Wu Biao

"Drop dead!!!"

Wu Biao let out a deafening roar and swung his fist at the person in front of him. He closed his eyes slightly. Once he opened them again, the guy before him would be sent flying.

But the next second, his body pitched forward, and his punch struck empty air.

Wu Biao opened his eyes in alarm and found that everything in his field of vision had changed. The dark night had become a withered-yellow dusk, and the long street had turned into a little stream beneath an overpass.

The countless enemies he'd seen before closing his eyes had all vanished.

Even the signs in the distance had changed into characters he couldn't understand, though he could just make out the words... Karakura Town!

The light-rail train rattling across the overpass startled Wu Biao out of his daze.

"Where'd they go? Where did everyone go? If you've got guts, don't run—come out and fight me!!!" Wu Biao shouted angrily at his surroundings. But when he looked down at the stream beneath his feet, he froze.

The face reflected in the little stream was a youthful one, a face he knew extremely well. It was unmistakably what he'd looked like as a child, around fourteen or fifteen years old.

Wu Biao was twenty-five.

Aside from being a bit of a hothead, he was also a fine young man.

Though it wouldn't be quite right to call him a fine young man, since what Wu Biao loved most was fighting. He was a pure-blooded battle maniac. As Brother Biao liked to say:

Getting your fists into the flesh—that was a man's romance.

Wu Biao was undoubtedly a man of principle. No matter how many opponents he faced or what weapons they had, he believed in nothing but his own fists. He'd never used a weapon.

As mentioned earlier, this guy was a hothead, but deep down, he was a good person.

If he saw an honest person being bullied, Brother Biao would rush in without a second thought to help.

As for why he loved fighting so much, the blame probably lay entirely with the circumstances of his birth!

As Wu Biao himself put it, he was a warrior born in the flames of war!

To explain why, we'd have to start with his parents, who had been dead for who knew how many years. Both of them were classic freeloaders who lived off their parents. Somehow, the two of them had ended up together.

Neither of them had a job, and when Wu Biao's mother was ten months pregnant, the two of them got into a fight. That battle shook the earth and split the seas, sent chickens flying and eggs breaking, and found its way through enemy lines... Uh, anyway, Wu Biao came tumbling out of it!

Didn't get it?

To put it simply, Wu Biao's parents were fighting, their fists were landing with full force, and they beat him right out of her.

They didn't even notice when Wu Biao rolled onto the ground. His mother was such a tough woman that, with the umbilical cord still attached, she dragged him along and fought his father for three hundred rounds.

Only after the battle ended did the two of them notice Wu Biao, who'd been stepped on who knew how many times and dragged around who knew how many laps, and was now on the verge of death.

Then his mother cut the umbilical cord herself and gave him some haphazard treatment. Wu Biao somehow managed to pull through. You had to admit, that was a miracle...

Perhaps it was that earth-shattering battle at his birth that made Wu Biao love fighting from an early age... And somehow, he'd fooled his way through life until now.

Back to the point. Wu Biao stroked his chin and carefully examined the fair, scar-free face reflected in the stream. He nodded in satisfaction. "Just as I thought. Getting your fists into the flesh is a man's romance. I've gotten younger from all that fighting!"

This guy hadn't noticed anything strange at all. He actually thought fighting had made him younger.

"Not bad. Brother Biao gets more handsome the more he fights!" Only then did Brother Biao remember that the important thing right now wasn't how handsome he was, but where he'd ended up while fighting with his head down.

He'd probably, more or less, maybe, somehow, charged right past them.

"Could I have charged straight through the crowd?" Wu Biao stroked his chin, wearing the expression of Sherlock Holmes, the great detective. When he was done, he nodded in agreement, thoroughly convinced by his own reasoning.

His poor brain hadn't even bothered to consider how he could have traveled back in time in one step, or why night had turned to dusk!

