Chapter 15

"So, you're saying we'll start fighting after you finish releasing it?"

"That's right!"

"Okay."

The moment Haruto finished speaking, an incantation rang out.

"Bakudō #39—"

"!?"

Before the shock could even show on his face, Byakuya understood what Haruto meant from the look in his eyes:

Not interfering with his Shikai didn't mean Haruto couldn't set up a defense in advance.

"Enkōsen!"

A hemispherical shield had already unfolded in front of Haruto. Only then did Byakuya hurriedly raise the Zanpakuto in his hand.

"Scatter—"

"Bakudō—"

Byakuya recovered quickly enough. The incantation for Haruto's second Bakudō, which followed right on the heels of the first, was completely drowned out by the release of his Zanpakuto.

"Senbonzakura!"

"Whoosh."

The blade scattered like dancing petals, its refracted pink-and-white radiance filling almost half the dojo—

It was overwhelmingly girly.

"Well?"

Byakuya gave a slight wave of the arm holding the hilt, and the cherry-colored storm of blades traced an elegant path through the air as effortlessly as if it were an extension of his arm.

"My Zanpakuto deserves the title of the most beautiful in Soul Society, doesn't it?"

"...It does!"

Haruto gave Byakuya an entirely honest and unequivocal answer.

Not calling it "girly" was already the greatest mercy he could show—and Haruto certainly wasn't going to tell Byakuya that his future sister-in-law would eventually snatch that title away. He might as well let him enjoy himself while he could.

"At least you know quality when you see it."

Byakuya still hadn't noticed anything unusual about Haruto.

"Since you're not blind today, I'll be merciful and show you what Senbonzakura can do!"

"It's not just a pretty face!"

Byakuya swung the hilt forcefully, and Senbonzakura began to dance slowly around him like fallen leaves caught in an autumn breeze.

"I know."

"Huh? What do you know?"

Haruto's concise answer instantly brought Byakuya's rising air of grandeur to a halt.

"Senbonzakura's ability, of course. The blade breaks down into countless tiny blades that are hard to distinguish with the naked eye, and the light shining on them makes them look like dancing petals—"

"Is there anything wrong with that description?"

"..."

Haruto's words left Byakuya speechless.

That description was exactly what he had said when he showed Ginrei Kuchiki his Shikai... word for word.

"Where did you hear that?"

Fortunately, Byakuya wasn't very concerned about such "sensitive" information at his age. He was only surprised once again by Haruto's sources.

"Oh, come on."

Haruto spread his hands.

He had only meant to joke with Byakuya, but when he realized he'd let something slip, he quickly pretended nothing had happened and patched things over as best he could.

"I have plenty of sources. You know that."

"...True."

The two had only known each other for a year, but during their time at Shin'ō Academy, Haruto had often managed to get his hands on secret information that even Byakuya didn't know. Some of it had even been about the cat demon—that was information on the head of the Shihoin family, one of the Four Great Noble Clans, something most middle-ranking nobles would never have a chance to come across in their lives—so Byakuya was used to it by now.

Besides, although Byakuya didn't place much importance on information and was impulsive and rash by nature, he was also at the age when he was most loyal to his friends.

His lips were practically welded shut about anything Haruto told him, and he had never revealed a word of it to anyone else.

"All right!"

Byakuya took the initiative to end the intermission.

"Even if you know what Senbonzakura can do, you can't understand the difference between knowing about it and facing it yourself just by imagining it."

"Let's get back to our match!"

Byakuya raised his right arm straight out, pointing the empty hilt at Haruto from a distance.

"Senbonzakura!"

"Whoosh!"

The petals shot out.

Thousands of thin, narrow blades swept toward Haruto from the front, left, and right at once, following the direction of Byakuya's arm.

"Crack!"

The dense blades struck Enkōsen head-on.

The Bakudō numbered thirty-nine had only held for a little over two seconds before its surface was covered in cracks.

This was not only due to the difference in Reiatsu, but also the qualitative change brought about by a Zanpakuto's Shikai.

"Useless, useless!"

As the blades on both sides struck one after another, Haruto's Enkōsen instantly shattered into scattered particles of Reishi light.

"It's over!"

The moment Enkōsen broke, Senbonzakura, surrounding Haruto on every side, converged on him in a barrage, leaving him no way to defend himself!

"Clang, clang, clang!"

The blades shredded everything inside the encirclement, leaving no blind spots.

Because of the distance, Byakuya couldn't fully control the blades' trajectories. Quite a few petals collided with one another and fell to the ground, leaving him unable to control them for a short time.

