[[“BANKAI! RAIKA GOEN KAKU!!”]]​

The world outside my shell became silent with that declaration. I knew what he had done. I knew what stood in front of me. And this titan, this figure, would be too much for the strength of my shield to bear. This time, when he propelled himself at me and struck the shield, it shattered instantly.

Unprotected, I flung myself back and crossed my arms in front of my face to protect it from the surge of fire that came upon me. This was not a tidal wave of flame. This was a surging force, a devastating blast akin to the eruption of a volcano… the eruption of flame and destruction was directed solely at my body.

I knew it was over, my every defense futile. Despite this, I held on to my sheath in one hand. Even as I tried to save myself, I held it and – wow, it was taking a long time for his fires to kill me, wasn’t it? Slowly, I removed my arms from my face and examined myself.

…Somehow, someway, that didn’t even scorch me. “…Hah… Heheh…” I chuckled, then I laughed, “Nice job, jackass! I’m fuckin’ fireproof!” Not a single hair on my body, not a square inch of skin, none of me was hurt by his fires and flames. And when I thought about it, in all the situations where I was most likely to be burnt, I wasn’t.

When I walked through a flaming building, when I battled Omaeda, when I fought Uryu, when I combatted Yoruichi, every single time I used fire, I was never burnt. I always attributed that to most of my fires being, well, mine. But that didn’t account for the fire that was caused by my fire, those fires weren’t mine. And they didn’t burn me, did they?

This newfound invulnerability pushed me forward. My legs shifted into a better stance for me to hold my flaming sword. Amagai, because of that attack, was in my range. The Rider’s power jettisoned me towards Amagai’s stunned form and, for the first time in that fight, I was able to hit him. The flaming sword raked down the side of his blackened arm, covered in the dragon-like gauntlet that was once his tuning fork Bakkoto.

His pauldron hook-sword thing blasted more fire at me, but I laughed it off and continued to attack. I was fireproof, but Amagai was not. Having switched to Bankai, he was more vulnerable now than I ever was. Now Amagai was slower, now he was expending more power, but that still left him wide open.

Amagai’s uniform was in tatters, so I could see quite plainly where I could hit him to cause the most damage. I stabbed his wounded shoulder before he could dodge me and pushed through, breaking bone and muscle to cause the most hurt and, hopefully, cripple him.

He would have none of that. Amagai plunged his released Zanpakuto into the earth and pillars of flame erupted around me to trap me in place, but he just didn’t understand. He couldn’t get it. His fires would not work. Nobody’s fires would work. Because I was fireproof.

But my clothes weren’t.