Elsewhere, guided by Ririn, Noba, and Kurōdo, Ichigo, Orihime, Chad, Hanatarō, and Ganju were carefully patrolling the streets of Karakura Town.
After being repeatedly attacked by the Bounts, they'd decided they could no longer afford to sit around and wait for the next ambush.
Instead, they would take the initiative, track down isolated Bounts, and eliminate them one by one.
Only then could they properly protect themselves.
"Ichigo."
Noba suddenly stopped walking.
"I can sense Bount spiritual pressure. It's very strong, and it's nearby."
The entire group immediately went on alert.
"How many?"
Ichigo's pulse accelerated as adrenaline surged through him.
Just remembering the previous attacks was enough to piss him off.
At this point, all he wanted was to find the bastards responsible and make them regret ever coming after his friends.
"I can sense two of them."
Noba closed his eyes and concentrated more carefully on the surrounding spiritual signatures.
"But… wait."
His expression shifted slightly.
"Something's strange. I can sense Ishida Uryū as well."
"What?"
Orihime tilted her head in confusion.
"Ishida-kun? Didn't he already go home? Why would he be here?"
She couldn't figure it out.
Had Uryū somehow sensed the Bounts too and come over to help them?
Knowing his personality, that seemed rather unlikely.
"Who cares?"
Ichigo immediately charged in the direction Noba had indicated.
"Let's go beat the hell out of those two Bounts!"
The others had little choice but to hurry after him.
Meanwhile, Koga had already sensed Ichigo's group rapidly approaching.
He immediately left the rooftop.
Uryū's words had struck him like a hammer and thrown his thoughts into complete confusion.
The rage and fighting spirit that had burned inside him earlier seemed to have been extinguished all at once, leaving him with no desire to keep fighting.
And to be perfectly clear, he was absolutely not retreating because he was worried about fighting Ichigo and the others.
Definitely not.
Koga had barely disappeared when Ichigo's group rushed onto the scene.
Then every single one of them stopped dead.
Uryū was lying in the arms of a tall female Bount.
More importantly, judging by the expression on his face, he didn't seem particularly eager to escape.
The sight was so bizarre that everyone briefly wondered whether they were hallucinating.
Smack!
A crisp slap abruptly shattered the silence.
Ichigo had turned around and slapped Hanatarō square across the face.
Then he rubbed his own palm thoughtfully.
Yep.
That felt completely real.
So he apparently wasn't hallucinating.
Poor Hanatarō stood there dazed, his cheek stinging as he stared at Ichigo with an utterly wounded expression.
What had he done?
Why the hell was he the one getting slapped?
...
"Ishida-kun… what exactly is going on here?"
It took Orihime quite a while to recover from the sight before her.
By then, her pretty face had already turned as red as a ripe apple, almost as though she were the one being held tightly in someone's arms.
"Hiss… It's nothing. I only suffered a minor injury."
The instant Uryū saw Ichigo and the others arrive, his expression stiffened.
A moment later, however, he'd already restored his usual aloof demeanor and even pushed his glasses up his nose with exaggerated composure.
His mouth insisted he was perfectly fine.
His body was considerably more honest.
Uryū immediately began struggling to free himself from Yoshino's warm embrace.
Unfortunately, his injuries made the effort difficult, and after several failed attempts, he accidentally pulled at the gruesome wound in his side.
Pain shot through him, forcing a sharp breath between his teeth.
"A-Are you all right?"
Seeing Uryū in pain, Yoshino immediately became anxious and instinctively hugged him even tighter.
Unfortunately, she failed to realize that squeezing him was putting even more pressure on the wound.
Blood began pouring out again.
It didn't take long for Yoshino to notice something was wrong. She hurriedly released him and carefully lowered Uryū onto the ground.
Orihime, who'd been watching anxiously, finally spotted the horrifying wound in his side.
"Sōten Kisshun! I reject!"
She immediately activated her healing ability.
A golden inverted triangle formed around Uryū's injury, and under its gentle light, the bleeding quickly stopped while the wound itself gradually began closing.
Uryū immediately reached down and carefully felt around his side.
His kidney seemed fine!
Only then did he release a long breath of relief.
"So…"
His eyes shifted awkwardly away from everyone.
"Why are all of you here?"
To keep the situation from becoming even more embarrassing, Uryū decided the best defense was a good offense.
If he started questioning them first, perhaps Ichigo and the others would stop focusing on him.
Unfortunately, Ichigo's intelligence chose this exact moment to start working.
"Shouldn't we be asking you that?"
Uryū froze.
Of all the times for this idiot to become sharp…
"We should probably head back before talking about this."
Uryū inwardly cursed his luck.
Ichigo was unusually quick today and had left him no room to bluff his way out.
