An unexpected scene unfolded before everyone's eyes. Just as the blades of wind were about to reach him, Ichiro grabbed the guard beside him by the collar and pulled him in front of himself, using him as a shield!
Seeing the blood bloom across the guard's back, the enemy stared in bewilderment. What... was going on?
Weren't they on the same side? And wasn't I supposed to be the villain?
The enemy might have been stunned, but Ichiro, with his Absolute Reason, wasn't. As he watched the enemy's spiritual pressure surge several times over, Ichiro's eyes flickered. He placed his free left hand on his Zanpakuto. The Transmutation Circle, stained red with blood beneath his sleeve, glimmered faintly, and Ichiro's mind sank into his Zanpakuto's Mental World!
When Ichiro opened his eyes, he was already in a dark space. White specks of light drifted slowly down from the sky like snowflakes. Strangely, when you focused on one particular "snowflake," you could see something within it. It might be an animal, a building, or a natural landscape. Every "snowflake" was different.
In front of Ichiro stood a weeping girl dressed in white court robes. Though tears streamed down her face, they were tears of joy; behind them was an even brighter smile.
"Lord Ichiro... you're finally here..." The girl took a few steps forward, unable to contain herself. Overwhelmed by joy, she forgot that Ichiro, who could no longer even hear her voice, couldn't possibly have entered this place without her knowing.
She didn't even notice the coldness in Ichiro's eyes...
"Smack!"
As the girl looked on in disbelief, Ichiro clamped a hand around her throat and slowly lifted her up. The Transmutation Circle flashed and vanished, and Ichiro's figure disappeared with it...
After Ichiro left, the girl slumped to the ground and smiled bitterly. Now she understood why he had come in...
"Lord Ichiro... heh heh, hahaha... Lord Ichiro, hahaha, my lord, hahahahaha..."
This woman... had finally gone mad...
(Note: She hasn't actually gone mad!!! It's just a figure of speech, and this issue will be resolved in the next two chapters. Damn it, I get criticized for planting a plot thread that takes two hundred chapters to pay off, and I get criticized for one that takes fifty chapters. Now I plant one that takes two or three chapters and still get criticized... What the hell? Are newbies only allowed to write dull, straightforward stories?)
Outside, Ichiro's consciousness returned. He tossed the "human shield" aside, slowly got to his feet, and drew the Zanpakuto at his waist. His gaze lingered briefly on the cracks in its blade, but he paid them no mind. Holding the Zanpakuto with its tip pointing down, he looked at the enemy and declared without a trace of emotion, "Rebuild, World!"
A wondrous sight unfolded. Reishi light spread upward from the tip of the blade, gradually engulfing it completely. Its shape remained unchanged, but Ichiro's spiritual pressure, now more than triple what it had been, made it clear that this was Shikai!
The enemy became fully alert. No Zanpakuto could be underestimated. Just then, Urahara suddenly shouted, "Ichiro, that guy's an important fighter! Save him!"
At that, Ichiro casually slashed the guard, then charged at the enemy without expression.
Reishi light slowly appeared across the guard's back. When it faded, his injuries had miraculously disappeared!
The enemy's pupils contracted. A healing-type Zanpakuto? Or something else? As he wondered, he swung his Zanpakuto, sending a gust of wind toward Ichiro. Then he turned to block Urahara and Yoruichi's attacks, resuming their struggle while keeping a close eye on Ichiro's movements.
Meanwhile, facing the gale blowing straight at him, Ichiro casually swung his Zanpakuto, and the wind vanished as if it had never existed...
Rebuild, World: It can break down all things in the world into Reishi and reassemble them. It is similar to Reishi Alchemy, but stronger, because it can alter matter at its very foundation.
Even so, if Ichiro had to choose, he would still pick Alchemy, despite the Zanpakuto seeming more powerful. Of course, under normal circumstances, he wouldn't make such a crude choice.
The gale couldn't hinder Ichiro in the slightest. He quickly closed in on the enemy again, raised his Zanpakuto high, and brought it straight down at his head!
The enemy raised his blade to block!
The blade fell. His blade broke!
To the enemy's astonishment, Ichiro's blade swept through a flash of Reishi light, cutting through both his Zanpakuto and his spiritual-pressure defense. It carved a huge gash straight across his chest!
Blood flew wildly through the air. Ichiro turned his Zanpakuto in his hand, ready to finish him off, but halfway through the swing, the light on the blade dissipated and Shikai abruptly ended. Though the Zanpakuto still struck the enemy, the swing no longer flowed as smoothly as before, leaving only a shallow wound.
"Ha!" The enemy paused, then flashed a vicious grin and kicked Ichiro away. Just as he was about to press his attack—
"Bind him! Benihime!"
Bands of black-red spiritual pressure coiled around him, binding him firmly in place. To strengthen the restraint, Urahara took care to target his wounds, intensifying his pain!
"Play with fire, Benihime! Beaded Chain!"
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
A string of explosions worsened the enemy's injuries until he no longer had the strength to break free of Urahara's bindings. But the attack still wasn't over...
The moment the explosions stopped, Yoruichi suddenly appeared above him, her right fist raised high!
"Boom!"
"Gaaah!"
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Yoruichi's white-glowing fist rained down on the enemy without pause. The cracks in the ground, originally blasted open by Ichiro's explosives, began spreading even farther. If this continued, the whole area might collapse!
Fortunately, his body wasn't quite that durable. After a dozen or so punches, his round head flew high into the air, then landed on the ground. Yoruichi slowly stopped and sat on the corpse, panting.
They had won...
But it was a bitter victory...
Urahara was covered in sword wounds, some of them deep enough to expose the bone.
Aside from the sword wounds covering her body, Yoruichi's worst injuries were the severe burns on her hands. Though she had begun studying Shunko, it was still in its early stages and caused considerable damage to her body.
Ichiro had small muscle tears, widespread internal injuries, and several fractured bones. The enemy had died a little too soon; Ichiro hadn't completed Body Transmutation before he did. Then Absolute Reason ended, and his jumbled emotions returned. In that state, there was no way he could perform the precise Body Transmutation he needed.
Of course, the worst damage was to his Zanpakuto...
He'd made one mistake in this battle. Before using Absolute Reason, he'd gotten two settings wrong. First, he'd forgotten there was a guard on the battlefield who wasn't one of the students... which led to the blunder of using him as a human shield.
Second, he hadn't included his Zanpakuto in the settings either, which meant he'd crudely forced out the name of its Shikai and completely fallen out with it...
But only the three of them had suffered serious injuries. The guard had been unwillingly forced to take a slash for Ichiro, but afterward, Ichiro had healed most of his wounds. So he was actually the least injured of them all.
Just like in a movie, the moment the battle ended, the terrified academy guards arrived...
Meanwhile, elsewhere...
Before you continue