"What do you think you're doing—!?"
Arisawa Tatsuki kicked the middle-aged man lunging at Inoue Orihime, veins bulging on her forehead.
The man she kicked seemed oblivious to the pain; his joints twisted at unnatural angles as he forced himself back up.
No, it wasn't so much standing up as being forcibly hoisted by some invisible force.
And he wasn't the only one.
A dense, snarling crowd surrounded them, closing in step by step. The scene looked exactly like a zombie horde from an American TV show.
"Tatsuki..."
"Don't worry, Orihime," Tatsuki said, shielding her. Her voice was steady.
"I won't let a single one of these bastards touch you."
"Ho ho—" a massive monster spoke with a sinister rasp.
It had octopus-like tentacles and two heart-shaped holes in its mask.
"For a mere human with a bit of spiritual power, you sure talk big."
It covered its mouth with a tentacle, its voice sounding as slimy as a mollusk sliding over skin.
"Perfect—I love arrogant brats like you. Let me see what kind of twisted face you make when you're crying."
Before the words finished, the crowd controlled by the Hollow accelerated, lunging at the two girls.
Tatsuki kicked them away while dragging Orihime toward an opening.
Every strike was clean and decisive, but the crowd was like a tide; for every wave she repelled, three more rushed in.
"Tatsuki! Behind you!"
Inoue Orihime's warning was a split-second too late.
The pustules on the Octopus Hollow's mask burst like popped pimples, spraying dozens of white spheres at them like buckshot.
Orihime instinctively squeezed her eyes shut.
The next moment, she was pulled into a warm embrace.
Her heart sank.
When she opened her eyes, she saw Tatsuki's back and the back of her head. Those white seeds had already embedded themselves deep into her flesh.
"Tat... suki?"
"How does it feel?" the Octopus Hollow asked mockingly.
"The seeds shot into your body will take root and hijack your motor functions—now, you belong entirely to me."
He paused deliberately, covering his mouth with a tentacle, his malice almost tangible.
"Now, how should I dispose of you? An insolent brat like you deserves a cruel and humiliating end..."
"But I'm merciful. I'll give you a few choices." He began counting on his tentacles.
"First, being gang-raped by the boys at school and then hanging yourself."
"Second, being stripped naked and hung from the rooftop, then having the rope cut so you're smashed into a pulp."
"Third... oh dear, this is tough. Making a kind soul like me come up with such ideas... you girls really are cruel! How terrifying! Hahaha!"
"Is that so?"
A voice suddenly cut in.
The Octopus Hollow's tentacles froze instantly.
It hadn't sensed any presence at all. An unfamiliar boy had appeared in front of the girl who had been implanted with seeds, seemingly out of nowhere.
"How about I offer a plan instead?"
The boy looked up. Though his expression was blank, his eyes were like black holes ready to swallow the Octopus Hollow whole.
"I'll have your entire body twisted and crushed, then make you eat yourself—just like a Taotie. Pretty cool, right?"
A massive sense of dread made the Octopus Hollow instinctively shudder.
The boy before it didn't look like anything special, and his spiritual pressure wasn't strong... No, it wasn't a matter of strength.
It could sense absolutely nothing from this boy, which was more terrifying than any overwhelming pressure.
"Asakura-kun!"
"Yoh..."
Inoue Orihime finally felt her heart settle. But immediately after, a deep sense of self-loathing seized her.
Why was it that she only felt at peace when someone else showed up?
First her brother, then Tatsuki, and now Asakura-kun...
Was she destined to always be the one protected? Just a burden who could do nothing?
'I'm so frustrated... I hate this...'
She wanted power. Power to protect others.
The snowflake hairpins in Inoue Orihime's hair began to glow faintly.
In the distance, Dokugamine Riruka held a pair of binoculars covered in cute decorations, mumbling as she chewed on bear-shaped cookies.
"What the heck? That Yoh guy..." she munched. "He said he wouldn't act until the very end, but then he couldn't help himself the moment that short-haired tomboy got hurt..."
"Hmph! That kind of person isn't cute at all!" She munched again. "But the orange-haired one behind her..."
