“I’m sorry, mister…
It’s my fault you got hurt…” A young voice spoke.
Yasutora Sado relaxed his defensive posture and glanced at the birdcage he had been protecting.
He breathed a small sigh of relief.
Inside the cage, a pink-faced parrot was unharmed.
But the parrot hung its head, looking very guilty.
The voice had come from that parrot, a bird named Yuichi Shibata.
Sado was a man of few words, but he spoke to the parrot with rare gentleness.
“It’s not your fault.” Then he went to check on the person lying nearby.
A moment ago, Sado had been walking down the street when a motorcycle suddenly crashed into him, injuring him.
His injuries weren’t serious, but the motorcyclist was badly injured and unconscious.
Just as Sado was about to call the police, he suddenly sensed something.
He pulled the birdcage protectively against his chest and resumed his defensive posture.
He couldn’t see anything, but he could vaguely feel a bone-chilling malice emanating from nearby.
The parrot named Yuichi Shibata spoke.
“He’s gone.
It’s okay.” Sado blinked, said nothing, and continued his call to the police.
For a moment, a strange silence seemed to press against the surroundings.
There was a faint contradiction in the air, as if calm and danger were overlapping in the same space and subtly affecting each other without clear boundaries.
“Huh!” “Mister, look up there in the sky.
Is that a person?” Yuichi had spotted something and sounded amazed.
The sky?
A person?
Sado paused.
He did not respond immediately.
The air around him felt heavier, and that heaviness was no longer isolated.
It felt as if the entire city’s atmosphere was beginning to shift in the same direction at once.
His gaze slowly lifted.
The moment he looked up, his pupils sharply constricted.
A small black dot hung motionless in the sky.
It wasn’t an airplane.
It wasn’t anything he could logically explain.
It was simply there.
The sight made his breathing tighten slightly.
For a brief instant, hesitation appeared in his mind, as if that uncertainty was echoing across other unseen places at the same time.
Could it…
really be a person?
The thought itself felt absurd.
But the longer he stared, the more that possibility refused to disappear.
How can a human stand in the sky?
Sado’s mind began to shake violently, but now that reaction felt less isolated, as if his shock was part of a wider disturbance spreading across the city.
He gritted his teeth, ignored his injuries, and ran toward that direction with the birdcage clutched to his chest.
It seemed unbelievable, but Sado had a feeling that this parrot named Yuichi Shibata was actually a young human child.
Something had happened to turn him into this form.
And with that malice-filled hunter lurking in the shadows…
Perhaps this “Sky Person” had a solution.
A faint pressure lingered in the air, as if the entire city was holding its breath at the same time, without exception.
…
Karakura First High School, Class 1-3.
It was lunch break, so everyone had found their own spots to eat either their packed lunches or food bought from the convenience store.
On Uryu Ishida’s desk sat an elegant lunchbox containing the meal he had prepared himself.
Just as he was about to eat, he sensed something.
His expression changed dramatically.
He looked toward a certain direction with uncertainty.
“Why are so many Hollows appearing all of a sudden?
And they’re all gathering toward one place…” The feeling reminded Uryu of when a Quincy used Hollow bait.
Hollow bait was a lure specifically used by Quincies to eliminate Hollows, a Quincy exclusive tool for extermination.
But aside from himself and his father, there shouldn’t be any other Quincies in the living world.
So what was happening?
Uryu’s eyes flickered uncertainly.
For a moment, he hesitated.
Not just about whether to act, but as if that uncertainty was subtly resonating with the same disturbance spreading through the city.
If it were just a large number of Hollows, he would have ignored them.
He knew that Ichigo Kurosaki, now a Shinigami, would handle it.
Even if Ichigo couldn’t, other Shinigami would come to help.
As long as it didn’t interfere with his life, he wouldn’t get involved.
But this might involve another Quincy…
Or even his father…
Gritting his teeth, Uryu could no longer stand by.
He quickly packed up his lunchbox and took an empty route, rushing toward the scene.
…
Meanwhile, on the school rooftop.
Ichigo and Rukia, who were eating, both changed expressions at the same time, as if reacting to the same unseen pressure spreading across the city.
Ichigo asked, “Rukia, am I sensing this wrong?” Rukia didn’t answer immediately.
She pulled out her Shinigami communicator and stared at the dense red dots representing Hollows.
Her expression tightened.
“What’s happening?
Why are so many Hollows appearing all of a sudden?” For a brief moment, she paused, as if even the device felt heavier than usual, as though the warning itself was synchronizing with the same shift occurring across the city.
Then she pulled out a pill and handed it to Ichigo.
“This is Soul Candy.
It’s a new tool I prepared for you.” Ichigo took it, confused.
Rukia explained, her voice sharper now, “Just swallow it.
The Soul Candy will help you become a Shinigami, and an artificial soul will temporarily take care of your body.
It’s safe.” Ichigo understood.
Without hesitation, he swallowed the Soul Candy.
The next moment, he was in his Shinigami form.
Before he could fully adapt, Rukia immediately urged him, urgency rising in her tone.
“Hurry.
Go find Ren.
With this many Hollows, we need his power to deal with them!” “Got it!” Ichigo picked up Rukia and, aiming toward Ren’s house, rushed off at full speed.
On the rooftop, Mizuiro Kojima and Keigo Asano, who had been eating lunch together, stared at each other in bewilderment.
They hadn’t understood a word of what Ichigo and Rukia had said.
They had wanted to interject but couldn’t get a word in.
Though they couldn’t see Ichigo in his Shinigami form, they could see Rukia flying.
This scene, so far beyond common sense, left them completely frozen.
Before they could even process what was happening, the artificial soul controlling Ichigo’s body passed by them with exaggerated excitement, grinning as it rushed off the rooftop while loudly muttering things like “pretty girls,” “beautiful girls,” and “I’m coming.” The sudden shift shattered the rooftop’s normal atmosphere, leaving behind only stunned silence.
…
Elsewhere, at Karakura General Hospital.
Ryuken Ishida, having just finished a surgery and on his way back to his office, suddenly stopped.
He frowned slightly.
This was no longer intuition.
It was a confirmed conclusion.
“Someone used Hollow bait…” His eyes narrowed, and the air around him seemed to grow heavier.
Without hesitation, he changed direction and headed straight for the scene.
In the living world, the person most likely to use Hollow bait besides himself was his son Uryu Ishida.
Hollow bait only attracted ordinary Hollows, and Uryu was strong enough to handle them.
But Ryuken still worried.
He wanted to secretly protect his son.
Uryu arrived first.
When he saw Ren standing in the sky, calmly drawing a bow and shooting down Hollows one after another, his pupils sharply constricted.
For a long moment, that shared disturbance seemed to converge into a single focal point in his perception.
“It’s him!?” ——————- Add the novel to your collection so you don’t miss future chapters.