Chapter 27: New Levels
--- 5 Years Later ---
Yami stood in the middle of the Onmitsukio's dungeon alone. He was about to do something very dangerous but it was time. As the number 4 of the 2nd Division and one of the Corps Commanders, he knew it was time for him to unlock his bankai.
Yami held his blade out before him before closing his eyes and focusing. After a few minutes, Izanami emerged from across from him holding the exact same blade as him. The woman still had the same playful smile on her face as she did all the other times he had seen her. But he knew that this time would be different. This time, she would be going after his life.
"Wow. I know you said you wanted to achieve the next stage but I didn't think that you would be foolish enough to summon me before you were ready," Izanami teased Yami while playfully swinging the sword in her hands
Yami did not respond but held his sword horizontally in his right hand. He was prepared to start the battle on the defensive. Izanami knew all of his strengths and weaknesses as well as had the same zanpakuto. If he was not careful, the spirit might accidentally kill him.
Izanami saw that Yami wasn't responding so she pouted her plump lips before her usual smile returned.
"You sure you wanna fight, Yami? We could do so much more instead with me out here now," Izanami teased by pushing up her breasts with one of her arms.
"Enough, Izanami. Let's just..." but before he could finish, Izanami had already appeared before him, slashing down with her blade. Yami was able to block it but the force behind the blow made cracks appear in the ground beneath him.
Yami was about to push her back when she swung her foot at him. He backed away and her bare foot barely managed to scratch him but Yami suddenly remembered one of Yoruichi's training sessions before feeling a bruise on his lower back.
He let out a deep breath feeling the pain from the old wound coming back.
'Damn. She really didn't hold back that time. And apparently, Izanami can use Scar Dead with her bare body, not just the sword. This battle just got even more dangerous.'
Izanami stood across from Yami with her foot in the air, revealing her legs. She pulled her foot to her face and licked off the small amount of blood that she drew with her nail. Her face was ecstatic after she tasted it.
"Hmm. Your blood is so sweet. Let me taste it some more, Partner."
Izanami disappeared once more but this time, Yami was prepared. When she swung her sword at he clashed with it once again, this time, covered with his special reiatsu. With this, he was able to match the spirit's strength.
"This is your new technique, huh? Now I can see why other people praise it so much. If only I could use it," Izanami complained to herself before coating her entire body in blue reiatsu with a black outline to it. "Oh, wait. I can."
Izanami disappeared once again with Yami also deciding to move. The position that he was just in was replaced by a crater with a beautiful woman in the center of it.
"Hashi!"
Yami slashed with his blade from a distance. Izanami tried to raise her blade in defense but a significant slash appeared on her body, spurting out a large amount of blood.
"How is th..."
But Izanami also slashed her sword from a distance before Yami's left arm was severed. He also gained the memory of when he battled Cang Du and was cut several times before claw marks appeared on his arm.
"Shit!"
'If she can use Hashi, that means the only way I can beat her is up close and personal.'
Yami began to advance towards the zanpakuto spirit. At first, he thought that Izanami couldn't use Juryoku and that would be his advantage. But not only could she use it but she could also activate his own Jujutsushiki with it. That meant that he was at even more of a disadvantage fighting at a distance rather than battling her up close.
Just as Yami neared her, Izanami stabbed her sword into the ground. A large dome of green energy covered nearly the entire room. Yami began to panic and slashed out several times with Hashi.
He was able to cut off one of her hands and her ears as she was using Juryoku to divert his attacks and prevent a severe injury.
"Tsumi no Ki!"
Green reiatsu surrounded Yami's blade before he slashed it. A large dragon head made of reiatsu took shape and launched itself at Izanami. It didn't even take a moment to reach Izanami from the close proximity that they were in and consumed her in its mouth. But when the energy dispersed, Izanami was still standing strong, even though her clothes were torn and she had burns all over her body.
"Tsumi no Kobayashi," Izanami whispered
The entire dome that was created was suddenly filled with green reiatsu. Both Yami and Izanami were caught up in the attack and were blinded, neither knowing how the other had fared.
Both of these techniques were advanced forms of his original technique, Tsumi no Eda/Branch of Sin. Tsumi no Ki or Tree of Sin was a more powerful attack that had at least 3 times the power of the previous one. Tsumi no Kobayashi or Forest of Sin was the most devastating attack. It would create a dome that would damage everything caught within it, even Yami himself as he used it. But it was a great technique to take out a large number of powerful opponents by using himself as a sacrifice, abiding by the ways of the Onmitsukido.
When the light disappeared, Izanami was kneeling as her entire body was burnt. Her beautiful kimono was no more and her facial features were almost unrecognizable. A blade was at her neck that resembled the one in her hand.
"Good job, Partner. It's your victory," Izanami said trying to control her breathing. Her entire body was in agonizing pain.
Yami stood over her with his single arm. The last attack that Izanami unleashed would have truly killed him if not for him creating a barrier at the last moment. But even with the barrier, he was still at death's door. If Izanami didn't surrender, he may have truly lost.
With the admission of her loss, both Yami and Izanami were suddenly filled with a massive amount of reiatsu and both underwent some changes.
Yami looked at Izanami and then at his own body in admiration and confusion.
"So this is my Bankai, Shinigami no Izanami."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone