Within Tsunayoshi's inner world, at Namimori Middle School, an ear-piercing sound of chains scraping came from the giant red cocoon. The Tenth and Byakuran exchanged a glance, then both chose to disappear.
The next scene could be left to Enma Kozato.
Layer after layer of red chains peeled away, revealing Tsunayoshi's form. Tsunayoshi opened his eyes and found that he had returned to Namimori Middle School.
"Thank you very much, little Tsunayoshi."
A voice he had never heard before came from behind him. Tsunayoshi turned around and saw a face that looked familiar.
"Enma Kozato?"
"So you really do know me. Thank you for what happened with Sin and Punishment," Enma Kozato said gently.
"Wasn't that a world you created? There's no need to thank me. That feels too distant," Tsunayoshi said.
"No matter how you look at it, you helped resolve one of my regrets. Simon and Vongola never needed to be enemies in the first place."
"As long as you're satisfied."
Tsunayoshi could not truly empathize with Enma Kozato's words. The Simon arc had only appeared to him as a story in a manga. He had merely glanced through it as a passerby, so that part of the plot had never stirred much emotion in him.
Enma Kozato was not embarrassed either. As someone inside Tsunayoshi's inner world, he knew what Tsunayoshi was thinking. As long as Tsunayoshi had made a choice beneficial to Simon within the illusion, he had passed the trial.
"I will now hand over the Quincy power that belongs to you."
Scarlet flames ignited around Enma Kozato. Just like the Tenth, a small flame burned on his forehead. A pair of metal thorn gauntlets covered his hands, and the backs of his hands bore patterns corresponding to the four-pointed star in his pupils.
Enma Kozato had ignited the Simon Ring corresponding to him. Its attribute was Earth, and its characteristic was gravity.
The flames burned brighter and brighter. Behind Enma Kozato, six more figures appeared. They were the members of the tenth generation of the Simon Family, as well as his closest companions.
The Swamp Guardian, Shitt-P.
The Stream Guardian, Kaoru Mizuno.
The Forest Guardian, Koyo Aoba.
The Mountain Guardian, Rauji Ooyama.
The Glacier Guardian, Adelheid Suzuki.
The Desert Guardian, Julie Katou.
Enma Kozato and his Guardians nodded to Tsunayoshi. Then the Simon Guardians pointed their rings toward the sky one after another.
The first power projected outward was the Glacier attribute.
After being frozen, the power of Glacier was incomparably hard. It transformed into a gun-like structure, mainly rectangular in shape, with a stock, grip, and various grooves.
Next came the power of Mountain. Piece after piece of crushed stone gathered at the front end of the rectangular body, forming a curved structure that overlapped and intersected with the power of Glacier.
Tsunayoshi gradually realized what it was.
It was a crossbow.
The hardened, frozen Glacier Flame formed the main body of the crossbow, while the Mountain Flame, which contained tremendous explosive force, created the bow arms.
The next scene further confirmed Tsunayoshi's guess. The Swamp Flame, which could ferment any object into a soft inorganic substance, turned into a thin string connecting both ends of the bow arms.
This was the bowstring.
Next came the Desert Flame. The Desert Flame, capable of refracting illusions of truth and falsehood within the desert, transformed into a cylindrical scope mounted behind the bow arms.
This was the sight.
With the power of the Desert Flame, an attack did not necessarily need to aim directly at the enemy.
Then the Stream Flame and Forest Flame shot out together. They intertwined high in the air and slowly descended onto the crossbow as a bolt.
The Forest Flame, with its sharp properties, formed the arrowhead. The Stream Flame, capable of piercing through mountains stretching for ten thousand li, became the shaft.
Their combination would be a weapon that could pierce anything.
"Little Tsunayoshi, haven't you always wondered why you couldn't properly form a Reishi bow?" Enma Kozato asked, then answered himself. "That is because a crossbow is the weapon most suited to you. It is also the equipment best able to gather the power of all seven of us together."
"Go and take it. From this moment on, your Quincy power is fully open to you. Your Schrift is E!"
As Enma Kozato finished speaking, a sphere floated from his ring toward the crossbow. When it reached the rear section of the crossbow, the sphere suddenly burst open and collapsed into a pitch-black hole. A powerful gravitational pull was instantly released.
The bowstring was drawn back.
The crossbow was loaded.
As the black hole settled into place, using the black hole's pull as the trigger mechanism, this mighty crossbow formed from the seven Flames of the Earth was officially complete.
Tsunayoshi stared somewhat blankly at the crossbow bolt high above him. There was no need to test it. He could already feel how terrifying this weapon was.
If that bolt struck someone, it would really, really hurt.
"What are you spacing out for? Haven't you wanted to awaken your Quincy power for a long time? Go take it. It belongs to you," Enma Kozato said with a smile.
Encouraged by Enma Kozato, Tsunayoshi nodded. Blue Reishi formed a track that rose toward the sky, and Tsunayoshi slid upward as easily as though he were wearing skates.
Looking at the crossbow so close before him, Tsunayoshi felt incomparably calm inside. He slowly extended his hand and gripped the handle of the crossbow.
The powers of seven different attributes spread from Tsunayoshi's palm into his body along the pathways of Blut Vene.
The next moment, Tsunayoshi's body was covered in dazzling, multicolored lines. His blood vessels were filled with the power of the seven Flames of the Earth.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. How flashy," Byakuran's figure appeared again.
"I'm sorry, Enma," the Tenth said.
He was referring to Sin and Punishment. He had not expected that incident to cause such great trouble for the Simon Family.
Enma Kozato gently shook his head.
"That isn't your fault. It was all something the old guys created. Besides, this is no longer the original world. All we need to do is support little Tsunayoshi properly."
