At a certain street corner in Karakura Town, Tsunayoshi stood smiling as he waved goodbye to a soul before him.
It had already been more than a year since he came to Karakura Town.
Over that year, Tsuna had completely mastered his Fullbring. His life had settled into a routine: attending class and dozing through the day, hunting Hollows in the evening, and spending his spare time with Tatsuki and Ichigo, with the three of them often visiting one another's homes.
Through that, Tsuna had gotten to know the entire Kurosaki family—Isshin Kurosaki, who had lost his Soul Reaper powers; Masaki Kurosaki, a Quincy; and Ichigo's two younger sisters, Yuzu and Karin.
At one point, Tsuna had considered asking Masaki to teach him how to train as a Quincy. But at the time, his Fullbring was at a critical stage, so he had temporarily set the idea aside.
As for Tatsuki's home, there was not much to say. Every time they entered her family dojo, it turned into an all-out brawl between three kids. Since Tsuna possessed Fullbring, though, he usually came out on top in hand-to-hand fights. Over time, he began to notice that the way Tatsuki looked at him seemed to carry some faint, unspoken feeling.
When Tsuna had first begun training his Fullbring, he once suggested to his mother that they move away from Karakura Town.
That was the first time he had ever seen something other than gentleness in Nana's expression.
Sawada Nana had firmly rejected the suggestion. Their family, she said, should support Iemitsu while he worked away from home—not become a burden that dragged him down.
After his mother talked him through it, Tsuna understood that his family would not be leaving Karakura Town anytime soon.
And if that was the case, then he had to reduce the danger to his family as much as possible.
That was when he began hunting Hollows.
His Fullbring was a strange thing—it came with instinctive experience in how to use it. Since Hollows were readily available, they made ideal opponents for him to train against.
Karakura Town truly lived up to its reputation as a Jūreichi. Human attacks by Hollows happened with disturbing regularity. Tsuna had no idea which Soul Reaper was assigned to protect Karakura at that point in time, but whoever it was, they clearly weren't keeping the area fully clear. That, at least, gave Tsuna plenty of chances to fight.
And after hunting Hollows, he often encountered souls lingering in the World of the Living, unwilling to pass on.
He was not a Soul Reaper, so he had no way to perform Soul Burial on them directly. But so long as they could communicate, he would always do his best to persuade them to ascend to Soul Society on their own.
Not a Soul Reaper, yet doing a Soul Reaper's work—
that was how Tsuna kept acting, tirelessly, time and time again.
Over the course of that year, Tsuna had thoroughly familiarized himself with all of Karakura Town's terrain, and even gained a fair understanding of the surrounding area. He had already found the riverbank that appeared in the anime—
the very riverbank where Masaki Kurosaki would be attacked.
During the time he spent around the Kurosaki family, Tsuna had grown genuinely fond of every one of them.
And as for lively, ever-smiling Aunt Masaki—
if he had the ability to save her, then he wanted to save her. Even if it meant diveating the plot itself.
So he had gone to that riverbank ahead of time, hoping to find the Hollow called Grand Fisher first and destroy it.
But things did not go as planned.
That Hollow was an old coward. Even Soul Society had failed to capture it. There was no way it would stay in one place for long.
With no other options, Tsuna could only resort to repeated attempts.
He remembered that the day Yhwach used Auswählen was called "Everything But the Rain." On that day, Aunt Masaki died. To Ichigo and his father, all that remained in their hearts after that was sorrow falling like endless rain.
With only that much information to go on, Tsuna found an excuse to join the school's meteorology club, making himself responsible for recording rainy-day weather patterns. From then on, whenever there was heavy rain, Tsuna would head out.
Because of this, Nana had more than once tried to make him quit that "dangerous meteorology club." After failing to persuade him repeatedly, she could only prepare the best reflective raincoat she could find for him and remind him again and again to be careful before letting him leave the house.
Tsuna pushed open the door and stepped back inside.
It was summer vacation now. During the break, he could devote practically his entire day to hunting Hollows. He had just helped two souls ascend and had returned home to rest for a bit.
"You're back? Club activities done for the day?" Nana asked. "Club activities" and "visiting friends" were the excuses Tsuna most often used.
"Yeah. There hasn't been any rain lately, so there wasn't much for me to do—"
Before he could finish, a warning tone came from the television.
"Sudden torrential rainfall in Karakura Town. Residents are advised to take precautions—"
Tsuna's face changed instantly.
A terrible feeling rose in his chest.
He shouted a quick word to his mother, grabbed the raincoat hanging by the door, and rushed outside.
"Mom, something came up! Save some dinner for me!"
"Be careful! And come back early!"
With the trailing sound of his mother's voice behind him, Tsuna sprinted out.
The weather forecast was accurate. The moment he left the house, rain began to fall in scattered drops from the sky, already showing signs of intensifying.
Tsuna skillfully ducked into a nearby alleyway.
He had done this so many times by now that the motion was second nature. No one in the alley could notice what he was doing.
A flash of green light shone beneath his feet, and propelled by that glow, he leapt high into the air, using the curtain of rain as cover as he vaulted above Karakura Town.
The technique Tsuna used was called Fullbring Light.
It condensed Reishi beneath his feet into a temporary foothold, allowing him to step on those spiritual particles and gain tremendous launching force. It was a movement ability based primarily on powerful leaps.
