Yasutora Sado

When class ended again, Tsunayoshi finally got to walk home with a few friends for the first time in a while. Ichigo, meanwhile, vanished in a flash again.

"Uryū, wasn't Ichigo with you? Why is he acting alone now?" Tsunayoshi asked. Because of the limited number of attacks Ichigo had, Tsunayoshi always made Uryū and Ichigo move together.

"How should I know? It's been months already. We've been acting separately. Don't worry, that guy isn't that fragile. His speed using Fullbring Light isn't any slower than my Hirenkyaku." Uryū pushed up his glasses as he spoke.

Uryū was still somewhat bothered by the fact that Ichigo could keep up with him. Hirenkyaku was clearly the easiest and fastest movement technique, yet that guy Ichigo had stubbornly relied on brute force, stepping on Fullbring Light and chasing down his speed through sheer power. It made Uryū wonder just how much Reiatsu he had to waste.

"By the way, Sawada Tsunayoshi, once you're done training, how about we trade shifts on Karakura Town's situation? My Spirit Bow is also about due for an upgrade," Uryū continued.

Under Ryūken's deliberate training, Uryū's Spirit Bow, Kojaku, already met the conditions for an upgrade. He had even thought of the name after upgrading it: Ginrei Kojaku. Now all he needed was to find some time to upgrade his equipment.

"Uh, give me three more days. I'll hand things over to you after three days," Tsunayoshi said, a little embarrassed. "I've got something to do these next few days, so I need to go out."

"Fine. I'll go patrol first." Uryū agreed readily. It was just upgrading his equipment. He could still be patient.

"What do you think Ichigo went off to do? He didn't meet some other girl somewhere, did he?" Tsunayoshi made a wild guess aloud, but the corner of his eye stayed fixed on Orihime Inoue the whole time.

Sure enough, the moment this topic came up, Orihime Inoue's face flushed bright red. With no resistance whatsoever, she argued, "Kurosaki-kun isn't that kind of person..."

"Tsunayoshi, don't tease Orihime," Tatsuki said, stepping in to smooth things over.

Tsunayoshi snapped his fingers, and countless veins formed from Reishi appeared around him. Among those countless spiritual threads, Tsunayoshi found the one belonging to Ichigo Kurosaki.

"It's still early. I'm going to see what Ichigo's sneaking around doing. Interested?" Tsunayoshi grinned as he grabbed the spiritual thread belonging to Ichigo Kurosaki.

Orihime Inoue did not speak, but the resolve in her eyes had already exposed her thoughts.

"Let's go!" Tatsuki said excitedly. She was also the type who loved joining the fun and never thought trouble was too big.

By a small river, the three of them found Ichigo, who had disappeared as soon as school ended. He was lying on the riverbank, and beside him was a dark-skinned, burly man even taller than Ichigo.

The three of them sneakily hid in the grass by the roadside. Tsunayoshi said to Orihime Inoue with a serious face, "Inoue-san, your love rival is a man."

"Huh?!" Orihime Inoue suddenly cried out, then immediately realized they were tailing Ichigo. She hurriedly covered her mouth and crouched down, looking at Tatsuki with tearful eyes, begging for comfort.

"There, there. Ichigo isn't that kind of person." Tatsuki patted Inoue's back comfortingly, then glared at Tsunayoshi. "Stop scaring Orihime."

"Hm? I think I heard Orihime's voice." Because Orihime Inoue often stayed at the Kurosaki Residence, Ichigo had already changed how he addressed her.

Ichigo sat up straight and looked around, but did not notice anything unusual. "Let's stop here for today, Sado. It's time to go patrol."

"Patrol? Kurosaki, are you working a part-time job?"

The person talking with Ichigo was Yasutora Sado, one of Ichigo's team members in the original Bleach storyline. Fate had still brought the two of them together and made them friends. In Sado's mind, something called patrol should be similar to security work, so he thought Ichigo was doing a part-time job.

"Uh, how do I put this? You'll know later."

Ichigo truly had no idea how to explain supernatural incidents to Sado. Fortunately, Sado did not dwell on it either. After the two exchanged a few more words, Ichigo prepared to get up and leave.

Tsunayoshi had actually recognized at a glance that the person beside Ichigo was Yasutora Sado. Sado was truly a godly figure. By the late stages of Bleach, even Yhwach had to raise his hand to block his punch. In the early anime, Sado was not weak either. Without the power of Fullbring, he had taken an I-beam head-on with his body and beaten Hollows bare-handed—those were all glorious achievements.

If Tsunayoshi remembered correctly, by the time the Thousand-Year Blood War ended, Sado seemed to have gone into the ring as a boxer. Setting aside the power of Fullbring, just that body of his that could tank an I-beam made Tsunayoshi unable to understand how many humans could possibly be Sado's match.

Ichigo and Sado left the riverbank together. When they passed by the grass where Tsunayoshi and the other two were hiding, Ichigo's nose twitched. He seemed to smell something familiar.

"Why does it smell like my family's body wash?" Ichigo's gaze suddenly grew sharp, and he abruptly shouted, "Orihime?"

"I'm here!"

Orihime Inoue immediately stood up from the grass, a few leaves still stuck on her head. She held two branches in both hands in front of herself, and the instant she stood up, Inoue also realized that Ichigo had tricked her into revealing herself.

