THE EXECUTION

All of the Seireitei had gathered at the foot of Soukyoku Hill to watch the execution. It was a beautiful sight, to witness the unleashed form of a god. To watch as it smited down a man who had replaced a pillar of the Seireitei. To see one of the Soul King’s own personal guard operating; a relic from the past.

Sumanai hated these beautiful sights. It sickened him to his stomach and forced a wave of vertigo to sweep over him. Taking in a deep breath, the terrorist moved slowly through the crowd, left hand resting on the pommel of his zanpakutou. The Seireitei, now in a state of war, had removed the ban on the carrying and releasing of soul cutters. It was a foolish decision, given the nature of shinigami themselves. They were Devas and Asuras--souls who would fight until they died and reincarnated again and again. Today was their first lesson in ignorance, for only the ignorant carried on with so much ceremony during war.

I can feel it coming, the Shadow whispered.

Sumanai smiled. His right hand reached over and grabbed the hilt of his zanpakutou. Every step he made through the crowd was one of determination, and a few caught the look of extremism in his eye. One foolish soldier, a man from the fifth given the flower embroidered on his chest, motionted to intercept him. Kage put a stop to that. Like the explorer lost in the sahara, the shinigami’s eyes glossed over, he stumbled once, and then he fell back onto his ass.

Underneath the rafters of an empty tea shop was where Sumanai stopped. It had rained the day before, and so water dripped from the eaves to a shallow puddle below. It was too dirty to reflect much of anything.

What will this do? the Shadow asked.

“It has the power of one million ghost cutters. It is a tool with no personality. It cannot be enlightened.” Sumanai closed his eyes and took in a sharp breath. The pressure that fell over the City of Pure Souls was a heavy air. Some shinigami staggered back, having lost their breath. “The explosion will be large but impotent.”

You risk revealing yourself to send a message?

Sumanai’s eyes opened and he allowed himself a sparse laugh. “Don’t you know, Kage? It’s all about sending the message.”

The soul-forged steel was hissing when Sumanai unsheathed it. An echo of thunder rolled across the Seireitei, born from black clouds on the horizon. The etchings of lightning carved into the guard began to glow a dull white. A single leaf, blue and rumbling just like the thunder in the sky, fell from nowhere and landed in the shallow puddle.

“Know your voice is Buddha’s own--
--Yousen’Nyorai.”
葉戦如雷
leaves rustling like thunder

Kage’s shadow reached out, and all those around Sumanai took no notice of what he was doing. Their eyes were glassy, their mouths open, their minds gone.

“And when she spreads her wings--”

A blue light swept over the crowd.

“--She shall know her own foolishness.”

The Soukyouku was beautiful. Its flames shone in a hundred different colors, with the red and orange of fire burning at its heart. After the light came the heat. Sumanai’s lips cracked, his eyes went dry, and the puddle at his feet was turned to steam in a flash. This was the embodiment of power within the Seireitei. This was the ultimate tool of war, a weapon that no soul could stand up to. And this was the last time it would ever be used.

“After it strikes, the phoenix will be at its weakest,” the Shadow had told him before he was the Shadow. “That is when you must strike, Sumanai. Directly after it makes executes Sojiro.”

And strike it did. The shockwave knocked the closest shinigami down to their feet and caused other to guard their eyes from the shock. Sumanai merely took a stance, his right leg supporting his weight, his body crouched, and his zanpakutou reared back so that it may strike like lightning.

After the attack, the phoenix pulled back slowly. It was sluggish, Sumanai realized. And then it was gone, leaving only the halberd in its wake.

When the last stream of flame faded off into the ether, Sumanai struck. He thrust forward with his zanpakutou and allowed the single leaf it had birthed to spring into motion. It struck faster than any lightning, slipping past the stockings, past the Royal Guard, and past the captains.

Sumanai did not wait to see what happened next. In the blink of an eye his sword was sheathed, his spiritual power gone, and his body out of sight. A few members of the crowd blinked once, wondering what they had just saw.

And then the Soukyouku exploded.

The captains gathered were lucky that their power was so high. The explosion was more intense visually then it was in actual impact. Of course, the hill itself was obliterated, turned into ash just as both the halberd and stockings were. The shockwave it released floored the majority of the crowd, swept over the Seireitei, and was powerful enough to continue on deep into the Rukongai. Out in the wastes, Sumanai wondered, it must have appeared as if a second sun had went supernova.

“It’s all about sending a message,” Sumanai mused. Without another look, he turned and entered into the darkness, never to be discovered.