Raw Breath of Danger
It seemed that perhaps Eizoku’s Captain had failed him. Perhaps this task the Third seat was sent on, was not so much a mission, but an execution sentence. Captain Oda had after all, released Eizoku from prison, only to send him here to the precipice world, where his disappearance was hardly an anomaly. Indeed, the Captain may have displayed his true Oda colors, returning to their ancient custom: Death to Disobedients. Why else would Tenzen deceive Eizoku, and tell him that the power of his Zanpakuto would protect him. What power of protection could a Shinigami’s blade hold here, where the powers of Shikai and Bankai serve only to attract the wrestling flow?
As Eizoku soars through the air, his back to the crescent blade of golden light that guides him, he would find that the shining arc of his swing was not the only light emanating from him. Rather, his entire zanpakuto, along with the arms that wield it, glow a vibrant golden yellow. Within the moment it would take for his mind to process this, his entire body soon became replaced with this golden light.
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The darkness of the dangai soon competes against the light, the two battling for dominance in a strobe of illumination rapidly replaced by eternal darkness.
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As the light becomes brighter and the flickering increases, it is clear that whatever affliction possesses Eizoku is counting down to a final burst of light. On the very final flash of light, the emptiness of the darkness is replaced with one final image, a mere foot from eizoku’s own face.
Losing Time
Eizoku’s vision is then blinded by light, shining so vibrant that it would burn his retinas even through closed eyelids. It becomes clear that his flight backwards is not nearing its end, as the time he has been flying has been far longer than the distance he wishes to travel. The light would burn his skin, and yet would be the tamest of the painful sensations he now feels. As he flies backward, it would feel as though every individual cell of his body were being torn from each other. Every trace of his identity is being pulled into a different place in the universe, a different time. He is becoming, in every sense of the word, erased, across all of time and space. This is what it meant to be trapped within the Kōryū (拘流, Wresting Flow).
Any soul that found themselves within Eizoku’s situation, would undoubtedly meet their end. However, perhaps Captain Oda’s intentions now ring true. No shinigami who has entered the dangai and been caught within its flow, has ever been able to escape their fate. However, no shinigami who has entered the dangai, until this moment, has possessed a Zanpakuto capable of manipulating the flow of time. Captain Oda, the prodigal Commander of the Kido Corps, was ever the theorist, and this turn of events was likely calculated by the Captain. The duty of this mission had to get done, and by sending Eizoku, he gambled on its success, viewing the entire endeavor as an experiment of sorts. The promotion then, may likely have been a reward, rightfully earned only if Eizoku were able to survive this suicidal encounter. Regardless, the information gathered would be of use to the ever expanding Kido Corps, and so success or failure, Eizoku would serve the Fifth’s needs.
Should the third seat overcome the impossible, through an unprecedented control of their own zanpakuto’s power, they would find the light of the wrestling flow replaced with the light of a blazing sun. Who knows what cost Eizoku paid with the erasure of his body’s cells through time, but the award for such a feat, would be the successful exit of the Wrestling Flow. Now, plummeting through the skies, the remaining aspects of Eizoku’s soul would struggle to mend themselves together, causing the man to barely hold onto consciousness, let alone halt his descent to the ground. In such a state, their fall ends with an abrupt collision into the side of a mountain. There, the explosion of his impact fills the air with smoke, and carves a cataclysmic crater into the stoneface of the mountainside.
As the dust settles, and the rumbling of stone ceases to thunder through the skies, the consequential silence is interrupted by a single stern voice, casting itself down in judgment upon what remains of Third Seat Eizoku.
“And who are you, who falls from the sky to kneel before me?”