt the sensation. Even Madarame and Yumichika, battle-seasoned as they were, felt the strange chill and turned their eyes to their surroundings. With the exception of Kenpachi, who was focused on Hikone coming toward him, all of the invaders felt the impending danger and tension vibrating in their bodies.

In the next moment, Kyoraku felt the beastlike spiritual pressure that seethed from behind him. He took Nanao’s hand and leapt to the side. In that instant, something as large as a bear passed through the place the two had just been.

It was a strange sphere, about three meters in diameter that resembled nothing so much as a gigantic mouthful of fangs.

When Kyoraku saw that, his eyes opened wide.

“That’s…”

He had a clear memory of that strange object.

There wasn’t just one of them.

Looking at the countless objects floating from the courtyard that were nothing more than spheres with mouths, Kyoraku spoke a single name—the name of the brutal and peerless zanpaku-to that his friend, the seventh Kenpachi, a man named Kuruyashiki, had used in the past.

“Gagaku Kairo…”

“What’s wrong, Kyoraku? You look as though you’ve seen a dead man walking.”

Tokinada said that with his arms spread, and Kyoraku smiled cynically as a bead of sweat dripped down his face. “What do you think our job is? I’m used to seeing corpses.”

As he spoke, he narrowly dodged one of the gigantic jaws that approached him from behind and sank right into a shadow with Nanao in his arms.

“Oh, so you can even dive into the shadow of a zanpaku-to if it is your enemy. I had no idea.”

As Tokinada smiled happily, he started to search for where Kyoraku would emerge.

“Will you let the woman run off to a safe place first? Or will you recognize her as being strong enough to fight with you and come to slay me?”

As Tokinada attempted to provoke them, a blade thrust up near Tokinada’s feet as though in response.

Tokinada leapt to dodge it, and Yoruichi approached him from behind.

At some point, she had taken off her foot armor and regained her normal speed, but…

Shiver.

The faintest, slightest amount of spiritual pressure indicated that something was wrong, and all the cells in her body cried out as she stopped her foot just as it was about to reach Tokinada.

In the next moment, something like a flurry of cherry blossoms, which was in fact a group of infinitesimal blades, passed in front of Yoruichi’s foot and grazed it. A section of them scratched her skin, creating a spray of blood. Luckily the wound was not deep; however, had she kicked him as intended, it was clear her foot would have been chopped to bits.

“Was that a trick of my eyes…? I’m sure I just saw the Byakuya boy’s…” Yoruichi was certain she recognized the storm of blades that had already disappeared.

“It couldn’t be…”

It seemed Kyoraku had also seen the blades that had appeared suddenly, and he broke into a cold sweat as he guessed at the true power of the Enra Kyoten that Tokinada carried.

An attack that made that which it cut heavier.

The wound that had healed before they realized it.

The strange creatures from Gagaku Kairo’s shikai itself.

And the exact same storm of blades as Senbon Zakura.

Though he wanted to deny the logical path this led him toward, with the latter two the conclusion had already made itself clear.

The power to copy another’s zanpaku-to’s abilities at will.

As though to mock Muguruma next, Tokinada brought out a new power from Enra Kyoten.

Tokinada suddenly knelt and punched at the ground.

Something reminiscent of a chakram, a disk-shaped blade, was gripped in his hand, and the moment he touched the ground with it, the earth around him groaned. The entire courtyard’s base warped as it swelled and wriggled like a massive living thing, transforming into lances that assaulted Muguruma.

Muguruma was not the only target. The Arrancars and Quincies that took on Gagaku Kairo’s strange creatures were attacked by the ground itself, and they dodged just in time.

“Hey, this guy’s zanpaku-to couldn’t be…”

Dealing with the earth lances by scattering them with his own zanpaku-to, Muguruma landed next to Kyoraku and Nanao, who had appeared from the shadows.

Then, as though he had timed his reply, Kyoraku addressed Tokinada with a serious expression: “Wabisuke, Hisagomaru, Senbon Zakura…and just now, that couldn’t have been Tsuchinamazu.”

When Kyoraku said that name—one of the zanpaku-to possessed by Zennosuke Kurumadani who was formerly in charge of Karakura Town—Tokinada smiled faintly as though in admiration and he opened his eyes wider.

“Oh, so you even know about Tsuchinamazu. Does that mean you know about the zanpaku-to of all the company members?”

“To some extent. Despite appearances, I’m the Captain General, so I’ve at least looked at the data on the generations of those in charge of Karakura Town. Although I didn’t think Tsuchinamazu would be capable of this magnitude.”

“There are many zanpaku-to powers that will increase in ability according to the spiritual pressure of its user. Hisagomaru is very useful. Though Seinosuke’s younger brother can only take in slight wounds, when I use it, I end up like this even after that cut from you went right through my belly.”

