The four founders fled Soul Society in utter disgrace, disappearing through the spatial rift like beaten dogs and leaving the Seireitei looking as though it had just survived the end of the world.
Streets had been torn apart, buildings reduced to rubble, and entire sections of the city were buried beneath broken stone and shattered timber.
Batsu'unsai looked around at the devastation and immediately felt her heart ache for an entirely different reason.
"Oh, for fuck's sake. Do you have any idea how much all of this is going to cost to rebuild?"
She had already pushed Full-Moon Rewind as far as she reasonably could, restoring whatever structures happened to fall within range of her Lunar Sea Domain, but the damage had spread far beyond the area she could cover.
Even with the power to rewind nonliving matter, she could only restore so much at once, and the destruction farther away was simply beyond her reach.
The person having an even worse day, however, was Yhwach.
He had stayed behind because he wanted to watch the confrontation unfold, perfectly happy to let Kazuma and the four founders tear pieces out of each other while he searched for an opportunity to benefit from the aftermath.
What he had not expected was for all four founders to get beaten half to death and flee Soul Society almost immediately afterward.
Now they were gone.
And Yhwach was still here.
He looked toward Kazuma and felt his mood sink into something close to despair.
At his current level, he did not believe for a second that he could simply escape from Kazuma once the man decided to focus on him.
'I should've left with the Sternritter.'
Regret hit him hard.
'Of all the times to stay and watch the show…'
Then the voice he had been dreading finally reached him.
"Yhwach?"
Kazuma turned toward him with a smile.
"It's been a thousand years. I've missed you."
Of course.
What was coming had finally arrived.
Kazuma began walking toward him at an unhurried pace, and although the smile on his face looked almost friendly, Yhwach felt nothing warm in it whatsoever.
Each step seemed to tighten the pressure around him, until a single thought drowned out everything else.
Run.
He had to get away from this man.
Immediately!
Yhwach gathered every scrap of power he could and drove it into his legs.
Hirenkyaku activated at full output, and he vanished from the battlefield without wasting another word.
There was no dignity left to preserve.
Staying meant dying!
"Sensei!"
Rukia stared after him in alarm.
"Hurry up! He's getting away!"
She was practically bouncing on her feet with frustration.
If the gap in strength had not been so ridiculous, she would have gone after Yhwach herself, but even Rukia understood that chasing a peak-transcendent opponent when she could barely keep up with the fight would only result in her getting killed for no reason.
Kazuma, on the other hand, seemed completely unconcerned.
He gave Rukia a brief glance, then followed after Yhwach at a leisurely pace.
Not fast enough to catch him.
Just fast enough that Yhwach could never truly get away.
The difference became increasingly obvious as the chase continued.
Yhwach ran as though his life depended on it—which, to be fair, it did—while Kazuma remained comfortably behind him, never rushing, never losing sight of him, and never allowing the distance between them to grow too large.
It was less a pursuit than a predator amusing itself.
By the time they reached the Zaraki District, Yhwach had enough.
He abruptly stopped.
His boots scraped across the ground as he turned to face Kazuma, chest heaving from the sustained escape.
Sweat rolled down his face, and his expression had become a mixture of humiliation and fury.
"Kazuma!"
He steadied himself.
"I admit it. Today, I lost."
His hand tightened around his weapon.
"But I will not keep running from you. If you want to settle this, then use your full strength and fight me properly!"
For someone who considered himself a king, being chased across Soul Society like a stray dog was more intolerable than the possibility of death itself.
Kazuma stopped several meters away.
"I'm not unreasonable."
He folded his arms across his chest.
"A thousand years ago, you pulled a dirty trick on me and nearly got me killed. We've had that account sitting open long enough."
His gaze sharpened.
"So here's what I'll do. You're already in miserable shape, so I'll only use half of my strength."
The casual way he said it somehow made the humiliation worse.
"If you survive, good for you. If you die, that's your problem."
Yhwach said nothing immediately.
He began calculating.
Kazuma was unquestionably stronger than he was, especially in a straight fight.
But half strength was different. If Kazuma genuinely restricted himself that much, then perhaps there was still a path out of this.
Not a comfortable one.
But a chance.
Yhwach slowly inhaled and forced his breathing back under control.
"Fine."
He raised his head.
"Agreed."
His reiatsu surged outward again, thick enough to weigh down the surrounding atmosphere.
The captains who had followed the chase arrived soon afterward and immediately began putting more distance between themselves and the two combatants.
No one felt like standing too close.
Whatever else could be said about Yhwach, he was still a peak-transcendent fighter.
Charging into the middle of a battle between him and Kazuma would be less "helping" and more "volunteering to become collateral damage."
Shinji frowned as he watched the two prepare to fight.
"What exactly is the Captain-Commander thinking?"
He crossed his arms.
"Half strength? Seriously?"
His expression remained troubled.
"If Yhwach somehow survives and gets away after this, he's going to remain a massive problem. Why give him that kind of chance?"
Was Kazuma really that confident?
Or just that reckless?
Rukia, standing nearby, immediately offered her own expert analysis.
"Sensei just wants to show off."
Shinji looked at her.
Rukia spoke with complete certainty.
"I know what he's like. The four founders are already gone, and there's only Yhwach left. If Teacher actually wanted this finished quickly, he could've killed him back in the Seireitei."
She pointed toward Kazuma.
"Instead, he chased him all the way out here like a cat playing with a mouse."
Her conclusion was obvious.
"He wants an audience."
The funniest part was that Rukia had only reached this brilliant insight after the danger had passed.
When Yhwach first ran, she had been panicking and shouting at Kazuma to chase faster, practically ready to go after the Quincy King herself.
Now that Kazuma had clearly demonstrated he was in complete control, she had retroactively decided that she had understood the plan all along.
No one bothered calling her out on it.
The fight began.
Yhwach moved first.
He swung his Quincy cross-blade, sending a black torrent of spiritual power surging toward Kazuma.
Kazuma did not even draw the Ziwei Sword.
"Hadō #4: Byakurai."
He shifted half a step aside and allowed Yhwach's attack to pass him, then raised a single finger.
A point of white light gathered at the tip.
The beam fired.
Yhwach reacted immediately, throwing up a barrier of condensed spiritual power.
Byakurai hit it, the barrier broke.
The white beam punched straight through and struck Yhwach, forcing him several steps backward.
He stared at Kazuma.
Then at the remnants of his destroyed defense.
Then back at Kazuma.
"What the fuck?"
His face twisted.
"This is your idea of half strength?!"
He was a peak-transcendent fighter.
And Kazuma had just pierced his defense with Hadō #4!
Not some forbidden technique.
Not a high-level destructive spell.
Byakurai!
One of the most basic offensive Kidō in existence.
Kazuma immediately looked offended.
"Hey!"
He pointed at Yhwach.
"I'm a very fair person. I said fifty percent, so I'm using fifty percent."
His expression practically screamed wounded integrity.
"Don't start accusing me of cheating just because you're weak."
Yhwach's eye twitched.
Kazuma continued, completely serious.
"And don't make me actually use something big."
For once, Yhwach seemed to have no immediate response.
Because somehow, the most insulting possibility was also the one Kazuma genuinely believed.
As far as Kazuma was concerned, he really was only using half his strength.
It just happened that Yhwach was having a very difficult time surviving even that.