"Bastards! Who do you think you are, causing trouble at the great Urahara's storefront!"
"Watch me smash you all into meat patties with my invincible spiked club!! Ururu! Blast them!"
Before the group could even rush out of the spiral staircase, Jinta's gruff roar had already reached everyone's ears.
A dense and violent barrage of Reishi cannon fire, along with the piercing, grating sounds of metal weapons clashing, echoed continuously.
"An enemy attack?!"
Asuka reacted the fastest, his figure turning into a bolt of black lightning as he instantly dashed out of the shop.
Kisuke Urahara quickly folded his fan and barked a low order to Kenryu and Enryu beside him, "Protect Rurichiyo and Miss Kocho! Do not come out under any circumstances without my orders!"
By now, Karakura Town was completely shrouded in the night.
In the clearing in front of the Urahara Shop, Jinta was swinging his massive spiked club, locked in combat with four assassins wearing tight suits and masks over their faces.
Ururu was holding her massive Reishi machine gun, providing suppressing fire from the rear.
But the assassins' movements were incredibly bizarre. Not only could they easily dodge the Reishi cannon blasts, but they also constantly attempted to counterattack, leaving the two kids scrambling.
'These guys...' Asuka's gaze immediately locked onto the four's weapons.
The weapons held by those four assassins... shouldn't be Zanpakuto...
Embedded in the hilts of those swords were disgusting, bloodshot eyeballs that darted around like living creatures.
From the hilts, countless dark red, fleshy tentacles extended, piercing deeply into the muscles of the assassins' arms.
Asuka's spiritual senses could feel that these tentacles were not decorative; they were greedily sucking the blood and Spiritual Pressure of the sword-wielding assassins, making the aura of the blades increasingly dangerous.
Some swords could release mind-boggling illusions of light and shadow; others could cleave through mountains and rocks, creating barriers out of thin air to block the Reishi cannon fire.
'What the hell are those things?' Asuka furrowed his brows, suddenly recalling Kokushibo's evil blade.
"Bakkoto?"
Kisuke Urahara had appeared by Asuka's side at some point, his voice carrying a rare tone of disgust.
"This is a taboo weapon that was popular a thousand years ago. It's a special weapon that relies on parasitizing and devouring the user's Spiritual Pressure in exchange for explosive power..."
He drew Benihime, his eyes grave. "I see... So the reason the Tsunayashiro Family spared no effort in providing Spirit-Sealing Sand was actually for this long-sealed, evil technology."
"Mr. Asuka, a massive disaster is about to hit the Seireitei."
In the brief moment they spoke, the battle in the field grew even more intense.
An assassin wielding a greatsword-type Bakkoto forcefully took a hit from Jinta's spiked club.
Using the recoil, he twisted and accelerated in mid-air, directly breaking through Jinta's defense, his blade aiming straight for Ururu, who was reloading her Reishi cannon in the back!
"Ururu! Dodge!" Jinta paled in shock.
But the assassin's speed was too fast. The Bakkoto, embedded with a giant eyeball, slashed through the air, looking as if it would cleave Ururu's body in half.
Clang—!!
Sparks flew in all directions.
In the instant the assassin's blade was less than half an inch from Ururu, Asuka's figure appeared out of thin air in front of her.
"What?!"
The assassin's eyes widened, letting out a cry of disbelief through his mask.
He could clearly feel the Bakkoto frantically extracting his life force; the power of this strike was enough to snap the Asauchi of a high-ranking Seated Officer.
Yet this man before him had actually caught it with a single hand, his body not even swaying in the slightest!
"A sword is meant to devour power for its master."
Asuka raised his eyes, filled with contempt. "A piece of scrap metal that relies on devouring its master's life to gain power shouldn't be brought out to embarrass itself."
He flicked his wrist sharply, and a powerful Spiritual Pressure slash surged out along the blade.
Bang!!!
The assassin only felt an overbearing force transmit from the blade. His arms, which had been strengthened by the Bakkoto, actually let out the crisp sound of fracturing bones under this force.
He was sent flying directly backward, crashing heavily into the street wall opposite them, caving in a human-shaped crater.
"Ah! It's Asuka!" Jinta ran over with his spiked club on his shoulder.
"Retreat into the shop." Asuka didn't look back, still warily watching the enemies in front of him.
Seeing their comrade killed in a single strike, the remaining three assassins quickly gathered together.
The Bakkoto tentacles on their arms writhed even more frantically, and the eyeballs on the blades stared dead at Asuka, radiating a bloodthirsty light.
"As expected of the Soul King's Substitute who could force Aizen to flee. You certainly live up to your reputation."
A deep, heavy male voice, carrying a bit of elegance and composure, slowly drifted over from the shadows at the end of the street.
Asuka's spiritual senses instantly locked onto that direction.
Accompanied by the sound of leather shoes tapping against the ground, a middle-aged man wearing a dark suit vest and a black ribbon acting as an eyepatch over his left eye stepped out of the shadows.
He smiled and raised his right hand, pulling out a golden pocket watch from his breast pocket and rubbing it. His meticulously groomed handlebar mustache quivered slightly with his breaths.
"Good evening, everyone. I sincerely apologize for intruding at such an hour."
"Who are you?" Asuka narrowed his eyes slightly.
He could feel a special power radiating from this man; it wasn't the Spiritual Pressure of a Soul Reaper.
"Me? I am nothing more than an ordinary bartender entrusted by someone." The man bowed slightly, performing an impeccable gentleman's greeting. "My boss is a very important figure who cherishes talent. He does not wish to have any unnecessary conflict with you all."
Urahara weighed Benihime in his hand, curiously observing the integrity of the barrier around them. "...I'm more interested in knowing how you found this place."
"That is a secret, Mr. Kisuke Urahara," the man responded with a smile.
"As long as you are willing to hand over the young lady of the Kasumioji Family, I promise to take these people and withdraw immediately."
"My boss will provide your shop with a generous, irresistible reward, including the Spirit-Sealing Sand you require, which will be offered with both hands as an apology... How about it?"
"This is what they call courtesy before force, right?" Kisuke Urahara pulled down the brim of his hat. "Sounds like quite a bargain."
"Then..." The middle-aged man looked at Urahara with a smile.
"However, my humble shop is truly terrible at business, and we often can't make heads or tails of such muddled accounts."
Kisuke Urahara's gaze turned dangerous. "Go back and tell your boss that even if he brought over the entire treasury of the Seireitei, my humble shop wouldn't engage in such despicable trades."
Asuka looked at Kisuke Urahara beside him in disbelief.
'This profiteer actually has moments of such boldness?'
Hearing this, the man remained silent for a long time before letting out a regretful sigh. "That is truly a pity..."
Ding—
He popped open the cover of his pocket watch and spoke in a low voice, "My apologies. Since the negotiations just now have failed, I must set a [Contract] for this contest."
"Let me reintroduce myself. I am Giriko Kutsuzawa, a Fullbringer of Xcution."
He pressed the winding stem of the pocket watch, emitting a crisp click.
"Contract terms: Within the next ten minutes, anyone who attempts to leave this block will be completely incinerated by the flames of time."