Above the blood sea, the winds and clouds were in turmoil.
For Unohana Retsu, who had lived through the Quincy rebellion of the past, the sudden appearance of Quincy could only unsettle her for the very first instant.
No matter what trick Higashino Shuuichi had used to drag that group of Quincy into her blood sea—
To be honest, Unohana didn't think these Quincy—who only knew how to shoot Heilig Pfeil (Holy Arrows)—could pose much of a threat to her.
In Unohana's memory, there was only one Quincy who could barely be said to threaten Shinigami like them:
Their king, Yhwach.
As for the rest of the Quincy, each and every one of them—even if they were to use their final trump cards, activating Quincy: Vollständig (Holy Form) and Ransōtengai (Disheveled Puppet)—in Unohana's eyes their level of threat still didn't come close to Higashino's earlier Kidō carpet bombing.
And in fact, the way these Quincy performed was exactly as Unohana had expected. One Heilig Pfeil after another flew from their hands, only to pass right by her again and again—
They couldn't even brush her body.
What Unohana had not expected, however, was this:
While Higashino Shuuichi fought her blade-to-blade with one hand, his other hand began to gather Heilig Pfeil of his own.
"Mm…"
Unohana frowned. Compared to those insignificant Quincy, the spiritual pressure packed into the Quincy arrows in Higashino's hand alone was enough to raise her internal threat assessment by several levels.
"So this is what you were after, isn't it?
Drawing these Quincy over here… and then borrowing their power?"
After knocking Higashino back with a spinning upward slash, Unohana spoke.
She felt she'd seen through his intention. In a sense, he wasn't wrong to do it. Her blood sea was far too restrictive against most Shinigami who relied on their Zanpakutō abilities to fight. If he didn't seek out another power source to break through her constraints, Higashino Shuuichi could forget about defeating her inside the blood sea.
Even using that so-called Resurrección (Return Blade), Hanzaisha no Hōsoku (Criminal Law), to force the blood sea into a temporary crash still wasn't enough. A crash only stripped the blood sea of its ability to restrict special powers—but Unohana Retsu could still draw on it for infinite healing.
Seeing Higashino remain silent, Unohana sliced apart the massive Heilig Pfeil he'd just fired at her.
"Unfortunately, your method won't amount to much.
The moment my blood sea recovers from that 'crashed' state you mentioned, that power you've worked so hard to gain will vanish right along with those Quincy when they die."
She spoke with a hint of regret.
She simply did not believe these frail Quincy could withstand the devouring of her blood sea the way Higashino Shuuichi could.
But just as Unohana said that, the corner of Higashino's mouth lifted in a bright smile.
"Which is why, Captain—doesn't it make you wonder?
Why, after we've been fighting this long, I still haven't chanted my Zanpakutō's Bankai (Final Release) in front of you?"
In that instant, Unohana's pupils constricted.
Yes—why hadn't he used his Bankai yet?
No. That wasn't right. It wasn't that Higashino Shuuichi hadn't used it.
He simply hadn't spoken it.
Unohana suddenly thought of a technique invented by Higashino Shuuichi himself but often overlooked by others:
Silent incantation.
She looked at him again. Seeing the absolute confidence on his face, she understood—Higashino Shuuichi had already activated his Bankai long ago.
Then what Bankai ability did he have that needed to be hidden like this?
A few minutes earlier, in Soul Society—Seireitei, Fifth Division activity room.
Fifth Division captain Aizen paused abruptly, brush halfway through a stroke as he practiced calligraphy with the squad members.
"What's wrong, Captain?"
his vice-captain asked.
"It's nothing.
I merely agreed to a mischievous fellow's little request~"
Did Higashino Shuuichi have the means to drag Quincy from the Human World into Unohana's blood sea?
Of course he did.
But just pulling over a few ordinary Quincy, as Unohana had correctly analyzed, would be meaningless. What Higashino truly sought was something else entirely:
To let his Quincy avatar briefly return to his main body and perfectly fuse with him.
Normally, that step alone would take decades of slow grinding.
But Higashino Shuuichi had found himself a way to experience it early.
By using Aizen's Bankai, the one that could turn imagination into reality, he could treat this "fusion process" as an ability effect and have it realized directly, skipping all the time in between.
To make that work, however, he needed Unohana Retsu to fully, wholeheartedly believe in this ability he'd conjured out of thin air—during the tiny sliver of time between the blood sea's crash and its recovery.
