Bleach: Awakened — Chapter 68 - Think I've Forgotten How to Hold a Blade?

"Five hundred yen, thank you for your purchase." The clerk glanced at the price on the red hair ribbon and teased, "Is this a gift for your girlfriend?"

"Just a friend. Just a friend."

Ichigo fished out the change from his wallet, handed it over, pocketed the hair ribbon, and ignored the clerk's meaningful smile as he pulled Senna away from the counter.

"You really went out of your way for this." Senna slipped her hand free and laughed. "Oh, and Ichigo—you have a girlfriend? You shot that down so fast."

"No, I don't. How old do you think I am, already worrying about girlfriends." He walked ahead with his hands cradled behind his head, the picture of ease. "I don't have time for that kind of thing right now."

"Oh? Something on your mind?" Senna bounced ahead and spun to face him, wide eyes locked straight onto his. "You can tell me about it."

"Did you do something wrong? I can't really help, but I could at least laugh at you."

"...Come on, who actually says that." Ichigo's mouth twitched. "Watch it, or you'll get hit."

"Huh?" Senna tilted her head in genuine confusion. "Didn't you say you were the big shot around here, some special captain? If someone's going to hit me, shouldn't you be protecting your junior?"

"Or wait—is Ichigo actually weak?"

"Heh." That one actually made him laugh. He pointed a thumbs-up at her. "You've got nerve. From my debut to now, you're the first person who's ever dared to call me weak."

"And another thing, isn't it possible that the person who wants to hit you is me?"

"Huh?" Senna looked even more confused and pointed at her own flawless face. "You'd really bring yourself to hit a beautiful girl like me?"

"Ha... a truly beautiful girl would never call herself a beautiful girl." Ichigo's smirk was cold. "Only someone with no confidence in themselves makes a point of saying it."

"Ugh..." Senna deflated and fired back indignantly. "So you actually have what you'd call a truly beautiful girl around you?!"

"...Mm..." He looked her up and down, then said with certainty, "Of course. One of my close friends is exactly that."

"And there's another friend I've known since we were kids... mm... similar to you in some ways, but she'd never call herself a beautiful girl."

"Ugh..." Senna reeled like she'd taken a physical hit, muttering under her breath. "Someone like Ichigo actually has beautiful girl friends... there's no way that's even true..."

"Heh."

"Hey! What's that laugh supposed to mean!"

"It's just simply—mm?"

His brow furrowed. Ichigo felt a faint fluctuation in the space around them, like an unknown passage had quietly opened somewhere nearby.

Before his trip to Soul Society, he never would have caught something that subtle. But after getting educated, front and back, on Sosuke Aizen's side, he'd started researching the mechanics of dimensional gateways on his own. He hadn't made much headway yet, but his sensitivity in that area had sharpened considerably.

"What's wrong, Ichigo?" Senna scanned the surroundings. "Nothing seems off... whoa!"

A large hand suddenly thrust out from right in front of her. Senna shrieked and scrambled behind Ichigo's back, and in the same instant the spatial fluctuation in his senses spiked sharply.

"What is this?"

Ichigo stepped back and put Senna behind him. He saw it then, in the split second before that hand had emerged, a pitch-black hole had appeared out of nowhere directly in front of them.

It was nothing like the Senkaimon to Soul Society. Not the official version, not Kisuke Urahara's version, neither felt anything like this. And it wasn't a Hollow's Garganta either. The spatial lock on Hueco Mundo ran both ways; a Hollow couldn't have come through.

"Found you!"

A large, heavyset figure squeezed out of the black hole. The man didn't even glance at Ichigo standing right in front of him. Those small eyes, completely mismatched with his broad frame, locked hard onto Senna and didn't waver.

"Who are you?" Spiritual pressure flared as Ichigo shifted into his Soul Reaper form. "Weird getup. Not quite a Soul Reaper, not quite anything else."

The man wore grey clothing cut similar to a Shihakusho, with armored plating fitted over various parts of his body and a double-hooked weapon at his waist. His spiritual pressure was only marginally above Senna's, barely scraping lieutenant level, nothing more.

"Hmph!"

No answer. He yanked the double hooks free and charged straight at Ichigo.

"Seriously."

Ichigo shot his left hand out, snatched the man's wrist faster than the eye could follow, and with a single twist slammed him into the ground.

"Ugh!"

In that instant, the man felt iron clamps close around his wrist, and then an overwhelming force that left him no room to resist. His vision went black. It took two or three full seconds on the ground before he understood what had happened to him.

"Other captains see this, they'll think I've gone soft." Ichigo looked down at him. "Every stray cat and dog dares to start something now. What, did someone decide I forgot how to hold a blade?"

"So who are you, anyway. What do you want."

"Ugh..." The man struggled, but it was completely useless. His eyes caught the white Captain's Haori on Ichigo's back. His body went rigid. Through gritted teeth: "That's what I want to know, what exactly is your situation?!"

"How is there a captain in the World of the Living?!"

"Tch." Ichigo clicked his tongue. "Seriously, do you people not collect intelligence before you move out? You didn't know Karakura Town is under my protection?"

"Don't you know the name Ichigo Kurosaki? Huh?"

"Ichigo Kurosaki who..."

Fwsh,

A volley of arrows shrieked in from behind. Ichigo's brow furrowed. He nudged Senna further back, felt the patterns in his blood vessels surge to life, and Blut Vene snapped active. He let the arrows come.

DING,

Arrowheads glinting with cold light struck his body and raised not a single ripple. They clattered to the ground, spent.

The attacker was a woman in clothing nearly identical to the heavyset man's. Three others flanked her, different heights, different builds, all wearing the same style of uniform.

"I didn't even need to activate Blut Vene for that."

He could feel the force behind the arrows. Same lieutenant-tier as the man on the ground. It couldn't crack his baseline spiritual pressure, let alone warrant Blut Vene.

"Whoa!"

"Hm?"

The startled cry snapped his attention around. He turned to see Senna staring down at her feet, eyes wide with fright. The next moment, Ichigo felt his left hand go suddenly empty, like something had simply dropped away.

"That's... pretty drastic."

He looked down. The heavyset man had broken free from his grip. The cost: half his arm.

"Ugh..."

A pained groan escaped him. His right arm was severed cleanly at the elbow, the entire forearm gone. He heaved in ragged breaths, staring up at Ichigo with an expression caught somewhere between hatred and fear.

The moment Ichigo had turned to block the arrows, the man had made his call in a split second and cut his own forearm off.

"That's... something else." Ichigo's frown deepened. "Who exactly are you people?"

"If you don't start talking, losing half an arm won't be the end of it."

➤ Next: The Reflected World of the Living