Bleach : The God of Flames

Just as Tsunayoshi’s cloak was about to block the two serpents, the Monk laughed loudly.

“Didn’t I already tell you? I control all the black in this world. Your defense is nullified!”

The moment the Monk finished speaking, the blackness covering Tsunayoshi’s cloak seemed to be forcibly extracted.

It began surging toward the Monk.

With the cloak’s defense dismantled, the Monk and the two serpents immediately attacked Tsunayoshi from three directions, forming a triangular encirclement.

“I told you as well. My power is Harmony of All Things!”

Tsunayoshi’s reply was remarkably calm.

Orange flames spread down from his shoulders.

In an instant, they stopped the flow of blackness.

The cloak once again extended outward, its overwhelming defensive power restored.

This time, however, the cloak transformed from black to orange.

The flames gently curled toward the two serpents and instantly harmonized the Monk’s attacks into a petrified state.

In their first exchange, both sides had nullified the other’s ability.

For now, Tsunayoshi had the upper hand.

The Monk thrust his palm forward.

Golden light exploded from his hand.

This was a palm technique even more powerful than Senri Tsūtenshō.

After fusing with the Soul King’s power, the Monk no longer needed to release the restraints on his body.

His ordinary physical form alone was now sufficient to unleash his full strength.

The dragon head on Tsunayoshi’s left arm opened its jaws and bit down on the incoming palm.

Puff!

Without making a sound, the Monk’s attack was swallowed by the White Dragon and effortlessly neutralized.

The White Dragon Armguard on Tsunayoshi’s left arm had perfectly inherited the White Dragon’s combat style.

Whether it was White Palm or White Finger, both techniques directly extinguished and neutralized an enemy’s attack.

With the White Dragon Armguard, Tsunayoshi could perfectly defend against any attack whose Reiatsu did not exceed his own.

“You’re actually daring to swallow my attack?”

The Monk gave a sinister grin.

“Don’t you fear being stained black?”

He struck toward Tsunayoshi with another palm.

This time, Tsunayoshi failed to completely defend against the Monk’s attack.

After being blasted backward, Tsunayoshi noticed a thin black line appearing across the White Dragon Armguard.

Had the Monk’s power invaded the armguard?

How was that possible?

The Sky Flame armor possessed Harmony by its very nature.

The Monk’s power should have been nullified the moment it touched him.

“There’s nothing impossible about it!”

The Monk’s voice rang out.

“Don’t forget—I control all the white as well!”

Tsunayoshi looked up.

The Monk’s eyes had turned completely white.

“By my name, I accept the invasion of black!”

The White Dragon Armguard was rapidly dyed black.

In no time at all, more than half of it had been consumed.

It would not be long before the entire armguard fell under the Monk’s control.

[What a troublesome old man!]

Byakuran’s irritated voice echoed within Tsunayoshi’s mind.

A sharp clap suddenly sounded beside Tsunayoshi’s ears.

Sky Flames erupted from the White Dragon Armguard.

The blackness was rapidly suppressed.

Then the White Dragon opened its jaws and spat the blackness back out.

This was one of the defining characteristics of Sky-type Beyond Bankai.

Because Byakuran and the Tenth had personally supplied their own power and fused it into the transformation, their respective consciousnesses resided within the White Dragon Armguard and Flaming Lion Armguard.

Strictly speaking, Tsunayoshi’s actual weapons were still the pair of X-Gloves.

The Monk did not mind that Tsunayoshi had thrown the blackness back at him.

He simply absorbed it into his palm.

Immediately afterward, the Monk began performing a strange dance.

As black and white flowed from his hands, they rapidly formed patterns.

Before long, an entire ink-wash painting had appeared around the Monk.

The scenery suddenly changed.

Tsunayoshi discovered that he was now standing within a world of black and white.

There were mountains.

There were rivers.

It was clearly the very ink-wash painting the Monk had just created.

The battlefield had changed.

And this was obviously much more advantageous to the Monk.

“Immerse yourself in my art!”