She narrowed her eyes.
"Fullbring? Is she about to awaken? Hmph, I bet it's some boring ability. It won't compare to my 'Dollhouse'—"
"No... don't... Yoh... run... take... Orihime... and run..."
Desperate tears flowed from Arisawa Tatsuki's one eye that wasn't yet controlled.
Her hand moved against her will, clawing at Asakura Yoh's throat. Yet Yoh made no move to resist.
"Ha, haha! So what if you're actually strong?" The Octopus Hollow forced itself to stop shaking. It felt that shouting louder proved it wasn't afraid.
"You ran here to save her, so you must have a special relationship, right?!"
"Of course, of course! You won't lift a finger against her!! Haha! Then let the person you like kill you! Don't worry, I'll send her to join you soon—inside my stomach! Hahaha!"
Arisawa Tatsuki desperately wanted to bite her tongue and end it.
She was hurting him—the person who, like Orihime, she wanted to hurt least in the world.
She would rather it be her own throat being squeezed.
But she couldn't fight back.
Just like back at Orihime's house facing that invisible monster—she was powerless.
'Damn it! Damn it!! DAMN IT!!!'
"It's okay, Tatsuki. Don't be afraid."
Asakura Yoh gently raised his hand, his fingertips brushing away the tears on Tatsuki's cheek.
Then, his gaze moved past her, landing on the octopus-like Hollow nearby—
It was nauseatingly ugly.
"Hey, ugly Hollow."
"W-Who are you calling ugly—!?" The Octopus Hollow's tentacles twitched in rage, the heart-shaped holes in its mask distorting with its fluctuating emotions.
"Do you know how a Shaman fights?"
Even with his neck held in a death grip, Asakura Yoh's voice didn't tremble in the slightest. He was as calm as if he weren't the one being restrained.
Looking closely, a faint blue light flickered on the side of his neck, like fireflies flowing through his veins, or some ancient pattern awakening beneath his skin.
"Huh? A Shaman?" The Octopus Hollow suppressed the inexplicable unease rising in its heart and sneered.
"Never heard of it! Is it some kind of street performance act?"
"Is that so..." The corners of Asakura Yoh's mouth curled up slightly, but the smile didn't reach his eyes.
"Then I'll tell you. I won't charge you for the lesson this time. Well, not like you'll have a next time anyway..."
His voice was unhurried, like a teacher lecturing an ignorant student.
"Simply put, a Shaman is someone who uses a power called Furyoku to control spirits in battle."
"If you find a partner you're in sync with, you can amplify each other and unleash power beyond your limits. And if you encounter a spirit weaker than yourself, you can force it into submission."
"Doesn't sound like much, right?" He paused, his tone shifting.
"But the interesting part is—do you know what this world is made of?"
The Octopus Hollow suddenly lost its ability to laugh.
That nameless unease finally took shape—it felt as if an invisible tentacle was slowly tightening around its core.
"It's spirits."
Asakura Yoh's voice was soft, yet it hammered into the Hollow's consciousness word by word like a nail.
"Everything in this world, from living beings to objects, has a soul. Even a stone, a blade of grass, or a drop of water—they all have their own spirits. Weak, but they exist."
"So—"
He looked up.
"A smart guy like you can probably guess what I'm getting at... right?"
A pillar of light erupted from Asakura Yoh.
It wasn't ordinary light—it carried warmth, weight, and a pressure that made the soul itself tremble. The Octopus Hollow felt its consciousness evaporating and collapsing before this light, like dew under a scorching sun.
"For a thing like you..." Yoh's voice came from within the light, calm yet carrying a genuine cruelty.
"Your soul strength is no different from a pebble on the side of the road to me."
"So—"
"Now, you can have a good taste of yourself. Don't be shy. Don't Hollows love devouring things the most?"
"No! Stop—! Aaah, AAAAAHHH!"
Screams.
The sound of bone being chewed.
The noise burrowed into their ears like a dull knife scraping a scalp—sharp, piercing, and triggering an instinctive urge to flee.
Arisawa Tatsuki and Inoue Orihime watched as the massive Hollow was kneaded, torn, and twisted by an invisible giant hand.
