218: Chapter 218 The Lost "Prey"

...The Human World, Mia's Villa.

Kurosaki Ichigo dreamed that he was diving twenty thousand leagues under the sea, but he had forgotten to wear a diving suit. Every inch of his skin creaked under the pressure, and just as he was about to be torn apart by the water pressure, he suddenly woke up.

Because in reality, he was indeed sprawled in the center of the training ground, his face pressed against the grass, his limbs unable to move. Mia's Thousand-Weight Curse had increased from ten times to twenty times, and now even breathing felt like a giant rock was pressing on his chest.

"Still alive?" A soft but malicious greeting came from above.

Ichigo squinted upwards. Tuaner was stepping on his lower back with one foot, her slender calf beautiful in the sunlight—if one ignored the chakram in her right hand.

"...Get... off..." He roared in his mind, but only a wheezing sound escaped his lips.

"Mia said we're training your reflexes to fatal attacks today~" Tuaner smiled sweetly, the chakram slowly moving down his nape. "So if I were to cut off the part between your legs now, it wouldn't be against the rules, right?"

A cold glint flashed.

"Ah!!!"

Ichigo sprang up violently, rolling sideways like an attacked shrimp to dodge. The chakram sliced open his trousers and deeply embedded itself in the grass, with what looked like traces of blood on it.

"Oh, you can move now?" Tuaner clapped her hands in surprise. "Looks like twenty times gravity is just this easy~"

Ichigo gritted his teeth and struggled to his feet, his entire body twitching. He felt like he had just been trampled by an elephant, but he was certainly better than yesterday—at least he could dodge the first strike when Tuaner aimed for his crotch.

"Next, we're playing for real." Tuaner suddenly put away her smile, the chakram spinning in her palm. "The rules are simple: if you can touch the hem of my clothes before I 'purify' you, you win. Oh, and if you lose, no dinner tonight..."

She pointed at herself.

Ichigo was about to respond when his vision suddenly blurred. Tuaner vanished, and the next instant, the chill of the chakram was already at his nape—

Clang!!!

The crisp sound of metal clashing exploded. Ichigo instinctively raised his right hand to block, only to realize that his zanpakuto was in his hand at some point.

"Not bad~" Tuaner tilted her head, the chakram still pressing against his blade. "Yesterday you couldn't even lift your sword, but now you've learned instinctive defense?"

"...Shut up." Ichigo's forehead was sweating, his arms trembling like a sieve. "You... talk... too much..."

He suddenly bent down and rolled, the chakram grazing his hair. Taking advantage of the moment Tuaner was retracting her move, he staggered towards her—then tripped over his own left foot and fell headfirst into a mud pit.

...The scene was incredibly awkward for a moment.

"Tsk tsk, perfect posture." Tuaner squatted by the pit, enjoying his predicament. "Should I take a photo of you and send it to Las Noches? Let Inoue Orihime see her ex-boyfriend's heroic posture?"

A brilliant blue spiritual pressure suddenly erupted from the mud pit. Ichigo propped himself up on his knees, muddy water streaming down his cheeks: "You... try... mentioning... her... again..."

The air suddenly solidified.

"Oh? Try me then~ Orihime! Orihime! Orihime!" Tuaner narrowed her eyes, the chakram glowing crimson. "Oh? Are you angry?"

Before Ichigo could answer, her figure blurred into a red afterimage. In the next three seconds, dozens of metallic clashes, muffled thuds of flesh hitting the grass, and a sky-piercing "Bastard!" echoed from the center of the training ground.

When the dust settled, Ichigo was hanging upside down from an oak branch, his trouser legs shredded into a fishnet pattern. Tuaner, meanwhile, was leisurely sitting under the tree counting knife marks.

"Cough... Ptooey!" Ichigo spat out the grass from his mouth. "You... cheated..."

"This is called practical combat training~" Tuaner swung her feet. "And by the way—" She suddenly pulled the chakram embedded in the tree trunk. "—this is just the beginning for you."

A cold flash!

Crack—

Wood chips flew. Tuaner's chakram stopped mid-air, firmly held by a suddenly appearing Zangetsu. And the orange-haired youth who should have been hanging from the tree was now kneeling beside her, his blade already resting on her neck.

Ichigo panted, grinning ferociously, "Now I'm qualified for dinner, right?"

