"Urahara..."
Kuchiki Rukia stared at the man who had suddenly appeared to block her path, her voice laced with suppressed indignation.
The suspicion in her heart deepened another level at that moment.
The reason Urahara gave was that he wanted Kurosaki Ichigo to grow on his own and that she shouldn't interfere.
But there was clearly more to it than that.
Kurosaki Ichigo's growth didn't need to be rushed, but Kuchiki Rukia absolutely could not appear within Aizen Sosuke's line of sight.
Once she appeared, with Aizen's intellect, he would surely realize that the Hogyoku was hidden within Kuchiki Rukia's Gigai.
In that case, their time would be even more limited.
"Rest easy, Miss Rukia," Urahara said in a light tone, slowly waving his folding fan in front of his chest.
"Rest easy?! How could the current Ichigo possibly be a match for a Menos Grande?!"
Rukia's voice rose. In her eyes, how was this any different from letting Ichigo go to his death?
"Well, that's hard to say."
Urahara's tone was as frivolous as ever at first, but in the next second, his expression tightened, and the folding fan stopped in front of his chest.
"Besides, even if there's an accident—" He paused, a sharp glint flashing in his eyes beneath the brim of his hat.
"Hasn't Mr. Asakura already headed over? With him there, an opponent of that level is nothing at all! Ahahaha!"
By the end of his sentence, that frivolous mask had been donned once more.
"That level...?"
Rukia was stunned.
She turned her head, looking toward the massive, tower-like figure in the distance.
If anyone else had said those words, she would probably suspect they had lost their mind.
But the one saying this was Urahara Kisuke—the former Captain of the 13 Court Guard Squads, a man who stood at the pinnacle of Soul Reapers a century ago.
His words truly couldn't be dismissed as a joke.
'Just what level has that guy's strength reached?'
...
Directly beneath the Menos Grande.
Kurosaki Ichigo gripped his blade with both hands and slashed fiercely at the Gillian's ankle, which was thicker than a human torso. The edge of his blade struck the grayish-white skin.
Well, the good news was that he had broken through its defense.
The bad news was that it wasn't by much.
It was roughly equivalent to using a dagger to scratch a white mark onto a stone wall.
"Ugh... gah!"
In the next second, a giant foot swept across. Kurosaki Ichigo was swatted away like a baseball, crashing into the ground and creating a shallow crater as rubble flew everywhere.
"Kurosaki!"
Ishida Uryu looked at Kurosaki Ichigo, who was buried head-first in the ground with only his legs sticking out. His expression looked as if he had just swallowed a fly.
He took a deep breath and drew his Reishi bow—
"That's why I told you so long ago..."
An arrow whistled through the air, accurately striking the Gillian's mask.
And then...
And then nothing happened.
Ishida Uryu fell silent.
...
On a distant rooftop.
Dokugamine Riruka held up her binoculars once more.
"He's so weak! This is the Kurosaki Ichigo you were talking about?" She lowered her binoculars, her face full of disdain.
"He's pathetic! This is it?"
"He only became a Soul Reaper three months ago, after all." Asakura Yoh sat cross-legged on the edge of the rooftop, resting his chin on his hands which were propped up on his knees.
"You weren't this strong from the very beginning either, right, Riruka?"
"I wouldn't know about that—I've had this ability since the moment I was born!"
Riruka huffed and raised her binoculars again.
Asakura Yoh shrugged, too lazy to expose her.
Whether they were born with it or not, he didn't know, but Riruka and Yukio had indeed awakened their Fullbring abilities when they were very young.
If talent was defined by how early one awakened, then the two of them were definitely geniuses among Fullbringers.
"Pfft! Hahahaha!"
Riruka suddenly burst into earth-shattering laughter. She was laughing so hard she couldn't stand up straight, and her binoculars nearly slipped from her hands.
"What are they doing?! Are they imitating comedians?! That's so stupid, hahahaha!"
Asakura Yoh turned his head and followed her gaze.
Then, he couldn't keep a straight face either.
On the battlefield, Ishida Uryu had tied Kurosaki Ichigo's Zanpakuto to his own head, with the hilt facing forward.
He was down on one knee, propping up his Reishi bow with one hand and pulling the bowstring with the other, assuming the stance of a 'human turret.'
Meanwhile, Kurosaki Ichigo stood behind him, gripping the hilt with both hands, looking completely dazed and bewildered in the wind.
Although Asakura Yoh understood Ishida Uryu's intention—he wanted to use Kurosaki Ichigo's uncontrollable, massive spiritual power as a medium through the Zanpakuto to help him launch an attack.