Whenever he used it, green light would flare where the Reishi gathered, making it fairly easy to recognize.
As he shot forward at high speed, Tsuna silently prayed that today wasn't the day of Auswählen.
And if it was—
then at the very least, let him make it there in time.
...
By the time Tsuna reached the riverbank, Masaki was already facing off against the Hollow called Grand Fisher.
This Hollow had four limbs and a body covered in brown fur. On its savage white mask grew a whip-like appendage used for mimicry. With that organ, it could conceal its true form and disguise itself as a human, specifically luring and attacking people with high spiritual density.
It truly lived up to its name.
Like a fisherman, it relied on baiting its prey through deception. Its actual combat ability was mediocre at best. All its talent points had clearly gone into luring prey and running away.
Just moments ago, it had disguised itself as a young girl standing by the river, tricking kind-hearted Ichigo into thinking she was about to jump in.
The instant Ichigo approached, it revealed its true form and moved in to attack him.
Masaki, being a Quincy, naturally stepped in front of her son.
As a former Echt Quincy, Masaki's Blut Vene and Blut Arterie were both far stronger than those of an ordinary Quincy.
Naturally, she wasn't afraid of a Hollow like this.
Or rather—
whether this lure-and-trick Hollow could even survive one exchange with her was the real question.
Blue light began to shimmer along Masaki's arm, spreading across her forearm like glowing veins.
That was Blut Vene, the Quincy technique that granted extraordinary defensive power.
And clearly, the Hollow before her knew nothing of what it was facing.
Seeing Masaki activate her power, it leapt high, slashing downward with both claws, as though the mother and son standing before it were already prey laid out on a platter.
Masaki raised her forearm in defense.
The moment it came close, she intended to blast it apart at point-blank range with a Heilig Pfeil.
This style of fighting had never failed her before.
In fact, it was how she had once crossed paths with Ichigo's father, Isshin Kurosaki.
Back then, when she met Isshin, her baiting tactic had failed. That Hollow had been far too strong. It had pierced her Blut Vene, wounded her, and infected her with Hollow poison—causing her to lose her status as a pure-blood Quincy.
But this time, Masaki Kurosaki was confident.
Judging by the Reiatsu Grand Fisher was giving off, it was nowhere near her level.
Her strategy was guaranteed to work.
And just as Masaki was thinking that—
she suddenly realized, in shock, that her body had gone weak.
The power inside her was rapidly vanishing.
The Reishi would no longer obey her at all.
Masaki panicked.
For a Quincy, being unable to control Reishi meant having no combat ability whatsoever.
And the Hollow had already leapt right in front of them.
What was she supposed to do now?
In her panic, Masaki could only turn and throw her arms around Ichigo, using her own body to shield him from the Hollow's attack.
It was the final instinct of a mother.
And Ichigo?
When had he ever seen anything like this?
The Hollow's hideous appearance and the terrifying Reiatsu pouring off it had left him utterly frozen in place, unable to move.
The only thing Masaki could still do was cover Ichigo's eyes—
so that he would not have to watch her being torn apart in front of him.
Yes.
Masaki had already given up.
In that instant when she turned away, the Reishi inside her began vanishing faster and faster. She didn't know what had happened.
She only knew that she and her son were likely going to die at this Hollow's hands.
Masaki closed her eyes and prayed.
Prayed that the Hollow would spare Ichigo.
Prayed for a miracle.
A sharp whistling sound cut past her ear.
The death that should have already arrived seemed to have been delayed.
Masaki turned her head.
She saw that one of the attacking Hollow's claws had been pierced by a gigantic arrow glowing with red light. The creature was clutching its wounded hand in pain, already twisting around to flee.
Grand Fisher could not understand what kind of attack had struck it.
Its defenses had offered no resistance at all.
It had been pierced as easily as if it were made of paper.
But true to a Hollow that had invested all its talent into baiting prey and running away, it did not waste even a moment dwelling on the arrow.
That single shot was enough to tell it that it could not defeat its opponent.
It didn't even bother checking who had attacked.
Its first thought was simply to turn and run.
Then three more shrill whistles sounded beside Masaki.
Three more arrows struck in succession, pinning the Hollow's four limbs firmly to the ground and stopping its escape.
Gremlin Mechanism Arrows.
A technique that rapidly fired a sequence of anchoring arrows. Each arrowhead was wrapped in spiraling red flames, giving them tremendous piercing power. They were usually used to nail an enemy in place.
Seeing that the immediate danger had passed, Masaki turned and looked behind her.
On the bridge behind them stood a figure that wasn't very tall.
That silhouette seemed oddly familiar.
What drew Masaki's attention most was the enormous longbow in his hands—one almost as tall as he was.
The bow itself looked like white bone, while the string was made of red energy. It even had a guard attached, faintly decorated with touches of red.
A Quincy?
The thought had only just flashed through Masaki's mind when she heard the voice from across the bridge.
"Get down!"
Without thinking, Masaki threw herself and Ichigo flat to the ground.
In the next instant, a blazing mass of red fire the size of a millstone roared over their heads.
From the sharp, pointed form at its front, she could vaguely tell that it was another arrow.
The red arrow smashed through everything in its path and flew straight toward the pinned Grand Fisher.
Nothing blocked it.
The giant arrow pierced the Hollow completely, and the red flames burned away its remains, breaking them down into Reishi and scattering them back into the world.
Crimson Dragon Tornado Arrow!
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