"Shuuichi-kun, he's—"
Inside the seaside villa, Kabuma Sayako—having seen Entetsu Kumoi's appearance through the surveillance bacteria Higashino Shuuichi had mooched from Kurotsuchi Mayuri—was just about to introduce him, when Higashino Shuuichi had already responded:
"Yeah. I know. The First Generation Ninth Division Captain."
"Another First Generation Captain? Shuuichi-sama, that doesn't make sense. Didn't you say the First Generation Captains should've been kept hidden as trump cards?
"Before this, Sakahone Saizō getting away could be explained as an accident, but two of them…"
Matsumoto Rangiku immediately thought of the other First Generation Captain who had previously barged into the Dangai, and been defeated by Higashino Shuuichi—Sakahone Saizō.
The true First Generation Captains had mostly long since returned to Hell in that battle back then. Anyone who could still appear in the Living World in this state could only be the same kind of artificial Reigai product as that Sakahone Saizō.
"Two of them definitely wouldn't be an accident… it'd be on purpose."
Higashino Shuuichi said with a headache.
So yeah—he really wasn't cut out for brainwork. How the hell did someone like Aizen Sōsuke manage to calculate every single "accident" into his plans?
Right now, Higashino Shuuichi felt like from the very start of this plan's execution up to now, not one link in the chain had gone smoothly according to his original expectations.
Problems kept popping up one after another—and this time, the problem seemed even more serious.
"You're saying that Miyazaki Sakai Masato deliberately let these First Generation Captains come one by one, trying to disrupt Soul Society's deployment?" Kabuma Sayako asked Higashino Shuuichi.
Higashino Shuuichi shook his head.
"If it really were that, then that would be the best possible outcome. But I'm guessing the real answer… isn't that."
Higashino Shuuichi thought of Miyazaki Sakai Masato's various abnormal behaviors before—like deliberately approaching Kisaragi Shūsuke's group back then, or like how decisively he followed Higashino Shuuichi's Quincy double, Kabuno Takuya, despite having only met for less than half a day, and set out that very same day on the road toward the East Administration.
Back then, in Higashino Shuuichi's eyes, those could all be explained as Miyazaki Sakai Masato's arrogance and overconfidence.
But now, they could be interpreted as a completely different version.
A version where Miyazaki Sakai Masato had been stripped of his authority.
Those Reigai vessels that possessed the power of First Generation Captains—capable of carrying the souls of those First Generation Captains back from Hell—were definitely made by Miyazaki Sakai Masato. There was no doubt about that.
Higashino Shuuichi had investigated Miyazaki Sakai Masato's Zanpakutō abilities; at least in theory, the man really did have the ability to create products like that.
But the current Miyazaki Sakai Masato might very well have, for some special reason, lost control over those Reigai that housed the souls of the First Generation Captains.
He hadn't come here because of Kabuno Takuya's "reasons," and then just happened to get the idea to head to the East Administration.
He'd planned it long ago.
He was running.
That also explained why Miyazaki Sakai Masato had never shown any intention of drawing near to them.
Because he hadn't come here of his own will in the first place.
And following that line of thought further, Higashino Shuuichi quickly formed a guess he didn't quite dare to confirm.
"Shuuichi… what did you think of?" Kabuma Sayako, sitting beside him, saw the increasingly heavy expression on his face. She gently clasped both hands over his left hand, and asked with worry.
Higashino Shuuichi didn't answer Sayako. Instead, he turned his head toward Urozakuro, who was off to the side watching "TV" with high spirits.
"Urozakuro, there's something I think I need to confirm with you…"
On the other side, the battle between Entetsu Kumoi and Kisaragi Shūsuke didn't slow in the slightest because of what Higashino Shuuichi and the others were doing.
"Shaen Ryūga (Carriage-Flame Dragon Fang)!"
Facing a First Generation Captain, Kisaragi Shūsuke didn't allow himself even a shred of luck. He remembered Higashino Shuuichi's teachings: when a lion fights a rabbit, it still uses its full strength.
Even if, in theory, his ability was "blood that counters all Shinigami," he couldn't afford any carelessness.
After all, not long ago, he'd just been taught what it meant to be a Shinigami by a certain Shinigami Captain named Aizen Sōsuke.
So when his opening attack didn't work, Kisaragi Shūsuke immediately activated his Bakkōtō Bankai.
