Chapter 26: Urahara's Move
In the end, Mizuma's self-detonation didn't have much effect.
After all, most of his reiryoku had already been allocated to the clone that was rushing toward the cavern; only about half remained for the explosion itself. When the dust settled, Red Hood was only a little singed—some scales on the clawed area were slightly damaged.
Roughly the equivalent of two punches from Kensei.
"Tch, you made it sound so scary I was ready to lose an arm…" Red Hood muttered to itself.
But perhaps the sheer madness of that "I'll bite you even if I die" tactic rattled the dragon more than anyone expected. Instead of immediately recovering and counterattacking, it paused for a moment—just long enough for Kensei to leap in and land several crushing blows, finally dealing the first truly effective damage in the fight.
He sent Red Hood flying over twenty meters.
Kensei poured everything into that strike. Compressing his pressure into a focused impact, he punched a sunken crater into the dragon's flank; scales shattered and the wound was a bloody mess.
Red Hood answered with a maximally-compressed jet of flame!
While it flew through the air, the dragon gathered unprecedented heat in its throat. After less than half a second of buildup, it spat a lance of fire so condensed it looked like a white beam—straight toward Kensei's head.
The breath moved so fast that even if Kensei noticed, his exhausted body couldn't recover in time.
"No way… can't dodge this!"
"Bakudō #81: Dankū!" Urahara shouted.
Just as Red Hood's throat flared white-hot, Urahara thrust out his hand — a tall, translucent barrier erupted between Kensei and the dragon's blazing breath.
The hastily used Danku was weakened—less effective than usual—and the breath blew the barrier apart in under two seconds. But the delay was enough: it gave Kensei time to catch his breath and back away a safe distance.
"Ughhh…" Red Hood spread its wings mid-air, adjusted, circled once, and landed—but the sound it made now carried a hint of pain.
"You're putting up a nice fight…" it growled, eyes blazing even more fiercely. "But now it's time to get serious."
This was not an empty threat. As the dragon declared it, its crimson scales flared brighter; an abyssal, ocean-deep spiritual pressure erupted outward, far beyond what it had displayed before. The oppressive weight of that pressure multiplied several times over.
Lisa—by far the weakest of the trio—choked out a mouthful of blood. The wave of pressure threw her back into the wall; she couldn't even raise her Iron Slag Dragonfly properly. Kensei felt the burden too, but planted his feet like a stake and gritted his teeth, forcing his pressure upward as if preparing to lay down his life.
Damn, how did it get so strong… is this the end?
"You're right—time to get serious."
A flat voice echoed from the cavern center.
"What?" Red Hood turned sharply—and saw something it couldn't believe.
Two Urahara Kisukes?
One stood at the cavern edge, the other beside the crystal—this latter one wearing a black cloak. What the hell?
Red Hood's sensing had been keen from the start; it had tracked everyone's movements and especially that fast, tricky blond—there was no way it would miss a specialist like him. So why—wait—that blond at the cavern edge was only a decoy posture! The real one was by the crystal!
But why couldn't it sense his spiritual pressure?
"You wondering about that?" Urahara said, one hand resting on the crystal. "It's nothing—just a little invention."
A little invention… what was he on about?
"You're probably in a kind of released state now, like your bankai," Urahara said calmly. "Your pressure increased roughly 3.62 times. If we only compare numbers, when you finish releasing, you'd be comparable to an ordinary squad captain."
Red Hood's heart skipped a beat.
It didn't know which captain the blond was referring to, but 3.62 was an oddly precise number—how could he tell just by looking? It hadn't even finished its release yet! This was bad. Very bad.
"But that's too simple." Urahara flicked Red Princess—his weapon—once more and continued, "Aside from that one reckless attack against Watanabe, you've never been more than fifty meters from this crystal. I tried to find out why—"
Like a dragon using a blink, Red Hood vanished and reappeared beside Urahara, slashing with tremendous force.
Urahara, formerly of the stealth squad, read the move without difficulty and dodged.
"Shut up!" the dragon bellowed.
"The conclusion is simple: you have a pressure link to this crystal," Urahara said quietly. "Or rather, your pressure comes from it. You're constrained from damaging it—which is why you insist on closing to melee instead of using sensible ranged attacks."
Huh? So even though Red Hood got stronger, this looked like Urahara was bullying it. Was that sensible? Kensei was dumbfounded.
"So I wondered—what would happen if we tampered with that pressure conduit? For instance, sever it?"
"How could you possibly—!"
"Unluckily for you, that happens to be my speciality."
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〔TL〕
Every 100 powerstones = 2 bonus ch.
Every 2 review after 100 ps = 1 bonus ch.