"Is… is it over?" Watching Grand Fisher torn apart, Ichigo Kurosaki felt a tangle of emotions he couldn't put into words.
"Take your sisters and leave first," Rukia Kuchiki said as she finished the treatment, handing Ichigo Kurosaki some recovery medicine. "The next fight could drag you into it."
"It… it's still alive?" Ichigo Kurosaki said in disbelief, just as Muten Natsu suddenly swung his blade.
Violent blade pressure twisted through the air like a writhing worm, intercepting Grand Fisher's attack aimed at Karin Kurosaki.
"So you've got tricks like that too…" Grand Fisher's claws were blocked by the worm-shaped blade pressure, and the fur covering his body shot out, lashing toward Karin Kurosaki.
But Muten Natsu was faster. Myōki traced a flowing arc in his hand, slicing through the dense mass of fur in an instant.
"I see… now I get it…" Grand Fisher slipped aside, evading Muten Natsu's pursuit. "A Zanpakutō that can control water, lightning, and fire… How could something like that exist? I've seen several of my kind before, but they've all disappeared recently. Looking at those techniques just now, your abilities are very similar to theirs."
Out of the corner of his eye, Muten Natsu kept track of Ichigo Kurosaki as he led his two sisters farther away, while remaining alert for any sudden move from Grand Fisher.
"So your power is killing Hollows and then stealing their abilities for storage." The deathly pale mask on Grand Fisher's face twisted like flesh, forming a contemptuous grin. "The advantage is versatility, but… there's no way you can use them too many times."
A Hollow that had driven back Shinigami time and again, Grand Fisher knew their abilities well. Zanpakutō powers came in countless forms, but all of them had limits.
Just like people, whose personalities varied endlessly, yet all carried their own flaws.
Grand Fisher's judgment was spot on.
In its Shikai state, Myōki could use every stored slashing technique it had accumulated, but each one could only be used once, and every use consumed a tremendous amount of Reiatsu.
"So…" After confirming that Ichigo Kurosaki was far enough away, Muten Natsu's gaze grew even colder as he shifted his stance slightly. "You're offering to help me store one more?"
"Fine by me." Grand Fisher lowered his body. "If you can pull it off."
The setting sun brushed the mountain ridges, and a cool breeze by the cliff stirred the swaying branches.
A single leaf drifted down, wobbling gently in midair before splitting cleanly into two.
Reflected in Grand Fisher's wide eyes was the ever-approaching blade light. His bloated body displayed startling agility as he wrapped his fur around a tree trunk, yanking himself backward to evade.
Muten Natsu changed his footing, his body moving like a phantom. In a blink, he closed the distance and swung again.
Grand Fisher dug his claws into the rock face, tearing free a massive boulder and hurling it toward Muten Natsu.
Ink spread and bled through the air. The stone shattered.
Myōki paused for a heartbeat within the ink, then surged forward even faster, cold light flashing with lethal intent.
Unsheathed draw, no scabbard—
Ink Fortress Flash!
A thick tree trunk split cleanly in two. From the broken cross-section, Grand Fisher's claws shot out, reaching straight for Muten Natsu's throat.
Muten Natsu shifted his body just enough to avoid them, his arm swinging as his torso twisted, blade slashing toward Grand Fisher's arm.
"Got you…" From a blind spot, Grand Fisher's fur coiled around Muten Natsu's arm. As it tightened, Muten Natsu's rotating motion was forcibly stopped. "Your flaw is way too obvious!"
Grand Fisher had seen it clearly.
Muten Natsu's attacks followed a very distinct pattern.
Before striking, he would slightly turn his body, left hand forward, right hand back.
From an opponent's perspective, the blade in his hand was completely hidden.
Naturally, they couldn't tell which direction the strike would come from.
But his attacks had another tell.
At the moment he attacked, the left arm not holding the sword would always make a large, sweeping motion.
What looked like a meaningless motion was actually meant to mislead the opponent, adjust his center of gravity, and add rotational force.
But it was precisely that motion that exposed the path of his blade.
As for why he had to move like that…
The shape of his sword explained everything.
Grand Fisher had a basic understanding of the differences between inward-curved and outward-curved blades.
When using draw techniques meant to end a fight in a single strike, an inward-curved blade could greatly amplify killing power.
The inward curve hooked into the enemy's flesh instead of brushing them aside like an outward-curved blade, increasing the force of the cut.
However, against opponents who couldn't be finished with a single draw, an inward-curved blade was far less smooth when it came to recovering the sword compared to an outward-curved one.
That was why Muten Natsu relied on rotating his body, concentrating as much of his physical strength as possible into the blade to further boost the slash and make up for the weakness in recovery.
As long as the strike was powerful enough, a slightly slower follow-up wasn't a serious issue.
Conversely…
If his body rotation could be restrained with hair, the power of his slashes would be greatly reduced, fully exposing the drawback of slow recovery.
The best option would have been to bind Muten Natsu's entire body, but that was too obvious and easy to detect.
So Grand Fisher set his sights on Muten Natsu's left arm.
Compared to the sword-wielding right arm, the movement of Muten Natsu's left arm had become almost instinctive.
People rarely notice their own instincts.
Because the swing of his left arm was instinctual, Muten Natsu paid little attention to it and failed to notice the hair creeping closer.
Now, Grand Fisher's hair had wrapped around Muten Natsu's left arm, cutting off his rotational momentum and severely weakening the power of his slash.
Before the extended arm could be pulled back, Grand Fisher impatiently thrust out his other claw to attack.
"Heh." Muten Natsu let out a cold laugh and cut off Grand Fisher's elongated arm with a single strike.
Grand Fisher's analysis wasn't wrong. Once Muten Natsu's rotation was stopped, the power of his slashes did drop.
But it was still more than enough to sever an arm.
Muten Natsu twisted his wrist, the blood-stained Myōki slicing through the hair wrapped around his left wrist.
Clang!
Ink Fortress Flash.
Cold light burst free from the ink, carrying explosive blade pressure straight toward Grand Fisher's face.
Half the mask shattered. Both the broken mask and the face beneath it twisted into the same vicious grin.
"You cut it off-center…"
Gray-brown hair tangled together and stabbed into Muten Natsu's body like spikes, causing a slight deviation in his swing.
Veins bulged on Muten Natsu's forehead.
"What are you so pleased about?"
Grand Fisher's right shoulder slid cleanly off, blood spraying out immediately.
Ignoring the hair digging deeper into his body, Muten Natsu swung his blade in a horizontal slash.
The hair surged, and Grand Fisher bounced backward like a ball of fur. The hair rapidly sealed the wound as a brand-new right arm grew out.
High-Speed Regeneration.
One of a Hollow's unique abilities, allowing injured body parts to heal at extreme speed.
The more a Hollow relied on physical combat, the more powerful its High-Speed Regeneration tended to be.