But that didn't matter!

The small number he had lost would recover before long.

And it was precisely because the attack was so dense that Byakuya was confident Haruto couldn't possibly escape it unscathed.

But then—

Byakuya quickly realized something was wrong.

He had deliberately controlled the damage his Shikai would inflict. Given how well he knew Haruto, it should have been enough to take him down without causing a fatal wound.

But the blades that made up Senbonzakura weren't blocked by Haruto. Instead, they passed straight through his body.

"Oh no!"

It took Byakuya a few tenths of a second to realize what had happened: the figure protected by Enkōsen wasn't Haruto himself, but the new Kidō whose incantation had been completely drowned out by Senbonzakura's release:

"Bakudō #21: Sekienton."

Sekienton itself was only a Bakudō with the effect of a smoke bomb; it couldn't simulate a human figure. A careful look would easily have revealed obvious problems, such as the body's stiffness, but Byakuya had been far too careless with his Shikai in hand. With the addition of another Bakudō, however, the combined Kidō's effect changed dramatically:

"Bakudō #26: Kyokkō."

Kyokkō was a concealment-type Bakudō that hid the user's whereabouts. When combined with Sekienton and a special technique, it could create a lifelike image of the user. The special technique in question was a secret Shunpo technique that Yoruichi Shihōin had used to get the better of Byakuya many times:

"Utsusemi."

Although Byakuya had mastered Shunpo, he still couldn't use a technique that advanced. But to find Utsusemi's weakness, he had spent a long time researching it with Haruto... and the modified Kidō before him was the result.

The most basic requirement for using this move was to complete the incantations for two Kidō at the same time, and the Reiatsu and proficiency required for "Twofold Incantation" were clearly beyond what a student could achieve. If "Eishōhaki" were added on top of that, then even a direct descendant of a great noble clan as extraordinarily gifted as Byakuya was currently unable to use it in actual combat.

Who would have thought?

A move meant to deal with the cat demon had been used on him first. It was no wonder Byakuya hadn't anticipated it.

As Byakuya searched everywhere for Haruto—the wide-area destructive power of Senbonzakura had thrown the Reiatsu in the dojo into some disarray—a voice rang out eerily like a ghost, coming from behind him:

"Where are you looking?"

"!!"

Hearing the voice, Byakuya whipped his head around.

When he saw Haruto using a new Hadō, his eyes expressed the intense dissatisfaction his mouth had no chance to voice:

I thought we agreed not to use Shunpo!

Haruto didn't even return Byakuya's look: he'd said Byakuya couldn't use Shunpo, not that he couldn't use it himself.

Besides...

At most, he was just running fast. It didn't even come close to Shunpo!

"Bakudō #30—"

Haruto immediately raised his hand and traced a perfect inverted triangle in the air in front of him.

"Beak-Piercing Triple Flash!"

Fang-shaped beams of golden light appeared at the triangle's vertices.

"Whoosh!"

Like the bite of a beast.

The Beak-Piercing Triple Flash, unleashed at point-blank range, locked onto Byakuya's arms and waist.

With the fang-shaped beams shooting toward him, the short distance between them gave Byakuya nowhere near enough time to chant another Kidō.

As for Senbonzakura...

The gap between Shikai and Bankai was plain to see, both in number and speed. There were only so many blades in Senbonzakura, and they were all still concentrated in the other half of the dojo, where Haruto had been. There was no way they could return in time to save their master.

"Not a chance!"

Byakuya swung his left arm behind him along with his gaze. From between his close-set fingers, more than a dozen streaks of light shot straight toward the Beak-Piercing Triple Flash!

"Bang—"

Though the fang-shaped beams weren't pierced, the blades detonated them on impact.

"Boom!"

"Well, would you look at that."

Even Haruto was surprised by Byakuya's reaction.

There hadn't been a single cherry blossom petal around Byakuya, so Haruto had assumed he'd used all his blades to attack. He hadn't expected him to have a trick like that up his sleeve.

There was no telling whether Byakuya had kept them to defend against a sneak attack or to catch Haruto off guard.

"But..."

The Reishi light from the exploding Bakudō had only just flared when a sharp rush of air pierced the haze of blinding light.

"!!"

The Asauchi, scabbard and all, had been thrown like a spear straight at Byakuya's forehead!

"Whoosh!"

Byakuya narrowly dodged the flying projectile. If he hadn't used the same method to avoid Haruto's "thrust" back in the dormitory, he might not have reacted so quickly this time.

"Too naive!"