Ichigo felt like he was being sucked up into the abyss. "No!" Yuji shouted, "We gotta help him!" "Forget it," Shana said, "There's no way. It's already too late for him." Meanwhile something odd was happening to the puppet. It was inflating like a balloon. "H-hey, Mask," it said, "Somethin's not right! This guy's got way too much Power of Existence in 'im!" He exploded, and Ichigo came out of the puppet's body, coughing and wearing a black robe. "Dammit!" he said, "That guy almost sucked the energy out of me!" Yuji was surprised. "I didn't know Ichigo was a Flame Haze," he said. "First I've heard of a Flame Haze with a giant cleaver and hair like that!" Shana added.
"He's not a Flame Haze," Alastorsaid, "I don't sense a Crimson Lord with him. Still, there's something odd about him…" Ichigo then got up. He picked up an axe—no, wait, Yuji thought, that was a sword—and pointed at the mask. "Okay, creepy-face," he shouted, "You're next!"
"I can't believe it," the mask said, "Another Flame Haze?" Ichigo sighed. "I know you're not gonna believe this, but before now I've never even heard of a 'Flame Haze'! Name's Ichigo Kurosaki, Substitute Soul Reaper! The one who's going to kick your ass! How's it going?" He leaped at it, and broke it in two with his sword.
"Nooo! No fair!" A voice called from behind him. Ichigo whirled around to see what appeared to be a skeleton. (Note: His voice sounds like Imperfect Cell's) "You've destroyed my puppet!" the skeleton said, making fists and waving his arms up and down. Ichigo just stared at him. "Oh—oop! P-pay no attention to the skeleton behind the puppet!" the skeleton said, hiding behind the smoldering remains of the giant puppet. Ichigo was confused. Was this some kind of Hollow? "Hey, what the hell are you?" he said, looming over the skeleton. "Aaah! Please don't hurt me!" the skeleton said, screaming and begging. Ichigo was beginning to get annoyed. "Are you some kind of Hollow?" he asked, putting his hand on his sword, "'Cause if you are, you're awfully wimpy for one." The skeleton got on his hands and knees.
"I don't even know what a Hollow is!" he shrieked, "Please lower that big scary sword of yours! I'll tell you everything! My name is Skeleton Joe, my boss's name is…."
"Shut up, Joe," a deep voice with a mobster accent, "Yer givin' up vital information!" Ichigo turned around to see...a floating person in an Al Capone-style outfit, but ridiculously short, even more so than Skeleton Joe, who barely reached Ichigo's knees. "What the hell?" he said, barely containing his laughter. "Oh, a wise guy, eh?" the tiny mobster said, angered, "I got my goons over here to take care of ya!" At that point, a giant, muscular, ebony-skinned man walked up to Ichigo and looked down at him. Ichigo smirked. "Oh, come on, dude," he said, sighing nonchalantly, "I don't even need my Bankai for you!"
Shana couldn't take it anymore. "I've had enough!" she said, angered, "I've seen enough of what that guy can do!" She jumped down from the top of the building. "Shana, wait!" Yuji shouted, then sighed. "No point in talking her out of it, is there?" he said, shaking his head.
Just as Ichigo was about to give this big guy a Getsuga Tensho he'd never forget, he saw the girl from before jump down from behind the Crimson Denizen. Her hair turned flaming red, and she took out a katana and sliced the giant in two. "Hey!" Ichigo said, "I had that one!" "Shut up and stay out of my way, strawberry bastard!" Shana retorted. "Those guys are gone anyway." Indeed, Joe and the mobster had left. "I have just one question for you," Shana said, "Who the hell are you anyway?" She put her sword to Ichigo's throat. "Now, hold on a minute, girl," an irate Ichigo said, his eye twitching, "That's what I should be asking you!" he shouted, repeating the action to Shana. Both were ready to cut the other's head off at a moment's notice, until Yuji finally jumped down. "Cut it out, you guys!" he said, getting in between them, "Ichigo, mind explaining who you are, and why you have that ridiculously humongous sword?"
"Fine," Ichigo sighed, "A while back, I met a girl named Rukia Kuchiki, who was a Soul Reaper," he said, taking out a book. "Soul Reapers come from the Soul Society," he said, flipping through the pages so Yuji and Shana could see them (unfortunately, they were Rukia's drawings) "I became a Soul Reaper when Rukia gave me her powers. In this world, there are two types of spirits, which Soul Reapers deal with. Their mission is to 1.) Find "good spirits," called Wholes (he gestured to a rabbit-shaped drawing), who look like humans, and pass them on to the afterlife via Konso, and 2.) Stop "evil spirits," called Hollows (gesturing to the bear-shaped drawing), who wear skull masks and eat the Wholes. We pass both types of ghosts on to the Soul Society in order to keep the balance between the two worlds. Any questions?" Shana raised her hand. "Why do your drawings suck?" she asked. "They're not my drawings, you little brat!" Ichigo shouted, holding her up by the antenna as he did before. This time, however, instead of kicking Ichigo in the balls, Shana punched him in the face. "That explanation didn't make an ounce of sense!" she added. "Okay, what about you guys?" Ichigo said, getting back up and nursing the bruise. "This is the first time I've been inside that all-red whatever-it-is!" Alastor sighed. "Fine," he said, "I'll tell you. Hopefully my explanation won't be as confusing as yours." Ichigo's left eye twitched. "Oh, yeah? And what the hell are you?" he said, shaking the pendant which Alastor's voice came out of. Once again, Shana punched him and knocked him down. As Yuji helped him up, Alastor went on with his explanation. "Besides this world and the Soul Society you spoke of, there is the Crimson World," he said, "It's home to Crimson Denizens, which are what you just saw today. Some of our kind, the Crimson Lords such as myself, bond ourselves with Flame Hazes, such as this girl here, to stop the Denizens from consuming the existences of humans to protect the balance. It's essentially pretty much the same as what you do." "Oh, okay," Ichigo said, "But what happens if the existences are already eaten?" "I'll show you." Shana said, snapping her fingers. Suddenly, everything changed back into the way it was before the Denizens appeared, with no damage and everyone who was eaten returned to normal. "These guys are Torches. They're built to replace the people whose existences were destroyed so the two worlds don't get an imbalance by hundreds of people dying all at once," Shana explained, not even bothering to look at Ichigo.