But understanding it was one thing; this scene... was truly eyesore-inducing.
The subsequent development was no different from what was in Asakura Yoh's memory.
Kurosaki Ichigo had clearly had enough of that 'human turret' gag-style combat.
He snatched his Zanpakuto off Ishida Uryu's head and charged toward the Gillian with long strides.
Under the sunlight, that orange-haired silhouette exuded a reckless vibe that said, 'I don't care what you are, I'm cutting you down first.'
"Hey! Kurosaki!" Ishida Uryu's shout was scattered by the wind.
The Gillian also seemed annoyed by this repeatedly jumping ant.
That massive, pale mask tilted slightly downward, its hollow eye sockets locking onto the tiny human below—then, a crimson light began to condense in its mouth.
Cero.
The signature move of a Menos Grande. The mass of spiritual pressure, compressed to its limit, gathered into a sphere before its mouth. The surrounding air began to warp, and rubble on the ground floated up, trembling slightly within the invisible force field.
"Look out!"
Ishida Uryu didn't have time to stop it.
The crimson pillar of light crashed down.
Kurosaki Ichigo raised his Zanpakuto and met it head-on.
At that moment, Asakura Yoh's eyes narrowed slightly.
'Here it comes.'
The expected disintegration did not occur. The moment the Zanpakuto made contact with the Cero, a blue-white light suddenly exploded—not a collision or a cancellation, but a much stranger phenomenon.
Spiritual resonance.
The massive amount of spiritual power within Kurosaki Ichigo that he himself couldn't control had undergone a strange resonance with the energy of the Cero at that moment.
The blade didn't shatter; instead, it acted like a conductor, forcibly redirecting the impact that was enough to destroy everything.
The crimson pillar of light was deflected.
It shot diagonally into the sky, exploding into a shower of sparks amidst the clouds.
"...Huh?"
Riruka stood with her mouth agape, completely unable to fathom how this weakling had pulled that off.
And on the battlefield, Kurosaki Ichigo seemed to have reached an epiphany at that moment.
He lunged forward.
One strike.
The flash of the blade sliced through the Gillian's massive body, carving diagonally down from its shoulder and nearly splitting its entire upper half in two. Grayish-black skin peeled back, and blood erupted like a fountain.
The Gillian let out a sky-shaking roar.
But after the roar came a bewildering silence. As if it had simply completed a task assigned by its boss, it casually retreated back into that massive black crack.
The rift in the sky slowly sealed shut.
"Okay."
Asakura Yoh stood up from the edge of the rooftop.
Riruka turned to look at him. "Leaving already? You're not going to watch the rest?"
"There's nothing left to see." He shoved his hands into his pockets and walked toward the stairs.
"Leave the rest to Uryu."
Kurosaki Ichigo's strike just now had consumed too much; he would likely suffer a spiritual power rampage next. That kind of situation was best handled by Ishida Uryu, being a Quincy.
Besides, it would let those two bond a bit more.
The next day.
Karakura First High School, Class 2-3.
The morning sun shone diagonally through the windows and into the classroom. On the podium, the homeroom teacher was flipping through the attendance register, muttering something about many people being late today.
The classroom door was pulled open.
"Ishida? How did you get injured?"
The homeroom teacher looked up at the boy standing in the doorway—Ishida Uryu, whose hands were wrapped in snow-white bandages from his fingertips all the way to his wrists.
Ishida Uryu pushed up his glasses, his expression unchanged.
"I fell down the stairs."
The entire class fell into an eerie silence.
Everyone looked at him with eyes that said, 'Do you take us for three-year-olds?'
Who could get injuries like that from falling down stairs? Who was he trying to fool?
Fortunately, whether the teacher believed him or not, her attitude was as casual as ever. She waved her hand, signaling for Ishida to return to his seat.
"Oh... well, whatever. Go back to your seat, we're continuing the lesson."
Ishida Uryu walked through the aisle and sat down under the curious gazes of his classmates.
The one most bothered by it was Kurosaki Ichigo, who sat diagonally behind him.
Ichigo stared at those hands, and images from last night replayed in his mind: the spiritual power rampage, the out-of-control energy thrashing inside him, and how Ishida had used his Quincy techniques to help him guide it out.
The price was those hands—to withstand his rampaging spiritual power, Ishida's hands had been badly injured.
"Don't dwell on it too much."
From beside him came Kuchiki Rukia's whispered voice, laced with a hint of teasing.
"After all, it wasn't your fault."
"I-I'm not!" Ichigo reacted like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, snapping his head around.
