"Are you trying to take a dump or something?"
The moment those words almost slipped past his lips, Ichigo immediately snapped back to reality. Spending so much time with Kaito is making me pick up his terrible habits.
"Hey! Are you okay? Do you need any help?"
The heavy rain completely soaked Ichigo's clothes, but his young heart was filled with a pure desire to help. He approached the girl with deep concern.
'Here it comes, here it comes! The delicious food is walking right into my trap!'
This girl wasn't human at all. She was merely the lure of the Hollow Grand Fisher, who was using her to catch a high-grade soul like Ichigo.
Ichigo drew closer and closer to the lure. Although he had the rare ability to see spirits, he was still too young to truly distinguish between a soul and a living human.
Up on the embankment, Masaki finally managed to suppress White's turbulent energy. When she opened her eyes, Ichigo was nowhere to be seen.
"Ichigo?"
The next second, faint cries for help echoed through the rain. She snapped her head toward the sound, and her heart dropped. A wave of absolute terror rushed through her veins.
Ichigo was running straight toward a Hollow!
A massive, ghostly claw was slowly descending toward her son. Masaki's remaining Quincy power was already strained from suppressing the Hollow within her, but at this moment, she didn't care about the consequences. Driven by a fierce, maternal instinct to protect her child, she forced her remaining power to manifest, executing a Hirenkyaku to instantly appear in front of Ichigo.
This was the first time she had ever used her powers in front of her son and it would be the last.
As if sensing her time was up, she looked down at Ichigo with a tender, heartbroken gaze. She hadn't seen him grow up yet. She wouldn't get to see him attend high school, or eventually start a family of his own...
Spurt!
Before Ichigo's shocked and terrified eyes, Grand Fisher finally revealed his massive, grotesque form from behind the fake girl. The Hollow's jagged claw ripped directly through Masaki's torso.
A spray of crimson blood splattered right in front of Ichigo.
For a young child, the sheer trauma of the sight was paralyzing. He froze entirely. He desperately wanted to reach out and hold his mother, but he could feel her life force rapidly draining away.
'What do I do? Please, God, let this just be a nightmare!'
"Hmm? How disappointing," Grand Fisher muttered, inspecting his prey. "Oh well, I suppose she'll do as an appetizer before the main course."
Grand Fisher brutally ripped his claw out of Masaki's body. Lacking the strength to stand, she collapsed forward into Ichigo's small arms.
Then, the Hollow raised his claws once more, swinging them down to finish the job.
"Mama... Mama!"
Ichigo felt no fear for his own life. Looking at his mother's blood-soaked body, his mind completely rejected the reality before him. Tears burst from his eyes like a broken dam.
'Master! Master, where are you?!'
In his moment of utter despair, Ichigo remembered his adoptive master. His young voice pierced the gloomy, rain-slicked sky in a heartbroken roar: "Kaito!"
"I'm a little late, but we're still in time."
A calm, reassuring voice cut through the downpour.
Ichigo stared blankly at the tall figure who had suddenly appeared before them.
Kaito hovered one hand over Masaki, a soft blue halo enveloping her as he fully activated his Reversal Technique. With his other hand, he effortlessly blocked Grand Fisher's downward strike.
Grand Fisher stared in shock at the man who had intercepted his attack so easily. For a split second, an old melody flashed through the Hollow's mind a song often hummed by a Soul Reaper he had devoured long ago. It perfectly matched the sheer absurdity of the performance unfolding before him.
"A Soul Reaper?"
Grand Fisher tried to sense the man's spiritual pressure but felt absolutely nothing, causing him to immediately underestimate his opponent. In his experience, greater power always meant a massive spiritual pressure and an equally large Zanpakuto. The silver-haired man standing before him wore a black trench coat and a blindfold, completely lacking both spiritual pressure and a sword. He looked like a third-rate nobody who had wandered into the wrong place.
"Sorry to keep you waiting, though I suppose my timing isn't terrible."
A second figure materialized out of the rain. A man wearing wooden clogs, a dark green coat, and a striped bucket hat stepped forward, leaning casually on a cane.
Kaito replied smoothly, "It's fine, Urahara. Arriving exactly when needed is better than arriving early."
"Another Soul Reaper!"
Grand Fisher's pupils contracted slightly as he looked at the newcomer. He could clearly sense the familiar scent of a Soul Reaper emanating from Urahara.
There was no mistaking it. But what did it matter? To the Hollow, they were just lining up to die one by one. One wasn't even a proper Soul Reaper, and the other didn't look like much either.
Urahara pulled out a specialized spiritual tool consisting of four interconnected rods, preparing to insert them into Masaki's body.
"What are you doing?!" Ichigo yelled, instantly wrapping his arms tighter around his mother to protect her.
"Ichigo, trust me," Kaito said gently.
Kaito paused his Reversal Technique. Having already closed Masaki's fatal wounds, he chose to let her body rest. If he healed her completely, her soul would naturally use its own power to regenerate the rest, but Kaito needed her to exhaust her remaining Quincy energy so that Urahara's device could function properly.
Ichigo trusted Kaito unconditionally. Hearing his master's words, the boy lowered his guard. Urahara seized the moment, swiftly driving the four rods into Masaki's back.
This was a specialized spiritual apparatus Kaito had commissioned Urahara to build beforehand. The moment it made contact, it shifted form, seamlessly merging into her body to target the deepest recesses of her soul.
Its function was incredibly straightforward: to directly extract White from Masaki's soul.
"I'll leave her in your hands for a moment," Kaito said calmly. He slowly turned his head toward Grand Fisher, a cold smirk playing on his lips. "Right now, I have some trash to clean up."
Before the words had even fully left his mouth, Kaito clamped his hand down on Grand Fisher's claw. "Itto Kaso!"
Grand Fisher's instincts screamed in primal terror. Without a second thought, the Hollow severed his own trapped arm and used Sonido to violently launch himself backward.
In that exact fraction of a second, a colossal, blade-shaped pillar of crimson fire erupted from the earth right where Grand Fisher had been standing.
"That was too close!"
Sensing the lethal, catastrophic energy radiating from the spell, Grand Fisher didn't hesitate. He spun around and fled into the rain. Damn it, I completely misjudged him! That guy is a monster!
Urahara, who was monitoring Masaki's condition, watched Kaito casually drop a high-level Kido right out of the gate. His pupils narrowed in surprise. 'Seriously, my friend? Is it really necessary to go all out from the very first second?'
But as the smoke cleared, revealing Kaito's pristine, completely uninjured white arms, Urahara's gaze darkened as he fell back into deep thought.