The video replayed.
"Ichigo…"
"Next, I'm going to test whether you have the right to keep wielding me."
"If you want to hold me in your hands again… then try to take me back yourself."
With a snap, the blood-red cloak fluttered.
Uncle Zangetsu's tall figure stood side by side with White Ichigo, then very clearly stepped back three steps.
Separated by the not-so-distant rooftop of the skyscraper,
they now stood opposite Kurosaki Ichigo!
And after saying that,
he retreated even further, giving up the battlefield entirely and handing it over to White Ichigo!
"No way…"
"Ichigo, why does it feel like that Uncle Zangetsu is totally screwing you over?!"
"Bare-handed, how is he supposed to snatch anything back from a monster like White Ichigo!!!"
In Karakura Town,
up in the floating sky playground,
Ichigo's friends all started worrying for him, convinced he was being set up.
Especially when they saw that vicious grin on White Ichigo's face,
a chill ran down their spines.
Inoue Orihime in particular—Ichigo's wife-to-be in the future—suddenly found this scene unbelievably alien.
Gone was that usual, instinctive trust she felt whenever she looked at Kurosaki Ichigo,
gone was that overflowing sense of safety!
The reason this little wife's heart felt so uneasy
was precisely because White Ichigo's existence was too eerie!
A copy of Ichigo whose personality had been dialed up to a dangerous extreme!
For the naturally timid Inoue Orihime,
it was impossible not to be afraid.
Terror crawled quietly up from the depths of her heart.
Fortunately,
just then—
Kurosaki Ichigo reached out and, before Orihime could react,
gently grabbed her wrist, wrapping his palm around her hand.
Their fingers weren't interlaced,
but the warmth of that touch was enough to melt her heart.
"Orihime… are you scared? That's not the real me…"
Kurosaki Ichigo smiled, as warm as afternoon sunlight, instantly sweeping away all unease.
"Kurosaki-kun…"
She froze.
Hardly daring to believe it, she slowly raised her head.
The moment Inoue Orihime's gaze met Ichigo's,
her pretty face turned bright red from shyness in an instant.
She looked just like a freshly steamed bun pulled straight out of the pot.
The shock and horror brought on by White Ichigo's appearance
was wiped away in a heartbeat,
and in its place—
the whole atmosphere turned into a full-on romance show.
For the first time during one of these viewing sessions,
Kurosaki Ichigo and his little wife had a truly intimate moment that deepened their relationship.
"Ahem, ahem…"
Off to the side,
Arisawa Tatsuki deliberately cleared her throat twice.
On the one hand, she'd just gotten a huge dose of CP sugar from the couple,
and in private she'd already been thinking about pushing Kurosaki Ichigo and Inoue Orihime together.
But!
Come on… right now they were supposed to be watching the video, not going on a date!
If they wanted to flirt,
could they please wait until the countdown video was over and then go have a proper date?
The key point was—
at this very moment, inside the video, with Uncle Zangetsu's acquiescence,
White Ichigo was already baring his fangs.
He let out that electronic-sounding laugh
while spinning "Zangetsu" around as he charged in to cut people down!!!
Ichigo…
Are you seriously not worried that your future self might actually get killed here?
——
And Tatsuki wasn't wrong.
Right now—
"Ha!!!"
"Ichigo… if you ask me…"
"You're an absolute disgrace…"
"Someone who owns such a powerful Zanpakutō,
yet still got beaten until his head was cracked open and blood was everywhere…"
That unique electronic tone of voice
echoed throughout this cramped space where skyscrapers stood upside-down all around.
Not only that,
as he mocked Ichigo,
White Ichigo tugged at the bandages with one hand while spinning "Zangetsu" in circles with the other.
His movements were light and carefree.
Dust billowed up in waves around him,
and there wasn't a trace of a typical Menos' traits or fighting style to be seen.
If anything,
from beginning to end White Ichigo didn't feel like a Vasto Lorde at all.
Instead… he looked more like a pure-blooded Shinigami!
More "properly Shinigami"
than most of the captains in the Gotei 13!!!
