Bleach : Begins with a Contract with the Departed Souls of the Uchiha Chapter 297 297: Kizaru vs. Kyōraku

This location had once been a dojo belonging to the Shin'ō Academy. However, due to Ren leading his army in a grand invasion, it had been tragically destroyed. The resisting instructors had been killed, the students taken away by soldiers, leaving behind only ruins and broken walls.

Looking at the residual bits of flesh and bloodstains on the ground, Kyōraku lowered his eyes, his lips pressed thin.

"...It will serve well enough as my battlefield."

At that mont, a stream of light descended from the horizon. The radiance blood, illuminating the surroundings with a sudden brilliance.

Kyōraku squinted slightly, yet his gaze remained fixed forward, unblinking.

A tall figure materialized within that light, wearing a yellow suit with a Coat of Justice draped over his shoulders. Sunglasses sat upon his face, and his hands were tucked into his pockets, giving him a relaxed and idle appearance.

It was none other than Borsalino.

After landing, he first surveyed the area before finally letting his gaze fall upon Kyōraku across from him.

"Oh, oh... Captain-san, aren't you going to keep running?"

"Choosing to co to a deserted place like this... it seems your techniques have quite a wide range of effect. You must be afraid of catching your own comrades in the crossfire."

Kyōraku shrugged, a flash of worry passing over his face before being replaced by a trace of helplessness.

"You really are impressive. You can even see through sothing like that."

"Though, it's not entirely deserted. There are still so of your soldiers nearby. It wouldn't have mattered if they were caught in it."

"Now that would be a pity," Borsalino said, withdrawing a hand and pointing toward the direction he had just co from. "As I was coming over, I already told them to evacuate. After all, my techniques are also quite... flamboyant—"

Before he could finish his sentence, a blade's light flashed before his eyes.

"Yellow!"

Taking advantage of the mont Borsalino spoke, Kyōraku suddenly flashed directly in front of him.

As the syllable left his mouth, his long blade swept horizontally toward Borsalino's chest.

Borsalino had long anticipated such a move and raised his other hand.

Before anyone knew it, a glittering sword of light appeared in his hand, tracing a graceful arc to block the path of the attack.

The Ama no Murakumo Sword!

Clang!

The light sword parried Kyōraku's sneak attack. Borsalino's mouth twisted into a slight smirk as he chuckled. "What a naughty Captain you are, attacking while soone is talking."

"Thank you for the complint."

The mont his long blade was blocked, Kyōraku took advantage of Borsalino opening his mouth again to thrust out a shorter blade simultaneously.

At this mont, Borsalino appeared completely unguarded and was stabbed head-on.

But the mont Kyōraku's strike landed, his expression changed drastically.

'What's going on? There's absolutely no sensation of a hit!' It didn't feel like piercing flesh; it felt like piercing through thin air.

His eyes sharpened as he saw his blade sunken deep into the opponent's body, but there wasn't a single drop of blood around the wound. Instead, it emitted dots of shimring light.

Borsalino acted as if nothing had happened, smiling with easy composure.

"Sneak attacks won't work on , you know." Kyōraku felt a surge of horror in his heart. He quickly pulled back, using Shunpo to reappear over ten ters away.

He watched the spot where he had stabbed the man; light was swirling there, and in a blink, it restored itself to normal. Even the clothes weren't the least bit torn.

"So that's how it is. I understand now."

"Hmm? What do you understand?"

"Your ability, of course."

Kyōraku forced a smile, though he felt the situation becoming extrely troubleso.

'How did I end up picking such a difficult opponent?'

"Your ability is light. You possess light-speed movent, you can condense light into weapons, and you can even turn into light itself to evade physical damage, right?"

"Indeed."

Borsalino made no attempt to hide it; there was no need to.

He looked at Kyōraku and asked, "More importantly, what about you? That word you said during your sneak attack—it was a color, wasn't it? What use does it have?"

"That..." Kyōraku wore a bitter smile and said with a sigh, "My Zanpakutō's ability is called Irooni. As long as I cut the color I na, I can inflict damage. The more that color covers the body, the greater the damage."

Normally, he wouldn't want to reveal his abilities. From a combat perspective, it was foolish.

However, his Zanpakutō was far too playful. If only he knew the rules, the 'ga' simply couldn't proceed.

And though it was a ga, one could still die if they weren't careful.

"Oh? Thank you for the explanation, naughty Captain-san."

As he spoke, Borsalino suddenly raised his hand, extending a finger toward Kyōraku.

A laser beam erupted from his fingertip, shooting toward Kyōraku.

"Black."

Whoosh!

Kyōraku raised his blade to defend the mont Borsalino moved.

