The World of the Living, Karakura Town.
The evening streets were washed in the dusky yellow of the setting sun.
Ichigo Kurosaki walked home toward the Kurosaki Clinic with one hand in his school uniform's trouser pocket, his brow slightly furrowed.
After a full day of classes, all he had wanted was to go home and enjoy a comfortable dinner.
Yet muffled sounds of struggling kept coming from the schoolbag on his back, breaking that rare peace.
"Ichigo! Let me out! I'm suffocating in here!"
"Hurry up and unzip it! I want to see busty babes! I want to see high school girls in short skirts!"
The bag shook violently, its zipper even forced open a crack to reveal the head of a yellow stuffed lion.
A vein bulged on Ichigo's forehead. He reached back and slapped the bag hard.
"Shut up, Kon. Shouting in the middle of the street-are you trying to attract Hollows?"
The stuffed head was immediately smacked back inside, but then it stubbornly wriggled out again, along with most of his body.
"Who cares about Hollows! For beautiful women, not even mountains of blades or seas of fire can stop this burning heart of mine!"
Kon waved his two short stuffed arms, loudly protesting Ichigo's violence.
Where did this guy get so much nonsense to spout?
If he weren't occasionally useful for occupying my body, I'd really like to stuff him down a drain and flush him away.
Just as Ichigo reached out to force the zipper shut and seal the perverted lion away for good-
The air around him suddenly grew heavy.
An eerie whirlwind sprang up out of nowhere on the previously quiet street.
Ichigo stopped walking, his relaxed expression vanishing and turning utterly serious.
"What's going on? These strange Reiatsu fluctuations..."
Not only