Bleach—I Can't Get an Amen
Episode 17 - Clock Tower
Perfect tuning does not exist.
A single raindrop seeping through the gaps of the gears has rusted your eternity.
Cutting away the cold hand that dragged me into the abyss, I finally emerge from the collapsing noise.
Azuma’s blade gleamed atop Soya’s clock tower.
In that moment, Azuma’s body and his Zanpakuto began to break through into the interior of the tower.
Soya noticed this and began to seal the gap Azuma was trying to enter.
However...
Boom!
Yoruichi’s attack exploded once more, punching a hole in the spot Soya was trying to fill.
"Go, Azuma!" Yoruichi shouted.
"Damn it... Damn it... How is this happening!? Because of that brat's mist, I can't pinpoint our current coordinates...!"
Amidst Soya’s urgent muttering, Azuma plunged through the hole and into the clock tower.
The interior was a space filled with massive, interlocking gears.
Somewhere in a corner, an entity that appeared to be the main body was suspended.
However, a strange barrier was erected around it.
"...Master Kisuke! I see a barrier inside! I see Soya, too!"
Metallic lifeforms manifested around Azuma once again.
He swept them all away with his Zanpakuto.
By now, having grasped their entire mechanism, these enemies were no longer a challenge.
"Mr. Azuma, please compress your ability into that single visible point!"
The moment Kisuke finished speaking, the ring on Azuma’s finger flashed red.
It seemed to be another function of the ring Kisuke had provided.
The red flashing on the ring connected to a single point visible at the tip of his Zanpakuto.
"...Understood!"
Azuma decided it was better to deal with them while dropping from the railing rather than facing them one by one on the way down.
He vaulted over the railing and began to descend straight toward the barrier housing Soya’s body.
"Hyaaaah!!!"
At the tip of his Zanpakuto's blade, he began to gather every bit of mist and every water droplet scattered in the air.
The compression reached its peak.
The appearance of the blade began to shift slightly.
The metallic lifeforms inside the tower began to pour down as if to seize Azuma.
Seeing their numbers, he judged that he shouldn't hesitate—he had to break the barrier and get inside immediately.
"...Take this!"
Gripping his sword firmly, he struck down at the barrier.
Perhaps because the attack was bolstered by a bit of Kisuke’s spiritual pressure, the barrier crumbled more easily than expected.
And then...
Thuck!
The moment the barrier shattered, Azuma’s blade pierced through Soya’s abdomen once again.
As the blade impaled Soya, a wave of intense heat, as if the clock tower were overheating, washed over both of them.
Sweat began to pour from Azuma’s hair.
Finally, the sound of the clock tower’s rotation ceased.
In the place where the ticking noise had vanished, a sound like the screams of dying metallic lifeforms filled the entire factory.
"Huff... huff..."
Azuma simply stared at Soya in the rapidly heating space.
"...To think... that my perfect tuning... would be broken... You truly... truly are a variable..."
Soya gasped for breath as he looked at Azuma.
Spirit particles could be seen gushing from his stomach again.
"But... do you know? Why I didn't react much when you and Yoruichi-san were breaking the glass tubes...?"
"...What?"
Azuma frowned, not understanding Soya’s reaction at the time.
Soya held out a small, broken watch.
"Because thanks to that, I was able to obtain new data... A specimen of how a living being destroys mechanical logic... that's what it was, wasn't it?"
"What on earth does that mean...?"
Kisuke’s voice rang out again.
"Mr. Azuma! Get away! He's not trying to self-destruct! He's trying to teleport! And he's taking you with him...!"
"...!"
Soya pressed a part of the watch and grabbed Azuma’s left arm.
Azuma panicked and tried to shake off the hand.
However, the grip was stronger than expected and wouldn't easily loosen.
Soya’s body began to decompose into hundreds of millions of gear particles.
The entire factory was caught in a massive vortex.
Yoruichi and Kisuke held their ground, bracing themselves.
Azuma instinctively felt that this decomposition would affect him as well.
He applied more strength.
It didn't work.
The particles were drawing closer.
It was at the moment when barely a centimeter of distance remained.
Slash!
"Huff... huff..."
Raising his Zanpakuto with one hand, he sliced off Soya’s fingers.
He had narrowly managed to escape that hand.
Soya looked at Azuma with a click of his tongue.
His existence began to seep into a strange space.
"I am discarding this factory... Let us meet again elsewhere in Tokyo. We shall meet again then. Mr. Azuma, Yoruichi-san, and... Captain."
The clock tower vanished with a small explosion.
The aftermath sent Azuma flying, his back slamming into the factory wall.
"Ow, ow, ow..."
Fortunately, it didn't seem to be a major injury.
Azuma didn't move from the spot, simply staring up at the ceiling.
"...Whoa there, are you alright?"
At the sound of Kisuke’s voice, Azuma flinched slightly.
"Wh-what about Soya?"
"It seems he has escaped. It's the worst-case scenario I had imagined. I suspect it was the result of him pushing his technology to its absolute limit."
"Ah... I see..."
Azuma nodded.
Soon, Yoruichi also came to Kisuke’s side.
"Is it over for now?"
"Yes, you've worked hard, Yoruichi-san."
Yoruichi and Azuma’s eyes met.
Azuma lowered his head.
"...Captain, Mr. Kisuke... I'm sorry. I should have caught him at the end..." he said with a sigh.
Yoruichi and Kisuke looked at each other for a moment before stepping closer to Azuma.
Yoruichi lightly ruffled Azuma’s hair.
"Don't hang your head. You drove that monster out of this factory and rescued your comrades. A win is a win."
"Ah, thank you..."
He couldn't tell if those were words of comfort or a simple statement of fact.
However, it was clear they weren't words that drained his strength.
"And according to Mr. Tessai, all fifty kidnapped Soul Reapers have successfully returned to their original positions."
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