"Shunko: Raijin Senkei (Flash War Cry: Thunder God Battle Form)!!!"
As Yoruichi roared, the blue spiritual pressure gathered around her body condensed to the extreme and actually changed nature, transforming into lightning itself.
Thunder roared like the wrath of heaven, dancing wildly across Yoruichi's body as violent bolts crackled and flashed without pause.
With each surge of lightning, a pair of thunder-god horns appeared on her head, and behind her back formed a halo of six tomoe-shaped drums, the defining ring of a thunder god.
In this form, the clothes Yoruichi had been wearing were torn apart in an instant.
Her wheat-colored skin was laid bare.
Far from looking embarrassed, it only made her seem even more heroic and valiant.
Catching this姿态 off guard, even Aizen couldn't help being surprised.
"An evolved form derived from Shunko?"
He had long since investigated the signature technique of the former 2nd Division captain, the Flash Goddess Yoruichi, but what he was seeing now was completely different from the information he had.
The power produced by fusing kido and hakuda had become even more overwhelming.
It could even command lightning itself.
Yoruichi had no intention of responding. She drew in a deep breath and spread both hands before her, palms up and down.
"Raijin Senkei (Thunder God Battle Form)!!"
In an instant, the six tomoe behind her began to move. Lightning exploded outward, unleashing a vast barrage of continuous thunderbolts.
Thunder rumbled!
Lightning danced like serpents!
The heaven-shaking roar of destruction shook the sky.
One thunderbolt after another fell from above like divine punishment.
Every single bolt carried terrifying destructive power. With each deafening strike, nearby buildings were completely annihilated, reduced to rubble and dust.
Cole walked toward Sakanade as he watched the storm and couldn't help commenting, "Miss Yoruichi really is worthy of being the Commander of the Punishment Corps. A true budget burner… you're throwing around more lightning than Chojiro from 1st Division. That's scary."
Among all the captains of the Gotei 13, only Kenpachi's 11th Division had never required its captain to master Bankai.
Which meant that, as a former 2nd Division captain, Yoruichi absolutely had her own zanpakuto and Bankai.
The only reason she never used them was that her mastery of shunpo had already surpassed the power of her zanpakuto and Bankai.
Thinking this, Cole came to a stop near Sakanade's yellow-clad figure. Looking at that body dressed all in yellow, he couldn't help clenching his fists, his tone turning unfriendly.
"Hey, Shinji. If I accidentally beat your zanpakuto spirit to death, you're not gonna blame me, right?"
Shinji nearly jumped out of his skin and hurriedly said to Cole, "Don't! If you can restrain him, then just restrain him first, okay? Otherwise I really won't have a Bankai anymore."
"Then I'll just take you and your sword out together. Wouldn't that solve everything?"
Cole shot him a sideways look. He had to admit, Shinji's Bankai really was ridiculous—almost on the same level as Kyoka Suigetsu.
Even with his current spiritual pressure, he still felt a faint urge to attack his own allies.
Obviously…
That was the power of his Bankai, Sakashima Yokoshima Happofusagari (Reversed Evil Eight-Treasure Blockade).
The corner of Shinji's mouth twitched. He silently shuffled a few meters farther away from Cole, afraid that this guy really would lose it and kill him.
Cole let out a small laugh, then leapt up, charging straight toward the yellow-clad Sakanade.
Sakanade, who seemed to be standing upside down in midair, as if living inside a mirror, quietly swung his zanpakuto downward when he saw Cole rushing in.
In that instant…
Heaven and earth flipped.
The space before Cole—front, back, left, right, up, and down—was completely inverted, shuffled like a Rubik's cube. Just looking at it was enough to make one's head spin.
He clearly took a step forward—
But through his spiritual pressure perception, it looked like he had stepped back.
He tried to jump—
But his body inexplicably shifted to the left instead.
Veins bulged on Cole's forehead as a tic-tac-toe pattern seemed to pop up. He ground his teeth. This was exactly the kind of roller-coaster feeling he hated the most.
So he swung the Ruyi Jingu Bang, his face dark as he stared in the direction Sakanade should be—whatever direction that even was—and snarled:
"Not bad at all, Sakanade. You'd better be ready to suffer for this!"
As soon as the words left his mouth, Cole stopped trying to move forward. Instead, he simply slammed the golden staff down toward the ground.
The strike completely missed.
Because his sense of up and down had been inverted, the blow that should have gone downward ended up stabbing straight into the sky.
Cole's expression grew even darker. Thankfully, the suppressive power of the Ruyi Jingu Bang didn't need a specified direction to activate.
"Boom!!!"
