"Damn it! I can't believe we let that eyepatch guy get away!"
Jinta carried his giant spiked club, running up to Asuka in a huff.
Looking at the cleanly severed right arm still oozing blood on the ground, he spat fiercely, "Lucky he ran fast! Otherwise, I would've smashed his head right into his stomach!"
Ururu silently put away the heavy Reishi cannon and walked over to Jinta with her head down, her eyes still looking a bit timid.
It was as if the cold-blooded gunner who had just been firing on all cylinders on the battlefield wasn't her at all.
Asuka merely crouched down, quietly staring at the severed arm...
"Mr. Asuka!"
With the time barrier lifted, the sliding door of the Urahara Shop was violently pushed open.
Shinobu Kocho rushed out of the shop looking anxious, not even caring about her usual elegant demeanor as she jogged all the way to Asuka's side.
After repeatedly confirming that Asuka had no new wounds, her tense shoulders finally relaxed slightly. "Are you hurt?"
"I'm fine." Asuka let her wipe his cheek. "Just some trash. They've already been dealt with."
Saying that, Asuka turned to the frowning Kisuke Urahara. "Shady merchant, what was that situation just now?"
"...You've got me stumped there, Asuka." Kisuke Urahara gently tapped his palm with his folding fan. "My humble shop is just a law-abiding general store. I'm completely baffled as to why we suddenly faced such a violent demolition attempt."
Asuka ignored his banter and pressed on, "Those guys holding the broken swords with eyeballs... judging from their style, they should be the assassins sent by that Kumoi guy the two idiots mentioned.
"But what's the deal with that suit-wearing guy who showed up at the end?"
"He called himself a Fullbringer... if I remember correctly, those are human mutants in the World of the Living, right?"
"Why would the chief retainer of a Soul Society noble house, trying to assassinate his own lord, get involved with a Fullbringer from the World of the Living?"
Hearing Asuka's analysis, Shinobu Kocho beside him also showed a thoughtful expression.
"Exactly," Shinobu softly agreed.
Although the existence of Fullbringers wasn't common knowledge in the Soul Society, she knew a little about them through Urahara's connections.
"Although Fullbringers possess Spiritual Energy, they are essentially still humans of the World of the Living."
"The nobles of the Soul Society have always thought highly of themselves. Why would they stoop so low as to hire humans from the World of the Living to carry out an assassination mission? It's too abnormal."
Kisuke Urahara walked over to the severed arm, nudged it gently with his toe, and his eyes turned profound.
"That is indeed a point of inconsistency..."
Kisuke Urahara muttered, repeating the name Giriko Kutsuzawa had mentioned earlier, "Xcution... Xcution..."
He pressed his folding fan against his chin, frantically searching through the massive intelligence database in his mind.
"If I remember correctly, this should be a mutual aid organization secretly formed by Fullbringers in the neighboring Naruki City."
"Their style is secretive, rarely operating out in the open, let alone actively getting involved in the disputes of the Soul Society..."
Then, as if he thought of something more important, his tone suddenly became unusually serious.
"However, compared to that escaped Fullbringer and the organization behind him..." Kisuke Urahara pointed his fan at the messy street. "Asuka, I want to ask you, how did you feel when you were fighting those assassins just now?"
"Feel?" Asuka recalled the brief clash just now and curled his lips dismissively. "What was I supposed to feel?"
"Their movements were full of openings. I didn't even need to release Kakudatsu; just a little force and their bones shattered."
In Asuka's eyes, whether it was the four masked assassins or that middle-aged man playing god, they were all pitifully weak.
If it weren't for Kutsuzawa's bizarre rule-based Fullbring delaying things a bit, the battle would have ended in an instant.
"Too weak. It didn't even count as a warm-up," Asuka gave his final evaluation.
Kisuke Urahara shook his head. "Asuka, that's from your perspective."
"But I hope you can temporarily put aside your perspective that surpasses ordinary Soul Reapers, and re-evaluate the battle just now from the viewpoint of an ordinary swordsman."
Kisuke Urahara stared into Asuka's eyes. "When you crossed swords with him, did you feel the level of Spiritual Pressure radiating from him?"
Asuka frowned.
Although he didn't understand why Urahara was dwelling on such a boring question, he still carefully recalled the details from just now.
"Their base Spiritual Pressure was extremely weak, not even matching the teachers who taught me at the Shin'o Academy."
"If I had to say... they barely reached the level of a patrol squad member," Asuka answered truthfully.
"Then, here comes the problem."
Hearing Asuka's disdainful answer, Kisuke Urahara didn't feel relieved; instead, his frown deepened.
"Since their Spiritual Pressure was only at the level of an ordinary squad member, do you remember the force behind their slashes just now?"
Hearing this, the scenes of the battle flashed through Asuka's mind like lightning.
That assassin, slashing down at Ururu in mid-air...
"A slash of that caliber at least met the standard of a mid-to-low-level Seated Officer in the Gotei 13."
"Exactly." Kisuke Urahara nodded. "Although the price for this power is draining the user's life force, it indeed elevated him from an ordinary squad member to the level of a Seated Officer..."
He walked over to the only bizarre blade that hadn't been taken away in time, crouched down, and pulled out a pair of faintly glowing tweezers from his wide sleeve.
The two gathered around, their eyes focused on Kisuke Urahara's actions.
Kisuke Urahara used the tweezers to carefully pick up the bizarre blade dropped on the ground.
Separated from its master, the dark red glow originally radiating from the blade gradually dimmed.
The giant, bloodshot eyeball on the hilt now seemed to have lost its vitality, becoming shriveled and cloudy, even faintly emitting a putrid stench.
When Kisuke Urahara lifted the blade, Asuka could still see inside the fleshy tentacle-like tissues originally connected to the hilt, there was some residual flesh and blood being slowly digested.
"Ugh..."
Even the usually boisterous Jinta felt his stomach churn at the sight.
Although Shinobu Kocho was a medical professional accustomed to bloody scenes, seeing such an unnaturally evil structure still made her feel physically uncomfortable, and she subconsciously leaned closer to Asuka.
"Allow me to introduce this to you two. This is the greatest sin ever committed by the Kasumioji Family, and likely the core bargaining chip in the cooperation between Gyokaku Kumoi and the Tsunayashiro Family—the Bakkoto."
"Bakkoto? Is it a type of Zanpakuto?" Asuka looked at the nauseating weapon in confusion.
"No." Kisuke Urahara pointed at the shriveled fleshy tentacles and explained in a deep voice, "A Zanpakuto is a weapon forged by the God of the Sword, Lord Oetsu, which grants power through communication with its sword spirit."
"But this blade, its operational mechanism is the exact opposite."
His eyes revealed a deep disgust. "It has no sword spirit, nor does it have concepts like Shikai and Bankai..."
"Its essence is a bloodsucking parasite that latches onto its user."