"Go to sleep. Have a nice long rest, and everything will be fine when you wake up."
Kazuma spoke in a soothing voice, but his feet never slowed.
He shot toward Tenjirō, who was still convulsing from the lightning coursing through his body, and swung his Zanpakutō.
A cold flash crossed the air.
Tenjirō's body was cut cleanly in half.
"You…"
His eyes widened in disbelief, but he couldn't finish even a single sentence before the life left his body.
Just like that, Kirinji Tenjirō — the Eastern Divine General and a formidable member of Squad Zero — died without being able to put up any meaningful resistance.
...
"Tenjirō has already fallen?"
In the distance, Ichibē Hyōsube watched the mark representing the Eastern Divine General suddenly disappear and frowned in shock.
"Who could possibly possess such strength?"
The battle had only begun moments ago. Barely a dozen breaths had passed, yet it had already ended with Tenjirō's death.
At the same time, Shutara Senjumaru, Nimaiya Ōetsu, and Hikifune Kirio all sensed Tenjirō's reiatsu vanish.
They exchanged solemn looks, equally startled by how quickly he'd been defeated.
'What exactly is Captain Kazuma doing?'
Kirio found herself deeply conflicted.
'Killing a member of Squad Zero is an act of outright rebellion.'
She couldn't understand why Kazuma had suddenly invaded the Soul King Palace, much less why he'd immediately killed Tenjirō upon arriving.
...
After cutting Tenjirō in half, Kazuma flicked his wrist.
The blood still coating his Zanpakutō flew from the blade like crimson rain, tracing graceful arcs through the air before scattering across the ground.
He slowly raised his head and looked past the separate palaces of Squad Zero toward the Soul King's Grand Palace above.
The person he needed to find was Nimaiya Ōetsu.
Kazuma could now clearly tell he was standing in the eastern section of the Soul King Palace.
Ōetsu held the title of Western Divine General, which meant his palace should be directly opposite Kirinden.
Once he confirmed the direction, resolve flashed in Kazuma's eyes and reiatsu surged through his body.
With a sharp burst beneath his feet, he launched himself forward like an arrow.
His figure became a streak of light as he crossed the enormous distance in moments and landed firmly before Hōōden.
...
"He's coming…"
Inside Hōōden, Ōetsu felt his heart tighten.
He'd already braced himself for battle, but learning that Tenjirō had been killed so quickly still placed an invisible weight on him.
Ōetsu took a deep breath to steady himself.
Then he carefully reached into an enormous container filled with freezing liquid and withdrew an unsheathed Zanpakutō.
It was the so-called failure he rarely used — Sayafushi.
Cold light gleamed along its naked blade, and a deeply unsettling presence radiated from it.
Ōetsu gripped Sayafushi tightly and focused all his attention on the entrance, waiting for Kazuma's arrival.
It wasn't that he lacked the nerve to attack first. Charging blindly into battle without knowing anything about the enemy was simply foolish.
For now, staying still and waiting for an opening was the wiser choice.
...
"Why is Captain Kazuma heading toward Hōōden?"
Kirio murmured to herself.
The closest palaces to Kirinden should have been her Gatonden and Senjumaru's palace.
Yet Kazuma had ignored both and gone straight toward Ōetsu.
Had he invaded the Soul King Palace specifically to find the Sword God?
...
"Yo! Trespasser!"
Ōetsu faced Kazuma with Sayafushi in hand.
"Whatever purpose brought you here, you killed a member of Squad Zero! Prepare yourself, because you're about to receive the harshest punishment!"
Even in a crisis this serious, the man still managed to deliver his threat like the opening line of a rap.
He truly was a natural-born entertainer.
A portion of Ōetsu's black punk-style hair curled past his neck, while the shorter sections had been dyed pale green.
Wide-framed sunglasses covered his eyes, and he wore a grass-green shirt with an ordinary pair of sandals.
Altogether, he looked less like a divine guardian and more like a cheerful hippie who'd wandered into the wrong palace.
Kazuma couldn't help wondering how the man stayed so relaxed.
One of his comrades had just been brutally killed, yet he still found the time to put on a performance.
"You're the Sword God, Nimaiya Ōetsu, correct?"
Kazuma ignored his appearance and eccentric behavior.
"I'm Kazuma, captain of the Gotei 13's Seventh Division. I came to the Soul King Palace specifically to find you."
"Captain Kazuma, huh?"
Ōetsu raised Sayafushi.
"As a Gotei 13 captain, you trespassed into the Soul King Palace and killed the Eastern Divine General."
"As a proud lord of Squad Zero, I, Nimaiya Ōetsu, hereby declare that I'll personally carry out your death sentence!"
With that, Ōetsu swung Sayafushi at him.
"Seriously, what is wrong with everyone in Squad Zero?"
Kazuma looked thoroughly irritated.
"You all stand around acting superior and sentencing people to death the moment they show up."
What exactly were they so arrogant about?
"Huh?"
Ōetsu froze.
He was certain he'd just swung Sayafushi.
Yet Kazuma stood before him completely unharmed, as though the blade had never touched him.
Sayafushi was often called one of Ōetsu's failed creations, but that description was misleading.
The weapon had never been distributed throughout Soul Society because it was defective.
Quite the opposite.
It was simply too sharp.
Its piercing power and ability to cut through defenses were absurdly high.
Its blade was so smooth that it never chipped, broke, or held even a single drop of blood, no matter how many enemies it cut.
It was a perfect killing weapon, able to end a life with one strike.
After forging Sayafushi, Ōetsu had been unable to find any scabbard capable of containing its edge.
That was precisely how it earned its name — the Scabbardless Sword.
Kazuma had avoided its lethal slash for a very simple reason.
He already knew exactly what Sayafushi could do.
The instant Ōetsu attacked, Kazuma displayed extraordinary reflexes and agility.
His body shifted repeatedly from side to side like a phantom, moving in and out of the blade's path before it could reach him.
Because he'd already read the path of the slash, avoiding it was almost effortless.
Kazuma moved so quickly that he left no afterimage at all.
From Ōetsu's perspective, he hadn't moved at all.
That was why the absurd thought appeared in his mind:
Somehow, Sayafushi had simply failed to cut him.