Chapter 71: The Unforgivable Forbidden Technique
Whenever others asked, Shimiya Takeru would always answer that he had figured it out by himself.
It was more convenient to say, and in his mind it was also a fitting reward for his own effort.
Of course, even if a power fell into his lap for no reason at all, he could accept it without much guilt.
But this time, the gift from [Machine Soul] made even Takeru feel that this was something he could plausibly claim to have "comprehended" on his own.
Even if the Captain Commander found out about it, he would probably believe that explanation.
He would not care how outrageous this technique truly was.
The reason was simple.
[You are the most outstanding student, the most rebellious student. You drink the power of death, don armor, and transform into the pitch black Great Demon King.]
[Although you did not succeed, the raging fire in your heart has been ignited, burning even more fiercely than your opponent's.]
[That position should not exist. The power of that position should belong to the Shinigami. It should belong to you, who are destined to reign at the apex of the Shinigami, yet it is usurped by the mediocre and incompetent. It is simply unforgivable.]
[You deeply felt your own lack of power, and so in your anger, you comprehended Unforgivable Curse: Cruciatus Curse.]
A strange knowledge rose from the depths of his soul.
It was difficult to express in words, hard even to write down.
It resembled the "curse" passed down through the Ise Nanao family.
The mere shape of it was chilling, filled with ominous premonitions.
Yet it had no effect on Takeru himself.
"…"
Takeru was silent for a while.
It was as if this power, so close to a bloodline trait, had unfolded its full structure directly in front of its chosen wielder.
In an instant, he understood everything.
The "Unforgivable Curse" belonged to jujutsu and also to Kido, yet it stood apart from the current mainstream Kido system and formed an independent school of its own.
The series contained three techniques.
They were the Killing Curse, the Soul Stealing Curse, and the Cruciatus Curse.
Takeru had mastered one of them, the Cruciatus Curse.
Its effect was to torment the target, strip away every layer of resistance, and plunge them into endless spiritual agony until they lost their mind or even died.
Once struck, whether the victim survived or not, irreversible damage would be done to the soul.
In that kind of situation, even Bakudo was helpless.
Only extremely rare abilities such as true resurrection, reversal of events, or alteration of past and future could overturn that fate.
As for the limitations or drawbacks on the caster, the list was short.
Besides requiring malice at the moment of use, and losing effectiveness when used on someone whose spiritual pressure far exceeded his own, there were no other restraints.
The spiritual pressure cost was not high either. At most it matched the consumption of a high level Kido spell.
The casting process required no medium, no magic circle, not even a chant.
Pointing a finger at the enemy was enough.
Because it resembled a remote curse, any opponent who was not on guard could easily be caught and locked in by the Cruciatus Curse, instantly losing the ability to resist.
The only ways to avoid it were to dodge, escape outside the lock on range, or sever the caster's line of sight in some other way.
That sounded simple. In practice, it was extremely passive.
For any Kido specialist, mastering the Cruciatus Curse would mean an explosive leap in actual combat power.
However, the knowledge of the Cruciatus Curse could barely be transmitted by word of mouth and even less through written records.
If Takeru had to teach it, he would not know where to even begin.
And even if he could teach it, he had no intention of doing so.
When he used it himself, he could guarantee the highest level of caution and that he would not fling it around lightly.
Other people were a different story.
In Takeru's eyes, the Unforgivable Curse series modified by [Machine Soul] was a forbidden technique that needed stricter control than any manipulation of time and space.
Not to mention the Cruciatus Curse. The Soul Stealing Curse, which interfered directly with souls, and the Killing Curse, which directly stripped away life force, were both extremely efficient and extremely extreme forms of Kido.
One way or another, he had already learned them.
He could not choose to forget, and he could not pretend he would never use them.
Forbidden technique meant forbidden from casual use. In Takeru's understanding, that translated to "do not use it outside of battle." He accepted that definition readily enough. It was not as though he was actually some Dark Lord.
He shook his head, stopped dwelling on it, and focused on sensing the waves of spiritual pressure pulsating from each battlefield, identifying the combatants and their locations.
[Machine Soul] had already shown its sincerity.
Now it was his turn to keep fighting.
