The moment Ukitake received permission to leave, his thin face lit up with delight.
He vanished from the meeting room in a single Shunpo, leaving only a faint gust of wind behind.
Yamamoto, meanwhile, was practically bristling with irritation.
"You damned brat. If guarding First Division only requires one person, why did you have to drag me into it too?"
Truthfully, he wanted to go watch the battle just as badly as Ukitake.
Kazuma's expression turned serious.
"Yama-jii, did you forget the meeting report I had Rukia bring you?"
Yamamoto frowned.
"The Tsunayashiro founder has already appeared in Soul Society. He personally rescued Tokinada, which means the other three old bastards are almost certainly here as well."
Kazuma's gaze hardened.
"And I'm nowhere near my peak right now. If all four founders suddenly decide to make a move, the situation could turn ugly very quickly. So for the sake of the Seireitei — and Soul Society as a whole — I need you here with me."
Those four founders remained Kazuma's greatest concern.
Compared to them, Yhwach and the Sternritter were far less threatening in his eyes — dangerous, certainly, but manageable.
The founders were another matter entirely.
Yamamoto finally grunted.
"Very well. I'll remain here with you."
And so the former and current Captain-Commanders sat side by side at First Division headquarters, waiting to see whether the four founders would make their move.
...
"You filthy rats have been hiding in the Seireitei's shadows for a thousand years, and now you dare burn down our buildings?"
Shigyō Nobutsuna's furious roar echoed across the district as he arrived at Bazz-B's location.
By now, Bazz-B looked less like a soldier and more like a professional arsonist.
Blue flames raged across the surrounding streets, thick smoke pouring into the sky as buildings collapsed into burning ruins.
The Quincy responsible seemed completely unaware of the disaster heading straight toward him.
Bazz-B suddenly stopped.
"Hey." His eyes narrowed at the approaching man. "Who the hell are you?"
The moment their gazes met, unease crept into his expression.
The reiatsu coming from this stranger was monstrous.
Worse, none of the intelligence the Wandenreich had gathered on the current Gotei 13 mentioned anyone matching his description.
Yet the man was unmistakably wearing a captain's haori.
Nobutsuna gave him a contemptuous smile.
"A little insect like you doesn't deserve my name."
He drew his Zanpakutō.
After a thousand years, he finally had the chance to erase the humiliation the Quincy had left him with.
"Measure the evil of all things." His reiatsu surged. "Weigh it — Sin's Measure."
The Zanpakutō transformed.
For the first time in a millennium, the Scales of Sin appeared before the world.
Its blade reshaped into an elaborate balance of bronze and gold.
The left pan bore the character for Karma, while the right bore Recompense.
A dark-red chain extended from the hilt, ending in a clasp shaped like an eye of judgment.
Even its appearance screamed trouble.
The Scales of Sin was a powerful rule-type Zanpakutō, built around the measurement of wrongdoing and punishment.
Its first ability was known as Covenant Judgment.
The moment battle began, the ability activated automatically.
Once Nobutsuna pointed the tip of his weapon at an opponent, that opponent was forcibly bound by a metaphysical "judgment contract."
From that point onward, every attack they made was evaluated by the scales.
The Zanpakutō measured the karma carried within each attack — murderous intent, destructive impulse, bloodlust, and other negative drives converted into quantifiable values.
As those values accumulated, they were compared against the reiatsu ratio between Nobutsuna and his opponent.
Once the accumulated karma crossed the golden-ratio threshold of approximately 61.8 percent, the contract triggered an instant-death judgment.
No conventional defense was required — the judgment itself became the execution.
Its second ability was Cost Transfer.
Any enemy attack that failed to reach the instant-death threshold but still injured Nobutsuna left a Sin Mark engraved directly onto his soul.
Those marks could then be transferred to the right-hand pan of the scales.
Once the total value of the Sin Marks exceeded the karma accumulated on the left pan, the laws of causality retaliated: the enemy would suffer pain equivalent to √2 times the total damage they had inflicted.
In other words, hurting Nobutsuna too much was dangerous.
