“If Yhwach is the ancestor of the group called Quincy, then the Reio itself is the source of the Quincies’ powers. Whether the Reio left a child behind before he was sealed away or the power shredded away from the Reio took human shape and manifested itself, I do not know.”
Tokinada, who had coincidentally finished speaking of the Soul Society’s past at the same time as the Osho, happily released Hisagi’s Kazeshini. Calculating when the Soul Reaper would lose his balance, Tokinada flung the flames of Ryujin Jakka at Hisagi and tried to burn the Soul Reaper. Had Hisagi not sensed the heat instantly and realized that he needed to retreat, he likely would have been turned into charcoal.
What was dreadful was that, while his opponents were wary of Complete Hypnosis and thus had been passive, Tokinada continued to skillfully evade the attacks on him as he spoke. He wanted to see Hisagi’s face in despair. Just for that reason, Tokinada had, in a show of eccentricity, put his life on the line, disclosing the past the Tsunayashiro family had held so tight. Everyone there understood it was specifically his nature that allowed him to employ such a strategy.
“Don’t you think it is a humorous story, through and through? The Soul King you so desperately protected is the savior of humanity that my ancestor trapped. That means that Yhwach was trying to save his ancestor, or perhaps someone who should be called father. And the fate he needed saving from was isolation for one million years, unable to live or die!”
Speaking sonorously, Tokinada continued to swing his own shapeless Zanpaku-to.
Liltotto and the others saw an opening and released arrows, but they all missed Tokinada. The Arrancars’ Ceros produced the same result.
Tokinada used Kyoka Suigetsu’s ability to make them believe that human-shaped clods of dirt created through Tsuchinamazu were himself. When Hisagi was able to attack properly, they would be able to time their attacks with him to accurately grasp Tokinada’s position, but as Hisagi had steadily sustained an increasing number of injuries and the frequency of his attacks had slowed, Tokinada just barely had to move in order to evade those attacks.
“Yhwach wanted to return the world to its original state and release his father through death. I do not know which was secondary to the other. However, as a result, Yhwach consumed the Reio’s body and is currently the linchpin of the world in the Reio’s place. Don’t you think that is so ironic? Eh, Kyoraku?”
When he heard Tokinada, Kyoraku smiled slightly and exhaled slowly as though to show his composure despite being riddled with wounds.
“Well, one does wonder. Though it is slightly difficult for me to ascertain whether what you say is the truth or nonsense at the moment… And in practice, it’s irrelevant to our situation.”
“Don’t utter such transparent lies. You should know, with the position you are in right now, shouldn’t you? The information that Sosuke Aizen and Kisuke Urahara knew several hundred years ago—who would believe you that you did not know of it?”
“I don’t mind if you don’t believe me. The only thing that’s certain is that if I don’t stop you right now, the world of the living, the Soul Society, and Hueco Mundo will end up in total chaos.”
“No, the only thing that is certain is that you will all die here.” Tokinada, whose smile was full of joy, continued to provoke. “Hm, right! You Soul Reapers have no such thing as justice! Naturally, I don’t either! What we have here is the descendants of villains attempting to steal an encampment, and nothing more. If there were justice in this world, then it likely would have resided in Kaname Tosen himself!”
Tokinada swung his zanpaku-to again and created a large quantity of ice using Daiguren Hyorinmaru, which he broke in pieces using the gigantic blade of Ten Ken, and scattered a barrage of ice chunks across their field of vision.
He made them believe each of those glittering bits of ice were different attacks and, using the difficult-to-evade illusive blades, lambasted the wasteland that had been the courtyard.
In order to protect Kyoraku, Nanao continued to put up barriers that would defend against all kinds of attacks. By developing multiple kinds of barriers all at once, she depleted herself far more harshly than with any normal kido, and her spiritual power was close to bottoming out.
“Don’t worry about me, Nanao. Just focus on protect-ing yourself.”
At Kyoraku’s words, Nanao scowled and answered, “Prioritizing the Captain General is a given.”
“This isn’t official business right now. We’ve come here to fight under a personal grudge of sorts.”
“In that case, I need to protect you all the more.”
At Nanao’s breezy reply, Kyoraku’s expression became complex as he again gripped his zanpaku-to.