The gravity of the entire space suddenly multiplied.
It was as if the sky itself had come crashing down. The surrounding skyscrapers were subjected to unimaginable pressure and collapsed one after another with crackling bangs.
In the midst of the swirling dust and debris…
Sakanade's yellow-clad body suddenly sank, as though it would be crushed to the ground. At the last moment, he barely managed to brace himself with sheer strength.
He continued to swing his blade desperately—
Trying to twist Cole's perception of direction even further.
But this time, the direction in Cole's eyes didn't change at all. Dragging the golden staff behind him, he approached with a cold smile.
"Keep reversing it. Let's see just how much you can invert. Even Kyoka Suigetsu doesn't work on me—what do you think you amount to?"
He couldn't see Sakanade's face beneath the yellow hood, but Cole could clearly feel the panic rising in him.
The manifest spirit of this zanpakuto stumbled backward in a fluster, frantically triggering his power, trying to keep affecting Cole.
But Cole's suppressive power—
Completely crushed the inversion ability.
Just like that, Cole coldly walked up to the yellow figure, swung the golden staff up, and spoke in a not-at-all-kind tone:
"'Lord of Yellow Clothes', if you were going on a trip, where would you want to go?"
Sakanade's yellow robes trembled. Before he could even answer, Cole smashed the staff squarely into his stomach.
His body shot out like a missile.
The yellow figure traced a streak of light through the sky.
With a series of booming crashes, he punched human-shaped holes through one building after another.
This single blow sent him flying…
Nearly across dozens of streets.
"That's my zanpakuto spirit… If he really gets beaten to death, I'll never be able to use Bankai again…"
Shinji's face twitched violently. Even if he didn't use his Bankai often…
A thing like that was like a man's dignity—you didn't have to use it, but you absolutely could not be without it.
As the yellow-clad Sakanade was blasted away, the Shinigami and Hollows who had been in a confused state of mutual slaughter finally woke up.
"Kasumi…"
Shuhei stared blankly at Izuru across from him, swayed twice on his feet, then collapsed onto the ground with a thud.
On the other side, Izuru likewise fell into a pool of blood, unconscious.
"What… happened to me!?"
Tier Harribel stopped moving as if waking from a dream. She lowered her head to look at her body, a hint of dazed confusion in her eyes.
Parts of her body…
Had actually turned into bare white bone.
Terrifying and grotesque, throbbing with sharp pain.
Barraggan snapped out of it as well. After checking his own condition and confirming he hadn't taken any truly heavy injuries, he stared at Aizen with fury.
"Aizen, you bastard…"
He might have been the former king of Hueco Mundo, but now he was technically under Aizen's command.
And this bastard hadn't cared about their lives in the slightest—he'd simply included them in his attack without hesitation.
If they hadn't suddenly woken up when they did…
He probably would have slaughtered everyone present, including his own fraccion.
Ulquiorra watched all of this unfold, his expression still cold and unruffled.
His aspect of death was "nihility." From the moment he had evolved into an Adjuchas, he had been detached and indifferent, almost devoid of emotion.
Starrk, on the other hand, couldn't help sighing. He didn't even feel like fighting anymore.
He already understood that Aizen had never truly regarded them as comrades.
He didn't even see them as subordinates.
In Aizen's eyes, they were nothing more than disposable consumables.
Kill them, and he could always cultivate another batch.
Once he understood that, Starrk sat down helplessly in midair and said to the gun in his hand:
"Lilynette, how about we go back? Keep wandering around Hueco Mundo… just the two of us again this time."
"..."
"Sakanade!!!"
Shinji shouted anxiously, like his pants were on fire, and hurriedly rushed toward the spot where the yellow figure had crashed.
Cole calmly withdrew his gaze. Seeing that no one on the field was still caught in a frenzy of mutual slaughter, he turned to look at Aizen.
At this moment, the final boss was dealing with Yoruichi's relentless barrage.
Within Raijuu Senkei (Thunder Beast Battle Form), Yoruichi's body itself seemed to have become lightning. She flashed around Aizen again and again, striking from every angle.
Attacking alongside her were Kisuke, Isshin, and Ichigo.
Ichigo, unaffected by Kyoka Suigetsu, was roaring as he swung Tensa Zangetsu, launching black-and-red crescent blades one after another.
As Ichigo's father, Isshin was no slouch either. After chaining together several high-level kido, he suddenly drew his zanpakuto and shouted:
"Burn, Engetsu! (Burn, Scorching Moon!)"
Unlike Ichigo's zanpakuto, Engetsu was a flame-type.
