"ROSSE!"
Kurosaki Ichigo roared again.
Naturally, he had no way of knowing the complicated thoughts in Kurosaki Masaki's mind at that moment.
The instant Rosse finally stood exposed before him without anything blocking the way, he did not even notice the look his mother gave him as she stepped aside.
He squeezed out every last bit of potential inside himself. Gripping the long and short Zangetsu swords in both hands, he crushed the air beneath his feet and turned into a streak of red-and-black lightning as he charged straight toward Rosse.
The only reason he stood here was to draw his blade against Rosse and kill the man who had destroyed everything in his life.
"Getsuga Tensho!"
The twin Zangetsu blades carried a violent storm of spiritual pressure.
The wildness of Hollow power, the spirit particle control of the Quincy, and the ultimate cutting power of a Soul Reaper, three forces that should have rejected each other were perfectly kneaded together by him and pushed to an unprecedented limit as they crashed down toward Rosse's head.
Seeing this sharp strike, powerful enough to shake the Three Realms, Nimaiya Oetsu, Hirako Shinji, and the others barely hanging on in the ruins below suddenly showed intense hope in their darkened eyes.
'Too strong!'
Even Captain-Commander Yamamoto in the past could not compare to Ichigo at this moment. He could never have unleashed such a terrifying and pure strike.
"WIN, ICHIGO!"
Hirako Shinji even ignored his injuries and shouted hoarsely.
But against this slash that seemed capable of splitting heaven and earth apart, Rosse still did not even lift his eyelids.
He did not even raise a hand to block.
He simply kept both hands in his pockets and allowed the two blades burning with red-and-black light to slam down onto his shoulders.
Bzzzt!
Under the frozen stares of everyone watching in extreme tension, the two Zangetsu swords struck Rosse's seemingly thin Hollow King robe at the same time.
Time itself seemed to stop at that moment.
Then, the expressions of the Soul Reapers below, who had been full of hope just seconds ago, instantly stiffened before turning into despair.
If Rosse had dodged at all just now, or even raised a finger to defend himself, that would at least prove Ichigo's attack still posed some level of threat.
But his completely defenseless and casual attitude had already declared one suffocatingly cruel truth.
Kurosaki Ichigo's attack, which looked capable of destroying the world, did not even qualify to make Rosse react.
And reality was exactly as they saw.
That terrifying attack, strong enough to flatten all of Seireitei in one strike, landed on Rosse's body yet failed to push his upright figure back even half a step. It could not even move a single strand of his hair.
The two Zangetsu blades, once capable of cutting through anything, now looked like fragile plastic toys lightly resting against Rosse's black Hollow King robe.
There were no sparks. No shockwaves.
It looked less like Ichigo was attacking with full force and more like he was gently placing the blades on Rosse's shoulders.
"Kurosaki Ichigo, do you finally understand the gap between us a little now?"
Rosse slightly turned his head. His calm gaze fell on Ichigo's face, twisted from extreme shock.
"When standing before a gap so hopeless that even a fool would despair... are you still going to keep swinging your sword at me?"
"DAMMITTTTT!"
Kurosaki Ichigo let out an unwilling roar like a trapped beast. He did not retreat. Instead, his teeth ground loudly together.
"AAAAAHHHHH!"
As he screamed, spiritual pressure erupted from his body like a volcanic explosion.
Soul Reaper power, Hollow power, Quincy power, three completely different yet intertwined violent forces poured wildly out of him like a tsunami.
Black-and-red spiritual pressure spread violently in every direction, even forming a small tornado in midair.
The pressure was so dense that Soul Reapers below captain level nearly suffocated and fainted on the spot.
From the day he was born, the total amount of spiritual pressure inside Kurosaki Ichigo had already stood at the peak of Soul Society. He had simply always been like a child carrying gold bricks without understanding how to use them.
What Hyosube Ichibe, Nimaiya Oetsu, and the others taught him was merely a way to slightly dig out and control that power.
But now, forced by extreme rage and despair, he had finally completely released this sealed strength.
He had already made up his mind. Even if it meant burning away his soul, he would use this power to kill Rosse standing before him.
He absolutely refused to believe there was such a thing as truly absolute defense in this world.
If he could not break through now, then he would use ten times, a hundred times more power to tear it apart by force.
He firmly believed that Rosse's calm disguise would eventually be shattered by his blade
"BREAK FOR ME!"
Kurosaki Ichigo pressed down hard on the long Zangetsu with both hands, trying to forcefully cut through Rosse's defense with violent spiritual pressure.
"What a stubborn beast."
A trace of boredom flashed through Rosse's cold eyes.
