CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

“Gah…”

After suffering a severe laceration that reached his internal organs, Tokinada’s clothes were soaked in blood.

He careened backward and was about to turn up to the heavens, but he just barely stopped himself and kept standing. He planted his feet on the ground even more resolutely than before.

Then he laughed. Breaking into a cold sweat, he used kaido he was inexperienced with in order to forcibly stop the bleeding, and he continued to laugh.

“Ha ha…ha ha ha ha ha! I can’t believe you would…you would be able to defeat Kyoka Suigetsu with something like that!”

“You stubborn mule, you’re still alive?” Ginjo seemed exasperated as he readied his longsword in order to seal the deal.

In the next moment, Tokinada ejected a strange cloth from his left sleeve.

“What is that?”

In caution, Ginjo kept a step back.

The fabric seemed to wriggle like a living creature as it instantly created a swirl around Tokinada like a tornado. It revolved forcefully as it wrapped around his body.

“That’s…the thing that was in Abarai’s report…”

It was cloth that had been infused with special kido in order to force one to change locations.

Aizen had created the special equipment in an era when teleportation was completely banned. Its existence was confirmed when it was used by Aizen and Ichimaru to escape the scene after having murdered the Central 46 and by Kaname Tosen, when he simultaneously abducted Abarai and Rukia.

“You plan on using this opportunity to run? I think coming in quietly would be best for your sake.”

“Don’t be so foolish, Kyoraku. If I’m going to spend the rest of my life in tedium until the day I die, I would much rather just die!”

Even as blood dribbled from his mouth, he raised a voice that was so filled with determination that he didn’t seem as though he were half dead.

“In that case, let us kill you quietly.”

Ginjo swung his sword, but in the moment before, the cloth had closed up any openings. After the fabric was cut up by the longsword, Tokinada had already disappeared.

“Tsk…I let him get away! Where’d he disappear to?”

≡

Castle in the Air, Engine Room

“Ha ha…ka ha ha! I see, I see. This is the first time I’ve ever been so cornered.”

Dragging a trail of blood behind him, Tokinada walked through a room of strange gauges.

“Oh well, I suppose this is how far I will let my fun go this time.”

As he started up several of the gauges, Tokinada let his mouth warp into a grin.

“But I will ask that all of you die here.”

Tokinada had equipped the multistoried building with secret weapons. He started to activate the fortress equipment he had prepared as a defense against the humans, which included artillery bombardments that were equal in force to the nuclear weapons from the world of the living and reishi cannons that would diffuse toxins that rivaled Konjiki Ashisogi Jizo, but…

“Hm…?”

None of them would activate.

Though he thought Aura could be the culprit, nothing about the weapons had seemed off recently, and most of the equipment was fitted with alarm systems that would notify Tokinada if any of them had been altered by konpaku manipulation.

As his suspicions rose, a jovial voice that was out of place in the castle echoed within the stronghold from all extant communications devices.

“Oh, hello hello! Why, I suppose it’s my first time meeting you, Mr. Tsunayashiro?”

“Is that you…Kisuke Urahara?!”

“You know, I would always crush any surveillance bugs I found flying around my shop, so I feel like we’ve had a long relationship, Mr. Visual Department.”

≡

Though Hisagi also had deep wounds and was out of breath, when he heard the voice reverberating from the castle in the air, his eyes unintentionally widened.

“That voice… Is that Mr. Urahara?! I thought he’d been kidnapped.”

Yukio interjected from behind. “No way. We invited him as usual. Once we told him everything, he came right with us.”

“Wait a sec! You didn’t have time to have a conversation like that!”

“Since there were surveillance bacteria inserted into Aura’s body, it wasn’t like we could just talk out in the open, you know?”

Once Urahara and Yukio had met face to face, they had been conversing in a way that was different from normal talking.

Yukio’s use of the compression artifacts that would occasionally run through the screen he caused to float in the air and Urahara’s tapping on the floor with the cane in his hand were nothing other than a way for them to communicate with each other.

Since there was a possibility that Tokinada would decipher something like Morse code, Yukio had used computer language codes and converted Japanese into binary, then displayed those as static noise pulses to Urahara.

Urahara, who had noticed the systematic static, responded to that and replied to Yukio. Then, in order to deceive the surveillance spirit bugs, he showed himself actually fighting Aura, and using the explosion of fire he intentionally allowed himself to be captured by Yukio’s powers. After explaining that, Yukio shrugged and gritted his teeth as though he were slightly irritated as he glared at the castle in the air where Urahara’s voice came from.

“Well, I was obviously a little surprised when he noticed instantly and replied back in my company’s proprietary code. Seriously, what’s that guy’s deal?”

≡

“So you’re getting in my way too, Kisuke Urahara.”

As Tokinada smiled sarcastically, Urahara’s voice replied, “And from my perspective, why’d you think I wouldn’t?”

“I made Hikone in order to fully release the being called the Soul King. Why is it so bad to sacrifice something that was created for that sole purpose?”

“It makes no difference. Whether it’s the revered Reio or Mx. Hikone, it will never be decent to sacrifice a soul with a will in order to maintain the world. I don’t think it’s perfect or ideal even using Yhwach’s remains.”

As though he had flipped a switch, Urahara’s voice reverberated only in the room Tokinada was in.

Tokinada snickered as he spread the smell of blood and continued, “You hypocrite. Didn’t you have the same goal that I had? Didn’t you create those dolls you cultivate in your shabby hideout for that purpose? When the time comes, won’t you use the Hogyoku and cram all kinds of konpaku into them to use them in place of the Soul—”

Urahara’s voice reverberated again, interrupting his provocation.

“If that’s what it looked like to you through the surveillance spirit bugs, then let me tell you this…”

Though the voice still sounded cheerful, it was charged with a pressure that could chill the spine.

“You have holes for eyes and terrible communication skills.”

“So then you plan on continuing to turn your back to your own desires until the very end?”

“I don’t intend to feign I’m a virtuous person. More importantly, how about you finally surrender? Regardless of whether your final trump card Mx. Ubuginu wins or loses against Mr. Zaraki, I don’t think they will be able to take on everyone else, and this castle in the sky is now just a floating piece of junk.”

Though Urahara matter-of-factly informed Tokinada that he had overridden all the systems, Tokinada did not let his grin disappear as he turned his eyes up to stare at the ceiling.

“I see. So it’s just junk floating in the air then.”

In the next moment…

He thrust a different-colored Tenkaiketchu that he had produced from his clothes into the floor, and at the same time, he used a special kido to hit the floor of the gauge room.

“That’s more than enough to have some fun, Kisuke Urahara.”

≡

A dull groan rang out, and the area below the castle in the sky became engulfed in explosive flames.

“Hey, what’s going on now?!” Candice’s eyes widened.

Then the castle’s external bullhorns came online once again.

“Uhh, test test. Everyone down below—can you hear me?”

When they heard Urahara’s voice once again from the castle in the air, Yoriuchi asked, “That Kisuke…was he up to something?”

There wasn’t any way he could have heard her voice, but Urahara’s next words reverberated through the place with perfect timing. “It wasn’t me. Mr. Tsunayashiro has gotten a bit desperate.”

“That’s not good. Huh? Is that thing coming down?”

Just as Kyoraku murmured that, they could see that the building in the sky, which was larger than a skyscraper, was slowly starting to fall.

“Well, looks like he’s really gone big, but we should be able to escape using shunpo.”

“Doesn’t seem like it’ll be as simple as that.”

Ginjo, who had undone his bankai and returned to his normal state, narrowed his eyes as he observed the surrounding reishi. There was pronounced reishi filling the entire Kyogoku. It eddied fiercely with the castle in the air at its center, and the surrounding air slowly began to transform.

“You don’t mean…he activated the Tenkaiketchu?!”

Then Tokinada’s voice, rather than Urahara’s, echoed through the external bullhorns.

“You won this time. Unfortunately, it looks like I couldn’t kill you.”

“Tokinada!”

Realizing what their opponent was up to, Kyoraku scowled.

“What? I’m just letting some junk fall from the sky. It’s not as though the world is ending.”

It wasn’t clear if he was trying to keep them there, or if this was retaliation for squashing his plans, or if he wasn’t thinking at all and simply wanted to see what would happen…

Though they couldn’t suss out his motivation, what he was trying to do was obvious.

Tokinada Tsunayashiro had destroyed the system keeping the building afloat and was attempting to transport the structure to Karakura Town.

“Hey, wait. If such a ridiculously large thing falls from that height…”

“Karakura Town will likely be wiped off the map.” Liltotto spoke in a chilled tone, finishing the sentence that Yukio had started. “We don’t give a crap what happens to Karakura Town. But it’s a Jureichi, isn’t it? I doubt that the world will be unscathed if it’s smashed to bits.”

“Well then…what will we do about it?”

Kyoraku refined his own spiritual pressure as he looked into the sky.

I think Captain Zaraki’s Nozarashi could cut through it, but he’s still in the middle of his battle. Anyway, it’s not as though it would stop the teleportation if it were destroyed. As for the Arrancars and Quincies, they don’t have a reason to protect Karakura Town…

Kyoraku fumbled for a solution that involved only the Soul Reapers, but before he could come up with anything, the situation deteriorated yet again.

“Wait! The part that got blown away before is coming down!”

They had all realized it when Muguruma shouted. A part of the bottom of the castle in the air that had separated from the floating system was falling directly to the ground of the Kyogoku even before the teleportation went into effect.

Most of those in the area were terribly wounded. Those who had some degree of stamina despite that started to move in order to evade it, but…

One figure was a step ahead of them.

At first glance, it looked like someone simply hoisting their right arm to the sky. However, the spiritual pressure perceptions of those nearby clearly indicated an abnormality in the figure. Centering on that humanoid shadow, a whirl of reishi writhed and, just as it seemed to stretch into the air, entangled itself in the fragment of the castle as it fell down. The speed of its fall steadily slowed until it halted in midair as though time had stopped.

The Fullbringers and Shuhei Hisagi understood what had happened. He looked at that shadow—at the ashen Aura Michibane—and forgot the pain of his own wounds as he shouted, “Don’t be reckless! If you do that, you’ll die!”

At a conservative estimate, Aura almost had no spiritual pressure left in her at all. While in that state, she was releasing even more spiritual pressure and trying to subjugate that gigantic castle in the air.

Based on her complexion, it was surprising that she was still standing. Aura smiled thinly.

“Are you worrying about your enemy? You really are a strange man.”

“We’re not enemies anymore! I don’t know what happened, but I heard that your capturing Mr. Urahara was also a sham. And you’re doing this for Hikone, aren’t you?”

“No. I’m not doing this for Hikone’s sake. I’m simply doing this because I want to.”

She turned her eyes to the sky, but it wasn’t clear whether what she saw overhead was the falling castle or the small figure that was continuing to fight against power incarnate even higher than that.

