Chương 71: I Need A Reason Too

The Vasto Lorde which Ichigo almost killed earlier was running away. All of them were born with a single purpose in mind, an instinct that powered them all to destroy. But after experiencing the brush of death, as well as a being that went far above the norm, a new instinct had been instilled in it.

"Run away! I must run away! I need to survive!"

It didn't matter where, he had to leave. Unfortunately, it did not possess the ability to use Garganta willingly. It saw the walls of the Seireitei which made its heart ease a little.

But that panic came back as he saw a captain standing in its way. The hollow immediately halted to observe the enemy.

They were very strange. His face was covered in white and black face paint, and the accessories he wore were otherworldly. A fashion sense far too strange to comprehend, that was the iconic trait of Mayuri Kurotsuchi.

"Oh? You got here awfully fast?"

The hollow showed no hesitation in firing a full power cero at him. The blast enveloped the entire area, completely destroying Mayuri and the ground beneath him.

It quickly sprinted past his charred remains, and made its way towards Seireitei's exit.

But as it continued to run, it felt the distance grow even bigger. It then halted as it noticed this, confused as to what was happening.

"That's odd? There are so many of your kind in Soul Society right now, yet the balance of the 3 worlds hasn't been affected? I would most certainty like to study this."

The hollow hearing the voice of Mayuri behind it, wasted no time to attack. Rather than a blast of Reiatsu, it ran straight towards him and attacked with physical force. A single punch was enough to blow a hole in his chest.

"!?"

It's fist phased through him instead. The hollow backed away, even more confused.

"What's wrong? Surprised? Of course, something like you has never seen a hologram before... right?"

It would try to run away again, but its body become paralysed in place. It couldn't even exert its own spiritual pressure anymore. It panicked as it wondered what the hell was going on.

"Before that Idiot Kenpachi destroys all of you, I'm going to take my time dissecting you thoroughly."

Perhaps dying to Kurosaki was the best choice it could've made.

Several large explosions echoed over the skies of the Seireitei, as two powerful beings fought.

The hollow fired a cero which Ichigo easily dodged. It's rays hit a building below, before annihilating it in a giant explosion. Ichigo then used Sonido, and quickly teleported behind him.

"The spiritual pressure disappeared!?"

Ichigo slashed his sword as he fired a point blank Getsuga Tenshō. A burst of giant blue Reiatsu rocketed into the atmosphere, before crashing into the flying ship above.

As the effects from the attack cleared, the left side of the hollow was horribly injured. Its arm was only inches away from falling off and the rest of it was scarred very badly.

"That sure gave me a scare! I couldn't dodge it completely, and I was very confident in my speed too."

"Enough commentary, tell me who did this."

The hollow ripped off its own damaged arm and then dropped it, letting it slowly dissolve into the Reishi of the world. It then started grunting as it released more of its spiritual pressure. The grooves in its body began to light up, making Ichigo raise its guard.

But instead of an attack, the portion of its body that was damaged began to rapidly heal, and then it grew a new arm.

"Good as new!"

He remembered this regeneration speed from another hollow other than himself.

Although he hadn't directly seen it, he could recall it from a memory that he shared.

"Sure you can regenerate, but it's pointless if you can't keep up with me. If you were an Arrancar, then maybe you might've been a bigger problem. Since your not answering any of my questions, I'll destroy you, and that massive tin can too!"

The hollow then began to laugh.

"Wow! Your not very bright are you? But it's not like anyone else has noticed, so I guess everyone down here must be idiots? Take a look at the ship."

Ichigo's eyes naturally fell onto it, but the first thing he noticed was the place where his Getsuga Tenshō hit it. For some reason, the ship was completely unharmed. It didn't even have as much of a scratch on it.

"!!?"

"My father found out something interesting about hybrids like you. He saw that 8 years ago, you were able to draw out your full hollow powers thanks to your Quincy spiritual pressure being too active. He saw it again with Hikone when his own hollow grew too powerful, and it rebelled against him."

An opening in the ship then opened above Ichigo, but before he could even do anything, a bright light suddenly flashed down on him. He didn't feel anything at first, but then he felt a strange pain inside him. He lost control over his power, and fell to the ground as he screamed.

It was a familiar pain. His own Reiatsu was fighting against him, as if his own mind was splitting apart. Toshiro tried to come to his rescue, but All the Vasto Lordes suddenly started to try blocking everyone off from him.

It shouldn't have been a difficult task to move out of the light, but he couldn't even move his own body.

"It feels as if your insides are turning against you, right? It was meant to be used against the original Soul King, but it works just as well on beings like you. The imbalance causes one spiritual pressure to become stronger than the rest, so what happens when all 3 are stimulated at once? The power keeps exponentially rising and eventually your own Reiryoku will reach its utmost limit, and even then it will be pushed past that... UNTIL YOUR ENTIRE BEING EXPLODES!!"

Ichigo coughed up some blood as he collapsed to the floor, his eyes turning red as he felt his consciousness drifting away. He saw everyone trying to reach him, but then even more Vasto Lordes started to appear from the flying ship.

"It's all being destroyed... I can't move..."

But even if all hope seemed lost, even if his death was near, he did not let go of his sword. A voice then called out to him in the back of his mind.

"Ichigo... ICHIGO!"

He suddenly woke up somewhere familiar to him. He was inside a sunken city that was buried under torrents of waves that crashed together. A giant whirlpool swept over the place with him at its center.

"That voice? Zangetsu?"

He tried to reach his hand out towards the voice but the harsh waves pushed him back.

"Ichigo! Why are you wavering? Is it that your friends can't reach you? But I can tell you haven't given up yet, for you still hold onto your sword!"

Ichigo continued to reach out into the whirlpool but then he felt his hand grab onto a handle. He struggled to pull it out, but once he did all the panic he felt had disappeared.

He rose back to his two feet, as he remembered what he had to fight for. Not just to protect the Soul Society, but for his family back home.

"Getsuga Tenshō!"

With all the remaining strength he could muster, he forcefully took control of his rampaging spiritual pressure and forced it into a single Getsuga, which he launched at the center of the light. The burst of Reiatsu traveled into the air, eventually hitting the ship directly.

"PUSH!"

By some miracle, the Getsuga Tenshō somehow pierced through the ship, punching a hole in its right wing. The leading Vasto Lorde began to panic. This shouldn't have been possible, but that panic soon turned into rage.

"THIS SHOULDN'T BE POSSIBLE YOU BASTARD!"

It released a burst of power as its grooves lit up once more. That last attack temporarily weakened Ichigo, so there was nothing he could do to stop what was coming to him now.

The hollow then began to perform a flying kick as several ceros fired from its legs, accelerating his kicking power even more.

"DIE!"

The attack was only meters away from kicking Ichigo in the face, but just before it did a familiar man flash stepped in, and caught the kick in his free hand.

"Kenpachi!?"

The hollow powered up the attack even more with the power of the ceros intensifying. Kenpachi could begin to feel his joint dislocating, but this pain only made him smile.

With his other hand, he threw a slash at the hollow, but it's quick movement allowed it to barely dodge.

"Your the strongest one of these lot right!!? I was looking everywhere for you!!"