Faced with Hachigen Ushōda's warning, Kensei still didn't understand what he meant.
In his eyes, his attack had already landed.
That wild, cyan gale—his cutting wind—was only a few centimeters away from Shimo.
If that airflow hit, this bastard wouldn't be able to keep wearing that disgusting look on his face.
Kensei had absolute confidence in his Zanpakutō's power.
Yet in the very next instant—
Shimo's spiritual pressure erupted.
A dull, crushing impact—like a heavy hammer—slammed straight into Kensei's heart.
Black-purple spiritual pressure burst into existence beneath Kensei's feet and crawled upward.
In the blink of an eye, he was completely sealed inside a towering Black Coffin.
That distance of only a few meters turned into an uncrossable chasm.
Shock froze in Kensei's eyes.
He never would've imagined that the strike he'd been sure of—his guaranteed hit—would be dismantled in an instant.
Shimo loosely closed his hand.
In the same moment, rigid shadow blades shot up and pierced clean through Kensei's body.
He deliberately avoided all the vital points—crippling Kensei's ability to fight, nothing more.
"First."
Shimo's voice was calm.
The massive Kurohitsugi shattered apart with a thunderous crack.
Blood sprayed outward like blooming red roses—spreading fear into everyone's chest.
Kensei's eyes rolled back until only the whites showed. He dropped to his knees, powerless, his body riddled with wounds.
The remaining seven stared in alarm inside the barrier, their gazes flicking between the two.
They couldn't sense any rapid loss of Kensei's life force, so rage didn't take them.
What gathered in the Visoreds' hearts instead was something they couldn't put into words—
Fear.
A Hadō #90: Kurohitsugi cast without an incantation… could have this kind of force.
"Is Kensei… okay?"
"His spiritual presence says he's not dying."
"He avoided every vital point. None of the wounds are immediately fatal."
Outside the barrier, whispers spread, eyes complicated.
Inside it, Kensei lay collapsed on the ground, completely stripped of battle capability.
Shinji Hirako and Love Aikawa watched with heavy expressions. Hiyori Sarugaki quietly tightened her grip on her Zanpakutō—
Because no one could stay truly calm in the face of an enemy like this.
Shimo looked at the two of them, the corner of his mouth lifting.
"Waiting for me to come over?"
Shinji and Love exchanged a glance, each seeing the same resolve in the other's eyes.
Love raised his left hand like a claw and pressed it against his head.
As his spiritual pressure surged, a vicious, oni-like mask appeared in his hand.
"Fast and clean, Shinji."
"I'll go first!"
With Hollowfication, Love's spiritual pressure skyrocketed severalfold.
He sprang into the air, Zanpakutō blazing with dazzling light.
"Smash him—Tengumaru!"
The light flared—
And the slender blade transformed into an enormous spiked club, over ten meters long.
Just looking at it made your skin crawl with pressure.
Yet in Love's hands, it didn't look heavy at all.
Tengumaru howled through the air as it came crashing down toward Shimo.
"Collapse—Sakanade!"
At that moment, Shinji spoke.
A strange fragrance instantly flooded Shimo's senses.
In the blink of an eye, the entire world seemed to flip upside down.
Love's attack—now coming from "below"—rushed toward him.
The iron spikes on Tengumaru looked like they'd touch Shimo in the very next moment—
Clang.
A dull, heavy impact rang out along Tengumaru.
A terrifying force transmitted back through the weapon, and shock flashed in Love's eyes.
"How is that possible?!"
Disbelief also surfaced in Shinji's eyes.
"Sakanade's ability… doesn't work on you?!"
Shimo's arm tensed.
His long blade snapped forward and blasted Love away in a single swing.
Starlike brilliance flickered in Shimo's eyes.
"Not exactly.
"The world I see is still inverted."
He paused, tone casual.
"It's just that—reiatsu doesn't change."
For future allies, Shimo didn't mind explaining a little more.
The Shared Soul Barrier's effects were enough to render him immune to the vast majority of illusion-type interference.
It let him pierce past appearances and see the essence of things.
Shinji's Shikai, Sakanade, simply hijacked an opponent's sensory perception.
Once Shimo stepped beyond the sensory layer itself, he was already standing above the inverted world Sakanade created.
In his eyes, two worlds overlapped—
One inverted, one normal.
All he had to do was "reverse" his intent internally.
A few brief adjustments were enough to strip Shinji's ability of any meaningful effect.
"…Then we can only force it."
Shinji's face hardened.
"Love—let's go!"
"Yo!"
Love shouted, a touch of excitement in his expression.
Living in the Human World for so long, they rarely met an opponent like Shimo.
Ordinary Hollows—even the so-called Menos—were never truly a threat to them.
But Shimo was different.
Every strike he made carried a lethal pressure that made them feel death close at hand.
Shhk!
The moment the words fell, the two launched Shunpo at the same time—one from the left, one from the right—straight at Shimo.
Their spiritual pressure collided, forming turbulent currents that locked Shimo in the center.
Shimo sees the attack coming… and grins.
"About time."
Flames coiled around Tengumaru, booming like a furnace.
A small hammer of blazing force drove in—
Heatwaves surged, the dancing fire seeming ready to swallow Shimo whole.
On the other side, Shinji's Sakanade flashed coldly.
