"So, anyway, when's the drink done?"

Hearing Yuna's question, everyone in the room could only look at her in bewilderment. Everyone had a lot of questions, but the first person who managed to restart his brain was Ginjo, who sighed deeply while facepalming.

"Yuna? How did you even find this place?"

"Mhh? Isn't that obvious? I stalked Ichigo."

"Y-You stalked me!?"

"Yeah, it was piss-easy. As always, your detection abilities still suck, hahaha~"

Ichigo's eyebrows twitched in irritation due to Yuna laughing at him. Frankly, he never was good at detecting presences, but now that he had lost his Shinigami powers, things got even worse. Although he was confident in detecting someone who pointed their killing intent at him, Yuna, while tracking him, would obviously not do so.

While Ichigo was glaring at Yuna, Giriko Kutsuzawa, the butler-looking man, had actually started making a drink for Yuna and Hinata, resulting in Yuna nodding in approval.

Silence briefly reigned the room before two glasses with colorful drinks were placed in front of the duo. Seeing the colorful liquid, Yuna briefly pondered if Giriko might have put some poison into it and then quickly took a sip to find out.

"Not bad, not bad. Mhh? No poison, huh?"

"WHY DO YOU SOUND DISAPPOINTED!?"

Although Yuna heard Ichigo's outcry, she opted to ignore it in favor of taking another sip, yet again causing Ichigo's eyebrows to twitch in irritation. Yuna really knew how to annoy people, and it was rather clear to Ichigo that she enjoyed doing so as well.
However, realizing that arguing with Yuna about common sense was a futile endeavor, he decided to focus his attention on Ginjo, who still wasn't sure what he was supposed to think about two people casually invading the base he had secretly built.
"Anyway, let's put Yuna's antics aside and ask the real questions. Who the hell was that?"

Hearing Ichigo's question, sad expressions appeared on the faces of everyone in the room before Ginjo sighed deeply and started talking.

"That was Shukuro Tsukishima, and just like us, he possesses a Fullbring as well. It's called 'Book of the End', and it basically is a sword that can cut through everything."

Ichigo kept quiet for a few seconds before nodding his head, indicating that he had absorbed the information that had just been given to him. Moments later, his gaze wandered from Ginjo to Sado.

"Chad, I think he was about to say Orihime's name. What's that all about?"

Realizing that he didn't stop Tsukishima from speaking in time, Sado couldn't help but sigh. Frankly, he didn't want Ichigo to be bothered with things happening in the outside world and wanted him to fully concentrate on mastering his Fullbring, but now that the information was already out there, there was nothing that could be done.

"*Sigh* While you were training, Orihime was apparently attacked by Tsukishima, but..."

"WHAT!?"

Sado couldn't even finish speaking before Ichigo stood up, ready to leave to look for Orihime to make sure he was fine. However, before he could leave the room, Sado grabbed his arm, preventing him from leaving.

"Calm down, Ichigo. Orihime is fine. Although she felt like she was stabbed, there was no wound on her body."

Realizing that Orihime wasn't in any danger, Ichigo sighed in relief and sat back down. Unlike Ichigo, who was relieved that Orihime wasn't wounded, Yuna couldn't help but frown when she heard Sado's words.

"Wait a moment. She thought she was stabbed, but there were no wounds left behind. Tell me more. Were there any other side effects, or maybe she got some weird feelings in her body after she was attacked?"

Sado briefly pondered Yuna's question while Ichigo's wariness yet again spiked. After all, Orihime clearly felt like she was cut, yet there were no problems. He didn't initially think too much about it after hearing Orihime wasn't wounded, but now that Yuna had pointed out that there was something wrong, he became alert.

"Mhh, I don't really know about that. Oh, now that I think about it, Orihime briefly mentioned that she felt like Tsukishima was her friend after being cut."

Everyone looked at Sado in confusion after receiving that kind of information, and Yuna's gaze sharpened.

'Memory manipulation? That is quite the nasty stuff. Although I'm rather confident I can overcome whatever is thrown at me, I still need to find out what exactly is going on and how his ability works.'

As those thoughts passed her mind, Yuna's gaze landed on Ginjo, who instinctively shrunk back due to the intensity of Yuna's gaze.

"You said that Tsukishima's ability is simply creating a sword that can cut everything, but it seems like there is more to it than you told us. Are you hiding information from us?"

Feeling Yuna's seething glare, a shudder went through Ginjo's spine as he defensively raised his hand while shaking his head.

