"Used that move, did you?"
From afar, Kuruyashiki Kenpachi watched the change at the heart of the battlefield and remembered what Higashino Shuuichi had proposed not long after agreeing to train under him in Hell.
"Captain, I want to develop a brand-new kidō (demon arts). When I guide the reishi (spirit particles) of these Sinners back to the Seireitei, it'll let me release them more cleanly."
That's how Shuuichi had put it that day.
"Good idea. If you need anything from me, say the word."
That had been Kuruyashiki's answer.
So the kidō before his eyes was, in a sense, their joint creation over these days—Shuuichi supplying the concept and framework, Kuruyashiki tackling how to craft and cast it.
"Show them your power, Shuuichi."
Kuruyashiki murmured toward the distant center of the field.
Far off, beneath Shuuichi's feet, as Hadō—Jigoku: Shokeikyoku (Hell: Execution Aria) unfolded, Hell's unique gray sank into the ground.
Screams, calls, wails—countless voices rose from below.
The ancient Hollows tried to flee the zone and found their bodies already seized, clutched by uncountable skeletal hands.
Ikeda Kōsuke had leapt first into the air. He was just about to congratulate himself on quick reflexes and hurl another taunt at Shuuichi when he saw gray-white skeletal arms sprout across the demon-shell around him as well.
At a distance, as the gray domain stopped spreading, Shuuichi's own body stopped graying over.
Half his body still looked normal; the other half had grotesquely become a human skeleton of black ash and gray.
That was the Togabito (Sinner) power he had briefly borrowed from Hell.
"Where Hell extends, all Sinners are executed."
The low voice rang like a temple bell in the hills—mellow, reverberant—wandering the gray domain and striking at the hearts of every Sinner caught within.
Then they crumbled into black ash, raining to the ground.
Nothing gripped by those gray-white skeletal arms escaped execution.
Not even a demon-shell formed by a Zanpakutō ability.
Hell clashed with Hell's own power.
What Ikeda Kōsuke's Zanpakutō produced was only a sliver of Hell's strength, borrowed and shaped into a shade.
Shuuichi, in contrast, made himself into a temporary Togabito and, by acting as a conduit, let Hell's core power directly execute everything within the domain.
It was a kidō only Shuuichi could perform.
Because only he simultaneously met two harsh conditions: "able to channel Hell's power into himself" and "able to recover his body after a half-body pseudo-Togabito transformation."
The former he achieved indirectly by borrowing the Kabuma clan's artifact Zanpakutō, Seyabasa, to carve divine sigils.
The latter came from the Soul King's fingernail fragment within him.
When the aria ends, all withers.
In an instant, the uproar of battle vanished. Only Shuuichi and Ikeda Kōsuke remained.
That was Shuuichi's deliberate control. Since Ikeda couldn't be killed, he slew only the demon-shell—effectively sealing what had seemed an unanswerable Bankai: Akki Tenshin.
"Heh… ha ha ha!"
Ikeda first blanched, then started laughing.
He'd realized that within this uncanny domain, his demon-shell couldn't tap Hell to revive; the meddling ancient Hollows seemed cut off from Hell's resurrection, too.
But the caster, Shuuichi, wasn't comfortable either. The half-body pseudo-Togabito state was the foundation of the domain.
And Shuuichi wasn't a Togabito; he couldn't possibly control that transformed body. In effect, he was fighting with half a body.
His strength must have dropped.
As for Ikeda, even with his Bankai sealed, the name he'd made in North Rukongai wasn't thanks to Bankai.
If anything, he'd only learned Bankai after coming to Hell.
What truly made him dangerous was Zanjutsu (sword arts).
Advantage: me.
That was the only conclusion in Ikeda's mind.
He charged.
Just as he closed in, Shuuichi's single remaining eye turned cold.
"Yakuryū (Choke the Flow)."
No inflection. No hesitation.
Ikeda felt as if a transparent glass corridor had appeared before him.
Then it shattered—and so did his legs.
He fell. The raised Zanpakutō never found Shuuichi.
Shuuichi landed, drew the Kabuma clan's Seyabasa, and began calmly carving divine sigils across Ikeda Kōsuke's body.
This time, no ancient Hollow would interrupt him.
No matter how many times they tried to resurrect, the ongoing Hell: Execution Aria would execute them at once.
Like Ikeda's demon-shell before, borrowing that power while within Hell was almost too easy for Shuuichi.
Outside Hell, though, he figured this kidō's duration would plummet—
—because his body might not withstand it.
That was for later. For now, Ikeda had zero chance to turn the tables.
The sigil complete, the task done.
Shuuichi released the kidō—Hell: Execution Aria.
With a casual motion, he sent Ikeda off.
An instant later, a fresh, alive-and-kicking Ikeda Kōsuke respawned.
This time, though, the sigil Shuuichi had carved with Seyabasa glowed plainly across his body.
Barring surprises, that mark wouldn't vanish until Shuuichi wrung every last particle of reishi from him.
"Damn you, Soul Reaper! I know how to deal with you now—come again!"
Newly revived, Ikeda's first impulse was to howl for a rematch.
He'd never seen a divine sigil before. He had no idea what it meant.
Shuuichi didn't answer. He didn't even spare Ikeda a glance—he simply turned and started toward Kuruyashiki.
"Damn you! Looking down on me?! Ban—"
Before the word could leave his lips, a white, spherical creature popped into view, opened a cavernous maw—
Chomp.
In one bite, it swallowed Ikeda whole, then happily ran a huge tongue around its prize.
The white ball burped in satisfaction.
That was Kuruyashiki Kenpachi's Zanpakutō Shikai ability: Gagaku Kairō (Hungry Corridor).
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