Seeing Ichigo Kurosaki appear, Chad raised a thumb in his direction.
Then he collapsed with a dull thud.
"Chad!" Ichigo Kurosaki cried out, but another figure arrived even faster.
Muten Natsu quickly checked Chad's condition. As expected of Chad, even after taking a direct punch from a Hollow, his injuries were only superficial.
The real issue was that his power had just awakened. Unable to control it yet, he had released all the Reiryoku stored in his body at once, leaving him completely drained. For now, unconsciousness was the only way his body could recover.
"Muten," Ichigo Kurosaki said as he carried his sister over to Chad's side. "How is he?"
"He's fine. He just needs to sleep for a while," Muten Natsu replied, then turned his gaze to someone who had arrived a moment later. "Orihime, I'll leave it to you."
"Leave it to me!" Orihime Inoue raised her hand toward Chad.
"Ayame, Shuno, Sōten Kisshun—I reject!"
A golden, oval-shaped barrier enveloped Chad's body. As light flowed within it, the injuries on his body healed rapidly, leaving behind not even the faintest scar.
Even though it wasn't the first time she had seen it, Rukia Kuchiki couldn't help but marvel at Orihime Inoue's ability. That level of healing far surpassed her own Kaidō by a wide margin.
Tatsuki Arisawa noticed Karin Kurosaki's teammates. Drawing on her experience teaching children at the dojo, she quickly calmed them down and gathered them around Rukia Kuchiki.
Rukia took out the Memory Replacement Device and put them into temporary sleep.
When they woke up, they would forget everything that had just happened.
As those with Reiryoku gathered in one place, even more Hollows began converging on the area.
Deep blue light flashed repeatedly, piercing through the Hollows and erasing them one by one.
"Looks like…" Uryū Ishida climbed up the stone steps. "This place should be fine now."
"You've got some nerve saying that!" Ririn, inside Rukia Kuchiki's Gigai, glared angrily at Uryū Ishida. "Who do you think caused this in the first place?!"
Blood dripped steadily from Uryū Ishida's fingertips.
"You're right," he said quietly. "These Hollows were indeed drawn here by me…"
"So it was you!" Ichigo Kurosaki grabbed Uryū Ishida by the collar. "Why would you do something like that? Do you have any idea how many people you could have gotten killed?!"
"I never intended to kill anyone," Uryū Ishida replied. His gaze passed over Ichigo Kurosaki and fixed on Muten Natsu. "Even if you did nothing, I would still fight to the death to protect everyone. Right in front of you, a Shinigami, I would protect everyone from Hollow attacks. If I couldn't do that, then this competition would have no meaning at all."
A Hollow suddenly dove down from the sky.
Uryū Ishida shoved Ichigo Kurosaki aside and summoned his Reishi bow, pulling back the bowstring.
Muten Natsu swung his blade with one hand. A sharp wave of blade pressure surged upward, splitting the Hollow cleanly in two.
"This competition was meaningless from the very beginning."
Uryū Ishida's eyes widened.
Though he didn't want to admit it, the long stretch of fighting had already severely drained his stamina and strength. At this point, he was only forcing himself to keep going.
He had assumed Muten Natsu was in a similar state. After all, Quincy fought at long range, while Shinigami relied on close combat. Even if Muten Natsu was stronger, his consumption should have been even greater.
But the power behind that single strike just now…
Not only had Muten Natsu's stamina not diminished, his strength was actually greater than before.
Rukia Kuchiki noticed the shock on Uryū Ishida's face and shook her head helplessly.
This was the terrifying nature of Soul Essence Stealing.
As long as he kept cutting down enemies, Muten Natsu's power would barely be consumed at all.
Back then, there had been no shortage of Shinigami who tried to exhaust Muten Natsu's stamina.
In the end, every one of them simply became part of his strength instead.
"You're looking for me to take revenge for the Quincies exterminated by the Shinigami?" Muten Natsu's black hair whipped wildly as the crimson Hell's Eye on his forehead burned bright, his expression like that of a demon. "I've killed more Shinigami than you've ever seen."
"If the Quincies were truly destroying the world, then their destruction would only be a matter of time." Uryū Ishida held his bow aloft. With no enemy directly in front of him, he casually chose a distant target and loosed an arrow, annihilating a Hollow far away. "Everything I've done isn't for the Quincies who are already gone. It's for my master."
Quincy Sōken Ishida.
He was Uryū Ishida's grandfather, and the man who taught him the ways of the Quincy.
As the last Quincy, Sōken Ishida was placed under strict surveillance by the Shinigami.
Even so, he never stopped explaining to them why the Quincy were necessary, nor did he stop searching for ways they could fight together.
The Shinigami spent most of their time in Soul Society. Their response to Hollows appearing in the World of the Living was simply too slow.
That was precisely why Quincy were needed. People who remained in the World of the Living, constantly watching for Hollows and able to react at a moment's notice.
But the Shinigami's answer was always the same.
[Do not interfere in our affairs.]
"In the end…" Uryū Ishida clenched his Reishi bow tightly. "My master died."
Uryū Ishida would never forget that day.
The day he hid behind a tree, trembling uncontrollably.
That day, there were five enormous Hollows. Without the Shinigami's support, Sōken Ishida never stood a chance against them.
Which was why…
Shinigami who stayed in Soul Society were far too slow to respond to Hollows in the World of the Living.
By the time the Shinigami finally arrived to exterminate the Hollows, Sōken Ishida had already been fighting alone for two full hours.
And Sōken Ishida…
Had already died an hour earlier.
In the end, the Shinigami still refused to accept his master's proposals. If they had been willing to listen, willing to acknowledge the Quincy's abilities, they could have arrived sooner to help him.
The transparent lenses of Uryū Ishida's glasses couldn't hide the grief spilling from his eyes.
"Then my master wouldn't have had to sacrifice himself."
Dense waves of Hollows regarded the group as a grand feast, closing in with terrifying roars.
When quantity reached a certain point, it caused a qualitative change. The Reiatsu released by countless Hollows blended together, making the very air grow thick and heavy.
Karin Kurosaki trembled, clinging helplessly to Ichigo Kurosaki's chest.
Rukia Kuchiki released her Reiatsu, shielding the unconscious children and Tatsuki Arisawa beside her.
"I have to prove it right in front of the Shinigami," Uryū Ishida said as he raised his arm and fired a Reishi arrow, erasing a Hollow. "I know you're different from the other Shinigami, and I don't expect you to be like the Quincy. But if you think I'm wrong, then stand there…"
"…and watch me carefully."
He charged alone into the sea of Hollows, his slender body looking even more fragile amid the towering figures surrounding him.
"I thought you were finally going to say something that made sense, so I listened for all that time." Muten Natsu walked up beside Uryū Ishida. "Turns out you just rambled on and still came to the wrong conclusion."
"If you want to prove your grandfather was right," Muten Natsu continued calmly, "I shouldn't be standing over there."
"I should be standing right here next to you."