Chapter 34: With So Many Special Abilities, Who Exactly Is the Hollow?
Matsukura Hospital was an abandoned complex, infamous in Karakura Town as a haunted spot.
Because of that, almost no unrelated people came near it at this hour.
Which meant Orihime Inoue could fight without holding back.
"Solitary Heaven, Severing Shield!"
According to Rukia, as a Substitute Shinigami she did not possess especially strong spiritual power, and at first she had not even been able to see spirits.
Yet the moment she became a Shinigami, she instinctively knew the name of her sword and awakened the power of Shikai.
The tip of her blade traced an arc through the air, leaving behind a glowing trajectory the same color as Orihime's hair.
As the incantation left her lips, that glowing path shot forward like a slash.
No defense mattered.
Anything it touched was severed directly from the spatial dimension.
The Hollow that tried to block it would have been a formidable enemy for most Shinigami, but before Orihime it was completely helpless.
Her strike erased it as easily as cutting a sheet of paper.
"Watch out behind you!"
However, that overwhelming power was not enough to make up for her poor battle awareness.
Orihime failed to notice the Hollow crouched at the window, a Medusa like head bristling with snakes, silently lining up a shot.
Bullet like seeds fired from its writhing hair.
At the critical moment, Rukia dashed in front of Orihime and took the hit for her.
The impact hurled her into the wall.
"Miss Kuchiki!"
"Do not come any closer!"
Orihime's expression changed and she started to rush over, but Rukia herself barked a warning and stopped her.
Her condition was clearly abnormal.
The bruises and dust were secondary. The real problem was the way the veins stood out along her neck, arms, and legs. It was not hard to imagine that the same thing was happening beneath the cloth over her torso.
"Hehehe… It is a pity I did not land that on my main target, but it does not really matter. In fact, this might be more interesting."
The scheming Hollow was so large it could not fit inside the hospital corridor. It clung to the outer wall like an enormous octopus, its eyes glittering maliciously as it stared in at Orihime and Rukia.
"Mmm, wonderful. I adore tormenting resilient, beautiful girls like you."
"I can already see it. One of you, under the control of my seeds, will beg the other through tears to harden her heart and kill her. The other, grief stricken and unable to do it, will keep getting wounded, over and over, until she is torn apart and dies in front of that desperate gaze."
"How is that for a little mutual slaughter drama?"
The Hollow, whose voice and mannerisms all hinted at a female personality, laughed in satisfied delight.
The next second, her triumphant grin froze.
To her astonishment, Orihime swung her Zanpakuto without a moment's hesitation. The orange yellow slash reappeared, racing straight toward Rukia.
The Hollow knew very well how powerful that attack was. That was exactly why she had chosen to ambush them instead of fighting head on.
She had not expected the girl she feared so much to be this ruthless, cutting down her own companion after hearing just a few taunts.
But the slash did not cleave Rukia in half as she had imagined.
Instead, the orange yellow light wrapped around Rukia's body like a thin membrane.
"Twin Heaven, Returning Shield!"
Orihime's incantation landed after the strike, further reinforcing the technique.
Rukia's injuries reversed at a speed visible to the naked eye. Her torn clothes, all the dust and scuffs on her body, even the bulging veins began to fade, as if time itself was rewinding around her.
"What?!"
The Hollow was so shocked she nearly slipped off the outer wall.
A slash that could do that?
And this recovery speed was absurd.
"So it is an ability that uses those seeds to control someone's body. Good thing I stepped out to block it for Inoue. Otherwise, that could have been troublesome. After all, they say a doctor cannot heal herself." Rukia brushed off her clothes, finally able to act smug again. "Still, I should thank you. You did give me a very good idea for a new tactic though it was a bit painful."
"How dare you hurt Miss Kuchiki. I will never forgive you!" Orihime declared.
"Die!"
Just as she was about to attack again, the panicked Hollow fired every last seed at Orihime in a frenzy.
This time, Orihime was ready. She raised her Zanpakuto and swung.
A triangular, orange yellow barrier unfolded directly in front of her, catching all the incoming projectiles.
"Santen Kesshun. I reject!"
Every seed was intercepted.
The Hollow was terrified and furious.
Why are there so many weird techniques!
Attack, healing, and defense, all from the same Shinigami.
"Damn it, you pretty women should all just die!"
The female Hollow roared, her voice full of envy, jealousy, and hatred.
Yet despite what she said, she had no intention of continuing the fight.
"Do not run!"
Rukia immediately sensed her intent and lifted her hand, ready to use Bakudo to hold her in place.
At that moment, she noticed something odd drifting through the air and froze.
"Eh? What is… that?"