"Wait, replace? Are you sure you can do that?" Ichigo said. "Of course!" said Yuji. "They're made from the original existences of their counterparts. I'm a Torch, and Torch or not, I'm still Yuji Sakai. In other words, I'm the same person as the original Yuji Sakai because I don't have any identity other than that." "You can tell if someone's a Torch if it has a flame in its body," Shana went on, "Go on, take a look." Ichigo looked. Indeed, everyone around him seemed to have a light-blue flame in their body.
"Wait a second," he said, "Why'd you say 'it' like they weren't even real?"
"Because they aren't," Shana said, folding her arms. "Torches aren't living. They just have existences."
Ichigo was starting to get angry. "I'm not sure I agree," he said, "If they exist, then they're alive. That's all there is to it. I mean, take a look at that guy," he said, pointing to a small blond boy, barely twelve. "I know him. His name's Timmy. He has a lot of friends, but he's really shy and he doesn't speak much. I know him because he came to the Kurosaki Clinic to treat a breathing illness he was born with. Are you saying he's not real?" Shana sighed. "Just watch. See his flame?" Ichigo looked more carefully, and saw that Timmy's flame was really small. "Hey," he said, "It's so small!" "That means he's about to vanish." Shana said. "Vanish?" Ichigo asked. "Yes," Alastor explained, "Torches only have a limited amount of existence. After that period of existence is over, they vanish and leave no traces in their loved ones' memories. It's like they never even existed." Ichigo couldn't help but feel sad for Timmy then. Life had treated him so hard, and now it was finally going to end for him, with no chance of getting into the Soul Society. And his friends wouldn't even remember him! That was probably the worst part of it, he thought. Just then, Timmy and a girl vanished, and nobody even noticed. Ichigo started to get a good idea then. "And there's Takeshi Hojo," Yuji said, "I remember him. It looks like his flame's going to burn out too." Indeed, Takeshi vanished, and it was then that Ichigo realized something. How could Hirai—no, Shana—see all of that and not even shed one tear?
"Hey, wait!" he shouted, "That guy just vanished and you're okay with it?" "Of course," Shana replied, "It's only an object. It was going to lose its Existence anyway." Ichigo couldn't take any more of this girl. "You sick brat!" he shouted, grabbing her by her shirt collar. "You can't give someone a second chance by just replacing people and then treating the result like they weren't alive! It looked like you fixed everything, but you don't even care about—"
"Shut up, shut up, shut up! Ugh, you don't get it," Shana said, slapping Ichigo's hand away, "We make the Torches so the balance between the two worlds isn't damaged! That's no different than what you do."
"You're wrong!" Ichigo shouted. "I protect the living, not make a lousy job on the clean-up! These Torches are alive, and you can't just save them only to let them be ultimately annihilated later on!" he raised his sword at her. "Do you even know what losing your existence means? If you stop existing, you can't ever come back, and nobody will ever even acknowledge you! That's the worst kind of hell anyone could ever go through! If you can't fix things right, you should just protect the innocent and stop the Denizens before they eat the innocent!" He swung his sword down. "Getsuga Tensho!" he shouted. Shana dodged it. "That doesn't work for everyone!" she said, "We can't be everywhere, every time! If we did it any other way, our world and the Crimson Realm would suffer because of it!" She attacked with her sword, which Ichigo blocked. Sparks flew off of both of their swords. "Wait, Shana," Alastor said, "He's stronger than Flame Hazes. You saw how he made such short work of those Denizens, something even Margery Daw couldn't do." "I don't care!" Shana said, "He's really pissing me off!" "You should listen to your little trinket," Ichigo suddenly said in a Hollowfied voice. What am I saying? he thought to himself, I'm starting to sound just like my inner Hollow! It must be because of that Crimson Realm or whatever the hell that place was! "Bankai!" he shouted, trying to stop the Hollowfication by using a different power. Shana was blown away by this transformation. When she looked up, she saw Ichigo in a black coat and carrying a pitch-black katana rather than his cleaver-like sword from earlier. "Tensa Zangetsu," Ichigo whispered.
"Hmm," Alastor said, "That form looks very much like Shana's trenchcoat and sword. I wonder if he isn't at least based on a Flame Haze." "Forget that now," Shana said, "I'm going to tear him apart!"
"Not likely," Ichigo said, "Tensa Zangetsu: Getsuga Tensho." He swung his sword, and a pure-black Getsuga Tensho came out. Shana blocked it, but it forced her back. "Alright, Flame Haze," he said, "This is my warning: I'm making Misaki City my territory. From now on, I'll handle the balance between the worlds." He darted away.
"Dammit…" Shana said, getting up. "Who the hell does that guy think he is?" "What concerns me is his power," Alastorsaid, "He's able to call forth an extreme amount of power without effort. Coupled with his absolute hatred of our methods, he's very dangerous." "But hey, at least he's doing it for a good cause, right?" Yuji asked, trying to lighten up the mood. "I mean, of course he's a loose cannon, but…maybe he's right. I mean, I didn't like the idea of Torches losing their existences either." Shana put her sword back in her sheath. "Either way, that guy really pisses me off," she said, her hair turning back to its normal color, "Next time we meet, that bastard's gonna get it!"
