Chapter 16: Prologue

Clatter-clatter—

The gears turned. Though they looked as if they had been piled together at random, they were arranged with such precision that the smallest crack seemed capable of bringing the entire mechanism to a halt.

Then, in a space where the only sound should have been the deafening roar of metal, a dreadful voice rang out.

["No... I can’t... I don’t want to die? Puhaha! What a loser."]

My Bankai hadn’t deactivated even though I’d lost consciousness?

Besides, hadn’t she spoken as though she acknowledged me a little earlier?

"...There are two things I want to ask you."

["I don’t know why you’re still alive either. I’ve been here the whooole time since you passed out."]

I had a rough idea of why I was alive.

Had Urahara been in Karakura Town after all...?

I’d whined so dramatically without even realizing it. At this point, I had no defense against Byakurai calling me pathetic.

"Then what’s with that appearance?"

What was I supposed to say to a Zanpakuto that had grown horns while I was unconscious?

Two hard, drill-like horns now protruded from where her ears should have been.

["It just happened. Cool, right?"]

"No, seriously. Explain it properly."

She normally rambled on about nothing, yet when I actually needed an explanation, she kept it absurdly short.

["Don’t make me remember something so disgusting, idiot. Do you have any idea how gross it was watching that white thing squirm around everywhere?"]

Byakurai shuddered as though she had seen a cockroach.

She then continued, wiping her gloves against my clothes with a scrape, scrape.

["It crawled around all over the place, and then it suddenly went still. So I figured that was my chance and threw it into the gears back there. It got ground right up, like it was in a blender. Then these horns grew."]

Come to think of it, when a Soul Reaper fused with a Hollow, a Hollow existed within their inner world alongside their Zanpakuto. Yet there was no sign of one anywhere.

Even after achieving Hollowfication and successfully controlling it, the Hollow would still remain in the inner world.

In that case...

"Is this... the Hollowfication of my Bankai?!"

["...You didn’t just sneak an insult in there, did you?"]

Later, during the Thousand-Year Blood War arc, a technique would appear that Hollowfied only a Soul Reaper’s Bankai rather than the Soul Reaper themselves.

Perhaps I had failed to achieve true Hollowfication and instead arrived at this incomplete Hollowfication of my Bankai because I’d fused not with White itself, but with its degraded remains.

"Did you gain any new powers?"

["Yep. They’re cool, sturdy, and hurt when they stab you."]

Stab—

She was right.

Even in the original story, Hollowfying a Bankai did not grant it any particular new abilities.

"Well, whatever. Even if you didn’t gain another ability, this alone will be useful someday."

So stop stabbing me.

I pushed Byakurai’s head away and continued.

"Anyway, I think it’s about time I got out of here...."

I looked at Byakurai, wondering whether she could help.

["...Wait until you wake up naturally. That’s the safest way."]

It seemed I would be stuck enduring this Zanpakuto until then.

["I don’t like you either, you know?!"]

Still, it wouldn’t be obvious when I used Bankai, would it?

**

An unfamiliar ceiling.

When I slowly opened my eyes, I saw Kisuke Urahara and Isshin Kurosaki, just as expected.

Was this the Urahara Shop? No, it was the Kurosaki Clinic.

"You’re awake."

"...Captain Isshin... I see."

When Isshin saw that I had regained consciousness, he dropped to his knees on the spot.

"Thank you. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for saving my wife and son."

I did not ask who he meant by his wife and son.

Both of us knew that we had been watching each other from afar for the past several years.

"...It was nothing. I only... did what a Soul Reaper should do."

I couldn’t accept such profound gratitude from Isshin. Ichigo had never been destined to die, and all I had done was extend Masaki’s life by a few months.

"That isn’t true, Ryunosuke. I have not seen many Soul Reapers willing to save a human even at the cost of their own life."

"And you are...?"

"I’m merely an ordinary shopkeeper who runs a candy store. I just happen to know a little about Soul Reapers."

Perhaps he was wary of me, or perhaps it was because the name Kisuke Urahara belonged to a notorious criminal in Soul Society.

Either way, he did not introduce himself.

