Unlike the earlier ink blades, this one rose like a pitch-black banner, a vast surge of spirit ink rolling forward like a tide.
Sajin Komamura brought his sword down. Tenken split the air like a collapsing mountain, cleaving the black tide in two.
Muten Natsu twisted his body, sweeping Bokukō through the air. The black tide surged again, wrapping around Tenken's massive blade and eating into it as wisps of blue smoke curled upward.
Sajin Komamura's arm jerked. Tenken shuddered, and a crushing wave of Reiatsu burst out, blasting the spirit ink away as the giant blade swung toward Muten Natsu.
Shadows rippled. Muten Natsu flickered and vanished from where he stood, evading the slash and sending ink blades flying in response.
Sajin Komamura's senses snapped onto Muten Natsu's position. He swept his sword sideways, and Tenken's enormous edge skimmed along the ground, turning an area dozens of meters wide into a killing zone. With the blade pressed so low, Muten Natsu had no room to use Shadow Stealth.
Ink blades shot straight into the sky. Muten Natsu left the ground and emerged from among them, and before he could even land, he had already flung out several more ink blades in a scattered, chaotic spread.
Behind his mask, Sajin Komamura's eyes tracked each one.
Muten Natsu burst from a single blade, stamping forward as Myōki tore out a razor-bright arc of steel.
Sajin Komamura was enormous, but his response was immediate. He swung down in a diagonal cut.
Steel rang. Ink splattered outward in a spreading stain.
The ground under Sajin Komamura's feet cracked and crumbled. The blade, stopped for only an instant by the ink, surged again with renewed force and tore through the black smear.
But there was no Muten Natsu behind it.
He appeared at Sajin Komamura's back, striking the moment Komamura's strength dipped, and triggered Spirit Ink Flash.
Muten Natsu broke free of the spirit ink and closed in at speed. Sajin Komamura roared and met him head-on with his left arm.
His Shihakushō sleeve burst apart. Myōki drove deep into the armor on his left arm.
Ignoring the wound, Sajin Komamura twisted, using the gash in his armor to trap Myōki in place. With Tenken clenched tight, he thrust forward.
At that moment, Myōki's inner curve showed its weakness. If it had been the outer edge, it could have slid through and cut cleanly—but the inner curve naturally locked in. Once Sajin Komamura pinned it, it became even harder to break free. The more Muten Natsu tried to wrench it out, the tighter and deeper it locked.
Muten Natsu released the hilt and spun with the motion. Bokukō struck the handle, knocking Myōki loose from the armor. Myōki spun upward, trailing thick spirit ink as it danced through the air.
Using the link between the strands of spirit ink, Muten Natsu activated Shadow Stealth. In an instant he appeared in midair, dodging Tenken's follow-up and reaching out to catch Myōki.
"Muten seems to have the upper hand," Ririn said as she watched from afar. "Looks like he can win!"
Ink blades whirled in a storm. Muten Natsu's figure flickered around Sajin Komamura, weaving up and down. Spirit Ink Flash and Myōki Flash alternated in rapid succession, layered with Shadow Stealth's high-speed movement. He moved like a ghost, as if several Muten Natsus were striking at once from angles Sajin Komamura could barely answer.
Sajin Komamura looked like a trapped beast in a black cage, forced to endure the ambushes. Every heavy counterstrike he threw carved through empty air.
"Quite the opposite," Tetsuzaemon Iba corrected. "The one at a disadvantage is Muten Natsu."
Ririn didn't buy it. "Muten's hit your captain plenty of times. Your captain hasn't even touched him."
"He can hit the captain a hundred times," Tetsuzaemon Iba reminded her, "but the captain only needs to land one blow on him. Aside from that first exchange, when he forced himself to take the captain's strike head-on, Muten Natsu hasn't faced the captain directly again."
The reason was simple. After taking it once, he realized the gap in power was too wide. A casual strike from the captain demanded everything he had just to withstand it. As long as he could dodge, there was no need to block head-on. The cost was too high for too little gain.
"The captain has taken some injuries, but Muten Natsu is burning through stamina far faster. That kind of speed and pressure takes energy to maintain, and his movements have already started to slow," Tetsuzaemon Iba said. "Meanwhile, the captain's been countering with the smallest motions possible, conserving strength and avoiding vital spots. What he's taken so far are only superficial wounds. And most importantly... the captain has already figured out his pattern."
Muten Natsu emerged from an ink blade, and before he could even launch his next attack, Sajin Komamura's sword was already coming down.
