Chapter 141: Hyōten Hyakkasō

"If it's a life-and-death struggle, the moment you feel complacent and think you've defeated the enemy, you will already be dead, do you know that?"

Mazuru said.

Toshiro didn't say a word, he immediately swung his sword and continued to attack Mazuru.

It has to be said that Hyōrinmaru is really an extremely powerful Zanpakuto, worthy of the name of the strongest of ice and snow system. After performing shikai, the weather gets changed by it, and become a very suitable space for Hyōrinmaru to be used. The attacks after performing bankai are all long-ranged and AOE-type attacks.

Unfortunately, Toshiro is too young and has too little combat experience.

Many of his attack patterns are too obvious. Even in the middle, the attacks such as the "Ryūsenka (Dragon Hail Cross)" which is used to catch the enemy by surprise, was too rough and gave away his thoughts of surprise attack.

Mazuru kept holding a crimson long sword while fighting against Toshiro using Zanjutsu.

Due to its own characteristics, Hyōrinmaru also has a strong freezing effect while slashing. The place where the tip of the sword touches gets frozen, and the ice will extend along the direction the tip of the sword points adding to its attack. Toshiro wanted to use this method to regain some ground from Mazuru.

It's a pity that Mazuru's fighting awareness is too sharp. Through Toshiro's swinging movement, he can judge the direction of his Zanpakuto's slash, and then swing his sword accordingly to fight back.

At the same time, Mazuru's speed is too fast.

It was almost too much for Toshiro to react.

In just a short moment, after unleashing bankai, Toshiro fell into a huge disadvantage. Although Mazuru also used his bankai, apart from creating this crimson barrier, Toshiro never saw Mazuru using any other means. 

Toshiro definitely doesn't believe that Mazuru's bankai is as simple as creating a barrier. He rather believe that Mazuru doesn't bother to use other powers of his bankai against him and the fact is that it is indeed true, Mazuru only used his Shunpo and slashing techniques to push him to this extent.

What's more, only the second petal of the ice flowers between the dragon's wings has withered now, while most of his reiatsu has already been consumed.

Many people think that the petals of the ice flowers is the duration of Toshiro's bankai, and when all twelve petals disappear, it is the time for his bankai to be undone. But only Toshiro himself knows, that's not the case.

When the twelve ice petals completely disappear, it is unleash the strongest form of his bankai.

But for him now, the speed of the ice petals disappearing is too slow, so slow that with his reiatsu, it is impossible to persist until all twelve petals disappear.

…

Another attack was calmly dodged by Mazuru.

Toshiro took a deep breath, raised his Zanpakuto to the sky, and shouted loudly, "Hyōten Hyakkasō (Frozen Heaven Hundred Flower Funeral)!"

In an instant, Hyōrinmaru's basic skill of controlling weather was activated by Toshiro, and the crimson sky suddenly changed, and the sky began to respond to Hyōrinmaru's call, and changed accordingly.

Mazuru did not deliberately suppress the changes in the weather, but let Toshiro do it.

(T.L Note: The power of changing the weather is named as Celestial phenomenon, should I keep it as that or just refer to it as changing the sky/weather)

In a short moment, the surrounding temperature dropped again.

At some point, the ice wings behind Toshiro had disappeared, and snowflakes were flying one after another, filling the space of the enchantment.

A snowflake like petal fell on Mazuru's shoulder.

Ice crystals were born and quickly spread. Almost instantly, his shoulders were frozen, and a beautiful ice flower bloomed. Immediately afterwards, more snowflakes fell on his body, completely freezing him.

"Not good!"

Seeing this scene, Toshiro who had collapsed changed his face. When the last of the 100 petals falls, the life of the one who touched it will be over. Toshiro must stop it before the last one falls on Mazuru's body.

But after performing the immature Hyōten Hyakkasō, his reiatsu was completely exhausted, and he could no longer maintain his bankai state, and it reverted back to its unreleased form.

Toshiro yelled desperately in his heart that he must stand up and do something but he really had no strength left, he could only watch helplessly as the ice flowers blossomed and the hundredth petal fell on Mazuru's body, covering him completely.

"Sensei!!!!"

Toshiro shouted.

Mazuru's voice sounded from the side, "Stop shouting, I'm not dead yet."

Toshiro turned his head suddenly, only to see Mazuru's body slowly appearing.

"This move is not bad, but unfortunately, it consumes too much of your reiatsu. After using this move, if you fail to defeat the enemy with it, all you can do is wait for death after you have completely exhausted your reiatsu."

He spoke slowly, commenting on Toshiro's bankai, "Generally speaking, Hyōrinmaru deserves the title of the strongest Zanpakuto in the ice and snow department. From shikai to bankai, they are all powerful techniques that can even change the sky. The potential of it is not inferior to the Ryūjin Jakka in the hands of the head-captain."

"But your grasp is too rough."

"What's more, your reiatsu is still far from enough to support the consumption of your Zanpakuto."

"Using multiple large-scale attack means that the reiatsu consumed by each blow will be huge. Obviously, in many cases, the enemy can be defeated without a large-scale attack, but you don't take this into consideration at all. After the use of Hyōten Hyakkasō, your reiatsu is not even enough to maintain the bankai state."

"I kind of understand why you said your bankai is not stable yet."

"Of course, judging from your speed of mastering bankai, it's not too slow, but I don't know if you can rank among the top ten of the Soul Society."

Toshiro is indeed a genius. At a young age, after graduating, he quickly became the 3rd seat of the Tenth Division and not long after that, he learned bankai. Even if it is unstable, it is still bankai.

Toshiro was a little complacent at first, but after he was easily defeated by his teacher, he was only full of frustration in his heart, he once again realized his own shortcomings.

To become a captain, it is not enough if he just achieves bankai, in other abilities, he falls short to be a captain of Gotei 13.

He made up his mind that he must work even harder.

Toshiro thought of Mazuru's last sentence again, and looked at Mazuru with some curiosity, "Sensei, you said that my speed of achieving bankai is not enough to rank among the top ten in Soul Society?"

It didn't take long for him to unlock his bankai though not mastered it perfectly, but still, isn't this speed fast enough?

In other words, are there still many people in the Soul Society who have achieved their bankai faster than him?

Mazuru saw Toshiro's doubts, and said with a smile: "Since you are so curious, I will tell you."

*****

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