Then, just as Hikone thought the chains connecting to them and holding them in place had come undone, those combined into one chain, the ends twining around Hisagi’s and Hikone’s necks.
It was as though their necks were being tied together as part of a twisted execution ceremony.
≡
After losing most of its ability to float, the castle in the air had started to gently fall. It had also started to transport itself into Karakura Town.
Within the castle, Urahara was preoccupied with a certain task he was making progress on. But then he saw the gigantic jet-black sphere and the countless chains that extended from it through a window.
He tried probing further into the spiritual pressure around him, muttering with a serious expression on his face but never becoming lax about his work.
“So that’s Mr. Hisagi’s bankai then. Well now, that’s…a pretty nasty one.”
≡
“Captain General…what in the world is this?” Nanao was looking up at the black sun that had appeared in the sky.
Kyoraku examined the chains that surrounded Hisagi and Hikone and began to form a hypothesis about the zanpaku-to called Kazeshini. “I did think it was strange…”
“Huh?”
“At first glance, Assistant Captain Hisagi’s Kazeshini looks like two swords, doesn’t it? But typically there aren’t zanpaku-to made of two blades in a set. My wakizashi-style sword Okyo is a zanpaku-to created by Ohana after the fact, and Ukitake said it was likely Mimihagi’s influence that created his two swords.”
“But Assistant Captain Hisagi’s zanpaku-to is…”
Remembering that Hisagi had had command of two sickle-shaped blades, Nanao was confused, but based on what she had just witnessed, an answer came to her.
“Then, Kazeshini’s true form is…”
“Yes, I think it’s likely.”
The shikai form of Hisagi’s Kazeshini…
It was a pinwheel or windmill-like blade that would pursue its prey infinitely.
Just how far could the chain that connected those two blades stretch?
“Kazeshini isn’t just a sword in the shape of sickles. It’s the chain that connects them that is the zanpaku-to’s true essence.”
≡
Though Hikone had been baffled by the strangeness of Hisagi’s bankai, regardless, the child did not waver and continued their attack. Hikone didn’t understand what was happening as the chain coiled around them, but it did not attempt to constrict them, and the chains themselves didn’t transform into blades or anything of that sort.
There was a chance that Hisagi was preparing for an attack, and in order to defend against that, Hikone used all their power to attack Hisagi before he could invoke something else.
Thinking they could kill Hisagi by blasting away his entire body, they hit him with a full-power Cero, but after the light that encompassed Hisagi’s figure faded, he was, of course, still standing there unscathed.
Hikone attempted to extend their Quincy Blut to their exterior and to commandeer Hisagi’s nerves, but the Blut went down a chain that extended from Hisagi’s finger and was fended away.
In that case, did they need to destroy the gigantic black sphere? They mowed through the thing and burned it through vertically using a sharp and narrow Cero, but…
Chains once again extended from the separated halves of the massive sphere and immediately returned it to wholeness, just as had happened with Hisagi’s body earlier.
A bankai that makes the user immortal…?
No, I’m sure that Lord Tokinada told me that was impossible.
There was no past example of a zanpaku-to that could simply make its user immortal. Aizen had obtained his immortal body through the influence of the Hogyoku; that hadn’t been a power granted by a zanpaku-to.
Considering the nature of zanpaku-to, it was unlikely. Even a bankai that boasted unparalleled power, as though in equal balance, always had a weakness.
For Zangetsu, it was the relentless spiritual pressure consumption.
For Senbon Zakura, it was the existence of the safe zone.
For Nozarashi, it was the inordinate burden on the user’s body.
For Katen Kyokotsu, it was the danger of allies being caught up in its scope and the shared wounds from a double suicide.
And though it was a shikai, even Kyoka Suigetsu had a weakness that prevented it from activating Complete Hypnosis.
So the bankai of Kazeshini that seemed immortal had to have some kind of vulnerability.
In order to uncover that secret, Hikone attacked again and again, but…
No matter what they did, Hisagi would not fall. They weren’t even able to tear apart the chains that connected their necks. Though Hikone tried to vacate the area, when they reached a certain distance from Hisagi, multiple new chains would entangle them and force them back under the black sun.
