Chapter 226: I Can Handle Them Alone
Enemies from above?!
Well. Not quite that dramatic.
They had simply suppressed their reiatsu with considerable skill.
Though that in itself was a little strange. Who spent serious time developing that particular technique under normal circumstances? Only someone with reasons they would rather not explain.
In an instant, Sasakibe Chojiro pieced it together. The cold quality that entered his eyes was immediate.
"Identify yourselves!"
The warning left his mouth, and in the same motion Sasakibe swept his gaze to the side.
The anxious edge he had been carrying dissolved completely at what he found.
Nothing to be afraid of.
Because the people gathered around the Captain-Commander right now were the Gotei 13's finest.
Unohana Retsu. Kyoraku Shunsui. Ukitake Jushiro. And himself.
Four captain-level fighters, all capable of Bankai, each with their own surprises in reserve. Whatever came, it would come as a genuine shock to the other side.
The situation was five against three. The advantage was theirs.
"Are these the ones who moved against the Captain-Commander before?"
Unohana Retsu stepped up beside him, lifting her head slightly. Her expression had not changed, but the right hand resting lightly at her waist had closed around the hilt of her sword without a sound.
"I'm not sure whether to call this good news or bad news. Choosing to act at a moment like this, they must have already made peace with the idea of fighting all of us."
Kyoraku Shunsui lowered the brim of his hat. Ukitake Jushiro pressed the back of his hand to the corner of his mouth and wiped away a trace of blood.
The Twin Stars of the Gotei 13 stood behind Unohana, both gazing upward with unmistakably unfriendly expressions.
Sasakibe was already moving to hold the rear, positioning himself near the Captain-Commander, his own expression pulled into something severe.
"There is no chance of any of you leaving today. We will absolutely—"
He stopped.
Mid-sentence, he simply stopped.
Because Yamamoto had reached out an arm and placed his hand flat against Sasakibe's chest, pressing gently backward. A quiet, deliberate signal to step back.
And in the same moment, Yamamoto lifted one foot and stepped forward. Then another. He walked straight through the group and came to stand at the very front.
Captain-Commander was not only a title that meant spiritual symbol. He was also the guardian of Soul Society in the most practical sense of the word.
When conditions allowed, he had no objection to letting others step up and gain experience, to demonstrate the strength of the Seireitei.
But the people in front of him right now were different.
He swept his gaze upward, expression flat and cold, voice carrying no inflection whatsoever.
"You are the spies embedded within the Gotei 13."
Not a guess. Not a question.
A matter-of-fact statement, delivered the way someone speaks about something they have already known to be true for quite some time.
He did not wait for any response.
"I don't know what methods you used to remain hidden for so long. But the fact that you have chosen to appear now means you have prepared yourselves to fight me to the death."
He turned his body sideways. His hand closed around his sword.
The fabric of Yamamoto's clothes stirred without any wind. The reiatsu moving around him pulled at the hem of his robe, and the impression it produced was enough to make a person stop in their tracks.
"Old Man will not be letting any of you go today."
A sharp hiss.
The air itself reversed, drawing inward, spiraling back in on itself.
Then the reiatsu erupted. It didn't build: it detonated, surging outward all at once like a geyser blowing.
BANG!!!
Raw spiritual pressure becoming something almost physical, rising like roaring flames brought suddenly to a boil. The depth of power behind it was staggering to witness.
This time, Yamamoto was not holding back. One decisive blow to end it, and then answers: he was going to find out exactly who had been targeting him.
"Kyoraku!"
Yamamoto's voice cut sharp and clear, calling his student by surname.
"Once Old Man engages, don't hold anything back. Lead the others, tie them down, and bring them in."
Real combat was not some honorable one-on-one standoff. It was one side pressing everything it had against the other. Once you committed to acting, you went all the way from the first moment.
Facing Yamamoto's call, the familiar easy smile spread across Kyoraku Shunsui's face. His response carried a barely contained thread of excitement.
"Leave it to me."
Kyoraku Shunsui had always read himself as a support player. The casual indolence he projected day-to-day was, in its own way, a kind of cover. Under Yamamoto's command, Kyoraku was perfectly happy playing second seat.
He raised his right hand and pointed toward the figures above.
"The right one is the Captain-Commander's target. So the other two are ours?"
Brief assessment, clear conclusion. Understood.
"Captain Unohana, if you don't mind going in first with me."
Send the vanguard in to probe ability levels and fighting characteristics. For a role like that, the people filling it needed to be capable fighters in their own right.
Ukitake and Sasakibe would hold back as support, observe, and read the direction the situation took.
The arrangement formed quickly in Kyoraku's mind, took shape, and became a workable plan in the space of what felt like a single breath.
On the other side, high above.
The airborne Club had reached their own conclusions at almost the same moment.
"What do we do, Matsushita..."
Tosen's voice carried clear anxiety. He was also, visibly, quite tense.
He couldn't help it. He was the least experienced and the weakest fighter among the three of them up here. Once the group combat started, there was a very real chance he'd end up as little more than a speed bump.
This is hopeless.
Faced with Tosen's unease, Aizen Sosuke's mood was noticeably calmer. He had no particular regard for what was waiting below. With Kyoka Suigetsu, group combat was not a scenario that concerned him.
What's there to panic about? Let me pull my little trick and have them tear each other apart.
Of course.
Matsushita Yusuke shut that idea down before it fully formed.
"No need to overcomplicate it. Let me handle this."
He exhaled slowly, stepped forward, and moved to stand in front of the other two.
He glanced sideways for a moment, gaze drifting across the figures waiting below, and let a fairly relaxed expression settle across his face.
Aizen's ability had never been exposed. That mattered. With several major story arcs ahead, all of them containing large-scale open combat, keeping that intelligence advantage intact was critical.
So. Without Kyoka Suigetsu scrambling the field, how exactly did three against five work in their favor?
Simple.
Matsushita Yusuke stepped to the front with complete ease and said, lightly:
"I can handle them alone."
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