I didn't.

Chapter Twenty Six. (Edited by CDoggo: Howdy folks! All I have to say today is that Bleach Brave Souls is pain, and I hope you enjoy the chapter!)

''Bankai!'' The wolf-man growled, shouting at the top of his lungs the release command for his ultimate sword release. The effects from said release were immediate, all the area around him cracking into pieces while a reddish spiritual energy covered him.

The already broken ground trembled, a single shadow covering not only Kuromiya, but his lieutenant, the buildings around them and from their current position, it even covered their view of the sun.

''... Well, damn.'' Kuromiya whistled while looking upwards, the tremor from the ground making him jump backwards just in time to dodge a massive foot that was about to crush him like an ant. ''That sure is an impressive Bankai, captain-san.''

Where once there had been nothing but broken buildings, the form of a giant demonic-like samurai towered over all the structures in their surroundings, standing at a mind-blowing size of more than a hundred meters tall.

Wearing a complete set of samurai armor, a helmet, and a pair of horns that were the size of a few buildings, the bankai made for quite an intimidating sight, and the spiritual pressure emanating from it was no joke either.

''Kokujō Tengen Myō'ō!'' Komamura finished, making the name of his bankai known to all of the observers, who now were quickly rising in numbers as the low level soul reapers all around them were attracted to the fight.

''Stand behind me, Iba.'' The captain of squad seventh talked to his lieutenant, who had managed to stand up at last. The wolf-man didn't wait for his subordinate to answer, raising his sword while the giant mimicked his own movements. ''I will take care of the rest.''

''You will try.'' The teenager corrected, his sly smirk still present on his face despite facing a beast that had a sword the size of a skyscraper. He had been counting the seconds that had transpired since 'Bookmark' was activated, and he had still twenty one seconds left.

Once again, Komamura decided to take the initiative and launch a sword slash, the wind whistling as the sword descended upon the still unmoving teenager.

'It's deceptively fast.' Kuromiya thought while the samurai's sword was no more than a few meters away from slicing him into oblivion, and yet he just looked at it with an entertained smile. 'But… It's a speed I can match.'

Just when the zanpakuto was about to butcher him, he vanished from the spot while leaving a trail of green light behind, jumping up onto the air and walking on it like he was climbing an actual invisible staircase.

'It was not a wise choice to release his Bankai.' The pale boy smirked at his inner realization, watching as the colossal sword sliced the ground where he had just been standing a millisecond ago, the attack obliterating everything in its path. 'It might have worked if i was limited to running on the ground, but…'

The reason why most soul reapers couldn't fly inside the seireitei but could do it in the human world was simple. The invisible barrier that they themselves had created, the shakonmaku, made it so no spiritual pressure could be gathered under their feets, making them unable to maneuver in the air.

Bringer Light on the other hand, had little but nothing to do with spirit particles, it just manipulated the properties of the souls around him, allowing the user to accomplish feats such as walking on thin air.

'Which means the sky is my territory.' He concluded inside his mind, while preparing himself to test out the limits of a bankai. Taking a last strong step on the air, he launched himself straight at the samurai's armored head, thrusting with his zanpakuto at the demon-like beast's forehead.

Kuromiya's sword buried itself into the armor of the giant, and to his surprise he found out soon enough that it was fairly hard to pierce it.

''Damn it, what is this made of!?'' The teenager cursed under his breath, his left hand was useless after tanking Komamura's attack, so he had to use all his strength in the only functional hand he had left.

The sound of the wind whistling forced him to turn his glance towards it, right in time to dodge the samurai's blade with just a few centimeters of margin.

He frowned, a few more seconds and his blade would have been able to pierce deep into the flesh of the creature. Though his frown lessened when his gaze noticed a few drops of blood in the edge of his sword, meaning that he had been able to wound the beast.

The sword swing from the giant went right past him, but the creature itself didn't stop and moved his head towards him in an attempt to impale him with its horns.