Cracks of flame spread rapidly from beneath Kisaragi Shūsuke's feet, racing outward. And when they reached their limit, torrents of boiling fire erupted from those fissures—each and every one of them converging on a single endpoint:
The First Generation Captain Entetsu Kumoi, floating in midair above the center of the cracked ground.
"Hoh~ Not bad~
You can use Bankai, and it's got this kind of power—how are you not a Captain?"
Entetsu Kumoi laughed in admiration, casually swinging the short-mace-like Zanpakutō in his hand to swat aside the flames surging toward him.
That movement, that expression, that tone—he looked like he didn't take Kisaragi Shūsuke seriously at all.
But Entetsu Kumoi did have the right to be arrogant.
Among Soul Society's Captain-class Shinigami, Kisaragi Shūsuke's reiatsu wasn't particularly high. But thanks to Bakkōtō's special nature, it didn't need to rely too heavily on its wielder's reiatsu to unleash abilities that vastly exceeded the wielder's own baseline strength.
Even so, Entetsu Kumoi hadn't even used a Zanpakutō release, and he'd already casually shattered one of Kisaragi Shūsuke's powerful Bankai techniques.
This was what a First Generation Captain was.
Kisaragi Shūsuke finally understood why Yushima Ōko always bragged, every time he saw Shūsuke and Matsumoto Rangiku, about how he'd managed to trade several exchanges with Sakahone Saizō before barely losing.
Because going toe-to-toe with First Generation Captains this absurdly strong really wasn't easy.
"But I have an absolute reason I can't lose!"
Kisaragi Shūsuke thought of Shuuichi-sama, who must be watching silently right now—and that damn Yushima Ōko.
There was no way that guy could dance around a First Generation Captain for a few rounds while he—of all people, the so-called Shinigami nemesis—couldn't even break through a First Generation Captain's defense, right?
"Bakuen Ryūga: Moero (Ignite)!"
Kisaragi Shūsuke drove his Zanpakutō into the ground again. Even fiercer flames burst up from beneath the earth like shoots after spring rain, burning their way through the surface.
Then, amid the irregular blaze, the fire took the shape of a giant dragon's maw, trying to swallow Entetsu Kumoi—still floating midair—into its inferno.
"With flames at this intensity, you can't just—"
Kisaragi Shūsuke stared at the flames released by his strongest killing move. Sure, they couldn't reach the sun-core temperature of the Captain-Commander's Zanpakutō—unable to ignite absolutely everything.
But the destructive force contained within these flames wasn't something an ordinary Shinigami could withstand.
Even a First Generation Captain should have to put in some effort, right?
That was what Kisaragi Shūsuke thought.
Reality slapped him in the face.
Entetsu Kumoi simply raised a single finger and said lightly:
"Chō (Butterfly)~"
Then Kisaragi Shūsuke watched Entetsu Kumoi lift his blade and bring it down—his Bakuen Ryūga was cleanly split into two halves in midair, and Entetsu Kumoi's clothes didn't even get brushed.
"How is that possible?!"
Kisaragi Shūsuke still couldn't believe what he was seeing. This was his strongest killing move aside from Donka (Dulling)—the ability that could seal a Shinigami's Zanpakutō release.
And it was just… gone?
That was honestly kind of excessive.
"It's Entetsu Kumoi's Zanpakutō Shikai—Keiguta," Kabuma Sayako immediately explained to Higashino Shuuichi as she watched through the surveillance bacteria. "By publicly designating a specific shape as an execution ground, as long as the enemy themselves—or any reiatsu-bearing substance—touches the revealed shape, Entetsu Kumoi can instantly decide whether to carry out the execution.
"If his choice is 'yes,' then no matter what steps into the execution ground, it can be shattered with a single strike!"
Among the things Higashino Shuuichi had previously asked Kabuma Sayako to specifically handle was investigating the Zanpakutō abilities of these First Generation Captains.
These were details even the Great Spirit Book Corridor couldn't provide.
Clearly, that information was either missing for some reason—or deliberately hidden by someone.
"So the reason Entetsu Kumoi raised one finger was to use spiritual power to form a butterfly-shaped mark in front of himself.
Yeah… that's also the best way I can think of to use that ability—turning defense into offense.
"As expected of a First Generation Captain."
Higashino Shuuichi's expression still hadn't fully recovered from the answer he'd just gotten earlier. But praise was praise—so long as Entetsu Kumoi was still within the category of 'Shinigami,' he had no way to deal with Kisaragi Shūsuke.