The zanpaku-to that Hanataro Yamada carried, Hisagomaru, was a nonstandard zanpaku-to that could heal the injured by absorbing the wounds of those it cut. Kyoraku judged that Tokinada had likely used Hisagomaru’s powers by cutting himself in order to absorb the wounds that Muguruma had inflicted on Tokinada earlier.

Hanataro’s sword shouldn’t have been able to absorb wounds when they were serious though. It seems that the abilities are corresponding to Tokinada’s spiritual pressure…

Next he had used Izuru Kira’s zanpaku-to Wabisuke’s power to make Yoruichi’s foot armor heavier. The moment Nanao realized that a shiver went down her back.

“It can’t be… A zanpaku-to that can use other zanpaku-to’s powers.”

“Still, we should investigate whether he really can use all the abilities. If its power is that strong, it might have some limitations,” Kyoraku said in order to alleviate Nanao’s worry as he very carefully examined Tokinada’s actions.

However, as though to prevent this observation, Tokinada unleashed his next move. Just as they seemed to see the invisible body of the sword quiver, a dense, gray smoke blew up.

“Oh! Haineko…!” Nanao immediately realized its identity and called out.

In the meantime the strange creatures of Gagaku Kairo approached, and Kyoraku and the others evaded those as they also leapt continuously to avoid the ash that pursued them.

The ash’s shadow was too murky and thin for him to sink into. Anticipating that as well, Tokinada set forth to attack them as they fled.

“Hado Number Fifty Eight Tenran!”

A tornado broke out and incorporated Haineko’s ashes in the wind, quickly attempting to swallow up Kyoraku and the others. Though he wasn’t as fast as Yoruichi, Kyoraku was confident in his shunpo. He was somehow able to escape the ash, but another problem awaited him.

“This is bad…”

He moved away and looked behind him. The wind that Tokinada’s kido had stirred up was distributing the ash around a vast area. Those on the ground were being attacked by it one after another.

However…

“Cascada.”

The cascade that Halibel had created was like a waterfall that coursed through the sky horizontally and washed away the ash and strange creatures.

“I think I’ve seen that power before.” When she had confronted Hitsugaya in Karakura Town, she had seen the three battling subordinate Soul Reapers use the same abilities from the corner of her eyes. Because of that, Halibel was able to guess Tokinada’s zanpaku-to’s nature and let slip, “Is it like the ability of Glotoneria in Aaroniero?”

Though the Arrancars could not judge whether he had stolen others’ zanpaku-to’s abilities or was simply copying them, it made no difference which it was since either way, his power meant trouble.

Quincies included, they all turned cautious eyes toward Tokinada. It seemed that they too had continued to fight the strange creatures of Gagaku Kairo, and they seemed to understand that those creatures were a kind of ability and that their user was Tokinada.

Aside from Hikone, who was high in the sky, further up than the building that floated in midair and slashing as they stepped on reishi footholds to climb higher, and Kenpachi who was taking those slashes while moving higher himself, that meant all the Soul Reapers and Quincies in the place and also the Arrancars were confronting Tokinada.

Additionally, backup had appeared on the scene.

“What is that terrible spiritual pressure up there? Huh? That couldn’t be Kenpachi and Hikone, could it?”

After dealing with Ikomikidomoe’s offshoots, Hirako had finally come onto the scene.

“Captain Hirako. So you made it out in one piece.”

At Kyoraku’s words, Hirako grinned and replied, “Of course I did. But that thing I glimpsed earlier wasn’t really Rangiku’s Haineko, was it?”

“I’ll get right to the point. The person over there is Tokinada Tsunayashiro…and his zanpaku-to’s ability is to copy other zanpaku-to. He’s used at least six different abilities at this point.”

“Seriously? He sure brought more trouble.”

Hirako’s face showed genuine displeasure. Muguruma asked him, “Shinji, if that guy uses Sakanade’s power, could you use it on us and reverse it?”

“You ask that like it’s easy to do. Well, nobody would be laughing if he copied my bankai, but I’ll try something… Though I don’t think that anyone other than me could master Sakanade.”

As Hirako spoke, he probed the presences of those around him. Because he had spent many years handling Sakanade, he could generally tell almost instantly in what way someone had been reversed. Then again, there was the concern that he would be attacked while he was trying to reverse them back, though it would likely be difficult for Tokinada to make those complex calculations while fighting.

Although if this Tokinada fellow is on Aizen’s level, then we’d be at checkmate.

