Tōkyōdō, Uesugi Street—Genta's corner shop.
It was the height of blazing summer. Since the shop owner had once been a craftsman and made some homemade sweet shaved-ice bars in all sorts of different shapes, a huge crowd of kids from the neighborhood gathered here every day.
"What's this?"
Today was no different—kids packed around the shopfront. Among them, a very unfamiliar child pointed at one popsicle and asked.
"This one?
This is the terrifying Yamata no Orochi~"
As he explained, the owner raised both hands and made a grabbing motion, trying to tease the boy—who looked a bit too serious for his age—into laughing.
But the owner clearly failed. This boy was a little special; he seemed to be genuinely frightened by the words and the gesture.
"Yamata no Orochi… will it bite people?"
The boy instinctively took half a step back, but quickly realized something. He immediately corrected himself, drew a deep breath as if to bolster his courage, and stepped forward again—just a tiny bit.
"Huh? This… of course it won't. It's for eating!"
The owner's first thought was that the kid might be a little slow—but seeing how clean and well-kept the boy's clothes were, it didn't quite seem that way.
"Eating? You mean… Yamata no Orochi can be eaten?"
The boy exclaimed, then realized it did make sense—weren't the other kids buying them to eat?
But could monsters that looked this strange really taste that good?
"What else would it be, kid? If you want to buy it to eat, then just buy it already!"
The owner decided the boy was messing with him. Still, he had a good temper and knew his main customers were children, so he couldn't blow up on the spot.
"Then give me one of each—mm… no, I'll start with one Yamata no Orochi!"
The boy had originally wanted to buy every different shape he saw so he could take them home and let his parents try too. But then he felt he shouldn't be that reckless—shouldn't he taste one himself first?
A moment later, the boy found a shaded spot beneath a big tree. There weren't any seats, but squatting to eat didn't bother him at all.
"So Yamata no Orochi is this delicious?!
No wonder those kids love it so much!
It really is amazing!"
The Yamata no Orochi-shaped popsicle was icy and sweet, hitting the boy right in the heart. In no time at all, he'd eaten it down to a bare wooden stick.
Without hesitation, he sprinted right back to "Genta's corner shop."
Three more—one called "Snow Woman," one called "Shuten Dōji," and another "Yamata no Orochi," because that one was for him!
The other two were for his parents!
He absolutely had to let them taste these special "monsters," too!
The flavor was incredible!
But the moment the boy turned the corner, a man collided with him at the worst possible timing.
The boy felt as if he'd slammed into a mountain, and he bounced back hard.
But that wasn't the most important part.
The most important part was that the three edible monsters in his hands all went flying!
When the boy yelped and sprang up from the ground to check, all he could see were three "monsters" that had become unrecognizable—three "corpses."
"No… they're dead… the monsters are all dead…"
The boy sat down on the spot, staring at the three "bodies" on the ground, mumbling in a crestfallen voice.
"Hey… I'm really sorry, little guy. That was my mistake. My fault. I'll pay you back double, okay?"
The man who'd crashed into him walked over, crouched beside him, and apologized sincerely.
"No, it's fine. It's not your fault, nii-san—it's because I was too happy and didn't pay attention. You don't need to compensate me!"
The boy refused the offer.
Because in the boy's eyes, with his skills, he shouldn't have collided with this man under normal circumstances. The only reason it happened was his own carelessness.
So he was the one who should bear full responsibility—if anything, he should be the one apologizing.
But the man was stubborn too and insisted it was his fault. In the end, he brought the boy back to the shop and bought four popsicles again.
As for why not double… it was because the boy's small hands simply couldn't hold that many. Four was already the limit.
"Even though I don't know how you managed to misunderstand this stuff, you need to remember it from now on, kid—this is called ice cream, not monsters. Those are just special shapes the shopkeepers make to attract kids like you~
Oh, right. We've talked so much, and I still haven't introduced myself. My name is Higashino Shuuichi. I'm a reporter right now. If there's anything in Tōkyōdō you don't understand, you can come ask me anytime~
I'm staying over at Shiraishi Beach. There are only two houses there right now—the one closer to the shore is where I live~"
The man bent slightly and patted the boy's head lightly with his right hand.
"Okay, I got it, Higashino Shuuichi-nii-san! If I still have anything I don't understand, I'll definitely come find you again!
Also, my name is Ishida Sōken. I just came here with my parents from outside, like, just now!"
The boy nodded earnestly as he answered.
"Ishida… Sōken?"
When Higashino Shuuichi heard the name, his expression stiffened for a split second.
Fine. He admitted it—when he'd followed his sudden impulse to come and "create" this wonderful encounter, he genuinely hadn't recognized that this was the future Ishida Sōken.
After all, in Higashino Shuuichi's memory, he'd only ever seen Ishida Sōken's appearance in old age.
As for the Ishida Sōken in front of him—about ten years old—there was simply no image at all.
The only reason Higashino Shuuichi had come over was because, when passing nearby, he'd noticed something: the Quincy power inside this boy was not inferior to that of the Kurosaki couple he'd once met.
And the Kurosaki couple, back then, were already past their personal peaks due to age—and the overall strength of Quincy in the Human World was very weak at this time.
Even so, as two seasoned adult Quincy, and as a pureblood Quincy family like the Kurosaki, if you only talked about strength, they absolutely ranked among the surviving Quincy in the Human World.
Yet now a small boy had Quincy power that didn't lose to them.
That was absurd.
