Stern Ritter “V” Gwenael Lee interrupts Isane’s healing of Muguruma and Rose, and Yachiru’s slash-first, ask-questions-later approach seems to be ill-advised, as Gwnael is able to mask his existence from her sight, touch, and even memory. However, Yachiru doesn’t have to rely on any of those things to score a hit on her opponent: she can use instinct alone, a “tingle” Kenny told her to trust.
Yachiru draws her sword for the first time, revealing her Shikai, Sanpo Kenju. It take the form of two big fluffy buddies copying her every move, such that the more an opponent tries to gauge distance and timing, the more they misjudge it and get struck by one of her synchronized blades.
It’s pretty damn cool, and Yachiru drawing her sword and demonstrating some of her true power has been a long time coming. Unfortunately, while it seems to be enough to defeat Gwenael, he turns out to be nothing but a figment of the imagination of the real Stern Ritter “V”—Gremmy Thoumeaux (voiced by Tanjirou himself, Hanae Natsuki).
Called the “Visionary”, anything Gremmy imagines becomes reality, whether it was Gwenael Lee (whom he un-imagines when he’s beaten) or something absurd, like Yachiru’s bones turning into cookies. Anyone else would have been screaming in pain, but Yachiru is made of sterner stuff. Still, with cookie bones she’s essentially at Gremmy’s mercy.
She and Isane are bailed out by the return of Zaraki Kenpachi. He gravely informs Isane that Captian Unohana is dead and he killed her, but Isane doesn’t seem to harbor any ill will. In fact, knowing Zaraki rightfully succeeded Unohana’s Kenpachi title brings tears to her eyes.
Gremmy uses his imagination to build a venue suitable for his battle with one of Soul Society’s strongest. He blocks Zaraki’s first strike by imagining his skin is stronger than steel, but of course Zaraki’s blade can cut steel. He tells Gremmy, with perfect confidence, that his “puny” imagination can’t create anything he can’t cut.
Gremmy accepts that challenge, and the mayhem commences.
Gremmy declares he’ll kill Zaraki not even with one finger, but only with his mind. He summons flame, but Zaraki cuts through it. He conjures a cube of water around Zaraki that follows him as he rescues Yachiru from falling to her death, then has the stone fortress close around him. But again, Zaraki slashes through.
When Zaraki puts it to Gremmy that if he considers himself the strongest Quincy, doesn’t he want to crush the strongest Shinigami? That’s when, for the first timy, Gremmy actually has the desire to kill someone: Zaraki. He conjures hundreds of guns, but all the bullets hit is stone Zaraki kicks up. He conjures missiles, but Zaraki slices through them.
Then Gremmy splits himself into two Gremmies, which he says gives him double the imaginative power—which he uses to conjure a damn meteor.
He also imagines that he can no longer be killed, but even if Zaraki manages to do so, he can’t stop the reality of the meteor bearing down on Soul Society. When it impacts, nothing will be left but Gremmy. But yet again, he doesn’t get it: anything he imagines, Zaraki can cut. Befitting Zaraki’s squad number, this battle is taken to 11.
He unleashes his Nozarashi’s Shikai and cleaves the meteor clean in two, which is an extremely cool sight to see. Even then, Gremmy decides to ditch matter altogether and open a pocket to outer space, and casts Zaraki into the vacuum. Unfortunately for Gremmy, Nozarashi can cut through the fabric of space.
Gremmy then switches to what looks like the power of blue giant stars to blast Zaraki to smithereens, but his blade continues to cut through all. Gremmy calls him a monster, and inadvertently imagines that he is one in reality. While that is pretty much the reality anyway, the key fact is that Gremmy got lost in and undone by the logic of his powers.
As he decorporealizes, revealing his true form as an inert brain in a jar, Gremmy admits defeat, as only Zaraki’s body, not the body he had imagined for himself, can withstand Zaraki’s powers. He may be gone but thanks to Hanae Natsuki and one all-timer of a battle with Zaraki, he won’t be soon forgotten.
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