Its guard was a simple hexagon etched with understated floral patterns, with two tassels hanging from the end of the hilt. Massive spiritual pressure wrapped around it and ignited in an instant.
"Ichigo!!!"
Isshin roared.
Father and son were truly of one mind. Hearing Isshin's shout, Ichigo instantly understood what he wanted to do.
The two of them swung their blades in unison and bellowed as one:
"Getsuga Tensho (Moon Fang Heaven-Piercer)!!!"
"Getsuga Tensho (Moon Fang Heaven-Piercer)!!!"
Two crescent-shaped blades appeared in midair—one black-and-red, one blazing crimson—like twin arcs of sun and moon cutting across the sky.
But there was one thing they shared in common.
Both attacks carried overwhelming destructive power.
It felt like they could shatter a mountain with a single strike.
Aizen smiled lightly. Dodging a kick from Yoruichi, he casually swung Kyoka Suigetsu in his hand.
"Ah."
The blue spiritual pressure formed a flying blade.
With two thunderous booms, the Getsuga Tensho unleashed by Ichigo and Isshin were both blown apart in an instant by the blue blade.
Both Ichigo and Isshin were stunned by the result.
Kisuke glanced at the white, hollow-like armor covering Aizen's body and said with a headache:
"What a pain… the Hogyoku has completely fused with him, become a part of his body, letting his power keep increasing."
The four of them fighting together might have been able to fight Aizen to a stalemate earlier.
But once things had progressed to this point…
Even all four combined probably couldn't beat Aizen now.
Isshin felt a creeping sense of dread as well and said grimly:
"Kisuke, enough useless talk. Just tell us how we're supposed to beat this bastard. Do we just chop him to pieces?"
Kisuke answered in a low voice, "To truly defeat him, we have to force the Hogyoku out of his body."
The Hogyoku granted endless evolution.
Until one transcended dimensions themselves.
So if they wanted to beat Aizen, they first had to force the Hogyoku out of him.
Isshin cursed angrily. "Damn it… we can't even hurt Aizen right now. How are we supposed to knock the Hogyoku out of him?"
Kisuke could only sigh. "If only there were someone who could fight Aizen on equal footing… then we'd have a chance."
Shinji came rushing back from afar and cut in with a sigh.
"Exactly. Where are we supposed to find a monster like that?"
Listening to their conversation, Cole's expression turned a bit strange. He unconsciously rubbed his chin.
"You guys do realize you're pointing at me, right?"
Who could fight Aizen to a draw?
Kisuke and the others definitely couldn't.
If any of them fought Aizen one-on-one, he'd probably beat them so badly they'd wet the bed.
And Yamamoto was badly wounded now as well.
The only one left who could stand against Aizen…
Was Cole himself.
The group's expressions grew awkward as they continued swinging their blades.
Cole couldn't help shaking his head. "You bastards… always scheming how to use other people. Why don't you try going all-out yourselves first?"
They'd been fighting for several minutes now.
But aside from that knucklehead Ichigo, not a single one of them had used Bankai.
Clearly, they were all holding back.
Thinking back to how things went in the original storyline, these guys were obviously planning to swoop in at the end and finish things off.
They really were treating everyone else like idiots.
While Cole was speaking, Aizen swung his blade again. With a single slash, Shinji was struck and sent crashing down as Aizen laughed.
"Captain Shinji, a zanpakuto that can't use Bankai—what use could it possibly have against me?"
Shinji's body plummeted from the sky, smashing into the rooftop. Clutching his bleeding chest, he glared up at Aizen unwillingly.
"Aizen…"
After suppressing their hatred for a hundred years, not a single member of the Visored had managed to seriously injure Aizen.
It was as if they'd all just shown up for a cameo.
Kisuke sensed that things were taking a bad turn. Originally, his plan had been to have Cole and Ichigo both act, using the two of them to wear down Aizen as much as possible.
But at this rate…
Things might turn out very badly.
"Captain Kurosaki!"
Kisuke suddenly shouted, giving Isshin a meaningful look.
Since Cole had no intention of moving, they could only proceed with their original backup plan—pull Ichigo off the battlefield and take him into the Dangai to train.
To learn his father's forbidden ultimate technique—
Saigo no Getsuga Tensho (Final Moon Fang Heaven-Piercer).
Isshin nodded slightly. With a blazing slash of Engetsu, he forced open a brief gap and seized Ichigo's wrist.
"Ichigo, come with me, now."
But just then—
Cole finally moved. He swung the golden staff down like a falling meteor, smashing it into the ground as he said calmly:
"Alright, everyone stop and listen to me first!"
"Teikai: Chin'atsu (Sea-Calming: Suppression)!"
(End of Chapter)
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