"Aizen-sensei, since Rosse has already brainwashed you, if you still stand in my way... my blade will show you no mercy!"
Kurosaki Ichigo took a deep breath and forced down the pain in his chest. Slowly, he raised the two Zangetsu swords. The black blades pointed straight at Aizen and Rosse.
"Relax. I have no interest in stopping your reckless boar charge."
Aizen gave a light laugh and stepped back half a pace, giving up the stage.
His gaze shifted toward Kurosaki Masaki, who had been standing there like an ice sculpture the entire time. His tone carried amusement.
"But before that... how are you planning to get past her?"
Kurosaki Masaki floated silently in midair, blocking the space between Ichigo and Rosse.
She had not drawn a weapon, but the pressure from her absolute control over the surrounding spirit particles was like a wall, preventing Ichigo from getting even a little closer to Rosse.
Her stance had already become completely firm.
"No matter what... no matter who stands in front of me, I'll knock them down."
Ichigo bit through his lip. Blood ran down his chin. His voice shuddered from the coldness in it.
"Why do you always insist on doing these pointless and stupid things?"
For the first time, a faint sigh escaped Kurosaki Masaki's expressionless face, "Ichigo, do you really think your half-finished strength can break through my defense?"
"Whether I can or not, I have to try! If I keep shrinking back and making excuses to avoid it, then I'll never even get the chance to swing my sword!"
Ichigo looked at the woman in front of him with a complicated expression.
Back in the World of the Living, she used to smile while rubbing his head, telling him he was the son she was most proud of and closest to.
But now fate had played a cruel joke, turning them into enemies who had to draw blades against each other.
It tore him apart inside.
But reality was right in front of him. He had no way out.
Only by getting past Kurosaki Masaki would he earn the right to swing his blade at Rosse, the one who destroyed everything.
In his eyes, if not for the devil named Rosse, he should have been in that small clinic in Karakura Town right now, eating dinner with his parents and sisters, living a noisy but peaceful and happy life.
"Getsuga... Tensho!"
In the middle of extreme pain and determination, Kurosaki Ichigo let out a roar that sounded close to coughing blood.
At that moment, the power of the Soul Reaper, Hollow, and Quincy inside him fused together by force and reached its limit.
The two Zangetsu swords in his hands instantly burst out with red and white light that made people uneasy.
Two completely different violent spiritual pressures flashed and twisted around the blades without stopping, condensing into a sharp power that could even tear space apart.
He leaped high into the air. The twin blades drew black and white crescent arcs as they slashed down toward Kurosaki Masaki in a brutal cross attack.
This time, he forced himself to close his eyes and held nothing back.
Even against this unbelievably fierce dual-sword attack, and against the violent spiritual pressure that had already surpassed the limits of an ordinary captain, Kurosaki Masaki did not even lift her eyelids.
Just like before in the captain's meeting chamber, she casually raised two fingers on her right hand and steadily met the black long blade.
Clang!
A clear metallic collision exploded through the air.
Kurosaki Masaki's two fingers clamped onto the heavy black Zangetsu like iron tongs.
As for the white short blade on the left, the one representing Quincy power, she did not even try to stop it. She simply allowed the sharp short sword to slash directly into her left shoulder.
Pshhk!
The scene instantly shocked the Soul Reapers watching below. Even Kurosaki Ichigo himself froze in complete disbelief, forgetting what to do next.
Kurosaki Masaki did not gather any spirit particle defense around her body.
She simply left herself open and allowed the short blade to cut through her shihakusho and stab deep into her flesh.
Bright red blood immediately sprayed from her shoulder. Several drops of the hot blood even splashed onto Ichigo's horrified face.
"Mom..."
Ichigo's pupils shrank. The hand gripping Zangetsu started trembled as if struck by electricity.
In the end, the short blade lodged in Kurosaki Masaki's shoulder only cut through the surface muscle. After causing a shallow wound, Kurosaki Ichigo completely lost control and stopped his strength.
The blade could not press down even a little further.
Kurosaki Masaki tilted her head slightly, as if she felt no pain at all. She glanced indifferently at the Zangetsu embedded in her shoulder, then at the pale and trembling Kurosaki Ichigo in front of her.
For the first time, obvious disappointment appeared in those hollow eyes.
