Wake Up!

"Teacher Aizen, since Ross has brainwashed you, if you still insist on standing in my way... my blade will cut you down along with him!"

Kurosaki Ichigo took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the ache in his heart as he slowly raised his two Zangetsu. The pitch-black blades pointed straight at Aizen and Ross.

"Relax. I have no interest in stopping your reckless boar charge."

Aizen chuckled softly and took half a step back, yielding the stage.

His gaze fell upon Kurosaki Masaki, who had been standing like an ice sculpture all this time, his tone teasing.

"But before that... how do you plan to get past her?"

Kurosaki Masaki simply floated silently in midair, blocking the space between Ichigo and Ross.

She had not drawn a weapon, yet the oppressive sensation of her absolute control over the surrounding Spirit Particles was like a wall, preventing Ichigo from getting even a fraction closer to Ross.

Her attitude had already become utterly resolute.

"No matter what... no matter who stands before me, I'll defeat them."

Kurosaki Ichigo bit through his lip, blood dripping down his chin as his voice trembled with icy coldness.

"Why must you always do such meaningless and foolish things?"

For the first time, an extremely faint sigh escaped Kurosaki Masaki's expressionless face.

"Ichigo, do you really think that with your half-baked strength, you can cross my line of defense?"

"Whether I can cross it or not, I have to try to know! If I keep cowering in the back, making excuses to run away, then I'll never even get the chance to swing my sword!"

Kurosaki Ichigo looked at the woman before him with an incomparably complicated expression.

Back in the Human World, she had smiled as she stroked his head, telling him that he was the