"...!" Ichigo Kurosaki clenched his teeth. "I… I'll kill you!"
He drove a kick into the shaggy Hollow's head, using the rebound to spring upward, twisting in midair as he swung his fist down.
Not bad. His Reiryoku was rising fast…
The shaggy Hollow caught him, clearly pleased with how quickly he was growing.
But it still wasn't enough.
"Can't remember? Doesn't matter. My left claw can pry into memories." The shaggy Hollow flicked out razor-sharp nails, stabbing into Ichigo Kurosaki's struggling body. "Let's see… found it…"
Ichigo Kurosaki's rage sent his Reiryoku surging even harder, and the shaggy Hollow, delighted as if reaping a full harvest, pressed on to provoke him further.
With its right hand holding Ichigo Kurosaki in place, it grabbed the cat-toy-like appendage extending from its head with its left. The drooping human skin slid back over it, then shifted, reshaping into a new form.
"My right hand can turn the lure into the proper shape." The shaggy Hollow loosened its grip. "It should look like this. Right?"
Ichigo Kurosaki's struggle stopped dead.
A familiar face was suddenly right in front of him.
"Mom…? Mom?"
"Ichigo…" The Hollow's limb trembled, and it spoke in a voice Ichigo Kurosaki knew all too well. "You've gotten so big…"
"You…" Blood seeped from the corners of Ichigo Kurosaki's eyes. "How dare you… pretend to be my mother!"
A clear blue light flared in his eyes. Ichigo Kurosaki's arms snapped, and he tore himself free by force from the shaggy Hollow's claws.
The Hollow's left hand's four fingers twisted at an unnatural angle, and a sharp sense of danger crawled up its spine.
Ichigo Kurosaki's Reiryoku was climbing too fast.
Crack!
The pale mask that took Ichigo Kurosaki's punch spiderwebbed with fine fractures.
His fury became something almost tangible, roaring through his body. He poured all of it into his fist and hammered it toward the Hollow in front of him.
I'll kill you!
"Ichigo!" The mother-shaped lure threw itself in front of him. "Stop… please…"
Ichigo Kurosaki went rigid.
Tears mixed with the blood at the corners of his eyes and traced down his face.
Pff!
The shaggy Hollow's claws punched straight through both the lure and Ichigo Kurosaki.
"Close one, close one…" it snarled from behind the decoy, twisting its claws as it churned Ichigo Kurosaki's insides. "Good thing I'm a step ahead—huh?"
The shaggy Hollow yanked its claws back and sprang away.
But the cold flash was faster, cutting through the air and cleanly severing its wrist.
"A Shinigami?" The shaggy Hollow stared at the suddenly appeared Muten Natsu. "Troublesome… there are too many of you. Looks like I won't be eating today."
"Muten Natsu!" Ichigo Kurosaki forced himself upright. "Don't—don't get involved! This is—"
"This is Grand Fisher," Muten Natsu said quietly. "In Soul Society's archives, it's recorded as Grand. It usually hides itself by concealing its Reiatsu, then uses a lure that grows from its head to disguise itself as a human. It eats the ones who can see the lure, and it has a record of driving off Shinigami more than once."
He kept his tone even.
"I understand how you feel. But it isn't something you can defeat."
Ichigo Kurosaki ignored the pain tearing through his abdomen. "I…"
"The trace your mother left in this world isn't an empty shell it made," Rukia Kuchiki said, working her power to treat Ichigo Kurosaki's wounds. "It's you and your family. Compared to throwing yourself at a Hollow, don't you have something more important to do?"
Ichigo Kurosaki collapsed to the ground, weakly covering his eyes as if it could stop anything.
Rainwater…spilled out from his eyes.
"Judging by your tone," Grand Fisher's gray-brown fur writhed, wrapping around his left hand as his twisted fingers straightened, "you make it sound like you can actually beat me!"
Clang!
Ink spread outward, blotting the air and blocking Grand Fisher's clawed strike.
The swinging Myōki tore free from the ink's restraint, releasing the Reiatsu it had been storing in a violent surge.
A sharp arc of light flashed past. Grand Fisher's attempt to evade had barely begun when it failed completely. One hand and one foot were almost severed at the same instant.
"You have a record of driving back Shinigami many times," Muten Natsu said, gripping Myōki, his gaze cold and steady. "And I have a record of killing Shinigami many times."
The gray-brown fur on Grand Fisher's body whipped wildly as new limbs regenerated from within it.
"So what you're saying is," Grand Fisher sneered, "you taste much better than other Shinigami?"
"You can think of it that way," Muten Natsu replied, raising Myōki, its bright blade leveled at Grand Fisher. "If you're capable of it."
Grand Fisher's body lurched, his arm suddenly stretching out toward Muten Natsu.
"I'm starting!"
Just as the claws were about to reach him, the arm's extension stopped short. Instead of striking forward, gray-brown fur burst out, coiling toward Muten Natsu's body.
Worthy of a Hollow that had repelled Shinigami more than once. After witnessing Myōki's power and Muten Natsu's counterattack, Grand Fisher chose the safer option, probing first with his fur, trying to bind his opponent.
Coincidentally…
That was exactly what Muten Natsu was thinking as well.
He slipped sideways past the incoming fur and spun with the motion, Myōki swinging through the air to hook onto invisible strands like spider silk.
Silk Entanglement Flash!
The tightened strands yanked hard, dragging Grand Fisher's massive body toward Muten Natsu.
Reiatsu surged out of the spinning Myōki like a raging torrent, crashing straight into Grand Fisher's bloated form.
Grand Fisher's fur erupted and grew wildly, twisting into tentacle-like shapes that slammed into the ground.
Using the recoil, Grand Fisher leapt upward, but in the same instant, a flash of blade light cut through. The fur braced against the ground was severed cleanly, instantly soaked.
Muten Natsu twisted his arm, and Myōki followed the spinning momentum, flaring with lightning as it slashed toward Grand Fisher in midair.
The blinding arc of electricity tore through the air, striking Grand Fisher's damp fur and sending a numbing shock through his body.
Grand Fisher had only meant to test his opponent, yet from the very first exchange he was forced completely on the defensive. He couldn't understand how this Shinigami could wield two different elemental powers.
There was no time to dwell on it. Grand Fisher stretched out his arm again, not to attack, but to seize a nearby tree, hauling his body aside to evade Muten Natsu's strike.
Electricity crackled sharply through the air. Muten Natsu's blade cut through empty space, his eyes locking onto Grand Fisher as his other hand closed around the hilt.
Myōki flared crimson.
With a single swing, fiery blade pressure burst free from the edge. The instant Grand Fisher moved to dodge, it split violently into multiple streaks, crossing and weaving as they scorched the air and closed in.
This was the Soul-Severing Sword Technique obtained after killing Shrieker—
Exploding Flash!
The blazing blade pressure divided again and again in midair, and at the moment it struck its target…
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
One explosion followed another. The terrifying shockwaves stacked together, ripping Grand Fisher, who failed to escape in time, into charred, blackened fragments.