Takeda Satoru sat upright on a throne piled high with crystals, his expression dark as stagnant water.
He never would've imagined he'd overlook something this crucial—and even more unexpected was this:
That audacious Naraku Sora had actually been holding back in a fight against a captain-class Shinigami.
Shikai versus Bankai?
Jealousy flooded Takeda's face without the slightest attempt to hide it. His kaleidoscopic eyes locked onto the figure below.
Naraku pressed his fingers tightly around the hilt. A barely contained fervor burst from the depths of his eyes, his blade-like gaze hard to meet.
His fingers shifted. The instant they clenched, a crashing boom exploded outward.
It was pure, suffocating, scorching Reiatsu.
A terrifying pillar of flame surged up to the sky, intertwining with the Kidō barrier that nearly covered the entire manor. The heavens turned blood-red, like an inverted sea of fire collapsing downward.
Crack!
Under the collision of their forces, the overburdened ground tore open into savage fissures—
Like a battle horn sounding.
In the next instant, thunder erupted.
With a shockwave rolling outward, Naraku vanished from where he stood, leaving only a straight line of fire that lashed the ground and burned a black scar into it.
Extreme Shunpo.
In a blink, he crossed a hundred meters, streaking through the crystal world like a meteor and charging straight for Takeda high above.
Against Takeda's startled gaze, the blade wreathed in burning Reiatsu lifted high and fell like a warhammer.
In the next heartbeat, dazzling golden lightning burst out. Twisted arcs became visible torrents, condensing into sword-pressure and sweeping across the entire crystal world.
Cracking sounds rang without end wherever it passed.
Like a quiet ice sheet struck by a meteor, fractures spread and expanded in chains until they nearly covered the whole courtyard.
Takeda's pupils contracted. He swung his arm, and an enormous crystal wall erupted from the ground—an unbreakable defense.
Like other elemental Zanpakutō, Saga Migen's essence was crystallization: it could instantly form both offense and defense.
At full power, the crystal it created could rival even Bakudō #81: Dankū in defensive strength.
That was Takeda's confidence.
Across their earlier exchanges, he'd identified Naraku's "problem."
Unlike Shutara Senjumaru's eerie, incomprehensible methods, this kid was straightforward—nothing special, just brute force.
Whether it was that sword-pressure slash that resembled Raikōhō, or the terrifying point-blank sword-pressure just now—
The forms differed, but the core was always the same: raw, no-frills destruction.
The brilliant lightning sword-pressure slammed into the crystal wall. The breaking sounds rose like a grand symphony, climbing toward a peak.
But at the instant the wall fully shattered, the figure that should've been on the throne vanished.
Like a ghost, Takeda appeared from within the broken crystals without warning. His crystal blade glittered under sunlight as it came down on Naraku.
The kaleidoscopic blade struck with thunderous force, colliding with Naraku's Zanpakutō, which burned with Reiatsu flame—
And Takeda's expression twisted.
His sure-kill strike had accomplished nothing.
Naraku looked into that warped face inches away and pulled his lips into a savage grin.
"A captain of the Gotei… and that's all you've got?"
The provocation was blatant—and absurdly effective.
Takeda hadn't captured the intruder quickly. Even after activating Bankai, he kept slipping into disadvantage.
At that level, people would start wondering whether his captaincy had been bought.
Sensing the nobles' stares behind him, Takeda's gaze grew darker. He exhaled slowly.
"You asked for this."
In the next instant he surged again. Crystallized matter appeared out of nowhere, plating onto his body like armor in a heartbeat.
Even his head was enclosed. Only two narrow, indifferent slits of eyes remained, staring at Naraku. The pressure intensified, stripped of emotion—like a cold killing machine.
Both figures exploded into motion at the same time, becoming streaks of light. Beneath the Kidō barrier, high over the courtyard, they crashed into each other again and again.
Sparks burst like fireworks. Terrifying shockwaves rolled outward, revealing just how monstrous their power was.
If you threw them into an ordinary Shinigami battlefield, it would turn into a meat grinder instantly.
Naraku's smile grew more feral. Scorching Reiatsu curled around him as his heavy, brutal slashes drove forward like a dump truck at full speed, grinding into the crystal-armored figure.
The first time they fought, Naraku had relied on instinct to predict Takeda's attacks.
But he'd grown dramatically since then. If he still couldn't keep up now, what was the point of all that growth?
In the tiny gaps between their light-speed clashes, crystal spikes erupted out of nowhere, creating openings for Takeda.
Inside this dazzling crystal world, his power seemed limitless.
As Naraku dodged spikes shooting up from beneath his feet, Takeda smoothly laid out a new Kidō pattern.
After a brief, rapid chant, Reiatsu condensed to a peak and exploded—
"Hadō #88: Hiryū Gekizoku Shinten Raihō!"
A blast roared like descending thunder. A blue pillar of light wrapped in crackling arcs shot straight at Naraku.
Where it passed, the ground was plowed into deep black trenches.
BOOM!!
A shockwave that shook the earth erupted. In a single instant, the courtyard convulsed as dirt and crystal shot into the sky.
At that moment, Aizen completed the barrier seal and rushed into the courtyard.
The first thing he saw was Naraku being swallowed by the lightning pillar.
Afraid the strike hadn't killed him, Takeda immediately formed countless crystal spikes, which fell like a storm into the place Naraku had stood.
Blinding brilliance swallowed everything.
Aizen's face changed. He was about to rush in to save Naraku—
When something unbelievable happened.
From the boiling dust, frenzied electric light twisted and surged, and a figure slowly emerged.
Half his body was charred black, his shihakushō nearly torn apart under the barrage. Yet he walked out steadily and curled his lips at Takeda's disbelieving face.
Naraku looked at the stunned expression, his grin turning even more savage.
"You don't understand what it means to have—"
"Stats."
~~~
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