When did Hollows get this smart?
Since when did they know how to set ambushes?
Was there a higher-level Hollow commanding them?
Or was this simply natural predatory instinct?
Shirō didn't have time to think about any of that.
The only thing he could manage was:
"SHIT!"
At that same moment, Soi Fon also sensed danger behind her.
With enemies on both sides, there was no route of escape.
Realizing this, she nearly closed her eyes and accepted death.
But Soi Fon was still Soi Fon.
Even if her strength was low right now, her qualities, discipline, mental resilience, instinct, were all real.
Some things she was born with; others had been drilled into her since childhood.
The Fon family had always served as an auxiliary branch of the Shihōin clan, specializing in raising members for the Stealth Force.
Soi Fon had been raised for combat since she could walk.
So even with limited strength and little experience, she possessed a warrior's clarity at critical moments.
When necessary, she could make choices Shirō absolutely could not,
like risking serious injury to take down the enemy,
or, as in the original story, ordering Ōmaeda to chop off her arm the instant she sensed Barragan's death aura.
So even though Soi Fon had accepted the possibility that she would die here,
and had given up hope of being saved,
she still understood that if she shut her eyes, she truly would be finished.
But if she kept her eyes open, she might dodge enough to avoid a fatal injury.
She'd be gravely wounded, but still salvageable.
And if she was going to die…
she sure as hell wasn't going to die for free.
She'd take at least one Hollow to hell with her.
Because of that fierce resolve,
she was able to witness what happened next.
A golden blade of light flashed through the air like lightning.
The Hollow lunging at her from behind was split clean in two,
or, well, that was Shirō's version of the story.
Later, according to Soi Fon's memory, that golden slash that shocked her so deeply…
didn't actually "cut it in half."
It barely managed to crack the Hollow's mask, and didn't even pierce its skull.
The golden light simply dissipated the moment the mask split.
The Hollow then dissolved naturally.
So calling it "cut in half" was purely Shirō bragging.
Whatever the truth was, only the two of them, and the poor dead Hollow, would ever know.
But that wasn't even the part that shocked Soi Fon the most.
Even though she hadn't been looking directly at Shirō, she clearly saw the golden light came from him.
That wasn't the surprising part.
The surprising part was:
He had launched it with his bare hand.
She saw it, clear as day.
And his iron practice sword? It was lying in the dirt a few meters away.
Obviously, he had thrown it aside in a panic.
Thankfully, the person here was Soi Fon,
the girl who could stay calm even in life-or-death situations.
Anyone else might've screamed or frozen in shock.
She herself might've survived the pincer attack…
but if she had been shocked for even a second longer at Shirō's technique,
she would have been killed right there by the Hollow she was originally fighting.
But she wasn't some ordinary student.
Even while surprised, she dodged the follow-up strike and counterattacked cleanly,
finally killing the Hollow she had been struggling with.
Shirō let out a long breath and collapsed to the ground.
For a moment, it looked like he was the one who had just survived a near-death ordeal,
and Soi Fon, calm and composed, was the one who had just saved him.
"What are you doing?! Don't relax! If there was a third Hollow, there could be a fourth!"
Soi Fon shouted, immediately stepping to his side.
If a Hollow appeared and tried to attack Shirō now, she was the only one close enough to protect him.
In fact, part of her even wished another would appear,
so she could repay her debt.
Too bad the heavens didn't grant her that opportunity.
Even if a fourth Hollow had been hiding,
after seeing the last fight, it would have run for its life.
Only fools died twice.
When they were finally certain no enemies remained, Soi Fon turned and kicked Shirō lightly.
"Get up! How long are you planning to sit there?!"
Of course, because he had saved her, she didn't kick hard.
This was just her tsundere nature refusing to say thank you out loud.
Shirō let out a weary laugh.
"Just… used up too much energy."
No exaggeration, he was absolutely drained.
That flash of golden light was his Mana Burst,
which he had always likened to Ichigo Kurosaki's Getsuga Tenshō.
But this was the first time he'd ever used it in a real emergency,
and only now did he realize how ridiculously draining it truly was.
He didn't know the mechanics behind the real Getsuga Tenshō,
so he couldn't compare the techniques directly.
But any idiot could guess it consumed a massive amount of energy.
And Ichigo?
He was the protagonist, born with limitless spiritual pressure.
Shirō?
His spiritual pressure was… average at best.
Not even close to comparable.
That slash had used nearly all of his current spiritual power.
And the farther it traveled, the weaker it became,
otherwise it would've flown off into outer space.
For someone with limited reserves like Shirō, the technique was "high cost, medium output."
But that didn't mean it was useless.
Think of it this way:
Given the tiny timeframe earlier, the most Shirō could've done normally was a chantless Byakurai.
But one Byakurai wouldn't have saved Soi Fon.
Unless he fired fifteen of them at once.
And his Mana Burst?
One slash = the power of fifteen Byakurai.
Sure, it consumed the spiritual pressure of twenty…
But hey, big moves always cost big "mana."
So yes, Shirō was genuinely exhausted.
He wasn't slacking off.
"Looks like I need to train my sensing ability more."
Shirō muttered, sighing.
Kenpachi could fight blind because he literally didn't care about getting hit.
Anyone else would've been dead.
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