She didn't know how much time had passed.
Kurosaki Masaki felt like she had passed out three times, and when she woke up the fourth time, she finally didn't feel that crushing pressure.
'It should be over, right?', Kurosaki Masaki thought in slight panic.
Honestly, she had never experienced anything that lasted this long.
Surely it couldn't be that Hollows had some natural advantage in this area.
Right now all she could hope for was that the Hollow behind her just now wasn't too ugly, otherwise she really might want to kill herself.
"Looks like you're fully awake."
A man's voice that sounded faintly familiar came from not far behind her, and Kurosaki Masaki jerked her head around.
"It's you?"
Seeing Rosse sitting in a chair, Kurosaki Masaki completely froze.
She had imagined countless possibilities, but she had never once imagined that the one who appeared would be the Rosse she had met before.
"You... aren't you Isshin's friend?"
Kurosaki Masaki spoke with shame and fury, no longer caring whether she had exposed anything. After all, everything that should have happened already happened.
"For the record, I only met Shiba Isshin for the first time a few days ago," Rosse smiled faintly. He slowly rose from the chair, walked up to Kurosaki Masaki, lifted her chin, and let his fingers gently knead her cheek.
Kurosaki Masaki hadn't performed well just now, since you couldn't expect someone unconscious to put in any effort.
But what he did just now wasn't simply to possess her. Rosse had acted in order to save her.
Having lost her Quincy powers, Kurosaki Masaki's body had reached the verge of collapse.
Without a spirit core, if he hadn't intervened, the only outcome waiting for her would have been a slow death.
And the simplest method of gaining a new spirit core was, naturally, to create one.
Feeding her the fruit of his world counted, but he didn't want to give it so early.
Replacing it with Hollow power or Shinigami power was possible, but Rosse had no intention of using those.
He chose to use his own life force to forcibly hold Kurosaki Masaki's life in place.
His life level was far above the A rank Kurosaki Masaki. Whatever Yhwach could grant, he could easily bestow as well.
Even though Kurosaki Masaki couldn't use any of his abilities, it wasn't a problem at all for her to stay alive with the life force he granted.
"Who exactly are you? Why did you bring me here?", Kurosaki Masaki pressed her lips together, demanding answers from Rosse in ashamed fury.
Seeing that the one who appeared was Rosse, how could she not understand.
His purpose in going to the clinic might very well have been to get close to her.
At this moment, she actually felt a small sense of relief.
If he had ignored everything and made a scene at the clinic, then Yuzu and the others might have been harmed too, and that was something she absolutely couldn't accept.
"Saving you cost me quite a bit of life force. Shouldn't you be thanking me first?", Rosse said with a smiling expression.
"I'm supposed to thank you? Did you really have to use that method? Couldn't I have just drunk it myself?", Kurosaki Masaki said furiously.
"How do you know I didn't try feeding you mouth to mouth?", Rosse said playfully.
"What? Urgh!", Kurosaki Masaki felt an odd sensation in her mouth and immediately gagged dryly.
'It's over! I am completely tainted!'
'I have only heard of such things before, but he can really play like this?'
"Enough. You should understand what Yhwach took back. Without me, you wouldn't be able to speak to me like this right now," Rosse smiled lightly.
"I'm not going to thank someone like you," Kurosaki Masaki pouted.
"No problem. I don't need your thanks. Now come over and serve me," Rosse curled a finger toward her and let out a soft laugh.
"I won't!", Kurosaki Masaki tried to turn her head to the left, but under Rosse's control, her head was forcibly turned to the right instead.
She only took one look, and Kurosaki Masaki's heart trembled violently.
On the wall not far away hung a rather large photo.
In the photo, she stood gently in the center, with Ichigo, Yuzu, and Karin standing in front of her.
'This is the photo I kept in my own bedroom. Why is it here?'
"Not long ago, they held a funeral for you in the Human World. This photo was displayed at the time. I happened to see it, so I copied it here. Now, are you still going to stick to your choice?", Rosse explained with an amused expression.
"I understand...", Kurosaki Masaki felt all her strength drain away. She closed her eyes in despair and, like a walking corpse, moved toward Rosse of her own accord.
She didn't want anything to happen to Ichigo and the others.
Which meant she could only swallow the humiliation herself.
As long as Ichigo and the others didn't get hurt, she would do anything.
———
[Two Hours Later]
The radiant Kurosaki Masaki sat up, raising her hands in disbelief, looking left and right as she took in the vitality in her body.
'I actually... really recovered completely."
Right now, although she had lost most of her Quincy powers, she no longer felt that terrifying sensation of her life slipping away.
However, she had now become an ordinary human.
To regain her former strength, she had no idea how long it would take.
"What exactly happened? Why did my Quincy powers disappear?", Kurosaki Masaki couldn't help looking at Rosse, asking the question she had wanted to ask this entire time.
She still had no idea what had happened. Her powers had vanished for no reason, and she had even ended up in mortal danger.
If that Hollow hadn't shown up at that moment, she probably would have died right in front of Ichigo.
Then again, at this point she was no different from dead.
If she remembered correctly, Rosse had already said that her funeral had been held in the Human World.
Kurosaki Masaki understood that this was the explanation Kurosaki Isshin had given Ichigo and the others.
But in a way, she had indeed been given a new life.
"What happened? You're a Quincy and you have to ask me? You don't know about the prophecy regarding Yhwach?", Rosse raised a brow.
"The one about his heartbeat returning after 900 years? But wasn't that fake? And besides, we all came to the Human World. How could he still come after us?", Kurosaki Masaki couldn't understand.
She was the last of the Kurosaki bloodline, and together with the Ishida family, she had left that cold, shadowy region and returned to the Human World to build her own new home.
They had already left. Why would they still be remotely stripped of power?
"Your power's origin doesn't come from yourselves, but from Yhwach. Since it was borrowed from the beginning, when the one who lent it wants you to return it, you won't have any power to resist," Rosse said matter-of-factly.
"Then what about the Ishida family? Were they affected too?", Kurosaki Masaki thought of the Ishida family. Although she had rejected Ishida Ryuken's engagement and chosen to be with Kurosaki Isshin instead, she had been raised by the Ishida family, and they were always reasonable people. The two families had kept fairly good relations.
Thinking back to how she had felt at the time, Kurosaki Masaki couldn't help feeling anxious.
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