Ichigo leaves and takes up residence in Soul Society!

Rindou approached silently, sword in hand. His spiritual pressure shook the atmosphere, making him appear exceptionally tall. Coupled with his expressionless face, he resembled a human form of a Gillian born from devouring tens of thousands of souls.

"Hey! Don't forget me, okay?"

Ichigo slung his sword over his shoulder, clearly annoyed.

"I didn't miss you, but..."

The Four Palaces Lord glanced at him.

“So many Hollows, though they look different, all target high-concentration souls. Besides us, Karakura Town probably has prey that is easier to deal with. Among them might be people you care about. I think you can’t ignore them, so I didn’t count you.”

"……what."

Ichigo took a deep breath.

"You're right, well... see you later."

"Get out of here."

Without turning his head, Shinomiya-sama waved his hand, and Ichigo's face darkened as he instantly vanished from the spot using Shunpo.

"It's not good to leave the group without my permission, as the team leader."

Yushiro also landed lightly on the iron railing.

"So please explain this properly to the Spiritual Arts Academy later. That way, even if you, as the team leader, want to leave the team to do something, or want to go find someone like Brother Kurosaki, I will pretend I didn't see it."

"...You are indeed very impressive. This kind of courage feels like that of a relative of mine...Alright, I agree. Leave this to me. You all go and fight elsewhere to avoid concentrating high concentrations of spiritual pressure in one place, which would attract all the Hollows and cause casualties among these Inner Students who are far inferior to you."

Yushiro stared at Shinomiya Takeru with a curious look for a while, then said readily.

The Four Palaces Venerable nodded slightly, then pushed off with his feet and shot into the night sky like an arrow released from a bow.

Hachihachihara and Rindo followed without hesitation.

……

Ichigo's home is in Minamigawa, and getting there from where the Transcendental Gate landed would require crossing almost the entire Karakura Town. Even so, he showed no impatience and used his Shunpo to fly through the air, all to get to Kurosaki Hospital as soon as possible.

"Please, please don't let anything happen to you! Dad, Xia Li, Youzi..."

The overwhelming spiritual pressure attracted a large number of Hollows to approach.

A dull, ominous roar entered Ichigo's ears, making him increasingly irritable.

"Get out of my way! Crescent Moon... Sky Slash!"

Unlike normal Shinigami, Ichigo's Shikai has two forms, each with a different fighting style and different abilities. In his sword form, he can inject spiritual pressure into the blade to enlarge his slashes, tearing through the sky like a Cero.

However, although this move was extremely powerful, it only cleared the void in front of him.

The road was quickly blocked again.

Seeing this, Ichigo immediately switched to bow form and unleashed a dense rain of arrows, sweeping away the Hollows that relentlessly attacked.

"This is still more convenient, like an insecticide. In comparison, the shape of a knife is more suitable for dealing with humanoid opponents... Shinomiya was right again."

Recalling a topic from their casual conversation, Ichigo couldn't help but mutter to himself.

He didn't notice that on the overpass below, a bespectacled man in white stopped running and stared in astonishment at him sweeping through the virtual horde.

It was none other than Ishida Uryu.

"...The Grim Reaper is actually using a bow to shoot down a Hollow..."

No.

To be precise, it should be said that the Grim Reaper is actually fighting in the manner of the Quincy.

And they did it so well.

Is this right?

Is this reasonable?

Is this... what Grandpa was striving for?

"Get away from me! You monsters! Don't come any closer!"

The buildings of Kurosaki Hospital were severely damaged.

Xia Li, holding a baseball bat, stood guard in front of Youzi and her father who had fallen to the ground. She waved the bat wildly at the hideous monster, trying to scare it away, but the spiritual power emanating from her was too tempting. Like a campfire in the dark night, it attracted more than just one Void creature.

Therefore... Xu Jue, who arrived here first, will not show any mercy, nor will he give up the prey that is within reach.

"Ichigo-nii... I'm sorry, I couldn't protect Yuuki and Daddy in your place..."

Seeing the monster raise its terrifying claws, Xia Li felt despair.

After her brother's death, her spiritual power began to grow continuously. She could see more spirits and felt that she could do more things.

Therefore, as the eldest child in the family, she swore to Ichigo's soul at Ichigo's grave that she would protect her family and never again witness her loved ones leaving her.

However, this ever-growing spiritual power did not immediately transform into a force to protect everything; instead, it brought misfortune upon himself and his family.

In fact, the moment Xia Li realized that she would attract the monster's attention more, she felt a pain deeper than despair.

"What are you talking about? When did it become your turn to replace me?"

Swish!

The sharp blade, imbued with rage, slashed down faster than claws.

Through the illusory body that splits apart from it.

A dark figure stood silently with its back to the moonlight streaming in from outside.

Combined with Xia Li, who was slumped on the ground in a daze.

It resembles a world-famous painting.

Chapter Thirty-One: Swift Draw of the Sword

The sword-wielding warrior vanquishes the evil spirits, and the undisputed hero emerges.

If this hero is also a lost and found loved one, then the feeling at this moment will surely transcend happiness and stride towards "ultimate bliss".

In fact, that's exactly what Xia Li did.

"Ichigo-nii...you bastard!"

The black-haired girl, her eyes red, charged at Ichigo, smashing her iron baseball bat toward his head.

"Whoa! Xia Li, what are you doing? That's dangerous!"

Ichigo hurriedly dodged, but the next moment an even smaller, or rather, younger girl, as sweet as honey, slammed him to the ground with a flying headbutt.

"Ichigo-nii! I miss you so much!"

