"!!!"
"Ichigo Kurosaki… actually… got killed?!"
In that instant,
when everyone watched with their own eyes as Ichigo's figure on the screen—
his eyes empty, collapsing in despair, his spiritual pressure completely dispersed—
the entire world of the Shinigami shuddered.
Shinigami, Hollows, Quincies, and ordinary viewers alike…
Almost every single person
stared, dumbfounded, completely shaken by this scene!
Wait a second…
Isn't he supposed to be the cheat-level protagonist?
Isn't he stacked with so many hacks and plot armor that you can't even count them?
How is it possible…
that he just gets killed this easily?! That was way too sudden!
What shocked everyone even more was…
there had barely been any gap at all between the end of the last fight
and Ulquiorra suddenly appearing on the scene to intercept Ichigo.
There wasn't even any time in between.
The audience hadn't even gotten the chance
to properly discuss the previous battle yet—
and in the blink of an eye,
Ichigo Kurosaki was dead!!!
The reversal was so abrupt that no one could react in time.
Which was exactly why, in that moment,
the entire world was stunned.
Everyone's faces were filled with disbelief.
"???"
"Ichigo Kurosaki is dead!"
"Don't tell me… the countdown video is going to end early? That can't be possible!!!"
Inside the First Division barracks,
Ōmaeda gulped in horror, his whole body shaking.
Everyone knew—
"Zangetsu" was ranked number one!
It had already been revealed as the strongest Zanpakutō!
And this current round of ranking,
which revolved around Ichigo Kurosaki's growth,
was at the same time gradually revealing
the events of the Thousand-Year Blood War
and the ultimate ending of the entire Bleach story!
But now…
the main character had just been one-shot!
In that case,
how was the ranking supposed to continue?
They couldn't seriously keep doing a countdown
centered on a corpse, right?
And on top of that…
as the dark red spiritual pressure on the screen
continued to leak out of Ichigo's body one strand after another,
his aura, already on the brink of death,
fell to rock bottom.
At this rate, it wouldn't take long before
even the remaining scraps of his shihakushō,
along with his Zanpakutō…
would completely disappear, regressing into nothing.
Under circumstances like this,
this whole round of the ranking clearly couldn't go on!
Unless…
some miracle suddenly occurred!
Unless Ichigo Kurosaki somehow came back from the dead!!!
"…"
Up on the main seat,
the Captain-Commander sat in heavy silence.
In his aged and deep-set eyes,
there was the same horrified look as everyone else—
he could no longer remain calm.
Over this period of time,
as this round of the ranking continued to play,
the Captain-Commander had come to recognize
more and more admirable traits in Ichigo Kurosaki.
So much so that
his previous prejudice against humans in general
had completely changed! He no longer held the same rejection and bias!
In fact…
because of the Zanpakutō "Zangetsu,"
he had already started to regard Ichigo Kurosaki
as one of the Shinigami himself.
In meaning,
and in standpoint,
their fates were now tied with the Gotei 13.
They would advance and retreat together.
From the bottom of his heart,
the old man already saw Ichigo as "one of us."
Therefore,
the scene unfolding before his eyes
naturally caused the Captain-Commander genuine heartache.
He could hardly bear to keep watching.
At the same time…
a doubt rose in the old man's heart:
Previously, hadn't it been clearly shown that
whenever any enemy blasted a hole through Ichigo's body,
then,
as the ultimate cheat,
the Hollow Ichigo who coexisted with his soul,
that personal nanny of his—
would always show up?
So why this time,
when even his Zanpakutō Zangetsu
was about to revert and disappear…
did that Hollow simply not show up at all?
As Zangetsu's inner spirit,
there was no way it would just sit by
and feel nothing in a situation like this, right?
This question
wasn't just in the Captain-Commander's mind.
The other captains were all shaking their heads as well,
utterly confused.
The only explanation anyone could come up with was—
Ichigo Kurosaki must have forgotten to pay his subscription fee.
His cheat functions had expired and were temporarily unavailable!
In any case,
this scene—
the main character being cut down and solo-killed—
left every Shinigami both shocked
and filled with regret and helplessness.
———
Meanwhile,
over in Las Noches,
the atmosphere was the exact opposite—
a wild celebration.
"Are you kidding me?!"
"Ichigo Kurosaki… really got killed?"
"Ulquiorra, you're something else! That was insane!!!"
"Damn, killing the protagonist… even Lord Aizen and Yhwach never managed that!!"
"Our Arrancar army
finally has its brightest moment!!!"
First came shock,
then a second wave of disbelief,
and finally… pure ecstasy! The whole group burst out cheering!
This solo kill on the protagonist
was too much of a morale boost!
Especially when you considered that, not long ago,
in his previous "dungeon run" into Soul Society,
Ichigo had taken all three routes and cleared the place—
he'd defeated so many captains in a row!
