"Fūjin Taichi, you bastard…" Soi Fon raised her hand and wiped the blood from her cheeks, her voice icy. "How long do you plan to keep humiliating me like this?!"
"Sorry… my gums have been inflamed lately. Didn't mean to splatter blood all over your face," Fūjin Taichi replied apologetically.
"Enough. Let that moment just now be the final highlight of your life. Now then... Kazaguruma (Windmill)!"
The instant her words fell, Soi Fon had already closed in at Taichi's side. Using the momentum of a spinning descent in midair, she unleashed a fierce kick at him.
"I've told you, girls shouldn't go throwing their legs around so wide... you're going to flash someone—aaaugh!!!" Taichi leaned his body backward, forcibly twisting around. With a sweep of his left hand across his chest, a cross-shaped spatial rift suddenly appeared before Soi Fon.
"What?! That's—"
Seeing herself about to fall into the black cross-shaped void, Soi Fon forcibly twisted her body midair, preparing to use Shunpo to escape—
"Whoosh!"
Taichi had already appeared behind her. Raising his leg, he kicked her hard in the backside and shouted, "Get in there!"
Thwack!
Caught off guard, Soi Fon was sent flying into the cross-shaped spatial tunnel. In an instant, the space sealed shut and she vanished without a trace.
"The one who tied the bell must untie it… Soi Fon, I can't cure your tsundere syndrome—whoa, what the hell?!" Before Taichi could finish, he hurriedly raised his Zanpakutō—Kyūjūkyū—across his side.
"Clang!"
Kaname Tōsen had struck down hard with his blade.
"Boom!"
Another surge of blue spiritual pressure exploded outward like rolling clouds. The entire Seireitei seemed to tremble under the force emanating from Sōkyoku Hill.
"Tōsen, you really are shameless," Taichi mocked after pulling away slightly. "The dignified Captain of the Ninth Division resorting to sneak attacks against a mere vice-captain… you've truly fallen."
"I see… your Shunpo and swordsmanship have indeed reached a level comparable to a captain. Is that the source of your arrogance before me?"
Holding his Zanpakutō in reverse grip, Tōsen spoke deliberately.
"Then let me show you the true gap between you and a captain. Bankai: Suzumushi Tsuishiki: Enma Kōrogi (Cricket Final Form: Devil Cricket)!"
Voom!
Spiritual pressure burst from Tōsen's blade and instantly formed a massive oval-shaped dome of darkness, completely enveloping both him and Taichi.
From the outside, it looked as though a giant black lantern had been placed atop Sōkyoku Hill, eight steel chains anchoring its walls firmly into the ground.
According to Bleach lore, within Tōsen's Bankai, anyone inside the barrier—except for the one touching Suzumushi's hilt—loses their hearing, sight, smell, and even their ability to sense spiritual pressure. Only the sense of touch remains, leaving them helpless to be slaughtered by Tōsen.
Taichi vaguely remembered this as well. The moment Tōsen activated his Bankai, he held his blade horizontally before his chest, gripping its tip with his left hand and chanted:
"With the sword in my heart, I listen to the wind's hum— Bankai: Blade-Master Wind-God—Twenty-Four Celestial Kings!"
However, after Taichi released his blade, neither his Shihakushō nor his Zanpakutō showed any noticeable external change. The only visible difference was that his blue-green pupils shifted into a blue-violet hue.
"Idiot! You dare call that 'Bankai'?" Tōsen's senses within the dome were heightened tenfold, allowing him to "see" Taichi's form clearly. "A Zanpakutō with no change in spiritual pressure, appearance, or form... and you call it Bankai?!"
Tōsen, usually stoic and humorless, was actually moved to angry laughter. His frame shook with the sound. "Stop joking. You... you who have repeatedly trampled upon the dignity of the Captains... perish beneath my Bankai!!"
"Then come and find out, Tōsen!!"
A cold glint shone in Taichi's eyes. Though he could neither see, hear, smell, nor sense spiritual pressure—
As long as he retained his sense of touch, he stood undefeated.
