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"Divine punishment? What a joke."
"A bunch of lowly ants that should've vanished a thousand years ago, and you dare call yourselves gods in front of me? You don't know your place…"
First Division barracks.
Fueled by the Captain-Commander's rage, every building shook violently. The air grew so scorching it seemed to pass the boiling point, combusting with sharp crackling explosions.
That alone was proof enoughof just how furious he truly was.
Beside him, Chōjirō Sasakibe's lips were cracked dry. In an instant, it felt as if every drop of moisture in his throat had been sucked away. He hurriedly spoke up:
"Captain-Commander, please calm yourself!"
"If you lose control, the Soul Society won't be able to withstand your fury!"
The old Western gentleman was panicking.
If the Captain-Commander's blood pressure spiked and he acted on impulse, then with Ryūjin Jakka's power, the entire Seireitei would be reduced to ashes.
That would be self-destruction.
"Hmph…"
Hearing his subordinate's plea, the Captain-Commander let out a heavy snort. The fire in his eyes dimmed slightly as he reined in the overwhelming spiritual pressure, like an ancient volcano settling back into dormancy.
"Huff… huff… huff…"
Finally able to breathe again, Sasakibe gulped down air and tried to soothe him, almost fawningly:
"Please rest assured, Captain-Commander! That loudmouthed pure-blood Quincy will surely be dealt with by Captain Kyōraku!"
"It had better be," the Captain-Commander said coldly. "Otherwise, I'll take matters into my own hands and slaughter them in public, no matter the cost."
His eyes burned,killing intent erupting to its peak.
—
Meanwhile.
The battle on the screen continued.
"Whoosh—!"
More than a dozen beams of light fired in rapid succession.
Within the camera's view, massive explosions mushroomed upward. In that region of Wahrwelt, not a single building remained standing.
And Kyōraku Shunsui, who had been hiding among them, was finally exposed.
"So there you are," Lille Barro said, his holy wings beating slowly. "A rat that hides in the shadows…"
His voice had gone cold, laced with chilling murder intent. His patience was clearly gone.
"Well, looks like there's nowhere left to hide," Kyōraku sighed lightly. "That's troublesome…"
Amid the ruins, Kyōraku Shunsui slowly rose to his feet.
His face was smeared with grime from prolonged combat, and a helpless, wry smile tugged at his lips.
It almost looked likehe was about to give up.
—
Thirteenth Division.
"Gave up…? No way…" Ukitake Jūshirō's heart pounded as his emotions surged.
There was no denying it.Facing indiscriminate, large-scale bombardment, watching everything vanish in fire and light, was enough to crush anyone's spirit.
But still…
Giving up so easily wasn't Shunsui's style.
On the other side of the screen, Kyōraku glanced calmly at the image and shook his head with feigned disappointment.
"Ukitake, what are you talking about? Seems you still don't understand me well enough…"
"What do you mean…?" Ukitake froze, then his eyes widened as realization struck. "Don't tell me…"
"That's right," Kyōraku nodded, chuckling easily. "I'm about to use Bankai."
"I don't know the exact situation on the battlefield," he continued,"but according to that Quincy, I've spent most of the fight running and hiding. And based on the intel from the last update, Captain Zaraki and the others are fighting in the same area."
"Put all that together and it's obvious…"
His gaze sharpened, confidence flooding his voice.
"I wasn't running out of despair. I was deliberately creating distance, luring the Quincy toward the outskirts so I could isolate the battlefield and create the perfect conditions to release Bankai."
As expected.
The moment Kyōraku's words ended in reality, the footage showed him gripping his twin blades, hilts pointed downward. Like withered pine needles sinking into the earth, he slowly stabbed them into the ground.
At the same time, he spoke his release:
"Bankai."
"Katen Kyōkotsu: Karamatsu Shinjū."
—
Fourth Division barracks.
"He used Bankai!"
"This is my first time ever seeing Captain Kyōraku's Bankai since joining!" Kotetsu Isane's eyes shone with anticipation.
"Isane… you're not the only one," Unohana Retsu said softly, her expression complicated. "The first time I saw Katen Kyōkotsu's Bankai was hundreds of years ago…"
Because of his personality, and the peculiar nature of his Bankai, Kyōraku Shunsui had not released it once in the past several centuries.
As a result,aside from a handful of extremely senior veterans, almost no one knew the true power of Katen Kyōkotsu's Bankai.
Even Unohana's own memories had faded with time.
"But…" Isane hesitated. "What are those black pine trees spreading across the ground? They look so alive. And… I suddenly feel cold."
Her face went pale as she instinctively wrapped her arms around herself, her body trembling uncontrollably.
Worse still, she realized her field of vision was rapidly shrinking. Everything she could see was turning dark and shadowed.
That sensationwas like being trapped in a world that was both freezing and pitch-black, her heart steadily eroded by an unknown fear.
"Isane, don't panic. This is just the normal effect of 'the chill,'" Unohana said, trying to reassure her, though her own fingers were trembling.
"What… does that mean?"
Staring at the screen, Isane felt her fear deepen as the sky on the battlefield darkened. The dread spread through her limbs, her emotions sinking lower and lower.
"Spiritual pressure," Unohana explained."This feeling comes from the growth and spread of the black pines. Anyone within the range of the Bankai's spiritual pressure will feel darkness, loneliness, desolation, even despair."
"That is the power of Karamatsu Shinjū."
Even though she understood it well and had prepared herself mentally,when the wave of chilling dread washed over a wide area,
even Unohana Retsu, who had slaughtered countless enemies in the past and wielded the killing intent of the Eight Thousand Styles, found her mind heavily disturbed and her body subtly shaking.
And thiswas only the opening act of Katen Kyōkotsu's Bankai.
—
Hueco Mundo, Las Noches.
"What… what is this?"
"Those two swords haven't changed at all, so why does it feel like there's a tangible, ghostly aura surging behind him?"
Shivering violently, Nnoitra's teeth chattered as darkness seemed to close in around him.
This cold had nothing to do with temperature.
It came from deep within, from raw, instinctive fear.
That was what truly made his skin crawl.
"Damn it!" Yammy roared in fury. "I'm a brutal, merciless Arrancar! Why the hell am I suddenly feeling so depressed?!"
The dark spiritual pressure rippling endlessly from the screen made his legs shake uncontrollably.
Faced with something so unnatural, Yammy panicked, masking his fear with blind rage.
"So this is a captain-class Shinigami's Bankai," Starrk murmured quietly.
Enduring the crushing loneliness and sorrow, his heart was shaken to the core. He finally understood the gap between them.
From the very beginning,they had never been on the same level.
"..."
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