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"Clang—!!!"
The sharp ring of metal echoed again and again.
High above Karakura Town, several figures crisscrossed the sky, Zanpakuto clashing as showers of sparks burst into the air.
"That's it?"
Yammy threw a crushing punch, detonating a barrage of Cero and shattering the pink cherry blossoms rushing toward him.
A mocking grin curled across his face.
"Kuchiki Byakuya…"
"With flowers like toys, who exactly are you trying to hurt? Looks like your ranking was padded pretty hard!"
His words dripped with ridicule.
After a brief exchange, Yammy no longer felt intimidated by the ranking list. His confidence swelled once more.
Reality had proven Ulquiorra right.
This wasn't the future. These two captains were still weak compared to what they would become.
They weren't worth fearing.
Across from him, Byakuya's expression darkened.
Silent by nature, he wanted nothing more than to refute Yammy's taunts. But the obvious disadvantage he was in left him without the confidence to do so.
"Damn it… the Espada are way stronger than we expected," Hitsugaya gritted out, his voice heavy with frustration and dread. "So the ranking video doesn't let time skip forward after all…"
His opponent was Ulquiorra.
That emotionless Arrancar with the sorrowful air, standing there with one hand in his pocket, tear marks unmoving.
What shocked Hitsugaya most was this—
No matter how many times he swung Hyorinmaru, no matter how violently the freezing mist or roaring ice dragons surged forward, Ulquiorra crushed it all with a single hand.
He didn't even bother to move.
"Hey! Arrancar!" Renji Abarai shouted from above, his face tense. "What's your rank among the Espada?!"
He and Matsumoto Rangiku had joined the fight as well.
Yet even three against one, they couldn't force Ulquiorra to use more than a single arm.
It was despairing.
"Fourth Espada," Ulquiorra replied calmly.
"The Black-Winged Demon… Ulquiorra Cifer."
He lifted his gaze slightly, eyes settling on Renji.
The contempt in them was absolute.
It was the look one gave to a piece of trash that happened to talk.
"Fourth?!" Renji's heart sank. "No wonder… a Vasto Lorde-class Arrancar…"
His grip on his Zanpakuto trembled.
Inside, he was screaming about his terrible luck.
Wasn't this supposed to be a sightseeing trip to the human world?
He thought he'd just stick close to Captain Kuchiki and coast through the mission.
Instead, the moment he arrived, he ran straight into a Vasto Lorde.
How could his luck be this bad?!
Renji nearly coughed up blood just thinking about it.
But he had underestimated Ulquiorra's cruelty and his resolve to kill.
"Sonído."
The sound still lingered in the air—
When Ulquiorra's body was already right in front of him.
A steel-hard, razor-sharp arm blade pierced straight through Renji's chest in an instant.
"Guh… you…"
Renji's pupils dilated violently.
As the searing pain exploded through his chest, his expression froze, fear replacing the wariness he had just moments before. The color drained from his face in an instant.
"Nameless Soul Reaper," Ulquiorra said coldly.
"Trash like you doesn't deserve to face me."
His eyes never shifted.
Twisting his arm, he shredded the flesh around the wound before pulling the blade free without emotion.
Then, with a casual flick—
Renji's body was sent flying like a kite with its string cut, plummeting from the sky and smashing straight into a high-rise building below.
"Renji!!!"
Seeing his lieutenant taken down in a single blow, Byakuya shouted, his composed façade finally cracking.
And in that brief moment of distraction—
That moment of hesitation gave his opponent the opening he needed.
"Byakuya Kuchiki," Yammy's savage grin came straight at him, "you should worry about your own life before you start caring about your subordinates!"
A burst of crimson light condensed in midair.
"That's… a Cero?!"
Even though Byakuya reacted instantly—
The blood-red beam had already blasted out from Yammy's palm, carrying a violent, overwhelming pressure. It surged forward like a torrent of molten steel, swallowing everything in its path.
There was no time to dodge.
Byakuya had only just begun to command the cherry blossom blades when his figure was completely engulfed by the scarlet flash.
And just like that—
In the span of only a few minutes,
The battle that had begun as a head-on clash took a sudden and dramatic turn.
No longer four against two.
For a brief moment, it reverted to two versus two.
And the Shinigami were now clearly at an absolute disadvantage.
Elsewhere.
Karakura Town, Karakura First High School.
"Dad!"
"Until you explain everything properly, the three of us are not leaving with you!" Ichigo's irritated voice rang out at the school gate.
At that moment,
Ichigo Kurosaki, Orihime Inoue, and Yasutora Chad stood shoulder to shoulder, united in front of the security gate as they confronted Isshin Kurosaki outside.
Isshin, meanwhile, was sweating bullets.
Faced with his son's questioning, he felt both exasperated and oddly amused, his face full of helpless frustration.
"Ichigo, there's no time to explain all that!"
"The Arrancar and the Shinigami are already fighting. We have to leave now, immediately!" Isshin shook his head and sighed, glancing toward the southeast. That was exactly where the Espada and the captain-level Shinigami were clashing.
"Arrancar?"
"Shinigami captains?"
"So you really do know everything!" Ichigo snapped. "Why did you hide it from me all these years?! And what did the so-called King of the Quincy mean by that?!"
At this point,
Ichigo still hadn't grasped how serious the situation truly was.
More than following his father's orders, he wanted answers. Too many questions had piled up over time, especially about his own mysterious origins.
"Ah… what an unfilial kid," Isshin muttered, his mouth twitching. "Why won't you just listen to your old man for once…"
Ichigo's stubborn refusal was draining what little patience he had left.
But then—
Something even worse happened.
"Hah… looks like I got lucky."
"Just like Szayelaporro guessed, you really are a human high schooler."
"Ichigo!"
A low, feral laugh roared down from above.
Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez descended from the sky.
And for reasons unknown—
Perhaps because of Isshin's presence, or perhaps because of the influence of those ranking videos—
At this exact point in time, when they shouldn't have been able to clearly perceive spiritual beings at all, Ichigo and the others looked up toward the source of the voice and actually saw Grimmjow's violent, predatory form.
"You're… Grimmjow?!" Ichigo cried out in shock.
They recognized him instantly.
The King of the Panthers was unforgettable, especially as one of the Espada who had appeared in those ranking videos.
"Tch. If you can recognize me," Grimmjow sneered, his sky-blue hair framing a face that grew steadily more vicious, "then you must've watched those videos. Which means you already know why I'm here."
He bared his perfectly aligned, razor-sharp fangs.
From above, his savage gaze locked onto Ichigo as he delivered his verdict with absolute certainty.
"Human. Stop struggling."
"The moment I showed up here, your fate was sealed."
"You're going back to Hueco Mundo as a prisoner."
The killing intent in his voice was cold and unmistakable.
It was a death sentence for what awaited Ichigo next.
At the same time.
Just as chaos erupted in the World of the Living—
The transparent screen flickered back to life.
Static filled the display before the interrupted footage resumed.
And new subtitles appeared.
The instant anyone saw what was written, everyone reacted with the exact same stunned cry.
"What?!"
"No way!"
"The fifth place on the ranking… it's him?!"
"..."
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