Chapter 35 - Black and White (1/2)
A figure could be seen in the shadows, watching intently at the fight. He was a tall and thin man with silver hair. His eyes were narrowed into slits and he had a wide mocking smile on his face. This was the Captain of the Third Division, Ichimaru Gin.
'Impressive, Lieutenant Uchiha. You're able to hold off that hollow with only twenty percent of your power available to you.. Not bad... but if you want to beat that thing, you are going to need to undo the spirit seal.' Ichimaru thought as he continued watching the fight.
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”Gentei Kaijo!” Itachi says a small black insignia of the thirteenth division appears on his ċhėst. It suddenly turns bright, releasing all of Itachi's reiatsu at once. Just as Itachi is enveloped by the cero, a red spectral ribcage forms around Itachi, protecting him from the cero blast.
A huge dust cloud is formed covering the two figures, once the dust cleared, Itachi could be seen standing in the center of the rib cage without any damage on him. His eyes were no longer the normal sharingan and there were three spiral curves around the pupil. The rib cage however had some slight cracks appear on its surface.
'Mangekyo Sharingan. Even with the seal released, this is a huge drain on my reiatsu. Something is different. Originally when I used Susanoo, not just my eyes, but my whole body was in pain. But now, it feels no different than if I were to use kido.' Itachi was surprised at this development. He knew he had access to his Mangekyo Sharingan, but there was never a need for him to use it. He also thought his eyesight would once again deteriorate if he used it, so he avoided using this power. However, during the fight, It was too much of a gamble for him to take the cero head on.
'I should carefully analyze it later, for now I should focus on the enemy. Instant regeneration is troubling. I'll end this fast.' Itachi thought.
The hollow charges back in at Itachi and with its arms, cuts at the susanoo ribcage. Its arms bounce off it but it keeps trying to slash at Itachi. Suddenly, a large skeletal arm manifests at the side of the rib cage and punches the hollow. A large cracking sound is heard as the hollow's bones are crushed by the force of the blow. Blood erupts from its body and it gets sent flying down the street. The hollow lay on the ground and its body starts to wriggle as its wounds heal at a rapid rate.
The hollow suddenly roared as it jumped back up and disappeared, before appearing next to Itachi, slicing horizontally at Itachi's figure. However, before the blade reached his body, it was stopped by the Susanoo's ribcage. From inside the Susanoo, Itachi raises his arm and points his finger at the hollow. His finger begins to glow with a yellow light.
”Bakudo 4: Hainawa.” A rope of light shoots from Itachi's fingertip and wraps around the hollow.
”Bakudo 61: Rikujokoro.” The rope of light that was tightly wrapped around the hollow transforms into a sturdy six segments of light that trapped it in place, unable to move a single muscle. 'Now, burn away.' Itachi thought before closing his left eye. He looked at the immobilized hollow as he gathered a large amount of reiatsu into his right eye.
”Amaterasu!” Itachi says as the hollow is suddenly struck with black flames that continuously grow as they burn the hollow.
The hollow writhed in rage as it mustered all of its strength to break through the kido binding to escape as it was continuously burned by amaterasu. Even as its body tried to repair itself, the flames were burning it away faster than it could heal itself. Within moments, the hollow's screaming died down as its body was turned into ashes, with even the ashes being burned away into nothing.
'What an interesting ability...his zanpakuto broke earlier in the fight after taking a strong hit. Perhaps he can use his shikai without his zanpakuto being in a stable, physical form.' Gin thought as he watched the fight.
He was surprised to see the sudden rib cage form around Itachi. However, he simply believed it to be Itachi's zanpakuto ability. All zanpakuto abilities were different. 'A shield based zanpakuto. It's quite sturdy to be able to block a cero at point blank with only a few cracks here and there. But he used that ability without even a release command.' Gin smirks as he continues to watch Itachi. 'So he learned bankai did he?'
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After putting out Amaterasu's flames to keep them from spreading anywhere else, Itachi deactivated his Mangekyou Sharingan, reverting them back to their regular three tomoe form. Shortly after, he falls to one knee panting heavily.
'My eyes may be fine, but the reiatsu drain my Mangekyo uses was larger than I expected' Itachi thought to himself. He looked slightly to distance. He only looked for an instant, but he noticed a familiar spiritual pressure. Although the person had hid it completely, there was no it would escape his eyes. He looked back, pretending to have not noticed. He looked around before finding his broken zanpakuto at the side of the street and put it back in its sheath before leaving the area.
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Gin stared at the pile of ashes as Itachi caught his breath. There was no longer any sign of the hollow, and the area was completely silent. Gin watched as Itachi left, but he didn't give chase. He was only there to observe the fight and report it back to Aizen. 'I guess I'll tell Captain Aizen it was a failed experiment. It did lose to a lieutenant after all. He destroyed it so quickly after breaking the seal. Interesting...' Gin thought to himself as he grinned.
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”Ah, Gin you've returned. Shiba Isshin was able to deal with White. How did Black fare against Uchiha Itachi?” Aizen asked as Gin returned back to their hideout.
”It was a failure. Uchiha completely destroyed it, even with the augmented instant regeneration you put on that one in place of the self destruct. Once he released his seal, the hollow stood no chance.” Gin replied. ”However, it appears he has access to his shikai now. Some strange bone structure that surrounds him. I suspect he already has his Bankai.”
”Not bad, anything else?” Aizen continued.
Gin thought for an instant about the black flames that had appeared on the hollow.
”Nope. Nothing.” He replied with his same wide smile.
”Uchiha Itachi has grown a lot. As expected. I look forward to his future growth. There are more things I want to test.” Aizen said as he walked out of the hideout.
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Itachi returned to the Thirteenth Division Barracks and explained to Captain Ukitake what happened. Captain Ukitake relayed the events to the other captains for further investigation while Itachi resumed his regular lieutenant duties for the next week. During this week, Ukitake's health had stabilized and he was able to help Itachi in kido training.
One evening, after sitting in the office all day doing paperwork, Itachi decided to go out into Seireitei for a break and left the two third seats to finish the last bit of paperwork he had left.
Itachi flash stepped and quickly arrived at his favorite dango shop but is slightly saddened when he sees it was closed temporarily for renovations. He looked around for another place and an amanatto shop caught his attention and he walked into the store.