Fantasy Library.

Chapter 234 "Hyōrinmaru"

"Rumble..."

The sky seemed to be suddenly hit by a storm. Layer upon layer of dark clouds floated in from nowhere, and it became dark and oppressive.

At this moment, the temperature between heaven and earth seemed to drop, and a chill spread.

Aize stood under the dark sky, at the border of Soul Society, looking at Hitsugaya Toshiro across from him with a half-smile, while tightly gripping the Zanpakutō that appeared out of thin air in his hand.

That was not the Zanpakutō that Aize had always worn around his waist, but a brand new Zanpakutō.

It is not as gorgeous as the Zanpakuto on Aize's waist, nor does it exude any noble aura. It is shaped like a tachi, with a light purple handle and a cross-shaped blade guard. An iron chain with a half-moon shape gradually grows behind the handle, swaying in the chilly air.

For Hitsugaya Toushirou, that Zanpakuto was something he was familiar with to the core.

There was no way he didn't recognize that Zanpakutō.

Even if he mistakenly recognized all the Zanpakutō in the world, he would never mistake that Zanpakutō.

Because, the exact same thing was now in his hand.

"Hyōrinmaru..."

Hitsugaya Toshiro couldn't believe his eyes, his face was filled with astonishment and shock.

"Captain Ai, you..."

Hitsugaya Toshiro looked at Aize in shock, looking extremely confused.

Aize didn't even give the slightest explanation, but just spoke lightly in response to Hitsugaya Toushirou's shocked eyes.

"You asked me what I wanted to do by bringing you here, right?"

"Actually, what I want to do is very simple. I want to tell you how to use Hyorinmaru's Zanpakuto in the most direct way."

"If we are here, even if the Technology Development Bureau can detect the spiritual pressure, they won't be able to accurately lock on to all the details and know what we are doing."

"So, we can fight here without worrying about being disturbed."

As he spoke, Aize slowly raised the knife in his hand.

"Kacha kacha kacha..."

In an instant, the ground began to freeze with Aize's foothold as the center.

The ice spread rapidly on the ground, expanding in all directions and freezing everything in its path.

Be it rocks, trees, or even the moisture in the atmosphere, all froze, turning the scene into a world of ice and snow.

"call--"

There was also a cold snow wind blowing from the sky, causing the already dropping temperature to drop further, and heavy snow began to fall from the dark sky.

"Watch this, Hitsugaya."

Aize's voice was mixed with the ice and snow and reached Hitsugaya Toshiro's ears.

"This is the true power of Hyorinmaru."

As soon as he finished speaking, a circle of icy mist burst out from the tip of the Zanpakuto that Aize raised.

“Crack, click, click, click—!”

The ice layer on the ground, which was gradually freezing, suddenly thickened at a speed visible to the naked eye, as if the entire earth had turned into an ice field. Ice pillars rose up, blocks of ice and rocks took shape, and even icebergs rose up. The scene was extremely spectacular.

At this moment, everything standing on the ground was frozen into ice, including Hitsugaya Toshiro.

His feet began to freeze at a speed visible to the naked eye, finally waking up Hitsugaya Toshiro.

The astonishing coldness invaded his body, causing ice to form on Hitsugaya Toshiro's eyebrows, hair, and even mouth and nose.

Almost instinctively, Hitsugaya Toshiro realized that if he continued like this, he would freeze to death.

Yes, frozen to death.

Before my entire body turns into ice, I will surely be frozen to death first.

As the holder of the strongest ice and snow Zanpakuto, Hitsugaya Toshiro has never known what cold is, but now he is almost frozen to death. This is a very funny thing.

"Swastika! Solution!"

Following the shock and fear in his heart, Hitsugaya Toushirou loudly released his strongest power.

"Daigurren Hyōrinmaru!"

Astonishing spiritual pressure accompanied by cold air exploded from his body, blowing away all the ice and frost on Hitsugaya Toshiro's body.

An ice dragon formed on Hitsugaya Toshiro's body, with its wings on its back. The hand holding the knife was also covered by the dragon's mouth, spreading all the way to the ice wings behind him. His feet also turned into ice claws, and three twelve-petal ice flowers formed above his ice wings, causing a dragon's tail to swing behind him.

