A flash of white radiance swept past.
Kyōraku's tightly clenched fist finally relaxed when he realized something rather remarkable: even after Ōetsu had unleashed the final act of Karamatsu Shinjū, his body remained completely unharmed.
There was no need for Kyōraku to worry anymore.
Unlike Kyōraku, however, Ōetsu looked puzzled.
Why hadn't the armor shown the slightest reaction after the final Reiatsu threads exploded?
Could Sawada Tsunayoshi's neck really be as tough as the armor itself?
Impossible.
Ōetsu was certain that his final attack had struck his opponent. The explosion had occurred as well.
So why was Sawada Tsunayoshi still completely unharmed?
Seeing Ōetsu's confused expression, Kyōraku smiled.
If he had to give Ōetsu an answer, it would be simple:
You never hit him.
The reason was straightforward.
Since Ōetsu was also inside Karamatsu Shinjū, any injury inflicted upon Tsunayoshi should have been reflected on Ōetsu's own body.
The fact that no corresponding wound had appeared on Ōetsu could only prove one thing.
Ōetsu had failed to inflict any effective damage upon Tsunayoshi.
Of course, Kyōraku had no intention of reminding Ōetsu of that.
The performance of Karamatsu Shinjū had already ended, and Kyōraku was now eager to see what kind of power Tsunayoshi's Lightning-type Beyond Bankai truly possessed.
It seemed that it was far more complicated than it appeared.
Ōetsu's expression darkened slightly as he tossed Katen Kyōkotsu aside.
Karamatsu Shinjū was ineffective against Tsunayoshi, rendering the Zanpakutō useless.
He crooked a finger.
Another Zanpakutō fell into his hand.
The blade transformed into droplets of blood that splashed around Ōetsu. A pool of blood enveloped his severed arm and reattached it to his body.
It was Retsu Unohana's Minazuki.
After restoring his body, Ōetsu discarded Minazuki as well.
At its core, Minazuki was still a Zanpakutō focused on physical combat. Its special Reiatsu effects were concentrated almost entirely on healing, which was useless against that armor.
Ōetsu's mind raced as he considered which Zanpakutō would be most effective against Sawada Tsunayoshi.
It couldn't be purely physical.
Ideally, it needed to possess some sort of elemental Reiatsu.
There.
Two blades fell into Ōetsu's hands.
One was completely white.
The other had a crescent moon hanging from its hilt.
They were Sode no Shirayuki and Hyorinmaru, the two most powerful ice-type Zanpakutō in Soul Society.
And in Ōetsu's hands, they became a single combination.
Ōetsu raised his hand and swung.
A white road made of ice stretched toward the sky.
Immediately afterward, a gigantic frost dragon with two wings on its back raced along the frozen path.
With the two Zanpakutō combined, the ice dragon's charge was incredibly fast.
In the blink of an eye, it reached the armored figure.
Freeze him, then turn him into a limbless torso.
Ōetsu's plan was beautiful in theory.
Reality, however, rarely cooperated so easily.
Just as the ice dragon was about to crash into the armor, the armor split apart.
Following the cracks Ōetsu had noticed earlier, it separated into individual components—the helmet, breastplate, shoulder guards, greaves, and so on.
The ice dragon passed straight through the center of the scattered components.
Yet Ōetsu couldn't find the slightest trace of Sawada Tsunayoshi inside the armor.
What was going on?
Had Sawada Tsunayoshi actually transformed into a suit of armor?
At that moment, the armor components suddenly flew toward Ōetsu.
As they traveled, green arcs of electricity shot between the pieces, attracting and reconnecting them.
Before long, they had reassembled into a complete suit of armor before Ōetsu.
But this time, the armor was slightly different.
At the joints between its various components, green electricity had formed something resembling flesh.
The armor pieces were also not connected as tightly as before.
If the previous form had been an autonomous suit of armor, then the figure now standing before Ōetsu was a person wearing armor.
A gigantic lightning blade shaped like a spiraling horn condensed in his hand, and he swung it toward Ōetsu.