Yet now,
he had just invaded Hueco Mundo,
hadn't even fully reached the Las Noches area yet,
and then like this—
in front of the entire world—
he was brutally killed by Ulquiorra!
Faced with this kind of plot development,
forget just the Arrancar—
even Aizen's trio
had stunned looks on their faces.
At this moment,
all three of them were visibly taken aback.
Clearly, none of them had expected
that Ichigo Kurosaki could actually be killed.
"Yare yare…"
"Ulquiorra has already turned away in that tower."
"Ichigo Kurosaki's corpse has just been tossed aside like that.
I guess he's finally done and dusted, huh?"
Gin Ichimaru narrowed his eyes,
gazing straight at the screen as he spoke.
And indeed,
just as he said:
after Ulquiorra turned and left,
there was no longer a single outsider in the frame.
The video camera focused in on Ichigo Kurosaki's face.
Through his fully dilated pupils,
it was clearly confirmed that his consciousness was gone.
He really was dead!
No doubt about it.
However…
even though he was surprised as well,
Aizen, seated on the throne,
just lightly shook his head and replied calmly:
"No…"
"Gin, don't jump to conclusions so easily."
"In my opinion, what we're seeing here
is nothing more than a setup for the third layer of foreshadowing."
"Foreshadowing?"
Hearing this,
Kaname Tosen frowned in confusion.
"Lord Aizen… I don't quite understand what you mean."
"Are you saying that Ichigo Kurosaki…
can still be resurrected by some external power?"
"That's right…" Aizen nodded, neither confirming nor denying,
his tone carrying a quiet certainty.
"Don't forget that woman—Ichigo Kurosaki's companion."
"If her ability is truly powerful enough
to rival the Hōgyoku…"
"Or even to trespass into the forbidden realm of the gods…"
"Then reviving Ichigo Kurosaki is not impossible!!!"
Even though these words
sounded utterly absurd, completely at odds
with the common sense of the Bleach world—
for thousands of years,
the rules of the world,
including life and death, had never been violated like that—
even so,
Aizen trusted his own eye for talent
and his own intellect.
He would never, for no reason,
take a mere human girl
and personally bring her back to Las Noches.
So clearly,
Inoue Orihime's abilities
had to be extraordinary—
so astonishing that they could shake the world,
even stun all of existence.
Otherwise,
aside from that possibility,
even Aizen couldn't imagine any other heaven-defying power
that could bring Ichigo Kurosaki back from the dead.
"Tut tut…"
"So even the woman at his side
might be yet another stacked cheat?"
"This protagonist Ichigo Kurosaki's treatment
is getting more and more ridiculous…"
"He's definitely the video author's biological son, right?"
Gin Ichimaru teased with a smile.
If in a moment,
Aizen's conjecture actually came true—
if Ichigo Kurosaki really did get resurrected
through Inoue Orihime's ability—
then…
Gin felt that Yhwach and the Wandenreich
might as well just raise the white flag and surrender.
With a resurrection hack like that,
a portable fountain,
permanent healing—
how were pureblood Quincies
supposed to fight Ichigo Kurosaki?
Unless
Yhwach had some even more terrifying power
that hadn't been revealed yet.
Otherwise, with a flying dragon mounted on your face,
how could you possibly lose?
Ichigo Kurosaki would be invincible in every direction!!!
———
Later,
just as the audience
still hadn't finished recovering from the shock,
and had collectively decided
that Ichigo Kurosaki was completely done for,
right then,
the video suddenly jumped.
After a dizzying series of cuts,
the image finally stabilized—
and the very first thing that came through
was Grimmjow's voice,
ringing out in a commanding tone,
right at the place where Ichigo had died.
Out of nowhere, without warning,
his words hit like a thunderclap:
"Woman…"
"Fix him up!!!"
The camera shifted.
We could see Grimmjow sitting off to the side.
Right in front of him,
kneeling at Ichigo Kurosaki's side,
was Inoue Orihime's figure,
half-crouched as she prepared to use her ability.
The moment this scene appeared,
especially Grimmjow's line,
once it was broadcast worldwide through the ranking video,
it instantly caused a massive uproar.
Inside Las Noches,
the entire Arrancar army was completely dumbfounded.
"???"
"Did we hear that right?"
"Did Grimmjow just say… to heal Ichigo Kurosaki's corpse?!"
"Putting aside whether something like that
can even be done or not…"
"The real issue is this—
he's healing the enemy,
and not just any enemy, but the very opponent
who defeated him before!"
"Is Grimmjow out of his mind or what?"
"Only an idiot would do something like that!"
For a brief second, everyone froze.
Then, once it sank in,
the Hollows and Arrancar all turned their heads
in unison.
Their eyes were filled with fiery suspicion
as they stared at Grimmjow.