The sense of unease remained in Hirako’s mind as he focused himself on Sakanade. He considered that it would clearly be a disadvantage to face so many enemies even while using several zanpaku-to abilities…

“Well, now…it's my first time facing a group of such formidable opponents as this.”

Tokinada smiled boldly.

Then, as Halibel’s turbulent stream approached him from the front, he projected a different ability using his sword’s invisible body. A flame like the sun dispersed and instantly evaporated the water Halibel controlled.

“Ryujin Jakka!”

When Nanao thought back to when Kyoraku and Ukitake had faced Genryusai Yamamoto to attempt to save Rukia, her skin oozed sweat. The arid air dried that sweat instantly, but Kyoraku sounded relieved as he muttered, “Oh good.”

“Captain General?”

Nanao was dubious, but Kyoraku replied, “That temperature is a far cry from old man Yama’s. It seems that his abilities being based on spiritual pressure can go either way.”

Then again, he still could not let his guard down. By Kyoraku’s assessment, Tokinada’s spiritual pressure was the same in strength as the other Four Great Noble Clans members Byakuya Kuchiki and Yoruichi Shihoin. It could be thought of as a silver lining that although the lineage of the Four Great Noble Clans’ spiritual pressure tended to be on a higher level, they did not reach a power that was beyond the bounds of common sense.

“Don’t you think it would have been better to have the child Hikone hold that—that zanpaku-to?”

Kyoraku spoke sarcastically, remaining vigilant of his surroundings. Tokinada, while manipulating flames, said, “That thing is too meek, and if I did allow them to hold the sword, they would likely devote themself to abilities such as Engetsu and Daiguren Hyorinmaru, and that would be the end of it.”

When Tokinada roared with laughter, Kyoraku narrowed his eyes.

So this is the Tsunayashiro family’s treasured sword. They certainly can boast about being the governors of history.

Of course, if he used that with old man Yama’s or Aizen’s spiritual pressure…

…

Aizen…?

Shudder.

As though he had had some sort of premonition, all the cells in Kyoraku’s body shivered instinctually. As though Tokinada had sensed that quiver in Kyoraku’s spiritual pressure, he snickered and used a move to derail Kyoraku’s train of thought.

“Bakudo Number Twenty One Red Smoke Escape.”

A red smoke diffused explosively with Tokinada at its center and shrouded the wasteland that had once been the courtyard.

“Huh!”

All those surrounding were vigilant of the next attack that might appear from inside the smoke.

Wait.

It couldn’t be!

Kyoraku realized that was what Tokinada was attempting to do. To be more accurate, the moment that he realized the ability of Tokinada’s zanpaku-to, the possibility of that had been in the back of his mind, and he might have been subconsciously afraid of it.

“Don’t look! Close your eyes!”

At the same time that subconscious threat connected with his thoughts, Kyoraku attempted to yell, but…

As though calculating that timing, Tokinada’s voice made Kyoraku’s and Nanao’s reishi quiver.

“Bo…

dhi…

dhar…ma…”

“Guh!”

It was one of the games that Kyoraku’s Katen Kyokotsu possessed. When an enemy used an attack with spiritual pressure, it was a technique that allowed one to travel along that spiritual pressure in the shortest distance possible to attack. Since that technique had been activated, if he looked at Tokinada, then it would become his “win” and he would be able to inflict Tokinada with a fatal wound. Further, there was a restriction that Tokinada always should have had to be in a position where they could see him.

Not even a few seconds had filled the void.

When Kyoraku realized that he wasn’t being attacked, he looked at Nanao.

As though she were trying to use her own kido in order to clear the Red Smoke Escape that Tokinada had produced, or perhaps trying to set up a defense, she was refining spiritual pressure in her hands.

So he’s aiming for her!

Because he had realized it, Kyoraku was not able to not see it. He could not keep from opening his eye.

In order to protect Nanao, Kyoraku opened his remaining right eye and looked at the sword that approached Nanao. It was a zanpaku-to that looked like a swift whip with a spearhead at its end.

—This is Rose’s…

—But from the smoke?

—Oh no.     —That voice was a bluff.

—He hasn’t invoked the game.

As all these words crossed his mind, he was led to one conclusion…

He couldn’t close his eyes to it.

Even if “The Bodhidharma falls down” was a bluff, the blade that was approaching Nanao before her eyes was coming from her blind spot. Tokinada’s attacks were not so weak as to allow someone to defend against them while their eyes were closed.

“Don’t look! Close your eyes!”

Several moments delayed, the words that he was attempting to say finally came out of his mouth. However, they didn’t come in time. Before those around him could understand what the words meant, Tokinada had already finished.

Even though Kyoraku had come upon what Tokinada was aiming for, he ended up already seeing it.

It wasn’t just him.

