Chapter 282: A Gap Like a Chasm
Matsushita Yusuke was fully aware of everything happening in the stands.
He simply didn't care, which meant he wasn't going to do anything about it. At this point in his life he had seen too much -- the kind of thing that used to pull his attention didn't have much of a grip on it anymore.
The only thing that had actually managed to produce something close to genuine curiosity in him right now was watching how far Zaraki had come.
In the original story, Yhwach had specifically flagged this man. Had called out his name as someone worth paying attention to. So exactly how far had Zaraki Kenpachi actually developed?
He pressed the limiter release.
The air around him parted without a sound.
He rolled his right wrist out, then turned his left hand palm-up and brought it lightly over the cut.
A brief flash of pale green light, and the wound sealed itself completely.
As a technique, the act itself wasn't remarkable.
But to certain professional eyes watching from nearby, it was something else entirely.
Kotetsu Isane found her own eyes going slightly wide before she could stop them.
That was fast.
Kaido, at its core, worked by introducing an external stimulus that activated the body's cellular repair process and accelerated it toward rapid healing. The underlying mechanism was not supposed to be compressible to that degree.
What Matsushita Yusuke had just done in a single casual motion was something that would normally require a dedicated Squad 4 team -- roughly five people working in coordination -- to achieve.
A captain's reiatsu could compensate for the headcount, granted.
But the precision?
Isane turned the question over, watching the man's back from where she stood, and found that every piece of secondhand information she had accumulated about him over the years was starting to feel considerably more grounded in reality than it had before.
As Squad 11's captain -- exactly how strong was he?
That question wasn't hers alone. It had settled across the minds of most of the people present.
The specifics. The actual substance of it.
Because under every set of watching eyes, Matsushita Yusuke was about to move for the first time in a long while.
Both of them stood facing each other for only a moment before Matsushita Yusuke went forward again.
And this time --
Straight at him. Again.
Zaraki's eyes went wide as he read the attack in an instant, dissected it, processed it completely.
His expression went savage. The fury behind it was completely unmasked.
"Are you looking down on me, Matsushita Yusuke?!"
He had already taken a hit going this route, and here was the man coming at him the exact same way again. Still empty-handed. Still with no intention whatsoever of drawing a weapon -- even now. The only explanation Zaraki could find for it was arrogance, plain and complete.
You want to fight me bare-handed?
Then I'll show you what it costs to be that comfortable.
Zaraki's jaw set hard. He stepped sideways to build momentum, held the tension for just a beat, then brought his blade down with everything behind it.
The force of it split the air like something being torn, compressing the space ahead of it in a motion that was pure controlled violence aimed straight at Matsushita Yusuke's face.
Going to connect.
No. It wasn't.
One step, one lateral shift. A dodge so clean it almost looked like he had walked through the attack rather than around it -- Matsushita Yusuke simply passed through the assault and came out the other side directly in front of him.
Zaraki barely had time to register the position change before he moved anyway.
That shunpo technique again -- nothing surprising about it in principle. Matsushita Yusuke's technical skill was well past his own, and he had always known it. He had mentally prepared for that part.
Use your strengths. Minimize the disadvantage. If you want to beat this man, that's the only path.
The thought crystallized in an instant, and Zaraki roared and drove his reiatsu even higher than the already enormous output he had been running.
Boom!
The reiatsu flooding off him hit a near-liquid density, thick enough to be felt against the skin.
Matsushita Yusuke, who had closed the distance completely, felt a slight shift and let one eyebrow rise.
He slowed.
Like a fish that had been pushed into adhesive -- the moment it tried to push back, the enveloping pressure increased to match, wrapping tighter rather than yielding.
"This is what I prepared for you, Matsushita Yusuke."
Shunpo, fundamentally, was reiatsu application. That was all it was.
So how do you counter someone whose speed comes from reiatsu output?
Detonate your own reiatsu outward and use it to control the space around you.
Said plainly, it sounded complicated. In practice it was blunt and direct -- Zaraki had converted his internal reiatsu outward, releasing it in a form that produced a literal restraining field around him.
Like oxygen being a requirement for breathing -- until the concentration climbs high enough that the same substance becomes something else entirely.