'Aizen made it look so easy.' Kuromiya complained inside his mind with a pout, not even bothering to address the pair of horns that approached him. That 'thing' wouldn't be able to reach him in the sky, no matter how much it tried.

Without much effort, he jumped to the side just in time to dodge the beast's head, and looked down upon Komamura, who was bleeding from the same spot in his head at which he had managed to stab the beast.

'The damage is reflected, then.' The black haired boy smirked at that, confirming that his information about the man's weaknesses was accurate. This was the glaring weakness of Komamura's Bankai, all damage inflicted upon the creature would be reflected upon the user.

More than a hundred meters down on the ground, both Komamura and his lieutenant had a hard time believing what their eyes showed them.

''He can even fly in the air even with the shakonmaku?'' Iba muttered right next to his captain, disbelief written all over his face. ''How is that possible!?''

'This is a troublesome opponent.' Komamura frowned, watching as the intruder just appeared and reappeared all around the air, leaving after images all around him as he kept dodging his Bankai. 'Besides…'

The wolf-man turned his gaze to the side, noticing that more and more low level soul reapers had gathered around the scene, making him unable to go all out without hurting some of them on some level.

''You all, stand b…'' Just when the captain tried to warn the spectators to stand back, a slash appeared on his chest, meaning that the giant had been pierced at the same spot. Komamura growled at that, losing his patience and forcing him to make a decision.

Up in the air, Kuromiya was in the middle of launching what he considered to be a decisive blow, attempting to thrust with his zanpakuto right at the point where the giant's right 'lung' should be. There was some risk in it, since the giant was already slicing with his sword towards him, but the boy was confident he could make it with the right timing.

Just when he was about to land the hit and while the blade was no more than a few meters from reaching him, something unexpected happened. The samurai released his hold on the handle of the zanpakuto, and clenched its hand into a fist, now moving much faster than before.

'Holy…' The massive fist was already on top of him, and with just an instant left before it made contact, he uttered a single word.

''Inventory.''

Then it happened, the massive fist made contact smashing a blurry figure straight against the ground, creating a huge shockwave in the air from the power that was imbed onto that single punch.

. . .

''You did it, Captain!'' Iba was the first one to speak, knowing well that the fight was done without the need to even wait for the cloud of dust and debris to disperse. He knew better than anyone just how much strength packed a single strike from that giant, a direct strike would mean instant death to anyone, no matter who it was.

''That's the captain of squad seven, after all!'' One of the nearby soul reapers screamed, making the rest of them follow with their own whispers now and cheers towards the wolf-man, not even one of them seeming to care about his appearance.

''...'' Yet despite the cheers around him, Komamura was the only one that hadn't talked, watching the dust of the cloud with an unreadable expression on his face.

'There's something wrong.' Komamura thought, his animalistic scenes telling him that the fight was far from over. The captain could feel whatever his Bankai felt, and he had indeed managed to feel his fist making contact, but to him it didn't feel like flesh. 'It feels like…'

The sudden realization came on the man in an instant, and so he made his giant mimic his movements and waved towards the direction of the cloud of dirt, generating a gust of wind that cleared his view towards it.

''I thought so.'' Komamura growled, his frown deepening as the figure of his opponent was revealed inside the smoke, a weird looking barrier surrounding him. ''That's what i felt, then.''

''Correct!'' Kuromiya complimented, the barrier starting to shatter all around the sphere, further proof of the actual strength the last attack packed. In his hand, he was holding a perfect transparent crystal ball, to which he was pouring every last bit of his spiritual pressure. ''This is a little gift i got from a cutie back in West Rukongai.''

'Twenty five.' He counted inside his head, five seconds left of Bookmark would mean that he still had some time to waste.

''Funny thing about this, I poured a ton of my spiritual pressure into it…'' Kuromiya trailed off, knowing full well that the fight was as good as over. ''Now then, what do you suppose will happen once it shatters?''

