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"Betrayal? Don't make me laugh. Every move I made followed the gears of my plan perfectly. I merely used you and this pile of trash to push it to its climax."
"I've been starving for so long. Hurry up. Release your Hollow power and help me deliver this sacred blow. We had an agreement, didn't we?"
Kurosaki Ichigo clenched his fist so hard the veins bulged. Gritting his teeth, he forced himself up from the shattered ground with the last of his strength. His eyes burned as he glared at (Kokutō) Black Blade's twisted face, his voice low and hoarse with rage.
"Then what about my sister? Was that a lie too?"
Black Blade let out a harsh chuckle, like sandpaper scraping metal. "That part was real. Completely real. My stupid little sister was killed by some despicable piece of filth. So I personally beat that murderer into a pile of pulp."
"At that moment, I felt amazing. Like I'd transcended everything. But so what? A cold corpse never comes back to life. No matter how fiercely I burn my rage and longing, I can't cross the boundary between life and death to reach her soul."
"So if I can't escape this pain, then every living being in this world has to be dragged down into my abyss and taste this bone-scorching agony with me!"
As his crazed roar echoed, Black Blade ripped the black cloth from his face. Under the blinding light was a face torn apart by deep scars, grotesque and feral, like a demon dragged straight from hell.
"Even if you want revenge, why me? Why do I have to be dragged into that endless hell with you?!"
Ichigo's shout hadn't even faded when Black Blade's expression twisted further. He pointed at Ichigo, his voice hissing like a venomous snake.
"Because I saw it. That look on your face back then. Total collapse. Absolute despair. So I fed that priceless piece of information straight to the starving demons deep in hell."
"No matter the cost, I will break free of hell's chains. If that means turning the living world into a purgatory darker than hell itself, then so be it!"
He ranted shamelessly, pouring out his ambition. At that moment, a familiar female voice cried out urgently from the edge of the battlefield.
"Kurosaki!"
The instant he heard it, Black Blade vanished like a ghost. In the next heartbeat, he was right in front of Kuchiki Rukia. Cold light flashed as his blade came down, carrying crushing spiritual pressure aimed straight at her.
…
The screen cut to black, then switched to the audience reaction.Soul Society.
On the screen, Black Blade's twisted grin and horrifying grand plan were displayed in brutal clarity. Ichigo's face darkened, his eye twitching uncontrollably.
"This is unbelievable. Future me actually got played by a clown who belongs in the gutter?"
Shame and fury flooded him. He refused to believe that his future self could be that stupid.
"Tch. That face is so ugly it could scare a newborn to death," someone muttered.
Urahara Kisuke snapped open his folding fan with a soft clap, covering the lower half of his face. No one could tell what kind of emotion hid in his unfathomable eyes.
"Has hell's torment completely rotted his mind? Sinners trying to escape hell? That's not just a joke. It's a delusion."
Rukia, who understood hell better than most, was equally furious at Black Blade's selfish arrogance. All this destruction, all these innocent lives, just for one man's revenge and ambition.
"Borrowing Hollow power might really tear open hell's seal. But once that happens, this world would instantly become a living hell."
"After all, none of the sinners trapped at the bottom of hell could ever be called 'good people.'"
Yoruichi, now back in her black cat form, stared at the screen with sharp golden eyes, rapidly calculating the odds.
Her conclusion was chilling. If Ichigo's power were fully unleashed, the plan was theoretically possible. But that would mean the prisoners of hell and its terrifying wardens would flood into the living world like a natural disaster.
Hearing her analysis, Ishida Uryū and the others finally grasped how dire the situation truly was. Silently, they prayed that future Ichigo would wake up in time and stand back up.
Karakura First High School.
"That bastard is pure evil. Absolute scum!"
"If the gates of hell really open, what happens to us? Are we even going to survive?"
"Idiot. It's not about surviving. We'd be torn apart instantly by hell's miasma. We'd be done."
