Urahara's hand gripping Benihime trembled slightly, revealing for the first time the shock of a plan slipping out of his control.
"He wants that boy to extract his soul? To forcefully detach from the Gigai without Spiritual Power guidance?"
"That will destroy his Spirit Core!" Yoruichi shouted urgently. "Kisuke, do something!"
But Kisuke Urahara still did not move. His eyes flickered rapidly with chaotic thoughts as he made a final decision in his heart.
"...This might be the new key to unlocking the boundary."
On the battlefield.
The red light of the Cero had already bathed both of their faces in a bloody glow.
"I understand..."
Yoh Asakura took a deep breath. His eyes, which always carried a hint of weariness, became incredibly clear and resolute at this moment.
He felt Asuka's absolute resolve.
"If this is your resolve... Amidamaru!"
"Here!"
"Spirit Integration Release!"
A stream of light darted out from Yoh's body, and the tall samurai spirit appeared behind him once again.
Integrating and releasing twice in such a short period left Yoh feeling somewhat dizzy.
But he still reached out a trembling hand and slammed it against Asuka's chest.
"Asuka! Endure it!"
In that instant, Asuka felt an unprecedented, agonizing pain.
Or rather, it could no longer be called pain.
Every cell and every fragment of his consciousness was being forcefully ripped from his body; his very mind was tearing apart.
"Aaaarghhh!"
Even with a will as firm as Asuka's, he could not hold back a miserable, bloodcurdling roar.
His Gigai began to convulse violently. Its originally ruddy complexion rapidly turned pale and ashen, finally losing all color like a withered log drained of all moisture.
At the same time, a dazzling light erupted from that decaying body!
It was a Spiritual Body so resilient that it made even Amidamaru tremble.
He wore a tattered black kimono, surrounded by a storm-like torrent of black and red airflow.
That was the entity that had crossed the boundary between life and death, stripped of its heavy flesh—
In his palm rested Asuka, in his Spiritual Body form.
"It worked..." Yoh panted heavily. His eyes were bloodshot, the massive drain on his Furyoku leaving him near collapse.
But before him, that powerful soul did not dissipate. Instead, following his will, it transformed into a stream of light and rushed toward his hand.
A cold-eyed, seemingly bad-tempered soul orb appeared in his palm.
"Come! Asuka!"
Yoh opened his arms and let out a final shout.
"Spirit Integration—Asuka!!!"
Boom!
The crimson Cero detonated at that exact moment. A destructive pillar of light several meters in diameter instantly swallowed the spot where the two stood.
The earth trembled. The shockwaves of smoke and Spiritual Pressure turned into a massive wave, reducing all surrounding trees and rocks to fine powder.
"How could this..." Yoruichi's breath hitched. The presence of the two boys was completely eclipsed by the Cero. An attack of that caliber was something not even a Vice Captain-class Soul Reaper would dare take head-on.
"Did they fail...?" she muttered to herself, leaping down from the tree.
"No, Yoruichi."
"Look over there."
The smoke and dust cleared.
The Gillian's giant red eyes suddenly flickered.
It seemed to sense that amidst the ruins, an unfamiliar and dangerous presence it had never encountered before was rising.
A figure stood quietly in the center of the deep crater.
It was still Yoh's body, but his usual lazy demeanor had completely vanished.
The boy's normally fluffy hair was blown straight back by the fierce wind, revealing eyes as cold as ice.
His right hand gripped the longsword that, just moments ago, couldn't even scratch the Menos's Hierro.
But now, the blade was coated in a flowing, eerie, and dangerous black-red edge.
Reishi was highly compressed along the edge of the blade.
It was a soul armament that transcended the realm of ordinary Shamans.
"This feeling..."
Yoh—or rather, Asuka, who was currently dominating the body—slowly raised his head, feeling the power surging like a mighty river within him.
Freed from the constraints of the Gigai, the once-unreachable flow of Reishi was now as clear to him as the lines on his own palm.
