Back in Amenominaka, Uchiha Tamaharu transferred Inoue Orihime, Chad, and Uryu Ishida to the Living World.
He had also brought along Ichigo's body. Kon had been occupying it, and it had remained intact.
"This is part of Ichigo's soul. There's no way to bring him back directly."
"The only chance we have is for me to put this piece of Ichigo's soul into his body, and then for you to use your Fullbring to heal Ichigo Kurosaki."
"Don't worry about the Reishi you'll use. I'll replenish it for you. All you have to do is focus completely on restoring Ichigo's body. Can you do that?"
Uchiha Tamaharu spoke to Inoue Orihime with utmost seriousness.
This was the only way. From the start, Uchiha Tamaharu hadn't expected Squad Zero to willingly leave Ichigo's body.
After obtaining the fragment of Ichigo's soul, destroying the Soul King Palace would also prevent Squad Zero from having any chance of resurrection.
Uchiha Tamaharu had no idea whether this would work. He wasn't even sure that Ichigo would still be himself if he recovered, but it was worth trying.
It wasn't that he had been careless. None of this would have happened if he hadn't let his guard down around the protagonist group. Luffy and the others had traveled around without any trouble, so he had lowered his vigilance.
"Yes!"
Inoue Orihime's eyes were brimming with tears, but her gaze was resolute.
Uchiha Tamaharu had already prepared them for this, but seeing that all he had brought back was a mass of golden Reishi was still hard to accept.
But there was nothing they could do now. All they could do was hope Inoue Orihime's ability would work.
Uchiha Tamaharu pressed the slowly dispersing Reishi in his hand into Ichigo's chest. It merged smoothly into his