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"Toriko, the spiritual pressure on those guys is completely insane!"
Toriko, a man who lived to eat, tore a strip of sinew straight off the snapped leg bone of a giant beast and stuffed it into his mouth. He chewed slowly, savoring it, then swallowed. Only after that surge of power settled in his throat did he answer Komatsu beside him.
"Yeah, they're top-tier monsters, no doubt. Real shame, though. Hell's such a broke place. Not a single ingredient worth cooking. What a waste of strength."
"What kind of nonsense are you talking about? How could Hell possibly grow food?"
Komatsu rolled his eyes, thoroughly irritated by Toriko's bizarre priorities. Even so, his hands never stopped. His delicate knife work continued smoothly, fat hissing softly along the blade.
"Still, it's a pity Zebra didn't come along. He'd love this kind of savage, violent atmosphere."
Not far from them, two of the Four Heavenly Kings, Sunny and Coco, were calmly preparing their own signature dishes, completely unfazed by the chaos around them.
"Honestly though," Coco said, his voice cool, "that Shinigami named Kurosaki Ichigo has been played like a fiddle from start to finish."
Coco was famous for his razor-sharp intellect and insight. With a single glance, he had already seen the strings behind the stage.
Whether it was the one called Shuren or the one called Black Blade, every single one of them had their own agenda. And that simple-minded Shinigami's little sister was never some tragic emotional weak point. She was just bait, meant to lure the prey into Hell's layered trap.
"Wonder if Kurosaki Ichigo has any idea at all that he's been calculated down to the bone," Coco added.
Sunny snorted when he heard that analysis.
"If he had that kind of brain, he wouldn't be where he is now, getting dragged around by the nose. Right now, he's basically blind."
…
At the same time, in another dimension, one filled with dragons and cozy domestic life.
"Kobayashi, Kobayashi! Where are those people fighting? Kanna wants to go play too!"
Kanna's childish voice carried a note of excitement. On the screen, the near world-ending battle scenes involving Kurosaki Ichigo and the others looked incredibly fun to her. Sure, among humans, that Shinigami's power was impressive. But compared to true dragons who wielded destruction itself, it was honestly kind of cute.
After all, they were beings capable of casually erasing entire worlds.
"Huh? I've got no idea which dimensional rift they're in," Kobayashi said helplessly, shaking her head.
Ever since Tohru showed up, she had long since gotten used to a life that defied common sense. But before meeting the dragon maids, she had just been an ordinary overworked office worker.
"So those are human warriors? They don't look like much," Tohru said excitedly, her powerful dragon tail swishing back and forth as her eyes sparkled with wild enthusiasm.
…
The scene snapped back to the blood-red battlefield of Hell.
After fully grasping the cruelty behind Shuren's words, (Kokuto) Black Blade's voice rose uncontrollably, filled with disbelief.
"How could the dead possibly return so quickly—"
"Don't use your pitiful imagination to try and measure the boundaries of truth," Shuren mocked.
As his words fell, Gula and the others who had already been killed were forcibly dragged back from nothingness, completing an utterly impossible resurrection.
"Oh my, oh my! Hell's 'Sinners' are actually playing friendship games with stupid humans!"
The grotesque giant mouth in Gula's chest snapped shut, clamping down on Black Blade's weapon. At the same time, Green Cliff (Gunjo) shot into the sky like a cannonball, then came crashing down with a sonic boom, his fist slamming toward Black Blade below.
Boom!
Green Cliff's punch struck the ground, the impact blasting out a massive crater so deep it seemed bottomless.
On the other side, Shuren wielded a long blade forged entirely from pure flame, clashing head-on with Kurosaki Ichigo's massive Zangetsu. The violent collision between the flaming blade and the Zanpakutō shattered the enormous finger bones of the giant skeleton supporting them.
Bang!
In a direct contest of raw power, Ichigo was actually suppressed. Shuren swept his blade horizontally, sending Ichigo flying dozens of meters away, smashing through multiple layers of rock as hard as steel.
Bathed in crimson light, the flaming sword in Shuren's hand suddenly twisted unnaturally, transforming into a roiling mass of plasma.
In the next instant, countless fire arrows erupted from it like a torrential storm, completely sealing off Ichigo's path. Molten magma exploded around his feet, forcing him into a frantic retreat with no chance to counterattack.
"That should be enough. Now, you'll listen to me, won't you?" Shuren said, floating in midair and looking down at Ichigo like a judge, his voice smooth and persuasive.
