Sorcerer of Heaven Chapter 15: Clash of space-time powers

The air above Seireitei trembled with hostile spiritual pressures. Even from the highest white towers of the city, Harry could feel the chaos reverberating through the stone. He had fought in battles before, but there was something uncanny about the Bount incursion. It wasn’t the simple clash of blade against blade; their dolls twisted reality, sowing confusion, bending comrades against one another.

The soul reapers experienced in fighting hollows who fought on pure instinct were struggling to deal with the new foe. The base hollows never fought in coordination. They were instinctual creatures, and most soul reapers were experienced in fighting hollows, not well-coordinated attacks.

‘But not for long.’ Harry thought.

Harry adjusted the white lieutenant’s badge strapped across his upper arm. The carved insignia of Squad Thirteen felt heavy in the moment, not just wood and cloth but responsibility. Captain Ukitake had fallen ill, and that left him to deal with the ryoka invading his home.

He had chosen his opponent carefully.

Sawatari, with his whale-like doll Baura, was to be tracked and contained. If possible, killed. Sawatari was older and more cunning than the other Bounts, and if allowed free rein in the Seireitei, he could wreak devastation beyond measure with his space-time ability.

As a wielder of space-time Zanpakuto, Harry naturally felt it was his responsibility to destroy this enemy of Seireitei.

Harry’s own reiatsu shimmered faintly as he covered more ground by jumping through the rooftops of the buildings. His senses stretched outward like an antenna, brushing over the multitude of spiritual pressures clashing across the district. The sounds of combat drifted through—metal on metal, bursts of kidō detonations, shouted orders.

But beneath the general racket of conflict, something more subtle tugged at him. A fluctuation, like strings pulled taut in the air.

It wasn’t Sawatari.

It was smaller, sharper, but invasive.

It felt as if someone made strings of spirit energy and was conducting a puppet show. It was the strangest feeling Harry had ever felt.

He slowed at the corner of an avenue lined with pale cherry trees. The blossoms were trampled, petals drifting in the blood-tinged air. Ahead, two groups of shinigami were locked in combat. They should have been brothers and sisters-in-arms, yet they fought with a savagery reserved for enemies.  

Harry was stupefied for a moment at the scene.

Harry crouched low, scanning. The first group bore the insignia of the Sixth Division, while the others carried the Ninth. Ordinarily, the two squad members might quarrel in barracks or training yards, but never like this. Their blades rang furiously, faces twisted, eyes glassy with a sheen.

Harry recognised it instantly.

“Possession.” Harry muttered with a twinge of bewilderment.

“Damn!” Harry cursed under his breath.

He’d seen enough of the Bounts’ dolls to know when something unnatural was at play. And this reeked of manipulation. His suspicion confirmed itself a moment later when a flicker of movement darted among the combatants—a Doll.

“Is that a rodent crossbred with a flower?” Harry stared at the little creature with wide eyes.

The doll resembled a flying rodent nestled within a flower.

‘Ritz.’ Harry thought.

He remembered the name from the intelligence report Nanao-san delivered not long ago. A doll capable of infiltrating minds, turning allies into puppets. The Bount controlling it wasn’t Sawatari, but another of their number—yet that hardly mattered. If Harry left these shinigami like this, they would slaughter each other.

By the time he caught up with Sawatari, he feared more would be under the thrall of this doll, doing all sorts of mischief.

For a heartbeat, he hesitated. His mission was Sawatari. Every moment delayed risked losing the trail. But he could already see blood splattering across the pale stones, heard the screams of men and women bound by duty yet forced into senseless combat.

His decision crystallised.

He could not harm any of them. So, he had to immobilise them all without being detected.

He rushed to their side in a flash step while gathering spirit energy in his right palm.

“Bakudo 9: Horin.”

Tendrils of orange-coloured ropes made of spirit energy shot out of the palm of his hand and quickly connected with the soul reapers fighting each other. He guided the tendrils to wrap around everyone before he channelled magic through the tendrils.

“Stupefy.” Harry muttered under his breath.

The orange-coloured tendrils flared with red magical aura, and immediately, all soul reapers of squads 6 and 9 fell unconscious.

Several rodent-like creatures emerged from the soul reapers’ bodies and rushed towards him with the intent to attack or take possession of his body.