"Ichigo, the determination you keep talking about, the determination to avenge your father and your companions... is this childish game really all it amounts to?"
"Back then, when you swung your sword at Kuchiki Byakuya in the World of the Living, and later against Master in Soul Society... your resolve at that time was at least a hundred times stronger than it is now. At least back then, I could feel that you swung your blade with the belief that you would kill your enemy," Kurosaki Masaki's voice was cold enough to pierce bone.
"And what about now? What are you hesitating over? I'm your enemy. You still can't cut me down, Ichigo?"
"Stop talking... STOP TALKING ALREADY!"
Ichigo's eyes were red as he roared in desperation.
'How can I... how can I kill my own mother?'
'I can't do it. I really can't.'
Even though reason kept telling him that the woman before him was a puppet under someone else's control, the murderer who killed his father and Orihime.
The moment his blade truly cut into her body and he saw that blood flow out, the wall deep inside him still shattered instantly.
If he really killed his birth mother without hesitation for the sake of revenge... then could Kurosaki Ichigo still even be called human?
To reach this point, to settle everything with Rosse, he had already paid too much in blood and pain. He had even forced himself to ignore all kinds of sacrifices.
But when he truly reached the final moment of this twisted tragedy, he still could not swing the blade of murder.
No matter how terrifying the power he possessed had become, no matter how much fate expected from him.
After stripping away the shell of the savior, Kurosaki Ichigo was still just a normal seventeen-year-old high school student with kindness and softness still left inside him.
"If you can't cut off these pointless bonds, then stop standing here like some attention-seeking clown," Kurosaki Masaki's voice remained cold.
She did not draw a blade to counterattack. She only slowly extended the right hand that held the long sword.
First, she casually pushed aside the long blade. Then she covered the white short sword stabbed into her shoulder with her palm.
After that, she looked at the pain on Ichigo's face and lightly pushed her wrist forward without care.
Bang!
There was no feeling of violent impact at all, but Kurosaki Ichigo felt as though an invisible mountain had slammed into his chest.
He let out a muffled groan and flew backward like a kite with its strings cut, stumbling through the air for more than ten meters before barely stabilizing himself.
Kurosaki Ichigo floated in the air like a puppet that had lost its soul. Lowering his head, he stared blankly at the blood remaining on the white short blade in his left hand.
"Kurosaki Ichigo! You idiot, what the hell are you doing?"
At that moment, Hirako Shinji, who was barely hanging on below, suddenly let out a near-crazed roar.
"You're the last hope of all of us resisting! If you can't even find the courage to swing your sword now, then how can you face the price paid by the Zero Division and the Gotei Thirteen, who were nearly wiped out buying time for you?"
The reason Kurosaki Ichigo only appeared at the final moment was not just because the battle situation had changed too quickly.
It was also because after the entire Zero Division descended, Hyosube Ichibe, Nimaiya Oetsu, and the others had paid a huge price to specially train Ichigo.
Everyone understood that Kurosaki Ichigo was an anomaly that could not be judged by common sense.
Inside him perfectly fused the powers of Soul Reaper, Hollow, Quincy, and Fullbring. He possessed the ultimate potential to become a "Perfect Soul King".
Unlike Aizen, he had no need to take the crooked path of relying on outside objects like the Hogyoku.
In Hyosube Ichibe and the others' eyes, in terms of talent and potential, Kurosaki Ichigo was the only person in the world who might one day grow into an existence on the same level as the monster called Rosse.
The only problem was that he was still too young and had not had enough time to grow.
But even so, Kurosaki Ichigo was still the final trump card Soul Society had gambled everything on.
But now what?
What was this ultimate trump card, burdened with everyone's hopes, doing?
He had just entered the battlefield with overwhelming momentum, yet at the first defensive line of the enemy, he could not even swing his blade because of feelings between mother and son?
All these old men knew Kurosaki Masaki was Kurosaki Ichigo's birth mother, but so what?
For Rosse's sake, this woman had personally killed Kurosaki Isshin.
"Kurosaki Ichigo! Wake the hell up!"
Hirako Shinji shouted himself hoarse, trying to drag back Ichigo's collapsing will to fight with the cruelest reality possible.