They were about the size of thumbs, like tiny crystalline insects or birds, or maybe even paper airplanes. They fluttered with strangely elegant flight patterns and looked unexpectedly cute.
"So cute."
Their delicate, never before seen appearance caught Orihime's attention as well.
The Hollow, seeing the floating objects, hesitated for a second and began to feel uneasy.
Then the world turned white.
Boom.
Flames roared through the corridor. An entire floor of the hospital was obliterated in the blast.
"Waaahhh!"
"Ugh!"
Orihime had not yet dispelled Santen Kesshun, so the barrier absorbed the brunt of the explosion. Even so, the shockwave filled the corridor and blew both her and Rukia out of the building, slamming them into the concrete outside.
"What was that thing… It was not cute at all!"
Rukia's face darkened, soot staining her features until she looked completely blackened.
She looked up just in time to see the Hollow, half her body blown away, fleeing in a panic.
Even her ultra-fast regeneration did nothing for her. With half her head gone and her mask shattered, she could only scream wordlessly as she disintegrated into dust.
The cruel irony was that she did not even know who she should have begged for mercy.
"…"
Rukia was speechless.
"Miss Kuchiki… look!"
Orihime, also covered in dust, suddenly cried out, cutting off her thoughts.
Rukia followed her gaze upward.
The sky was burning red.
Roars and raging winds followed a heartbeat later, like a continuation of the previous explosion, except on an entirely different scale.
"Is this also… the work of Soul Society's reinforcements? Which Captain did they send to the World of the Living? Even with this many Hollows, there is no need to use such insane tactics."
Rukia was stunned.
She had lost her Shinigami powers, and her senses were very weak now, unable to accurately pick out the spiritual pressure involved. Even so, she could vividly imagine the faces of the "personnel" the Soul Society would send afterward, scrambling to rewrite the memories of Karakura Town's residents and cover up the incident.
…
"Whew, they finally stopped increasing."
At Kurosaki Hospital, Ichigo had been playing the role of guardian for nearly an hour. He had long since lost count of how many Hollows he had purified, but their frequency was finally decreasing.
The number of Hollow presences he could sense had dropped sharply as well. Many of the ones that had appeared earlier were clearly fleeing from other areas, as if running from something much more terrifying.
"That guy… always going on about tactics, but once he starts actually fighting he is the most reckless, overkill maniac of all. And he still has the nerve to say my fighting lacks creativity."
He did not even have to think about who was responsible for the mess in the sky.
Grumbling, Ichigo dismissed his black bow and walked back into the hospital.
"Hey, how long are you going to pretend to be asleep?"
He looked coldly at his father sprawled dramatically on the floor and stomped toward the back of Isshin's head without mercy.
"Useless."
Isshin rolled away, dodging the stomp, and sprang to his feet. He struck a pose with one hand, his stubbled face split in a confident grin.
"You should know, I am the only one who ambushes you."
"…Your idiotic habit of bragging about nonsense really has not changed at all, you damn old man."
Ichigo's eyelid twitched as he smiled in a way that was anything but friendly.
"You have some nerve. You have been dead for years and you have not grown even a little. At least smear some blood on your face. You would look more like a man that way. Yes, just like me."
"My injuries were healed a long time ago. This blood is purely for effect, what is there to brag about? And did you not see how I stepped up to protect everyone in the end? Also, you have not been dead for years, only a few months. A few months. Did your brains get scrambled when you died?"
"Hmph. If you had not come back, then I would have sacrificed myself at Karin and Yuzu's most terrified moment, and then pulled off a spectacular resurrection, making an amazing entrance. That way they would see just how incredible their father really is. They would be moved to tears and hurl themselves into my loving fatherly arms. But you, you obnoxious brat, had to come back right at this timing and ruin my love love parent child master plan. I will settle that score at your grave next year."
"Ha? Why wait until next year? How about we settle it right now?"
Veins bulged on Ichigo's forehead as he marched up to Isshin, fist clenched.
Neither of them backed down.
The air between them sizzled, ready to explode.
"Heh…"
Isshin suddenly chuckled.
"What are you laughing at?"
"No, it is nothing. It is just, looking at you, I cannot help remembering how you died."
"…At this point, I am not going to fall for that kind of low level provocation."
"That is good. It means you are doing well over there, not dwelling on your life here too much. As your old man, I am relieved."
"Dropping serious lines all of a sudden is gross."
Ichigo turned his head away, unable to meet Isshin's eyes. He pretended to be disdainful and let his gaze wander over the familiar room instead, his feelings growing complicated.
"Now that I look, nothing much has changed since I left."
