The radiant blade-light stretched like a starry river, fading into the horizon.
Witnessing this earth-shattering slash, not only Kensei but even the captains aligned with Makoto fell into an indescribable silence.
Shunsui stared blankly at the cut extending far into the distance, his heart skipping a beat.
As the first graduate of the Shin'ō Academy and Makoto's first disciple, raised on Soul Society's urban legends, even he felt his worldview fracture after seeing this.
The might of a tier-1 reiatsu was too far beyond ordinary Shinigami.
Even for typical captains, it was the same.
Despite endlessly elevating the rumored strength of Makoto and Yamamoto in his mind, comparing them to the many captains he knew, Shunsui only now realized the true terror of the gap between captains.
"M-Makoto-sama…"
He opened his mouth instinctively, his words unconsciously tinged with reverence.
But someone else was far more shocked, unable to hold back from interrupting.
"Impossible?!"
Kensei's eyes widened, his neatly combed hair whipped into disarray by the gale, veins bulging on his forehead as he roared at Makoto, his face pale.
"What kind of trick is this?!"
"How can such power exist in this world?!"
"If a mere Shinigami can wield this strength…"
His hand gripped his Zanpakutō's hilt, knuckles white, teeth grinding.
All he'd sacrificed to achieve his goals, wouldn't that make him a fool, a frog in a well?!
That, he could never accept!
Hearing his near-breaking voice, Makoto turned to him, offering a faint smile.
In that moment of taut nerves, Kensei raised his blade.
"Pierce through, Tenjima Wataru!"
His lean form twisted into a condensed void, as if ready to charge Makoto in a desperate assault.
But his figure vanished for only an instant.
Kinroku's Fuhahara traced a light arc through the air.
Clang!
A crisp metallic ring echoed from the depths of unseen space.
The next moment, Kensei's form was forced out dozens of meters behind.
Despite his frenzied, life-risking appearance, he was trying to flee.
"Leap past, Tenjima Wataru!"
The moment he reappeared, panic on his face, Kensei slashed again.
His form flickered between reality and void, crossing dozens of meters to the other side.
"Hey!"
"Pretty despicable, huh."
A petite figure emerged from the shadows beside him.
Kensei whipped his head toward her.
A whistling gust, and a deep purple blade grazed his temple, tearing a white shockwave arc through the air.
A delicate cut traced his cheek, splitting a thin red wound.
Faintly, blood beads clung to the blade.
Kensei's heart skipped.
Saito's face twisted into a malicious grin.
The blood seeped into her blade.
"?!"
The next moment, her Shuketsukyū slashed down fiercely.
Blood sprayed from Kensei's cheek, the small wound bursting open, tracing a scattered arc through the air.
Moreover, Kensei could feel his blood surging uncontrollably toward his head.
His peripheral vision swept over the figures in the distance, and he steeled himself.
Escaping this encirclement head-on was impossible.
He'd have to take the weakest among them hostage.
The thought flashed like lightning, his pupils locking onto Saito.
Gripping his blade with both hands, he swung at her.
"Die!"
But against his full-force strike, Saito raised her blade with one hand.
Ding.
Kensei's expression froze.
Inches away, Saito's lips curled disdainfully.
Her blade pressed closer to his face.
"Your Zanpakutō's ability is spatial, right?"
"Daring to hold back against me?"
Her voice was low, almost cold, her single eye flashing with crimson killing intent, veins taut on her hand.
"Don't underestimate me!"
Abruptly, she swung her blade with a storm's force.
Kensei, dual-wielding, couldn't hold his blade steady; it flew upward, his body stumbling back several steps, nearly lifted off the ground.
His gaze at Saito held bewildered disbelief.
But the next moment, his expression hardened.
He let the force carry him back several meters, crouching low, slamming a fist into his chest.
With that single blow, dark red Hollow energy poured from his body, his black shihakushō tearing under the surging reiatsu.
A robust frame emerged, a mask embedded in his chest, just like Takasugi's.
Slowly, a white bone mask formed over his face.
Unlike Takasugi, even fully Hollowfied, Kensei retained clear rationality.
His eyes alone turned black and yellow, brimming with ferocity.
"Hollow Form Release!"
In an instant, his reiatsu surged several-fold.
This was his confidence in daring to take a captain hostage.
"Hm?"
Saito's brow furrowed.
Her Shuketsukyū swung again.
Before Kensei could react, his masked eyes widened.
Boom!
That seemingly effortless slash blasted his entire left side, spraying crimson blood mist.
Saito relaxed slightly. "What's that? So much weaker than the last guy."
"Bastard!"
Kensei, crouched on the ground, his wounds rapidly healing with high-speed regeneration, slowly rose, grinding his teeth. "I am Szayelaporro-sama's only perfect creation!"
"Only me!"
