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"Lady Yoruichi, she…"
Staring at the black cat war goddess where sex appeal and savage power blended perfectly, Soi Fon finally lost her composure. The commanding presence she usually carried vanished, replaced by shock as she covered her mouth.
It wasn't Yoruichi's boldness that stunned her.
It was Shunkō.
A hand-to-hand technique she had never seen before.
How could Shunpo and Hakuda be fused so flawlessly?
So powerful that it made a Zanpakutō completely unnecessary?
In that instant…
Soi Fon was lost again.
The light vanished from her eyes, replaced by crushing self-doubt.
The Soi Fon clan had been a lower-ranking noble family for generations, surviving through executions and assassinations. Influenced by her upbringing, Soi Fon had worshipped Yoruichi, head of the Shihoin clan, from early childhood.
Admiration. Pursuit. Imitation.
Those three words summed up her entire hundred-year journey as a Soul Reaper.
And now.
Watching Yoruichi abandon her Zanpakutō entirely.
Relying solely on supreme Shunpo and Hakuda to fight.
Soi Fon couldn't help but question whether the path she had followed all these years was even correct.
Or perhaps…
The ultimate destination of the Stealth Force was to discard the Zanpakutō altogether.
Nearby.
While still bleeding profusely from the nose, Omaeda finally noticed Soi Fon standing there in quiet despair.
Concerned, he asked, "Captain, what's wrong? Why do you suddenly look so down? Come on, let's admire Lady Yoruichi's amazing body, uh, I mean, her combat style!"
"…"
Silence.
Soi Fon didn't respond.
Her face was filled with sorrow as she shook her head weakly and sighed. "It seems that no matter now or in the future, I'll never be able to catch up to Lady Yoruichi's shadow."
In that moment.
Soi Fon's entire mindset completely shattered.
Third Division barracks.
"Hm…"
"To think that after a hundred years, Shihoin Yoruichi has grown to this level. She truly deserves her reputation as one of the most gifted Shihoin nobles in history."
Feeling the overwhelming thunderous pressure pouring out from the transparent screen, the Captain-Commander's aged eyes lit up.
The wild form of the black cat war goddess.
Even for someone as ancient as him, practically a living record of Soul Society itself, this was the first time he had ever witnessed such a thing.
Especially the perfect fusion of Hakuda and Shunpo, producing destructive power similar to a Kido detonation.
It was a technique even he had never seen before.
"Captain-Commander, it's not that I'm underestimating Shihoin Yoruichi, but that poison man's ability is just too bizarre. There's no way to fully grasp it…"
Watching the venomous particles swirling around Askin Nakk Le Vaar, Chōjirō Sasakibe shrank back, suddenly feeling as if someone had forced poison down his throat.
A lethal dose.
Such a strange and rare ability was something both millennia-old veterans were encountering for the first time.
Even with a god's-eye view, it still felt troublesome.
Let alone for Yoruichi, who was facing it head-on.
"Not necessarily," the Captain-Commander replied.
"After entering that special state, Shihoin Yoruichi's spiritual pressure has surpassed that of an ordinary captain. While she's still short of the very peak of the Soul Reapers, she isn't that far off."
With his keen eye, the Captain-Commander instantly judged Yoruichi's level.
Below the pinnacle.
But among the strongest of the captains who had lived for a century.
"You mean… overwhelming spiritual pressure could break through the adjustment speed of the lethal dose?" Chōjirō realized it at once.
"Exactly."
"You find his ability troublesome simply because your destructive power isn't high enough. My Ryūjin Jakka would erase him with a single slash."
His gaze burned like fire.
...
The Commander-in-Chief's authoritative words carried absolute confidence.
As the strongest Shinigami in a thousand years, he never once believed that the power of Schrift could pose any real threat to him.
Back on the battlefield.
After transforming into the Black Cat War Princess, Yoruichi's emotions were thrown off balance. It was as if she had unconsciously hypnotized herself.
It wasn't just her movements.
Her facial expressions, her posture, every subtle gesture.
Each step, each smile, every flicker of motion made her look like a living thunder cat given human form.
"A Shinigami who fights without relying on a Zanpakutō. You really chose a strange path," Askin Nakk Le Vaar muttered, frowning as the storm of lightning rushed straight toward him.
This was a style of combat he had never seen before.
Even after entering Vollständig, he felt an overwhelming pressure bearing down on him.
And then, in the brief moment he hesitated—
"Meow!!!"
The cry was like the roar of an electric beast.
Lightning particles vibrated violently through the air, crackling with deafening thunder.
Yoruichi moved.
"Go, Lady Yoruichi! Tear him apart!" Ōmaeda shouted at the top of his lungs inside the squad office, clutching his ears as if they were about to burst.
Through the transparent light screen, the scattered lightning rippled through the air.
The entire Second Division headquarters trembled from the reverberation.
Behind him, Soi Fon said nothing, but her excitement was impossible to hide.
"Lady Yoruichi…"
"You have to win!"
Then it happened.
The Thunder God descended.
The roaring lightning cat seemed to leap through space itself, appearing directly behind the poison man.