The moment the Monk finished speaking, everything around Tsunayoshi—black and white alike—transformed into vicious beasts with blue-green faces and savage fangs.

They lunged toward Tsunayoshi from every direction.

Tsunayoshi was completely surrounded.

[Little Tsuna, leave this to us!]

The Tenth’s voice sounded.

Tsunayoshi immediately understood.

He spread his arms and poured out his Sky Flames with all his strength.

The two armguards on his hands came alive.

Both opened their mouths and unleashed furious roars toward the surrounding world.

Lion King’s Roar! White Dragon’s Cry!

The roar of Natsu, the Sky Flame lion, and the White Dragon reverberated throughout the entire space.

Layer after layer of nearly invisible Sky Flames spread outward with their roars.

Everything in the mountains and rivers was touched by the power of the Sky Flame.

Harmony.

At this moment, the true meaning of Harmony of All Things was finally revealed.

Everything tangible between Heaven and Earth was petrified.

Even the space created by the Monk could not escape.

Centered around Tsunayoshi, the entire world rapidly turned gray-brown.

The objects that had been petrified could not withstand the overwhelming force of the Sky Flame and crumbled into dust.

The Monk’s face twitched.

He could feel that if his body had not been protected by a layer of Soul King power transcending all other forces, he might have followed everything else into petrification.

This mountain-and-river domain was now meaningless.

It could no longer trap Sawada Tsunayoshi.

The Monk waved his hand and reclaimed the black and white elements that had not yet been petrified.

Every little bit saved was still something.

Back in the Soul Society, Tsunayoshi also stopped the roars of the two beasts.

His figure flashed.

His right hand was enveloped by a flaming fist shaped like Natsu.

He swung it viciously toward the Monk.

The Monk hurriedly covered both hands completely in black and met the punch head-on.

With the reinforcement of Soul King power, the Monk was indeed different.

He managed to fight Tsunayoshi to a dead even.

After their previous exchanges, both sides understood something.

Neither the Monk’s black-and-white abilities nor Tsunayoshi’s Harmony could completely overcome the other.

That meant what remained was the purest form of combat.

Hakuda.

The collision of Reiatsu contained within their techniques.

Every time Tsunayoshi and the Monk collided, a ring of shockwaves spread outward.

Those shockwaves rippled across every corner of the Soul Society like waves upon water.

And with every ripple, the world itself gained another wound.

Kyōraku frowned as he stared at the sky.

He and Mayuri were the only two people who had not been running around.

After assigning everyone’s tasks, Kyōraku had gone with Mayuri to one of the cracks to examine its condition.

Mayuri’s answer had been extremely simple.

At present, there was no material capable of repairing these cracks.

If they were allowed to continue expanding, the Soul Society would eventually be destroyed.

Having no solution was the most frustrating possibility of all.

Kyōraku had never imagined that he would not even have time to hold his inauguration ceremony.

On his very first day as Captain-Commander, he was already facing a crisis that could bring about the destruction of the world.

“It isn’t necessarily irreversible, is it?”

While Kyōraku remained silent, a gentle female voice drew his attention.

“Sōten Kisshun—Reject!”

The speaker was Orihime Inoue.

Since Kyōraku’s assignments had not included the humans from the World of the Living, the group had followed him at Uryū’s suggestion to see if they could help.

Orihime had not been very confident when she spoke.

But she felt that during such a moment of low morale, she ought to do something.

Sōten Kisshun covered one of the cracks.

It was almost as though time itself were being reversed.

The crack miraculously began to repair itself.

Kyōraku’s face immediately brightened.

But Mayuri poured cold water over his excitement.

“Don’t celebrate yet. At the rate those two are fighting, I don’t believe a single Orihime Inoue will be able to repair all of these cracks.”

It was like trying to put out a cartload of fire with a cup of water.

Orihime’s repair speed simply could not keep up with the rate at which Tsunayoshi and the Monk were damaging the world.

“If we understand the principle behind it, can we reproduce the effect on a large scale?”

Uryū asked.

“The principle?”

Mayuri narrowed his eyes.

