Chapter 356: BSUS - 359: Playing the Villain, Just Tone It Down a Bit

Blood spilling across the floor? Or did Riruka turn herself into a lifeless plushie?

In fact, aside from the somewhat startling gunshot, nothing terrifying happened. Hiroe’s realistic vocal sound effect was just a boring joke played by a mischievous brat.

"Looks like this gun is quite shy around strangers. My Reiryoku didn’t have any effect at all."

Hiroe let go in disappointment. A white light flashed in his palm as he waved it in front of Riruka, causing her eyes to roll back as she fainted on the ground. Compared to his ruthless methods against Yukio and the others, Hiroe seemed like a completely different person.

This was to be expected. Whether from his past life’s memories or her current display, he was extremely satisfied with Riruka’s performance.

A lack of strength could be remedied through training, but a twisted heart was much more troublesome to correct. As for the remaining two, he could only feel a sense of helplessness.

"You can’t even withstand a single strike. With your level of strength, you won’t even get to witness our truly exquisite techniques. Did Ginjō Kūgo never tell you these things?"

As Hiroe spoke, he shifted his gaze to the thoughtful Tsukishima off to the side. "What about you? Do you understand exactly what kind of enemy you’re facing?"

Tsukishima didn’t answer immediately, seemingly deep in thought. After realizing the Shinigami was speaking to him, he smiled and replied, "You might have misunderstood something. Your methods are indeed eye-opening, but they aren’t enough to make me tremble in fear. I’m just a little curious."

"Oh?"

"Kidō, Shunpo, Hakuda... aside from these three, isn’t there also Zanjutsu? The Zanjutsu you Shinigami are most proud of." Tsukishima pointed his katana at Hiroe. "You wouldn’t mind satisfying my little curiosity, would you? Please enlighten me."

*What a young man with a strong curiosity. Yeah, right!*

Hiroe narrowed his eyes. This was putting his feet to the fire. His previous ruthless actions against Yukio and the others were nothing more than flexing his muscles. He had thoughts of sowing discord, but it wasn’t his main goal.

The small organization before him was inherently loose. Hatred, profit, or perhaps loneliness had brought these members together; they were never truly united to begin with.

But this didn’t include Tsukishima. It might not show on the surface, but Hiroe knew this man was loyal to Ginjō to the extreme. Making him disappointed in Ginjō would not be an easy task.

Yet, this man was an important part of his upcoming plan. If there was no way to make Tsukishima trust him, it would be better to change his approach: let them keep their hatred for Shinigami, but force them to obediently stand on his side anyway.

This sounded a bit contradictory, but there was a precedent for its successful implementation. Wasn’t the relationship between Aizen and Ichimaru Gin somewhat similar?

Someone so powerful they induce despair, yet so arrogant they believe they can control everything—a "smart" person would easily think of standing behind them to look for an opportunity to strike, right?

To achieve this, there were two prerequisites. First was strength. Second, Hiroe absolutely could not act like a particularly righteous Shinigami; he had to be a bit more scheming.

Was this a problem? This was no problem at all.

In terms of strength, if he had to rely on endless scheming just to deal with this group of little guys, how could he expect to face off against Aizen? How could he expect to launch a preemptive all-out attack on the Quincy? He might as well find a rope and get it over with.

As for his conduct, Hiroe felt his acting skills were perfectly capable of handling this role. Yoruichi and Urahara had simply told him to tone it down a bit, since few people would believe he was a good guy anyway...

All of this proved that Hiroe could become the Aizen to Ginjō and the others, even though he was currently facing the biggest crisis of his acting career.

Others might not know Tsukishima’s ability, but he did.

The man’s ability was called Book of the End. Through the katana in his hand, he could insert his own existence into the past of a person or object and alter it.

For example, if Tsukishima slashed the ground in front of him with his katana and inserted a past where he had been there and set a trap, the trap he had set back then would appear out of thin air in front of him.

If it were a person, he might become your relative, a mentor who taught you your skills, a good friend with an unbreakable bond, and so on. Faced with a sudden attack from such a person, how many could survive unscathed?

It was a very troublesome ability, but definitely not invincible. The solution was simple. Tsukishima’s ability was activated through the katana in his hand. As long as one wasn’t cut by it—or rather, if one killed him before being cut—it would be fine.

However, Tsukishima was very smart. Asking for guidance in Zanjutsu—how could one cross swords without letting that katana touch them? It should be known that Tsukishima’s ability didn’t just work on people. In the manga from his previous life, Byakuya’s Senbonzakura had been slashed by him, leading to the discovery of the weakness of Senbonzakura’s safe zone.

But the question was, what would Aizen say if he were here? He didn’t even need to think about it...

"Still not giving up on playing your little tricks?" Hiroe replied, feigning disdain as his right hand quietly gripped the hilt of his sword. "I’ll let you experience firsthand just how massive the gap between us is."

"Make your move."

"Then I won’t hold back!"

Tsukishima didn’t hesitate. With a flick of his wrist, the katana thrust right in front of Hiroe in the blink of an eye.

"The Zanpakutō is a Shinigami’s closest friend. Simply put, Zanjutsu is the method of using a Zanpakutō."

Hiroe merely tilted his head, dodging Tsukishima’s fierce thrust. "It encompasses not just the development of its abilities, but also swordsmanship!"

The Zanpakutō at his waist flashed like lightning. Just unsheathing it carried the momentum to split mountains and part waves—a drawing slash!

*Clang!* A greatsword with a hilt longer than its crossguard, resembling a crucifix, suddenly swung over, intercepting right between Hiroe and Tsukishima.

Ginjō wasn’t having an easy time either. Compared to his greatsword, Hiroe’s blade looked like a toothpick, but the power contained within it was unimaginable.

His face flushed red as he failed to halt the sword’s momentum in time. In contrast, Hiroe’s effortless demeanor made it obvious he hadn’t applied more force, and might have even pulled his punch at the last second.

Tsukishima originally wouldn’t have been able to dodge that strike. Because of Ginjō’s intervention, he spun around, dodging the backward-flying greatsword while simultaneously arriving behind Hiroe, raising his sword high with both hands and slashing down!

It was an extremely tricky position. Although Hiroe had a free hand, the only blade he could use in an instant was the short sword Kōki. Attacking Tsukishima to his rear right in time was almost impossible.

Tsukishima must have noticed this as well, which was why he chose such a position.

But Hiroe didn’t draw his sword again at all. With a fierce wave of his left sleeve, three pitch-black hidden sleeve darts flew out from his cuff, shooting rapidly toward Tsukishima, who was holding his katana high.

The smile on Tsukishima’s face instantly froze. He leaned back, and the three hidden darts brushed right past his forehead. But before he could rejoice, the faint sound of something piercing the air rang out again.

He did several more backflips to dodge the incoming darts. As he half-squatted on the ground, breathing heavily, he looked at the smooth, tiny holes on the ground with lingering fear.

If even one of those had hit him, it would have left a bloody hole.

And this Shinigami not far away was truly...

Despicable...