Chapter 106: The Way to Survive
The words left him.
Time seemed to stop.
Only for an instant, a brief gap that was over before the mind finished registering it.
Because in the next moment, the black sphere at Matsushita Yusuke's fingertips detonated completely.
Pitch-black light swallowed everything around it. The discharge drove in a dead-straight line, releasing a deep resonating hum that went through the skull and into the chest.
The sound alone, in the moment it hit, made weaker vice-captains like Kuna Mashiro visibly flinch.
"Urgh—"
More than a few of them were already lurching.
Kijishi managed a single roar of "Ah!"
And then pitch-black light covered him entirely.
His figure was swallowed whole. A shrill scream erupted from somewhere inside it. As the black light dissipated, scattered alongside it were pieces of flesh.
Even in full Bankai state, his reishi defenses had been completely unable to withstand this level of impact. Dissolved and torn apart in an instant.
His originally large figure, like a sculpture with chunks carved away, had arrived at the most literal possible definition of the word "wretched."
Almost no intact flesh remained. Even his awareness had gone hazy.
He staggered in place.
Then: a dull thud.
Both knees hit the ground.
Everyone watching registered it, and the act itself, in that moment, felt like a silent signal.
Two opponents who had been trying to destroy each other had reached a point where one of them could no longer resist.
Did that mean victory had been achieved?
"Predicted it would go this way, but didn't think it would end up looking quite like that—"
"More than that: what exactly happened just now?"
"That was a compressed mass of reiatsu, wasn't it? Not an explosion outward, but something that could be aimed in a direction?"
"This attack method has never been heard of before. Could this really be some high-level Hado that hasn't been published yet?"
A literal information gap.
Cero was not unfamiliar to the people gathered here. But many of them didn't know the specific formation or the full mechanics of how it triggered.
By comparison: Matsushita Yusuke, through his Hollow-side alt, had been able to observe and analyze Cero at close range.
The essence of Kido was arranging reishi into specific patterns and combinations.
Cero was essentially the same. Working from that principle, Yusuke experimented, and the results were better than expected.
He rapidly completed the process, came to a full understanding of Cero's complete operating mechanics, and went further: made improvements that fit his own system more precisely.
Because Shingonkai's reishi-utilization characteristic could take already-compressed reishi and drive it into even greater concentration.
Theoretically, Yusuke could use this to create something with a near-limitless mass. That remained theoretical; his current ability and environment couldn't support it. But the principles had accumulated into something real.
One full-power shot, nothing held back. The Reishi Flash at maximum output.
Kijishi's defenses evaporated. He was brought to the edge of death.
The outcome was settled. Slightly different from the expected scenario, but close enough. Fine.
Yusuke even had a strange sense of ease about it. Because Kijishi's demonstrated strength hadn't pushed him to his absolute limit.
He exhaled.
With Shingonkai released, the reishi flowing around him slowly disappeared. The light in his eyes faded.
"...ugh."
An involuntary sound.
Because the feeling of being emptied from the inside was genuinely unpleasant. Like a driver who's been hauling a full load all day and then the cargo's suddenly gone, one foot on the gas: why does it feel so light?
He adjusted quickly.
Can't embarrass myself right now. Need to stay on my feet.
Like the end of a boxing match: the loser is on the ground and can't be picked up. So if you're the one standing, you'd better be standing.
Matsushita Yusuke took a long slow breath, felt the air filling his lungs, distributing through his body.
His condition began to come back.
The outcome was settled.
Sasakibe Chojiro had watched every moment of it. He gave a slight nod and turned a look toward Matsushita Yusuke that carried unmistakable approval.
His regard for capable people was plain. Let alone someone this young, with a future this clearly defined.
He stepped forward a few paces, preparing to make the declaration.
"Wait."
An old, steady voice came from behind him and froze him completely.
Even Yusuke's expression shifted into something surprised.
Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni raised his head slightly and looked with calm eyes toward the distant figure across the ground.
His expression carried nothing. No light in the eyes. No outline of emotion to read.
"This contest has not yet concluded."
What nonsense is the old man talking about? Does he really think Kijishi in this state can keep fighting?
The thought had barely formed.
A deep hum entered his ears. Yusuke's eyebrow went up.
Earthquake?
No.
Because he could see the ground cracking.
And through the cracks, streaks of purple-red light were moving, like something vast lurking beneath the earth trying to roll upward and break through the surface above it.
Yusuke's eyes went wide.
Because he could feel Kijishi's reiatsu: directly beneath his feet?
No. Wrong.
Around him. Everywhere in the surrounding space?
He turned in surprise and found Kijishi staggering upright.
His flesh was scorched and ruined. From certain angles you could see the outlines of what was underneath.
Is that something that can still fight?
Reality answered immediately.
Kijishi raised the cleaver in his right hand.
Purple reiatsu surged and instantly enclosed the entire arena, surrounding Matsushita Yusuke from all sides.
"Tyrant, Suppression of the Eight Directions' ability is not attack specialization."
Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni said it calmly.
"Rather, it is a Zanpakuto that converts received attacks, continuously accumulates what it absorbs, and at the end constructs a special reiatsu domain."
Domain.
Before Yusuke could process that:
He was already inside it.
In an instant.
His eyes went wide. His body dropped to the ground without him deciding to.
Pain through every part of him, all at once. Drilling and bone-deep, total and consuming.
"Ah—"
Even getting a scream out took effort. Yusuke was drenched in sweat, trembling without being able to stop.
What... just happened?
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Footsteps approaching.
Kijishi's voice came in fragments.
"My ability. My domain. Forces you to share what I feel. Everything I went through: now you go through it at once."
Matsushita Yusuke raised his pale face slightly.
He could see Kijishi's mangled figure walking toward him.
His chest heaving in and out like broken bellows, maintaining the minimum heartbeat required to stay alive.
"I don't challenge the strong. Because I can't guarantee I'd survive it."
But.
"Against the weak, it's different."
Anything that couldn't kill him immediately: nourishment.
Kijishi hadn't been lying.
He was cautious. Careful. Greedy. Ruthless with himself in a way that wasn't common.
The Zanpakuto's appearance had been a front. The release name had been a front. All of it: window dressing in service of one purpose.
Kijishi Kenpachi's way of surviving was right there, in everything that had just been revealed.
"Give up. The hits I took, each one, takes me a while to come back from. But you: taking all of them at once—"
Speaking took effort. But victory was visible from where he stood, and that was the best painkiller available.
Kijishi was, in the most literal sense, feeling good.
"You have no ability to resist. You have already lost."
Exhale.
He raised the cleaver in his right hand.
Stripped of the extra spikes and growths, it revealed an extremely restrained black light. Like the dark and closed-off interior the man carried with him, the Zanpakuto's true face expressed itself without decoration.
"I'm truly happy, brat. I won't forget you."
"Because of you. I get to take back everything that's mine."
The blade fell.
Splurt.
Blood—
****
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