Bleach: Reborn — Chapter 317 - Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto, Falls (Patreon)

Ashes of heaven and earth, Ryūjin Jakka's supreme ultimate technique, compressing its flames to the absolute limit before releasing them in a single surge. Burning heaven and earth to nothing.

That horizontal slash from Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto shattered everything summoned by the previous technique in an instant, reducing tens of thousands of corpses to dust and cinders in a single stroke. And that same slash had utterly destroyed Yhwach's Blut Vene, cutting him clean through the midsection. The searing heat had scorched his internal organs before his blood could even begin to flow. Though it had not killed him outright, if Yhwach could still survive this blow, then the only explanation would be that Orihime Inoue had defected.

"What a fearsome strike." Wayne furrowed his brow slightly.

If the old man had aimed that slash at the earth itself, it would be fair to say it could have genuinely cleaved all of Soul Society apart. The power of that slash should be roughly on par with his own Destructive Cero, since for Wayne, using the Destructive Cero three or four times in a row was already his limit. He just had no idea how many times the old man could swing that slash.

Hush...

With the enemy leader dead, the scorched marks on Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto's Ryūjin Jakka faded rapidly, returning to its white unsheathed state. The moment he sheathed it, a torrential downpour began falling from the sky. This was because the sudden drop in temperature caused two opposing air currents to collide, making this, after Hyōrinmaru and Gonryomaru, yet another Zanpakutō capable of indirectly influencing the weather. Achieved through sheer force alone.

"It's over." Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto's expression was stern. He glanced once at Yhwach lying on the ground, on the verge of becoming a corpse, then turned and walked away. The death of an old friend and the fall of his subordinates had left this aged man so consumed by grief that he even overlooked the fact that not far from the battlefield, Yhwach's adjutant was still present. Whether the disparity in Reiatsu levels was simply too vast to bother engaging, or whether he had truly and completely overlooked the existence of that man named Haschwalth, captain of the Sternritter, that much was unclear.

"The strength... no longer willing..." Yhwach's eyes grew vacant as he lay on the ground, clearly left powerless to reverse anything by that last blow. "I am... terribly sorry."

"Hmm?" Old Man Yamamoto stopped in his tracks at the sound. "As a leader, who are you apologizing to? You lost a war you yourself started — who is there to apologize to?"

"I... failed to fulfill your orders." In that moment, the fallen Yhwach's gaze filled with remorse and devotion. He raised his hand toward the sky as though trying to grasp something. "Yhwach... my lord."

BOOM!

The words had barely fallen when a pillar of deep-blue Reiatsu surged up from the barracks of the 1st Division. Its Reiatsu was so dense and overwhelming that every high-ranking member of Soul Society turned their gaze in that direction.

"No — Chojiro!" After Sasakibe's death, the 3rd Seat Chojiro had taken his place, becoming Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto's lieutenant. The Reiatsu pillar that had just erupted had not only destroyed the barracks, it had clearly taken the life of this man who had only just assumed the position of 1st Division lieutenant.

Hum!

Before Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto could react, a towering figure dropped down directly behind him.

"...Yhwach!" Sensing the Reiatsu at his back, the Captain-Commander understood that he had been played. The man he had just spent the majority of his Reiatsu to kill was not the real Yhwach, he was a fake. The real Yhwach had only appeared before him now, after his Reiatsu had been exhausted.

"Sternritter Y — Yourself — Royd Lloyd." The one who had arrived was the true Yhwach. "Not letting anyone discover I was gone, you did well."

"You said... I did well." Royd Lloyd had by now resumed his true appearance. "I feel... the utmost honor."

BOOM!

Yhwach raised his hand and obliterated Royd Lloyd entirely.

"You villain, what exactly did you do just now?!" The question carried a double meaning, and the old man's fury surged anew.

"You know perfectly well what lies beneath the 1st Division barracks." Yhwach did not turn around, his kingly bearing fully on display.

"Muken!" Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto finally understood Yhwach's intent. "You went to see Aizen!"

"Precisely." Yhwach turned his head, leaving Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto with a look full of contempt. "Well then, the battle with the impostor should have drained your power dry. Yamamoto Shigekuni."

"Don't make me laugh!" Those words enraged the old man, and he drew Ryūjin Jakka once more. "Bankai!"

BOOM!

Before Ryūjin Jakka's flames could even ignite, a star-shaped medallion suddenly appeared in Yhwach's hand. The medallion radiated a deep black luster and swallowed the entirety of Ryūjin Jakka's power whole.

Ryūjin Jakka, in that instant, stolen completely by Yhwach. "Your Bankai is not something that cannot be taken, rather, your immense power is something no one but I can control. That is why I ordered Royd not to engage you until I returned. Now then, if I were to use this Bankai, I could summon the corpses of your subordinates as well, you know. Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto."

