Looking at the countless objects floating from the courtyard that were nothing more than spheres with mouths, Kyoraku spoke a single name—the name of the brutal and peerless zanpaku-to that his friend, the seventh Kenpachi, a man named Kuruyashiki, had used in the past.
“Gagaku Kairo…”
“What’s wrong, Kyoraku? You look as though you’ve seen a dead man walking.”
Tokinada said that with his arms spread, and Kyoraku smiled cynically as a bead of sweat dripped down his face. “What do you think our job is? I’m used to seeing corpses.”
As he spoke, he narrowly dodged one of the gigantic jaws that approached him from behind and sank right into a shadow with Nanao in his arms.
“Oh, so you can even dive into the shadow of a zanpaku-to if it is your enemy. I had no idea.”
As Tokinada smiled happily, he started to search for where Kyoraku would emerge.
“Will you let the woman run off to a safe place first? Or will you recognize her as being strong enough to fight with you and come to slay me?”
As Tokinada attempted to provoke them, a blade thrust up near Tokinada’s feet as though in response.
Tokinada leapt to dodge it, and Yoruichi approached him from behind.
At some point, she had taken off her foot armor and regained her normal speed, but…
Shiver.
The faintest, slightest amount of spiritual pressure indicated that something was wrong, and all the cells in her body cried out as she stopped her foot just as it was about to reach Tokinada.
In the next moment, something like a flurry of cherry blossoms, which was in fact a group of infinitesimal blades, passed in front of Yoruichi’s foot and grazed it. A section of them scratched her skin, creating a spray of blood. Luckily the wound was not deep; however, had she kicked him as intended, it was clear her foot would have been chopped to bits.
“Was that a trick of my eyes…? I’m sure I just saw the Byakuya boy’s…” Yoruichi was certain she recognized the storm of blades that had already disappeared.
“It couldn’t be…”
It seemed Kyoraku had also seen the blades that had appeared suddenly, and he broke into a cold sweat as he guessed at the true power of the Enra Kyoten that Tokinada carried.
An attack that made that which it cut heavier.
The wound that had healed before they realized it.
The strange creatures from Gagaku Kairo’s shikai itself.
And the exact same storm of blades as Senbon Zakura.
Though he wanted to deny the logical path this led him toward, with the latter two the conclusion had already made itself clear.
The power to copy another’s zanpaku-to’s abilities at will.
As though to mock Muguruma next, Tokinada brought out a new power from Enra Kyoten.
Tokinada suddenly knelt and punched at the ground.
Something reminiscent of a chakram, a disk-shaped blade, was gripped in his hand, and the moment he touched the ground with it, the earth around him groaned. The entire courtyard’s base warped as it swelled and wriggled like a massive living thing, transforming into lances that assaulted Muguruma.
Muguruma was not the only target. The Arrancars and Quincies that took on Gagaku Kairo’s strange creatures were attacked by the ground itself, and they dodged just in time.
“Hey, this guy’s zanpaku-to couldn’t be…”
Dealing with the earth lances by scattering them with his own zanpaku-to, Muguruma landed next to Kyoraku and Nanao, who had appeared from the shadows.
Then, as though he had timed his reply, Kyoraku addressed Tokinada with a serious expression: “Wabisuke, Hisagomaru, Senbon Zakura…and just now, that couldn’t have been Tsuchinamazu.”
When Kyoraku said that name—one of the zanpaku-to possessed by Zennosuke Kurumadani who was formerly in charge of Karakura Town—Tokinada smiled faintly as though in admiration and he opened his eyes wider.
“Oh, so you even know about Tsuchinamazu. Does that mean you know about the zanpaku-to of all the company members?”
“To some extent. Despite appearances, I’m the Captain General, so I’ve at least looked at the data on the generations of those in charge of Karakura Town. Although I didn’t think Tsuchinamazu would be capable of this magnitude.”
“There are many zanpaku-to powers that will increase in ability according to the spiritual pressure of its user. Hisagomaru is very useful. Though Seinosuke’s younger brother can only take in slight wounds, when I use it, I end up like this even after that cut from you went right through my belly.”
The zanpaku-to that Hanataro Yamada carried, Hisagomaru, was a nonstandard zanpaku-to that could heal the injured by absorbing the wounds of those it cut. Kyoraku judged that Tokinada had likely used Hisagomaru’s powers by cutting himself in order to absorb the wounds that Muguruma had inflicted on Tokinada earlier.
Hanataro’s sword shouldn’t have been able to absorb wounds when they were serious though. It seems that the abilities are corresponding to Tokinada’s spiritual pressure…
Next he had used Izuru Kira’s zanpaku-to Wabisuke’s power to make Yoruichi’s foot armor heavier. The moment Nanao realized that a shiver went down her back.
“It can’t be… A zanpaku-to that can use other zanpaku-to’s powers.”
“Still, we should investigate whether he really can use all the abilities. If its power is that strong, it might have some limitations,” Kyoraku said in order to alleviate Nanao’s worry as he very carefully examined Tokinada’s actions.
However, as though to prevent this observation, Tokinada unleashed his next move. Just as they seemed to see the invisible body of the sword quiver, a dense, gray smoke blew up.
“Oh! Haineko…!” Nanao immediately realized its identity and called out.
In the meantime the strange creatures of Gagaku Kairo approached, and Kyoraku and the others evaded those as they also leapt continuously to avoid the ash that pursued them.
The ash’s shadow was too murky and thin for him to sink into. Anticipating that as well, Tokinada set forth to attack them as they fled.
“Hado Number Fifty Eight Tenran!”
A tornado broke out and incorporated Haineko’s ashes in the wind, quickly attempting to swallow up Kyoraku and the others. Though he wasn’t as fast as Yoruichi, Kyoraku was confident in his shunpo. He was somehow able to escape the ash, but another problem awaited him.
“This is bad…”
He moved away and looked behind him. The wind that Tokinada’s kido had stirred up was distributing the ash around a vast area. Those on the ground were being attacked by it one after another.
However…
“Cascada.”
The cascade that Halibel had created was like a waterfall that coursed through the sky horizontally and washed away the ash and strange creatures.