No More Noise, Watch This Young Master Show Off...

[Drawing a Bankai for the host...]

Golden words flashed 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 gun-shields. Black Crystal patterns spread from the shield faces all the way across the ground, forcibly sealing the road into an obstacle.

Behind them came the shrill scraping of Black Crystal.

The white-clad saintess had caught up.

Illumi's breathing was also incredibly heavy in the earpiece.

"The ritual has nine minutes and forty seconds left."

Milluki's fingers on the controls were moving so fast they nearly left afterimages.

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

Bai Zhu stood on the roof of the car, his Zanpakuto held across his chest, his clothes whipping wildly in the wind.

From inside the car, he looked like one of those lone heroes about to save the world.

In reality, he was praying frantically in his head.

"System, Dad, my dear old Dad, please don't draw that Ikkaku one for me."

"Ryūmon Hōzukimaru is cool and all, but it really doesn't suit this situation."

"I'm here to save people, not bang a bell with a spatula."

"And don't give me something that needs half a day 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?!"

"Building up momentum."

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

Number Nineteen curled up in the back seat, one hand over her stomach, her face frighteningly pale.

"You... really plan 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 couldn't find anything to say for a long while.

The next second, the system panel stopped.

Lines of golden text popped up one after another.

[Bankai drawing complete.]

[Random Bankai drawn this time: Minazuki.]

[Duration: ten minutes.]

Bai Zhu went completely stiff.

"Minazuki?"

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

Bai Zhu ignored him. Only one name remained in his mind.

Retsu Unohana.

Sister Unohana.

The first Kenpachi.

That thing...

Bai Zhu swallowed.

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

As soon as he said it, more panels appeared.

[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 abruptly changed.

It felt as if the core of his body had been directly replaced.

After the earlier enhancements, he had already thought himself absurdly fast.

Now, that feeling was gone.

He could clearly feel the wind brushing across his skin, hear the bones inside the Holy Knights' armor tensing ahead, and even catch the faint sounds of Black Crystal patterns crawling across the ground.

Reiatsu pressed down within him, so dense it was terrifying.

One hundred thousand.

Bai Zhu lowered his head and looked at his hand.

He suddenly wanted to laugh.

But then the faces of those women in the bus surfaced in his mind again.

The one still clutching a pair of 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 didn't go looking for trouble."

Milluki froze inside the car.

"Who are you talking to?"

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

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

He rested the sword on his shoulder.

"Then they'd better start fearing me."

The dashboard inside the car started blaring warnings.

Milluki stared at the monitoring data, his entire face turning green.

"Bai Zhu!"

"What?"

"Your vital signs just exploded!"

"Congratulations. Your instruments are pretty accurate."

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

"Relax."

Bai Zhu crouched down and braced 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 pulled a black speaker taller than a person from the system inventory and shoved it straight through the car window.

Milluki nearly threw away the controls.

"What the fuck did you 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. Besides, what protagonist has ever lost while his own BGM was playing?"

Milluki fell silent for half a second.

Then he exploded.

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

Bai Zhu pressed the side of the speaker a few times.

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

[For ultimate moves]

[Villain entrance]

[For running away]

[Exclusive to Sister Unohana]

[Run after showing off]

Bai Zhu selected [Exclusive to Sister Unohana] and opened the playback screen.

"Don't press it too early."

"I won't!"

"Press it too late, and I'll dock your final payment."

"Do I even care about that little final payment?!"

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

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

Number Nineteen stared at 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 rigid.

Milluki gritted his teeth.

"Can you not make such a dark joke at a time like this?"

"Lightening the mood."

"Why, thank you. The mood is even worse now!"

The Holy Knights ahead began their charge.

The first row lowered their shields. The second row thrust their spears through the gaps, while the Nen around the third row of Holy Knights mixed with Black Crystal ripples and poured into the battle line on the ground.

Milluki stared ahead.

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

"Then don't ram through."

Bai Zhu leaped down from the roof.

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

The black-armored Holy Knights lowered their spears as one.

"Heretic!"

Bai Zhu did not draw his sword.