Its tentacles flailed wildly in the air, but there was no lifeline to grasp. Its screams grew fainter until they were completely replaced by a wet, sickening crunching sound.
How long did it last?
A minute? Five minutes? Longer?
They didn't know.
By the time they regained their senses, nothing was left in front of them. Only an indescribable lingering scent remained in the air.
And Arisawa Tatsuki's body belonged to her once more.
In that instant, all her strength evaporated.
The hands that had been strangling Asakura Yoh's neck fell limp. Her muscles, once coiled to the limit, went slack like melting wax.
Her knees buckled, and she began to slide down—
Only to be caught by a pair of arms.
It was Asakura Yoh.
He held her like he was holding an injured child.
'Is this person... really Yoh?'
Arisawa Tatsuki had always thought she knew him better than anyone, or at least was one of the few who did.
She had known him since she was five. The guy who always hung around with Ichigo, the guy who played hooky so much that the whole class gossiped about him, the guy who clearly had talent but always looked lazy—
Lazy, carefree, and unburdened by rules.
But she knew what was hidden beneath that shell.
He was a kind person.
The kind of person who would silently stay by a friend's side when they were sad, and instinctively shield others when danger struck.
Just like Ichigo, he seemed carefree on the surface, but deep down, he was more sensitive and more fearful than anyone.
She had also felt that because the two were so similar, they got along so well... and maybe it was the same for her...
But this person in front of her...
Was a stranger.
He was so alien that he seemed like a completely different person.
Could the person who just erupted with that pillar of light and sentenced a monster to death with such terrifying calmness really be the same person holding her so gently now?
'Yoh... which one of these is the real you?'
In the distance, Dokugamine Riruka held her binoculars, forgetting to chew the bear cookie in her mouth.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa..." she whispered, her voice losing its usual arrogance and self-centeredness for the first time.
"What's the deal? That guy... Yoh... since when did he..."
This was way more powerful than what she had known! Since when did this guy get so strong? And that Hollow's death... that was way too gross!
"Tch." She bit down on the cookie, forcing herself to look away. "Whatever, it's got nothing to do with me. If he wants to hide his strength, let him."
But her hands were shaking slightly.
Back at the scene.
Arisawa Tatsuki gripped the clothes at Asakura Yoh's chest, her knuckles turning white.
She didn't know how much he had been hiding from her. She didn't know what he was really like, what he had been through, what he carried, or what he was thinking—
But she knew one thing.
She didn't want to be left behind.
She didn't want to become a mortal who couldn't fit into their world.
She didn't want to wait helplessly for rescue when danger came. She didn't want to just watch when the people she cared about got hurt. She didn't want—
She didn't want to be forced to hurt the people she cared about most, ever again.
"Yoh..."
She looked up, gritting her teeth as she stared at him.
Blood and tears mixed, streaking down her face. She was a filthy, pathetic mess. In fifteen years, she had never been this disheveled—and she had never been this humble.
But she didn't care anymore.
"I want..." Her voice trembled, but she forced each word out with conviction.
"I want the strength to fight alongside you."
This was the first time in her life she had ever begged anyone.
Her eyes, usually so full of confidence, were now swimming with tears.
"I don't want to be like this anymore. I don't want to just watch. I don't want to wait to be saved. I don't—"
She paused, her throat feeling as if it were blocked.
"I don't want to be a burden to you."
The tears fell.
What dropped wasn't just tears.
It was frustration, regret, and so many things she couldn't put into words.
"Please..."
Those words were barely a whisper.
"I really... don't want..."
Before she could finish, she was cut off.
"Okay."
She froze.
She looked up and met his eyes.
There was no surprise, no hesitation, and none of the distance she had feared. There was no condescending pity or charity.
There was only a simple, calm reply.
"Then, let's start special training tomorrow. Along with Inoue."
"Huh?"
Not expecting to be included, Inoue Orihime pointed at herself blankly, but she quickly nodded with determination.
Even if Asakura Yoh hadn't said anything, she probably would have begged him anyway. When it came to not wanting to be a burden, she felt exactly the same as Arisawa Tatsuki.