Revised 1/9/2019
Ichigo hid behind the pillar, panting. He couldn't believe how stupid he was, getting caught snooping around in places he shouldn't be. Quickly glancing around his soundings, he ran to one of the doors on his right, slipping into what appeared to be a very large, and empty, office. As soon as he shut the door behind him he let out a sigh of relief. He needed to get a message to Grimmjow, needed to let him know that his cover-no, their cover- was blown. He began reaching for his phone, but a voice behind him stopped him short.
"Well well well... What do we have here?"
Ichigo immediately stiffened and turned around slowly. This was the last person he wanted to run into at the moment. His mind was blank, he had no idea how he was going to get himself out of this one. Looks like his luck had finally run out.
"Shit."
6 months earlier
There was an annoying buzz coming from the messenger bag strapped across Ichigo's right shoulder. Ichigo groped through his bag, pulling out his ancient orange flip phone. Without even checking the caller I.D he flipped it open and answered.
"Hello?" Ichigo stuffed the hand he wasn't using in his jacket pocket, walking calmly down a populated street.
"It's me." His steps faltered slightly, eyes widening a fraction before quickly recovering. He hadn't heard that voice in a long time.
"It's been awhile since I've heard from you… What is it this time?"
"You have a new job." Ichigo nodded to himself, already knowing he would say that.
"When, where, and who?" There was a slight pause on the other line and his eyes narrowed in suspicion.
"This will be a little different…you'll need to come in to be debriefed. Oh, and you'll be having a partner on this one." At that last part Ichigo bit his lip to prevent some few selective words from slipping through his mouth. He was never good at working with a partner.
"What?" Despite his efforts, his voice was still tight with anger.
"Now, now, 15, calm down. Your partner is one of the best! Don't worry, he'll keep up and out of your way… you won't even know he's there!"
"For his sake and yours, you'd better hope that's true…" Giving up on controlling his temper, Ichigo didn't hold back his anger and he let it drip and coat every word. Gulping could be heard on the other side of the phone before it was shut, ending the call. Ichigo just didn't have the patience anymore to deal with his boss's antics.
"Penny for your thoughts?" Ichigo looked up from where he was glaring at the ground, surprised that someone had spoken to him, he didn't exactly look friendly. In front of him was a tall man with pink hair- yes, pink. People gave Ichigo shit for his orange hair, but there was no way pink was a natural color. Ichigo looked into the man's dull yellow eyes and couldn't help but shudder. There was something wrong about that gaze, something unnatural.
"Sorry, I've got somewhere to be. Maybe another time." 'Yeah, as in maybe never you fuckin' creep'. As Ichigo walked quickly away from the strange man, he heard him chuckle and mutter something quietly. He was too far away though to make out what was said. Shrugging it off, he continued down the street, he had a meeting with his boss after all.
The man chuckled as he watched the orange haired man walk away. Oh, it would be so much fun breaking him. He couldn't wait.
"We'll meet again soon, my little strawberry."
It wasn't too much longer after the run in with Mr. Creepy that Ichigo found himself walking up the old crumbling steps of a sweets shop. If Ichigo wasn't so used to the steps already, he probably would have tripped due to the poor state they were in. Ichigo sighed, 'no wonder the old coot didn't get many customers! It looked like an abandoned building where shady people did even shadier business in… well the shady business part is at least partly true…but that's beside the point!'.
Ichigo slid open the door, calling out a hello before heading for the basement that was hid underneath one of the tiles in the storage room. He walked down another flight of stairs before entering into a dimly lit room. Flicking his wrist in a slight wave, Ichigo sat down in front of the prehistoric chalkboard. It was a wonder that a chalkboard still existed in this century, and that the boss even used it, considering how tech savvy he is. Although who was he to judge? He still used a flip phone. Ichigo sighed, thinking about how old fashioned the nut case was at times.
"So, when's this 'debriefing' going to start?" Said nut case just waved his hand, seemingly dismissing the question.
"Soon, soon! Once 6 gets here, we will begin." Ichigo slouched down in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest and mumbling about not needing a partner. Out of the corner of his eye, Ichigo could see his boss smirking. Ichigo scoffed at him and closed his eyes. He might as well catch a little nap waiting for this 'partner' to show up. It was only a few minutes since closing his eyes and Ichigo could sense a hand nearing his face. He was instantly awake and with lightning fast reflexes he grabbed the offending appendage in a death grip, a deep scowl spread across his lips, eyes still closed.
"Try that again and you lose that hand." Without even looking, Ichigo could tell the unknown man had a giant smirk upon his face. Not letting go of his hand, he opened his eyes to take in this new person. He was tall, even while slightly bent over…he must have been at least 6' 4". He also had a bulky build, not one you'd normally see in this kind of work, it was too noticeable. Guessing this man was the partner boss man had spoken about, Ichigo immediately glared at him and dropped his hand, crossing his arms back over his chest. Trying his best to ignore him, Ichigo looked back over to the blond..
