"Hey, are you okay? My name is Kurosaki Ichigo, what's your name?"
The boy was quite confused by the situation, but he answered unconsciously.
"My name is Ryouma... Kurogane Ryōuma."
"You have a nice name," I say as I start moving the corpses.
"Kurogane, can you help me move these bodies? You made a mess with these guys," I say in a calm tone.
Ryōuma was a little stunned by the composure of the boy who was younger than him.
"Don't talk nonsense, who are you and why do you seem so calm?" Ryōuma's voice sounds quite cautious and a little angry as he points one of the two katanas in his hands at Ichigo's face.
"I already told you, my name is Kurosaki Ichigo," Ichigo replies as he begins to pile the bodies in a corner.
"And as for why I'm so calm, that's simple, this is the seventh time I've done this tonight," Ichigo turns and looks Ryōuma Kurogane in the eyes.
Ichigo's piercing gaze and murderous intent frightened Ryōuma, and he unconsciously lowered his sword abruptly.
"Who are these people and why did they kidnap us?" Ryōuma asks.
"If you're not going to help me, I don't have time right now for long explanations."
"I'll answer your questions when you wake up."
"Beatrice."
Ryōuma Kurogane's expression froze for a moment.
"What do you mean by—" Ryōuma's words were cut short in an instant as he suddenly fell asleep.
Ryōuma's two katanas dissipate into points of light as he falls to the ground.
A girl with golden hair in two drill-shaped pigtails suddenly appears next to Ichigo.
"Ichigo, why are you bothering to talk to this boy?" Beatrice asks Ichigo as she watches him extend his shadow to teleport the children to the library. "Beatriz, don't say that, after all, he's the first child I've seen who awakened his inherent spiritual [device] equipment without training," Ichigo replied with a slightly cheerful tone.
"Whatever, just finish quickly, we have many places to go tonight," Beatriz complained slightly.
Ichigo smiled without saying anything and, using Shunpo, gathered all the bodies, forming a small pile of corpses.
"It's ready, Beatriz, it's your turn."
Without a word, Beatriz burned the corpses until nothing but ashes remained.
"Let's go."
A teleportation circle enveloped the two of them as they continued rescuing children from other countries.
The next morning.
9:00 a.m.
In the Library of Knowledge.
In one of the library's rooms.
"I'm so tired," a lazy voice came from under a blanket.
Suddenly, the door opened, and a girl with golden hair in two drill-like pigtails entered.
Without a word, Beatriz pulled the blanket off Ichigo, who was lazing around.
"Stop being lazy and take care of those noisy children," Beatriz complained with a pout on her face.
"Huh? They're already awake, but the sleep magic should have kept them asleep for at least 48 hours," Ichigo complained as he got up with dark circles under his eyes.
After all, Beatriz had used her spiritual power to teleport them all over the world.
The exhaustion was quite considerable.
"That's for ordinary people; all these children have spiritual potential and are about to awaken, so the spell will lose much of its effect," Beatriz explained, clarifying Ichigo's confusion.
Ichigo put his feet on the floor as he got out of bed.
He was wearing the Shinigami's shihakushō: an absolutely black kimono, with a pure white kimono underneath.
Ichigo put on his white socks and then his traditional Japanese sandals.
He grabbed his Zanpakuto, Zangetsu, and placed it on his back. "Come on, Beatriz, did you find the universal translation spell I asked you for yesterday?"
"Yes, I found the right one for large crowds a few minutes after returning yesterday," Beatriz replied as they walked down a white corridor.
"Ah, that's quite good, we won't have any communication problems with the foreign children."
"I already created a barrier in the room where the children were; the children haven't stopped talking and crying."
"Good, thanks for the trouble, Beatriz, but it was a problem for the little ones."
"Hmm, of course, but the three children you brought earlier are quite depressed."
"Why, what happened?" Ichigo asked curiously.
"Well, they think they're dead."
"Ah, maybe that's because, after all, the last thing they remember is the ceiling falling on them."
Upon hearing Ichigo's words, Beatriz showed no emotional reaction.
After all, Beatriz was born about six months ago; her empathetic emotions aren't very strong.
After a few twists and turns, we arrived at a room with about 247 children.
