the sand

Ichigo begins the day by countering his father's ambush and thanking Yuzu for breakfast before heading to Karakura High. In class, Keigo enthuses about a show called Bad Shield that Ichigo does not recall discussing, while Chizuru and Tatsuki squabble over a love test involving Orihime. Slipping away, Ichigo reflects that reality reshapes itself each time sun and moon meet, yet his own powerlessness never changes. He finds a bloodstain at the foot of a telephone pole, where an elderly Plus tells him a boy's spirit is already gone, and he offers a toy plane in vain before leaving it there. After looking in on the Dead Girl and comforting her, he greets Sado and concludes that if fate is a millstone, people are the grain crushed within it, which leaves him yearning for the strength to shatter it and protect those he loves.

Ichigo passes through a normal school day among his friends. He confronts his inability to save every wandering soul. An elderly Plus reveals a boy's spirit has vanished, leaving only blood. Ichigo reflects on fate as a millstone and wishes for a blade capable of breaking it.

The "side-A" half of a paired bonus chapter in Volume 23 (MALA SUERTE!), it sets Ichigo's introspective mood against the looming Arrancar threat. Episodes 109 and 227 draw on it. Featured characters include Ichigo, Keigo, Mizuiro, Orihime, Chizuru, Tatsuki, Uryū, and Sado.