Chapter 79: The Gap Between Scientist and Warrior
The harsh alarm interrupted more than one battle.
But the ones closest to Arturo and his group were Orihime, Sajin Komamura, and Kaname Tosen.
"…Captain Ichimaru…" Komamura's voice shook with rage. "So Gin Ichimaru is behind all of this?!"
The fire in his fighting spirit vanished in an instant, replaced by a furious chill.
"Treating Lord Genryusai and all of us like pawns to be moved around." Komamura's fists tightened. "I will never forgive such a vile scoundrel!"
He turned to Orihime, tone heavy but controlled.
"Ryoka girl, we cannot keep fighting while a villain pulls strings behind our backs. We cease hostilities here."
Orihime nearly collapsed where she stood.
"Phew… thank goodness."
Komamura's ears drooped slightly, shame flickering across his posture. "My apologies. I was too rough."
His opponent looked like a fragile young woman, but her strength was anything but. He had underestimated the destructive edge of her abilities, and that mistake had cost him an arm.
Kokujō Tengen Myōō lost an arm.
And because of that, Komamura's own arm was severed as well.
He had deactivated his Bankai decisively and shifted into the simplest style: close quarters. The kind of fighting that did not forgive weak fundamentals.
Even with only one arm, relying on sheer physique, veteran combat instincts, and fearless bravery, Komamura had overwhelmed Orihime completely.
If the fight had not stopped now, she could honestly say she would have lost.
When all was said and done, her progress was in her Zanpakuto abilities, not in core foundations like Zanjutsu, Hakuda, Hohō, or Kidō.
Nor had she undergone any transformation in combat experience or awareness.
To be blunt, her talent for fighting was ordinary.
She had reached this point through willpower and hard work, nothing else.
It looked impressive until she ran into a true warrior like Komamura. Then her shaky fundamentals showed immediately.
Orihime steadied her breathing and shook her head.
"I'm fine. I'm just severely exhausted."
She looked past Komamura toward the injured captain.
"Compared to me, that captain over there is in a much worse state. Wait for me a moment!"
"?!"
Komamura's remaining hand froze mid motion as Orihime ran straight to Kaname Tosen and activated her healing.
Even with the truth exposed and the reason for a ceasefire laid bare, after so many brutal clashes centered around Rukia Kuchiki, it was natural for resentment to linger. It would be strange if it did not.
Komamura himself was deeply worried about his friend's wounds, but he forced his private feelings down for the sake of the greater situation.
This ryoka girl was different.
During the battle, she had shown no killing intent. No hatred.
She had focused only on defeating her opponent.
And now, the moment the fighting stopped, she healed the enemy captain without hesitation so he could stand again for whatever was coming next.
It was not cold calculation. It was simply the straightforward judgment of someone who genuinely saw them as allies on the same front.
Correct. Rational. The outcome was the same either way.
And yet…
"…"
Tosen could not see the face in front of him.
He could only hear her voice, and the quiet, stubborn sound of his own heartbeat.
For some reason, the scene felt familiar.
As if he had lived through something like it before.
"All done!" Orihime's voice rang out, bright with relief.
Her pure emotion, the warmth in her tone, the sunlight falling across him, all of it seemed to blur into one.
"…Thank you for your trouble."
Tosen tightened his grip on his Zanpakuto and nodded, cool and distant. Without waiting for Orihime to say another word, he turned and walked away.
"Tosen, where are you going?" Komamura called, startled.
Tosen's steps never faltered, like he was trying to put distance between himself and something he did not want to face.
"Central 46," he said flatly. "I suspect Ichimaru has another move waiting there."
"That makes sense." Komamura nodded once. "I will leave that to you."
He turned back to Orihime.
"Ryoka girl, let's go."
Orihime blinked, then answered quickly. "Um… my name is Inoue Orihime."
"I am Komamura Sajin," he replied.
"Captain Komamura, wait." Orihime lifted her hands again. "Let me heal your right arm first!"
Behind them, Tosen's pace quickened without meaning to.
Meanwhile, in the Fifth Division's jurisdiction.
Whoosh.
Mayuri Kurotsuchi tilted his head slightly as a beam of light tore past his ear and detonated behind him.
The far side of the lake erupted in a massive explosion, and an entire section of forest was incinerated.
Mayuri did not even flinch.
"What are you doing?" he drawled. "Were my words so effective that you got provoked into attacking? If so, your accuracy is rather disappointing."
"It was merely an invitation to a duel," Arturo said, gaze colder than a grave.
"A challenge, then. Something like the ceremonial rules Europeans love in the World of the Living." Mayuri's lips curled. "How refined. Very well."
He chuckled, voice rising into a sharp, manic edge.
"According to your rules, I shall respond in the manner that suits me."