"You bastard!" Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto lunged forward. Yhwach was unhurried. With a light upward stroke of the longsword in his right hand, an enormous Heilig Pfeil appeared in the sky above. Shortly after, a holy spirit greatsword forged entirely from Reishi was loosed from a great bow into the earth, and Yhwach wrenched it free. This was Yhwach's true weapon.

"You..." Facing this sword fallen from the heavens, feeling the forceful surge of Yhwach's Reiatsu bearing down on him, the old man seemed to forget, for a moment, to raise his own Zanpakutō.

"Farewell, Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto."

PFFT!

Yhwach delivered a diagonal slash, cutting from Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto's left shoulder clean through to his right abdomen. It severed half his body entirely. That slash had utterly taken Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto's life.

Felled by a single stroke, Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto's lower half remained standing perfectly upright on the ground, his final defiance. But his upper body had already slid away and collapsed, blood gushing from the wound. The rain scattered it in an instant, staining the surrounding ground red. And those aged eyes, in that moment, filled with nothing but helplessness. In the end, amid the downpour sweeping across the sky, his long life came to a close.

Old Man Yamamoto's Reiatsu dissipated, and in that same instant every high-ranking Soul Reaper across Soul Society lost their pillar of strength and fell into panic.

"Old Man Yamamoto!" On a distant part of the battlefield, Shunsui Kyōraku forgot his own fight and cried out toward the old man's direction, only to be caught off guard by his opponent and struck with a grievous wound.

"Captain-Commander Yamamoto." At the 13th Division's defensive perimeter, Jushiro Ukitake raised his head and looked into the distance. He had never imagined that Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto would fall in battle. But the moment that Reiatsu vanished, he had no choice but to accept that it had become reality.

"Tsuki-chan, were you unable to make it in time?" In the 4th Division, Retsu Unohana's eyes showed a flash of shock. It was the first time in all her years as a Soul Reaper that she felt a tremor unlike any she had known before. "Or rather, was it that the Captain-Commander himself..."

"Damn it, what is Big Brother doing?!" Shiro-chan and Rangiku turned at the same moment and flew toward the direction of Sokyoku Hill. They had originally been heading to support the nearby squad members, but upon sensing the disappearance of the Captain-Commander's Reiatsu, Shiro-chan immediately entered Bankai state and, taking Rangiku with him, accelerated at full speed toward the distant location.

In an instant, all of Soul Society shook. The clan heads in particular, the pillar they had placed their unwavering trust in had now come crashing down. They could no longer see a future for Soul Society.

"Hmph."

Yhwach, who had felled Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto with a single stroke, let out a cold scoff. "For the leader of the Soul Reapers, what a disgraceful way to die. Truly shameful." He paid no attention to the corpse on the ground. "Let's go, Haschwalth."

"Yes." The golden-haired Haschwalth had witnessed the entire battle from start to finish. Toward the death of Royd Lloyd, he showed no sympathy or grief whatsoever. And having witnessed the death of the enemy leader, his face remained equally expressionless, as though everything that had happened here had nothing to do with him at all.

Click!

"Hmm?" Just as Yhwach was about to leave, something caught on his clothes. Looking down, he saw that Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto's sword-gripping hand was pressing directly down on the corner of his coat.

"Hmph. You're already dead, and you still won't let me leave?" Yhwach narrowed his eyes slightly, raised the Reishi greatsword once more, and brought it down on Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto's wrist.

"How utterly tiresome, you incongruous thing." He severed Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto's arm with a single stroke. Then Yhwach placed his foot on top of Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto's head. "Why you were not among the five Special War Powers I designated, you will never know the reason now."

Whether it was some long-held grievance against Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto, Yhwach spoke on at length to a dead man. "You grew weak, Yamamoto Shigekuni. You stood before me bearing the fate of Soul Society — and even the living world — on your shoulders, and you lost. If it had been you from the past, it would never have come to this. The Gotei 13 you founded in its early days treated the name 'Gotei' as a hollow title, while in substance it was a band of killers who took lives without batting an eye. And because of that, the entire Thirteen Court Guard Squads inspired dread in all who heard their name."

"And as its commander, you were a true sword-demon in those days, willing to use everything at your disposal to slay your enemies. No need to mention outsiders; you did not even care about the lives of your own subordinates. But after destroying us Quincy, you changed. Living in an age of peace, you began to protect more and more things. Mercy ran rampant. You became fixated on hollow ideals of justice and honor, and you stopped advancing. You degenerated into a lazy rabble. There is one thing you never knew before your death, allow me to tell you."

As he spoke, Yhwach raised his left hand, and a deep-blue radiance began to gather at the tip of his index finger.

