"You bastard! What the hell do you take us for?"
The roar exploded like thunder.
Unlike Captain-Commander Yamamoto's restraint, the younger Shinigami had long since lost their patience with those humiliating words.
Treating the Gotei 13 like puppets on strings?
Even seeing everyone's fate as footnotes in a script?
Anger burst through the dam of reason in an instant.
Abarai Renji, who had come prepared to kill from the start, was the first to snap.
Veins bulged on his forehead. His eyes burned with betrayed fury. His Zanpakuto roared as it was released:
"Bankai! Hihio Zabimaru!"
A crimson storm of spiritual pressure swept outward. A massive skeletal serpent manifested within it, each segment of bone radiating terrifying force.
With a shrill howl, the dozens-of-meters-long bone serpent lunged forward with crushing momentum, jaws wide open to devour the fake Kyoraku.
"Oh? Young man, you've got quite the temper."
Facing an attack powerful enough to shatter boulders, the fake Kyoraku did not move an inch.
He even had the leisure to comment, that infuriating smirk still on his lips.
"Too bad your strength doesn't match your attitude, Renji."
Before the words fully fell, he casually raised a finger. Hardly any visible spiritual pressure gathered at the tip. It was as effortless as brushing dust from his sleeve.
"Hado #1 Sho!"
The very first lesson at the Shin'o Academy's Kido class. The most basic, most unimpressive spell, one even first-year students could master.
Its effect was nothing more than a small shockwave from the fingertip.
Yet in the fake Kyoraku's hand, even a drop of water could become a torrent that pierced mountains.
BOOM!
A deafening explosion and the ferocious giant serpent shattered on contact with that seemingly weak gust of force, like glass smashed by a hammer. It broke apart without resistance.
The sturdy white bone armor scattered into fragments. Even its dying scream was swallowed by the blast.
The shockwave did not slow. Like a charging elephant, it slammed directly into Renji's chest.
"Waaah!"
Renji's vision went black. Blood sprayed from his mouth.
His Bankai was forcibly broken in an instant. His shihakusho exploded across his chest. He was sent flying like a kite with its string cut.
"Renji!"
Seventh Division Vice-Captain Iba Tetsuzaemon reacted fast, flashing forward in a shunpo and barely grabbing Renji at the cliff's edge.
Half a second of delay and that basic Hado would have blasted him straight off Sokyoku Hill.
Silence.
Total silence.
Captains and vice-captains alike felt as though their throats had been gripped shut.
Komamura Sajin and Kuchiki Byakuya, who had been ready to charge, quietly stopped.
Renji might only be a vice-captain.
But that Bankai had carried serious force. It would have taken real effort for them to deal with it.
Yet before Kyoraku, even Hado #1 was too much.
They might be stronger than Renji, but only slightly. At best they could endure a mid-level Kido.
Charging in now would not redeem their pride. It would be self-humiliation.
If the captains grasped the gap, the vice-captains were even more shaken.
"You've got to be kidding…"
Fourth Division Vice-Captain Kotetsu Isane covered her mouth tightly. Her voice trembled out of shape.
"That was… Hado #1…"
Her worldview cracked apart.
Renji, with Bankai, had stepped into captain-level territory.
Yet his full-force killing blow had been crushed by the lowest-level Kido flicked out like nothing.
The difference in strength felt like a bottomless chasm.
"The gap in spiritual pressure is too large," Unohana's voice was soft, almost like a sigh, but it struck heavily in the dead silence.
Before anyone could react, she had already appeared at Renji's side.
Unohana Retsu said nothing. Green healing light blossomed in her palm, covering Renji's nearly shattered chest.
Her expression barely changed.
One low-level Hado defeated Renji.
Her Kido skill might not reach that level, but with her Zanpakuto, even without release, dealing with Renji in Bankai would only take a single ordinary slash.
What Kyoraku showed was not yet enough to trouble her.
Besides, she was one of those who knew the truth of this play.
Today, she, Rosse, and even Aizen were only spectators. Most likely they would not act.
Even if they did, it would be after someone exited the stage.
In theory, against an enemy like this, the Gotei 13 should attack together.
But this was not an external enemy.
This was two of Yamamoto's finest students.
Before the old man fell, this battle of cleaning house did not belong to anyone else.
Or rather, they had the right to step in, but they would get no help.
If someone with blood-deep hatred charged in, no one would stop them.
But against a monster who crushed Bankai with Hado #1, survival would depend on luck.
"All vice-captains, fall back!"
The aged but commanding shout cracked through the fear.
Yamamoto stepped forward.
His figure was not large, but in that moment it seemed like a mountain.
One step was enough to brace against the collapsing morale of the entire field.
It was a silent declaration.
