Chapter 231: I Almost Died! (SHOUTING)
Yamamoto delivered his declaration of victory.
Not purely for show. Partly just to catch his breath after what had just happened.
From the outside looking in, it might have looked almost mild: one person holding the other's throat, the other gripping a face. No massive exchanges, no dramatic flourishes.
But as a price paid, both of them had burned their reiatsu to the point of nearly running dry. Everything available had been used as fuel: resisting the other's attacks, maintaining their own state. A flat-out, no-reserve throttle-open chase to the finish. And in that, the old man came out one step ahead.
Though perhaps "predictable" was the fairer description.
Yusuke's reiatsu was close to the peak of what he could currently achieve, but it still wasn't enough to match a monster that had been alive for this long.
One move short.
That was probably the most accurate way to describe it.
The fight was settled. Realizing this, Tosen below finally reached the point where watching from the sidelines was no longer acceptable.
"Stop—"
The words hadn't finished leaving his mouth when Aizen Sosuke reached out casually and blocked him in place.
"Wait."
"Aizen-sama!"
Tosen's composure slipped in that moment. He had gone and used the actual name, the actual title, out loud. If not for Kyoka Suigetsu's identity distortion running continuously, that would have been a full exposure. Tosen recognized the mistake almost immediately.
But he moved past it quickly. That wasn't the pressing issue right now. Because your teammate was about to have his head crushed. Was anyone going to do anything about that?
He didn't say it out loud, but his expression said everything.
Aizen Sosuke replied with complete calm.
"Don't be impatient. It's not time yet."
Besides.
"He has his own way out."
At almost exactly that moment.
Half his head caught in a grip and about to trigger a game-over screen, Matsushita Yusuke clicked his tongue with an expression of faint displeasure.
"Tch..."
Still not quite there, then.
In theory, fighting without any exceptional abilities, Matsushita Yusuke had already given absolutely everything. On that basis, he had managed to keep pace with Yamamoto for a stretch. But the longer it ran, the more completely it stopped being a contest.
Basically exactly what he had predicted.
"Quite the troublesome opponent."
One quiet exhale. Then Matsushita Yusuke released the domain barrier of his second Zanpakuto.
In an instant, a crisp shattering sound rang out that everyone could hear. Even Yamamoto looked up.
The enormous sphere that had been hovering above cracked and broke apart. And the figures falling from inside captured every bit of Yamamoto's attention.
Figure after figure coming down. And seeing them, the suspended anxiety that had been sitting in him since this all began finally eased completely.
Old friends. Students. People he was responsible for. All four of them, somewhat the worse for wear, but with no mortal danger in sight.
Thank goodness.
The thought had barely formed before another shape descended from above and seized his complete attention.
What was that?
A figure wreathed in blazing flame. Roaring. Falling straight at him, swinging a blade that looked like a charred piece of driftwood.
For a fraction of a second, something in Yamamoto's mind went blank, as if he was seeing a ghost of something from a very long time ago.
His arm came up without thinking. He blocked.
BANG!!!
Two forces met and canceled, both consuming the other until nothing was left.
"...!"
Yamamoto swayed slightly. He even stumbled backward two involuntary steps.
Part of that was the unstable state he was already in. But the rest of it said plainly that whoever had just landed that sneak strike was operating at a level well above ordinary.
"You—!"
Before he could say more, the figure that had just landed, hadn't even turned to face him, dissolved on the spot like a breeze that had simply finished passing.
Gone.
That was impossible to process immediately. Yamamoto stood with the beginnings of something genuinely baffled in his expression.
The moment didn't last long. Because from behind him, familiar voices carried over.
"Old Man Yama!"
He turned sharply. Kyoraku Shunsui and the others were jogging toward him. The tension in him that had still been hanging in the air finally let go entirely.
Everyone was accounted for. That was the best possible news.
But immediately:
Something's wrong.
He snapped to the other side.
Empty. The three figures who had been standing not far away were gone, completely, as though they had never been there.
In pure logic, that shouldn't be possible. Even the most refined shunpo couldn't cover that kind of distance that quickly. And now, scanning the area, Yamamoto couldn't detect even the faintest trace of reiatsu in the surrounding space.
What had happened? Where had those three gone? And what exactly had just struck him?
The questions surfaced one after the other, leaving his expression more confused than it had been in a very long time.
But he had no time to sit with it. Kyoraku and the others were approaching. And as the Captain-Commander of the Gotei 13, this was not the moment to look uncertain.
He straightened up. He returned his expression to the composed steadiness it always carried.
He let them come to him.
"Kyoraku. What happened on your end?"
....
Whatever account Kyoraku and the others gave, that was its own conversation.
Meanwhile, roughly ten kilometers from the battle, Matsushita Yusuke hit the ground sitting, completely spent.
His face said exactly what it meant: exhausted.
Close-range fighting with Yamamoto in a mutual reiatsu-burning endgame, then one move short and his head in a grip. The description only took a few sentences. Living it had been a walk right up to death's door.
I almost died. I ALMOST DIED.
"Cough, cough... all I can say is, it was lucky the extraction target was a good fit this time."
With that thought settling, Matsushita Yusuke let an expression of genuine relief work its way onto his face.
He had released the domain deliberately.
The first reason: to recover what little reiatsu and energy still remained. That gave him the opening to slip away at the exact moment Yamamoto's attention was pulled elsewhere.
The second reason was the other side of the same coin.
When the barrier came down, Matsushita Yusuke had redirected what was left of the reiatsu he had been using to maintain the domain outward, into the construct. That gave the construct Yamamoto a brief window to operate outside the barrier before the energy ran out entirely.
That falling figure wielding the charcoal blade. That was the "key strike."
The hit that bought the escape.
Of course, in another sense, this was also just using the ability the right way.