Ink spread like a stain, stopping Sajin Komamura's strike. As Sajin Komamura pressed harder, Muten Natsu also poured spirit ink into the Ink Fortress.
The shattered ink burst apart into a storm of flying ink blades, and Muten Natsu vanished along with them.
He reappeared from within another blade—only to see Sajin Komamura's sword thrusting straight at his shoulder.
From sweeping slashes to direct thrusts, the shift in technique made one thing clear: Sajin Komamura's grasp of Muten Natsu's position was becoming more precise by the second.
This time it was his shoulder.
Next time, it would be his heart.
As the fight dragged on, the gap in experience was starting to show.
Muten Natsu responded with offense instead of defense. Ink Fortress Flash and Spirit Ink Flash triggered back to back. Myōki accelerated twice in succession, slicing through Sajin Komamura's shoulder armor.
Sajin Komamura blocked Myōki with his blade, then grabbed the shattered shoulder plate and hurled it straight at Muten Natsu's face.
Muten Natsu dodged again and unleashed another flurry of ink blades.
"Muten Natsu's movements are starting to repeat," Tetsuzaemon Iba said sharply, catching the shift in momentum. "From here on, his attacks will grow more cautious. But the more cautious he becomes, the easier he'll be to read. And then... the captain will finish him in a single strike."
Ririn's voice trembled with worry.
"Muten..."
Orihime Inoue stared at the battlefield, murmuring almost absentmindedly.
"Left."
Muten Natsu appeared at Sajin Komamura's left side, twisting in as he closed the distance.
"Upper right," Orihime whispered, her eyes flickering.
The previous attack was blocked. Muten Natsu used an ink blade to reposition, emerging at Sajin Komamura's upper right and striking again.
This time, there was no hesitation in Orihime's voice.
"Behind."
The strike was stopped again. Muten Natsu flashed to Sajin Komamura's back, swinging Bokukō to scatter spirit ink.
A trace of unconcealed excitement crept into Orihime's tone.
"Front, slightly to the right."
When Muten Natsu appeared exactly where she said he would, Tetsuzaemon Iba stared in disbelief.
"You can predict his position too?"
Even he, watching carefully from the sidelines, couldn't determine where Muten Natsu would emerge next. Yet Orihime Inoue, a young girl who clearly wasn't a fighter, was pinpointing his movements with perfect accuracy.
"Because Orihime understands Muten!" Ririn huffed. "That's the bond between comrades!"
"Well, not entirely..." Orihime laughed softly. "I'm just judging by the ink marks. If I'm right, the one who'll be taken down in a single strike next... won't be Muten."
"Ink marks..." Tetsuzaemon Iba's expression changed.
During the battle, everything around Sajin Komamura had already been stained black with spirit ink.
Muten Natsu hadn't been repeating useless attacks.
He had been preparing.
When the final patch of ground was covered in spirit ink, Muten Natsu's eyes snapped open. He stomped down hard.
"Preparation complete!"
In the next instant, powerful Reiatsu surged into the spirit ink. The ink stirred violently, and thick black mist rose up, completely engulfing Sajin Komamura.
"Black mist to block my sight..." Sajin Komamura shook his head. "It resembles a friend's ability of mine, but it's far inferior."
He swept his blade sideways.
"I can still hear you. I can still sense your Reiatsu!"
The black mist split apart under his strike—only to gather again in the very next moment.
Sajin Komamura clearly felt Muten Natsu's Reiatsu rising steadily.
"So it's not to hide yourself... but to move within the mist using Shadow Stealth?"
The mist grew denser and denser. Sajin Komamura attacked repeatedly, yet every burst of Reiatsu he released disappeared as if swallowed by the sea.
The black mist devoured spirit essence. Combined with the corrosive properties of the spirit ink, it rendered Sajin Komamura's attacks formless and ineffective.
Within the mist, Muten Natsu drifted like a wandering specter. His Twin Blades trembled in his hands as terrifying power gathered without pause.
With the aid of Shadow Stealth, he was able to build momentum while moving—channeling the power of a Battojutsu draw to its limit.
Sajin Komamura leapt high into the air.
The black mist rose with him.
"Still able to move..." Sajin Komamura landed heavily on the ground. "Then let's try it."
He stopped wasting Reiatsu trying to disperse the black mist. Instead, he calmly gripped his Zanpakutō, reining in his Reiatsu and waiting for the moment to unleash it.
The black mist churned and compressed, gradually taking on the luster of black jade.
The pressure of the concentrated Reiatsu became almost tangible, forcing Sajin Komamura's breathing to grow heavy.
The fog-like, jade-like mass lasted only an instant. The next moment, the black mist began shrinking at astonishing speed.