Tuaner stared at him for two seconds, then suddenly burst out laughing: "Alright, kid, you adapt pretty fast, huh? Even learned to feint with Shunpo?"

"Why am I the only one covered in injuries!" Ichigo complained, sprawled on the edge of the special training ground, as if realizing he was being targeted.

He pointed at Tuaner, who was eating watermelon nearby, and cursed, "You guys clearly... huh?"

His complaining stopped abruptly. Tuaner flung her scent-infused sportswear onto Ichigo's face, revealing the sports bra underneath.

Though not as magnificent as Mia's, it was still quite a sight. A dark purple talisman was conspicuously stuck to her waist, the traditional Chinese characters " One Hundred" on the paper glowing with a faint blue light.

"Looking at this? Hm?" Tuaner's disdain was perfectly summarized by a single nasal sound. "You don't even look at the scenery, idiot!"

Ichigo's face was beet red, and he lowered his head without a word...

Dinner time.

Ichigo devouring white rice directly from the rice cooker no longer drew stares from the others. However, the lines of his waist and abdomen, inadvertently revealed as he wolfed down his food, made Rangiku whistle as she passed by: "Little Ichigo has a nice physique!"

"Cough!" Toshiro choked on his miso soup.

Gin Ichimaru, covered in injuries, silently struggled with his dinner in a corner. He had voluntarily requested a thirty-times gravity training goal today, personally overseen by Mia. His reason was to make himself less likely to die...

"Don't... tease him..." Renji lay sprawled on the table, barely alive—he had been "incidentally" given an extra five-times gravity talisman by Mia that morning, and the twenty-five times gravity made him unable to even hold chopsticks steady now.

Dinner ended in a harmonious atmosphere of sighs and cries of pain...

...Las Noches, Training Hall, Hall of Mirrors.

Beneath the crystal dome, Inoue Orihime knelt in the center of the Mirror Hall. Her snow-white skirt spread out on the marble floor, like a blooming lily.

Aizen's palm covered the top of her head, the hilt of Kyoka Suigetsu pressed against the hollow at her nape.

"Have you thought it through?" His voice was as gentle as if asking what she wanted for dinner. "Why did you swing your sword at Kurosaki Ichigo?"

Orihime's pale golden pupils rippled, and she spoke somewhat mechanically, "Because he would harm Lord Aizen." The girl's fingertips brushed the Soten Kishun at her waist, and her six-petal hair ornament glowed an ominous dark red. "He, Rukia, all Shinigami... they all deserve to die. Those who defy Lord Aizen must die!!"

Ulquiorra stood silently in the shadows, his yellow-green heterochromatic eyes flickering slightly.

"Very good." Aizen withdrew his hand and turned to the bound Sado Yasutora on the other side. "Then, prove it to me."

Grimmjow kicked the back of Sado's knee, and his former comrade fell heavily to his knees before Orihime, his forehead hitting the ground with a dull thud.

"Orihime..." Sado coughed blood and looked up. "Ichigo, he..."

Swish!

Koten Zanshun Tsubaki, transformed into an orange-yellow flying blade, cut Sado directly in half. His body scattered into two pieces, falling onto the floor. Splashing blood painted a demonic crimson on Orihime's snow-white dress, but her expression was colder than Hueco Mundo's moonlight.

"Boring emotions." She shook her blood-stained hair ornament. "Lord Aizen does not need them."

Ulquiorra watched as the fallen Sado dissolved into spirit particles—this was merely an illusion created by Kyoka Suigetsu—but Orihime's unwavering murderous resolve still made the Espada frown slightly.

"Perfect." Aizen clapped his hands and smiled. "Next, it's time to prepare the true sacrifice. Tonight, I reward you with waiting on me, Inoue Orihime."

"Thank you for Lord Aizen's favor, I have long since come of age and have been waiting for this day to arrive..." Orihime's eyes blazed with desire, as if she wanted to devour Aizen right there in the training hall...

[Paradise Lost System reminds the adventurer that Inoue Orihime has completely blackened. Host, please eliminate her as soon as possible, including but not limited to taking her identity or directly killing her. If you take her identity, there will be new rewards. (The survival maintenance system also reminds you, think about your zanpakuto... isn't it somewhat similar to your previous Slime form?)]