Mayuri pulled out a remote and pressed a button.
Far away, a ceremonial cannon rose like a firework.
It burst open high in the sky, releasing thick smoke that spread over Sokyoku's firebird.
The firebird halted abruptly, hovering as if confused.
Arturo narrowed his eyes and intensified his summoning.
"It's useless." Mayuri sounded smug. "That smoke is a bomb I created by analyzing the reishi components of Sokyoku."
"I originally planned to study it when no one was watching. I did not expect it to be useful here."
"It becomes very obedient after inhaling that smoke." Mayuri's tone turned almost fond. "Like a tranquilizer. Quiet things are easier to dissect."
As he spoke, a figure suddenly appeared by the lakeshore.
Highly adhesive threads fired from its wrists, yanking Hinamori Momo, Hachihara, Rukia, Iba, Hisagi, and Rindo Yu toward it.
In seconds, they were wrapped into two bundles, one slung over each shoulder, and the figure fled.
It moved fast.
Arturo did not stop it.
Gin Ichimaru did not react either, just watched with a lazy smile.
Mayuri clicked his tongue, annoyed.
"I thought you would chase them. I even had Nemu prepare a trap just for you."
"Those people combined are less of a threat than you," Arturo replied, voice flat. "I know your stench too well."
"Oh?" Mayuri tilted his head. "Have you met other scientists besides me?"
"No." Arturo's eyes sharpened. "I mean that disgusting smell of someone who is clearly weak, yet still finds a way to cause trouble."
Arturo did not move his feet.
And yet his body crossed dozens of meters in an instant.
A reishi light sword, formed at some unknown moment, plunged straight into Mayuri's chest.
The entire kill was hundreds of times faster than anything Nemu could have done.
"That is why I would not even touch you," Arturo said coldly.
"Hm."
Mayuri ignored the blade through his chest and smiled, triumphant.
"A very wise choice." His voice turned delighted. "My skin is coated in toxins that dissolve muscle on contact."
He paused, savoring it.
"Therefore… I will make sure you touch me, no matter what."
Bang.
Mayuri's body exploded.
Liquid burst outward, as if he were nothing but a water filled balloon.
But before even a drop could reach Arturo, it evaporated under Arturo's pressure. Everything was reishi at its root. There was no reason it could not be forcibly erased.
"I knew it was a decoy," Arturo said calmly.
"Then why did you stab me?"
Mayuri's voice came from the surface of the lake again. His true body stood there, intact, head tilted in amusement.
Arturo glanced over with the corner of his eye, lips curving into something cruel.
"To force you to show your real body while you were busy creating another decoy," he said. "With my sensitivity to reishi, hiding your spiritual pressure or using disguise is meaningless."
He lifted his hand and threw another reishi light sword.
The blade flashed like lightning and vanished.
It struck the grass at the lake's edge.
At first glance, it looked like nothing happened.
Then the ground bled.
Mayuri's body shimmered, separating from the environment like a peeled skin. His mimetic camouflage failed, and his true form was revealed.
"…To think you could see through my mimicry." Mayuri's grin widened. "I thought I could convince you I had merged with the lake."
"Do not celebrate too soon."
"You can use reiatsu to erase the decoy liquid I made with muscle dissolvent, but it still mixed into the air."
"Just breathing it will make your internal organs fail."
He leaned forward, eyes bright with malice.
"Even with your absurd regeneration, delaying you for one moment is enough!"
Arturo's expression shifted slightly. His momentum stalled.
Mayuri sneered.
From the forest, hundreds of thousands of tiny creatures poured out.
They were modified bio weapons. Not even cleanly identifiable as any one species. Their bodies carried traits from countless animals, stitched together into something that barely qualified as life.
They rushed in while Arturo's organs failed and repaired themselves, then triggered a chain of self destruction meant to flood the air with muscle dissolvent and nerve paralytics.
Before they could detonate, Arturo drew light swords in both hands.
His stance was elegant, almost like dance.
Yet every cut was efficient.
In seconds he erased them all, not allowing even a speck of reishi residue to escape.
"What?!" Mayuri's pupils tightened.
The strength of that regeneration exceeded his expectations.
"It does not matter." Mayuri's voice sharpened with excitement. "Come forth. Konjiki Ashisogi Jizō!"
A gigantic shadow rose within the lake.
Mayuri's Bankai. Biological. Horrific.
A grotesque infant shape, capable of poison gas and blades like a living weapon, surged upward, ready to burst from the water and swallow Arturo whole.
It was impossible to say how long Mayuri had been watching, or when he had activated Bankai and hidden it beneath the surface.
But it was clearly one more link in a chain of traps.
Boom.
Mayuri's vision turned white.
The roar was not the splash of something emerging. It was an explosion.
