"No!" Ulquiorra shook his head, uttering words that caused Ichigo's expression to darken slightly:
"Didn't you notice? For some unknown reason, Kurosaki Ichigo's speed... has slowed down!"
"What? Slowed down!!?"
Grimmjow's expression hardened. As someone skilled in combat, he understood the implications. His anger at his teammate for standing idle while he was beaten vanished.
"Slowed down?" Looking at Ichigo, Grimmjow tried to recall.
Facing the two, Ichigo could have tried to act mysterious, asking them to guess if he had slowed down, or what if he had. But Ichigo said nothing of the sort.
He directly admitted it: "Correct. My speed has indeed slowed down."
Mayuri's Spirit-Sealing Bracelets didn't affect Ichigo much in daily life, but it had an impact in battle.
There's a saying… only when the tide goes out do you discover who's been swimming naked.
Ichigo wouldn't go as far as saying he was swimming naked, but it was only after his Quincy methods were explicitly restricted that he realized just how much he had been relying on Quincy abilities in his usual fights.
Now, Ichigo's Bankai still utilized Hirenkyaku, but it had changed from absorbing Reishi from the outside to using Reishi from within his body.
Originally, he used both internal and external Reishi simultaneously. Lacking external Reishi, Ichigo's speed had been reduced by a small but significant portion.
Thus, in terms of speed and some techniques, Ichigo had grown weaker.
It was just that his training with Unohana had greatly improved his overall strength, masking these inconsistencies.
"If you're slower, then that's excellent news!!"
Hearing Ichigo's words, Grimmjow grinned.
Grimmjow was the Panther King, incredibly fast, and he loved toying with others using speed.
If Ichigo's speed wasn't faster than his, then Grimmjow had ten thousand ways to outmaneuver him!
The most powerful attack is meaningless if it doesn't hit!
The pinnacle of martial arts is unrivaled speed!
However, seeing Grimmjow like this, Ulquiorra, concerned, held him back.
"Be careful!" Ulquiorra said gravely. "To openly admit his weakness means he must have already devised a method to compensate for it!"
"Rashly attacking that point will only lead to your disadvantage!"
"Moreover, we currently have no offensive pressure. Although it's two against one, the one who needs to be urgent is him!"
They only needed to wait ten minutes. No matter how strong Ichigo was, he would be burdened with a liability.
Time was on Ulquiorra and Grimmjow's side.
With Ulquiorra's words, the situation on the field fell into a tense silence once more.
Looking at the two, Ichigo gave a faint smile. "Alright. Truly the heartless Ulquiorra, not even getting tempted by such an opportunity."
"In that case, if you won't come, then I will!"
Ichigo dove down from the sky!
Ulquiorra's guess was correct… Ichigo had indeed prepared something new for the two of them!
The improved Getsuga Tensho he had discussed with Unohana… Ichigo had been pondering it all along.
Furthermore, the actual improvement training for Getsuga Tensho wasn't something suggested only at the end. Unohana had been subtly teaching him all along, with preparatory training in place.
Fwoosh...
"Getsuga Tensho - Modified! Flash!"
During his dive, massive amounts of black Reiatsu manifested on Ichigo's sword.
Following the usual method, this Reiatsu would wrap around Tensa Zangetsu's blade to be fired or swung.
But this time, Ichigo's method wasn't wrapping… it was compression!
Air has mass.
Utilizing the force of friction with the air during his high-speed dive, treating the air like an anvil, Ichigo continuously hammered the Getsuga Tensho in his hand.
With his own power and external force combined, Ichigo fiercely compressed the Getsuga Tensho onto Tensa Zangetsu's blade!
From the outside, Tensa Zangetsu appeared as slender as ever!
Only, the pitch-black Getsuga Tensho refined the already black Tensa Zangetsu to a deep, ink-like intensity. The highly compressed spiritual particles gave a sense of black hole-like gravitational pull!
A thick aura of destruction emanated from Tensa Zangetsu's cutting edge!
If Yamamoto were here, he might have exclaimed, "Who copied me and became a Copy Ninja?!"
Because Ichigo's move bore a striking resemblance to Yamamoto's Zanka no Tachi, where all flames were compressed onto the blade!
And called [Flash], it truly was a flash!
Ichigo, diving from the sky, combined his own speed with gravitational acceleration.
Under constant acceleration, he traced a straight line, akin to a terminally guided ballistic missile, striking the location of Ulquiorra and Grimmjow at dozens of times the speed of sound!
At such extreme speed, the two had no chance to evade!
Rumble rumble rumble-
An even more massive explosion erupted from the crater Grimmjow had created!
The hard ground at this moment seemed as if struck by a heavenly meteorite. Dirt and concrete were thrown out in massive quantities.
Violent tremors and shockwaves radiated in all directions. A giant mushroom cloud rose.
Under such an impact, even the recently collapsed school ruins crumbled further!
If someone were to measure, they would discover the entire school ruins had shifted backwards by 10 meters!
The tremors reached the distant observers. Harribel, Kisuke, and the others staggered, forced to reinforce the ground beneath their feet with Reishi to steady themselves.
"So powerful!" Looking at the distant Ichigo, Harribel's eyes held gravity:
"Strength like this is already sufficient to contend with the top three Espada!"
"Oh? Strength like this is only enough to contend with the top three Espada?"
Hearing Harribel's words, Kisuke was very surprised.
In his view, Ichigo was a fusion of power and speed.
Pure, but all the stronger for its purity.
Those with power matching his didn't have his speed. Those with speed matching his didn't have his power.
Such a pure combination was formidable against Shinigami with even slight weaknesses.
For instance, someone like Komamura, who only had power, or Byakuya, strong in area attacks but weaker in single-target methods… both would fall to Ichigo!
Harribel's implication was undoubtedly that the top three Espada were all powerhouses without obvious weaknesses!
Among Shinigami, how many truly dared to claim they had no defects?
"Of course!" Harribel looked at Kisuke proudly.
"Whether in group battles or one-on-one duels, the Espada who reach the top three are unrivaled!"
As for Harribel herself, her skills were grand and imposing, but her Resurrección state was more than sufficient to face Ichigo.
After all, a heavy sword needs no edge… great skill appears artless!