Chapter 130: The Calamity of the Golden Seal Society.
Sixth Division District, Noble District, Guanting Street.
Many administrative agencies exclusive to the nobility were concentrated here.
Small, yet fully equipped.
A nation within a nation.
The Golden Seal Society governed that "state" through a parliamentary system, forming a standard autonomous region. No one except Central 46 could truly restrain them, and their position stood slightly apart from the rest of Seireitei.
But when war descended, no one could stay outside it.
Especially not when a Quincy fell straight from the sky, smashed through multiple layers of ceiling, and crashed onto a round table, right in the middle of a meeting, surrounded by high ranking members of the Golden Seal Society.
How could anyone possibly resist venting the anger of the fall on the people beneath him?
Boom!
Explosive flames surged into the sky and erased the entire building.
"Ha! That Shinigami Captain with the handsome dog head would never have imagined it, even in death. The strike he used to drag me down with him not only failed to kill me, it even sent me somewhere this convenient, full of people, and with such lax defenses!"
The irritable young man with the mohawk, Lille Barro, stood atop the burning ruins, slightly disheveled, grinning broadly.
Then a strange sound reached his ears.
Lille Barro's smile vanished. He turned.
Not far away, the ground lifted.
Two massive stone slabs flipped over like manhole covers.
From underneath, two… no, three figures crawled out.
Two men, one tall and one thin, both in shinigami uniforms, Zanpakuto in hand.
And behind them, protected like a treasure, a blond girl with delicate, refined features, dressed like a porcelain doll.
"Huff… huff…"
"Cough, cough…"
"Kenryu! Enryu! Are you two alright?!"
Kasumiōji Rurichiyo stared at her guards in panic.
"We're fine…"
"Squeak…"
Kenzaki Ryūsei and Enkōgawa Ruzaburō answered in succession, their voices strained.
"Hah. I didn't expect any survivors."
Lille Barro slid down from the rubble with his hands in his pockets and sized them up like prey. His mere presence crushed the air, forcing an instinctive shiver into their bones.
"Even if you weren't in the conference room and were outside in a public area, one kick of my [Burner Foot] would have launched the whole building into the sky anyway. If you didn't burn to death, you'd have been crushed."
"And yet you lived, though it looks like you paid for it by draining your spiritual pressure."
"To manage that, you're not common trash."
"And Shinigami of this level as guards… so that dog headed Captain really did drop me into an interesting place."
He watched their faces tighten and understood the emotion perfectly.
Despair.
Not the despair of being mocked, but the despair of being taken seriously. The moment an enemy acknowledged them as a threat, they also acknowledged something else.
That there was no longer any way out.
Lille Barro didn't care.
He tapped his temple, thinking aloud.
"I felt a familiar aura earlier, but those nobles were yapping like they owned the world. I was too annoyed to pay attention."
"Now that I'm looking at the little girl behind you, it clicks."
"I didn't just kill a bunch of nobles, did I?"
"Yes. That arrogant look was the same as the lords of the old Lichtreich."
"…You… you killed them all?!"
Even though the flaming ruins made the conclusion obvious, hearing it spoken still made Rurichiyo's pupils contract. Shock and grief twisted together across her face.
Kurai Yakō, the representative of the high noble Kasumiōji family, had been inside that meeting room.
"What else?"
Lille Barro's mood soured, as if some old memory had turned rancid in his mouth.
"I'm a Quincy. I don't care about ordinary souls."
"But power holders who can command Shinigami are different."
"Power is strength. Strength is threat."
"And threats must be eliminated."
His eyes narrowed.
"Starting with you."
Ryūsei's lips moved, trying to tell Rurichiyo to run while he and Ruzaburō stalled.
He never got the words out.
A mountain of spiritual pressure crashed down.
"Ugh!"
"Squeak…!"
"So… so painful…"
Master and servants collapsed, their eyes losing focus bit by bit.
"I don't like killing women and children either," Lille Barro said flatly. "But it can't be helped."
He lifted his index finger.
"Let me end it quickly. [Burner Finger 1]."
A flame ray gathered at his fingertip, aimed at Rurichiyo and the two guards.
Then something struck first, moving so fast it felt like a blind spot had grown teeth.
"?!"
Lille Barro jerked his aim and fired. The flame ray pierced the black shadow in his peripheral vision.
The object fell, burning, and its shape became clear.
A corpse.
The face, not yet charred, was still barely recognizable.
"Nianzol Weizol?"
Shock and suspicion flashed in Lille Barro's eyes.
Nianzol Weizol.
A Sternritter.
Granted the schrift [W] by Yhwach.
Regardless of his personal strength, he was still a comrade of the same rank.
