Jun did not take part in the negotiations. After all, this was a matter between the two families, and they finished exchanging benefits in less than an hour. It seemed both sides understood what was at stake.
Now they only had to deliver the agreement to the Central 46 in full view of everyone, and this ugly incident that had affected all of Soul Society would finally come to an end.
Jun, Ichigen and his son Isshin had prepared for one final battle. At this point, Yoruichi chose to join the escort to ensure its safety and authority, and the news made all three very happy.
That left Kisuke Urahara with no choice but to join them as well. This operation had to be seen, so the Shihoin family's main gates swung open, and five figures emerged.
"This..."
"Good grief~"
"Do people really hate the Five Great Noble Clans this much?"
"You've got to be kidding me."
The moment they stepped out of the Shihoin gates, a voice suddenly shouted, "This is our last chance!" Dozens of people threw off their cloaks. They were the watchers who had been hiding around the Shihoin residence. Yet that was not what shocked the five of them. What shocked them was the countless people rushing over from farther away to join the coming battle.
Jun recognized many of them as members of the Gotei 13, though there were even more he did not know. Judging by the Reiatsu he sensed, however, these people were not all that strong.
There were simply too many of them. By Jun's rough estimate, there were probably over five hundred already, and the number was still growing.
Jun saw that many of them were trembling as they held their swords. They probably did not dare come, but had no other choice. Jun did not know what had put them under such pressure that they dared face death. At that moment, Jun felt utter despair for Soul Society.
What exactly was a human life worth in some people's eyes? Jun could not answer that, nor did he know how to define it.
"There's no one very strong here. They're all seated officers ranked fiftieth or seventieth and below, and rejects from the various families," Kisuke Urahara said, sizing them up.
Of course, this crowd could not stop the group of five, but blocking their path like this was indeed a nasty nuisance. Leaving with Shunpo was a good option, but clearly the mastermind had yet to make a move. If they were intercepted while using Shunpo, they would be picked off one by one.
But just as the five were deliberating over what to do, masked figures suddenly appeared among the crowd and all around them, furiously attacking the people blocking the way.
Some of them wore only masks, while a portion also wore a special kind of hood. It was square-shaped and distinctive enough to recognize at a glance.
"The Second Division and the Punishment Force?"
Yoruichi was utterly baffled, but someone soon gave her an answer. A member of the Punishment Force and a member of the Second Division suddenly appeared before her, dropped to one knee and spoke in unison.
"We were late to protect you, my lady! Please punish us!"
"Oh?"
Yoruichi was still completely bewildered. Kisuke Urahara was just about to give her a hint when the group of five suddenly scattered. A gigantic Shishō Saemon was taking shape, and they had all anticipated this, so naturally they ran.
But the frightening part was not that one Shishō Saemon was taking shape, but several. Jun and the others escaped one, only to be trapped by another.
Yoruichi and Kisuke Urahara were trapped together. Kisuke really was an awkward way to address him, so let's call him Manager Urahara. Everyone knows who that is.
The manager snapped open his fan and stood back-to-back with Yoruichi. They had developed this understanding through hundreds of years of training together; the two childhood friends both knew what the other was thinking.
Suddenly, a voice drew their attention. Someone removed his cloak, and they looked over to see a burly old man with a bald head and ordination scars.
"Captain Ishikawa!?"
"Heh heh~, two little ones~"
The old man was none other than the Third Division Captain, Ishikawa Saemon. He was no ordinary man: an old monster who had survived the First Thousand-Year War, a comrade of Yamamoto Shigekuni and Retsu Unohana, and one of the Gotei 13's original captains.
"Why are you involved too...?" Yoruichi found it hard to accept. He was, after all, one of the meritorious veterans. Yoruichi knew about the First Thousand-Year War; the Five Great Noble Clans had all been around since that era.
Ishikawa Saemon snorted. "Hmph! What a pointless question. What could you nobles possibly understand about us? Huh!?"