"That's true," the Tenth replied with a smile.
Byakuran secretly curled his lip at the side.
He knew it. Once this damned Simon guy came out, he would be treated like an outsider and ignored. People said the Primos had something going on, but these two were not much better.
The infusion of Quincy power happened very quickly. While Tsunayoshi had been wrapped inside the giant cocoon, Enma Kozato had already laid the foundation for him.
When the final component of the crossbow vanished, Tsunayoshi had accepted all of his Quincy power. He opened his eyes, and a pattern matching Enma Kozato's appeared in his pupils.
However, Enma Kozato's eyes held a four-pointed star, while Tsunayoshi's eyes held a six-pointed star. This was the result of his body automatically adjusting according to his Quincy power.
"Congratulations, little Tsunayoshi," the Tenth said.
"I should be thanking the three of you for taking care of me," Tsunayoshi said very politely.
"Instead of wasting time giving thanks, you'd better hurry outside. You've really stolen the spotlight this time," Byakuran said with a sinister laugh.
"The outside world?"
Tsunayoshi had no time to apologize. He immediately wanted to leave his inner world.
At the same time, in the underground space, Tatsuki, who had been sitting beside Tsunayoshi, suddenly sensed something strange. The giant cocoon before her moved, as though something were about to break out of it.
Ichigo and the others naturally noticed the anomaly on Tatsuki's side as well. They all began walking over, but before they could ask anything, they saw Tatsuki spring up and rapidly retreat.
"Don't get so close! Move farther away!"
"Come on, Tatsuki. It's not like we're going to interrupt you two being all lovey-dovey," Ichigo complained speechlessly.
"My Fullbring is closely connected to Tsunayoshi. I can sense a massive power being born inside. Not just you—I can't stay close either!"
As she spoke, Tatsuki had already retreated near Ichigo and the others. She grabbed Orihime and ran even farther away.
"Wait, Tatsuki—"
Before Ichigo could finish, an enormous Reiatsu swept through the entire underground space in an instant.
By instinct, Ichigo and Uryū used Blut Vene at the same time and stood in front of Chad. Even so, they still could not avoid being pushed backward by that overwhelming power.
Just as Ichigo and Uryū were about to angrily scold Tsunayoshi for causing such a huge disturbance, the giant cocoon wrapped in red chains suddenly exploded.
A brilliant pillar of seven-colored light shot straight into the sky. The powerful Reiatsu could crush anything that tried to obstruct it.
Ichigo's mouth twitched. He wanted to comment, but did not know where to begin. They had already retreated to Tatsuki's side, which was the only reason they had not been swallowed up by the sudden burst of Reiatsu.
Tsunayoshi's Quincy power shot into the clouds just like that. It even tore through the newly established Sawada residence, ripping it apart from below, before finally stopping in the air above the Seireitei.
Seven different powers intertwined to form a giant hexagram, standing high above the Seireitei. Its dazzling radiance announced its existence to everyone.
If Tsunayoshi could see it, he would understand that this was the giant Quincy Cross that appeared when Quincies released their Vollständig.
Unlike the crosses of other Quincies, Tsunayoshi's Quincy Cross was in the shape of a hexagram. At each of the hexagram's six points were patterns representing Swamp, Stream, Forest, Mountain, Glacier, and Desert.
At the center of the hexagram was a sphere. Fine, intricate patterns covered its surface, symbolizing Tsunayoshi's Schrift: E — The Earth.
When the sphere rotated and transformed into a black hole, the power became dominated by the Earth Flame.
The giant Quincy Cross and the overwhelming Reiatsu instantly drew the attention of the entire Seireitei. This Reiatsu, which belonged neither to Shinigami nor Hollows, immediately reminded the captains of that previous captains' meeting.
"Have the Quincies invaded?" Suì-Fēng asked in surprise. Then she immediately reacted. "All members of the Onmitsukidō, disperse! Put the Seireitei under martial law!"
"Captain!"
In Squad Six, Renji, who had been arguing with Zabimaru, immediately found Byakuya.
"Let's go take a look," Byakuya said, moving at once.
Similar actions occurred throughout the Seireitei. However, only the captains began moving, while the other Shinigami maintained order in the Seireitei according to emergency plans.
"Head Captain Yamamoto!"
Even covered in wounds, Chōjirō Sasakibe still knelt on one knee, waiting for Yamamoto. For an event of this scale, there was no way Yamamoto would not appear.
Boom!
After smashing through several mountains in succession, Yamamoto appeared holding Ryūjin Jakka, which had returned to its Zanpakutō form. If the Quincies had invaded, he truly had no time left to have a heart-to-heart with his Zanpakutō.
Chōjirō Sasakibe was thinking the same thing. That was why he had taken down Gonryōmaru despite suffering wounds all over his body.
The two of them needed no words. After Yamamoto signaled with a glance, Sasakibe immediately followed in his footsteps.
"Honestly, not a single day is peaceful around here."
At the Squad Five barracks, Shinji looked toward the Quincy Cross from afar and complained. Getting along with Sakanade was already annoying enough, yet incidents kept happening in the Seireitei.
"Baldy, aren't you going to take a look?" Hiyori asked.
Shinji merely leaned against the doorframe, looking completely unmotivated.
"Look at what? Have you forgotten whose residence is in that direction?"
"Residence? You mean Sawada Tsunayoshi caused this?" Hiyori asked in surprise.
"Who else could it be?" Shinji said as though it were obvious.
Although Tsunayoshi had never displayed a Heilig Bogen, Shinji knew from the footwork he occasionally used that Tsunayoshi definitely possessed Quincy power.
And now, he had announced it to the whole world.
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