Chapter 82: The Shinigami
"Release."
Yusuke pressed his hands together, dispelling the genjutsu cast on Hidan.
The moment Hidan's eyes snapped open and he saw Yusuke standing before him, he immediately burst into a stream of curses.
"If you say one more word, I'll dunk you in a vat of chili oil," Yusuke said casually, barely glancing at him.
The threat shut Hidan up instantly. Not another word escaped his mouth.
> This bastard's even more evil than Lord Jashin… Hidan grumbled to himself.
Seeing that Hidan had quieted down, Yusuke let out a faint smile. From his robes, he pulled out a grotesque, demonic mask—its features twisted into a menacing grin—and slowly moved it toward Hidan's face.
Hidan wanted to yell, to demand an explanation, but the memory of Yusuke's earlier threat held him back.
As the mask was affixed to his face, Hidan was immediately overwhelmed by a chilling, otherworldly presence—an invisible malice, like a pair of malevolent eyes staring deep into his soul.
Yusuke remained unfazed. He brought two fingers together and pressed them against the crown of Hidan's head, channeling a surge of chakra into him.
In response, a towering, spectral figure began to materialize behind Hidan—a monstrous being born of chakra and death. It was the Shinigami summoned by the Dead Demon Consuming Seal (Shiki Fūjin).
Hidan shivered. That sinister presence behind him—the feeling of being watched—was now right at his back.
"Wh-what's behind me?" he asked, his voice trembling.
Without a word, Yusuke gently turned Hidan's head to face the source of his dread.
Standing before them was a monstrous spirit easily four or five times the size of a man. Its long, withered yellow hair was crowned with two sharp black horns. Its skin was a ghostly, deep blue, and its mouth—full of jagged fangs—clenched a short blade between its teeth.
The creature's massive frame was draped in a white cloak, and ghostly blue flames in the shape of tomoe swirled around it. It exuded an eerie spiritual pressure—an aura of death so potent that even those without chakra sensing abilities would feel it crawl along their skin like ice.
Yusuke thought it felt eerily similar to reiatsu—the spiritual pressure described in legends.
"Wh-what the hell is that?!" Hidan croaked, his throat dry from fear.
Ordinarily, someone like Hidan wouldn't be able to see the Shinigami. But as a living sacrifice now bound to the death god through ritual, his soul was directly linked—allowing him to perceive the being of death with his own eyes.
"This guy?" Yusuke said, almost playfully. "They call him the Shinigami. Personally, I'm just curious whether someone blessed by Jashin can be killed by death itself."
He half-smiled, but there was a glint of genuine interest in his eyes.
To Yusuke, Hidan's head was a fascinating subject for research. Ideally, he didn't want the Shinigami to actually take Hidan's soul. But if even he couldn't control the death god—well, then he could only offer Hidan his condolences.
"HELP MEEEE!!" Hidan howled.
Just then, a chilling, hollow laugh echoed through the air.
The Shinigami slowly removed the short blade from between its teeth—the very weapon it used to reap souls. Its intent was clear.
The soul of Hidan was now on the menu.
As the short blade came crashing down, Hidan shut his eyes in despair. He could feel it—this monster's blade could actually kill him.
But the pain he expected… never came.
Cautiously, he opened his eyes and was stunned to see Yusuke standing in front of him, a long sword in hand, holding back the Shinigami's strike.
The death god's expression twisted into something startlingly human—surprise. After all, never before had any living being managed to stop its blade. This was a first.
The Shinigami's gaze shifted from Hidan to Yusuke.
A moment later, it lunged forward.
With a howl of spiritual wind, the short blade it wielded sliced toward Yusuke in a brutal downward arc. The sheer size of the death god made the strike feel utterly overwhelming—like a force of nature.
Clang!
A collision of pure spiritual pressure rang out as Yusuke parried the blow with his sword.
Though he blocked it, Yusuke felt the crushing force behind it. The parry had been far from easy—he had barely managed it.
Yet instead of alarm, Yusuke's lips curved into a faint, satisfied smile. The clash had confirmed his theory:
> This thing really is a soul-born monstrosity of immense power.
The Shinigami had no flesh, no muscles. Its strength came entirely from its spiritual essence. And that essence was potent.
Yusuke could feel it—pure, concentrated soul energy pouring off the creature in waves. If he could cut off just a small portion of its body and refine it into a Yin Release chakra crystal, it would make for the perfect sealing medium—even capable of binding the chakra of a Tailed Beast.
As Yusuke contemplated what part of the creature he could carve off, the Shinigami's expression changed. It smiled—cunningly.
Suddenly, a withered claw—covered in ancient sealing script—shot out from the Shinigami's stomach, grasping straight for Yusuke.
If it touched him, it would tear his soul from his body. For anyone lacking sufficient spiritual strength, there would be no escape. They'd be dragged out and devoured.
But Yusuke was no amateur.
With a swift sidestep, he easily dodged the claw. Then, in a clean arc, he swung his zanpakutō down—severing the ghostly limb at its base.
A deafening, spectral shriek tore through the air.
The Shinigami recoiled, writhing in pain—the first time it had ever been wounded in its existence.
Fury distorted its monstrous face. That pain was something it had never known.
An aura of chilling malice exploded outward, and the ghostly blue flames—the tomoe-shaped hitodama—that circled the Shinigami flared violently.
Those flames surged along its blade as the Shinigami charged again, now burning with unrestrained wrath.
Yusuke didn't hold back either.
"Awaken—Ryūjin Jakka!"
In an instant, his zanpakutō ignited in roaring crimson flames, and he clashed once more with the death god.
Red fire met ghostly blue as the two blades collided again and again. The air hissed and crackled with each strike—not from steam, but from two opposing spiritual flames devouring each other.
The battle intensified. Sparks rained like meteors.
Gradually, Yusuke began to gain the upper hand.
Though the Shinigami's spiritual pressure vastly outclassed his own, Yusuke's blade—imbued with the sun's fire—naturally countered the Shinigami's yin flame. And in pure swordsmanship, he was overwhelmingly superior. The Shinigami relied solely on its inhuman reflexes to fend off his strikes.
But with each wave of Yusuke's attacks, its defenses faltered. The death god's body was repeatedly slashed, its form beginning to burn with the crimson fire of Ryūjin Jakka.
Only by forcefully controlling and extinguishing the flames with its own ghostly fire could it avoid destruction. Were it not for that, the battle might already be over.