The power of Hadō #62 — Hyapporankan instantly turned Ashido into a pincushion. Fortunately, he possessed a considerable amount of Hollow power, so injuries of this degree were still far from enough to bring him down.
With a furious roar, Ashido tensed every muscle in his body and relied on sheer physical strength to shatter all the white rods embedded in him. Once again, he charged toward Kenpachi Kuruyashiki.
This time, both of Ashido's hands transformed into razor-sharp claws resembling the horns of an antelope. He rapidly swung them in front of himself, determined to tear apart anything that stood in his way.
Hadō #33 — Sōkatsui.
Thirty clusters of pale-blue flames condensed around Kenpachi Kuruyashiki before shooting toward Ashido one after another.
A mere Sōkatsui obviously couldn't stop Ashido, but it was more than enough to slow him down.
As Ashido forcefully tore through the incoming Sōkatsui, he failed to notice the chains creeping toward him from around his feet, writhing like enormous serpents.
On his thirtieth swipe, Ashido broke through the last of Kuruyashiki's attacks. Suddenly, he realized that he couldn't move his hand.
No—not just his hand.
His entire body was immobilized.
Bakudō #63 — Sajō Sabaku.
One coil after another, the chains spread upward from Ashido's feet like snakes. Before he could even react, his entire body had already been bound tightly.
At this rate, there'll be no chance of victory.
Before the chains could reach his neck, Ashido concentrated a mass of deep-red Reiatsu and fired it toward Kenpachi Kuruyashiki.
Cero.
Ashido knew how to use Cero, although its power was nowhere near the physical might he possessed after achieving Bankai.
Even so, this relatively unimpressive Cero pierced straight through Kuruyashiki's body before Ashido was completely restrained.
After that, Ashido could no longer see what happened.
Even his head had been firmly bound by Kuruyashiki's chains, leaving him looking like an enormous silkworm cocoon.
The cocoon of chains continued to sway back and forth. Clearly, Ashido was still struggling inside.
But no matter how desperately he struggled, there was no way he could break free. Countless more chains continued to gather around him, waiting to bind him again.
"Congratulations on hitting me. But that's all you've accomplished."
Kenpachi Kuruyashiki casually wiped one hand across his abdomen. The wound there vanished without a trace.
It couldn't be said that Ashido was simply too weak.
He was merely nowhere near strong enough to contend with the Reishi of the entire Seireitei.
Ashido's strength was only around the level of an ordinary Captain, after all.
Kuruyashiki turned toward Kenpachi Zaraki.
"Can we begin the Kenpachi Challenge now? Eleventh Kenpachi?"
"Fine. I'll play with you for a while."
In truth, Zaraki wasn't particularly interested in fighting Kuruyashiki.
What he enjoyed far more was the exhilarating sensation of cutting into flesh.
An opponent like Kuruyashiki, whom he couldn't even hit no matter how he swung his sword, could hardly be considered an opponent at all.
At least, that was how Zaraki felt if he weren't the Kenpachi.
Having inherited the title of Kenpachi meant accepting the responsibilities that came with it.
Anyone had the right to challenge him through the Kenpachi Challenge.
"Let's get this over with!"
Zaraki instantly appeared before Kuruyashiki and brought his sword crashing down.
Just as he'd expected, his blade passed straight through Kuruyashiki's body.
"Ah, I hate opponents like you the most!"
Zaraki made no attempt to conceal his disgust as he reached up and tore off his eyepatch.
Although Zaraki didn't particularly like Sōsuke Aizen either, he agreed with something Aizen had once said.
A Shinigami's battle was ultimately a battle of Reiatsu.
No matter how strange Kuruyashiki's abilities were, before overwhelming spiritual pressure, everything was equal!
Zaraki swung his hand, sending a massive blade of compressed air crashing toward Kuruyashiki.
Kuruyashiki remained completely calm, drawing upon the surrounding Reishi and using it to withstand Zaraki's overwhelming pressure.