The moment this scene was revealed
it caused yet another uproar in the real world.
Once again, people all over the world couldn't help but start talking:
"What the hell…"
"This guy is really the same type of being as us?!"
Nnoitra was dumbfounded.
He stared at the figure of White Ichigo on the screen, his face frozen.
There was shock.
There was deep-seated fear.
But above all, there was confusion and complete disbelief.
Vasto Lorde-class Hollows—
Hueco Mundo definitely had them.
There were several of them in Las Noches alone: Starrk, Baraggan, Harribel…
Even Grimmjow in the future would evolve into a Vasto Lorde.
But Nnoitra didn't feel like
any of those comrades relied on their Zanpakutō that much.
To put it bluntly,
for Arrancar, their Zanpakutō were just tools—
their only purpose was to conveniently seal away their power.
Once it was time to fight for real,
everyone would return to their original form and toss the Zanpakutō aside!
White Ichigo, on the other hand,
was completely different.
Every turn of his body was stylish as hell, so flashy it made people dizzy.
Compared with him,
even all the captains who had appeared on screen so far
couldn't hold a candle to his style.
A Hollow who looked even more like a Shinigami than the Shinigami themselves!
He had a human form,
was perfectly compatible with a Zanpakutō,
and on top of that possessed the overwhelming power of a Vasto Lorde!
"Tch…"
Thinking about that,
Nnoitra couldn't help but suck in a sharp breath.
Thank goodness White Ichigo lived inside Kurosaki Ichigo's body.
Otherwise…
if this monster were released into the world
and descended upon Hueco Mundo,
he'd definitely become "another Aizen"!
On his own,
he'd go around beating up every last Gillian, Adjuchas, Vasto Lorde and Arrancar in Hueco Mundo,
and he could do it easily!!!
Not too far away,
Szayelaporro Granz,
pushing his glasses-shaped mask up the bridge of his nose,
spoke in confusion:
"Is it just me? Just now, while he was praising 'Zangetsu',
why did White Ichigo's tone sound especially excited…"
"It didn't sound like he was praising someone else at all.
It felt more like he was bragging about himself!!!"
Szayelaporro frowned slightly.
Under normal circumstances,
because Hollows and Shinigami were natural enemies,
whenever any Hollow mentioned a Shinigami's Zanpakutō,
their instinctive reaction should either be disdain
or naked hostility.
However…
White Ichigo's tone
was full of excitement, appreciation—
and even a faint touch of pride!
"Could it be…"
Szayelaporro's pupils shrank.
As expected of Hueco Mundo's top scientist,
the smartest mind among all the Arrancar.
"White Ichigo… is the perfect fusion of Shinigami power and Hollow power!"
"He's the Zanpakutō spirit of 'Zangetsu' itself—
a being who naturally breaks through racial boundaries,
a natural transcendental-class existence!!!"
The impact of those words
instantly silenced all of Las Noches.
The noisy discussion from before
disappeared without a trace.
"Zanpakutō spirit…?"
"Transcendental class?!"
"He's walking the same correct evolutionary path as Lord Aizen?"
"And he's only a part of Kurosaki Ichigo's overall power?!"
Shock waves slammed through the hearts of the Arrancar one after another,
blasting open the deepest layers of their worldview.
Their original understanding
of this world's power hierarchy
was forcibly reshaped yet again!
It was absurd…
Aizen,
at the very least, had to rely on an external object—the Hōgyoku—
to shatter his shackles and break through the peak of Shinigami!
But White Ichigo…
as a plug-in,
coexisting with Kurosaki Ichigo,
had been lying dormant all these years, and the moment he finally stepped onto the stage
he was already capable of crushing more than half of the world's top-tier fighters!
And what the Arrancar found even harder to accept was that
even such a powerful White Ichigo,
even though he stood above them all,
was ultimately only one fragment of the many powers within Kurosaki Ichigo's body!
Damn…
That was way too over the top…
Now,
the entire Arrancar army
finally understood why "Zangetsu" had taken first place!
