The air shimmered with tension, thick with reiatsu as the battle resumed.
Shunsui Kyōraku's sharp eyes studied Kurokujaku's posture—relaxed, composed, yet absolute in its presence.
"A Hollow who embodies Oblivion itself, huh?"
He knew the kind of power that denied existence was dangerous in ways that defied conventional combat.
Meanwhile, Komamura stood at his side, his massive frame unwavering, Tenken held at the ready. The seated officers of Squads 7 and 8 stood behind him, nervous yet prepared, awaiting orders.
"Seated officers! Form a perimeter and provide Kido support! Do not engage directly unless commanded!"
A chorus of "Yes, sir!" echoed in response as the Shinigami took their positions.
Kurokujaku tilted his head slightly, his golden eyes flickering with amusement.
"A measured approach. Good. It will make your failure all the more… interesting."
Without another word, he moved.
---
Shunsui's hand twitched toward his dual zanpakutō.
"Let's see how he reacts to a little unpredictability."
With a casual flourish, he unsheathed Katen Kyōkotsu, twirling the black blades lazily in his hands.
Shunsui grinned.
"Alright then, Vasto Lorde-san, let's play a game."
Kurokujaku raised an eyebrow, as if intrigued, but did not speak.
Shunsui's reiatsu flared, his shikai activating instantly.
"Bushōgoma."
In a flash, he swung his blades, conjuring a massive, spiraling whirlwind that roared forward. The very air distorted, the forest floor beneath it torn apart by the vortex.
Kurokujaku simply raised a single clawed hand—
And the whirlwind collapsed into nothingness.
The moment it touched his Oblivion aura, it was as if it had never existed.
Shunsui's eyes narrowed.
"I see… so anything infused with energy is fair game for his ability, huh?"
"Your tricks are meaningless before me."
The Vasto Lorde vanished.
Shunsui's instincts flared as he twisted just in time—
A clawed hand slashed past his ribs, narrowly missing his vital organs.
"Damn, he's fast."
Spinning on his heel, Shunsui countered with a rapid horizontal slash. But his blade barely grazed Kurokujaku's Hollow armor, cutting only a few stray peacock-like feathers.
Kurokujaku tilted his head.
A Cero formed in his palm, swirling with black and violet hues—
Before he could fire, Shunsui vanished with a shunpo, reappearing a few meters away.
"Man, you don't waste time, huh? You're a pretty scary fella."
"And yet you are still here."
Shunsui sighed, adjusting his hat.
"Yeah, well… duty calls."
---
While Shunsui engaged in a game of wits, Komamura saw an opportunity.
"We cannot allow this battle to be dictated by him."
"Now! Seated officers, unleash your strongest Kido!"
The Shinigami surrounding them quickly began chanting in unison.
"Hadō #58: Tenran!"
"Hadō #73: Sōren Sōkatsui!"
"Bakudō #61: Rikujōkōrō!"
A storm of whirling wind, searing blue flames, and binding golden rods converged upon Kurokujaku in a coordinated assault.
The Hollow did not flinch.
The moment the attacks reached him, they simply… vanished.
The flames dispersed, the wind ceased, the golden rods crumbled into nothingness.
The Shinigami stared in horror.
Nanao Ise wide-eyed and breathless muttered.
"Impossible…!"
Tetsuzaemon Iba gritted his teeth.
"It's like the attacks never even happened!"
Komamura's golden eyes narrowed.
"Even Kido is useless… but perhaps…"
Without hesitation, he raised Tenken, his reiatsu surging.
"Then we rely on brute force!"
His Bankai aura surged as he swung his blade—
And a massive spectral gauntlet mirrored his motion, a titanic fist crashing down upon Kurokujaku.
The very earth shook upon impact.
A cloud of dust and debris exploded into the air—
And then—
A deep resonating sound echoed.
A sound not of impact—
But of something collapsing into emptiness.
As the dust settled, the Shinigami's expressions darkened.
Komamura's colossal Bankai fist… was gone.
Not destroyed.
Not deflected.
Gone.
As if it had never existed.
And at the center of it all stood Kurokujaku, untouched, his golden eyes glimmering with quiet, inescapable finality.
He raised a single hand—
And a black vortex began forming at his palm.
The air itself twisted as reality bent toward him, drawn into the growing void.
"You rely too much on what is… rather than what is not."
He thrust his palm forward.
The vortex expanded outward—a wave of devouring emptiness racing toward the assembled Shinigami.
Shunsui's voice rang out, sharp and urgent.
"MOVE!"
Shunsui's voice cut through the battlefield like a blade.
The vortex expanded outward, a tide of consuming darkness swallowing everything in its path. The very air twisted and fractured, trees, earth, and even residual reiatsu collapsing into nothingness.
