Chapter II
-A new enemy-
The morning sun was the one which woke Shizuka up and she squinted her eyes as she looked right into the sun which was shining through the curtains into Ichigo's room. The sunrays were dazzling her and she raised her hand to stop the sun to blind her.
Shizuka turned around and hit her head against Ichigo's chin. However he doesn't seemed to be disturbed and only turned around on his back.
"Ouch." She muttered and rubbed her head as she looked at her sleeping boyfriend. It made her feeling peaceful when she looked at Ichigo and she reached out her hand to stroke through his fluffy orange hair. She was so happy to be home again, especially in her beloved boyfriend's arms. She did enjoy every moment she did spent with Ichigo and put her arms around him and was about to go back to sleep but felt then unfamiliar reiatsu and concentrated a bit to locate and recognize the reiatsu. She could feel them in the center of the town and also couldn't recognize the reiatsu but it felt like two low-class shinigami who probably have to go on patrol here. She sighed as she noticed she couldn't go back to sleep because she got concentrated and climbed over Ichigo and grabbed her clothes and took them on. When Shizuka went down the stairs she could already smell Yuzu making breakfast and got hungry.
"Good morning." She said when she saw Yuzu and the younger girl turned around and she smiled.
"Good morning, Onee-chan!" Yuzu replied. "Do you want to drink something?"
"Later maybe. Shall I help you?" Shizuka asked as she lean against the door frame.
"No, it's alright." Yuzu replied as she started to put the rice in the bowls. "Is Onii-chan still sleeping?"
"Yeah, he is." Shizuka said and saw a little, teasing smile on Yuzu's lips appearing while she furrowed her brows. "Don't even dare to mention something suggestive."
"All right, all right." Yuzu said and reached Shizuka the bowl with rice. "Could you put them on the table and wake Onii-chan up?"
"Sure thing." Shizuka replied and put the bowls on the table. As the bowls were placed on the table Shizuka went up to Ichigo's room and shook his shoulders.
"Wake up, Ichigo." She said and shook his shoulders gently but he only grunted and turned around without even waking up. Pouting a bit Shizuka then shook him harder but this time he pulled the sheets above his head. Remembering how he once squashed her when he tried to wake her up so she decided to take revenge and with a big smile she dive into the bed, nearly smashing Ichigo against the wall and it finally woke him up.
"S- Shizuka?! What are you doing?!"
"Waking you up, of course." Shizuka said and giggled as Ichigo furrowed his brows while he looked at her. But then he chuckled and tousled her hair.
"I guess that was the revenge for back then when I nearly squashed you." He said and finally moved out of the bed.
"Right. Now come down, Yuzu made breakfast." She said and was about to leave when suddenly Ichigo grabbed her wrist and pulled her back into his arms. He gave her a brief smooch on the lips and then pressed her against his chest again.
"Are you alright?" She asked worried as Ichigo slowly let got of her.
"Yeah, sure. I only needed to hug you." He said and stood up together with her while she raised one eyebrow.
"You know, I don't want to give you orders but you really shouldn't go down in your birthday suit." She said and Ichigo looked down and winced.
"Oh, right." He said and turned around to grab his clothes. Every time they had slept together after their first night together he blushed whenever he saw Shizuka or saw naked in front of her and Shizuka felt the same way but now they probably have gotten used to see each other naked. After Ichigo finally got dressed they went together down to eat breakfast.
Shizuka then heard her phone vibrating in her shorts and knew it was a message. She checked who did write her a message and noticed it was Kisuke.
"Come over, I have something interesting to show you."
Wondering what Kisuke wanted from her she ate quickly breakfast and also accompanied Ichigo to school.
"You won't return to school?" Ichigo asked as they waited for his bus.
"I think over it. I'll have to make them believe I never left. I guess Kisuke has got something for this." Shizuka said as she couldn't imagine anything to help against it aside the Kikanshinki but it wasn't made for this purpose. As Ichigo was about to ask her something she heard familiar voices behind herself and found Keigo and Mizuiro approaching them.