A Zanpakutō that was equivalent to a transcendental-class being.
Of course only it
could break through the defenses of Soul-King-Yhwach!
——
At the same time,
under everyone's shocked gaze,
in Ichigo's inner world,
the clash between Kurosaki Ichigo and White Ichigo
had reached a fever pitch.
"Ichigo…"
"Did you really think that just calling out Zangetsu's name
means you can instantly use him freely?"
"Your whole head is filled only with your own crap—
you've never once tried to understand Zangetsu!"
"You're… a complete failure!!!"
Zanpakutō spinning wildly,
White Ichigo's arm was practically turning into a spinning top.
And although his electronic voice dripped with mockery,
when it reached the viewers' ears,
they all heard a completely different subtext.
"…?!"
"Why does it feel like… he's actually jealous?"
"Like someone who's been ignored,
venting his anger in a jealous fit…"
Inside Squad One's barracks,
the captains of the Gotei 13 all had strange expressions.
Something about this didn't sit right.
They had assumed
this would be an unimaginably dangerous battle—
that Kurosaki Ichigo might very well die here!
But in reality,
it looked like the audience had over-imagined things?
How was this a deadly battle?
This was clearly a tsundere girlfriend
stubbornly demanding to be noticed right in front of you!
Otherwise…
why did every one of White Ichigo's attacks—
why did every swing of the Zanpakutō
conveniently go off-target,
not even grazing a single strand of Kurosaki Ichigo's hair?
If that wasn't going easy on him, what was it?
It was obvious—
he was just venting,
trying to assert his own presence!!!
"Captain Zaraki…"
"Why do I get the feeling this is getting more and more ridiculous… Could it be that once this 'special training' is over—"
"Once Kurosaki Ichigo's consciousness returns to the real world,
his broken Zanpakutō will get repaired along with it?"
Madarame Ikkaku swallowed hard.
After seeing this scene,
a powerful sense of unease welled up in his heart.
He was worried about what would be waiting for Zaraki Kenpachi afterwards.
If it were anyone else,
the idea of "a Zanpakutō that repairs itself in the middle of a battle"
would sound utterly absurd.
But when it came to Kurosaki Ichigo,
it was practically a hundred percent guaranteed!
To that,
Zaraki Kenpachi only grinned ferociously.
Not only was he not worried in the slightest,
his eyes were shining with excitement:
"Ha! Ikkaku… you don't get it at all!"
"If that happens, this fight—this slaughter—
is just going to get even more fun!"
He bared his teeth,
smiling in delight.
Forget one life—
even if you gave Kurosaki Ichigo ten extra lives!
As long as the opponent was strong enough,
as long as they could bring him true ecstasy in combat,
a real blood-soaked slugfest instead of some limp scratch-fest—
then Zaraki Kenpachi didn't care in the slightest
who won in the end—
even if his future self ended up losing!
——
Meanwhile,
in the video,
under the audience's full attention,
even though he was suppressed at first,
Kurosaki Ichigo soon pulled himself together again.
Relying on his conviction, toughness,
and that ever-present desire to win,
he finally reversed the outcome.
He tore "Zangetsu" back out of White Ichigo's hands
and reclaimed his Zanpakutō!
With that,
the battle ended,
and White Ichigo's very first appearance on screen
came to a close.
After that,
the scene shifted.
Ichigo's consciousness withdrew from his inner world.
The video returned once more
to the battle that had been frozen just moments before.
At the same time,
the color that had drained away
when the image was paused now flowed back in.
The screen regained its brightness.
"…It's here?"
"The big moment is coming…"
"Kurosaki Ichigo, who by all rights should be on the verge of death…"
"Is about to fully revive again!!!"
Countless viewers
held their breath.
No one even blinked as they stared fixedly at the screen.
Sure enough—
Kenpachi Zaraki's departing back
suddenly halted mid-stride as he sensed something wrong, his brow furrowing deeply.
The camera followed his gaze
and swung back to the opposite side.
And then—
"Boom!!!"
A blast of spiritual pressure exploded from the spot.
