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Thoughts
SUMMARY: Six months after Ichigo becomes a full shinigami, Harribel leads the remaining Arrancars against the seireitei. As various battles wage across the seireitei, can the shinigami hope to stop the Arrancars, especially when the Arrancars make an attempt to reach Aizen? Sequel to Kill for You (which you should read first or some of this won't make sense)
WARNINGS: ByaIchi, RenjixRukia, violence, explicit yaoi
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Bleach, it is the property of Tite Kubo
It had been a year since Ichigo had graduated high school and left the World of the Living and six months since Ichigo had become the fourth seat of squad 11. He had taken some leave and come to visit his family and friends, who were all in Karakura as the summer holidays had started a few weeks previously. Renji had decided to come as well, taking some leave for himself, and both had gotten gigai from Urahara. They were now sitting around the living room in the Kurosaki house, discussing what they had been up to.
"So, what's it like living up there?" Keigo asked excitedly.
"It's okay, I guess", Ichigo replied. "Not really much different than here."
"Well, it's a little different up there than down here", Uryu corrected, pushing his glasses up his nose. "Plus your life is probably very different compared to ours and how yours used to be."
"I doubt you've stopped fighting Hollows", Ichigo said, looking at Uryu. "You have your Quincy pride and everything."
"No, I still fight them, but I do so around college and work. You spend all day training, I imagine."
"Yeah, I guess so", Ichigo responded, smiling. "What's everyone else up to?"
"I'm still at the dojo", Tatsuki replied. "Full time, but today's my day off. How's fashion school, Orihime?"
"Oh, it's amazing, you want to see some drawings?"
"Sure." Ichigo rolled his eyes slightly as the two girls looked over Orihime's poorly drawn images.
"I guess you don't really have to be able to draw to do that work then", Renji commented, only to be hit be Tatsuki when Orihime starting crying slightly.
"It's not like the drawing part matters anyway", Uryu noted. "Isn't the actual clothing more important?"
"Uh huh", Orihime nodded, still sniffing slightly. She looked at Uryu gratefully.
"Well, our college is amazing?!" Keigo almost shouted. "And there's loads of hot girls...you sure you don't want to join us, Ichigo?!"
"I'm sure", Ichigo responded. "Besides, now that I'm a full shinigami my body is a soul, so I'd need a gigai, and I couldn't stay in one for several years to do college. And, like I said a year ago, there's no college course in fighting Hollows."
"And Captain Zaraki is hardly going to let you leave, not to mention Yachiru", Renji added.
"You joined squad 11?" Chad asked.
"Er – yeah, sort of", Ichigo replied.
" 'Sort of'?" Renji repeated. "You're the fourth seat!"
"I'm surprised you ended up in that squad", Uryu said.
"Well, I doubt Kenpachi would have given me much of a choice, when I turned up there having chosen them, he, Yachiru, Ikkaku and Yumichika were plotting on how to get me to join, even though Yamamoto had ordered that I shouldn't be influenced."
"You got to choose your own squad?" Orihime asked curiously.
"Yeah, well, apparently some of them wanted me and some didn't, and all the captains ended up arguing about it, so I got told to choose for myself. After all, academy graduates aren't normally already known by all the captains."
"I guess it makes sense", Orihime mused. "You did want to fight all the time after all."
"I still want to know how you got Captain Kuchiki to agree", Renji grumbled.
"Captain Kuchiki?" Mizuiro repeated.
"He's Rukia's older brother", Chad revealed, realising what Muzuiro was trying to ask.
"Yeah, and I still don't get how you got him to agree, or is the sex that good?" Renji continued. Ichigo flushed bright red, while everyone else turned to look at him.
"You're – um – dating him?" Orihime asked.
"Sort of – er – yeah", Ichigo mumbled, still blushing. What are they going to think about me? he asked himself, glaring at Renji. I was always worried that they wouldn't want anything to do with me once they found out I was gay.
"Oh well, I guess we know why Asano-san's promise of hot girls at college didn't do anything for you", Mizuiro commented, pulling out his phone to check his messages.
"Well – er – there are hot guys as well", Keigo attempted.
"So you didn't join his squad?" Tatsuki asked.