And then—
With everything she had, she slashed.
A cat's claw formed entirely from lightning tore through the air, warping space itself ever so slightly.
That terrifying display stunned everyone watching.
"So Shinigami really don't need Zanpakutō after all!"
"People always mocked Hakuda as pointless, turns out we just never trained it properly!"
"Wait, maybe I don't need to go to the Fourth Division after all. The Stealth Force is looking real tempting."
"Yeah! Join the Second Division! Learn Shunpo and hand-to-hand combat!"
…
Inspired by Yoruichi, a new wave of division transfers quietly began to rise.
If Bankai was so hard to master, why cling so stubbornly to swords?
Taking an unconventional path like the Flash Goddess worked just fine.
At that moment, the distance was too short.
With his body suppressed by the lightning storm, Askin Nakk Le Vaar had no time to dodge.
The lightning claw struck him head-on and sent him flying.
"Gahhh!"
His bloodied body shot through the air with a scream before crashing violently into the ruins.
That single scene ignited cheers from every Shinigami watching.
"That was amazing!"
"As expected of the Flash Goddess! She completely overwhelmed a pure-blood Quincy!"
"Is Lady Yoruichi actually going to rewrite the rankings?"
…
Everyone watched with burning anticipation.
They longed for the Black Cat War Princess to finish Askin once and for all.
Yoruichi herself felt the same.
Even though she had temporarily lost conscious control, her instincts refused to let prey that close escape.
A flash of lightning.
She lunged toward the edge of the ruins and swung her lightning claws again.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
…
More than a dozen relentless strikes.
The violent pressure of the claws pinned Askin down completely.
He was like a fish on a chopping board, waiting to be swallowed whole by the electric cat.
"She's insane. Yoruichi really is the ceiling of physical combat in the Soul Society," Urahara Kisuke exclaimed inside his shop, fired up from head to toe.
Unlike most spectators, he knew Yoruichi better than anyone.
The secret behind Shunkō was something he had understood long ago.
He just never imagined that, pushed to its absolute limit, it could be this terrifying.
It was practically control over lightning itself.
"Yeah… honestly, forget that poison guy. Even I wouldn't survive a single slap from her," Kurosaki Isshin said, still shaken.
He wasn't exaggerating.
A claw strong enough to slightly distort space itself?
One hit like that was something even a captain would think twice about.
"Hey, there's no movement in the ruins anymore. This fight should be over, right?" Tessai observed carefully. Aside from the raging lightning, Askin looked completely finished.
"Probably. No one could survive that. Unless…"
Before Urahara could finish his sentence, the smile vanished from his face.
"Huh?!"
His pupils shrank sharply.
Reflected in his eyes was a toxic wave erupting from the ruins like a volcanic explosion.
"What the hell?!"
Urahara's voice wavered.
In just a few seconds, tons of poisonous matter burst forth like a natural disaster.
Under the stunned gaze of everyone watching, it gathered in the sky, forming an enormous sphere of poison.
At the same time, Askin's voice echoed from the ruins once more.
"Heh…"
"If I hadn't adjusted the lethal dosage of spiritual pressure in time, that lightning kitty really would've killed me."
"Wouldn't you agree…"
"Urahara Kisuke?"
Completely unharmed, Askin stepped out from the poisonous tide.
He turned his head toward the edge of the toxic sphere.
The camera followed his gaze.
Then it froze on a familiar figure.
"This is…"
"I'm actually at the battlefield?!"
Urahara cried out inside his shop, his emotions hitting him like a truck.
What was going on?
So during Miss Yoruichi's fight with the poison guy, I was watching from nearby the whole time?
Then…
How the hell am I supposed to escape this poison sphere now?
He stared up at the massive, sky-blocking orb of venom.
As its shadow fell over him, both the real Urahara and the version inside the video wore the exact same expression of despair.
"Shopkeeper, look over there! Yoruichi seems to have collapsed from exhaustion!"
At the brink of despair.
Holding the screen steady, Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez pointed at the lower-left corner, delivering an even worse piece of news.
At that moment, unable to dodge in time and already drained of stamina, Yoruichi was splashed by the erupting poison. Her body went limp, and she crashed to the ground.
Now—
Across the entire battlefield—
The only one left standing, newly appearing on the screen, was Urahara Kisuke.
"Ah…"
In the video, Urahara lifted off his fisherman's hat.
He let out a helpless sigh. "I was hoping Miss Yoruichi alone could take you down easily. That's why I stayed on the sidelines all this time."
"But who would've thought… you pure-blooded Quincy really are impossible to kill. What a headache."
As he spoke, Urahara drew his cane-sword from his waist.
His eyes narrowed slightly, his voice turning sharp and cold."According to the intel you've gathered, I suppose my life in the human world these past years hasn't been going so well, has it?"
"But…"
"I'd advise you not to underestimate just any neighborhood shopkeeper."
It was both a warning and a farewell.
Then—
A fierce pressure exploded outward.
And from Urahara's lips came the release command of Bankai:
"Bankai—!"
"Kannonbiraki Benihime Aratame!"
"..."
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