"What is this?!"

At the Kurosaki Clinic, a black-haired man in a white coat felt it. His pupils contracted sharply as he stared out the window in disbelief.

"This spiritual pressure... is that Ichigo?!" The young man shoved the glass door open and charged outside. "What the hell happened?! Why would Ichigo suddenly awaken?!"

"...Why can't I sense Masaki's spiritual pressure anymore?! What the hell is going on!"

---

"Kanae?!"

Cradling his wife as she suddenly collapsed, a silver-haired man in a white coat called out in panic. As a top-tier surgeon, he knew his wife's body inside and out. This kind of inexplicable collapse was absolutely abnormal.

"What... is that?!"

Before he could think any further, something impossible entered his perception. His usually calm face twisted with confusion and shock.

"Soul Reaper... Hollow... Quincy... how can that be... No. It's Masaki. It's her child. Only her child could have spiritual pressure this mixed and this powerful. But why now... Could it be..."

A legend stirred from the depths of his memory. He had always assumed it was just a story his father had picked up from hearsay. But now, it seemed every word of it was true.

---

Inside an abandoned warehouse. On the surface, it looked utterly unremarkable. Underground, it was a different world entirely. The bedrock had been hollowed out by something unknown, carved into an independent space.

The ceiling had somehow been transformed into blue sky and white clouds. Beneath it stretched yellow earth and low peaks, the area vast, the far edge of vision dissolving into blank white.

"Hah... hah..."

Slumped or sitting, eight people in total, all of them panting. Men and women, each bearing wounds of varying depth, though most avoided vital areas. Whoever had inflicted them had been very deliberate.

"Well, well. Getting some exercise in, are we?"

A man in a dark short haori with light yellow hair, a bucket hat, a white wooden fan in one hand, wooden sandals on his feet, strolled toward them.

"Kisuke Urahara! What are you doing here?!" A girl who looked like a small child jumped to her feet. Tiny in stature, enormous in attitude. "Hachi! Your barrier's not set up right! Add ten more layers! No — make it a special barrier that specifically bans Kisuke Urahara from entering!"

"Yes, yes." A tall man with a broad, thick build answered in a voice so gentle it didn't match his frame at all.

"My, my. Hiyori's as spirited as ever...?!"

The old-friend pleasantries died before they could even begin. Kisuke Urahara's eyes went wide as he stared behind him in disbelief. The other eight had the same reaction, all of them whipping around to look into the distance.

"Hey hey hey!" A man with a yellow bob cut twitched at the corner of his mouth. "Kisuke, did you run another one of your experiments or something, huh? What's the deal with this spiritual pressure? It's captain-level and the composition's this complicated?"

"I don't know, Hirako-san." Kisuke Urahara pressed down the brim of his hat. "I know who this spiritual pressure belongs to, but something beyond imagination must have happened. Based on my observations up to now, even if he awakened, his spiritual pressure shouldn't be this strong."

"Ushoda-san, please set up a few more layers of barrier. I'll go see what's happened."

"Understood."

"Be careful, Kisuke!"

"It might be that bastard Aizen's doing!" The bob-cut man called Hirako turned to the others, his expression grim. "Hachi, help us recover our spiritual pressure. Be ready to move at a moment's notice!"

---

Beneath his mother, little Ichigo's eyes were wide open. The smell of blood mixed with rain. Long hair, the same orange as his but a shade duller, lay scattered around him.

"Ah... ah..."

Groaning, little Ichigo didn't understand what had happened. But he understood his situation well enough. Something — no, to be precise, the huge monster at the edge of his vision — had attacked him. And his mother, to protect him, had fallen.

Ichigo, can you hear my voice?

A quiet voice sounded in his ear. He was looking at the sky, but somehow, a middle-aged man in black appeared before his eyes.

Ah, I can hear you.

Then get up!

Another voice rang out. This one was strange, it carried an echo, and a peculiar electric crackle. At the same time, a white-haired man whose face felt somehow familiar stepped up beside the man in black.

Oh, okay! Little Ichigo squirmed out from beneath his mother, pressed his hands against her, and looked up at the sky. What now? Do I fight? Against this big guy?

"Hm?"

The masked monster stared at little Ichigo in astonishment. The little brat had fainted before it even touched him. How had he suddenly woken up again?

But the thought vanished in an instant. All it knew was that this little brat could see it. And that dying woman could see it too. Both of them were rare delicacies. Right now, it just wanted to kill the brat in front of it and feast to its heart's content.

Whoosh.

The little girl on its head vanished. The long whip didn't care whether the target was old, weak, a woman, or a child. It lashed through the air, rushing straight for little Ichigo.

Crack,

As if someone had pressed pause, the huge monster's attack froze mid-swing. The falling rain hung suspended in the air. The next moment, a black shadow surged out from behind the man in black and wrapped around little Ichigo and his mother.

Everything went black. When his vision returned, little Ichigo found he was no longer by the river. He stood in a pitch-black space, though he could still see everything around him clearly.

My power is difficult to exert on others, so time is limited. Beside him stood two men, one in black and one in white. The man in black spoke. So, Ichigo, you must master the power of blood yourself. Only then can you save her.

"Blood? What blood?"

Little Ichigo's voice was calmer than ever before. Everything happening around him defied common sense, but he had been able to see ghosts invisible to ordinary people since childhood. He accepted the extraordinary quickly.

"If I master the power of blood," little Ichigo latched onto the key point, "can I save Mom?"

Of course. The man in black said it simply. Her wound is large, but it isn't in a vital area. As long as you can stop the bleeding and get her treated in time, she'll be fine.

"What do I do!" Little Ichigo's eyes burned with resolve.

... The man in black fell silent, his gaze complicated as he looked at little Ichigo. After a long moment, he murmured, Have I been wrong all along... Ichigo... are you a born warrior...

What bullshit is this 'born warrior' crap!

This is nothing but instinct! The man in white smiled contemptuously. Looking at the resolve in little Ichigo's eyes, he said, The deepest instinct of all, the instinct to protect!

➤ Next: Call Out Our Name — Zangetsu!