Boom—!
With a thunderous crash, Aiyan's upturned palm burst with jagged bolts of purple-black Reiatsu lightning, cold and ominous, making one's blood run cold at a glance.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—
From the four corners surrounding Kuchiki Ginrei, streaks of that same purple-black energy extended outward—up, down, left, right. The lines surged through space and, at their edges, deep, shimmering light curtains rose, connecting the beams in a perfect, towering enclosure.
In the blink of an eye—
Those interwoven streams of light formed an enormous black rectangular monolith, so vast it pierced the heavens, so dark it swallowed the world.
A single look confirmed its name:
Kurohitsugi. The Black Coffin.
The infamous Hadō no 90, capable of burying even a captain-level Shinigami—now cast with a casual palm strike.
Kuchiki Ginrei was now sealed within it.
But the terror was only beginning.
As the purple-black walls stabilized, the illusionary Reiatsu transformed—solidified. The Black Coffin, which moments ago flickered like a mirage, was becoming real. Its very form shifted, drawing ever closer to the complete incantation version recorded in the Kidō Encyclopedia—a forbidden level of destructive potential.
If the earlier Black Coffin resembled the weakened, no-chant version Aizen used during his defection at Sōkyoku Hill, then this…
This was rapidly approaching the full chant version—the one Aizen only dared unleash with the Hōgyoku embedded in his soul.
And it didn't stop there.
Schink—!
Dozens of cross-shaped blades fell like divine punishment from the heavens. They pierced the surface of the Kurohitsugi, radiating a destructive force that twisted and distorted the very atmosphere within.
Inside, gravity collapsed.
Each strike from within twisted the internal space, collapsing it on itself like a star folding inward. The powerful gravitational force tore through Ginrei's flesh and bones, cracking his body and spirit alike.
"T-That's… that's Hadō #90…! And… without chanting…"
Tōsen Kaname's breath hitched in shock. His lips moved, but the words stopped. His blind eyes opened wide, reflecting his total disbelief.
Even though he could not see it—he felt it.
The spiritual pressure—its scale, its density, its raw crushing force—was unmistakable.
Aizen finished the sentence for him:
"Yes."
"Even without incantation, my brother's Kurohitsugi carries two-thirds the power of full chant."
He smiled faintly behind his glasses, speaking calmly.
"With this much power, even a captain with Reiatsu on the level of like Muguruma Kensei would be severely injured instantly and lose all ability to fight."
But before the words could settle—
Boom—!
The unexpected happened.
The Black Coffin, which had reached near-complete formation, did not dissipate.
Instead, as Aizen and Tōsen watched with widened eyes, more beams of purple-black light emerged from the outer edges of the original Kurohitsugi.
Another formation.
Another structure.
A second Black Coffin began to build around the first.
And then a third.
"Triple…?"
Aiyan looked calmly at the behemoth of spiritual power forming before him.
The second Kurohitsugi formed over the first—its energy denser, darker.
And then the third layered over the second.
A triple-layered Kurohitsugi.
One after another, the three Black Coffins stacked over each other, sealing the imprisoned Kuchiki Ginrei within a layered grave of gravity, darkness, and space rupture.
Crack… hiss… rrrrrrkk—
The oppressive sound of space cracking and material collapsing echoed out. The gravitational pull became so extreme that even the skies over Soul Society twisted into a vortex, warping like ink spirals.
The Reiatsu current that had submerged the entire Senzaikyū was sucked in and disappeared without a trace.
Even Tōsen Kaname, already prepared for the unexpected, felt fear seize his spine.
"This… this level of Reiatsu distortion… it might collapse the barrier around Soul Society…"
He couldn't help but imagine the sky itself cracking apart under the weight of Aiyan's triple Kurohitsugi.
And then—
Crack.
A single fracture line.
Like shattering porcelain, the three Kurohitsugi layers began to crack—one after the other.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Purple-black fragments, each formed of near-solidified Reiatsu, scattered like glass under pressure.
Finally—
Boom!
The triple Black Coffins shattered into dust.
The twisted sky slowly corrected itself, the vortex of space evaporated, and below…
A grotesquely twisted figure floated, bleeding from every pore.
Pffsshhh—!!
As Aiyan lowered his palm, droplets of blood mist erupted violently from the mangled figure.
Limbs gone.
Zanpakutō severed.
Only a ruined, blood-soaked torso remained, floating in the air like a corpse rejected by gravity.
Drip… drip…
Blood fell onto the floor of the Senzaikyū, painting the ancient stone red.
Kuchiki Ginrei's Zanpakutō—Wanchuan Kaikai, which had fallen beside him, was also stained in red.
His eyelids fluttered.
He opened his eyes—barely.
Within those broken pupils, waves of disbelief, terror, pain, and confusion rippled endlessly.
"Ai… Yan…"
He barely managed to speak the name. His lips trembled, blood streaming from his jaw.
Snap.
As if that word was the last breath he could muster, the remains of his body collapsed next to his Zanpakutō, unmoving.
Silence.
Complete silence.
Even the sound of blood pooling on stone was drowned out by the overwhelming quiet.
Only one sound broke it:
"Gulp…"
Tōsen Kaname involuntarily swallowed a mouthful of saliva. The dry noise echoed like thunder.
"T-T-Triple…"
"Triple casting of Kurohitsugi… even without incantation… each with two-thirds of full power…"
"…Is this even something a Shinigami can do?"
His lips trembled.
He couldn't even see the figure before him—but in his mind, a perfect image had formed.
A god standing above the battlefield, smiling faintly, his palm lowered, calmly watching the death of a noble who once stood at the pinnacle of Soul Society.
That figure.
That presence.
Tōsen Kaname, blind and long since resigned to never seeing light again, felt for the first time—
A desperate yearning.
He wanted to see.
He wanted his sight back.
He wanted to see Aiyan.
To see with his own eyes—
The man he had pledged himself to.
Was he stern?
Heroic?
Cruel?
Or simply divine?
...
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