Chapter 254: Boss, Come Settle This
The fact that Aizen Sosuke, of all people, had just said something that amounted to an admission of limitation told you everything you needed to know about the Hollow alt's actual ceiling.
And it was true.
Without breaking past the Shinigami limits, Aizen's offensive toolkit was genuinely thin. Relying on Kido alone in a real fight against a peer-level threat was a strategy that only held up against significantly weaker opponents. Against something at that tier, it simply wasn't enough.
Trapped in his own shell, doing what he could with the space available. A compromise, and also just the reality of his situation.
Though at the end of the day, who at this level of reiatsu didn't have some version of a Zanka no Tachi somewhere in their ambitions?
Ahem. Back to the matter at hand.
"With what Isshin Shiba has shown so far, expecting him to suppress that thing is optimistic."
The words had barely finished when the situation in the distance shifted dramatically.
The two figures crashed together with enormous force. The standoff lasted almost no time at all before one of them broke, flying off into the distance with the momentum of the impact.
Aizen and the others looked. They found exactly who they expected to find.
Isshin Shiba, looking thoroughly roughed up.
The state he was in was extreme by any measure. He had taken a direct hit with nothing softening it, and he was now tumbling through the air like a kite with its string cut, spinning and spiraling upward. Only by gritting his teeth and forcing his body to respond did he manage to arrest the movement.
"Ugh."
Isshin's state of mind right now was not good.
This had been supposed to be routine. A Hollow in the patrol zone, go deal with it, nothing remarkable. That was the expectation. The reality had turned out very differently.
A Hollow showing up from nowhere with no prior intelligence, stronger than anything that should be operating in this area, and he had nothing on it. No data, no profile, nothing.
Yamamoto had mentioned the possibility of Hollows cooperating with the fugitives. But that one had been cut in half by Zanka no Tachi. Taking a direct hit from the Captain-Commander's Zanpakuto with no chance of survival.
Isshin had believed that completely. Which was why his current read on the situation didn't add up.
So what exactly was this?
Could a regular Hollow actually develop to this point? And the humanoid form, what did that mean? Was Captain Matsushita still alright?
He had no room to think about any of that.
Because the pale figure was already on him.
Fast.
In theory the thing's movements were wide, open, no real technical refinement. On any other day Isshin could have named ten blocking positions off the top of his head that would have covered it cleanly.
None of that mattered.
He couldn't keep up with the speed. There were moments where his senses lost track of it entirely, even with it right next to him. The sensation of something standing close enough to touch and yet somehow invisible, that quality of being somewhere that didn't match where it should be.
It drove home, in a way nothing abstract could, that the gap between them was real and significant.
A rush of displaced air swept past him. Isshin caught the edge of the threat in his peripheral senses.
Move.
His body wouldn't cooperate with the reaction.
The hit landed on his left shoulder. Sound and pain arrived together. His face screwed up involuntarily despite everything he did to hold it still.
He spun out like a thrown top, hit the ground, and skidded. Both hands scrambling for anything to grab onto. Even with that, he still slid more than two hundred meters before he managed to stop.
He stood where he was, using his Zanpakuto as a brace to hold himself upright, breathing hard, staring at the distance.
The numbness across his scalp. The deep ache running through his body, telling him the margin was narrowing.
He watched the pale shape moving toward him slowly. Steadily closing the distance. What he saw in that approach registered on his face as something heavy and resolved.
No question. This wasn't something he could handle at his current level.
So.
He needed more.
Finish it before the damage gets any worse.
He breathed in. Set his stance. Eyes slightly wide, and then he pulled from somewhere deep.
The visible turbulence erupted immediately. His reiatsu boiled outward in a tangle, rising in columns of light that made his hair and coat surge around him. The expression it revealed was serious and certain.
He raised his Zanpakuto in his right hand, considered briefly, and held it vertical in front of his face.
The blade bisected half his expression. What showed around it was the look of someone done holding anything in reserve.
"Bankai..."
Before he finished the word.
Tosen had already moved.
The motion was that of a swing aimed at a target, and the target was the completely unguarded expanse of Isshin's back.
As a matter of inter-captain information sharing, virtually every captain-level figure in the Gotei 13 had a working understanding of Engetsu's particular requirements.
The ability was genuinely powerful.
But.
Activating it required maintaining a certain level of physical condition beforehand. If Isshin took serious damage before the release completed, the release itself became impossible.
Which meant: hit him before the Bankai fully forms. Break the process. Win.
Ambush him. Loudly. While you have the window.
Tosen had barely completed the motion when a hand closed quietly around his wrist. The one holding the Zanpakuto. Stopped it where it was.
He half-turned, somewhat startled.
Matsushita Yusuke was standing there, looking at him with a perfectly pleasant expression.
"Tosen. Don't. That thing can handle it, trust me."
You have to be kidding.
I finally get my alt a chance to grind against some real difficulty, and you want to switch the mode to easy?
Who's going to replace the experience points I lose?
None of that could be said out loud, obviously.
"Every tool has its purpose. Don't involve yourself in something you don't have a handle on."
"But something this important can't be left to a Hollow. I don't trust it. Let me interrupt Isshin's release. I can do it cleanly."
Tosen on an ordinary day was relaxed and agreeable. On this particular kind of question, he became a wall.
Fair enough, in its own way. The extreme conviction was part of what had drawn Aizen to him in the first place. In some fundamental sense they were alike.
In a typical disagreement, Matsushita Yusuke as the more assertive party usually won by default. But when both sides were dug in equally, the only path forward was a third party.
Summoning his superior.
Boss. Come settle this.
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