Don't Make a Fuss-Watch Me Show Off...

[Drawing a Bankai for the host...]

Golden words flickered rapidly across Bai Zhu's vision.

Milluki drove straight toward the Church's main road.

Ahead, the first squad of black-armored Holy Knights had raised their spear-shields. Black Crystal Patterns spread from the shield faces all the way across the ground, forcibly sealing off the road with a barricade.

Behind them came the shrill scrape of Black Crystal.

The white-clad saintess had caught up.

In his earpiece, Illumi's breathing was equally ragged.

"Nine minutes and forty seconds remain in the ritual."

Milluki's fingers on the controller moved so fast they nearly left afterimages.

"Bai Zhu, is that ultimate move of yours ready yet? We're about to crash into them!"

Bai Zhu stood atop the vehicle, his Zanpakuto held across his chest, his clothes whipping wildly in the wind.

From inside the car, he looked like some lone hero about to save the world.

In reality, he was practically praying in his head.

"System, Dad, my real Dad, please don't give me that Ikkaku one."

"Ryūmon Hōzukimaru looks cool, but it really doesn't suit this situation."

"I'm here to save people, not use a spatula to ring a bell."

"And don't give me something that needs half an hour of chanting. I don't have time to read the instructions right now."

Milluki caught sight of him standing motionless in the rearview mirror and immediately started cursing in panic.

"What the hell are you doing up there, pretending to be a statue?!"

"I'm building up the mood."

"Building up my ass! Build it up for another two seconds and those Holy Knights will turn us into meat paste!"

Number Nineteen huddled in the back seat, one hand supporting her stomach, her face frighteningly pale.

"You're... really going to charge in?"

Bai Zhu glanced down at her.

"Don't worry. This is how the process goes."

"The process?"

Number Nineteen opened her mouth, but failed to come up with anything for a long while.

The next second, the system panel stopped.

Lines of golden text popped up one after another.

[Bankai draw complete.]

[Random Bankai obtained: Minazuki.]

[Duration: ten minutes.]

Bai Zhu went rigid.

"Minazuki?"

Milluki shouted, "What the hell are you muttering about now?"

Bai Zhu ignored him. There was only one name left in his mind.

Retsu Unohana.

Unohana.

The first Kenpachi.

That thing...

Bai Zhu's throat bobbed.

"YES! YES! YSE! System, from now on, you're my real Dad."

The moment he finished speaking, the panel continued to update.

[Temporarily matching the minimum activation requirements for Bankai.]

[Strength: 200]

[Agility: 800]

[Stamina: 10000]

[Temporary total Reiatsu: 100000]

The numbers in Bai Zhu's vision changed in an instant.

It felt as though his body had been directly replaced with an entirely new core.

After his previous enhancements, he had already thought his speed was absurd.

Now, that feeling was gone.

He could clearly feel the wind brushing over his skin. He could hear the bones inside the Holy Knights' armor tensing ahead of him. He could even catch the faint sound of Black Crystal Patterns crawling across the ground.

Reiatsu pressed within him, so dense it was terrifying.

One hundred thousand.

Bai Zhu looked down at his hand.

Suddenly, he wanted to laugh.

But the faces of those women in the bus resurfaced in his mind.

The one still clutching scissors.

The one who had still been waiting for him to turn back before the syringe pierced her.

Bai Zhu let out a breath.

"I used to be afraid of dying, so I avoided trouble."

Milluki froze inside the car.

"Who are you talking to?"

Bai Zhu looked up at the black light pouring from beneath the Church spire.

"Now, I have ten minutes where I don't have to fear death."

He rested the blade on his shoulder.

"So they'd better start being afraid of me."

The dashboard alarms went crazy.

Milluki looked at the monitoring data, and his entire face turned green.

"Bai Zhu!"

"What?"

"Your vital signs have exploded!"

"Congratulations. Your instruments are pretty accurate."

"Don't tell me your finishing move is dropping dead on the spot!"

"Relax."

Bai Zhu crouched down and pressed one hand against the edge of the roof.

"I'm terrifyingly strong right now."

"Every time you say that, something goes wrong!"

"This time is different."

"How is it different?"

Bai Zhu took a black speaker taller than a person out of his system inventory and stuffed it straight through the car window.

Milluki nearly threw the controller away.

