One meteor sphere after another surged out of the gate Love Aikawa had opened, advancing like an invasion force. Then Love slammed his spiked club downward. Flames spread from the head of the weapon.
Ignition.
This was a move Love had never used even back in Seireitei. At that time, the most he had unleashed was a multiple-meteor barrage. But this time, not only had he summoned more meteors, he had also infused them with the flames known as Calamity.
Calamity: Meteor Fire Rain!
Burning meteors fell like rain. Just looking at the scene was enough to understand how terrifying the attack was.
"This is way too reckless," Urahara muttered. An attack of this density would place enormous strain on the three of them maintaining the barrier.
As Love called forth the massive swarm of meteors, Tsuna began his own response.
Large quantities of lightning erupted from the electric coil, scattering throughout the warehouse. In one sweep, Tsuna gathered all the nearby iron sand.
Under the effect of the electromagnetic coil, the iron sand rapidly condensed around him. Once infused with Lightning Attribute Flames, it hardened and took shape. One sharp iron horn after another, forged from ultra-hardened steel strengthened by Lightning Flames, appeared around Sawada Tsunayoshi.
If Love Aikawa could bombard him with layered attacks, then Tsuna had no reason not to answer in kind.
The iron horns lined up neatly around Tsuna like the talons of some giant beast. The instant the technique was complete, the horns shot forth to meet the rain of meteors.
Electric Iron Horns!
The horns collided violently with the meteors, explosion after explosion roaring through the warehouse.
At this point, Shinji and Rose could no longer defend against all of the shockwaves with swords alone. They had no choice but to reinforce themselves with Kidō.
Bakudō #81: Dankū!
A transparent barrier appeared in front of the group, shielding them from the impact of iron sand and shattered debris.
Hiding behind Dankū, Hiyori's face kept twitching.
No wonder Lisa had forcibly dragged her out of the combat zone earlier. Against an attack of this level, even the current captains of the Gotei 13 might not necessarily be able to withstand it all.
Once all the meteors had been launched, Love hardened his resolve.
He seized his own face with his left hand.
If it was Tsuna, then maybe—just maybe, he really could withstand it.
Love still had one final move left.
After two exchanges, he no longer believed that his ultimate attack, by itself, would deal any real damage to Tsuna. The only thing he could still rely on was Hollowfication.
Because Love's offensive power was already overwhelming, even in Shikai he could only maintain Hollowfication for a very short time. In Bankai, that would be even truer.
He would have only a single instant.
Amid the rain of burning meteors, Love forced his way into the center of the explosions purely through his own monstrous defense. Spiritual pressure and flame spread from the head of his spiked club, taking on the shape of a meteor.
This was Love Aikawa's final attack—
a true meteor hammer strike, forged from his own spiritual pressure.
Even that still wasn't enough.
Locking onto Tsuna's spiritual pressure, Love raked his hand violently across his face. A Hollow mask appeared.
The instant the mask formed, his eyes turned blood-red.
His body entered a berserk state at once, and the meteor hammer in his hands entered one along with him. Along its outer edge gleamed the crimson light of Cero.
Love raised the meteor hammer high, preparing to bring it down—
and then he saw two enormous bull horns burst through the smoke.
The horns were made from multiple fused iron spikes, larger and harder than before.
They were the Electric Iron Horns from earlier.
While they had been tearing through the Meteor Fire Rain, Tsuna had simultaneously been drawing them back toward himself. He had long anticipated that Love would attempt a surprise strike, and had already prepared an even stronger attack.
This was—
Super Electric Iron Bull Horn!
Hammer and horn crashed together.
A terrifying surge of spiritual pressure exploded instantly. Everything in the surrounding area was annihilated by the blast, reducing the already desolate warehouse space to complete emptiness and exposing the original barrier surrounding it.
That barrier was stretched and torn to its limit. Fortunately, constant streams of Kidō spiritual pressure were reinforcing it, keeping it in that fragile state between collapse and survival. The explosion had come within a hair's breadth of punching straight through it.
"Is this level of raw attack power some kind of tradition for the Seventh Division?" Urahara remarked.
"Stop making jokes, Kisuke," Shinji said, visibly worried. "I can't feel Love's spiritual pressure anymore."
Had that little brat Tsuna accidentally killed Love?
"If you're that worried, you could go in and check," Urahara replied lightly.
"You think I'm stupid? That kid's not affected by Sakanade. If I run in there and he cuts me down too, what then?"
For the first time, Shinji felt how powerless his Shikai really was. If the inverted effects of his ability had truly developed the way Tsuna claimed they should, he might actually have dared to charge into the smoke.
"Did you forget Kidō too? Just ask Tsuna," Urahara reminded him. Love's spiritual pressure had vanished, but Tsuna's was still there—bright and obvious right in the center of the field.
"…These two have stirred up such a mess I forgot all about that."
Shinji immediately began the full incantation for Bakudō #77: Tenteikūra. He hadn't even gotten halfway through the long chant when Rose called out:
"Stop chanting, Shinji. Something's happening."
During the time it took Shinji to recite the spell, the smoke at the center of the battlefield had thinned.
A vivid green glow shone from within.