"I'm not really sure what your ability is—looks kind of impressive—but sorry, your show's going to end before it even begins~"
Getting his strongest killing move shattered in one strike was painful, sure—but on the flip side, if he could take down a First Generation Captain this strong, it would prove his own strength by contrast. At the very least, it'd be something that Yushima Ōko could never compare to.
So Kisaragi Shūsuke was still fired up.
"Donka (Dulling)!"
An invisible soundwave spread outward from the tuning-fork-like tip of Bakkōtō in Kisaragi Shūsuke's hand. This soundwave couldn't be blocked—once it covered a Zanpakutō, that Zanpakutō would completely lose effectiveness.
It had never failed.
Even Aizen Sōsuke—someone Shuuichi-sama was extremely wary of—had been just as helpless against this move.
And yet, just as Kisaragi Shūsuke was about to close in with a simple auto-attack to end the fight, his eyes widened as if he'd seen something utterly impossible.
"Inazuma (Lightning)~"
Entetsu Kumoi snapped his fingers at Kisaragi Shūsuke.
This time, Kisaragi Shūsuke saw clearly—because he repeatedly dodged several streaks of lightning-like reiatsu projections. Those compressed reiatsu bodies looked like they had no power at all, but each one was an "attack marker" for Entetsu Kumoi.
All Entetsu Kumoi had to do was lift his hand and swing his blade—then wherever those lightning markers landed would instantly crumble into an enormous crater.
And around Kisaragi Shūsuke, some objects that Entetsu Kumoi hadn't even created—items that already bore lightning markings by nature—were also being rapidly converted.
"Why can you still use your Zanpakutō ability?!"
Kisaragi Shūsuke could naturally guess that this was Entetsu Kumoi's Zanpakutō ability.
What he couldn't understand was: he had already used Donka (Dulling), the ability that invalidated Zanpakutō releases—so why was Entetsu Kumoi still able to use Zanpakutō abilities anyway?
"Oh? You'd ask that—so you're that Shinigami who can invalidate Zanpakutō releases?"
Entetsu Kumoi rubbed his chin with the hand not holding his blade, smiling with interest.
"But do you really think I'd tell the answer to someone who counts as my enemy?
"I don't look as stupid as that dumb pig from earlier, do I?"
So no matter what the reason was, the result was the same: this Entetsu Kumoi didn't care about his Donka (Dulling)…
Kisaragi Shūsuke thought uneasily.
This battle was already sliding toward a loss of control. A blunt fact was right in front of him—Bakkōtō's abilities were being countered by this First Generation Captain in almost every way, and Kisaragi Shūsuke's own reiatsu wasn't particularly strong.
In Zanjutsu, Hakuda, and even Shunpō, Kisaragi Shūsuke could only be said to have barely reached the passing line for Captain-class skill.
As for Kidō… there was nothing to say. Kisaragi Shūsuke was a standard, textbook Kidō dead-zone.
"Shuuichi-kun, Shūsuke-kun is probably in serious trouble now. We need to have Ōko go over—"
Watching the fight, Kabuma Sayako spoke worriedly while turning her head—only to find that the spot where Higashino Shuuichi had been was now empty.
"We agreed we'd give Shūsuke and Ōko a stage to show themselves… but Shuuichi-kun really is too gentle."
Kabuma Sayako crossed her arms over her chest and murmured with a faint smile.
On the other side, facing Entetsu Kumoi's utterly unreasonable Zanpakutō ability and overwhelmingly powerful reiatsu, Kisaragi Shūsuke's steady retreat was completely predictable.
In fact, after Entetsu Kumoi "called out" two markers that existed on Kisaragi Shūsuke's body, Kisaragi Shūsuke was forced to abandon every piece of clothing he wore—leaving only a few scraps of fabric to cover the crucial parts.
"You're looking pretty pathetic, Shūsuke!"
Just as Entetsu Kumoi seemed to have gotten bored and used Shunpō to appear right in front of Kisaragi Shūsuke, preparing to end this farce, Yushima Ōko's voice rang out from the void.
Immediately after, the environment around Entetsu Kumoi and Kisaragi Shūsuke changed completely.
At the same time, a brand-new set of clothes reappeared on Kisaragi Shūsuke's body.
Honestly, Kisaragi Shūsuke was a little moved.
But, you know—men didn't say certain things so easily.
"Be careful. He's strong!"
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