Chapter 1: The Meet-Que
"ICHIGO!" Keigo screamed wildly as his friend walked into the class room. He ran in front of him with his arms out for a hug.
"What do you want?" the tall orange haired teenager asked staring down at his brunette friend. Keigo just stood there with his arms still out and Ichigo just looked at him. Finally he decided it wouldn't hurt to give him a man hug, he had been gone for about 4 months now. First he looked around the room and noticed there were only a few students in the room minding their own business. Awkwardly he leaned in and Keigo jumped on him causing him to lose his balance and fall backwards.
Fortunately for him some one large was behind him and caught the two before they went crashing to the ground. Ichigo and Keigo both looked up to see the towering figure of Chad. Keigo's eyes began to swell with tears and he jumped off of Ichigo and looked at Chad and then to Ichigo. "You guys were gone away with each other," he cried, "You always go off and do stuff together for months at a time!"
"Asano, please stop crying," the black haired Mizuiro came up and grabbed Keigo from behind as Keigo tried to fight back.
Keigo ripped out of Mizuiro's grip and faced him tears still streaming down his face, "STOP BEING SO POLITE, have we not been friends since we were five?"
Mizuiro laughed him off and turned to face Chad and Ichigo, "Welcome back."
"Thank you," Ichigo scoffed walking over to his desk and sitting down. He took a deep breath; it had been so long since he had been in school. It really didn't feel like he should be there any longer, he had grown up. He only be 16, but he was already more mature and experienced then most of the kids in his class. With the exception of a few of course, the brave few who have been by his side for so long now.
Outside he watched as Inoue and Rukia met up with Tatsuki in the front of the school. Tatsuki all but tackled them both and then it looked almost as if she was scolding them both. Ichigo had to laugh Tatsuki's heart was in the right place but she was always so tough.
Ichigo felt a familiar reiastu walking into the classroom and he turned to see Ishida grumpily walk in. Ishida stop only for a moment and looked at Ichigo before making his way to his own desk. He was so glad everything was finally over, Aizen was dead and everything had been returned back to normal. He was a little upset but he knew that eventually another enemy would arise. "Once you defeat one, another more stronger will show up and try to out shine the last. War is never ending." The saying kept repeating in his head but he couldn't remember exactly who had said it.
By the time he was done thinking the whole room was full and his teacher was up at the front making some weird remark. He didn't know what possessed his female teacher to say the things she did, he just assumed it was because she was a woman.
By the time lunch came Ichigo spilt into his group of friends he always used to sit with a lunch. They were all eating on the roof when he got the sense someone strong was close by. He looked over the edge of the school and saw a man in a green uniform down on the street in front of the school gates. The man had slicked back black hair and his hands were in his pocket. Ichigo watched as the man just started at the gate and then looked up, and almost seemed like he was looking directly at Ichigo.
"What high school has green uniforms?" he turned back to his friends and they all just started at him.
"Well the Sarayashiki Junior High School has green uniforms, not any high school I know of has green," Mizuiro said as they all looked at Ichigo strangely, why did he care? That school was in the next city over.
"I see," Ichigo said before he ran over to the group of girls on the other side of the roof top. "Rukia, lets go," he said and she looked up at him.
Her large eyes betrayed annoyance at her friend and she didn't know what to say to him. Finally she decided it must be important and she sighed and excused herself from the group and followed Ichigo to a spot where no one would hear them. "What is it?" She asked about ready to smack him unless it was something good.
"Didn't you just feel that reiastu?" He said and she thought about it for a second and then looked back up at him. "I felt it and then I pin pointed it to this kid wearing a green uniform. He is from Sarayashiki Junior High School, we have to go follow him," he said and Rukia just looked at him.
"I didn't feel anything," she said and he grunted and took off after the kid himself. Rukia didn't want to follow, she didn't know what he was talking about. She decided who ever it was he could handle it on his own. She crossed her arms and watched Ichigo leave the school grounds. She turned back and the cheery red headed Inoue was standing next to her watching him run as well.
"Where is Ichigo going?" Inoue asked looking at Rukia with a sad look on her face. She always hated it when they kept secrets from her. She liked being included, was she not an important part of their team?
"He said something about feeling a strange reiastu and some junior high schooler," Rukia said as she watched Ichigo disappear. "He should be fine by himself though."
As Ichigo ran he could sense the kid with the very strong reiatsu, almost stronger than his own. Finally he spotted him and the kid saw he was after him and started to run away. He was fast Ichigo had to admit but he had flash step on his side and in a second he was standing infront of him. The kid stopped and Ichigo noticed he wasn't a kid but almost a man, he looked to be almost 17 or 18 years old, then why was he wearing such an old uniform?
The man smiled and ran his hand over his hair and then stopped once he reached the back of his head. "Hello," he said in a friendly voice, "I was hoping you wouldn't catch up to me until we were somewhere more secluded but I guess this will do."
Ichigo changed into soul reaper form and his body fell out behind him. He placed his hand on the hilt of his sword. "Who are you?"
"The names Yusuke Urameshi, spirit detective," he said bowing, "Nice to meet you."
"Spirit detective? What squad are you from," Ichigo said defensively, he had never heard of a spirit detective before.
"Actually I'm not from a squad, I am a detective in direct contact with Koenma," Yusuke smiled, he loved telling people he was employed by the guy under the big guy. "I usually don't deal with Shinigami and the soul society actually I just recently found out about it, and it seems very interesting," Yusuke said and Ichigo wasn't ready to let his guard down just yet.
"What is your job exactly?" Ichigo asked, maybe he was sent there to kill him or something horrible.
"I kill demons," Yusuke laughed, "And no they are not the same as hollows, I'm talking like demons that you learn about in school."