Feeling this physical body enhanced by Furyoku, Asuka finally experienced a long-lost sense of lightness.
'Is this the world of a Spiritual Body?' Asuka thought.
"Asuka... you really are a 'dead man'," Yoh's voice echoed, carrying a trace of lingering shock.
'Is this... the power of a Soul Reaper?' Having gained Asuka's strength and a portion of his memories, Yoh was so astounded he couldn't close his mouth.
"Hey, big guy."
'Yoh's' lips curled into a slight smirk. He pointed his Zanpakuto diagonally at the ground, and the Reishi in the atmosphere began to spin madly around him.
"That shot just now felt pretty good, didn't it?"
"Now, it's my turn."
"My god."
Standing in the shadows, Kisuke Urahara dropped his fan, letting it clatter to the ground.
He watched with his own eyes as that bizarre existence perfectly fused a Soul Reaper's Spiritual Pressure with a Shaman's Furyoku, his eyes gleaming with unprecedented fanaticism.
"Using a Soul Reaper's soul as a 'Guardian Ghost'... Even that guy on the throne could never dream of such a thing, right?"
The results of this pressure test had far exceeded his expectations.
A brand-new prototype of power capable of shattering the balance of the three realms was officially born on this remote, barren hill.
The Gillian felt threatened.
This massive monster, which had spent who knows how many centuries to reach its current state, experienced an emotion akin to fear for the very first time.
It opened its maw once more, frantically gathering Reishi again.
But this time, Asuka wasn't going to give it the chance.
"Yoh! Feel the flow of my Spiritual Pressure! Hand your body over to me completely!"
"Oh! I don't know what Spiritual Pressure is, but since things have already come to this, let's go all out!"
Yoh's hearty laughter echoed within their mental space.
Two entirely different souls achieved perfect synchronization in this moment.
He lightly tapped the ground with the tip of his foot.
During his grueling training as an errand boy, Asuka's understanding of movement techniques had ascended to another level.
Now free from the shackles of the Gigai, even without using Spiritual Power to execute Shunpo, his speed had long surpassed his former self.
Yoh's body left an afterimage in its wake.
In the next second, he appeared right in front of the Gillian's giant mask.
"Storm Breathing, Fourth Form—Vacuum・Buddha Slash!!"
Buddha Slash! Vacuum... Vacuum Zone!
'Ah... those are my words...' Amidamaru stood stunned on the ground.
The longsword, coated in Spiritual Pressure, carved a perfect arc through the air. The oxygen between them was drained, instantly cleaving open a vacuum.
That was no mere physical attack.
It was a collision of soul against soul.
The Gillian, whose skin couldn't even be scratched before, suddenly had a massive crack appear on its pale mask from this single strike!
"Arooo—!!!"
The Menos let out an agonizing howl.
Amidamaru was completely dumbfounded.
As a samurai who had once roamed freely through chaotic times, he had never seen such a ferocious and swift sword technique.
That strike seemed to peel away the very laws of this world.
"Lord Asuka... is this the power of a samurai from your world?" Amidamaru asked, his voice filled with profound respect.
"No."
Asuka's consciousness controlled Yoh's arm, deftly twirling the hilt of the sword between his fingertips before aiming it at the Gillian's throat once more.
"I'm just a wandering ghost... who refuses to be manipulated by fate."
Tearing—Sky!!!
Slash!!
The Gillian never could have imagined that its throat would be sliced open by a human.
It staggered backward several steps, the eyes beneath its shattered mask flashing with terrified arcs of light.
The Menos let out an unwilling, long shriek and violently thrust its giant claws into the sky.
Riiip—
The surrounding space began to emit crisp sounds like shattering glass as countless fissures spawned from the void.
Finally, a pitch-black portal, a [Garganta], officially took shape in midair.
Not daring to linger for even a fraction of a second, the Gillian scrambled frantically into the Garganta, having absolutely no desire to cast another glance at the bizarre human behind it.
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