Early morning.
Yoriichi Tsugikuni pushed open the classroom door, and the somewhat noisy classroom fell silent for a moment.
Keigo Asano rushed over first.
"Yoriichi, where on earth have you guys been all this time?"
He grabbed Yoriichi's shoulders and said, looking aggrieved, "A whole month! All five of you disappeared at once, with exactly the same excuse for taking leave, and the teacher actually believed it!"
Yoriichi looked at him.
"Family matters."
"That line again?"
Keigo wanted to keep pressing, but Mizuiro Kojima had already walked over with a smile.
"Give it a rest. If Yoriichi doesn't want to say, asking more won't help."
"Damn it, you guys must have been doing something fun behind my back!"
The classroom's back door opened again.
Ichigo Kurosaki walked in yawning, with obvious dark circles under his eyes.
Keigo immediately let go of Yoriichi and lunged toward Ichigo.
"Ichigo!"
Bam!
Ichigo sidestepped him and casually pinned him against a desk.
"Don't start screeching first thing in the morning."
"You really have changed!"
Keigo lifted his head with difficulty and accused him, "You only used to kick me. Now you've learned to pin my head down!"
A vein twitched on Ichigo's forehead.
"What's the difference?"
"Of course there's a difference. Our friendship's been downgraded!"
Standing beside them, Mizuiro nodded earnestly. "Keigo means he wants you to kick him."
"That's not what I meant!"
The classroom grew lively again.
Yoriichi returned to his seat and took his textbooks out of his schoolbag. Compared with the battles in the Soul Society, the sounds around him seemed utterly ordinary.
He didn't dislike that ordinariness.
Before long, Orihime Inoue and Tatsuki Arisawa entered the classroom together. Chad followed behind them, carrying a bag full of training equipment.
Uryū Ishida was already sitting in his seat.
A textbook lay in front of him, but beneath his desk he hid a notebook with a worn cover. Everything recorded in it concerned Quincy training.
Yoriichi glanced at it.
"Still haven't recovered?"
Uryū adjusted his glasses.
"Not yet."
In the Soul Society, he had forcibly removed the Sanrei Glove in exchange for a brief burst of power far beyond his own limits. The price had been the loss of his Quincy abilities.
"I'm searching through the records my grandfather left."
Uryū closed the notebook and said calmly, "Since you said this situation isn't irreversible, I'll find a way."
"They'll come back."
Yoriichi sounded utterly certain.
Uryū glanced at him without asking anything more, but he felt considerably more at ease.
Hearing Yoriichi say that really had eased much of his worry.
The bell soon rang.
Their homeroom teacher entered the classroom carrying a thick stack of test papers, her gaze going straight to the back row.
"Ichigo Kurosaki."
Ichigo had just put his head down, but sat up again when he heard his name.
"Here."
"Where's the homework I assigned last night?"
"I did it."
Ichigo rummaged through his schoolbag for ages before finally pulling out a crumpled workbook.
The homeroom teacher took it, and her face darkened after a single glance.
"Why is the answer to every one of the last ten questions 'Yoriichi Tsugikuni'?"
The classroom instantly fell silent.
Ichigo whipped his head around to look at the empty seat beside him.
That was where Kon usually sat when attending class in the Gigai.
"That bastard..."
When he had gone out to deal with Hollows last night, he had temporarily left his body to Kon. Clearly, the guy hadn't bothered to do his homework properly.
The homeroom teacher slapped the workbook onto the lectern.
"Kurosaki, do you have a problem with Tsugikuni?"
"Teacher, this is hard to explain."
"Then don't explain. Copy out your homework again three times before school ends."
Ichigo lowered his head.
He began seriously considering whether to stuff Kon into the toilet when he got home today.
After morning classes ended, Orihime took out an enormous lunch box and set it in front of everyone.
"Today I made wasabi red bean rice, and chocolate Pacific saury."
Ichigo's hand stopped halfway toward the lunch box.
Chad fell silent for a few seconds, but still picked up his chopsticks.
"I'll eat it."
"Chad, don't force yourself."
Looking a little dejected, Orihime asked, "Does it look strange?"
"No."
Chad picked up a piece of Pacific saury and ate it without a change in expression.
His body visibly stiffened for a moment.
Yoriichi looked at the lunch box without reaching for it.
He could face Captain-level Soul Reapers, and he could face Aizen.
But some things really didn't need to be challenged.
Tatsuki sat beside Orihime, her gaze passing over each of them in turn.
Ichigo's movements had grown faster.
Chad's presence had also become much steadier. Even the usually quiet Yoriichi had gained an indescribable sense of pressure.
Something had definitely happened while they were missing.
"Did you guys really just have family matters to deal with?"
Ichigo paused in the middle of picking up some food.
"Of course."
Tatsuki stared at him for a few seconds.
"Forget it."
She didn't press further, merely reaching out to take away the wasabi in front of Orihime.
"You can't add any more of this."
"But I don't think there's enough flavor yet."
"Trust me, there's enough."
During afternoon math class, Ichigo lay slumped over his desk again, half asleep.
Just as he was about to drift off, the Substitute Soul Reaper badge in his pocket suddenly began vibrating.
Ichigo snapped awake.
He looked at Yoriichi.
Yoriichi raised his head, having already sensed the Hollow's Reiatsu in the distance.
Very weak.
Ichigo stood up.
"Teacher, my stomach hurts."
The math teacher adjusted his glasses.
"Kurosaki-kun, this morning you said you had a headache."
"It's moved now."
"..."
"I really can't hold it anymore."
Clutching his stomach, Ichigo rushed out of the classroom. Before long, the sound of him scaling the wall came from outside the window.
The math teacher went to the window just in time to see Ichigo land.
"Ichigo Kurosaki!"
Without looking back, Ichigo quickly disappeared around a street corner.
Yoriichi lowered his head and continued leafing through his textbook.
After school.
Uryū kept the three of them in the classroom to finish their overdue homework, and Yoriichi stayed behind with them.
Standing at the front of the classroom, Uryū wrote the key points he had compiled on the blackboard.
"The makeup exam is tomorrow morning. It covers the first three units."
Ichigo slumped over his desk and couldn't help asking, "Why do we have to take an exam as soon as we get back?"
"Because we missed nearly a month of classes."
"Why doesn't Yoriichi need tutoring?"
Uryū looked toward the back of the classroom.
Yoriichi had already finished the practice test the teacher had handed out and was quietly reading.
"Because he just got full marks."
Ichigo fell silent.
He felt that even training desperately to achieve Bankai in the Soul Society hadn't dealt him as great a blow as this.
Orihime tightened her grip on her pen and stole a glance at her hairpins.
The next time danger came, she couldn't just stand at the back anymore.
Chad also lowered his head to look at his right hand.
The classroom gradually fell silent, leaving only the sound of turning pages.
Before you continue