Before Hisagi could find out, Tokinada’s voice reverberated from the structure.

“Oh, I thought you’d do that. Thank you, Aura. I’m so grateful that you can be the actress in such an enjoyable show even while I am on the verge of death.”

His voice filled with twisted delight was enough for them to imagine his unpleasant smile.

“Hikone.”

In a syrupy tone, Tokinada spoke his final order.

“This is a matter of utmost importance. Kill Aura.”

Those who witnessed that moment felt as though time had stopped around them. Far up in the sky, Hikone, who should have been continuing to fight Kenpachi Zaraki, had come to stand behind Aura.

They had likely used all kinds of hoho to do it. It was not just their speed that was odd. Even coming from such a high point at a speed that was close to instantaneous, they hadn’t so much as raised a cloud of dust where they came to stand.

The scene made it seem almost as though they had used spiritual pressure techniques in order to bend the forces of gravity and inertia. Witnessing those movements, which could have been described as beautiful, most of those present weren’t able to respond immediately.

There was just one who was up to it.

Only one of them had realized that Hikone would promptly, without any hesitation whatsoever, come to kill Aura, even in the midst of a fight with Kenpachi…

Only Shuhei Hisagi stood guard at Aura’s back, getting in Hikone’s way in order to protect her.

“Mr. Shuhei Hisagi, would you please move slightly for me?”

Hikone looked different from their earlier form, when they had met Hisagi. Though they had a peculiar appearance, like a Soul Reaper had been mixed with an Arrancar, their essential nature as a young person who still had some youth left—had not changed. However, internally they had transformed to an extent that could not be reflected in their external appearance.

Soul Reaper and Quincy presences that were complexly mixed together, as though Hollow konpaku were forcefully binding them, had formed into a twisted spiritual pressure. Had one looked at their Reiraku, it no longer would have appeared as a long and narrow cloth, but had transformed into a strange globe of all colors collected together.

“Are you planning on killing Aura?”

“Yes, sir! Since that was Lord Tokinada’s order!”

“But Aura was trying to protect you. That’s why she turned on Tokinada.”

“Really?”

When Hikone tilted their head, Aura said, “Please stop them. It’s not the child’s fault.”

Sensing that Aura was smiling bravely behind him, Hisagi couldn’t speak but gritted his teeth and resolved to confront Hikone.

With her hand still lifted to the sky, Aura said to Hisagi, “Please don’t mind me. You already know that I cannot be slain by any physical attack, don’t you?”

“Can you really manage this as you normally do? If you could, wouldn’t you already have turned yourself into mist and erased your presence?”

Her silence was his answer.

Hisagi gripped Kazeshini and took a step toward Hikone. No one who witnessed this situation would have thought Hisagi had a chance. Aura understood that well.

“Why are you doing so much?”

“I’m not doing this for you. It’s just that I’ve got to take responsibility for the past in my own way is all.”

Aura still seemed as though she could not accept that. Hisagi was at a loss for how to respond for a moment, but then he recalled something Muguruma, who was at the corner of his vision, had said, and smiled derisively at himself.

“Apparently, I’m pretty susceptible to seduction.”

Spouting out these words to dodge a proper answer, Hisagi continued on his path.

“I’m helping you out after you risked your life for Hikone because you’re a fine woman. That’s a good enough reason, don’t you think?”

Beside him, the specter of fear he bore accompanied him as always.

“So I suppose you won’t move for me then.”

Recognizing Hisagi, who stepped toward them, as an obstacle to fulfilling Tokinada’s orders, Hikone closed their eyes. At the same moment they opened their eyes again, they slowly turned the blade of Ikomikidomoe at him.

“That’s too bad.”

Hikone dodged to the side.

It wasn’t just Hisagi who was prepared—Yoruichi and Muguruma immediately readied themselves to respond, and the Arrancars and Quincies watched Hikone’s actions from afar to probe for an opening or to determine what powers Hikone had. Grimmjow, who usually would have leapt at them right away, was more deeply wounded than the other Arrancar, after having actually done so with Tokinada. He was being restrained by Nelliel.

They were going to move.

All of them felt it in that instant, as the mass of death named Hikone began to shift…

An attack like lightning falling from the sky sent the ground around Hikone flying.

“Guh…!”

Enduring the shock wave, Hisagi swept aside the clods of earth that flew toward him. What appeared in Hisagi’s vision was Kenpachi Zaraki, who had the terrifying look of a god on his smiling face, and the sight of him stopping Hikone’s blade with his own zanpaku-to.

“We were in the middle of a fight, weren’t we?! What’re you lookin’ away for?!”

“I was planning to finish before you could follow me, but…oh well.”

Though Hikone said that, there was a faint joy on their face and an expanse of spiritual pressure started to circulate within their body.

“It’s odd, isn’t it? I feel like fighting with you has been more fun than other people.”

“That’s the most important thing!”

It was a fight between two demons.

Just the aftermath of the force from their sword-clashes was enough to make it so that a normal person couldn’t stand, and everyone there realized it at the same moment.

Just how long has that Soul Reaper Hikone been clashing with Kenpachi Zaraki?

Though they didn’t know how much time had passed, being able to stop Kenpachi’s sword even once was abnormal. Those surrounding them were once again reminded what a fiendish being Hikone was as the two of them continued their duel.

“Are you not going to use your shikai, sir?”

Hikone released countless instantaneous attacks as Kenpachi used one brutal swing to drive all of them away.

“Hah! When fighting somebody like you, it’s more entertaining to drag the thing out with the most possible moves!”

Seeing the many attacks exchanged up to that point, Candice said in exasperation, “Can you believe this? I can’t believe these guys are smiling in the middle of a fight to the death.”

“Back when he fought Gremmy, that scary Soul Reaper guy was smiling the entire time, you know.”

“Come to think of it, didn’t Gremmy seem to be enjoying himself too?”

Liltotto responded, “Who knows? Not like I would notice.”

Since she replied in a cool tone, Candice and the others said nothing more.

“Hurry up and finish your observation so you can stop them from moving, you peeping Tom.”

At Liltotto’s words, Najahkoop gritted his teeth.

“Just wait a little. Their pattern is way too complex. It’s different from Aizen’s simple and ridiculously strong pattern.”

When Najahkoop said he wanted another ten minutes, Liltotto sighed, “I’ll just pray you don’t get killed in that time.”

While the Quincies were having their conversation, Kenpachi and Hikone were also exchanging a few words.

“You’re getting slow. You worried about when I’ll use my shikai?”

Kenpachi’s blow made Hikone fall back dramatically.

“Don’t think about crud like that. What’s important is fighting here in the moment, right?”

“You’re right. Since I’ll defeat you with my full power and then kill Ms. Aura and everyone else here like I should.”

“Hah! Don’t get greedy. If you start thinkin’ about the future and get stingy and hold back, I’ll slaughter you.”

“Yes! I’ll fight you with my whole mind and body!”

At the same time Hikone made that declaration, the spiritual pressure contained within them started to circulate in an even higher gear than before, and the balance between Hollow and Soul Reaper started to crumble.

“Their spiritual pressure can increase even more…?”

Just as Kyoraku said that, Hikone’s body quivered eerily. They attempted to ready their zanpaku-to again, but…

They stopped for a moment.

Hikone realized that another figure had inserted himself between them and Kenpachi.

“Mr. Hisagi?”

Hikone turned bewildered eyes to Shuhei Hisagi, who stood in front of Kenpachi. They understood why Hisagi had stood in front of them in order to protect Aura. But they could not understand why Hisagi would intrude while they were fighting Kenpachi.

The smile disappeared from Kenpachi’s face as though he were also bewildered, and he spoke to Hisagi’s back, which was right in front of him. “Hey…what’re you trying to do?”

Kenpachi’s spiritual pressure, which was crossed with his irritation, scorched and prickled at the surrounding atmosphere. Those around him were bewildered, unable to understand what Hisagi intended. If he had been trying to swoop in to help, it just looked like he was getting in Kenpachi’s way. And it wasn’t as though Hisagi was unaware what it meant to help Kenpachi Zaraki in a fight without asking.

“Hisagi…?”

“Hisagi…what’re you trying to do?”

Madarame was bewildered, and Yumichika forgot to call Hisagi by his assistant captain title, speaking the Soul Reaper’s name plainly. The two of them, who knew better than anyone exactly what it meant to get in Captain Zaraki’s way when he was brawling, scowled without understanding Hisagi’s intent. If Hisagi didn’t have a good answer, he would not come out of this unscathed. It wasn’t implausible that he might be killed by Kenpachi first, before Hikone had a chance.

Of course, if he were just trying to help, he likely wouldn’t be killed without argument, but regardless there was a chance he’d end up flying from a punch strong enough to break his neck, with the pithy declaration, “You’re in the way.” That was why in the past, when Kenpachi had confronted Komamura and Tosen with Madarame and Yumichika, rather than all three of them taking on the captains, they had chosen a path of assistance, and the seated officers took on Iba and Hisagi, who were next to the captains.

However, Hisagi spat out a response that was far more dreadful than “I’m helping” or anything else he could have offered.

“I’ll…handle them. Please don’t intervene, Captain Zaraki.”

The air around them chilled. Those nearby were tense, thinking that Hisagi might not have been in his right mind. And Kenpachi’s spiritual pressure had become so sharp that he seemed to make the air around him freeze.

“What…is he thinking?!”

“Hisagi…you’re dead, after saying that…”

Madarame’s eyes went wide, and Yumichika seemed to pity Hisagi from his heart as he looked at the Soul Reaper.

Hisagi had just uttered the very words that absolutely no one could say to Kenpachi.

Hisagi had said those words right as Kenpachi was in the midst of enjoying his battle.

He had said, “Give me your prey,” which was the same as asking for death.

“So I can assume you’re picking a fight with me then, huh?”

To Kenpachi, the fate of the Soul Society or the peace of the world of the living were secondary concerns. At that moment, he had an opponent before him whom he could fight against until he ran out of strength. That in itself was everything to him; you could even say it gave his life purpose. In other words, anyone out to steal his prey was a clear enemy who intended to take away his very reason for being.

Kenpachi’s zanpaku-to settled on Hisagi’s shoulder. He didn’t even need to tear through Hisagi. If he were to simply entrust his power into pushing his sword, Kenpachi's exceptional spiritual pressure would have easily crushed the assistant captain.

His life was undoubtedly in far more danger than when he had confronted Tokinada. Sudden, unequivocal death was looming over Hisagi from behind.

However…

Without any regard for the circumstances, Hisagi simply and matter-of-factly said, “That kid…Hikone is weak.”

“What?”

Weak.

Hisagi had certainly referred to Hikone, the child before his eyes, as such.

He had unfortunately said that.

“You…you’re calling that punk weak after the kid put up a real fight against me?”

“I am.”

