The Elegance of Shattering a Crown

This is the power of the Antithesis. After the Shadow Candy House and another version of himself switched places, Uryū activated his ability again. He didn't target the two Candy House, but rather himself and Toshiro.

Because the two Candy House exchanged so quickly, even Uryū's vision wasn't 100% certain that it could perfectly capture both of them.

However, once you know the other party's purpose, it becomes much easier to deduce the process with the answer in mind. Uryū only needs to lock onto himself and Toshiro, who cannot move quickly.

By seizing the moment when the two make their move and switching their positions, one can achieve the same instantaneous counter-attack.

Furthermore, this makes it even less noticeable, because the spiritual pressure emanating from the ability is emanating from Uryū and Toshiro.

The Candy House's plan was highly feasible, but it ultimately lacked information from Uryū. On the contrary, Uryū had guessed most of their information.

Toshiro slowly put away Hyōrinmaru. This battle was just a warm-up for him; the rest of the battle relied entirely on the information he had analyzed, which was rather uninteresting.

Fairy Tale Dragon by six, two remain.

Ichigo and Byakuya are chasing Cinderella all over London, and Cinderella is like a bomber without a destination, scattering her stardust all over the city.

However, beneath every flash of light in the night sky, a precise pink hue lay beneath the starlight. A series of explosions echoed through the London night sky. Amidst the chaos of the explosions, the owner of the pink hue remained remarkably calm. He silently followed behind Cinderella, listening to Ichigo recount Cinderella story.

"What an interesting fairy tale," Byakuya commented after listening to Ichigo's account. He thought of himself and Hisana; weren't their stories also about a nobleman and a commoner?

"Those who like you won't have different opinions about you because of your social status, whether you're noble or down on your luck. Cinderella, in the end, was too attached to appearances."

Once again, I recalled the time when I first met Hisana. Byakuya had defied all opposition and brought the commoner Hisana back to the Kuchiki Clan, giving her the Kuchiki surname.

Because he knew that once he let go, he might never get that girl back.

The prince in fairy tales is lucky; he finds the girl of his dreams. But what makes a fairy tale a fairy tale is that the farewell in reality is eternal.

"Take off that glamorous facade; what's fake is still fake. Show your true self to the one you love, Cinderella!"

Byakuya's soft whisper seemed to travel through countless gusts of wind, reaching Cinderella's ears. In that instant, Cinderella turned around as if by telepathy, and saw a romantic sea of flowers she had never seen before.

"Bankai, Senbonzakura Kageyoshi!"

Pink cherry blossom petals clustered together like surging waves, layer upon layer, crashing down on Cinderella. Cinderella hastily retaliated with an explosion of stardust, but before she could even create an opening, the sea of cherry blossoms filled her up again.

Ichigo was standing next to Byakuya, was a little confused. He couldn't understand what Byakuya was rambling on about after listening to the fairy tale. But if Byakuya was confident in dealing with Cinderella, he should have used it sooner rather than making things complicated here.

Cinderella was completely countered by Byakuya Kuchiki. Byakuya's exquisite control allowed him to manipulate each petal of the indiscriminate Stardust attack to make it touch and explode.

He wanted to attack Bai Ze with stardust, but found that the number of bombs he threw was far less than the number of Byakuya's pink blades.

After continuous development of his Zanpakuto, Byakuya's ability to control cherry blossoms has increased exponentially. This is a pure numerical superiority, and Cinderella has no chance of escaping.

Surrounded by a surging sea of flowers, with thin lines of blood constantly erupting from Cinderella's body, Byakuya had begun to use a meat grinder-like attack, enveloping Cinderella in a ball Senbonzakura Kageyoshi pink petals. Staying inside would only result in one Gokei: being ground into mincemeat.

Seeing how easily Byakuya had trapped Cinderella, and remembering how he had chased Cinderella all over the place, Ichigo couldn't Ichigo but blush. He should have just let Byakuya handle it alone; his presence was completely useless.

"Ichigo Kurosaki, get ready, it's about to appear."

Byakuya's voice startled Ichigo awake. Ichigo quickly assumed a defensive stance, and in the next instant, a giant dragon in bird form appeared behind Byakuya and stabbed at Byakuya with its remaining claw.

"We've been prepared for this for a long time!"

To Cinderella's surprise, the moment it appeared, it was greeted by a pure black crescent moon. Getsuga Tensho, carrying immense spiritual pressure, severed Cinderella's remaining claw, leaving Cinderella without shoes.

Byakuya released Gokei Senbonzakura Kageyoshi, and a large number of cherry blossoms returned to his side. At the center of the attack, there was a sharp claw that was difficult to see with the naked eye.

It was still the power of the glass slipper. Cinderella used the power of the glass slipper to escape from Gokei Senbonzakura Kageyoshi, and wanted to take advantage of this moment when Byakuya had no petals to defend himself, so she could kill Byakuya.

