Crossover Anime: Starting with Bankai from Demon Slayer

Chapter 148 Mirage

Yoh Asakura rubbed his swollen nose, staring blankly at everything in front of him.

He reached out again, but his fingertips indeed could not pass through.

Behind him, Amida Maru also appeared very anxious.

He transformed into a warrior and slashed at the barrier in front of him with his sword, but only stirred up a pale blue ripple.

Those ripples were not barriers formed by spiritual energy, but rather more like folds in space itself.

Yoruichi frowned deeply.

She tried to take another step, but her body glided smoothly to Asakura Yoh's side as if passing through ripples of water.

She then turned back without any hindrance.

"Why can Asuka and I come and go freely, but you two are locked up inside?"

Yoruichi grabbed Yoru's shoulder, trying to forcibly pull him out.

When she slammed the hand holding Ye against the barrier, a tremendous repulsive force erupted, directly knocking the instant god back several steps.

"This feeling..." Asuka, standing to the side, quietly watched this scene.

He looked down at his shihachi uniform, then at Yoh Asakura's bewildered expression.

The birds seemed to understand.

He once lived in another time and space for several years.

In order to return from there, he crossed a terrifying rift, almost losing all his power in the process.

The kind of repulsion caused by differences in time and space cannot be resolved by brute force.

"Master Yoruichi, stop trying." Asuka's voice rang out, looking thoughtfully at Yoh Asakura: "This isn't a barrier targeting us. Yoh Asakura and Amidamaru, they are... completely different from us."

"What do you mean?" Ye turned her head to look at him.

On the battlefield of Ta Zhang Zhi Qiu, earth-shattering explosions were heard.

"Urahara Kisuke! Is that all you've got?!"

Mayuri Kurotsuchi's frenzied voice pierced through the spiritual turbulence, and a huge, strangely shaped golden infant rose from the ground, frantically spewing poisonous smoke across the mountaintop.

"Swastika—Golden Boil Kills Jizo!"

"Oh, Director Nie, there's really no need for that."

Kisuke Urahara's figure appeared and disappeared amidst the dense toxic smoke.

His Zanpakuto, Benihime, drew streaks of crimson light, forcefully slicing through the soul-corroding smoke.

Her kimono had several charred cracks, but she still looked completely at ease.

"Shut up! You loser hiding in the garbage heap of reality!"

Mayuri Kurotsuchi appeared to be insane, his golden earrings humming under the surge of spiritual pressure.

The battle between the two top scientists has reached a fever pitch, and the clash of spiritual pressure is causing the entire Tsushima Hill to tremble.

This tremor is accelerating the instability of space.

"Look at the flow of spiritual particles here! It's leaping, it's singing! This energy reaction, which completely defies normal laws, is simply perfect material sent to me by heaven!"

Mayuri Kurotsuchi appeared to be insane, the golden halo on his head humming under the surge of spiritual pressure: "What right do you have to claim it as your own!"

Give it back to me!

Kisuke Urahara pushed up his hat brim: "This is really a headache... Director Urahara. Scientific research is important, but if the lab itself is about to collapse, are you still planning to be counting test tubes inside?"

Just as the two were about to clash again, a strange, meowing sound suddenly came from Urahara Kisuke's arms.

That was the phone notification tone that Yoruichi had specially set for him.

In the midst of this fierce battle, the beeping of electronic instruments seemed so out of place.

Kisuke Urahara also knew that Yoruichi wouldn't interrupt his battle for no reason at a time like this.

He swiftly retreated, using the layer of blood mist created by Hong Ji to block the poisoned arrow, and pulled out his phone with one hand.

The screen only displayed a short message from Yoruichi.

That was a message that Asuka asked Yoruichi to convey:

[This isn't the real world, tell that old man to get lost! Zhangzhi Hill is closing down! (>；^ω^<；)]

Kisuke Urahara's pupils suddenly contracted.

He suddenly looked down at the ground beneath his feet.

Sure enough, deep within those blasted craters, the spirit particles were like those caught in the center of a vortex, frantically collapsing deeper into the earth.

The surrounding scenery—the remaining dead trees and the distant mountain shadows—began to sway unnaturally, like reflections on the water's surface.

"You have time to look at this mortal trash during a battle? Kisuke Urahara, you're truly rotten to the core!"

Mayuri Kurotsuchi once again commanded the Ashisogi Jizo to attack, his tone full of sarcasm.

"Enough, Ne! If you don't want both directors of the Technology Development Bureau to die here, you'd better stop."

Kisuke Urahara's voice was no longer frivolous.

He gripped Hong Ji's wrist and suddenly sank it down. The crimson glow that had been wrapped around the blade instantly receded, transforming into a terrifying radiance that was as deep as ink yet faintly tinged with golden light.

"Bound me, Red Princess—!!"

Countless chains made of crimson spiritual particles emerged from the void, each chain engraved with intricate spells.

