"Wh-who's brothers with you, anyway!" Swatting little Ichigo's hand away, little Uryu scrambled to his feet and shouted, "I'll never accept it... Soul Reapers or whatever!"

With that, little Uryu turned and ran off without looking back, leaving the Kurosaki family exchanging bewildered glances.

"That child..."

"I never wanted Uryu to be bound by the Quincy bloodline the way I was, so I never gave him any Quincy training." Ryuken Ishida pressed a hand to his forehead in resignation and said slowly, "But Soken wasn't like that. Even after losing most of his power, he stubbornly kept destroying Hollows while teaching Uryu."

"Uncle, last year he..."

"Soken's death is no one else's fault. A Quincy who pins his hopes on Soul Reapers is simply too foolish."

"Hey, hey! What's wrong with Soul Reapers?!" Isshin Kurosaki retorted. "Soul Reapers can fight side by side with quincy too, you know! Just like me!"

"You're also a rare kind of fool."

"Hey! Ryuken!"

...

"Soul Reapers or whatever... I hate them the most!"

In a corner of the hospital, little Uryu crouched on the ground, head lowered, his pale blue hair hanging limply. He looked like an abandoned cub.

"Hey—Uryu!"

A lively voice rang out beside his ear. Little Uryu looked up and saw a small head of orange hair appear before him.

At that moment, the sun had wheeled around to sit directly behind that orange head. Under the intense sunlight, little Uryu squinted at the boy his own age before him, who seemed almost like a little sun himself.

"Go away, Soul Reaper." Speaking listlessly, little Uryu looked again, then said in surprise, "You... why aren't you a Soul Reaper anymore?"

"Ah... you mean this."

With a shift of his spiritual pressure, little Ichigo became a spirit body again, entering Soul Reaper form. The next instant, as his spiritual pressure withdrew, little Ichigo returned to an ordinary human state.

"This is spirit-body transformation." Little Ichigo scratched his head, not entirely confident himself. "If I want to use my power, I have to enter spirit-body form."

"So that means... you're not a Soul Reaper?" Little Uryu's eyes brightened slightly.

"I guess you could say that?" Little Ichigo said uncertainly. "After all, my dad is a proper Soul Reaper, so I don't really know whether I count as one or not."

"...I see..."

"Why do you hate Soul Reapers?" Little Ichigo plopped down onto the ground and likewise squinted up at the sky. "I've never met any other Soul Reapers, but my dad, Isshin, is a good person, you know. Though he can be a little weird sometimes."

"..." Little Uryu buried his head again, his voice barely audible. "Soul Reapers... killed my master... my grandfather."

"..." Little Ichigo fell silent for a moment, and his own mood grew heavy. "I see... I'm sorry... I didn't know."

"So I hate Soul Reapers. I hate them a lot."

"..."

"I don't know the specifics of what happened." Little Ichigo reached a hand toward the sky, staring blankly at the sun. "But I think power itself isn't the problem, you know."

"...?"

"Ah... sorry, that came out wrong." Meeting little Uryu's puzzled gaze, little Ichigo laughed awkwardly and scratched his cheek. "What I mean is, I don't think Soul Reapers themselves are the problem."

"That's because you're a Soul Reaper too!"

"Not entirely." Shaking his head, little Ichigo met that angry gaze. "My mom is also a Quincy."

"Your mom...? That pretty lady from just now?" Little Uryu couldn't believe it. "She's a Quincy too?"

"She used to be. As of a month ago, she isn't anymore. Now she's just an ordinary person." Little Ichigo shook his head. "But I do have Quincy power as well."

A pale blue light surfaced in his hand, and the next instant, a small bow appeared in little Ichigo's grasp. As his spiritual pressure continued to shift, the bow transformed into the shape of a blade.

"Th-this...?!" His pupils contracted sharply. Little Uryu said in disbelief, "You're a Quincy too?!"

"Not exactly." Little Ichigo scratched his head. "Because the Soul Reaper power inside me is mixed with Hollow power. In non-spirit form, meaning in human form, I can only manage this much and can't actually attack. Only in spirit form can I use Quincy power."

"No wonder... just now outside Mom's hospital room you were in Soul Reaper form... wait?!" Little Uryu nodded in understanding, but quickly reacted, "Hollow power?!"

"Yeah." Little Ichigo nodded. "Apparently, I've had Hollow, Soul Reaper, and Quincy powers ever since I was born. It's just that the Quincy power was always suppressing the Hollow and Soul Reaper powers. A month ago, they reached a truce, and this is how it turned out."

"What kind of bizarre mixed blood is that... and you're actually still alive..."

"I think the same thing." Little Ichigo smiled. "So I think that whether it's quincy or Soul Reapers or even Hollows, I don't believe they're all bad."

"Soul Reapers are one thing, but even Hollows..."

"Well, look." The light blade in little Ichigo's hand dispersed, becoming a pure orb of light. "Your mom was nearly killed by the Quincy progenitor, you know."

"...What...?"

"That's just how it is." Little Ichigo didn't explain further. "After learning that quincy did something like that, would you hate your own master?"

"...No."

"Right?" The orb of light in his hand vanished, and little Ichigo said with shining eyes, "So why would you hate the entire group of Soul Reapers because of what some Soul Reapers did?"

"I..."

"Just because you're a Quincy?"

"But... the Soul Reapers started a war to exterminate the quincy..."

"Do you understand the reason behind it?"

"I..."

"Of course, war itself is definitely a bad thing." Little Ichigo looked up at the sky. "But I think we still know too little about all of this."

"..."

"We're too weak. We still don't know anything."

The sky was a vast blue, with scattered white clouds drifting idly. The sun was a little glaring, but still bearable. The sunlight fell on little Ichigo's face, making his whole figure seem to glow.

"Once we have enough power, once we understand the full truth, then we can make our judgments—who's wrong, who's right, who we should hate, who we should protect."

"..."

Staring blankly, watching little Ichigo as if he radiated boundless light, little Uryu felt his heart shaken to its core. The gloom that had weighed on him for a year quietly began to shift in that moment.

"So, Uryu." Little Ichigo's smile was dazzling. "Let's get stronger together. And until you become strong enough, I'll protect you!"

"...Wh-who asked you to protect me!"

The words were the same as always, but his expression was no longer gloomy. Little Uryu's face flushed red as he shouted, "I am the last Quincy! I don't need anyone protecting me!"

"Yeah, yeah... the last Quincy... hahaha..."

"What are you laughing at?! You jerk!"

"I'm not a jerk, you know." Little Ichigo extended his hand again. "I'm Ichigo Kurosaki."

"...I'm Uryu Ishida."

Timidly, little Uryu also reached out his hand. Under the bright sunlight, their shadows stretched long and far, as if showing what they would look like after they had grown.

"Pleased to meet you, little brother."

"Who's the little brother, you jerk!"

➤ Next: The Beginning of Everything