But just as his sword was raised, a sharp pang of pain shot through his chest.

Glancing down, he saw a finger-sized hole in his chest, from which blood was beginning to seep.

"So fast!"

"So that's how it works. I understand your ability now, too, Captain-san."

Borsalino maintained that sa tone, which carried a hint of mockery.

He extended his finger again, causing Kyōraku to dodge repeatedly in a blur.

Seeing that no laser fired from the fingertip this ti, Kyōraku finally stopped, secretly letting out a sigh of relief.

"Not only can you condense light into a sword and turn into light itself, but you even have long-range attacks. Isn't this ability of yours a bit too unfair?"

"If we're talking about being unfair, you're hardly in a position to criticize , Captain-san."

Borsalino pointed at Kyōraku's chest.

Aside from the wound he had just inflicted, the heavy injury Kyōraku had received from Ren earlier had not fully healed.

Now, following that bout of intense movent, the wound had suddenly split open, and blood was spurting out.

"I saw you were quite heavily injured by our Great King earlier. Is it really okay for you to be fighting now?"

"Of course there's a problem." Cold sweat broke out on Kyōraku's face, his voice sounding a bit short of breath.

"To be honest, in my current state, I'm only holding on by a thread of willpower against an expert like you. I won't be able to last much longer."

"Then wouldn't it be better to just surrender?" Borsalino suggested with a wave of his hand.

Kyōraku shook his head repeatedly. "That won't do. It would be very bad... If Old Man Yama found out his disciple was that pathetic, he'd give a stern lecture."

"The way you say that... it's as if you're certain of your Head Captain's victory."

"That is exactly what I an!"

Kyōraku's Spiritual Pressure surged violently. He swung his twin blades around him, and a ring-shaped wheel of light blades ford around his body, expanding rapidly in all directions.

"Hadō Number Seventy-Eight: Zanhōrin!"

The wheel of light blades moved with incredible speed, reaching Borsalino in an instant.

Facing this attack, Borsalino did not dodge or weave. As if he hadn't reacted in ti, he was struck directly by the light wheel.

Swoosh!

Borsalino's body was sliced clean in half at the waist, but the light wheel didn't stop at all. It continued to slash outward, striking the surrounding buildings.

Rumble!

The buildings were cut through simultaneously, erupting in a roar of destruction that kicked up layers of dust, making the already ssy dojo look even more dilapidated.

Looking at the bisected Borsalino, Kyōraku did not relax for a second. Instead, his expression beca increasingly grave.

"Stop pretending. I know you're fine. Your presence hasn't weakened in the slightest."

"As expected of a veteran Captain, your senses are quite sharp."

Borsalino's voice rang out. His lower half, from the waist down, leaped into the air while the upper half lying on the ground turned into light, converging back onto the waist.

The light condensed into human form, revealing Borsalino in a completely unhard state.

"Physical attacks are useless, and even Kidō attacks do nothing. This is going to be a problem."

asuring the man across from him, Kyōraku's heart sank, though he wasn't particularly surprised.

Everything happening was still within his expectations.

"It seems I have no choice but to use my final trump card."

"I can't let you do that!"

A flash of light appeared, and Borsalino was suddenly in front of Kyōraku, his light sword swinging down with lethal force.

"According to the intelligence, your abilities are quite formidable—especially that technique called Bankai."

The blade sliced smoothly from Kyōraku's shoulder down through his abdon, cutting him entirely in two.

But Borsalino didn't feel like he had landed the kill at all.

The Kyōraku before him, sliced in half, suddenly beca translucent and vanished like a dream or a phantom bubble.

"An illusion?"

It must have happened in that brief mont when he touched the ground and his gaze moved away from the opponent; the man had used that opportunity to hide.

Borsalino's brow furrowed, suddenly feeling the weight of the nuisance.

"As expected of a veteran Captain, your grasp of timing is precise. You didn't even let that split second go to waste."

"Thank you. I am a Captain, after all."

Kyōraku's voice ca from the side. Borsalino imdiately turned into a beam of light, reflecting off the walls.

The beam reflected several tis and reached the location of the voice before the sentence had even finished.

Looking at Kyōraku hiding behind a wall, Borsalino swung his sword.

Yet, the Kyōraku who was speaking also turned into a translucent phantom and vanished.

"Another illusion?"

"Of course. After all, you're quite strong. I naturally had to be fully prepared."

Kyōraku's voice rang out from all directions again, but Borsalino couldn't sense his presence at all.

With a flash of light, his figure reached the source of the voice in an instant, but another swing only t another illusion.

Then, Kyōraku's voice resonated from everywhere.