Trying not to hurt him enough was also dangerous. It was an exceptionally unpleasant Zanpakutō to fight.
"Is that… Captain Shigyō's Zanpakutō?"
The younger captains watching from a distance stared in shock.
Even from where they stood, they could clearly feel the strange fluctuations surrounding the released weapon.
It wasn't merely reiatsu.
There was a trace of something deeper within it — a fragment of rule power.
The pressure rolled outward like an invisible tide.
Bazz-B stared at the bizarre scales in Nobutsuna's hand.
"What the hell is that thing?"
Every instinct in his body screamed the same answer.
DANGER.
His skin prickled. His pupils contracted.
The instant his reiatsu touched the Scales of Sin, an icy sense of death crawled up his body from his fingertips, so cold and absolute that even a veteran Sternritter felt genuine dread.
That Zanpakutō could kill him. There was no doubt about it.
But Bazz-B wasn't some ordinary Quincy. He was the wielder of Sternritter "H" — The Heat, and pride had always been one of his defining traits.
A weapon being capable of killing him wasn't enough to make him retreat.
His answer was simple.
Bring it on!
...
Shigyō Nobutsuna stayed on Bazz-B's heels all the way into northern Rukongai, refusing to give him even a moment to breathe.
The captains observing from behind kept pace as well, watching the pursuit closely.
Bazz-B was furious.
With a violent surge of reishi, he ignited an even larger wave of concentrated blue flame.
The inferno swept through the surrounding district, reducing rows of Rukongai homes to burning ruins.
The casualties followed immediately. In a matter of seconds, the flames claimed 372 civilians.
Most never even had time to scream before the fire swallowed them.
At that moment, the Scales of Sin in Nobutsuna's hand reacted. Words slowly appeared across the left pan.
[Massacre of Civilians: 372]
The Zanpakutō had recorded Bazz-B's crime.
"Take this! Burner Finger 1!"
Bazz-B thrust out his hand, gathering his reishi into a concentrated burst of flame and firing it straight at Nobutsuna.
Then something impossible happened.
Just before the attack struck, the flames abruptly changed direction.
They turned around straight back toward Bazz-B.
His eyes widened.
"What the hell?!"
He had no idea why his own attack had suddenly betrayed him.
Nobutsuna watched coldly.
"Idiot. The Scales of Sin have already judged your slaughter of innocent civilians." His voice carried no sympathy. "Now burn in your own flames."
The attack crashed back into its creator.
Agonizing heat tore through Bazz-B's right arm.
By the time he looked down, the limb had been burned black, flesh and bone charred beyond recognition.
"AAAAAGH!"
His scream ripped through the district.
The pain hit him a moment later in full.
Only two and a half minutes had passed since the fight began, yet one of his arms was already useless — and that was after he'd spent most of the battle desperately trying to keep his distance.
Bazz-B's confidence finally began to crack.
'This can't keep going.'
He breathed heavily, forcing himself to think.
Nobutsuna's Zanpakutō was absurd!
Every life Bazz-B took added to the karma measured by the scales, and the greater that burden became, the harsher the punishment imposed on him.
Then his gaze shifted toward the two pans.
An idea struck him.
'Wait…'
The scales represented judgment and balance.
If he could force Nobutsuna to become responsible for mass casualties, then surely the same rules would apply to him.
Directly overpowering the man looked increasingly impossible, so Bazz-B would change the game.
Flames erupted from his body as his fiery wings spread wide.
He raised his remaining left hand, heat rapidly concentrating around his fingers.
"Burner Finger 2!"
Two fingers blazed with compressed heat, far more powerful than his previous attack.
A massive pillar of fire erupted toward Nobutsuna, the sheer temperature distorting the air around it and scorching the ground black as it passed.
If Nobutsuna stood his ground, taking the blast head-on could inflict devastating injuries.
But if he dodged, the densely populated district behind him would be incinerated.
That was exactly what Bazz-B wanted.
If Nobutsuna knowingly moved aside and allowed civilians to die, then according to Bazz-B's reasoning, the Scales of Sin should hold him responsible for the deaths.
--------
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