Harry immediately directed the kido’s range on the doll. The orange tendrils of energy wrapped around the creatures and held them immobile.

“Incendio.” Harry muttered under his breath.

“Aaaaaaaah!” Ritz screamed in pain.

The flying rodents were immediately consumed by magical fire. To his relief, the doll seemed to have no immunity to magical flames as they broke apart into spirit particles.

“Rennervate.” Harry muttered and channelled the spell through the kido, jolting the soul reapers out of sleep.

The freed shinigami staggered, some collapsing to their knees, clutching their heads as if awakening from a nightmare. Their comrades gathered around them, shock and relief mingling in their voices.

“Lieutenant Harry…” one of the Ninth Division officers breathed, bowing deeply despite his fatigue. “You saved us.”

Harry shook his head and cancelled the kido.

“I only bought time. Ritz will be back, or worse. You need to get the injured to the Fourth Division for treatment.”

The officer nodded quickly, barking orders. Harry lingered just long enough to be sure they were stable. But every heartbeat was another heartbeat lost. Sawatari was moving even now, and if he slipped into the deeper avenues of Seireitei, rooting him out would become near impossible.

Harry closed his eyes, letting his reiatsu seep outward like water across stone. The Seireitei was a storm of spiritual signatures — captains clashing with Bounts, lieutenants shouting orders, squads regrouping.

Yet, among the storm of conflict, he searched for the peculiar ripple Sawatari left behind.

The old man’s energy was heavy, ponderous, but not slow. It had a grinding weight to it, like ancient gears slowly turning to reach a destination. And always there was the echo of his doll, Baura — a void-like presence, vast and suffocating.

Even at a distance, Harry could sense it faintly thanks to his own connection to space-time powers.

He began to move, flash stepping through the winding corridors of pale stone. His footsteps echoed softly, petals from shattered gardens scattering in his wake. The trail grew clearer the farther he went — overturned carts, splintered walls, gouges in the flagstones.

Sawatari was not subtle.

He could also see that several buildings were hollowed out as if something had consumed them all. He knew the Bounts possessed the ability to absorb spirit energy. In a place like Soul Society, where the entire dimension was teeming with spirit energy, the Bounts would feel like they were in an infinite, boundless buffet.

Suddenly, Harry felt one of the Bounts’ spiritual pressure rapidly collapsing in on itself. This was immediately followed by a space-time ripple entering his sensory field.

“Found you.” Harry said with a smirk.

He disappeared in a flash step and appeared directly above his target.

He found the old man sitting on a throne-like structure while partially evoking the space-time ability the Bount was known for.

“Interesting that you managed to find me, Shinigami-san. I wonder how that could be when I’m suppressing my spiritual pressure.” Swatari said calmly while holding his walking stick, leaning back against his ‘throne’.

“You have your tricks, I have mine.” Harry said while remaining airborne and stared down at the old man.

Sawatari looked at him searchingly for a moment before his posture relaxed.

“You see, my job is to kill all the captains. You’re not a Captain, are you?”

“I’m afraid not.”

“Then, stand aside, Shinigami-san. I’ll spare your life.” Sawatari said politely.

“That is very generous of you, Sawatari-san. I’m afraid I cannot abandon my duty. My orders are to kill or capture you Bounts.” Harry said while slowly unsheathing his Zanpakuto.

Harry observed more of the ‘throne’ emerging from the alternate dimension. The ‘throne’ was none other than Sawatari’s doll, Baura. He could already see its space-bending power as the cobbled floor rippled as if it were made of water.

“Then you’ll die.” Sawatari proclaimed before pursing his lips.

He tapped his wooden cane on the doll, and it started to rise from the ground.

“Reign over the upper heavens, Amaterasu.”

Harry unleashed his Zanpakuto from its sealed form. With a flare of spirit energy, the ten rings of Amaterasu materialised on his arms.

“Baura.” Sawatari commanded with a tap of his cane.

The doll emerged fully from the ground.

Harry’s eyes traced the doll materialised in the form of a hardened, scaled whale diving into the ground as if it were taking a dip in the ocean. The cobbled street rippled as Baura disappeared into an alternate dimension.

