Sword Skeleton

Gremmy lowered his eyes, looking at Byakuya Kuchiki with disdain. "You dare stand in front of me alone? Are all of you in the Gotei 13 so blind to your own strength?"

Byakuya had no intention of speaking to Gremmy; since Ukitake had assigned him to Gremmy's presence, he should fulfill his duties as Gotei 14.

He coldly drew his sword, unleashed his Zanpakuto, scattered the Senbonzakura Senbonzakura, and manipulated them to attack Gremmy.

With a whoosh, the sea of cherry blossoms seemed to crash into an invisible wall, unable to get even a fraction closer to Gremmy no matter what they did.

"To deal with your Senbonzakura, I only need to imagine that I have an impenetrable defense. Your sword poses no threat to me whatsoever."

Gremmy wore a mocking smile. The entire Sternritter Quincy about the Bleach's abilities through his illusionary powers. As the manipulator of these illusions, Gremmy knew the Gotei 13's information inside and out.

"Next, you should use Bankai, right?"

"Bankai! Senbonzakura Kageyoshi!"

An even more overwhelming sea of flowers descended from the sky. Gremmy's imagination not only allowed her to understand Byakuya's abilities, but she also perfectly imitated his personality and fighting style.

Byakuya controlled Senbonzakura Kageyoshi slice the mountain where Gremmy was located into pieces. Even so, there was always an invisible protection around Gremmy, blocking Senbonzakura's attacks.

Byakuya's eyes narrowed slightly; the feeling around Gremmy was like...

"Does this look familiar? It's my imitation of your Invincible Circle Fantasy Absolute Defense. Within this range, your Senbonzakura will absolutely be unable to attack me. You see..."

Gremmy even reached his hand into the sea of flowers, and the moment his hand went in, all the Senbonzakura petals dodged away from his palm.

He fantasizes about having the same ability as Byakuya Kuchiki, that he is immune to the harm from Senbonzakura.

"Hadō 73 - Sōren Sōkatsui!"

Two balls of azure flame rushed towards Gremmy. Since he couldn't Zanpakuto, he would use Kido. Byakuya Kuchiki had only one goal: to eliminate the enemies invading Soul Society.

Seeing the two balls of flame coming towards him, Gremmy revealed a mysterious smile, and actually took the initiative to cancel the invulnerability circle around him, opening his arms to meet the attack of Senbonzakura and Sōren Sōkatsui.

Boom! The explosion of the Sōren Sōkatsui stirred up a violent cloud of smoke and dust. Byakuya did not give up the pursuit and immediately transformed the power of Senbonzakura Kageyoshi, using Gokei's Cherry Blossom Ball to cut everything within the blast radius into dust.

"You still don't understand, Byakuya Kuchiki!" A hand emerged from Senbonzakura Kageyoshi, Gremmy actually tore open Byakuya's Gokei. "Even without using your imagination, your attacks are still ineffective against me!"

At this moment, Gremmy's body was covered with blue patterns, which resembled the Blut Vene. Relying solely on the Blut Vene, he could move with ease even during Byakuya's Bankai.

"Your body!" Byakuya's face turned solemn. This was the first time he had spoken to Gremmy during the battle, because the information he had received from Gremmy was beyond what he knew.

"As expected, you also have someone on your side similar to His Majesty, someone who knows our information." Letting his hood flutter in the sea of flowers, Gremmy said knowingly, "That person, is it Sawada Tsunayoshi?"

"I knew His Majesty insisted on adding Pernida's power to us, precisely to exceed your current intelligence and understanding."

"Just let me kill you, Byakuya Kuchiki! My power far exceeds your imagination!"

Gremmy's spiritual pressure exploded, and as his words fell, countless enormous Spirit Bow and Arrows rained down from the sky like missiles. In the world he imagined, he, the Visionary Gremmy, was a god!

Byakuya quickly gathered all the cherry blossoms around him, and the pink ones were pointed towards the sky at the same time. Each katana accurately countered an arrow, and a series of explosions erupted in the sky.

"Why do you think Jūshirō Ukitake would send me to deal with you?!"

Using Flash Step, Byakuya wielded a katana and slashed at Gremmy. Just as Gremmy managed to block the attack with two fingers, a pink figure thrust a katana towards Gremmy's back.

With the same clang, neither sword pierced Gremmy's body. Byakuya, having confirmed the information, instantly retreated. He found this information about Gremmy somewhat troublesome.

"Then that other person must be the spirit of your Zanpakuto, right? That's quite an interesting ability." Gremmy completely disregarded Byakuya's sneak attack, instead engaging in lighthearted banter. "You stabbed me, aren't you going to call me out to meet you?"

A pink figure formed from cherry blossoms appeared beside Byakuya. This was also a result of his training. Due to the special nature of the Senbonzakura Zanpakuto, the sword spirit could temporarily reside in the humanoid form formed by the petals to assist in battle.

"I've granted you one wish, in exchange for your body..."

"It exists~" Gremmy knew what Byakuya wanted to ask and answered the question directly. His body was real and not a creation of the brain.

Byakuya remained silent. According to Tsuna's intelligence, Gremmy was just a brain, and the way to defeat him was simply to exceed the brain's capacity to withstand attacks, at which point he would reveal his true form.