Zaraki was not, as a general rule, someone who liked using his head. But he had one characteristic that ran completely against type.
When he genuinely accepted that brute force might not be enough to win, he was entirely willing to think. To find other ways to get the advantage.
And then?
His considerable strategic intelligence would arrive at the conclusion that it was time to use brute force.
Which was exactly what was happening right now.
Zaraki grinned and stepped sideways to face him, bringing his blade across in a flat, level swing aimed at Matsushita Yusuke's chest.
"I see."
Matsushita Yusuke's expression didn't shift. If anything, the look that crossed his face was something close to real satisfaction.
Whatever level Zaraki had reached -- he was clearly pleased with it.
"Well done."
The praise was genuine. The follow-through was not gentle.
He stepped sideways in the same motion, left hand coming up with an after-the-fact timing that somehow still arrived first, intercepting the wrist that held the blade.
Why.
He had moved first. How was he losing the race on speed?
Yachiru, watching from the sidelines, felt her pupils contract. A sound escaped her before she could stop it.
"Matsushita's reiatsu -- he still had more in reserve!"
What had looked like two fighters grinding against each other at their respective ceilings was not that. Matsushita Yusuke had been holding more back the entire time. That easy, unhurried quality -- maybe that was the whole answer. Maybe that was what his actual floor looked like.
He completed the suppression from behind. At the same moment, his right hand moved like something uncoiling, pressing flat against Zaraki's forehead.
Force poured through the contact in a single concentrated burst, driving straight through the body in an instant.
"--"
One syllable, barely started.
Zaraki's head was already in Matsushita Yusuke's grip.
And then --
Up. Down.
Like handling a toy that happened to be very large, Matsushita Yusuke drove him from above straight into the ground.
Kurotsuchi Mayuri, who had been sitting with the expression of someone with absolutely nothing on their mind, suddenly had very wide eyes.
Wait.
That reiatsu burst was well outside what the projections had accounted for.
"Nemu, increase the--"
He didn't finish the sentence.
The impact hit.
Bang!
A body that was physically ordinary in every conventional sense drove into the ground and produced something that was not ordinary in any sense -- the shockwave of a meteor hitting earth.
The ground fractured. Shattered. Caved inward in a single terrible instant.
The brilliant golden reiatsu field was shredded by the force, torn apart, scattering into the churning wind as the arena erupted around them.
Every person present watched as the containment barrier took the hit directly.
For a moment it held -- something like a stalemate, the barrier bracing itself against the impact.
It didn't last.
Because within seconds, the barrier began to visibly expand.
It swelled outward like something being inflated, growing at a rate everyone could track with the naked eye, stretching to twice its original volume before anyone had fully processed what they were looking at.
The resemblance to a pufferfish was disturbingly specific, and every person present felt the same thing register in their gut at the same time.
That thing was going to burst.
Kurotsuchi's voice came out sharp.
"Reiatsu barriers up -- the containment is going to break!"
Every captain-level figure present moved in the same moment, stepping forward in a single unified motion without coordination.
Multiple Kido techniques wove together across the sky above, taking form in overlapping layers, assembling into visible defensive structures that looked, at first impression, reassuring.
They weren't, actually.
"This isn't good."
Aizen Sosuke said it quietly, mostly to himself.
Hinamori Momo couldn't help asking.
"Captain, we've already got the reiatsu barriers up -- why are you still worried?"
"That question is its own answer, Vice-Captain Hinamori."
Not a jab, exactly. But not comfortable to receive either.
Aizen had no particular interest in using this moment for personal attacks. What he was doing was simply drawing her attention toward something worth understanding.
"Both of their reiatsu levels are well above the ordinary range. The overflow from two forces of this scale interacting creates a compounding effect -- the combined output is greater than the sum of its parts."
To put it plainly.
"An ordinary captain's barriers are sufficient to protect themselves. Protecting anyone around them is a different matter."
So.
"Everyone should step further back. Don't overestimate what your individual barriers can hold."
As that conclusion was beginning to settle into the group as the obvious right call, one figure walked against the current, moving forward through everyone who was pulling back, stepping directly to the front of the line.
It was --
"Captain-Commander!"
Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni placed himself as a shield in front of everyone present.
"Stand down. I'll handle this."
He turned side-on. His eyes opened.
With one motion of the staff in his hand, Ryujin Jakka shed its outer outline silently and revealed itself.
A short, quiet exhale.
Flame rose and consumed the sky, building into a visible torrent of brilliant light that was simply there in a way that made argument feel small.
Inside the barrier, the force that had broken free came surging outward like a flood that intended to swallow everything in front of it.
The two met almost instantly.
A literal head-on collision -- and the expressions that appeared on the faces watching it were uniformly one thing.
Astonishment.
That these two could measure themselves against the Captain-Commander's full presence -- exactly how extreme had their output actually become?
The thought ran through every mind simultaneously as the two forces ground against each other and were consumed.
Both energies burned out, canceling into nothing, and as the turbulent wind scattered and settled, a figure became visible in the space that had cleared.
Standing. Head up.
Who had won?
Looking more carefully -- Matsushita Yusuke walked out of the smoke with the battered, thoroughly unconscious Zaraki held in one hand by the collar.
The man who moments ago had been the most violently animated presence in the arena was now limp and glassy-eyed, being dragged at arm's length with his feet not quite touching the ground. There was no ambiguity about the state he was in.
Matsushita Yusuke's expression had not changed. He was still smiling.
The only visible damage on him was the wound on his right hand, which had reopened from the force of that last motion. Everything else was unmarked.
Even the people who had the hardest time reading a fight could produce an honest verdict looking at this.
The outcome was settled. And beyond that --
The gap was larger than anyone had expected.
Bear in mind that Matsushita Yusuke had not drawn his Zanpakuto at any point.
Which meant what had just happened was pure hand-to-hand. Hakuda, in the technical sense. The complete suppression of Zaraki Kenpachi achieved through unarmed combat alone.
For a Shinigami, essentially all meaningful combat capability lived in the Zanpakuto. Doing what he had just done without drawing his blade was a statement that didn't need translation.
Clean win.
That was the only word for it that fit. Nobody in the crowd could find a second one.
The gap between them was like a chasm.
Even Yachiru -- Zaraki's most devoted and loyal person -- stood with her arms crossed and let out a long, heavy sigh that belonged on someone considerably older.
"I thought he'd gotten a bit closer by now. Guess not. Seriously, when is Ken-chan going to learn? At this rate..."
The sentence stopped before it finished.
Whatever the rest of it was, Yachiru kept it to herself.
It didn't need to be said, in any case -- because Matsushita Yusuke's figure flickered briefly and reappeared in the stands.
The man who had just finished demolishing the arena with the force of a falling object was now standing two steps away from where everyone had been watching.
The physical response that produced in people nearby was extremely honest. Skin tightening. Heartbeat picking up without any decision to do so.
Matsushita Yusuke's reaction to this was considerably milder. He glanced around for a moment, located the person he was looking for not far away, stepped over, and extended Zaraki toward her.
"Sorry about this -- can you check him over? I want to know how bad it is."
The person he had approached was Kotetsu Isane.
She blinked. Met his eyes for a moment. Then seemed to remember what she was supposed to be doing and dropped her head.
"Oh -- oh! Yes, absolutely, right away, I'll check him right now!"
The sudden shift left her briefly without her footing, but professional instinct kicked in quickly and carried her back to where she needed to be.
The rest of the Squad 4 members, following their vice-captain's lead, returned to working order and moved to join the response effort.
As for why he had gone to the vice-captain for this rather than the captain of Squad 4 who was standing right there --
The answer to that was that the captain of Squad 4 was currently occupied with something considerably more tense.
Unohana Retsu and Gin Ichimaru were still facing each other. The standoff between them had not moved. Both sides had reasons that made stepping down feel impossible, and those reasons hadn't gone away.
What finally gave the situation a way out was Matsushita Yusuke walking over.
"That's enough, Gin."
Gin Ichimaru stepped back without a word, and in the same motion pulled his reiatsu in, straightening where he stood as everything settled back into place.
Unohana looked him over from head to toe, then smiled.
"I wouldn't have guessed. You have that kind of depth in you."
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