Karakura Exorcists Chapter 2, a Bleach + D.Gray-Man Crossover fanfic

Karakura Exorcists (Crappy title, I know; but what else am I supposed to call it?!)

Summary: About one hundred and fifty years after the death of the Earl, Karakura Town finds a strange set of visitors. D. Gray-man/Bleach xover; IchixRuki and eventual Yullen.

Well. I don't own D. Gray-man, or Bleach. Don't rub it in. _ But I DO own… this piece of LAND! -pulls out mound of dirt- Someday, I hope to build on it! xD Jaykay. (I forgot what that was from… o_O Someone help me, please?)

Chapter Two

Excerpt from a religious text; The History of the Dark Religious Organization, written by Komui Lee, age 54, in the mid-1900's:

After the Earl's defeat, when an Exorcist died, their Innocence would turn into dust; as a result, it suddenly—and mysteriously—disappeared. Several reports confirm that the Innocence was not taken by Akuma, but that the mysterious material would crumble apart into dust and fade into the wind within the hour of the Exorcist's death. Specialists—including myself—are led to believe that this is because the Earl was killed, and that the remaining Innocence will soon meet the same fate…

… The first Exorcist whose Innocence crumbled to pieces was my own dear sister, Lenalee Lee, who fell in an attempt to stop a level 4's attack on a small village.

Lenalee shot up in her bed, gasping heavily. Sweat trickled down the side of her face; the sheets sprawled haphazardly around her in mounds of wrinkles. Slowly, as if she were hurt, she pulled her knees to her chest and her hands absently traveled to her anklets. She was secretly glad that no one at school had noticed the odd trinkets. They were a crystal blood red, and they were indeed mysterious objects. About a hundred and fifty years ago, they would have been called Innocence; or at the very least, an anti-akuma weapon. Today, Lenalee had no idea what they'd be called. Spiritual mediums? Weapons of exorcism? She didn't care to know, either.

Dark Boots. That's what they were to her.

Of course, Lenalee remembered her old life; her life as an Exorcist. That was why she and the others were alive. They were here to eliminate the surplus of Akuma—Hollows; that's what they were called now. Of course. There were too many Hollows; they weren't being killed off quickly enough. They could overpower everything else, given the chance, the time, and the right moment to strike. She knew that.

She remembered everything in order. Every time she had gone to sleep since she was five, she would have a dream about her life as an Exorcist; starting with the time her incarnation—then the same age as she—was whisked away to the Dark Religious Organization. Every moment of unconsciousness brought more memories.

Naturally, she'd gone through enough unconsciousness to remember her own death. That night was the third time she'd dreamt of it.

Clutching her arms, Lenalee shuddered. Everything was so clear; so crisp and fresh in her mind. The level 4 cackling, taunting her with laughter as it accelerated and surrounded her… The large church that collapsed on her, rendering her immobile… The flash of bright light that finally stole her life, turning her into dust. After all, non-parasitic type Exorcists were subject to the killing effects of an Akuma's poison. It turns out that the crystal type were also vulnerable.

Of course, these days, the Akuma—err, Hollows (she ought to remember to call them that from now on) didn't have any of the poison. They weren't so much as machines now than just despair-filled souls. Any poisonous ones were probably long dead. The dark matter remained, though; however, most Hollows were created with their evolved dark matter, rather than having to kill to obtain it.

After her brother had learned of Lenalee's dreams, Komui had done extensive research on the Dark Religious Order and unearthed a book written by a man sharing her brother's name. It was called The History of the Dark Religious Organization; written sometime around the year 1920.

The text unearthed strange things hidden to the public—the existence of Akuma, their transformation into developed Hollows; the existence of Innocence and a log of all the Exorcists who served in the war against the Earl of the Millennium.

Heaving a shaky sigh, Lenalee picked up the copy of the Dark Order's history Komui had made for her. She leafed through the old pages, reveling in the feel of the rough pages under her fingers.