However, Byakuya had already seen through Cinderella's intentions, which is why he deliberately cooperated with Cinderella actions, allowing Ichigo to cut off the remaining glass slipper from Cinderella with Ichigo.

"Now, you have no way to escape, do you?" Ichigo said smugly. He had been annoyed by the glass slipper countless times, and now Cinderella finally had no shoes left.

Cinderella let out a scream, her whole body radiating a dazzling white light, and she was about to fight desperately with all her feathers.

"Even though you've already donned the crown, are you still clinging to the same old mindset of sneak attacks and fighting for your life?"

All the cherry blossoms converged behind Byakuya, and an increasingly intense white light emanated from behind Byakuya, from Byakuya a pair of beautiful white wings also sprouted.

Final Scene: White Emperor Sword! Byakuya's form, where he compresses all the power of Senbonzakura to its ultimate limit.

In his White Emperor Sword form, Byakuya flapped his wings, and all the feathers that Cinderella had just shot out flew back to the direction they had come from.

With a deafening roar, even Cinderella herself couldn't control herself; the explosion rang out right in front of her, and amidst the massive black smoke and dust, a half-bald dragon plummeted from the smoke.

That was Cinderella who injured herself; her power was distributed too quickly, and she couldn't even control it, which is why she was caught in the explosion.

"I originally thought that, as fellow nobles, you would engage me in an elegant, head-on battle. I didn't expect your mindset to remain unchanged. In that case, please remove that false crown!"

Byakuya transformed into a streak of white light, chasing after the direction Cinderella had landed. Cinderella had just crashed to the ground and was about to struggle when she saw Byakuya's gleaming sword.

The White Emperor Sword fell upon Cinderella's crown with a single, graceful strike, as if it were born a noble. The magnificent crown shattered instantly, and Cinderella's body underwent a transformation.

Its magnificent feathers stopped growing and even quietly faded away; the shimmering light on its body had disappeared, and its body was gradually shrinking.

The crown is like the beautiful dress and glass slippers in a fairy tale; once lost, Cinderella will revert to her original state.

Covered in gray feathers, Cinderella transformed into an inconspicuous dragon, resembling a wild goose, devoid of any of the arrogance of Fairy Tale Dragon.

It struggled to cover its eyes with its wings; as long as it couldn't see, it was still the beautiful Cinderella.

"Isn't it beautiful?"

Upon hearing the voice of the man who had defeated her, Cinderella froze. She looked up blankly at Byakuya, Byakuya met her gaze with unwavering certainty.

"Your natural features are already excellent; just changing your clothes makes you instantly look noble." Byakuya's eyes were sharp, just like when he spotted Himura in a crowd back then.

They were all ugly ducklings, but Byakuya was able to see their beauty after they grew up.

"False nobility will not make you truly powerful. I look forward to the moment you wear the true crown." Byakuya raised his Zanpakuto. "Farewell, Cinderella."

This time, Cinderella didn't cover her eyes with her wings. She raised her head with all her might and offered her neck to be killed. Being killed by the person who had seen her true face and still called her Cinderella didn't seem like a bad thing.

The blade sliced across Cinderella's neck, taking away the last vestiges of Cinderella life. Her spiritual pressure dissipated into specks of Reishi.

In the dim light, Byakuya seemed to see a resolute gaze, as if it were saying that if they met again, it would surely wear its crown.

Swish!

The next moment, Ichigo collapsed beside Byakuya, hugging Byakuya leg and shouting, "Byakuya, how did you do that? Teach me!"

Byakuya's entire process of killing Cinderella looked effortless and easy. In Ichigo's eyes, Cinderella wasn't killed by Byakuya, but by his Byakuya conversation.

Thinking about his own mouth, which wasn't very good at expressing his own opinions, Ichigo had the idea of learning. Maybe if he studied with Byakuya for a couple of days, he could talk his enemies to death.

"Don't even think about it, you can't do it." Byakuya had no idea what Ichigo was thinking, that he actually believed his words had made Cinderella calmly face her death. Couldn't he see that Ichigo's strength was now vastly different from what it used to be?

One by one, the Fairy Tale Dragon fell, leaving only the last one and the Animal Band entangled with the Hirako.

However, the demise of its kind did not sadden the Animal Band. On the contrary, now only the Fairy Tale Dragon exists in London, which means that the whole of London is the stage for the Animal Band!

The passionate music started playing the instant Cinderella disappeared, while Hirako, not far from the Animal Band, was clutching his head in pain.

In a daze, he felt as if he had arrived in a city called Bremen, where a four-piece band was enjoying their music wildly on the city's largest stage.

Each of them wore a donkey, chicken, dog, and cat headgear, and the audience cheered enthusiastically, chanting the band's name.

Bremen Town Musicians