Awakening

By the time club activities ended, it was already dark.

With his schoolbag on his back, Yoriichi Tsugikuni walked out of Karakura Town First High School alone.

Streetlights had come on along both sides of the road, and there were not many customers in the shops. The evening breeze blew through the roadside trees, gently stirring their branches and leaves with a soft rustle.

He had attended kendo club activities that day.

More precisely, the teacher supervising the kendo club had asked him to come over at short notice to offer guidance.

Yoriichi Tsugikuni had only joined the kendo club half a month ago, but no one was willing to spar with him anymore.

It was not because he hit too hard.

Rather, those who fought him often could not even see how they had lost.

Even when Yoriichi Tsugikuni deliberately slowed down, his bamboo sword still struck precisely at his opponent's openings. Once could be called a coincidence, but dozens of times in a row was a little unreasonable.

The kendo club's teacher had stared at him for a long time before finally asking just one question.

"Tsugikuni, have you really never studied kendo before?"

"No."

"..."

The teacher's expression had been complicated.

Yoriichi Tsugikuni had not lied.

He had indeed never received any kendo training. But as soon as he held a bamboo sword, his body naturally made the most correct movements.

That was not technique.

It was more like an instinct already etched deep into his soul.

Yoriichi Tsugikuni lowered his head and looked at his right hand, which held his schoolbag's shoulder strap.

Ever since he was very young, he had been able to see things ordinary people could not.

The souls of the dead, monsters lurking in the darkness, and the blood and muscles constantly moving within human bodies.

In his eyes, everything in the world seemed transparent.

This ability had not affected his life very much.

As long as those monsters did not harm others, Yoriichi Tsugikuni would not approach them on his own. As for the souls wandering the streets, he occasionally stopped to exchange a few words with them.

That was all.

Soon, Yoriichi Tsugikuni turned onto a familiar street.

It was not far from where he lived, and the house ahead with a clinic sign was the home of his classmate, Ichigo Kurosaki.

The two got along fairly well.

Although Ichigo Kurosaki had conspicuous orange hair and looked like a bad-tempered delinquent, he actually often helped the elderly in the neighborhood.

When classmates came looking for trouble, he would step in front, too.

Yoriichi Tsugikuni could tell that Ichigo also possessed spiritual power far beyond that of ordinary people. He simply did not know how to control it and could only see the souls of the dead by instinct.

Just as Yoriichi Tsugikuni was about to pass the clinic's entrance, he suddenly stopped.

Boom!

An enormous surge of energy erupted from the Kurosaki family's home.

The glass rattled, and nearby streetlights flickered several times. Reishi invisible to ordinary people swept outward, forming a chaotic shock wave.

Yoriichi Tsugikuni stood where he was, the hair over his forehead lifting in the rush of air.

So strong.

But this power was highly unstable, with two completely different presences mixed within it.

One was cold and savage, filled with the desire to devour living people.

The other was relatively pure, but had already grown extremely weak.

Yoriichi Tsugikuni looked up.

In his sight, an enormous monster was crouched atop the Kurosaki Clinic. It wore a white, bony mask and had a pitch-black hole in its chest. Its arm had already smashed through the wall of the house.

Hollow.

The name appeared in Yoriichi Tsugikuni's mind without warning.

At the same time, his heart suddenly gave a hard beat.

Thump.

A heavy sound rang out within his body.

For the first time, the expression on Yoriichi Tsugikuni's face changed.

A scorching power awakened deep within his soul and rapidly flowed throughout his body. His previously steady breathing changed with it, and the Reishi scattered around him began gathering toward him.

Deep within his consciousness, there seemed to be a sun that had long lain dormant.

And now, that sun opened its eyes.

Yoriichi Tsugikuni raised his right hand.

Crimson Reiatsu flashed across his palm.

The surrounding temperature rose instantly. Several fallen leaves at his feet rapidly dried out, their edges turning charred black.

After just one second, that power sank back into his body.

Yoriichi Tsugikuni remained silent for a moment, then looked toward the Kurosaki Clinic.

The Hollow had already entered the house.

Rather than approaching through the front door, he retreated into the shadows beside the street and circled around to a position where he could clearly see the second floor.

Beyond the broken wall, Ichigo Kurosaki lay on the floor.

His shoulder was wounded, and he was pushing hard against the floor with both hands to support himself. A petite girl dressed in black stood before him.

The girl was also seriously injured.

Blood had stained her clothes red, and her sword hand kept trembling. Even so, she still stood between Ichigo and the monster.

"Why are you protecting me?"

Ichigo gritted his teeth and raised his head with difficulty.

"Shut up."

The girl panted as she said, "Soul Reapers don't need a reason to protect humans."

Yoriichi Tsugikuni heard their conversation.

Soul Reaper.

Another unfamiliar yet familiar term.

Inside the room, the Hollow growled and raised its enormous arm again. The girl glanced at Ichigo's family lying on the other side, and her expression grew even grimmer.

In her current condition, she could no longer stop the next attack.

"There's one other way."

The girl suddenly turned and pointed the tip of her sword at Ichigo.

"I'll share my Soul Reaper powers with you. Whether it works will depend on your own spiritual power."

Ichigo stared at the sword in her hand.

"What do I have to do?"

"Thrust the sword into your chest."

"Huh?"

Ichigo's expression froze.

With the situation so urgent, he clearly had no time to consider carefully whether this method was reliable.

The Hollow was already swinging its arm down.

"Come on!"

Ichigo roared, reached out to grasp the blade, and lunged forward onto it.

The blade pierced his chest.

The next moment, dazzling spiritual light flooded the entire room.

Enormous Reiatsu burst through the roof and rapidly spread into the sky. Yoriichi Tsugikuni's clothes flapped in the blast, but his gaze remained utterly undisturbed.

Within the spiritual light, Ichigo's soul left his body.

A black shihakusho covered him, and an absurdly large Zanpakuto appeared in his hand.

Rather than a weapon, the sword looked more like an iron plate with a sharpened edge.

As Yoriichi Tsugikuni watched this scene, his right hand was already resting at his waist.

There should have been nothing there.

Yet as his hand settled, a gray sword hilt slowly took shape. Crimson Reishi swirled around it, finally forming a katana engraved with the character for "sun."

Even before the blade left its sheath, its scorching aura made the surrounding Reishi tremble.

Yoriichi Tsugikuni prepared to go over and save them.

But the instant he took a step, a vast flood of memories poured into his mind.