"I didn't, I swear. I don't know what is going on either. I can only assume that this is either a misunderstanding or that Tsukishima has never shown me his real ability."

Hearing Ginjo's words and observing him closely, Yuna nodded her head in understanding. She was certain that he wasn't lying. However, there was still something fishy about this whole situation.

'He's too genuine.'

[That's a bad thing?]

'Usually, it isn't, but the first time I met him, he seemed rather secretive, attempting to hide all kinds of plots by speaking truths that weren't full truths, but now, he is suddenly revealing information freely, without even an attempt of deceit.'

[Isn't that just because it's a different topic?]

'Maybe. Or maybe... it has something to do with Tsukishima's ability?'

As she pondered those things, Yuna only shook her head. Although Tsukishima's ability to be some kind of memory manipulation seems likely, accusing Ginjo of being manipulated on such a flimsy guess was a little too much, so she decided to shelve this matter for now while remaining cautious.

'Guess I should pay Orihime a visit. I have a better understanding of her personality, making it easier for me to figure out whether something is off about her or not.

Just like that, a few more days passed, and considering how beat-up Ichigo looked every day at school, Yuna had no doubt that his training was continuing. She briefly pondered paying Ichigo another visit, but in the end, she decided not to do so.
Additionally, Yuna had approached Orihime as well, but she didn't detect anything weird about her memories. Well, almost nothing. Orihime still claimed that she briefly felt that Tsukishima was her friend, but that feeling was currently not present, causing Yuna to frown.

'Short-term memory manipulation? Maybe a delayed effect? Mhh, the feeling of Tsukishima being a friend could also be a residue of another effect... Meh, just thinking about it won't allow me to reach an answer, so I guess the only thing I can do is to meet him personally.'

[I bet a shudder just went through that man's spine.]

'Geez, I'm not THAT bad, Kurama.'

[No, you are worse.]

Ignoring the grumpy fox within her, Yuna shook her head with a slight chuckle while looking forward to how this mess would play out in the end.

Meanwhile, a while later, Tatsuki was walking home alone with a pout on her face.

'Stupid Naruto. Why is he always teasing me!?'

Remembering Naruto smiling at her with a cheeky grin, Tatsuki couldn't help but blush a little when she remembered the honeyed words he had whispered into her ear before quickly running away.

'I'll definitely punch him the next time I see him!'

However, a frown suddenly appeared on Tatsuki's face as she felt the atmosphere around her shift. She could immediately tell that something was off as she went on high alert.

'Someone is observing me with malicious intent; I can feel it. A thug? No, the presence is too strong to be a common thug. Maybe a Hollow? Since when do Hollow use stealth?'

While she was deep in thought, observing her surroundings, she suddenly felt a presence behind her, causing a shiver to go down her spine.

'Good stealth and speed!'

However, Tatsuki had fought Hinata before, so something at this level wouldn't face her, allowing her to dodge what she perceived as a sword strike while getting out of the attacker's range and covering her whole body in lava.

Having taken some distance from her attacker, a frown appeared on Tatsuki's face as she observed who had tried to sneak attack her.

'A human? The hell?'

"Who are you!?

"I didn't expect you to be able to dodge that. Quite impressive."

The "human", which, if Yuna were here, would be quickly identified as Tsukishima, didn't bother answering Tatsuki's question and instead readied his blade, causing Tatsuki to take a combat stance.

"You are the first one capable of dodging my first strike, quite impressive."

Following those words, Tsukishima vanished from his position and appeared behind Tatsuki, who sneered in disdain. Yet again, she dodged Tsukishima's attack, but since she knew what was coming this time, she smoothly turned around while dodging to plant one of her fists into her attacker's stomach, sending him hurling into a wall.

Feeling her fist connect, Tatsuki scoffed as she returned to a combat-ready stance.

"You are quite fast. If it was me around a year ago, this might have been too much for me, but now, I can clearly see you move."

Hearing those words, Tsukishima walked out of the wall he had just been punched into and dusted off his clothes. He offhandedly noticed that his clothes and skin were slightly charred where Tatsuki's fist hit him, but he ignored the pain for now.

'Well, that is bad. I knew about the monster trio, which we planned to avoid for now, but where did this one come from?'

As those thoughts passed through Tsukishima's mind, he glanced at Tatsuki, who was focused on him like a hawk, causing him to frown.

