Bleach: Reborn — Chapter 157 - The Decisive Battle

"Cheers!"

Night had settled over Seireitei. Wayne and Mizumatsu were sharing a quiet drink in the 4th Division barracks.

Making it to the semifinals, Wayne had already accomplished everything he'd set out to do. Tomorrow's odds no longer mattered, because he had no intention of winning. He'd go up, throw a few punches, and concede. That was exactly why Mizumatsu had thrown him an early celebration tonight.

With Kanzaki-hime on hand, every injury Wayne had sustained was long since healed without leaving so much as a mark.

On top of that, Kanzaki-hime's ability restored wounds and Reiatsu together, and with Mizumatsu's Friendship Potion on top of that, Wayne had needed less than an hour to return to his full, vigorous self.

"Not bad at all, kid. Big Sis didn't dote on you for nothing." Three rounds in, Mizumatsu's cheeks were flushed as she praised him.

Her heavy betting had paid off handsomely this time around, she'd collected close to four million Silver Rings in one go. Four million Silver Rings was serious money. Enough to buy a modest manor outright. For someone like Mizumatsu, whose daily expenses were mostly food and drink, it meant she could eat lavishly every single day from here on out.

"I owe it all to your generosity, Mizumatsu-dono. If you hadn't helped me dig up intel on my opponents, I never could have won so easily."

"Ha! Mutual benefit, mutual benefit~" Mizumatsu waved it off.

"So what's next?" she asked, her tone carrying a hint of something deeper.

"Collect the prize first." Wayne thought it over. "After that, I'm thinking of buying a place inside Seireitei — somewhere quiet to train." The habit from his life before his last had stuck with him: get money, buy property first. Mizumatsu would probably never understand the particular suffering of being mortgage-bound.

"Generally speaking, the champions walk away from the prize ceremony with invitations from the Gotei 13. Fast-track promotion." Mizumatsu dropped it casually.

"But I'm not the champion."

"Kitagawa has held the title several tournaments running. And yet he's chosen to stay at the academy — his plan is to become a core pillar of Seireitei someday."

"Oh? Why?"

"Who knows. Maybe the division he's set to join needs him to put in the time first."

"He's joining..." Wayne turned it over in his mind. As far as he knew, only two divisions had any close ties with Shin'ō Academy.

"The Captain-Commander's side would never take on a student." Mizumatsu tipped back another drink and kept going. "He'll end up in 5th Division."

"Figures." Wayne muttered to himself. Of course someone that talented wouldn't slip past Aizen's notice. He even suspected Aizen had already brought Kitagawa under the sway of Kyōka Suigetsu. But stepping back to think about it, of everyone currently enrolled at the academy, apart from himself, who could actually escape Kyōka Suigetsu? Not even the Captain-Commander was immune.

That said, the higher the enemy's Reiatsu, the greater the strain Kyōka Suigetsu placed on Aizen, which was why he rarely bothered controlling the captains directly.

"So after him, there's a decent chance that you, as the Ranking Tournament's runner-up, become the next target a captain sets their eye on."

"Not interested." Wayne shook his head. "Momo hasn't even started yet — I can't just leave the academy to join the Gotei 13. Besides, I already promised you that I'd join 4th Division someday, Mizumatsu-dono."

"Hmph~ At least you've got some conscience, kid." A charming smile curved at the corner of Mizumatsu's mouth, a shame that, from where she sat, her slight nod went entirely unseen by him.

"Even so... the heights you've reached, I genuinely didn't see coming. Maybe 4th Division isn't actually the best path for you."

"We'll deal with the future when it gets here~" Wayne took an unhurried sip from his cup. "I don't even have a Zanpakuto yet. Whether I can become a Soul Reaper at all still depends on whether one awakens for me. You know as well as I do — I'm Kidō-null. If I end up nulling my Zanpakuto too, the only thing I'd have to offer is Kaidō."

"Oh, stop jinxing it." Mizumatsu shot him a look. "Having no talent for Kidō is one thing. But if you're null for your Zanpakuto too, then you really can't become a Soul Reaper."

"Ha ha ha, it'll be fine. If it comes to that, I'll just show up at Mizumatsu-dono's manor every day and freeload off her. I've had a weak stomach since I was small, I'm better suited to being kept, honestly."

"You little brat, you're asking for it!" With a pleasant buzz already setting in, Mizumatsu and Wayne dissolved into a laughing, tussling mess.

......

The following day, Wayne arrived at the arena. Today was the final day of the Ranking Tournament, the day of his match against Kitagawa Sawa in the championship bout.

