This is a Filer Chapter
***
Ichigo Kurosaki was having a bad night.
It started with Gojo Satoru showing up out of nowhere, flashing that stupid grin like they were best friends. Then, before Ichigo could tell him to get lost, Gojo had dragged him halfway across Japan, muttering something about a "disturbance" between their worlds.
Which was how Ichigo found himself standing in front of a very haunted-looking shrine in the middle of nowhere, regretting every life choice that had led him here.
The place was wrong.
The shrine, nestled deep in a dense forest, looked like it had been abandoned for centuries. The wooden beams were rotting, the roof sagged as if it had exhaled its last breath, and the entrance was draped with a tattered shimenawa rope that had snapped in multiple places—like something had chewed through it. A thick, unnatural fog clung to the ground, swirling around their feet like it had a mind of its own.
No wind. No sound. Just dead silence.
Even Ichigo, who had seen his fair share of nightmare fuel, felt a chill creep up his spine.
"So let me get this straight," Ichigo muttered, staring at the decayed structure. "You dragged me out here because something's messing with both our worlds?"
"Yup," Gojo replied cheerfully, adjusting his blindfold like this was just another fun outing.
Ichigo pinched the bridge of his nose. "Could you at least pretend to take this seriously?"
Gojo hummed. "Nah."
Ichigo exhaled through his nose, fists clenching. "You're the worst."
"And the strongest," Gojo said, giving him a thumbs-up.
"Not helping," Ichigo growled, but before he could continue berating the sorcerer, a pulse of energy rolled through the air.
A wrong kind of energy.
Thick. Clawing. It pressed down on them, curling around their throats like unseen fingers.
Gojo's smile faded instantly. His posture straightened, and his six eyes flickered beneath his blindfold. "There it is," he murmured.
Ichigo tightened his grip on Zangetsu. "This isn't just a Hollow. Or a curse."
"Nope."
The shrine creaked.
Then, from within the darkness—
Something laughed.
Not one voice. Not two.
A chorus of distorted, broken voices, overlapping, whispering, giggling—too many at once, all out of sync, all wrong.
Gojo took a step back. "...Okay, I'll admit—that was kinda creepy."
Ichigo exhaled sharply. "We're going in, right?"
"Obviously," Gojo said. "But, uh… maybe you should go first."
Ichigo scowled. "Coward."
"Strategic thinker," Gojo corrected.
Then the shrine breathed.
The wood groaned, the doors creaked open, and a wave of cold air rushed out—too cold. The kind of cold that didn't just brush your skin but sank into your bones.
Ichigo squared his shoulders. "Alright. Let's get this over with."
And with that, they stepped inside.
The second they crossed the threshold, the doors slammed shut behind them.
"Classic haunted house move," Gojo said. "I give it a solid 8 out of 10 for execution, but minus points for originality."
Ichigo ignored him. He was more concerned with the darkness.
Not just dark. This was something deeper, thicker—like ink, like the very concept of light had been swallowed. The wooden hallway stretched far longer than it should, warping in impossible ways. The walls breathed, expanding and contracting, as if the shrine itself was alive.
Then came the whispers.
Low, murmuring voices skittered along the walls, slipping into their ears in fragmented pieces. Some laughed. Some cried. Some begged.
"Y'know," Gojo said lightly, "I've fought a lot of creepy stuff, but this? This actually sucks."
Ichigo shot him a glare. "Finally taking this seriously?"
"Oh, no," Gojo said. "I'm just acknowledging that I'm definitely going to have ghost nightmares after this."
Before Ichigo could respond, the floor beneath them split open.
With a sharp crack, the wood collapsed, revealing an abyss filled with writhing, shadow-like hands, clawing upward.
"Yeah, nope." Gojo grabbed Ichigo's sleeve and warped them to safety in an instant.
Ichigo stumbled as they reappeared in a different part of the shrine. "A little warning next time, jackass!"
"Sorry, did you want to fall into the endless pit of grabby hands?" Gojo asked innocently.
Ichigo glared at him, but before he could retort, the temperature plummeted.
The walls cracked, bleeding a black, tar-like substance. From the shadows, something shifted.
A shape.
A thing with too many limbs, its body twisted as though it had been broken and reassembled wrong. Its head lolled to the side, its mouth stretched wide, jaw unhinged like a snake's.
And then—
It screamed.
Not sound—pure agony.
The entire shrine shook.
Gojo, for the first time, flinched.
"Okay," he admitted, rubbing his ear. "That was actually unpleasant."
Ichigo didn't waste time talking. He moved.
Zangetsu sang through the air, striking the entity—
But it didn't cut.
The blade passed through like mist, as if the thing wasn't truly there.
It laughed.
"Yeah, I don't like that," Ichigo muttered, jumping back.
Gojo cracked his neck. "Alright, my turn."
His hand twitched—Limitless activated. The space around them distorted, and his energy surged—
Then the thing spoke.
"Ohhh... the bright one... the strong one... but even the sun must die."
Gojo's energy snapped.
For just a split second, his power faltered.
A fraction of a moment. Almost imperceptible.
But Ichigo saw it.
Gojo saw something. Something worse than this thing. Something that made even him hesitate.
Then he grinned, sharp and bright. "Nice try."
His technique roared back to life.
Ichigo didn't know what the hell that thing just did, but he was done playing around.
He raised Zangetsu. "Bankai."
The shrine shuddered.
Their combined power flooded the air, and for the first time, the entity recoiled.
"Not so scary now, huh?" Ichigo taunted.
The thing twisted, its head turning a full 180 degrees.
Then it lunged.
What followed was twenty straight minutes of nightmare fuel.
Doors vanished. Hallways looped. Every time they tried to leave, they ended up back in the same damn room. The entity wouldn't die, and worst of all—
Gojo actually tripped at one point.
"Shut up, I meant to do that," he grumbled as Ichigo yanked him back up.
"Yeah, sure," Ichigo said, "next time try tripping in the opposite direction of the screaming nightmare monster."
Gojo sighed. "You're so ungrateful."
Eventually, after way too many close calls, they figured it out.
The shrine was alive. It fed on energy. On souls. On them.
So they did the one thing it didn't expect.
They stopped fighting.
They cut their energy output to zero, giving it nothing to feed on.
And just like that—
The entity collapsed into dust.
The shrine groaned.
Then the doors burst open.
Gojo stretched. "Well! That was fun."
Ichigo just walked away without a word.
"You're mad," Gojo called after him. "Want a crepe?"
Ichigo flipped him off.
Gojo laughed.
But as they left, neither of them mentioned the fact that the shrine was still breathing.
(End Episode.)