A Cero.
Arturo poured a white Cero straight into the lake beneath his feet.
The entire lake detonated into the sky.
Every drop of water was annihilated inside that blinding white, empty light.
The lake became a reverse waterfall, and the torrent of light spread outward, swallowing ground and sky alike.
Mayuri snapped backward, forming footing in midair to avoid being swallowed with it.
Within the torrent, a faint fluorescent glimmer flickered.
In the next breath, that glimmer became a person.
Closing distance instantly.
Arturo appeared before Mayuri, light sword raised.
"Wha…"
Mayuri swung his blade in panic.
His Zanpakuto in Shikai, Ashisogi Jizō, was no ordinary weapon. The three segmented gold blade could sever an enemy's control over their own body.
But the swing stopped dead.
As if Arturo had seen it before it happened, he caught Mayuri's wrist without even looking.
Tear.
With one violent yank, Arturo ripped the arm off entirely.
Ashisogi Jizō flew from its master's grip.
Then Arturo drove a reishi light sword through Mayuri's body and followed with a brutal kick to the hilt.
"Uwaah…!"
Mayuri crashed down hard onto scorched earth.
When the dust settled, he lay pinned to the ground by the light sword, body twisted in ruin.
"Two thousand years ago, I lost because I underestimated my opponent," Arturo said, folding his arms as he descended. "But that opponent was Yamamoto Genryusai."
He stepped onto the sword hilt, pressing it down like a nail, and looked at Mayuri with arrogant delight.
"The joy of nearly defeating him was intoxicating."
"And that is why I was ambushed by that woman."
He leaned closer, smiling as if lecturing prey.
"You are clever. But you overlooked something basic."
"If I truly had a flaw of underestimating opponents, I would have died long ago in Hueco Mundo."
"Against weak opponents, especially those with clearly mediocre reiatsu like you and that woman, I cannot underestimate you."
"Because my pride will not tolerate being defeated by trash."
He spoke slowly, savoring each word.
"You tried to weaken my mobility until your comrades arrived, so you could capture me."
"And now you are pinned under my foot like prey."
Arturo's smile widened.
"You never should have fought me."
"How could a so called scientist ever defeat a warrior like me?"
He raised his hand lazily.
Screech.
The firebird tore through the air and arrived.
It had recovered.
It twisted, condensing into a Zanpakuto that settled into Arturo's hand.
After two thousand years, he had retrieved his sword and recovered his core.
His spiritual pressure surged again, so overwhelming Mayuri felt his own captain status was some kind of joke.
The green haired, yellow eyed Arrancar grinned.
"Anyone who falls under my blade meets the same end."
"To die, and have their strength stolen by me."
Arturo raised his sword to strike.
A red streak of light suddenly tore in from the horizon.
Arturo's eyes snapped toward it.
When his senses tracked the motion, his expression shifted.
From the rising dust came another streak of red, wet with blood.
Arturo casually swatted it aside with one swing.
In his peripheral vision, he saw what it was. A sharp red blade attached to a chain.
It was too strange to be called an arrow.
The next instant, the blade exploded.
Blinding light swallowed his vision.
Arturo felt a trace of death, sharp and sudden. Without a word, he kicked off and shot into the sky.
When his vision cleared, an orange yellow slash of spiritual energy flew into the distance, carving through sections of forest in a single pass.
That degree of sharpness was not enough to frighten him.
But he knew it was not ordinary.
The sense of death had come from it.
The attacker made no attempt to hide.
Arturo immediately saw the orange haired young woman, standing beside a shinigami captain.
And the one who had used the chained blade as an arrow was already moving to free Mayuri.
"Hey, are you alright, that Twelfth Division captain?" Ichigo asked, voice rough.
"It is Mayuri Kurotsuchi!" Mayuri snapped, even pinned and bleeding. "How dare you call yourself a genius when you cannot recognize all captains of the Gotei 13?!"
"Who can remember a name that weird?" Ichigo shot back. "And is this how you treat the benefactor who saved you at the critical moment?!"
"Ugh!"
Ichigo yanked the spiritual blade free, and Mayuri grunted, face twisting from pain. He ignored the argument.
"If you can still walk, leave. Now."
Ichigo kept his eyes on Arturo, speaking without turning his head.
"I do not need a Spirit Arts Academy student like you telling me what to do."
Mayuri staggered upright with support from the suddenly appearing Nemu. He hesitated for only a breath, then lowered his voice into a warning.
"This creature's regeneration is ridiculous. Do not try to wear him down."
"If you can, use methods that aim for a killing blow."
"Huh?" Ichigo frowned. "But the alarm said to capture…"
"You traitor who aided the ryoka," Mayuri hissed, "should not worry about orders."
"…"
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