Like a Coward

Before Isshin Kurosaki could get within five meters.

Kurosaki Masaki merely extended a finger and lightly pressed downward.

A terrifying pressure of Spirit Particles descended from the sky.

Thud!

Isshin Kurosaki did not even have time to react. It was as if a mountain had crushed him, forcing him to his knees in an instant and smashing his cheek heavily against the cold stone slabs. He could not even move a finger.

"A monster? A Hollow?"

Kurosaki Masaki walked up to him and looked down at the man she had once loved. Her eyes held nothing but ridicule and pity.

"I really have become an obedient dog, but..."

"You, who are willing to cooperate with the murderer who killed your own wife just to fight True King's Palace..."

"What exactly are you?"

"Isshin Shiba, do you know?"

Kurosaki Masaki slowly crouched down and whispered into Isshin Kurosaki's ear, her voice like a devil's curse:

"One month ago, when you were beaten like a dead dog at the outskirts of Hueco Mundo and lay there pretending to be dead, I was on the nearby sand dune, watching you coldly."

"If you had shown even a little backbone then, if you had crawled toward True King's Palace just to see me, I might have still had a sliver of hope for you. I might even have met you."

"But you didn't."

"You lay there like a coward. I don't know whether your spine had been broken or whether you simply didn't know what to do."

"You're just like me. You have no ability, and no courage to resist."

At that moment, as she looked at the man she had nearly crushed to death, Kurosaki Masaki realized that her heart, already riddled with wounds, truly could no longer stir even the slightest ripple.