He did not even bother with the long blade pressing against his shoulder. He simply raised his right hand casually and lightly tapped the air with one finger.
Bzzz!
A nearly invisible ripple of spirit particles spread outward.
The next second, Kurosaki Ichigo suddenly felt his hand become lighter.
He lowered his head in shock and discovered that the white short blade in his left hand, the one representing Quincy power, had silently crumbled into nothingness like a sand sculpture weathered for millions of years under Rosse's casual touch.
Kurosaki Ichigo stared blankly at his now-empty left hand. His entire body froze in midair, his mind completely empty.
Not just him. Nimaiya Oetsu and Hirako Shinji in the ruins below were also stunned, as if dropped into an ice pit.
Had the gap truly become this enormous?
How could anyone possibly resist this?
Maybe people like Kyoraku Shunsui and Ukitake Jushiro, who chose suicide earlier while they still had some dignity left, had it better than struggling helplessly like clowns now.
At this moment, every resistance fighter present had the same sorrowful thought.
"Your personality is too soft. Your childish values simply aren't suited for surviving in this cold and cruel real world, Kurosaki Ichigo."
Rosse looked at the stunned Ichigo. Seemingly finding it dull, he sighed lightly and shook his head.
Then he turned his gaze toward Kurosaki Masaki, who had remained silent beside him.
"You still had one blessing slot left before. Do you want to use it on this boy, Masaki?"
Rosse's tone was calm.
Rosse had never been stingy toward his own people.
Although Kurosaki Masaki did not sincerely follow him at the start and was even full of hatred, after being completely remade and staying by his side, she had perfectly and efficiently carried out every order and every harsh demand he gave. Her cold face had never shown the slightest unwillingness.
Toward such a valuable and useful private possession, he was willing to grant considerable freedom and privilege as long as it did not affect the bigger picture.
Even if Masaki wanted to spare Kurosaki Ichigo today, he would give her that respect.
Hearing Rosse's question, a clear look of struggle and complexity finally appeared on Kurosaki Masaki's frozen face.
She turned her head with an unreadable expression and looked at her son, who had completely collapsed and could barely hold his blade anymore.
Then she quietly asked, "A long time ago... I actually asked Kurosaki Isshin the same question. So now, Ichigo, I'll ask you. Do you want to live? Live in another way."
"Another way?"
Kurosaki Ichigo seemed to hear the most ridiculous joke imaginable. He loosened his grip on the remaining long sword and allowed it to dissolve into spirit particles as well.
He raised his head and let out a miserable laugh uglier than crying.
"What was Dad's answer back then? With his personality, there's no way he'd accept your kind of charity, being raised like dogs, right?"
At this point, Kurosaki Ichigo had completely woken up.
All his power, all the trump cards he had been proud of, could not even scratch Rosse's skin, let alone kill him.
He had lost completely, without holding anything back.
At this moment, if Rosse wanted to kill him, it would truly take nothing more than a single thought.
But Kurosaki Ichigo also had his own pride.
"He really was even more foolish than you."
Kurosaki Masaki closed her eyes, as if recalling several months ago.
"From beginning to end, he believed I had changed, that I had betrayed the past. But he never considered that the real face of this world was never as beautiful as he imagined."
"You father and son are the same. You only want to protect the small patch of peace in front of your own home while deliberately ignoring everything happening elsewhere across the Three Realms."
"From the very beginning, Aizen's scheme was what brought him together with me, a pure-blood Quincy. Your birth itself was a tragedy from the start."
"And since it began as a tragedy, it would naturally end as one too. That is cause and effect."
Kurosaki Masaki let out a light sigh and slowly opened those emotionless eyes, "So, Ichigo, you should understand what I mean now, right?"
"Yeah... I get it now."
Kurosaki Ichigo lowered his head and suddenly burst into bleak laughter mixed with relief.
"After all... during these past ten years after Mom was taken away, it was that unreliable-looking idiot Dad who raised me by himself, acting as both father and mother. His blood runs through me. I was taught by him... so how could my thoughts possibly be different from that idiot old man's?"
"Mom, take care of Yuzu and Karin..."
Kurosaki Ichigo sighed. There was no light left in his eyes anymore.
He did not beg or compromise. He simply looked quietly at Rosse and Masaki, waiting for fate's final judgment.
"I see... understood."
Kurosaki Masaki looked into her son's eyes and understood that resolve to die rather than submit.
She lowered her head slightly, hiding the final trace of sorrow belonging to a mother in her eyes.
Then she turned around, respectfully knelt on one knee, and looked toward Rosse, who had silently watched everything from the side.
"Master, please give him a perfect ending. Give him a better ending that belongs to him."
