Chapter 104: Raging Offensive
"What is that?"
The gathering here was full of capable people. Even so, those who could use a technique of this scale remained a minority. The question was fair.
Kuna Mashiro's confusion got a flat response from Hirako Shinji.
"Physical-type Zanpakuto, probably."
Some things didn't need careful analysis. A look was enough.
Purple-red electrical current ran across Kijishi's body in thick coiling channels, like massive serpents writhing and wrapping around him.
"What's the ability?"
"How would that be obvious, you idiot!"
Kensei smacked his vice-captain on the head in a token gesture, but the criticism aside, experience had its use here. He turned and said, more assessment than certainty:
"Probably enhances certain attack methods. No, it would be more accurate to call it a Bankai that specializes a portion of its attack capabilities."
The reason was simple.
"A Zanpakuto changed to this degree: it shouldn't just be an appearance difference."
Otoribashi Rojuro rubbed his chin and added:
"And it shouldn't stop at just the blade either. His body has the same growths and markings. Some of that should be an extension of the ability itself."
Aikawa Love crouched down, arms folded.
"Attack specialization on the Zanpakuto side, plus possible ability extension? That sounds like trouble."
So then.
How was Matsushita Yusuke going to handle it?
"Cough, cough..."
Through the settling dust, a figure gradually became visible.
Matsushita Yusuke wiped the grime from his face and breathed through it.
That first hit had been abrupt. Kijishi's speed had clearly come in above what it was supposed to be capable of. He'd been caught by a move he hadn't fully read, but the damage was manageable. Nothing serious.
As for the Bankai: forcing the release through a brute-force opening? That was its own kind of cowardice. Hard to say much about it.
"He used Bankai?"
Great, you use Bankai. I'll just go ahead and Ba--
...no. That's genuinely not on the table right now.
He looked at the sky and the ground reacting to Kijishi's release and felt a very particular kind of envy.
It would be nice. Just shouting the word in front of a street full of witnesses, at full volume: Bankai! There was nothing that sounded more satisfying than that. But he couldn't do it yet.
So. I need to borrow your life as a stepping stone.
His thoughts settled. He released his Zanpakuto in silence.
Kido-type Release: Shingonkai.
Silent ribbons of light wrapped around both sides of Matsushita Yusuke, flowing and shifting, appearing in a subdued way that carried nothing of Kijishi's sky-shaking force behind it.
Which was exactly what made it unsettling.
"Here it comes. That young man's methods are supposedly quite something. Don't miss it."
Urahara Kisuke elbowed the large man beside him with a cheerful expression.
Tsukabishi Tessai gave a single serious nod, adjusted his glasses, and gave the scene his full attention.
As head of the Kido Corps, his expertise in Kido ran considerably deeper than even most captain-level practitioners. He had heard the accounts secondhand until now.
Let me see exactly what you're capable of.
Being expected. Being observed. Being assessed.
Matsushita Yusuke moved.
"Reiatsu."
Loan first. Good opening.
With the expanded reiatsu flow suddenly surrounding him, he had no attention left to spend on anyone else's reaction. He raised his hand.
Right index finger pointed toward Kijishi. Reiatsu wove with rapid precision, spreading like something dissolved into the air itself, seeping into every corner beneath the open sky.
"Kin."
Reishi surged and took shape in an instant. Strips and nail-like forms appeared in the air and wrapped rapidly around Kijishi's body.
Tsukabishi Tessai made a sharp sound.
"Is that... Bakudo #99?"
Without the chant?
How?
Kijishi swung his cleaver and retreated, cutting through most of the formed restraints.
Matsushita Yusuke didn't react to that. He extended his middle finger alongside his index finger, both pointing together.
"Bankin."
Bakudo #99, Part Two.
Tsukabishi Tessai's sweat had appeared.
Larger cloth strips surged up and wrapped tight around Kijishi's body.
"First Song: Halting Paralysis."
Six iron rods drove downward from above, piercing through the cloth, fixing Kijishi to the ground.
"Second Song: Hundred Linked Bolts."
Manji-stamped stones materialized in rapid succession, falling from above and crashing into Kijishi's head, shattering into fragments across the ground.
Boom!
"There's a Final Song too?!"
Urahara looked over at Tessai with a cheerful expression.
"Well? How does it feel?"
Tessai wiped the sweat from his forehead.
"At full strength, I can do it too, and with better effect. But..."
The convenience was in a completely different category from anything he could produce. And considering this person's age...
"Is he really just an Academy student?"
"Who knows. In my view, at least, he is a student."
No time for that conversation.
Yusuke hadn't expected the Bakudo to finish it. That was never the point. Binding techniques had limited killing power by nature.
The setup was done. The real blow came after.
Ring finger joining the others. Matsushita Yusuke's voice went flat and cold.
"Kurohitsugi: Modified."
Boom!!!
Reiatsu flows climbed like a grid, point by point, instantly covering and surrounding Kijishi, assembling a complete, abstract pitch-black cube around him.
Hado.
Like a beast showing its teeth, Matsushita Yusuke launched his real offensive.
"Is that Kurohitsugi?"
Aizen Sosuke smiled at the confused faces around him.
"Modified. Matsushita-kun should have made alterations to the original. Without an incantation, he sets the target as a defined area, frames the entire range within it, and uses reishi resonance to accelerate formation speed -- aiming for maximum speed and maximum destructive power at the same time."
Hirako Shinji rubbed his chin, still smiling.
"Less raw power than the original version. But a genuinely clever idea. Speed more than doubled."
That wasn't even the limit.
Matsushita Yusuke's curled pinky finger relaxed completely and joined the others.
"Senjukokoten Taiho!"
Bright red energy orbs appeared one after another, dense and swarming, each one launching toward the Black Coffin in rapid succession, biting into it.
Hado was inherently attack-oriented reishi. Different types of attack reishi colliding didn't cancel each other out. They stacked, and the result of that stacking was detonation.
But was that the final blow?
No.
Matsushita Yusuke exhaled. Then drove his hand into a fist.
The reishi around him erupted like boiling liquid, taking on an almost viscous density. His hair rose. His eyes reflected vivid blue light, as though he were submerged in a deep sea made of reishi.
"Itto Kas: Modified."
Hiss.
Flames poured out.
But not the way they had before. No upward eruption. No explosive expansion outward.
The scorching force surged directly toward Kijishi's position, twisting as it moved, converging the way water converges at a crack in the ocean floor, all the fire pulling inward and compressing toward a single point.
Highly concentrated reishi, under a specific control method, driven into further compression.
Kijishi's location became a dazzling ball of light.
Like a sun rising from flat ground.
Then Matsushita Yusuke released his right hand.
Like an ignited fuse reaching the charge at the end of the line, it reached its destination in an instant and detonated every last piece of stored energy inside it.
Boom!!!
The light erupted straight up and almost punched through the sky.
Every person watching showed the same expression.
Is this the level an Academy student can reach?
Wave after relentless wave. This was Matsushita Yusuke at full capacity.
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