"How does that line go again?
'I'm not here to split you up—I'm here to join you!'"
Five fire-red dragons burst from the ground and swallowed the ancient Hollows mid-brawl before they could even react.
Dragon roars shook the air. The sudden strike left the ancient Hollows dead or mangled. At the center of the blast, Ikeda Kōsuke lost an arm to one of the dragons' jaws.
Shuuichi didn't hesitate. Shunpo (Flash Step). Lunge. Slash.
That combo had long since been etched into his bones—but Ikeda Kōsuke's combat experience ran deeper.
Especially in Zanjutsu (Sword Arts).
Without Kidō (Demon Arts) or Shunpo to learn, men like him spent a lifetime drilling only the blade.
You could say their repertoire was plain—but never that they were weak.
Sometimes a fight really does come down to a single honest cut.
Ikeda Kōsuke raised his sword one-handed and caught Shuuichi's strike. Shuuichi didn't blink.
"Hadō 11: Tsuzuri Raiden (Bound Lightning)!"
It's only Eleventh-Rank Hadō—high-voltage current that conducts along objects.
Simple effect, and pretty lousy against Soul Reapers. Unlike Byakurai (Pale Lightning), which converts straight to paralysis, Tsuzuri Raiden is still just electricity. If a Soul Reaper reacts fast enough, they can guide it away with Kidō of the same element.
So Shuuichi rarely used it—except when sparring Arrancar in Hueco Mundo.
Ikeda Kōsuke, clearly not far off from an Arrancar in grit but unable to use Kidō, had no way to redirect the current.
The instant jolt stopped his heart and locked his body.
He could recover fast at his level—but Shuuichi was fast, too.
A twist and rising flick sent Ikeda Kōsuke's Zanpakutō spinning into the air.
Like that boy from Rukongai, this blade had also been taken from a dead Soul Reaper's hand.
"New to Hell, aren't you?"
Instead of shock, Ikeda Kōsuke laughed in Shuuichi's face.
"Soul Reaper, you still don't get Hell's rules."
Shuuichi frowned. He didn't feel he'd misplayed any part of that chain.
Weren't Hell's rules just endless respawns?
Sinners (Togabito) empowered by special brands might hide tricks he didn't know, but Ikeda Kōsuke wasn't branded.
"Damn. I've only had him fight ancient Hollows—never other Soul Reapers down here. He probably doesn't know that trait."
Watching from afar, Kuruyashiki Kenpachi felt a bad hunch.
Ikeda Kōsuke didn't keep them waiting. Just as Shuuichi moved to pin him and use Seyabasa to carve divine sigils—
"Be greedy, bay and howl, envy and jeer, rave and rave again! Become Hell's hound and manifest here! Bankai: Akki Tenshin!"
Arms spread wide, Ikeda Kōsuke all but invited Shuuichi to "paint" on him with Seyabasa.
That chant—near-identical to Maki Kurando's Bankai, with tiny differences—rang familiar in Shuuichi's ears.
…Bankai without physically touching the blade as a medium?
Shuuichi didn't think Ikeda Kōsuke was clever enough to feint with an empty citadel. He cut off the sigil mid-stroke and blasted back.
Before he'd even opened ten meters of space, the Zanpakutō that should've been tumbling in the sky was back in Ikeda Kōsuke's hand.
At the same time, that cackling, familiar demon-shade climbed his body, "kekeke," raising every hair on end.
One layer. Two. Three. Four. Five.
Unlike Maki Kurando, who had to call the fiends out step by step, Ikeda Kōsuke released the final form in one go.
Because he didn't have to care whether his body could withstand it.
Worst case, he dies—then respawns.
That's Hell's fighting style.
The demon-shade coiled around him looked like a Susanoo from some anime of Shuuichi's previous life. Shuuichi took note, but it didn't stop him.
"Yakuryū (Choke the Flow)!"
He punched the air.
Before, he'd worried this would wreck Ikeda Kōsuke's body and keep him from carving the sigil. Now? No need to hold back.
He'd seen the first three layers of Akki Tenshin already. If the fourth called out this Susanoo-like guardian, then this shade should be…very punchable.
Blades flashed. Light flared.
Akki Tenshin fit Ikeda Kōsuke like a glove. With that outer demon-shell, none of Shuuichi's techniques could touch the man inside.
"This is wrong."
After exchanges upon exchanges—and the resurrected ancient Hollows piling back in—Shuuichi spotted it.
The fifth fiend's power was very likely damage absorption.
Otherwise, no guardian can make every wide-area strike harmless to the host inside.
Kurohitsugi (Black Coffin). Senju Kōten Taihō (Thousand-Hand Bright Heavenly Culling Cannon). Ittō Kasō (Single Blade Cremation). Even a second Goryū Tenmetsu (Five Dragons of Destruction). Ikeda Kōsuke took them all and laughed in the dark within.
"Because we're in Hell, those fiends—essentially one with Hell—can tap its power without limit. Unless my reiatsu hits Kuruyashiki's tier or higher and I shatter the shade's tolerance in one go, he's effectively invincible. That's it, right?"
Shuuichi felt his state begin to slip. Training under Kuruyashiki had sharpened his reishi control and upped his stamina far beyond the old him—
—but facing Ikeda Kōsuke and a mob of ancient Hollows at once, the free-for-all still pressed him hard.
He couldn't drag this fight out. His read might be wrong, but at this point there was only one bet left.
If he won, he'd clear the objective and march home to the Seireitei in triumph.
If he lost, he'd slink off—still carrying strength forged by Kuruyashiki. Hardly the worst outcome.
"Hahahaha! Out of tricks, kid Soul Reaper? It's fine, this is just the opening act. We've got all the time in the world to play."
Strolling through a rain of Cero (Hollow Flash), Ikeda Kōsuke taunted up at Shuuichi in midair.
Shuuichi didn't answer. His gaze iced over. Reiatsu spiraled and compressed around him, braided with the power he'd borrowed from Hell.
"Hadō—Jigoku: Shokeikyoku (Hell: Execution Aria)!"
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