Makoto had never seen Sasakibe unleash his full might.
Golden lightning danced like chains across the man's lithe frame, flickering and sparking. Around his rapier-like Gonryōmaru, faint glimmers swirled like fireflies, an explosive surge of reiatsu radiating from within.
He assumed a textbook Western fencing stance, his body taut as a bowstring drawn to its limit.
Then...
Boom!
He launched like an arrow loosed from the string.
In the center of Makoto and Yorita's vision, Sasakibe's form became a fleeting shimmer amidst the Hollow swarm. Golden bolts streaked in jagged arcs, threading a path of thunder.
That path was paved with the pierced masks and corpses of countless massive Hollows.
His swordplay was compact and efficient, his left hand braced behind him for balance, reiatsu honed to a razor's edge. Each step, each thrust, flowed like liquid light through the oppressive tide.
Too fast.
Only now did Makoto grasp the meaning of Sasakibe's earlier warning.
"Move!"
Seeing Yorita still dazed, Makoto barked an order, flashing forward with Shunpo in Sasakibe's wake.
The trio, with Sasakibe as the spearhead, carved across the Hollow horde.
Straight toward the Genji School.
Yet the spatial rift, spanning multiple districts, engulfing West 58 to 70, was staggering in scope. Even the Shiba Family, masters of the Dangai for generations, had never witnessed a Hollow tide of this magnitude.
Rescue was a pipe dream.
"Sasakibe-san! Conserve your reiatsu!" Yorita, snapping to attention, scanned the vertical reishi pillars piercing the sky. His voice sank, "We can't kill them all!"
"We have to shatter those reishi streams linking to Hueco Mundo!"
"Otherwise, this will never end."
Sasakibe faltered briefly but halted his assault, charging headlong instead.
All three grasped the truth in an instant.
Hollows thrived only by devouring spirits.
In Hueco Mundo, they fought endlessly, against kin, against the strong, for the slimmest scraps of survival, climbing over corpses toward Vasto Lordehood.
To them, the Soul Society, teeming with Pluses was paradise.
Countless defenseless spirits lived carefree on its soil, basking in water and sunlight.
To a Hollow, they were an all-you-can-eat buffet, stripped bare and served on a platter.
With the Soul Society and Hueco Mundo now broadly linked, no matter how many they felled, an endless flood of Hollows would pour through.
The priority, destroy the passages.
Makoto turned to Yorita, hope flaring, "Shiba-san, do you know how to break them?"
Yorita's face stiffened. Gazing at the towering reishi streams, he faltered, embarrassment creeping in,
"I… I'm not sure."
Makoto's expression hitched, but a spark of realization struck. He pulled a black box from his robes.
The wireless spirit transmission Senjumaru had delivered weeks prior.
If Yorita didn't know, it didn't matter.
Someone did.
Makoto flipped it open, retrieving an earpiece communicator. Slipping it on, he fed it a trickle of reiatsu.
Static crackled briefly before the connection stabilized to its sole recipient.
"Hey! Senjumaru?"
"Can you hear me?"
He shouted, wary of the prototype's shoddy mic.
Then came Senjumaru's signature flat tone, laced with her usual brow-furrowed disdain, "Need an artificial larynx? If your own's no good, cut it out and swap it."
Relief washed over Makoto at her voice, "How's it over there? Is Kirio-chan okay?"
"Makoto-nii! I'm fine!"
Kirio's lively shout burst through.
Followed by a thunk, a knock to the head.
Senjumaru summarized briskly, "A massive reishi surge hit the Genji School's main hall. I grabbed the brat on the way."
"But that old man's either been swallowed by a spatial rift or sealed away."
"Unohana's running things here for now."
"Where are you?"
Here we go again, Makoto thought.
He'd noticed a pattern.
In every major clash, the old man, the prime spearhead always got sidelined first.
"We're in West District 60, heading to the Genji School."
"Shiba-san's with us. He says we need to smash the reishi streams to seal the spatial channels."
"Got a plan over there?"
"You think I need you to..." Senjumaru started to snap, then caught the key detail, "Who'd you say is with you?"
"Yorita Shiba!"
"Bring him back, fastest speed possible!"
Her voice spiked with rare excitement.
"Huh?" Makoto blinked. "But he said he doesn't know how-"
"He doesn't need to!" Senjumaru cut in sharply. "The Shiba's Dangai expertise is exactly what our tech division lacks. Get him here, and we'll close the channels from the Dangai."
"Got it!"
Clarity struck Makoto.
Glancing over, he jolted, Sasakibe and Yorita had crept close, eavesdropping intently by his earpiece.
"From the Dangai?" Yorita murmured.
"Makes sense."
The idea surprised him, yet felt inevitable.
The Dangai was the nexus between the three realms.
Even with this convergence of spheres between Hueco Mundo and the Soul Society, it merely compressed the Dangai's paths to near-instant crossings.
Sever that route, and no matter their hunger, the Hollows couldn't leap the Garganta.
Senjumaru's voice roared through, "Anyway! Hurry up!"
"Intel says nearly ten percent of Genji School territory's been overrun! Pluses and Shinigami are fleeing to the inner districts. Any later, and we're surrounded!"
"It's bad, huh."
Makoto glanced at his companions, exhaling heavily.
At last, Senjumaru's voice softened, almost offhand,
"And…"
"Don't die."
Makoto paused, then murmured.
"Yeah."
The line cut.
That woman has a sharp tongue but still has a soft heart.
Makoto and Sasakibe turned to Yorita.
The Seireitei's freshest traitor nodded firmly.
"I know what to do."
Sasakibe dipped his head, issuing orders, "Then, Makoto, we'll alternate clearing the path and conserving reiatsu."
"We must get Shiba-san to the hall."
"At all costs!"
No time to fuss over Makoto's genius label now.
Hadn't they heard?
Even Captain-Commander Yamamoto was banished to the Dangai, alive, surely, but his return was uncertain.
At this moment, immediate combat strength and priority trumped all.
A genius fell before blooming was just a fleeting regret.
Makoto understood, nodding, "Yes."
Sasakibe turned, advancing.
But as his silhouette emerged ahead, a Cero arrow lanced from the sidelines, piercing the air, and his body, with a resounding bang, hurling him into a distant cliff.
Boom!
The explosion lagged, reverberating a half-beat later.
Makoto and Yorita's faces froze.
Then, from the jungle, an Adjuchas, chameleon-like, cloaked in camouflage, slithered forth.
Its maw stretched a grotesque 180 degrees, grinning at the pair behind Sasakibe, hissing.
"…First one."
***
Bonus Chapter:
100 Power Stones = 1 BC
300 Power Stones = 2 BC
500 Power Stones = 3 BC
700 Power Stones = 4 BC
1000 Power Stones = 5 BC
***
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