“So is that your roundabout way of tellin’ me I’m weak?”

Hisagi then shook his head quietly as he turned to look at Kenpachi over his shoulder. There was certainly fear in his eyes. He was but a single Soul Reaper who, targeted by Kenpachi’s spiritual pressure, desperately held in check his trembling body.

“Hikone. Is. Weak. Weaker than you, Captain Zaraki…no, actually probably weaker than anyone here.”

This person who was only a Soul Reaper carried fear with him, but still looked at Kenpachi Zaraki as he continued to speak from the depths of his soul.

“For somebody like you, who’s inherited the renowned title of Kenpachi… Captain Zaraki, beating on a weak opponent isn’t a good look for you… So I’ll do it.”

Zaraki, who had been listening to him, thought for a few moments, then muttered to himself almost as though he were talking to someone.

“Ah, yeah, you’re right, Yachiru. Yeah, that’s true, Yachiru.”

“Hm?”

Zaraki’s usual demeanor returned and he said to Hisagi, who hadn’t been able to pick up the earlier words because they had been whispered, “You spoke the word ‘Kenpachi.’”

“…I’m sorry.”

“If we’re talking about the name ‘Kenpachi’ and not Zaraki, you’re right that I shouldn’t be picking on the weak.”

When they saw Zaraki say such a thing and then withdraw, his subordinates reacted by crying out in shock.

“What?!”

“Huh?!”

It wasn’t just Madarame and Yumichika who were surprised. Those who knew Zaraki could not believe that he would back down after finding an ideal opponent. Zaraki shouldered his sword as he turned his back to Hisagi, then immediately stepped between Aura and Hisagi. A memory of the warrior who had previously created the name “Kenpachi” floated in the back of his mind.

“Even just for argument’s sake, you brought up the name of Kenpachi.”

Then he was quiet—surprisingly so. While turning on Hisagi a spiritual pressure so chilly that it seemed as though it would melt and crumble the moment it was touched, he yelled out at Hisagi, “You put up an unworthy fight…and I’ll kill you even before that punk does.”

On the receiving end of that spiritual pressure that made the spines of those surrounding them quiver, Hisagi only had a curt reply: “Yes…thank you very much, Captain Zaraki.”

Then Hisagi confronted Hikone.

Though several of them considered whether they should lend him a hand, based on the exchange that had just occurred, it seemed Hisagi wanted to make this a one-on-one fight. There weren’t many who could take on that thing that was in the form of a Soul Reaper.

Ichigo Kurosaki and Kenpachi Zaraki could have, as well as Sosuke Aizen, if he actually wanted to win. Kisuke Urahara and Mayuri Kurotsuchi might have been able to match up to Hikone as well, if it wasn’t a match of physical strength, but this was no opponent that an assistant captain–level Soul Reaper could face.

Ginjo might also have been able to put up a decent fight, but he was currently supporting Aura along with Yukio and the others to stop the fall of the castle in the air. No matter how you looked at it, Hisagi was currently out of his depth. However, it seemed that he had met this being named Hikone in the past, and thinking he might have some sort of secret plan, those around him decided to watch what he would do.

Muguruma, who had witnessed it all, ignored his own wounds and stood up, gripping his hand into a fist as he murmured, “Don’t be reckless, Shuhei.”

Since you still can’t use bankai.

≡

Shuhei Hisagi had never acquired bankai.

At the end of his training with Muguruma and Mashiro, Hisagi still hadn’t achieved bankai.

“It’s too bad…but your power has definitely made leaps and bounds in the last few days. Make sure you show those Quincies the fruits of that.”

“Yes, sir.”

In the midst of that exchange, Muguruma had noticed that Hisagi’s fists were shaking in frustration, but there was nothing they could do about his being unable to reach bankai. However, another thought came into Muguruma’s mind.

Mashiro and I were definitely half trying to kill Hisagi. I thought that bankai would be impossible without driving him to desperation, but… We weren’t going easy on him. Was Hisagi…really that sturdy?

When he saw Hisagi continue to rise, even after he had collapsed several times, it was like watching some kind of immortal killer from a movie in the world of the living. Muguruma had determined that this tenaciousness was unique to Hisagi and had expected him to awaken himself to his bankai in the middle of the fight with the Quincies.

But not even that had happened, and no matter how many times Hisagi was defeated, in the end, he had been shot by Lille, one of Yhwach’s guards, and ended up straddling the line between life and death.

When he heard about that, Muguruma had formed a suspicion. No matter how many times he had suffered defeat, Shuhei Hisagi never died. Was that really due to his pulling through by sheer luck? Or, if it wasn’t a coincidence, was that itself the key to Hisagi’s bankai?

And now Hisagi faced Hikone.

Most of the wounds Hisagi had received from Tokinada hadn’t healed.

When Hisagi stood in their way, in far from perfect condition, Hikone asked curiously, “I don’t understand. Why would you not leave me to Mr. Zaraki?”

“I told you, didn’t I? Captain Zaraki would kill you.”

Hisagi readied Kazeshini and said to Hikone, who tilted their head quizzically, “I didn’t come here to kill you. I came to stop you.”

“I’ve already said it, but I think that’s impossible for you, Mr. Hisagi.”

Smiling wryly at Hikone’s words, Hisagi answered, “Earlier I said I thought you were probably strong. I was wrong.”

Hisagi gripped Kazeshini and looked straight at Hikone, feeling an emotion that was neither pity nor hostility. “The fact that you’re not even agitated that Tokinada isn’t here now…means you are definitely weak.”

“That’s not true! Lord Tokinada told me that I’m strong!”

“No, you’re weak. That’s why you’re not getting anywhere. Not how you are now, at least.”

“In that case, I’ll defeat you right now, Mr. Hisagi, and prove myself! I’ll prove that I’ve become strong enough to be useful to Lord Tokinada!”

Hikone spoke with self-confidence.

But Hisagi refuted it.

“When I first met you, you were just a kid crying about how you weren’t useful to Lord Tokinada and so you’d die…”

“Yes! That’s why I became much, much stronger than I was back then! Now I won’t lose to anyone!”

“It’s the opposite.”

Hisagi readied his zanpaku-to, and like an adult admonishing a child, he said in a voice that might have betrayed a hint of affection, “I think…that back then you might have been your strongest.”

Hisagi then threw Kazeshini. The vigorously revolving blade approached Hikone, and tearing through the air around them, it traced a complex path. The black chains entangled Hikone and restrained them right away.

However, reality is cruel.

Hikone easily tore off the chains using simple brute force.

In an instant, Hikone’s blade flashed as they closed the distance in the space of a breath.

After Hikone passed by him, Hisagi’s torso was bisected horizontally.

Hisagi’s body, sliced in half, crumpled…

≡

“Yo.” The shade spoke to Hisagi.

At the top of a giant tree that made him feel almost as though he were above a forest or a mountain, a rust-colored windmill rotated creakily.

It was the usual scene.

It was a mirror of the world that reflected the cycle of life.

Death and life would repeat, creating something new to perish that would become a new wind continually circulating in the space between the tree and iron.

In that scene, Hisagi saw the form of Kazeshini that called out to him. Just as when Kazeshini had appeared to him earlier, he looked like a jet-black humanoid monster.

“Looks like you pulled something pretty reckless. Did you think you’d win?”

“No idea. I just knew that if I didn’t do it, Hikone would’ve died. It wouldn’t have made sense if I had somebody else fight and asked them to hold back in order to avoid killing Hikone.”

“Hah! So you’re trying to act like a hero? You didn’t think you’d be like Muguruma when he saved you as a brat, did you? Did you think you’d be able to emulate Kaname Tosen, when he saved you when you were scared of death?”

“It’s not like that. I just…found out about circumstances relating to Hikone, and even then I was only scratching the surface. I couldn’t abandon a kid who doesn’t even know what it’s like to cry.” Hisagi’s reply was neutral, even though Kazeshini had attempted to rile him up. “And…for some reason, I just felt like talking with you like this.”

“You went and got yourself cut in half for some reason?”

Kazeshini snickered and leaned onto the windmill in human form as he said, “You’ve started to get desperate, haven’t you? You looked up to the Soul Reapers, but you didn’t know what to do. So, recklessly and irresponsibly, you tried to become the ideal Soul Reaper. You kept struggling, trying to follow the manual the Soul Society prepared for you. And the result is this…”

At that point, Kazeshini’s expression disappeared for a moment, then a smile different from the one before—as though he was satisfied by something—appeared on his face.

“Looks like you’ve finally gotten me to submit.”

“What?” Hisagi inquired, not understanding.

Kazeshini began to speak about his characteristics. “I’m…not any White or Nozarashi, but I’ve got a little something that makes me unique. My nature is more shadowy than the other asauchis.”

Though Hisagi wondered whose zanpaku-to White was, since he hadn’t heard the name before, he kept silent and waited for Kazeshini to continue.

“You looked up to the Soul Reapers and ended up getting it into your head that you wanted to be as Soul Reaper-like as possible. So a part of me took on that form. The form of reaping a life.”

“What…”

Hisagi’s eyes opened wide with surprise. The shape he had so loathed had actually been created as a reflection of his own desires.

“I’m your shadow. When you yourself accepted both your surface and your underside, and the moment you followed your soul and put your life on the line, you accepted all of yourself—in other words, you made me yield. So I needed to ask whether you were finally determined to do that, and I made things work out so that we could have a talk.”

With a more talkative than normal Kazeshini in front of him, Hisagi put on a pained smile and apologetically replied, “Yeah…I’m sorry I’ve misunderstood you until now.”

Oddly, he felt as though he understood all of what Kazeshini was saying. If Kazeshini were his shadow then that answer would have already been in him from the start. He just hadn’t realized it.

Comprehending that, Hisagi declared to his shadow, Kazeshini, “I’ll offer it to you. My blood…and also my life.”

A conspicuously strong wind swept by, scattering the leaves of the large tree and making the windmill rotate more harshly.

“If you’re saying that you’re my shadow too…then please lend me your strength.”

Kazeshini, who had just been standing in front of him, disappeared before he could blink.

“Life is not just living. By asking you to offer life, I am not asking you to die, and I am not asking you to kill. Life includes dying. And as for blood…that’s the oil that has kept your life burning. It could be money, your sense of duty, your pride…or even that thing you call ‘fear.’ I don’t care. Take all of that and add it to my blade.”

Hisagi seemed to hear that voice coming from inside of him. He realized that at the same time Kazeshini disappeared, the windmill had stopped and the world became devoid of noise.

“Controlling life, including both living and dying, is exactly what a Soul Reaper—a god of death—is, isn’t it?”

Kazeshini’s power flowed into Hisagi. He didn’t receive a power that increased his spiritual pressure. The power seemed to come in the form of Hisagi comprehending the totality of Kazeshini as a concept. In that moment, Hisagi accepted his own shadow Kazeshini, whose way of being he had hated until that point.

