Chapter 16: Intersections with Ichigo Kurosaki

Chapter 16: Intersection with Ichigo Kurosaki

"BOOM!"

Just as we were approaching the school gate, a thunderous noise—like the collapse of a dozen skyscrapers—erupted from the wild mountains in the outskirts. Because the mountain was so close to the school, a hurricane-force wind was instantly whipped up. Everyone was startled by this sudden event, shielding their eyes and turning their gaze toward the desolate mountain...

"What in the world is happening? This wind... Ichigo?"

There was no response to Tatsuki. My eyes were already stunned by the sky, which had turned a vibrant, blood-red... A gate, a massive gate... that was... "What is that?"

"Huh? What?" Hearing my question, Tatsuki followed my gaze, but she saw nothing but the smoke from the explosion. "There's nothing there. What’s wrong with you, Ichigo? There’s nothing over there..."

"Impossible! It’s so obvious, how could you not see it? That’s..." Wait! They couldn't see it? If they couldn't see it, that meant... that gate and that crimson light were... spiritual...

"BOOM!" As if something were hammering from within the giant gate on the mountain, the sides of the gate bulged outward, and the chains wrapped around it rattled with a metallic clanging.

Following this, a sudden wave of pressure descended. The air around my body felt thick and viscous, as if I had been instantly submerged in liquid... A sensation that seemed to make the very soul within me tremble...

"Tatsuki! Inoue! Keigo! Mizuiro... Chad!" Struggling against my vision, which was beginning to blur, I saw my friends, the passersby, and the students all collapsing to the ground, unconscious. Panic instantly gripped my heart...

Damn it! What exactly... is going on!?

Tense and nervous, I adjusted to the surrounding spiritual pressure, stood up, and looked at the gate on the mountain. Gritting my teeth, I charged toward it...

If I can just get there! I should be able to find out why!

Back to the main text.

"BOOM!" The gate shuddered again. With a few crisp metallic snaps, the chains on the gate shattered entirely, and the great doors were forced open by a surge of power from within... A fiery red light erupted from the gate, and from inside, a deluge of endless lightning surged forth...

"Open up for me!" A woman’s angry shout echoed from within.

"BOOM!" The gate was blasted wide open. A silver-haired girl dressed in a Shihakusho flew out from the gate, followed closely by a massive hand.

"Get back in there!" With a sharp cry, countless bolts of lightning condensed into numerous thunder spears, firing toward the giant hand.

The lightning and the giant hand stalemated for a moment before the hand was finally pushed back.

"BOOM!" Watching the Gate of Hell finally give up and seal itself, the girl let out a sigh of relief, and then...

"Whoa!" Having used too much magic power during her escape, she no longer had the energy to coat herself in spiritrons to hover in mid-air, and the girl began to fall... quite scientifically.

"Watch out!"

Due to extreme mental exhaustion and severe overexertion of energy, the girl fainted. However, before she lost consciousness, she seemed to vaguely hear two words...

...

"Huu... Lolita, I can't do it anymore. It’s been five and a half years. My mind truly can't take it anymore. I'm sorry. Please, bear through this final stretch for me... I am not a good brother..." Shuster was walking across a deep red terrain filled with magma and scorching stones, dragging a boulder behind him that weighed at least a ton.

This was the punishment from Hell. Shuster needed to drag this massive stone for six years without eating, drinking, or sleeping before he would have a chance to leave Hell...

He had already persisted for five and a half years, but the mental torture had left him teetering on the brink of collapse. He could no longer hold on.

"...It’s fine, I don't blame you, Brother. I will definitely finish this journey for you. Go and rest inside the Zanpakuto!" A faint phantom appeared behind Shuster and said to him with anxiety.

"I’ve made you suffer for this last half-year... I’m sorry to trouble you..." As Shuster spoke, he began to collapse to the ground.

Lolita hurriedly possessed his body, taking the place of the host.

