Looking up at the sky engulfed in flames, Higashi Shuuichi felt a sense of déjà vu.
He clearly remembered the day he returned from Hell, when the real Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto had brought him to Muken and demonstrated his Shikai in front of him.
Compared to the suffocating pressure he had felt that day, the Shikai of this youthful version of Yamamoto felt more like hail falling from the sky.
Painful, yes. But not fatal.
And not despair-inducing.
Fuzan.
With a single slash, Higashi cut through the oncoming flames cleanly.
"Taimatsu!" (Torch!)
The young Yamamoto stepped into the air, suppressing the skeletal arms trying to seize his legs with raw Reiatsu. Drawing his blade, he unleashed a tornado-like wall of flame that roared toward Higashi.
Higashi knew—if that wall enclosed him, it wouldn't subside until he was reduced to ash.
Dankū.
A transparent spiritual barrier formed between him and Yamamoto, but the Reiatsu powering it came not from Higashi himself, but from his puppet—his artificial body in the shape of Musashi Kojirō.
"Naïve. You think Kidō alone can block Yamamoto's Taimatsu?"
From the shattered half of the cathedral, having gained a perfect vantage point, Johannes Nosavich sneered from behind his crimson priest's robe.
As expected, the Dankū shattered instantly under the onslaught of spinning flame—it couldn't hold for even a second.
But Higashi had known that. He didn't use Dankū to block Taimatsu. He had used it as an invisible bridge—a conduit between the fragmented spiritual particles of the barrier and the flame.
"Bakudō #63: Sajo Sabaku!"
"Bakudō #37: Tsuriboshi!"
From both the puppet Musashi and the other puppet, Kensei Muguruma, twin spells erupted.
Using Tsuriboshi's net of spiritual energy as the boundary, Sajo Sabaku's chains as the guide, and the shattered particles of Dankū as the medium, Higashi set up a beautiful chain reaction.
The flame, climbing the chains, engulfed the puppet Musashi in sacrificial glory.
From afar, Johannes Nosavich's eyes shimmered.
"Kidō can be used like this?"
He wasn't the first to be shocked by Higashi's absurdly inventive combat style, and he wouldn't be the last.
While Musashi's puppet served as the bait, Higashi used his Dual Bankai mobility, rivaling a Hollow's Sonído, to slip past the inferno and appear right before the young Yamamoto.
Bungetsu Kiri!
Their Zanpakutōs collided—sparks and a shockwave of spiritual pressure exploded between them, shaking even the distant battlefield where Kensei was fighting.
Ten strikes passed in a breath.
"Eruryū!" (Vein Severance!)
Higashi seized on a flaw—his offhand clenched into a fist and slammed forward.
The young Yamamoto's body froze. The left side of his chest caved in.
But before Higashi could press the advantage—
"Oh Lord, have mercy upon your devout servant."
Johannes gently laid his right hand atop his Bible.
The destroyed portion of Yamamoto's body regenerated instantly.
"What kind of top-tier healer is this…?" Higashi scowled.
In the heat of battle, he had nearly forgotten—according to his intel, there were four Fullbringers in the Central Cathedral.
He had already eliminated Satou Takeo. That left the mysterious youth resembling Yamamoto, the unknown Fullbringer fighting Kensei, and… two more.
Could it be those two inside the cathedral?
Johannes Nosavich was clearly one. But the green-haired man beside him, eyes perpetually closed and seemingly frail—could that be the ronin swordsman Yuuki Aomizu?
No. No way.
Higashi didn't believe for a second that a man who had defeated all 33 dojos in Osaka alone would look so harmless.
So who was he? And where was Yuuki?
That's when it hit him.
He had made a grave miscalculation.
While he was scheming against them, the enemy had also been scheming against him.
Surely they wouldn't cluster together without preparation. Surely this was bait.
Their real target… couldn't be Shiba Kaien, could it?
A terrifying thought emerged—but there was no time to dwell.
Yamamoto forced Higashi back half a step and released a burst of Reiatsu.
"Jōkaku Enjō!" (Blazing Fortress!)
With a slash, a tidal wave of flame engulfed Higashi. If he tried to escape through the center, he would be pursued by 6000°C fire.
The young Yamamoto struck downward—setting even the skeletal hands emerging from Higashi's Hell Execution Aria alight.