"Oh, Shizuka-chan!" The two said and smiled as she nodded as an answer.
"Nice to see you again." She said as she realized those two also had changed although their personalities didn't seemed to change at all.
"You didn't changed at all." Mizuiro said while Shizuka sighed. She knew she wasn't changing, after all her Gigai was a slowly aging one, in 107 years she did only age from the appearance of a five years old girl to a seventeen years old one.
"Thanks." She said with a slight grimace and couldn't help to sound ironic and offended. Mizuiro and Keigo laughed and they asked her where she had been while Shizuka didn't hesitated to tell them she was training, after all she knew Kisuke told them about everything and also got questions if she saw Rukia there.
"I didn't got to see them during these seventeen months." Shizuka replied as the bus finally arrived to collect the students. She raised her hand to see the three off and decided to return back to the Urahara Shop since Kisuke wanted to show her something.
Once she reached the Shop she slid aside the door to his laboratory.
"I'm home." She said and saw how Kisuke looked around to her and smiled.
"Hey, Shizuka-chan. Let me introduce you to my new invention to you." He said when she went over to him and sat down next to her adoptive father. He had a piece of paper with black pills in it and Shizuka furrowed her brows when she looked at it.
"What is this?"
"Special pills which can make a Bankai poisonous if it's stolen." Kisuke replied and let Shizuka take a look on them.
"You can steal Bankai?" Shizuka asked surprised and took one of those pills and looked at it.
"Yes, it seems to be possible." Kisuke raised his head and looked at her. "You probably didn't heard of the 1st Division's lieutenant's death, right?"
"Chojiro Sasakibe died?" Shizuka said shocked as she gave him the pill back.
"Yes, I heard he got killed in action. Also some hooded figures appeared in front of the Captain-Commander and made a proclamation of war which will take place in several days."
"You're kidding, right? Who would be this dumb to start a war with the Seireitei?" She wondered while Kisuke patted her head.
"Don't call people stupid you don't know." He reminded her while Shizuka frowned.
"I know, but still, a war against the shinigami?" She asked while Kisuke shrugged.
"No one knows why." Kisuke replied while Shizuka furrowed her brows, she would of course take part in the war, she was an ally of the Soul Society after all. She then felt Kisuke's hand on her head. "Don't think too much about this, I guess it's end soon enough." He said to comfort her but Shizuka only smiled.
"You might be right." She replied. "But were these pills the only invention you have made in these seventeen months?"
"Of course not. Let me show you some other inventions." He said and then started to show some other inventions to Shizuka who spent most of the day trying them out; since ever she had been small she loved it to watch how Kisuke created new things and also helped him from time to time.
After dinner she got a message from Ichigo who told her they saved two low-class shinigami from death and that they were meeting at his house so she could come over, too. She then grabbed a plain soul candy container in any case and made her way to the Kurosaki house where she could feel the reiatsu of her friends and these two she felt before.
Before she could ring the bell the door opened and she found Ichigo standing there.
"Hi." He said with a little smile and hugged her briefly and just like this morning he gave her a brief, but passionate kiss. "I missed you."
"But we did saw each other this morning." Shizuka said and reached out to softly pinch his cheek as Ichigo closed the entrance door as soon as she was inside. In fact, she also had longed to see him the whole day over, she had already wondered if she was getting dependent on the feeling having him close to her.
"We found some shinigami who were about to be killed by Hollows, I guess they're something like a replacement for Kumudayani." Ichigo said and again spelled the name of Zennosuke Kurumadani wrong.
"I see. I did feel their reiatsu this morning." She replied as they reached Ichigo's room and he let her inside.
"Hey." She said and when she saw Orihime, Uryu and Chad she smiled. Orihime immediately get up to greet her friend although Shizuka hesitated to greet her, she had got a slight dislike towards Orihime since ever she got to know she fell for Ichigo. Sometimes her jealousy was annoying her but tried to hide it and greet her. She also saw two shinigami with quite fragile bodies. The one was a girl and the other a boy and they introduced themselves as Shino and Ryunosuke Yuki.