"Sigh, honestly. Even when your mind is on the verge of breaking, you still love to push yourself. If it weren't an absolute necessity, I don't think you would ever give up!" The falling body suddenly stilled, and then slowly began to drag the boulder forward once more...

...

Opening my eyes, an unfamiliar ceiling...

"Was it a dream? ...Right! I escaped the Gate of Hell! What time is it..." I opened my eyes wide, and the first thing I saw was a pair of hands positioned just a few centimeters from my chest...

Following the hands upward, I saw a boy with orange hair and a fierce expression...

Returning to ten minutes earlier...

"Dad! Where are you!? There’s an injured person! Come out!" Upon returning home, Ichigo shouted as soon as he entered, but there was no response... Yuzu and Karin had already gone to school, and his father was nowhere to be found.

Helpless, Ichigo could only carry the girl in his arms to his room. After laying her on the bed, he went downstairs to find bandages and medicine. After all, the girl was covered in wounds, and he didn't know what she had been through. Ichigo had initially wanted to take her to the hospital, but when he passed by the school, he noticed that Tatsuki and the others had all woken up, yet they couldn't see the girl he was carrying. This surprised Ichigo greatly. Recalling the scene on the mountain earlier, he immediately suspected that this girl might be...

With that thought, Ichigo grabbed the first-aid kit from the cabinet and returned to his room, walking to the bedside to treat the girl's wounds.

After tending to the injuries on her hands, Ichigo suddenly stopped. Looking at the wounds exposed beneath her tattered clothes, he began to hesitate...

Ichigo’s inner struggle:

What should I do? Should I...?

No! Ichigo, you can't take advantage of someone! This isn't how a real man acts...

Idiot! I’m saving a life here! If I don't treat her in time, she’ll die...

But men and women are different! If people find out you were taking a girl's clothes off, what would they think! ...

Stupid! She’s just a spirit! In a crisis, you can't worry about that! ...

But I still feel like this is inappropriate! ...

A doctor treats patients without bias! There's nothing inappropriate about it!

...

"Aaaaah!! Why am I worrying so much when I'm just trying to save a life!!" After the boy muttered to himself in self-deprecation, he scratched his head and stood up. In the end, the evil thought of saving a life—er, the noble belief—triumphed over reason... or rather, over ethics. He reached out with his sinful... no, his righteous healing hands toward the girl on the bed... Ichigo: I suddenly want to chop someone into 18 pieces...

"Gulp!" Swallowing hard, his face burning red, Ichigo reached toward the girl’s clothes... and right at that moment...

"..."

"..."

"..."

...

"Um, good morning..." Facing the girl who had suddenly opened her eyes, Ichigo held his hands suspended in the air just centimeters from her chest. Unable to find a topic, Ichigo could only squeeze out a stiff, awkward smile to greet her.

At this moment, his naturally fierce, delinquent-like appearance, combined with that stiff, awkward smile—it really was... if an outsider had seen this, they would definitely suspect that this delinquent was about to commit some shameless, brutal, villainous, or cruel act upon the girl on the bed...

Right now, Ichigo's suspended hands were awkward to put down or keep raised... But the most embarrassing part wasn't even that; it was the girl's expression...

If it had been a normal girl, her first reaction to waking up and finding a strange boy with his hands near her chest would have been to deliver an attack skill with a base damage of 1000, then cover her chest with both hands to apply a defensive buff of 5000, followed by a special sonic-wave skill with 10,000 damage that would lower the opponent's attack, defense, and agility by 3000 each to finish them off... (Mysterious voice: Stop inserting random, weird things!)

If that had happened, Ichigo would have actually felt more comfortable. But the girl in front of him neither moved nor screamed; she just looked at him calmly with those beautiful, deep blue eyes. Ichigo couldn't detect a hint of anger, shyness, fear, or shock in them... In those eyes, Ichigo only found two words: 'Unknown'... I don't know which expert or professor said '