After the battle, the wasteland stood silent.
The cold wind still wailed, but now it carried the hollow emptiness of survival after catastrophe.
For several miles, the ground resembled a chessboard trampled by a giant god.
Huge cracks crisscrossed the earth, bottomless frozen craters yawned open, and vast stretches of mirror-smooth glassy ground had formed where high heat had melted the surface before it instantly froze again.
Violent reishi turbulence still lingered in the air.
The remnants of ice and fire mixed together, bearing witness to the terrifying battle that had just taken place.
Isshin used Engetsu to support himself as he struggled to his feet.
Frost fell from his body in flakes.
He looked around at the apocalyptic scene, then at the icy figure lying quietly in the distance, and let out a long breath of white mist.
“Hah… that was close.
Hyōrinmaru really does deserve to be mentioned alongside Ryūjin Jakka.
I nearly bit it back there.”
Yanagawa slowly sheathed Tenshin at his waist.
Hearing that, he shook his head slightly, his gaze still locked on the fallen Hyōrinmaru.
“Hyōrinmaru’s own power is terrifyingly strong,” Yanagawa said.
His voice carried a barely noticeable fatigue, but even more than that, the calm of an analyst.
“But that battle just now, especially that final Shikai Hyōketsu—was likely not only the result of Hyōrinmaru’s own will.”
“That golden energy played a crucial role.
It made Hyōrinmaru’s power more violent, more aggressive, and more unstable.”
He paused, then added, “And considering it could affect Hyōrinmaru’s true body, it is far from simple.”
After briefly adjusting their breathing and calming their disordered spiritual pressure, the two walked across the shattered frozen ground toward where Hyōrinmaru had fallen.
Hyōrinmaru lay there quietly, his tall body curled slightly.
The two crossing marks on his face were still striking, but he no longer carried the same cold majesty.
Instead, he looked weakened.
His pale-purple kimono was torn in several places and stained with ice dust and earth.
Most noticeable of all, the golden mark that had been flashing on his forehead had completely vanished.
Only a faint pale trace remained, as if burned by intense heat, and even that was slowly fading.
As Yanagawa and Isshin approached, Hyōrinmaru’s closed eyelids trembled slightly.
Then he slowly opened his eyes.
Those violet eyes no longer held the earlier chaos or violence.
Although they still carried the inhuman quality unique to a manifested Zanpakutō spirit, clarity had returned—along with deep exhaustion and a faint, almost imperceptible confusion.
He quietly looked at the two standing before him.
He did not speak immediately, nor did he show any intent to attack.
“Hyōrinmaru?” Yanagawa spoke first, his voice calm, as if confirming his state. This story is hosted at g.com.
“…Yes,” Hyōrinmaru replied softly.
His voice had the texture of metal scraping together, but it was clear.
He struggled slightly, as if trying to sit up, but his body swayed and he collapsed back down, only turning his gaze toward Yanagawa.
“Was it you… who drove out that… power?”
“In a sense.” Yanagawa crouched down, meeting Hyōrinmaru’s eyes.
“How do you feel now?
Has that golden power completely disappeared?”
“It has disappeared… or rather, it was exhausted.” Hyōrinmaru closed his eyes, seemingly sensing his own condition.
After a moment, he opened them again.
“Thanks to you, my consciousness was able to recover this quickly.”
His tone carried lingering fear, and also gratitude.
“What exactly happened?” Isshin could not help cutting in, asking the central question.
“Why did you lose control?
And why did two people, Tōshirō Hitsugaya and Sōjirō Kusaka—awaken you at the same time?
That completely violates the rules of Zanpakutō!”
At the mention of those two names, a complex light passed through Hyōrinmaru’s violet eyes—recognition, and apology.
He remained silent for several seconds, as though organizing his thoughts and recalling memories that had been buried beneath chaos and golden light.
“This matter… began when I first awakened and answered the call of that white-haired boy.”
“A strange golden energy seemed to fall from the highest reaches of the sky.
It ignored every barrier and poured directly into me.”
Pain crossed his face.
“That power… was tyrannical.
It carried a higher level of rule interference.
It forcibly twisted my will.”
So that was it.
Understanding flashed through Yanagawa’s eyes.
It matched his earlier hypothesis.
Kusaka Sōjirō’s “Hyōrinmaru” was not the true Zanpakutō body.
The so-called twin phenomenon and its source both pointed toward that mysterious golden energy that had descended from the sky.
“So it really was that mysterious golden power,” Yanagawa said gravely, frowning slightly.
“But where did it come from?
The sky… the highest reaches…”
He suddenly turned to Isshin.
“Captain Isshin, through the Shiba family’s information channels, has anything unusual happened in Soul Society recently?”
Isshin had been listening intently.
When Yanagawa asked, he froze for a moment, then rubbed his chin in thought. Enjoying the story? Read on at g.com.
As the head of a Shiba branch family and the captain of the Tenth Division, he did indeed have access to classified information ordinary Shinigami, or even seated officers—could never know.
“Something unusual…” he muttered, rapidly filtering through recent intelligence.
Suddenly, he seemed to remember something.
His eyes widened, and he slapped his thigh.
“I remember!
A few days ago!
That was the day the Ōin was transferred!”
“The Ōin?” Yanagawa’s gaze sharpened.
“Right.
The Ōin.” Isshin’s expression grew serious as he quickly explained.
“The Ōin is one of Soul Society’s oldest and most powerful sacred artifacts.
It contains unimaginable power—enough to rewrite local rules.”
“Its existence and location are top secret.
For security, every few decades, its storage location is transferred under absolute secrecy.”
“The entire transfer process is carried out under the highest level of reishi shielding and spatial lockdown.”
He paused, looking from Yanagawa to the weakened Hyōrinmaru on the ground.
His voice carried a trace of disbelief.
“A few days ago… that was exactly when the latest Ōin transfer took place.
The exact time and route are classified, but among the upper nobility and captain-level ranks, the transfer itself isn’t completely unknown.”
“If… and I mean if, during the transfer, the Ōin’s power leaked for some unknown reason…”
“And that leaked power just happened to…” Yanagawa continued, his gaze sharp as a blade as he looked at Hyōrinmaru.
“…pass through layers of sealing and, at an extraordinarily coincidental point in time and space, fall into Hyōrinmaru, the strongest ice-type Zanpakutō—right at the critical moment of awakening.”
Isshin nodded heavily, his expression grave.
“Exactly.
That’s the only explanation.
The source of that golden power was most likely the Ōin.”
“During its guarded transfer, the Ōin leaked power for some unknown reason, and Hyōrinmaru unfortunately became the receiver of that leaked power.”
At this point, every clue fit together like pieces of a puzzle.
The source of the mysterious golden power: an accidental leak during the Ōin’s transfer.
The reason Hyōrinmaru lost control: invasion by the Ōin’s power, twisting his will.
The truth behind the “Twin Hyōrinmaru” has been bare laid.
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