Sudden Assault

The peaceful days passed little by little.

During this time, the Quincy remained quiet. Occasionally, conflicts broke out along the borders.

This made Captain-Commander Yamamoto sense that something was wrong, but most of the nobles did not think so.

That day,

Shuichi was meditating in his residence.

Ever since seeing the sea of red spider lilies in his Inner World that day, Shuichi had tried to enter it every day. Sometimes he could get in; sometimes he could not.

But Shuichi was not in a hurry. Today, he got in.

Shuichi opened his eyes and stood amid that four-colored sea of flowers.

The cottage was still in the distance.

But that figure was not standing before the wooden house.

Suddenly, that figure vanished.

Shuichi spun around.

That figure stood three steps behind him.

He wore a white cross-collared robe and a red cloak. His face remained hazy and indistinct, impossible to see clearly. But unlike before, he held a sword in his hand.

A silver-white blade, a rose-red hilt, and a black truncated-square guard.

The exact same sword as Shuichi's.

The man neither spoke nor beckoned. He simply raised the sword and slashed down.

Shuichi instinctively dodged sideways. He had no sword in hand. In the Inner World, his Zanpakutō was not with him, but in the hands of the person opposite him. Even so, his evasive movement was smooth. His body reacted faster than his mind.

The man did not pursue.

He merely held his sword and stood in place, its tip lowered toward the ground.

Then the blade changed.

The silver along its edge slowly faded, replaced by a deep blue, like the color of the deep sea, or the darkest blue at the heart of the night sky.

The man spoke.

His voice seemed to come from somewhere far away, blurry and low, yet every word fell clearly into Shuichi's ears.

"Dance, Flower of Death."

Points of light began gathering on the blue blade. Then hundreds of blue luminous butterflies poured from it, spilling from the man's hand like a glowing river.

The swarm circled above the flower sea, making several rounds. Blue Reishi motes fell from their wings like rain.

Shuichi stood there, watching the swarm, watching those blue butterflies circle him several times before scattering and vanishing into the four-colored sea of flowers.

Then the blade changed color again.

The blue faded, and gold emerged.

The man spoke again.

"Burn, Flower of Agony."

The golden blade glittered beneath the sunlight.

There was no visible effect.

The blade simply shone, dazzlingly golden.

Shuichi frowned.

He could not make out what this technique did.

Then the blade changed once more.

The gold faded, replaced by a blade white as jade.

"Bloom, Flawless Flower."

Reishi spread outward from the white blade, expanding ring by ring. The ripples solidified in the air, forming a hemispherical transparent barrier that enclosed Shuichi and the man within.

Inside the barrier, everything became clearer.

Shuichi could feel the barrier sensing and analyzing something.

The barrier lasted for a moment, then dissipated.

The blade changed one final time.

Its jade-like translucence faded, and red emerged.

"Scatter, Flower of Longing."

A red slash flew from the blade, skimming across the flower sea close to the ground. It left a deep trail through the flower stalks and soil as the sword energy swept past Shuichi.

If the mark transformed into a large number of chains, they would bind Shuichi.

The man stopped moving, held the sword horizontally before himself, then dismissed the chains and pointed to the red mark left by the first slash on the ground.

Shuichi roughly understood the red blade and its ability. It required the path of a slash; the mark left by the sword energy could trigger chains.

Then the man tossed the sword in his hand to Shuichi. Shuichi picked up the blade and looked at him.

The man conjured another sword.

Then he began sparring with him, feeding him moves.

The blue butterfly swarm could create illusions.

The golden light strengthened Reiatsu and spiritual body recovery.

The white barrier filtered illusions and sensed Reiatsu.

The red sword energy and chains were its rare offensive capabilities.

He had learned a great deal today...

While Shuichi was still in the Inner World, Seireitei changed.

Around Seireitei, throughout Rukongai and every corner of Seireitei, pillars of condensed blue Reishi flame shot into the sky. That blue was not the blue of the heavens, nor the blue of seawater. It was an intense, blinding blue like molten sapphire. The pillars of flame soared skyward.

Then came a second.

A third.

A fourth.

Blue pillars of flame rose throughout Seireitei—outside the west gate, outside the south gate, outside the north gate, and even within Seireitei itself, in areas normally considered absolutely safe.

In an extremely short time, the number of flame pillars grew from several to dozens, then from dozens to hundreds.

The air around every flame pillar twisted, and the Reishi crackled as it burned.

Then the shadows moved.

On the ground near the flame pillars, shadows began to swell, spreading in every direction like ink dropped into water.

From the depths of the shadows, white figures crawled out one after another—Holy Soldiers.

The Quincy's Holy Soldiers, holding Reishi bows and clad in white Reishi Armament, poured from the shadows and swarmed toward Seireitei's streets, barracks, and residences like ants.

There was no warning.

No assembly.

No negotiation.

The Holy Soldiers began attacking the moment the flame pillars rose.

Rain after rain of Reishi arrows poured down from every direction, blanketing entire blocks.

Soul Reapers still asleep, still training in the morning, still on patrol—before they could even draw their swords, they were pierced by arrows.

First Division Barracks.

Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto sat in his office with his eyes closed. Before him lay documents left unapproved from the night before. His eyes snapped open.

