Bleach: Awakened — Chapter 124 - Help Me!!

Ding-ling-ling,

Lunchtime. The final year of high school. The classroom atmosphere had already grown tense, and even though the school year had barely started, some students were already sacrificing their breaks to bury themselves in their textbooks.

"Got tense all of a sudden, huh."

Keigo looked at the classmates hunched over their desks and sighed, boxed lunch in hand.

"Your grades aren't great either, if I remember right." Ichigo ate his bread, he'd only had time to make breakfast that morning. "If you don't put in the effort, getting into university is going to be rough."

"Don't worry!" Keigo said, perfectly confident. "With my grades, there's absolutely no way I'm getting in!"

"Then what's with that look on your face." Ichigo's mouth twitched. "You're actually pretty sharp. Why not give it a real try."

"My goal right now is to become a professional esports player!" A flame seemed to ignite behind Keigo's eyes. "I believe I have what it takes to become a legend in the gaming world!"

"Bold claim." Ichigo finished the bread in a few bites. "Though gaming and university aren't mutually exclusive, you know."

"If it's possible, doing both at the same time, university and going pro—that'd work too, right."

"...Would it?"

"You really are an idiot, Keigo." Mizuiro, who had been quietly listening the whole time, finally spoke. "You're always calling Ichigo a meathead, but you're just as single-minded as anyone."

"I happen to be a genius, Mizuiro!" Keigo shot back. "Plenty of people say I'm really good at games!"

"Like who?"

"The little kid next door!"

"You really are a genius."

"Right?!"

"A born idiot."

"Mizuiro!"

"Honestly..." Ichigo shook his head, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "Two idiots."

"Oh! The two idiots are at it again!"

A bright, easy voice rang out from the classroom doorway. Tatsuki Arisawa strolled in grinning broadly, long black hair, looking far more grown-up than back in their first year.

"Keep it down, Tatsuki. Some people are still studying."

A gentler voice followed from behind. Orihime, who had shed most of the awkwardness of youth, appearance and figure noticeably more mature, spoke quietly.

"Oh, right!" Tatsuki dropped into a nearby seat. "How are Yuzu and Karin doing? Did you remind Karin not to get into fights now that she's starting middle school?"

"Karin's not as violent as you." Ichigo rolled his eyes. "It's because Karin's been around you and Yoruichi so much that Karin keeps getting less and less like a normal girl."

"Shouldn't that be, getting more like her big brother?" Tatsuki grinned. "Ichigo Kurosaki, guardian of Karakura Town."

"...Much obliged. Please stop calling me that."

More than a year had passed, and the rough-around-the-edges kid who used to toss that title around so freely had grown up quite a bit. Hearing that chuunibyou nickname again, Ichigo felt a little embarrassed.

"Hahaha!"

"Where are Yasutora and Uryu?" Ichigo looked around. "They disappeared the moment class ended and still haven't come back."

"Ah, right—I keep forgetting you normally keep your spiritual awareness switched off."

Uryu walked into the classroom, pushing up those glasses, slightly taller than before, the slender build even more apparent.

"Just now I sensed an unidentified spiritual pressure. Yasutora and I went to check it out."

"Unidentified spiritual pressure?"

A year and a half ago, after returning to the World of the Living from Soul Society once the fighting was over, Ichigo had made a habit of suppressing both spiritual pressure and spiritual awareness to the absolute minimum. In day-to-day life, aside from being able to see spirits, Ichigo couldn't sense even a trace of spiritual pressure.

After all, Ichigo had in essence surpassed even the Transcendent. Even in a baseline state, the tiniest leak of spiritual pressure was enough to cause ordinary souls to suffer spiritual body collapse.

"A spiritual pressure different from a Quincy's, a Hollow's, or a Soul Reaper's."

Yasutora walked in, even broader and more imposing now, looking nothing like a high schooler.

"It was more similar to mine and Orihime's." Yasutora said slowly. "By the time we got there, no one was left. We also sensed a Soul Reaper's spiritual pressure nearby. The two sides appear to have been fighting."

"Looks like someone had set up a barrier, but it was broken during the fight."

"More similar to yours? A human carrying a Soul King Fragment?"

After learning of the existence of Soul King fragments, and having extracted the one within to give to the Hogyoku, Ichigo had done a bit of research into the matter with Kisuke Urahara afterward.

Both Yasutora and Orihime carried Soul King fragments as well. That was precisely why they had been able to awaken special abilities. Without those fragments, they would have been nothing more than high-spiritual-pressure individuals, the same as Tatsuki and the other two.

"Actually fighting a Soul Reaper?" Ichigo rubbed his chin, frowning slightly. "Someone's collecting Soul King fragments again? Trying to create something like the Hogyoku?"

"Let's go ask Urahara after school."

"If my calculations are correct, there are only two months left until Yhwach's complete revival." Uryu pushed up those glasses. "Hopefully we resolve this quickly. We don't want to end up caught between enemies on two fronts."

"Speaking of which, Ichigo—still no trace of the quincy?"

"Nothing." Ichigo shook his head. "There's a powerful force concealing them from my senses. In terms of raw power it's still below mine, but the level of ability being used is at least on par with me."

"Surpassing a Transcendent, huh..." Uryu murmured. "There are rumors that Yhwach is the Soul King's child. If that's true, having an ability on the same level as yours would make sense."

"Yeah." Ichigo scratched his head, looking a little troubled. "I've barely made any progress lately. Not sure where the path forward even is."

"Be grateful, you're already terrifyingly strong." Uryu pushed up those glasses. "And besides, you still have us. A mere Yhwach is nothing to fear."

"That's right!" Orihime flexed those invisible biceps. "We're plenty strong too!"

"Over this past year and a half." Yasutora said simply. "I have grown stronger."

Truly... at moments like this, we hunger for the strength to actually help Ichigo...

The high-spiritual-pressure trio kept that thought to themselves. As Ichigo's friends, whenever the conversation drifted here, a longing for more power would inevitably stir in their hearts.

"By the way." Ichigo said. "If either of you sense anything unusual again, tell me. I'll go check it out too."

"You're both strong, but whoever set up a barrier that neither of you even noticed, both sides of that fight are definitely no pushovers."

"Sure, sure."

Ding-ling-ling,

The bell rang. Lunchtime was over, cutting the conversation short. As classmates began filtering back into the room, everyone drifted back to their seats.

"Let's all head to Urahara's place after school... Hm?!"

Uryu had been turning to head back to a seat, then suddenly spun around sharply, staring at the window beside Ichigo with a look of complete disbelief.

"Hm? What's wrong?"

Watching that bewildered reaction, Ichigo paused, then caught on. His brow furrowed. Before he even had time to turn his head to look, a voice tore into his ears.

"Help me! Ichigo! Ichigo Kurosaki! Help me!"

➤ Next: Ginjo and Ganju