Chapter 193: Ability
"..."
Yamamoto said nothing. With multiple considerations in play, choosing not to engage in conversation before reaching a clear conclusion was simply another form of caution.
So.
What exactly was this thing?
Honestly, even for someone of his experience, a precise answer was not available right now.
"Human-shaped, but the reiatsu outline is strange... not a type normally encountered. Rather than a spirit body, it feels more like..."
After a moment's thought, Yamamoto arrived at a conclusion.
"More like a Hollow."
But even that conclusion was quickly overturned in his own mind.
Because drawing on experience and knowledge to that point, he made a further observation almost immediately.
"There's a faint trace of Shinigami spirit energy underneath... what is this? Can two different types of energy actually be mixed together?"
His existing frame of reference was sometimes more of a constraint than a tool. Yamamoto's expression shifted into something difficult to read, and he couldn't form a more specific judgment.
He simply watched as the pure-white figure slowly turned its head toward him and broke into a grin full of barely contained edge.
"Hmm... you're not that guy, are you. Whatever, I guess. Something to kill time with. Taking a warm-up shot on you isn't too bad."
Hearing those words, Yamamoto's expression went briefly severe.
A fusion of Shinigami and Hollow?
The moment that possibility surfaced in his mind, Yamamoto thought back to an earlier period, and the disappearance cases that had troubled the Gotei 13 some years ago.
"Is this group responsible for what happened then?"
Of course, that was only his own working theory right now, without solid evidence to support it.
Beyond that, the more urgent matter wasn't in that direction.
Something is different here.
Yamamoto slowly adjusted his stance into a more alert position and looked intently at the figure nearby.
Having the first encounter as a reference, he now had something concrete to compare against. And compared to the previous domain's constructs, this one was performing considerably more "actively."
The Yhwach construct had only been capable of basic reactions. But this one appeared to be capable of free conversation.
"Does the difficulty of constructing the domain affect the level of performance it can produce?"
Whether its actual combat ability matched that remained to be seen.
"Hey. You're not coming at me?"
The pure-white figure let out a rough laugh, tilting its head to one side with an expression somewhere between brash and mocking.
"Fine then. I'll go first!"
BANG!
Here it comes.
Yamamoto's eyes narrowed instinctively. He brought Ryujin Jakka across his body.
CLANG!!!
The two Zanpakuto met hard. A shower of sparks exploded from the impact.
"Hey hey hey, you look ancient but you're pretty solid! Got me a little fired up here!"
The figure was grinning freely. It stepped in and used the momentum of the entry to drive its blade downward.
CRCRCRCRCR...
The grinding of two weapons working against each other filled the air. Yamamoto kept his expression flat and watched Ryujin Jakka being slowly pushed down inch by inch.
From his observation position outside, Matsushita Yusuke watched what was unfolding and fell into a thoughtful expression.
The specific behavior of this Zanpakuto was operating more or less along the lines Yamamoto had described.
In the hands of an ordinary Shinigami, the ability itself would be fairly limited: it could draw on portions of an opponent's memory and forcibly extract certain things that had existed there, turning them against the opponent.
At its core, the approach was closer to a misdirection technique, similar in category to certain Kido, and would naturally be classified as an illusion type.
To summarize roughly:
It was essentially equivalent to a single technique within one of Yamamoto's own Bankai applications.
Which was honestly a little deflating. All that work to get to Bankai and it's not better than one of your subroutines?
But for Matsushita Yusuke, the way this Zanpakuto was used carried a very particular shift.
The reason was simple.
He could set the extraction target and all associated conditions to apply entirely to himself.
Now that was interesting.
Because what made this Zanpakuto genuinely valuable was "cognition" and "memory." A person can only imagine things within the boundaries of their own understanding.
Take Sternritter "V" from the Thousand-Year Blood War: his ability was imagination, and he spent all that buildup and then ended up sending Kenpachi into outer space and pelting him with meteorites. The issue was he simply hadn't read enough. Not enough knowledge. Literally no imagination outside a narrow range.
(Part of that was also Yhwach deliberately restricting what he was exposed to, of course.)
Anyway.
By setting himself as the target of his own ability, Matsushita Yusuke could draw on his complete foreknowledge of the entire Bleach story.
In other words.
Under the right conditions, Matsushita Yusuke could extract a specific individual at a specific point in their development, form them into a fixed spirit body, and deploy them as an opponent.
"I was originally trying to pull out bro Ichigo in his three-in-one combined state... but that situation might have been a bit too ideal."
The single most absurdly overloaded stat-holder in all three worlds needed no argument to defend. Especially in the final arc, with all his powers integrated simultaneously. Even omniscient Yhwach wouldn't take a cut from that version. The power was written directly on his face. Given the ability to choose freely, that form of Ichigo Kurosaki would be the obvious pick.
But there was a downside.
"Bro Ichigo has way too many forms and phases."
Shinigami-Fullbring phase, Vizard mask phase, full Hollow phase, Fullbring development phase, dual-blade phase and so on. Each one was different. The variation in his ability across those states was dramatic, tied to his mental state at the time.
Basically: too much instability in what you'd pull out.
Still, the result of this attempt was not bad at all.
He had gotten White Ichigo from the source material. The man made a solid entrance from his very first appearance, and while there was no direct description of his power level, you could do the math easily enough.
"Showed up as a substitute and immediately put pressure on Byakuya, which puts him at captain-level baseline, minimum. Then the Hueco Mundo arc built out his background considerably... fundamentally a fusion of Shinigami and Hollow power."
The floor was probably at full-Hollow-form Ichigo's level at a minimum, which put him somewhere in the lower range of senior captain tier.
So extrapolating from that floor to the ceiling...
How high could it go?
That thought hadn't resolved yet when the two figures inside the domain were already going at it in earnest.