Then the wind died, marking the end of the cycle of life.

≡

“You idiot! You talked a big game to the captain and then got done in right off the bat! Stand up!”

“Um…I think he’s a goner…”

Madarame’s response to the scene in front of him was to yell, but Yumichika had clearly seen Hisagi’s torso cut in half, so he spoke almost as though he had abandoned hope.

Had Orihime Inoue or one of the more powerful members of the Fourth Company been there, Hisagi might have been narrowly saved from death. However, neither were near that place. Those who knew Hisagi sucked in their breaths when they saw Hisagi’s body slashed into two separate pieces, while the others just watched with expressions that said, “So he really couldn’t do it.”

But two people had a different reaction.

“No…he’s not done yet.”

Kenpachi murmured that, and Kyoraku, as though he had also sensed something, said to the speechless Nanao, “It’s okay.”

Then, in order to make sure that all that occurred next was seared into his vision, he stared at Hikone’s back.

“So, I’m looking forward to joining you again!”

Without showing even a fragment of remorse for slashing Hisagi in two, Hisagi whom Hikone themself had judged to be a kind person, the child once again turned to Kenpachi. But Kenpachi remained expressionless as he replied to Hikone, “Don’t you think you’re getting a little ahead of yourself?”

“Huh?”

Hikone then realized something strange. A black chain that they were sure they had sawn apart was now entangled around their arm. Hikone thought for a moment it might have been a remnant of the broken chains that had wound around them before, but they immediately came to realize that wasn’t the case. Hikone was yanked from behind.

“…Huh?”

When they turned around…

Hisagi, the very person who had been cut in half, was standing there uninjured.

“What? Huh?”

Hikone marveled while Hisagi stood in front of them, wearing an expression that was no different from earlier. Hisagi looked at them without saying a word. Hikone had no idea what was happening and seemed slightly surprised as they gripped their sword.

“I’m sure that I cut through you, Mr. Hisagi… Was that some sort of kido illusion?”

“That was…”

As Hisagi began to answer, he was cleaved again, diagonally this time.

“I’m sure I felt my sword go through you that time!”

Watching Hisagi, who had simply collapsed, Hikone slashed through the chain wrapped around them and sent it flying. After confirming that it had fallen to the ground, the child turned to Kenpachi and Aura.

“Huh?”

They noticed that the chain was once again wrapped around them. And when they turned around, of course, Hisagi was standing there unharmed. Strangely, even the shihakusho Hisagi wore, which Hikone was sure they had slashed through along with Hisagi’s body, had regenerated as though nothing had happened.

Though Hikone thought perhaps they were seeing some illusion, when they looked at those around them, with the exception of Kenpachi and Kyoraku everyone seemed confused to see Hisagi there.

“Hey…you serious…”

NaNaNa Najahkoop, who had been observing Hikone, looked at Hisagi’s spiritual pressure pattern and was even more bewildered than those around him as he muttered to himself, “That Soul Reaper…isn’t he in rather a precarious situation?”

“Oh…huh? That’s strange…”

Hikone, not understanding the situation they were in, simply cut through Hisagi once again in order to be rid of the obstacle in their way, so they could fulfill Tokinada’s orders. They cut off both of Hisagi’s arms so that he could no longer hold his zanpaku-to. Hisagi attempted to put up some resistance, but unable to respond to Hikone’s speed, his arms were severed without his being able to do a thing.

Thinking this was it, Hikone looked to Hisagi in order to give the final blow, but…

When Hikone turned their eyes to him, both of his arms had already returned.

“In that case…!”

Hikone raised their hand and released a Cero at Hisagi. As he was unable to avoid the direct shot, it carved a gigantic hole in Hisagi’s chest. When Hikone saw the result of his hit, which should have meant Hisagi had no heart or saketsu anymore, they thought Hisagi must have died this time.

But Hisagi still did not go down.

Though he slumped forward as though crying out, he slowly raised himself back up, and the hole that should have been carved into him had closed up. Even his shihakusho exhibited not a single tear.

“What…is going on?”

“Try thinking of the answer for yourself. Your Lord Toki-nada’s not going to explain everything for you anymore.”

Tokinada’s spiritual pressure had already disappeared from the Kyogoku. They no longer heard his voice coming from the speakers either. Hisagi wasn’t sure whether he had died of blood loss, fled the Kyogoku, or if Urahara had done something to him. The only thing that was certain was that the person who defined Hikone’s world was no longer around.

In any case, there was no one to describe to Hikone a world that was convenient to Tokinada and pleasant for Hikone to hear about.

“Is this…some kind of trick?”

Hikone was unable to come up with an explanation for what was happening in front of their eyes and so, in order to confirm what kept occurring, decided to deliberately kill Hisagi. Hikone purposefully took a shallow step forward and stayed in a position where they could see their opponent, as they once again unleashed a slashing attack.

Though Hisagi attempted to defend against that using Kazeshini, the blade broke cleanly, and he was slashed from his neck down to the side of his torso, cut neatly in half. Hikone approached in an attempt to hastily pursue him and decapitate him.

That was when Hikone saw it.

The bisected halves of Hisagi's body were connected by a jet-black chain—one for each of his wounds.

In the next moment, Hikone thought they heard the chain jangling, and as though a winch were pulling them together, Hisagi’s severed sections were reeled together. Instantly, Hisagi was returned to his original state.

“What…”

Unable to understand what they had seen, Hikone reflexively stopped moving.

They didn’t even notice that at some point, the chains had once again wrapped around them.

“Hey, Gigi…when did that thing get turned into a zombie?”

In response to Candice’s question, Giselle shrugged and shook her head.

“Not a clue. Besides, that abomination’s not a zombie.”

“That ain’t any high-speed regeneration…what is it?”

Grimmjow scowled as he looked at Hisagi while Halibel remarked to Nelliel, “He’s not the only thing that’s changed.”

“What does that mean?”

Halibel directed her attention around her. “The spiritual pressure in this place has been remade into a new form.”

Hikone was so bewildered they no longer had the wits to speak. They gathered that this was Hisagi’s zanpaku-to’s ability, but they couldn’t understand how it functioned.

Hikone had learned about most of the zanpaku-to through Tokinada. All the information about the bankai that Tokinada knew had also been drilled into their head. The aristocrat had told Hikone to be most cautious of Konjiki Ashisogi Jizo, which was a bankai that could adapt based on the opponent, but they understood nothing about the nature of Hisagi’s power, which was entirely unheard of. Not knowing how to go about accomplishing their goal, their confusion steadily intensified.

When Hisagi saw Hikone in that state, he said quietly, “I’m going to show it to you—what kind of world you’re looking at.”

“My world…?”

“Yeah.”

What came to Hisagi’s mind were the words that Aura had whispered in his ear in the throne room earlier.

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

“A request?”

“Please pray, as a Soul Reaper. So that child’s world is blessed.”

Because she likely knew that Tokinada was surveilling her, she’d had to phrase her request so that he wouldn’t recognize her betrayal. In fact, Hisagi had thought that she meant he should ally himself as a Soul Reaper with the world order in which Hikone was Soul King. If Tokinada had heard such words spoken directly, that was likely what he would have surmised as well.

However, Hisagi understood it now, after learning of Aura’s true intentions.

She had entrusted him with Hikone’s future.

“Seriously. Why me? You could’ve left this with Mr. Urahara.”

He looked at Aura, who continued to extend her power to the sky as she burned away her life. Hisagi let out a troubled sigh. However, he did not disregard her words, and as someone with dominion over death—a Soul Reaper—he confronted Hikone’s world directly.

“What I can do…is just show you that.”

Then he threw both the right and left sides of Kazeshini.

“All I can do…is forge an understanding between two mutual cowards.”

The two sickles he had released spiraled as they rose over Hisagi’s head.

As that vortex shrunk, with Hisagi at its center, Kazeshini’s two ends continued to fly, and eventually, they came into contact with each other and disappeared into the black maelstrom.

Then Hisagi quietly announced it.

He spoke the powerful words that were a Soul Reaper’s culmination.

“Bankai.”

The chains condensed in one place in the air, and in the next moment they turned into a jet-black mass that burst open, becoming a wind of spiritual pressure that raged through the expanse.

“Kazeshini Kojyo!”

The wind died down.

Hisagi, whose two blades had returned to his hand at some point, stood in front of Hikone as though nothing had happened. Two jet-black chains extended from his feet and twisted around each of his arms, firmly connecting him to the ground.

Faced with that curious scene, Hikone was even more dubious.

Probing into the nature of that bankai, they extended their spiritual pressure perception all around. However, that only informed Hikone of a strange reality.

They didn’t feel any spiritual pressure.

After the raging black wind had died down, the movement of the air itself completely stilled. Simultaneously, even the slightest tremble of spiritual pressure disappeared. The reishi in the Kyogoku, which was more pronounced than either the Soul Society’s or Hueco Mundo’s, had become entirely stationary as though time itself had stopped.

However, that was only the case on the ground and in the atmosphere.

Aura was still extending her spiritual pressure to the sky, and Kenpachi’s ominous vortex could be felt just the same.

Hikone, who had no idea what was happening, decided to attack Hisagi directly instead of waiting to see what their opponent would do. They increased the quickness of their zanpaku-to’s attack from earlier. Hikone, who confirmed that there was nothing strange about their own spiritual pressure, was once again confident they had cut Hisagi in half, but…

Hisagi remained unharmed.

To be more accurate, Hikone certainly had cut Hisagi, but from the moment they cut him, the wounds closed up as though they had never happened. No matter how many times Hikone attempted to rend into Hisagi with their blade, the moment the back of the blade passed through the Soul Reaper, the wound was already healed. Or rather, it was as though Hikone had never cut Hisagi in the first place.

It seemed that the regeneration power earlier was like a preliminary step toward the bankai. Though Hikone had no idea what had happened within the Soul Reaper Shuhei Hisagi, he had awakened his bankai here, and as part of that process, had invoked regenerative powers through his chains.

Hikone was bewildered as the chains once again wrapped around them.

“Oh…”

Hikone attempted to tear them away as before, but they weren’t able to. When they pulled, the chains would extend and continue to wind around them. Where in the world were those chains coming from? In order to find out, Hikone turned their eyes to where the chains led.

Then their entire body froze.

It was high over Hisagi’s head.

At about the same height as where the castle in the air had been, Hikone saw it.

It was something of an entirely different nature from anything Hikone had ever known before.

Was it a jet-black moon? Or a sun?

The gigantic black sphere was fixed in place as though to cast a shadow on the ground. Rather than rays of light, it stretched countless black lines down to the ground from the sky.

Hikone’s eyes registered the contents of that sun:

Chains.