Ōetsu hurriedly raised his blade to block.
After exchanging two blows, he immediately realized something was wrong.
"That's not right. You're not Sawada Tsunayoshi. Who the hell are you?!"
The small green figure wearing the armor had an inverted crown-shaped marking beneath his eyes.
He gave no response to Ōetsu's furious question.
He simply continued attacking relentlessly.
"Interesting. So that wasn't Tsunayoshi."
Kyōraku finally understood.
The target Ōetsu had attacked with Karamatsu Shinjū hadn't been Tsunayoshi at all.
That was why Ōetsu's attacks had failed to produce the corresponding injuries.
"That wasn't me, of course."
Kyōraku suddenly felt a hand settle on his shoulder.
Then came a voice he knew all too well.
"When you're facing all the Zanpakutō in Soul Society, you might as well take it easy whenever you can."
"Tsunayoshi? When did you get over here?"
It was indeed Tsunayoshi standing beside Kyōraku.
"Oh, right when you unleashed the big move of Karamatsu Shinjū."
Tsunayoshi smiled, though there was still a lingering trace of fear in his eyes.
"I slipped out of the armor from the inside. I wasn't about to gamble on whether that final attack could take me down with it."
Kyōraku had never displayed his Bankai in public.
But Tsunayoshi had seen the terrifying killing power of Kyōraku's Bankai in the manga.
He had absolutely no intention of gambling with Kyōraku's ultimate technique.
"What happened to that armor?"
Kyōraku pointed toward the armored figure currently battling Ōetsu, who had activated Daiguren Hyōrinmaru.
"Was it really just a suit of armor that managed to suppress Ōetsu?"
"No, no."
"That thing is a genuine living being. Its body is formed by electromagnetic hardening."
Electromagnetic hardening was an ability Tsunayoshi had developed after mastering his Lightning-type Beyond Bankai.
The armor itself was an extension created by combining the helmet representing his Shinigami power with the shield representing his Fullbring.
And the being inside it represented his Hollow power.
Ghost was Byakuran's other half—the Byakuran of another world.
He already possessed considerable combat ability, but Byakuran had merely been using him as a vessel for collecting Dying Will Flames.
When Tsunayoshi had been training his Lightning-type Beyond Bankai, he had already considered allowing Ghost to come out and fight.
In a sense, it also gave Ghost a degree of freedom.
Thus, his Lightning-type Beyond Bankai ultimately developed this peculiar ability.
Ghost could fight in Tsunayoshi's place.
In this form, Ghost was Tsunayoshi's exclusive Thunder Guardian.
"He's quite impressive. His combat experience is extremely rich."
Kyōraku watched as Ghost gradually gained the upper hand against Ōetsu and gave his assessment.
"Wait."
Kyōraku suddenly realized something.
"If that's the case, doesn't that make the Lightning-type your weakest form?"
He looked at Tsunayoshi in astonishment.
The Lightning-type was supposed to possess the strongest defensive capabilities, yet Tsunayoshi had deliberately turned himself into its weakness.
Tsunayoshi's Beyond Bankai had been developed through the combined evolution of his Shinigami, Hollow, and Fullbring powers.
Now, all of his power was concentrated within Ghost.
Didn't that mean the Lightning-type Beyond Bankai was actually Tsunayoshi's weakest state?
In the center of the battlefield, Ōetsu also noticed Tsunayoshi standing around doing nothing.
He instantly understood the situation.
Using the ice dragon to forcibly suppress Ghost, he decided to change targets.
He would attack Tsunayoshi directly.
A bone-chilling aura spread from Ōetsu's body.
He wasn't merely using Hyorinmaru.
He simultaneously activated Sode no Shirayuki's Bankai.
A white haori made entirely of ice formed around Ōetsu's body.
He could feel his own body temperature rapidly dropping.
He could even hear the cracking sounds coming from within his body.
Ōetsu could clearly feel his bodily functions deteriorating.
But the extreme cold also pushed Daiguren Hyōrinmaru to its absolute limit.
"Ryūsenka!"