"I fought my way out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood! Back then, even the Royal Palace Guard was wiped out. My friends and I fought the Quincy under the Captain-Commander's leadership! We rendered tremendous service to Soul Society! And what did we get!? Am I a noble!? Is the Captain-Commander a noble!? No!"
Captain Ishikawa drew his Zanpakuto, his aged face full of fury. "The so-called nobles are all damned bastards! Your parents' generation was one thing; they were comrades who fought through battles alongside us, after all. But this generation is a complete disappointment. It's time for you bastards to disappear!"
Yoruichi and the manager exchanged a glance.
"There's no reasoning with him. Let's fight."
"Mm~"
The manager drew his sword, and Yoruichi took her stance. In ancient times, the Shihoin family had separated from the other families and established its own tradition. The Shihoin did not study Zanjutsu, only Hakuda. Thus, although Ōetsu Nimaiya had invented the Zanpakuto system, it had no effect on the Shihoin at all.
"Heh heh, ha ha~, a useless brat who won't even draw a sword. I chose you two so that my friends who died in battle could see how I kill a little brat too scared to wield a sword today!"
"Even the Buddha has a wrathful Vajra! Bankai! Heaven's Wrath Buddha-Head Vajra!"
Even the Shishō Saemon containing the three of them could not block the effects of the Bankai. The sky above instantly turned fiery. The heavens were burning.
Inside, a gigantic apparition appeared behind Captain Ishikawa: a Buddha with eyes wide in fury, its entire body red as though aflame, both arms raised as if ready to smash down at any moment.
"Oh my~, you take him. My abilities aren't suited to fighting a monster like that head-on~"
"Of course! Stay back!"
The manager promptly retreated to a corner of the Shishō Saemon. Yoruichi took off her Shihakushō, revealing the short-sleeved vest and shorts underneath, and her Reiatsu suddenly erupted.
"Roar Open!"
This was the ability she had used to effortlessly take down Soi Fon in an instant in the original story. Similar to the Shihoin family's Shikai, it produced two winglike jets of Spiritual Power at her shoulder blades. The Spiritual Power enveloped her shoulders and arms, greatly amplifying the destructive power of her Hakuda.
But against an old monster left over from a previous generation like Ishikawa, Roar Open alone was certainly not enough.
"Cycle! Repeat! Born of all things! Gathered from all spirits! Neither birth nor form! All births and all forms!"
"Open! Close! Divine Roar!"
The Spiritual Power jets on Yoruichi's body increased from two to six, with the remaining ones at her wrists and ankles. At the same time, the Spiritual Power from the jets began to circulate externally, forming curved bands that connected to the dantian at her lower spine. From a distance, she looked like a gigantic butterfly.
The powerful Reishi jets blew Yoruichi's long hair straight up, giving her an imposing air all its own.
"Come on! Let's fight to the death!"
Ishikawa Saemon charged at her with his sword raised. He came running, without using Shunpo at all. It was quite an interesting move, enough to make even Yoruichi feel awkward.
But this was a fight to the death, so naturally Yoruichi would not hold back. She vanished in an instant, but just as she was about to bring her foot down on Ishikawa's head, his sword was already in position. At the same time, the Buddha apparition's eyes flashed.
Yoruichi vanished again. She had a bad feeling. After withdrawing from the fight, she lowered her head and raised her foot to look at her heel. The Spiritual Power jet there had been cut open, and it showed no sign of recovering.
"Ah!!!!!!!"
But it was not over. Old Ishikawa suddenly roared, and the Buddha apparition roared along with him. Then both man and apparition took on another layer of fiery red.
"Yoruichi! That guy's ability can't be defended against! And if he doesn't get results, he'll keep getting stronger! Kill him, quick!" the manager shouted frantically. He was not yet entirely certain of old Ishikawa's ability, but if that was what it did, they had to end the fight quickly. There was no time for further analysis.
