A World of Heroes

A fanfic

He kinda wished Kon would stop oogling at the woman, especially when the stupid wanna-be was in possession of his delicate, innocent teenage body. If it were any other time he would have gone and smacked that perverse mod soul in the head, but right now he was a bit busy dealing with eight plus thirty Hollows and he didn't think he'd have to time to do that and save the world.

He guessed he was kinda lucky the woman was here.

Short red skirt flapping, ribbons swirling, jewelry flashing, and high heels shining, the woman pulled from out of thin air a flaming bow and arrow. She yelled something, Flame Sniper, and let the blazing arrow sail through the air and straight into the neck of a hollow. The hollow was engulfed in flames. The woman was already moving on to the next one.

Kon was nearly crying with joy. There was a perverted look on the mod soul-possessed face that the shinigami never wanted to see again. "Ooh, Ichigo, I can see her—"

Ichigo leaped up, Zangetsu wiggling free from the cloth that wound around it, quivering in determination to get into the fight. He drew it over his head, readying for a strike, and the best strike he'd ever make. Helpful or not, he couldn't lose to some woman in a short skirt and heels.

He was just about to deliver the blow—it took a while to jump up to the height of that ugly's head, he still wasn't good at shunpo—but an arrow whizzed across his face, nearly scraping his nose and he pulled back, cursing. The arrow had already found its target, his target, which was now crumbling to ashes from the flames.

That would not do.

The woman was pulling another arrow out, when Ichigo jumped down in front of her. "Hey, you can't do that," he said, sourly. She looked at him. Ichigo had never seen such fierce purple eyes before.

"Don't tell me what I can and can't do and get out of my way before I send this at that thing," she motioned to a raging hollow, "through you." She glared up at him. A little like Yoruichi-san. Very scary.

"What the hell," he said, pissed. "First of all those are souls—"

"Dead, tainted, dirty, bitter, burned, evil, broken," she said, giving him the most adjectives Ichigo had ever heard to describe a soul. "And lost," she concluded. Then she shoved past him.

He followed. "We have to purify them!" He paused. "I have to purify them!" he corrected.

"No such thing," she said coldly, marching like a soldier. Her long maroon ribbon at her back swished almost snootily right above her hip which swayed really nicely for someone so hell-bent on killing—oh no no no. This was not a good time for stupid teenage hormones to kick in. Kon was getting to him.

He continued stalking after her. She was eyeing one of the hollows when he caught to her again. Her eyes were narrowed as she scrutinized the distance between the ugly and her.

"Anyway," he said, rounding her and stopping right in her face, forcing her to look up with those almost crazy purple eyes. "You're throwing the balance of the world off, you know. You need minus souls as much as plus souls, and if you don't purity the minus souls then you lose a lot of minus but don't get any plus and as a result the world goes to hell." He recited as much as he got from Rukia on their first meeting.

The woman eyed him. Involuntarily he tried to look as dashing and menacing as possible.

She scoffed.

"Out of my way, boy. I'm bringing love and justice to the world." She rolled her eyes. Sarcasm was heavy here.

"It's my job, and I'm going to do it!" he shouted, painfully aware of how immature he sounded as she ignored him and walked away. Still, he had never felt such a strong sense of hollow-cleansing, soul-protecting justice before. Won't Rukia be proud. "Wait," he said quickly. "Not the love and justice and world part, I meant the part about taking care of and cleansing the--are you listening?"

She wasn't. Fuming, Ichigo whirled around to confront her, but didn't get the chance as she was preparing for another attack. But the woman wasn't pulling her bow and arrow out this time, instead, with a running leap she jumped into the air.

Ichigo paused in the middle of considering to tag after her and jumping up to the hollow as well. What the hell was she doing?

"Burning Mandela!" she shouted, roared was more like it, actually. A fury of flames circled from her heels to her head, and with a sharp motion of her hands they raced through the air and circled all the hollows, roping them in.

"I just told her—" Ichigo swore, and was really about to go up there and knock her out of the air when paper charms flew out from nowhere and stuck on each of the hollows. The woman chanted something very quickly, before she glowed red. It looked like she was powering up. Like a super saiyen.

"Aku Ryo Tai San!"

The flames circling the hollows suddenly contracted and splintering into individual torrents dove straight for the paper charms on each of the hollows. There was a bright—fucking bright—light, and when Ichigo was once again not blind, the world was quiet and the hollows were gone.

That woman—

No. He paused, drawing into the world where he felt for the ribbons of each of those hollows and their current state.

They were cleansed.

"The world won't go to hell any time soon," the woman said, stepping down lightly beside him. He looked down at her, and when he did, she half-smirked, half-smiled up at him from the corner of her eyes and mouth. "You do your job right next time, boy. Don't make me come all the way over here again. That was a pretty big spiritual disruption if I felt it all the way in Juuban."

He didn't even know where the hell Juuban was, but he did say, "Thanks." His mother had taught him manners.

The woman grinned at him, almost crow-like—if that was possible.

"You're good at this," he ventured hesitantly. Sure it made him a little annoyed that he hadn't really done much but he gave credit to people who deserved it and this woman was good. "You do this often?"

She shrugged. "On and off. Not so much anymore."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." She exhaled loudly and put two hands on her hips. "Well this was a bit of fun, though." The woman looked around in smug satisfaction. "Haven't done anything like that in a while. When you're doing this job since the ripe age of fourteen, the glory of it kinda wears off."

"Fourteen, huh?" he whistled, and eyed the woman. She looked like she was in her early 20s.

"The crazy stuff we had to go through back then, you wouldn't even believe," she said, but her voice was fond.

"I dunno," Ichigo scratched his head. "I've seen my share of crazy shit."

"Hm, you've obviously never seen men transforming into women."

"WHAT."

She grinned, victorious. "The world's pretty quiet now," she said thoughtfully. "Well, not that quiet. There are lots of evil—oh man, I sound like Usagi—in business out there, but—they're not for us. Our time's passed and gone. At least for the time being."

"That so cliché," he said critically, recovering.

"I said," the woman glared, "Usagi."

As if that explained everything.

Then she said, "It's a world of evil, but also a world of heroes. Don't really have to be the super, either, see. You know you're one when you're doing your job, and you're passionate about it. You remember you're one when you're fighting to protect and there are people you love and wrongs you want to right no matter what it takes." She smiled fondly at some memory years back that he could never know. Then she looked at him, and he looked back. She said, "Think about that, when you're suddenly thinking 'why the hell am I doing this for.' Maybe you'll be able to answer."

Ichigo wondered if he was a hero.

"Anyway, I should get going," The woman swung her arms and massaged her neck and arms. "Usagi called for a Sailor Reunion and I sort of took this distraction as an excuse to get out of it for a while. She'll flip and maybe even cry if I don't show up eventually."

"Thanks again," he said. And it was for more than just cleansing out all the hollows, as knowing he didn't take part in it kinda hurt his pride.

"No problem. It's all for love and justice, boy," she said grinning. Ichigo didn't get the point she was trying to make by repeating that line. Maybe it was a job requirement? But he did nearly gag at the cliché-ness of it, and only stopped because she gave him a look that dared him to make fun. It was scary. So instead he cleared his throat and nodded at her.

"See ya."

"You won't," she said mildly, but with a smile. And then she left; a red streak in the sky.


Author's Note: I don't own Bleach or Sailormoon, and I also don't know what the heck Aku Ryo Tai San's real purpose it, but for the sake of the fanfic let's say it cleansed the Hallows 3