"Don't compare me to that failure!"
Though rational, his voice carried a beastly agitation.
The moment his words fell, he shot toward Saito like an arrow.
Boom!
A cloud of dust exploded behind him.
But Saito merely scoffed in disdain.
The blade swung down again.
Kensei, mid-charge at blinding speed, stumbled as his left leg below the knee vanished in a clash of blood and momentum.
His balance lurched.
But his heightened reflexes matched his enhanced physique.
In that fleeting pause, he reacted.
His claw-like left hand pressed against the ground, propelling his body into a tumbling roll.
He closed the final distance.
Bursting within three meters of Saito!
His blade slashed down.
Clang!
Yet Saito, standing firm, blocked it with one hand.
Her blade didn't budge.
Kensei's pupils shrank beneath his mask.
How?
The thought flashed through his mind.
But in the next instant, he reacted, his form flickering into a shadowy blur.
Saito's blade sliced through the air, hitting nothing.
Yet, as her blade fell, even in the depths of space,
Slash!
A long, diagonal wound tore open Kensei's side.
Blood gushed.
His form was forced out of the void.
Saito stood, Zanpakutō resting on her shoulder, smirking mockingly. "Must be tough for a spatial type like you, huh?"
"My Shuketsukyū controls blood."
"If this is all you've got, you're not escaping."
Kensei stared at his regenerating wounds, pain surging, and struggled to stand. "The power Szayelaporro-sama granted me… is absolute!"
"How could someone like you possibly understand…"
Makoto, standing afar, paused.
Szayelaporro?
Oh, that guy.
Slashed to nothing, yet still alive?
Such tenacious vitality.
Saito, oblivious to the Vasto Lorde she'd fought centuries ago, scoffed at Kensei's defeated tone. "The one who doesn't understand is you."
But before she could raise her blade, Kensei thrust his hand up, shouting, "Seal it, Tenjima Wataru!"
Instantly, at the center of everyone's vision, the spatial barrier locking the world shrank rapidly, collapsing to a kilometer radius around Kensei.
Across the Living World, pre-set reishi arrays shattered in a series of explosions, their glow fading.
The barriers, set long ago to block and disrupt space, vanished.
In their place, a powerful spatial seal pinned everyone in place.
Their movements froze.
Saito, facing the dense reishi barrier, was locked in place, her blade mid-swing.
Seeing them immobilized, Kensei exhaled slightly, then said coldly, "This is why you old relics can't comprehend."
"What kind of power Szayelaporro-sama has given me."
He approached the girl, raising his blade toward her fragile neck.
But he didn't notice.
Buzz.
The moment the massive spatial seal lifted, researchers in Soul Society, racing to break the lockdown, froze.
The disconnection signal, silent for minutes, activated.
Simultaneously, the reishi seals on every captain and vice-captain's chest flashed.
[Limit Release]
Pillars of reiatsu pierced the heavens.
The black-and-white sealed world trembled.
Their already immense reiatsu, unleashed fully, soared to unimaginable heights.
The limiter seals, binding eighty percent of a captain or vice-captain's reiatsu, were gone.
Their power now… five times greater than a moment ago.
Ding!
Kensei's blade struck with full force.
A faint, crisp sound rang in his ears.
His mind stalled for half a second.
The girl before him raised a delicate, childlike hand.
His all-out strike was effortlessly caught in her palm.
"So, as I said." Saito's voice was calm, "You're the one who doesn't get it, fool."
Her reiatsu, near-tangible, surged from her body.
Saito stood at the eye of a storm, reishi swirling at her feet like a fountain, lifting her deep purple twin-tails in the gust.
Kensei, inches away, felt as if a boulder crushed his chest, breathing nearly impossible.
Bloodshot veins spread through the whites of his masked eyes.
Saito, as if oblivious to his struggle, said coldly, "You, or that fool from before."
"You're all just tier-2 reiatsu at best."
"At this level, you can't even grasp the 'world's' distance."
Kensei froze at her words.
Her blade fell without mercy, a cold arc slicing from his right shoulder to his left waist.
Split in two.
Saito gazed at the corpse impassively.
If he'd used his full strength from the start, this was all he amounted to.
She flicked her blade, blood splattering.
"Despicable guy."
But as she muttered, the upper half of the body twitched, grabbing the blade with its left hand and vanishing.
"Take me away, Tenjima Wataru!"
Saito's gaze paused, but her body moved faster than her mind, her blade slashing down with a slash.
It pierced the ground.
Kensei's form was gone.
Makoto turned, puzzled, to Kinroku, who pressed his shoulder. "Captain Kinroku?"
Kinroku adjusted his glasses calmly. "I placed a spatial marker on him."
"Might as well follow the trail."
…
Thud.
Kensei's form landed in his courtyard with a muffled sound.