"Injuries of that level aren't enough to make me worry about him!"
"Oh?" A mischievous smirk curved on Rukia's lips.
"When did I ever use the word 'worry'? I only said 'don't dwell on it'!"
Ichigo's face froze.
Rukia laughed even more happily.
"Hmph." Ichigo turned his face away.
Just then, the classroom door was pulled open again.
"Sorry we're late, teacher."
Four figures appeared at the door.
Asakura Yoh, Sado Yasutora, Inoue Orihime, and Arisawa Tatsuki.
The discussions that had been dying down suddenly erupted again with a buzz.
While it wasn't exactly rare for these people to show up together...
The problem was—
Sado Yasutora had bandages wrapped around his arms.
Arisawa Tatsuki also had bandages wrapped around her neck and arms.
And then there were Ishida Uryu's hands from earlier...
"Hey, hey..." a boy in the front row whispered, his eyes gleaming with the light of gossip.
"How come Arisawa and Sado are injured too?"
"Does it have something to do with Ishida?" another person leaned in.
"No way, right? Ishida is as thin as a toothpick. Could he have taken on both of them alone and fought to a draw?"
"Who knows? Maybe Ishida is some kind of hidden kung fu master?"
The girls in the back row joined the discussion as well.
"Speaking of which, didn't Ishida pick a fight with Asakura before?"
"Now that you mention it, I remember that too—Sado and Arisawa are on good terms with Asakura. Could they have gone to get revenge for him and ended up with both sides getting hurt?"
"Then why is Inoue with them? She doesn't look like the type to get into a fight..."
A boy wearing glasses pushed up his frames.
"Idiot, don't you know that Inoue actually knows karate too? She learned it from Arisawa..."
"Oh—" everyone realized.
"Then it's not so strange..."
Asakura Yoh listened to these discussions, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly.
'It's a real waste of talent that these people aren't writing mystery novels.'
...
Lunch break.
The school rooftop.
Kurosaki Ichigo sat on the concrete steps, with yakisoba bread and milk he had bought from the convenience store laid out before him.
The atmosphere was subtly awkward.
Originally, Ichigo had wanted to invite Asakura Yoh and Sado Yasutora—after all, everyone had gone through that chaos last night, so eating together could be considered... uh, bonding? But in the blink of an eye, those two had disappeared to who-knows-where.
In the end, he could only pull these two clowns in to make up the numbers.
But...
Silence, awkwardness...
Ichigo took a bite of his bread, feeling like it was the most difficult thing to swallow he had ever eaten in his life.
...
Elsewhere.
Beneath the cherry tree behind the school building.
The girls' lunch hour was much livelier.
Honma Akie, Ogawa Michiru, and Natsui Mahana—the three girls sat around a long bench under the tree, their bento boxes lined up.
They had originally wanted to find Arisawa Tatsuki and Inoue Orihime for lunch, but the two of them were nowhere to be found. Instead, they happened to run into Kuchiki Rukia, who was sitting alone in the tree.
"Kuchiki-san, come down and eat with us!" Honma Akie shouted, looking up.
Rukia had intended to refuse—she was actually more accustomed to being alone.
But seeing those three pairs of expectant eyes, and thinking that she might not be able to stay here for much longer...
She sighed and jumped down from the tree.
Thus, the four of them sat around the cherry tree, the dappled sunlight filtering through the leaves and spilling onto them.
Everything was normal at first. Until—
"Kuchiki-san," Honma Akie's eyes sparkled, "what exactly is your relationship with Kurosaki-kun?"
Rukia's chopsticks paused.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah!" Ogawa Michiru immediately chimed in, so excited she nearly knocked over her bento box.
"I've been wanting to ask that too!"
"After all, you two are always stuck together..."
"Are you already dating?"
"Huh?" Rukia almost choked on the rice ball in her mouth and quickly gulped down some juice.
"No, Ichigo and I aren't like that—"
"Hmm?" The three girls hummed in unison, their faces clearly saying 'we don't believe you.'
"Speaking of which..." She lowered her voice, her eyes darting toward the distance. "Tatsuki and Orihime have been acting a bit suspicious lately, too."
"Wh-what!?"
"Are you saying those two—!!"
"No!"
"I mean they've been zoning out a lot lately. Haven't you noticed?"
Ogawa Michiru nodded thoughtfully. "Now that you mention it... I've observed them, and they're always stealing glances at Asakura-kun..."
"Really?!"
"Is it really that scandalous?! The two of them together—"
"Don't talk nonsense..."
"Be careful, if Tatsuki finds out..."
"..."
"It's really just..."