Ichigo shielded Nozomi Kujō as the shock wave of reiatsu erupting head-on sent them flying.
Their bodies rolled across the ground, smashing through a stretch of rubble before finally stopping.
Ichigo gritted his teeth and braced one hand against the ground, keeping his other arm in front of Nozomi Kujō.
"Are you all right?"
Nozomi Kujō looked a little pale, but she immediately glared at him.
"Worry about yourself first, you idiot."
Ichigo: ...
She could still insult people at a time like this.
She was probably fine.
In the distance.
Yoriichi and Reigai Yoriichi had their blades locked firmly together.
The two Hekyō were almost identical. Crimson-gold reiatsu continuously spread outward, scorching concentric black rings into the ground around them.
Reigai Yoriichi wore an incongruous smile.
"Just what I expected from the original."
"Your reactions are faster than the data suggested."
Yoriichi did not answer.
He simply raised his left hand and pressed it against Reigai Yoriichi's shoulder.
The next instant.
Crimson light flashed beneath his feet.
Nisshun.
Both figures vanished from the spot at once.
Boom!
A crimson-gold streak of light cut across the battlefield, dragging Reigai Yoriichi straight away from the Senkaimon administration office and hurtling into an open stretch of wasteland in the distance.
The residual Sun Reiatsu along their path burned into a long line of fire, forcing back every division member and Reigai that tried to approach.
Ichigo raised his head and watched the flames explode in the distance, his mouth twitching.
"Did he just haul himself away?"
Nozomi Kujō fell silent for a moment.
"That sounds very strange when you put it that way."
"But that's exactly what happened."
At the center of the battlefield.
Once Yoriichi forcibly took Reigai Yoriichi away, the space around Kagerōza abruptly emptied.
The crimson-gold reiatsu that had