"Soul Society is about to be destroyed here and now, but the Gotei 13 died together with us a thousand years ago!"

BOOM!

The explosion rang out thunderously, and the Heilig Pfeil fired by Yhwach reduced Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto to nothing in total obliteration. What Yhwach wanted was to destroy him so thoroughly that not even a complete corpse could be found.

In an instant, the violent Reiatsu spread throughout all of Soul Society, and every captain could clearly sense the Reiatsu of that explosion.

After this strike, they might not even be able to gather what remained of Captain-Commander Yamamoto.

"...Hmm?"

The ferocious strike ended, and the dust mixed with rain began to slowly settle. The scene before him came into view. Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto, who should have been blasted to pieces, still lay on the ground in two sections. Everything around him had been reduced to rubble by Yhwach, everything except the patch of earth where he had fallen.

And just ahead of Captain Yamamoto's position, a golden phantasmal silhouette was slowly materializing from another dimension, appearing before Yhwach.

"...So you came."

"Hey~" Wayne lowered the arm he had raised to block the attack, revealing his true form. The phantasmal ripples ceased at that same moment.

"First meeting, King of the Quincy." Wayne had blocked Yhwach's attack. Meanwhile, behind him, Timd was amplifying the power of the clone, taking human form, and gathering the body of Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto, now in three pieces, before casting it into a spatial rift.

"The Hollow King, Ace Wayne." Yhwach naturally knew Wayne's name. After all, not every Hollow he had captured would help Wayne guard his identity.

"I searched for you for a long time. Unfortunately, it seems your name is known throughout all of Hueco Mundo, yet you were nowhere to be found. It appears you, too, found another dimension to hide yourself away in." Sensing the fluctuations of the spatial rift behind Wayne, Yhwach understood.

"Heh. Hueco Mundo is too desolate, I need to find a new environment for my people." Wayne replied casually. "Destroying an old man's corpse like this would be such a waste. You don't mind if I take it and eat it, do you?"

"Hmph." Yhwach's expression turned cold. With a single scoff, he drew his blade toward Wayne. Wayne deftly dodged the swinging blade and simultaneously teleported himself, Timd, and the Captain-Commander's remains to a short distance behind.

"What's this, the man's already dead, and you won't even let me take him as a parting gift?" Wayne curved the corner of his mouth upward, and his Reiatsu began to rise steadily.

"Oh? Have Hollows come to side with Soul Reapers now?" Yhwach said with contempt.

"You invaded Hueco Mundo without my permission, I haven't even settled that account with you yet." Wayne did not engage with the remark; he simply had Timd continue moving Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto's remains while he himself stepped two paces forward. "Taking a little something from you as compensation, not unreasonable, is it?"

"Hmm?" Yhwach clearly understood that what Wayne referred to was not Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto.

"What exactly do you mean by that."

"You can't even figure out what I mean, you're a real blockhead!" Wayne let loose at Yhwach in a strange, colorful manner of speaking. Immediately after, Wayne's Reiatsu began to surge. His left hand closed on empty air, and the Sky-Rending Greatsword dropped into his grip. He swung a slash wave directly at Yhwach's face.

Yhwach made no move. Haschwalth stepped swiftly forward at his side, raised his blade, and blocked the strike.

"Why don't you use your power to sense it?" Wayne grinned teasingly and crooked a finger toward Yhwach.

"Hmm?" Yhwach's brow furrowed. He closed his eyes to sense. After a long moment, he opened them. His eyes were filled with fury.

"You... how did you find the Wandenreich." It was evident that Yhwach had already sensed the situation inside the Wandenreich, whether or not he had used the Almighty.

"You think my people are so easy to capture?" A fierce light flashed in Wayne's eyes. "Ordinarily we don't interfere with each other, but you touched my people, naturally I'll be collecting some interest."

"You..." Yhwach's Reiatsu began to climb. It appeared he was preparing to come to blows with Wayne.

But the moment Yhwach took a single step forward, a black-bladed sword wreathed in black Reiatsu came streaking toward him with the speed of lightning.

BOOM!

The ground split apart. Yhwach and Wayne both jumped back a single step.

The dust dispersed, and the owner of that blade arrived on the battlefield. A jet-black coat. Orange, ragged hair. His face was streaked with blood, yet it did nothing to conceal the ferocity of his expression.

At that moment, Ichigo Kurosaki had broken free of the binding that Quilge Opie had set, and arrived here in Soul Society.

Drawing his blade, raising it, Ichigo Kurosaki leveled Zangetsu directly at Yhwach.

"Let me ask you... the head of the enemy... is it you?"

➤ Next: Ichigo Kurosaki vs. Yhwach