Szayelaporro first watched his hand swing backward like a broken branch swaying in the wind, and only then did the bone-deep agony register in his mind.
The pain was so real, yet bizarrely surreal. One punch. Just a single punch had snapped his wrist. How could a Shinigami's fragile body possibly achieve such a thing?!
Even though the arm exposed beneath the sleeve was currently taut with muscle, looking far sturdier than his own wrist, Szayelaporro still found it hard to accept the reality before him.
*Was there an error in the data? Does the Shinigami before me possess a physique comparable to—no, surpassing—a Vasto Lorde-class Menos?* This unimaginable situation actually left Szayelaporro feeling somewhat bewildered.
Kōe had no idea what Szayelaporro was thinking. If he did, he probably would have laughed out loud right then and there.
Ikkotsu was a Hakuda technique unique to Yamamoto, which he had naturally passed down to Kōe. This martial art, which focused power and delivered it at extreme speed, allowed a Shinigami to achieve feats far beyond their current physical limits.
His Ikkotsu was merely at the beginner level, yet it had left Szayelaporro in this state. If the Arrancar had been facing the old man just now, he would have been scared to death, assuming he wasn't beaten to death first.
Although Kōe's Ikkotsu just now was spectacular and successfully broke Szayelaporro's wrist, if Yamamoto had thrown that punch, there wouldn't have been a single ounce of wasted power. There wouldn't have been any sonic booms; the only sound would be the enemy's body being pulverized.
*Compared to the old man, I still have a long way to go!*
It was indeed a bit regrettable that he hadn't completely shattered Szayelaporro's wrist with one punch, but breaking it had already achieved Kōe's goal. This was the limit of what his current skill level could accomplish.
That was exactly why he had targeted the wrist. If Kōe truly possessed Yamamoto's capabilities, he wouldn't have just aimed for the wrist. Even if he needed to keep the Arrancar alive, a proper beating was still in order!
Having landed his punch, Kōe touched down on the ground to steady his stance. At the same time, his left hand loosely gripped one end of a golden rope of light, while the other end had already wrapped around Szayelaporro's right wrist.
"[Bakudō #4・Hainawa]!"
With a forceful tug, he yanked Szayelaporro's arm toward him. Using the momentum from his left hand, Kōe pivoted his body. The muscles in his right arm bulged as he viciously slammed his fist into the wrist he had just pulled in.
"Ikkotsu!"
Another deafening *bang* echoed out, even louder than the last. Aided by the rotational force, Kōe's second Ikkotsu carried even more power than the first.
That slender wrist snapped completely under the blow. The jagged stump was left hanging by a single thin thread of either tendon or tough skin, looking absolutely gruesome.
"Aaaaargh!"
A bloodcurdling scream immediately rang out. The continuous, agonizing pain radiating from both wrists completely jolted Szayelaporro awake.
*Does this Shinigami intend to beat me to death alive, punch by punch?* The thought that suddenly popped into his head made Szayelaporro feel incredibly humiliated, as if he were being looked down upon by an ant.
The tentacles on his back smashed into the ground, propelling him backward. Of course, this didn't mean Szayelaporro was afraid of Kōe and preparing to flee; it was merely an instinctive combat reaction.
Kōe certainly wasn't going to give him that chance. Creating distance to prevent close combat, using his tentacles to absorb the black liquid on the ground to heal his body—Szayelaporro's every move had been completely predicted.
"[Hadō #57・Daichi Tenyō]!"
"[Hadō #58・Tenran]!"
Kōe flattened his hands, overlapping his palms, and slammed them heavily onto the ground. The already devastated earth had another layer scraped off. As it fractured into boulders, a violent gale suddenly erupted!
For a moment, it felt as if heaven and earth had flipped. The tempest swept up the shattered debris and hurled it skyward, taking the off-balance Szayelaporro along with it.
That black liquid could indeed heal injuries, but according to Kōe's observations, Szayelaporro had to physically ingest it into his body, such as through his tentacles.
Daichi Tenyō altered the terrain, forcing Szayelaporro away from the ground, while Tenran amplified this effect and simultaneously scattered the pools of black liquid. Even if Szayelaporro managed to heal, the process would be significantly slowed. It was a choice that killed two birds with one stone.
Naturally, Kōe wouldn't be satisfied with just this. From the moment he broke Szayelaporro's wrist, his intention had been to completely subdue his opponent. He wouldn't give him a single opening if he could help it!
"[Hadō #33・Sōkatsui]!"
Pale blue flames instantly engulfed Szayelaporro in midair. A Kidō of this level wasn't enough to threaten his life, but would those scattered droplets of liquid in the air survive?
The answer, of course, was no. Ever since he learned that this liquid possessed healing properties, Kōe had been trying to figure out a way to deal with it.
The reason he chose Sōkatsui to test Szayelaporro was to see if flames of this temperature could evaporate the liquid on the ground.
Watching Szayelaporro wreathed in flames in the sky, Kōe wore a thoroughly disdainful smile beneath his mask.
A Shinigami had Reiatsu vents on both wrists. While they weren't the only places on the body that could emit Reiatsu, they were the primary output points.
His good friend Urahara Kisuke had told him this. Naturally, Kōe, who could clearly see the flow of Reiatsu within an enemy's body through his Kōki mask, could also perceive this fact.
During his earlier probing of Szayelaporro, Kōe noticed that when the Arrancar dismantled his Sōren Sōkatsui, the Reiatsu inside his body was emitted from his wrists at a complex frequency.
A Vasto Lorde-class Menos—or rather, Szayelaporro—also relied on the Reiatsu vents on his wrists to output Reiatsu. More importantly, dismantling a Reiatsu structure also required Reiatsu!
As long as these Reiatsu vents were sealed off, the opponent would no longer be able to shatter his Reiatsu structures!
Realizing this, Kōe immediately abandoned his original plan. Instead, he opted for Ikkotsu—a technique with no massive telegraphing before its release—to directly snap both of Szayelaporro's wrists.
Now that even a low-level Kidō like Sōkatsui could make contact with Szayelaporro, it meant impending doom had finally arrived for the Arrancar!
"[Bakudō #63・Sajō Sabaku]!"
A massive, serpentine chain shot out from Kōe's palm, diving straight into the gradually dissipating blue flames in the sky. It looped around, gathering Szayelaporro's flailing tentacles into a single bundle and binding them tight.
"[Bakudō #61・Rikujōkōrō]!"
"[Bakudō #37・Tsuriboshi]!"
Before Szayelaporro could react, his body was trapped by six beams of light, instantly rendering him completely immobile.
White Reiryoku wove into a net before him, cradling Szayelaporro in midair like a hammock. As the flames cleared, Kōe's familiar figure appeared before Szayelaporro once again.
Kōe brought two fingers together, holding them upright like a sword. Before Szayelaporro could say a word, a crimson beam of light erupted from Kōe's fingertips, piercing right through the Arrancar's shoulder in a flash.
"[Ao's Hadō・Line of Gunfire] [Original Kidō]!"
...
Meanwhile, directly above Kōe and the others, in the center of Hueco Mundo's upper layer—Las Noches.
Baraggan, leaning back on his throne, was suddenly awakened. The one who woke him was an Adjuchas under his command.
"Your Majesty, according to the news from Karre, Lord Szayelaporro has found that Shinigami and is about to take action personally."
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