A Cage For The Beast

What would happen if someone had the power to control Ichigo Kurosaki one of the most powerful shinigami? What would happen if they could use him against us all?... Will monster and master learn to work with one another against the woman who seeks to destroy everything they love?

Chapter 1

I tapped my pencil onto the desk three times. There was something satisfying about the tick tick tick it made. I was finding it hard to concentrate on school. Being a part time Shinigami made it difficult to even stay awake in the day. I started to wonder what it was like for the kids around me, what their normal lives were like. Was mine so different? Was being this other being really like just having a job? Something I should deal with, something that needed to be done?

I sighed. Don't get me wrong I like being a shinigami and all, but sometimes it can be a pain. I was up most of the night dealing with a rampaging hollow. I needed my sleep. I may be able to go out of body and be in soul form but that doesn't mean my body gets to rest. Sighing again I stared at the board upfront, the other student's heads lingering on the edge of my vision. I had no idea what the lesson was about and it didn't seem worth the effort to figure it out now. I wasn't always like this, I wasn't always so lazy. But today is just one of those off days.

Thankfully the bell chimed and the sound of thousands of chairs clattering and scraping screamed out around the building. I got up slowly stretching my arms on the way. I really was tired; I hadn't been this tired in a while. And it wasn't as if the hollow was hard to deal with, it wasn't as if, I wasn't powerful enough to stamp it out. It was easy to end, it just liked to run away before I could do it.

"Kurosaki-kun?"

I looked down to find Orihime smiling at me. Her large grey eyes never left my face as she worked out what mood I was in. I found it strange that Orihime could do this. Sure I was glaring but I always glare, she's always able to know what mood I'm in just by looking at my face, and my face doesn't give that much away.

"Rough night?"

"Yeah, annoying hollow." I muttered as I collected my things into my shoulder bag. There wasn't much to collect so it didn't take long.

I flung the bag over my back grabbing it by the handle.

Orihime was fidgeting, her fingers were winding through one another, and then she started twisting a strand of her long auburn hair.

"ermm I know your tired, but I was wondering if you wanted to come out with us, me Chad and Ishida, were going to go to a little café, its new, so I thought it might be nice to go there"

She looked down this time seeming embarrassed by something. I was tired she was right, and I could do with going home and sleeping my grumpiness off, but why did she have to look so scared to ask me something so simple? I had no choice really, not with the way her eyes screamed "I'm sorry for asking"

"Sure"

Her head popped up along with a beaming smile.

"Great, meet you out front I'm just collecting a few things from my locker" And she was off. I looked around to find all the other students had left as well, so I walked out the classroom and down along the sunlit corridor.

It was the hot season but around four the warmth seemed to leave somewhat and there was always a nice cool breeze in the air. Despite the heat I had a white shirt on with my light jumper over the top, the heat didn't bother me much anymore, probably because I got use to it with all the training.

I descended the last couple of steps and pushed open the double doors. The court yard looked great in summer. The grass was longer, fuller and greener. The tree's bloomed and even the dusty dirt path shined in the sun's rays.

Up ahead Ishida and Chad stood next to each other. There wasn't another pair with a bigger contrast. Ishida was skinny with pale almost sickly looking skin and short but dark hair. Chad was so very different. Very tall and largely built with muscles upon muscles, his longish brown hair covered most of his face in tangled curly waves. His skin was darker which I suspected was the Spanish blood in him, and it made Ishida look like a ghost.

I heard footsteps behind me as Orihime joined me, she kept her eyes in front but a slight smile played on her light rose lips.

"Hey" I said to the others. Chad nodded, but that was a normal response for Chad.

"Kurosaki" Ishida said while turning and we followed him out of the gates.

Orihime and Ishida struck up a conversation about the summer term. We would be off soon which didn't really bother me, I wasn't excited about it, but I guess it did mean I got some much needed sleep. I was trying to latch onto their conversation but my mind kept wondering. It just wasn't my day today. I didn't know if it was just me being tired either, I felt a little strange. Like my brain was sort of fuzzy, like when you have a head cold and your ears go muffled.

"Apparently they sell really great milkshakes" Orihime clapped her hands together and rubbed them as if she couldn't wait. I laughed.

"So kurosaki, did you get that one last night then?"

"Get that one?"

"The hollow I sensed, it was biggish but I thought you could deal with it on your own"

"Yeah it was fine"

"It took you a while though"

My glare spread harder and deeper onto my face. Ishida liked to wind me up, and I guess I liked doing the same to him.

"It kept running away that's the only reason why it took a while" I snapped shoving my hand into my pocket and trying to ignore his smug expression.

