"Gin!"
The closest to Ichimaru Gin, the 10th Division captain Shiba Isshin, used Shunpo (Flash Step) to catch him as he fell.
Three captains being "one-shot" in a row had already put crushing pressure on most of the Shinigami present.
"Looks like we've gotta go in together, huh~"
"If we keep standing by, the consequences are gonna be… pretty damn serious~"
That shared understanding spread through almost every captain's mind in an instant.
Everyone… except the 4th Division captain, Unohana Retsu.
"I'm just the captain of a medical division, after all. Fighting and all that… I'm the worst at it~"
That was what Unohana Retsu told Zaraki Kenpachi—who had only just barely clung to life after being saved by Minazuki.
And up in the sky—
Higashino Shuuichi stood alone, facing the encirclement of eight captains.
"Hadō no Nanajūhachi: Zanka-rin (Blossom-Slashing Wheel)!"
This time, it was Kyōraku Shunsui who struck first, swinging a Kidō blade toward Higashino Shuuichi.
Before that pitch-black blade could even reach him, Higashino Shuuichi crushed it between two fingers.
But the moment his eyes were drawn to it, a small figure had already slipped in close from behind.
"Jinteki Shakusatsu! Suzumebachi!"
The 2nd Division captain, Soi Fon, tapped her Zanpakutō against Higashino Shuuichi's back with a fingertip—leaving behind a black butterfly-shaped crest, the Hōmonka.
So they were finally coordinating?
Higashino Shuuichi thought so, but he couldn't even be bothered to turn around. He simply drew his blade and swept it sideways to his right—
Bungetsu-giri (Crescent-Splitting Slash)!
"Moero, Engetsu! Getsuga Tenshō (Moon Fang Heaven-Piercer)!"
That was where the 10th Division captain, Shiba Isshin, had silently arrived as well.
Flames and reiatsu intertwined along his Zanpakutō, erupting in an instant with several times its usual power.
Sometimes, the simplest path really was the strongest one—pure, straightforward amplification could be the most oppressive kind of technique.
For Shiba Isshin, Getsuga Tenshō belonged to that category.
Even though Isshin and Higashino Shuuichi were worlds apart now—both in quality and quantity of reiatsu—
That simple, brute-force multiplication was enough to bridge the gap.
There was only one problem Isshin couldn't deal with.
The fictitious Schrift ability Higashino Shuuichi had layered onto himself—
Banbutsu Kansen (All Things Pierce).
Higashino Shuuichi's blade became like the world's own shears—able to sever anything it touched with ease.
Even something formless like Getsuga Tenshō.
In the sky, Ichimaru Gin continued to fall, and Shiba Isshin dashed over to catch him.
Higashino Shuuichi's brow lifted slightly.
"Next is… Kyōraku Shunsui's Hadō no Nanajūhachi: Zanka-rin (Blossom-Slashing Wheel), right?"
A Kidō blade arrived on cue in front of him.
Higashino Shuuichi reflexively raised two fingers and crushed it again.
"And then…"
A chill crawled across his back—Soi Fon had carved the Hōmonka there.
"So that's where the problem is."
Higashino Shuuichi understood at once.
A Hollow mask surfaced across his body. He extended his right hand to the side—
"Cero (Void Flash)!"
Golden light bloomed instantly from his palm.
That light pierced through the red crescent of Getsuga Tenshō, grazing Shiba Isshin's body and carving a bottomless trench into the distant ground.
At the same time, Higashino Shuuichi himself was suddenly somewhere else.
Sonīdo (Resounding Step)—instant spatial displacement.
From this new position, he saw it:
Above the flowing layer of reiatsu in the sky, a massive golden demonic infant—
Bankai: Konjiki Ashisogi Jizō.
It was the 12th Division captain Kurotsuchi Mayuri's Bankai.
And the one covering for him was the 5th Division captain Aizen Sōsuke, using the ability of his flowing-type Zanpakutō, Kyōka Suigetsu.
To the other captains, this was Kyōka Suigetsu's "true" power—using light reflected off water to confuse an enemy to a certain extent.
And in truth, Aizen had managed it.
For a captain whose strength wasn't particularly impressive, buying even this tiny sliver of time against Higashino Shuuichi was already worthy of praise.
"The Past-Traveling Drug… To deal with me, Mayuri, you really went all-in this time."