Nanao Ise, along with the other seated officers, instinctively flash-stepped backward, barely avoiding the abyss.
Tetsuzaemon Iba panting asked out loud.
"What… what kind of ability is this?! It's like the world itself is disappearing!"
Shunsui, still poised with Katen Kyōkotsu, analyzed the movement of the Oblivion Wave.
"It's not like a normal Cero. It doesn't explode—it devours."
He turned to Komamura, whose Bankai arm and real arm had been erased moments ago.
After witnessing Komamura's arm erased, Shunsui knew they had a problem. Kurokujaku's abilities didn't just destroy—they denied existence itself. That meant any direct engagement was a gamble.
But no ability was truly absolute.
Shunsui, ever the strategist, narrowed his gaze, his mind racing. He observed the battlefield, analyzing Kurokujaku's movements, how his attacks landed, and—more importantly—when they didn't.
'It's subtle… but there's a delay. His erasure isn't instant.'
He had noticed it when Kurokujaku erased part of Komamura's Bankai—the arm had first darkened, as if being consumed by an unseen force, before fully vanishing.
That meant…
"So there's a window. Not much of one… but it exists."
The erasure wasn't immediate. If they could move fast enough, they could avoid losing vital parts of their body before the effect took full hold.
Komamura, his massive frame still imposing despite the severed stump of his arm, stood beside him, his remaining hand clenched into a fist. The other Shinigami—seated officers, vice-captains, and reinforcements from the 7th and 8th divisions—kept their distance, their Kido prepared, their weapons drawn, but the fear in their eyes was undeniable.
Kurokujaku's yellow eyes gleamed, his midnight-black and violet-feathered form exuding an aura of silent menace. His talon-like fingers flexed slightly as if testing the weight of his own power.
"You've had time to observe, Shinigami. I wonder… do you think you've found something?"
Shunsui smiled, scratching the back of his head.
"Well, you know me. I like to take my time, watch the scenery, enjoy a drink or two… But when a friend loses an arm, even I feel the need to be a little more attentive."
Komamura let out a low growl, his stance tense.
"This is no time for games, Kyoraku."
Shunsui's eyes flicked to Komamura's missing limb—or rather, the empty space where it should have been. He had watched closely when Kurokujaku's Corte del Olvido made contact with Kokujo Tengen Myo'o, and he had noticed something critical.
The severed arm had not disappeared immediately.
There had been a delay—a fraction of a second. The arm had blackened, warped, flickered out of existence piece by piece. It wasn't a simple cut. It was as if reality itself was being corroded, unraveled, devoured by oblivion.
That meant…
"There's a window."
Kurokujaku's eyes narrowed.
---
Shunsui moved first. With a flicker of Shunpo, he closed the distance between them, twin blades arcing in a sweeping X-formation.
Kurokujaku reacted instantly, slashing outward with Corte del Olvido, aiming to erase Shunsui from existence.
"Watch carefully...!"
As Kurokujaku's talon-shaped energy slashes connected, Shunsui felt the impact. But instead of fully committing, he abruptly twisted his body, narrowly avoiding a clean hit—allowing only the edge of his sleeve to be caught in the attack.
And then, he saw it.
The delay.
The fabric of his sleeve didn't immediately vanish—it darkened, warped, and then began to disintegrate in a ripple effect.
"Gotcha," Shunsui murmured, smirking
Without hesitation, Shunsui retaliated. In the moment before the erasure could fully take hold, he swung his sword downward—hard.
A deep gash tore across Kurokujaku's chest.
For the first time in the battle, Kurokujaku flinched.
The Vasto Lorde clicked his tongue, his hand briefly touching the wound. It wasn't deep, but the fact that he had been struck at all was what irritated him.
Kurokujaku looked up and calmly said.
"So, you noticed."
"Took me a while, but yeah. Your ability… it doesn't erase immediately. It eats away at things first, like a slow-burning flame. That means if I move fast enough—"
Shunsui flicked his sword, letting a few drops of Hollow blood drip onto the ruined earth.
"—I can cut you before you erase me."
Kurokujaku chuckled, amusement flickering in his golden eyes.
"A clever observation. But can you act on it fast enough every time?"
In the next instant, the battlefield exploded in motion.
Kurokujaku vanished in Sonído, reappearing behind Shunsui in a flurry of black feathers and violet mist. His claws slashed down, aiming to bisect the Captain in half.
Shunsui twisted, barely deflecting the strike, but he was forced back.
Komamura roared, charging forward with Tengen Myo'o's massive blade, bringing it down in a colossal downward strike.
Kurokujaku raised a hand.
"Cero Vórtice."
A black-violet vortex erupted from his palm, devouring the attack whole.
The battlefield was now a chaotic game of speed.
