Continued from the previous chapter, Ichigo fought with Uquiorra. Then, the scene changed to the outside of the tower. Renji, Chad and Rukia were fighting with their opponents. Chad and Renji were dealing with a bunch of giant hollows from the desert. Renji used shikai and Chad used “Right arm of the giant”. Rukia took down the whole squad of the Execute squad, leaving the head who wore the buffalo mask alone.
Seeing Rukia’s power, he decided to release his sword.
“Grow up, Arbolar”
He had something similar to branches of tree with a size around human’s arm growing up from his body. His Zanpakutou changed into two sharp branches.
“Took down all my subordinates and so what?” He said. “I’ll teach you that defeating my subordinates doesn’t mean you will win”
At that moment, a sound of a bomb distracted Rukia from the battle. She turned to the direction where the sound came from. There was a big hole in a wall at the top of the tower with smoke coming through it.
The shinigami thought of her comrade who was fighting over there “…Ichigo…”
The scene changed into Ichigo and Ulquiorra’s fight. This time Ichigo could keep up with Ulquiorra even though the 4th espada was fighting with his sword not his bare hands like the last time.
Ichigo swung down his sword with both hands, but Ulquiorra could block it with one arm. They were fighting until Ichigo used “Getsuga Tensho” at Ulquiorra. However, he swung down his sword only once and “Getsuga Tensho” was separated into two. Seeing that, Ichigo was a bit surprised. Then, Ulquiorra used “Sonido” to move closer and thrust his sword at Ichigo.
Briefly, Ichigo dodged his attack before Ulquiorra continued attacking him. Finally, Ulquiorra’s sword thrusted into Ichigo’s left shoulder and he released cero at him immediately. His cero caused the surroundings to explode even the wall.
In the middle, Ichigo stood still with blood and bruises on his face as a result of the cero.
“Ho” the 4th espada said. “You can put up with my cero without a mask? You have become stronger… because of fighting with Grimmjow or... for that woman?”
His eyes turned to where Orihime is standing.
“Or for the friends who were fighting down there?” He turned to look at Ichigo now.
After he finished his speech, Ulquiorra waited for his reaction but Ichigo answered nothing.
“…That woman will soon be on our side. Even you can't take her away from here, that truth will never change”
His speech reminded Ichigo of what Grimmjow said before. “You are relaxed to see her without any injuries even if you have no idea what is happening inside of her!!?”
“It’s no use to try and help” Ulquiorra pressured him.
“…That…” Ichigo’s eyes expressed his anger “is not for you to decide…!!”
“Yes” Ulquiorra answered. “Because Aizen-sama is the one who will decide”