Relying on the amazing spiritual pressure of Bankai, Hitsugaya Toshiro broke free from being frozen and flew into the air.

however……

"How dare you fly into the sky knowing that the Zanpakutō in my hand is Hyorinmaru."

Aize's voice came again, causing Hitsugaya Toushirou's eyes to shrink.

"You should know the most, right? The sky is the territory controlled by Hyorinmaru!"

The heavy snow falling from the sky instantly turned into a blizzard, sweeping across the world.

“Gua ...

Hitsugaya Toshiro, who had flown into the air, was immediately swept away by the blizzard, as if he was hit by some invisible shock wave, and flew backwards very fast and sharply.

"Kacha kacha kacha..."

The teeth-grinding sound of condensation was heard again, and Hitsugaya Toshiro's entire body, caught in the snowstorm, was once again covered in frost.

"How can it be……?!"

Hitsugaya Toushirou couldn't hide his shock and screamed.

"I am in the state of Bankai now!"

The Bankai of the strongest ice and snow Zanpakutō. When he is in this state, he is undoubtedly the person in the world who is least afraid of ice and snow.

But now, he was in the state of Bankai and was gradually frozen?
"No surprise there, is it?"

Aize's voice suddenly appeared behind Hitsugaya Toushirou.

"I've said it before, you can't even use Shikai properly, let alone Bankai. You haven't used its true power at all."

"In that case, facing a stronger freezing force, even Hyorinmaru's Bankai can't avoid being frozen, right?"

"Not to mention, the power of ice and snow that I am using on you now is also the strongest in the world."

Hearing these words, Hitsugaya Toshiro's pupils shrank again and again, and he subconsciously turned around and swung his sword.

Unfortunately, he was too slow.

"Ice Dragon Tail." Aze, who appeared behind Hitsugaya Toshiro at some point, swung the Ice Ring Pill in his hand violently, releasing a slash with a very wide range.

"boom!"

Suddenly, the entire area in the direction where Aize's knife passed was frozen.

With one slash, the ice spread out like a swinging dragon's tail, freezing a large area of ​​space including Hitsugaya Toshiro at an astonishing speed.

"Oh!"

After a while, the ice vortex area was broken, and Hitsugaya Toshiro, whose whole body was frostbitten, flew out, bleeding and gasping violently.

"You should be thankful that your Zanpakutō is also Hyorinmaru."

Aize watched this scene happen, neither trying to stop it nor taking advantage of the situation to launch an attack. He just stood in the blizzard and laughed.

"Otherwise, with your strength, you would definitely not be able to break free from the ice dragon's tail just now."

Faced with Aize's words, Hitsugaya Toshiro was unable to refute anything.

He knew better than anyone how powerful the ice dragon's tail was and how high its freezing power was. It was simply impossible for him to break free from it at his current stage.

The reason he was able to break free, just as Aize said, was because his Zanpakutō was also Hyorinmaru.

Thanks to this, he has a great resistance to ice and snow, and with his familiarity with Hyorinmaru, he can find the point of force that is most likely to escape the ice dragon's tail.

If not for this, he would never be able to get rid of the ice.

"…So, that Zanpakutō is really Hyorinmaru, not some knockoff?"

Hitsugaya Toushirou finally had to accept this fact.

"Whether it is a fake or not, you should know it better than anyone else." Aize chuckled and said, "After all, this is the power born from your soul. How could you not recognize the difference between the real thing and the fake?"

"Of course, that's not the point today, so it doesn't matter."

"The important thing is, what do you think after seeing my Hyorinmaru?"

What do you think?

Needless to say?
"The gap... is too big."

Hitsugaya Toushirou trembled all over.

Yes, the gap is really too big.

Let's not talk about anything else, just talk about the current situation. He is already in the state of using Bankai, while Aize is still only using the Shikai's Hyorinmaru. As a result, he is suppressing the Bankai in all aspects, and his strength is totally unreasonable.

Be it Hyourinmaru's most basic ice and snow abilities or his ability to control the weather, his Bankai is not as good as the opponent's Shikai. Nothing could be more outrageous than this.

He wanted to launch an attack, and wanted to attack Aize through ice and snow, but he found that he could not use any of Daiguren Hyorinmaru's moves.

Why is this so?
It's simple, because Hyorinmaru's ability is performed by freezing the moisture in the air.

