Chapter 45

Ichigo and Uryu continued to fight the onslaught of hollows, but the creatures seemed endless. Ichigo's arms were growing tired from constant swinging, and Uryu's hand was bleeding from continuous shooting.

Just as they were contemplating a solution to eliminate all the hollows, three figures rapidly approached - two small and one large. One of the smaller figures stopped, took out an object from her back covered in talismans, and began to fire.

BoomBooomBoomBoom....

It was Ururu. Her attacks were like a combination of a machine gun and a grenade launcher, obliterating hollows as if they were made of paper. The other small figure leaped at the hollows and pulled out something large from his back.

"Jinta~~Home Run!"

It was Jinta who wielded a large iron club, smashing it against the mask of a hollow. The larger figure, Tessai, stepped forward and began to shatter the masks of hollows using only his bare hands.

Ichigo and Uryu were stunned by their performance.

"So strong..." Uryu commented, pushing up his glasses and observing their swift and efficient extermination of the hollows. Especially Ururu, who was single-handedly decimating the hollows, significantly reducing their numbers.

Ichigo recognized the newcomers as the individuals from Urahara's shop.

"What...are they doing here?" Ichigo asked, only to be answered by Urahara who appeared out of nowhere.

"Good afternoon, Kurosaki-kun, leave the small fries to us and you can deal with those things," Urahara pointed at a direction in the sky where small cracks were expanding.

Three large masks of hollows appeared in the sky, their large claws slowly ripping through the space to enter the human world.

"What...are those?" Ichigo asked, echoing the question on Uryu's mind.

Rukia, who was on the side, was trembling. She knew what those creatures were and the threat they posed. Just as she was about to run to Ichigo's position to make him retreat, Urahara appeared beside her, binding her in place with a Kido.

"What are you doing!?" She shouted at Urahara who was staring at Ichigo's position.

"Stopping you from interfering. This situation might be crucial for Ichigo..." He began, but was interrupted by Rukia's shout.

"What are you saying!? Those are Menos Grande! Ichigo might have grown during this month but he's still far from being able to fight one, let alone three Gillian!" Rukia shouted.

"You don't need to worry. His life is not in danger as I am here. And even if I don't do anything, that guy is here so you really don't have anything to worry about," Urahara said, his eyes under the shadow of his hat glancing at a particular figure standing on a rooftop.

"That guy?" Rukia followed his gaze and saw a familiar figure.

Errol stood on the rooftop, watching three Gillians - gigantic monster Hollows, each at least 2-6 stories tall, easily dwarfing even the largest standard Hollow. They all had white masks with elongated noses and bodies covered from head to foot in a cloak-like black covering.

One of them even shot out its long tongue, piercing a few hollows and pulling them into its mouth to eat.

"Should I interfere? I think this is beyond those two's abilities to fight those Gillian," Errol looked at Ichigo and Uryu, before glancing at Urahara who remained calm, observing the situation.

He looked back at Uryu and Ichigo and almost shouted and cursed at Ichigo for his reckless action. Ichigo was charging towards the three Menos Grande like some kind of foolhardy barbarian.

Ichigo leaped towards the Menos Grande in the middle, preparing to strike it with his sword. However, his jump lacked power and he was sent flying away when the gigantic hollow moved one of its feet to take a step.

"Aarhhh!" Ichigo rolled a few times before returning to his previous position.

Uryu rushed towards him. "Hey, Kurosaki, are you still alive!?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine," Ichigo said in a carefree manner, but the blood on his forehead suggested otherwise.

"Who told you to attack like an idiot?" Uryu said as he fired arrows at the Menos Grandes, which didn't react. He helped Ichigo get up and accidentally grabbed his zanpakuto.

His bow, made of spiritual power, suddenly enlarged, surprising Uryu. He thought for a moment and suddenly got an idea.

Quincies use the spiritual power from the atmosphere combined with their own to fight, while Shinigami use their own spiritual power, pouring it into their zanpakuto to fight. When Uryu was holding Ichigo's sword earlier, Ichigo's spiritual power was moving to the sword and Uryu accidentally added it to his bow, making it stronger.

A few minutes later, Uryu positioned himself holding his bow with Ichigo's sword tightly on top of his head. Ichigo was looking at him as if he was an idiot, a sentiment shared by Errol, who was observing from atop a house.

Errol looked at Uryu's stance. "What are you doing, Uryu? That's so unlike you, always trying to look cool...wait, he kind of reminds me of the sword devil from that Chainsaw anime...hmm, still uncool."

While he was speaking, Uryu and Ichigo were arguing about whether it would even work. One of the Menos Grande started to condense spiritual energy, preparing to launch a cero, a powerful beam made of spiritual power.

Uryu and Ichigo noticed it, and Uryu shouted at Ichigo. "Immediately hold your swo-What are you doing!?"

Ichigo took back his sword and charged towards the Menos Grandes. Everyone watching looked at him as if he was on a suicide mission.

The Menos Grande noticed him and fired the cero at him. Ichigo saw it and immediately used his sword to block the cero.

Uryu, who thought Ichigo would immediately die, was surprised to see him holding his own, blocking the cero of the hollow. But the most surprising thing was that his spiritual power was increasing at an incredible rate.

Even Errol, who didn't know much about the truth of this world, was surprised. The spiritual power Ichigo was releasing wasn't much compared to his own, but the rate at which it was growing was astonishing.

"Damn cheating protagonist...I know it's not his fault but... I'll put a prank on him later.." Errol said in a malicious tone, not realizing he was the same.

Ichigo, who was focusing on blocking the cero with all his strength, felt a sudden chill that almost made him lose focus. Luckily, he managed to recover.

He put more strength into his zanpakuto, pouring a lot of spiritual power into the blade of his sword. He then slashed with all his strength, creating an energy slash that cut through the cero and indirectly hit the Menos Grande who shot the cero.

"ROAAARRR" The Menos Grande roared in pain and took a few steps back. Ichigo's attack had reached the mask of the Hollow and cracked it. The crack started small before spreading across its entirety and shattering.

"Roarr..." The Menos Grande in the middle made a final roar before disappearing.

"Oh Yeah!" Ichigo cheered. He prepared himself to fight the other two hollows when suddenly he collapsed. "Eh? What's happening?"

The other Menos Grande might have been angered by the sudden death of their companion. One of them raised its foot and stomped towards Ichigo. He couldn't move at all and could only watch as the foot of one Menos Grande approached him.

Just when Ichigo thought he would die, Uryu appeared, pulled him out of the way, and ran before the foot of the hollow smashed his previous location.