"Damn it, Kurosaki, snap out of it! Don't let that trash use you!"
"I remember now. That guy Black Blade was a notorious serial killer on the news. If someone like that comes back, it really is the end of the world."
Teachers and students alike were terrified by what they saw. They didn't know this was footage from the future. They thought Ichigo and the others were already trapped in hell at this very moment.
…
Fairy Tail Guild.
"Utter arrogance. The ambition of a frog at the bottom of a well," Erza said coldly, her grip tightening on her sword hilt.
"Using a companion's kindness and feelings like that. That's as low as it gets."
Natsu slammed his fist into the table, furious at the sheer exploitation.
"Huh? Like you're any smarter?" Gray shot back immediately. Honestly, Natsu's hot-blooded nature made him just as easy to manipulate as the Ichigo on screen, if not worse.
"Hah…" Macao took a deep drag of his cigarette and exhaled thick smoke. "That's why I keep telling you brats. No matter what happens on a mission, keep a clear head."
"Amazing destructive power."
Unlike the others, Laxus was completely focused on the overwhelming force Ichigo displayed after Hollowfication.
Just the shockwaves from his attacks were enough to tear through three layers of space itself. That kind of power was beyond common sense. Even S-class mages in the guild couldn't compare.
As far as Laxus was concerned, not even his powerful old man of a guild master could pull off something like that.
Phantom Lord Guild.
"Hahaha! If this world really gets destroyed, that'd be perfect," José Porla sneered, his eyes glowing with manic delight.
A master of dark magic, the hellish miasma that could腐蚀 all life looked to him like the purest, most exquisite nourishment imaginable.
…
The scene shifted again. After Rukia was struck down, Ishida Uryū was next.
Boom!
Before his spirit arrow could take effect, Ishida's body was smashed by Black Blade's heavy blow.
"Power this insignificant will never break hell's chains," Black Blade said coldly, looking down at the massive crater blasted out by Ishida's spirit bow, his voice dripping with disdain.
"Rukia!"
Abarai Renji charged in with a furious roar. Before he could even grasp the situation, he was overwhelmed in an instant and slammed to the ground.
"How is this possible? I was beaten that easily?" Renji outside the screen stared at his future self in disbelief.
"This bastard really hid himself perfectly," DIO remarked with a dangerous smirk, watching Black Blade's sudden explosion of power and sneering at his earlier act of weakness.
"Looks like that kid Kurosaki Ichigo is in serious trouble," Master Roshi sighed in the Dragon Ball world, worried as he watched Black Blade grow more and more unhinged.
The battle intensified.
Watching his friends fall one after another, the last restraints on Ichigo's rage finally snapped. He gripped Zangetsu and roared, black-red spiritual pressure surging around him like a mad beast as he charged straight at Black Blade.
A thunderous crash!
The two figures collided midair, the shockwave instantly shattering the ground below. Dust and debris billowed upward like a mushroom cloud.
Inside the thick smoke, their movements were too fast for the camera to follow. Only the screech of clashing blades could be heard, along with the violent collision of black-red and pitch-black spiritual pressure locked in a primal, savage duel.
The air screamed.
Slashes filled with destructive force tore out of the smoke, slicing through rock and earth alike, leaving everything around them in ruins.
"Yes, that's it. Let it all out. Every bit of your hatred. Every ounce of your anger," Black Blade's seductive voice echoed through the smoke like poison.
"It's still not enough. You don't hate enough. Unless you become a monster that tears everything apart, you'll never defeat me!"
In a split second, Black Blade used the heavy chain wrapped around his arm to forcibly block Zangetsu's blade. Then he vanished.
When Ichigo instinctively sensed him again, an icy voice like a blast of hell's wind poured into his ears.
Black Blade was holding Ichigo's sister, Yuzu, tightly in his grasp.
"Look at this. How can a fragile human body resist hell's miasma? See it? That chain wrapped around her is already taking root and spreading!"
"....."