Higashino Shuuichi silently released his Zanpakuto within the Shadow Domain.
Then, from his Tōgen Space, he took out the second layer of preparation he'd already had Kurotsuchi Mayuri make for him before coming to the World of the Living—
A specially made Gigai with Kabuno Takuya's appearance.
Everyone knows what Gigai are for: originally, they exist to help Shinigami blend into life in the World of the Living more smoothly.
So whether it was Urahara Kisuke or Kurotsuchi Mayuri, neither had ever done much extra research or expansion on "disguise performance" for ordinary Gigai.
As a result, once a Shinigami uses a Gigai, calling on outside reishi becomes extremely difficult.
Using Shinigami powers becomes a case of "the more you use, the less you have," and sustained combat can't compare to the real body at all.
Not to mention using a Gigai that doesn't match you.
In that case, even projecting reiatsu outward becomes abnormally difficult.
Considering that, Higashino Shuuichi had originally treated this Gigai as just a backup plan.
But now…
He felt it might be time to actually use that backup plan.
Difficulty outputting reiatsu?
Reiatsu being too weak?
For Shinigami, those limitations were absolutely miserable.
But what if you were a Quincy?
A Quincy, whose original body is human, is naturally incapable of having especially strong reiatsu in the first place.
In low-reiatsu conditions, how to efficiently drive and utilize reishi… is a fundamental skill every Quincy must master.
"I originally planned to meet you as a Shinigami—but since Kurosaki Masaki handed me such a perfect opportunity, it'd be a real shame not to take advantage of it~"
Higashino Shuuichi placed his hand on the Gigai bearing Kabuno Takuya's face—
—and merged with it.
Outside, after Kurosaki Masaki finished her chant, she waited and waited, yet nothing seemed to improve.
Her heart grew heavy.
So it was fake after all.
That so-called "Final Summons" wasn't real.
If it couldn't save her parents back then, how could it possibly help her here?
Was she really going to just stand by and watch that Shinigami die helplessly at the hands of that Hollow?
No!
Kurosaki Masaki bit her lip, and in her heart she shouted her decision.
She was a Quincy—she absolutely could not watch someone die without trying!
Even if it took everything she had, she had to try!
"Shinsei Metsushi (Sacred Extinction Arrow)!"
Kurosaki Masaki drew and fired again.
In the midst of dodging, the reishi arrow shot out like a streak of light.
"Will it work…?"
In the distance, Shiba Isshin—finally arriving late—witnessed the scene.
Because he was afraid of being detected too early by the surveillance devices the 13th Division had set up in the World of the Living, he could only run all the way here from Karakura Town.
Compared to Kurosaki Masaki, who could travel using Hirenkyaku (Flying Scythe Foot), Shiba Isshin's speed wasn't actually slow.
High above, ripples spread across the surface of the Shinkyōtate (Divine Mirror Shield) floating around Tier as Kurosaki Masaki's Shinsei Metsushi struck.
Tier didn't spare it even half a glance.
As long as her reiatsu could maintain those Shinkyōtate, Kurosaki Masaki—at her level—could never break Tier's defense with Shinsei Metsushi alone.
That was the nature of the matchup.
Instead, Tier focused her gaze on Shiba Isshin, who had just reached the battlefield.
The man wasn't wearing anything that visibly marked him as a Shinigami.
But in a situation like this, the only ones who would come rushing in—aside from a suicidal Quincy like Kurosaki Masaki—
were Shinigami.
And the powerful reiatsu radiating from Shiba Isshin—something no human could possess—proved his identity.
"So this is the Shinigami reinforcement Aizen wanted me to wait for?"
Tier felt disappointed.
She'd thought she would be fighting a whole group of Shinigami.
If that were the case, she might have had the chance to show Shuuichi-sama—who hadn't paid attention to her in so long—just how strong she had become.
But if it was only one…
Fine. One it is.
Then she'd change her thinking: the fewer Shinigami souls that died by her hand, the better. If Shuuichi-sama learned of it later, he would surely feel relieved.
Shiba Isshin also sensed Tier's burning gaze on him.
He was surprised—not only because she locked onto him the moment he arrived, but because of the manner in which she did so.