Byakuya's original idea was to challenge Gremmy's data processing ability with countless cherry blossom petals, but now it seems that won't work; the thing in front of him is a person, not a brain.

"Isn't that amazing!" Gremmy spun around triumphantly. "They all temporarily buried Pernida's power within their bodies, but I was the only one who used it immediately."

"The result of the combination of evolution and fantasy is this body of mine, which is not limited by the brain. I am a complete person, and also the one who can perfectly bear the evolutionary power of the Soul King's Left Hand!"

During the process of Pernida's evolutionary power taking effect, users will be more or less corrupted by Pernida's power and evolve in a direction they do not want.

This is completely absent in Gremmy. The Saint Letters ability of the Visionary grants him extraordinary mental control, allowing him to perfectly steer the direction of evolution no matter how much Pernida's Gremmy goes wrong.

From a brain to a normal body again, this is the evolutionary path Gremmy chose. Unlike others, he used the power of evolution from the very beginning.

That's why Byakuya realized that his sword had actually stabbed Gremmy; what blocked his attack wasn't an illusion, but Gremmy's Blut Vene.

The fact that Gremy's Blut blocked most of Byakuya's attacks made Byakuya realize that Gremmy's strength far exceeded the descriptions in the intelligence reports.

A large number of cherry blossoms converged towards Byakuya; the best way to break through the comprehensive defense was to use the sharpest spear.

As the petals turned white due to their excessive density and gradually formed wings on Byakuya's body, Gremmy said with a smile.

"The White Emperor Sword? This move can indeed break through the defense of the Blut Vene, but how can your body, which is more fragile than a biscuit, withstand such immense spiritual pressure?"

A cracking sound rang out inside Byakuya's body. Byakuya immediately realized that his leg was broken. He hurriedly dispersed the cherry blossoms that had gathered on his body, but it was too late. The sound of multiple bones breaking came from his body.

In an instant, the Captain-level spiritual pressure crushed his body, causing multiple fractures, and he collapsed helplessly to the ground.

Pink figures gathered around Byakuya. Senbonzakura quickly caught Byakuya and laid Byakuya on the ground to prevent further injury.

At the same time, he drew a Zanpakuto at Gremmy. As long as Byakuya gave the order, he would charge at Gremmy without hesitation.

"It must be tough being physically weak, right? Knowing full well my intelligence, you still sent me. If it were me, I might have made Unohana Retsu my opponent; at least she wouldn't be paralyzed by a broken bone."

Despite Gremmy's words, Byakuya remained undeterred. He braced himself on the ground, trying to get up, but then there was another cracking sound. His arm could no longer support his own weight; if he forced himself to move, all the bones in his body would shatter.

"How boring, Byakuya Kuchiki." Gremmy had no interest in watching the defeated opponent struggle. With a wave of his hand, several modern firearms were aimed at Byakuya and unleashed a barrage of fire.

Gremmy slowly drifted towards the Seireitei. That Jūshirō Ukitake is really troublesome, sending him to such a far place.

Suddenly, a series of clanging sounds rang out behind Gremmy. Just as he was about to turn around to see what was going on, a pink katana pierced through his chest.

Before him Byakuya Kuchiki, his face stiff with disbelief. Gremmy never imagined he could still move, having not used his Blut Vene for defense.

"How could you still move!" Gremmy stared at Byakuya with a ferocious expression. This was the first time he had felt pain since he gained a body. Damn Byakuya Kuchiki.

Byakuya didn't answer Gremmy's question; he only wanted to draw his sword and stab Gremmy again.

"It's no use, my body can absorb your blade!" Gremmy imagined that his body had the ability to absorb, so that Byakuya would not be able to use his sword to cause secondary damage to him.

However, the moment he realized he couldn't pull the sword out, Byakuya immediately shattered the pink katana in his hand, raised his hand, and another katana formed from flower petals appeared in his hand.

With a diagonal downward slash, the blade pierced through Gremmy's shoulder and down to his abdomen, blood splattering in the air. Even as he fell from the sky, Gremmy still couldn't understand why Byakuya could move. Had his illusionary abilities failed him?

It wasn't until Gremmy saw that, on Byakuya's blood-soaked body, flower petals were burrowing into Byakuya's body through his wounds.

"Madman!"

Before even hitting the ground, Gremmy could already imagine his body completely unharmed. Looking at Byakuya high in the sky, he couldn't help but curse. Thinking of the pain from those two stabs he had just suffered, Gremmy wanted to curse a few more times.

Now Gremmy knew why Byakuya Kuchiki had a pale, stiff face: it was because he was enduring Byakuya Kuchiki pain, as if being stabbed a thousand times.

Gremmy's ability did not fail; Byakuya's fragile body was able to move because he had embedded Senbonzakura into his bones.

If Byakuya moves, his bones will inevitably shatter, and several petals will then mend the broken bones. This is how Byakuya Kuchiki regained his mobility by using this method of forging bones with a sword.

It should be noted that each petal of the Senbonzakura is extremely sharp. Byakuya's actions were tantamount to enduring the agony of being slowly sliced to death. Even so, he did it anyway and inflicted effective damage on Gremmy.

"Captain Ukitake has his reasons for choosing me as your opponent. Now, let's continue the fight!"

Byakuya appeared before Gremmy once again, accompanied by the cracking sound of bones breaking, the slicing of flesh by sharp blades, and the whooshing sound of swords clashing.