"Captain Zaraki is about to realize it, isn't he?"
Tsunayoshi watched Zaraki.
"Just how enormous the Reiatsu of the opponent he's facing really is."
The blade of air Zaraki unleashed with all his strength merely swept across Kuruyashiki's body like a gentle breeze.
It couldn't threaten him in the slightest.
Zaraki finally understood that he had to take this seriously.
His opponent really did possess considerable strength.
His Zanpakutō couldn't hurt Kuruyashiki at all, while his Reiatsu couldn't suppress him.
For a moment, Zaraki seemed to have run out of effective ways to attack.
Zaraki remained motionless for far too long.
Kuruyashiki, however, had no intention of waiting for him.
He crooked a finger, and another powerful Kidō shot toward Zaraki.
Unlike his fight with Ashido, Kuruyashiki had no reason to hold back during a Kenpachi Challenge.
Hadō #90 — Kurohitsugi!
Black coffins layered one over another, ten massive coffins sealing Zaraki inside like an enormous set of nesting boxes.
Even Aizen had only used a double-layered Kurohitsugi back then.
Kuruyashiki's tenfold Kurohitsugi, however, completely sealing a single person inside, was practically unprecedented.
Reiatsu pierced through the black coffin before erupting in violent explosions. Every change in its structure threatened to tear apart anyone trapped inside.
Once those black walls closed around someone, it truly became a black coffin in every sense of the name.
Yet Kuruyashiki had no intention of stopping his assault.
His hands continuously manipulated the Reishi surrounding the Eleventh Division, using that vast source of power to prepare his next technique.
Ten layers of Kurohitsugi were nowhere near enough to kill Kenpachi Zaraki.
That was how much Kuruyashiki trusted Zaraki.
He had already learned back in Muken that, thanks to Sawada Tsunayoshi's intervention, Kenpachi Zaraki was no longer the reckless idiot who treated his eyepatch as his trump card.
"Devour, Nozarashi!"
Zaraki's wild laughter rang out from inside the black coffin.
As his voice fell silent, a crack appeared horizontally across the Kurohitsugi.
The crack gradually widened.
Zaraki emerged from within, carrying an enormous blade across his shoulder.
Shikai.
Zaraki had learned to release his Zanpakutō as well.
Nozarashi.
It was an enormous Zanpakutō—so large that Zaraki had to carry it over his shoulder just to keep it from interfering with his movements.
Near the hilt, the blade curved dramatically. Judging from its appearance, it looked more like an enormous butcher's cleaver than a conventional sword.
Kuruyashiki had anticipated Zaraki appearing with Nozarashi.
The sky was already filled with countless densely packed pink stars.
They were the fireworks he had prepared to welcome Nozarashi's debut.
Hadō #96 — Senjū Kōten Taihō!
Senjū Kōten Taihō normally fired several immensely powerful projectiles at once.
Kuruyashiki, however, had expanded its scale to more than a hundred.
The bombardment covered an area far beyond the Eleventh Division.
Everyone throughout the Seireitei could see the sudden appearance of those pink stars hanging across the sky.
"Wow! They're sparkling!"
Among everyone present, only Yachiru Kusajishi was carefree enough to react like that.
From another perspective, her reaction also meant that she didn't believe those projectiles posed any real threat to Kenpachi Zaraki.
Zaraki swung his sword toward the sky.
It was another blade of compressed air.
But this time, it was far more powerful than his previous strike.
The instant it swept upward, an entire chain of pink projectiles exploded.
If an ordinary Shinigami had been standing there, perhaps Zaraki's casual sword swing alone would have crushed them into a thin sheet.
This was the power of Zaraki's Zanpakutō.
Nozarashi.
It possessed no elaborate special ability.
It was simply the beauty of overwhelming raw power.
