Chapter 459 - 459: You Wanna Dance Too?

Aside from Aizen, who had returned to the Fifth Division only to find Cyrus missing, every Shinigami in Seireitei was wondering the same thing as the Captain-Commander.

Kenpachi's Reiatsu was simply too distinctive.

The moment it erupted, identifying him was practically as easy as reading his name off an ID card.

Back when Kenpachi had first joined the Gotei 13, a few people who didn't understand what kind of lunatic he was had been foolish enough to cross blades with him.

Afterward, however, almost nobody willingly fought him anymore.

So who had suddenly decided life wasn't worth living?

Aizen stepped out of Cyrus's quarters with a perfectly calm expression, betraying none of his thoughts.

"Captain."

Several Fifth Division Shinigami greeted him as he passed.

Aizen nodded absently, turned toward the distant pillar of Reiatsu, and then hurried away.

If he had already confirmed that the Hōgyoku was inside Kuchiki Rukia, this disturbance would actually have been useful.

He could have taken advantage of the chaos, escalated matters further, and simply removed either Rukia or the Hōgyoku itself.

Unfortunately, he hadn't confirmed anything yet.

There wasn't enough time.

Acting now would be reckless.

If Cyrus's information turned out to be wrong and the Hōgyoku wasn't inside Rukia after all, the consequences would become extremely troublesome.

"That man…"

Aizen muttered under his breath, a trace of helplessness finally entering his expression.

As expected, Cyrus simply couldn't stay quiet.

He had barely arrived in Soul Society and had already managed to run into Kenpachi.

Aizen could only hope he knew what he was doing.

…

Outside District Eighty, Kenpachi slowly pushed himself upright within the towering pillar of golden Reiatsu, using his Zanpakutō to support his weight.

His eyepatch had fallen away.

Both of his exposed eyes gleamed with a mixture of gold and red as he stared at Cyrus with even greater excitement.

"I knew it!"

Kenpachi roared.

"I knew I wasn't wrong about you!"

He surged forward.

His body seemed to become part of the golden pillar itself as he charged straight at Cyrus.

Hum.

A faint reddish glow flickered across Cyrus's body.

Then vanished.

"No."

Cyrus frowned slightly.

"That's not quite it."

He shifted aside with effortless precision as Kenpachi rushed past him, raising his right hand at the same time.

The jagged Zanpakutō scraped across Cyrus's palm with a shrill metallic screech.

Kenpachi didn't hesitate after missing.

His sword immediately became a blur, slashing toward Cyrus again and again with ferocious abandon.

The faint red glow around Cyrus reappeared.

This time, it remained.

Though barely.

"Heh!"

Kenpachi laughed wildly.

"Your Reiatsu's pathetic, but you're this damn strong anyway?"

He closed the distance completely.

At that point, he stopped fighting like a swordsman and started attacking like a wild animal, throwing punches and kicks between vicious swings of his blade.

"So this really is Reiatsu."

A smile appeared on Cyrus's face.

"I thought so. I'm just not used to controlling it yet."

The moment Kenpachi heard that, Cyrus countered with a single punch.

Kenpachi's entire body froze.

His attack stopped instantly.

Cyrus's fist had landed squarely in the center of his chest.

For the briefest instant, everything seemed to stop.

Then—

Crack.

A portion of Kenpachi's chest visibly caved inward.

His body was launched backward once again.

"You fight like an animal."

Cyrus watched him fly away without bothering to pursue.

"That can overwhelm people who aren't used to it."

He lowered his fist.

"But to me, you're far too slow."

Cyrus looked down at his right hand.

A thin layer of pale red energy now surrounded it.

The aura appeared almost intangible, as though it might disperse at any moment, yet in reality it possessed remarkable resilience.

If this truly was Reiatsu, then it was indeed a rather unusual form of power.

Like Conqueror's Haki, it ultimately originated from the soul.

But Cyrus could clearly feel that his own Reiatsu was fundamentally different from Kenpachi's.

Naturally, every Shinigami and Hollow possessed their own unique spiritual pressure.

That wasn't what he meant.

There was something deeper.

Something about the very nature of his Reiatsu that differed from theirs.

Cyrus turned his attention toward the presence buried in the deepest reaches of Seireitei.

Or rather—The Soul King.

Perhaps the difference had something to do with him.

Maybe it traced all the way back to the being who had originally established the structure of Soul Society itself.

Cyrus wasn't native to this world.

Perhaps that alone was enough to make his spiritual power fundamentally different.

With that thought, Cyrus drew the Asauchi.

He raised the blade in front of himself and studied its surface.

Then the pale red Reiatsu surrounding his hand began spreading onto the sword.

Unlike his flames, Reiatsu was something the Asauchi seemed naturally suited to accept.

It flowed into the blade almost effortlessly.

Cyrus's eyes narrowed.

Then he smiled.

"So that's how it works."

Far away, Kenpachi rose to his feet yet again.

His expression hadn't changed in the slightest.

If anything, he looked even more ecstatic.

That punch had given him a genuine taste of death.

If Cyrus had put just a little more power behind it, Kenpachi suspected it might actually have killed him.

And that thought only made him happier.

His Reiatsu surged even higher.

The golden pillar intensified, while crushing spiritual pressure rolled outward in every direction.

Cyrus turned toward him and raised the Asauchi.

"You wanna dance too?"

His voice was quiet.

"Enya."

The blade vanished in a flash of red light.

In its place, a humanoid figure appeared beside Cyrus.

It stood almost exactly as tall as he did.

Unremarkable flames burned across its entire body, obscuring its face and concealing every trace of skin.

It looked less like a person covered in fire and more like a human-shaped being made entirely from flame.

Cyrus had no idea whether other Shinigami experienced anything similar.

But when his Reiatsu entered the Asauchi, perhaps because the blade had nearly been destroyed by his flames earlier, it accepted his spiritual pressure with extraordinary ease.

Then Cyrus felt it.

He could separate a portion of his soul and imprint it onto the sword.

That was the process by which an Asauchi became a true Zanpakutō.

A nameless blade acquired an identity.

A name.

But Cyrus hadn't separated part of his soul.

Instead, he had placed a fragment of his flame power into the blade.

And after accepting that power, the sword had returned something to him.

A release.

A name.

Enya.

Kenpachi and Yachiru both stared at the figure standing beside Cyrus.

"That's a weird Shikai."

Yachiru tapped one finger against her lips.

"Some kind of living-creature type?"

It wasn't as though Soul Society had never seen Zanpakutō like that before.

There were actually quite a few with similar manifestations.

Mayuri Kurotsuchi's was one example.

"Beat him."

Cyrus pointed toward Kenpachi.

Whoosh!

The flames around Enya suddenly surged.

Its entire body transformed into a mass of fire and shot toward Kenpachi.

Kenpachi didn't dodge.

He raised his sword and swung directly into it.

Clang!

Enya lifted one arm and blocked the descending blade.

Then the flames exploded.

Kenpachi disappeared inside the inferno.

"Ken-chan!"

Yachiru couldn't stop herself from crying out in alarm.

"He's tougher than he looks."

Cyrus's voice came from beside her.

At some point, he had appeared right next to Yachiru without her noticing.

"He won't die from this."

Cyrus watched the flames ahead.

"But without even being able to release his Zanpakutō…"

His tone was casual.

"He doesn't stand a chance against Enya."

As he finished speaking, the raging fire began to contract.

Enya's humanoid form emerged once again.

As for Kenpachi—

His entire body had been charred black.

He looked like he'd been cooked to about medium.