"Hahaha—"
"Tatsuki, really..."
[THOOM—!]
In the room that had just been filled with laughter, a jarring sound suddenly rang out—a heavy, muffled thud.
Tatsuki Arisawa and Orihime Inoue both tensed up. As two girls alone in a room late at night, even someone as tough as Tatsuki—who could take down several grown men single-handedly—couldn't help but feel a flicker of unease.
"Ah! Enraku fell!" Orihime hurriedly scrambled to pick up the stuffed bear from the floor, her face full of concern.
"What the... It was just the bear after all..."
Tatsuki breathed a small sigh of relief, though the lingering dread in her chest hadn't quite vanished.
'Could that sound really have come from this little thing?'
"Oh no! This is terrible! How did it get such a huge tear? Ohhh..."
Orihime looked heart-brokenly at the "wound" on Enraku's face—a tear that stretched across the bear's entire head. It had been her companion for years.
"Seriously? Is the fabric really that cheap?" Tatsuki asked, finding the situation strange herself.
"But why..."
Orihime was still staring at Enraku's tear when, in the next instant, a massive, invisible claw suddenly lunged out from within it, skewering her body.
Orihime collapsed face-first onto the floor, remaining motionless as if she'd suddenly mastered the skill of sleeping with her eyes open.
"Hey! What's going on? What happened to you!? Orihime!!?"
'There's... there's something here...!'
A powerful gust of wind whipped through the room. Tatsuki couldn't see anything, nor did she have time to react; she could only feel the sense of impending doom reaching its peak.
Sora Inoue's face was now covered by a bone mask. His crimson eyes glinted with a ferocious light, filled with undisguised murderous intent.
Just as he thought he had succeeded, his clawed hand felt as though it had been clamped by a pair of iron pliers, unable to move even a fraction of an inch further.
Although she wasn't hurt, Tatsuki saw massive claw marks suddenly gouged into the wall behind her.
"Finally decided to show yourself, haven't you?"
Yoh Asakura, who had appeared in front of Tatsuki at some unknown moment, held Sora's claw back with one hand, looking remarkably composed.
Upon closer inspection, it was clear that Yoh wasn't making direct contact with Sora. Instead, his palm was coated in a layer of mysterious, blue-glowing energy.
This was Furyoku—an energy fundamentally different from the Reishi and Kishi that made up this world.
It was something that should not exist in this realm.
"Yoh? Wh-what's going on? What's happening?!"
Everything happening before her eyes had completely shattered Tatsuki's worldview of fifteen years. The fear of the unknown left the usually strong girl slumped weakly on the ground.
Equally bewildered was Orihime, now in her soul form. She looked at 'herself' unconscious on the floor and the chain protruding from her chest, then at the massive monster. Her mind was a complete jumble.
'Wh-what's happening... Am I dead?'
'What is that monster? Can Tatsuki not see it?'
'Why is Asakura-kun back? What did he do? Why did that monster stop?'
A flurry of questions raced through her mind. Finally, she was overcome by an indescribable discomfort and an urge to rip away the chain on her chest.
'Right... that's right. I can't just stand here dazed in a situation like this... I have to help Tatsuki and Asakura-kun!'
Orihime forced herself to stop shaking and stood up, throwing her weight into Sora's arm, which was held frozen in mid-air.
"Hah—!"
"Tatsuki, Asakura-kun, run! Hurry, run while you can!"
"It's no use, Inoue. Tatsuki can't see you like this, and she can't hear your voice either."
Yoh explained to Orihime as he casually pulled her behind him.
"Who are you talking to? Why did you say Orihime's name?!"
In Tatsuki's eyes, Yoh seemed to be acting crazy, making bizarre movements and talking to thin air. What was even more bizarre was that she didn't actually believe he had lost his mind.
If anything, she felt like she was the one going crazy.
"Orihime... Orihime... Orihime! Give my Orihime back to me!" Sora muttered like a man possessed, before letting out a heart-wrenching roar. It was the name of the person he loved most, both in life and in death.
'That voice...'
A sense of familiarity surged from the depths of her soul. Despite being such a terrifying monster, the voice it produced made Orihime feel an overwhelming sense of nostalgia.
"Alright, stop shouting. You're making me look like the villain here," Yoh said, looking exasperatedly at the seemingly breaking Sora.
"It's me... Orihime, have you really forgotten my voice?"
"Bi... Big brother?" Orihime's tone was hesitant. It was no wonder; this serpentine monster bore absolutely no resemblance to the gentle brother she remembered.
If she had to find a similarity... maybe the hairstyle was the same?
"Yes... it's me. Orihime, you really didn't forget me..." Sora's once-crimson eyes now flickered with a very human sorrow.
"Why... why would you try to hurt Tatsuki, Big Brother?"
Having confirmed the monster was her brother, Orihime's fear vanished, replaced by confusion.
"Why? Do you even have to ask? It's because she wants to take you away from me!"
Sora then spoke of the comfort he felt after death, watching Orihime pray for him day and night. But then his tone turned to anger as he described how, after she became friends with Tatsuki, her prayers became less frequent until they stopped almost entirely.
"I watched as I slowly lost my place in your heart..."
"That's not it... Big Brother, that was..."
"I was so lonely, so lonely... many times, I wanted to ki—!"
"Alright, reunion's over."
Sensing the murderous intent returning to Sora, Yoh used his Furyoku-clad palm to grab the Hollow's mask.
"You wouldn't want to destroy too much of the house you worked so hard to buy, would you?"
Without giving him a chance to respond, Yoh dragged him straight through the window and out into the night.
Meanwhile, below the Inoue apartment, Rukia Kuchiki and Ichigo—who had already transformed into a Soul Reaper—arrived following the Denreishinki's directions. They happened to see Yoh Asakura soaring gracefully out of the window, clutching the head of a Hollow in one hand.
"Huh?"
Ichigo Kurosaki and Rukia Kuchiki exchanged a look, both hoping the other would say they had just seen things.
But the reality was undeniable.
"Is that a human?!"