"Demons?" Ichigo was shocked, ever since he learned about hollows and wholes he just assumed demons were hollows but the human's name for them. "I've never seen any," he spat out and Yusuke took the hands out from the back of his head and put them in his pocket.
"I see that I'm doing a good job then. You know we really were never supposed to mix, detectives and shinigami, but I don't really follow the rules," Yusuke was getting very excited, he almost wanted to test this kids power. The last time he was in Koenma's office he found a file on the Shinigami and soul society. He always thought his friend Botan was the only kind of shinigami, but botan was very weak compared to this guy in front of him.
"What do you want?" Ichigo couldn't believe this, was this guy just pulling his leg? He wondered if Rukia knew anything about these detectives, probably not.
"Nothing, I just wanted to see what kind of powers you had," Yusuke took his fighting stance with his arms out to each side of him, whatever was thrown at him he was ready for it. He had no idea what he was up against but he was sure he could beat him. "I can tell your spirit energy is the largest in the area."
Spirit energy? What was this guy talking about did he mean reiastu? Ichigo reached for his sword attached to his back and the bandages around it unraveled. He wondered what kind of powers a spirit detective had, maybe this would be interesting after all. He felt another person with high reiastu off to the side but he ignored it and looked straight at Yusuke.
Yusuke pointed his finger at Ichigo and was ready at any moment, until he felt her spirit energy. "Go away brat," he called to the person off in the bushes.
"Yusuke what the hell do you think you are doing?" a girl with medium length brown hair came out of the bushes. She was only about 5 feet tall but she had a very studly demeanor about her. "Who the hell is this? He doesn't look like a demon, nor does he feel like one. Are you trying to fight a human?" She walked coyly over to the two men and stood in the middle of them looking at Ichigo. "What are you boy?"
"What am I? What the fuck are you?" Ichigo asked angry that their fight had been disrupted. He was actually eager to fight Yusuke to see what he was made of.
"Name's Rika Gato, now it is your turn," she said studying him closely. She walked up to his sword and looked as if she was admiring it.
"Ichigo Kurosaki," he said watching her and moving his sword away when she reached out to touch it. "Are you a spirit detective as well?"
"Why yes I am," She said smiling and backing away from him. "Unfortunately me and Yusuke are the only ones left, all the others had other shit to do."
"There's only 2 of you? How many where there before?" He was losing his will to fight for the moment but he knew that he was in for another wild adventure.
Rika put her finger to her mouth in thought and then she looked back at him, "Well altogether I would say like 5." She looked sadly back at Yusuke, yes it was now down to them 2. "How many are in your group?"
Ichigo stopped he really had to think about it, did she mean his general group or the whole soul society? He assumed she meant his general group, well he thought, there was Rukia, Inoue, Chad, Ishida, and most times Renji so that was about six including him. "I say 6 in my main group."
"See now don't look so surprised when I say there was only 5 of us," she said walking back over to Yusuke. She was so small, smaller than even Rukia, Ichigo thought. She was midget size but with the proportions of a normal person. "I believe there was a different reason that Yusuke sought you out other than what he told you," she said looking at Yusuke who was staring off into space. She elbowed him and he snapped back into the conversation.
"I guess, we were just wondering that if we ever need help that there was somebody else out there, you know? Somebody who had our backs," he said putting his hands back in his pockets and kicking at the dirt. "I just wanted to see that if you know when we leave that there will be some strong people put in our places."
"What makes you think that I will be put in your place?" Ichigo didn't know what else to say, were they planning on dying any time soon?
"Because you are like me, you just met up with the Shinigami before you had a near death experience," Yusuke said remembering how he died saving the kid and getting messed up in this whole thing.
"I've had plenty near death experiences," Ichigo said almost to defensively. He decided it was safe to put his guard down and he placed his sword back on his back.
"He meant in your real body, when the soul society finally say they don't want you then Koenma will be after you," Rika said wanting to smack the ignorant bastard. "Your only a year older then when Yusuke became a spirit detective."
"How did you become one?" Ichigo looked at her, there was something strange about her. She didn't really seem like a human, she had a evil reaistu around her.
"Well, you see, I'm a demon, but after I met Yusuke I wanted to use my powers for good. Plus 2 others who had already joined him were demons," Rika said slyly letting her true personality begin to slip through. She started to purr and all of a sudden started to change. On top of her head cat ears appeared and behind her a tail whipped back and forth. Her nails grew longer and pointer, and her teeth turned into fangs. "Of course this isn't my true form, but it's the one I use to fight," she smiled liking the stunned look on Ichigo's face. "You see Gato means cat in Spanish, like it?"
"So you're a demon? I-," Ichigo was stunned, how could these demons be flying under his radar for so long? They must be all around them and he couldn't even feel or see them until now. He began to feel other reiastu's around the area that felt like hers, he was stunned at the amount. The thought came to him again, "Once you defeat one, another more stronger will show up and try to out shine the last. War is never ending." He wished he could remember who had said it. This was his next obstacle, demons like this one before him, but not her directly, she was on his side. Well he hoped they were on his side, they did have similarities.
"Anyways, think about it, and if you are interested or want to just learn more, we stay at an apartment building just around the corner. I'm sure you will be able to sense our spirit energy now, so you can find us," Rika said taking Yusuke's hand and they ran off into the forest around them.
Ichigo merged back with his body and headed back to his house. School would be out soon and Rukia would meet him back there later. He had so much to think about, what was he going to tell Rukia?
A/n: Like it, I just finished watching the bleach episodes that are out and subtitled so far. I figured it was almost like Yu Yu Hakusho so I'm sure this idea has been done before, but I didn't see anything when I did a little skimming so, I hope you like it.