Seeing the situation getting worse by the second, Uryū tried changing tactics and delaying the inevitable interrogation.
Then he turned toward Yoshino, who was still standing nearby looking somewhat lost.
"What about you? What are you going to do now?"
"I…"
Yoshino bit her lip.
"There's something extremely important I still need to do."
Her expression softened as she looked at him.
"Quincy boy, remember to value your life. Don't do something this reckless again."
Then, before Uryū could react, Yoshino opened her arms and pulled him into another heartfelt embrace.
She gently kissed his forehead.
And just like that, she turned around and left.
Uryū stood there completely frozen.
For a painfully inexperienced teenager who'd barely experienced any physical intimacy with women outside his own mother, getting hugged repeatedly by an attractive older woman was already overwhelming enough.
Adding a kiss to the forehead nearly caused his brain to shut down.
His face turned bright red as steam practically seemed ready to rise from his head.
"Wooooow…"
Ichigo and the others stared in amazement.
What kind of ridiculous luck had Uryū stumbled into?
A beautiful older woman was hugging and kissing him like that?
Ganju in particular looked ready for his eyes to pop out of their sockets.
None of them attempted to stop Yoshino from leaving.
Judging from what they'd witnessed, Uryū's injuries had most likely been sustained while protecting her.
If he'd nearly gotten himself killed saving the woman, then she clearly wasn't their enemy.
The moment Yoshino disappeared, however—
"All right."
Ichigo cracked his knuckles.
"Start talking."
Uryū immediately found himself surrounded.
Ichigo, Orihime, Chad, Ganju, and Hanatarō formed a tight circle around him, leaving absolutely no opening through which he could escape.
They knew him too well.
If they let Uryū leave the rooftop first, he'd almost certainly disappear the instant nobody was looking.
Trapped in the middle, Uryū glanced left and right, desperately searching for an opening.
There was none.
Their defense was airtight.
Realizing escape was impossible, Uryū drew a deep breath and reluctantly began explaining everything that had happened.
As the story unfolded, the expressions on Ichigo and the others gradually changed.
Their original tension and curiosity slowly transformed into something much more entertaining.
"Oooooh…"
When Uryū finally finished, everyone wore the same expression of sudden understanding.
Unfortunately, the looks on their faces were far too suggestive for Uryū's liking.
"You guys…"
Uryū panicked.
Yes.
He was absolutely panicking!
...
Soul Society — Eleventh Division
Several members of the Eleventh Division had gathered inside the captain's office to discuss a recent report from the World of the Living.
"Hey, hey! I heard they found Ichinose Maki's reiatsu in the Human World. Is that true?"
Yachiru clung to Zaraki Kenpachi's back with an excited expression.
"Uh… yes."
Aramaki Makizō looked at his lieutenant strangely.
"We definitely detected Ichinose Maki's spiritual pressure in Karakura Town."
He had no idea why Yachiru looked so delighted.
Strictly speaking, Ichinose was probably considered a traitor to Soul Society by this point.
"Hmph."
Madarame Ikkaku folded his arms, his face filled with contempt.
"I thought that bastard had died a long time ago. Turns out he's been living perfectly well in the Human World."
Ichinose Maki had once been an intensely loyal follower of Kenpachi Kiganjō.
When Kiganjō was defeated and killed by Zaraki Kenpachi, Ichinose had been unable to accept the death of the captain he revered and submitted his resignation to the new Kenpachi.
There was nothing particularly shocking about that part.
The Eleventh Division had always followed an unwritten tradition: whoever defeated and killed the current captain could claim the position for themselves.
Its captains had a rather unfortunate habit of dying beneath the blade of whoever replaced them.
If Ichinose had been too emotionally fragile to accept that brutal reality, he could simply have requested a transfer to another division.
Or retired from active duty.
Instead, he'd done something nobody expected.
He vanished from Soul Society without warning.
For a Shinigami, that was a serious violation of regulations.
When a Shinigami disappeared without authorization, Soul Society generally had only two ways of classifying them.
Either they were presumed dead—Or they'd deserted and become a fugitive.
Had Ichinose never surfaced again, Soul Society might have been willing to turn a blind eye and simply assume he'd died somewhere.
But now his reiatsu had been detected in the Human World.
And he still hadn't contacted Soul Society.
That changed everything.
There was only one possible classification left.
Deserter.
"Baldy, don't say that!"
Yachiru protested immediately.
"Maki is still one of ours! Whatever happens to him should be handled by the Eleventh Division, right, Kenny?"
As far as Yachiru was concerned, there was a very simple technicality everyone was overlooking.
Zaraki Kenpachi had never approved Ichinose's resignation.
So officially speaking…
Ichinose Maki was still a member of the Eleventh Division.