After landing a decisive strike, Kurozawa Ren instantly retreated with Shunpo. Though the hollow mask on his face amplified his fighting instincts, he remained in control—unlike the fully hollowified Ichigo Kurosaki during his early transformations.
Only then did Uchiha Setsuna and his subordinates snap out of their shock. A cold bead of sweat rolled down Setsuna's temple.
> "What… what kind of monster are you?"
Kurozawa Ren grinned wildly beneath the edge of his hollow mask.
> "Who knows? Maybe… the Shinigami of this world! Jiehahahaha! Now die!"
With a horizontal swing of Ryūjin Jakka, his flame-wreathed zanpakutō, a black-and-red arc of fire cleaved through the air, roaring toward Uchiha Setsuna's group.
The Uchihas scattered to dodge, the attack crashing into a massive tree and shearing it in half, leaving the trunk glowing from residual heat.
Setsuna's men had already begun to falter. The earlier image of their comrade's headless corpse, coupled with the crushing pressure of Reiatsu, gnawed at their nerves like acid. Some were visibly trembling, slowly backing away.
> "He's just a damn six-year-old kid! How strong can he be?! Get him! Or I'll kill you myself when we return!"
Setsuna barked coldly, sensing the hesitation in his men.
The threat worked. Driven by fear of Setsuna more than Ren, the Uchiha foot soldiers charged in with drawn kunai, forming a flanking pattern while Setsuna held back, covertly weaving hand seals in preparation.
Kurozawa Ren's spiritual pressure flared slightly as he extended one hand.
> "Bakudō #4: Hainawa!"
"Bakudō #30: Shitotsu Sansen!"
Golden energy ropes suddenly lashed out, binding the ankles of two charging Uchihas. Simultaneously, three glowing wedges formed a triangle of light that pinned another enemy to a tree with a sharp crack.
While leaping backward, Ren began a rapid incantation, eyes glowing:
> "Carriage of thunder, bridge of a spinning wheel. With light, divide this into six! Hadō #63: Raikōhō!"
A deafening boom erupted as a pillar of silver-white lightning burst forth from his palm, engulfing the battlefield in a blinding glare.
The two bound Uchihas stared wide-eyed as the blast bore down on them—until one nearby ninja quickly knelt and slammed his hands on the ground.
> "Doton: Doryūheki!"
A thick earth wall surged upward in front of them. The Raikōhō slammed into it, blasting chunks of stone into the air, but the attack was successfully neutralized by the defensive ninjutsu.
> "Tch. Blocked it?"
Ren muttered without emotion. He had expected it. The Uchiha were no fools—they had regrouped from their earlier shock. Their teamwork and response time had sharpened under the pressure of life and death.
The trapped Uchiha quickly broke free and joined the assault.
> "Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!"
"Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu!"
"Uchiha Ryū: Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
"Katon: Ryūka no Jutsu!"
A barrage of fireballs, shuriken illusions, and searing flame dragons surged toward Ren from every angle.
> "No choice…"
Ren whispered, clutching Ryūjin Jakka. "It'll drain me… but better than dying here."
He inhaled deeply, pressing the tip of his zanpakutō into the ground, and chanted with resolve:
> "Reduce all creation to ash—Ryūjin Jakka!"
"Ennetsu Jigoku: Flames of the Scorched City!"
A dome of fire erupted outward like a burning tidal wave, cloaking the entire area in incandescent flame. The fire swirled and rose like a divine hand, melting the attacks mid-air and forming a barrier of fire that incinerated everything it touched.
Had this been Yamamoto Genryūsai himself, the temperature would have soared to over 15 million degrees Celsius—enough to reduce matter to dust. Kurozawa Ren's output wasn't at that godly level, but his own barrier easily reached thousands of degrees—deadly enough to nullify incoming ninjutsu and reduce any living thing to cinders on contact.
Exhausted, Ren's spiritual pressure dropped sharply. The zanpakutō reverted to its sealed form—a simple asauchi, the form of Shikai deactivated. He tore off his hollow mask, storing it back into the system inventory.
He wasn't planning to fight anymore. He needed to escape.
But he knew the odds were grim.
Because—Uchiha Setsuna still stood.
Kurozawa noticed that Setsuna had not entered the battlefield earlier, likely waiting for Ren's trump card to be used. It was a smart move, but Ren had no alternative at the time. Had he held back, he would've already been dead.
Panting heavily, barely standing with his blade as support, Ren was down to basic ninjutsu and instinct.
> "Tsk tsk... didn't think you'd have one more ace up your sleeve."
Setsuna's voice rang out with a sneer. He stepped through the flickering edge of the fire barrier, the shrill screams of his men still echoing from within—those foolish enough to test it had already been reduced to ash.
> "You're really a monster. Took down over a dozen of us while barely hanging on. If I hadn't been careful, that barrier might've cooked me too."
Setsuna stared into the glowing embers with a twisted smirk, but deep inside, his heart was uneasy. The heat from Ren's technique still lingered in the air, suffocating and dry.
> "I don't know how Fugaku trains you monsters… geniuses among geniuses. But…"
His tone darkened, chakra flaring.
> "…your life ends here."
Without warning, eight kunai laced with explosive tags flew toward Ren from multiple angles, each connected to steel wires. Even if Ren dodged, Setsuna could use the wires to manipulate their direction mid-flight.
Ren's limbs trembled. His vision was blurring. He had nothing left in him—no spiritual energy, no Hollow power, no sword releases. Even the system remained dormant.
> Damn it! I knew chasing thrills would get me killed one day. Should've stayed low, trained more, and waited.
He grimaced inwardly.
> I didn't even get to touch a loli's hand… or snuggle up to a big-sister type! Damn this world!
For the first time since arriving in this world, he felt regret. A twinge of longing. If only he had time to grow stronger…
But there's no such thing as medicine for regret.
The kunai loomed large in his fading vision. He didn't flinch or close his eyes. Uchiha Setsuna grinned wickedly.
> Is this… the end?
Suddenly—
> "Caw—caw—CAW!!"
A blizzard of black crows filled the air.
Dozens—hundreds—erupted out of the sky like a swirling storm of feathers, obscuring Setsuna's view and striking the flying kunai from every angle.
Setsuna's face twisted in shock.
> "Wha—? Genjutsu?!"
But Ren's vision, bleary and dim, caught only one thing through the feathers…
A silhouette with spiky hair and a single red eye glowing beneath the shade of a tall pine.