"Shakunetsu Jigoku!" (Inferno Hell!)
Pillars of flame erupted skyward, surrounding Higashi completely.
Yamamoto reversed his grip and drew his blade with a flourish, then sheathed it again.
"Burn."
The moment he spoke, all the flames converged on Higashi in a catastrophic explosion.
Even space seemed to rip. Light was eclipsed.
All was reduced to scorched earth.
"It's over?" the green-haired man muttered, feeling the immense power of the attack.
And for almost any Shinigami, it would have been.
But Higashi Shuuichi wasn't just any Shinigami.
Bankai: Kuroniku & the Spirit King's Nail Fragments = Temporary Invincibility.
Pure offense?
Ha.
In Dual Bankai, that's what he was least afraid of.
Bankai: War Tactics Origin – Blade Behind the Smile.
Young Yamamoto, I took your technique. Now—can you survive it yourself?
The flames cleared.
Higashi stood unscathed in midair, looking down like a monarch upon a battlefield.
Beneath him, charred earth.
And then—pillars of fire exploded upward again.
Even the thoughtless young Yamamoto faltered for a second.
Isn't this… my own move?
Didn't I already use this?
He watched helplessly as his own Jōkaku Enjō engulfed him.
Another explosion. The cathedral shook. Even Kensei's battlefield was affected.
Higashi had indeed fulfilled his expectations—Kensei had finally lost, pinned inside a coffin-shaped seal.
The sky turned blue again.
Higashi canceled Hell Execution Aria—it was draining too much of his Kuroniku future credit.
Below, Yamamoto's burnt body lay motionless.
Apparently, he couldn't survive his own attack.
But he wasn't alone.
"Oh Lord, your devout servant prays for your blessing!"
A holy light descended, restoring the charred body.
"You're seriously annoying, y'know."
With a sigh, Higashi flash-stepped straight to Nosavich.
Bungetsu Kiri!
One slash. Blocked by a veil of water.
"Oh Lord, your faithful begs for protection."
Johannes intoned with maddening calm.
Just then, young Yamamoto returned, swinging his sword for Fuzan.
Higashi didn't dodge.
He took the hit head-on—then countered with his own Fuzan.
As the Zanpakutō struck earth—
"Proud dragon, defiled land, wrath beyond halting, primeval waking fury—
Tempest, flame, frost, thunder, earth—
Shatter karma, shatter all, erase all, return all to origin!
Hadō #99: Goryū Tensei!" (Five Dragons Annihilation!)
The sky roared.
Higashi had to chant it fully—his ghosts were slain by Yamamoto's earlier assault.
Even with his immense Reiatsu, Goryū Tensei barely scratched Nosavich's eerie defenses.
And sure enough—another divine prayer restored Yamamoto again.
And now, the Fullbringer who had defeated Kensei was approaching too.
"This is bad..." Higashi muttered.
He had underestimated them.
Taking Yamamoto's attacks had cost nearly all of his Kuroniku reserves.
He looked powerful, but in reality, he was almost tapped out.
Once the "future credit" from Kuroniku was exhausted, he'd collapse.
He had no choice left.
Retreat.
And Nosavich could sense it.
With a saintly smile, he offered:
"Realized your position, Shinigami? Convert now, and I'll spare your life."
"Convert... to your cult?"
"Yes. Soul Society abandoned you. Join us. Help us rebuild it anew."
Nosavich even signaled the others to pause—as if genuinely offering mercy.
But Higashi's next words darkened his face:
**"So... that's how it is. Your power—comes from your faithful, doesn't it?
The stronger, the more numerous your followers, the stronger you become.
Did I guess right?"**
Nosavich's expression confirmed it.
Higashi had always liked talkative enemies—they revealed too much.
But knowing meant little now. He had no energy to test it.
"Kill him!"
Nosavich roared. Yamamoto and the other Fullbringer resumed the attack.
Higashi moved instantly.
Dankū to block the incoming foe, Fuzan toward Yamamoto.
The youth raised his blade for Jōkaku Enjō—
But nothing happened.
No flame. No Reiatsu surge.
Just the sword falling uselessly, as Higashi's Fuzan cleaved through him.
"What?!" shouted Nosavich and the green-haired man simultaneously.
Only Higashi looked past them, toward a new figure in the distance—
His eyes gleamed with surprise and joy.