Byakuya Kuchiki sensed the Reiatsu within the Valley of Screams. After confirming that only the Hollow in the center of the area remained, he felt slightly more at ease and said to Senna, "Take care of yourself. Don't go near the center of the vortex."
"Understood." Senna nodded.
She had not intended to head to the very center either. If she wanted to separate the Valley of Screams, she had to begin from its edges.
"Let's move, Ichigo Kurosaki!" Byakuya said.
Then he and Ichigo activated their Bankai at the same time.
"Bankai!"
"Tensa Zangetsu!"
"Senbonzakura Kageyoshi!"
Their movements did not stop there.
Ichigo reached toward his face and dragged his hand down over it. A horned Hollow Mask appeared on his face. The combination of Shinigami and Hollow powers was still Ichigo's strongest state at present.
Byakuya did not release a sea of cherry blossoms. Instead, he gathered every petal around himself. Quantity produced a qualitative change, and the pink petals transformed into a pure, ultimate white. A pair of wings condensed from cherry blossoms appeared behind Byakuya, with a white halo at their center.
Shūkei: Hakuteiken.
Byakuya's final technique.
Both he and Ichigo knew very well that they had no time to test that Hollow's strength. From the very beginning, the two of them brought out their strongest attacks.
One black and one white, the two used Shunpo and turned into streaks of light, charging toward the center of the vortex.
After watching Byakuya's back disappear into the distance, Senna also began to move.
She took out the broken Mirokumaru and stabbed it into the ground. Then the earth began to twist strangely. The soil transformed into Blanks, repairing Mirokumaru completely.
Senna's true form was the Memory Rosary. Her Zanpakutō was not a true Zanpakutō, either, but a memory left behind by some Shinigami. As long as she had enough power, repairing Mirokumaru was simple for her.
Even outsiders like the Ryūdōji clan could use the power of the Blanks. As the Memory Rosary born from countless Blanks and memories, Senna's way of controlling the Blanks was an instinct engraved into her very body.
"Please stabilize the Valley of Screams for me. Once I make a full circuit along its edge, the Valley of Screams will be separated," Senna said respectfully to Tsunayoshi and Tōshirō.
Because of Ganryū's existence, the terrain within the Valley of Screams was constantly collapsing. That made it difficult for Senna to act.
"I understand. Be careful. Sit Upon the Frozen Heavens, Hyōrinmaru."
Tōshirō breathed out a gust of cold air. He drew his Zanpakutō and swung forcefully behind him. His Reiatsu condensed into a frosty path.
Compared to the unstable ground, this ice path was far more secure.
Senna understood Tōshirō's intention. After nodding to him, she stepped onto the ice path and quickly ran toward the edge of the Valley of Screams. Maple leaves fell onto the frost with each step she took.
They were the traces she left behind.
"I should start too. Shiro-chan, let's use this road as the dividing line. This side is mine."
Tsunayoshi casually pointed toward the left side where he stood. Tōshirō had no objection. After activating his Bankai, he flew toward the right edge.
The six-pointed star in Tsunayoshi's pupils shifted to the glacier attribute. Reishi molded into the form of glacier arm-blades. The characteristic of the Glacier Flames within the Earth attribute was freezing, making them perfect for handling the current situation.
Sliding rapidly on Reishi to the middle of the left side, Tsunayoshi had no intention of making a full trip along the edge. If he was going to freeze it, he would simply begin from the center.
Tsunayoshi crouched down and stabbed his arm-blades into the ground. Ice-blue flames rapidly poured into the earth along his arms. At the same time, a faint bloodline pattern flashed across his pupils.
With Tsunayoshi as the core, the ice began spreading in a fan shape toward the edge of the Valley of Screams. However, unlike Tōshirō's large-scale freezing, the ice spread outward in the shape of a branching tree diagram.
Viewed from above, the tree-like ice pattern looked somewhat similar to the markings that had flashed across Tsunayoshi's body.
Blut.
As his understanding of Quincy power deepened, Tsunayoshi was no longer simply using Glacier Flames. He had fused the ability of Blut into his Earth Flames.
The patterns spreading through the ice were not Blut Arterie, which strengthened attacks, but an imitation of the highly defensive Blut Vene created with Glacier Flames.
The ice formed after being frozen by Glacier Flames already possessed a diamond-like hardness. With the power of Blut Vene added on top of that, the ice Tsunayoshi created could be called extraordinarily solid.
Every area touched by the Glacier Flames stopped warping. Before long, the entire left half of the Valley of Screams had been completely frozen by Tsunayoshi.
Good news soon came from the right side of the Valley of Screams as well.
Tōshirō had already released his Bankai. As he sheathed his blade, the ground beneath his feet had all been freshly sealed in ice.
After obtaining its true form, Hyōrinmaru's power had become terrifying. Even Tōshirō himself could not maintain Bankai for long.
Now, the ice flowers on Daiguren Hyōrinmaru truly served as his countdown. Once he exceeded the duration marked by the ice flowers and continued using Bankai, Tōshirō himself would be frostbitten by Hyōrinmaru.
As for displaying Hyōrinmaru's true power after the ice flowers withered, as he had in the past, Tōshirō still had a long road ahead of him.
With the space of the Valley of Screams frozen, the Hollow transformed from Ganryū could no longer continue absorbing Blanks, and its body stopped growing.
