Reign over the frosted heavens—Hyorinmaru!
The moment the release command fell, Tōshirō Hitsugaya's presence surged skyward. Vast Reiatsu churned wildly within him, and an indescribable wave of freezing power swept in every direction.
As gust after gust of icy wind spread outward, visible frost crystals began to form around his body.
At the same time, his Zanpakutō changed shape and revealed itself fully before everyone's eyes.
It was a long, slender blade. A chain extended from the hilt, and at the end of the chain hung a crescent-shaped blade. Taken together, the shape resembled the tail of an ice dragon.
Reiatsu flowed across the frost-forged blade, releasing a chilling aura that made people instinctively recoil. After his Shikai, every movement Hitsugaya made seemed to carry with it a cold so intense it invited despair.
The strongest ice-type Zanpakutō—
a blade said to rule everything beneath the heavens.
"So it's because of that sword?" Aokiji narrowed his eyes, his gaze settling almost imperceptibly on Hyorinmaru. Even as the user of the Ice-Ice Fruit, he could still feel a flicker of alarm at the chill radiating from it.
"I may not know what that blade is," Aokiji said, his own aura flaring, "but I command the power of ice as well!"
A bone-deep frost exploded out of his body in an instant.
Centered on his feet, the freezing air spread rapidly across the deck, turning it into a field of solid ice in moments.
The power of the Ice-Ice Fruit surged to its limit.
"So this is the power of the Ice-Ice Fruit. No wonder the captain left you to me." Hitsugaya's expression did not change. With a light sweep of Hyorinmaru, a dazzling white arc appeared in midair.
Cold energy spilled outward, and wherever the blade's path passed, the moisture in the air froze instantly.
That alone was enough to show Hyorinmaru's might.
As the strongest ice-type Zanpakutō, it could shape the overflowing moisture in the air into an ice dragon and imprison its target inside massive crystal ice.
"How terrifying…"
The Marines nearby stared in stunned silence. Even from a distance, the freezing pressure invading the air was enough to rob their bodies of sensation.
Their blood seemed to cool.
Their limbs went numb.
Their hands turned purple with cold.
It felt as if they had been thrown into an eternal glacier.
Facing the oncoming frost, Aokiji said nothing. Cold gathered quietly in his palm and condensed into a sharp blade of ice.
"If this keeps up, my subordinates are going to freeze solid."
The moment those words fell, Aokiji vanished.
The Six Powers—Soru.
A sharp slash infused with freezing force came down head-on, but Hitsugaya had clearly already anticipated him. He calmly raised Hyorinmaru and met the attack.
A crisp clash rang out.
The cold around them exploded violently, and visible frost spread through the air.
After the exchange, Aokiji was forced a step back, while Hitsugaya remained where he stood.
"So you can only watch while I trample Marine justice, and all you can do is resort to surprise attacks?" Hitsugaya's green eyes turned colder. "Then I suggest you use your strongest technique now. I can't guarantee your subordinates won't be caught up in this and killed."
Ryūsenka!
Hitsugaya swung Hyorinmaru. The temperature along the arc of the blade plummeted, and the moisture in the air condensed at once into a majestic ice dragon.
The dragon coiled across the sky before crashing down.
"Damn it—his target isn't me, it's the men behind me!" Aokiji's eyes widened sharply. In the instant the dragon descended, he realized it had changed direction.
If he didn't intervene, his subordinates would be swallowed whole.
At the critical moment, Aokiji leapt forward and rammed into the dragon with his own body.
"Guh—!"
His body shattered apart, turning into countless fragments of ice that scattered from the sky. Even though he had elementalized at the last second, the collision of equally frigid powers still forced a pained groan from him.
"Admiral Aokiji!"
The Marines cried out in panic. At that moment, they felt the weakness of their own strength with painful clarity. In the face of that sky-filling ice dragon, they would have been obliterated in an instant.
"Even Admiral Aokiji is being suppressed?"
Watching Aokiji get forced back, fear spread rapidly through the Marines. Their morale began to crack.
The Admirals were not only the highest military force of the Marines—they were also the spiritual pillars every Marine looked up to.
Strong. Unique. Unbeatable.
That was what a Marine Admiral was supposed to be.
But first Kizaru fell. Then Akainu. Now Aokiji was being pressed back as well.
The foundation of justice was beginning to shake, and the fear settling into the Marines' hearts became something they would never forget.
"That was close. You almost killed me." Under Hitsugaya's gaze, Aokiji's body rapidly restored itself and reformed in one piece.
"So that's the special trait of a Logia." Hyorinmaru remained in Hitsugaya's hands as he frowned slightly. It was true that, against an opponent with the same element, it was difficult to inflict a decisive wound without Armament Haki.
But Hitsugaya did not see it that way.
Even among identical attributes, there was still the matter of superiority.
Aokiji's ice might be among the highest-grade Logia powers in the world.
But Hitsugaya wielded the strongest ice-type Zanpakutō.
Nothing more needed to be said.
The word strongest explained everything.
"You dared target my men. I won't let that slide so easily!" Aokiji thrust both hands forward.
Ice Ball!
Five pillars of ice shot from his palms like streaks of light, freezing the moisture in the air as they tore forward.
Guncho Tsurara!"
Hitsugaya shot toward Aokiji at high speed. Hyorinmaru swept forward, and a flock-like stream of ice projectiles screamed through the air in a connected barrage.
Cold surged wildly through the battlefield.
"…As I thought. Shikai alone won't be enough to defeat you." Hitsugaya's eyes sharpened. He had no intention of dragging this battle out any longer.
A blizzard-like Reiatsu exploded from his body, and a brilliant white light flashed across Hyorinmaru's blade.
In that instant, the temperature itself seemed to drop to absolute zero.
Bankai—Daiguren Hyōrinmaru!
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