As long as he stood, Soul Society would not fall.
The vice-captains snapped awake from their daze. After exchanging glances with their captains and receiving silent permission, they clenched their teeth and withdrew.
It was humiliating.
But necessary.
"Hey, old man."
At the storm's center, the fake Kyoraku did not press the advantage.
Hands tucked in his sleeves, he watched the retreating backs with amusement.
"Compared to the demon who did anything for victory a thousand years ago, you've gotten far too soft."
"Heh!"
Yamamoto slowly lifted his head. A sharp light flashed in his cloudy eyes.
"I do not recall ever showing that side to a lying traitor like you."
Thud!
His wooden staff struck the ground.
Buzz!
In a blink, the world changed.
Invisible spiritual pressure turned into real hellfire, wrapping Yamamoto, the fake Kyoraku, and the fake Ukitake inside.
A wall of flames sealed them off, rejecting captains, vice-captains, even the air itself.
This was the battlefield of master and disciples.
Yamamoto's intent was clear.
Letting Rosse or Aizen join might increase the odds.
But as Captain-Commander, as teacher, he would not allow it.
The two students he had raised with pride for a thousand years would fall by his hand.
This was not just cleaning house.
It was atonement to Soul Society.
"Ukitake!"
The roar felt like it came from hell.
Those burning eyes skipped past Kyoraku and locked onto the silent fake Ukitake.
At the same time, the wooden cane burned away in the intense heat, revealing Ryujin Jakka within.
The blade was not even drawn, yet space itself warped from the heat.
"Shunsui always hid himself well. If I misjudged him, so be it. But I cannot understand you. What reason do you have to betray Soul Society?"
There was reprimand buried in the rage.
"Have you, like him, faked your loyalty and gentleness for a thousand years just to deceive me?"
The air froze.
The fake Ukitake's pale, sickly face flickered with complexity.
He sighed softly, genuine regret in the sound.
"Sensei… I am sorry."
"If you are sorry, why walk this path to the end?"
Yamamoto's hand closed over his sword hilt.
"Is your personal bond with him heavier than the ideals you swore to defend?"
Apologies were the most useless words.
If sorry could revive the dead or mend betrayal, what need would there be for Zanpakuto?
The fake Ukitake did not move.
But he raised his head. The usually gentle eyes now held firm resolve.
"My bond with Shunsui is deep. But it cannot surpass the oath I made in my heart. Sensei, to fulfill that oath, there are things I must do, even if I carry eternal disgrace."
He lowered his head slightly.
"If you must blame someone, blame the bait Kisuke Urahara offered. It was simply too tempting to refuse."
Elsewhere, inside the sealed space.
"Wait… when did you ever make an oath?"
The real Kyoraku finally broke.
He turned to Ukitake with a strange, curious look.
He knew Ukitake carried secrets.
That frail body was not just lung disease. Something older and forbidden was involved.
As a close friend, he had never asked.
But now?
They were about to be ruined by their own doubles.
The fake sounded so convincing even he was nearly convinced.
"It's true."
The real Ukitake's face turned grim.
"I once swore a blood oath to the One-Eyed Great God. I offered my lungs and life to protect Soul Society, in exchange for this broken body's survival. This was an absolute secret."
"Only my deceased parents and the servants back then knew. No one else. Because of the One-Eyed Great God's nature, even the Great Spirit Library cannot record it."
The Great Spirit Library recorded all spiritual fluctuations with the Soul King's power.
But power of the same level as the Soul King could not be recorded.
And the Ukitake family would never register such a matter there.
"That's enough to make my scalp go numb."
Kyoraku inhaled sharply.
A chill crawled up his spine.
The mastermind knew too much.
Too much, as if he had lived in their shadows, watching the deepest corners of their souls.
"How is that possible?"
Kyoraku murmured.
Besides the old man and Unohana, who kept to themselves, who else in the Gotei 13 had longer history than they did?
Who could know secrets that should have died with those involved?
Rosse? The man who had only joined a few years ago?
Shutara? She had left for the Royal Palace before the Gotei was even formed, returning only every few centuries.
'Who could know this much?'
Kyoraku glanced at Kurosaki Masaki.
He did not expect an answer.
But she spoke.
"You're wondering how he knows so much? You've been investigating the Quincy King lately, haven't you? Yhwach is called omniscient and omnipotent. That's a rumor I've heard. But he is the only true omniscient being I've actually seen."
"Impossible. No one like that exists besides the Soul King," Kyoraku said flatly.
"And why are you so sure the Soul King must be the only one?", Masaki mocked lightly.
"If you believe the Soul King can do it, you should know his current state. That authority of omniscience isn't in his hands. Just like the authority of 'halt' is sealed within that sickly man."
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