More importantly, it was because of those floating reishi shields circling her body—an ability Shiba Isshin had never seen before.
But as the former 10th Division captain—someone who had weathered countless storms and witnessed major events throughout Soul Society's history—
Shiba Isshin wasn't about to have his courage shattered by a single look.
He didn't retreat even half a step. He met Tier's stare with an even more resolute gaze, then drew his Zanpakuto from his waist.
Last time, Kurosaki Masaki had saved him.
This time, it was his turn to repay that debt.
But what Shiba Isshin didn't expect even more—
was that someone else moved before he could.
"Taiseikyū (Great Holy Bow)!"
A man's voice rose from the shadow beneath Tier's feet.
And then, in the sky above Tier, a gigantic reishi longbow suddenly appeared.
Arrayed along it were dozens of massive Shinsei Metsushi, lined up and ready to fire.
"A new Quincy?"
Tier first glanced down—seeing no trace of any human—then raised her eyes toward the sky.
Those massive Shinsei Metsushi were already dropping like comets, streaking downward as the bowstring thrummed.
"It's useless! As long as I have Shinkyōtate—"
CRACK! CRACK!
The sound of countless mirrors shattering!
Tier watched as the Shinkyōtate—shields that had effortlessly intercepted Kurosaki Masaki's arrows—became unbelievably fragile under the charge of those massive Shinsei Metsushi.
"How is that possible?!"
Tier couldn't understand what she was seeing.
According to what Aizen and Szayelaporro had said, Shinkyōtate should have been the perfect nemesis of Quincy!
But the situation didn't allow her time to think.
She could only react on instinct.
Sanchō Mugige (Trident Mist Halberd)!
Tier fired three consecutive high-pressure, fog-like slashing waves upward!
The first slash reduced the speed of one massive Shinsei Metsushi.
The second slash reduced its power.
Only on the third slash did Tier finally sever it in two.
"So, because reiatsu output weakens, the power of the Seimoji (Schrift) also becomes weaker.
The Banbutsu Kanzan (All-Piercing) I fabricated was already weaker than the original… but now it's weaker on top of weaker, to the point it can't even reliably maintain the 'piercing' property anymore."
Inside the Shadow Domain, after seeing Tier successfully stop his Taiseikyū, Higashino Shuuichi confirmed a few suspicions.
Reiatsu wasn't the key to Quincy combat…
…but if reiatsu was too low, it still wasn't enough to bring out a Quincy's full, normal peak.
That discovery wasn't exactly world-shaking, but it could at least be considered a method—however rough—of restraining Quincy.
Whether he'd ever need it in the future, Higashino Shuuichi didn't know.
But knowing it certainly wasn't a bad thing.
The result above, to Higashino Shuuichi, was only a probe—an experiment.
But to Kurosaki Masaki, it meant everything.
As a not-at-all-ordinary Quincy, Kurosaki Masaki had already mastered part of the Shadow Domain's nature, so she knew the man who spoke just now had to be a Quincy.
And considering the timing of his appearance, she could practically confirm—
He was the savior summoned by her technique, "Final Summons."
So her grandparents' technique really worked!
It really could call a powerful Quincy to help!
"Taiseikyū…"
Kurosaki Masaki's eyes filled with awe.
Was this… the true power ceiling of Quincy?
She still had so, so much to learn.
As for Shiba Isshin in the distance, he was even more stunned.
As a former captain, he was extremely familiar with the Quincy of the World of the Living—he knew what kinds of abilities they possessed.
After all, no one understood you better than your enemy.
Yet Shiba Isshin had never heard of Quincy having a technique of this magnitude.
In his eyes, the combat power displayed by Taiseikyū alone was already enough to rival captain-class strength.
Some ordinary captains—like the 5th Division's Aizen Sōsuke, or the 7th Division's Komamura Sajin—might not have been able to take those massive Shinsei Metsushi with their aura of destruction.
Shiba Isshin didn't react like Kurosaki Masaki, marveling that the Quincy had such a powerful existence.
Instead, he thought of a different question—
Would Soul Society really allow a Quincy like this to still exist in the World of the Living?
