“What is this?!!!”
At the Kurosaki Clinic, a black-haired man in a white lab coat suddenly felt something.
His pupils contracted sharply as he stared out the window in disbelief.
“This Reiatsu…
is it Ichigo?!” The young man abruptly shoved open the glass door and rushed out of the house.
“What on earth happened?!!!
Why has Ichigo suddenly awakened?!”
“…Why can’t I feel Masaki’s Reiatsu anymore!
What is going on!!”
…
“Kanae?!”
Cradling his wife who had suddenly collapsed, a silver-haired man, also wearing a white lab coat, called out anxiously.
As a top surgeon, he knew his wife’s physical condition well; this inexplicable fainting spell was absolutely not normal.
“What…
is that?!”
Before he could think further, something incredible entered his perception.
His usually calm face was now filled with confusion and shock.
“Shinigami…
Hollow…
Quincy…
How is that possible…
No!
It’s Masaki!
It’s her child!
Only her child could possess such a mixed and powerful Reiatsu!
But why now…
could it be…”
A certain legend resurfaced in his memory.
He had always thought it was just a story his father had heard from others, but now it seemed everything was real.
…
Inside an abandoned warehouse, the exterior looked unremarkable, but the underground was a different story.
The bedrock beneath had been hollowed out by something, creating an independent space.
The ceiling had been crafted to look like a blue sky with white clouds, while the ground was covered in yellow soil and small peaks.
The area was vast, stretching out into a void of pure white at the horizon.
“Huff…
huff…”
Whether collapsed or sitting, there were eight people here in total, all gasping for air.
Among them were men and women, each bearing wounds of varying depth.
However, most of the injuries avoided vital organs, suggesting that whoever had dealt the blows had been very precise.
“Yare yare, is everyone just getting some exercise?”
A man slowly approached.
He wore a deep, cold-colored short coat and a bucket hat over his pale yellow short hair, carrying a white wooden fan and wearing wooden clogs.
“Kisuke Urahara, why are you here!” A girl who looked like a child jumped up.
Despite her small appearance, she acted incredibly arrogant.
“Hachi!
Your barrier wasn’t set up correctly!
Add ten more layers!
No!
Make a special barrier that forbids Kisuke Urahara from entering!”
“Yes, yes.” A man with a tall, broad frame but a very gentle voice nodded in agreement.
“My, my, Hise is still as usual…
?!!!”
The friendly banter of old friends ended before it even began.
The man called Kisuke Urahara widened his eyes, staring behind him in disbelief.
The other eight people also looked startled, gazing into the distance along with him.
“Hey, hey, hey!” A man with a yellow bob cut twitched his lips.
“Kisuke, did you run some kind of experiment again?
What’s the deal with this complex Reiatsu that’s reached the level of a Captain?”
“I don’t know, Shinji-san.” Kisuke Urahara lowered the brim of his hat.
“I know who the owner of this Reiatsu is, but something beyond imagination must have happened.
Based on my previous observations, even if he awakened, his Reiatsu shouldn’t be this powerful.”
“Mr.
Ushōda, please lay down a few more barriers.
I’m going to go see what’s happened.”
“Understood.”
“Be careful, Kisuke!”
“It might be the work of that guy, Aizen!” The bob-cut man called Shinji spoke with a grim expression, looking at the group.
“Hachi, work a bit harder and help us recover our Reiatsu.
Be ready to move the moment something happens!”
…
Beneath his mother, little Ichigo stared with wide eyes.
The scent of blood mingled with the smell of rain.
Long orange hair, slightly duller than his own, was scattered around him.
“Ah…
ah…”
Moaning, little Ichigo didn’t know exactly what had happened, but he was aware of his current situation.
Something strange—or more accurately, a giant monster in the corner of his eye—had attacked him, and his mother had fallen while protecting him.
[Ichigo, can you hear my voice?]
A faint voice sounded in his ear.
Although he should have been looking at the sky, for some reason, a middle-aged man in black appeared before his eyes.
‘Yeah, I can hear you.’
[Then, get up!]
Another voice rang out.
This one was strange, possessing both an echo and a peculiar electric quality.
Simultaneously, a white-haired man who felt strangely familiar stood beside the man in black.
‘Oh, okay!’ Little Ichigo struggled to crawl out from under his mother, pressing his hands against her body as he looked up at the sky.
‘And then?
Do I fight?
Against this big guy?’
“Hmm?”
The masked monster looked at little Ichigo in surprise.
How had the little brat, who had fainted without even being touched, suddenly woken up?
But the thought was fleeting.
It only knew that this little brat could see it, and the woman who was close to death could see it too.
Both were rare delicacies.
Now, it only wanted to kill the little brat in front of it and then enjoy a hearty feast.
The little girl on top of its head disappeared, and a long whip, indifferent to whether the target was old, young, or weak, swung toward Ichigo.
Click—
As if a pause button had been pressed, the giant monster’s attack froze in mid-air.
The falling rain stagnated in the sky.
In the next instant, a black shadow surged from behind the man in black, enveloping Ichigo and his mother.
Everything went black.
When his vision returned, little Ichigo found he was no longer by the river but in a pitch-black space, though he could still see everything around him clearly.
[My power is difficult to apply to others, so time is limited.] Beside him, the two men—one in black and one in white—stood together.
The man in black spoke: [Therefore, Ichigo, you must master the power of blood yourself.
Only then can you save her.]
“Blood?
What blood?”
Little Ichigo’s voice was calmer than ever.
Everything happening before him defied common sense, but since he had been able to see ghosts that others couldn’t since he was a child, he was quick to accept the irrational.
“If I master the power of blood,” little Ichigo keenly caught the key point, “can I save Mom?”
[Of course.] The man in black said faintly.
[Her wounds are large, but they aren’t vital.
As long as you can stop the bleeding and treat her in time, she will be fine.]
“What should I do!” Ichigo’s eyes were filled with determination.
[…] The man in black suddenly fell silent, looking at Ichigo with a complex gaze.
After a long while, he murmured, [Was I wrong all this time…
Ichigo…
are you a born warrior…]
[What bullshit “natural-born warrior”!]
[It’s simply instinct!] The man in white sneered, looking at Ichigo’s determined gaze.
[The deepest instinct of all—the instinct to protect!]