"No!!!"
Yusuke cried out in alarm the moment the blade fell.
The expected scene of splattering blood did not occur.
Asuka's strike did not land on Senna.
Instead, it deflected just inches away from her, viciously cleaving into the empty ground beside her!
A massive fissure was carved into the hard earth, the violent sword aura sending surrounding rubble flying.
Knocked to the ground by the shockwave, Senna stared in a daze at the man before her, his eyes closed and his body radiating killing intent.
"Asuka?!" Shinobu Kocho covered her mouth in shock, tears instantly welling up in her eyes.
Asuka did not open his eyes; his consciousness was immersed in his turbulent inner world.
Within his mental landscape, the sky remained a chaotic expanse.
The giant white wolf lay at the edge of the void, quietly watching him.
And upon the giant tree in the idyllic Rukongai, the black-haired young man rested his chin on one hand, smiling at Asuka's arrival.
"You're here."
"Since you were already awake, why didn't you say something sooner?" Asuka complained in annoyance. "I had made up my mind, and that blade almost hit her!"
"Well, I actually wanted to see what choice you would make." The black-haired youth shrugged. "It seems you really have been changed quite a bit by these people, to the point of having the resolve to commit evil in order to protect the entire world."
Asuka glared at the black-haired youth, making him shiver.
"Alright, jokes aside... I actually just figured out what to do."
He looked at Asuka's unyielding gaze and sighed helplessly. "I came up with a rather troublesome solution. The choice is yours."
"If you don't want to kill her, the only way is to use the power of Kakudatsu to forcibly strip away the emotional core within her, separating it as the essence of the Shinenju."
"Then, you swallow it into your own body."
"Swallow it into my body?" Asuka frowned.
"Exactly." The black-haired youth nodded. "Those mixed yet pure emotions are the core of the Valley of Screams' existence."
"In other words, you change the conceptual existence of the Shinenju from Senna to yourself."
"Wouldn't that change absolutely nothing?" Asuka used his extraordinary mind to think seriously. "If a new Shinenju is simply formed inside me, the Valley of Screams still won't close."
"It's actually quite different."
The youth pointed to the sky; on the other side lay the Boundless Mirror Plains where White Shadow resided.
"Your body just so happens to have absorbed the massive and berserk All the World's Evils, which can act as an excellent buffer to suppress the fluctuations of the Shinenju."
"For you, not only will this solve the anchor issue of the Valley of Screams and close the spatial rift, but it can even help you suppress that maddening malice deep within your soul."
"If there's such a perfect solution, why did you say it was troublesome?"
"Because no one has ever tried it." The white wolf chimed in from the side. "Swallowing the very core of a world into your stomach—who knows what consequences that will bring?"
"Perhaps your soul will be blown apart by those chaotic memories, or perhaps All the World's Evils will directly devour those memories and awaken, turning you into a complete lunatic."
"In short, it's a highly risky endeavor."
The black-haired youth did not refute the white wolf's words, adding with a wicked smirk, "There's one more thing..."
"Once you strip away the core of the Shinenju, that girl will lose the foundation of her existence."
"Although she won't die immediately, she will become a Blank in another sense. Without an extremely massive amount of Spiritual Energy to maintain her spiritual core, she will still dissipate in a short time."
"Or... since her core was absorbed by you, you could have her stay by your side day and night, bathing in your Spiritual Pressure to maintain her existence."
"However, I think Miss Kocho might have a problem with that..." The youth's three pupils curved with a sly gleam.
Hearing this, Asuka fell into a brief silence.
"If it's troublesome, then so be it." He looked firmly at the youth. "...Let's save her first, and worry about the rest later."
"Tell me, how do I extract it?"
In the real world.
Asuka suddenly opened his eyes, a sharp light erupting from within them.
"Everyone, stand back!"
He shouted, reversing Kakudatsu in his hand and pressing the tip against his own arm before slashing down viciously!
Blood instantly welled up, dyeing the blade red.
"Old man, what are you doing?!" Yusuke was startled by Asuka's self-mutilation.
Asuka ignored him, instead gently pressing the blood-soaked Kakudatsu against Senna's chest.
"This might hurt a little. Bear with it."
Taking a deep breath, he began to channel the profound Spiritual Pressure within his body.
"Devour it, Kakudatsu!"
Hum!
A bizarre power erupted from the tip of the blade.
Senna's body jolted violently. She threw her head back in agony, letting out an uncontrollable scream.
In the blink of an eye, an orb of energy radiating a prismatic halo, like a dreamlike bubble, was forcibly dragged out of Senna's body thread by thread!
That was the core of the Shinenju!
Gripping his Zanpakuto, Asuka watched as the prismatic orb flowed along the blade and gradually surged into his body.
The process was far from pleasant. He felt as though sharp blades were slicing through all the spiritual pathways in his body, but he could only grit his teeth and endure.
As the orb was extracted, Senna's body began to turn transparent at a visible rate, and the Zanpakuto known as Mirokumaru dissolved into motes of light, vanishing into the air.
"Senna!" Yusuke tried to rush forward but was held back firmly by Kurama.
"Don't go over there, Yusuke! Can't you see he's saving her?!" Kurama's eyes flickered with shock. "He's transferring that core, which is overflowing with massive Spiritual Energy, into himself!"
"That must be what he mentioned—the cause behind the existence of this abnormal space."
Boom!
Asuka felt as though the memories of tens of thousands of people had been crammed into his brain.
Laughter, weeping, anger, sorrow...
Countless emotions crashed against his soul like a tsunami, momentarily causing his consciousness to waver.
Meanwhile, the dormant All the World's Evils within him acted like a shark smelling blood, madly lunging at this foreign emotional energy.
The two vastly different forces engaged in a brutal slaughter within Asuka's body, causing the surface of his skin to continuously bulge and deflate, the veins on his forehead bulging as if they were about to burst.
Ugh...
Asuka let out a muffled groan, leaning on his sword to support his body. He poured all his strength into guiding the two forces, attempting to help them find a fragile equilibrium amidst their collision.
Having lost her core, Senna had become like a faint shadow, looking as though a single gust of wind could blow her away.
"This is bad... Her spiritual body is too fragile!" Shinobu Kocho, unaware of the full details, judged anxiously. "If this continues, she will still dissipate!"
"Then what do we do?! Botan, do you have any ideas?!" Yusuke hurriedly asked.
Botan was also so anxious that tears fell from her eyes. "I... I'm just a Spirit Guide! I don't have that kind of massive Spiritual Energy to sustain her soul!"
Right at this critical juncture.
"Honestly, what a troublesome bunch."
"How could a major operation involving the laws of the world lack my guidance?"
A clear yet authoritative male voice suddenly rang out in midair.
Everyone abruptly looked up.
In the air above, a large door radiating a sacred golden light slowly opened.
A tall, slender man with short hair, a pacifier in his mouth, slowly stepped out.
On his forehead were written two large English letters.
JR.