That was why Higashino had staged all the scenes leading up to this.
From beginning to end, his goal had only ever been one thing:
To make Unohana Retsu, from the bottom of her heart, believe that whatever outrageous thing he did next would never be fake.
From the very first line of verbal guidance—
"Your Bankai is indeed powerful, Captain.
But don't forget… I'm not a normal Shinigami."
—to smashing the blood sea's restrictions, to the sudden appearance of Quincy, and finally to merging Quincy power into himself…
Step by step, Unohana had walked right into the cognitive trap he'd meticulously woven for her.
Now, all preparations were complete. Higashino Shuuichi's gaze deepened, the nature of his spiritual pressure beginning to shift. The Zanpakutō in his hand started changing form as well.
Killing with a borrowed blade—
Bankai, Mugen Hōka (Illusory Blossom Collapse)!
At that moment, in front of Unohana Retsu, Higashino Shuuichi finally bared the fangs he'd kept hidden for so long.
At the same time, in the Human World, Kabuno Takuya—who had just found an excuse to temporarily part ways from Miyazaki Sakai Masato on their way toward East Administration—slowly closed his eyes.
The power of the Quincy.
The power of Schrift I.
It surged madly into Higashino Shuuichi's body.
When Higashino opened his eyes again, they were filled with grey.
Those were the eyes of the Soul King.
Even Unohana Retsu felt her heart give a sudden lurch the instant she was gazed upon by those eyes.
"What… is this power?"
she asked in disbelief.
Because she realized that once Higashino Shuuichi completed his transformation, even though her blood sea's ability had fully recovered, it could no longer drive him out of this special state.
For Higashino Shuuichi, this was only natural.
"This is the true power of the Quincy.
I call it Schrift (Sacred Script).
And right now, Captain… you're probably the first to witness a Shinigami in this form."
Spiritual pressure converged around him in torrents. The entire blood sea began to boil.
From Unohana Retsu's point of view, the world had turned into nothing but red. The blood sea, no longer truly obeying her command, surged toward Higashino's body.
No—more accurately, the blood sea now felt to Unohana less like something she controlled, and more like an extension of Higashino Shuuichi's body.
"Imaginary future, real present—
Mirai Kōzō (Future Construct)!
Captain, this is Schrift C – Kyōsei Jikkō (Compulsory Execution)!"
Higashino's voice came from every direction in the blood sea.
And Unohana hadn't guessed wrong—right now, this entire blood sea was a part of Higashino Shuuichi's body.
And Higashino Shuuichi… was the blood sea.
Infinite evolution—this was the ability he had brought back from a fictional future.
It was something his Quincy avatar had never been capable of.
That avatar's spiritual pressure had simply been too low, far too weak to sustain a Schrift of this level.
But now, fused with his main body, the Quincy power had no such limitation.
With Higashino's overwhelming spiritual pressure as its foundation, temporarily constructing a few Schrift abilities was well within his reach.
And of course, he wasn't finished yet.
After using Schrift C to completely escape the constraints of Unohana's Bankai, his next step was—
All across the sky and earth, countless slender pillars of blood shot up. Standing at their center, Unohana Retsu had no strength to resist as they all drove straight through her body.
Schrift X – Banbutsu Kanshō (All Things Pierced)!
"I… can't… stop it…"
Blood spilled from Unohana's lips. She simply couldn't believe what she had just witnessed.
She had pushed herself to the limit trying to block those blood pillars, but no matter what ability she used, every defense crumbled like paper before pillars that didn't even seem to carry much force.
"Of course you can't stop it, Captain.
Because this is rule-level power."
Higashino Shuuichi drifted slowly toward her, to where her body hung in midair, pinned by countless blood pillars. He stretched out his hand and gently tapped the center of her chest.
"It's over, Captain~"
His voice was as gentle as it had ever been.
Then an unimaginably dense concentration of spiritual pressure gathered at the tip of his finger.
Schrift ability E – Bakugeki (Explosive Strike), activate!
At that moment, Unohana Retsu felt like she was nothing but a fragment of consciousness. Her sense of her own body had completely vanished.
Under that burst of white light, there ought to be nothing left but dust.
No—perhaps not even dust.
Unohana closed her eyes in bliss. For her, dying like this was, without question, the best possible ending.
But even with her eyes closed, the dissolution of her consciousness stubbornly refused to come.
Instead, she heard a familiar, gentle voice at her ear:
"Now you owe me a life, you know~"
Unohana opened her eyes.
