Chapter 381 - 380: Competing Abilities
After Tousen Kaname’s Bankai was released and the black barrier of Enma Kōrogi engulfed Masco’s figure, Mazuru and the others in the main hall of Las Noches could no longer see what was happening inside. Even with the enhanced monitoring equipment Gin had adjusted earlier, the veil of darkness blocked all visual and spiritual readings.
Yet what had unfolded just moments before was enough to set Mazuru’s thoughts spinning.
He replayed the scene carefully in his mind—the quincy star aimed directly at Tousen, right at the instant his Bankai was activated.
"So, Masco tried to steal it." Mazuru mused silently. "He wanted to use the Star Medallion to capture Kaname’s Bankai."
But the outcome was obvious. The attempt had failed.
Why?
Mazuru’s eyes narrowed slightly as possibilities formed. There was only one explanation that fit.
Tousen Kaname was no longer purely a shinigami. Since embracing the power of hollowfication, his existence had become a hybrid. His Zanpakutō, Suzumushi, was no longer just a Zanpakutō—it was also akin to an arrancar’s Resurrección. It could perform Bankai, yet at the same time it carried the nature of a hollow’s blade release.
The Star Medallion, after all, was a tool designed by the Wandenreich to target and steal the Bankai of shinigami. Its principle worked by interfering with the resonance between a shinigami’s soul and their Zanpakutō spirit, forcibly tearing that bond away and storing the essence inside the medallion.
But Tousen’s power was not "shinigami-only". It was fused with hollow essence. A Zanpakutō and a hollow’s Resurrección bound together.
’The medallion cannot capture what it cannot classify.’ Mazuru concluded.
Even Ishida Soken had confessed long ago that, while he knew many secrets of the Wandenreich, there were limits to his knowledge. The Ishida family had never been in Yhwach’s favor, and after defecting from the Sternritter, Soken lost even more of his standing. His Schrift had been reclaimed during the Auswählen ritual, leaving him hollow compared to his former self.