"There have been changes," Isshin replied, walking over to the sofa. He sat down, pulled out a lighter and a cigarette, and lit it. "They just have nothing to do with you anymore."
"What are you talking about?"
Ichigo scowled.
"As long as Karin and Yuzu are in danger, I will come back. That is my duty as their older brother. Even if I am dead, my soul will protect them."
"Hey, did you forget there is another person in this house?"
"You? You are old enough that it does not matter. That said, if you die there will be no one to look after Karin and Yuzu, so I guess I can include you for now. Happy?"
"Tsk, my idiot son has gotten pretty smooth with his words."
"Can't be helped. That is the environment I am in."
"Is that so."
Isshin took a long drag of his cigarette, as if something had occurred to him, then fell silent.
Ichigo, a little impatient, said, "Seeing your dead son walk back in, you really do not have anything you want to ask?"
"None at all. In this family, seeing souls is nothing to get worked up over. As for what you have grown into under my excellent parenting, that is also not surprising."
Isshin shrugged.
"Tsk, so you really were lying about not seeing ghosts."
"No, that part was true. I only started seeing them after you died. Maybe handling your body after your death rubbed some of your bad luck off on me."
"Ridiculous."
Ichigo did not buy it, narrowing his eyes.
"Because I could see souls since I was a kid, I thought it was normal. After going to the other side, I finally realized just how abnormal that is and how abnormal our whole family is."
"Me, Karin, Yuzu, all of us can see spiritual beings. So how could you and Mom, as our parents, have absolutely no spiritual medium qualities?"
"Now that you have realized that, what exactly do you want to do about it?"
Isshin exhaled a plume of smoke, looking at him through the haze. Ichigo rarely saw him smoke, and for a moment he felt a flicker of unfamiliarity. He pushed it aside and answered honestly.
"Nothing."
"Huh?"
"I am not planning to interrogate you or anything. It just makes me feel better to have it confirmed."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"It means I finally understand something. Even though I died, my connection to you has not been cut. I can still feel you supporting me. So what you said earlier, that it has nothing to do with me anymore, does not count."
Ichigo grinned, satisfied.
Isshin blinked, then scratched his hair.
"You got me. I did not mean it that way. I was trying to tell you not to worry about things at home and to focus on taking care of yourself. After all, I cannot help you at all right now, just like when you died."
"…Yeah."
Ichigo suddenly realized he was not the only one who felt guilty toward his family.
"Anyway, you do not need to spell it out. I get it. My life over there is full. I have friends and teachers, and I will meet even more people. I am so busy that I might not be able to visit very often."
"If you really do have spiritual power, next time I will put together some materials. You can see if you can learn anything. That way you can protect Karin and Yuzu and hold out until I show up to save the day."
Isshin raised an eyebrow. "I did not expect you to think that far ahead. Forget it, though. I am much stronger than you think. I am not kidding."
"Who was the one lying on the floor unable to move just now?"
"…Knowing powerful people is also a kind of power. That is called connections. Have you heard of that?"
Ichigo watched his father sputter in anger and embarrassment and could not help doubting him, but he did not think Isshin would brag about something as serious as their family's safety.
"As long as you know what you are doing. If you mess up, you can expect your soul to get a thorough beating from me when you die. My fists are a lot harder now."
"Damn it, what is so great about that other world that it made you this cocky?"
"Speaking of cocky, you are doing pretty well yourself. Well, that puts me at ease. I am going. Figure out how to deal with Karin and Yuzu. I do not dare say goodbye to them. That would just be a disaster."
Isshin watched his son's seemingly casual back, his gaze lingering for a moment on the black bow in Ichigo's hand.
He did not look away until Ichigo vanished from sight. Then he turned his attention to the large poster on the living room wall and let out a smoke ring, half muttering, half showing off to the beautiful woman in the picture.
"Did you see that, Masaki? That brat is actually ordering his old man around. Is that what they mean when they say the dead are above reproach? Still, seeing him that cocky puts me at ease."
"After all, Soul Society is not a gentle place. If he gets bullied, comes home crying and clings to his daddy, I will have no choice but to recycle that perfect spectacular resurrection and grand entrance plan I did not get to use and apply it to him instead."
"Just thinking about it gives me a headache. I hope I do not get dragged into the beating with him. Anyway, I should go comfort my adorable daughters on that brat's behalf first. Karin, Yuzu, Daddy has returned from the land of the dead."
"Ah. Bloody Daddy turned into a ghost and came to haunt us."
"Evil spirit, begone!"
"Wait, my injuries are already… Ah!"
Soon afterward, Kurosaki Hospital was noisy again.
As if everything had returned to the way it used to be.
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