In front of her was Higashino Shuuichi, his body torn completely apart.
Those tender words were coming from his mouth—his only intact piece—his head.
Schrift ability A – Kanzen Hanritsu (Total Reversal)!
Normally, it was a technique meant to turn an enemy's ultimate strike back on them.
But in Higashino Shuuichi's hands, pairing it with his own abilities to save a life made it an equally superb tool.
"Shuuichi, you…"
As the blood pillars withdrew, Unohana realized she could move freely again. Higashino's body, meanwhile, was rapidly regenerating before her eyes.
"What about me?
Maybe you came into this battle ready to die, but I didn't come here with that mindset at all."
By the time he finished speaking, his body had entirely returned to normal.
Higashino Shuuichi stepped up to Unohana Retsu, and right in front of her, he pulled open the front of her restored captain's haori, exposing the scar below her collarbone.
Unohana simply watched quietly the whole time, making no move to stop him. To her, she was the one who had lost. As the victor, Higashino Shuuichi was entitled to do as he pleased.
But for some reason, the moment he tugged her collar aside, she could clearly feel her heartbeat quicken.
What was she expecting?
Nothing happened.
All he did was place his warm right hand gently over the scar below her collarbone.
"To be honest, I've wanted to say this for a very long time.
That scar… doesn't look good, sitting there like that.
But I also knew that the old me had no right to erase it for you.
Now, though… I think I've finally earned that right~"
With that, Higashino Shuuichi took his hand away from beneath her collarbone.
The scar that had accompanied Unohana Retsu for over a thousand years vanished completely from her body.
She lowered her head to look, lips moving as if she wanted to say something, yet no words came out.
That scar had been something she'd deliberately left, as a reminder to herself.
Normally, no ordinary healing technique could ever erase it from her body.
Unless—
Unohana lifted her head and looked at Higashino Shuuichi.
"Strange, isn't it?" he said with a smile. "During those ten years I went missing in the Human World… I found Kirinji Tenjirō.
It wouldn't be fair if Yachiru could go all the way to Kirinji to learn Kaidō (Healing Way) for the sake of a boy, but I, Higashino Shuuichi, couldn't do the same for someone important to me, would it?"
In that moment, Unohana Retsu had no idea what words could possibly convey the unease in her heart.
In the more than thousand years since she was born, never once in peacetime had her heart beaten as violently as it did now.
"I…"
She got as far as a single syllable, and then she didn't know what to say next.
It felt like she had countless things she wanted to say, but just as many that she couldn't bring herself to voice.
So Higashino Shuuichi said them for her.
"You see, Yachiru—today, I've defeated you completely.
So from now on, you don't have to be torn in different directions anymore.
Just make room for me alone in your heart and strive toward me. That's all you need to do~"
He reached out and rested his hand on top of Unohana's long hair.
Like this, he thought, there wouldn't be anyone in the future who could persuade Unohana Retsu to throw away her life to "sharpen someone else's blade" ever again.
Unohana Retsu, for her part, slipped back into her usual Yamato-nadeshiko composure, placing her hands quietly before her and whispering,
"Mm~"
For her as she was now, at least until the day she defeated Higashino Shuuichi, having only Higashino Shuuichi in her heart was more than enough.
"Oh, right—this is for you~"
As Bankai dissolved and the blood sea receded, Higashino suddenly remembered his earlier preparations. He took one of Unohana's small hands and placed a gem into her palm.
"What is this?"
It looked oddly familiar to her.
"It's what I left for you back when I fled to the Human World.
Though it seems you accidentally lost it. I've found it again, so I'll hand it back to you for safekeeping.
Only this time, please don't lose it again~"
Higashino said with a smile.
It was, in fact, the spatial gem from West Administration he had slipped into Yamada Seinosuke's quarters just before heading to the training ground—and quietly retrieved again.
In practical terms, it didn't hold much value anymore to anyone. But as a memento for Unohana, a stand-in for the scar he'd erased, Higashino thought it suited her quite well.
He didn't really want to leave a new scar on Unohana Retsu's body.
Of course, Higashino may have forgotten that the scar had never been "necessary" in the first place.
What it signified… that was something only the two people involved truly understood.
"Don't worry, Shuuichi-kun.
This time, I'll make sure to take good care of it~"
Unohana Retsu accepted the gem and gazed at the reflection on its surface—her and Higashino Shuuichi, side by side—speaking softly.
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