"The Hollow you fought and absorbed was a monster that had been inside Masaki, eating away at her soul. If not for you, not only Masaki but Ichigo would have been in danger as well."

"...I confirmed that something had been drained from her soul, leaving it hollow. You don’t need to console me like that."

A Quincy whose power had been absorbed by [Auswählen] would collapse from within, like a skyscraper whose steel framework had vanished.

"...! You managed to discern that much in such a short time? Even so, there is no need to blame yourself. She will not die."

"...What...?"

"Though in this case, that Hollow ended up helping her instead."

After Masaki Kurosaki’s power as a Quincy had been drained away, only the vessel that once contained it remained. The Hollow remnants devoured that vessel to amplify their own power, and in doing so, they allowed Masaki’s soul to regain its stability.

That was almost like...

"A miracle from God...."

"Yes. Heaven itself truly intervened. But you were the one who made that miracle possible, Ryunosuke."

I see...

I had charged in without a proper plan and been taken out pathetically, but could I still believe that I had changed something?

With my heart somewhat at peace, I began succumbing to sleep as I recalled the orange-haired boy who had cried beside Masaki.

Just as a hazy fog began clouding my mind, I faintly heard them speaking.

"Well, since you found a way, you should be able to save Ryuken’s wife too, right?"

"Yes. This time, perhaps we’ll finally see that perpetually stiff expression of his soften."

At that moment, something sliced through my bleached-white thoughts like a blade.

Then what would happen to Still Silver?

After losing his wife and becoming consumed by vengeance, Ryuken Ishida would create the arrowhead meant to pierce Yhwach—

"Whoa! What’s with this guy? Why did his eyes suddenly snap open?"

Why had I opened my eyes?

Right. I had meant to tell Kisuke Urahara...

Clunk—

"No... Captain Kaien asked me to pass on a message. He said he’d beat you black and blue if he ever saw you."

"Gah. Guess I can never return to Soul Society, even if it kills me."

No. I must not tell Kisuke Urahara anything.

There was still time. Once Aizen was dealt with, Urahara would believe anything I told him.

Clunk—

Listening to the sound of gears turning, I drifted back to sleep.

**

Time passed, and as a certain boy was about to enter high school, a meeting of Soul Reapers continued in one corner of Soul Society.

It was being held in the mansion of a great noble clan within Seireitei, the heart of Soul Society.

Tucked away in one corner of that mansion was the Shinigami Women’s Association’s secret hideout, whose existence was unknown even to the owner of the house.

"Then, as president of the Shinigami Women’s Association, I hereby call this meeting concerning our special priority agenda to order."

"Oh, right! We were going to raise goldfish in Byakuya’s pond, weren’t we?"

"Yachiru, why don’t you keep eating these snacks?"

Retsu Unohana placed a rice cracker in Yachiru Kusajishi’s mouth, then began writing across a large sheet of paper in elegant script.

[Regarding the Lack of Progress Between Isane and Ryunosuke Yuki Due to Ryunosuke Yuki Being Dispatched to the World of the Living and Failing to Return for Several Years Just as Their Relationship Appeared to Be Advancing]

"Um... No matter how you look at it, putting my love life on display like this is so embarrassing I could die...."

"Just be quiet!"

At some point, Kiyone had begun speaking far more firmly to her older sister.

"Although I am a captain, that only makes it even less appropriate for me to interfere in another captain’s personnel decisions."

"Let’s just eat popcorn, Momo. As lieutenants of other divisions, there’s nothing we can do."

Matsumoto stuffed popcorn into Momo’s mouth just as she seemed ready to begin a sentence with Aizen’s name.

"That is precisely where I, Kiyone Kotetsu, come in."

Karakura Town might be a spiritual nexus and therefore a dangerous area, but keeping a lieutenant stationed there indefinitely was excessive.

Thus, Kiyone, as a member of the Thirteenth Division, would recommend a lower-ranking subordinate for the post and have Ryunosuke recalled to Soul Society.

And the person chosen was—

"I will go to the World of the Living and replace Ryunosuke."

Rukia Kuchiki.

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