VERGE ON VERMILLION

Facing the Schutzstaffel with Sayafushi finally in hand, Oetsu Nimaiya dares them to rush him. He frowns at the blade's faint rattle, blaming it on long disuse, just as Gerard Valkyrie lunges with a horizontal swing whose shockwave chews into the surrounding branches. Nimaiya sways back and calls it plain courtesy to duck a man's embrace, and when Gerard presses on, Nimaiya steps past him and the giant simply crumples. Blood erupts from a wound in Gerard's torso, and Nimaiya reminds the rest that the top craftsman of the Royal Guard fells anyone in one stroke.

Lille Barro accuses him of trickery, refusing to believe a wobbling sword pulled from jelly could drop Gerard. He raises Diagramm and fires, only for the shot to split and slide past either side of Nimaiya untouched. The swordsmith explains he did nothing but angle Sayafushi to shear the arrow in two, then carves through Lille's next shot before slashing his chest and severing his hand along with part of the weapon. Nimaiya hurls the blade through Pernida Parnkgjas when its hood begins to squirm, flashes to the falling body to reclaim it, and cuts down Askin Nakk Le Vaar as well.

Turning to Yhwach, Nimaiya calls Sayafushi a failure: its edge is so keen and its surface so smooth that it never chips no matter how much it cuts, which would ruin swordsmiths like him and cannot be paired with any scabbard able to contain it. He thanks Yhwach for the assault that finally let the sword see use, then stiffens in shock when Askin declares the fight unfinished, his wounds not deep enough to end him. Askin reveals that Yhwach chose him for the guard precisely because he will not die, a talent he finds shameful, and licks the blood from the back of his hand.

Nimaiya draws Sayafushi and cuts down Gerard Valkyrie, Lille Barro, and Pernida Parnkgjas in rapid succession. Sayafushi is revealed as a sword too perfect to sheathe, which is why it never reached the Seireitei. Askin Nakk Le Vaar survives what should have been a fatal slash, exposing the durability that earned him his place in the Schutzstaffel.

This is the closing chapter of the sixty-sixth volume, SORRY I AM STRONG, which puts Nimaiya on its cover. Its events were adapted in the anime across episodes 390 and 391.