"Act One—Tameru no Kizu Wake (Hesitation Wounds Sharing)!"
"The injuries suffered by the opponent are shared as if borne together, and appear on one's own body."
"And unfortunately…"
"No matter how many such wounds you take, you absolutely will not die."
"Where there's a first act, there's a second, so next comes…"
"Act Two—Zanki no Shitone (Pillow of Shame)!"
"A man who regrets letting his partner be hurt feels such shame that he falls bedridden with an incurable disease."
"Black spots bloom all over the body."
"Blood seeps from them."
"It cannot be treated, and it will not kill you."
"While you're reeling in shock, we arrive at the third act…"
Flower-Heaven and Crazy-Bone—two women each holding a long and a short blade—advanced on Shutara, speaking coolly:
"Having steeled themselves, the pair leaps into the endlessly gushing spring, and sinks until both their reiatsu are spent."
"Act Three—Dangyo no Fuchi (Severing Abyss)!"
At their words, every Soul Reaper present stared, aghast, at the sky as torrents of green water unfurled overhead, forming an ocean in midair. Shutara's figure was locked within that ocean; no matter how she struggled, she could not escape the emerald abyss.
"Impossible…" Shutara stared at Flower-Heaven and Crazy-Bone, shaken. She had never seen such an eerie bankai.
"What's there to be surprised about?" Crazy-Bone said flatly. "We've already thrown ourselves into the water to die. How could you possibly swim out?"
Shouldering the great blade, Flower-Heaven smiled. "A Zero Division Soul Reaper, hm? Once you plunge beneath ice-cold water, even your desire to die goes cold. Right about now you must be very afraid."
The two stood beneath the green ocean, gazing up as Shutara tried—and failed—to break free, as if simply waiting for her to drown and drift down.
Several captains drew sharp breaths. Manifested zanpakuto spirits—forcing a member of the Royal Guard into a corner? Who would believe it?
That was the King's Own—directly under the Soul King. Only the strongest had the right to join.
"Didn't expect this from you, old man. I'm impressed," Cole said, throwing an arm around Shunsui's shoulders with a grin. "Good thing I ran last time. A few more exchanges and I might've had to die in a lovers' pact with your two zanpakuto."
Shunsui could only smile wryly. "You can't blame me. My zanpakuto… have minds of their own."
A bankai he had never revealed—making its debut by flattening a Royal Guard member—left even its owner half laughing, half crying.
"Cut the chatter." Cole scowled and tugged Shunsui's beard. "Nobody wants your sob story. Tell me exactly what your zanpakuto can do."
Even he felt uneasy after seeing those "acts." It was too broken. Supposedly a single bankai… yet it possessed multiple distinct powers. Compared to this guy's Katen Kyokotsu, Kotsubaki's Black Rope Heavenly Punishment King, Renji's Hihiō Zabimaru, Ikkaku's Ryūmon… they were caveman tools—instant KO fodder. Not even fit for a dog to use.
If you framed it in math: other people's zanpakuto were addition and subtraction. Shunsui's was advanced calculus—entire functions. Not the same tier at all.
Shunsui, wilting under everyone's glares, began to explain. "My bankai—Katen Kyokotsu: Karamatsu Shinju (Black Pine Deep Affection)—as opposed to the shikai that 'turns children's games into reality'… the bankai is 'adult drama made real'."
"In the name, 'Karamatsu' refers to the black pine boughs painted on the backdrop boards of kabuki stages—also called 'matsu-fuda'."
"'Shinju' has two meanings. First, a lovers' double suicide. Second, a group suicide of two or more."
"As the name implies, its power is to make an adult stage tragedy real—dragging people toward death in absurdity and sorrow…"
"Act One, Tameru no Kizu Wake, is the lingering, nonfatal scars left by someone who hesitated to kill themselves with a blade."
"So the curtain rises on a joint suicide by sharing the pain one side incurred in their attempted suicide."
"Then… Act Two—"
"Stop." Cole cut him off, glanced around at the Soul Reapers and manifested blades, and asked dryly, "Did any of you… get that?"
Silence.
While the battle raged above, the fighting on the ground had halted without anyone noticing. Both sides were listening to Shunsui—and beginning to doubt their ears. Was he really describing a zanpakuto's power? Or reading a research abstract?
Toshiro couldn't help eyeing Hyorinmaru. Next to Katen Kyokotsu, his own zanpakuto felt like an unweaned child—its ability stated in a single sentence.
After a pause, Kotsubaki muttered, "Captain Shunsui… your zanpakuto isn't the same species as ours, is it?"
The others exchanged looks. They weren't strangers to "rule-type" zanpakuto—like Soi Fong's Suzumebachi (Two-Hit Kill) or Izuru's Wabisuke (Weight Doubler). Those could be summed up in ten words. But Shunsui's bankai… he'd talked for ages and they still couldn't find the key.
Shunsui could only smile bitterly, at a loss for how to continue.
Kenpachi stomped in with his cleaver slung over his shoulder and the manifested blade crawling behind, laughing: "What's the point of rules? Just split it with a swing! I don't care about the rest."
A few wry smiles broke out. After hearing that explanation, maybe only this big lug could still laugh.
"So what you're saying," Cole murmured, "is that at your current level you could chop him into eight pieces without even using bankai."
Kenpachi's laugh cut off. He glanced at the pressure overhead—and realized Cole wasn't joking. That terrifying reiatsu might really carve him into eight.
Even so, Cole's heart loosened. "Lots of 'abilities,' sure. But one force breaks ten thousand laws. No matter how many tricks you have, one swing from the old man and it all shatters."