Chains—the same ones that connected Kazeshini’s right and left halves in its shikai form were quickly writhing and gathering to form a gigantic sphere. At about the same time Hikone realized that, Hisagi silently hoisted the blade he’d been gripping.

In the next moment, countless fireworks seemed to launch from the ground as the chains stretched from the sky like rain in a downpour. The sky and earth were anchored in place by thousands of chains. In addition, a bundle of chains thicker than the others dangled down behind Hisagi like a gigantic black tree stretching to the heavens, connecting the ground to the black orb.

Then, just as Hikone thought the chains connecting to them and holding them in place had come undone, those combined into one chain, the ends twining around Hisagi’s and Hikone’s necks.

It was as though their necks were being tied together as part of a twisted execution ceremony.

≡

After losing most of its ability to float, the castle in the air had started to gently fall. It had also started to transport itself into Karakura Town.

Within the castle, Urahara was preoccupied with a certain task he was making progress on. But then he saw the gigantic jet-black sphere and the countless chains that extended from it through a window.

He tried probing further into the spiritual pressure around him, muttering with a serious expression on his face but never becoming lax about his work.

“So that’s Mr. Hisagi’s bankai then. Well now, that’s…a pretty nasty one.”

≡

“Captain General…what in the world is this?” Nanao was looking up at the black sun that had appeared in the sky.

Kyoraku examined the chains that surrounded Hisagi and Hikone and began to form a hypothesis about the zanpaku-to called Kazeshini. “I did think it was strange…”

“Huh?”

“At first glance, Assistant Captain Hisagi’s Kazeshini looks like two swords, doesn’t it? But typically there aren’t zanpaku-to made of two blades in a set. My wakizashi-style sword Okyo is a zanpaku-to created by Ohana after the fact, and Ukitake said it was likely Mimihagi’s influence that created his two swords.”

“But Assistant Captain Hisagi’s zanpaku-to is…”

Remembering that Hisagi had had command of two sickle-shaped blades, Nanao was confused, but based on what she had just witnessed, an answer came to her.

“Then, Kazeshini’s true form is…”

“Yes, I think it’s likely.”

The shikai form of Hisagi’s Kazeshini…

It was a pinwheel or windmill-like blade that would pursue its prey infinitely.

Just how far could the chain that connected those two blades stretch?

“Kazeshini isn’t just a sword in the shape of sickles. It’s the chain that connects them that is the zanpaku-to’s true essence.”

≡

Though Hikone had been baffled by the strangeness of Hisagi’s bankai, regardless, the child did not waver and continued their attack. Hikone didn’t understand what was happening as the chain coiled around them, but it did not attempt to constrict them, and the chains themselves didn’t transform into blades or anything of that sort.

There was a chance that Hisagi was preparing for an attack, and in order to defend against that, Hikone used all their power to attack Hisagi before he could invoke something else.

Thinking they could kill Hisagi by blasting away his entire body, they hit him with a full-power Cero, but after the light that encompassed Hisagi’s figure faded, he was, of course, still standing there unscathed.

Hikone attempted to extend their Quincy Blut to their exterior and to commandeer Hisagi’s nerves, but the Blut went down a chain that extended from Hisagi’s finger and was fended away.

In that case, did they need to destroy the gigantic black sphere? They mowed through the thing and burned it through vertically using a sharp and narrow Cero, but…

Chains once again extended from the separated halves of the massive sphere and immediately returned it to wholeness, just as had happened with Hisagi’s body earlier.

A bankai that makes the user immortal…?

No, I’m sure that Lord Tokinada told me that was impossible.

There was no past example of a zanpaku-to that could simply make its user immortal. Aizen had obtained his immortal body through the influence of the Hogyoku; that hadn’t been a power granted by a zanpaku-to.

Considering the nature of zanpaku-to, it was unlikely. Even a bankai that boasted unparalleled power, as though in equal balance, always had a weakness.

For Zangetsu, it was the relentless spiritual pressure consumption.

For Senbon Zakura, it was the existence of the safe zone.

For Nozarashi, it was the inordinate burden on the user’s body.

For Katen Kyokotsu, it was the danger of allies being caught up in its scope and the shared wounds from a double suicide.

And though it was a shikai, even Kyoka Suigetsu had a weakness that prevented it from activating Complete Hypnosis.

So the bankai of Kazeshini that seemed immortal had to have some kind of vulnerability.

In order to uncover that secret, Hikone attacked again and again, but…

No matter what they did, Hisagi would not fall. They weren’t even able to tear apart the chains that connected their necks. Though Hikone tried to vacate the area, when they reached a certain distance from Hisagi, multiple new chains would entangle them and force them back under the black sun.

“What is this…? What is this power? With a power like that, why aren’t you trying to kill me?”

At some point, the emblem of Hikone’s innocence, their childlike smile, had disappeared from their face.

In response to Hikone’s sorrowful questioning, Hisagi’s reply was matter-of-fact. “Well, I can cut you.”

In the next moment, Hisagi unleashed the blades in his hands. The two blades seemed to sink into the shadow on the earth and disappear. Then somehow a new chain entwined itself around Hikone’s arm and ran along their skin with incredible force. Each of the links of the chain transformed into narrow blades and cut into Hikone’s arm. Though they were nothing like Kenpachi’s blows, they ceaselessly abraded the same area of Hikone’s arm like a chainsaw, instantly burning through it.

“Ahh… Huh?”

Hikone then noticed something.

Their arm, which they were sure had been cut off, had at some point returned to its original place. They thought perhaps it was some kind of illusion, but the pain of the arm being severed did not seem like any hallucination.

That was when Hikone noticed something else.

It wasn’t just Hisagi.

Like their opponent, Hikone had also been given an immortal body.

“You couldn’t have…”

“It would’ve been nice if I had a bankai like Kurosaki’s or Captain Hitsugaya’s that could defeat my enemies real flashy-like. But apparently I’m just not cut out for that stuff.”

Hisagi spoke self-deprecatingly as he explained. “You see…I’m a pretty huge coward. I’m terrified of dying, and ever since I killed Captain Tosen I can’t help being terrified of having to kill someone. That might be why I ended up with this pain of a bankai.”

A bankai was said to be the reflection of its wielder’s soul. Pulling out the power that slumbered within an asauchi and tempering the zanpaku-to’s soul with their mind, they would make that power bloom as a bankai.

In that case, what form had Hisagi’s soul taken the shape of once he finally reached bankai?

It was the inverse of the fear he had—another form of dread. If Kazeshini could attain a form that would reap lives in shikai to keep the cycle of the souls in the world moving, then…

The bankai’s power was a chain that sealed away the flow of life and brought the world into stagnation. By connecting everything, it forbade death, forbade life. The black sun even bound the reishi in the atmosphere.

Because of that, it was named Kazeshini—death wind.

The cycle of the world would stop, ending all retrogression and evolution, imprisoning it in chains.

In the circumstance where life was forced into stagnation, there was, ironically, a world with no boundary between life and death.

It may have resembled the form of the world before the Soul Society had been born.

“So then you and I just can’t die? What’s the point of that?”

“Naturally, this isn’t forever. If you keep cutting me, I’ll die at some point.”

Hikone tilted their head to the side quizzically.

“Why would you tell me something like that? In that case, I’ll just keep attacking you until you die.”

Hikone did not understand why Hisagi would intentionally tell them how to prevail. The answer was extremely simple.

“Yeah, I’d die from that—and you would too.”

“Huh…?”

That was when Hikone realized it.

They had killed Hisagi multiple times recently, and with each attempt, their spiritual pressure had faintly decreased.

“But…why?”

Hikone probed with their spiritual pressure perception and, in order to confirm it, cut their own arm. Of course, it immediately regenerated, but they confirmed that a part of their spiritual pressure went through the chain to supply what was needed for the regeneration.

Then Hikone unleashed a Cero on Hisagi.

Of course, he instantly recovered, but in that moment, Hikone felt a vast amount of spiritual pressure being absorbed from them. Their own spiritual pressure went through the chain and was stored in the black sun overhead.

It was as though the ball of chains was accumulating a vast amount of spiritual pressure to use for reverting the injured, or even objects, to their original states.

Their lives were shared, and the spiritual pressure of everyone who was connected to the black sun was being equalized. In other words, the more Hikone cut Hisagi, the more their spiritual pressures would both be consumed, which would end up healing Hisagi’s wounds. And the result would be the same if Hisagi cut Hikone.

Hikone then finally realized this bankai’s true nature.

This was a system that could be used when people who Hisagi trusted were around. If he were to cancel the bankai chains once they were at their weakest state, both of them would lose their immortal status. However, as long as people like Kenpachi and Kyoraku were there, or those who weren’t connected to the chains, Hisagi’s enemy could easily be killed by his companions.

In return, he would end up half-dead as well, though as a Soul Reaper, that was perhaps something he was more than willing to abide if it meant that the enemy’s defeat was guaranteed.

It was a prerequisite that Hisagi would need friends around, and there were some other conditions that Hikone could guess at. First, though Hisagi’s new wounds were healing, the wounds he had sustained before the bankai developed weren’t. Therefore that black sun wasn’t fully healing his wounds; it was simply an ability that returned things to the state they were in when it was activated. If that were not the case, he would have connected Aura and the other critically wounded people with the chains in order to heal them using Hikone’s spiritual pressure.

There was one other thing Hikone could assume—they had come up with a method of overcoming this situation.

“Mr. Hisagi, would you please release this ability?”

“You think I would?”

“Until you release it…I’ll torture you.”

“Well, I thought it’d come to this.”

It wasn’t as though pain would disappear.

It wasn’t as though he wasn’t in agony.

Given that, Hikone could probably drive Hisagi to exhausted pain and force the Soul Reaper to release them.

Once Hikone came upon that idea, they faced Hisagi with a serious expression.

I need to torture him… But how? How can I make Mr. Hisagi feel more pain than when he stood again after I cut him in half and bisected his body diagonally from his shoulder?

Had Tokinada rather than Hikone been in this position, he likely would have come up with many methods for torturing Hisagi, maybe even several dozen, and mirthfully executed all of them. However, Hikone didn’t know how to do that. Hikone, whom Tokinada had always instructed to simply eliminate the enemy, could not come up with a way to torture their opponent on their own, no matter how they tried. Because of that, all Hikone could do was lash out and hit Hisagi with all their effort or simply continue killing him.

“I’m…very sorry.”

As he spoke, Hikone continued to kill Hisagi.

Unexpectedly, Hisagi put up no resistance.

Had he put his mind to it, he could have at least interfered with Hikone’s endeavors by cutting off their arms or legs as he had earlier. Or, had he manipulated the chains connected to his fingers, he could have easily immobilized Hikone.

Of course, Hikone had no plans to allow Hisagi to easily defeat them, but there were methods for Hisagi to significantly delay Hikone’s attacks. However, Hisagi didn’t attempt to do so.

“I’m…sorry.”