If it weren't for that, a mere boy with Quincy power wouldn't have been enough to make Higashino Shuuichi take notice.
But now that the boy had stated his family name—now that he was Ishida Sōken—everything made sense.
In the original story, Ishida Sōken couldn't exactly be called a top-tier Quincy, but that depended on who you compared him to. If you set aside his son and grandson—those two walking cheats—then Ishida Sōken was absolutely one of the most notable figures in the history of Human World Quincy.
And since the Ishida family, like the Kurosaki, was a standard pureblood Quincy family, it was entirely reasonable that at around ten years old, Ishida Sōken already possessed Quincy power stronger than most other Quincy in the Human World at this point.
But precisely because of that, a problem that Higashino Shuuichi could previously choose to ignore… now became impossible to ignore.
Why did Ishida Sōken act like an idiot when it came to so many "new" things in the Human World?
The feeling Higashino Shuuichi got was like—
"He's never seen them before?"
In that instant, Higashino Shuuichi finally named the strong sense of wrongness in his heart.
This was absolutely not normal!
Because Ishida Sōken had just said it himself—he and his parents had only just come back from outside.
In the Human World right now, outside this island nation… what could it even be?
No matter where it was, Ishida Sōken shouldn't be unaware of something like ice cream.
Because ice cream had existed in the Human World for well over a hundred years. Not just here—even in London within the West Administration's borders, and in other inhabited places, once summer arrived, this should be common knowledge.
Unless…
Higashino Shuuichi considered another possibility: that Ishida Sōken actually came from a far older place—some ancient and traditional region where they couldn't keep up with the era's trends, and so ice cream had never existed there at all.
"Then—thank you, Shuuichi-nii-san! See you next time!"
While Higashino Shuuichi was thinking, Ishida Sōken had already waved goodbye and ran off into the distance again.
This time, Ishida Sōken heightened his awareness, weaving swiftly through the crowd without bumping into a single passerby.
"If his parents knew Sōken was using Hirenkyaku (Flying Scythe Feet) just to dodge pedestrians, they'd probably be stomping mad enough to crack the ground, huh?"
Higashino Shuuichi stood where he was, watching Sōken show off as he gradually disappeared from view, and a sudden funny thought surfaced.
Too bad he didn't have the convenient smartphone from his past life—otherwise he would've filmed this scene and saved it for the future, to show Ishida Sōken's son, Ishida Ryūken, and his grandson, Ishida Uryū.
What's "black history"?
This was it.
From Higashino Shuuichi's perspective, the best move right now would've been to quietly follow Ishida Sōken, find out where he and his parents were staying, then figure out a way to make contact with Sōken's parents.
To see if he could obtain any evidence that would support the guess forming in his mind.
But that would be too troublesome.
And honestly, between Shinigami and Quincy—at least at this point in time—their conflict was still irreconcilable.
After all, the Shinigami's great massacre of the Quincy in the Human World was still fresh in living memory.
Even though, in that purge over a hundred years ago—Soul Society's Shinigami had deliberately spared a group of Quincy who remained sufficiently neutral—
In reality, most of those who survived by luck would still, in the future, become lifelong enemies of the Shinigami because of that slaughter.
Even if Higashino Shuuichi knew the future Ishida Sōken was a "clear-headed" man who actively pushed for peaceful coexistence between Shinigami and Quincy… that didn't mean Sōken's parents were the same.
If his parents were the common kind of Quincy of this era, then the moment Higashino Shuuichi showed up at their door and revealed his true intent, he would definitely never get any useful information from them—worse, it wouldn't even be surprising if they used deception.
So after only a brief thought, Higashino Shuuichi used a method of contact he hadn't used in a very long time.
"Lend me a few unruly Menos to use~"
"With the relationship we have now, you're sure?"
"It's a small matter.
I'll agree to one small matter for you in the future, unconditionally."
"How small?"
"Equivalent value."
"Heh—sounds like you're determined to get it, Shuuichi~"
"To satisfy my curiosity, I think it's worth it. Aren't you the same, Aizen-sama?"
"Yes. But it sounds like your curiosity is rather cheap."
"Expensive curiosity gets you killed. For now, I can't afford that price."
"Just because you don't want to. What I want—you can absolutely afford it."
Their conversation ended quickly—as always.
Even though the nature of the relationship between Higashino Shuuichi and Aizen Sōsuke had fundamentally changed compared to before, neither Higashino Shuuichi nor Aizen Sōsuke seemed to take it to heart. This change felt less like a shock and more like something that had naturally come to be.
Both of them had long known this day would arrive.
At the same time, within the harbor of Tōkyōdō, a fully loaded cargo ship docked.
Dockworkers bustled about unloading freight, and no one noticed a tall shadow slipping through the cargo in a blink.
"What a nostalgic… familiar scent~"
Not long after, atop the sharp peak of a high-roofed church built specifically for Western believers near the docks, that tall figure stood with arms crossed, proud and commanding.
With eyes that looked down upon the busy crowd below, the figure let a playful smile curl at the corner of his mouth, then slowly extended his left hand forward.
"I came this time to save you, you stupid donkey… but doing it this plainly is just too boring. Since I'm here, I might as well make a dazzling entrance!"
As the words fell, a ripple spread outward with a snap from his fingertips.
The humans of Tōkyōdō noticed nothing at all—but Kisaragi Shūsuke, Yushima Ōko, and the others, who were living something like a vacation life here in Tōkyōdō, all felt it at the exact same moment—
An abnormally powerful reiatsu, brimming with provocation!
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