Suddenly, he felt the space behind him ripple. His keen sense of spatial anomalies made him dodge to the side easily. At the same time, Baura launched itself from inside the alternate dimension onto the roof of a building like a shooting bullet. A gigantic hole tore through the building as Baura devoured the space through which it passed.

Baura lunged again, this time from below, its cavernous mouth opening like the abyss itself. Harry flash stepped aside, his hand flicking in an arc while gathering spirit energy for a kido.

“Hadou 32: Okasen.”

He sent a wide yellow arc of reiatsu crashing against the creature’s hide.

Baura barely flinched, and the hadou was withstood by its tough hide.

Sawatari chuckled derisively.

“Baura is strong. Such weak attacks will never…”

Harry ignored the chatter and sent forth five rings on his right arm in a wide arc. The rings of Amaterasu arranged themselves into a crescent shape and swiped hard against Baura’s underbelly.

Baura let out a grunt as a massive force crashed into its body, and it was blown off its trajectory. Its body crashed into a stone tower with enough force to topple the tower.  

The sky rippled, and Baura came again, but Sawatari now looked rattled.

“So, is that it? Is this the power of a Bount? I’m afraid this is just disappointing if all you can do is lug that giant slug from one place to another.” Harry goaded while he stood ready to spring the trap.

“You dare to mock me, shinigami!” Sawatari yelled in anger.

“Baura!”

“Yes, boss.”  

Baura opened its large mouth. Harry saw a dark abyss staring back at him. Suddenly, a glowing blue energy appeared before it shot out of its mouth straight towards him.

“Kido?” Harry stared at the flames of the Sokatsui kido with wide eyes.

Harry dodged the flames easily enough, though he was surprised. But that surprise didn’t last for long as more kido spells came out of Baura’s mouth.

‘Baura has a similar power to Amaterasu. It can store energy-based attacks inside its mouth. This must be kido it swallowed in the past from its fight in the World of the Living.’ Harry deduced as he continuously dodged the attacks from the doll.

Harry led Baura on a merry chase, pretending to slow down the more he dodged, as he had no counter to the continuous barrage of kido attacks. He made sure Swatari got a sense of victory while he guided the released rings of Amaterasu with his mind for the trap.

He fell on his knees breathlessly before a wall just as Sawatari arrived on Baura with a wide smile on his face. Baura shot towards his back with its mouth wide open to consume him.  

Harry disappeared using a flash step; at the same time, he placed one of Amaterasu’s rings in his place.

Baura swallowed the ring and went on to devour a portion of the building as well.

Swatari emerged from the alternate dimension atop Baura and stared at him with contempt.

“You thought to tire me out, didn’t you?” Sawatari asked, but Harry remained silent.

“Then you know nothing of Bounts!” Sawatari scoffed before his body started glowing.

Spirit particles gathered as entire buildings were converted into reishi and absorbed into Sawatari’s body. Harry could feel the Bount’s spiritual pressure increase as Sawatari consumed more spirit energy.

“I am a peerless Bount. I have consumed thousands of souls in the quest for power. I…” Sawatari stopped gloating when Baura let out a strangled scream and started thrashing violently.

“Baura! What is going on?” Sawatari shouted in alarm as he held on to his doll for dear life.

Harry stared down at the scene coolly. He held out his right hand and four rings flew into his right arm. They locked themselves on his forearm while one remained inside Baura’s alternate dimension.

The fifth ring, however, remained inside Baura but not for long.

“Metsuana (Annihilating ring).” Harry called out his technique, and Amaterasu flared with an eerie dark power.

A torrent of violent swirling energy formed within Baura, which started tearing it apart from the inside out. The ominous feeling was so great that Sawatari jumped away from the head of his doll in fear.

“What is… this… power?” Sawatari asked, his eyes wide with horror as he stared at the convulsing Baura.

“Boss! Help me!” Baura cried.

“Take all my power, Baura.” Sawatari yelled, flaring his spirit energy as he channelled more power into his doll.

But that only increased the gravitational current that tore up the surrounding building and the ground as an oppressive power sucked in all matter into a growing vortex.

“It’s useless, Bount.”

A new voice suddenly joined them, startling Sawatari.

But Harry was not surprised to see Captain Kurotsuchi walk out in the open, clapping all the way with a creepy smile.