Hikone punched with brute strength, gouging through Hisagi’s flesh, breaking his rib cage, and easily rupturing his internal organs. Though he immediately recovered, if this continued forever, it would become an agony that surpassed normal injury. Regardless of that, Hisagi stood up again.

Hikone could not understand it. Why was it that Hisagi would get back up no matter how many times he was killed?

“Please…forgive me.”

Hikone attempted to swing their sword again, but Hisagi smiled cynically and said, “If you’re going to apologize for it, then don’t do it. It’s not like I’m a masochist.”

“But I need to do it for Lord Tokinada…”

“So you’re blaming hurting me…on Tokinada?”

“…Oh!”

Hikone’s arm halted.

Obvious distress coursed over Hikone’s face.

“You understand that hurting somebody who isn’t putting up any resistance is a bad thing, don’t you?”

“I…”

When Hikone was ordered by Tokinada to hurt someone, they did so without the slightest hesitation. When they were told to kill, they would, and when they were told to let someone live, they would do that as well.

Tokinada would decide the right and wrong of it. If someone were to interfere with Tokinada’s orders, Hikone wouldn’t hesitate to attack and eliminate that person.

However, what was happening now was different.

They themself needed to determine what was right or wrong.

They were hurting Hisagi because they had to in order to fulfill Tokinada’s orders. Though Hikone tried to think about it that way, at the same time, they also began considering whether there was an easier option.

As though Hisagi had seen Hikone’s thoughts, he said, “See, you’ve got a sense of right and wrong in you. Hurting somebody who’s not putting up a fight isn’t something you really want to do, right?”

“…”

“Or are you gonna put the blame on Lord Tokinada and say it’s for his sake?”

“No…” Hikone paled as they replied.

Hikone, who believed that Tokinada could do no wrong and was right about all things in their world though others called him a villain, still couldn’t bear to hear their lord being called evil due to their own actions—though they did not know whether what they were doing was right.

“Why…would you say something so terrible? What should I do then?”

“Don’t rely on someone else for every little thing. You can’t assume everyone in the world will be kind to you.”

“But Lord Tokinada…Lord Tokinada would have…”

Hikone pulled from their clothes a tool that seemed to be used for communication, but Tokinada did not answer.

“But…”

Hikone wore an expression like a child about to cry. Hisagi’s tone was stern, but his words were gentle as he said, “You’re not a villain and you’re not a puppet who has to do whatever Tokinada tells you. You’re somebody who can walk the path of your own soul.”

Hisagi moved one of his fingers to manipulate one of the chains, pulling a zanpaku-to that was the same shape as his shikai from the shadow on the ground.

“If you can’t fight somebody who isn’t putting up any resistance, then I’ll battle you.”

“Huh?”

“There’s a mountain of things I’ve got to teach you. I’m saying I’ll train you. Don’t worry about it.”

Hisagi blurted out that offer regardless of the fact that Hikone was by far the more powerful of the two.

Though Hikone was bewildered by what Hisagi was saying, Hisagi thrust out Kazeshini’s blade.

“Don’t hesitate. If I were an enemy, you would’ve died because of that opening just now.”

“…”

“When you fight an enemy, always keep half a step away from them. You never know what’ll happen.”

Hisagi gave Hikone the exact advice Tosen had once delivered to him without amendment.

Hikone couldn’t understand the meaning of Hisagi’s words and, in order to keep from becoming more confused than they already were, rejected Hisagi’s advice by sweeping away Kazeshini’s blade.

“Ugh…agh. Stop…please stop talking!”

They once again promptly killed Hisagi, but of course he regenerated.

Turning the tables, Hisagi’s blade stopped right at Hikone’s neck.

“Oh…”

“See, you would’ve been a goner right then. Aren’t you supposed to be way stronger than me? You’re full of openings.”

Hikone might have been a prodigy when it came to combat, but they didn’t have nearly enough experience. Taking into account Hisagi’s accumulated training, Hikone’s agitation, and this peculiar situation in which neither could die from being cut, Hikone’s skills could certainly be improved upon.

“No, this is…this is wrong. I became strong so that I could be useful to Lord Tokinada…”

“You need to have more fear. That’s what you’re missing.”

“Ah…ahhhhhhhhhh!”

As though to reject Hisagi’s words, Hikone emitted a scream that was close to a sob and cut Hisagi down multiple times in a tantrum. Hisagi endured the pain and thrust Kazeshini, always stopping just before reaching Hikone’s throat, heart, eyes, and countless other vital spots. The scene resembled an adult Soul Reaper training an admiring child Soul Reaper.

Remembering his younger self, when he wasn’t as powerful and cried after being attacked by a Hollow, Hisagi allowed himself to be cut down countless times and continued to stop his blade before hitting Hikone, giving the child pointers all the while.

This scene playing out as the castle in the air threatened to fall from the sky was almost comical, but Aura, who was keeping the structure from falling, endured the agony and seemed to find satisfaction in watching them.

Shuhei Hisagi was neither a prophet nor all-knowing and naturally had no way of foretelling his future.

He was not a hero that would go down in history like Ichigo Kurosaki,

nor was he a manifestation of brute strength like Kenpachi Zaraki,

nor was he wise like Kisuke Urahara,

nor was he skilled like Mayuri Kurotsuchi,

nor did he have the status of Byakuya Kuchiki,

nor did he have the talent of Toshiro Hitsugaya,

nor did he have the experience of Genryusai Yamamoto,

nor the brilliance of Shunsui Kyoraku,

nor the drive of Sajin Komamura,

nor the courage of Kensei Muguruma.

Because of that, specifically because of that…

The only thing supporting him was his pride as a Soul Reaper.

He only had his feet, which walked the path of justice that Kaname Tosen had shown him.

Specifically because of that…

…because he had continued to walk that path with honest integrity…he was capable of withstanding the repeated death, pain, and intermittent nihility that assaulted him.

Though only a small amount of time had passed, in those moments Hisagi revived from over a hundred deaths.

Hikone breathed raggedly as they fell to their knee.

Hikone’s spiritual pressure, which was once huge enough to rival Kenpachi’s, seemed to have emptied to its lowest point. That meant that Hisagi’s spiritual pressure was likewise almost empty. As Hisagi continued to stand in front of the collapsed Hikone through sheer willpower, he spoke to the child with simple self-admonition in his voice. “This world isn’t kind. Just being alive is terrifying.”

Recalling his past self, then the face of the man who had taught him how to live in this world, he continued in his own words.

“That’s exactly why you’ve got to be kind to everybody around you. And I will try to do that as well.”

≡

With Hikone almost unconscious before him, Hisagi glanced toward Kyoraku.

“I’m going to release my bankai…but don’t kill Hikone when I do.”

“Huh? Do you think I would be such a fiend?”

Kyoraku shrugged it off, but he replied with a serious look on his face. “Well, anyway. If I did that, the young lady over there would probably stop holding the castle.”

Hisagi looked over and noticed the clouds surrounding the castle in the air already starting to seem abnormal. The clouds were steadily disappearing, and the edge of this disappearance was approaching the castle itself.

“The teleportation’s already gone so far…”

Hisagi understood what Kyoraku was saying and tried to release Kazeshini’s bankai.

Now that Hikone had used up almost all their spiritual pressure, they were harmless. He thought that he could just use a simple hakufuku to put them to sleep, but…

It happened the moment he released the bankai with both their spiritual pressures almost fully depleted. Just as he saw Hikone’s zanpaku-to light up, a Hollow-like monstrosity—Ikomikidomoe—appeared and assaulted Hikone.

“What…?”

Since it had all happened in the span of a second, those surrounding them were too late to respond.

But there was one who could still protect Hikone.

The one who just barely defended Hikone the moment that Ikomikidomoe’s fangs threatened to tear the child’s head off was Aura, who instantly came between them. Since she had been directing all of her spiritual pressure toward the castle in the sky, she hadn’t been able to fully turn herself into mist, and the side of her torso was gouged deeply as her body was flung into the air.

“Oh…”

“Aura!”

Though Hisagi was almost out of breath, he ran to where Aura had collapsed and held her.

Meanwhile, Ikomikidomoe, now separated from Hikone, was rapidly absorbing the spiritual pressure around him and growing at a terrific pace.

“I was so close to consuming all the Fragments of the Reio.”

“That numbskull…”

Grimmjow gritted his teeth as he saw Ikomikidomoe ominously transform his entire form.

“But, right now, a small piece is enough.”

When he had separated from Hikone, he must have stolen some of the Fragments of the Reio that were in the child. He was absorbing the reishi in the atmosphere with a force that was incomparable and condensing an incredibly ominous spiritual pressure as he stood in the way of Hisagi and the others.

“So this is a Fragment of the Reio, then! Ha ha, ha ha ha! That was it! I remembered! I remembered it!”

Even a small Fragment of the Reio seemed to have given Ikomikidomoe immense power, to the point that the Manako Osho’s zanpaku-to ability had been weakened and he had apparently regained his true name that had been overwritten. At the same time, his spiritual pressure swelled with an explosive force, and he diffused a Hollow presence within the Kyogoku that was far more pronounced than before.

Then, as a first step toward killing everyone in that place and getting his revenge on Squad Zero, he raised his voice to extol his own true name.

“Etch it into your flesh along with your despair. My true name is—”

“Hey.”

Ikomikidomoe turned toward the voice behind him, and…

…leaping high from the sky with Nozarashi, a gigantic zanpaku-to larger than he was tall, gripped in his hand, a demonic form filled Ikomikidomoe’s sight.

“I’m not lettin’ anybody take you from me.”

Then a blow like a fierce god’s—a blow strong enough to smash a meteor—came down on Ikomikidomoe.

In the end, Ikomikidomoe was unable to say his own true name.

All that was left was Ikomikidomoe in his faded sword form after Nozarashi crushed and dispersed most of the power from the Fragments of the Reio.

“…the hell?”

Kenpachi seemed disappointed as he regarded the broken and battered zanpaku-to blade that may or may not have retained its will, and he spat out…

“Your name might as well’ve been ‘wimp.’”

≡

“Aura! Hang in there!” Hisagi shouted as he laid Aura on the ground.

Though Nanao tried to use kaido on her, Aura shook her head slightly and held her wound with her hand as she stood up.

“Don’t…mind me. You should treat Hikone…”

She still held Hikone in her arms from when she had rescued the child. Hikone, who had lost most of their spiritual pressure, slowly opened their eyes, looking dazed.

“…Ms…Aura…?”

“I’m fine. Please, Master Hikone, take your time and rest.”

Aura uttered these words as though she were the next Soul King’s subordinate, yet when Nanao looked at Aura then, she felt she didn’t see a servant, but a mother.

Aura left Hikone with Nanao and once again turned her attention to the sky.

“Hey, what are you planning?”

Aura, still pale, smiled at Hisagi as she always did and told him, “There’s something I need to do.”

