Lisa let Rukia stay in the World of the Living until she recovered her Spiritual Pressure, and then return to the Soul Society so others wouldn't notice the anomaly.
After Rukia and Ichigo Kurosaki left, the group of Shinigami and Academy students lying on the ground disappeared.
At the same time, three figures appeared in front of Lisa: Sora Katori, Sōsuke Aizen, and Isshin Kurosaki.
Everything that had just happened was actually an illusion!
Even Rukia's injury was the result of Sōsuke Aizen manipulating her senses to make her believe she was heavily injured.
"My acting wasn't bad, right?" Lisa pushed up her glasses. "They didn't notice anything wrong at all."
"It was perfect, not a single flaw," Sora nodded gently.
"I'm really sorry for making you go through all this trouble for me and Ichigo!" Isshin Kurosaki scratched the back of his head, looking ashamed.
"Between fellow disciples, why say such things!" Lisa shook her head gently. "It's only been a dozen years, and you've turned into a stubbly middle-aged man. If we don't help you regain your power, you might be an old geezer next time we meet!"
The current Isshin Kurosaki was no longer the handsome young lad of the past, but a stubbly middle-aged man.
After losing his Shinigami powers, his spirit body fused with a special Gigai. Now he was just like an ordinary human who could see spirits. Even the aging of the Gigai was reflected on his spirit body.
Isshin's Shinigami power was actually inside Ichigo Kurosaki, suppressing White (the Hollow). Sora believed Ichigo had grown enough to withstand White's power, so there was no need to suppress it anymore. Thus, he planned to help Isshin retrieve his Shinigami power.
Besides helping Isshin recover his power, there was a more important reason.
Sora needed to groom Ichigo Kurosaki to the limit of a Quincy to complete the 'Path of Transcendence'.
White, inside Ichigo, had long become part of him. Suppressing this power also affected his own growth. If this power could be awakened, Ichigo's Spiritual Pressure would likely experience explosive growth.
However, even Isshin himself couldn't actively withdraw the Shinigami power used to suppress White. To lift the suppression on White, some setup was needed.
"The 'Hōgyoku Fragment' in Rukia's Gigai will gradually awaken the Hollow power inside Ichigo. We will arrange some 'plot' and give him some pressure. The Hollow power inside him will take the opportunity to break free from the shackles. This way, the power suppressing the Hollow power will return to Isshin," Sōsuke Aizen said slowly.
The events tonight were orchestrated to make Ichigo stay in contact with the 'Hōgyoku Fragment' for a long time. The Hōgyoku satisfies the desires of those around it, and White's desire was to break free from Isshin's Shinigami power suppression.
"Mm… If Rukia has to return to the Soul Society for punishment, Ichigo will definitely go to save her. There are many strong people in the Soul Society; it won't be easy for him to save Rukia!" As a father, Isshin Kurosaki understood his son's personality well, but he was still somewhat worried. "But can Ichigo really master the Hollow power?"
"Don't worry." Sora patted Isshin's shoulder and continued, "Ichigo has great talent and his mentality is sound. He can definitely master this power."
"With Professor here, what tricks can the Hollow inside Ichigo pull?" Lisa smiled, thinking of Ichigo's upcoming encounter. "But this kid will definitely suffer a bit!"
…
Ichigo Kurosaki brought Rukia back to the front door of the Kurosaki Clinic but hesitated to push the door open.
"What's wrong?" Rukia wondered. "Isn't this your home?"
"It's hard to explain to my family why I'm bringing a strange girl home late at night!" Ichigo was already scratching his head in frustration.
"Are you a student in the World of the Living? You can say I'm your classmate," Rukia suggested.
"Even if it's a classmate, it's weird!" Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Bringing a female classmate home at night is also a very weird thing, okay!"
At this moment, the door opened suddenly, and a head with short brown hair popped out.
Yuzu Kurosaki stared at Rukia for a while, then shrank her head back. Then came her exclamation from inside the house: "Oh my god, Big Brother brought a girlfriend home!"
"Yuzu! Not a girlfriend!" Ichigo ran in hurriedly to stop his sister from talking nonsense.
"Seems like a very energetic family!" Rukia actually envied Ichigo's family atmosphere somewhat.
In the hallway, besides Yuzu Kurosaki, there was another girl with short black hair. She was Ichigo's other sister, Karin Kurosaki.
"Brother brought a girl home!"
"Making a fuss about nothing. It's not strange for Ichi-nii to have female friends." Karin Kurosaki was very calm, seeing at a glance that this girl wasn't her brother's type.
"Ahem—" Ichigo coughed lightly. "She's a new transfer student in my class. Since she just moved to Karakura Town and hasn't found a suitable place to live yet, she'll be staying at our house for a few days."
"Hello, I am Rukia Kuchiki!" Rukia waved her hand and greeted the two girls.
"Hello, I am Ichi-nii's sister, Karin Kurosaki," Karin nodded and replied.
"Ah… I am also Big Brother's sister, Yuzu Kurosaki." Yuzu still hadn't dispelled her doubts, looking at Rukia with eyes full of suspicion.
"Where are Dad and Mom?" Ichigo looked at the living room somewhat guiltily and found that his parents didn't seem to be at home.
"Dad and Mom went traveling with Ms. Tsukisaki." Karin spread her hands. "We have to take care of ourselves for a while."
"Leave the meals to me~" Yuzu said energetically.
Yuzu wasn't old, but her cooking skills were quite good, and she often cooked at home.
"So they went traveling with Ms. Tsukisaki… Then I'll count on Yuzu for this period."
Ichigo secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
He was just worried about how to explain Rukia's situation to his parents. He could fool his dad, but fooling his mom wouldn't be that easy.
"I'll go tidy up the guest room for Rukia."
Ichigo didn't want his two sisters to delve into Rukia's identity, so he quickly found an excuse to divert their attention.
"I'll help too!" Yuzu followed relentlessly.
She wanted to figure out if this girl her brother suddenly brought home was his girlfriend or not.
Rukia stayed at the Kurosaki house like this, waiting for her Spiritual Pressure to recover.
To avoid arousing Yuzu and Karin's suspicion, when Ichigo went to school, Rukia went along with him. The two quickly became familiar with each other.