After these battles, perhaps he would harvest a few more wicked "forbidden techniques" to enrich his collection of trump cards.
…
Next to Sokyoku Hill stood the Palace of Penitence.
It existed for one purpose only: to hold prisoners who were about to be executed.
The area around it was desolate and empty, the lonely buildings stabbing up into the clouds.
Orihime and Yoruichi had originally planned to use the complicated terrain to shake off their pursuers.
Byakuya had not been moved in the slightest. After retreating from Sokyoku Hill he had gone straight to the other exit of the Palace of Penitence and cut them off in advance, blocking the only route toward the Fifth Division's secret research institute.
With a strong enemy in front and pursuers behind, they had no choice but to carve a path through.
Takeru and Ichigo had not hesitated to clash head on with the Captain Commander. Yoruichi was no less fierce. She exploded into Shunko in an instant, caught Byakuya off guard, and bought Orihime the time she needed to escape with Rukia while he was still unprepared.
After that, Yoruichi took on Soi Fon alone, blocking the pursuit from behind.
However, Byakuya had no intention of tangling with her.
Once he decided to leave, Yoruichi could not stop him at all.
In the end she had only managed to delay him for a minute or two.
One or two minutes.
For any other Shinigami, even a Vice Captain, catching up to the current female Shinigami substitute in that short span would have been impossible.
But Rukia wore a collar that sealed her spiritual pressure, unable to use Shunpo at all. Orihime was carrying her on her back. They had not run far before Byakuya, whose Shunpo was superior, caught up.
The two sides faced each other on a suspension bridge that resembled a massive dam.
Staring at the refined, cold, black haired man who hunted them down like a true god of death, Orihime could not make sense of it.
"I already told you we have a way to help Kuchiki san remove that dangerous Hogyoku. Why are you still so determined to drag her back for execution?"
"Kuchiki san's brother, even if you had unavoidable reasons and could not rescue her, I could understand that. But everything you have done makes me feel like you want her dead more than anyone else."
"I am begging you to tell me that I am wrong about that…"
At those words, Byakuya's cold expression became like thousand year old ice, locking all his emotions away.
Only his eyes revealed the faintest ripple.
Then he closed them.
"Though acknowledging that ryoka was not my original wish… on that point, your feeling is correct."
"?"
Orihime's breath hitched. Her first instinct was not to lash out, but to turn and look at Rukia, who stood there stunned.
"Big Brother…"
"Others might have the right to act on their whims. The Kuchiki Clan does not. I, as its head, do not."
After being confronted again and again, Byakuya had not only disturbed Orihime and Rukia's hearts. His own convictions had wavered more than once.
He still forced himself to steady them.
"In the beginning, I insisted on bringing you into the Kuchiki Clan because of Hisana, my late wife's final wish. She told me she had abandoned her younger sister when they were still infants. She felt unbearable guilt for that and asked me to look for you in her place."
"Several years later, I finally found you in the Spirit Arts Academy."
"What…?"
Rukia trembled in shock.
"Yes. You are Hisana's sister, so I have treated you as my own younger sister."
"But you are still a commoner from Rukongai. For the Kuchiki Clan, that is a violation of our laws. After bringing you into the clan, I swore before my parents' graves that from that day onward, I would never break the rules or disrupt the order again."
Looking at the shaken faces of Rukia and Orihime, Byakuya's tone softened slightly, tinged with a complicated emotion.
"Central 46 represents the will of Soul Society. Their judgment is absolute. The Kuchiki Clan's duty is to uphold that order. I cannot join hands with you. I cannot even look the other way."
"If I were to stand idle while outsiders trampled Soul Society's rules and defied its will, then both the Kuchiki Clan and I, as its head, would be condoning it. After that, who would still respect Soul Society's laws?"
"Those rules are our pride and our dignity."
"They must not be trampled. They must not be stained."
"If anyone breaks the rules, then as the head of the Kuchiki Clan, I am bound to cut them down."
"As for this method you claim can remove the Hogyoku, that is not something I can consider."
"So… I am sorry, Rukia."
"As long as you stand as ryoka and fugitives, I will block your path, no matter how many times."
