"Quite the ability…"
On a street ruined beyond recognition, Yachiru looked up at the figure above—the Higashino Shuuichi who seemed like a different person—and let out a small gasp.
Far off, Ginrei hovered in the air. His released Zanpakutō (Soul-Cutter Sword)—a scepter-like weapon with a drooping tassel—breathed a faint breeze.
That breeze unspooled from Ginrei's blade and wrapped gently around Shuuichi—soft, patient, insinuating. It nudged his perception, loosened his guard, and drew him to sink into what he was already doing—forgetting everything else.
Enjoy. Relax. Then die.
If not for Shuuichi's Bankai (Final Release) being passive, Ginrei would have ended it already instead of letting Kenpachi grind him down.
At least things were going smoothly now. Shuuichi had, for a heartbeat, fought his way clear on will alone…
But too late. He couldn't find the snag. Soon he was back where Kenpachi wanted him—hacked and hounded.
"I admit, your reiatsu (spiritual pressure) surpasses my expectations. Your current combat power even tops most captains. But you're walking the wrong road, Higashino Shuuichi.
Death—Hell—is your due end."
No regret in Ginrei's murmur.
As head of a Great House, he knew Hell—and that Shinigami at Shuuichi's level usually went there when they died. A return as dispersed reishi to Soul Society was possible—but unlikely.
Then—something off. A tickle in the flow.
"Hadō no 4: Kaze: Byakurai (Wind: Pale Lightning)!"
An unseen strike lanced his abdomen; numbness spread, choking off Shunpō (Flash Step).
Which meant the next spell—"Hadō no 88: Hi: Hiryū Gekizoku Shinten Raihō (Fire: Flying Dragon—Strikes the Thief, Heaven-Shaking Thunder Cannon)"—couldn't be evaded.
He had to take it.
The sky cracked with the blast.
Ginrei's eyes widened. Ahead, Shuuichi wasn't much better off—painted head to toe in blood, panting hard, reiatsu ragged from fatigue, a Hollow's rasp bleeding through the mask.
But the reason for that state… was that he had dropped his Bankai.
"You canceled Bankai just to use your Shikai (Initial Release) to break the trap? I underestimated your nerve and wit, Higashino Shuuichi."
Seeing the blade in Shikai, and knowing Shuuichi's Shikai toolkit, Ginrei understood at once.
He had borrowed the eyes of his Reishi constructs to break the cognitive snare.
Ginrei's Shikai "breeze" only rewrote the target's subconscious priorities—nudging him to ignore things that already existed. It didn't actually alter memory. Images piped into Shuuichi's mind from his constructs wouldn't be subconsciously filtered out—at least for a time.
Simple to say—not simple to do mid-fight. Dropping Bankai, eating grievous wounds, risking being finished by Kenpachi—for a Shikai countermeasure that might not even work.
Just that choice marked Shuuichi as a rare, resolute Shinigami.
Pity he was their enemy.
"What's this, Shuuichi—can't keep your Bankai up?
Not enough!
Bring it back—Bankai again!
I'm just getting warmed up!"
Kenpachi balked at the Shikai, but only with his mouth. His body never read "displeased"—he barreled in without waiting.
Another mouth that said one thing and did another.
Through his constructs' eyes, Shuuichi finally saw his board.
He didn't know exactly what had been done to him yet—but the sight of Ginrei's released blade told enough. This was an illusion-type ability, not unlike Kyōka Suigetsu.
Such blades were rare in Soul Society—but not Aizen's exclusive domain. Shinji's blade was illusion-type as well; in some ways, even more broken.
"Low raw damage… but truly disgusting."
He'd blundered into Ginrei's weave.
No wonder he'd never heard the man's release power, despite years as a vice-captain. This wasn't a showy ability.
But now he knew.
Compared to Aizen's total-field hypnosis, Ginrei's coverage was smaller.
And Shuuichi's Zanpakutō happened to counter it.
Let the constructs keep being his eyes.
And while Bankai blocks Shikai abilities, it doesn't erase what Shikai has already made.
"So—Kenpachi. As you wish. Heisha, Bankai (Final Release), Kuniku (Bitter Flesh)!"
Shuuichi met Kenpachi's charge; power roared loose inside him again.
"Haha! Yes—that's the man I chose!
Again!"
Kenpachi glowed. He'd worried Ginrei might tip the scales, cost him a worthy fight.
No need to worry now.
Unlike the battle-drunk captain, Ginrei—harried by two constructs and pestered by Kidō—heard Shuuichi call a release phrase he'd never heard before and felt a bad wind rise in his gut.
In battle, a "bad feeling" isn't a feeling. It's fact.