A while later we made it to the new Café. It was a small little place cramped between two other stores but even on the outside I had to admit it had a certain charm about it. It had a little wooden door which had been painted red. My guess was it was painted red before it had been turned into this new café because the paint was pealing along the edges. The sign above the wall of windows read Café Rojo in funky block letters. I didn't need to know Spanish to know that that meant red.

We walked inside. And my guess about it being called red must have been right, because the colour was everywhere. The tables were metal and shined silver, but the chairs were all red, all different styles, some arm chairs some straight back chairs, a lot of them odd, but every one coloured a deep shade of red. The walls were white but covered in posters pictures and paintings, it took me a while to even figure out one poster was of a band I liked.

We walked to a round table in a far corner, the chairs were great big puffy arm chairs the red leather faded in some areas, but they were incredibly comfy. As I plopped down into one I knew I liked the place already. It didn't matter even if the food and drink was terrible, the place just had a great atmosphere. Which surprised me because it was quite empty apart form a few couples dotted here and there. A waitress came over from the bar her hair was brown and pinned up in spikes on top of her head. Her lipstick was red, shocking red, and she had high wedge sandals to match. The rest of her uniform was black apart from the little bit of writing above her breast which read Café Rojo and a logo which looked to me from here, like a red feather, but I wasn't sure.

"What would you like?" She asked us smiling.

"What milkshakes have you got?" Orihime got straight into it, her eyes wide with excitement I couldn't help smiling at her. Red lips handed her a menu and she took seconds to browse through it.

"Chocolate and banana milkshake please!" Red lips noted this down on a small note pad and looked to Chad and Ishida. Ishida ordered a coffee, chad ordered a coke. Her eyes turned to me and for some reason they went a little wide. Maybe it was my hair. I often got that reaction from people who had never seen me before, after all it is pretty strange to see bright orange natural hair colour on a Japanese boy.

"And what would you like?" She smiled. Her mouth was small and her lips thin, but the lip stick sure made her look shocking enough. I liked her though, she had a kind smile and I could tell by the way she dressed that she had a loud personality.

"Strawberry milkshake please" She dotted this down and swept off.

"WOW this place is nice!" Orihime was looking around her eyes going from one poster to the other.

"Oooo look Orange Range will be playing in this part of town soon"

"I saw that poster before" I remarked. "I like them but I haven't heard them live"

The simple chatter stopped as we were all too comfortable just taking in the room. It was probably one of the quirkiest cafes I had stepped into. There are plenty of strange cafes in Japan, all with strange themes, but this one was rustic yet modern.

Red lips retuned with our drinks on a tray, she placed them down leaving mine for last. When the glass clunked onto the metal table she gave me a look. I wasn't sure what this look was, I thought at first maybe she didn't like me, maybe I had looked at her funny, but her eyes were telling me something else, like she was looking into my soul or something stupid like that, like she knew who I was, she knew I was a shinigami, but then her eyes broke contact and that feeling vanished. I shivered as she walked away. What the hell was that about? The others hadn't noticed they were two busy drinking. Ishida sipped his hot coffee and started talking to Chad about some exam. Orihime had drunk half her milkshake already.

"Careful there really cold you'll get brain freeze" I warned her while taking a sip of my strawberry milkshake. It was great, not too sweet but not to milky just how I liked it. And not watery as well thick like milkshake should be.

"Yours is good then?" She asked as she clutched her head in pain.

I couldn't help laugh. "Told you to be careful"

We spent an hour in the café talking and just soaking up the atmosphere, the chairs were so comfortable I didn't want to get up again but I was late for dinner so I pushed myself up. We walked outside and Chad and Ishida said their goodbyes and walked the opposite way.

"Want me to walk you home?" I asked Orihime.

"No, no, that's fine, it's not far from here don't worry"

"You sure?"

"Yes its fine, thanks for coming today, ermm, see you tomorrow" And she walked off and I watched her hair bounce on her back. Why did she always get so flustered around me?

I was about to start walking myself when the waitress from before caught my eye. She was putting a bag off rubbish into a dumpster, as she turned she spotted me. She didn't move, just stayed there staring. I got this strange vibe from her, and I had no idea if it was good or bad.

She motioned for me to come to her. Her finger curling, beckoning me.

Normally I wouldn't, but for some reason my feet walked on their own and before I knew it I was standing right in front of her. And I started to panic, I felt strange, I didn't remember telling my feet to walk. I tried shaking myself mentally so I could snap out of it, but I was frozen into place. It wasn't a scared frozen though, that's the thing that bothered me, I was happy to be standing there.

"Hello my little hollow" She smirked, her red lips curving upwards.