Urahara had told Yoruichi the same thing Ichiro had told him. The two of them kept stringing each other along, and even this shipper was getting impatient!
Compared to his good buddy's happiness (or sex life), a little PDA was nothing!
Emmm, maybe it wasn't just a little?
Unfortunately, though the two had grown closer after that, they still hadn't crossed that line or made their relationship official. Maybe they weren't ready. Maybe they were afraid to face it. Or maybe it was because of their families...
Ichiro hadn't asked about the specifics. Even an honest judge found it hard to settle family disputes, and besides, he had more important things to do—prepare for battle!
Ichiro hadn't forgotten the Captain's warning that day. These past few days, they'd been using the academy's secret passage to get to the underground training space.
Although the Captain had said the academy was safe, anything could happen. Especially when it came to a rebellion that was doomed to fail. When people were staring death in the face, they'd do anything.
Yes, Ichiro believed this rebellion was bound to fail. Come on, unless the Head Captain led the rebellion himself, who could make waves in front of the strongest person in Soul Society?
So even with the Captain's assurance, Ichiro still had to be prepared for anything.
For example, right now...
After class that morning, Ichiro and the others were walking leisurely toward the cafeteria as usual when a sudden wave of screams came from ahead. Students were fleeing toward them in a steady stream.
The three exchanged glances and frowned. Urahara put his right hand on the Zanpakuto at his waist. Yoruichi nodded to them both, then vanished from the spot. At the same time, the Transmutation Circle in Ichiro's sleeve lit up, and two silver automatic pistols appeared in his hands. A pair of square glasses appeared on the bridge of his nose, too.
He pushed up his glasses, and his figure vanished in an instant!
A few minutes earlier...
Dozens of Soul Reapers suddenly appeared on campus, Zanpakuto in hand. They glanced at the stunned students, seemed to spot their target, then charged at a girl with sinister grins!
Clang!
Just then, a Soul Reaper dressed in black appeared and blocked their leader, his face fierce.
"Do you know what you're doing?"
"Of course we do! Don't get in our way! The young lady of the Kuchiki Clan, huh? That's exactly who we're here for! Get him!"
"You're asking for death!" Though he said that, the man in black clearly lacked confidence. The young lady he was protecting belonged to the Kuchiki Clan, the foremost of the Five Great Noble Clans, but she was only a member of a branch family. And since they were at school, she had only one bodyguard. At his level, he could handle two or three enemies, more or less. But this many...
Shing!
But the young lady behind him wasn't just a pretty ornament. She immediately drew the Zanpakuto at her waist, raised it, and stared at them intently!
Clang—clatter!
But in a single exchange, her sword was knocked away, and the enemy's killing intent and spiritual pressure left her frozen in place!
Well, she was a pretty ornament who didn't want to be one...
"Miss!"
"You've still got time to worry about her? You're dead!" A fierce glint flashed in the leader's eyes. He raised his Zanpakuto high and, with his allies covering him, brought it down from the side!
At that critical moment, a gunshot suddenly rang out!
Bang!
Clang!
"Who?!" Squelch— The leader had barely spoken when a blade tip suddenly emerged from his chest. Before he could turn to see who had killed him, pain struck the back of his head, and he lost consciousness for good. As he died, only Yoruichi's cold voice echoed in his mind...
"Hadō #4: Byakurai!"
"What..."
Bang!
"Bind, Benihime!"
Black-and-red bands suddenly shot out from nearby. But they didn't bind the attacking Soul Reapers. Instead, they wrapped tightly around the young lady of the Kuchiki Clan, leaving not a single gap. Layer upon layer formed an exceptionally thick barrier of spiritual pressure.
The three had a clear goal in this fight: keep the young lady of the Kuchiki Clan safe. Nothing else mattered much.
If the young lady of the Kuchiki Clan died here, it would be a serious matter, even if she was only from a branch family. And Yoruichi's Shihoin Clan was also one of the Four Great Noble Houses. As the next head of the Shihoin Clan, Yoruichi couldn't just pretend she hadn't seen this.
Since Yoruichi had joined the fight, there was no way Ichiro and the others would just stand by and watch.
"Yoruichi, should I kill them?" Ichiro held a pistol in each hand, nudged his glasses up, then slowly walked in front of the bound young lady and coldly watched the dozens of Soul Reapers.
"Can you do it?"
"No problem. Killing people only takes one shot."
"Then kill them! Anyone who dares attack the Five Great Noble Clans—and their masters—won't survive!"
"Understood."
With that, Ichiro raised both pistols. Seeing the enemy Soul Reapers intently watching his gun barrels, he gave a slight smile and began pulling the triggers again and again!
At the same time, a pill melted in his mouth. Countless molecules dispersed, then surged toward his brain, making it intensely active!
The drug pushed his neural reflexes and thought speed to the limit of what his body could handle. In Ichiro's eyes, the world nearly ground to a halt—including the bullets he had just fired!
Look closely, and faint Kido markings could be seen on the bullets.
Meanwhile, thanks to the self-suggestion he'd practiced many times before, streams of data seemed to slide across his lenses, calculating the positions of every enemy he needed to kill and the most suitable trajectories for his shots.
At last, the Kido markings on the bullets glimmered and burst, changing their trajectories!
Some bullets burst once, others twice, but none more than three times. Any more, and the bullets would lose most of their power.
Bang, bang, bang...
Time seemed to pass slowly for Ichiro, but to Yoruichi and the others, only seven or eight seconds went by—the time it took to fire a few dozen shots!
All Yoruichi and the others saw was a flash of sparks in the air, followed by the enemies arranged in a fan-shaped formation falling one after another!
Each person was hit in a different place. Some were struck between the eyebrows, others in the temple, and some in the neck. The most unbelievable case was a man near the back, shot through the heart from behind!
Trajectory calculation had been Ichiro's signature skill in his previous life. Of course, it hadn't been this absurd back then. His calculations had relied on complex terrain—in simple terms, he used ricochets to turn a bullet's straight path into a zigzag, making its trajectory more unpredictable. He called it the Magic Bullet!
But in this life, with Kido and Kyoshin Pill, trajectory calculation had become even more outrageous. He could change a bullet's trajectory out of thin air!
That was where Ichiro's words came from: he wasn't good at fighting, but he was good at killing!
By "fighting," he meant facing someone evenly matched or even stronger!
They could block bullets with their own defenses, or their swordsmanship could be so strong that they could cut bullets out of the air. Against people like that, even the most unpredictable trajectory was useless. He could only defeat them with Kido or Hakuda.
So Ichiro wasn't good at fighting. But killing was different. If one shot could do the job, he'd kill as many as came his way!
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