The moment the scythe's blade met the sword's hilt, a fleeting blankness flashed through Takasugi's mind.
The expected sensation of blood and the reality before his eyes clashed, leaving him momentarily unable to process that his full-force strike had been effortlessly blocked.
But after that instant of mental void, a surge of irritation followed, his carefully crafted bravado shattered.
Initially operating at fifty percent of his evolved power, his arm already as thick as a thigh, swelled further under a surge of reiatsu, reaching seventy percent.
"Break!"
Takasugi roared, the scythe's edge, pressed against the hilt, slashing sideways with crushing force.
With a thunderous boom, a fissure split the ground along the line where blade and hilt parted.
The barren earth seemed cleaved by a giant blade, the crack deepening as it stretched into the distance, shattering countless stones.
Gazing at the scattered debris, Takasugi's brief surprise gave way to a contemptuous smirk.
He looked at Makoto's impassive face and sneered, "Though the extent of my power's growth surprised even me, you must see it now, don't you?"
"Makoto Fujimiya."
"My strength now-"
His voice rose sharply, the scythe and the spear-like spider legs behind him thrusting forward.
"...is beyond anything you can imagine!"
Makoto regarded him, seemingly surprised. "Is that so?"
Buzz!
The air quaked.
Five attacks, launched at supersonic speed from point-blank range, unleashed a torrent of reiatsu and shockwaves, merging into a deafening explosion aimed at Makoto's head.
His clothes and hair whipped in the gust.
Saito's single eye narrowed instinctively, her hand reaching toward him. "Makoto!"
But in the next moment, that terrifying force vanished.
As if erased from existence itself.
All that remained was the ornate scabbard in Makoto's hand.
Takasugi, frozen mid-strike, felt his spider legs and scythe lose all momentum.
The emptiness was unnerving.
He turned, shifting his gaze from Makoto's calm face to his own weapons.
The chain linked to his scythe was reduced to a short stump, its end sliced mirror-smooth.
As if it had never existed.
His four spider legs were cleanly severed at their midpoint.
Clatter!
The bone-like limbs fell at Makoto's feet.
Their cuts were as smooth as the chain's.
Instinctively, Takasugi's hooves stumbled back several steps, his pupils constricting.
"Indeed." Makoto's voice was calm, almost soft, yet it seemed to echo in his ears.
"If it were me, I truly couldn't imagine."
"What gave you such fearless confidence, Takasugi-kun?"
The near-mocking tone made Takasugi freeze.
In the next moment, his fear ignited into a blazing rage, hot enough to consume himself and everything around him.
"Shut up!!!"
With a shout, he discarded the now-useless handle of his scythe, charging at Makoto like a frenzied beast.
New spider legs tore through his skin, emerging from his back amidst streams of blood.
The severed legs regrew, sharper, thinner, and tougher than before.
Eight legs wove a mist of motion, their afterimages indistinguishable.
Yet, facing Takasugi's near-mad assault, Makoto stood unmoved, his left hand gripping the scabbard's midpoint, casually thrusting its hilt forward.
Sparks erupted in a dazzling cascade.
Shockwaves rippled outward, the spider legs stabbing empty air, leaving deep craters in the distant ground, their piercing force undiminished even after dozens of meters.
But Saito nearby, and Ginrei and Ryoma farther off, could clearly see…
Not a single scratch marred Makoto's body.
Ginrei's Bankai cloak had dissipated unnoticed, and he stood frozen, staring at the scene, his expression rigid, a murmur escaping his lips.
"This can't be…"
A deep, unspeakable despair underscored his tone.
If even onlookers felt this, Takasugi, standing before Makoto, was far worse off.
Accelerate! Strengthen! Sharpen reflexes!
Relentless evolution!
From fifty percent power to seventy… to one hundred!
Eight spider legs lashed out chaotically from all directions, too fast even for him to control, their bone-like surfaces glowing red-hot from friction with the air.
His once-human arms twisted into mantis-like scythes, flashing with radiant blade-light in the confined space.
Takasugi could keenly feel his reiatsu soaring.
No one understood his strength better than he did.
Had he faced himself from his 'captain' days, this barrage would have shredded his body into pulp in an instant.
Yet no matter how he amplified his power and speed, he couldn't touch the hem of the man before him.
The terror of being so close, yet unable to make contact, flooded his heart like a geyser.
But a battle for survival, once begun, could not be stopped.
Fear and urgency clashed, driving him to roar uncontrollably, "Impossible!!"
Clang!
Eight spider legs and twin scythe-arms struck simultaneously.
The hilt tapped forward lightly, striking the nexus of all ten attacks.
A single blow halted his entire onslaught.
Through the web of attacks, Makoto's gaze remained as cold as ever, toying with him as if he were a child.
His expression and stance hadn't shifted since the start.
Takasugi's face froze completely.
…
"Hehehe… hahahahaha!"
"Interesting!"
Hearing the word "ultimate." Kinroku seemed to find something amusing, bursting into laughter.
It started as a chuckle, then grew louder, uncontainable.
Kensei frowned, puzzled by the odd reaction.
"What's so funny?" He asked. "Have you given up after learning the truth, Captain Kinroku?"
"Ah, sorry, sorry…" Kinroku waved his hands, taking a moment to stifle his laughter.
But when he looked up, his weathered face still bore a grin he couldn't fully suppress.
"It's just… it's been a while since I heard something so entertaining."
Kensei's frown deepened, as if a truth he held as faith was being mocked, stirring a flicker of anger.
Yet his voice remained steady. "Do you still believe Makoto stands a chance against that infinitely evolving power, Captain Kinroku?"
"Like say, his Bankai?"