With things laid out so clearly, Orihime's heart twisted with conflicting emotions. She did not know how to respond at all.
Rukia was even more overwhelmed. Shame wrung her face tight.
"Big Brother, I…"
"What 'I'? You are not thinking of surrendering again, are you?"
A powerful spiritual pressure crashed down on them, and a voice echoed through the canyon like space.
All three of them looked up at once and saw a figure standing atop the high tower behind Byakuya at the far end of the bridge.
Before they could make out his features, the figure vanished.
The next instant he reappeared between the two sides.
They did not really need to see clearly.
That brazen, unrestrained voice, that overwhelming spiritual pressure… in all of Seireitei, there was only one person who fit that description.
Kurosaki Ichigo.
"You are actually still alive, Kurosaki Ichigo…"
Byakuya sounded more surprised than either Rukia or Orihime.
"Am I not standing right in front of you?"
Ichigo grinned, then spoke without glancing back.
"Inoue, Rukia, you two keep going. I will handle this guy."
"Ichigo…"
"Cut the chatter. You get swayed way too easily. One speech from someone and you start thinking about surrendering. If I let you stay, what if he really talks you over? Then everything we did goes up in smoke. Shimiya and I just clawed our way back from the edge, you know."
Rukia did not doubt that last part one bit.
The man who had chased them was the Captain Commander himself, and that earlier commotion that had nearly turned all of Seireitei into a scorching desert left no doubt about how brutal the battle had been.
Precisely because of that…
"How could I possibly surrender? After everything you have all done for me, if I gave up now, what kind of person would that make me? Do you believe I would not just kill myself on the spot, you idiot Ichigo?"
"Huh? You were absolutely ready to surrender just now. I did not imagine that."
"That was an apology. I wanted to apologize to my brother. To tell him that no matter what happens, I will not give up fighting."
"Apologize for what? You still are not thinking straight. I can understand this guy apologizing, but you? You got dragged into a noble clan for no reason, had some dangerous thing stuck inside you for no reason, and then got sentenced to death for no reason. If all that happened to me, I would make everyone apologize to me."
"You…"
His blunt, unfiltered words left Rukia completely speechless.
"Got nothing to say, right? Then hurry up and get out of here. Let me have a proper talk with this stubborn noble."
Ichigo drew his massive Zanpakuto with a backhanded motion, pointing the tip straight at Byakuya.
"Once we are done talking, maybe he will get it. I was born into a doctor's family and I am a Bakudo expert. Just leave him to me."
His intimidating spiritual pressure, the sharp light in his eyes, and the feral smile at the corner of his mouth all made one thing clear.
He only planned on talking with his sword.
"Ichigo, you…"
"Then I will leave Kuchiki san in your hands, Kurosaki kun… By the way, how is Shimiya kun?"
"Relax. It will not be long before you feel his spiritual pressure blazing again."
Reassured by his answer, Orihime pulled Rukia along and continued their escape.
"You are not going to stop them? I thought you would at least try."
"There is no need."
Byakuya's reply to Ichigo's taunt was as cold as at their very first encounter.
There was no hesitation and no wavering left.
"It will not be too late to cut you down here and then pursue them."
"Big words. You think you can pull that off?"
"To escape the Captain Commander, I should indeed revise my estimation of your strength. However, no feat like that comes without a price. Your torn Shinigami uniform, that clearly unstable spiritual pressure, and that trembling sword tip all show the same thing. Your stamina and spiritual pressure are both heavily depleted."
Byakuya's voice grew even frostier.
"You are in worse shape now than you were in the World of the Living. Unfortunately, I have no reason to spare you this time."
"Unfortunate? I happen to think it is perfect. Perfect for finishing what we started."
Ichigo did not flinch.
"What?"
"Do not get it? I will spell it out. Bring out your full power. Use your Bankai. I will fight you with the same state I had back then and crush you with Shikai alone, along with that so called pride and dignity of yours."
Byakuya's pupils shrank.
Not because of the declaration itself, outrageous as it was.
But because the moment the words left Ichigo's mouth, he swung his sword and unleashed a towering Getsuga that swept across the suspension bridge like a black and blue tidal wave.
Even after fighting the Captain Commander, he still had that much power left.
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