Ichigo and Byakuya also arrived at the positions they had chosen in advance. They stood opposite one another, one on the Hollow's left and one on its right. Between them, the vaguely humanoid Hollow was the thing Ganryū had become.
Back when Ryūdōji Ganryū still possessed reason, the obsession he left behind was to keep devouring until he had consumed the entire Valley of Screams.
As a result, the main part of the Hollow he transformed into was an enormous mouth. Compared to that gaping maw, the rest of its torso and limbs were practically negligible.
Having lost the supply of Blanks, the giant-mouthed Hollow turned its attention to the two new sources of Reiatsu that had appeared beside it.
Left or right?
With what little rationality it had, it could not make a decision right away.
Ichigo and Byakuya were not about to give it a chance to react. The Reiatsu they had been gathering for some time was released at once.
"Getsuga Tenshō!"
"Shūkei: Hakuteiken!"
Black-red and pure white split the entire Valley of Screams with the Hollow as the dividing line.
The Hollow that had once been Ganryū did not even let out a scream before it was torn to pieces by the two waves of Reiatsu.
As the light gradually faded, Tsunayoshi and Tōshirō also arrived at the center of the Valley of Screams.
Tōshirō's strategy had been executed perfectly. Ryūdōji Ganryū had been eliminated swiftly in a decapitation strike.
The Ryūdōji clan's conspiracy had ultimately failed because they lacked the strength to carry it out. It had not even managed to stir up a wave before shattering like foam.
"That was… kind of easy?" Ichigo said uncertainly as he tore off his mask.
Having grown somewhat used to powerful opponents, he now felt a little unused to this.
Based on Ichigo's experience, a Hollow of Ganryū's strength would not even have required Byakuya to act. One Getsuga Tenshō from him should have been enough.
"He was never a particularly powerful opponent. The troublesome part was this Valley of Screams itself," Tsunayoshi agreed.
"I'll go see whether we need to carry out any additional separation tasks," Tōshirō said.
He was still somewhat uneasy about leaving the entire task of separating the Valley of Screams to Senna alone.
"I'll go with you."
Before Byakuya could finish speaking, two maple leaves drifted in front of him.
He focused his gaze and realized that, at some point, the entire Valley of Screams had become filled with falling maple leaves.
Senna had used her power to fill this frozen Valley of Screams with the deep colors of autumn.
Was it time for the curtain to fall?
For some reason, those words appeared in Byakuya's mind.
They had not known each other for long. So why did he feel sorrow for this girl he had only just met?
The wind began to blow.
It swept up the maple leaves, sending them dancing wildly through the Valley of Screams.
Tsunayoshi and Tōshirō's expressions changed at the same time. They sensed that the land they had frozen was disappearing.
The earth was transforming back into the Valley of Screams' most fundamental power: Blanks. Then the Blanks transformed into maple leaves and danced through the air.
For every leaf that fluttered, another inch of the Valley of Screams vanished.
Tōshirō quickly took out an instrument to measure the surrounding conditions. Strangely, the lines on the device were steadily declining, unlike when Ganryū was present, when they had plummeted like a roller coaster.
"The number of Blanks within the Valley of Screams is steadily disappearing, and its connection to the Soul Society and the World of the Living is weakening as well."
"At this rate, once the Valley of Screams severs its connection, it will vanish on its own and will not affect the safety of either world."
"Captain Hitsugaya, please evacuate from the Valley of Screams before the connection is severed."
Although Tōshirō could not fully understand the data, Urahara's voice came from the instrument at just the right time. According to Urahara's explanation, the Valley of Screams incident was already coming to an end
Tōshirō and the others could evacuate and complete the mission.
"I understand. Everyone, evacuate."
That was what Tōshirō said.
However, not a single person present moved, including Tōshirō himself.
They were all waiting.
Waiting for the person who had caused the Valley of Screams to change to return.
"Why are you all still standing there like idiots? I've already separated the Valley of Screams. It'll disappear soon, so you don't need to worry."
Surrounded by maple leaves, Senna descended from the sky with a bright smile.
"Hurry up and leave. You're not welcome here, and you shouldn't come back again."
Senna still wore a smile, with no trace of sadness on her face.
"The Valley of Screams' process no longer requires you to control it directly, right?" Tsunayoshi suddenly asked.
"That's right. I gave the Valley of Screams an order to self-destruct. It's like that thing you have in the World of the Living… automation! It'll end itself on its own. Impressive, right?"
Senna once again struck her victorious magical-girl pose.
"Do it, Byakuya. Even if it's only for the time she has left, don't waste it…"
Senna did not understand Tsunayoshi's sigh.
The next instant, she felt someone seize her by the waist. Her entire body was pulled upward toward the sky.
Tsunayoshi, Ichigo, and Tōshirō exchanged smiles, then followed the footsteps ahead of them and returned to the World of the Living through the sky of the Valley of Screams.
"You… What are you doing, Byakuya? Let go of me!"
That was what Senna said, but she did not struggle at all. Instead, she allowed Byakuya to carry her out of the Valley of Screams.
"I promised you that I would accompany you wherever you wished to go," Byakuya said, his tone still cold and indifferent.
Yet in Senna's ears, it sounded warm.
"But where can I even go? I'm just the Memory Rosary born from the Valley of Screams. The Valley of Screams is my…"
Byakuya did not continue listening to Senna's quiet, self-abandoning mutter.
He interrupted her domineeringly.
"We're going—to the Ferris wheel."
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