"Replacements for that guy, huch?" Shizuka said, sitting next to Ichigo on the bed.
"Yes, they told us to gain experience here." Shino said. Shizuka saw she was clearly impressed by the fact she could hide her reiatsu completely.
"But we never knew there would be such strong Hollows here." Yuki said and then Orihime told them about the Hollows while Shizuka grabbed a can with a soft drink inside when suddenly a cold chill went down her spine and she felt a strong reiatsu close. She looked around towards the window in the moment when it went open and a man stepped inside. He had short red hair which was swept back and a mask fragment on his forehead which hid his left eye, just like an Arrancar. He was wearing everything in white and had a little smile on his lips.
Ichigo turned around and glanced up to the guy.
"I'm Asguiaro Ebern. Do you have any other questions?"
"I don't know who you are, but get off that bed." Ichigo said and squinted his eyes.
"I refuse." Ebern said but then Ichigo kicked him and Shizuka lean back and opened the window and kicked him outside.
"Who the hell was that? He looked like an Arrancar with this mask." Ishida said surprised while Ichigo only grabbed his substitute shinigami badge and turned into his shinigami form before pouncing after him.
"I guess he was an Arrancar." Shizuka said and then ran after Ichigo out of the window in order to see if he was well and to protect him if he will get injured. She followed them in mid-air until she was on the roof of a house, right underneath them. Shizuka could see Ebern having a cresent-shaped weapon which was several times bigger than his own size and also got four cannons attached to it which presumably fires blasts of spiritual energy.
"Only one of them did follow you?" Ebern asked as he looked down to Shizuka but Ichigo tried to block his sight so Ebern won't get the idea to attack her.
"Shut up." Ichigo said and swung his Zanpakuto but Ebern dodged and fired the cannons. This time Shizuka reacted and raised her arm.
"Bakudo #81; Danku!" She called and an invisible wall appeared before Ichigo and protected him from Ebern's attack. This seemingly angered the Arrancar as he used SonĂdo to get behind her. Shizuka however blocked his attack with a single palm strike.
"You're currently fighting Ichigo." She said and grabbed his face. "So end that fight first!" She hurled him then back into the air to Ichigo who nearly cut Ebern in the back but the Arrancar turned around and could avoid the slash.
"I will tell you something, Kurosaki Ichigo." Ebern said. "Use your Bankai. Otherwise you won't be able to defeat me."
Feeling it being a trap Shizuka knit her eyebrows but stayed still and didn't told Ichigo anything, she wanted to see what kind of powers that Arrancar had. He may be one of those who had killed Chojiro Sasakibe. She felt Ebern's gaze on her and only smiled crooked.
"Forget it, you're not worth it to use my Bankai against." She said and crossed her arms before her chest while in the back of her head she heard a chuckle, knowing it was coming from her Zanpakuto, Kyuketsuki no Yurei. Ebern looked angrily at her and was about to fire the cannon at her but she only reminded him to finish the fight with Ichigo. Shizuka then looked over to Ichigo who also took a glance over to her.
"You can go out fully. I'm watching your back." She said and Ichigo nodded, he grabbed the hilt of Zangetsu with both hands and released his blue reiatsu.
"Bankai! Tensa Zangetsu!"
While Shizuka was admiring how Ichigo's Bankai look also changed she noticed how Ebern raised a weird medallion in his hand.
When Ichigo fully changed into his Bankai suddenly columns of light encompassed him and Shizuka's eyes widen out of surprise.
"Sea, become clouds. Clouds become rain. Rain become mist. All things that have a shape, vanish. At the end of your joy we throw the cup to the ground."
The Bankai on Ichigo's arm broke and disappeared in the columns of light. Shizuka wondered if this was what Kisuke meant by stealing one's Bankai and she was about to call to Ichigo to change back to his Shikai but stopped when Ichigo uttered a scream as the columns of light broke. Ichigo's Bankai seemed not to be stolen, he still was in the form of Tensa Zangetsu.
"Getsuga Tensho!"
