Black. A dead, silent black all around.
Hitsugaya Tōshirō walked through it. Ahead of him slept an enormous blue dragon.
He had seen this dragon before. It had appeared in his dreams countless times.
In those past dreams, every single time, he tried to kill it—every single time, he failed.
He was swallowed, crushed, and ground apart by the dragon, until it became his nightmare.
Later on, the 10th Division vice-captain—Matsumoto Rangiku-san—came. She helped him untie the knot in his heart and face that dragon again.
Only then did he borrow the power called Hyorinmaru from it…
Hitsugaya continued toward the dragon. With each step, the black around him receded by a fraction.
In its place came snowflakes drifting down from above, layering over the dark earth until, little by little, they painted it white.
An icebound snowfield—this was the sleeping ice dragon's habitat.
Hitsugaya reached the dragon's side.
He understood clearly: he was inside the inner world his Zanpakutō had built.
Outside, he was still facing the threat of the Sexta Espada, Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez.
He didn't want to lose—he couldn't lose.
Before this ice dragon that had once bullied him into shutting himself away, Hitsugaya, for the first time, placed his right hand against its scales.
Cold. Icy.
Yet he felt as if he could sense its breathing—
Even, steady, calm.
It was truly asleep.
But right now, he needed its true power.
"Please… Hyorinmaru. Lend me your true power!"
Hitsugaya took a deep breath and pleaded with the massive ice dragon.
In that instant, he felt it awaken.
That enormous head lifted into the air.
A pair of red pupils like a serpent's eyes looked down on everything below.
The ice dragon didn't speak, but Hitsugaya could feel its disdain.
As if it were mocking him—mocking the idea that he could possibly wield its true power.
"Please believe in me, Hyorinmaru! I can do it—I will!"
All Hitsugaya had left was his promise.
He swore it to the dragon.
After a moment, the dragon coiled through the air once… and finally responded.
"My true name… is Daiguren Hyorinmaru!
Call my name—then prove to me that you can!"
It was a sensation Hitsugaya couldn't describe with words.
But the moment the dragon spoke its true name, Hitsugaya truly felt his connection to his Zanpakutō tighten.
It was almost like their hearts were linked.
Almost—but not completely.
Hitsugaya knew why.
Because he still hadn't proven himself.
Outside—above Hitsugaya—Grimmjow's Desgarrón (Panther King's Claw) was still about to swing down.
Hitsugaya opened his eyes, and his spiritual pressure burst outward like a reservoir flinging open its floodgates—an immense torrent surging free!
"Bankai, Daiguren Hyorinmaru!"
A terrifying, bone-deep chill formed around Hitsugaya.
Behind him, twelve crimson lotus petals appeared.
A colossal ice dragon manifested at his back, its massive ice wings extending from the wrist of the hand gripping his blade.
And along the dragon's back, three enormous petal-shaped ice crystals also emerged.
Gorgeous.
Magnificent.
Seeing it, Higashino Shuuichi's eyes held a faint trace of envy.
This was a child of heaven.
Cornered in desperation, he broke through—instantly leaping from an ordinary Shinigami to the very top tier of Soul Society.
In any other world, that would be pure protagonist coding.
Too bad Hitsugaya Tōshirō was born in the wrong era.
In this world, there existed a transmigrator like Higashino Shuuichi.
And even if Higashino Shuuichi didn't exist, in the original story there was still someone even more absurdly "cheated" than him.
"Achoo! It's freezing!
Did fog roll in?"
"No—look up!
It's snowing!"
"But it's only September!"
"Did you hear about the sudden incident on the main road?
Maybe it's connected to that weird paranormal event!"
At the same moment, the temperature of all Ginbu Town plummeted. Within the sudden rising cold mist, snow began to fall from the sky.
Heaven itself responded!
This was one of Hitsugaya's Zanpakutō's hidden passive traits.
Once he fully mastered Bankai, Hitsugaya would be able to freely manipulate the weather.
But the current Hitsugaya… clearly didn't have that kind of control.
And the truth proved his Zanpakutō hadn't misjudged him.
Hitsugaya Tōshirō had indeed overestimated himself.
For him right now, Bankai was still power too vast to bear.
And accepting it recklessly could only lead to one outcome—
A runaway, berserk Bankai.
Grimmjow's Desgarrón fell.
His spiritual pressure was still far greater than Hitsugaya's original self—yet the moment Hitsugaya fell into a berserk state, that inequality was overturned.
It was the same idea as that saying: go dark and you get ten times stronger.
When output was no longer restrained by control, Hitsugaya answered with a single backhand slash—
And Grimmjow's two blue claw arcs froze mid-swing in the air.
And Grimmjow—who had been scoffing at the falling temperature—realized in that instant that the environmental change was already affecting him.
Not because the cold slowed his movements—
But because the countless ice crystals being generated by berserk Hitsugaya were trying to lock him in place.
Sonído (Sound Teleport)!
Grimmjow felt a flicker of surprise at this Hitsugaya.
He could guess that Hitsugaya couldn't maintain this state for long. If he just endured a little, Hitsugaya would collapse on his own.
But Sonído—nearly unstoppable against Shinigami—was, unusually, not so easy to use this time.
With the weather's descent came control of the atmosphere—and that included control over the entire space itself.
Hitsugaya couldn't directly interfere with an Arrancar's Sonído, that kind of spatial movement.
But he could fill every inch of air across the sky with ice crystals.
And in truth, an Arrancar's Sonído wasn't true long-distance teleportation—it was a series of short, rapid spatial jumps that created the effect of displacement.
Grimmjow quickly calculated: if he tried to Sonído his way out of the battlefield, the ice-crystal damage he'd take in the process would be more than enough to make him suffer.
It would be like the enemy did nothing, and he shredded himself into a battered mess.
That was unacceptable.
Grimmjow would never allow that to happen.
"Then we go head-on!"
Gritting his teeth, Grimmjow could only make that choice.
And it suited berserk Hitsugaya perfectly.
So, in the sky, the most savage primal force and the purest power of ice intertwined once more.
Every slash from Hitsugaya dragged an entire storm of ice crystals with it;
Every claw from Grimmjow tore apart countless ice crystals.
In this moment, it became a contest of endurance—who would break first.
Normally, it would definitely be Hitsugaya Tōshirō.
Because his body simply couldn't withstand this intensity of combat for long.
But whether it was because Hitsugaya was monstrously gifted…
Or because his Zanpakutō couldn't bear to watch it any longer and decided to "open another cheat" for him…
In the final slash before Hitsugaya's strength gave out, what he unleashed on Grimmjow was—
"Ryūsenka (Dragon Avalanche)!"
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