Battle (1)

The blade broke the silence with a crisp, low hum. Liu Hao slowly drew his Zanpakuto, its silvery blade gleaming coldly in the moonlight, and leveled it steadily at the man opposite him—Kaien Shiba.

"Beat me," Liu Hao said, his voice calm to the point of coldness, "and then, according to the fate you've chosen, decide how you and your wife will die in the future. Lose to me—and you either die or cling to life as I say, waiting for all of this to end."

The air froze for several seconds.

Kaien Shiba scratched his trademark black hair, his face settling into its usual, slightly helpless smile. "Uh... Liu Hao, is this really necessary? Besides, with your current strength, honestly, you can't beat me."

"Is that so?" The corners of Liu Hao's mouth rose in a teasing curve. "Do you think I would have told you all this if I hadn't prepared to beat you?"

Kaien Shiba's smile froze for an instant, then grew even brighter. "Uh... I guess you have a point." As he spoke, he hopped lightly backward, his right hand already closing around the hilt at his waist. "Then let's have a spar."

His Zanpakuto left its sheath, tracing a graceful arc through the night. Kaien Shiba assumed a standard fighting stance, leaning slightly forward and lowering his center of gravity, his whole body like a cheetah poised to strike.

Liu Hao watched him steady his breathing, a barely perceptible flicker of excitement in his eyes. "I've never gone all out before." He paused, lowering his voice further. "I hope you can satisfy me."

Kaien Shiba was startled.

He had watched Liu Hao fight Renji Abarai and had crossed swords with the young man himself several times. After each spar, he had pointed out the problems Liu Hao exposed in battle—tiny flaws in his footwork, delays in mobilizing his Reiatsu, and excess force in his slashes. He had thought he had seen through Liu Hao's limits.

Yet now Liu Hao was saying he had never gone all out.

At that instant, Liu Hao's Reiatsu began to climb.

It was not an explosion, but a steady, sustained rise, slowly swelling like the tide. Kaien Shiba's pupils contracted slightly—the Reiatsu felt completely different from usual. Liu Hao's Reiatsu was normally powerful but restrained and subdued; what he released now carried the majesty of one who looked down upon all beings, like an emperor surveying his domain.

An invisible pressure began to fill the air. The surrounding vegetation stirred without a breeze, and small stones trembled faintly on the ground.

Kaien Shiba did not dare take it lightly. He immediately summoned his own Reiatsu to resist. Blue Reiatsu rose from his body like the tranquil depths of the sea, attempting to envelop and dispel that overbearing pressure. The two currents of Reiatsu collided soundlessly in the air, sending out ripples invisible to the naked eye.

When their Reiatsu reached a delicate balance, Liu Hao spoke. "Be careful. Since I've never gone all out, I don't know if I can guarantee that I'll beat you without killing you."

Before the words had faded, Liu Hao vanished.

No, he had not vanished—he was moving so fast that he left a string of afterimages in the darkness. Kaien Shiba's vision blurred, and a Zanpakuto came slashing toward his face with a whistle through the air. He instinctively raised his blade to block.

"Clang!"

The thunderous clash of metal shook the valley. Kaien Shiba felt the web of his hand go numb as an unprecedented force traveled down his blade, forcing him to retreat and disperse the impact. Deep cracks appeared in the earth beneath his feet.

Liu Hao gave him no chance to breathe. A second strike followed, then a third and a fourth—each seemingly ordinary, nothing more than the most basic chops, cuts, thrusts, and upward slashes. Yet combined with terrifying speed and strength, those basic moves became an inescapable killing net.

Cold sweat beaded on Kaien Shiba's forehead. He had instructed Liu Hao in swordsmanship countless times, pointing out the flaws in those moves. But when those "flaws" were executed at three times the speed and five times the strength, every supposed opening vanished, leaving only a relentless pressure he could barely keep up with.

He could only retreat, then retreat again. The ground beneath his feet kept cracking, and every block jarred his arms numb. This sheer, violent suppression left even him, a battle-hardened lieutenant, feeling a trace of suffocation.

The instant he retreated for the third time, Liu Hao pressed the index and middle fingers of his left hand together and pointed them at him.

"Hadō #4, Byakurai."

No incantation. An instantaneous cast.

A pillar-thick bolt of white lightning tore through the night, shooting toward him faster than the eye could see. Kaien Shiba barely managed to turn sideways. The lightning grazed his sleeve and blasted an enormous, charred crater into the distant mountainside. The smell of scorched fabric mingled with the air.

