Bleach: Awakened — Chapter 26 - You Gotta Keep Your Word Out on the Streets!

A furious strike. A second. A third. After ten consecutive swings of the giant axe, Jidanbo Ikkanzaka stopped, gasping for breath. The tremendous force had reshaped the terrain around them, with Yasutora Sado at the center, the yellow earth had been driven up like walls, and white dust billowed once more into the air.

"Hmph!" Two jets of white steam blasted from Jidanbo Ikkanzaka's nostrils. "Die already, brat! This is what happens when you provoke the great Jidanbo Ikkanzaka!"

"Die?"

The low, flat voice carried out from the dust. Under Jidanbo Ikkanzaka's disbelieving gaze, Yasutora Sado stood exactly where they had been, completely unharmed, not having moved a single inch.

"You—you, this guy—" Jidanbo Ikkanzaka's eyes went wide. "What is going on with that arm of yours?!"

The entire right arm had transformed. What had been a brown arm was now a pattern of alternating black and red. The forearm had taken the shape of a shield, bearing black markings that resembled a demon's open mouth, and at the shield's end were five fingers.

"Brazo Derecha del Gigante." Yasutora Sado said flatly. "This is my ability."

"What the hell kind of ability is that!"

Roaring, Jidanbo Ikkanzaka swung the giant axe again. As a gatekeeper with a flawless record spanning three hundred years, they would not allow that record to be broken today.

"It's just a perfectly normal ability."

The axe came down, and Yasutora Sado extended the transformed right arm and caught it. Just like that. Giant and ordinary human, the massive difference in height made the contrast almost absurd.

Without a word, Yasutora Sado's gaze sharpened in an instant. Spiritual pressure surged to its peak. Five fingers clenched tight, and a crisp CRACK rang out. Countless fractures spiderwebbed across the axe head, and the next moment it shattered completely, iron fragments clattering across the ground.

"My—my axe! Waaaah!"

Before anything else could happen, Jidanbo Ikkanzaka, having just watched the axe crumble before their eyes, dropped straight onto their backside and broke into a full wail. The sight was so pitifully miserable it would move anyone who heard it to sadness.

"This..."

Yasutora Sado scratched their cheek with mild awkwardness. It was the first time they had ever made someone cry in a proper fight. Setting aside the time their ability went out of control, sure, delinquents who picked fights had cried before, but those were cries of pain. Nothing like this. Jidanbo Ikkanzaka's weeping was so exaggerated, so earnest, it actually made you feel it.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Seeing that things weren't moving forward, Ichigo jumped in, wearing the look of someone who ran the streets. "You there! You lost, didn't you?! Then open the gate!"

"Ah...?"

"Aren't you supposed to be a true warrior? If you're a true warrior, own your defeat!" Ichigo put to use the intel he had just gotten from Yoruichi. "Otherwise, what kind of true warrior does that make you?!"

"Ugh..." Jidanbo Ikkanzaka was momentarily at a loss, stammering. "But... but keeping people out is my job."

"Your job? Your job can go to hell!" Ichigo waved a hand with the air of someone fully in charge. "You know what matters when you're out here? What matters is keeping your word! A guy who won't admit defeat has no right to talk about keeping their word!"

"...Oh, oh! You know what, you're right!" Jidanbo Ikkanzaka looked as though a complete revelation had just washed over them, stuck out a big thumbs-up, and broke into a wide grin. "When you're out on the streets you gotta keep your word! You beat me, so you can go right on in!"

'What kind of twisted logic is that, and this guy actually bought it... something's wrong with their head...'

The other three and a cat couldn't help but have that exact thought at the same time. What "word," what "brotherhood", what did any of that even have to do with anything? How did those two just lock onto the same wavelength so instantly? Incomprehensible. The thinking inside a muscle-brained head was something normal people genuinely could not follow.

Having said his piece, Jidanbo Ikkanzaka turned around, crouched down, and placed both hands beneath the great gate. Every muscle strained with effort, veins bulging across their entire frame. Even for a giant like this, the gate was extraordinarily difficult to move.

"Whoa! Now that's raw strength for real!"

Everything here, the white wall panels beside them, the gate itself, was made of special materials that continuously absorbed spiritual pressure on contact. An ordinary soul with no spiritual pressure had no chance of climbing the white walls or opening the gate. Only a giant like Jidanbo Ikkanzaka could manage it at all.

"Wraaah!"

The gate slowly began to rise. With a fierce battle cry, Jidanbo Ikkanzaka hoisted it clear over their head. Those standing behind couldn't help but let out sounds of amazement, a sight like this was simply not something you could witness in the World of the Living.

"Ugh... ahhhhhh..."

Like a moan of grief, Jidanbo Ikkanzaka stood rooted to the spot, lips trembling, as though they had laid eyes on something terrifying.

"What's wrong?" Ichigo stepped up alongside Jidanbo Ikkanzaka and leaned forward to look. "Is there a problem?"

What reflected back in his pupils: a black Shihakusho, a Zanpakuto at the hip, white hair, a smile that hid the eyes completely. The corners of that mouth seemed permanently curled upward, like mockery, like fangs.

"A captain?" Setting aside the appearance, Ichigo's gaze locked onto the white Captain's Haori draped over the white-haired man. "Ha! Barely a few minutes in and we've already run into a Captain! Not bad at all!"

"Squad 3... Captain... Gin Ichimaru!"

A complete contrast to Ichigo's ease, Jidanbo Ikkanzaka's face was a mask of terror. Cold sweat streamed down in fat drops, body shaking beyond control. As the gatekeeper, they knew full well how terrifying the Soul Reaper Captains were.

"That won't do, now." Gin Ichimaru said with his ever-present smile, but his right hand drew the Zanpakuto with lightning speed. "You're the gatekeeper. Opening the gate isn't your job."

The instant the Zanpakuto cleared the sheath, a flash of white light, and something invisible to the naked eye shot toward Jidanbo Ikkanzaka's arm at blinding speed.

"Hey, hey, hey!"

CLANG!

In the instant before the white light could strike, Ichigo made one great leap and put himself directly in its path. His left hand drew the short blade in a flash and blocked the blow.

"Drawing your blade without so much as a heads-up, real lack of manners, isn't it?"

What clashed against the black blade was a white tip extending outward from the Zanpakuto in Gin Ichimaru's hand. Unlike a normal Zanpakuto, the blade stretched several meters long.

"And you've already released your Zanpakuto." Ichigo's voice carried open contempt. "And here you are, a Captain."

"Heh heh." Gin Ichimaru gave a small laugh and slowly retracted the blade. "Against someone who breaks the rules, you don't need to follow the rules yourself."

"Ha!" Landing back on the ground, Ichigo laughed. "Then as the one who invaded Soul Society, shouldn't I be your first target?"

"You know what, you're right."

The words had barely left his mouth when the blade extended again, shooting straight at Ichigo at a speed that broke sound itself.

"You... you really are a sly one. Whether it's your face or the ability of that Zanpakuto."

The blade tip stopped right before his face. Ichigo raised his right hand, and in the instant it was about to strike, his index finger and middle finger came together in a light pinch.

The blade could not advance a single inch further.

➤ Next: Not a Single One Gets Away