Looking closely, there was even a strange crest embedded in the green light.
Everyone recognized at once that it belonged to Tsunayoshi.
A burst of spiritual pressure expanded gently from the center of the field, blowing away all the smoke and fully revealing Tsuna.
The equipment on his head had already returned to the shape of the off-road helmet.
In one hand, he was carrying a completely limp Love Aikawa.
In the other, he held the dazzling green object that had just caught everyone's eye.
It was a diamond-shaped shield, decorated at its center with a broad expanse of Lightning-green and the Vongola crest. On either side of the shield were black bull-horn ornaments.
That was Tsuna's Lightning-attribute Fullbring—
the shield of the First Generation Lightning Guardian, Lambo.
At the moment Love had launched his final strike, Tsuna had clearly seen that the armor on Love's body was already beginning to collapse.
In Hollowfied state, Love had gone fully berserk, redirecting even the spiritual pressure he used for defense entirely into offense. If the clash had continued as it was, Love would have ended up either dead, gravely wounded, or forced into the same kind of Hollow-monster state Kensei had entered.
Faced with that emergency, Tsuna had done more than simply maintain the collision.
He had decisively used his Fullbring to summon Lampo's Shield.
At the moment their attacks collided, the ultra-hardened Lightning Flame wrapped around both of them, becoming the final wall that protected them both.
That was why, after the explosion, Tsuna emerged with Love hanging limp in one hand while he himself looked almost entirely unharmed.
Then Tsuna raised the shield and smacked Love across the face with it once more.
It wasn't because he was venting.
Love's face had already started showing the white signs of Hollowfication again, so Tsuna used the shield-blow to knock those Hollow symptoms back down.
Using Shunpo, Tsuna appeared in front of the Visored.
"He got lucky. He didn't Hollowfy deeply. You people have a way of handling the rest, right?"
"Leave it to us," Hachigen said.
A Kidō barrier immediately enveloped Love, followed by two additional Bakudō spells layered on top.
"As expected of you, Tsuna-kun," Urahara said, slipping straight back into his usual mode of exaggerated praise. "The three of us nearly failed to hold the barrier together during that last burst."
"Wait a second," Shinji cut in, finally catching up to what he'd seen now that his hands were free. "Kid, were you using two different Bankai just now?"
"Two Bankai?" Tsuna asked. "What are you talking about? Isn't this all just the Bankai of my one Zanpakutō?"
He showed Shinji his Zanpakutō.
"That's not right! Don't you have two Zanpakutō?" Shinji's eyes locked on the white blade at Tsuna's waist.
"Oh, you mean this?"
Tsuna drew the white blade.
In an instant, a Hollow-like presence flooded the entire area.
Every Visored present changed expression.
How should they put it?
Why did the Hollow spiritual pressure coming from that blade feel even denser than when they themselves Hollowfied?
"Kid… what exactly are you? A Soul Reaper or a Hollow?" Shinji asked darkly. Had Urahara created some kind of monster?
Tsuna's answer was far beyond anything the Visored had expected.
In their eyes, anyone with overwhelming spiritual pressure had to be either a Soul Reaper or a Hollow.
"I'm human. Until this body dies, I'll remain human."
"Despite how strong Tsuna-kun is," Urahara added helpfully, "he was born and raised in the World of the Living. He's currently still a middle school student."
Middle school.
The Visored were momentarily speechless.
After all these years living in the human world, they knew what that meant—twelve, thirteen, fourteen years old at most.
No wonder this brat had called them lazy.
It had taken him barely over a decade to surpass what they had accumulated over more than a century.
"Now can you explain what you actually came here for, Tsunayoshi Sawada?" Shinji asked at last, plopping himself down on the ground so that his eyes were level with Tsuna's. By this point, he had already accepted the fact that Tsuna was stronger than he was.
"I want to witness your Hollowfication," Tsuna said plainly. "Ideally, I'd like to see it driven as deep as Kensei's just was. I want to use your Visored Hollowfication as the basis for completing my own Resurrección."
With a flourish, he twirled the white blade and slid it back into place at his waist.
"In exchange, I'll help all of you adapt to Hollowfication after Bankai, just like what happened to Kensei. And the shopkeeper will work on correcting the flaws in your Hollowfication."
"I'm hoping that one day in the future, all of you will be able to master Bankai Hollowfication, and maybe even Resurrección."
"At that point, your strength should at least rise beyond 'one Kensei'—probably somewhere around eight to ten Kenseis."
After Tsuna said all that, the entire Visored group fell silent.
Someone was offering to train them.
To directly increase their strength.
What could possibly be more tempting than that?
Lisa pushed up her glasses and, in her usual calm way, caught the most important point immediately.
"When you say 'one Kensei,' you're really using Kensei as a unit of combat strength, aren't you? He'd definitely be angry if he knew."
Tsuna glanced at the still-comatose Kensei.
"So what if he is? It's not like he can beat me."
…That was, annoyingly, a very solid point.
After a brief moment of thought, Shinji got to his feet.
As the leader of the Visored, it was his turn to make the call.
"We accept the deal. From here on out, I'll be counting on you, Tsunayoshi Sawada. And you too, Kisuke."
====================
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