If there is no water, Hyorinmaru's ability will be greatly reduced, and it may even be unusable like it is now. In serious cases, even Bankai may not be able to be activated.

This is the current situation of Toshiro Hitsugaya. He is completely unable to use the moisture in the atmosphere to launch attacks. He can only barely maintain the activation of his Bankai and prevent it from disappearing.

Aize's Hyorinmaru took away control of all the moisture in the atmosphere, and even took away control of the sky, making it impossible for Hitsugaya Toshiro to make any use of the moisture in the atmosphere.

As for the sky... he couldn't control it in the first place, let alone take control of it from Aize?

“Do you know why the gap is so big?”

As Aize spoke, he slowly walked towards the direction of Hitsugaya Toshiro. With every step he took, an ice flower would appear under his feet, making him feel like he was walking on ice and strolling among the floating ice flowers.

"There are two reasons."

"One is that you yourself are still immature and have not grown to the point where you can exert such power."

"One is that your own eagerness for quick success and instant benefits led to this result."

In Aize's opinion, although Hitsugaya Toshiro is a genius, because he is too talented, everything about him has grown too fast, to the point where his own abilities cannot keep up.

Before becoming a Shinigami, before entering the Maou Academy, when he was just an ordinary civilian child in Rukongai, Hitsugaya Toshiro had already begun to show his own special characteristics.

Even though he didn't have his Zanpakutō, he was able to see the materialized Hyorinmaru in his dreams. Hyorinmaru also asked Hitsugaya Toshiro to call his name even when he didn't have his Zanpakutō. Because his spiritual pressure was too strong, he didn't know how to control it and almost froze his grandmother to death.

In order not to hurt his grandmother, Hitsugaya Toshiro entered the Shinō Spiritual Academy under the introduction of Matsumoto Rangiku, received the Asauga, obtained his Zanpakutō, and quickly completed his Shikai, graduating in just one year.

Then, he began to learn Bankai of Zanpakutō, and with the support of his own powerful talent, he successfully achieved Bankai, the ultimate secret of Zanpakutō.

It all happened so fast that he hadn't even adapted to it yet.

"You can hear the sound of your Zanpakutō even before you have it, and you can display a portion of Hyorinmaru's power."

"As soon as you enter the Shinō Spiritual Arts Academy and receive the Shōdachi, you complete your Shikai and quickly graduate, and begin training in Bankai, making rapid progress."

"But do you think there's no harm in this?"

"Without your Zanpakutō, you were able to display some of your Zanpakutō's power, which caused you to lose control of your own Reiatsu and nearly killed your loved ones."

"And after you got your Zanpakutō, you didn't study the power of your Zanpakutō properly, but immediately turned to practice Bankai. As a result, you can't control the power of your Bankai at all, and you can't even use Shikai properly. How can you unleash the true power of Hyorinmaru?"

Aize gently waved the Ice Wheel Pill in his hand, and the dark clouds in the sky suddenly rolled up, making the blizzard blow even more violently.

"Generally speaking, people who can master Bankai must have been able to use Shikai with ease. But you are not like that. You have mastered Bankai before you have even mastered Shikai."

"This is not good. I haven't even mastered the basic abilities yet, so how can I master further powers?"

"To put it bluntly, you are not qualified to use Bankai at all right now."

As he spoke, Aize swung his sword again, turning all the moisture in the atmosphere into ice, which swept into the blizzard.

"boom!"

Along with the sound of shattering, the ice wings behind Hitsugaya Toshiro, the ice dragon in his hands, the ice claws under his feet, the ice tail connected to the ice wings, and the ice flowers floating above the ice wings were all shattered.

As the moisture in the atmosphere was further taken away, Hitsugaya Toshiro's Bankai could no longer be maintained.

"Start again from the beginning, idiot."

These were the last words Hitsugaya Toushirou heard.

Then, Hitsugaya Toshiro's consciousness was interrupted.

The silver-haired boy in the snowstorm was frozen into an ice sculpture and fell from mid-air.

“Would that be too much?”

Aize then slowly put away the knife and started talking to himself.

"Well... since he won't freeze to death, I'll just leave a deep impression on him."

As these words fell, the snowstorm dissipated and the sky began to clear.

But what happened on this day is destined to never be erased from Hitsugaya Toshiro's heart.

(End of this chapter)