There was no surprise in them, no rage—only something deep, like magma pressed beneath stone.

"Yhwach."

When Yamamoto spoke that name, his voice was not loud, yet the Reishi throughout the office trembled.

The documents on the desk were swept into the air by an invisible force, fluttering wildly. The next instant, Yamamoto vanished.

Only the documents still drifting down through the air and a chair cracked apart by Reiatsu remained in the office.

Above Seireitei.

A blazing light shot out from the First Division Barracks, streaking across the sky like a meteor and leaving a long trail of flame behind it.

The light was so brilliant that even the blue flame pillars dimmed before it.

Then the fiery meteor plummeted, and roaring flames rose within Seireitei.

The flames of Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto—his Ryujin Jakka.

Seireitei's layout differed from that of later generations.

At this time, most division bases were not located within Seireitei. Instead, they were scattered throughout Rukongai. In the east, south, west, and north, several division barracks stood in each direction.

Other than Central 46's council hall, the First Division Barracks, and the nobles' residences, hardly any Soul Reapers were permanently stationed within Seireitei.

This was where the nobles lived.

The Four Great Noble Clans, the Upper Nobility, and the lower nobility—their estates occupied most of Seireitei's land. High walls, deep courtyards, soaring eaves—each estate was a small fortress, with its own armed forces, its own barriers, and its own Reishi Armament.

When the blue flame pillars rose throughout Seireitei, the first to react were not the Soul Reapers, but these nobles.

Not because they were faster than the Soul Reapers, but because their armed forces were always on alert and ready to assemble.

Ever since the Quincy extermination order had been issued, the nobles might have outwardly scorned the Quincy, but privately, they had never stopped their arms race.

The nobles had continuously reinforced the barriers around their estates, stockpiled Reishi Armament, and trained their private forces. The Shihōin Clan's Heaven-Bestowed Divine Armament and the Kasumioji Clan's Reishi Armament had sold out within a single month.

So when the Holy Soldiers emerged from the shadows and slaughtered Soul Reapers, these noble forces had already filled the grounds of their own estates.

The first to enter battle were a group of lower nobles near the west gate.

Their estates lay less than two hundred meters from a blue flame pillar. The moment Holy Soldiers crawled from the shadows, some of these noble guards were killed, but the survivors quickly organized a defensive line.

Reishi bows traded fire, Zanpakutō clashed in close combat, and Hakuda fighters engaged at point-blank range. In an extremely short time, they stabilized the west gate's defenses.

But they had only stabilized them.

There were too many Holy Soldiers. And not only Holy Soldiers—among those who walked out of the flame pillars were Quincy at lieutenant level.

Their Reiatsu far surpassed that of ordinary Holy Soldiers. Their Hirenkyaku was too fast for the naked eye to follow, and their Holy Arrows could pierce the Reishi shields of noble guards in a single strike.

One lieutenant-level Quincy could suppress an entire squad of noble guards, and dozens of such Quincy appeared throughout Seireitei.

The noble guards began suffering casualties.

Not one or two at a time, but entire groups falling.

Until the captain of the Twelfth Division arrived.

Zenteiji Yūbin charged out from the depths of Seireitei and immediately wiped out large numbers of Quincy.

The Twelfth Division Barracks was the only division base located within Seireitei. Because Zenteiji Yūbin was Upper Nobility, his estate was the barracks, and the barracks was his estate. So when the attack began, he was one of the first Soul Reapers to react.

Zenteiji Yūbin's martial arts were neither the crisp, efficient combat techniques of Soul Reapers nor the refined fighting methods of Quincy based on Reishi manipulation. His fighting style was pure, primal, almost savage violence.

In their first exchange, he shattered a lieutenant-level Quincy's jaw.

One punch, swinging from above like smashing a walnut, crashed into the Quincy's face. The sound of splintering bone echoed down the entire street, and the Quincy fell before he could even react.

The second lieutenant-level Quincy tried to retreat, open the distance, and fire arrows. Zenteiji gave him no chance. He used Shunpo to flash behind him, grabbed the arm drawing the bow, and twisted.

Like wringing out a towel, he twisted the arm from the shoulder into a mangled spiral. Bone, muscle, and fragments of Reishi Armament mixed together as blood and Reishi sprayed out.

The Quincy screamed, but only once.

Zenteiji smashed his throat with his elbow.

The Holy Soldiers began to retreat.

His irrational fighting style and captain-level strength made the Holy Soldiers instinctively fall back, establish defensive lines, and organize an encirclement.

Zenteiji stood amid the corpses and shook the blood from his hand.

His Zanpakutō still hung at his waist, looking as tiny as a toy compared to his enormous build.

"Any more?" he asked.

His voice was not loud, but the Holy Soldiers heard it clearly.

No one answered.

Then, two Reiatsu appeared.

But their way of walking, the looks in their eyes, and the confidence radiating from their very bones were not things ordinary Quincy could possess.

The Sternritter.

Though they were not Schrift holders, they were official members of the order.

Zenteiji placed a hand on his sword hilt.

"Finally, someone who can fight," he said.

His Reiatsu surged violently. Dense, honeycomb-like Reishi patterns appeared across his Zanpakutō's blade, producing a high-frequency buzzing sound.

"Rend apart! Quake Calamity!"