The venue was packed and deafening, with everyone cheering for both sides. According to reliable intel from Ikkaku Madarame, the bets placed on Wayne to win were now nearly as numerous as those on Kitagawa Sawa. In terms of popularity, Wayne had already reached the point where he could stand shoulder to shoulder with the academy's living legend.

Of course, that also meant the moment Wayne lost, his own payout would be nothing short of substantial.

After watching the second-through-fifth-year matches play out, Wayne finally made his way to the stage at the announcer's call. The crowd erupted the moment he stepped up, the first-years in particular went absolutely wild. But before long, someone noticed something was wrong.

"Hey — Tsukishiro's sword... didn't Yagami China's Sōkatsui melt it yesterday?"

"You're right. Oh no, he doesn't have a weapon at all today. Is he seriously going to fight bare-handed?"

"It's over. No weapon, and a first-year going up against a championship seed, what's he supposed to fight with?"

The stands broke into a flurry of panicked chatter. Those who'd bet on Wayne to win were in an even worse state, half of them looked ready to fling their own swords up to him.

"Both competitors, prepare."

The referee had no reason to concern himself with whether Wayne was armed. His job was to make sure both fighters came through this match in one piece. They were the most golden prospects the academy had right now. If even one of them ended up badly hurt, the people above would make sure he never heard the end of it.

"Where's your sword?" Kitagawa looked at Wayne, who had come up empty-handed.

"Melted." Wayne spread his hands.

"Then how are you going to fight?" Kitagawa frowned. He'd watched Wayne's entire run through the bracket, and every bit of it had registered. After himself, another prodigy had emerged, and that was something to feel glad about, even as it stirred a quiet excitement in his chest.

Kitagawa Sawa had grown up a commoner. Before passing the entrance exams for Shin'ō Academy, he'd spent his days scraping by in Rukongai District 76, one of the roughest neighborhoods there was. He'd carved a path through it with nothing but a battered katana, crossing paths with weak Hollows along the way, trading blows with them, collecting bounties from wandering outlaws, living each day in a grinding blur of violence and survival.

Until the day he crossed paths with a bespectacled Soul Reaper, powerful, yet easygoing in manner. That Soul Reaper had pointed him toward Shin'ō Academy, and it was there that his talent had finally had room to fully bloom.

Now, looking at Wayne, a talent no lesser than his own, perhaps even greater, he couldn't help but feel a kinship with him. Both commoners. The difference was that Wayne came from District 1, the best-policed area there was. But that didn't breed any resentment in Kitagawa.

Still, facing a Wayne with no weapon, Kitagawa Sawa felt there was almost no point in fighting. No weapon, barely a month at the academy, what did he actually have to fight with? He'd at least been counting on an armed Wayne to make him take things a bit more seriously.

"I'll fight with my fists." Wayne rolled his shoulders and raised both hands into a guard.

"Idiot." Kitagawa Sawa's sharp brows drew tight. He looked toward the referee. "Sir, is there any weapon he could borrow?"

"That's outside my jurisdiction." The referee shook his head, then looked toward Wayne. "Tsukishiro Hinamori, do you need a weapon?"

"No need. Let's just fight like this." Wayne shook his head. He wasn't planning to win anyway, he'd just go through the motions.

"Are you looking down on me?" Kitagawa's expression soured. He'd taken Wayne's meaning to be that he could win even without a weapon.

"No." Wayne shook his head.

"Hmph!" Kitagawa let out a cold snort and unfastened his Zanpakuto, tossing it aside.

"Oh?" Wayne caught the movement and raised an eyebrow. "Now who's looking down on who?"

"You,!" The words died in Kitagawa's throat. All he'd meant was that he didn't want to take advantage of someone at a disadvantage, he hadn't expected that kind of response. "If I used my blade against a first-year with no weapon, wouldn't that just be a hollow victory?"

"Alas..." Wayne shook his head. "Do as you like." With that, he settled back into his fighting stance.

"Both competitors, prepare." Seeing that both had taken their positions, the referee called it.

"Begin!"

BOOM! BANG!

Both fighters launched into Shunpo simultaneously, the force of their push-offs shattered the stone floor beneath their feet. Their fists collided, a dull heavy impact ringing out across the arena. Both recoiled from the blow. In that first raw exchange of power, neither had gained an edge.

They shook out their hands and surged forward again. What followed was a storm of overlapping fist shadows crashing into each other, dull thud after dull thud rolling across the arena, the speed far too great for most of the lower-year students in the stands to follow.