"So, can we start now?" Kisuke clapped his hands together, walking in front of the chalkboard with a baton like object in his hand.
"I assume you already know this 15, but this is 6, your new partner for this mission." He gestured to the blue haired man now seated beside Ichigo, but he still didn't want to acknowledge his presence. Ichigo instead focused purely on the information about to be presented.
"Do we really need to use numbers here? It gets kind of annoying ya' know…" Kisuke laughed a bit.
"I guess that's true… Alright then! Alex," he motioned to Ichigo, "this is Jack." then to Jack. Ichigo nodded. "Jack, this is Alex." Kisuke stared at the two, seeming to see something they obviously didn't.
"Okay then, that should about cover it! Now, let's start this meeting." He slapped his pointer next to some jumbled words, clearly written in his chicken scratch like penmanship. He suddenly turned serious, getting down to business as he started to explain the mission. There was a large picture taped to the chalkboard. Ichigo recognized it, it was Los Noches Inc.
"Jack, your first job is to keep watch of the perimeter..."
The pair both nodded as he gave each of them their jobs and in what order they were to be done in. 'It sounds relatively easy so far, so why did I need a partner? And who is our hit? We were usually given that information at the beginning of a meeting, if there even was a meeting…'.
"Hate to interrupt, but who's our target?" Kisuke twisted the pointer in his hand in a somewhat nervous manner, making Ichigo's eyes narrow in suspicion. He was about to question him again when the blond man spoke up.
"You see, this is what I meant earlier when I said this mission would be different, it's also why Jack's your partner. You are to infiltrate Sosuke Aizen's company and steal this." He then pointed to the only other picture on the board. He was about to explain just what it was that we were supposed to steal when Ichigo couldn't help but blurt out his thoughts.
"Wait, what?! We're stealing something?! But why? I'm an assassin! A-SSAS-SIN! I kill people, not steal… well unless I'm killing the person I'm stealing form… Still! Those missions are rare!" Kisuke sighed and rubbed his forehead.
"I knew this would happen… Just sit tight and let me finish explaining. You can yell at me afterwards if you still feel it necessary." Ichigo nodded and relaxed back into his chair. Oh, he would certainly feel it necessary to yell at the boss man later.
"Continuing on, your job is to steal the Hogyoku, a very dangerous weapon that Aizen, the leader of the most notorious Yakuza currently in Japan, plans on using to take control of all of Japan, and from there, the rest of the world… it's your classic bad guy wants to take over the world and the hero's must swoop in to save the day!" Ichigo shook his head at the man's antics. He would never change would he? Always the eccentric one.
"So why-" Kisuke cut the question off abruptly.
"-is the Hogyoku so dangerous? The Hogyoku, meaning orb of destruction, does literally that. It breaks down the atoms in any type of matter to its simplest elemental form, giving it the ability, for example, to reduce a twenty foot solid steel wall down to a pile of iron and carbon dust in seconds. Although this may seem a simple enough item to steal, it's not. No, your mission isn't to kill anyone, however, there will be plenty of guards and the like to take out, and Alex, that's where you come in. Your main job is to take out the guards before they even catch wind of what's happening…this is why I'm pairing you up with Jack here, our best thief! What a pair! The best assassin and the best thief, this mission is sure to be a success if it's you two!" Jack and Ichigo glanced at each other, slightly reassessing earlier assumptions. 'That explains his bulky build…'
"So, I cover for him while he gets the item? Sounds simple enough…" Kisuke nodded, turning serious again.
"Yes, as I said, it sounds simple, but this mission will be very tricky… Aizen will most likely be expecting someone to come and steal it, so there are bound to be many traps. In fact, this all may be a diversion and it may not even be there… That's the first part of your job, Alex. This mission is to start in one week's' time. Alex, I don't care how you do it, but find out if the item is where it's said to be because if it's not, this mission will be postponed until further notice. Understood?" Both nodded.
"Alright then, you're both dismissed! Get to work and be ready to go in one week!" Ichigo stood up and stretched his arms far above his head, letting out a big yawn. It must've been ten o'clock by now with how long they've been down in the basement. Ichigo finished stretching and let his arms fall, relaxed, to his sides before looking to his new partner. He was still seated in his chair, staring off into space. Ichigo decided he'd try to at least be a little friendly and give the guy a chance; he was a world class thief after all. Bending down a little, Ichigo poked his shoulder.
"Hey, the meetings over ya' know… We can head home now." He seemed a little startled by Ichigo's intrusion. "If you're going to keep up with me on our mission make sure you don't zone out like that, or it'll be your head." Ichigo glared at him, without even doing anything, the blue haired man just rubbed him the wrong way… Maybe he wasn't so different after all. A giant grin broke out onto his face as Ichigo continued to glare at him full force.
"Don't stress 15, it's bad for your complexion." His grin turned into a smirk.
"Stay out of my way or you won't have a complexion to worry about." Ichigo didn't bother to hear his retort; he turned his back to him and walked up the stairs and out of the shop. There was so much work to be done and only so many days to do it.