The sphere started breaking into pieces, and a ton of saved up spiritual energy started going wild all around the place, making the wolf-man widen his eyes in panic.

With just a split second to decide on what to do, the man's Bankai threw itself against the ground, covering the weird sphere in an embrace.

. . .

The feeling of an earthquake breaking the ground made three heads turn towards the same direction at once, cutting their conversation short.

These three people were no other Kenpachi, Yoruichi and Ichigo, all of them had yet to perform even a single movement against the other. It had been no more than thirty seconds since both of them had met Zaraki, which meant that somehow Komamura and Kuromiya's fight had ended in that short amount of time.

''What the hell… I told you two that we needed to make this quick, all that babbling around and it looks like their fight is over already!'' Zaraki complained, he had been expecting to have a chance to fight the two people in front of him before Komamura's fight ended, but it appeared it was already too late for that.

''...'' Yoruichi didn't utter a single word, all of her senses searching for a certain 'something' that she wasn't able to feel right now. Much to her disbelief, no matter how hard she tried to look at it, she was unable to feel even a trace of it.

''No way.'' Ichigo muttered with disbelief written all over his face, having much the same problem as the woman next to him. ''Kuromiya's spiritual pressure… Is gone?''

. . .

The whole area that had once been their battlefield was almost completely gone, leaving nothing but an immense crater and a giant samurai crouching in the ground, as if attempting to shield the soul reapers present from something.

Komamura's bankai armor was shattered all around the place, but what was perhaps even more miserable was the actual captain's appearance, who had tanked the full blow in order to save the weaker soul reapers along with his lieutenant from that last attack.

The wolf-man was blacked and charred all over his body, and all the armor from his neck to waist had been completely annihilated. His body looked like bread that had been forgotten in the oven.

The captain was only bloody on his arms and legs, because all of the wounds on his chest got seared shut by the heat from the blast. He was laying on the ground, only a thread of life remained in his body, drifting in and out of consciousness.

''Captain Komamura!!!'' The scream of Tetsuzaemon Iba was the first thing to break the unbearable silence after the explosion, the man running towards the miserable form of his defeated captain.

''Captain…'' Iba screamed back at the nearby soul reapers, each of them watching in silent astonishment. ''Is someone from squad four here!?''

''Y-yes, sir!'' The form of a delicate female soul reaper responded to the call of the lieutenant, running steadily towards the fallen captain and the worried lieutenant. Once the woman reached them, she knelt next to them and gasped in shock. ''These… These wounds are horrible!''

''... Damn it, that kid.'' While the woman started her treatment of the fallen captain, Iba cursed under his breath, looking back at the barely recognizable figure of the kid who had essentially committed suicide.

Kuromiya's body was in tatters, his limbs were disconnected from his body, and pieces of mangled flesh lay scattered in the area. He had no skin left, after all the blast burnt it all off. The crater his destroyed body lay in was smoking extremely from the amount of heat output by the blast.

Thirty seconds.

It happened, the timer was up and the corpse of Kuromiya that had once been part of a gruesome scene just disappeared out of thin air, leaving nothing behind him.

''W-w-what the hell!?'' Before anyone could react, the scream of one of the soul reapers made them all look towards said direction, making all of their mouths agape at what their vision showed them.

''I must say… '' The voice of the person was easily recognizable, a soft and mocking tone reaching their ears, accompanied by slow steps. ''The first death was enough for me… I really didn't want another one.''

Despite the fact he had been dead just an instant ago, he was now in perfect condition with the notable exception of his still broken left arm which was hanging from the side, plus a few cuts adorning his face.

''That's… That's not possible!'' One of the closest people to him fell on his own ass, panic taking over his actions as he tried to crawl away from the monstrous kid that had just managed to defeat a captain. ''You couldn't have survived!''

''I didn't.''

End of chapter twenty six.