"Don't you understand yet? The woman standing in front of you stopped being your gentle mother a long time ago. She's just a Hollow that lost its soul and wears your mother's skin... a monster that recognizes no family at all!"
"If even you shrink back here, then all the people who died before, your father, your friends... wouldn't all their blood have been spilled for nothing?"
Hearing Hirako Shinji's desperate roar, every word soaked in emotion, Kurosaki Ichigo's whole body shivered.
He raised his head and gripped Zangetsu with both hands.
He bit through his lip and forced himself to look directly at Kurosaki Masaki again.
But even though he kept repeating in his mind, 'She's not Mom anymore,' and 'She's my father's killer.'
His bloodshot eyes still could not suppress the deep hesitation and pain inside them.
He still did not know whether he could truly close his eyes and slash that body without holding back.
Reason told him that the woman before him had indeed become the enemy's pawn and had truly committed unforgivable crimes beyond redemption.
But no matter what, no matter what kind of monster she had become... she was still the mother who gave birth to him, raised him, and protected him with her life.
"Rosse! You coward hiding behind women and showing off your power! What kind of man are you?"
Kurosaki Ichigo stared at the calm figure behind Kurosaki Masaki. Blood vessels burst at the corners of his eyes from rage as he roared through clenched teeth, nearly losing his mind.
"What a clumsy attempt at provocation."
Rosse did not show even the slightest emotional reaction to the low-level insult.
He tilted his head slightly. Mockery looked down from his eyes, "When you try to provoke me with words like that, it only makes others think you're helplessly screaming."
"Because in this cruel world, nobody is willing to stand in front of you and protect you like this."
"Kurosaki Ichigo, why not think carefully about why your former friends, your teachers, even your mother... all chose to stand on my side instead of yours?"
After speaking, Rosse lightly stretched out a slender finger and gently patted Kurosaki Masaki's shoulder as if comforting her.
Kurosaki Masaki immediately lowered her head slightly and stepped aside, fully clearing the straight path leading to Rosse.
From beginning to end, Rosse never needed Kurosaki Masaki's protection.
When she firmly stood there blocking the blade earlier, she had never actually been protecting Rosse. Instead, she had been protecting Kurosaki Ichigo.
Not swinging his blade at Rosse and letting go of all hatred and obsession was the only way Kurosaki Ichigo could survive.
The moment she stepped aside, Kurosaki Masaki turned back and gave Kurosaki Ichigo one final glance.
It was the look of someone disappointed that iron could not become steel.
The emotion in that look was far stronger than the earlier dead silence. Mixed inside it were disappointment in her son's naivety, helplessness toward fate, and perhaps... a little relief after finishing her final struggle.
As a mother, she had already done everything she could.
She used her own body to take her son's blade, hoping he would retreat after understanding the difference between them.
But if Kurosaki Ichigo refused to accept it and insisted on walking down a dark road to the end, then so be it.
In truth, if Kurosaki Ichigo had really closed his eyes earlier and determined himself to kill her, she absolutely would not have resisted at all.
Although as Rosse's possession, Rosse would definitely interfere out of possessiveness and block that strike for her. She had no doubt about that.
But her own will truly would not have resisted.
Unfortunately, Kurosaki Ichigo still lacked the necessary capacity.
He could not even bring himself to kill an unarmed traitor who refused to fight back, so what right did he have to shout about facing Rosse, the man who could casually step on even the Soul King?
This was not simply a gap in strength. It was a gulf in resolve and mentality.
After staying by Rosse's side for so long, Kurosaki Masaki had completely understood one bloody truth.
Unless a person was born standing at the peak of evolution, then the level of their mentality and resolve determined how much power they could obtain.
People like Aizen and Rosse would do anything for the sake of reaching their path. They would cut down every obstacle ahead of them.
But Kurosaki Ichigo clearly was not that type of person.
He desired power. He wanted to kill Rosse. He wanted to cross that impossible mountain.
But his heart, still filled with the warmth of the World of the Living, did not understand what enormous things had to be sacrificed, or what kind of cold and overwhelming resolve was required, to truly gain the qualification to surpass Rosse and kill him.
To be honest, in Kurosaki Masaki's judgment, everything Kurosaki Ichigo had done was nothing more than a pointless act of self-satisfaction.