In the center of the battlefield, two figures flickered and broke the air.
He fled. He chased. Wings or not, there was nowhere to go.
Knowing Gin's Zanpakutō all too well, Shuuichi refused him any chance to close in. Only by stretching the gap could he buy himself the reaction window he needed.
But Gin was a once-in-centuries prodigy, sharpened under Sōsuke's tutelage. In just five years, his Shunpo (Flash Step) kept pace with Shuuichi's two centuries of grind.
Another thrust—Shinsō punched a hole straight through Shuuichi's torso.
"Shuuichi-dono, running won't help~ The result won't change."
Gin watched the wound knit closed almost at once.
Thankfully, Shuuichi's limitless regeneration was bound to the Soul King's fingernail fragment, not to his Zanpakutō. Otherwise, even his endurance would fail after a few more lances from Shinsō.
"Save the taunts, Gin. With my release sealed, I can't answer your Shinsō. But you can't finish me quickly either, can you?"
Shuuichi steered the fight's tempo with care, and, in the split seconds between exchanges, fired off Tenteikūra (Heavenly Rickshaws in Silken Air) to widen his sensing net—buying time to lose before Kisuke arrived.
If the timeline snapped back to the "script," Kisuke's rescue jumps would rely on Grand Kidō Chief Tessai's forbidden spatial Kidō. You couldn't sense that—but you needed coordinates, and the only known location would be North Rukongai, District 62.
Hence Shuuichi's choice of battlefield: District 51.
Eleven districts was his current sensing limit with Tenteikūra—just enough. Enough for Gin to defeat him, trigger Hollowfication, withdraw; and not so far that Kisuke would take too long to find him.
"Shuuichi-dono jests. If I came for you, I came prepared. I don't fight unprepared—that's something you taught me."
"I taught that to Kisaragi Shūsuke. I won't admit I taught you anything."
Shuuichi's lip curled.
"Then please witness my progress in the five years you were gone."
Gin's narrowed eyes snapped open, cold and terrible.
"You've never seen this, have you? Bankai—Kamishini no Yari (God-Slaying Spear)!"
In an instant, slashing waves of reiatsu radiated from him like giant blades. At the eye of the storm, the sword in his hand seemed to turn to ash.
"Only ash?"
High above, Shuuichi looked down and spoke flatly.
Gin's smile tipped up. "Shuuichi-dono, when your head's been tilted back too long, it's time to look down~"
Shuuichi glanced at his chest—already bored through by a yawning hole. Look closer, and a few gray flecks showed.
He knew what they were: a poison that dissolved every cell in a blink. Even Sōsuke, without the Hōgyoku, might fall to that hit.
God-slaying, in the true sense.
But Gin wouldn't dump the full dose. His mission was to make Shuuichi Hollowfy, not to kill him.
"That all?"
Shuuichi mocked him, body knitting as he snapped his hand up.
"Hadō #90: Kurohitsugi (Black Coffin)!"
It was his first time casting a 90-plus without chant. He'd tried before and failed for lack of control. Hell's training had honed his reishi handling enough to force it through.
Weaker than the full incantation—but he never meant it as a finisher.
Black walls snapped shut, swallowing Gin. Pressure tore at him inside the coffin.
Shuuichi stepped forward, waiting for the moment Gin split it apart.
Cracks popped. Time.
Nadegiri (Clean Sweep).
Since grasping the essence in Genryūsai's stroke, this had become Shuuichi's strongest cut. With a held charge, he pushed "momentum" to its limit.
One blade to hold. One blade to loose. One blade to end.
Quality over quantity—Genryūsai's core was all there.
But Gin wasn't one to be outdone.
"Mutō: Renjin (No-Step: Linked Blades)!"
Sensing the killing intent erupt below, Gin unleashed his strongest sequence—the Bankai's blade surging and retracting in cascading sheets of light, colliding head-on with Shuuichi's stroke.
In quality, Shuuichi won. In volume, he lost.
Watching the sky fill with spear-light, Shuuichi thought of Starrk.
Blanket firepower, all the same.
A crater. A yawning pit.
Gin looked down at Shuuichi's half-melted form hauling itself up again, displeasure tightening his face.
This regeneration made the Espada's High-Speed Regeneration look tame.
(Shuuichi: You haven't seen worse. I have. Plenty.)
Drag this out, and how would Sōsuke judge him? This was the first time Sōsuke had handed him something this crucial. Botch it, and would Sōsuke ever let him close again?
No. Speed. End it. Hollowfy Shuuichi, then sprint to reinforce the others. Make Sōsuke take notice.
"Utsuse—Shinsō! (Shoot to kill—Divine Spear!)"
The six syllables rolled from Gin's tongue—and the gray already laced through Shuuichi's body, seeded by a dozen piercings, flared all at once.
In the blink of an eye, the toxin dissolved everything but Shuuichi's head.
Gin dropped from the sky, not about to give the body time to regrow; the Hollowfication device in his hand angled for Shuuichi's skull.
"It's over, Shuuichi-dono."
His voice was cool, tinged with a sorrow even he couldn't place. For Rangiku? For Shuuichi? For both?
But some releases didn't need a shinigami's hand.
Hell worked that way. So did the sacred artifacts of the Five Great Clans.
"Release—Seyabasa (Cross the World to the Far Shore)!"
The Zanpakutō that had fallen when Shuuichi's body melted burst like a dandelion—silver "petals" fanned by a gust, whirling through the air.
"Your wish reached me, Shuuichi-kun~"
Far away in Seireitei, in the Kabuma manor's cleaned guest room, Sayako folded faintly pink fingers over her chest and whispered.
"What… is this?!"
The scene shattered Gin's shinigami common sense. And yet it happened—undeniably—in front of him.
A towering surge of reiatsu mushroomed outward, blasting Gin away.
Within it, a voice threaded through—Shuuichi's.
"The fight's only starting, Gin."
//Check out my P@tre0n for 20 extra chapters on all my fanfics //[email protected]/Razeil0810