After all, his blade was called the "Wind God Blade." What it commanded was the intangible wind itself.
…
"What?! That spiritual pressure… are two captain-level fighters battling?!" Jūshirō Ukitake, who was traveling alongside Shunsui Kyōraku, suddenly stopped in his tracks and looked toward Sōkyoku Hill in astonishment.
"Oh? It seems Captain Komamura was right. That man really is still inside Seireitei… But the captain fighting him—is it Tōsen?"
Shunsui Kyōraku slightly lifted the brim of his straw hat and looked toward the black lantern-like barrier atop Sōkyoku Hil, speaking with hesitation.
"Shunsui, regardless of the reason! Taichi's act of defying his superior has already violated Seireitei regulations. I'm going to stop him!"
With that, Jūshirō Ukitake leapt forward, rushing toward Sōkyoku Hill.
"No… I think that's not what you should be focusing on," Kyōraku said as he hurried along, marveling. "A mere vice-captain possessing strength on par with a captain… however you look at it, that makes you, his former captain, seem rather negligent, doesn't it, Jūshirō?"
"It's too late to talk about that now!" Ukitake replied, his brows tightly furrowed. "I just hope I can stop Taichi before he commits a grave mistake. Otherwise… Genryūsai-sensei will never forgive him!"
"Don't be so pessimistic, Jūshirō," Kyōraku said, holding down his straw hat against the wind. "Old Man Yama isn't completely unreasonable…
But if things truly reach a point of no return—what will you do?"
"I… don't know," Ukitake answered softly after a moment of hesitation.
Indeed, standing against Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto was something Ukitake had never even dared to imagine. But if Fūjin Taichi truly committed the act of killing a captain, it would inevitably enrage Yamamoto into taking action personally—
When that time came, would he follow his heart and help Taichi oppose Yamamoto, or stand by and do nothing?
"Haha…" Kyōraku chuckled, then fell silent as the two of them continued toward Sōkyoku Hill.
…
Inside the First Division headquarters, Yamamoto sensed the eruption of spiritual pressure from Sōkyoku Hill the instant it occurred.
From the pressure alone, he could tell that two "captain-level" fighters were clashing there—
One was the Ninth Division captain, Kaname Tōsen, and the other was the dismissed former First Division vice-captain, Fūjin Taichi.
"Captain-Commander, the Onmitsukidō has already confirmed the criminal Fūjin Taichi's whereabouts. He is currently at—"
With white bandages wrapped around his head, Chōjirō Sasakibe knelt on one knee before Yamamoto, urgently reporting, but was cut off.
"Chōjirō!"
"Yes?"
"Immediately relay orders to all division captains to proceed to Sōkyoku Hill. No matter what, they are to apprehend the criminal Fūjin Taichi! Furthermore… I permit them to fully release their Zanpakutō!!"
"Yes, sir!"
Sasakibe extended his right palm forward and began to chant:
"Silken net of black and white! Twenty-two bridges, sixty-six crowning sash; footprints, distant thunder, pointed peaks, revolving grounds, nightly prostrations, sea of clouds, the pale ranks of troops, complete the grand circle and surpass the heavens.
Bakudō #77: Tenteikūra!!"
Instantly, strands of blue spiritual energy flew from his fingertips, weaving into a vast net of spiritual pressure that spread rapidly through the air. In mere moments, it was detected by Shinigami scattered throughout Seireitei.
"To all Captains and Vice-Captains: This is Chōjirō Sasakibe of the First Division. By order of Captain-Commander Genryūsai Yamamoto, you are commanded to proceed to Sōkyoku Hill immediately to purge the criminal Fūjin Taichi! You are authorized for full Zanpakutō release!!"
"!!!"
Aside from a few captains who could not be reached by Sasakibe's spiritual transmission, the remaining captains and vice-captains were all startled, their gazes turning toward the towering Sōkyoku Hill.
...
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