Since he had decided to do it, Chōjirō acted without hesitation.
He took a deep breath and adjusted his condition.
His grip tightened around the blade in his hand, and his gaze locked onto the area beside Ichigo's heart.
In an instant, Chōjirō's body shot forward like lightning.
His movements were as swift as a gale, and the Zanpakutō in his hand drew a sharp arc through the air.
In the blink of an eye, the sharp blade pierced straight through Ichigo Kurosaki's chest, leaving behind a deep wound.
However, Chōjirō did not seem satisfied with only that.
He quickly twisted his wrist and swung again with force, this time aiming directly for Ichigo's kidney.
The slash was as fast as a ghostly shadow, giving Ichigo no time to react at all.
Everything happened so quickly that it felt as if time had frozen in that instant.
Ichigo widened his eyes in disbelief as he stared at the two hideous wounds that had suddenly appeared on his body.
Blood gushed from the wounds and splattered across the ground around him, forming a bright red pool.
Only now did Ichigo realize that he had suffered a heavy blow.
Intense pain spread through his entire body, and his face instantly turned deathly pale.
He tried to cover the wounds with his hands, but blood continued flowing out endlessly, impossible to stop.
'So fast! Is this the strength of the First Division's lieutenant?'
He could feel his life force draining away at an astonishing speed, as if the shadow of death were slowly enveloping him.
Thud!
Finally, his heavily wounded body could no longer support itself. He fell straight to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.
"Don't tell me he's dead?"
Chōjirō was a little dumbfounded, and panic immediately rose in his heart.
If he had really accidentally killed Ichigo Kurosaki, the consequences would be unimaginable.
Thinking of this, he quickly stretched out one foot and gently nudged Ichigo's body, but there was no response at all.
'Did I mess up?'
Ichigo lay on the ground like his reactions had completely shut down.
He did not move at all and showed no sign of life!
Time passed second by second.
After several long seconds, his body suddenly twitched.
"Good! As long as he isn't dead, it's fine."
Seeing Ichigo react, the heavy stone hanging over Chōjirō's heart finally settled.
He let out a long breath and secretly rejoiced.
Thankfully, the kid was still alive. Otherwise, things would have become a huge problem!
...
Inside Ichigo's inner world, White Ichigo sneered with disdain.
"Ichigo, you really are something. You can't even beat an opponent like this. Why don't you just obediently hand the body over to me?"
After saying that, he revealed a savage smile, Zanpakutō in hand, as if he was ready to rush out and slaughter everything at any moment.
Hearing this, Ichigo roared angrily, "Shut up! I don't need your help, and I don't want to see you! Why do you keep appearing in my mind? Get the hell out of my body!"
However, White Ichigo completely ignored him and continued laughing and provoking him without restraint inside his consciousness.
"AAAAAAAH!"
Ichigo clutched his head and collapsed to the ground in pain, screaming nonstop.
His eyes turned scarlet, and the reiatsu around his body began to go out of control.
He tried to use his own strength to drive White Ichigo out of his mind, but it was completely useless.
White Ichigo did not care about any of that.
While Ichigo held his head and raged helplessly, White Ichigo had already sensed the body's life force rapidly fading away. If this continued, they really would die.
So he acted directly, sealed Ichigo's consciousness, and took over the body.
At that moment, Ichigo, who had been lying on the ground, suddenly sprang up like a corpse coming back to life, flipping to his feet in one motion.
Then an extremely strange smile appeared on his face.
"Not bad, old man! I almost really died. To repay you, please die!"
The Ichigo who stood up now seemed like a completely different person.
Not only had his tone turned eerie and sinister, even his voice carried an unreal, ghostlike tremor that made people's hair stand on end. His entire aura had become wicked and demonic.
Not only that, the reiatsu fluctuations coming from Ichigo's body surged outward like an erupting volcano, endlessly pouring into the surroundings.
That vast and powerful reiatsu even distorted the air.
This level of spiritual pressure clearly showed that he had already reached captain level.
"Getsuga Tenshō!"
With a roar, black-red reiatsu quickly gathered along the edge of the Zanpakutō in Ichigo's hand.
Then it turned into a massive crescent-shaped slash that shot toward Chōjirō at astonishing speed.
The moment White Ichigo acted, he used his signature technique—Getsuga Tenshō.
Although Ichigo at this stage did not know this move, that did not stop White Ichigo from using it.
After all, he was the true Zangetsu.
These techniques came naturally to him, and he did not need any practice to use them skillfully.
Facing the sudden slash, Chōjirō quickly held his Zanpakutō horizontally in front of his chest.
The Getsuga Tenshō slammed fiercely into his blade with terrifying force.
The impact was so powerful that he could not resist it at all and could only allow himself to be pushed backward at high speed.
Everywhere he passed, the ground was carved open into a long, deep trench, while the dust thrown into the air rose like a yellow dragon and lingered for a long time.
No one knew how far he had been pushed back before he finally neutralized the power of the slash.
His body came to a stop in a wretched state, and he gasped heavily for breath.
"So strong…"
He widened his eyes and looked at Ichigo in the distance, his gaze filled with shock and horror as he murmured.
"That just now… wasn't Shinigami power, was it?"
At that moment, he suddenly remembered what Kazuma had said before.
Kazuma had called Ichigo a monster.
Now it seemed that he really had been right. No wonder he had described him that way.
White Ichigo carried the Zanpakutō over his shoulder, a trace of surprise appearing on his face.
He had not expected his slash to fail to kill this old man, and irritation rose in his heart.
"Damn it! Forcibly taking over the body wasted too much power. Otherwise, there's no reason that slash shouldn't have killed him."
He cursed under his breath.
"Forget it. I'll recover from the injuries first."
White Ichigo muttered to himself.
He had no intention of fighting Chōjirō while wounded.
In Chōjirō's eyes, the wounds of every size on Ichigo's body began hissing and releasing white smoke, which only made him even more confused.
Before long, those wounds rapidly healed and became perfectly intact, as if Ichigo had never been injured at all.
"High-Speed Regeneration?!"
Chōjirō's eyes widened, and the horror in them deepened.
He had originally thought Ichigo was just an ordinary Shinigami, but he had never expected him to possess such an ability.
And this kind of High-Speed Regeneration was something only a Vasto Lorde should possess.
Could it be that there was a Vasto Lorde hidden inside Ichigo's body?
While thinking this, Chōjirō became increasingly curious about the Ichigo before him.
He decided to uncover the secret hidden inside Ichigo's body.
His figure blurred, and he charged toward Ichigo.
Ichigo sensed Chōjirō's movement and immediately responded, raising his Zanpakutō to meet the attack.
The two clashed instantly at close range, sparks bursting between their blades.
To confirm that he had not seen wrong earlier, Chōjirō used Byakurai at the instant their Zanpakutō made contact.
The close-range Kidō blasted another hole through Ichigo's body.
He stared fixedly at the wound caused by Byakurai.
In the next instant, white smoke began hissing from the injury again, and it healed completely as if nothing had happened.
"It really is High-Speed Regeneration!"
This time, Chōjirō was one hundred percent certain.
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