"You absolutely won't be able to find ."

"Then how about this!"

Borsalino leaped upward, turning into a beam of light that ascended high into the sky.

Looking down at the ssy dojo below, Borsalino pinched his fingertips together with both hands, which imdiately began to glow with intense light.

"Yasakani no Magatama!"

He threw his hands out, and countless points of light showered from his fingertips, raining down toward the earth.

The sky was densely packed with spheres of gathered light that fell like a blanket over the ground, resulting in a series of violent explosions.

Rumble, rumble, rumble!

Firelight erupted, and airwaves surged. The deafening roar shook the heavens and the earth.

The fire of the explosions covered the entire area of the ground below, one after another in an unending sequence.

After a long while, Borsalino finally withdrew his hands and looked down at the ground as the explosions subsided.

Through the thick dust, the ruins of the walls had vanished completely; not even a single solid piece of gravel could be seen.

In their place were deep craters ford by the blasts.

Compared to the surrounding area, this piece of land had been hollowed out, suddenly becoming half as tall as before.

"Against such a wide-range attack, can you still hide?"

Borsalino descended to the ground, scanning his surroundings.

Although he couldn't detect the opponent's presence, he had an intuition that the man was definitely still alive.

A veteran Captain wouldn't die that easily!

"Of course I can. You can't hurt right now!"

"Captain-san, you really are troubleso. No wonder the Great King left you for to deal with."

While speaking, Borsalino slowly raised his hands, his eyes alertly scanning for the slightest movent.

"How about we make a deal? You can't do anything to , and I can't find you. Why don't we just call it a day and stop here?"

Kyōraku's voice ca from all directions: "That won't do. I'm afraid I'd get scolded by Old Man Yama."

Borsalino dropped his arms as if deflated, a look of helplessness on his face.

"So there's no room for negotiation?"

The response he received was not Kyōraku's words, but a strangely eerie Spiritual Pressure. It surged forward like a rising tide, pressing in from all sides.

It was oppressive, chaotic, and yet it carried an inexplicable sense of sorrow!

Simultaneous with the eruption of Spiritual Pressure, Kyōraku's decisive voice rang out.

"Bankai!"

The mont the Spiritual Pressure erupted, the trace of presence Kyōraku accidentally revealed imdiately caught Borsalino's attention.

He spun around abruptly, looking behind him.

"Found you!"

There was nothing behind him, only a faint shadow on the ground at his feet.

The shadow seed to feel Borsalino's gaze and suddenly distorted into a non-human shape.

"It's the Kageoni ability!"

Borsalino extended his finger, firing several lasers into his own shadow.

Pew, pew, pew, pew!

The lasers shot into the shadow, but instead of piercing the ground, they were all absorbed into it. The ground remained undisturbed, but the shadow continued to change, extending in all directions as Kyōraku's low chant echoed.

"Katen Kyōkotsu: Karamatsu Shinjū!"

As Kyōraku's voice fell, that strange Spiritual Pressure erupted again, perating everything above, below, left, and right.

Borsalino felt as if he were subrged in the deep, dark sea; that oppressive feeling beca increasingly intense.

An extre sense of sorrow suddenly rose in his heart, a feeling so terrifying it made him shiver.

That mixture of grief and dread flooded his mind, making it hard for him to breathe.

The figure of a woman seed to appear before his eyes—his beloved.

Clearly, they loved each other, but because of societal taboos, they could not be together. They could only promise to jump into a river and commit suicide together on a certain day.

The woman's figure beca clearer, making his nose sting as tears threatened to burst forth.

Then, the woman turned around, revealing her face.

It was a massive, elderly face with a long tongue, a large nose, and a gray beard.

Seeing that familiar face, Borsalino was suddenly stunned.

"Vegapunk?!"

"Wait... I don't think I've ever had a lover!"

Borsalino snapped awake, his expression instantly darkening.

It had to be the enemy's ability!

To think that rely the aura of the release could make his mind wander for a mont.

The light that was already dim around him now beca even darker.

On the ground, that cluster of shadows extended outward, forming the silhouettes of several black pine trees, their needles clearly visible.

A pitch-black figure erged from Borsalino's shadow, wisps of black vapor rising from his body. He sat on the ground, thrusting his twin blades into the roots of the black pines.

"Old Man Yama still hasn't used his Bankai. There's no choice; I, his disciple, will have to steal the spotlight for a bit."

He lifted his head to look at Borsalino. The weathered face no longer held its usual frivolity, but was instead filled with a profound depth.

It was Kyōraku Shunsui.

"Sorry to keep you waiting so long."

"By the way, what do you think of the world as it is now? Could you tell your thoughts?"

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