Chapter 107: Elemental Zanpakuto, Karmic Fire
Everything went quiet.
A reversal that sudden and complete demanded every scrap of attention.
And in the moment the blood flew, one figure almost surged forward.
Soifon.
But she was held in place.
Kishinoshin, as if he had seen it coming, had her shoulder in both hands, eyes wide, voice low and fierce.
"Get it together, Soifon. Do you know where you are right now?"
She came back to herself, slightly. She looked around. Her expression drifted for a moment, and then she dropped her head.
"I—"
She couldn't get the words out.
Because two tear tracks had already crossed her face, falling onto the front of her operational clothes.
It wasn't supposed to go like this.
He had been absolutely confident. The fight had been developing exactly as it should. But why, at the end, had it reversed without warning into this? An outcome nobody had seen coming?
Red blood flying. Matsushita Yusuke's figure hitting the ground. The image was imprinted somewhere that Soifon couldn't reach in and remove.
So many things she hadn't said. So many things she'd wanted to do together with him.
No chance for any of it now.
The images still vivid, still burning in her memory, while reality had gone cold. Like paint that had faded from a canvas, rendering everything in flat black and white.
If only.
Maybe she shouldn't have been so forceful all the time. Could have tried being softer. Could have learned to—
The thought hadn't finished forming when a sharp voice from nearby cut straight through it.
"Stay calm, Soifon."
Not Kishinoshin's voice.
Soifon looked up blankly and found Yoruichi already standing beside her.
"Captain Yoruichi—"
"Now that's something I never expected to see. Even a woman like you cries? Remarkable."
Being mocked. Under normal circumstances she would have immediately explained herself and addressed the situation.
Now:
Soifon covered her face with both hands and sobbed.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry—"
No face for it. No heart for it. None of the dignified behavior she normally wouldn't have abandoned.
"It's all right."
Yoruichi stepped forward and pulled her in.
"This is how you're supposed to be. Soifon, I like this version of you more."
She added:
"It's not over yet. Don't just believe what your eyes are showing you. I taught you that, didn't I?"
Soifon looked up blankly toward the center of the arena.
She watched Matsushita Yusuke's figure lying on the ground crumble, like something weathered past its limit, scattering in the wind.
Kijishi stood in place. The flesh of his face was beginning to heal. He looked left and right, and his expression carried something very obvious.
Panic.
"Where are you?! Come out!"
If this was a performance, it was too convincing.
And the fact was: Matsushita Yusuke's reiatsu had never dispersed.
Soifon registered that at the same moment, and her eyes went wide.
Not over yet?
Then... "Where is he right now?"
"I genuinely have no idea."
As one of the four great noble houses, current head of the Shihoin family.
Standing in front of this person who had arrived from nowhere, that was the announcement she was making: I don't know either.
"Though I don't know, Soifon: isn't this exactly what makes it worth watching?"
In terms of someone who was worth anticipating:
"That boyfriend of yours is genuinely gifted."
Whoosh.
In the arena, a tiny, unremarkable flicker of fire appeared.
Like a spark on canvas, soundless, but carrying a heat that had no right to belong to something so small.
In an instant, it burned through everything in its way and lit the rest of it—
Everything.
"As karma turns, purify all cause and effect."
A quiet voice, and power arrived.
Elemental-type Zanpakuto: Release.
Matsushita Yusuke's figure appeared through the fire, gradually, becoming clear as he walked forward. Expression serious, steps measured, like someone arriving from somewhere much further away than the other side of the flames. He separated from the light and set his feet back on solid ground.
Kijishi Kenpachi stared at the person standing in front of him.
His mental state had arrived somewhere past shock, into something that didn't have a name.
This was embarrassing to admit, even internally.
He was the captain. And somehow he was the one who felt like the challenger.
Why could this brat be like one of those impossibly cheap, badly-designed boss monsters? The kind where your HP locks the moment it hits a certain threshold, forces you to sit through a long unskippable cutscene, and then dumps you into a completely different phase with all-new mechanics. Everything you learned about the fight up to that point: useless. Start over from zero.
Kijishi gritted his teeth, roared, and reactivated his domain.
Whatever.
"It's just killing you one more time."
The accumulated pain was enough to bury all awareness, same as before. Just hold Matsushita Yusuke in place, then put the blade through his neck. In a fight that had stretched this long, the numbers were on his side.
He was certain enough of it that as the domain activated, his slash was already going out.
The blade passed through Matsushita Yusuke's body.
No resistance. No contact. The figure split in two like a paper cutout and dissolved.
No physical form.
Kijishi registered this, looked around, and his expression went to a full combat stance.
"What now?!"
"You're probably the type with a rich imagination."
Matsushita Yusuke's voice came from everywhere.
Kijishi couldn't place him. It was as if the voice had bypassed his ears and arrived somewhere inside his own head.
"Where are you! Get out here!"
No answer. The voice continued at its own pace.
"There's a concept in Buddhism: the interconnection of all things. Everything that exists is bound to everything else. And what draws people toward each other is emotion and desire."
What is he talking about?
"Come out!"
"Your thoughts are extremely crowded. Using this ability against you is almost too easy."
Snap.
A faint, barely audible sound.
As if a string had been plucked somewhere, Kijishi felt a sudden and inexplicable heat rising through his entire body.
"Wealth desire: wealth and possessions are things of the outside world. Those who cling to them cannot transcend."
Boom!!!
Brilliant flame erupted across his body. Like spontaneous combustion. Everyone watching reacted.
"Aaah!!!!"
Kijishi's screams didn't stop. And this was only the beginning.
"Lust: the senses that sink are without purpose. Those consumed by them cannot transcend."
Foom.
The flames transformed in a single breath. Blue, dim, quiet.
Kijishi stopped struggling. He stood frozen, trembling violently, as though the heat had inverted into something glacial.
"Desire for renown: hatred turned to enmity cannot be untangled. Those who carry it cannot transcend."
Pop-crack.
Kijishi's limbs began to break apart.
Both hands fell at once, hit the ground, shattered.
"Hunger: the appetite of tongue and palate has no end. Those who exhaust themselves on it cannot transcend."
Thud.
What remained of Kijishi fell to the ground and came apart.
As if something had hollowed out the interior long ago, it broke in an instant and became drifting ash, carried in every direction.
"There is one more desire. But for you, I think it's no longer needed."
The scattered ash moved with the wind, turning and coming together like something arranging itself, and from within it the outline of Matsushita Yusuke appeared.
He landed cleanly. The charred-red blade in his hand swung once.
Clank.
Elemental-type Zanpakuto: Karmic Fire.
"This time, I think it's over."
He looked toward the far edge.
Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni slowly closed his eyes.
In a voice unchanged through a thousand years, he said:
"Victor: Matsushita Yusuke."