"No, I figured I shouldn't be dating my captain, so I joined Kenpachi's squad instead. Besides, I'm at his house a lot anyway, and no-one seems to mind if I come and go from the squad 6 barracks."
"What about Rukia?" Uryu asked.
"We've known for a while", Renji replied. "I didn't realise you guys didn't." He looked at Ichigo apologetically.
"Are you and Rukia dating?" Orihime asked Renji.
"Er – yeah", he replied, blushing as red as Ichigo had been a few minutes previously.
"How's that going?" Ichigo asked, determined to move the spotlight off himself. However, before Renji could reply, there was a noise from the kitchen.
"Sorry, just dropped something!" Yuzu called to them.
"When did the two of them get back, I thought they went for groceries?" Ichigo muttered, wondering how much they had heard.
"We got back a few minutes ago", Karin stated, coming into the room. "So, does Dad know that you're dating Rukia's brother?" Ichigo groaned slightly, his eyes closing and his head dropping to his chest. "I'll take that as a 'no'", Karin continued. Yuzu came into the room as well.
"Sorry, it's all fixed now", she said, smiling at everyone. "So, what's it like being in a relationship with –" she started to ask, but was interrupted by:
"Did I hear that my son has gotten himself a girl?!" Isshin almost shouted in excitement, jumping into the room. "You'll have to bring her here, so I can...see her!" Ichigo groaned again, realising that his father had come across from the clinic.
"Shut up you pervert", Karin said to him, kicking in the stomach. Everyone watched as he flew back to hit a nearby wall, sitting there afterwards mumbling, apparently to Masaki, about how their children hated him. Karin rolled her eyes. Before Yuzu could ask Ichigo again, his and Renji's soul phones beeped, detecting a Hollow nearby.
"I've got it!" Ichigo said quickly, using a soul candy to jump out of his gigai and running out of the house.
"Should we go and help?" Orihime asked.
"I think he wanted an excuse to leave", Karin noticed.
"Yeah, but he still might need help, that was a real alarm, right?" Yuzu asked, looking at Renji.
"Yeah, it was, but I'm sure he'll be fine, no need to rush", Renji replied, remembering his bed six months ago, how he'd returned to find that Ichigo and his captain had used it for...certain activities. And that's the most I want to think about that, although I do know Captain Kuchiki still has a problem with me and Rukia, even now...
"Well, why don't you tell us about you and Rukia instead?" Orihime suggested.
"Er – yeah, perhaps we should go and see if Ichigo needs help", Renji said, not wanting to discuss his relationship any more than Ichigo wanted to talk about his.
Outside, it hadn't taken Ichigo long to find the reason for the alarm, as the enemy was close to their house, just up in the air – and it wasn't just any Hollow either.
"Well, Kurosaki, you look different. Won't stop me from beating you though", was snarled at Ichigo.
"Grimmjow", was Ichigo's only reply, acknowledging the former sixth espada as he grabbed the hilt of his zanpakuto and pulled it off his back, taking a fighting stance.
"What, no bankai?" Grimmjow replied, pointing his own sword towards Ichigo. "I want you to take this seriously – so I'll wait for you to use your bankai and put on that little mask of yours."
"No mask any more", Ichigo said in reply. "I don't have the powers I had before which gave me the mask."
"Well, the least you can do is use your bankai!" Grimmjow shouted before he attacked Ichigo. Ichigo easily parried every shot the blue-haired male aimed at him, the expression on his face suggesting that it was taking little to no effort to hold back the former espada.
"What do you want here?" Ichigo asked. "Your purpose before seemed to be following Aizen's orders – what do you want now that he's imprisoned?"
"You think all I can do is follow orders?!" Grimmjow shouted back in anger. "It makes no difference that I was told to come here and fight you – if I knew you were here then I would come just so I could get to fight you again, Kurosaki!"
"So you were ordered here then? By who?" Ichigo asked. Grimmjow didn't respond, instead pushing out his hand towards Ichigo and firing a cero blast. However, it didn't reach Ichigo, who had used Getsuga Tensho to prevent the cero blast reaching him, easily slicing through Grimmjow's attack with only his shikai. Grimmjow growled in anger, before smirking at Ichigo and entering his Resurreción form.