"No way." Kinroku laughed, his sides aching, waving dismissively like a street uncle chatting idly. "If Makoto used that, it'd be truly shocking."
Kensei's expression grew colder, disappointed by this middle-aged man who refused to face reality even at death's door.
Unfazed, Kinroku continued softly, "Youth is something else."
"Never having witnessed true terror, you can stand there fearless of real power, right?"
"Be it infinite evolution or no limits at all."
"It doesn't matter."
"After all, there was once a guy who claimed to be omniscient, omnipotent, and immortal."
As he spoke, Kinroku slowly raised his head, his gaze shifting from mockery to cold solemnity, his voice growing gentler.
"Can you really understand?"
"A power unmatched, shaking the three worlds, making even space tremble…"
"A power like that of a god."
Listening to the soft narrative, Kensei's arrogance faltered, a trace of unease creeping in.
That shouldn't be possible.
They'd even surpassed Yamamoto…
Buzz!!
The instant his voice fell.
The space around them rippled, trembling like a stormy sea.
...
"You still don't understand, do you?"
"The gap between us."
Makoto sheathed his scabbard.
The bone-like limbs struck by the hilt's end shattered the moment it withdrew, as if losing a vital anchor.
Cracks spread relentlessly along the limbs' growth lines, spiderwebbing deeper and farther, engulfing all of Takasugi's spider legs and blade.
Crack!
Like a glass shattering on stone.
The spider legs behind him and the bone-blades encasing his arms crumbled completely.
Takasugi's long tail snapped taut.
He stared at the man before him, teeth clenched, muttering in disbelief, "Impossible… impossible!"
"How can the world be so far from my reach!"
"Grow stronger!"
"If I can keep evolving… I must, I must!"
His mantra fueled his resolve.
Before Makoto could act, Takasugi's taut tail stabbed into the ground.
Slash!
Shunsui, locked in combat with three Hollow constructs, faltered mid-step, guided by a premonition of danger, retreating half a pace.
A slender tail burst from the earth.
The construct fighting Shunsui had no time to react before the tail pierced its body from behind.
Gulp!
In an instant, the construct was drained to a husk.
Then, the remains of several constructs felled by Saito and the others were similarly devoured by tails extending from the ground.
To feed faster, Takasugi sprouted a dozen more tails, his expression taut as he fixated on Makoto.
Yet Makoto remained utterly still.
Merely observing the performance.
Takasugi's body, already pushed to its limit, underwent even more drastic changes as new reiatsu surged into him.
Reiatsu, previously contained, now spilled uncontrollably.
From the cracks and wounds on his body, dazzling reishi glowed, clear and radiant.
Moreover, the pale armor encasing Takasugi's body shattered as his reiatsu swelled.
Slowly, it revealed a lean, human-like frame beneath.
From his right palm, a bone spear, formed of spider-like limbs, emerged through torn skin.
Only when all the construct corpses were consumed did the spear fully manifest.
Snap!
A terrifying reiatsu drained the air from the area, the sudden pressure drop darkening everyone's vision.
Ginrei, the weakest among them, felt his sight dim, breathing labored, forcing him to clutch his chest and exhale forcefully.
His face flushed red.
'With this kind of reiatsu…'
'That guy…'
But, as Kensei had foreseen, absorbing reiatsu wasn't without limits. To bear power beyond one's capacity demanded a price.
Makoto could see it clearly.
As Takasugi consumed this reiatsu, his already strained mind began losing human rationality.
Though he still gripped his weapon and stood like a man, his whitening, reddening eyes betrayed his transformation.
"Raaagh!!!"
Along with the unbearable power came the primal beast within his soul.
Madness!
Who could possibly stop this power?!
Takasugi staggered forward.
One step, two, then faster!
Unrestrained force propelled him backward.
His swollen body shot forward like a cannonball, the bone spear aimed at the man before him.
Kill him!
At any cost!
This was his final obsession!
'This power…'
As Saito turned, tense, to shout something to Makoto, she saw his right hand grip his sword's hilt.
He gazed calmly at his foe.
Good. Only this level, then.
Makoto, who'd watched for so long, finally eased slightly.
His patience hadn't been in vain.
The onlookers' gazes froze.
Buzz!
The gleaming blade slid slowly from its sheath, pushed by his thumb.
Against this stark contrast, Takasugi's charge seemed impossibly slow.
Unlike Takasugi's wild reiatsu, each inch of Makoto's blade revealed a vast, hidden reiatsu rising steadily.
The low hum grew sharper in their ears.
Until it nearly pierced their eardrums.
Buzz buzz buzz!!
Makoto's reiatsu erupted, a thunderous force that effortlessly crushed Takasugi's fragile aura like glass.
He drew his sword.
A radiant arc of light sliced through the air.
In Takasugi's beast-filled eyes, a flicker of profound terror surfaced.
In that instant, sound itself vanished.
A single slash stole the concept of sound from everyone present.
A dazzling tide of light surged, consuming everything before Makoto in a blink, tearing through earth and swallowing dust.
It carved a vacuum path stretching thousands of meters.
Even the void trembled.
Winds stilled, clouds parted.
The clear sky split asunder.
Saito, Ryoma, Ginrei, and even Kensei and Kinroku, just emerging from a spatial rift, stood silent, transfixed by the scene.
The youth held his one-handed slash, his white haori and flowing black hair dancing in the gale, brushing his pale cheeks, unyielding.
"First Vibration."
That was the name Captain Unohana gave his basic strike.
Makoto liked it very much.
***
Bonus Chapter:
100 Power Stones = 1 BC
300 Power Stones = 2 BC
500 Power Stones = 3 BC
700 Power Stones = 4 BC
1000 Power Stones = 5 BC
***
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