Chapter 118: End of line


    <span style="font-weight:400">“PARTNER! You’vee for me!”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Nami''s fervent shout pierced through his emotional armor for a brief moment. He choked down the rising sentiment and directed his icy gaze toward Tsubasa.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Hand me your des and open the cage.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">A shadow of bewilderment flickered across Tsubasa’s face before sheplied with an obedient nod. With an almost ceremonial gesture, she made the des drift to his side. Nami’s cage clicked open, releasing her from her confinement.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Like a phoenix rising, Nami burst forth until she hit the ceiling, her wings erupting into streaks of dark red fire. She rocketed toward Tsubasa with a divine fury, mming her into the wall with an impact that echoed through the chamber.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Stripped of her shields, Tsubasa was nothing but vulnerable to Nami’s assault.


    <span style="font-weight:400">As Naminded on the ground, she underwent a surreal transformation — morphing into a humanoid figure built from the essence of her own dark, sanguine mes. Hernky limbs and featureless face floated above a congration sea of fire that served as her lower body.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Though her facecked defining emotion, he could feel the raging inferno within her — Nami did not take her imprisonment lightly.


    <span style="font-weight:400">She yanked Tsubasa from the ground and mmed her into the wall. “I’ll make you pay for keeping me away from Partner.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Not pausing for Tsubasa to even muster a response, Nami unleashed a flurry of merciless blows upon her face. Tsubasa reached out to him with a trembling hand, or rather the des in his hands that acted as her shields. As though hearing her plea, the des in his grip twitched, yearning to rush to their master’s defense. But he held them fast.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Nope,” he said with an indifferent look. “Nami, go wild.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Tsubasa’s Shikai ability provided excellent defense, even if it was a bit one-dimensional in nature. However, he very much loved Nami and supported her. Trapped in the same ce for three months — he couldn’t evenprehend the resentment and rage bubbling inside her heart. She needed to unleash those negative emotions.


    <span style="font-weight:400">He also couldn’t deny that he enjoyed Tsubasa’s one-sided epic beatdown at Nami’s hands. It was satisfying to watch Tsubasa being pummeled like a punching bag.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Nami threw Tsubasa to the ground and jumped at her, throwing punches at her bloodied face. Seemingly bored of beating Tsubasa, Nami pulled Tsubasa up by her blonde hair.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You ambushed me when I was at my weakest and caged me like I was a beast. You lied and manipted my Partner into believing that I was not a suitable soulmate for him. YOU pathetic woman will pay for your sins.” Her hands clenched into ming talons around Tsubasa’s head. “With your life.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You can’t…” Tsubasa''s whisper was a dying ember as she shot a feeble nce toward him. “I am your Zanpakutō Spirit. Without me, you''re defenseless—”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Shut your fucking mouth,” Nami roared, her mes unleashing with even more ferocity. “This is the end of line for you, Hoe.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">She burst into a fog of mes and engulfed Tsubasa’s figure. Tsubasa desperately channeled her own mes to ward off Nami but Nami’s carmine mes easily overpowered her. She stood no chance in a frontal fight against the senior Zanpakutō Spirit, despite Namicking in terms of Reiatsu.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Across the room, the des exerted even more force then they went limp, quenched of life. Tsubasa waspletely swallowed by carmine mes and her presence faded away.


    <span style="font-weight:400">The mes then coalesced and twisted into a breathtaking form he’d never anticipated from Nami — a mature woman with blonde wavy hair and an azure eye, punctuated by a heart-shaped pink glint. A dark eyepatch draped across half her visage, culminating in a winged ornament that adorned her head like a crown.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Though bearing some resemnce to Tsubasa, she was a mesmerizing mix of elven ears, demonic horns, and fiery, leathery bat wings sprouting from her lower back. Her fashion sense was also worlds apart from Tsubasa. She wore a scandalously revealing white dress, offset by an imperial crimson cape.


    <span style="font-weight:400">She was a bewitching subus.


