Chapter 235: Yamamoto, Say Goodbye to Your Weapon!
Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni's body was completely outside his own control.
His figure kept bouncing and ricocheting through the air, looping in every direction, and even when he pushed back with what could only be called resistance... it accomplished nothing.
The range had been compressed and hardened to roughly thirty meters.
"This is my absolute domain."
Total command of every reishi particle within. Combined with Ichion Enpo's full capability brought to bear.
These two things stacking together: this was where this Zanpakuto's true power finally showed itself.
The most refined of the five, and the one in which years of accumulated effort were most completely expressed.
"Not feeling great, I imagine."
Watching Yamamoto bounce like a rubber ball being slapped around a court, Matsushita Yusuke's voice carried no particular inflection.
"What was once something that responded as naturally as your own arm, now becoming something closer to shackles, something that turns around and restricts your own movement... how unfamiliar is that for you?"
"..."
No response from Yamamoto.
Or more accurately: he had perhaps reached the point where responding was no longer something he could do.
The binding force of the reishi was something beyond what he had anticipated. Even with his mouth firmly shut and every muscle pulled tight...
Nothing. No getting free. Any attempt at response simply turned him into a more indignant version of the same three-dimensional pinball.
"Somewhat beyond what I expected, actually."
Matsushita Yusuke spoke lightly, and at the same moment turned his right hand over and squeezed it shut in one sharp motion.
Yamamoto's body compressed into something approaching a curled shape.
He was genuinely a ball now.
"I had confidence about this going in, but I didn't think I'd be able to toy with the Captain-Commander to this degree... haha, honestly this alone was worth all the trouble."
Then.
With a furious roar, the heat and light erupting from him boiled over in an instant, Yamamoto's reiatsu detonating outward and punching straight through the domain.
"Oh well..."
Matsushita Yusuke sounded mildly surprised, but his expression showed nothing. He had expected exactly this.
"Well, this was always in the predicted range. Just raise the reiatsu, short charge, then burst it outward. That breaks through the containment easily enough... I suppose I should say, the Captain-Commander really is something. Adapted that quickly after being played with like that?"
The words were technically a compliment. The delivery and the circumstances around it made it very difficult to receive as one.
Yamamoto's expression was thunderous.
Partly from having just been thoroughly toyed with. Partly from the clearer recognition that Matsushita Yusuke's capability had grown considerably.
"Not going to come at me, Captain-Commander?"
Matsushita Yusuke's tone was full of provocation.
Yamamoto choosing to fight him again was, from Yusuke's standpoint, another kind of opportunity.
Pure evasion would never clear his name. He needed to fight using a completely different combat approach: one that would build Yamamoto's conviction that this person was not the person from before.
Make him certain I'm different from that one... how specifically?
He watched the flame beginning to flicker and rise on Yamamoto's blade and let a carefully hidden expression cross his face.
And on a completely separate note:
"Fighting a boss twice in one sitting... the loot drops on this run are going to be outstanding."
Furthermore.
Without fully reading the situation, Yamamoto would not bring out his true power here. This was the Seireitei, his homeland, the most important piece of ground in the three worlds. Absolute release was off the table.
A nerfed version of Yamamoto. But the rewards shouldn't be nerfed to match.
And what about his own role in this?
What was coming now was the intel version of Matsushita Yusuke.
But for safety, one underhanded move first.
He raised a hand.
"Old Man Yama."
Yamamoto, who had been about to charge forward, checked himself briefly. His expression was severe, but fundamentally his stance remained measured: Matsushita Yusuke was still only a person of interest, not a confirmed traitor.
"What."
Matsushita Yusuke rubbed the back of his head, thought for a moment, and said quietly:
"Being suspected of something I didn't do feels terrible, obviously. But watching the Captain-Commander do his pinball impression just now did make that somewhat worthwhile. So I figured I should say a few things upfront."
Specifically:
"I want to make clear I have no personal objection to your methods, Captain-Commander."
Which meant:
"Being treated as a suspect is understandable. But by the same measure, once my innocence is confirmed, I'd like you to honestly acknowledge what happened here."
Yamamoto's brow furrowed, and then with the air of someone who had no good choice, his eyes slowly closed.
"I accept."
Good. Now a little more.
"And since I'll be going all-out for this fight, because that's the only way to actually clear my name, my question is: how do you plan to handle this?"
Yamamoto considered it briefly, raised his sword, and looked at the rolling flame on its surface.
"I will, within reasonable bounds, face you with full effort."
Somewhat vague phrasing.
But through the exchange, the key point was confirmed.
The old man would not fully release here. That meant a self-limited, restrained version.
Which meant:
Was there any chance in Matsushita Yusuke's entire life that he would get another opportunity to beat up Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni?
He drew a slow breath. His right hand made a slow virtual-grip motion.
The gesture itself was nothing remarkable. But the effect it produced on both Yamamoto and Sasakibe was immediate and visible: both of their expressions snapped to sharp alertness.
There it is, there it is.
This kid, that's the same starting move, I knew he had to be the traitor
But before either of them could say a word, Matsushita Yusuke put on a pleased expression and spoke first.