And in that instant of evasion, Liu Hao vanished once more.

Behind him!

The hairs on Kaien Shiba's body stood on end. Relying on his thoroughly honed fighting instincts, he leaped forward and forcibly twisted his body in midair, holding his Zanpakuto across his front.

"Clang!"

Another deafening impact rang out. Using its force, Kaien Shiba tumbled several times through the air before finally landing on one knee, driving his Zanpakuto deep into the ground to steady himself.

Liu Hao did not pursue him.

He stood where he was, his Zanpakuto pointing diagonally toward the ground, an almost pleased expression on his face. "You dodged it. Not bad. Good thing I held back." He paused, a trace of genuine seriousness entering his voice. "Next, I'm going to show you what I can really do."

Kaien Shiba's heart sank.

Liu Hao was already dominating him—had he still not gone all out?

Liu Hao slowly lowered the tip of his blade until it touched the ground. At that instant, a pale golden ripple spread from the point where the tip met the soil.

"Expand, Four Symbols Barrier."

The instant the words fell, four pillars of differently colored light soared into the sky with Liu Hao at their center—the eastern Azure Dragon, green as jade; the western White Tiger, silver-white as frost; the southern Vermilion Bird, crimson as raging fire; and the northern Black Tortoise, dark as the deep sea. The four pillars met in the night sky, forming an enormous translucent dome that completely enclosed the mountaintop.

The space inside the barrier seemed to have been stripped away from the World of the Living. Sounds from outside vanished, and even the wind stopped blowing.

"Don't hold back, Lieutenant Kaien." Liu Hao's voice echoed within the barrier. "With your ability, even if you can't use Bankai, you shouldn't be far from it. And I've been restraining my Reiatsu all this time." He raised a hand, his fingertips brushing the edge of the barrier. "This barrier is a seal I developed to completely isolate Reiatsu fluctuations, so certain 'eyes' wouldn't notice me. In here, we can fight to our hearts' content."

With that, Liu Hao's Reiatsu rose again.

This time it was no gradual climb, but an eruption like a volcano. Golden Reiatsu surged skyward, forming a visible hurricane inside the barrier. The air wailed, the ground trembled, and even the walls of the Four Symbols Barrier began to ripple violently.

Captain-level.

No—among the best of the Captain-level.

Kaien Shiba clenched his teeth and raised his Reiatsu to its limit. His blue Reiatsu was like a raging wave from the deep sea, trying to contend with the golden hurricane. Yet the gap was obvious—his Reiatsu was compressed inch by inch, driven back until it could barely protect the three feet around him.

Cold sweat trickled down his temple.

"Is it because my Reiatsu has already surpassed yours by so much?" Liu Hao's voice came through the howling Reiatsu. "No, you're wrong. The total amount of my Reiatsu isn't greater than yours. It might even be less."

Kaien Shiba froze.

"But my Reiatsu is rather... special." Liu Hao slowly raised the Zanpakuto in his hand. "Normally, I just hide the 'sharpness' in my Reiatsu. That's why, when I go all out, you feel as though my Reiatsu far exceeds yours."

Hearing this, Kaien Shiba forced himself to calm down and carefully sensed the golden Reiatsu blanketing everything.

Indeed—the "quantity" of Reiatsu was not as terrifying as he had imagined. What truly suffocated him was the "quality" it contained: an utterly supreme, overbearing will that acknowledged no equal, the imperial might of one who looked down upon all beings and held power over life and death. It was not merely Reiatsu, but a crushing force on a spiritual level.

Realizing this, Kaien Shiba was even more shaken. Such a young Soul Reaper already had Reiatsu nearly as strong as his own, and its nature was so unusual—this young man named Liu Hao would likely achieve things beyond anyone's imagination in the future.

"Then—" Liu Hao's voice pulled him from his thoughts. "Let's begin. Let's fight to our hearts' content."

He gripped his Zanpakuto with both hands and held it upright before him, its blade reflecting his calm eyes.

"Draw, Imperial Sword."

The instant the release command fell, a transformation occurred—and yet it did not fully occur.

The Zanpakuto in Liu Hao's hands began to change shape and lengthen, finally becoming an ancient, unadorned eight-sided Han sword. Its blade was about three feet long and three fingers wide, with a dark golden metallic sheen throughout. Its ridge was straight, its edges sharp, and intricate cloud patterns were carved into its guard.

But something was wrong.

Kaien Shiba stared at the sword, his brow slightly furrowed. Though the blade was magnificent, he could not shake the feeling that something was missing, as though it were an unfinished work of art, or a counterfeit whose true form had been sealed away.