Ōetsu held Hyorinmaru horizontally and charged toward Tsunayoshi.
With Sode no Shirayuki's power augmenting him, the speed of Ryūsenka reached an utterly terrifying level.
Even Kyōraku and the others could barely follow him with their eyes.
With a single glance, Ōetsu had adjusted his fighting style.
He shoved Ghost's armored form aside and launched an attack directly at Tsunayoshi's comparatively vulnerable main body.
Kyōraku instinctively stepped in front of Tsunayoshi, raising Kankyōkotsu to block the attack.
He no longer cared whether Squad Zero realized that they had openly rebelled.
The future of Soul Society had to be protected.
At least, that was what Kyōraku thought.
But a tremendous force suddenly struck his shoulder and hurled him away.
Tsunayoshi had made his move.
He looked at Ōetsu, who was pointing his blade at him, and smiled.
As the creator of this Beyond Bankai, how could Tsunayoshi not know about the weakness created by separating his powers?
Put simply, the armored guardian controlled by Ghost could only unleash roughly half of Tsunayoshi's total power.
The armor's true strength could only be fully realized when it was reunited with its master.
A mischievous smile appeared on Tsunayoshi's face.
He raised one hand toward the sky and shouted:
"Armor—combine!"
A bolt of lightning crashed down directly onto his head.
Amid flashes of lightning and roaring thunder, Tsunayoshi was already clad in the armor created by his Beyond Bankai.
No matter how fast Ōetsu was—
Light was faster.
An inverted crown appeared beneath Tsunayoshi's eyes.
The powers of Tsunayoshi and Ghost fused perfectly together.
Thunder once again roared without end.
Clad in absolutely indestructible lightning armor—
This was the complete form of the Lightning-type Beyond Bankai.
Before Tsunayoshi could even enjoy his triumphant moment, however, he became an ice statue.
He was sealed inside a gigantic ice cross.
Ōetsu gritted his teeth and forced himself to endure.
Hyorinmaru truly was an absurdly troublesome blade.
Back then, to prevent another version of Yamamoto from awakening, he had deliberately divided Hyorinmaru's power into two portions.
He hadn't expected that even the complete Hyorinmaru would be somewhat beyond his ability to withstand.
And now he had added the power of Sode no Shirayuki's Bankai on top of that.
Ōetsu felt as though he himself was about to turn into an ice statue.
Forget it.
Ōetsu raised Hyorinmaru and swung it once, summoning Sennen Hyōketsu.
He intended to throw Hyorinmaru away together with Sode no Shirayuki afterward.
But something unexpected happened.
Fine arcs of electricity began emerging from the ice cross.
Then a small green figure formed from lightning appeared.
Ghost.
He held a long lightning spear and charged toward Ōetsu.
Ghost could not only fuse with Tsunayoshi.
He could also detach from the armor and fight independently.
Ōetsu hurriedly brought his Zanpakutō back in front of himself to block Ghost's attack.
But with his body growing increasingly rigid from the cold, how could Ōetsu possibly compete with Ghost's lightning-fast spear?
That wasn't all.
The ice flowers created by Sennen Hyōketsu gradually blossomed around them.
A technique originally intended to deal with Tsunayoshi had instead become a tool restricting Ōetsu's movements.
A bitter smile appeared on Ōetsu's face.
Why did it feel as though this Sennen Hyōketsu had actually been unleashed for his own sake?
The little green figure on the opposite side, meanwhile, wasn't affected in the slightest.
Whenever an ice flower landed on Ghost's body, his form immediately dispersed into free-flowing electricity.
While continuing to attack Ōetsu, Ghost constantly shifted between dispersing and reconstituting his body.
The ice flowers couldn't hinder him in the slightest.
What troubled Ōetsu even more was the sudden explosion of thunder beside his ear.
Tsunayoshi had already broken free.
Now he had to face two enemies at once, while his own body was still suffering from the debilitating effects of extreme cold.
Danger alarms continued exploding inside Ōetsu's mind.
If he had known things would turn out like this, he would never have picked up those two absurdly overpowered ice-type Zanpakutō!
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