Chapter 187: The Old Man Doesn't Play Fair
The old man's figure blurred for a single instant, like a dropped frame in a film, and in an eyeblink he was already directly in front of Matsushita Yusuke.
"Fast..."
His brain barely had time for even that one thought.
The next moment, a fist the size of a cooking pot was already filling his field of vision, bearing down on his face.
Without question, a Hakuda technique.
Combined with a level of shunpo that closed the distance in an instant, leaving no time to react.
"...!!!"
Matsushita Yusuke's entire body broke out in cold sweat. He drove his foot into the ground hard and tried to throw himself backward.
Don't get this close to me!!!
Fast reaction, no question. Still half a beat slow.
Right hand on his blade, left fist clenched. Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni, expression completely flat, like a merciless guardian deity, simply threw a straight right punch.
Just a straight punch.
And yet it produced something like a sonic boom as it expanded outward.
The motion seemed unremarkable. But that single strike cut through space, slipped past Yusuke's defenses, and landed squarely on his chest without any deviation at all.
Fist connects. Thundering impact.
A sharp, tearing sound detonated in the air. Matsushita Yusuke had absolutely no room to resist. He let out a brief yelp, went spinning like a top, and was launched clean away.
His figure traveled several hundred meters, gouging a furrow through the ground as he went, and eventually came to rest on his side in the dirt in a position that clearly conveyed the outcome to anyone watching.
"..."
Not just the two figures observing from further away. Even Aizen Sosuke went momentarily still.
Wait.
That's... it?
Didn't he just step up with considerable energy and say "my turn"? How did he get punched across the field in one hit? Is this actually happening?
"Cough cough..."
Matsushita Yusuke pushed himself upright.
He wiped the blood seeping through the gaps in his mask, and though no one could see his expression, his voice carried what could only be called a tone of genuine appreciation.
"That is one hard fist."
A thousand years of power behind that one. There was genuinely no blocking it.
Also...
"I'd say as expected of the Captain-Commander, but that attack was truly something..."
No time to react, no room to respond. The key in a fight was always reading and seizing the moment.
The old man had clearly noticed that Yusuke's full attention was on his Zanpakuto and attacked from the left hand instead.
One punch broke the standoff and seized the high ground in an instant.
The gap in fundamental combat ability between them was visible to the naked eye.
If you could put the old man's base stats into numbers, those two disciplines would be at least 90.
No match at all. Being completely dominated.
He lowered his right hand and pressed the spot where the punch had landed. The flesh was like something boiling, throbbing in waves of aching heat, and to the touch it felt almost scalding.
So what were you supposed to say at a moment like this?
"Hey. Can we negotiate a settlement?"
Faced with Matsushita Yusuke's attempted "mercy plea," Yamamoto let out a faint, dismissive sound.
"If you are begging for mercy, why does your fighting spirit still show?"
He shifted his stance and shook off his outer robe, revealing a lean upper body crisscrossed with old scars and blade marks. Like a man who had walked a battlefield without end and come back every time, he radiated an intensity that made you look twice. He stepped forward half a step.
"You have more to show. Use it."
The words landed. The contained force coiling around him erupted with an audible crack. A visible current of light spilled outward from his entire body and cracked the ground beneath his feet.
BANG!!!
From anyone else, this would sound like boasting.
But this was the Captain-Commander of the Gotei 13. What had come before was, quite possibly, nothing more than loosening the joints.
Aizen Sosuke silently stepped back several paces.
Not out of fear. Purely because he understood: standing where he was, even without being targeted, he would be swept up in the collateral damage regardless.
Yamamoto's reiatsu was unlike anyone else's. It carried an unusually aggressive quality. Just sensing that boiling pressure at this proximity, Aizen Sosuke felt a faint, spreading burning sensation.
Like standing beside a rising sun.
If a bystander was already feeling that, what was Matsushita Yusuke, the actual target, experiencing?
He simply watched in silence as the Captain-Commander released his power and began settling into his true state. Then he opened his mouth slightly and let out a quiet, almost imperceptible sigh.
Honestly.
He had still been hoping to probe first.
The conventional wisdom: don't reveal your ceiling before the opponent reveals theirs. Show your hand first and you just look like you're running on empty.
But looking at the situation now, Matsushita Yusuke had no mental space left for that kind of thinking.
If he didn't bring out his real ability, if he didn't actively use something substantial, he was going to get finished.
No way around it.
If you wanted to win from behind, holding your cards was clearly not the winning play.
"Then I'll make my move first."
He breathed out. Held it.
Matsushita Yusuke drew his Zanpakuto.
Single-handed grip. His right hand turned, executing a light, smooth reverse-grip motion.
"Ban..."
Before the word finished.
BANG!!!
The ground where Yamamoto had been standing cratered abruptly.
The old man's figure vanished like a deleted frame, gone in an instant without a trace.
And in the next moment, that aged figure arced through the air in a long, clean line and drove straight down at Matsushita Yusuke.
Give you the time and opportunity to release your Zanpakuto?
Don't be ridiculous. This was an enemy, not a sparring match.
A thousand years of accumulated combat experience and instinct allowed Yamamoto to make the correct judgment in an instant.
Who said anything about playing fair? Facing an opponent like this, even an aged Captain-Commander would not leave any trace of mercy.
Another straight punch was incoming. And compared to the first, this one was sharper. More vicious.
The old man had been holding back the first one. Crafty old thing.
But that was exactly the point.
Because he was both formidable in combat and sharp in his thinking, the Captain-Commander's strength was exactly this alarming.
A battle demon from a thousand years ago. The one that even Yhwach had feared. A man who had once operated without restraint whatsoever. Right now, he was showing his most brutal and terrifying face.