Got you!
Shrieker almost whooped out loud.
That single slash that saved Ichigo Kurosaki earlier had made him realize just how strong Muten Natsu really was.
As much as he hated to admit it, Muten Natsu had been right.
Shrieker didn't have the guts to fight him head-on.
That was why he'd talked so much, deliberately laying out Yūichi Shibata's miserable story.
While he was spinning that tale, Shrieker had also sent out clones and located the birdcage Yasutora Sado had left on the wall.
The more Muten Natsu understood what Yūichi Shibata had been through, the more he'd hesitate over the boy's safety.
And the more effective Shrieker's threats would be.
But that still wasn't enough.
Shrieker wasn't trying to run. He wanted to devour the two Shinigami in front of him and gain even greater power.
So first he used the leeches to injure Muten Natsu.
Then he had a clone slam into him to inflict even heavier damage.
Both of those explosions had been carefully restrained, their force kept far below normal.
The goal was to make Muten Natsu misjudge how strong the clone detonations really were, to make him think he could withstand that level of blast.
Then Shrieker had more than a dozen clones move at once, releasing the maximum destructive power he could manage.
They looked chaotic and crazed, but every clone's position had been calculated. The explosions would overlap and stack, producing the highest possible level of destruction.
This was Shrieker's limit. If he added any more, the blasts would start to interfere with each other and weaken instead of amplifying.
After the earlier testing, Shrieker was certain this was enough to blow Muten Natsu to pieces.
Under Shrieker's eager stare, the clones detonated together around Muten Natsu. Shockwaves surged like a tide, and overlapping booms kicked up shattered stone and choking dust.
Ichigo Kurosaki was far from the blast, yet the gale still knocked him off his feet.
He rolled and steadied himself, throwing his arms up to shield the two behind him from flying debris.
Peering through the gap between his forearms, he could only see roiling smoke and dust.
This explosion was far stronger than before. Ichigo Kurosaki's heart lurched.
With power like that, Muten Natsu…
"Still just a cheap trick," Muten Natsu's calm voice drifted out of the haze, "but for your level, I'll give it a 'not bad'."
An arm swept through the drifting dust, tearing it apart. Muten Natsu's upper Shihakushō had been blown to shreds, and his body still bore the scorch marks from earlier, but that was all.
"H-how is that possible?!" Shrieker sensed something was wrong. That terrifying blast had only torn Muten Natsu's clothes and hadn't left a single new wound. "What did you do?!"
"You hid your real strength so I'd underestimate how strong your clone explosions are." Muten Natsu lifted his eyes. "So why didn't you consider I might be hiding something too?"
"I asked what you did!"
"Curious?" Muten Natsu held out a hand. "Then try again. Blow me up one more time. Come on… here, here…"
Like he was calling to a dog.
"Y-you…" Shrieker snapped and hurled a clone. "You little brat!!!"
The clone rushed Muten Natsu. Its already grotesque body twisted, warped, and swelled, then burst apart with a thunderous explosion.
And within that roar came another sound, crisp and ringing, like metal striking stone.
Clang!
In front of Muten Natsu, black ripples spread like ink blooming in water, giving off that sharp metallic note as they blocked the blast, then vanished.
"Th-then… what is that?"
Muten Natsu lowered his voice. "This is…"
"Bakudō #4: Hainawa!" Rukia Kuchiki called out sharply. Reiryoku surged from her fingertips, forming rope-like bands of golden light that wrapped around the birdcage and yanked it back to her side.
This was the second reason Muten Natsu had deliberately dragged things out with Shrieker.
He was buying time for Rukia Kuchiki to finish treating Yasutora Sado, then use Bakudō to save Yūichi Shibata.
"Damn it!" Shrieker ordered several clones to pounce on Rukia Kuchiki.
Muten Natsu was already standing in front of her. The instant the clones detonated—
Clang!
Ink-like ripples spread through the air, then vanished without a trace.
That move again… Shrieker suddenly noticed that the Zanpakutō that had been hanging at Muten Natsu's waist was gone. "Where's your sword? Don't tell me that just now was… your Shikai?"
"Correct answer. Too bad there's no reward." Muten Natsu raised his left hand to his chest and opened his palm. "Let's say hello."
A clear metallic sound rang out as a hilt nearly thirty centimeters long sprang out from his palm.
Unlike the Zanpakutō he had used before, the pommel of this hilt was capped with a black ring, slightly wider than the grip itself.
"Bound by convention—" Muten Natsu closed his fingers around the hilt and slowly drew it free from his left hand. "Myōki." (Demon of Illumination)
At last, the Shikai-released Zanpakutō was fully revealed before Shrieker's eyes.
The ring-hilted blade measured roughly ninety centimeters in total length. It had no guard, the blade and hilt forming a single continuous piece. The spine ran straight, the tip angled sharply, and the edge curved subtly inward.
Even after devouring two Shinigami, Shrieker felt an involuntary chill the moment he saw Myōki.
This sword carried an aura that made him deeply uneasy.
An inward-curved blade… After three full years, Rukia Kuchiki was finally seeing Myōki again.
Just as Muten Natsu had said, whether Shinigami or Hollow, their abilities were inseparable from their personalities.
Myōki's unusual shape was a direct reflection of Muten Natsu himself.
Compared to the more common outward-curved blade, an inward-curved blade had its center of gravity shifted further forward.
It was only a subtle difference, but it produced completely different results.
Outward-curved blades cut flesh. Inward-curved blades cleave bone.
With an outward curve, the balance favors the spine of the blade, creating a natural unlocking structure that excels at dragging and slicing, expanding damage to soft tissue without biting deep into hard structures like bone.
With an inward curve, the balance shifts toward the edge itself, forming a natural locking structure. The inward arc delivers greater chopping power, favoring a crushing inward split rather than a sweeping outward cut when it strikes.
Woodcutting machetes and grass-cutting sickles are both inward-curved blades.
Against stationary targets, inward-curved blades are far more effective than outward-curved ones.
But in combat, if the enemy isn't killed in a single blow, that inward curve makes drawing and retracting the blade much more difficult.
For someone like Muten Natsu, who excelled at quick draw and preferred to end fights with one decisive strike, it couldn't have been more fitting.
Shrieker's instincts were right.
He should have felt uneasy.
Because Myōki radiated an unmistakable contempt, treating enemies as nothing more than weeds to be cut down, along with a sharp, merciless killing intent that sought to cleave its target in two.