While the entire Visored group was mobilizing, Tsuna merely squatted calmly a short distance away, watching as Shinji and the others layered one Bakudō after another onto Kensei Muguruma.
At first, Tsuna's attitude naturally drew angry rebukes from them, but when he showed no sign of moving, they stopped wasting breath on him. Right now, Kensei was what mattered.
More and more white matter—the mark of Hollow power—surged out across Kensei's body, gradually swallowing up the few features that still marked him as himself. His fists transformed into white blades, the armor on his back bulged into pillar-like structures that gathered Hollow spiritual pressure, and even the trailing treads behind him were fully altered by Hollow power, turning completely white.
Violent spiritual pressure erupted from Kensei, accompanied by inhuman howls. The Bakudō binding him began to crack apart one by one.
Then a Hollow hole opened in his chest.
Kensei was becoming a Hollow.
"This is bad. Hachi!" Shinji shouted. Seeing the iron pillars pinning Kensei already beginning to shake, he hurriedly called for Hachigen Ushōda to reinforce the binding.
But they were too late.
The fully Hollowfied Kensei slammed a fist into the ground.
A massive explosion erupted.
It was the detonation force of Tekken Tachikaze. Kensei had turned the power of his Bankai onto the ground itself and blasted his way free.
When the smoke cleared, the creature before them was already so far gone that, apart from the half-formed mask on its head, it barely looked human anymore. The white matter was still spreading across Kensei's body. Once it consumed his head as well, Kensei would become a full Hollow.
"Damn it," Shinji muttered.
Were they really going to reach the point where they had to kill one of their own?
Unlike Shinji, who was still hesitating over whether to act, Tsuna made his move immediately.
He flashed in front of Hollowfied Kensei.
This was enough—if Kensei Hollowfied any further, Tsuna would end up as the one responsible for ruining him.
Tsuna threw a punch packed with force straight into Kensei's body—
and was startled to find that the blow didn't move Kensei at all.
Instead, Tsuna's own arm burst open with a wound.
He knew that kind of injury well.
It was the explosive power of Tekken Tachikaze.
Except now, Kensei no longer needed to land a direct punch to inject that force into an enemy's body.
Looking at the newly evolved Kensei before him, Tsuna found himself wondering—
Was this still Hollowfication?
The way the power of the blade had spread through and transformed the entire body…
It looked suspiciously similar to Resurrección.
"Get back, Sawada!" Shinji shouted. "This is past the point where you can interfere!"
Shinji had made his judgment the instant he saw Tsuna get hurt from a failed attack.
Right now, his only thought was to use Sakanade to stall Kensei and hope Kensei could hold on until Urahara arrived.
As for the idea of the Visored all joining forces and fighting Kensei head-on?
Shinji didn't believe any of them could withstand Kensei in this state.
As if to prove him right, Hollowfied Kensei threw a punch toward Tsuna. The force splitting from that strike tore the air apart itself, and the resulting detonation hit Tsuna even as he dodged.
Blood dripped from Tsuna's arm, but the Sun Flame quickly healed the wound.
At that moment, Tsuna became even more certain:
Tekken Tachikaze's power had evolved. Even the exploding force carried through the air itself could now injure him directly.
"Then I guess I have to do this," Shinji said, making up his mind. "Collapse—"
Before he could finish his release command, he felt a wave of eerie, cold spiritual pressure.
It had appeared so abruptly that it felt like falling from a warm winter sun straight into a polar ice cavern.
"Hollowfication? Please. Who can't do that?"
Shinji turned toward the arrogant voice and saw that half of Tsuna's face was now covered by a Hollow mask.
The instant the mask appeared, Tsuna's spiritual pressure changed—its Sun warmth gaining a distinct chill—while its overall intensity rose another level entirely.
Shinji understood at once.
So that was why Tsuna had kept provoking them to use Hollowfication.
There was only one explanation:
Tsuna himself already possessed Hollowfication.
And when Shinji combined that with the fact that Tsuna was now Hollowfying while still in Bankai—
he couldn't understand why the kid had come to trouble them in the first place.
Tsuna's command over Hollowfication had already surpassed theirs.
At the very least, no one in the Visored dared to attempt Hollowfication while Bankai was active.
With the mask on, Tsuna's spiritual pressure—like a cold sun—crashed down on Kensei with overwhelming force.
Stimulated by that pressure, Hollowfied Kensei brought both hands together. A mass of red spiritual pressure condensed between them.
It was the signature Hollow technique—
Cero.
Yellow flame burst from beneath Tsuna's feet. With the combined acceleration of his thrusters and Shunpo, he shot forward in a half-crouched posture and appeared directly in front of Kensei.
Half the flames on the bracelet around Tsuna's left arm had already started spinning, blazing like a miniature sun. And along the edge of the golden fist he raised from below, a trace of black had appeared.
Hollowfied Sun Rising Punch!
A violent burst of spiritual pressure shot out together with the punch and crashed fully into Kensei's mask.
Tsuna's fist slammed into Kensei's jaw.
The mask shattered on impact.
