CH 164: DEUS
Looking up at the intruders, Tokinada seemed unperturbed as he spoke,
“Oh my, what are three rejects of the Gotei 13 doing here? I am about to kill a traitor, you see? Would you mind giving us some space?”
“Heh, I thought you just gave this so-called traitor the option to continue fleeing for your own enjoyment.”
“Ohoh, whatever you may have heard, those were just jokes, now would you please go away?”
Even though he appeared quite calm, Tokinada was anything but. He did not mind a good challenge, but fighting three people of such a high caliber would prove to be quite difficult. Even more so since he was hiding the true power of his Zanpakuto for now.
The ultimate plan of the Tsunayashiro clan was still too far from completion. In fact, it wasn’t even at the first step.
“Huh, if we are going to fight anyway, then isn’t speaking a waste of time?”
Cleaning his ear with his little finger, Zaraki asked. Clearly, he was finding those veiled words to be a waste of time.
“My, my, Zaraki. You should know by now that Satoru doesn’t act for no reason.”
Gojo closed his eyes, indeed he had a reason as to why he didn’t begin the fight until now.
“I only have one question if I have to be honest. It’s only a hunch but…Are you the one who killed Tensho Agata? [1]”
At the mention of this name, Ginjo who had stayed silent until then flinched. A reaction Gojo did not miss but had no time to care about for now.
If he was surprised by the question, he showed no such expression.
“This name sounds vaguely familiar. Why the question though?”
“What a snake you are. Lying through your teeth without the slightest change of expression. Pretty admirable if I must say.”
Gojo spoke calmly. He clearly did not care about the life and death of a man he had never met. Still, since the man was Aura’s father, the killer had to pay.
Tensho Agata was the name of Aura’s father. His death was clearly unnatural so Gojo had been wondering who could have caused it. But now it was clear that he found the culprit.
“Zaraki, do as you like with him.”
Bang!
Like a lightning bolt, Zaraki rushed toward his opponent, a bloodthirsty grin filling his face. Gojo knew that in this situation his friend was no different from a mad hound that would not stop until it died or destroyed his opponent.
{Kogo. Help me contain the fight}
Kogo immediately seized control of the surrounding space and covered it with a veil; a zone of three kilometers was rather small for a fight between two captains, but it didn’t matter. He just wanted to avoid affecting the human world negatively.
Once he saw Tokinada barely block the Zaraki’s attack, Gojo immediately lost interest in him and landed in front of the two Fullbringer. The young boy beside Ginjo interested him quite a bit and even Ginjo was pretty special.
After all, Fullbringer were human with a hint of Hollow’s power in them. Then said Fullbringer had received Shinigami’s power. Just what would be the result[2]?
“Ohoh, I knew that following you was the right decision.”
Kisuke marveled. Clearly, even though he didn’t have something as broken as the six eyes, his instincts as a scientist made him see the peculiarities of those two.
—--
On Tokinada's side, after narrowingly avoiding Zaraki, he grunted and asked,
“So the proud Zaraki Kenpachi is now the hunting dog of Satoru Gojo?”
He tried to goad and provoke Zaraki but all he got was another swing of the sword. Not wishing to test his Reiatsu against Zaraki's sword, he used Shunpo to put some distance between them.
‘Tch, this stupid veil was activated.’
Even after all those years, the principle behind Gojo‘s veils was still not totally understood. It wasn’t as if the Kido expert and master couldn’t create curtains. But the two styles were totally different.
Still, he knew that he couldn’t break this veil without putting in tremendous power and he doubted Gojo or any of the other two would watch as he fled.
‘What should I do?’
Had it been any other opponents, Tokinada would have immediately surrounded. He was no fighter. He took no pleasure in pushing through adversities.
He just wanted to play around. Sadly, once again, Zaraki was not the kind of person such a tactic would be useful against.
As if it wasn’t enough, falling in the hands of a mad scientist like Kisuke was not something he wished for.
“Stop dodging like a rat and fight!”