"What the fuck did you just pull out?!"

"A speaker."

"You pulled out a speaker at a time like this?!"

Bai Zhu was completely serious.

"Do you understand the importance of ceremony? A man can die, but his entrance can't be without BGM. And what protagonist has ever lost while his own BGM was playing?"

Milluki fell silent for half a second.

Then he exploded.

"Are you insane?! The Holy Knights are practically about to shove their spears into our mouths, and you're talking to me about BGM?"

Bai Zhu reached over and pressed a few buttons on the side of the speaker.

The screen lit up, and a row of playlists appeared.

[For Ultimate Moves]

[Villain Entrance]

[For Running Away]

[Exclusive to Unohana]

[Run After Showing Off]

Bai Zhu selected [Exclusive to Unohana] and brought up the play button.

"Don't press it too early."

"I won't!"

"If you press it late, I'm deducting the final payment."

"Do I look like I care about that little bit of final payment?!"

"Whether you care is one thing. Whether I deduct it is another."

Still cursing, Milluki dragged the speaker beside the passenger seat, his finger hovering over the play button.

Number Nineteen watched the scene, completely numb.

"Are you two... always like this?"

Bai Zhu turned back.

"Don't be afraid. We may look unreliable, but we're at least more reliable than the guy who got you pregnant."

Number Nineteen's face went stiff.

Milluki gritted his teeth.

"Can you stop making such hellish jokes at a time like this?"

"I'm easing the tension."

"Thank you so much. The atmosphere is even worse now!"

The Holy Knights ahead began charging.

The first row lowered their shields. Spears extended through the gaps in the shields from the second row, while the Nen of the third-row Holy Knights mixed with Black Crystal ripples and poured into the formation on the ground.

Milluki stared ahead.

"We can't ram through them. The undercarriage will get stuck!"

"Then don't ram them."

Bai Zhu leaped down from the roof.

When he landed, the Holy Knights ahead were already within twenty meters.

The black-armored Holy Knights all leveled their spears.

"Heretic!"

Bai Zhu did not draw his sword.

He raised it together with its sheath.

Milluki only saw the surveillance feed blur.

The next moment, the three Holy Knights in the front row dropped to their knees at the same time.

The armor around their knee joints had been shattered by the sheath. Their shields lost support and crashed to the ground.

Bai Zhu passed through a gap in the shield formation. With a twist of his wrist, he struck the second-row Holy Knights on the elbows, throat guards, and connections at their waists with the sheath.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

One black-armored figure after another fell.

There was no massive explosion.

No Kidō bombardment.

He had not even drawn his blade.

Within seconds, a road wide enough for the vehicle had been cleared through the center of the formation.

Milluki stared so hard that even his hands stopped moving on the controller.

"You just now... didn't use any ability?"

Bai Zhu pressed the last Holy Knight against a shield and knocked off his helmet with the sheath.

"I used my feet."

"Bullshit! Who asked you that?!"

Bai Zhu raised a hand and beckoned to the car.

"Drive over. Don't scratch the paint."

Milluki did so instinctively, driving between the Holy Knights sprawled across the ground.

One Holy Knight still tried to reach for the tire.

With a flick of his toe, Bai Zhu knocked the man's wrist away.

"Don't touch it. It's expensive."

Milluki immediately chimed in.

"That's right! These tires are custom-made!"

Bai Zhu turned his head.

"You actually went along with that?"

"My car!"

They had just crossed the first line of defense when an explosion rang out behind them.

The white-robed saintess had caught up.

She stood at the half-collapsed intersection as seven Black Crystal Needle Tubes merged before her, reforming into a spear.

The spearhead aimed at Bai Zhu's back.

Milluki saw the scene through the monitors, and his throat tightened.

"Bai Zhu! Behind you!"

Bai Zhu did not turn around.

The spear stabbed forward in an instant.

It was even faster than before. The Holy Knights in its path did not even have time to react.

Bai Zhu merely shifted his body slightly to the side.

The Black Crystal Spear grazed the hem of his clothes and stabbed straight through three Holy Knights who had just climbed back up ahead.

Bang!

The three of them were sent flying and crashed into the stone pillars by the roadside.

Black Crystal spread from their chests. The Holy Knights could not even finish screaming before their bodies rapidly shriveled.

The entire scene fell into an awkward silence.