Higashino Shuuichi looked up at Kurotsuchi Mayuri, seated atop Konjiki Ashisogi Jizō.
Fortunately, Higashino Shuuichi had once used that very thing against Aizen Sōsuke, so he knew a few of the drug's flaws.
Combined with his own vigilance, that was why he could break free from the looping "past travel" so quickly.
With that said, Higashino Shuuichi prepared to use Sonīdo to rush up and drag Mayuri down.
But the moment he activated Sonīdo, he felt an intense sense of blockage.
In fact, he was forcibly pinned in place.
"Shinka: Ryūsei (Divine Hexagram: Ebbing)!"
Ukitake Jūshirō had made his move. Using his ability, he absorbed all the reiatsu Higashino Shuuichi used for combat—and fed it back.
After the last lesson, Ukitake Jūshirō swore this time he would never let Higashino Shuuichi slip away, nor would he be tempted by the "strength" of Higashino Shuuichi's power.
So the original ability—absorbing and returning force "with the same method"—was forcibly modified by Ukitake into a debuff-style weakening effect.
As long as Higashino Shuuichi remained within Sōgyo no Kotowari's effective range, and as long as he used any ability involving reiatsu—
The stronger the ability, the more Reishi he would lose.
"No one can defeat an opponent of the same level without replenishing Reishi!"
Ukitake Jūshirō thought with certainty.
But he didn't realize there was already a fatal flaw in that assumption.
What if something unexpected happened?
What if Higashino Shuuichi's Reishi didn't decrease?
Ukitake Jūshirō had no answer.
Because, theoretically, that was something that simply couldn't happen.
Under Shinka: Ryūsei's influence, Higashino Shuuichi's reiatsu should have been shaved away bit by bit—like a frog slowly boiled—until he sank into the depths and became an utterly ordinary Shinigami with nothing remarkable about him.
And yet, in reality, even under that assault, Higashino Shuuichi's reiatsu showed no sign of weakening at all.
Was Sōgyo no Kotowari failing to absorb and release Higashino Shuuichi's reiatsu?
No.
It was that inside Higashino Shuuichi, there seemed to be a Reishi generator that never stopped running.
That was what gave Higashino Shuuichi his fearless composure.
"Hadō no Kyūjūkyū: Goryū Tenmetsu (Five Dragons' Obliteration)!"
Higashino Shuuichi pointed a finger toward the sky. Five enormous dragons formed from reiatsu surged upward.
He hated the feeling of being led around by the nose, so he decided to deal with Ukitake Jūshirō first.
But at a moment like this, the remaining 9th Division captain Tōsen Kaname—and the 6th Division captain Kuchiki Byakuya—couldn't stay idle.
Both of them released their Bankai.
On the surface, Higashino Shuuichi looked calm.
In truth, he was calm.
Because those two Bankai simply weren't anything worth fearing to him.
Ten minutes—was the amount of "effort time" Higashino Shuuichi granted to Tōsen Kaname and Kuchiki Byakuya.
In reality, he didn't even need that long.
Three minutes were enough.
When Kyōraku Shunsui saw that even Ukitake Jūshirō had been struck down by Higashino Shuuichi, his emotions finally refused to stay steady.
He decided to step in personally—to have a man-to-man duel with Higashino Shuuichi.
"Everyone, back off. Now."
That was Kyōraku Shunsui's warning.
Because while his Zanpakutō's ability was strong, it didn't distinguish ally from enemy. It was an enormous AOE—any Shinigami within its range would be forced into several very… special games.
But just as the remaining captains began to retreat, Kyōraku Shunsui received a message from his teacher—
Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni.
"Stand down."
Just two simple words, yet Kyōraku Shunsui could feel the Captain-Commander's resolve.
Was the old man going to use Bankai?
Kyōraku Shunsui vaguely guessed Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni's intent.
But Yamamoto's Bankai wasn't something he could just activate whenever he felt like it.
Once he released Bankai and fought an enemy, all of Soul Society might be forced to pay the price for Yamamoto's impulse.
Because of that heat—rivaling the sun's core.
Because of that terrifying power—
A weight Soul Society simply could not bear.
And yet Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni still didn't do it.
Right now, Soul Society hadn't reached the point it did in the original story—where it was nearly wiped out by Yhwach's Quincy army.
Back then, Yamamoto could cut loose without restraint.
Now, he couldn't.
So Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni chose something else.
He threw a punch at Higashino Shuuichi.
