Walking home, Inoue's mood had improved significantly. Not only had she gotten to see Kurosaki, but more importantly, he had just offered to walk her home!
"I can't believe I panicked and turned him down. I'm such an idiot..." Recalling how she had awkwardly insisted she couldn't possibly impose on him, a wave of regret washed over Inoue. Wouldn't it have been nice to let Kurosaki walk her home?
However, thinking back on how Kurosaki had simply gone along with it and said he'd see her tomorrow, the problem didn't seem entirely her fault. In normal TV dramas, didn't one side usually offer, the other decline, and then after some insistence, the second party would reluctantly accept? Why didn't that work with Kurosaki at all?
"Why didn't Kurosaki insist a little more..."
As for the answer to that question, if Ichigo were to answer it: since the other person already said no, why force the issue? It would just make it seem like he had some sort of ulterior motive. His hair color already made it easy for people to mistake him for a delinquent; he didn't need to do anything else to cause misunderstandings.
Did any of the girls around him like him? To be honest, that wasn't even within his realm of consideration. Just thinking about the girls around him—Tatsuki could practically be considered a guy, he and Inoue weren't even on the same wavelength, and then there was Rukia, who accused him of prying into her private life just for asking where she was heading. Her guard was way too high.
Of course, no one was asking Ichigo this question, and he hadn't really thought much about it himself. After being subjected to a baffling day of special training, taking a nice, hot bath was life's true enjoyment.
Humming a tune and drying his hair with a towel, Ichigo walked up the stairs. Before he even reached his room, he saw Yuzu about to walk in. "Why are you going in without knocking?"
"Oh, you were downstairs? Have you seen my dress?" Yuzu asked, turning around. Before Ichigo could answer, she complained, "Why did you go take a bath first!"
"I already changed the bathwater, don't worry."
"That's not what I meant. I was hoping we could take one together, but I didn't expect you to already be done!"
Ichigo was thoroughly spooked by this. *'You're my sister, not my brother,'* he thought. "Are you an idiot? You're in the fifth grade, can't you wash yourself?"
"Big brother, you've gotten so cold ever since you started high school! Hmph!!"
*'So you do know I'm in high school,'* Ichigo silently retorted, having no intention of continuing this topic with Yuzu. "Says who!" As he opened his bedroom door, he remembered Yuzu was looking for her dress. "Also, I haven't seen your dress."
"Right, I'm also missing a pair of pajamas!" Yuzu demanded loudly. There wasn't a shred of doubt in her tone, only absolute certainty, as if this sort of thing had happened more than once or twice.
*'A dress? Pajamas?! Why are you asking me when you lose this kind of stuff? Stealing my little sister's clothes... do I really look like a pervert?!'*
"I haven't seen those either! Don't come running to me every time something happens!"
*'Don't treat me as the answer to all your problems. The truth is, I make mistakes too.'* Similar words echoed in Rukia's mind. *'If it were Big Bro Chōzuka, what would he do right now?'*
She was still very concerned about the wound on the calf of that girl from earlier today, Inoue. She couldn't say with one hundred percent certainty, but she was at least ninety percent sure that the injury had been caused by a Hollow.
As for why a Hollow would attack Inoue, she already had an answer in mind. She had heard that the girl had a much older brother, but he had died three years ago...
Therefore, she needed to go investigate right now. Rukia sat with her legs crossed in a leisurely posture, but her face was completely serious. If she weren't in her current state, she would have gone to investigate already. The crux of the problem was how to get Ichigo to investigate Inoue's house without him knowing the truth.
How should she trick him? For a moment, Rukia couldn't come up with any good ideas. She hadn't yet had the chance to consult Big Bro Chōzuka on the art of deception. Big Bro was right—there was no such thing as useless knowledge!
"Beep beep beep beep!" The Soul Pager went off. Had it detected traces of a Hollow? Rukia grabbed the device from her chest, quickly confirming the time and location of the target's appearance.
"Are Yuzu and Karin still playing games?" Ichigo also heard the electronic notification sound coming from the direction of the next room. *'Do they know what time it is? Still playing games!'*
Just as he was about to go teach his two younger sisters a lesson, the sound stopped. *'They must be done playing, right?'* Ichigo thought, getting ready to climb into bed, when the closet behind him suddenly moved!
"Ichigo!"
"Ah!"
*'Isn't this my room?!'* Ichigo hurriedly looked back and found Rukia wearing plaid pajamas. "When did you get in there? And you're wearing Yuzu's pajamas!"
Wait, it wasn't just the pajamas. Yuzu's dress! And that manga!!!
"Why are you in my house?!"
"We'll talk about that later, orders just came in!" Rukia's rare display of earnestness made Ichigo turn serious as well. "Is there another Hollow? Where?"
"The time and location are..." Rukia leaped down from the closet, swiftly putting on the glove capable of knocking a soul out of its body, and reached for Ichigo's head. "Right here and now!"
*'Couldn't she use a slightly gentler method to invite me out?'* Yesterday it had been an unreasonable punch. If this kept up, Ichigo felt that either his brain would get damaged, or all his hair would be yanked out!
But none of that mattered right now. A giant red hand suddenly rose from the exact spot he had just been standing on. Another Hollow had come to attack him. If it hadn't been for Rukia, he definitely would have been ambushed just now.
A mass of black hair gradually emerged from the wall above the head of the bed, looking a bit like Sadako crawling out of a screen. However, Ichigo felt that this clump of hair alone was much larger than Sadako's, and its owner was far uglier than her too!
Even though the exposed upper half of this red-and-gray Hollow looked very human, and the white mask on its face was more human-like than the Hollows he had seen before, it was attacking humans, which meant it was a monster. There was no doubt about that!
"Aim for its head!"
"Got it!"
Taking advantage of the fact that the enemy hadn't fully squeezed into the room yet, Ichigo followed Rukia's instructions and struck first. He leaped high into the air and slashed his blade down on the creature's forehead. However, the angle was slightly off. Instead of vertically cleaving the enemy's head in two, the blade sliced diagonally across, failing to deliver a fatal blow.
*'Too shallow...'* Rukia furrowed her brow slightly. Mastering a sword was no easy feat, especially a long sword; controlling the distance required even more practice. Just now, Ichigo had only injured the Hollow with the tip of the blade. Even if the angle had been correct, it wouldn't have killed the Hollow. Now, he had merely chopped off a piece of its mask. Perhaps, this might actually turn out to be a good thing...
The injured Hollow didn't fly into a rage. Instead, it swiftly retreated back the way it came, quickly disappearing from the room.
"Hurry up and chase it!" Seeing this, Rukia immediately bolted toward the window, but just as she took a step, she was stopped by Ichigo.
"What's going on?" Ichigo glanced back at Rukia. Anyone familiar with him could tell from the look in his eyes that he was already angry. "That thing just now... was Inoue's older brother..."
*'He saw it even without the mask being completely cut open?'* What kind of deception could possibly gloss over this? Probably not even Big Bro Chōzuka could fool him now, right?
After all, Ichigo had already seen the truth with his own eyes—the very thing she had always wanted to keep him from knowing, the true reason why he needed to win with a single strike.