"Right, that must be it. This is my chance to imitate that Yun guy and fight my way in and out three times. Sounds pretty good!" Wu Biao nodded, then said excitedly, "If I charged past them, all I have to do is turn around and charge back to fight my way back!"

"Exactly! Brother Biao really is too smart!" With a mighty roar, he turned around and was about to charge back. But the moment he took a step, he stopped.

Behind him stood two groups of people. One group consisted of two people: an orange-haired boy who looked about fourteen or fifteen, and a burly man standing beside him with somewhat dark skin.

The other group consisted of more than a dozen young men, all around twenty years old, with hair dyed every color of the rainbow and an unmistakable "I'm a delinquent" vibe.

Both groups stared at Brother Biao in utter astonishment, as if wondering when someone had suddenly appeared there.

"Hm? Did I really beat down that many people?" Brother Biao frowned at the two groups. "Hey, where'd the others go? How come only you little twerps are left?"

The two groups came to their senses. The leader of the gang, a guy with a lip piercing, glared at Wu Biao. "Who are you, kid? Get lost while I'm still in a good mood!"

"What did you say?"

Wu Biao's eyes turned red at once. He dashed forward and punched the lip-pierced punk in the face. With a scream, the guy went flying.

A few teeth flew out with him, along with the lip piercing embedded in them.

"How dare you call a smart guy like Brother Biao a hothead? I'll beat you up, see if I don't!"

The remaining punks twitched at the corner of their mouths. He'd already beaten the guy up...

"Boss!" The punks finally reacted when they saw their leader, his lip split wide open, his mouth full of blood, rolling his eyes as he passed out.

"He actually sneak-attacked the boss! Get him!!!"

With a roar, the whole bunch charged at Wu Biao.

"You've got the nerve to mess with me with this few people? I'll take you all down!" Wu Biao roared and charged straight at them.

"..." The orange-haired boy and the dark-skinned giant blinked. What was going on here?

Someone had suddenly appeared by the river, then started fighting that gang for some reason?

Two minutes later, Wu Biao gripped his shoulder with his left hand and swung his bent right arm around. Looking at the punks sprawled on the ground, groaning nonstop, he sneered. "You think you can mess with Brother Biao with this few people?"

Only then did he turn around to look at the two stunned guys behind him. He tilted his head. "Why didn't you join in? That big dark-skinned guy looks like he can fight. Why didn't you two come at me together?"

The two of them twitched at the corner of their mouths in unison, then hurriedly waved their hands. The orange-haired boy said, "I'm not with them!"

"Oh!" Brother Biao nodded and looked around at the unfamiliar surroundings. "By the way, man, where is this? I think I just charged right past them. There's still a fight waiting for me back over there."

The orange-haired boy gave Brother Biao a strange look for a long while before finally speaking. "This is Karakura Town?"

"Huh?" Brother Biao blinked, then looked at the orange-haired boy as if he were an idiot. "Do you think I'm that much of a hothead? How could I fight my way into another prefecture?"

"What prefecture?" The orange-haired boy blinked in confusion. "This really is Karakura Town!"

Wu Biao narrowed his eyes. "You don't look like you're lying. Did I really fight my way into another prefecture?" Brother Biao rubbed his chin. He suddenly felt like he was getting more and more impressive. He'd fought his way from the center of one prefecture all the way outside it.

"Forget it. Whatever!" That was Brother Biao's style: if he couldn't figure something out, he didn't bother thinking about it. He was as easygoing as they came. He turned to the two of them. "Meeting's fate, so tell me your names, guys?"

"Kurosaki Ichigo," the orange-haired boy answered instinctively.

The big guy beside him answered in a low, muffled voice. "Sado Yasutora."

"What kind of weird names are those?" Wu Biao curled his lip, then turned and walked off. Still, he waved at them over his shoulder. "I'm Wu Biao. If anyone bullies you again, just tell them my name. It'll do the trick!"

Kurosaki Ichigo and Sado Yasutora watched Brother Biao's figure gradually disappear, both looking utterly confused...

Who the heck was that guy?