The air was heavy with an unsettling presence, punctuated now and then by sounds like shattering glass. The sky was clearly blue, yet it carried an oppressive weight usually felt only when storm clouds churn overhead.
That suffocating blue sky… It felt as though it were licking along people's spines.
Ichigo Kurosaki snapped his head around and saw a Hollow crawling out of a black fissure.
Muten Natsu should be able to handle this.
Ichigo Kurosaki was just about to call Muten Natsu when another Hollow dropped straight down from the sky. A third. A fourth.
What the hell was going on?
A chill ran through Ichigo Kurosaki. With this many Hollows, even Muten Natsu wouldn't be able to deal with them all in such a short time.
Karin!
He remembered Muten Natsu once saying that people with high spiritual density were the most likely targets for Hollows. Karin could see Hollows just like he could. With so many appearing at once, she had to be in serious danger.
He glanced at the time on his phone. Karin should have already finished school by now. After school, she usually went out to play soccer.
Where did she normally play again…?
A Hollow stretched out its sharp claws toward Ichigo Kurosaki, its hunger flaring at the spiritual pressure leaking from his body.
Just as Ichigo was about to dodge, a brilliant blue light suddenly pierced straight through the Hollow.
That was…
Ichigo turned toward the source of the light and spotted Uryū Ishida standing on high ground. Uryū Ishida calmly drew his bow, firing arrow after arrow and cutting down Hollows one by one.
"That's…"
Ichigo Kurosaki felt a sense of recognition. "Ishida… something…"
There was no time to dwell on that.
Ichigo Kurosaki immediately headed for the place where his younger sister Karin often went to play soccer. The cross pendant wrapped around his wrist gave off a faint glow.
Muten Natsu's Hell Eyes, set into his forehead, shifted their focus elsewhere. He had been somewhat worried about Ichigo Kurosaki, but with Uryū Ishida there, Ichigo shouldn't be in immediate danger for now.
Twisting aside to avoid the Hollow's sprayed poison, Muten Natsu swung his katana and cleanly severed its head. He then closed his eyes and pressed his fingers to his temples.
The sensation of overlapping fields of vision was deeply uncomfortable, and using the Hell's Eye drained both body and mind.
The physical strain went without saying. The bulging veins on his forehead were proof enough. They were siphoning his Reiatsu at a rate far beyond his body's normal limits just to maintain the Hell's Eye.
The mental burden, however, stemmed from the very nature of the Hell's Eye itself.
The greater the flexibility of an organ, the more mental focus it took to control it.
Normal eyes only needed to move. All Muten Natsu had to decide was whether to look left or right. But the Hell's Eye ignored distance altogether. To see what he wanted to see, he had to consciously control that distance.
"Muten, how are you feeling?"
Rukia Kuchiki's voice came through the phone. "Tatsuki is safe. We're together now."
"That's good,"
Muten Natsu replied, sounding a little tired. "I'm fine."
"But your eyes…"
"The Gigai is a high-density Reishi body. I knew this would happen, which is why I burned it,"
Muten Natsu said, forcing himself to stay alert. If only he had Uryū Ishida's level of Reiatsu perception, things wouldn't be this exhausting. "With the Gigai as fuel, plus replenishment from the Hollows, it won't cause serious damage to my body in the short term."
"Muten,"
Orihime Inoue's voice followed from the other end of the call, "there seem to be more and more Hollows."
"What?"
A faint sense of unease rose in Muten Natsu's chest. "I'm coming to you now. We can't keep acting separately."
Something wasn't right.
A blue arrow sank into a Hollow's skull. Its body rocked back slightly before lunging toward Uryū Ishida at even greater speed.
Three consecutive Reishi arrows struck home, blowing its head apart completely.
"I couldn't finish it off in one strike…" Uryū Ishida only then noticed that the hand he used to draw the bowstring was already slick with blood. "Strange…"
No matter how he looked at it, there were simply far too many Hollows.
Before deciding to confront Muten Natsu, Uryū Ishida had run the numbers carefully. With the Hollow bait he carried, both the strength and the number of Hollows he could attract should have been perfectly controlled. Even if Muten Natsu did nothing at all, Uryū Ishida alone should have been able to wipe out every Hollow that showed up.
Yet now, Muten Natsu had already slain a large number of Hollows, and the speed of it left even Uryū Ishida shaken. He himself had killed many as well, but the overall number of Hollows showed no obvious sign of decreasing.
If this kept up…
Uryū Ishida made a rough estimate in his mind. His stamina and abilities were starting to reach their limits.
["You'd better keep your word!"]
Muten Natsu's voice echoed in his ears. Uryū Ishida clenched his fist, blood dripping down between his fingers.
No!
How could he think such discouraging thoughts?
He had to keep fighting.
As the last Quincy, he absolutely could not lose to him!
Uryū Ishida forced himself to steady his breathing and prepared to move to the next position. Suddenly, his steps came to a halt. He spun around sharply, staring in the direction where Ichigo Kurosaki had been earlier.
This feeling… another Quincy?!
...
Boom!
A massive explosion sent glass shattering across the surrounding streets.
"Ah… that was terrifying…"
"W-what just happened?"
"Was it a gas explosion?"
Ignoring his friends' voices, Yasutora Sado stared fixedly at the source of the sound. In that direction, part of the scenery looked strangely blurred, as though it had been smeared or censored.
There… had to be something there.
Yasutora Sado remembered this feeling. Ever since he had started raising that parakeet, he'd experienced it again and again. It had been the same back at the abandoned hospital.
Fragments of broken images flashed through his mind.
Kuchiki-san.
Natsu-san.
They had saved him…
And yet he had forgotten.
How could he forget?
How could he ever forget?!
Yasutora Sado narrowed his eyes, forcing himself to focus on the blurry mass. The longer he stared, the more that blur began to take on a translucent gray outline.
It looked like… a monster raising its arm and reaching out for him!
"Are you okay, Sado?" a friend asked as he stepped closer. "What's—"
Yasutora Sado reacted without hesitation. He shoved both of his friends away and leapt backward.
Boom!
The ground caved in as a violent shockwave rolled outward.
"Shigeo! Haru! Run!" Yasutora Sado realized he hadn't been mistaken. There really was something there…
The massive, indistinct monster shifted slightly, its raised fist turning to point straight at Yasutora Sado.
This sensation was painfully familiar.
Hostility.
It was coming for him.
Yasutora Sado turned and ran without a second thought. He didn't know what that huge thing was, but if its target was him, then things were simpler.
As long as he ran far enough away, his friends would be safe.
His gaze swept rapidly from side to side before locking onto a direction. Up ahead was a wide open area. There shouldn't be anyone there…