“This is a level of power beyond our current understanding. If you insist on making me describe it, the only comparison I can give you is the Soul King.”

“The Soul King!”

Ichigo suddenly exclaimed.

He immediately shifted into his Fullbring form and fired a concentrated burst of Reiatsu at a nearby crack.

Under the influence of Ichigo’s Reiatsu, the crack miraculously stabilized.

At the very least, it showed no further signs of worsening.

“Ichigo, what was that?”

Kyōraku asked.

“Captain Kurotsuchi, do you remember why we went to Hueco Mundo?”

Ichigo asked in return.

“To find Aizen and retrieve the criminal Gin Ichimaru… and the Soul King’s fingertip!”

A flash of insight crossed Mayuri’s mind.

He immediately understood the key point Ichigo was making.

“Exactly. A part of the Soul King.”

Ichigo hurriedly continued,

“Tsunayoshi once told us that there’s another explanation for why someone can possess Fullbring.”

“That they have a fragment of the Soul King within their body.”

“If we can gather everyone who possesses a fragment of the Soul King, perhaps we’ll be able to resist the collapse of the world!”

Ichigo’s reasoning stunned everyone present.

Was this really the same Ichigo who so often became selectively deaf whenever a battle got complicated?

Trusting Ichigo completely, Tatsuki immediately activated Shunkō.

She fired a burst of blue Reiatsu toward another crack.

“Torrent!”

Under the influence of Tatsuki’s Reiatsu, that crack also seemed to stabilize.

Everyone was delighted.

Kyōraku immediately issued an order.

“Ishida Uryū, please go to the World of the Living and gather Kūgo Ginjō and the others. The Soul Society needs their power!”

“Understood!”

Uryū immediately accepted.

Of everyone present, he was the most suitable person for the job.

He did not possess Fullbring himself, but he had a good relationship with the members of Xcution and was capable of getting Ginjō and the others to cooperate.

“There’s no need to go, Little Uryū.”

A lazy voice stopped Uryū in his tracks.

He looked up.

Kurosaki Isshin had arrived together with Ishida Ryūken.

Behind them was the entire group of Xcution.

“Tsunayoshi sent me a distress signal. Once Ginjō and the others found out, they followed me here.”

“Looks like we arrived at just the right time.”

Isshin took the initiative to explain before anyone could ask.

“Perfect timing, Dad!”

Ichigo excitedly pumped his fist.

“Let’s get to work, everyone!”

Ginjō grinned.

“It’s time for us to save the world!”

The Cross of Scaffold appeared in his hand, and he immediately prepared to fire a burst of Reiatsu at a nearby crack.

“Please wait!”

Ryūken called out and stopped Ginjō.

He then turned toward Kyōraku.

“Please let me take command of the Fullbringers.”

“I can distribute the cracks among them with the greatest possible precision.”

The cracks in the sky varied greatly in size.

The Reiatsu of the various Fullbringers also differed.

The most efficient approach was naturally to assign the larger cracks to those with greater Reiatsu.

“Please do, Mr. Ishida.”

Kyōraku was not a rigid man.

He solemnly handed command over to Ishida Ryūken.

Ryūken immediately raised his bow and fired an arrow toward one of the larger cracks.

“Ginjō, you take that crack…”

Under Ryūken’s precise instructions, everyone immediately sprang into action.

At the same time, Orihime finished repairing one of the cracks.

“Inoue, your role is to repair the cracks after they’ve been stabilized. We’ll take this one step at a time…”

Ryūken immediately added further instructions.

“Dad, go bring Rangiku over too! She has a fragment of the Soul King’s finger!”

Ichigo shouted toward the idle Isshin.

“Got it!”

Isshin scratched his head helplessly before disappearing.

Times really have changed.

The son is giving orders to his father now.

Through the efforts of Ryūken and all those who possessed fragments of the Soul King, the collapse of the Soul Society finally appeared to stabilize—at least temporarily.

The cracks continued to multiply as Tsunayoshi and the Monk battled.

But they were no longer expanding rapidly enough to drag the Soul Society into the abyss.