User blog:Xilinoc/Ch. 670 - The Perfect Crimson

Song to listen to while reading this chapter: "The Vengeful One" by Disturbed

Before we get into this, did y'all know that I've got a Youtube channel too? I make my own memes like this one, so feel free to check it out. Okay, end of shameless plugging.

So we start off with Gerard and Kenpachi hitting the ground as Byakuya and Hitsugaya wisely decide to keep their distance from the berserker devil captain. Suddenly, though, Kenpachi himself leaps back and roars as Gerard's two halves rise up and form a Quincy Zeichen in the air with their blood. Then the two halves reattach themselves as, to no one's surprise, Gerard activates his Quincy: Vollständig, Aschetonig. Gotta say, appearance-wise this is one of my favorites - it's incredibly Norse with that helmet and those wings, and I love it so. Gerard proceeds to use Getsuga Tenshō fire a blast of some sort from the tip of his sword, leading to a good chunk of the city being wiped out; Hitsugaya manages to catch most of the rubble with ice, but Gerard follows Byakuya's example and goes for the double tap.

Gerard proclaims that not even acing his own mortality will stop him from raising his blade because he's soooooooo pure and noble and stuff, but Kenpachi doesn't care and tries to attack...only for his arm to pretty much shatter as Yachiru reveals she miiiight have given him too much power for his body to handle. After taking this opportunity to slashes Kenpachi into the ground, Gerard destroys the building where Hitsugaya is standing, forcing Byakuya to catch him with Senbonzakura. Noticing Hitsugaya's petals disappearing fast, Byakuya tells him to deactivate his Bankai; however, Hitsugaya merely notes that he'd never said the petals disappearing meant the end of his Bankai before revealing that they cause it to mature as he literally becomes an adult. Wow.

So Gerard's awesome Vollständig aside, the end of the chapter was very much unexpected - did anyone think Kubo remembered his statement that Hitsugaya would show off his complete Bankai this arc? I certainly didn't, but this is an interesting way of doing so. To paraphrase Sal, Hitsugaya's always been a child prodigy, but he's had this immense power since a young age and has lived all this time with strangely stunted growth, only to mature once he perfects his Bankai because there was some mechanism holding him back until he was ready in a manner similar to Ikkaku's Bankai (slowly warming up in power). I know everyone hates on Hitsuplaya cause he never does anything, but it looks like this is his real time to shine this arc. Oh, and bye-bye Demonpachi, hopefully we'll get an explanation after this is all over because it's unlikely to come while Hitsugaya is fighting.

Thoughts on this chapter? I'M THOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOR Thank god this Bankai has a drawback Adult Hitsugaya is sexy af
 * Yammy intensifies*