"We're screwed. We're actually screwed this time!"
Rukia stared at the Flame Prison barrier as cracks spread across its surface, her face draining of color.
Her heartbeat pounded so hard that she could almost feel it in her throat, while cold sweat gathered across her forehead as the pressure of Mitsuhiko's Conquest continued grinding Yamamoto's defense toward collapse.
"Teacher!"
She looked wildly across the battlefield.
"Where the hell are you?! Teacher!"
Her voice echoed across the ruined Seireitei, but no answer came.
For the first time since the fighting began, Rukia felt genuinely helpless.
Yamamoto was already running on fumes, the barrier protecting everyone was moments away from breaking, and once Mitsuhiko's power reached them directly, there was no telling how many Shinigami would lose themselves completely.
Then a dark figure appeared in front of Yamamoto.
No one saw him cross the distance.
Kazuma simply materialized there.
He raised his right hand and placed his palm against the failing barrier.
The cracks stopped spreading.
Then they began closing.
Within seconds, the Flame Prison had been restored to its original state, blazing brighter than before as Kazuma's power reinforced Yamamoto's exhausted defense.
Mitsuhiko snorted.
"So you finally decided to show yourself."
Kazuma had been the true target from the beginning.
Mitsuhiko and the other surviving founders had never come to Soul Society because they cared particularly much about Yamamoto, the Gotei 13, or anyone else standing between them.
Those people were obstacles.
Kazuma was the reason they were here.
The atmosphere across the battlefield changed the moment he appeared.
Kazuma lowered his hand.
"Hokushin Domain—open."
His reiatsu erupted.
The pressure did not spread like ordinary spiritual power. It rose with the weight of an imperial decree, and behind Kazuma the vast manifestation of the Hokushin Raitei slowly emerged.
His appearance transformed along with it.
A ceremonial imperial crown rested upon his head, its hanging ornaments and embedded jewels glittering beneath the stars.
A magnificent purple-and-gold imperial robe covered his body, its wide sleeves snapping violently in the stellar wind that had begun to circle him.
Dense imperial aura gathered around him until it seemed almost tangible.
The playful, irritating Captain-Commander who spent half his time drinking and provoking everyone around him disappeared beneath the manifestation.
What remained looked like an emperor standing at the center of heaven.
Kazuma raised his seal toward the sky.
"Stars of the heavens, heed my command."
His voice rolled outward.
"Solar Star. Lunar Star. Lend me your power."
The seal came down.
The sky above Soul Society changed instantly.
Stars appeared everywhere.
Not dozens.
Not hundreds.
The heavens seemed to fill with an endless celestial ocean, countless points of light burning across the darkness until the entire Seireitei lay beneath a brilliant map of the cosmos.
Stellar power descended in vast streams and poured into Kazuma.
"Hokushin Enclosure."
The first star of the Big Dipper ignited.
Big Dipper blazed with an intensity that drowned out the stars around it, and a pillar of stellar radiance descended from above like an enormous sword, punching through the spiritual atmosphere of Soul Society as it fell toward Mitsuhiko.
Kazuma was nowhere near finished.
He raised the Sword.
The remaining six stars answered one after another.
"Execute the demons."
The entire Seireitei shook.
Kazuma's spiritual power surged upward in great waves, connecting heaven and earth as the complete Big Dipper formation took shape above him.
For the first time since his arrival, Mitsuhiko looked genuinely alarmed.
Then the sky tore apart.
A deafening rupture split the sea of stars into three immense sections, each glowing with a different color.
The first burned crimson.
A red warhorse erupted from the light, its body wreathed in roaring flames.
Riding upon it was the Ise founder, long sword in hand, her presence carrying the unmistakable pressure of war and slaughter.
A second rift opened beside her.
The Kuchiki founder emerged wearing gray robes, mounted on an equally gray horse.
Then came the third.
The Shihōin founder, dressed in black and riding a black warhorse, crossed through the final tear in the heavens.
All three joined Mitsuhiko at once.
Four founders.
Four riders.
Their combined power rose against Kazuma's descending Big Dipper formation, and together they managed to stop the attack before it could crush Mitsuhiko alone.
The Kuchiki founder fixed Kazuma with a murderous stare.
"Kazuma."
His voice was colder than the air around him.
"You escaped us last time."
The grip on his weapon tightened.
"You will not be so fortunate again."
Kazuma stared at the four of them.
Then he laughed.
Not a restrained chuckle.
A full, shameless laugh that bent him forward at the waist.
"Hahahahaha!"
The Kuchiki founder's face darkened.
Kazuma wiped at the corner of one eye.
"You four?"
He looked them over as though they were a particularly entertaining joke.
"Did you already forget what happened in the chaotic space last time?"
His grin widened.
"You ran from me like beaten dogs."
The expressions of the founders stiffened.
"I chased all four of you across that place until you were practically tripping over yourselves trying to get away, and now you've come back acting like you're here to kill me?"
Kazuma shook his head.
"That's adorable."
The Kuchiki founder opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
His neck seemed to pull back slightly, and his face flushed dark with anger.
The worst part was that Kazuma wasn't inventing anything.
Their last confrontation in the chaotic space had gone terribly.
Even remembering the beating they had taken there was enough to make his expression twist.
Eventually, the Kuchiki founder forced himself to speak.
"Words are meaningless."
He had clearly realized that trying to defeat Kazuma in an argument was only going to make the situation worse.
His sword moved.
A sharp blade of energy tore across the battlefield toward Kazuma.
Kazuma did not even blink.
He slowly raised his Sword, pointing its tip directly toward the four founders.
Behind him, enormous celestial phantoms appeared one after another.
The Twenty-Eight Mansions.
Their forms stretched across the heavens, partially hidden among the stars, each radiating a vast and ancient pressure.
Kazuma's gaze moved across the four riders.
"The white horse governs Conquest."
He looked toward Mitsuhiko.
"The red horse governs War."
His eyes shifted to the Ise founder.
"The gray horse carries Famine."
Then toward the Shihōin founder.
"And the black horse bears Death."
The four founders' mounts suddenly reacted.
The Hokushin Raitei Star blazed overhead.
All four horses reared simultaneously, front hooves striking at empty air as they screamed toward the heavens.
Kazuma stood beneath the imperial star in his purple-and-gold robes, the wind pulling at the sleeves and hem while the Twenty-Eight Mansions filled the sky behind him.
When he spoke again, the joking tone was gone.
The voice that emerged carried an authority so old and absolute that even the founders instinctively stiffened.
"When I sat upon the enclosure and ruled beneath the stars…"
His eyes swept over them.
"…you barbarians had yet to crawl out of primordial chaos."
Silence spread across the battlefield.
Then Lisa's voice broke it.
"Oh my God…"
She was staring at Kazuma with almost frightening intensity.
"He looks even better than Captain-Commander Yamamoto did!"
The captains around her were still trying to process the sight of four ancient founders, the Hokushin Raitei manifestation, and half the heavens turning into a celestial battlefield.
Lisa apparently had different priorities.
Her eyes were practically glowing.
If the pressure on the battlefield had not made approaching Kazuma suicidal, there was every chance she would have abandoned all dignity and launched herself at him then and there.
Whatever else could be said about the situation, Kazuma had absolutely nailed the entrance.