"What's wrong? Not attacking? Are you waiting for my comrades to get further away before you make your move?"
Shigū Takeru flicked the blood from his blade, his eyes bright.
"No."
The Cax-clone's dog-like head and humanoid body, if it had a staff, would have looked like an Egyptian god of death.
But his appearance was secondary to the intelligence that shone in his eyes, an intelligence born of ages.
"I am pondering whether you are a fool, or wise."
"How so?"
"You correctly recognized my power, so you grouped your comrades together and stayed behind to tie me down. That, I understand. But your words... I find them very unsatisfying."
"You mean, 'I'll finish before you'?"
"Correct."
"I don't believe saying that makes me a fool."
Takeru was unconcerned.
Cax 2 laughed, his terrifying face twisting. His Reiatsu began to wrap around his body, near-physical. Gradually, his skin turned from white to a dark, metallic gray.
"—It only proves that you have abandoned all thought and resigned yourself to being a fool!"
The next instant, Cax 2 charged, shattering the air. He formed his claws into a hand-spear, aiming to pierce Takeru's skull, as if to savagely scoop out his brain for study.
Takeru stepped back, dodging the blow, but the resulting shockwave sent his slender frame flying. He was forced to flip several times in mid-air, creating footholds of Reishi, just to stabilize himself.
Cax 2's attack was relentless.
"Do you see? Do you feel it? From the moment you sighed about my 'improved defense,' you made a fatal error. You have no understanding of my limits, of my greatness—!"
Cax 2's stormy offense was punctuated by his sharp, verbal blades. It was clear even this was not his limit.
Takeru, however, perfectly utilized the techniques from the Academy to weave between the attacks.
CLANG!
The sharp sound of metal on metal rang out.
Seeing Takeru firmly block his arm-hammer, Cax 2 spoke with a tone that was half-mocking, half-praise. "But then again, to be able to match me in arm strength, you have reason to be proud."
Takeru was unmoved. Instead, he asked coolly, "Is this body the result of your metal-devouring ability?"
"Oh? You heard my conversation with that Shinigami? Then I really can't let any of you live."
"Before you worry about that, why don't you reflect on yourself?"
"Ha?" Cax 2 didn't understand.
"I'm saying..."
Takeru cut his sentence short, suddenly retracting his blade and spinning, slamming a whip-kick straight into Cax 2's abdomen and sending him crashing to the ground.
He then looked down at the Hollow in the dust and continued slowly:
"You gained a special form with high defense by devouring metal. On top of that, you devoured Zanpakutō to gain 'lives,' allowing you to cheat death and split into multiple bodies of equal strength. It all seems perfect."
"Which is why you got careless when Ōmaeda refused you. At such a close distance, with a clear risk of a counterattack, you didn't even enter this form."
"And that is why I, sneaking up behind you, was able to plunge my blade into your body."
"From that perspective, you are not wise."
"And a half-baked fool like you dares to mock me?"
"?!"
Anger flared in Cax 2's mind. Before he could speak, Takeru added fuel to the fire.
"Most importantly, I can feel it. You've lived for a very long time, yet you're not even a Vasto Lorde. And you claim you'll be the King of Hueco Mundo? Does Baraggan know you're this arrogant?"
"A mere brat... you know of Baraggan? That man is an impostor! The True King is another. And I am his inheritor!"
Cax 2's unexpectedly violent reaction gave Takeru pause.
"The 'True King'... you say?"
"Correct! A noble being who once had the Soul Society at his mercy! He is far more brilliant than that rotting fossil Baraggan! I came to the Soul Society to find his legacy, to inherit his will! Vasto Lorde? They can't stop me! The Seireitei can't stop me!"
"...Doesn't sound like he's talking about my 'Teacher.' In that case, it doesn't matter."
"What did you say?"
Cax 2 looked at Takeru, who seemed satisfied, as if he'd just gotten the key information he wanted. He finally realized he'd been tricked into talking.
Just as he was about to erupt in rage, Takeru raised his Zanpakutō, its tip pointed at the moon.
"—And let me correct one more thing."
"I have not, as you said, abandoned thought."
"I didn't ask my comrades to stay and help, simply because I am not careless, like you... and I am not... weak, like you."