"I wouldn't dare fight the old man," Shunsui sighed. His Karamatsu Shinju forcibly drags victims into its space and starts the "adult drama." But as Cole said: if someone's far stronger, a single cut can burst the stage.
Soi Fong frowned at Shutara, who still heaved within the green current. "So Shutara's reiatsu is weaker than Katen Kyokotsu's… Captain Shunsui, how do we get her out?"
The green sea seemed to guzzle reiatsu. Shutara's pressure was already much fainter than before.
"That's the water of lovers' suicide—sunken to the lakebed," Shunsui exhaled. "How could she possibly escape?"
"Then you mean a Zero Division officer is going to drown there?" Kotsubaki blurted.
Shunsui shook his head and looked to Flower-Heaven and Crazy-Bone. "Before that, they'll open Act Four—Darakuten no Sōgi (Fallen Funereal Mound)."
"Then hurry and tell her what it does!" Rukia urged.
Shunsui pointed at the torrent, wry. "Both sides are submerged in the lovers' water. Do you think she can hear me?"
Act Three—Dangyo no Fuchi—maximizes reiatsu drain. Unless someone enters the water, there's no talking to the victim. But stepping into Act Three means entering the bankai's kill-zone—your reiatsu will be devoured, and the blades may strike. It's an extremely dangerous place… promising extremely dangerous attacks. Ten deaths, no life.
As he spoke, within the green flood Shutara bit her lip, pinched the needle-fine zanpakuto between forefinger and thumb, and flicked it toward Flower-Heaven and Crazy-Bone.
They showed no fear. Both slid their blades back into their sheaths, pressed index and middle fingers together, and white threads of reiatsu spun to their tips.
"A woman's feeling can be crueler than anything—never even giving the fallen man a chance to explain."
"What glitters at her lover's throat is a white thread soaked by lingering attachment."
"At least let me cut it, and abandon it, with my own hand."
"That tragic, entangling thread of attachment!!"
"Here it ends—Darakuten no Sōgi (Fallen Funereal Mound)!"
"Final Act—Itokiribasami Chizome no Nodoguro (Thread-Cutting Shears: Throat Dyed in Blood)!"
In the instant the words fell, the white threads compressed in their fingers, then burst forth as a single streak of red light, coiling out. The nearly invisible cord struck Shutara's neck. Seen from afar, it was like a crimson lance punching through her pale throat. Blood fountained—
—and with it, a blinding gold radiance. Shutara's eyes flew wide as her own reiatsu geysered from the wound, compacting into a sphere. It shrank further and further—ready to explode and tear her to pieces.
"…It's over." Shunsui sighed. "I'll apologize to Shutara later. Hard to accept that my 'wife' would die by my hand."
All around, throats bobbed. The golden sphere at Shutara's neck swelled and seethed; even from here they could feel the dreadful pressure—enough to blow the entire 3rd Division to rubble.
At the critical moment, Cole narrowed his eyes. He leveled the tip of his golden staff at Shutara and said,
"Shoot him dead—Ruyi Jingu Bang (Compliant Golden-Hoop Staff)!"
Several captains jolted—half convinced Gin's Shinso had arrived. A lance of gold flashed out and slammed into the green sea of Act Three—Dangyo no Fuchi—with a resounding boom. It stretched on like an endlessly lengthening meteor and smashed into Shutara's chest, blasting her away—yet she still could not escape the emerald current.
Cole let the Ruyi Jingu Bang grow—longer, thicker—trying to pin the entire sea beneath it.
"Stop, Cole," Shunsui called. "At this rate you'll run your reiatsu dry before you pull her out."
He knew his own bankai: incomprehensibly strong. If you used Kotsubaki as a unit, toss him into Act Three and ten seconds later he'd be empty and dead.
Cole chuckled, eyes on the green ocean. "My zanpakuto has another name—Dinghai Shenzhen (Sea-Setting Divine Needle). It suppresses all the waters of the world. What's this little creek to me?"
"Watch me pin it!!!"
Golden light howled from the staff. The Divine Needle's power unfolded within the torrent—immense gravity, invisible shock. The sea lurched.
Seizing the opening, the Ruyi Jingu Bang speared up like a golden javelin that could pierce the heavens, tore through the green flood with a thunderclap, and shouldered Shutara up—becoming a sky-spanning needle that carried her into the clouds.
The green ocean that had hung in the sky now clung only to the lower half of that golden pillar—pinned beneath it.
Every Soul Reaper and manifested blade gaped at the world-piercing staff.
"Did he… break Captain Shunsui's bankai with a single strike?" Soi Fong whispered. That suffocating bankai—punctured by one thrust? Unbelievable.
Shunsui exhaled and pressed down his kasa. "Didn't expect… you could really save her…"
His bankai wasn't an absolute territory, so it hadn't been "shattered." But even so, Act Three was an absolute taboo—even its owner wouldn't dare tank it. He might actually die. That's why he hadn't used his bankai in centuries.
A few seconds later, Cole—ashen-faced—retracted the heaven-propping Divine Needle and panted. "Shunsui-oji, your manifested blades may be beauties, but man do they suck you dry."
He'd had the staff inside for less than a minute, yet nearly ninety percent of his reiatsu was gone. And right now his reiatsu was nearly a hundred times Kurosaki Ichigo's.
"Hey, hey, don't slander my zanpakuto," Shunsui grumbled. "They're beauties, but they don't 'suck.'"
Everyone sweat-dropped. These two idiots were flirting?
"Aaaah!" Shutara fell from the sky, landed, clenched her pink fist, and sent Shunsui flying hundreds of meters with a punch. "You bastard—were you trying to kill me!?"
(End of Chapter)
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