Due to Ichigo's development far surpassing that of the original Ichigo, along with his clear awareness, he had long since detected the situation within his body.
Coupled with the early discovery of his Shinigami/Hollow powers and today's seed-
The lost balance already had the potential to be restored!
'Whew, thank you, Masaki!'
Storing the foreign Reiryoku, Ichigo placed Zangetsu back on his shoulder.
Ichigo looked around.
Only then did he realize that the battlefield he had subconsciously drawn himself to was actually the small hill in Karakura Town where people placed their relatives' graves!
"Since that's the case, I might as well go take a look while I'm here!"
Ichigo looked at Rukia beside him. At this moment, Rukia was still feeling stirred because Ichigo had won his battle of pride.
Ichigo asked: "Rukia, I want to go pay respects at my mother's grave. Will you come with me?"
"Me... is it okay?" Rukia was taken aback at first.
Then, an inexplicable blush tinged her cheeks!
If you don't know, just ask: what does it mean when the guy actively invites the girl to pay respects to his mother?
Although it's just visiting Ichigo's mother's grave, who's to say it isn't a different form of meeting the parents?
Rukia felt apprehensive in her heart.
However, Ichigo genuinely didn't notice Rukia's maiden heart at this moment.
After all, he was very tired after the intense battle.
"Will you come?" Ichigo asked again.
"I'll come, of course I'll come!" Rukia replied very loudly.
The next moment, realizing she might have overreacted, Rukia timidly shrunk her neck a little.
But seeing that Ichigo had already started leading the way, Rukia breathed a sigh of relief.
Then, the two walked side by side, one in black, one in white, silently making their way through the hill dotted with tombstones.
Gazing at Ichigo walking half a step ahead, Rukia seemed lost in thought, as if falling into memories.
Seeing her like this, the live stream audience who had followed everything until now also breathed a long sigh of relief and smiled knowingly.
"Rukia-chan, so cute!"
"Brothers, please put 'They look good together' on the big screen!"
"I approve of this marriage!"
"Never would I have thought I'd start shipping a couple in a life-or-death game live stream!"
"If it were me, I'd ship them too! Aren't you shipping them?"
"Of course I'm shipping them! From now on, I'm an IchiRuki shipper!"
"Attention everyone, I announce something, I'm a fool... uh, no! From today, the IchiRuki faction is officially established!"
"Yosh!"
The relaxed audience played around happily.
Combined with Rukia's earlier memories, the IchiRuki relationship seemed to be getting confirmed.
However, the universal celebration in the bullet comments didn't last long before it was broken.
After paying respects at Masaki's grave, the two returned to the Kurosaki Clinic.
Shopkeeper Urahara appeared before them again.
"Ara ara, Kurosaki-kun, you really caused quite a stir this time!" Kisuke teased.
"I had no choice, I had to do it!" Ichigo's expression was firm.
But he also showed concern for the innocent: "Shopkeeper, since you're here, I assume you've handled the aftermath of tonight's events?"
"Were there any fatalities?"
"None, actually." Kisuke shook his head. "Your control during the fight was pretty good. Some people suffered minor injuries, but it's not a big issue. I've handled it all."
"At the same time, I'm curious, what kind of Hollow could make Kurosaki-kun so furious?" Kisuke asked, feigning ignorance.
And the most interesting thing in the world is when you know someone is acting, you know that they know, and you still have to play along with their performance.
Ichigo said gravely: "Because... it was the Hollow that killed my mother six years ago!"
"Oh, I see..." Kisuke pretended to understand, then asked curiously, "May I ask about the outcome?"
"Killed it!" Ichigo said. "Right in front of my mother's grave!"
"Impressive, impressive!" This time Urahara's admiration was genuine, as Masaki was also an acquaintance of his.
For once, the unscrupulous merchant wasn't being unscrupulous. Kisuke said, "In that case, I won't charge you for this emergency cleanup!"
"The younger generation is to be feared, truly to be feared!" Fanning himself with his small fan, Kisuke left.
Ichigo and Rukia prepared to go home.
But then, Rukia's expression changed.
"Ichigo, that Hollow you told me to bind with a Bakudo... it's gone!"
"Huh? Damn it!" Ichigo passed by his home but couldn't enter.
After returning from his mother's grave, Ichigo had to drag his exhausted body to Orihime's house with Rukia in tow!
Fortunately, the current Ichigo was not the same as the original Ichigo.
Holding Rukia, Ichigo used Shunpo to travel and quickly arrived at Inoue's house!
Just in time, Orihime was slapped hard out of her body by Sora.
Ichigo used Shunpo to move forward and caught Orihime.