He raised the sheathed blade.

Milluki only saw the surveillance feed blur.

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

Their knee armor had been shattered by the sheath. With their shields losing support, they crashed to the ground on the spot.

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

Crack, crack, crack.

One black-armored figure after another fell.

There was no massive explosion.

No Kidō bombardment.

He had not even drawn his sword.

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

Milluki was so stunned that even his hands stopped moving on the controls.

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

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

"I used my feet."

"Bullshit! Who was asking about that?!"

Bai Zhu raised a hand and waved at the car.

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

Milluki obeyed instinctively, driving through the Holy Knights sprawled across the ground.

One Holy Knight tried to reach out and grab a tire.

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

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

Milluki immediately chimed in.

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

Bai Zhu turned his head.

"You actually played along?"

"My car!"

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

The woman in white 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 surveillance feed, 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 it passed 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 plunged straight through three Holy Knights who had just climbed back up ahead.

Bang!

The three were sent flying and smashed 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 cultists 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 woman in white.

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

The woman in white did not answer.

She raised a hand, and the spear shattered apart, turning back into seven needle tubes.

This time, the needle tubes did not attack immediately.

They slowly circled around her, as though reevaluating Bai Zhu.

Bai Zhu did not move either.

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

Milluki drove after him and could not help shouting.

"You're not dealing with her?"

"No time."

"She'll stab you from behind!"

"Then use the car to block her."

"Do you hear the kind of crap you're saying?"

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 all over the ground from the back seat, her voice trembling.

"Just now... were you not even taking this seriously?"

Bai Zhu did not look back.

"I was very seriously not killing them."

Number Nineteen clutched her seatbelt and finally fell silent.

The church gates were close.

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

Cultists emerged batch after batch from the houses on both sides.

They kept their heads lowered, chanting the same prayer as they gathered toward the church gates.

Milluki looked at the interference curve on the dashboard.

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

Bai Zhu glanced at it.

"Can you wake them up?"

"I can, but I'd have to remove their collars one by one. There's no time."

"Then put them to sleep farther away."

"What are you going to do?"

Bai Zhu raised a hand.

"Bakudō Number Four: Hainawa."

Reiatsu formed ropes and swept horizontally across the street.

Dozens of cultists were tripped and fell in heaps, piling on top of one another.

Milluki stared dumbfounded.

"Milluki, behold what professionalism looks like."

"I think you should conserve a little."

"My mana bar is already at a hundred thousand, and you want me to conserve? Get hyped, understand? Hype!"

Bai Zhu quickened his pace.

Illumi's voice suddenly cut in through the earpiece.

"Bai Zhu."

His voice was noticeably lowered this time.

"Take Milluki and retreat!"

Milluki immediately sat up straight.

"Brother, where are you?"

"Outside the core area."

"Where's that man in white?"

"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 gates.

The sound of children praying in unison came from within.

One line after another, making their scalps tingle.

"Where's Ella?"

Illumi paused for half a second.

"She's still in bed. The Black Crystal patterns have already reached her chest."

Number Nineteen suddenly lunged toward the front seat.

"Ella!"

Milluki grabbed her shoulder.

"Don't move! Getting out now would be suicide!"

Number Nineteen clutched the seat as tears fell.

"She'll die..."

Bai Zhu reached the church gates and calmly snapped back at Illumi. "Retreat my ass. I'm terrifyingly strong right now!"

The church gates were tightly shut.

The Black Crystal patterns on them contracted like living creatures, 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 the stone steps.

"Fatty."

Milluki got out of the car carrying the speaker, 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.

[Experience Remaining: 09:13]

He had not called out Bankai yet.

Nor had he played the BGM.

Milluki could not help swallowing.

"You're still not activating it?"

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

"Stay close."

"What exactly are you going to do?"

Bai Zhu lifted a foot and stepped onto the first level of the church stairs.

Inside the gates, the prayers suddenly stopped.

Every sound vanished at once.

Bai Zhu spoke softly.

"Next, you'll witness 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 gates.

"Heretic outside."

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