Chapter 35: Light of the Divine Sword
"Who might you be?" Urahara quietly reached for his backpack with his left hand. "If you don't mind, could you tell us your purpose?"
Noticing the subtle motion, Mizuma's brow twitched, and a sharp sense of unease crept up his spine.
"I am this."
To stop that yellow-haired human version of Doraemon from pulling out some world-ending gadget, Mizuma decisively dispelled the mosaic covering his hand and held up the wooden tag for everyone to see.
He smiled faintly and said, in a low and mysterious tone, "You understand now, don't you?"
But the next second, Mizuma began to feel that something was… off.
"A messenger…"
Urahara's eyes widened. He drew in a slow breath, and his brows slowly knitted into a frown.
"So the house master finally sent out a messenger… I see."
He muttered to himself, then suddenly looked up with a smile that carried the emotion of someone thinking "After years of waiting, the trap is finally sprung."
"I understand. Messenger, what do you intend to do?"
Huh? Huh?? Huh huh huh?!
Wait—what did you just "understand," exactly!?
What's with that expression!?
Don't tell me the Urahara family's also running some secret conspiracy here!?
But the stage had already been set; there was no backing out now. Mizuma could only keep following his plan. He nodded once and pointed toward the crystal beside Urahara.
"Retrieve that."
Aside from rescuing the others, that was the real goal of this trip—collecting the Divine Sword.
The Soul King himself had told him to "act as you please." So was there really any other choice besides taking the thing for himself?
This was a weapon infused with the Soul King's power! Even saying it could one-shot a Sternritter wouldn't be an exaggeration. In fact, considering how Yhwach couldn't fully perceive the Soul King's right hand with his Almighty, it wouldn't be a stretch to say this sword held power on that same level.
With such an advantage before him, Mizuma would never be able to sleep peacefully without obtaining the Divine Sword.
At his words, Urahara gave a slow nod, and Lisa and Kensei—though clearly confused—followed suit.
Only Little Red reacted violently.
"You would dare steal the weapon left by the Soul King!?"
Little Red roared, its bloodshot eyes flaring wide, all fear of the Binding Chain vanishing in that instant.
"You traitors! I will never allow it!"
As the furious cry tore through the air, the tattered crimson cloak wrapped around its body ignited like a sunburst.
The flames spread to its flesh and scales—curling, blackening, searing—like a living sacrifice on a pyre.
But beneath that self-destructive blaze, its spiritual pressure surged anew.
In an instant, it surpassed Kensei's, surpassed Mizuma's, even surpassed Urahara's—returning to the monstrous power it had wielded at the start of the battle.
Unfortunately for it, Mizuma had come prepared.
As the dragon charged, Mizuma casually swung the Binding Chain in his hand.
The black, heavy chain shot forth like a living serpent—
—and the battle ended.
The moment the chain touched Little Red, its entire body froze as if locked by divine law. The massive form crashed into the ground, rolling and gouging deep furrows through the stone. Before it could shatter the binding with its immense reiatsu, Mizuma used shunpo to appear atop its head and looped the chain tightly around its neck.
In an instant, the dragon was completely immobilized.
"You two—lend me a hand!"
Mizuma called out to Lisa and Kensei. The pair exchanged a wary look, then turned to Urahara.
Receiving his silent nod, they cautiously approached.
"Oh, don't be so slow."
Mizuma handed each of them an end of the chain, planting his hands on his hips like a commander.
"Hold tight. Channel reiatsu into it—and whatever you do, don't stop, or this thing will break free."
"O-okay…"
Realizing they couldn't make sense of any of this, the two simply obeyed.
The mysterious newcomer had just helped them defeat their enemy and seemed to have ties to Urahara—so he had to be an ally, right?
While they focused on maintaining the chain and treating their injuries, Mizuma turned back toward the crystal that held the Divine Sword.
Urahara gave a brief tug and managed to free Benihime from the ground. After confirming that the spiritual link between Little Red and the Divine Sword was no longer active, he exhaled softly and walked to Mizuma's side.
"So the house master knew about this place all along but never mentioned it to anyone…"
He sheathed Benihime with a small, rueful smile.
"Then again, I'm hardly in a position to criticize her methods."
Hard to say whether he truly knew or not.
Given that the Binding Chain itself was crafted by Urahara Rinka, Mizuma suspected their family was at least somewhat aware of the truth—but whether they had designs on the Divine Sword themselves was uncertain.
Mizuma inclined his head. "These are all the house master's orders."
Whether true or not, it was better to let them believe it. He'd get the Divine Sword first—and think about the consequences later.
"So willful…" Urahara sighed and shook his head.
He pulled out a vial of medicine from his pack and headed toward Lisa and Kensei, his meaning clear: "Handle it. It's your problem now."
Mizuma secretly let out a sigh of relief.
With Urahara satisfied, it was time to handle the most important part—
—how to extract the sword.
Neither Tokinada nor Katani's men knew the method. Their knowledge of the trial grounds came from dusty archives, not experience.
Was he supposed to break the crystal with brute force? Or was there some hidden mechanism?
Mizuma knocked lightly on the surface, testing the hardness and feeling the flow of reiatsu within.
The density was close to wrought iron—it could be cut with a zanpakutō, no problem there.
The real key was the reiatsu radiating from it.
Behind the wooden tag's mosaic barrier, Mizuma hesitated.
This reiatsu felt strangely familiar… no, intimate even.
It felt like—Ryūgetsu.
A note on zanpakutō theory:
If we compare the Reiatsu of a Shinigami to an electric current, then Zanpakuto are somewhat similar to voltage regulators and transformers. The raw, unshaped reiatsu produced by a Shinigami is refined and converted by the blade into a form imbued with specific properties, into something with special functions — this is the foundational principle behind all kidō-type Zanpakutō.
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〔TL〕
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Every 2 review after 100 ps = 1 bonus ch.