Reiatsu pooled; the leak alone dented the street.
Kenpachi bore down.
One stroke.
"Nadegiri (Clean Slice)!"
Fast like slow—slow like fast. The world stilled.
Silence—and then, far off, houses fell like cards.
Kenpachi stood in two almost-halves only will and stubborn life held together.
Not dead.
But not far.
A lifted finger—one Byakurai (Pale Lightning)—and Kenpachi would die here. Pay for centuries of self-sealing like a fool.
But Shuuichi didn't do it.
Because out there—Ginrei… released.
"Bankai, Kamikaze (Divine Wind)!"
Solid black gales wrapped him.
One glance from afar pressed on the heart.
The constructs that had mobbed Ginrei—touched by the gales—buckled, knelt, trembled, and unraveled.
That wasn't what froze Shuuichi's finishing stroke. A lone Ginrei in Bankai wasn't enough.
What stopped him was the man who slid, quiet as a shadow, between him and Kenpachi.
"I heard you were gentle with subordinates once, Shuuichi-kun—that you dreamed of becoming a captain to shelter others. Become a Hollow and forget the past?"
"Not for a moment, Jūshirō-taichō. But right now it's Central 46 that denies I exist."
Jūshirō, white-haori hanging loose on a frail frame, face drawn by sickness, looked pained.
"There's still a way back, Higashino Shuuichi. They just assume all Hollowfied Shinigami end like those before—mindless, turned complete Hollow.
But you're different. You're lucid. On that point alone, we can—"
"Is that possible, Jūshirō-taichō?"
Shuuichi's question pricked the dream.
Silence.
Jūshirō had no answer. Shuuichi's ask would not be granted—not now. He knew it.
From another street, Chōjirō finally arrived—breath short, blade in hand.
"Higashino Shuuichi—you have no path left. Surrender!"
Shuuichi laughed. Old words. "If you want me to surrender, beat me—or kill me. Tonight I give you only two choices."
"Stubborn, arrogant brat…"
Whether he'd had enough, or whether he saw Shuuichi's guard ease—Ginrei flashed in.
Black gales came with the blade.
Shuuichi was ready. One parry. Easy.
But when he moved to riposte, his right hand shook.
Heavy—as if a mountain sat on it.
Another nasty trick.
"Bakudō no 61: Rikujōkōrō (Six-Rod Light Prison)!"
Six light bars shot—only to be shaved away by those black winds.
In the opening, Ginrei's blade arrived.
"Sink into the abyss—Yūgoku Kamikaze (Nether Abyss Divine Wind)!"
The black wind engulfed him. Weight and fear pressed from every side. Thought dragged. Limbs leadened.
He fell.
"So that's Hollowfication with reason intact?"
Jūshirō watched Shuuichi tumble and then glanced across streets without a single unbroken block, at Soi Fon half-dead before he came, at Kenpachi nearly cut down.
For a mere vice-captain to do this—it was fearsome.
"If he hadn't Hollowfied… Soul Society might have gained a kind captain."
Regret bit.
With Shuuichi handled, only Kisuke, Tessai, and Yoruichi remained.
He thought of that woman who loved to roam as a cat.
A friend to him and Shunsui both…
Now he had to weigh how to bring her down.
Shunsui must be chewing the same problem now.
Knowing Ginrei's Bankai well, Jūshirō knew it was an opener-killer.
Shuuichi thinking to use Shikai to break the Shikai illusion was already clever.
But facing Ginrei's Bankai…
He had never seen a Shinigami—or Hollow—climb out of that abyss.
Jūshirō turned to tend Kenpachi. Chōjirō raised his blade to finish the fallen.
Then, from the black wind where Shuuichi had crashed, clear words rang:
"Bankai, Jujō Kaika (Flowers Bloom on the Tree)!"
At that same moment, far away in Hell, locked in battle with ancient Hollows, Ikeda Kōsuke felt a jolt through his soul.
This time, that tremor wasn't the god-mark burning on him. It brought something worse—anger.
"You Shinigami brat—too much! Are you just plucking me bald?!"
Before the shout ended, his Zanpakutō vanished from his hand.
Back in Soul Society, on Shuuichi's body, Hell's phantoms shrieked, chittered, and howled—clinging to him. Even Ginrei's black gales couldn't scour them off.
Then—under the shock, the awe, the glee—Ginrei, Chōjirō, Jūshirō, Yachiru… and Kenpachi, only just awake—
Shuuichi stood.
"Jigoku no himei, tsumi no funshin, mujin no kutsū, mushi no unmei—Sōjū Bankai, Akki Tenshin (Dual Bankai, Demon Wraith Enshroud)!"
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