The teleportation had already reached a section of the outer walls, at a point where they couldn’t postpone it a moment more. Urahara’s voice once again echoed from the external speakers. “Apologies for the delay!”

In the next moment, a gigantic garganta opened its maw at the lower end of the castle in the air. Once they saw the jet-black fissure, even bigger than a Menos Grande or the Hollow Fura, all of them realized what Aura and Urahara’s aim was.

“I’ve already discussed what we would do in the event this occurred with President Vorarlberna. I’ve exhausted all my tricks, and this is as big as I can make it right now.”

The Arrancars seemed to have complex feelings about a Soul Reaper like Urahara opening such an unbelievably large garganta. Nelliel sighed.

“A garganta isn’t exactly supposed to be a garbage dump…but I suppose with the situation being what it is, we don’t have any other options.”

“That’s more than large enough.”

Then Aura subjugated the konpaku in the air and attemp-ted to leap into the sky.

“Hey…are you just leaving?”

When Hisagi saw Aura’s injuries, he realized her very survival was precarious. If she were to try to control the fall of the gigantic castle in the air, it would be suicide. At the same time, he understood that he couldn’t stop her, no matter what he did.

He thought she would say something to Hikone, but Aura slowly shook her head.

“I was able to hold Hikone in my own arms for the first time. That was enough.”

“I see… Well, if that’s how you feel, then all right.”

“Yes. Please do take care as well, Mr. Hisagi.”

Though he felt that the smile on her face at that moment was different from her usual mechanical expression, Hisagi didn’t question what it meant.

Hikone slowly reached out their hand from where they had collapsed.

“Wait…please wait.”

Aura turned her eyes to Hikone and gave the child a smile filled with more heartfelt affection than the one she had shown Hisagi. “Please, stay in good health.”

Though her words were curt, it seemed that they were enough for Aura.

“Oh…”

Before Hikone could say anything else, she had turned herself into mist. She transformed, though they had thought she was no longer able to just a moment before. Doing so must’ve been a burden for her, but she likely wanted to demonstrate for Hikone that she was fine.

Then the shape of the castle in the sky changed through Aura’s handiwork and slowly disappeared into the fissure of the garganta.

At the same time, as though the teleportation had completed, the clouds floating in the Kyogoku fully cleared.

Hikone’s hands were still reaching toward her, but eventually their yearning seemed to fade as they muttered with an unspeakably sorrowful expression, “I wasn’t able to fulfill the role Lord Tokinada gave me.”

“Yeah, you weren’t.” Hisagi answered him, though he thought Hikone had probably been speaking to themself.

“I tried to kill…Ms. Aura for Lord Tokinada…I still think that was right, even now…to do it for Lord Tokinada.”

“Do you?”

Hisagi noticed a faint doubt in Hikone’s eyes. Hikone would soon find the answer. Understanding that, Hisagi didn’t immediately condemn Tokinada’s behavior.

After Hikone was silent for a while, they turned to Hisagi and asked directly, “Why would Ms. Aura have saved me?”

Though he could think of several reasons, Hisagi felt that at this point it wasn’t right for him to give an answer, so he sidestepped the question. “Don’t think about it too much. She did that because she wanted to. That’s good enough, don’t you think?”

“She did it…because she wanted to? Didn’t she have a reason?”

They likely felt the effect of Ikomikidomoe having stolen some of their Fragments of the Reio. Though Hikone should have had leftover spiritual pressure about the same as Hisagi’s, Hikone was so emaciated they couldn’t move. Still, they continued. “I heard that…Ms. Aura is something like…my mother.”

Hisagi’s words had given them more confidence about the reason for Aura’s actions.

“Was she? Then she really doesn’t need to explain.”

Hikone was silent for a while… Then, for the first time, they spoke from their own heart, rather than following Tokinada’s will.

“Do you think…I’ll actually be able to call Ms. Aura ‘mother’ someday…? No…do I even…have the right to…?”

Hikone’s voice trailed off as Hisagi shrugged.

“If you don’t know, then I’ll tell you.”

Despite being wounded all over, he tried not to show his own weakness as he said to Hikone with a bitter smile, “Having a reason or having the right to…these things don’t matter when it comes to a mom fawning over her kid.”

≡

The Soul Society,
Tsunayashiro Family Main Residence

“Ha…ha ha ha! I suppose when one lives for an extended period of time, things like this occasionally happen.”

Tokinada was in the deserted inner parlor of the Tsunayashiro family residence. He had used a small Tenkaiketchu with coordinates set to this room rather than Karakura Town in order to escape from the Kyogoku to the Soul Society.

Still, he had suffered severe wounds, and he left a trail of blood behind him as he slowly headed deeper into the residence.

“Well, that was a good experience. I suppose even a group of cornered rats can kill a tiger. I still have many cards to play, but until I heal these wounds, I should hide for a while…”

As he muttered to himself, Tokinada opened the door to the chamber of the head of family. At that point, he was bothered by the faintest sense of anxiety. The air in the room was slightly different than usual. Though he had been severely wounded, an unrelated chill ran through his body.

“…Huh?”

Someone was in the room. Whether it was a servant or a guest, or a confident assassin, it was not easy to sneak into this place. It was protected by several barriers so that anyone without Tsunayashiro blood would have a difficult time stepping foot in it.

However, it might have been possible for a Soul Reaper with the rank of captain to pass through those barriers.

“Are you the ninth successor of the Fon family…? Or Byakuya Kuchiki…?”

He remembered the face of the Secret Remote Squad head that he had met half a day earlier, as well as that of the other member of the Four Great Noble Clans he had been disdainful toward some time earlier. With his zanpaku-to stolen and his blood loss severe, the likelihood of his surviving a captain was low.

Regardless, Tokinada smiled boldly.

How entertaining. It seems that I cannot survive this much entertainment and won’t be making a comeback.

In a test of himself, Tokinada neither ran nor hid, but simply stepped in.

“Who are you? Don’t you think it’s somewhat impolite for you to step foot into the Tsunayashiro residence?”

From the back of the room, a shadow near the seat of the head of family answered.

“Oh yes, how rude of me.”

“You…”

“I couldn’t find anyone around, so I thought it was abandoned—my mistake.”

“Mayuri…Kurotsuchi.”

Tokinada smiled cynically at the man. “You’re the one who delivered Kyoraku and the others into the Kyogoku, aren’t you? I thought you were thoroughly occupied with that.”

“I’ve left that with a remote-controlled double. The person here with you now may also be a double, but it makes no difference.”

“I doubt you came here under Kyoraku’s instructions. Did you come to capture me? Or did you perhaps come to see if you could get one of the Four Great Noble Clans in your debt?”

“I don’t see much use in making you indebted to me in your current situation. Then again, I wouldn’t have much interest in you even if you were in perfect condition.” Mayuri’s tone was matter-of-fact. “But I was interested that the Tsunayashiro family that heads the Four Great Noble Clans went to some lengths to conduct an experiment to create a Soul King. Though the data from the surveillance bugs I attached to the Corpse Unit is coming back at the same time the barrier around the Kyogoku is breaking…”

Though not much time had passed since Tokinada’s flight, Mayuri sighed dramatically and shook his head as though he comprehended everything that had happened.

“Considering all this along with the data you left behind here, it seems that you really are an amateur with only superficial knowledge, Tokinada Tsunayashiro. Had you entrusted the plan to me from the start, I would at least have been able to rapidly perfect the Soul King’s vessel.”

“Heh heh…but you didn’t come here to say you’d help me make my dream into reality.”

“The biggest obstacle in the way of increasing the perfection of the Soul King’s vessel is the being Tokinada Tsunayashiro himself. Had you entrusted the matter with me, I would have immediately eliminated you, of course. Even if you were to boast about leaving it all to me for the sake of a greater cause, it would be troublesome if you were to meddle according to your whims and indulgences.”

Mayuri spoke as though the matter were so obvious he could not possibly understand why Tokinada had even asked the question, and Tokinada let a strained smile form on his face as he endured the pain of his wounds.

“Heh heh…that was very harsh of you. However, there is no way I would have created Hikone for the sake of a greater cause.”

Tokinada narrowed his eyes and ridiculed the “greater cause” Mayuri had just mentioned.

“There was no reason behind creating a Soul King other than for my own indulgence. If you’ve seen the Corpse Unit’s data, you understand the depth of the Soul Society’s crime that I spoke of, do you not? This world was formed as a result of treachery and spite. There doesn’t need to be any great cause in a world where the descendants of criminals fight for their wretched profits! The world should revolve and rot around our amusements and desires, should it not?!”

“It seems we do not see eye to eye. To use the crimes of the past as a reason to block change in the world now is just laziness.”

“Heh…it’s always that way for Kisuke Urahara and the rest of you scientists. You talk extravagantly about making the world turn or creating something new…but no matter how you spin it, you are drowning in your own selfish thirst for knowledge, and you only amount to a servant to the world’s profit!”

The moment the name Kisuke Urahara had come out of Tokinada’s mouth and he had equated the two of them, Mayuri’s eyes narrowed and he shook his head with pity.

“Good grief, it would mean trouble for me if you were to speak so trivially of science. You’re almost like a child throwing a fit.”

“Yes! I won’t deny that! Tearing apart a bug crawling along the ground in front of my eyes and laughing at it is the same as using my influence in the world to achieve my gratification! There is no difference between you and me! We both dance atop the ants and occasionally find one that is powerful—that is all! Aren’t you the same, Mayuri Kurotsuchi?”

Regardless of the fact that he himself was half dead, Tokinada grinned and shouted, spewing blood.

“Now what will you do? Will you join me? Shall we kill each other? Or will you take me like the mob of others you dominate, bottling me up in order to make me suffer forever as an experimental subject? No matter which route you take, remember this…the man you see before your eyes is the very karma of the Soul Society!”

Without his position as a noble and without Enra Kyoten, would Tokinada have held sway over Mayuri Kurotsuchi? It was doubtful that the influence of nobility meant anything when it came to Mayuri Kurotsuchi.

Regardless of that, the man prioritized his own amusement.

Instead of answering Tokinada, Mayuri remarked indifferently, “I don’t know what you’re so angry about, but I only came here to observe your research. Well…regardless, I will apologize for entering this room without permission.”

At that point, Mayuri turned his eyes away and continued as though the matter were becoming tedious to him. “And if I were to apologize for other things as well, it would be for not relocking the door.”

“Huh?”

Tokinada scowled when he didn’t understand Mayuri’s words.

In the next moment, Tokinada felt an impact on his back.

“What…?”

He had no time to feel the pain. He realized that something cold was entering his body.

“What…just…”

Tokinada realized that a blade had emerged from his abdomen. After having observed tens of thousands of zanpaku-to, Tokinada immediately recognized it.

It wasn’t even a shikai, just a simple asauchi.