These chains did not attack Mayuri Kurotsuchi, but instead, like a giant net, forcibly locked the entire hilltop of Toshiro Hill for a moment.

boom-!

To Mayuri Kurotsuchi's astonishment, the ground beneath Kisuke Urahara's feet suddenly exploded.

"Walk!"

Kisuke Urahara turned and delivered a powerful kick, landing precisely on Mayuri Kurotsuchi's abdomen.

The terrifying impact force clearly showed that he had learned a lot from Yoruichi, actually kicking Mayuri Kurotsuchi from the mountaintop all the way to the outside of Tsutsuguri Hill.

"Urahara! You bastard, how dare you—!"

Mayuri roared angrily in mid-air, but before he could land, he found that the scenery around him had changed.

Those spiritual particle turbulences that he originally treated as observation data suddenly turned into an irresistible suction force.

His scientific instincts finally kicked in: everything here was disappearing.

"That's... spatial folding?"

As expected of the head of the Technology Development Bureau, Mayuri Kurotsuchi, after being forcibly taken out of the central area, also noticed something was amiss once he calmed down.

If it weren't for Kisuke Urahara's power delaying the spatial tremors, the two would probably have been trapped in it if the fight had continued.

He gazed greedily at the twisting hills, but driven by reason, he gritted his teeth and retreated.

At the foot of the mountain, on the edge of the boundary.

Yoh Asakura had become almost a semi-transparent shadow.

Those souls, each with their own unique form, who had fled from the battle at Tajira Hill, were now gathered around Asakura Yo.

They are all disappearing one by one at this moment.

Like a morning mist that is dissipating.

"Wow...it really is such an amazing thing!"

"It's time to say goodbye, Mr. Asuka."

Asakura Yoh sat on the ground, and even as his body dissipated, his somewhat languid face still wore that signature smile that seemed to say, "I could sleep even if the sky were to fall."

"I was originally planning to treat you to my favorite rice balls... but it seems like you don't really need to eat much in this world."

The bird stood before him, its black cloak fluttering in the wind.

He looked at Yoh Asakura, then at Amida Maru beside him, who was bowing deeply to him with a solemn expression.

"Yo Asakura".

Asuka spoke slowly, her tone becoming more composed: "Become stronger. No matter what world you live in, only the strong who survive deserve a peaceful life."

"Ah...it sounds tough, but I'll give it a try."

Yoh Asakura waved his hand, which was almost invisible, and finally pointed to Asuka's heart.

That breathing technique is really cool.

The voice just fell.

The entire hill of Tazhang emitted a crisp sound like a wind chime shattering.

A blinding white light suddenly rose from the ground, engulfing all the scorched earth, poisonous smoke, bloodstains, and all those things that did not belong to this world.

The dizziness subsided like a receding tide.

Yoh Asakura suddenly opened her eyes and found herself lying on a cold tombstone.

Sunlight streamed onto the weathered tombstone, and the chirping of several unidentified birds drifted from afar.

...Is this...a dream?

"Ye! Are you alright?!"

Amida Maru's figure emerged from behind, and the heroic warrior appeared equally bewildered.

"Amidamaru, were you dreaming too? Bleach, Hollows and all that..."

'

"That wasn't a dream! It felt like we really traveled to the other world!"

The samurai's words were resolute, causing Asakura Yoh's pupils to dilate slightly, despite his initial confusion.

...Oh, I see. That's amazing.

Yoh Asakura scratched her messy hair, a self-deprecating smile playing on her lips: "It feels like I took a really long nap one afternoon, and when I woke up I couldn't even remember what the food tasted like..."

'

"The people in that world... they're all so incredibly strong, like monsters."

He patted his bottom and stood up, the setting sun casting a long shadow over him.

"Speaking of which, Amida Maru, why don't you become my spirit partner? I'll grow stronger together with you!"

"That's exactly what I was thinking, Lord Ye!"

The boy hummed an off-key tune and, with his warrior, slowly disappeared into the distance at the edge of the cemetery.

For him, this experience was like an unreal mirage, dazzling yet ultimately fading into tranquility.

On a towering ancient tree in the distance of Tazhang Hill, dense branches and leaves blocked most of the sunlight.

A figure wearing a white cloak embroidered with a pentagram stood quietly in the shadows.

His long hair swayed slightly in the wind, and his face, which looked almost exactly like Yoh Asakura's, lacked the languidness of a young boy.

Deep within his eyes lay a profound and indifferent gaze that seemed to see through the cycle of reincarnation.

At this moment, his fingertips were gently caressing the air.

There, a thin crack, imperceptible to most, is slowly healing.

"Is that... another world?"

"That's really interesting."

Just now, through his extremely profound spiritual vision, he witnessed the entire fierce battle that took place in another dimension.

"Ye, although you are still so weak... you have indeed made all of this more interesting."