Could You Be... My Son?

Kurosaki Ichigo and Rukia landed one after the other. They stared at Wu Biao, who had one foot planted firmly on the Hollow, pinning its enormous body to the ground. The creature strained with both hands against the earth but couldn't budge the comparatively tiny foot. Neither of them knew what to say.

Especially Ichigo, who had just fought the Hollow himself. He knew firsthand how powerful it was. The tail that had slammed into him still ached faintly. Yet in Brother Biao's hands, the Hollow was like a child being toyed with.

Every time Ichigo thought Brother Biao had reached his limit, he managed to surprise him... Though "scare the hell out of him" was probably more accurate!

"By the way, where's Orihime? Is she okay?" Ichigo finally remembered why they'd come and asked urgently.

Wu Biao shook his head. "Who's Orihime? There were two girls up there. One was already dead when I got here, and the other was a little hurt!"

"What?"

There was no time to wonder why there had been two of them. The moment Ichigo heard that one was dead, he panicked and took off toward the room with Rukia on his back. He didn't forget to call over his shoulder, "Brother Biao, don't kill him yet. Just keep him pinned down for a while!"

Don't kill him?

Wu Biao looked thoughtfully at Inoue's Brother beneath his foot, and his eyes suddenly lit up.

By the time Rukia and Ichigo had treated the two girls in the room and erased their memories, they came out to find Wu Biao hopping up and down, slapping a... giant meatball.

Even curled up, the "giant meatball" stood much taller than Wu Biao. He was having a grand old time bouncing around and smacking it, and the sight made both of them twitch.

The Hollow's tail had been threaded through its Hollow Hole and wrapped around it several times. Unless they were mistaken, its eyes had turned into spirals. It had clearly been played to pieces...

"Hahaha! Want to join in? This huge ball feels amazing to slap!" But as he spoke, his hands slowed. One slap missed, and the giant meatball slammed straight into Wu Biao's face.

Thud—

With a heavy crash, Wu Biao was knocked flat on his back, and the meatball rolled to a stop beside him.

"Brother Biao!" Ichigo hurried over. "Are you okay?" He moved to help Wu Biao up.

"Wait! Don't touch me!" Wu Biao cried, making Ichigo freeze. Wu Biao's expression slowly grew solemn, as if he'd made some earth-shattering discovery.

Seeing Brother Biao so unusually serious, Ichigo and Rukia couldn't help straightening up, quietly waiting for him to explain what he'd discovered.

Wu Biao furrowed his brows and pondered for a long moment before declaring, "Actually, I've been standing upright the whole time. I wasn't knocked down because I let my guard down and got hit in the face by the ball. The truth is... this world has tilted. A great crisis is upon us!!!"

"..."

Ichigo's mouth twitched. So after all that buildup, he'd just been coming up with an excuse for falling over... And couldn't he think of a normal one? The world had tilted? He ought to get his head checked. Had the fall turned his brains to shit?

"Idiot... He's definitely an idiot!" Unlike Ichigo, who had a whole string of complaints running through his head, Rukia summed it all up in one sentence.

As for Wu Biao, he sprang to his feet with unbelievable speed, calmly lit a cigarette, and ignored Ichigo's silent ranting and Rukia calling him an idiot. He took a deep drag, nodded, and said, "Mm. Looks like I've recovered!"

"The world didn't tilt in the first place!" Ichigo finally snapped, glaring furiously at the pretentious chuunibyou. "Just hurry up and go home!"

Rukia stepped forward and held the lighter-shaped jack-in-the-box before Wu Biao. She pressed it, and with a pop, a little bird shot out on a spring.

"Shit!" Wu Biao jumped back in fright, his calm expression shattered. "What the hell's wrong with you, Onion Head in pajamas?"

Ichigo was taken aback. Just a moment ago, Rukia had used that ridiculously theatrical gadget right in front of him to replace Orihime and Tatsuki's memories.

But judging by Brother Biao's reaction, it clearly hadn't worked on him!