Sajin Komamura fixed his gaze straight ahead. The mist was collapsing toward a single point in midair.
That was where Muten Natsu was.
But this was not the right moment to strike. From long experience, Sajin Komamura knew that if he attacked too soon and failed to hit Muten Natsu, he would be forced to face the full force of a fully committed Battojutsu at a disadvantage.
He leveled the tip of his blade at the air and waited for the exact instant the mist finished contracting.
The speed of its collapse exceeded even his expectations. In the blink of an eye, the dense black mist shrank into a single point.
Darkness vanished, replaced by blinding sunlight. The sudden glare pierced Sajin Komamura's eyes, and he instinctively narrowed them.
At that exact moment, Muten Natsu attacked.
Within the brilliant flash, a slender black line tore through the air—spirit ink compressed to its absolute limit—cutting straight through Sajin Komamura's blurred field of vision.
Yet in the instant he squinted, his body reacted on reflex. The massive Tenken manifested and intercepted the fine black thread.
Muten Natsu's long-prepared strike—his fully charged draw—was blocked by the sheer bulk of the giant blade hanging in the air.
Fortunately, he wielded two swords.
Bokukō was stopped, but Muten Natsu reversed his grip and swung Myōki.
A sharp flash broke free from the spirit ink, carrying the shrill echo from Bokukō's earlier swing. Sparks burst across Tenken's enormous surface as the accumulated force erupted, tearing through the air as it fell.
Twin Blades Reverse Shadow Flash!
For an instant, the air went still.
Then came the roar.
Behind Sajin Komamura, the already ravaged ground split apart in a massive fissure. The howling shockwave tore fractured buildings into pieces.
The crash of crumbling stone mingled with the scream of the wind, forming a chaotic wave that rolled outward. Amid the swirling dust, drops of blood fell.
Clack... clack...
The faint cracking continued.
As the dust slowly settled, the armor on Sajin Komamura's left arm shattered completely and fell away, stained with blood.
More than that—the helmet that had always concealed his face began to split.
Fine cracks spread across its surface, crossing and branching, their subtle sounds merging into a prelude of collapse. Sajin Komamura's massive frame swayed slightly.
Then the helmet broke apart and fell in fragments.
Muten Natsu stared in disbelief, even forgetting to press the attack.
He had never imagined what lay beneath that helmet.
Without it, Sajin Komamura's voice was no longer muffled.
"You seem surprised..."
"I really didn't expect this..." Muten Natsu took a deep breath, forcing down the shock rising in his chest. "You're actually this cute under the mask?"
Beneath the helmet, Sajin Komamura's face was covered in brownish-yellow fur. Fluffy triangular ears, their tips slightly rounded with patches of black, twitched faintly. Below a wet black nose, white fur framed his mouth, with whiskers extending outward.
In short—
A remarkably handsome dog's head.
It even looked like an Akita dog.
Sajin Komamura's brown eyes gazed down at him coldly.
"There is no need to provoke this old man with such words. Now that I have seen the power of your technique, I will give my all. I will not allow you to continue acting as you please."
"Yeah, now's not really the time for compliments. Shame we never talked more before." Muten Natsu steadied himself and shifted into stance. "If we happen to meet again after this fight... would you let me rub your ears?"
"This will be our final meeting."
Sajin Komamura raised his Zanpakutō.
"Bankai—Kokujō Tengen Myō'ō!"
A massive armored hand descended from the sky and pressed down beside Sajin Komamura. Even its smallest finger was thicker than his entire arm.
Behind him, a gigantic black-armored warrior materialized, blotting out the sunlight and casting a deep shadow. Its enormous frame was wrapped in heavy black armor. The lower half of its face was covered with a crimson cloth, and thick black ropes were bound across its back.
The already modest buildings around them now looked like children's blocks beneath its towering presence. Kokujō Tengen Myō'ō loomed high enough to obscure the sky, radiating an overwhelming pressure that chilled the bones.
Muten Natsu couldn't even see its full form at a glance.
Kokujō Tengen Myō'ō mirrored Sajin Komamura's motion and raised its colossal blade before bringing it down.
Before the blade even reached him, the violent wind it generated sent debris flying like dust. The crushing blade pressure felt almost solid, gouging even deeper trenches into the already ruined ground.
This was true devastation.
The terrifying range left no room to retreat, nowhere to dodge. A heavy sense of helplessness welled up from the depths of the heart.
This was the power of Bankai.
A force so overwhelming it inspired despair.
Faced with such a crisis, Muten Natsu had only one choice.
"Bankai..."