Even the congregants gathering nearby were stunned.

Bai Zhu lowered his head and looked at his torn clothes.

"Not bad aim."

He turned around and looked at the white-robed saintess.

"Your friendly fire damage is just a little too high."

The white-robed saintess did not answer.

She raised her hand, and the spear shattered back into seven needle tubes.

This time, the needle tubes did not attack immediately.

They slowly circled around her, as if reassessing Bai Zhu.

Bai Zhu did not move either.

He slung the sword back over his shoulder and continued toward the Church.

Milluki drove after him and could not help roaring.

"You're not dealing with her?"

"No time."

"She'll stab you from behind!"

"Then use the car to block it."

"Do you hear yourself?"

Bai Zhu thought about it.

"Then play some music to boost my courage."

"Now?"

"It's not time yet."

"Then why the hell did you bring it up?!"

Number Nineteen looked at the Holy Knights sprawled across the ground in the back seat, her voice trembling.

"Just now... were you not serious at all?"

Bai Zhu did not look back.

"I was very serious about not killing them."

Number Nineteen hugged her seatbelt and shut up completely.

The Church doors were close.

The black light in the cracks in the ground began to brighten, as though something were pushing upward from below.

From the residential buildings on both sides, batches of congregants emerged.

They lowered their heads, chanting the same prayer as they gathered toward the Church doors.

Milluki looked at the interference curve on the dashboard.

"These people are all being held by the ritual."

"Can you wake them up?"

"Yeah, but I'd have to remove their collars one at a time. There's no time now."

"Then put them to sleep somewhere farther away."

"What are you doing?"

Bai Zhu raised a hand.

"Bakudō #4: Hainawa."

Reiatsu formed into ropes and swept across the intersection.

Dozens of congregants were tripped and fell in waves, piling on top of one another.

Milluki stared blankly.

"Milluki, look. This is what professionalism looks like."

"I think you should conserve some energy."

"My mana bar is already at a hundred thousand. Conserve what? Get hyped, understand? Hyped!"

Bai Zhu quickened his pace.

Illumi's voice suddenly cut in through the earpiece.

"Bai Zhu."

This time, his voice was noticeably lowered.

"Take Milluki and retreat!"

Milluki immediately sat up straight.

"Bro, where are you?"

"Outside the core area."

"Where's that man in white?"

"He's following me."

The sound of metal clashing came through the channel.

Illumi continued.

"His sword can sever Nen Needle control. I can hold him off, so hurry up and retreat to get reinforcements."

Bai Zhu raised his head toward the Church doors.

The orderly sound of children praying came from within.

Each word made their scalps tingle.

"Where's Ella?"

Illumi paused for half a second.

"She's still on the bed. The Black Crystal Patterns have already reached her chest."

Number Nineteen suddenly lunged into the front row.

"Ella!"

Milluki grabbed her shoulder.

"Don't move! Getting out now is just throwing your life away!"

Number Nineteen clutched the seat as tears splashed down.

"She'll die..."

Bai Zhu walked up to the Church doors and calmly shot back at Illumi, "Retreat my ass. I'm terrifyingly strong right now!"

The Church doors were tightly shut.

The Black Crystal Patterns on them contracted like living things, while the sound of many footsteps came from inside.

Bai Zhu lowered the Zanpakuto from his shoulder.

The scabbard fell to the ground and lightly tapped against the stone steps.

"Fatty."

Milluki got out of the car carrying the speakers, the flesh on his face twitching.

"What?"

Bai Zhu drew the sword half an inch from its sheath.

A small section of the blade was exposed.

A blood-gold panel hovered in his vision, displaying a countdown.

[Experience Remaining: 09:13]

He had not called out Bankai yet.

Nor had he started the BGM.

Milluki could not help swallowing.

"You're still not activating it?"

Bai Zhu turned his head and looked at Milluki's finger hovering over the play button.

"Stay close."

"What exactly are you going to do?"

Bai Zhu raised his foot and stepped onto the first Church step.

Inside the doors, the prayers suddenly stopped.

Every sound vanished at once.

Bai Zhu spoke softly.

"Next, you're going to see—the coolest moment of my life."

Milluki's finger froze over the play button.

The next second, a man's voice came from the other side of the Church doors.

"Heretics outside."

"Stop yapping and watch this young master show off..."