That eerie smile returned to his face, sending a chill down the spine.
Their attacks were extremes in contrast—
One was Zanpakutō power pushed to brute force.
The other was pure skill: swordsmanship refined to a razor edge.
As a former Fifth Division Captain, Shinji had long mastered the fundamentals of Zanjutsu, Hakuda, Hohō, and Kidō.
He might not match the absolute peaks in each field—
But his strength was real.
Zanjutsu: Severing Destruction Slash!
A shining arc of energy cut off all of Shimo's possible evasions.
Shimo raised his sword horizontally.
A ripple in space spread through the entire barrier in an instant.
"Suspend the space."
His voice was calm.
In the next moment, both Shinji and Love felt an overwhelming resistance ahead of them—
As though they'd plunged into a swamp.
"That's it!"
Hiyori yelled from outside the barrier.
"When I fired my Cero, it got broken up exactly like that!"
"That bastard—what kind of creepy ability is this?!"
"It's… space."
Hachigen Ushōda clasped his hands together, sweat sliding down his forehead as he spoke with effort.
"Shimo's ability is related to space.
"He controls space itself—and he's hindering your attacks."
Shock rippled across everyone's faces as they stared back into the barrier.
The two fighters who had just moved like lightning now crawled forward as if wading through mud.
Shinji ground his teeth hard enough to creak.
His Shikai was never ideal for a straight duel.
And if it couldn't affect Shimo, then he could only rely on swordsmanship.
After seeing Kurohitsugi erase Kensei in an instant, Shinji had no illusions that his Kidō would ever surpass Shimo's.
But as the fight dragged on, something far more despairing became clear—
The Visoreds were battered and miserable.
Shimo, by contrast…
Even his Captain's haori didn't have a speck of dirt on it.
The difference was absurd.
Shimo's left hand slid gently along the long blade.
"Void-Slashing Sword."
His voice fell beside their ears.
In an instant, a floodlike spiritual pressure dropped onto them.
Dense, violent black spiritual pressure swallowed both men whole.
The pressure was absolute—standing steady became difficult, let alone attacking again.
Only now did Shinji truly understand the gulf between them—
A gap like a heavenly ravine.
A series of quiet, repeated sounds of flesh being pierced followed.
Under the crushing spiritual pressure torrent, countless wounds appeared across their bodies without warning.
Blood sprayed, splashing against the solidified black pressure.
Shimo's strike ignored both Shinji's blade pressure and Love's assault—arriving on their bodies in the same instant.
Spiritual pressure surged to the extreme, like a raging tide battering their souls.
Shinji tried to Hollowfy to resist—
But under Void-Slashing Sword's impact, his body had already suffered catastrophic damage.
Forget activating Hollowfication.
Even lifting an arm was painfully hard.
Outside the barrier, Hachigen was drenched in sweat.
Shimo's spiritual pressure was violently interfering with the barrier he maintained.
If the battle escalated any further, Hachigen might be injured just holding it together.
"Just his reiatsu alone…"
Hachigen's voice kept its calm tone, but those who knew him heard the tension beneath it.
"If we truly fought him, I… might not even be able to run."
The others' hearts tightened.
A fear too deep for words grabbed them like a giant hand.
They knew Hachigen's abilities well—
His Kidō leaned toward spatial manipulation, including forbidden techniques.
His talent had long surpassed theirs; he'd reached the level of creating Kidō of his own.
His raw combat strength might be weaker, but when it came to escaping, none of them believed they were better than him.
Because space transfer Kidō was unpredictable—
Unless the opponent shows the same kind of spatial authority.
With that thought, their gazes toward Shimo grew even more complicated.
They couldn't win.
They couldn't run.
Did someone like this truly need to cooperate with them at all?
Shimo casually spun his blade in the air.
The sword returned to the state of an Asauchi.
The instant he sheathed it—
The crushing pressure climbed another level.
Shinji and Love finally couldn't resist anymore.
They drove their Zanpakutō into the ground and dropped to their knees, utterly unable to continue.
Crack—crack!
A crisp fracturing sound rang out.
Hachigen's expression changed.
In the next instant, he spat blood, miserable.
The barrier shattered under the final shock, fragments dissolving into spirit particles that scattered into the air.
"It seems… I won."
Shimo smiled faintly.
He'd already heard the system's voice.
[Mission completed. Distributing rewards…]
[Congratulations to the host: acquired Hollow Iron Skin (Hierro). Hollow system unlocked!]
In the next moment, he felt changes ripple through his body.
Spirit particles condensed. Spiritual pressure radiated outward.
A faint stinging pain spread across his skin—like a new power awakening within.
In Shimo's perception, his physical defense was rising steadily.
Before this, his greatest weakness had been durability.
But now, with Hierro, that weakness was being filled in.
From what he could sense, Hierro's defensive strength scaled with his spiritual pressure.
Shimo's smile deepened, satisfaction flickering in his eyes.
"With my current reiatsu…"
His gaze sharpened.
"This Hierro… should already surpass even Nnoitra's defense."
He didn't test the thought immediately.
Instead, he looked at the three who'd collapsed.
"…Looks like I hit a little too hard."
Shimo shook his head.
Green light bloomed from his palm, covering the tops of their heads.
"Either way, the mission's done.
"So I'll heal you."
He added, tone almost lazy—
"Tools."
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