A cresent-shaped black spiritual blast came out of his Zanpakuto was was firing right at Ebern whose eyes were widen, probably because he couldn't believe that Ichigo's Bankai wasn't stolen.
"That's... impossible!" Ebern shouted as he was fully hit by Ichigo's attack and flew back, his eyes sparkled with anger. "Your Bankai should have vanished!"
Ichigo went closer to Ebern and held his Zanpakuto to Ebern's neck.
"Vanish? What do you mean with this?" He asked and squinted his brown eyes.
"He means he wanted to steal your Bankai!" Shizuka called to Ichigo. "Kisuke told me about this!"
Ichigo looked from her to his enemy who was gazing up to him with trembling anger.
"I didn't care about you at first." He then said. "But after these last five minutes I suddenly got a lot of things to do. You're coming with me."
"Shit." Was Ebern's only answer as a shadow appeared underneath him and Ichigo made some steps back, thinking it was another attack.
"Don't worry." Ebern said as he squinted his eyes while looking at Ichigo and then at Shizuka. "The shadow only hides the chosen ones." He vanished behind the shadows as Ichigo was about to grab him and the teenager hissed then.
"Shit!" He yelled and then turned around to Shizuka who was partly looking worried at him. "You alright?"
"Sure." She replied when Ichigo then jumped down until he was on the same rooftop she was standing on. "He even didn't do anything."
"That's good." Ichigo suddenly put his arms around her waist and pulled her closer to him.
"Ichigo?" Shizuka asked surprised as he pulled her closer until he was pressing her tightly to himself.
"I got worried when he attacked you." He said and then lean over to press his lips against hers and again his kisses turned passionate, he held the back of her head to press her lips more tightly against his and Shizuka closed her eyes to enjoy the togetherness for now. She somehow got the feeling she won't get to be alone with Ichigo for some time.
"That guy... he had a Quincy cross." Ichigo said as he slowly let go of her and Shizuka looked shocked at him. She remembered how her mother once talked with someone about the hidden empire called Vandenreich which was lead by the sealed king of the Quincies. Having a bad feeling about this she gulped.
"So he was a Quincy?" She wondered. "When this is going around Quincies... then let's not tell Ishida about this."
"Yeah... you're right."
With this the two jumped down from the house and went back to Ichigo's house to tell their friends what had happened.
Meanwhile Ebern reached the castle where his majesty was waiting for him to report what happened. Kneeling before him another fellow Arrancar appeared and looked at him with disdain.
"Ebern? How admirable of you to bow before me. Judging from you appearance I reckon you were a little bit impatient." He said.
Ebern raised his head, looking at disdain at his fellow Arrancar.
"You kidding me? Who would bow before someone like you?"
"What did you said?" The other Arrancar asked. "Do you know who you're talking to?"
"Stop it!" A soft, yet serious voice stopped both from fighting and in the next moment the other Arrancar's right arm who then crumpled with a painful scream.
"Geez, how many times do I have to tell you? Do not fight in front of me." The voice said. It was an old man, also clothed in white with a black cloak. "I don't like fights. Now let me hear your reports for the sake of peace."
The other Arrancar still panted and tried to sat up, looking at the old man in front of him. With a trembling voice he started to tell him what happened and once he was finished also his head was slayed off his body and the blood splashed on Ebern who was sitting behind him.
"Ebern."
"Ah, yes, sir!"
"I don't need to praise or blame you for you actions. You did your best to slow down Kurosaki Ichigo." The old man said while Ebern nodded.
"Thank you very much!"
"Your job is over." The soft voice was exactly the opposite of the man's actions. With a single move of his hand he destroyed the Arrancar.
"You can become the foundation stone to build peace." The man lean back again and looked up to the sky. He had saw Ebern's fight against Kurosaki Ichigo, but his interest was awoken in the girl who had been there, too.
"Urahara Shizuka." He muttered, even through he had been watching the fight partially through Ebern's eyes he could feel the strong, but sealed power, inside of her. Her power was almost as dangerous and powerful as his own. It woke his interest and with a little smile towards the sky, he closed his eyes, as imagined how it would be to have that girl among his subordinates.