Yoruichi was stunned. Wasn't that ability absurdly powerful? As expected of an old monster who had survived the First Thousand-Year War. Her opponent gave her no more time to think. Old Ishikawa came running at her again, swinging his long sword.
Yoruichi vanished once more. Divine Roar was even faster than Roar Open, and its Reiatsu also filled the surrounding area. As the incantation suggested, this state could form a cycle with the surrounding Reishi, returning everything to normal. As a result, there was no sound of air being cut, much less any way to judge her movements by the flow of air.
The eye could not see her, and Spiritual Power detection could not find her either. This was the Shihoin family's ultimate technique, the power of Divine Roar. The Stealth Force did not necessarily need absolute stealth. As long as you were too fast for your opponent to see or find, the result was the same.
Yet even moving like this gave Yoruichi no opening, because she discovered—
"That Buddha head can see you!"
The manager had noticed it too. The apparition's Buddha head kept changing direction. Though Ishikawa's slashing and running looked rather comical, his Buddha head never stopped tracking the enemy. Moreover, he kept running in the direction Yoruichi moved. He had location tracking and automatic attacks, so what did it matter how well a player using cheats like that actually played?
Yoruichi stopped moving. Old Ishikawa's ability was a perfect counter to agility-based fighters; there was simply no way to get close. And even if she did, she would have to fight him at close range. The old man's close combat came with tracking and defense penetration, and when he failed to land a hit, his attack power or some other ability increased. How the hell was she supposed to fight that?
So Yoruichi pulled back and took a stance, sinking into a horse stance and thrusting both clenched fists forward. The wings on her back folded together from their outstretched position, like a butterfly settling somewhere.
The instant the wings closed, they grew more than five times larger. It was as if an ordinary butterfly had suddenly turned into a Queen Alexandra's birdwing. The jets joining together made the discharge and exchange of Spiritual Power several times stronger.
But this state also placed tremendous pressure on Yoruichi. The veins stood out across her forehead, and the same was true of every visible part of her neck and arms. The immense flow of Spiritual Power gathered a vast amount of Reishi, forming a crystal-clear sphere of light between her clenched fists.
Yoruichi had already gritted her teeth so hard that the tremendous power made her gums bleed, but she could not stop. The sphere grew larger and clearer, then began to shine, its light growing more intense.
"Divine Roar! Divine Light Cannon!"
The sphere shot out. It did not suddenly explode into something enormous as one might imagine, but remained the size it had been when formed, smaller than Yoruichi's upper body. Its speed was decent, though not even as fast as Yoruichi's Shunpo. Of course, that did not make it easy to dodge.
But old Ishikawa had never intended to dodge. He had kept running toward her to cut her down while she gathered power, and did the same when faced with the sphere. His sword struck it, effortlessly erasing the part of the sphere the blade passed through. But before he could strike a second time—
Boom~~~~~~~~~~!!!!!!!!!!
The Shishō Saemon let out an awful noise. The Azure Dragon gate wailed, the White Tiger's gears ground against each other without stopping, the Black Tortoise's crystal wall gave a crisp cracking sound, and the Vermilion Bird's roof seemed ready to spread its wings and soar.
Unfortunately, this Bakudō, which had never been broken since its creation, still did not break this time. The energy eventually subsided. Inside the Shishō Saemon, the manager's hands trembled uncontrollably.
"We're alive, ah~~~~ what a relief."
"Heh heh, sorry about that~"
"It's all right. You don't need to apologize. You had no choice either. That old man's ability was so ridiculous; it wasn't your fault."
"Are you all right?"
"Uh, I'm fine. Just a little tired from casting Dankū over twenty times in a row. What about you?"
"Me?" Yoruichi's legs gave out beneath her as she spoke.
The manager hurriedly caught his childhood friend. "Don't push yourself. Our opponent, ah~ it's over."
There was no opponent left. All the manager could see was a Zanpakuto still dissolving into Reishi.