Reiatsu soared into the sky.
Following his Bankai, Kensei Muguruma held a serrated blade in each hand.
Treads wrapped around his arms and connected across his back, passing under his armpits to form a suit of armor.
While the visual spectacle wasn’t overwhelming, the Reiatsu was undeniably that of a Captain!
“As I thought, you’re the only one with a Bankai, Kensei.”
Below, Ichigo exerted a slight force with his right hand.
High above, Love Aikawa felt a massive surge of power strike him, sending him tumbling backward uncontrollably.
The giant mace in his hand began to develop several cracks.
“Hmph!”
Two plumes of smoke erupted from his nostrils as Kensei Muguruma lunged forward, throwing a direct punch toward Ichigo’s face!
“Hey!”
Seeing the attack coming, Ichigo didn’t waste words.
He slid the short blade back into his belt and channeled power into his left hand, swinging a punch.
He actually intended to clash with Kensei Muguruma’s serrated blades with nothing but his bare fist!
“Waaaah!!”
As Rikka danced overhead, Orihime couldn’t help but scream at Ichigo’s reckless move.
Her power activated, attempting to manifest the Santen Kesshun to help defend him.
“Don’t panic, Orihime.” Shinji had somehow slipped away from the battlefield and appeared beside them.
“That guy is a monster; you can’t judge him by common sense.”
Spiritual energy poured into his blood vessels, and a light-colored, branch-like pattern appeared on Ichigo’s left hand.
Without any flashy display, his fist collided head-on with the serrated blade.
Boom!
A massive roar erupted.
Unexpectedly, Ichigo’s fist remained unscathed, while Kensei was sent flying backward.
This time, he didn’t just slide a few dozen meters; he slammed directly into a wall hundreds of meters away before finally coming to a stop.
“Gah…”
With his eyes rolled back and foam at his mouth, Kensei lay there.
The armor on his back had provided no benefit; instead, it had only aggravated his injuries.
As he had predicted, he didn’t last very long.
“Now!”
However, the moment Kensei was blown away, the other seven launched their attacks in unison.
This time, she didn’t dive from the sky; instead, she appeared right in front of Ichigo and delivered a powerful horizontal slash.
A red Cero had already finished condensing.
Not far away, Mashiro Kuna repaired her mask and poured all her Reiatsu into the attack.
Beside her, Hachigen Ushōda pressed his palms together, and countless orange cubes appeared in front of him, ready to fire simultaneously with the Cero.
A whip, missing a third of its length, lashed out.
Though his suit was in tatters and he looked disheveled, Rōjūrō Ōtoribashi was largely unharmed.
Beside him, Love Aikawa had finished charging his power and once again struck from above, slamming his mace down with violent force.
Swish!
A familiar whistling sound tore through the air.
Lisa Yadōmaru was relentless, thrusting her spear in a strike from Ichigo’s flank.
At the final moment, Shinji joined the fray, his Zanpakutō already transformed.
The end of the hilt had become a circle, and gripping the blade, he slashed toward Ichigo.
An instant before the seven attacks landed, a fragrance wafted through the air.
Except for Shinji Hirako, everyone’s vision shifted.
Up became down, left became right, front became back—everything was inverted.
In the heat of a fierce battle, such a sudden change was fatal for most.
Losing one’s sight is one thing, but when the world flips, the brain struggles to process the information, leading to a total breakdown in coordination.
However, the Visoreds had already launched their attacks, and in that split second, they had all instinctively closed their eyes.
They weren’t affected in the slightest, proving they had practiced this coordination countless times.
But Ichigo, the target of the onslaught, simply ignored the visual distortion.
To him, it didn’t matter where the attacks came from or what form they took; they were entirely meaningless.
“This kind of attack is useless.”
The words whispered in their ears like a demon’s murmur, causing the Visoreds to shudder as shadows from years past resurfaced in their minds.
“Getsuga—”
At some point, his left hand had gripped the short blade again.
He crossed his arms over his shoulders, and his Reiatsu spiked violently.
A golden light erupted from the tip of the blade.
Unlike before, this was no longer a simple sword pressure.
“Tenshō!”
A golden crescent slash seemed to envelop the entire world.
Whether the attacks came from the front, back, sides, or sky, they were all swallowed by the two massive golden slashes.
In an instant, gold became the only color in existence within that space.
The seven Visoreds all lay sprawled on the ground.
Their clothes weren’t heavily torn, and their wounds were shallow and small.
“Still not pure enough,” Ichigo said, standing in the center and shaking his head with a sigh.
“After all this time, is this still the best you can do?”
“You bastard…”
“How are you guys supposed to fight Aizen like this?
Huh?” Ichigo continued to taunt them.
“Forget it.
Just wait for me to take down the Seireitei, and I’ll give you two streets of your own as payment for all these years of training me.”
“You…”
“If that’s not enough, I’ll give you two more.
It’s not like I’m short on space.”
“Ugh…!”
Nearly choking on his own breath, Shinji found himself unable to retort.
Heavens knew how the polite little kid who had asked for their guidance years ago had turned into this…
As he thought this, the image of a dark-skinned woman appeared in Shinji’s mind.
‘It’s definitely that woman!
It has to be!’
…
After the battle, Orihime and Hachigen Ushōda treated the Visoreds.
Ichigo’s control over the intensity of his strikes was as impressive as his ability to taunt; aside from Kensei Muguruma, almost none of them had serious injuries.
…Why was Kensei the exception?
Ichigo figured that since Kensei was the only one who used Bankai every time—and the only one who could—he deserved a little “special attention.”
Although their abilities were similar in nature, Orihime far surpassed Hachigen Ushōda in terms of raw healing power.
Hachigen’s ability did almost nothing for actual healing; it could only slow the deterioration of a wound.
For true recovery, one would have to use a Shinigami’s Kaidō.
This was one of the reasons why the Visoreds’ progress had been so limited over the past century in the human world.
Without proper healing, any accident during training could become a disaster.
The Visoreds were awestruck by Orihime’s healing abilities.
When she first tried to treat Kensei Muguruma, she was powerless because Ichigo’s Reiatsu still lingered on him.
But once Ichigo actively withdrew his Reiatsu, Kensei—who had been severely injured with countless broken bones—was back on his feet in no time.
Although his Reiatsu didn’t instantly refill, such a rapid healing ability was unmatched, even within the Gotei 13.