A plain, unadorned punch.
And sent Higashino Shuuichi flying toward Seireitei.
"Old man—what the hell are you doing?"
Kyōraku Shunsui frowned and demanded.
They'd paid such a huge price. So many captains had nearly been killed by Higashino Shuuichi—
And at the final moment, was the Captain-Commander… compromising?
Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni didn't answer.
He only left Kyōraku Shunsui with a meaningful glance—then vanished from where he stood.
"...So the Captain-Commander's Shunpo can be that fast too?
It's almost catching up to Yoruichi-sama…"
Soi Fon said in surprise.
Truthfully, in that battle just now, she'd been holding back.
Her strongest current form—Shunkō: Retsufū (Rending Gale)—hadn't been used.
Because her instincts told her that what Higashino Shuuichi wanted to do… wasn't wrong.
Those nobles of the Tsunayashiro family truly were disgusting.
"You've got it backward, Soi Fon. It's not that the Captain-Commander's Shunpo is catching up to your Yoruichi-sama…
It's that your Yoruichi-sama's Shunpo is about to catch up to the Captain-Commander."
Unohana Retsu stood on the ground, smiling as she looked toward Seireitei—
As if whatever was about to happen there had nothing to do with her at all.
"Don't think 'the strongest Shinigami in a thousand years' only refers to the Captain-Commander's reiatsu and Zanpakutō…
His strength is absolute—in every way~"
Aizen Sōsuke walked over at just the right time, slipping into the conversation.
Like Unohana Retsu, Aizen didn't look like he intended to chase after Higashino Shuuichi and stop him immediately.
To everyone else, that seemed reasonable enough—Aizen's strength was enough to be a captain, sure, but asking him to deal with an out-of-standard Shinigami like Higashino Shuuichi would be too much.
After saying that, Aizen also turned his gaze toward Seireitei.
But unlike the others, what his eyes held was anticipation.
Because he could roughly guess what Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni was thinking.
To handle a monster like this—abnormally powerful, spiritually inexhaustible, reiatsu near its peak, and even capable of Hollowfication—
An ordinary Shinigami had no chance at all.
Only Bankai.
And there was only one place in all of Soul Society where Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni could use Bankai without restraint—
The Muken, beneath Central 46.
"Heh…
So this is… spatial connection technology?"
Higashino Shuuichi stared at the gray, hazy expanse before him, and guessed where he was.
He'd entered Seireitei through the South Gate.
That was the direction Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni had chosen for him—and also the entrance Higashino Shuuichi would inevitably choose.
Because there was no need for him to take some long detour just to enter Seireitei.
Higashino Shuuichi was fully confident now: as long as Aizen, the mysterious Urahara Kisuke, and the members of the Zero Division in the Royal Palace didn't intervene, he could come and go through Soul Society as he pleased.
What he hadn't expected was that Kurotsuchi Mayuri had quietly replicated the spatial connection technology that Tsunayashiro Kamihara had once researched in secret.
It was through that technology that Tsunayashiro Kamihara had previously opened a hidden passage between Soul Society and the Dangai.
"No… wait. Maybe from the start, this technology wasn't something Tsunayashiro Kamihara developed himself.
Maybe Tsunayashiro Kamihara commissioned Mayuri to develop it…"
Higashino Shuuichi suddenly remembered: from the very beginning, Tsunayashiro Kamihara had cooperated with Kurotsuchi Mayuri.
The data taken from the 12th Division.
The research on artificial souls.
And Mayuri had even received gifts in return from Miyazaki Sakai Masato—
Those armored samurai.
Mayuri had been willing to cooperate with Higashino Shuuichi when Higashino Shuuichi's identity was unclear—when he was still a traitor to Soul Society.
So why wouldn't he cooperate with the Tsunayashiro, one of the Five Great Noble Houses?
And connecting Seireitei's South Gate directly to the entrance of the Muken—
That was clearly the kind of work only Mayuri could pull off.
Higashino Shuuichi turned, intending to leave through the entrance—
Only to find an old man already standing there.
Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni!
Back at the original location, the 12th Division captain Kurotsuchi Mayuri looked excited.
"After returning from the World of the Living, I kept thinking about whether this plan was feasible, you know~
But don't worry, Shuuichi-kun—I asked the Captain-Commander to leave you a whole corpse~
After all, I still need to study you~
Keh-heh-heh-heh!"
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