After learning of the Innocence and the Exorcists, Komui—then a somewhat high-ranking government official in America—gathered four of the more prominent Exorcists, including Lenalee herself. Amazingly, the hobby-scientist managed to find Allen Walker, a British transfer student whose deceased father was a clergyman and the only one with his Innocence at the time; Kanda Yuu, Japanese-American orphan; and Lavi, who somehow knew that he was being sought out and tagged along with Kanda, despite the teen's protests. This had occurred almost two years ago; when she was thirteen.

Though Lenalee was the first one to begin remembering her past as an Exorcist, the first one to have their Innocence was Allen. Komui assured Kanda and Lavi—for the last of the group did not yet remember his position—that it was normal; Komui Lee of times past had mentioned that the Innocence had crumbled at death. Allen's was only back because it was a parasitic-type to begin with.

Speaking of which, Allen had mastered the use of his Innocence just a year prior to his calling by Komui. The child didn't remember that his strange black claw and white cape used to have a different shape; nor could he remember a time when his left claw could not be transformed into that bulky sword. However, his synchronicity rate was still amazingly high; just at critical point, as Komui calculated using the formula in the book. Within their first (and rather raucous) year together, Allen's power had bled to the other three again and soon enough, all three had their Innocences invoked.

Had Lenalee known of Ichigo and his own experiences with power bleeding to other people, she would have compared Allen's phenomena to the shinigami representative's.

The first of them to have their Innocences reawakened was Lenalee. The girl spent most of her time with Allen; his frequent spiritual savings began to rub off some of his power onto some sort of a medium for her. A pair of blood red anklets formed from hundreds upon hundreds of scattered Innocence fragments became her channel; it was comparable to Orihime's.

After Lenalee came Lavi. Lavi hung out with Lenalee, who hung out with Allen; therefore, it was only natural for him to regain his Innocence when he was almost eaten by a Hollow because he was teasing it. His Shape Shifting Hammer was just as he remembered it from a log he had kept and somehow found again.

The last to regain his Innocence was Kanda. The only one who didn't spend time with Allen; it took the longest for Kanda to have Allen's general-like influence spark a light into awakening Mugen. But when the spark finally caught fire, it erupted like a volcano—it came with a lot of destructive power.

In pictures prior to his fifteenth birthday, Allen could be seen with brown hair and auburn eyes. No scars marred his gentle face. But, on the night of his birthday, Allen shot awake, panting heavily, much as Lenalee had that night. His hair was inexplicably white, and he donned silver-blue eyes—or eye; his left eye was bloody and suddenly had a scar running down across it.

Komui, who had some sort of a medical degree as well, had tended to Allen as best as he could. However, the scar was a curse from times past and refused to erase itself from Allen's face.

Then, in that same year, Lavi had found the existence of other beings; beings that served a similar purpose to Exorcists.

Shinigami.

They were only a folk tale in Kanda's heritage; however, these shinigami eliminated Hollows in a similar fashion to how the Exorcists eliminated Akuma.

The shinigami also boasted a different method of evaluating one's power. Instead of synchro rates with their Innocence-like weapons, collectively called zanpakuto, shinigami measured power by one's reiatsu—spirit power. Lavi developed a system to convert an Exorcist's synchro rate into reiatsu.

Allen's reiatsu was definitely the highest; there was a large gap between him and Kanda, the second highest. Lenalee was next, followed by Lavi.

Lavi had pinned down the area of the shinigami's most common visits. It was a small town in Japan, and their destination.

Karakura Town.

Crush on him she may have, Lenalee loathed Lavi for pointing out Karakura Town and the shinigami to her brother. The fact that there were other spiritual beings in Japan convinced Komui to re-instigate the Dark Order in an attempt to recruit them. She and Allen were lucky that Kanda and Lavi were fluent enough in Japanese to teach them the language.

With a heavy sigh, Lenalee slapped the book shut. Glancing at the clock, she blew her hair out of her face and slunk back into her bed.

She shut her eyes and prayed that she wouldn't have the same dream again.