“What is this…? What is this power? With a power like that, why aren’t you trying to kill me?”
At some point, the emblem of Hikone’s innocence, their childlike smile, had disappeared from their face.
In response to Hikone’s sorrowful questioning, Hisagi’s reply was matter-of-fact. “Well, I can cut you.”
In the next moment, Hisagi unleashed the blades in his hands. The two blades seemed to sink into the shadow on the earth and disappear. Then somehow a new chain entwined itself around Hikone’s arm and ran along their skin with incredible force. Each of the links of the chain transformed into narrow blades and cut into Hikone’s arm. Though they were nothing like Kenpachi’s blows, they ceaselessly abraded the same area of Hikone’s arm like a chainsaw, instantly burning through it.
“Ahh… Huh?”
Hikone then noticed something.
Their arm, which they were sure had been cut off, had at some point returned to its original place. They thought perhaps it was some kind of illusion, but the pain of the arm being severed did not seem like any hallucination.
That was when Hikone noticed something else.
It wasn’t just Hisagi.
Like their opponent, Hikone had also been given an immortal body.
“You couldn’t have…”
“It would’ve been nice if I had a bankai like Kurosaki’s or Captain Hitsugaya’s that could defeat my enemies real flashy-like. But apparently I’m just not cut out for that stuff.”
Hisagi spoke self-deprecatingly as he explained. “You see…I’m a pretty huge coward. I’m terrified of dying, and ever since I killed Captain Tosen I can’t help being terrified of having to kill someone. That might be why I ended up with this pain of a bankai.”
A bankai was said to be the reflection of its wielder’s soul. Pulling out the power that slumbered within an asauchi and tempering the zanpaku-to’s soul with their mind, they would make that power bloom as a bankai.
In that case, what form had Hisagi’s soul taken the shape of once he finally reached bankai?
It was the inverse of the fear he had—another form of dread. If Kazeshini could attain a form that would reap lives in shikai to keep the cycle of the souls in the world moving, then…
The bankai’s power was a chain that sealed away the flow of life and brought the world into stagnation. By connecting everything, it forbade death, forbade life. The black sun even bound the reishi in the atmosphere.
Because of that, it was named Kazeshini—death wind.
The cycle of the world would stop, ending all retrogression and evolution, imprisoning it in chains.
In the circumstance where life was forced into stagnation, there was, ironically, a world with no boundary between life and death.
It may have resembled the form of the world before the Soul Society had been born.
“So then you and I just can’t die? What’s the point of that?”
“Naturally, this isn’t forever. If you keep cutting me, I’ll die at some point.”
Hikone tilted their head to the side quizzically.
“Why would you tell me something like that? In that case, I’ll just keep attacking you until you die.”
Hikone did not understand why Hisagi would intentionally tell them how to prevail. The answer was extremely simple.
“Yeah, I’d die from that—and you would too.”
“Huh…?”
That was when Hikone realized it.
They had killed Hisagi multiple times recently, and with each attempt, their spiritual pressure had faintly decreased.
“But…why?”
Hikone probed with their spiritual pressure perception and, in order to confirm it, cut their own arm. Of course, it immediately regenerated, but they confirmed that a part of their spiritual pressure went through the chain to supply what was needed for the regeneration.
Then Hikone unleashed a Cero on Hisagi.
Of course, he instantly recovered, but in that moment, Hikone felt a vast amount of spiritual pressure being absorbed from them. Their own spiritual pressure went through the chain and was stored in the black sun overhead.
It was as though the ball of chains was accumulating a vast amount of spiritual pressure to use for reverting the injured, or even objects, to their original states.
Their lives were shared, and the spiritual pressure of everyone who was connected to the black sun was being equalized. In other words, the more Hikone cut Hisagi, the more their spiritual pressures would both be consumed, which would end up healing Hisagi’s wounds. And the result would be the same if Hisagi cut Hikone.
Hikone then finally realized this bankai’s true nature.
This was a system that could be used when people who Hisagi trusted were around. If he were to cancel the bankai chains once they were at their weakest state, both of them would lose their immortal status. However, as long as people like Kenpachi and Kyoraku were there, or those who weren’t connected to the chains, Hisagi’s enemy could easily be killed by his companions.