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Chapter 135: Dual Bankai: The Cry of a Thousand Spirits

Chapter 135 - Dual Bankai: The Cry of a Thousand Spirits

Inside the central cathedral of Osaka.

A vast, pitch-dark hall illuminated only by flickering candles. The stained glass windows let in no light. Beneath the central statue of the divine, a man in crimson clerical robes held a Bible in one hand, his other hand resting atop it as he murmured a prayer.

Behind him to the right sat a green-haired man with his eyes closed. Behind him to the left stood a silent youth, gripping a Zanpakutō.

Hearing the commotion outside, the green-haired man opened his mouth.

"They've come."

The prayer halted. The robed man lifted his gaze to the divine statue.

"Pity. They're not the Shinigami from Soul Society."

"The defectors aren't weak either," the green-haired man said quietly. "Several among them were once Captains."

"So, Almighty God," the robed man whispered toward the statue, "why would these defectors choose to help Soul Society's Shinigami?"

"God won't tell you that," said the green-haired man. "But they will. Once we capture them."

Outside, the ruckus swelled.

"Is it Satou?" the priest asked.

"It must be."

"Then that Shinigami and Yuuki should act now."

"They will."

Silence returned to the grand cathedral.

Outside, Higashi Shuuichi narrowed his eyes at the sudden appearance of Satou Takeo. Just moments ago, this man had pummeled him dozens of times with raw, brutal fists—he hadn't even been able to retaliate.

"If I'm not mistaken," Satou growled, seizing Higashi by the throat and lifting him off the ground, "one of you bastards killed my favorite concubine—my little Inu."

"Hadō #4: Byakurai!" Higashi's fingertip sparked with Reiryoku, launching a bolt of lightning directly into Satou's chest.

At that range, most Shinigami would never dodge it. Satou? He scoffed, sidestepped with unnatural grace, and spat in Higashi's face.

"Pathetic. I don't get it—how are weaklings like you bold enough to act tough in Osaka?"

His grip on Higashi's neck tightened—bones cracked audibly.

Then, the incantation came—not aloud, but echoing from the shadows.

"Limit of the thousands hands, respectful hands, unable to touch the darkness... Hadō #91: Senjū Kōten Taihō!"

From a transparent veil of spirit energy, beams of power roared out like divine wrath—thunderous, unstoppable.

But Satou simply stepped aside.

Higashi's enhanced vision, now with Bankai activated, saw the truth. It wasn't that Satou moved faster than the Kido.

Time had stopped.

Only once Satou cleared the blast radius did the beams resume movement.

"Little Inu? No... You're the original—Higashi Shuuichi!" Satou said, eyes lighting up with sick joy. "You're even more fun than I hoped."

Not just time-stopping... he must be distorting temporal flow.

"Hadō #90: Kurohitsugi!" Higashi snapped his fingers, invoking a chantless black coffin beneath Satou.

Again, useless.

"Give it up, Higashi! Be a good boy and submit!"

Satou laughed, launching forward by stomping on the edge of the coffin to gain speed.

Got you, Higashi thought.

That movement gave away the ability's range limitation. If it had been truly omnipresent, Satou wouldn't need to move out of danger—he'd have frozen the entire zone.

Yet even as Higashi tried to Shunpo, Satou appeared in front of him.

He's accelerating time for himself?

The next second, Higashi was smashed into the dirt.

But Higashi wasn't alone.

A pre-prepared gigai, modeled after Musashi Kojirou, stood nearby—imbued with spirit particles and set to act independently.

"Hadō #73: Sōren Sōkatsui!"

Blue flames exploded toward the two. Satou chuckled, dragging Higashi out of the blast zone.

"You even torch your own comrades?" Satou sneered. "Soul Society treats you as a traitor. Why not join me?"

"Comrade?" Higashi's voice echoed—not from the limp body Satou held, but from the other one.

Satou looked at the unresisting body in his hands and chuckled.

"Oh, you've grown, Higashi. New tricks... that makes you even more desirable."

He charged the gigai—but was stopped by a crystal-like barrier.

Bakudō #73: Tozanshō had been cast in advance.

Then came the counter.

Fuzan!

A slash of pure Reiryoku cut past Satou's shoulder. He scowled.

"You're mocking me?!" Satou screamed, smashing Higashi's limp body into the ground and roaring skyward.

In that moment, Higashi's dual consciousness flared—information surging from multiple bodies nearly tore his mind apart.

But he endured. He activated his Dual Bankai.

"Strategy into Form—Bankai: Kunikoru! Trees Bloom in the Flesh!"

"Cries of Hell—Pain of Sin, Eternal Agony, Unceasing Fate—Dual Bankai: Oni's Embrace!"

Then he triggered his fivefold Oni release:

"Fivefold Release: Hyakki Yagyō!"

At that instant, all the gigai—Musashi, Rangiku's, Saya's, Ayumu's, Kensei's—ignited in demonic aura, swarmed by shrieking ghosts.

From the chaos below, Satou laughed madly.

"Yes! This is your real form, Higashi Shuuichi! You tricked me and pissed me off!

Now I'll break every bone in your body so you'll never leave me!"

But Higashi wasn't just any Shinigami—he was a tactician Aizen himself had once praised.

Even though his real body had been frozen for nearly half the fight...

Even though his mind nearly collapsed from dual-channel overload...

Even though Satou never revealed his Fullbring Object, never uttered the weakness of his powers...

Higashi still figured it out.

He'd noticed it—the wristwatch.

The one Satou always wore on his left hand.

"Bakudō: Jigoku—Execution Aria."

A rift in reality opened. The world inside the barrier dimmed to a shade of grey.

From the ground rose skeletal arms—not to seize Satou, but to bind Higashi.

"Trying to suicide, Higashi?" Satou mocked, dodging ghostly strikes. "Afraid of defeat?"

But Higashi smirked.

He looked at the burning aura around him—he'd invoked a temporary state of absolute perfection.

"Saturation bombardment," Higashi whispered.

"Senki Shimei!" (Cry of a Thousand Spirits!)

The Oni howled. And with their cries, unrelenting waves of Hadō burst forth—

Sōkatsui, Sōren Sōkatsui, Kurohitsugi, Senjū Kōten Taihō, Ichigyō Gokui, Goryū Tensei...

High and low level spells, all poured out like machine-gun fire.

Until the Reiryoku suppression barrier—constructed by Urahara Kisuke himself—collapsed from the sheer overload.

"This Reiatsu... this dreadful presence..." murmured the green-haired man inside the half-demolished cathedral, eyes still closed.

"Satou is finished," the priest said.

"And among those 'traitors'... one is a monster."

In the distance, amid flames, a masked Shinigami battled another Fullbringer.

The priest sighed.

"You two were meant to be our last trump card against Soul Society's elite... but now we have no choice. Go."

A silent youth stepped through the sacred veil, his Zanpakutō ready, walking into the field of screaming ghosts.

Higashi Shuuichi watched Satou fall, devoured by hellish power. No triumph—only grim resolve.

Pause time. Accelerate self. One of the most terrifying Fullbrings I've seen.

But every ability has a cost. Satou's watch showed the flaw—limited active duration.

One hour? Three? Twelve?

No matter.

Higashi turned his gaze.

Walking across the shattered battlefield, stepping through the ash and ghostfire, came a youth... bearing the face of Yamamoto Genryūsai in his prime.

"Do you have a name?" Higashi asked solemnly. "Or should I call you... Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni?"

The boy's answer came flat:

"Shinigami... die."

And then the world ignited.

With a whisper—

"All things in creation... return to ash. Ryūjin Jakka."

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