User blog comment:Godisme/Rain as a Blade/@comment-1268838-20111013002033/@comment-1747976-20111013053314

It is possible that he and Kuugo studied the captains before. He probably knew about Byakuya's storied 'calm' demeanor as he totally obliterates his opponents with Senbonzakura in 'any' of its forms. So with that knowledge, he probably devised a means to combat it. Saying that, the arrogance to say, "you won't be able to cut me with your sword again" or "hurt me with it..." or whatever is highly dubious. We shall see. As we know, Byakuya has plenty in the arsenal that he has not used yet. Its good if this fight does not end so easily and we get to see some serious battling between opponents. Not only is tsukishima's ability frightening, but his demeanor is similar to Byakuya's in battle, however more sadistic. I just did not want to see him spamming Kageyoshi immediately. Upon closer inspection, it is also amazing that Tsukishima used his 'ability' on an inanimate object 'inside' of the pocket dimension Yukio created...... However, even if he struck Senbon in shikai, he could have only struck a part of it from my perspective. Thousands or millions of tiny blades....IDK......