"I'm going too!"
Watching Shiba Kaien rush into battle, Rukia immediately prepared to follow, but before she could use Flash Step, Gaoyu pressed her back down.
"Calm down."
Gaoyu said softly, "With your current strength, you'd only get in the way if you went up there."
"But, I..." Rukia was worked up, but when she looked at Gaoyu, she couldn't bring herself to say anything more.
If Gaoyu hadn't been there just now, she would definitely have died at that Hollow's hands!
Only after Gaoyu saw that Rukia had quieted down did he narrow his eyes.
White...
Why had it attacked Rukia?
It was as if something were pulling it toward her. It seemed to have a special desire for Rukia.
"Stay here. Don't move. I'll go see what's happening up there."
In the next instant, Gaoyu's eyes widened. Then he spoke.
He sensed Jūshirō Ukitake's Spiritual Power above them. At that moment, Ukitake's Spiritual Power was rapidly weakening.
That sickly man had definitely suffered another attack during his fight with White. Surely White wouldn't be able to finish him off in one blow, would it?
Fortunately, he'd healed Shiba Kaien. Now that Kaien could take over, Ukitake wouldn't be killed.
"Captain Ukitake!"
Rukia quickly sensed that Ukitake's Spiritual Power had become extremely weak, and immediately grew agitated again.
Gaoyu frowned. "Don't move around. I'll go take a look."
He leaped upward, then flashed to the mountaintop.
On the mountain, Shiba Kaien had resumed fighting White.
Ukitake was standing off to the side, clutching his chest. A bloody hole gaped in it, making it look as though White had punched right through him.
Even after a grueling battle of attrition, White showed no sign of tiring. If anything, it seemed to grow stronger the longer it fought.
"!"
As White