None of Us Is Above This

The white wave released by Daichimaru did not strike Amagai directly.

Instead, it curled around him in a full circle and sank into the ground. Two massive hands of earth and stone rose from beneath his feet, closed around him, and sealed him in place.

"Kenryu! Enryu!" Rurichiyo cried, relief breaking across her face. "You came to save me!"

Kenryu moved at once and cut the ropes binding her wrists.

Amagai's answer was a burst of reiatsu.

The stone hands shattered apart. Broken rock sprayed in every direction, and Enryu threw himself in front of Rurichiyo before the fragments could reach her. He stopped the debris, but Amagai's pressure slammed through him hard enough to knock him unconscious.

"Enryu!" Rurichiyo shouted.

Kenryu gritted his teeth and glared at Amagai.

Amagai ignored them. His attention remained on Head Captain Yamamoto as he took out the eye-like cores he had collected earlier.

"These eyes are the true cores of the Bakkoto," Amagai said. "I let other people use those weapons so the cores could gorge themselves on spiritual power."

He drew another blade from his waist.

That one was a Bakkoto as well.

Amagai fed every core into his own Bakkoto, then struck the strange blade with his Zanpakuto. The weapon fused into his arm. Five eyes lined up along the black hilt now fixed to his forearm, and a green blade like a beam of light extended from the front.

Yamamoto looked faintly disappointed.

"I thought you had found some remarkable power," he said. "In the end, you also chose to rely on a Bakkoto."

The cane in his hand split apart, revealing Ryujin Jakka beneath it. His upper robes fell away from his body as heat gathered around him.

"Reduce all creation to ash, Ryujin Jakka."

Flames exploded around Yamamoto, turning the ruins of the room into a furnace. The air bent under the heat, and even Kenryu and the wounded Enryu had to shield Rurichiyo from the pressure.

Amagai watched the fire rushing toward him without a flicker of fear. He raised the Bakkoto on his right arm and pointed its green edge into the flames.

The fire died the moment it touched the blade.

Amagai planted the Bakkoto into the floor. A green ring of light spread out from him, and Yamamoto's flames vanished completely.

For the first time, disbelief crossed the old captain's face. Ryujin Jakka had not merely been suppressed. Yamamoto could no longer feel his own spiritual power clearly.

"How?" he said.

The Bakkoto unfolded into black armor around Amagai's arm.

"This is the power of my Bakkoto. Inside its range, the power of a Soul Reaper is sealed." His eyes hardened. "There is one exception. My own Zanpakuto remains free."

Amagai drew his sword and skipped Shikai entirely.

"Bankai! Raika Goen Kaku!"

Crimson fire wrapped around his body. His Zanpakuto expanded into a massive version of Raika, a weapon almost as tall as he was and heavy enough that even Amagai had to wield it with both hands.

He spun the huge blade overhead. A violent pillar of flame punched through the Squad One captain's room and tore the building apart.

Yamamoto stood unharmed, but Kenryu and Enryu were burned again while protecting Rurichiyo.

The sight of his own retainers hurt made Rurichiyo glare at Amagai through her fear.

Yamamoto's voice dropped.

"Boy. Was I not your only target? This has nothing to do with the others."

The words only deepened Amagai's fury.

"Not only you. I will kill every heir of the Kasumioji Clan as well."

He raised Raika Goen Kaku toward Rurichiyo.

Before the strike could fall, Soi Fon appeared out of hiding and carried Rurichiyo's group to safety in a blur.

"What? Captain Soi Fon?" Amagai's eyes widened. "As expected of the commander of the Onmitsukido. I could not even sense where you were."

"Nice work, Soi Fon."

Ichigo's voice arrived before he did.

He appeared beside Yamamoto with Rukia and Senna. When he saw the Head Captain holding Ryujin Jakka without attacking, confusion flickered across his face.

"Old man Yamamoto, what are you doing? Why haven't you cut Amagai down already?"

Yamamoto did not answer. Being rescued by a junior was not exactly good for his pride.

"Ichigo Kurosaki?" Amagai stared at him. "How did you get here so fast?"

"Ichigo!" Soi Fon and Rurichiyo called at the same time.

Soi Fon noticed the way Rurichiyo looked at him, and her mood immediately soured.

'She has not even looked at me like that yet.'

