There are two kinds of fights.
Fights to protect one’s life, and fights to protect one’s pride.
Someone once said that all of them were ultimately fights to protect the heart.
And on a rainy day, the protagonist, Ichigo, loses without even getting the chance to fight.
Without ever discovering the true identity of the Hollow known as Grand Fisher, he helplessly watches his mother be murdered.
**
Several years had already passed since I was assigned to Karakura Town.
I never encountered Kisuke Urahara.
I even had the convenient excuse of searching for Isshin Shiba, so I scoured the entire town, yet there was no sign whatsoever of the candy shop Urahara supposedly ran.
Perhaps he wasn’t staying in one place, but wandering around like the Visored.
Then again, this was a man who had evaded capture for over a century despite Soul Society sending people after him.
It would be stranger if he got caught just because I used Kidō a few times.
If that ever happened, it wouldn’t mean I had found Urahara. It would mean Urahara had come looking for me.
["You never seriously intended to find him in the first place, did you?"]
"...."
That was true.
What was I supposed to do after finding Kisuke Urahara? Tell him that I knew about Aizen’s Hollowfication experiments, that Aizen was going to smash his glasses and stand in the heavens in about six years, and that I was a prophet?
Would Urahara answer, "I believe you. You truly are a prophet"?
I would be lucky if he didn’t assume I was a spy sent by Aizen.
Most things would work themselves out if I simply left them alone anyway.
...I only needed to save the people within my reach. I had no grand ambition to save a mountain of people like Ichigo did.
["Good grief...."]
I had found the former captain of the Tenth Division, Isshin Shiba—now known as Isshin Kurosaki—long ago.
Just as in the original story, he was running an ordinary medical practice beneath a sign reading "Kurosaki Clinic," so finding him had been easy.
Even without his powers, Isshin must have sensed my familiar Reiatsu, but neither of us approached the other.
I merely watched over them. I had no desire to seek him out now and disturb the peace of his family.
Even without my intervention, it wouldn’t be long before that peace was shattered.
There was little time left until [Auswählen], the power of Yhwach—the son of the Soul King and king of the Quincy.
I couldn’t find a way to stop a power whose principles I didn’t even understand.
["...."]
How wonderful it would have been if Byakurai had kept noisily chattering away even at the moment I gave up.
While I quietly watched them over the past several years, time had seemed as solid and unmoving as a rock. Yet the moment I looked away, all I could see was a glass already plummeting toward the ground.
And at last, that glass met the white marble floor.
Shhhhhhh—
On the fated day, rain was falling over Karakura Town.
["So what are you planning to do? Is there anything you can actually do besides getting fucking furious?"]
"...I can’t stop [Auswählen]. But I can stop her from falling victim to the Hollow Grand Fisher immediately afterward. I’ll turn an eternal farewell into a temporary one."
A soul devoured by a Hollow cannot reach Soul Society. It becomes part of the Hollow instead.
That was why I would eliminate Grand Fisher ahead of time. Then someday, Ichigo would be able to reunite with his mother in Soul Society.
["Wow. So to you, Soul Society was just a place where people respawn after they die?"]
I had been trying to sound serious for once, only for her to ruin the entire mood from the sidelines.
"...Fine. I’ll finish this within two minutes."
In two minutes, Ichigo would be coming out of his karate dojo.
"I’m not going down against the likes of Grand Fisher."
["By the way, that woman... She looks incredibly strong. I can’t believe she could lose to a Hollow like that."]
Byakurai was right.
Ichigo’s mother, Masaki Kurosaki, was one of the last surviving pure-blood Quincies in the World of the Living, and she possessed immense power befitting that bloodline.
Her defensive ability in particular ranked among the finest of all Quincies. She had taken a direct attack from White, a Hollow with captain-class power, and escaped with only minor injuries.
Then why had a woman like her fallen to Grand Fisher, an ordinary Hollow that wasn’t even a Menos?
The reason was a cruel coincidence: [Auswählen], the power of Yhwach, king of the Quincy, activated at the exact moment Grand Fisher struck her.
White’s power had mingled with Masaki and reduced her from a pure-blood Quincy to a mixed-blood Quincy. [Auswählen], an effect bordering on a divine miracle, absorbed every trace of her power as a Quincy.
That was why I had thought this would work.
Even if Masaki Kurosaki lost her life under the effects of [Auswählen], as long as I prevented Grand Fisher from consuming her soul, she would someday be able to reunite with her family in Soul Society.
Because my thinking had been so complacent, one possibility had never occurred to me.
I had never once considered that Masaki Kurosaki’s death immediately after [Auswählen] was the very reason Ichigo, who had been beside her, survived unharmed.
**
The little boy walking steadfastly along the outer edge of the sidewalk beside his mother looked like an ordinary child one might see anywhere.
So did the way he nearly burst into tears, unable to understand what was happening when his mother suddenly collapsed.