“But it’s starting to look like a free-for-all. Still, I would think there would be some kind of restriction on it…”
Not wanting to let the barriers Nanao had created go to waste, Kyoraku honed his senses and observed the reishi that flowed between Tokinada and his zanpaku-to.
He felt something off about Tokinada’s spiritual pressure.
“Hm? It couldn’t be.”
Kyoraku’s spiritual perception gathered that Tokinada’s spiritual pressure itself was changing, or not so much changing as degrading and degenerating, though very slowly.
“This…Tokinada…it can’t be that you’re shaving away at your own life force?!”
“Oh! You did well noticing that so quickly! Kha ha ha ha ha! Although, what else should I have expected from you?”
Tokinada spoke matter-of-factly and did not even attempt to keep that fact secret, almost as though he were claiming that such a thing was not a weakness.
“That is the reason why the previous head of the family did not want to carry this zanpaku-to. Enra Kyoten consumes its wielder’s life. The more it is used, the more it will continue to consume my konpaku, and that konpaku will never return. It is a curse similar to the Ise family’s Hakkyoken.”
As though to protect Nanao from Tokinada, who smiled as he fixed a stare on her, Kyoraku took a step forward and queried the man he had once studied alongside. “I really do not understand. Are you really willing to go so far as to wager your life simply for your own gratification?”
“What meaning is there to a life which you do not risk for enjoyment? Even my wife died for her own sacrifice—or something like that. There is only one difference—whether it was virtuous or not. That is the only minute difference there is to society.”
The head of the Tsunayashiro family was given the duty of ruling history and keeping the treasured sword, generation after generation. However, most who learned of the treasured sword’s peculiarity would relinquish it in that moment, in fear of death. Those who could master it would be proud to wield the venerable Enra Kyoten, which boasted power without peer. But the head of the family could overpower other Soul Reapers simply through political influence, without even needing to use Enra Kyoten. Furthermore, the family was in a position to leave the Hollows and Quincies to the Court Guards, so there had not been many who had willingly pared away their own life in order to use the sword.
Since they also could not allow it to be stolen by the other families, they had continued to seal it away in a secret depository that only the head of family was privy to. However, after that cycle had repeated through the generations, an outlier named Tokinada had appeared. The treasonous agitator who did not fear his own death in the slightest had stolen that zanpaku-to while the previous head of family was still alive. He did not do so for his own dignity, his own morality, or for the sake of another, much less the sake of the world itself; he simply risked his own life for the sake of pleasure.
He was different from Kenpachi, who wagered everything he had in order to whittle away his own life alongside his opponent in battle. Tokinada was an aberration who wouldn’t mind sacrificing a year of his own life in order to ridicule the weak for a century.
It was this essential part of Tokinada’s nature that made him able to master that cursed zanpaku-to with no scruples, and this was why he was now able to stand in Kyoraku and the others’ way using Enra Kyoten as the supreme, unyielding, and indestructible zanpaku-to it truly was.
However…
As those around him were solely focused on defending themselves, a single man was steadily regaining his composure. Kaname Tosen’s name had been used, which was one way of incurring his wrath, but regardless of that that man moved calmly as he read the spiritual pressure of Tokinada’s attacks and narrowly dodged each one of them.
As though Tokinada himself had noticed that the purposefulness of the man’s movements had returned, he asked the man, Shuhei Hisagi, whose eyes were still closed, “You’re very quiet… Why don’t you speak up, Shuhei Hisagi? I am speaking about the ‘truth’ that you so love.”
“…”
In response to Tokinada’s question, the Soul Reaper simply answered with silence.
“What a dull fellow you are. Is your brain not able to comprehend the truth that I thrust before it? I expected at the very least you would cry and shout about Kaname Tosen, as you seem to cling to the man so.”
In spite of Tokinada’s words, Hisagi remained composed. Had he heard such words under normal circumstances, he might have shouted out, “That’s nonsense,” and succumbed to his rage. However, the fear that accompanied the darkness of Hisagi’s closed eyes kept his mind calm. In this situation of having intentionally shuttered his vision, the tale Tokinada told about his raison d’etre brought something from Hisagi’s past back into his present mind.
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