Ichigo rested Zangetsu against his shoulder and looked at Amagai.

"All right, Captain Amagai. Why don't you explain what this is really about? If you are going to kill the old man, at least let him know why."

Yamamoto's expression remained calm, but the name Shin'etsu Kisaragi had already caught his attention.

Amagai did not hide anything. Years ago, he had watched his father die on a training ground. According to the last words he heard, the one who killed Shin'etsu Kisaragi was Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto.

His father had been Yamamoto's subordinate and student. Amagai could not understand why Yamamoto would kill him, so he changed his name, joined the Gotei 13, and investigated in secret.

Eventually, he found traces of the Bakkoto.

The records he uncovered claimed that Yamamoto had colluded with the Kasumioji Clan, silencing anyone who discovered the Bakkoto by killing Shin'etsu Kisaragi. Amagai had not wanted to believe it at first, but every time a Soul Reaper tried to question the Kasumioji Clan, Yamamoto rejected the request without hesitation.

Over time, fewer and fewer people dared to challenge the clan.

To Amagai, that silence became proof. He trained obsessively, infiltrated the Kasumioji Clan, won Kumoi's trust, and obtained a Bakkoto.

Then he swore he would kill Yamamoto and avenge his father, even if he had to use the Bakkoto's power to do it.

Ichigo was quiet for a moment after the story ended.

"So this is revenge for your father."

"Now that you know, do not stand in my way," Amagai said.

Ichigo shook his head.

"I get revenge. I am selfish too. The first time I came to Soul Society, I only cared about saving Rukia. Whether Soul Society survived or not had nothing to do with me."

He looked briefly toward Rukia, then toward the others.

"If I had not met Retsu, Byakuya, Kenpachi, Soi Fon, and everyone else afterward, I might still be that same idiot who did not care what happened here."

Amagai frowned.

"What are you trying to say?"

Ichigo's gaze sharpened.

"That you should never have dragged Rurichiyo into this."

His voice hardened with each word.

"Disrupting Soul Society? I do not care. But you do not get to hurt the people around me."

He raised Zangetsu.

"Your grudge is personal. Mine is personal too. Neither of us has the moral high ground."

Ichigo pointed the blade at Amagai.

"I am not cutting you down because I want to protect Soul Society. I am doing it for myself. You hurt my people, and I am angry. That is all."

Black reiatsu surged.

"Bankai! Tensa Zangetsu!"

Ichigo stopped talking and flashed in front of Amagai. He swung for Amagai's chest, not his throat, but the strike still came with enough force to end the fight.

Amagai caught it with the Bakkoto on his right arm.

The moment the blades met, Ichigo felt more than half his strength vanish. His spiritual power lurched out of rhythm.

He retreated to Yamamoto's side in a burst of Shunpo, staring at Amagai with a strange expression.

"Ichigo!" Soi Fon called. "That weapon can neutralize a Soul Reaper's Zanpakuto power."

Ichigo looked at the Bakkoto again.

'Seriously? I thought I was the one cheating here.'

"Give up, Ichigo Kurosaki," Amagai said. "You cannot defeat me."

Ichigo's answer was to let Tensa Zangetsu fall from his hand.

Amagai froze.

Even Yamamoto looked curious.

Rurichiyo went pale.

"Ichigo dropped his Zanpakuto. He will be all right, won't he?"

Rukia and Senna moved to her side.

"Do not worry," Rukia said. "Ichigo will be fine."

"Believe in him," Senna added. "He is nowhere near his limit."

Across the ruined floor, Amagai narrowed his eyes.

"What now? Are you going to keep fighting without a Zanpakuto?"

Ichigo smiled.

"No. I am just changing blades."

A white Zanpakuto appeared in his hand.

It no longer matched the white blade he had revealed before. This one was longer and broader, closer to an oversized white Asauchi than a mirror of Tensa Zangetsu.

Amagai felt the pressure around Ichigo change.

"What kind of power is that?"

It was not the reiatsu of a Soul Reaper.

The sensation was twisted, heavy, and Hollow-like.

Amagai's instincts screamed at him not to let the fight continue.

He poured all his spiritual power into Raika Goen Kaku and drove the molten blade into the ground.

Ichigo sensed the shift beneath his feet and moved.

"Raika Enchu!"

Flame pillars erupted from below, chasing each place where Ichigo tried to land.

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