"What?!"
"Hurry up and save the injured!"
"Help her put out the fire!"
The woman's companions were in shock, but the moment the first masked man touched her, black flames suddenly erupted across his hand!
"Aaaahhh!!"
He let out a bloodcurdling scream, thrashing in agony as the inextinguishable flames of Amaterasu consumed him. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't douse the cursed fire.
"Don't touch her!"
"This flame… it won't go out!"
The realization sent shivers through the rest of the group. Fear gripped them, and none dared to approach.
The masked man, his resolve unwavering, made a desperate decision. With gritted teeth, he severed his own arm in a brutal effort to stop the flames from spreading.
But the woman he had tried to save was already beyond help—her body reduced to nothing more than a scorched corpse.
"We've already taken casualties before the real battle has even begun?!"
The onlookers were horrified.
When they turned their gaze toward Akira, fear was evident in their eyes.
Who is this captain of the Gotei 13…?
And why is he so terrifying?!
"Identify yourself!"
Rukia Kuchiki had already drawn her sword, her voice commanding as she confronted the strangers.
Senna, the one they had been targeting, had barely recovered from her dazed state. Upon realizing the danger, she quickly assumed her Shinigami form.
"We are the retainers of the Ryūdōji Temple Family, loyal servants of their glory!"
The four remaining figures stood tall, their pride unshaken despite their loss.
"Ryūdōji Temple?"
Rukia frowned, the name tugging at a distant memory, yet still out of reach.
Akira spoke with indifference.
"Like your Kuchiki Clan, the Ryūdōji Temple family was once among the highest-ranking nobles of Soul Society—over a thousand years ago."
"Hmph." The masked retainer who had just stopped his bleeding let out a scoff. "I thought Soul Society had erased us from history… yet it seems this captain still remembers."
Akira continued, his voice calm but merciless:
"But unlike the Four Great Noble Clans, the Ryūdōji Temple family could not maintain its power. They lost their struggle for dominance, were cast out of Soul Society, and are now nothing more than exiles… mere remnants of a bygone era."
"You bastard!"
The retainers trembled with rage at his words.
"Listen well! We are not 'losers!' That lord… should have been the rightful ruler of Soul Society!"
"If you refuse to be labeled as failures, then introduce yourselves," Akira said coldly, his finger moving toward each of them in turn.
"The masked retainer… the fat retainer… the thin retainer… the eyeless retainer… and the female retainer who just perished."
The retainers stiffened.
"Don't underestimate us!" The fat retainer snarled. "My name is Jia—"
"It doesn't matter." Akira cut him off. His eyes gleamed with a chilling finality.
"Dead men don't need names."
That was the final straw. Having already lost one of their own, the retainers snapped.
"Whoosh!" "Whoosh!"
In an instant, they attacked. The fat retainer hurled several short-edged throwing knives, while the thin retainer launched darts, circling around to flank Akira.
"Their target is Senna—protect her!"
Akira gave a command to Rukia, then turned his gaze toward the two retainers who had fired upon him.
In an instant, the fat retainer and the thin retainer felt an overwhelming pressure, as if they were being dominated by a pair of blood-red pupils.
"Can't move!"
The realization struck them with terror, but their shock was short-lived as they saw their previous attack land directly on Akira. Their fear turned into sudden joy.
"Success—wait…?"
Akira had neither dodged nor blocked their assault, but not because he couldn't—it was simply unnecessary.
The attacks had passed straight through his elemental body without leaving a single mark. It was as if their efforts were meaningless against him.
"Then let's see how you handle an explosion!"
The masked retainer, still fueled by the hatred of having been forced to sever his own hand, swung a massive sledgehammer directly into Akira's form, driving it deep before detonating it.
BOOM!
A violent explosion erupted, sending smoke billowing across the battlefield.
Before the masked retainer could celebrate, however, a massive purple hand shot out from the smoke and swatted him away, sending him hurtling toward the horizon.
As the dust began to settle, Akira noticed a series of thick, iron cables surging from the box carried by the eyeless retainer. These cables wrapped tightly around Susanoo, binding it.
The raw material of these cables was Inexhaustible Soul, a rare spiritual alloy capable of absorbing energy—and at its final limit, it could trigger a devastating explosion.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
A storm of fire and destruction consumed Akira as even more cables shot forward, reinforcing the bindings on Susanoo.
The thin retainer, now freed from the paralyzing grip of the Mangekyō Sharingan, hurled additional iron wires, further entangling Susanoo. These wires, too, were imbued with the power of soul detonation—triggering a second, even more violent explosion.
The entire cemetery was engulfed in a roaring inferno.
"Aki!"
Rukia's eyes widened in alarm. She could tell these retainers weren't ordinary warriors. The strongest among them was even on par with some of the most powerful fukutaichō (vice-captains).
In the original timeline, three of the retainers of Ryūdōji Temple had been warriors so formidable they had no choice but to wield Bankai to face their foes.
"Are you still free to worry about others?"
A deep voice suddenly came from behind Rukia.
"Rukia, behind you!"
The immobilized Kurosaki Ichigo shouted his warning.
Rukia's heart pounded as she instinctively spun around, swinging her Zanpakutō—only for her opponent to activate his own weapon faster than she could react.
Before she knew it, her entire body was restrained, transformed into a pole weapon through an unknown ability.
"He didn't even need to call his Zanpakutō's name to release its Shikai?! That's… captain-level power!"
Senna's face went pale at the realization.
Just like how Byakuya Kuchiki had immediately understood that Renji had achieved Bankai upon witnessing a Shikai release without an incantation, this was undeniable proof of the enemy's overwhelming strength.
"I am Ganryū of Ryūdōji Temple. Address me properly, Miss Rosary."
Ganryū's cold gaze shifted to Senna. She gritted her teeth, refusing to surrender, and instead raised her Zanpakutō.
"Like hell I will! Lure the night away—Mirokumaru!"
However, the difference in power was insurmountable. Before she could even complete her attack, Ganryū struck with lightning speed, knocking her unconscious.
Senna's limp body fell into his grasp, and just as he turned to leave, a chilling voice rang through the smoke-filled battlefield.
"That one is mine. Did I say you could touch her?"
It was Akira's voice. Despite the chain of massive explosions, his words cut through the air with terrifying clarity.
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