“Wanderer…”

Ichigo, who was about to explode in anger, saw his younger sister nestled in his arms, crying and wailing with tears in her eyes. His gaze softened involuntarily, even becoming filled with guilt. The words of complaint that were about to come out of his mouth turned into a heavy sigh of bitterness.

"Sorry."

"You think an apology is enough?! Don't think you can be so arrogant just because you're the boss. If you're the boss, then give me a piece of your mind..."

Xia Li dropped the baseball bat, grabbed Ichigo by the collar with one hand, and was about to throw a punch at him. Ichigo did not dodge, and the punch did not actually land on his face.

Instead, it fell helplessly from mid-air, crashing down on his chest along with his tears, wetting the lapel of his student uniform and bringing a chill to his skin.

"...Live well, you idiot, don't make me and Youzi sad for you every day..."

“I couldn’t sleep at night. When I ate, I subconsciously got you a bowl of food. When I got to school, my classmates even made a point of reminding me of your hateful face! Do you know how much trouble you’ve caused us?”

"Sorry."

Ichigo put down his sword, reached out and touched his sisters' heads with both hands, a lonely smile on his face.

"I've already said don't think that an apology is enough."

"There's nothing I can do. I wish I could be as eloquent as that guy, but I can't change my bad habit of being tongue-tied. Please be a little more lenient with me since I'm the older brother."

"What kind of older brother expects his younger sister to be lenient with him?"

Xia Li grumbled and started to act up.

"Ichigo-nii, are you really back to life? Did the summoning game I learned from my classmate work?"

The traveler raised his face, looking at Ichigo with a pitiful yet expectant expression.

"...It's obviously impossible. Besides, I can already sense your longing, so please don't play those kinds of games anymore. They might really attract something unclean!"

Ichigo made a sarcastic remark, then said in a low voice:

"As for how I got back... that's a bit complicated. I'll explain it to you later. You two go to your rooms and hide. I'll take care of you."

Roar!

The moonlight was sparse, obscured by the enormous body of the alien monster.

An ominous shadow fell, and the bloodthirsty gaze behind the mask sent chills down Xia Li and You Zi's spines.

Soon, a figure blocked their way.

"Hey... It's one thing to disturb other people's family reunion, but to give them such disgusting looks... There's a limit to how much you can go wrong. Watch me beat you all to a pulp!"

Sensing the greedy desire that originated from the depths of his soul, Ichigo raised his Zanpakuto and pointed it at the Hollows gathering around the house, his eyes filled with the rage of his bottom line being crossed.

……

Karakura Town and Kitagawaze are located at opposite ends of the main river, while Minamigawaze, where Kurosaki Hospital is located, is situated at the same point.

Shigu-zun stood atop the bridge spanning the river. The night wind, hundreds of meters high, was exceptionally strong, howling and scattering his black hair like churning dark clouds. His hand rested on the hilt of his sword, his gaze calm yet exuding a chilling aura.

Despite wearing a standard-issue academy uniform, he managed to look remarkably like a swordsman from the Shinsengumi.

Click!

The long sword was slightly drawn, revealing only a short section. In the instant the cold light flashed, hundreds of Void creatures, including some of enormous size, rushed in from all directions, but were all treated equally... split in half by a single slash.

What cuts through their bodies is not a knife, but ghostly threads that are difficult to see with the naked eye.

There are seven in total.

Seven kills in an instant.

It delivers one more strike than in the six directions of up, down, left, right, forward, and backward.

Thus, not only were the attacking Void hordes decimated, but the extra attack also eliminated the remaining elements.

"Yahoohoo...!"

A burst of laughter, a hundred times more enthusiastic than the summer breeze, rang out above the head of the Four Palaces.

Hachihachi, like a giant golden retriever, charged towards a Gillian that had stepped into the river. Her ten differently colored manicure nails, imbued with powerful spiritual energy, acted like an invisible curse. With her fluid and rapid strikes, she turned the Gillian's head into a honeycomb.

Several highly intelligent Void creatures seemed to sense an opportunity and launched a sneak attack, only to find themselves outmaneuvered by an unseen predator.

[Let it be born].

The wheel hall liberates the blade by writing words on it, transforming it into a whip-like shape. However, upon closer inspection, one can see that it is made up of sheets of white paper connected together.

When he wrote the character "虫" (insect) again, the entire sheet of paper transformed into a swarm of insects, wiping out the vagrants that were trying to ambush him from behind.

The Four Palace Lords watched this scene quietly, then suddenly raised their hands without turning their heads and pointed them at the empty space to the side.

A wise-looking phantom emerged from the crack and cried out in terror, "Wait! I'm coming...!"

Before he could utter the word "go back," a bolt of pure white lightning shot with incredible speed pierced his forehead, causing him to fall from the sky and disintegrate into pitch-black spiritual particles upon hitting the ground.

"Hahaha, that was so satisfying! Is that all you've got? Lord Hachihara hasn't even finished warming up yet!"

Even the Hollows that textbooks treat with such solemnity were torn to shreds by him. Hachiman was truly triumphant, feeling that he had caught up with the two monsters, Shinomiya and Ichigo, to some extent. He couldn't resist taking out his communication device and taking two selfies with his half-crippled Hollow corpse.

"Ah?"

While looking through the photos, Ba Ba Yuan suddenly noticed something was wrong; there seemed to be something unusual in the background of the photos.

His face immediately froze, and he mechanically turned his head to check the situation.

Then they saw that behind the half-crippled Hollow, more than a dozen Gillians had formed an army, slowly advancing like an endless mountain range.

You're getting too excited.

Luntang flew over, his indifferent expression revealing a faint silence.

"Uh……"