Chapter 70: Where Is the Scabbard, Where Is the Dragon?
A sudden tremor jolted Ichigo awake.
He instinctively reached for the hilt of the sword on his back.
His hand grabbed at empty air.
Ichigo froze and looked around. He realized he was lying on the roof of a massive hall. The sun beat down straight into his eyes and the suffocating heat in the air showed no sign of fading.
"Takeru… cough, cough…"
Seeing his close friend resting quietly beside him, he tried to call out, but his voice came out dry and hoarse, triggering a fit of coughing.
"Here."
Takeru casually tossed the water bottle beside him over.
Ichigo caught it and drank greedily, like a traveler who had finally found an oasis after crossing a desert.
"Phew… now I feel alive again. But why does this taste like tap water?"
"Where am I supposed to get you boiled water right now? The Captain Commander's Bankai probably evaporated all the surface water. Only groundwater would still be around. Since you are awake, heal me already."
"Watch your tone. I am a doctor, you know."
Ichigo was speechless. Still, seeing that Takeru clearly had not taken the time to treat himself, he only grumbled under his breath and stepped forward to perform Bakudo.
"Oh right, Takeru… how long was I out?"
"Not even ten minutes."
Takeru answered offhandedly, his gaze fixed on the distance.
Sensing something, Ichigo followed his line of sight and felt it too.
A familiar yet terrifying spiritual pressure pulsed in that direction.
The Captain Commander.
Alongside him were their teacher Kyoraku and Ukitake.
The last presence was completely unfamiliar, but there was no doubt it also belonged to a Captain level Shinigami.
"I get it… so we lost."
"How should I put it."
Takeru briefly recounted what had happened after Ichigo blacked out, clearing up that assumption.
"So that is how it went? I thought the old man beat us both down and we were being dragged off to prison when our teacher and the others jumped in to rescue us."
According to the original plan, they were supposed to lure the Captain Commander to a deserted area on the outskirts of Seireitei. Aizen, Kyoraku, and the others, who were lying in ambush, would then pin him down. After that, Takeru and Ichigo would pull back and rush to Sokyoku Hill.
A direct clash with Yamamoto Genryusai was not outside the plan, but it was something they had wanted to avoid as much as possible.
If it could not be avoided, then the idea was simple.
They would stall him until Aizen and the others arrived and handed the battlefield over to the adults.
In other words, for Takeru and Ichigo, as long as Aizen and the others made it in, no matter how badly they got beaten, it would not count as a loss.
"But this does not count as a win either, right…"
Ichigo looked depressed.
"I never thought that even after learning Bankai, I would still be beaten that badly."
"Isn't that a good thing?"
Takeru raised an eyebrow. Facing Ichigo's baffled expression, he said softly, "It means we still have plenty of room to grow. The Captain Commander just showed us what that looks like."
"For me, what is truly terrifying is not getting beaten down. What is terrifying is reaching his level, no longer being able to get any stronger, and only being able to watch the people behind me close the distance little by little."
"Besides, do not forget our original goal. In this fight with the Captain Commander, winning and losing were never the main point. The moment I realized I had to fight him, I had already thrown victory and defeat out of my mind."
"No wonder you held back at the end."
Ichigo understood now.
"Yeah. So I only used the flat of the blade for the last strike. Even then I could not knock him out, which makes me respect the Captain Commander's ridiculous durability even more."
"No… that is not what I meant. I am saying you still have moves you did not use, right? Or rather, your Bankai has not fully shown itself yet, has it?"
"What are you talking about? Did you not see me use up all my spiritual pressure?"
Takeru finally pulled his gaze back from the battlefield and looked at Ichigo with a face full of irritation, as if to say, You think I was slacking?
Ichigo only rolled his eyes and continued his healing, letting out a cold snort.
"Maybe other people could burn out completely, but you, Takeru… setting aside that habit of yours of always holding back, if you can summon a dragon in Shikai, there is no way your Bankai cannot do the same."
"Brother Kurosaki, you know me. How could I possibly hold back while watching you get knocked to the ground?"
…
…
The two of them stared at each other.
Another tremor rippled through the roof.
Several tiles shook loose and tumbled down the eaves.
Both of them turned their heads toward the battlefield again, their teasing expressions disappearing.
"Done."
"Thanks."
Once he finished treating Takeru, Ichigo began healing his own injuries and asked, "What now?"
"You go back up Orihime first. As for me, I need to wait a bit longer. Even with your Bakudo topping me up, my combat strength will not bounce back that quickly."
"Got it. But you better hurry and catch up. It would be way too boring if I hog all the glory alone."
Ichigo soon picked up his massive sword and rushed off toward the next battlefield.
Takeru remained where he was, quietly waiting for his strength to return.
That finishing blow, unleashed by sacrificing his armor, had completely drained his spiritual pressure.
Fortunately, the principle behind Bakudo was similar to a blood transfusion.
