Chapter 255: Bankai -- Kouen Engetsu
"Tosen."
Aizen Sosuke's voice came in the moment he re-entered the conversation. He used the name first, then the ruling.
"On this one, defer to Matsushita-kun. Stay out of it."
Weighing the variables was the leader's job, and Aizen had done the weighing. His answer was on Matsushita Yusuke's side.
Tosen registered the decision. His lips pressed together briefly. He made no argument. He simply took a half-step back in silence.
"As you say."
Disagreement between colleagues was fine. What came after a decision had been made, after discussion among the group had produced a conclusion, was acceptance. Tosen had always been good at that part.
With Tosen's resistance gone, the negotiation was settled.
Two to one. Motion passed. The Hollow alt's dungeon run would proceed at full difficulty.
All of that had taken almost no time at all in real terms. Just a moment.
But for someone genuinely operating at the top, a moment was enough time to do a great deal.
Isshin Shiba was proof of that.
Bankai.
With nothing in the way anymore, his reiatsu surged to its peak. The full transformation completed just as the Hollow alt reached him.
The reiatsu that had been building outward suddenly inverted and wrapped itself around Isshin entirely. What had been raw, channeled energy took on a temperature. Something close to boiling. It became, in a literal sense, heat and steam made physical.
The superheated liquid flowed across his body, and the Hollow alt's momentum into him produced nothing. It hit the surface and was simply pushed back out. Forced to disengage.
It retreated, two backflips in quick succession creating distance, and settled back into a standing position.
Then it rolled its shoulders. Turned its torso. Loosened itself up the way someone does before getting serious.
A pre-fight warmup. The kind of casual movement that communicated ease.
Then it twisted its neck slightly.
Thud.
A chunk of flesh and skin simply slid off its arm and fell to the ground, hitting like wet clay and spreading.
That falling piece was a signal. Wounds opened across its surface, large and small alike, skin dissolving and peeling away in visible patches. The damage was unmistakable.
Matsushita Yusuke and the others took this in and offered commentary.
"Burns?"
"Yeah. Not too deep, but the intensity is high."
"Still not even in the same conversation as a single hair on Yamamoto's head, though."
That last one was definitely Matsushita Yusuke.
The tone had some humor in it, but all three of them were genuinely a little surprised by what they were looking at.
Exactly as Aizen had described in the original story: Isshin's Bankai placed a significant burden on himself, which meant the conditions for releasing it needed to be right. Ideally, full health and full reiatsu.
Right now, neither of those conditions was met. But it seemed it was still enough for the purposes of a fight.
The blazing light split.
A rush of fire and brilliance swept through the air, a column of intense flame rising up, and within it something caught and flared, dazzling and sharp.
The flame divided silently in two, and from the gap between the halves, Isshin walked out.
His entire body was wrapped in a thin layer of pale golden flame, reiatsu given the form of fire, covering him like a coat made of nothing but burning energy. The look of it had some overlap with Yamamoto's ability, in terms of general category, but the color was brighter. More vivid. More immediate.
A more visually striking version, in short.
His eyes had changed. The pupils had shifted to a deep red-gold, and when you looked into them there was the impression of countless flames turning inside, burning steadily.
That was worth noting. But what actually drew attention was the weapon.
The Zanpakuto that had been suited to one hand with the option to use two was not that anymore. The blade had changed dramatically.
It was longer. Broader. Sharper.
The extension was visible to the naked eye. What finished forming was something approaching a meter and a half in length, which placed it solidly in the category of an oversized tachi rather than a conventional sword. Nothing about it was suited to close-quarters fighting.
The guard had changed as well. It spread outward like flower petals, eight sections extending out in a lotus shape, the color subdued and restrained, the whole thing having a quality of understated elegance that was, objectively, quite something.
A genuinely impressive visual.
Comparing it to Ichigo Kurosaki's Tensa Zangetsu, the compression approach was completely different. Isshin's version had found its own balance point, somewhere between extension and control, and landed there.
Bankai: Kouen Engetsu.
Tosen, watching the figure standing in the wind with that blade, narrowed his eyes slightly.
He said nothing. Just glanced sideways.
Matsushita Yusuke was standing there.
"Feels like... not much actually changed?"
It sounded like a flippant observation. But that was also simply what had happened.
They had just watched Isshin Shiba complete a full Bankai release. And yet the reiatsu output hadn't shifted. Not in any way any of them could detect.
Under normal circumstances, a Shinigami's power didn't swing dramatically in a short window. When it did, there was usually only one explanation for it.
A Zanpakuto release.
Complete the release, draw out the power held inside it, and the reiatsu output jumped sharply. That was the standard pattern. Every time.
This didn't match that pattern. Which was genuinely puzzling, and Tosen wasn't the only one who felt it.
Before he could put words to the question.
The Hollow alt was already moving.
The burned skin that had been falling away was gone. New flesh had grown in to replace it, tissue and blood vessels knitting back together, skin forming over the top and closing. The last of it sealed itself in place.
Rapid Regeneration. A passive ability, running continuously, no trigger required. Full effect at all times.
Fully healed, the Hollow alt drove straight at Isshin without hesitation. Flashy things clearly didn't register to it as threats. It had taken one look, picked its line, and committed.
A flying side kick. Aimed directly at Isshin's head.
Here we go. Let's keep this moving.
Isshin, unexpectedly, only stepped to the side. Both hands took the grip.
Then, quietly, he began to speak.
"G..."