The One Who Was Going to Get Taken Out

"Oh. I don't know what's going on, but thanks for showing us the way, Chizuru!"

Ichigo kicked an armored figure away and shouted over his shoulder at Renji and the others, "Everyone, follow Chizuru!"

"This way!"

Chizuru shouted softly. Snow Fang in her hand slashed a fierce white line through the air, cutting an onrushing wax figure in half. She charged straight toward a wall on the left side of the corridor.

Ishida's brows drew together slightly. Is she fighting purely by using spiritual power?

That was quite unusual.

Under everyone's astonished gazes, ripples spread across the concrete wall like splashing water, and Chizuru's figure vanished into it.

"Damn it! That bastard didn't prepare a path for us at all!"

Ichigo grumbled, exchanged a glance with Renji, knocked back the monsters closing in around them, and followed Chizuru into the wall.

There was no resistance whatsoever. After passing through the wall, the scene before them suddenly opened up. The narrow, gloomy corridor vanished, replaced by a broad staircase leading to the upper floor.

Ishida looked up at the stairs. "I see. Those guys have been deceiving our eyes with illusions from the very beginning."

"Hey, Chizuru." Ichigo asked in surprise, "How did you know?"

They had clearly been going around in circles.

Chizuru gently closed her eyes. "The direction of the wind."

"The wind in the corridor blows inward from outside. Here, it blows outward from inside."

Ichigo imitated her and closed his eyes. "The direction of the wind..."

Three seconds later, he opened his eyes and said blankly, "I can't feel anything."

He could not even sense the wind's direction, let alone anything else. He had not noticed anything strange about the spiritual pressure either, aside from a faint sense of incongruity at most.

Ishida calmly pushed up his