Upon entering the room, the children aged 8 to 10 fell silent, but the younger ones continued to cry.
"ICHIGO! You're alive, wow!" Suddenly, a girl's voice rang out in the room, even louder than the crying.
A girl with gray hair ran towards Ichigo.
Without a word, Ichigo caught the girl who jumped into his arms.
Nia began to cry in Ichigo's arms.
Ichigo stroked Nia's head and said, "Quiet, Nia, everything is alright, don't cry." Ichigo's voice was gentle.
"Ichigo! You're alive, where have you been?" Nasa's voice sounded a little tearful.
Looking up, Ichigo saw Nasa and Shuuko walking towards them.
"I was rescuing these children from some kidnappers."
"But I'll tell you the details shortly," Ichigo replied to Nasa.
As for Shuuko, well, she was still stunned by the death of her last remaining relative, her grandmother.
Nasa, being very aware of the situation, stepped aside without a word.
The five of us went up to a high platform on the second floor.
"Nia, can you let go of me for a moment? I need to talk," Ichigo said softly in Nia's ear.
At first, Nia was a little hesitant, but in the end, she let go.
"Beatriz, can you cast a spell of calm and mental clarity on everyone?" he whispered to Beatriz.
Suddenly, two enormous magic circles appeared above everyone's heads, disappearing in about five seconds.
Suddenly, the entire room fell silent.
"Ahem! Good morning everyone, my name is Kurosaki Ichigo and I'm from the country of Japan."
Ichigo's voice reached everyone effortlessly.
"You might be a little confused by the current situation."
"All the people here are from different countries, I suppose that's quite obvious from the slight differences in their facial features."
For some reason, the people in this world are quite similar to each other.
It's not like in Ichigo's previous life, where you could tell someone was a foreigner by their facial features. It's like in anime, where the anime characters look alike even if they're from different countries.
Except for the Chinese, for some reason they're quite similar to those from Ichigo's previous world.
So it's quite easy to recognize them.
"You're probably wondering why you can understand each other's words, well, it's simple."
"We're using universal translation magic in this room."
"And yes, magic exists in this world."
Ichigo stopped talking for a few seconds and then said:
"And the reason you're all here is simple, you were all kidnapped by foreigners, more specifically, the Chinese."
"If you have any questions, you can ask now."
For a few seconds, no one spoke, everything was silent.
About 45 seconds later, a boy took a few steps forward.
It was Ryōuma Kurogane with the group of children from the same warehouse and a few others who had joined him here.
"I have some questions," he spoke with conviction in his voice, revealing his future leadership temperament.
"Ask away, I can answer any question," Ichigo replied.
"I know those Chinese people kidnapped us because I killed most of the people who kidnapped us."
"But I want to know why they kidnapped us and for what purpose," Ryōuma Kurogane asked.
"That's quite simple, as you may have noticed, you can summon two katanas out of thin air, right?"
"Yes," Ryōuma replied as he materialized two katanas.
"What you have in your hand is called inherent spiritual equipment, or to simplify, [devices]."
"Devices are weapons manifested directly from the soul of some humans."
"And the reason they kidnapped you is even simpler."
"It's to erase your memories and make you soldiers for their Chinese nation, and at the same time weaken the military power of other countries."
Most of them took a deep breath at the information.
"So everyone here has the ability to awaken a device?" Ryōuma asked.
"No," Ichigo replied simply.
"Why?" most of them asked. "That's simple, everyone here has spiritual potential, which means they can possess spiritual power."
"But that doesn't mean that everyone can awaken devices."
"For a person to awaken a device, it has to be an innate talent from birth and cannot be acquired later."
"I understand, I have two more questions."
"Go ahead."
"How did you know about our kidnappers and our locations?"
"That's simple, my friends and I were about to be legally kidnapped under the pretense of being sent to an orphanage, but I overheard that it was actually to take us to China and erase our memories."
"And how I knew about you is quite simple."
"This place where we are is a library that contains all the knowledge of the world's past."
"It also has a real-time search engine for any information that could significantly change the world in the future."
"I understand, my last question: does the death of my parents have anything to do with the people who kidnapped us?"
"That's right, all the relatives of the people in this place were killed by the Chinese for only one purpose: you."