'This isn't worth the effort. I wanted to get all of Ichigo's friends, but this one wasn't worth the effort it would take me. Guess I'll be leaving.'

The moment Tsukishima came to that conclusion, he vanished from his position yet again, but this time, he reappeared in the distance, causing Tatsuki to frown.

'He's faster than me; I give him that much. Oh well, guess I should ask Yuna for some kind of movement technique to prevent this from happening again.'

Realizing her situation, while watching the fleeing Tsukishima in the distance, Tatsuki stopped her power, causing the lava surrounding her to vanish.

'I wonder what that was all about, but whatever. Guess I'll ask the twins tomorrow; they tend to have information no one else has.'

Just like that, Tatsuki's encounter with Tsukishima ended. However, Tsukishima's mission hadn't been done yet, resulting in him having similar encounters with people close to Ichigo. Unfortunately, all of these encounters went differently, resulting in Tsukishima cutting them with his blade before they could react.

Despite getting cut, none of them received any injuries and were only left behind with a somewhat weird feeling in the back of their minds.

A while later, Yuna was strolling through a forest, seemingly being there randomly, but she actually had a purpose in being there.

'I wonder why Ichigo is out here in the middle of the night~ Is it an affair~ It's an affair, isn't it~'

[It's not like he's dating anybody. Well, I guess he has that orange-haired bimbo following him around, but I don't think that counts.]

'It's mistress! It must be a mistress!'

[So you decided to ignore my words, huh? Besides that, why aren't you commenting on the part of Ichigo's Spiritual Power being back?]

'Mhh, or maybe... A CHILD!?'

[... *Sigh* hopeless.]

Moments later, loud popping sounds could be heard, followed by the voices of a bunch of excited-sounding people, and a few seconds later, Yuna saw the source of those noises: An old-looking two-story building in the middle of the forest.

'Well, that isn't suspicious at all~'

"Welcome back, Ichigo!"

"Welcome back!"

"Isn't it great, Ichigo? Shu said he isn't mad at you!"

"That's right, isn't it great?"

"Come one, Ichigo, you should apologize to Shu."

As Yuna came closer to the building, she could hear more and more of the voices, causing her to tilt her head in confusion.

'What kind of conversation is this; it sounds really abnormal and forced. Besides that, who the hell is Shu? Oi, Kurama, who is Shu?'

[Huh? How am I supposed to know that?]

'Oh? I thought it was another man whose name I have forgotten, but it seems that that wasn't the case.'

[... Utterly hopeless.]

The happy atmosphere continued, but suddenly, Yuna could hear someone breaking something while a commotion happened on the second floor, rousing Yuna's curiosity.

Moments later, she jumped up, resulting in her squatting in the window of the room where she perceived the action to happen.
Inside the room, she saw a lanky man with wavy black hair and black eyes holding his right arm, which was severed slightly below the shoulder.

Opposite of him stood Ichigo, anger clearly visible in his face. No, it wasn't just anger; Yuna could clearly read a combination of terror and despair on Ichigo's face.

'What in the world happened here?'

As those thoughts crossed her mind, Orihime and Sado entered the room as well, but to Yuna's surprise, they actually placed themselves between the man with the cut arm and Ichigo while facing Ichigo, making it look like Ichigo was their enemy.

'Seriously, what the f*ck is going on?'

Orihime swiftly healed Tsukishima, making it as good as new, while Sado went into a defensive position, making Ichigo despair. As soon as Orihime fixed Tsukishima's arm, she started talking to Ichigo with sorrow in her eyes.

"Why are you doing this, Ichigo? Don't you remember all the things Tsukishima did for us? Saving Rukia and defeating Aizen. Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

"Okay, what the f*ck?"

Suddenly hearing another voice, everyone's gazes landed on Yuna, who was currently still squatting in one of the opened windows.

Seeing Yuna, a tinge of hope appeared in Ichigo's eyes as he quickly started talking to her.

"You know the truth, right, Yuna? You know what had actually happened. You know that Tsukishima wasn't there when we attacked Soul Society...right?"

At this point, Ichigo almost begged Yuna to affirm Ichigo's words, but Yuna only tilted her head in confusion.

"Tsukishima? Who is that? Well, about the matter with Soul Society, I was pretty drunk during the climax of that, so I'm actually not sure."

Within an instant, the whole room was silenced, while the huge fox within Yuna could only facepalm.

[The peak of uselessness.]

'Oh? Is that a new title?'

[Gahaha~ useless~ useless~]

[*Sigh*]