Once Zaraki released Nozarashi into Shikai, with the exception of Shinigami who had surpassed Bankai, everyone else had to treat him with at least a measure of fear.
The principle of overwhelming a thousand techniques with a single force was pushed to its absolute extreme through Nozarashi.
Zaraki swung Nozarashi again and again.
Explosion after explosion resounded through the sky.
The countless stars Kuruyashiki had prepared for Zaraki ultimately accomplished nothing.
At the end of the day, the problem was that the destructive power of Senjū Kōten Taihō was spread over too wide an area. It simply couldn't withstand the force concentrated into a single swing from Zaraki.
Then, among Kidō, was there an attack whose power could be concentrated into a single point?
There was.
Hadō #96 — Ittō Kasō.
Its ability was to unleash an enormous blade-shaped flame upon the enemy.
The reason for this Kidō's exceptionally high number was, first, its tremendous single-target destructive power.
Second, it required a charred body as the medium through which it could be activated.
In the original story, Yamamoto sacrificed one of his arms in an attempt to use Ittō Kasō to kill Aizen.
Unfortunately, he failed.
The fact that Yamamoto, a master of Hakuda with his own unique techniques, chose Ittō Kasō to deal with Aizen was enough to demonstrate just how formidable its destructive power was.
Compared with Yamamoto's method, which required sacrificing part of his own spiritual body to use Ittō Kasō, Kuruyashiki had things much easier because he had fused himself with the Seireitei.
From a certain perspective, the Seireitei was him, and he was the Seireitei.
The so-called sacrifice amounted to nothing more than sacrificing a few bricks from the Seireitei itself.
For Kuruyashiki, there was no limit to how many times he could use Ittō Kasō!
One enormous flaming blade after another appeared across the sky above the Seireitei.
The rapidly rising temperature caused by the flames reminded everyone of Yamamoto's Bankai.
But this time, the situation had absolutely nothing to do with Yamamoto.
The main reason was that Kuruyashiki had condensed far too many Ittō Kasō.
Hadō #96 — Ittō Kasō.
"Whoa, whoa. Isn't this getting a little out of hand?"
Kyōraku wiped the sweat from his forehead as he gazed into the sky above the Eleventh Division.
He quickly pulled out a communication device and contacted Tsunayoshi.
"I thought we agreed—no one dies!"
"Don't worry. We're still a long way from anyone being in mortal danger. At most, it'll get a little hot."
"How am I supposed to relax?! There are enough Ittō Kasō here to bury the entire Seireitei!"
"Can't be helped. You'll have to take it up with the person responsible."
Tsunayoshi paused.
"Or should I step in and stop the fight myself?"
"When you intervene is still up to Captain Unohana."
Kyōraku thought about it and decided to leave that question to Retsu Unohana.
As a former Kenpachi, she had every justification for intervening at any point.
The conversation between Kyōraku and Tsunayoshi wasn't pointless, either.
Everyone knew that Kuruyashiki had fused himself with the Seireitei.
Thus, Kyōraku's conversation with Tsunayoshi was effectively a warning to Kuruyashiki:
Keep the destruction under control.
That was why Kyōraku didn't care what Tsunayoshi ultimately decided to do.
As long as he made the danger posed by Kuruyashiki's technique clear, that was enough.
Kuruyashiki could hear their conversation.
He would naturally restrain himself.
What Kyōraku hadn't accounted for, however, was that although Kuruyashiki really did slow his movements—
Kenpachi Zaraki had no intention of behaving himself.
"What are you waiting for?!"
Zaraki leaped high into the air and swung his sword toward one of the flaming blades.
Ittō Kasō exploded with a tremendous roar.
It was the funeral bell that Kenpachi Zaraki had personally sounded for Kuruyashiki.
Kuruyashiki might not have been a qualified Kenpachi himself, but he understood the glory attached to that title.
His opponent had already issued him a challenge worthy of the name.
There was only one thing left for him to do.
Accept it.
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