To completely cut off the possibility of Quincy resurgence, ever since the purge campaign launched three hundred years ago—initiated by the Tsunayashiro clan back when they still stood strong—
for the past several centuries, Soul Society's Shinigami had been systematically and methodically eliminating Quincy they deemed a threat.
Their methods included (but were not limited to) refusing to help at critical moments, deliberately luring Menos into cities where "dangerous" Quincy lived…
and so on.
Shiba Isshin found it hard to believe that under a purge lasting nearly four hundred years—when only a handful of pureblood Quincy families remained in the World of the Living—
someone like this could still be born.
And yet the truth was in front of him. He had no choice but to believe it.
The one who also had to believe it—
was a certain shopkeeper who had been following Shiba Isshin in the shadows all along: Urahara Kisuke.
But in Urahara Kisuke's eyes, there was no confusion, no bewilderment at all—
only his usual calm, and that faint, elusive smile.
"So… you've finally come, huh?"
Urahara Kisuke seemed to have expected this moment long ago.
Poor Tier still hadn't realized it.
Even though she had managed to block Taiseikyū's attack, even though she still stood lofty in the sky—
she had inevitably become the background.
Without Higashino Shuuichi…
she would have become a pawn sacrificed in a multi-sided game.
Along with Grimmjow.
"Are you the one who woke me from my slumber?"
Stepping out from the shadows, with a massive Shinsei Metsushi stabbed into the earth beside him, its glow reflecting across his body, Higashino Shuuichi adopted the posture of someone who had just awakened and looked at Kurosaki Masaki.
"Yes… senpai!"
Kurosaki Masaki didn't know how else to address him. Her grandparents' records hadn't included that kind of detail.
So after thinking it over, she chose "senpai."
"I recall that among the Quincy I left my summoning technique with… you weren't one of them."
Higashino Shuuichi always acted a role to the very end.
This time, his "persona" was a genius Quincy who had sealed himself asleep in the Shadow Domain out of fear of being discovered by Soul Society.
Kurosaki Masaki was about to answer, when Tier in the sky—seemingly enraged by Higashino Shuuichi's complete disregard for her—dove straight down from above!
"Damned Quincy! You're getting way too bold, acting like I'm not even here!
Shakkairyū (Scorching Sea Current)!"
At the tip of Tier's blade, high-temperature water formed into a shield. As she plunged, it looked like a comet dragging a white tail, dropping at terrifying speed.
"Careful, senpai!"
Kurosaki Masaki warned him while firing a Shinsei Metsushi at Tier at lightning speed.
The bad news: Kurosaki Masaki's arrow was still effortlessly blocked by the Shinkyōtate Tier re-formed around her.
The good news: Higashino Shuuichi casually drew a circle in the air around himself—
"Seiiki Reizan (Sanctuary Hymn)!"
A wall of reishi light shot up from the ground in an instant, built from dozens of enormous interconnected reishi star-emblem frames.
And the comet-like stream of scalding water that was trapped inside that light wall—
was annihilated in the blink of an eye by countless Shinsei Metsushi.
Kurosaki Masaki couldn't find any more words to describe Higashino Shuuichi.
His composure. His power.
Everything about him told Kurosaki Masaki—
"Look. This is the Quincy ceiling."
No begging, no compromise, no living at someone else's mercy—
Just being yourself… was enough to embody invincibility.
"I want to become a Quincy like that…"
In her heart, Kurosaki Masaki quietly made that vow.
And almost at the same moment, Shiba Isshin—watching from afar—felt danger prick his skin and shifted his body slightly to the side.
That movement saved his life…
…but it still couldn't save his left arm.
Blood sprayed.
Shiba Isshin stared in shock at Tier, who had suddenly appeared before him, and at the bloodstained blade in her hand—
and in that instant, he felt like he understood something.
"Using mist as cover, misleading with words, then secretly using Sonīdo (Sonído) to reposition…
Didn't think an Arrancar who fights with her brain would show up among you lot, huh~"
Shiba Isshin gave a bitter smile.
Arrancar using strategy—this truly was beyond his expectations.
So much so that he hadn't made any effective preparations in advance.
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