Liu Hao also looked down at the sword in his hand and let out a barely audible sigh. "Are you sulking?" he murmured, his tone carrying a hint of helplessness. "All I did was leave out part of that chuuni release command."

He reached out and gently brushed his fingertips over the blade, as tenderly as if caressing a lover's cheek. The sword trembled slightly, emitting a low hum.

"Lieutenant Kaien," Liu Hao said, looking up with an apologetic smile, "my sword is sulking. But—" He flicked his wrist, and the edge cut through the air with a sharp hiss. "It won't affect the fight. Come on."

The corner of Kaien Shiba's eye twitched. "Um... maybe we should stop? You can coax it."

The atmosphere suddenly grew a little strange. The tension of a life-or-death duel vanished entirely, disrupted by this sudden conversation about a sulking Zanpakuto.

Liu Hao was silent for several seconds. At last, he took a deep breath, an almost solemn and tragic expression appearing on his face. He once again held the sword upright before him, closed his eyes, and recited the full release command, enunciating every word:

"The Imperial Princess at My Side, I advance bearing the sword; the emperor's wrath rises—"

He paused, then seemed to summon all his strength to utter the final words:

"Imperial Sword, unsheathe!"

"Boom!"

Golden light burst forth.

The unfinished eight-sided Han sword dissolved, reassembled, and transformed within the light. Its blade became longer and slimmer, its dark golden sheen turning a brilliant gold and red. A lifelike purplish-red, five-clawed dragon spiraled up from the hilt, its head raised in a roar at the guard, its body coiled around the entire ridge, and its tail extending to the tip.

Most chilling of all were the inscriptions on the blade, once indistinct but now clearly visible. Every character flowed with a blood-red sheen, as though they had truly been written and stained with the blood of countless enemies.

His Reiatsu rose for the third time.

This time it was no longer an eruption, but a metamorphosis. If his previous Reiatsu had been an emperor reigning over the world, then his Reiatsu now was a founding sage-emperor who had expanded his territory and brought all races to submission. The air inside the barrier was as heavy as mercury, and every breath came with a piercing pain that burned the lungs.

More cold sweat beaded on Kaien Shiba's forehead. His Reiatsu had risen this much from Shikai alone? What kind of monster was this young man?

But he had no time to dwell on it, because Liu Hao had already moved.

It was not an afterimage, nor Shunpo—it was true movement through space. One moment he was ten zhang away; the next, his blade was at Kaien's throat.

Kaien Shiba let out a furious shout and finally stopped holding back.

"Let the seas and heavens churn—"

He turned his wrist, and his Zanpakuto changed shape and extended as it spun. Water-blue Reiatsu poured out like the tide, enveloping the blade and finally condensing into an extraordinarily magnificent trident-shaped spear. Its three points gleamed coldly like stars, liquid water coiled around its shaft, and the entire weapon radiated an aura as profound and powerful as the ocean.

"Nejibana!"

The moment his Zanpakuto's release was complete, Kaien Shiba's bearing changed abruptly. The embattled man who had been forced onto the defensive became the Seireitei's youngest lieutenant again, the genius of the Shiba family, the pillar of the Thirteenth Division.

"Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!"

The clash of weapons rang out inside the barrier like a downpour striking an iron plate. The gold-and-red Imperial Sword and azure Nejibana became two streaks of light, clashing fiercely within the confined space. Every collision sent dazzling sparks and ripples of Reiatsu flying.

Liu Hao's swordsmanship was broad and sweeping, every strike carrying the domineering force to shatter mountains; Kaien Shiba's spearwork was nimble and elusive, like the ebb and flow of the tide, using softness to overcome hardness. For a time, they fought so evenly that neither could gain the upper hand.

After another fierce collision, the two separated by ten zhang and faced each other.

Liu Hao looked at the beautiful, powerful Zanpakuto in Kaien Shiba's hand, admiration showing in his eyes. "I've seen it before—but that was a counterfeit made by a Hollow that devoured other Hollows. It swallowed Metastacia, who carried your Reishi, and then imitated it." He paused. "Rukia nearly died to this Zanpakuto's ability because of that counterfeit."

The tip of the Imperial Sword rose slightly, pointing at Nejibana.

"But seeing the genuine article in person—" Liu Hao smiled. "It really is beautiful. Everyone says Rukia Kuchiki's Sode no Shirayuki is the most beautiful Zanpakuto in Soul Society, but I've always thought your Nejibana was just as beautiful."