Bleach: Awakened — Chapter 41 - The Two Who Fled

"Sprenger."

The murmur was barely above a breath. Uryu drew a small silver vial from the waist, popped the cap, and poured its contents across the ground.

"That's..." Mayuri's brow furrowed, eyes locking onto what had just been spilled. "Highly concentrated spirit particles?!"

The dense spirit particles soaked in fast. The light radiating from the ground surged, five beams of blue blazing brighter and brighter. The giant infant at the center tried to writhe free, but there was no time.

BOOM,

A massive spirit particle explosion tore through the center of the pentagram. Blue light swallowed everything, engulfing the enormous infant whole.

"What kind of technique is this..." Mayuri said through gritted teeth. "I've never heard of it! Since when do Quincy have methods like this?!"

"There's plenty you haven't heard of." Uryu pushed up the glasses. "Ordinarily, the Sprenger requires specially made weapons to trace out the Quincy formation before activation—a complex trap array."

"However, with the improvements Ryuken and I developed, scattered Heilig Pfeil can carve the formation directly into the ground, cutting out a considerable amount of tedious setup. Naturally, this is a one-shot surprise—the second time around, once someone's prepared, it can be disrupted easily enough."

"But of course." The same mocking smile Mayuri had worn earlier now sat at the corner of Uryu's mouth. "You won't be getting a second chance to face me."

"AAAAAAAAAHHHH!"

The pentagram's light faded. In the explosion's wake, the giant infant let out a wail of pure agony. Its once-golden face had turned pitch black. Countless cracks ran across the armor covering its body, as if the whole thing might shatter at any moment, yet even so, it held fast to its master's command and lurched forward.

"The Sprenger is an explosion triggered from within, after all." Watching the infant crawl closer, Uryu drew the bow again. "What remarkable tenacity!"

WHOOSH!

A bolt of light screamed out. The instant it struck, it punched clean through the infant's body. The armor shattered apart. The entire upper half of the torso was pierced through.

"Damn you!"

The body had already restored itself, but both stamina and spiritual pressure were heavily depleted. Countless methods of defeating Uryu flashed through Mayuri's mind, and not one of them was viable.

"Mayuri-sama... please give me the antidote..."

Nemu spoke weakly from nearby. Ashisogi Jizo's paralytic effect was still running. Nemu couldn't move so much as a single finger.

"...Tsk!"

A click of the tongue. Beyond means of self-preservation, Mayuri had no options. Try to flee, and the Quincy's Heilig Pfeil would likely punch through before the next step landed.

Mayuri drew a syringe from within the coat and jabbed it into Nemu's shapely body. Nemu rose instantly, rolled the joints to restore circulation, and fixed both eyes on Uryu.

A super-strength type...? Uryu's brow furrowed slightly. The type I'm worst at dealing with, a pure stats monster.

"What are you doing?!"

Contrary to expectation, Nemu didn't choose to fight. Instead, Nemu hoisted Mayuri onto one shoulder, leapt straight onto a nearby wall, and bolted.

WHOOSH!

A Heilig Pfeil arrived in an instant. Without even glancing back, Nemu swatted it away with a single palm. The body lurched in midair, but the Heilig Pfeil was still knocked apart.

"Damn it..." Uryu said through gritted teeth. "Did setting up the Sprenger drain too much?"

Waves of weakness radiated through the body. Firing Heilig Pfeil at full output wasn't a particularly heavy burden, but unleashing the specially crafted arrows used to set up the Sprenger was an entirely different matter. Even now, it had been an enormous strain.

Events had proven the call correct. Without the Sprenger, ordinary Heilig Pfeil alone could almost certainly never have defeated the giant infant. In that case, the one fleeing would have been Uryu.

A glance back. Nemu's speed only increased, leaving nothing behind but Mayuri's unceasing stream of curses.

"My training is still lacking..."

With that quiet admission, Uryu chose not to give chase. A keen sense had already detected that Nemu's soul was diminishing, meaning the extraordinary strength came at the cost of consuming Nemu's own existence, and the more that was consumed, the greater the power obtained.

Push the pursuit, and if Nemu started burning through that soul without restraint, who would come out on top was genuinely uncertain.

"Come to think of it..." Uryu looked at the bow still in hand. The eyes behind the lenses went faintly unfocused. A quiet sigh. "Can I... actually kill him?"

The last Quincy, Uryu Ishida, versus Squad 12 Captain Mayuri Kurotsuchi, final result: one side fled, the other had no strength to pursue.

Uryu Ishida wins!

"Oh, nice!" Ichigo uncrossed his arms and nodded, sensing the distant battle wind down. "Uryu's not bad—wrapped it up just like that."

"I wouldn't really call it wrapped up." Orihime said quietly. "The other side escaped, didn't they?"

"Well, the world out there isn't just about fighting and killing, it's about reading people too." Ichigo said, completely deadpan. "If nothing goes wrong, they'll be fighting on the same side someday. Going for the kill wouldn't have been great."

"That's not what you were thinking earlier, though."

"Ugh... you get a much better conversation after beating someone into submission! Otherwise they'd just look down on us!"

The hour was nearing deep night. After the 'sparring session' with the two captains at Squad 8, Ichigo had found a spot with Orihime to rest properly and eat. Now, a little too awake to sleep, the two had come out for a stroll.

"Those two captains really were something, though." Ichigo said, the earlier sparring session surfacing in his mind. "If that guy in the floral shirt hadn't gone and done something reckless like trying to attack me with shadows, the fight probably wouldn't have ended that cleanly."

"If all the captains are at that level, it would be pretty tricky to deal with."

"Surely... not all of them?" Orihime, who had been watching from the sidelines, couldn't help saying. "Those two captains felt... a little frightening."

"Oh? How so?"

"It's... how do I put it, you might not feel it because you're too strong, Ichigo, but sometimes those two gave off this really unsettling vibe. Like a chill running down the spine."

Orihime trailed off, thinking. Then a small sound of realization. "Oh! It's that, a kind of callous detachment!"

"Detachment?"

"Yes!" Orihime nodded. "Like they could disregard anything to win. Teammates. Even their own lives."

"...That's a spot-on read."

Ichigo looked at his own palm, turning it over. It had been a sparring match, but after the clash of blades, something had bled through regardless. Even in ordinary training, he could usually pick up on the emotions of others to some degree.

Among everyone he knew, aside from his own father, only Yoruichi gave him a feeling that clear and uncomplicated. The two captains today had reminded him of Kisuke Urahara, and that was a type he didn't particularly care for.

"Hm?"

He'd been wandering without much thought when something snagged his attention. Ichigo slipped behind a wall and peered quietly around the edge.

➤ Next: That Person's Real Name Is Isshin Shiba