A cunning rabbit has three burrows, and with his survivalist nature, he'd long set emergency coordinates in many places.
But with his remaining reiatsu, this was as far as he could go, not to Hueco Mundo.
High-speed regeneration mended his body like a flood.
His already drained stamina hit rock bottom.
But at least he looked human again.
"Damn it!"
Kensei cursed under his breath, crouched, gripping his blade tightly. "Makoto, Saito… and that fool Takasugi!"
"I must… must become stronger!"
No time to rest.
Once his lower half reformed, he gritted his teeth, struggling to stand, stumbling toward the door.
But as he pushed it open, a familiar figure stood there, staring.
Sosumi stood motionless, hands clutching her clothes, lips pursed.
Kensei froze.
Her sorrowful gaze weighed on him like a mountain.
But he quickly recovered, his stiff face forcing a familiar smile. "Sosumi?"
"Why are you home today?"
"Your duties at the division…"
Sosumi opened her mouth, struggling to speak.
In the end, only a single name escaped her lips.
"Sōsuke."
Her voice trembled.
But in that instant, Kensei lunged like a savage beast, driving his Zanpakutō into his wife's body without hesitation.
Pinning her to the wall.
Blood spilled from Sosumi's mouth, her hands clutching the blade, only to be sliced by its sharp edge, buried deep in her torso.
"That look in your eyes!"
"You wanted to kill me, didn't you?"
"No!"
"I won't let you succeed!"
Kensei roared like a mindless beast, his once-handsome face twisted with ferocity, heedless that this was his pregnant wife.
Yet, beneath his apparent madness, he was chillingly rational.
Sosumi was home, meaning she'd sensed something amiss.
She couldn't be spared.
No time to question what had given him away.
To escape silently, he needed to recover his stamina and reiatsu, flee from the Seireitei to Rukongai, and find a suitable hiding place…
As his mind raced, his gaze met his wife's, filled with unbearable sorrow.
In her dark pupils, a glint of steel flashed.
Slash!
A sharp dagger plunged into his back with precision.
Kensei's body shuddered with the fatal strike.
His already exhausted stamina drained further as blood flowed from deep within.
Stunned, he struggled to turn his head.
In his vision, a child stood, still smiling.
"Su…ke…?"
Blood surged from Kensei's mouth, yet he spoke the name clearly.
That child he'd casually taken in, a mere servant… how?!
But the child behind him mechanically withdrew the dagger, emotionless, and stabbed again.
Kensei's attempt to draw his blade faltered.
Only then did the child wipe the blood from his face, his voice soft and youthful. "You really don't learn, do you, Kensei-san."
"I've corrected you so many times."
His tone grew gentler as he stabbed the dagger into Kensei's near-shattered heart a third time, reminding, "My name is Sōsuke, not Suke."
Kensei's eyes widened, glaring, teeth grinding as he tried to speak.
"You…"
But Sōsuke, ignoring his hateful gaze, pulled the dagger out and drove it into the back of his skull, continuing calmly, "Don't give me such scary looks."
"I'm just a cute kid; it frightens me."
Kensei stared, disbelieving, uncomprehending.
How could a mere commoner child pierce his steel-like skin?
But no matter his tangled thoughts, his hands slowly, painfully released the blade's hilt, collapsing softly to the ground.
Dead, eyes unclosed.
Seeing his confusion, Sōsuke crouched, speaking patiently, "Ah."
"You've probably forgotten, haven't you?"
"What you did back in District 71."
"And the thousands of souls who died inexplicably at your hands."
His voice dropped, quiet as death, heavy with menace. "They've come for revenge."
At those words, Kensei seemed to finally understand, his wide eyes stretching further, veins bulging.
But the last thing reflected in his gaze was the child's cute, warm smile, blood streaked across his pale face.
Slash!
The dagger fell, piercing his staring eye.
No hesitation.
Sensing Kensei's reiatsu plummeting, the group tracking his spatial marker hastened their steps.
But as Makoto and the others burst through the door, they saw the scene.
A child, barely waist-high, stood silently beside a cold corpse.
His drab robe was stained with crimson, his cute face smeared as if clawed by a cat.
Sosumi, pinned to the wall by the blade, had witnessed it all, staring blankly at the child, dazed.
Makoto stood at the doorway, his gaze sweeping over the corpse and Sosumi.
Finally, it settled on the small figure, both adorable and sinister.
He frowned, hesitating for a moment before asking, "Who are you?"
"Did you kill this man?"
The question sounded foolish, but even a reiatsu-drained, cornered Kensei shouldn't have been felled by a child with a dagger.
Yet the child nodded openly. "Yup!"
"My name is Sōsuke."
He glanced at the corpse, then at Makoto's slightly furrowed brow, raising his head, gripping the dagger, and smiling. "Sōsuke Aizen."
***
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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