Now he was dead, and someone had thrown his body like a projectile.
Who?
The question barely formed before it burst.
Because the killer didn't hide.
He walked out openly, unhurried and fearless.
A worn shinigami uniform hung on his body, aged by years.
His hair was a mess. He was unshaven. His entire appearance was unkempt.
A pitch black gauntlet covered his right arm, sleek and brutal.
In his left hand, he dragged a massive weapon.
The upper half was a huge shield shaped like a white seashell.
Beneath it was a curved crimson blade.
Each step made the shield blade thud against the ground, and with every thud, his pace became steadier, heavier. Combined with the scorching spiritual pressure rolling off him, it inspired a ridiculous sense of certainty.
"You're the Shinigami who killed Berneice Gabriel earlier."
Lille Barro recognized him instantly.
Berneice had been one of the three Quincies who besieged Sasakibe at the beginning, the language specialist whose schrift could interfere through [The Question].
He had been eliminated midway, decapitated in a clean, swift strike.
By this man.
"My name is Amagai Shūsuke," the man said, smiling brightly. His eyes were sharp, and with his rugged appearance he looked like a ronin who lived to cut down evil. "I'm from the Expeditionary Force."
"The Expeditionary Force." Lille Barro raised an eyebrow. "A pack of weaklings who couldn't make it in Seireitei and got shoved into the backwaters. Didn't expect an expert like you to exist among them."
"You know your facts."
Amagai's smile didn't fade.
"Indeed, the Expeditionary Force handles the places the Gotei 13 can't reach, subjugating Hollows in remote areas on their behalf."
"But I'm different."
"I volunteered."
"Because my goal was to hide away and build strength until the day I could return to Seireitei."
"To take revenge on Yamamoto Genryūsai."
"And the Karasudani Clan family, the one that girl you almost killed belongs to."
"I couldn't afford to enter their field of vision too early."
His eyes shifted toward Rurichiyo and her two servants.
"…!"
Lille Barro went silent for a beat.
He hadn't asked. Yet Amagai had offered it anyway.
And worse, that plan, hiding away, sharpening your blade, waiting for revenge, it resonated far too well.
Lille Barro's gaze flickered. He looked at Rurichiyo, then back to Amagai, and spoke casually.
"So you stopped me because you want to kill them yourself, right?"
"If that's the case, I don't mind handing them over."
"?!"
Rurichiyo's face drained of color.
Ryūsei and Ruzaburō felt their hearts sink.
Reinforcements had arrived, only for those reinforcements to be an enemy of the Karasudani Clan family.
Amagai stared at them for a moment, then sighed.
"I used to think so."
"My father was sent to infiltrate the Karasudani Clan family and gather evidence of their crimes."
"He was discovered."
"And then silenced by his mentor, Yamamoto Genryūsai, the very man who sent him undercover."
"But when I was recalled to Seireitei recently, Captain Shimiya retrieved the intelligence records from the Great Spirit Library Corridor."
"And I learned the truth."
"So I changed my mind."
"…Is that so?"
Lille Barro sneered, then without warning fired a flame ray at Rurichiyo and her servants.
It was so fast Ryūsei and Ruzaburō couldn't even process it.
Even a Captain might not have reacted in time.
Amagai moved.
He raised the shield blade and slammed it down.
Boom!
A thick pillar of fire erupted from the ground and intercepted the ray mid flight.
"What?"
Lille Barro frowned.
Something was wrong.
Before he could think further, a fireball hurled toward him and forced him to cancel it with his own flames.
When the air cleared, Amagai had shifted, standing firmly in front of the trio.
"Rurichiyo of the Karasudani Clan. Where is Kurai Yakō?"
"…Kumoi brought me here today for a Golden Seal Society meeting."
Rurichiyo's voice trembled.
"I didn't want to go because of the crowd, so I waited outside. Then the building exploded."
"The nobles in the meeting room… everyone inside… they must be dead."
Amagai's expression tightened.
"He's dead?"
Then he looked back at her, and his voice sharpened.
"The one who truly caused my father's death. Was it Kumoi?"
Rurichiyo flinched.
"…Kumoi? The one who stole power and controlled the clan?"
She caught something in his tone.
Amagai's eyes narrowed, almost impressed.
"As expected of the Karasudani Clan head."
"Even if you're just a brat on puppet strings, your intuition is sharp."
"Correct."
"My father, Shin'etsu Kisaragi, wasn't silenced by Yamamoto Genryūsai."
"He was consumed by a makakyō blade, lost control."
"He didn't want to drag innocents into it or expose a larger plan."
"So he went to the location he'd agreed on with the Captain Commander and sought release by his hand."
"The true culprit was Kurai Yakō."