"Orihime? Why are you here by yourself? No, wait, are Tsunayoshi and the others here too?" As long as Ichigo was willing to use his brain, his reactions were still quick.

"Yo, isn't this Ichigo? Made a new friend?" Tsunayoshi crawled out of the grass openly and said to Ichigo.

"Oh, right. This is Yasutora Sado. They are..." Ichigo was very good to his friends. He did not fuss over Tsunayoshi and the others peeking, but first began introducing them to Sado.

"Hello," Sado said, not a man of many words.

"Mm~ You've got quite the sturdy body." Tsunayoshi circled Yasutora Sado once, then reached out his hand and said, "Hello, I'm Sawada Tsunayoshi. Let's be friends."

Seeing Tsunayoshi and the others successfully become friends with Yasutora Sado, Ichigo looked at them with an unfriendly expression. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Us? Looking at the scenery, just looking at the scenery." Following Tsunayoshi's excuse, Inoue and Tatsuki quickly pretended to look around.

"Forget it." Ichigo saw through their nonsense at a glance. "Tsunayoshi, you should be able to resume the daily patrols now, right?"

"Huh? I thought you were having fun with it, weren't you? How about you keep doing it?" Tsunayoshi asked tentatively.

"Are you kidding me? I only have three chances to attack. One time, I nearly got killed, do you know that?!" Ichigo roared at Tsunayoshi.

"You knew you didn't have many attacks and still dared to split up from Uryū? Your wings have hardened, huh?" Tsunayoshi roared right back.

Ichigo shrank his neck and did not argue. He really had gotten a little full of himself before. Whenever he occasionally ran into a Hollow, he solved it with one arrow, relying entirely on overwhelming force.

As a result, a few days ago, he had encountered an extremely agile Hollow. With its luck and agility bonuses, it dodged two of his arrows in a row. In the end, Ichigo had to hide in a blind corner before killing it. That was the first time since he started training that he had felt danger.

Ichigo and Tsunayoshi were bickering here, while Sado beside them silently memorized the contents in his heart. Although he did not understand what they were talking about, he still knew Ichigo was fighting against something.

Tsunayoshi saw Sado eavesdropping. If nothing unexpected happened, Sado, who had gotten involved with Ichigo, would still become Ichigo's solid support. Finding some time to let Sado come into contact with Fullbring in advance would not be bad either.

"Sado-san, Ichigo will be in your care from now on." Tsunayoshi grabbed Sado's hand and said enthusiastically.

"Hey..."

The moment Ichigo voiced his dissatisfaction, Tsunayoshi cut him off. "Ah, it's almost time for my appointment. I'm leaving first. Bye-bye."

Tsunayoshi stepped directly into Flash Step and vanished from everyone's sight. Everyone present showed shocked expressions.

Ichigo, Orihime, and Tatsuki stared at Chad. Tsuna had actually used his ability to leave right in front of an ordinary person. Wasn't he afraid Chad would notice something?

Chad's eyes, hidden beneath his hair, went wide. He could hardly believe that a living, breathing person had vanished right in front of him. A little dazed, he looked toward Ichigo and the others.

Only then did Tatsuki reveal a thoughtful expression. Since Tsuna hadn't avoided doing it in front of Chad, that could only mean one thing: he already considered Chad one of them. Another Fullbringer?

Tsuna had no idea how Ichigo would explain his disappearance to Chad. By now, he had arrived at the entrance of the Urahara Shop. He hadn't been here in nearly a year, and he found he had missed it a little.

"A rare guest, young Tsuna. Congratulations." Before Tsuna could even walk up, Urahara opened the door on his own initiative. He had sensed Tsuna's Reiatsu.

"Let's talk business, Shopkeeper. In your message, you said you had a lead on them?" Tsuna asked. He had originally planned to rest for a day or two after training, but yesterday he had received a message from Urahara saying that the matter Tsuna had asked him to look into had made progress, and they had arranged to meet today.

"Yoruichi was the one investigating all of it. Let her tell you."

Tsuna felt a weight settle on his head as a black cat landed there. With Tsuna's current strength, he was perfectly capable of reacting in time. It was just that Yoruichi liked curling up on his head, and if Tsuna resisted, it would inevitably turn into another cat-wrestling battle. Yoruichi's Flash Step had improved again, and catching her in such close quarters would not be easy.

"Kid, what's your relationship with the First Substitute Soul Reaper? This organization called Xcution was founded by him, mainly to take in Fullbring users."

"I'm warning you, don't get too close to that Substitute Soul Reaper. That guy is on Soul Society's wanted list. They say he killed Soul Reapers who were his comrades, then defected from Soul Society." Yoruichi lightly patted Tsuna's head as a warning.

"Mr. Yoruichi, weren't you and the Shopkeeper also driven out of Soul Society? Oh, and Hirako's group too." Tsuna used Yoruichi and the others as examples. "You can't judge everything by appearances. Maybe from the First Substitute Soul Reaper's point of view, Soul Society was the one that betrayed him?"

"I'd like to hear the details." Urahara pushed a cup of hot tea in front of Tsuna. He had already keenly caught the scent of a conspiracy.

"Strictly speaking, the First Substitute Soul Reaper, Kugo Ginjo, was nothing more than a pitiful man..."