"This is a technique I began developing a long time ago but only fully mastered recently."
He demonstrated: compress Ichion Enpo's range to a minimum, pulling everything in close to himself. At that density, the enclosed reishi could be given something like physical control.
"Which allows this."
Light appeared on his palm. Built from reishi, the structure assembled itself steadily, eventually settling into something resembling a condensed beam.
"I'd call this... a reishi weapon, I suppose?"
He said it cheerfully, entirely unbothered by the expression on Yamamoto's face, which looked approximately like someone who had bitten into something unpleasant.
"It's quite something. The effect is completely different from ordinary weapons. Though I suppose just describing it isn't very useful. Better to show you directly. Hm?"
A pause.
"Old Man Yama, why do you look so pale? Stomach issues?"
"None of your concern. Get on with it."
Then here I go.
Matsushita Yusuke's figure blurred.
That, at least, was how it appeared from the outside. From Yamamoto's perspective, what he registered almost simultaneously was razor-sharp stabbing sensations closing in from every direction.
Battle instincts honed over a thousand years triggered a response that bypassed deliberate thought entirely. His blade came forward in an essentially reflex motion, clashing with the reishi weapon driving at his chest.
Matsushita Yusuke's form materialized.
Fast.
That was Yamamoto's first assessment, and it was genuine. Not flattery, not exaggeration.
The speed Matsushita Yusuke had just shown was beyond any shunpo he recognized. It was something closer to instant displacement.
Which baffled him.
But when his weapon made contact with Yusuke's, the edge of an insight surfaced.
A reishi field, barely visible, coated the surface of Matsushita Yusuke's body. Unified with the environment around him.
"Wrap yourself in reishi and move through it like a fish through water... it makes for extremely convenient movement."
That was genuinely clever. Even Yamamoto had never attempted anything like that.
And beyond the admiration, what he felt more strongly in this moment was...
Confusion.
Because Matsushita Yusuke's weapon had not shattered. It felt like running into a wide stone wall. Something unmovable.
Yamamoto even pushed down on it.
Scrape. Scrape. Scrape.
Sparks flew. The weapon held without giving.
Matsushita Yusuke's voice came from in front of him, with a slight teasing quality:
"The reishi weapon's form isn't fixed. I can reinforce it through hardening. I've tested this before. In terms of raw hardness, I have complete confidence."
He stepped back half a step, withdrew, turned, then in a single motion redirected Yamamoto's arm, throwing the old man's momentum badly off course. Yamamoto's posture became severely distorted.
But Matsushita Yusuke did not press the advantage. Instead, he raised his foot and gave Yamamoto a light kick against the forearm.
No real force behind it. Just enough to let Yamamoto use the contact to rebalance and stand straight again.
"..."
A good deed, done without comment.
"Old Man Yama, you seem a little off today?"
Yamamoto didn't deny it. He could feel that something in his own state wasn't quite normal. He just couldn't put words to what.
He opened his mouth slightly and then didn't know where to begin.
"I'm... fine."
Though he perhaps didn't entirely believe it himself.
Matsushita Yusuke was clearly affecting Yamamoto's performance in ways that went beyond raw power.
"Should we keep going?"
"Fight! Of course we fight!"
A deep breath. Yamamoto's stare hardened to something sharp.
"Don't hold back! I won't say this twice: give me everything you've got!"
Some of that was self-encouragement. His mood at this moment was genuinely complicated. But the words were said, and someone else had heard them.
Perfect. That's exactly what I was waiting for.
Matsushita Yusuke's expression pulled together and went serious.
"Since you've said it, I won't hold anything back either."
No visible change in his stance, no dramatic gesture. But the quality in the air around him, and the reishi curling close to his body, shifted in a way that was subtle and unmistakable.
Yamamoto sensed the change. He adopted a stance.
Before he could move.
Matsushita Yusuke's reishi weapon swung at his face. Wide, open, no difficult angle to track. Yamamoto blocked it on reflex.
CLANG!
The weapon shattered instantly.
And Yamamoto's pupils contracted.
There was something wrong.
Because the shattered reishi fragments didn't disappear. They spiraled outward, then curved back, and wrapped themselves around his Zanpakuto, clinging to the blade like fireflies.
"Reishi application varies. If you can use it to reinforce, you can also use it to intrude..."
A simple way to put it:
Yamamoto's Zanpakuto is ultimately made of gathered reishi. Given enough time and opportunity, I can influence your weapon.
Before Yamamoto could respond, Matsushita Yusuke came in again. Three reishi weapons in rapid succession.
Clang. Clang. Clang.
Like hammering iron, each one breaking against Ryujin Jakka, the scattered fragments spiraling back to cling across the entire blade.
"You can see it now, right? This is me making it deliberately visible. My ability is fundamentally reishi control. I can make this invisible... but this way is easier to follow."
And through this method, he could push the influence further. Affect the reishi state of things outside his own body.
Ichion Enpo's reishi control was genuinely too versatile to not use this way.
"Yamamoto. Say goodbye to your weapon."