"A retainer who usurped authority and secretly controlled the Karasudani Clan."
"He used your ancestral techniques to develop a prohibited weapon."
"The makakyō blade."
"He deliberately used an immature makakyō blade as bait to lure my father out."
"My father died because of the evidence he obtained."
That evidence died with him.
He looked at Rurichiyo without sympathy.
"Your mother was clan head back then, wasn't she?"
"A pathetic puppet."
"That's why this happened."
"You… I won't let you insult my mother!"
Rurichiyo snapped, fury forcing her voice through the crushing pressure.
Lille Barro had stopped flooding the area with spiritual pressure the moment Amagai arrived, becoming wary. That gave Rurichiyo enough strength to speak at all.
"A brat who knows nothing should shut up," Amagai said coldly. "Take your servants and get as far away as possible."
"What did you say…! Whoa!? Kenryu, Enryu, what are you doing?!"
Enryu hoisted her onto his shoulder without hesitation.
Ryūsei dropped to one knee behind Amagai and bowed.
"The Karasudani Clan will remember your kindness."
"We wish you success in battle."
Then the two fled with Rurichiyo, moving as fast as their exhausted bodies allowed.
Amagai never looked back.
He didn't answer.
Lille Barro clicked his tongue.
"Is that really fine?"
"Even if she didn't kill your father, she's still that clan's blood. Even if you don't need to kill her, there's no reason to help her."
"With a great enemy before us," Amagai replied, "this isn't the time to indulge personal grudges."
The air around him rippled. Heat rose as his spiritual pressure thickened.
"Captain Shimiya never forbade me from seeking revenge on the Karasudani Clan."
"But I misunderstood my grandmaster, Yamamoto Genryūsai, for years."
"I'm ashamed enough to cut my own throat."
"And Captain Shimiya prevented me from making a grave mistake."
"I can't repay that."
"So how could I have the face to act recklessly now?"
He drew a slow breath.
"I've changed my mind."
"I'll answer Captain Shimiya's call."
"Not as a lone wolf of the Expeditionary Force."
"But as a junior disciple of the Genryū style."
"I will uphold the Captain Commander's duty to protect."
"And I vow to follow Captain Shimiya's lead and crush all invaders."
"Even Kurai Yakō."
"I'll settle that personally after the war."
"I won't allow the enemy to kill him first."
"And as for the Karasudani Clan, I won't vent my anger on an innocent bystander who knows nothing."
"You're a soft hearted guy who says one thing and means another," Lille Barro grinned.
"I don't have that kind of patience."
"From where I'm standing," Amagai grinned back, "your temper looks pretty good too. You could have killed them with the aftershocks of our fight, but you didn't."
"Hah." Lille Barro's grin widened. "Because I agree with what you said."
"I don't care to kill people who know nothing."
"Otherwise, I should kill myself right now."
Something flickered in his eyes.
Then he offered, almost lazily.
"It seems you've got your own past too."
"If you want to surrender, I'll accept you."
Amagai's eyes narrowed slightly, as if he saw the crack beneath the swagger.
"Why don't you surrender to me instead?"
"Because you don't look like you're in top shape," Amagai continued, smiling. "You're probably not my match right now."
"Hah? Big mouth."
Lille Barro laughed in disbelief.
"I just put down a dog man who fought with brute force. Barely cost me any effort."
"…Captain Komamura?"
Amagai's brows rose.
"Even as a reigai, a Captain is stronger than someone like me. No wonder you're sweating so much."
"Stronger than you?" Lille Barro snorted. "I don't buy it."
"Besides, Nianzol Weizol wasn't easy either."
"You only came after killing him, so we're about even."
He raised his hand.
"So I won't hold back."
"[Burner Finger 2]!"
Two flame rays snapped down like blades.
Amagai raised the shield blade and unleashed a torrent of fire like a flamethrower, swallowing both rays whole.
"Again…"
Lille Barro's brow furrowed deeper.
"You don't understand?" Amagai said, catching his reaction. "My Zanpakuto is already in Bankai. Naturally it's strong."
"But my techniques aren't stronger than yours. At most, they're on the same level."
"It should be impossible for them to swallow your condensed flames."
"No matter what tricks you use, it won't matter," Lille Barro said coldly. "Even Yamamoto Genryūsai's flames couldn't burn me to death. Yours won't either."
"Since you've shown Bankai, I'll get serious."
"I'll crush your Bankai and your nonsense together."
His spiritual pressure surged to the peak. Reishi gathered into a pillar of light that rose through the ruins like a war standard planted in enemy ground.
As the light dispersed, a cone shaped Quincy pentagram formed above his head, and long rod like wings spread behind his back.
