At that moment.
Chiba Makoto's wound, which had nearly taken half his chest, was still healing, yet a shocking, gaping hole remained...
At that very moment, an icy, furious voice rang out, followed by a streak of white light.
"Shoot him dead! Shinso!"
In the next instant, the white streak slammed into the Adjuchas's descending foot.
"Clang!"
A piercing sound exploded before Chiba Makoto, jolting his still somewhat blank consciousness fully awake while barely knocking the Adjuchas's descending foot off course. It narrowly grazed past Chiba Makoto's head.
The Adjuchas turned its gaze toward the rapidly retracting white streak. Its source was none other than Ichimaru Gin in the distance, his face still pale as he knelt weakly on one knee.
But the Adjuchas twisted its inverted head and simply ignored Ichimaru Gin, returning its attention to the hateful Soul Reaper before it.
That stab... had to be repaid first!
Immediately, the Adjuchas raised its tail, lined with segments of bony joints, and thrust it once more toward Chiba Makoto. Through the gaping wound in his chest, his heart seemed to be slowly beginning to beat again.
Thump, thump, thump...
As the spike-like tail came down, the flow of blood caused Chiba Makoto's nearly scattered pupils to refocus.
"Die..."
The Adjuchas let out a bizarre, terrifying layered shriek, as if venting some humiliation and hatred, filled with rare delight.
However...
"Bang!"
The tail that had effortlessly snapped the lance formed by the Tenth Division Third Seat's Zanpakuto Shikai, then skewered the Tenth Division Third Seat like a candied hawthorn, was blocked by something!
A tremendous impact erupted, smoke billowing out before rapidly dispersing...
The red-glowing eyes of the Adjuchas flashed with utter confusion. Through the thinning smoke, it stared in shock at Chiba Makoto, who had casually stopped its tail