It's too hard to tell really. I'm more inclined to believe he used Shikai though.He did i think, when he came back to from royal guard he said something about shikai bond which he had forgotten long ago, and we didn't even see senbonzakura blades when he cut down As nodt eyes, maybe he did use his shikai, his abilities must have gotten upgraded as noted by two other female sterns in the very next page.