“You really don’t know anything about your opponent, do you?” Kurotsuchi said with a smirk. “In all of Seireitei, you had to pick a fight with the sole Shinigami who wields a Zanpakuto with spatial powers. You really are a dumb creature, aren’t you?”

“What?” Sawatari gasped in surprise.

“Oh my! Your old age must’ve rendered your ears useless. This will make you a poor lab rat.” Kurotsuchi said before breaking out into gleeful sniggers.

At that exact moment, a massive tear in space formed right in the middle of Baura, which started to expand like an inflated balloon before stopping abruptly.

“You asked me how I tracked you while you were suppressing your spirit energy. I’m keenly attuned to spatial anomalies, and you stuck out like a sore thumb the moment you entered this city.” Harry said with a cold look.

The moment he finished saying that, Amaterasu glowed and the black sphere suddenly turned bright white. It was as if a star took birth in the middle of Seireitei.

Baura’s struggle ceased as its physical form started to disintegrate and became particles of light and spirit energy.

“Baura! What is happening to Baura?” Sawatari yelled, stepping back in fear.

“My Zanpakuto has space-time powers that allow me to bend space to my will. I’ve merely planted a singularity within your alternate dimension to collapse the reality created by your doll. Now, your doll will be consumed by the singularity and become one with the event horizon formed by my Zanpakuto.” Harry explained.

Once Baura was totally consumed, the singularity shrank down and was reabsorbed into the ring of Amaterasu. The heavy gravitational field disappeared in the blink of an eye.

With a thought, the last ring shot through the air and slid back into his right arm.

Sawatari gaped with an open mouth at the space where Baura used to occupy.

“Baura! Baura!” Sawatari yelled, but nothing happened.

“Shut up, you chattering animal. A lab rat must not make such noise.” Kurotsuchi said before rushing to Sawatari’s side and injecting something into the Bount’s neck.

Sawatari fell to the floor as if his strings had been cut.

“You don’t mind if I take this Bount for research, do you, Harry-kun?” Kurotsuchi asked with a pointed look.

“The orders were to kill, but I won’t object so long as your division hastens to deliver any orders on tech support I place in the future, Captain Kurotsuchi.”

“Heh! Deal!” Kurotsuchi said before throwing Sawatari over his shoulder and disappearing using a flash step.

Harry stared at the ring, which absorbed Baura. The runes on the ring glowed, and information on the ring’s newly acquired power flooded into his mind.

“Hmm, interesting.” Harry muttered before his body sank into the pavement.

His body became intangible in Seireitei as he entered an alternate dimension and consciously directed his body to move with a destination in mind. He found a doorway in the dimension, and upon taking the doorway, he found himself on the outskirts of Squad 13’s barracks.

“Well, that is a neat trick.” Harry muttered to himself before reverting Amaterasu to its sealed state.

Now, back in Squad 13’s barracks, he immediately went on to write a preliminary action report on his fight with Sawatari and sent it immediately to the First Division. Once the messenger was sent, he sought an audience with Captain Ukitake to inform the Captain of what had happened. Though Captain Ukitake remained bedridden, it was still his duty to keep the captain apprised about the recent events, and this one was pretty important.

Just after he finished debriefing the captain, a messenger from the task force arrived bearing some good news.  

“Captain Soifon managed to kill the Bount called Mabashi with the help of the Quincy boy.” Harty read the report with some fascination and a pinch of disbelief.

His disbelief bled away and was replaced by amusement.

‘To be assisted by a Quincy of all people to stop an enemy of the soul society. Soifon’s pride must’ve taken a massive blow.’ Harry thought with amusement.  

It was a shame he was not there to witness this happen, but he couldn’t complain as he now possessed the power of teleportation and access to an alternate dimension.  

But his sense of success and amusement was short-lived as a powerful energy signature materialised inside the city, making him gasp in surprise.

“This enormous power!” Harry said in alarm as the ground beneath him trembled, and the shockwave spread across the city following a gigantic explosion of power.

“What the hell?”

“Are we under attack?”

“What is going on?”

Panicked voices of his subordinates filled the squad barracks as the explosion was seen in the sky.

‘It seems to be coming from the direction of Squad 12. What the hell is going on?’ Harry worried as he stared in the direction of the pillar of blood red energy towering over all the buildings in the city.