He entered Vollständig.
"[Burner Finger 3]!"
The explosive flames erupting from three fingertips became a calamity. A single wave could have turned all of Guanting Street to ash and blasted out a basin.
Amagai answered in kind.
His spiritual pressure surged. Heat roared behind him like a tide of fire. His upper clothes burned away into ash.
With a shout, he raised the Rikkyō Gōen Kaku and split the earth.
An endless stream of fire erupted from the crack, like volcanic lava meeting celestial flame.
Boom!
Heat against heat.
Both were symbols of destruction. Both were top tier.
The collision exploded like a meteor detonating over a city. The sky for ten kilometers turned red. Heatwaves distorted everything, making space itself look like it was melting.
"He blocked it…!"
Lille Barro's eyes narrowed in surprise.
He acknowledged Amagai's skill, but…
Amagai's spiritual pressure wasn't necessarily higher than the reigai he killed earlier. With matching attributes, even if Amagai didn't break instantly, they shouldn't have been evenly matched.
Have I gotten weaker?
Or…
Are my attacks… not working on him?
Lille Barro's expression hardened. He pressed his right hand together, concentrating heat into his index, middle, ring, and pinky.
[Burner Finger 4].
A blade like flame wrapped his right arm. He swung, releasing an explosion shaped like a shark's dorsal fin, even more terrifying than before.
"Impressive," Amagai said, "but…"
He raised his right hand, the pitch black gauntlet gleaming.
His fingers closed.
A blade of eerie green light extended from his hand, and with one swing, he erased part of the incoming explosion.
"What?!"
Lille Barro's eyes widened.
Amagai leaped through the opening and charged with violent momentum.
Lille Barro reacted instantly. He dodged, then snapped a schrift badge toward Amagai, trying to steal his Bankai.
He believed Amagai's advantage came from a special mechanism in a heat type Bankai. So he intended to strip it away and return the lesson.
The badge didn't activate.
"Damn it!"
"I wasn't joking," Amagai said, slamming Lille Barro with the shield before the Quincy could even process it. Lille Barro flew, body twisting.
"I'm weak. That's why I was never allowed to become Captain of the Third Division."
"And because I'm weak, Captain Shimiya and Lord Mochizuki forged this for me."
"A living weapon."
"It devoured multiple Menos Grande souls."
"The Anti Quincy Special Makakyō Blade."
"It has merged with me."
"It absorbs my spiritual pressure and releases a spiritual field that suppresses Quincy powers."
He pursued relentlessly, boots crunching through rubble.
"Any Quincy within this field is weakened without realizing it."
"The weakening isn't a drop in technique output or physical strength."
"It's lethality."
"Your power loses its ability to kill."
"To put it bluntly, it becomes harmless, like reishi in the air."
"So your 'condensed' flames only look condensed."
Lille Barro's eyes narrowed, finally seeing the shape of the trap.
He stepped back, lips curling.
Then he attacked again.
He leaned into his Vollständig, and the air screamed.
Amagai answered with flame, the battlefield becoming a furnace.
Still, something in Lille Barro's expression grew more strained.
He could feel it now.
His flames were roaring.
But their bite was missing.
A strike that should have ended this had become… survivable.
Then Amagai shifted.
Words became misdirection.
Movement became the blade.
A reishi crossbow snapped into Lille Barro's hand. He fired, aiming for Amagai's knee, trying to cripple mobility.
Amagai retracted his blade at the last instant and dodged.
Then he spun the Rikkyō Gōen Kaku overhead, flames feeding it like a storm engine.
The weapon gathered terrifying inertia.
And Amagai brought it down.
"…No. I should say you're even more arrogant than I expected," Amagai said through the roar. "A Quincy I met before kept talking about his ability, swearing I could never hit him."
"In the end, I roasted his organs."
"And he gave me a bit of inspiration."
"To use words to mislead you."
Boom!
The heavy weapon struck like judgment.
Lille Barro was smashed into the earth, a massive crater blooming under him. Dust surged hundreds of meters high.
"Cough… cough…"
Lille Barro lay inside the crater, head cracked and bleeding, blood pouring down his face.
Even with [Seikessen], a hit like that left him dizzy, his limbs briefly refusing to answer.
That strike was far beyond what the makakyō blade should have produced.
He knew why.
It was those strange halos, the power beneath his opponent's feet.
If luck turned, Amagai's attack power surged without warning. A blow that should be blockable became fatal. Every strike had to be treated like two.
Lille Barro had remembered that.
He had still been crushed.
Which meant only one thing.
"…A guy like you…"
Lille Barro stared up at the red stained sky and grinned through the blood.
"…has the nerve to say he's weak."
.....
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