"In exchange, from this day onward, Masaki will strip away the last trace of humanity left inside herself and follow by your side without complaint. There will never again be even the slightest divided loyalty."
She wanted to trade all the value she had left, even her soul, for a false salvation for Kurosaki Ichigo.
This was also her final salvation for herself.
"As you wish."
Rosse smiled slightly and gently stroked Kurosaki Masaki before taking a small step forward.
The next second, his slender finger ignored the distance of space and time and lightly touched the center of Kurosaki Ichigo's forehead.
"You!"
Kurosaki Ichigo instinctively tried to pull back and resist.
But before Rosse, he could not even move a single eyelash.
He felt the surrounding space become completely sealed. His entire body stiffened like it had been filled with lead, unable to resist at all.
Immediately after, a massive torrent of spirit particles that could not be resisted rushed into his brain.
Kurosaki Ichigo's consciousness gradually became blurry and confused.
Inside that chaos, Rosse freely began weaving and rewriting the threads of the young man's memories.
In Kurosaki Ichigo's mind, time began reversing. He gradually forgot everything.
It was as though he had returned to infancy, still wrapped in blankets after being born.
All the cruel memories in his mind regarding "Soul Reapers," the "Gotei Thirteen," and "Rosse's descent" were completely erased by an invisible hand.
His memories were rewritten:
On that rainy day in his childhood, his gentle mother Kurosaki Masaki was injured protecting him, but in the end successfully drove away the ordinary Hollow named Grand Fisher.
She did not die, nor was she guided to Hueco Mundo by Rosse to become a cold private possession.
His idiot father Kurosaki Isshin was still alive too, and the family continued running their noisy little clinic in Karakura Town.
He grew up normally like that, becoming a regular high school student who could see ghosts.
Then later, the gears of fate continued turning.
Soul Reaper Kuchiki Rukia appeared in his room as scheduled and passed Soul Reaper powers on to him.
Only this time, there was no interference from Rosse in this world.
Like the protagonist of a hot-blooded manga, he cut through every obstacle and successfully entered Soul Society, saving Rukia at Sokyoku Hill.
Then Aizen betrayed Soul Society, and Inoue Orihime was kidnapped to Hueco Mundo.
He brought his companions deep into Las Noches, rescued her after bitter battles, and in the final fight at Karakura Town, defeated Aizen with the Final Getsuga Tensho at the cost of losing his Soul Reaper powers.
Years later, the sleeping Quincy King Yhwach appeared.
Even though Yhwach conquered the Soul King Palace and reached the peak of Soul Society, Ichigo still defeated him in the end with the help of his companions, bringing true peace to the Three Realms.
After all the magnificent adventures ended, he returned to calm daily life.
He finished his studies, inherited the family clinic, and continued living the ordinary life he had always wanted most.
In the end, he married Inoue Orihime, who had silently stayed by his side all along. Together they had a cute son and built a happy, complete family without a single shadow hanging over it.
Countless beautiful moments and carefully woven memories rapidly played through Kurosaki Ichigo's mind.
To him, that was the life he had truly lived. That was the perfect world he had always dreamed of.
Until the final moment of that fabricated life.
In the dream, he lay on a hospital bed with white hair.
Beside him sat his aged wife Orihime, holding his hand, along with their fully grown son, Kurosaki Kazui.
Kurosaki Ichigo quietly looked at the scene before him with a satisfied smile at the corner of his mouth.
Finally, he peacefully closed his eyes, as though this life no longer held any regrets.
And on the cold and cruel real battlefield outside, as the life inside the dream came to an end, the light that had returned to Kurosaki Ichigo's eyes slowly faded away once more before gently closing.
All the real pain, struggle, and memories from his true life had been completely rewritten by Rosse and sealed forever inside an endless beautiful dream.
This was the perfect ending Rosse granted Kurosaki Ichigo out of respect for Masaki.
If Kurosaki Masaki had not stepped forward to ask for it, then with Rosse's twisted personality that enjoyed playing with human nature, he had ten thousand crueler ways to make Kurosaki Ichigo stay fully conscious while watching everything he treasured be destroyed before finally tormenting him to death.
But Kurosaki Masaki was one of his own people.
Rosse smiled and withdrew his hand.
At the same time—
Thud!
Kurosaki Ichigo, who had lost all consciousness and soul fluctuations, dropped helplessly from the sky like a sleeping puppet and slammed heavily into the ruined battlefield below, kicking up a small cloud of dust.
[🎉 Shoutout to Justin for joining p@treon. Thank you very much.🤗]
[🙇🏻 You Can Support the Story Through P@tr3on—AmbitiousTranslator. It also has 40+ Chapters of all the novels and fanfics. Thanks for reading~]