Shihōin Yoruichi's opponent was already injured—a gaping wound bled from her shoulder.
But it wasn't Yoruichi who inflicted it. The wound came from Katori Nanatsuki's Finger Sword.
Hearing an explosion from Azashiro Kana's direction, Yoruichi's expression grew tense.
Something bad was happening over there, but she still couldn't take down the opponent before her—even one who was already wounded.
'Her defense is too strong!'
This woman could control the earth—mud and stone—surrounding herself with an impenetrable wall that even Yoruichi couldn't break through.
And yet, she could still attack from within it.
Yoruichi leapt into the air. The spot where she'd stood split open, and a massive stone pillar shot upward to strike her.
"Shunkō!" Yoruichi bit down on her short blade, freeing both hands.
Spirit pressure surged from her shoulders and back, accelerating her Shunpo to a new level.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Her form flickered through the air, weaving past a dozen stone pillars hurtling toward her.
"Hah!" Appearing before the fortress of earth and rock, Yoruichi let out a sharp cry, striking its summit at lightning speed.
She'd been focusing on swordsmanship lately, but Hakuda had always been her forte.
Under the effect of Shunkō, each punch she threw exploded with Kidō's raw force.
Boom! Boom! Boom! The top of the fortress couldn't withstand her relentless strikes and collapsed inward.
The earth-wielding woman stared up in shock—but quickly regained her senses, summoning another stone pillar and closing the collapsing wall.
The boost from Shunkō suddenly dispersed. Yoruichi pulled the short blade from her mouth and shouted, "Raibyō!"
Boom! A thunderbolt crashed from the sky, engulfing Yoruichi in its electric glow. She raised her blade high and thrust it down toward her opponent.
Raikiri!
"No!!!"
The earth-user was swallowed by the lightning and reduced to charcoal.
The shattered earthen wall crumbled into ruins.
Yoruichi clutched her abdomen, blood seeping between her fingers as she leaned against a protruding slab of stone to catch her breath.
'To take her down quickly, I had to eat that last strike...'
Watching Azashiro Kana and the others continue fighting, she murmured, "Looks like they don't need my help after all. Everyone's strong."
"Looks like that move of yours isn't something you can just use anytime," Kasumioji Shin sneered, trying to cover up his earlier fear.
Seeing that Katori Nanatsuki hadn't used the same move that instantly defeated Kasumioji Ryū, he regained some confidence.
"I don't need it to deal with you." Nanatsuki deflected a bone blade, lifted his finger, and said, "Hadō #4: Byakurai."
A beam of white lightning shot from his fingertip, forcing Kasumioji Shin back.
His Zanpakutō allowed him to grow external bones, forming armor and blades to defend and attack.
'Still not enough...' Shin realized his current strength wasn't enough to kill Nanatsuki. He needed deeper fusion with his Zanpakutō.
He poured more Reiatsu into his blade, drawing out even greater power.
Rip! His clothes tore as bones pierced through, even his sternum splitting open.
He hunched over as if bowing—his chest transformed into two massive bone limbs stabbing into the earth like the legs of some arthropod.
His spine stretched out, and even a long bone tail grew.
Now, he looked like a savage white skeletal beast riding on his back.
"How grotesque," Nanatsuki muttered as he Shunpoed behind Shin and slashed with Datenshinkotsu.
Shin's eyes widened in horror. One strike and his Reiatsu plummeted.
He dared not keep feeding power to his blade—if he continued, it might consume him entirely.
The transformation halted forcefully.
Nanatsuki didn't use Datenshinkotsu again. He lacked the Reiatsu to sustain it now.
Blocking the sweeping bone tail with his white blade, he raised the black blade in his right hand and slashed at Shin's head.
Clang! Shin curled into a ball, blocking with hardened back-bones. The impact rang like clashing metal.
Nanatsuki's shoulders and back exploded with Reiatsu again—
Shunkō!
In a flash, he appeared behind Shin, even faster than the bone tail could track.
Rising slash from below, white blade in hand—
Katori-ryu: Jaw Split!
He stepped forward and thrust the black blade hard—
Katori-ryu: Shun Strike!
Thud!
Shin was launched into the forest, snapping every tree in his path until he slammed into a massive ancient tree.
The towering trunk split, toppling with a deafening crash.
Boom! The falling tree flattened a swath of forest, sending birds fleeing in panic.
"Stubborn. That bone armor's like a damn turtle shell," Nanatsuki muttered, sensing Shin's Reiatsu still present.
He raised his Zanpakutō to block another stab from the forest—another bone tail, thicker than before.
That savage bone beast burst from the woods. Kasumioji Shin had completely snapped, feeding all his remaining Reiatsu into the Zanpakutō to gain more strength.
He no longer cared—his only thought was to kill Katori Nanatsuki!
"Die!!!"
Still in his Shunkō state, Nanatsuki activated his sword technique—lightning arced across his blade.
Raikiri!
Boom! The tail was blasted apart by the high-voltage surge—but took little damage.
'Still not enough!'
"Unity of Mind and Technique" and "Swordheart Clarity" activated simultaneously. With +5 to his sword level in combat, Nanatsuki's mastery of Raikiri deepened further.
He caught a glimpse of something—a key insight.
His shoulders, back, and Zanpakutō surged with divine lightning, his aura growing overwhelming.
Shunkō: Raikiri Form!
Shunkō and Raikiri's power layered together, and a bolt of blue light shot skyward from the forest.
In the next instant, Nanatsuki appeared a hundred meters behind the white bone monster. The black-and-white twin blades in his hands were spotless.
The creature's bone armor split open, revealing a glowing cross-shaped wound.
Its massive form collapsed into four pieces, toppling to the ground.
At the same time, every tree between Nanatsuki and the corpse exploded into splinters.
From within the Katori-ryu Dojo, Katori Batsu'unsai and the others watched the forest battle through a screen of Reishi light.
Shutara Senjumaru murmured, "The Reishi Shell has matured... Batsu'unsai, looks like you can't beat him anymore."
"Well?" said Tenjirō Kirinji, fishing a pill from his robes. "This medicine will squeeze out the last of your Spiritual Pressure Core's potential. You'll get to experience your prime for an hour or two."
Batsu'unsai stared at the glowing screen of Katori Nanatsuki. After a long silence, he said quietly:
"Something that can return me to my peak?"
"It's been a while..."
In the past, the original captains brought peace to the chaos of the Soul Society not through negotiation—but through terrifying power.
And she… she still longed for battle.