When I hurried over, he grabbed the leg of my pants with hands already covered in dirt.
"D-Dad! Please call my dad. My dad’s... a doctor...!"
"Don’t worry. I know where your house is. Blink once, and we’ll already be there."
I wanted to make up some reassuring lie, but I couldn’t.
What could I possibly say to a child who would wake up to find his mother afflicted with an incurable condition?
I could simply take both of them to Kurosaki Clinic like this.
With that thought, I lifted Masaki onto my back and gathered Ichigo into my arms.
At that very moment, without the slightest warning, an unprecedented force began running rampant inside Masaki’s body.
BOOOOM—!!!
Caught completely defenseless by the surprise attack, neither the Kidō nor the swordsmanship I had trained over the years was of any use.
The only reason I avoided instant death and managed to protect Ichigo was that I had activated Bankai almost out of habit, causing my body to release more Reiatsu unconsciously.
Ichigo was blasted from my arms by the impact. Before I knew it, he lay unconscious far in the distance.
...I was neither Aizen nor Kisuke Urahara, much less a prophet.
There were three things I had overlooked.
The first was the "something" inside Masaki that Isshin had still needed to suppress even after White passed into Ichigo.
The second was that Yhwach, still an incomplete "Quincy," had not reclaimed that something which was his antithesis—the remnants of the Hollow.
And the last was the possibility that the Hollow remnants within Masaki, which had been held in check by her Quincy power, would lose their opposing force under the effects of [Auswählen], ravenously devour the vessel of power she possessed, and run wild.
Think.
What would the Hollow dregs do next?
What action would the remnants of a Hollow take after losing all reason and thought, with nothing but instinct remaining?
They would head toward the host’s flesh and blood—their own true body.
They would head toward Ichigo.
In a world where the falling rain had become points rather than lines, my thoughts came to a halt.
The only thing left in my mind was that I had to protect the protagonist of this world.
Schk—!
["Ryunosuke, you...!"]
My back was burning. It felt as though something below my throat was itching.
I knew instinctively what this was. The first sign of Hollowfication.
My soul would soon collapse.
No. I didn’t want this. I didn’t want to die yet.
Even after living for decades as a Soul Reaper, I was still filled with lingering attachments to life.
"You think this is enough to take me down?"
I raised my Reiatsu. Desperately, I fought to stop the sensation of something spreading outward from my back.
["It’s working...! Ryunosuke!"]
Perhaps because these were merely degraded remnants, the progression was absurdly slow.
At this rate, it might not be too late.
Think. Keep thinking.
Think of a way out of this situation.
Thump—
Through the sensation connected to my back, I felt someone’s pulse.
It was Masaki.
Perhaps because I had resisted so fiercely, the Hollow extending from Masaki was still connected to her physical body.
The Hollow’s host was still Masaki.
...Now.
If Masaki died now, just as she had in the original story, everything would proceed according to its proper course.
She was someone who had originally been meant to die. Someone who would die soon regardless.
By contrast, Ryunosuke Yuki possessed a body that had originally been meant to survive every misfortune that came his way.
Ichigo, unconscious, would remain ignorant of everything and save the world as fate intended. I could stay close to him and survive as well.
All it would take was a single swing.
I would survive. I could keep pursuing everything I wanted...
Crunch—
My Zanpakuto fell weakly—not upon Masaki, but upon the connection between her and the Hollow.
"What the hell... It’s not like I’m some fucking Hollow."
Rukia Kuchiki had once told me that if I was uncertain, I should act according to my heart.
But if I became a beast and acted on instinct, what would become of the heart Rukia had believed in?
Hhh—
A half-formed breath escaped my lips.
Like a lion brought down by a single parasite lodged in its heart, the Hollow that had entered me began driving my soul toward destruction, as if the strength I possessed as a Soul Reaper meant nothing at all.
["...Was it because the child was watching?"]
Perhaps because this was the end, even Byakurai’s voice no longer pierced my ears as it usually did.
"What child...? He’s unconscious and sprawled out over there."
["...."]
"This is just for me. I’m doing what my heart... tells me to do."
Unlike usual, Byakurai said nothing.
"Sorry. You must want to live too, but I went and decided everything on my own."
A Zanpakuto was a soul bound to its Soul Reaper. The Soul Reaper’s death usually meant the Zanpakuto’s death as well.
["Don’t say stupid shit. Moron. Idiot. Ryunosuke."]
I wanted to move somewhere else, but I couldn’t budge an inch.
Isshin needed to take Masaki and Ichigo and escape before it was too late...
["...I’ll take back the ‘Ryunosuke’ after ‘idiot.’"]
So my name really was an insult...
"I said... I’d finish this within two minutes."
Had I ended up being the one who went down instead?
I collapsed weakly to the ground.
Without realizing it, I lifted my head high, but there was no one within my sight.
And then I lost consciousness.
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