Beyond Common Sense

More than six miles away from West District 79 of Rukongai, Retsu Unohana stood atop Minazuki as it flew at full speed. Looking at the enormous smoke rising in the distance, her gentle eyes went cold.

"Faster, Minazuki."

Unohana's voice was soft, but it carried the low edge of an enraged demon. From time to time, reiatsu thick with the scent of blood leaked out from her.

"Akira, you had better not die here. Hold on for just a little longer..."

...

'Am I going to die?'

'Not death inside the mental space, but true death in reality...'

'Too little battle experience. My reiatsu is nowhere near enough to withstand an Adjuchas's Cero...'

The gentleness that usually lived in Akira Morisawa's eyes faded. Deathly stillness and despair gradually filled his scattering pupils. His mind, however, was unexpectedly clear, and countless chaotic thoughts flashed through it.

Retsu Unohana, Risa Aoki, Shao Ling Fon.

The familiar faces of Ikkaku Madarame, Yumichika Ayasegawa, Seinosuke Yamada, and others also appeared one after another. Finally, everything fixed on Sosuke Aizen's warm, modest face.

'Was it you, Aizen? Did you deliberately target me, or did you simply kill me while you were at it?'

'So this is what real death feels like when it comes...'

'It is not as bad as I imagined. Everything is so quiet. A little cold, too...'

Akira's left hand lifted with difficulty and instinctively moved toward his chest, as if trying to maintain a little warmth.

However, under his hand, everything was sticky and warm, as if he had touched a broad mass of minced flesh.

'I was injured this badly...'

'Shinra Bansho? I cannot sense her at all. I cannot treat myself either...'

'My consciousness is starting to blur...'

Finally, even Akira's desperate effort to maintain a clear thought began to fade. The weak Kaido light rising from his palm could not possibly heal his injuries.

Everything grew quiet.

Only the last trace of Akira's instinct remained, supported by the desire to survive, calling Shinra Bansho again and again.

'Shinra Bansho. Shinra Bansho. Shinra Bansho...'

Just then, a voice seemed to answer him. It sounded faintly in Akira's mind.

"Master Jam-Jam, can you hear me?"

"Can you hear my voice? Hear my true voice..."

"The true release phrase. The true power. Not the false ability created by imposing Master Jam-Jam's subjective will onto me..."

"There is almost no time left, Master Jam-Jam. Answer me!"

Suddenly, Akira's nearly scattered pupils tightened slightly. Inside his almost blank mind, which had nearly lost every trace of conscious will, he heard that familiar voice filled with anxiety.

"Shinra Bansho..."

"Master Jam-Jam, hurry. At a time like this, you should be able to hear it. Hurry..."

"Manifest. Reach. Transcend..."

"The apex of all things. The root of everything!"

Akira's pupils began to scatter again. Even his body had started to grow cold from excessive blood loss. A voice so weak almost no one could hear it slipped out.

"Manifest. Reach. Transcend. Apex of all things, root of everything. Shinra Bansho."

In the next instant, the blade of the Zanpakuto held in Akira's hand turned into a stream of light and merged into his body. His reiatsu, which had been continuously declining, suddenly stopped, then vanished completely from Sosuke Aizen's perception.

'Dead?'

Sensing that abrupt change in reiatsu, Aizen had been faintly dismissive, but he still glanced casually back in Akira's direction.

Then Aizen's pupils contracted instinctively.

A vast amount of reishi in the air was gathering madly toward the wound in Akira's chest, rapidly repairing his injuries.

But Aizen could not sense Akira's reiatsu at all.

How was that possible?

Aizen's expression froze completely. He even looked somewhat shaken, as if he had seen a reality that exceeded his understanding.

A spiritual body constructed from reishi produced power known as reiryoku, and the density and fluctuation of reiryoku produced reiatsu.

Therefore, unless one was among those residents of Rukongai said to possess no reiryoku and feel no hunger, as long as there was reiryoku within the body, reiatsu would inevitably exist.

It was like a human being needing to breathe. It was common sense.

Although reiatsu could also be controlled by actively suppressing reiryoku, making the size and intensity of the reiatsu released smaller, being unable to perceive even the slightest amount was, to Aizen, almost impossible.

Unless... the reiatsu fluctuation being released had already moved completely beyond the range Aizen's spiritual body could perceive.

'Does that mean Akira Morisawa's reiatsu has far surpassed my own?'

'No. Impossible.'

Almost instantly, Aizen rejected that guess.

'Or has Akira Morisawa already died? Has he abandoned all reiryoku?'

And yet Akira was clearly treating himself. The act of drawing reishi from the air to repair his wounds also belonged to the Zanpakuto ability Akira had displayed earlier.

'Why?'

'Why can I not sense his reiatsu?'

For a moment, the change taking place in Akira almost made Aizen feel as if his understanding of the world were collapsing.

'Could my understanding of this world be wrong?'

'Or have I fallen under an ability similar to Kyoka Suigetsu and begun seeing an illusion?'

'Or is Akira Morisawa himself a unique anomaly, something completely different from other Shinigami?'

In a single instant, several guesses appeared in Aizen's mind.

Sensing that Aizen had stopped moving, Kaname Tosen could not help asking in confusion, "Lord Aizen, what is wrong?"

"No, Tosen. Do not speak. Let me think..."

Aizen could not stop himself from gripping his own face with both hands. His voice carried a rare loss of composure.

As the changes in Akira's body grew more obvious, they also drew the attention of the Adjuchas, which had been instinctively devouring pieces of soul from one living Tenth Division member after another.

"This one..."

Boom!

The Adjuchas's massive body landed heavily in front of Akira, who still lay on the ground. Its gaze studied Akira as his wounds continued to repair themselves.

After a brief daze, the Adjuchas, now observing him up close, remembered the humiliation it had suffered not long ago. Its eyes gradually reddened.

A mere ant of a Shinigami had dared to stab that hateful thing into the shell it had finally found satisfying. He had even pierced through that shell until it could no longer be used.

Anger filled the Adjuchas's gaze. It raised one sharp leg and thrust it violently down toward Akira.

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