"Not bad bare-handed. Everything except his Kidō is solid." Soifon gave Wayne a measured assessment, and in the same moment her thoughts began drifting somewhere else. "I've heard his Kaidō is functional, and the Reiatsu circulation for Kaidō runs along the same lines as Kidō. If he channeled Reiatsu through a Kaidō framework and layered in Hakuda... could he possibly..."

That line of thought pulled Soifon into a deep silence. Her eyes tracked every one of Wayne's fluid, agile movements, and the more she watched, the more clearly something lit up in her gaze. By the time this match ended, she'd be just about ready to personally draft him into 2nd Division.

BANG! BANG! BOOM!

The Hakuda exchange had hit a fever pitch. As the fight wore on, both fighters abandoned defense entirely, trading blow for blow, what had started as a contest of offensive power had shifted into a test of endurance and the ability to absorb punishment. Then, in a single moment, both fists connected with each other's cheeks at the exact same time. The impact sent both of them flying in opposite directions. They skidded across the ground and kicked up great billowing clouds of dust.

"Ptch..." Seconds later, Wayne swayed to his feet and spat a mouthful of blood. Since reincarnating into Soul Society, no one had ever pushed him this close.

Aizen had once said that a Soul Reaper's battle was, at its core, a contest of Reiatsu, that a person with overwhelming Reiatsu could crush a weaker opponent without any technique at all. Since Wayne had arrived in Soul Society and begun his training, Kitagawa Sawa standing across from him now was the first person who might actually require him to commit his full Reiatsu to bring down.

"Not bad." Wayne shook his head clear and called across to Kitagawa Sawa, who had hauled himself back to his feet on the other side.

"Same to you." Kitagawa Sawa wiped the corner of his mouth. "Keep going!"

"Heh, fine, I'll humor you a while longer." Feeling out the rough parity of their Reiatsu, Wayne let go of the standard Hakuda form they'd been drilling in class. He drew his arms in close, stepped his right foot half a pace forward, lowered his head slightly, and began moving with a light, springy footwork.

Combat techniques from two lifetimes ago. Let's see what they could do when combined with Reiatsu.

Wayne's focus sharpened to a point. He couldn't open his eyes, so his perception narrowed inward and inward until it encompassed only Kitagawa. The figure composed of pale blue rendered itself across Wayne's mind in perfect, minute detail, every micro-shift, every breath.

The fight resumed. Kitagawa Sawa loaded power into his right fist and drove a heavy straight punch at Wayne. This time, Wayne didn't meet it head-on.

He shifted right, sank his center of gravity low, tilted his torso forward, raised his left arm to redirect the incoming fist, and with his other hand drove an uppercut from below, straight into Kitagawa's jaw.

One clean hit. Before Wayne could follow up, Kitagawa immediately used Shunpo to create distance. He reached up and worked his jaw, nearly dislocated, and his gaze turned dangerous.

That last strike hadn't been a fluke. The blind fighter across from him had already mapped out that move before it landed. But the force behind it hadn't been full strength. Seventy percent, maybe. An attack held back like that, if not to strike faster, then to test the technique. To get a feel for it.

"What... did you just do?" Kitagawa Sawa asked.

"Trying something out. Seeing if it works." Wayne rolled his shoulders again and crooked a finger at Kitagawa Sawa, beckoning him forward.

"Using me as your test subject?" Kitagawa Sawa's expression hardened. He surged his Reiatsu and charged. Straight punch, hook, ridge-hand strike, single-knuckle strike, windmill, sweeping tail, every technique from the Hakuda curriculum came out of Kitagawa Sawa one after another. Wayne countered each one as it arrived, deflecting every strike cleanly outside his guard and returning with joint locks that pressed and controlled Kitagawa at key points.

The force Wayne applied wasn't great. But every time he caught Kitagawa in a lock, Kitagawa had no choice but to burst his Reiatsu to break free. Measured by Reiatsu expenditure alone, Wayne held the clear advantage.

Finally, Wayne landed a cut kick squarely against Kitagawa Sawa's knee, breaking his balance. Then came a single heavy punch driving straight into Kitagawa Sawa's face, and he went flying.

"Heh. Turns out it really does work." Wayne lowered his stance. In a pure hand-to-hand exchange, the combat techniques from a past life still had their place. Too bad he'd never gone very deep into traditional martial arts, if he'd properly fused them with Reiatsu, he could probably have left Kitagawa Sawa unable to stand.

"I have to admit, you're genuinely strong." Kitagawa hauled himself up from the ground and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. "In hand-to-hand, I can't match you. But... let's try swordsmanship next!"

With that, Kitagawa Sawa reached down and picked up his Zanpakuto, words already forming under his breath.

"Spread without end — Shien!"

➤ Next: The Tournament Ends