Some of them, in order to dodge the approaching Senbon Zakura…

Some in order to intercept the still writhing Gagaku Kairo…

Some before they could escape from the thin smoke of Haineko…

Some, some, some…

They were all carefully watching, trying to determine the infinite number of “zanpaku-to” that Tokinada dispatched.

At around the same time as Kyoraku, Hirako, who had realized Tokinada’s aim, looked at the Shinso blade that approached him. His sense of logic was exceeded by his battle experience and the instincts that told him he would not be able to dodge that attack with his eyes closed, which made him too late to close his eyes.

Because of that, no one was able to evade it.

Crunch. Along with the noise of something being smashed to pieces, all the zanpaku-to in front of their eyes seemed to disperse like water evaporating.

Kyoraku and Hirako had expected that, but for that reason, they were mortified.

The Soul Reapers and Arrancars who understood what it meant opened their eyes in fright.

The Quincies, who had no idea what significance it held, looked on in disbelief.

With the exception of Kenpachi, who only had eyes for his duel high in the sky with Hikone, they had all seen it.

In other words, they had seen the moment that Sosuke Aizen’s zanpaku-to, Kyoka Suigetsu, shattered its shikai.

≡

“What is going on here? How big is this tower?”

Even as he complained, he ran through the palace with complete concentration. Although he had been able to leave the throne room, he still hadn’t found anything that looked like an exit from the building itself.

He felt that he’d been heading in the direction from which he sensed countless spiritual pressures for quite some time, but the structure was like a complex maze and hadn’t allowed Hisagi to escape easily.

He sensed that the spiritual pressure of Hikone had swelled explosively, and Kenpachi Zaraki’s had shot up with a staggering force. It seemed they were clashing far up above in the sky.

“Damn it… So I was too late!”

All he could think was that Hikone and Kenpachi’s fight to the death had begun.

Though Hisagi continued to move his legs, trying to find a way out even a second sooner, at that point he realized that there was another spiritual pressure he recognized. Though it had been hidden by Kenpachi’s spiritual pressure and he hadn’t noticed it, there were several other familiar spiritual pressures too.

“Captain General Kyoraku?! And also Ms. Yoruichi…and even Captain Muguruma!”

That so many powerhouses had gathered meant that Karakura Town’s isolation had probably become a larger issue, even to them. That was what Hisagi assumed, but…

“Hm? These spiritual pressures…are Arrancars…and Quincies?! What the hell is going on here?!”

Not understanding what was happening, Hisagi suppressed his nerves and his heart thumped as he ran.

After he had run for a while, Hisagi’s anxiety grew.

“Their spiritual pressures have started to weaken?”

Accompanying that realization was the beginning of a fear that was different from the one he’d had until now. Hikone, who had that absurd spiritual pressure, was fighting Kenpachi, he realized. In that case, who was currently making the Captain General and the others’ spiritual pressure weaken moment by moment?

Is it Aura? No, or is it…?

Since Aura’s spiritual pressure was scarce to begin with, he couldn’t tell whether she was there from where he was. However, he could make out an ominous spiritual pressure that he had never felt before ensconced where Kyoraku and the others were.

This spiritual pressure…it couldn’t be Tokinada’s…

Hisagi earnestly held back his unease as he continued to run. Finally he discovered nonartificial light breaking through and used shunpo to run to it at once.

It was likely a window to allow in outdoor light. Jumping onto the window frame, which was big enough for a single Soul Reaper to pass through with room to spare, Hisagi immediately surveyed the situation outside…

That was when he first realized he was not in a multistory tower, but a gigantic building floating in the air.

“Wha…?”

A gale of pronounced spiritual pressure brushed his cheek. The wind that blew up from below cycled around the gigantic building, making the structure that floated in the air seem as though it were in its own cramped world.

“This is practically like the Reiokyu…”

As he uttered this impression, which was the same as Hirako’s and the others’, Hisagi looked above his head momentarily. From that position, at a height that made their forms hazy, he saw what looked like two stars snapping at each other. If he were to approach them without enough caution, he would likely end up caught and torn to shreds between the two spiritual pressures. In fact, even looking up at them like this, Hisagi was seized by the illusion that his own spiritual pressure was twisting his flesh.

Meanwhile, when he turned his eyes to Kyoraku and the other presences he sensed below, he found a scene that made him doubt his eyes.

“There’s no way…”

Seeing it from afar he couldn’t be certain, but it looked as though Kyoraku and the others had partnered with the Arrancars and Quincies and that they were being drastically overpowered by a single Soul Reaper.

Hisagi was unable to just stand there. He leapt from the window, falling down toward the battleground spread below his eyes.

He still had no idea what he would learn of the Soul Society’s darkness on that battlefield.