Simply put, the user injects their own spiritual power into the wounded, helping them restore their spiritual pressure.
Because a Shinigami's spiritual pressure is directly tied to their life force, once their spiritual pressure recovers, their natural self healing is greatly strengthened.
The injured person's own regenerative ability combined with external healing techniques.
When the two are stacked, then in theory, as long as someone is still breathing, they should be savable.
If they cannot be saved, that means only one thing.
The caster is too weak. They injected too little spiritual pressure, and the external healing spell was not strong enough either.
Most members of Fourth Division run into that wall often enough, which is why they tend to operate in multi person healing teams. They pool their spiritual power to achieve real results.
If one healer cannot save someone, then an entire team of healers works together. That way, even a Captain level Shinigami who is gravely wounded will not necessarily be beyond help.
Ichigo was different.
He alone was worth several healing squads.
With Ichigo's Bakudo pouring spiritual pressure into him, Takeru could feel his empty body slowly filling back up.
He was still a long way from his peak.
But there was one more thing people tended to forget.
Takeru still had the "compound potion" the machine soul had given him when he first enrolled.
Two uses per day.
He used both at once.
With those stacked on top of Ichigo's Bakudo, he could recover at least one third of his strength.
Enough for the battle that was coming.
Even fighting the Captain Commander again would not be entirely out of the question.
After all, just as Ichigo had said, Takeru always liked to hold back.
He had not revealed everything, and not just a single hidden card either.
The unused Black Flash was one.
Bankai itself was the second.
Ichigo's guess had been correct.
His Bankai had not been fully revealed.
The logic was simple.
If Shikai could summon a dragon, there was no reason a stronger Bankai could not. The statement was a little absolute, but not without merit.
And even if you left that aside, anyone who thought it through would notice something was off.
For example…
After releasing Bankai, a Zanpakuto normally reverted to an Asauchi like state afterward.
Takeru had gone straight back into Shikai.
That clearly did not add up.
There was only one explanation.
His Bankai had not actually ended.
He did not need to spell it out. Anyone paying attention could see it.
The scene was obvious.
It looked like, "This guy's Bankai is over. Only the leftover power has been split into two parts, one to trigger Shikai, and one to create a mark that guarantees a one hundred percent hit for a final combined strike."
But when Takeru had first activated Bankai, he had been holding both a blade and its scabbard.
In the end, the blade had become the armor.
An unbreakable suit of spiritual pressure, possessing super grade hardness that wove offense and defense together.
Along with the ability to "ignore defense."
As long as he did not feel fear, he could ignore all damage. Under attack, his armor accumulated wear, but if he was not being hit, that wear rapidly repaired itself, like a living thing that regenerated on its own.
That too was offense and defense in one.
You could call the first state "No Defense, Positive."
The chained slashes after the armor broke were "No Defense, Negative."
The meaning was simple.
First, he did not need to defend himself.
Second, the enemy could not defend against him.
So if the blade represented armor, spiritual pressure hardness, and both sides of "no defense," then what about the scabbard?
The scabbard that should have appeared only after the blade was drawn, yet never showed itself.
What was that doing?
And that was only the first problem.
Takeru's Bankai was the ultimate fusion of offense and defense.
The sword and the scabbard each embodied one side of that.
The sword, now turned into armor, had shifted from offense in Shikai to the defensive side.
The scabbard, which had originally symbolized defense and could summon dragons, was the embodiment of offense.
It was obvious enough.
Takeru had hidden a lot.
Endonemī's Bankai, at most, had revealed half its true power, and only the defensive half at that, the side that represented the "integration" in offense defense integration.
The offensive side remained buried in the dark.
Just like some people.
And people like that would likely never notice the things hiding in the dark.
Because they were exactly the same.
Takeru glanced down at the shadow pooled in the narrow alley beside the main hall. The midsummer sun and the dry heat left over from the Captain Commander's Bankai made the corner shadows look even deeper and darker.
He stood up and brushed the dust from his clothes.
The scorching sun hung high overhead. His feet were planted on the roof tiles.
From this height he stood above everyone and could see further than anyone.
Everything that fell within his line of sight was clear.
The shadows on the ground were within reach.
The sun in the sky was out of reach.
Most people only ever look up at the sun and look down at the shadows.
From that angle, everything seems predetermined.
That had nothing to do with Takeru.
What he cared about right now was how to become stronger.
Trump cards, like money, existed to be used.
Frantically hoarding them was meaningless.
If you felt you did not have enough, then you simply earned more.
Before this, he had Shikai, Seven Flash, and Only Flash as trump cards.
Now he had half of his Bankai and Black Flash as well.
In the future there would be even more.
"So then…"
"Show me your limits, Machine Soul."
The accumulated effects of the potions made Takeru more alert with every passing second. He fixed his eyes on the empty air in front of him.
As expected, ink brush characters began to appear.
"I figured getting away from the Captain Commander without a scratch would not come without a reward… Hm? Hold on. What is this supposed to be?"
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