Reiatsu erupted on the spot,
kicking up a storm of dust in the long, narrow corridor scarred by battle.
At the same time,
Kurosaki Ichigo—who should have been lying in a pool of blood,
his body gravely injured—
suddenly stood up in an instant!
The blood splattered all over the ground
was soon evaporated into a red mist by Aizen's swirling spiritual pressure.
On Ichigo's body,
his shihakushō flapped in the wind with no visible damage at all.
Even more outrageous—
the thing in his hand was no longer a broken sword hilt.
It was…
a Zanpakutō "Zangetsu" that glowed with light,
looking as if it had just come off the assembly line—a completely intact blade!!!
The sheer impact of this scene,
this blatant, in-your-face cheating resurrection,
was so over the top
that words couldn't even begin to describe the visual shock it gave the viewers.
People all over the world
once again let out a unified scream:
"Impossible…"
"His wounds closed up, he's not bleeding anymore, even his spiritual pressure feels like it's doubled!"
"The only place I've ever seen that kind of instant healing
was the Soul King's realm—Tenjiro Kirinji's blood hot springs!"
Even Captain Unohana Retsu,
who'd stayed calm until now, finally lost her composure.
No one understood it better than her—
even if she were standing on the battlefield in person,
using her thousand-year-mastered high-level Kaidō,
she might be able to preserve Ichigo's Hakusui and Saketsu,
but there was absolutely no way she could restore his fighting strength in an instant!
Let alone make him stronger than before!
"This is way too much…"
Behind her, Isane Kotetsu gasped in amazement.
"If every battle ended with something like this—
uh, wouldn't you just smack your opponent to death in one go?!"
As she blurted this out,
the screen showed Ichigo launching his counterattack.
Before Zaraki Kenpachi could even figure out what was happening,
Zangetsu's blade light had already carved a geyser of blood out of his body!
"Shraaah!!!"
With a single slash,
the difference in spiritual pressure disappeared—
Kenpachi's defense might as well not have existed.
In fact,
when faced with this "newly born" Zangetsu,
the so-called king of plain slashes' body
was as fragile as paper.
Each falling blow
brought another explosion of shock:
"Boom!!!"
The gashes on his body multiplied without end.
In just a few moments,
his shihakushō and captain's haori were soaked in blood.
The situation flipped in an instant—
Kenpachi Zaraki's injuries were now critical.
Meanwhile, Kurosaki Ichigo
didn't have a single new wound on him.
If the viewers
hadn't been watching from start to finish without a single break,
they absolutely would have been fooled—
they would have thought Kenpachi Zaraki
had been the weaker one all along!
Who would have expected that…
just a short while earlier,
he'd nearly killed Kurosaki Ichigo!
He almost ended the story of this world
three minutes ahead of schedule!!!
"Damn…"
"So who's the real king of plain slashes here?!"
"In front of Kurosaki Ichigo, Zaraki Kenpachi looks like a complete rookie!!!"
The audience was stunned.
Once again they got a taste of just how broken Ichigo's plug-in really was.
And it was a heavy slap in the face for all those "thick HP bars" out there.
If this had been anyone else,
just this one round of ferocious attacks
would have sent them straight to the grave!
"Tch…"
"How many years has it been?"
"It's been ages since the old man got carved up this badly!!!"
Even though he said it like he found it unacceptable,
Kenpachi Zaraki's eyes were shining.
Even through the screen,
he could feel how delighted his future self was.
This kind of blood-soaked, savage battle—
this pure showdown between Zanpakutō—
was exactly what Zaraki Kenpachi
had been chasing all these years!!!
In the end…
under the gaze of viewers all over the world,
two terrifying storms of spiritual pressure—
one blue, one golden—
crashed into each other.
Kurosaki Ichigo,
Zaraki Kenpachi—
the two of them swung their strongest slashes at the same time!
With a deafening explosion,
their figures were swallowed up
by the blazing light of the blast.
What sort of outcome this would lead to—
no one knew.
The video feed
also came to an end here,
temporarily drawing a line under this chapter!!!
(End of Chapter)
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