Askin stared at the short blade in his opponent's hand, with its tiny chip, utterly failing to understand what he meant.
Could a physical-type Zanpakuto have some dimension of its data they had failed to account for?
Watching the bewildered Star Cross knight, Gin Ichimaru's smile grew all the more sincere.
"To be honest."
Gin lowered Kamishini no Yari back to his side, his tone even taking on a measure of easy familiarity. "If we weren't in opposing camps trying to kill each other today, I think you and I could actually get along pretty well."
At this sudden offer of friendship on the battlefield, Askin raised one eyebrow.
He instinctively took half a step back.
"I don't have some strange habit of befriending Soul Reapers who are about to die."
Looking at the entirely genuine smile on his opponent's face, Askin somehow began to have a bad feeling. "What exactly are you trying to say?"
Gin did not answer directly, instead continuing to introduce the subject at his own pace.
"About my Zanpakuto's true ability."
"The truth is, I've never revealed its true nature to anyone in the entire Gotei 13."
Now it was Askin's turn to freeze.
A veteran Soul Reaper captain who had held his position for over a century had actually concealed all the true details of his Bankai under Seireitei's intense scrutiny?
"Because this move was the ultimate killing trap I'd spent all these years carefully preparing for that man."
As he spoke, the image of that hypocritical traitor who had habitually worn black-framed glasses inevitably surfaced in his mind.
Sōsuke Aizen.
To drag that ambitious man down from his lofty, false divine throne for good, he had worn the mask of a smiling predator and quietly lain in wait for over a hundred long