Kensei's original body burst out from the Hollow shell like a pilot ejecting from a machine, flipping headfirst toward the ground.
Love Aikawa, dressed in his tracksuit, reacted instantly. Using Shunpo, he reached the point where Kensei was falling and caught him before he could slam into the ground and suffer even more damage.
Looking at Kensei's rolled-back eyes, Love gave him a quick check using his experience.
"He seems okay. Just unconscious."
The injuries Kensei had suffered from Tsuna earlier had already been repaired through the Hollow's High-Speed Regeneration. There was no visible damage left on his body.
Once the Visored heard that Kensei was alright, they all relaxed considerably.
Shinji also stepped over to Tsuna, his expression complicated.
It was hard to put into words.
Kensei's Hollowfication had indeed been triggered because of Tsuna—
but at the same time, Tsuna was also the one who had saved him.
"…Thanks, Sawada," Shinji said, visibly unwilling.
Tsuna ignored Shinji completely.
Instead, standing in the air on condensed spirit particles, he stared at the monstrous Hollow shell Kensei had left behind, clearly searching for something.
Very soon, he found it.
At the opening where Kensei had burst out, a sword in the form of an Asauchi was embedded in the shell. Kensei himself had already reverted and no longer looked like he was in Bankai, so Tsuna guessed that the power of Kensei's Zanpakutō must still be left here.
He reached out and pulled the blade free.
The instant the sword came out, the Hollow shell collapsed and dissolved into countless spiritual particles.
Tsuna released his Bankai and carefully examined Kensei's Zanpakutō in his hand.
As expected—
he could sense the "flavor" of Hollow power inside it.
How could he confirm that for certain?
A faint intuition told him only one thing:
Only a Zanpakutō could truly understand another Zanpakutō.
Without hesitation, Tsuna slammed his own black blade against Kensei's Asauchi.
The collision made both swords tremble. Resonance spread between them, and two images appeared in Tsuna's mind:
A white monster—
and an overbearing boxer.
That should be the power inside Kensei's Zanpakutō.
The white monster strongly resembled Kensei's Hollowfied form, so that was clearly the Hollow side. The boxer, meanwhile, was obviously Kensei's Soul Reaper power wielding Tekken Tachikaze.
In other words—
this was a Zanpakutō that possessed both Bankai and Resurrección-type power.
The reason it had performed so poorly in battle was simple:
Kensei just wasn't good enough.
"…Interesting," Tsuna said.
"What?" Shinji asked, utterly confused. Was the kid trying to break Kensei's Zanpakutō with all this sword-clashing?
Tsuna's eyes flicked sideways. Then, without warning, he slashed at Shinji.
Shinji's captain-level instincts kicked in. Though the sudden attack startled him, he still reacted in time, using the unreleased Sakanade to block Tsuna's blow.
"Kid, what the hell are you doing?" Shinji demanded.
Tsuna didn't continue the attack. Instead, he sheathed his own sword and handed Kensei's blade to Shinji.
"Take a closer look. It has the scent of a Hollow on it."
"What nonsense?" Shinji didn't believe a word of it at first. If anyone should know whether a Zanpakutō contained Hollow power, it should be him.
For the past hundred years, every time the Visored had Hollowfied, they had drawn that power directly from inside themselves. Did Tsuna think that dramatic mask gesture was just for show?
…But no.
The moment Shinji took the sword, he felt something was wrong.
Just as he liked to think of himself as someone who knew Hollowfication well, he could also feel something off about the blade in his hand.
Something like—
Hollow power.
Without another word, Shinji swept a hand across his own face.
A Hollow mask shaped like an ancient warrior's face with a grotesque grin appeared.
Using the power of Hollowfication to sharpen his perception, he could indeed sense a trace of the same kind of power within Kensei's Asauchi.
Seeing the change in Shinji's expression, Tsuna explained:
"I used my own Zanpakutō as a medium and sensed both Soul Reaper and Hollow power inside that blade. By contrast, I couldn't detect anything strange at all from yours."
"That's obvious. Zanpakutō belong only to Soul Reap—"
Shinji stopped mid-sentence.
If Zanpakutō could only contain Soul Reaper power, then what exactly was Kensei's sword?
"Of course it isn't true that only Soul Reapers can have Zanpakutō," Tsuna said. "Otherwise what do you think I came here for?"
He drew his white blade.
Shinji's pupils widened.
He didn't even need to examine it closely.
The instant the white sword left its sheath, the dense Hollow power surrounding it became unmistakable.
So the Hollowfication Tsuna used—
did it come from this white blade?
Once he saw that Shinji understood, Tsuna sheathed it again and returned to his ordinary clothes.
Meanwhile, his mind began rapidly sorting through the details of Shinji and Kensei's situations.
From the way Shinji spoke, the Visored's Zanpakutō originally should not contain Hollow power at all.
So why had Kensei's Zanpakutō changed?
There was only one possible answer.
The one variable that didn't exist in the original story—
was Sawada Tsunayoshi himself.
====================
Extra Chapters Available on Patreon!
> patreon(.)com/Spiral_Zero