"Shut up!"
Ichigo's eyes burned with fury. He swung Zangetsu upward in a savage arc.
Slash. Slash. Slash.
His figure vanished from the ground in an instant. Using extreme Shunpo, Ichigo appeared behind Shuren, his blade crashing down with thunderous force. But Shuren's speed was just as absurd. Like a ghost, he stuck close to Ichigo's movement path, blocking every single strike with perfect precision.
Their blades collided again and again, sparks exploding wildly between them and tearing through the darkness of Hell.
Below them, Black Blade was already at a complete disadvantage.
In Shuren's hands, fire behaved like a living toy, changing form at his whim.
Shuren landed steadily, flicked his arm, and the blazing flames condensed into a long flaming spear, its tip aimed straight at Kurosaki Ichigo. With a sharp swing of his arm, the spear shot forward, screaming through the air with terrifying heat.
Even the path it passed over instantly scorched and carbonized the ground.
Yet faced with such extreme heat, Ichigo merely swung Zangetsu casually, splitting the seemingly unstoppable spear in midair.
Boom!
The exploding flames failed to harm Ichigo at all, instead surging backward and blowing apart a massive rock pillar behind him.
Undeterred, Shuren formed another flaming spear. This time, he closed in.
The spear twisted in his hand, all the flames compressing inward. Then Shuren struck.
The overwhelming flame slash sent Ichigo flying once again.
Rumble!
Ichigo crashed through several massive finger-like rock pillars before barely managing to stabilize himself. At that point, of the ten enormous finger bones supporting the battlefield, only the one beneath Shuren's feet remained.
Ichigo burst out of the smoke, ignoring the incoming fire arrows entirely. His eyes were locked on Shuren. He intended to end this noisy bastard with a single strike.
But Shuren, despicable as ever, raised his free left hand and aimed it at Yuzu in the distance.
"Yuzu!"
A fire arrow shot toward her at blinding speed. Ichigo froze for a split second out of sheer panic, and in that moment, Shuren's other attacks landed cleanly.
Dense fire arrows wrapped around Ichigo like chains, pinning him in place and leaving him unable to move.
A violent shock followed.
Black Blade suddenly appeared in midair, throwing his own body in front of the fatal attack aimed at Yuzu and taking the flames head-on.
…
Shuren's filthy move paid off. He successfully restrained Ichigo. The price was that Black Blade was completely ensnared by Garogai's sticky tentacles. Several hardened tendrils pierced through his body, hoisting him into the air like a captured trophy.
…
"Damn it! That vile bastard Shuren! I'll tear him to pieces!"
In the world of the living, inside Urahara's shop, Kurosaki Ichigo finally snapped after seeing Yuzu come under attack. The rage he had been holding back for so long erupted all at once. Watching Shuren target Yuzu just to restrain him completely blew his fuse.
His immense spiritual pressure erupted like a volcano, condensing into a pillar of light that nearly tore the shop's roof clean off.
"These 'Sinners' are way beyond anything that makes sense," Rukia Kuchiki said grimly.
She was just as worried about Yuzu, but her rational mind latched onto a far more dangerous question. Why were these criminals, who were supposed to be punished in Hell, twistedly powerful to this degree?
Hell was meant to be a place of eternal punishment. It should never allow prisoners to grow strong enough to threaten their wardens.
Urahara Kisuke and Yoruichi, both former members of Soul Society's highest ranks, understood Hell and the Sinners far better than most. They knew very well that ordinary Sinners had no right to wield power like this.
"This doesn't look like a spur-of-the-moment move," Urahara said thoughtfully. "It's a grand scheme they've been planning for a long time."
He reasoned that Ichigo's trip into Hell was likely part of an enormous trap laid by these criminals to break free from their chains and reclaim their freedom.
That man called Black Blade seemed to be helping Ichigo wholeheartedly. But once you factored in the Sinners' so-called immortality within Hell, his actions suddenly felt unimpressive. Worse, they reeked of conspiracy.
"Well then, those old geezers up top are about to get a massive headache," Yoruichi said with a grin.
She had reverted to her human form and slammed Ichigo, whose spiritual pressure was spiraling out of control, flat onto the ground. Then she turned toward Urahara.
"Exactly," Urahara replied.
Meanwhile, in the cold halls of Seireitei.
"These lowly Sinners have some nerve," a furious voice echoed. "Trying to resurrect themselves and break free from Hell's shackles!"
"....."