Shunsui darted between dead zones where reality itself flickered under Kurokujaku's influence. Komamura, despite his injury, provided raw power, forcing the Vasto Lorde to stay on the defensive.
The Shinigami seated officers, emboldened by their captains' ability to hold their ground, began launching Kido bombardments from the distance.
"Hado #58: Tenran!"
A spiraling tornado of Reishi shot toward Kurokujaku. He snapped his claws, cutting through the attack effortlessly—only for Shunsui to use the distraction to move in again.
Their blades clashed in a deadly exchange of finesse and raw destruction.
Shunsui was now testing the time delay actively—baiting Kurokujaku's attacks, withdrawing just before the erasure took full effect, and striking in the gaps.
For the first time…
Kurokujaku was forced to do something he never really had to do during a fight. He was adapting.
The Vasto Lorde exhaled slowly.
"I see… You're learning how to maneuver around Oblivion. But you forget one thing, Captain Kyoraku."
Shunsui's grin didn't waver.
"Oh? What's that?"
Kurokujaku raised a single finger.
A deep, bone-rattling hum filled the air. The entire battlefield shuddered as an enormous vortex of black energy began forming above them.
Kurokujaku answred coldly.
"I am learning as well."
At that moment, the Shinigami realized their mistake.
They had been so focused on finding the weakness in Kurokujaku's erasure ability, that they forgot he wasn't a mindless beast.
He was a Vasto Lorde.
A being far beyond what most Hollows could dream of becoming.
And he was now… adjusting to them.
-Small Time Skip-
The battlefield was a maelstrom of clashing steel, decaying air, and bursts of spiraling Reishi.
Shunsui Kyoraku exhaled slowly, wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead. His haori was tattered, deep cuts lining his arms and torso. The playful glint in his eyes had dimmed, replaced with a sharp, calculating focus.
Across from him, Kurokujaku Tsukikage stood at the eye of his own storm. His black-feathered form, lined with violet-tinted bone, seemed more imposing now than ever before. He had begun to adjust.
The time delay weakness Shunsui had discovered? It was still there. But Kurokujaku had started layering his techniques—using his Cero Vórtice preemptively, forcing Shunsui and Komamura into more defensive patterns, making it harder for them to capitalize on their brief opening.
And then it happened.
A shift.
Komamura fell first.
Despite his wounds, the Captain of the 7th Division continued fighting, using Kokujo Tengen Myo'o to force Kurokujaku onto the defensive. But as the battle raged, the massive Bankai construct had become riddled with decay.
Komamura's remaining arm trembled as he swung down in a massive arc—
—only for Kurokujaku to vanish in Sonído.
"Predictable."
He reappeared behind Komamura, claws glowing with the telltale distortion of Corte del Olvido. With a single slash, Komamura's Bankai construct staggered back, a jagged wound splitting across its massive chest.
Komamura howled in pain—the spiritual link between him and his Bankai transferring the damage directly to his body.
The giant warrior fell to one knee.
Kurokujaku didn't stop.
He whipped around, launching a Cero Vórtice at a group of Shinigami reinforcements. The vortex of devouring energy tore through them like paper, erasing three in an instant—
And then there was only Shunsui.
Shunsui's grip tightened on his swords. His breath was slightly ragged.
He glanced around the battlefield.
Komamura was down.
The remaining Shinigami were exhausted, wounded, or dead.
Kurokujaku was adapting faster than expected.
"If this keeps up… I might have to use it."
Bankai.
He hated using it.
It was too cruel. Too final. Too dangerous.
But this was no ordinary opponent. Kurokujaku was evolving as they fought. If this continued, Shunsui wasn't sure they could kill him.
He looked at Kurokujaku, watching the way he stood. The way his aura rippled, was stronger now than when this fight started.
And then he saw it.
For a brief moment, Kurokujaku hesitated.
His clawed hand had brushed against his own mask.
And in that moment, a stray thought entered the Vasto Lorde's mind.
"What would happen… if I broke my mask?"
He had never questioned it before.
The idea had always felt unnatural. A Hollow's mask was their identity, their core. It was what made them what they were.
But…
In this battle, something had changed.
He was adapting. He was thinking differently.
And for the first time… he was feeling something new.
Was he… afraid?
No.
Shunsui wasn't afraid of his current strength.
He was afraid of what came next...or was this excitement
Kurokujaku felt his heart race.
He had reached the limit of his current form. His abilities had adjusted, his instincts sharpened, and his combat prowess refined to the highest degree possible for a Vasto Lorde.
But it wasn't enough.
He could feel it. A barrier. Something just out of reach.
What was beyond it?
What would happen…
If he took the next step?
The idea was dangerous.
The idea was… tempting.
His claws pressed slightly harder against the edge of his mask.
And for the first time…
Kurokujaku was uncertain.