Ichigo relented to Grimmjow's repeated requests: "Bankai", he said quietly, his outfit changing and his sword becoming thinner and black.
"Finally!" Grimmjow shouted at him, before attacking Ichigo, trying to cut him with the blades protruding from his forearms. Ichigo parried the hits, although Grimmjow seemed to be winning, and after a few direct hits he managed to knock Ichigo down to the roof of a nearby building, a cloud of dust rising from where Ichigo had landed.
"Kurosaki-kun!" Renji, Orihime, Uryu and Chad had turned up, having left not long after Ichigo, and it was Orihime who had shouted. The four of them were standing on another nearby rooftop. Chad activated his Fullbring, both arms changing, and Uryu drew his bow. Orihime stepped forwards as well.
"Don't", Renji said, merely looking towards the dust cloud obscuring Ichigo.
"He's probably hurt", Orihime said, looking at Renji. "We need to help, he obviously can't do this on his own."
"Trust me", Renji continued, his eyes still fixed on the other rooftop. "You don't get in the middle of a fight involving a member of squad 11 – they're just as likely to attack you for thinking that they needed help. Ichigo may not be quite as bad as the rest of them, but he can win here." As if in response to Renji's words, a jet of lightning shot out of the dust cloud, hitting Grimmjow and knocking him down onto another rooftop. The dust cleared to reveal Ichigo still standing. A small amount of blood trickled down his arm from a cut at his shoulder, and he also had a few scrapes, but he was otherwise fine.
"He can use kido?" Uryu asked.
"You have to know a certain amount to graduate from the academy", Ichigo replied, jumping over to the rooftop which the other four were standing on.
"And you just happened to decide to use the one Captain Kuchiki prefers?" Renji joked. "Hado number four, Byakurai?"
"Shut up Renji", Ichigo said, turning back towards where Grimmjow had landed. He jumped up, standing in the air over Grimmjow. "What are you doing here?" he asked Grimmjow. "Who ordered you here and why? Even if you did come just so you could fight me again, if someone else ordered you here then there must be something else going on." Grimmjow didn't respond, just grinned at all of them, particularly Ichigo. He continued to grin as a Garganta opened above him, a column of light coming down to surround him.
"Damn it!" Renji said. Ichigo glared as well.
"Is that –" Chad began.
"Negación", Renji finished for him. "The same thing Aizen, Ichimaru and Tosen used to get out of the seireitei when they betrayed us. He's already gone, we can't get to him."
As the five of them watched as Grimmjow was taken back to Hueco Mundo, both Ichigo and Renji's soul phones beeped again.
"Is it another Hollow? Or worse?" Orihime asked. Ichigo answered his phone and put it to his ear.
"Yeah, Renji Abarai's here with me. Whatever it is, I can tell him too." The other four looked as Ichigo's eyes widened, hand clenching the phone tightly. "I see. We're on our way", he said, closing the phone.
"Kurosaki-kun?" Orihime asked.
"What is it?" Renji added.
"We have to go back now", Ichigo responded. He turned to look at the other four. "The seireitei has been attacked."
"By who?" Renji growled.
"The Arrancars – I guess that's why Grimmjow was here, as a distraction...people are dead, Renji, we have to go. Now."
"We can keep an eye on what's going on here", Uryu said. "We can always get Urahara to contact you if we need to."
"Sure", Ichigo agreed, as Renji opened the senkaimon for them. "I'll send a message when I can, or come back, to let you know what's happened." He waved a quick goodbye to the three of them, as he and Renji jumped in, returning to the seireitei.
"I hope everything's okay", Orihime said, looking at the senkaimon even as it closed.
"They'll be fine", Uryu said. "We should go and tell the others that Ichigo and Renji had to go...perhaps we shouldn't say why, at least not in front of Yuzu and Karin, we don't want to worry them. We should also take their gigai back to Urahara." Chad nodded his agreement, before the two turned to go back to the Kurosaki house. Orihime looked into the sky for a moment, at the spot where the senkaimon had been, before turning as well, realising that the three of them could only wait for Ichigo to send a message. She hoped that not too many people were injured or dead.
A/N - Please read and review!
Next Chapter - The battles in the seireitei that were happening while Ichigo fought Grimmjow!