Mayuri didn’t move a step in front of his eyes. It was as though he no longer had the slightest interest in Tokinada as he looked at the bindings on the room’s bookshelves.

“Imposs…ible… Who…”

Tokinada’s spine creaked as he turned around and found a girl dressed in black who appeared to be quite young.

“Hm? Who…are you…?”

For a moment he thought that she was Soi Fon, based on her stature, but he realized that wasn’t the case. Then Tokinada noticed that the clothing she wore matched that of a family of assassins he himself had framed in the past, pinning the blame for the killing of one of the Tsunayashiro family on them.

“I see. So…the commission has finally been filled, then?”

As Tokinada neared his ironic end, he said something she wasn't expecting.

“C-commission…? What…what are you talking about?”

Her voice quivered, and she gripped her blade as though she did not know any of the fundamentals of swordsmanship. Seeing that, he realized that she was just a trainee who was far from having the skills of a true assassin.

“Everyone’s…spite…! Tokinada Tsunayashiro…! You…did that to my whole family…!”

The young girl grew teary-eyed while trying to speak. Tokinada was in a daze for a moment before he spat up a gob of blood and squeezed out some empty words. “Your parents’…enemy…?”

“Th-that’s right! You did that to everyone…”

To Tokinada, the emotions in the girl’s eyes were nothing like an assassin’s. This girl whose name he didn’t know was different from the assassins Tokinada had seen. Since she still had feelings for her family, a hindrance an assassin would have immediately abandoned, it was likely she was completely inexperienced.

“You say that you killed me…for something as small as that?”

“As small as…something as small as that…?!”

The girl in black opened her eyes wide and raged as she stabbed Tokinada again and again.

Mayuri acted as though he had no interest in the tragedy unfolding before him and skimmed a book that had happened to draw his eye. The sound of the blade hitting flesh and of pages turning filled the room.

How much time had passed?

After stabbing Tokinada countless times with the asauchi in her hand, the assassin sank to the floor, breathing raggedly. However, Tokinada was still standing.

“So…are you…done, then?”

“Uh ugh…”

Seeing his nightmarish behavior, the would-be assassin’s fear had overtaken her hatred, and she started to quiver from a different emotion. With such an enemy in front of him, Tokinada slowly straightened his form from its slumped position. The sound of something shredding within Tokinada reverberated, and blood started to flow from his mouth without ceasing.

Death.

It would have been clear to anyone that Tokinada had arrived at that fate.

If he could just squeeze out his remaining strength to fire one kido at her, he would have easily been able to send the inexperienced assassin before him into oblivion. However, Tokinada’s eyes had already turned away from the assassin. Tokinada forced out his remaining strength to take his final action.

It wasn’t to cry out in fear of death.

It was not even to shake in rage from the fate of being killed by someone he looked down upon.

It wasn’t to repent for his wife or Tosen now that he was on the verge of death.

Nor did he slaughter the assassin who had fatally wounded him.

Nor did he leave a message with Mayuri.

“Ha…ha ha ha…”

He simply laughed.

“Ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! I get it! So I…I die here! It was not Tosen, who held a grudge for so long, but someone like this…an insignificant nobody seeking revenge has caused me to meet my doom! So this is how I will spend my last moments, after taking everything from the Tsunayashiro family and properly inheriting the karma of the Soul Society! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!”

“Uh…ahh…”

Overwhelmed by Tokinada’s laughing even as he spat blood, the assassin was immobilized.

Meanwhile, Mayuri silently lifted his eyes from his book. His expression didn’t change as he listened to Tokinada’s final words. Tokinada then turned his attention not to the two who were present in the room, but to the man he shared a fate with who was not there.

“See…see what happened, Shunsui Kyoraku?!”

Pouring his disappearing life into it, Tokinada spewed vast amounts of blood as he, the head of the Four Great Noble Clans, simply shouted words of malice and ridicule.

“My life comes to an end here, Kyoraku! That means a girl whose name I don’t even know defeated all of you! You couldn’t even reach me! Finally! Finally I ruined your plans! How unfortunate! How deplorable! You Soul Reapers! Now you’ll never be able to punish me!”

Only the volume of his voice was clear. His face was so pale that it was a wonder he was still alive. Though he shouldn’t have been able to speak due to his wounds, Tokinada turned his bloodshot eyes to the void as he continued to yell at those who weren’t there, amusement on his face.

“How’s that, Tosen?! Do you feel crushed? I will…die without feeling the slightest regret for what I did! How’s that, Shuhei Hisagi?! How’s that, Ginjo?! How’s that, Aura?! Are you being killed by Hikone right now? Even if you survive, you won’t…be able…to lay a hand on my soul anymore.”

The assassin girl was so alarmed by the unintelligible shouts of her opponent that all she could do was watch. It seemed that Tokinada could no longer see. He was slowly walking toward nothing and no one even as a wicked smile continued to warp his features.

“How’s that…Ukitake…the man you tried to believe in…is still going to die…and nothing will change…”

As though a wound-up spring had shot up within him, he spurted yet more blood and collapsed on the spot.

It was unclear what he saw in his last moments…

“How’s…that…Kakyo? The stars…you…”

Though his eyes looked peaceful for just one moment, his mouth twisted heinously, as though he were trying to cast away that emotion and his own salvation…

Then he simply came to a halt.

“So it was the sentimentality of an inexperienced assassin that did it, then.”

After Mayuri gave the still quivering young assassin a glance, he slowly walked out and left the Tsunayashiro family room behind.

“I see. So it seems that cutting short the Soul Society’s karma only required something as small as that.”

Mayuri likely would have been able to extend Tokinada’s life. It might have been possible for him to resurrect the man like the Corpse Unit or as a living corpse like Izuru Kira.

However, he did not attempt to do so.

Perhaps it was because there was no value in that to Mayuri or for some other reason that could not be guessed. He did not even turn around to look at Tokinada’s corpse or try to capture or kill the assassin that had just killed someone from the Four Great Noble Clans. He simply ignored everything as though he had lost all interest whatsoever and wiped all trace of himself from that place.

A while after that, the still-frightened girl in black ran from the room.

Only the miserable corpse was left behind in the bloodied room.

Tokinada Tsunayashiro.

It might have been by design, or because he truly had just forgotten…

In the end, his life was cut short without leaving any words for Hikone in the final moment.

It was a major disgrace for the head of the Four Great Noble Clans.

Yet he continued to remain true to his soul up until his very last moment.

≡

Muken

Not a single color was allowed to grace the prison.

Covered by infinite shadows on a jet-black floor, multiple barriers had been set up to prevent even the faintest of light from reaching that underground jail. Those who had been given the death penalty but could not be killed due to various circumstances were sealed away in this prison of darkness. In the prison where silence would normally dominate, a man's emotionless voice resounded through the space.

“So one of the flows…has changed.”

Sosuke Aizen.

The prisoner who had spent so much time in that darkness used his incomparable perception to verify that a certain soul had been extinguished in the Soul Society. Aizen, whose body was almost entirely restrained, had guessed that a soul that had a link with a man who was one of his trusted retainers had disappeared, but his face showed no emotion.

Instead, an agreement he had come to with his retainer revived itself in his mind.

≡

The Past

“Is there anything you wish for, Kaname? I will give you a token of thanks for following me as my most loyal subject. If there is something that you wish for, you may tell me.”

The memory of Aizen asking that of Kaname Tosen, his loyal retainer, revived itself in his mind.

“If you would allow it…I have one wish.”

“Oh?”

Curious to know what the man in front of him selfishly desired, Aizen lent him an ear, but what came from Kaname Tosen’s lips was something far from a reward.

“What I wish for is…a warning against a sin.”

He urged Tosen to go on with silence.

“If I commit a betrayal and become able to accept the Soul Reapers’ world… If this world, that will never achieve evolution gives me peace…at that moment, please wipe my existence from the world and leave no trace.”

Though his words seemed strange, Aizen understood what Tosen wanted and asked to confirm it, “It is true that if you stop walking your path…you might forgive the Soul Reapers. However, don’t you think that you could accept forgiving them?”

“If absoluteness exists, then you are the only one who would be so, Lord Aizen. Even the one who taught me the way of justice was also a part of the world I despise.”

“I see, so the very origin of the justice that stirs you is also the linchpin that may destroy your great cause.”

Kakyo.

When Aizen recalled the name of the woman who had been Tosen’s best friend, Tosen continued, “If I accept the Soul Reapers’ world, that means that I have disavowed my cause. At that moment, the things that I have done wouldn’t be justice, they would simply turn into slaughter.”

Gripping his hand into a fist, Tosen recalled a past he could not wipe away and spoke with effort. “If I did that…then my friend Kakyo’s death and way of being would be sullied. Not only would I be standing here after betraying her wishes, backtracking on my cause would be the same as killing her again.”

“But don’t you think she would have forgiven you, had she still been alive?”

“Yes. She likely would have. That is why, before I succumb to vice within her innate goodness now that she is no longer here, I would like the mercy of disappearing from this world.”

“Mercy, is it?”

“If my cause is a fraud, then I absolutely cannot be forgiven! Before my heart is filled with false salvation, please destroy the entirety of my konpaku. That is my wish.”

Tosen asked for something not for the sake of his great cause, but to serve his own emotions. Once Aizen understood the significance of that and Tosen’s resolve, he uttered a question that he already anticipated the answer to: “Once I stand atop heaven and create the new world, what do you intend to do?”

“That new world cannot have a prisoner to revenge like me in it. Because of that, after you come to stand atop heaven, I will kill myself to fully purify the world.”

“It seems no matter what happens, I will lose one of my trusted retainers.”

“I am very sorry. Please forget everything I’ve just said.”

Even he seemed to understand he was a prisoner of his own emotions.

Tosen seemed regretful as he apologized, and Aizen told him, “I don’t mind. These are words that originate in your true feelings.”

“What doesn’t allow me to sever myself from the justice that my friend…Kakyo…extolled, is my own inexperience.”

“I don’t mind that either. Knowing one’s own weakness is the foundation of climbing higher.”

Aizen looked at the incomplete Hogyoku he held in his hand as he continued with a daring smile, “Since evolution occasionally requires fear.”

Then, Aizen agreed to something that was absolute for the subordinate he trusted.

“Let me promise you that. Before you suffer from the plight of forgiving the Soul Reapers, I will erase you with certainty.”

≡

The darkness in Muken quivered faintly.

“Kaname, it seems that those who follow in the footsteps you left behind have walked a path to a rather entertaining place.”

After sweeping away the memories of the past, whether Aizen felt something in his chest…

…or whether his heart hadn’t been moved in the slightest…

…was unknowable…

The past that had already come to be simply melted into the infinitely spreading darkness.

“Even if they are able to surpass that corpse in the end…

“I will wait with anticipation, looking forward to the time when their journey illuminates my own path.”