    Spoiler


    [copse]


    <span style="font-weight:400">Hand on her waist, she struck a sultry pose. “Behold the Demon Empress, who shall conquer this world with her beloved Partner.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">—A chuuni subus roleying as a Demon Empress.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Eyepatch - check. Edgy dialogues - check. ‘Cool’ fashion sense - check. Congrats, you’re finally a full-blown chuuni.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Ufufu, you’re right. This is my first form. I can shapeshift into anyone with a snap of my finger. Want to see the versatility of a fire-based life form?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Rather than ying along with shenanigans, he shifted the topic. “Is Tsubasa dead?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">She nodded her head with a radiant smile. “Completely erased from this world, devoured by me. Why are you worried, though? Do you miss her presence?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“What’s there to miss about her?” He retorted on an impulse before taking a pensive breath. The des in his hand had be inert and lifeless, revealing Tsubasa’s end, alongside her broken Shikai ability. “Fuck, all my hardwork went to shit.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Nami’s repetitive praise for his Shikai and Bankai had set his expectations high. He had spent almost six hours every day for the past three months. Yet, his reward was a treacherous, arrogant Zanpakutō Spirit, who almost broke him with her trial. Calling him disappointed was a massive understatement.


    <span style="font-weight:400">He let out a sigh. “Not gonna lie. Today was wild.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">The dormant des suddenly sprang to life, breaking free from his grasp to whirl around Nami, the same way they drifted around Tsubasa.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Nami, you—”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Yes, Partner. I’ve assimted that whore’s essence, her potential, and her existence as a Zanpakutō Spirit,” she dered, her bat-like wings ring as she closed the distance with Shunpo and tackled him onto the ground. Looming over him, she revealed a grin that perfectly encapsted every bit of her deranged infatuation. “I’m your sole Zanpakutō Spirit now. Nobody wille between us. EVER.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Rather than being creeped out by absurd craziness, he simply smiled and pulled her into his arms, her massive breasts squishing against him. “Are you trying to give Harribel a run for her money?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Exactly. I can’t lose against Partner’s most beloved wife,” she murmured as she audibly sniffed his scent. “Partner, I missed you so much. It was so boring here without you. My imprisonment wasn’t even the worst part about this whole ordeal…”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“What else could be worse than that?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Tsubasa was born from both of our essence — she reflected our souls. Think about it for a moment. She was maniptive like you and she was obsessed with an aspect like me. She was <i><span style="font-weight:400">our</i><span style="font-weight:400"> daughter… and I murdered her with my own hands.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">His mouth hung open, speechless. Her poetic reframing of Tsubasa’s existence unsettled him deeply. Their actions seemed extremely immature once he took a moment to contemte. They could’ve solved the situation more peacefully but their raw emotions overwrote their reason. The result was Tsubasa’s demise.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Forget her,” he replied, nonchntly brushing off her concerns. “Forget that she ever existed.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Fine with me. Partner, do you remember your promise?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Which promise?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">She leaned in and her fangs pierced the flesh of his neck. It was an intimate, lethal kiss that drew out blood, as if she were a vampire. “The promise about eating me out when I became a Vasto Lorde.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You didn’t actu—”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Suddenly, an overwhelming surge of Reiatsu filled the air like a torrential downpour,ing from the very woman wrapped in his embrace. Devouring Tsubasa triggered her evolution, bringing her Reiatsu on par with Harribel’s base Arrancar form.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I am a Vasto Lorde or its equivalent.” Gently withdrawing from him, she caressed his face, the heart-shaped twinkle in her eye glowing brighter than ever, as if implying her burning passion. “Don’t you think it’s time for us to do the deed?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Seeing her beautiful face up close and feeling her warmth, his heart began to beat loudly, as if anticipating a passionate time with her.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Just as he prepared to surrender to the moment, reality — or whatever passed for it in this realm — shuddered violently as if engulfed in a high-scale earthquake.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“The inner world is destabilizing. You spent too much time here, Partner,” Nami said with a sigh and pressed a reluctant kiss against his cheek. “We’ll have to wait.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Hmm. Talk to me when I’m outside.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You bet I will.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">***


    <span style="font-weight:400">RIP Tsubasa.