The spiritual pressure of Zaraki increased suddenly but Tokinada was not to be outdone. Despite how he looked he was still the leader of one of the four houses. His spiritual pressure did not lose out to people like Byakuya Kuchiki or Yoruichi Shihoin.
But he knew that he couldn’t continue like this.
‘Sigh. I guess I have no choice.’
The plan of his house could be damned. He didn’t mind dying but not now.
The world began to tremble as a captain truly began to release his spiritual pressure to its full extent. If Gojo didn’t activate the veil, people a few kilometers away would already begin fainting while others had a high chance of dying.
Clashing with Zaraki, he put strength in his hand and began to recite,
“Sip from the four seas, the heavenly shores entwine.”
Feeling the change in the atmosphere, Zaraki took a step back and observed him,
“Equally duplicate ten thousand and sharpen.”
Tokinada knew that he would have only one chance at this. He had to act in a way without revealing the true power of his sword while at the same time fleeing from this place. Thankfully he had the perfect solution,
“…Enrakyoten!”
His sword shone with a blinding light forcing Zaraki to squint a little, but when the light vanished—There was no one.
Seeing this, Zaraki’s eyes opened wide before he screamed in rage,
“Fucking damnit!”
He had finally found a fun opponent after all this time but the bastard tucked his tail and fled?
This was unacceptable!
“Don’t worry. He won’t flee far, I already marked him.”
Kisuke walked while waving his fan, a smile on his face. He wanted to tease Zaraki a little but knew better than to piss off an enraged beast.
“Do you recognize the mean he used? I saw him plunge in shadows, but it was different from the shadow I use.”
Kisuke pursed his lips a little, “I have some knowledge about Enrakyoten but I need to make sure. Still, if I am not wrong, then he might be quite the tricky opponent.”
“Forget about him, sooner or later Zaraki will have his fight, even if we must invade Soul Society for that.”
Gojo nonchalantly spoke about invading Soul society but he indeed had no reason to fear. As long as he didn’t hurt anyone, he knew that Jushiro and Kyoraku wouldn’t intervene. Mayuri wouldn’t even bother and Isshin might look the other way.
The only one who would pose a problem would be Yamamoto but, if he had to be honest, Gojo wished to face the Bankai of the old man. This would truly be an epic fight.
Taking a deep breath, Zaraki forced himself to calm down. He would fight against the Visored after this to relieve his bloodlust.
“Anyway, Kisuke, the fact that this guy intruded shows that the Soul Society, or rather Central 46 has indeed no intention to let us go. Now that we have the confirmation, I guess we need to complete our preparation.”
“So…You are finally ready to go?”
“Indeed. I believe I idled enough in the human world. It’s now time to complete my transcendence and for that…I need to visit Hueco Mundo. Furthermore…”
“Hehe, I guess we will find our old friend there. Sosuke Aizen.”
“Yep,” Gojo laughed, compared to the man who just fled, Aizen was a much more dangerous opponent in Gojo's mind. Someone they couldn’t afford to underestimate.
“Should I call Shinji and the others?”
Gojo thought for a bit before nodding, “This is as much their revenge as it is my fight. I think they will be happy to at least witness his demise with their own eyes. Even better if they can participate in it.”
“By the way…You never did give a name for the new organization you wanted to create.”
“I didn’t? Huh…Well. For now, how about we call it…”
Gojo thought for a while before smiling, “Since we all want to break the limits and transcend, let’s call ourselves—Deus.”
—----
[1] It’s his true name. Had to reread CFYOW to find it. Also was reminded of how broken Shuhei’s Bankai is. Too bad there low chance he will show it in my story.
[2]: In CFYOW, we know that there was three (four) possible replacement for the Soul king. First one was Ichigo, the second one was Ginjo, third was Yhwach's corpse (This is what they used in the end). Fourth was a character that would have been created by Aura and Tokinada with Gremmy’s brain as the basis. Hikone (fucking broken kid, basically an artificial Ichigo)