It's over…!!
There's a mole!!!
So those previous two battles
between Grimmjow and Ichigo Kurosaki
were obviously staged!
Good grief…
Who would have thought?
Grimmjow had been hiding so deeply all this time.
More than likely, he was the mole
that the Shinigami had planted in Hueco Mundo—
specifically tasked with secretly protecting the main cast
and clashing with the other Espada from the shadows!
Working in reverse, saving people!!!
Now,
thanks to the ranking video,
his identity had finally been exposed ahead of time!!!
"I remember now!"
"No wonder, back in the Zanpakutō 'Benihime' ranking,
Grimmjow ended up cooperating so smoothly with Kisuke Urahara!"
"So he'd already started acting as a mole since this point!!!"
"No wonder he was the only one
who managed to live all the way to the Thousand-Year Blood War arc!!!"
Yammy—whose brain usually ran on a single track—
suddenly had a flash of genius.
He instantly dug up evidence
from the earlier rankings
that Grimmjow was, in fact, the traitor.
The signs had been there all along!
And combined with the current scene—
Grimmjow actively bringing someone in
to resurrect Ichigo Kurosaki—
"Grimmjow…"
"How are you going to explain this?"
Nnoitra, gripping his scythe,
grinned viciously and jumped at the chance
to kick him while he was down.
"Clearly Ichigo Kurosaki was dead and gone,
yet you just had to go out of your way
to make him come back to life…"
"Isn't that obviously causing trouble for Lord Aizen?"
With one giant hat slapped on his head,
and Aizen's name dragged out as a threat,
the rest of the Hollows
all turned their hostile gazes onto Grimmjow.
They stared at him
like they were surrounding a traitor of Hueco Mundo.
"I…"
Grimmjow was speechless.
"You're not seriously telling me…"
"That you let your own woman go revive Ichigo Kurosaki,
just so the guy at full health
can beat you up a third time, right?"
"What kind of god-forsaken move is that supposed to be?!"
"You'd have to be suffering from a thousand-year brain clot
to be dumb enough to do this!!!"
For the first time in his life,
Grimmjow actually felt ashamed.
He'd been struck by lightning
by the sheer stupidity of his future self.
He never imagined…
after watching so many rounds of the rankings,
it would turn out that the biggest mole in Hueco Mundo
was actually him!!!
On the other side,
in the world of the living, inside the Urahara Shop—
as Ichigo's "family" members,
the four-person team of Kisuke Urahara, Tessai Tsukabishi,
Yoruichi Shihoin, and Isshin Kurosaki
all had stars in their eyes.
Every one of them was ecstatic
over this sudden turn of events.
"Looks like…"
"That line about healing Ichigo
wasn't just talk!"
"It really seems like Inoue-san's ability works!!!"
"To be continued in the next part…"
Kisuke Urahara's eyes widened,
gazing curiously at the screen.
Right now,
in the video,
as Inoue Orihime activated her power,
three tiny bands of light flew out,
circling around Ichigo Kurosaki's body
and forming an oval barrier of protection.
"Vmm…"
As the halo pulsed,
a strange wave spread outward without end.
In less than a moment,
everyone could see, to their shock—
on Ichigo Kurosaki's chest,
where Ulquiorra's lance
had left a gaping bloody hole,
suddenly…
his spiritual pressure surged!
Dark red light spread across his body.
As if time itself had reversed,
the spiritual pressure that had scattered and vanished
once again gathered from all directions,
drawn back and poured into that wound,
reknitting the flesh!!!
Such a miraculous sight—
even for veterans like Kisuke Urahara and Tessai Tsukabishi,
who had seen countless bizarre phenomena—
was enough to leave them speechless.
Their minds and their worldviews
were both shaken to the core
as they stared wide-eyed at the scene ahead.
They simply could not explain
how something so utterly beyond nature
could be happening.
This power was on par with the might of the Soul King.
It was no exaggeration at all to say
that it trespassed into the forbidden realm of the gods!
"My god…"
"Tessai-san…"
"Did you see that?"
"He actually came back to life!"
"And it's not just simple healing,
nor is it merely turning back time,
nor purely reversing space!"
"This is some higher-order,
undefinable ability!!!"
Tessai Tsukabishi couldn't help but exclaim.
"Yes…"
"Yoruichi-senpai, look away."
As he spoke, his gaze quietly shifted—
landing on Inoue Orihime's chest.
While he was shocked by the spectacle,
another thought slipped out almost involuntarily:
"I think I finally understand
why Ichigo's little girlfriend,
despite being so young,
is so… impressively well-endowed."
"It's because…"
"She possesses a power
that can surpass life and death itself,
a resurrection ability…"
"She really is the strongest healer
in the entire Bleach world!!"
(End of Chapter)
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