"Figures. This thing doesn't work on idiots!" Rukia turned to Ichigo and commented with an air of certainty, though she was secretly surprised. This was the first time the memory-replacement device had ever failed on a human.

"We..." Rukia had barely begun when someone lifted her from behind. Wu Biao was about as tall as Ichigo, so he easily grabbed the collar of her pajamas and hoisted her up.

"I don't care if you're Ichigo's mating partner. You can't provoke me and then run off! Keep it up, and I'll shave that onion head of yours bald!"

Rukia ignored the first half of what he'd said and hastily shielded her hair with both hands. She didn't want to return to the Soul Society with a bald head. "I'm warning you, I'm really strong! Put me down!"

There was clearly more bluster than confidence in her voice. Even she knew she was no match for this perverted human.

"Strong?" Wu Biao blinked.

Had he really believed her?

Rukia blinked too, then said smugly, "That's right!"

Ichigo couldn't help covering his face.

"Come on, let's fight with all we've got!"

Just as Ichigo expected, Wu Biao roared excitedly, spun her once, and sent Rukia flying in a high arc. In the blink of an eye, she disappeared into the night sky...

But Ichigo had been ready. He leaped up and caught Rukia before she could hit the ground.

"You bastard! What's wrong with you?!" Rukia yelled furiously as soon as she landed, still shaken.

"Tch!" Wu Biao glanced at Rukia disdainfully. "And you call yourself strong? Even those female wrestlers who look like cows but are all muscle are stronger than you!"

"..." Rukia. Could that comparison get any more ridiculous?

Ichigo stopped paying attention to the two of them and turned to the Hollow, which was still in a daze. "Can Inoue's Brother recover?"

Rukia shook her head. "Kill him!"

"But..."

"Don't worry. Cutting down a Hollow doesn't mean killing it. It purifies its sins, lets it return to its true nature, and sends it back to the Soul Society. That's why we Shinigami exist!"

Ichigo still looked hesitant. After all, it was Inoue's Brother!

Thud...

A muffled bang suddenly rang out. They looked over and saw Wu Biao punch the Hollow's head clean off. Its entire body began to vanish.

"You two are so damn wishy-washy!"

"You..." Rukia's expression changed at once!

Seeing her reaction, Ichigo relaxed. He thought that if the Hollow could only be killed, then Brother Biao scattering it was just as good. But Rukia's reaction puzzled him. "What's wrong?"

"I'd already sensed something yesterday," Rukia said, looking at Wu Biao, her face full of shock and anger. Her voice lowered. "The Hollows he killed didn't turn into Reishi and return to the Soul Society to become new souls... They vanished completely!"

"What!" Ichigo's pupils contracted. Did that mean Inoue's Brother's soul had also been reduced to dust by Brother Biao?

Ichigo couldn't help remembering the ghost who had followed him home a few days ago. At the time, he'd thought that after Brother Biao scattered him, the soul had gone to heaven. Now it seemed that he had been completely destroyed too.

Wu Biao once again felt that rush of warmth entering his body. This time, the heat was much stronger than before, but there was a very faint energy mixed in with it.

He could clearly feel an emotional fluctuation within that energy, as if it were a human being: grief-stricken, heartbroken... Wu Biao tried to move it, and the energy really did shift at his bidding.

Wu Biao tried to push the energy out through his arm. The other two couldn't sense what was happening inside him; all they saw was Wu Biao suddenly stretch out his hand, and a wave of Reishi surged from his palm.

A phantom gradually took shape, finally coalescing into an adult man with a chain across his chest.

"Inoue's Brother!" Ichigo was startled at the sight of him.

Rukia's eyes widened as she stared at Inoue's Brother's form, utterly stunned. "How did you do that? You actually turned him back into a Plus?"

"I don't know!"

Wu Biao shook his head without hesitation. He stared curiously at the man who had emerged from his body—uh, separated from it—and after a long pause, said uncertainly, "Could you be... my son?"

"..." Inoue's Brother, Ichigo, Rukia.

"How could that even be possible, you idiot!"