"Your 'ability' you're so proud of, the 'strength' you constantly boast about... all your pride and power... they are worthless to me. Now, I will show you what... a ruler's power... truly looks like."
In that instant, Takeru's Reiatsu contracted, as if condensing into his 'Saketsu' (Soul-Chain). His entire body felt empty, save for a single point in his center, which blazed with the infinite light of a star. And as he quietly chanted the release command, an unbelievable change occurred.
"Eight-Phase Manifestation... Cendayami."
BOOM!
The condensed Reiatsu erupted like a supernova, instantly filling his body. The torrential flood of spirit particles was locked tight within his seemingly slender frame, not a single wisp escaping.
The high-density, high-concentration spiritual power ignited, pressurizing from within. Takeru became a being of light. Even his hair, flowing in the spiritual wind, seemed translucent, like spun glass.
The night sky had a new, man-made sun, creating the terrifying spectacle of two moons.
Cax 2 felt his body tremble.
No... it wasn't a feeling.
His body, the atmosphere, the ground—everything made of Reishi was groaning, unable to bear the weight of this new "celestial body."
Every particle of Reishi in Takeru's body was splitting... splitting... splitting... a chain reaction that seemed to have no end, multiplying to an astronomical scale.
This result was reflected in his Reiatsu.
In just seconds, his spiritual pressure had magnified a hundredfold!
Just by existing, his "Rei-haku" (Spiritual Pulse) was strong enough to kill any soul that came near. Even a Grand Hollow could not withstand this pressure.
If getting close meant death, what about an attack?
Cax 2 saw only a blindingly brilliant ray of light descend from the heavens. When he next became aware, his body from the chest down was gone. Not blown away—erased.
His special, high-defense form had been useless.
The ground beneath him was cleaved open, forming a canyon hundreds of meters long and so deep its bottom couldn't be seen. The edges were perfectly sheer, cut by an impossibly sharp object. The sight was visually stunning.
The aftershock spread out in visible ripples, uprooting and shredding swathes of the forest, leaving nothing behind larger than a finger.
"What... is... this...?"
Even high-speed regeneration couldn't save him.
His entire spiritual body was dissolving.
Cax 2 clearly felt his soul... melting.
"Just normal sword pressure," Takeru said, landing lightly, stirring only a few particles of dust.
His body was still glowing, but his Reiatsu had plummeted to rock bottom.
"Monster... No wonder those two brats were so jealous of you."
Cax 2, in his despair, couldn't help but laugh.
"But they really are fools... to think they could surpass you by using that thing."
Those two students... their disappearance wasn't 'without reason.' They must have come to Junrinan looking for 'that thing' and gotten caught.
Takeru wanted to ask what "that thing" was.
But Cax 2 had already expired.
He could only table the question for later.
"...That hurts a little. That guy wasn't wrong. It really does take an extraordinary mindset to control this power."
Takeru clenched his fist. He thought of the mushroom-woman's words and felt a new sense of agreement.
「Cendayami」.
—That was his Zanpakutō's true name.
Its ability: for eight seconds, it caused all the Reishi in his body to undergo a fission effect, amplifying his Reiatsu by tens or even hundreds of times.
It could be called "Reishi Fission."
Although it placed a massive burden on his body, to the point of "soul-suicide," the power he possessed for those eight seconds was terrifying.
A hundred times the Reiatsu of a Vice-Captain, focused into a single blow, could easily erase a powerful Adjuchas.
Whether he attacked or not, the state was forcibly canceled after eight seconds, after which he would fall into a weakened state.
It wasn't that he couldn't move, but the "hollow" feeling was real. He had no real combat power left.
All of his existing Reiatsu had been spent, as if his body had been drained of blood and was waiting to make more.
At his current level, it would take several hours to recover.
As he grew stronger, that time would increase.
And the destructive power was just too immense.
This Shikai was absolutely not suited for use around allies.
To have such an extreme power... at the Shikai stage...
Even Takeru found it baffling. Is my true nature really that extreme?
But, in any case, he had done what he promised.
"—The rest is up to you guys."
Takeru sat down cross-legged, gazing into the distance. The spiritual pressure from that battle was also intense. It was clearly reaching its climax. He just wondered if Cax 3, now on his last life, would have any new ideas.
Like... a strategic retreat.
-------
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