"Good morning, Kanda, Lavi, Allen," Lenalee greeted cheerfully as the three walked out of their apartment. "Don't get lost this time, Allen," she scolded in English as the Englishman came down the stairs. "Stay with Lavi!"

Lavi dangled his bag off the top of the rail, high above Lenalee. "Or even better, you can drive to school with Komui," he offered.

An awkward silence settled among the four. Each of them, Lenalee especially, knew of Komui's bad driving skills.

"Che," Kanda said finally, breaking the quiet. "Let's go. We're going to be late," he added in choppy Japanese. The words formed somewhat awkwardly; a result of not speaking his native language in several years.

As they walked down the street, a large amount of screaming drew the former Exorcists' attention.

"ICHIGOOOO!" a masculine voice shrieked rather femininely. A crash was heard, and Allen involuntarily winced. Kanda glared on.

The four stopped in front of the house creating the noise. It was a family-run clinic; that was obvious enough. The front door was brutally kicked open, revealing the orange-haired Kurosaki Ichigo and, close behind him, Kuchiki Rukia.

A wide grin spread across Lenalee's face. "Rukia!" she called eagerly, waving her hand to her friend.

Kanda's face fell into a deeper grimace. He personally didn't like Ichigo too much; there was something weird about him.

Regardless of Kanda's thoughts, Rukia and the strawberry—that, Kanda decided, was what he was to call Ichigo—quickly came over, smile, grimace, and all. The two—or Rukia, at least—quickly immersed themselves in talk with the other three, leaving Kanda out in his little corner of emo-ness.

The once-swordsman didn't particularly mind; he was a loner in the first place. Not like that bean sprout over there… Kanda found his eyes wandering to the head of white hair; the saccharine smile plastered on that near-flawless face. He quickly shook his head, disrupting waves of raven black hair.

That bean sprout had some sort of an alluring curse; he drew Kanda in like a mystifying saber dance. The blades were entrancing to watch, but if he were to try to approach the dancer, Kanda would find the blades at his throat. He found it quite ironic.

"Does Kanda over there talk at all?" Ichigo asked, glancing oddly over at the ex-swordsman, who glared.

"Che. What do you think, strawberry?" The Japanese rolled off his tongue more easily now; he just needed practice.

The orange-head grimaced. "I was just thinking you're a—"

"Looks like someone needs an attitude adjustment," Rukia interjected cheerfully, stomping on her boyfriend's foot in a rather conspicuous attempt to shut him up before something inappropriate was said or done.

Sighing, the substitute shinigami scratched his head as Rukia chatted with Allen and Lenalee; Lavi and Kanda occupied themselves rather noisily. He could hear their chattering until Lavi brought up an interesting topic.

"Rukia-chan," he began, addressing Ichigo's girlfriend, "have you heard rumors of… ghosts around here?"

Ichigo glanced at his girlfriend through the corner of his eye. Her expression remained infallible, as expected of someone of noble blood. He tried to keep his face straight as well, to keep up the façade.

With a sweet smile, Rukia spoke as innocently as she possibly could, slathering layers upon layers of the sweetest lies onto her voice. "Why, I haven't heard that, Lavi. Who told you something like that?"

"I just wanted to know… in case you happened to be scared," Lavi added smoothly, sliding a hand around Rukia's waist.

Now, two of three things happened here; the third was about to happen but didn't. First, Ichigo immediately slapped Lavi's hand away, scoring a pathetic yelp from the ex-Bookman, and then Lenalee yanked his ear away from her friend. Rukia could only stand there, her leg lifted halfway in the kick she had prepared for Lavi. Unfortunately, the chance to use it had died away the instant she had thought to use it against the advancing boy. Lenalee pulled him aside and scolded him vehemently.

"… hurry the fuck up, bean sprout," Kanda called over his shoulder. Everyone else turned around, finally noticing the white-haired kid's absence.

Finally, they could see the kid's telltale silver hair emerge from around a street that Ichigo didn't even remember seeing. Ever.

Heaving an indignant sigh, Allen spoke in rapid English. Ichigo, although a (surprisingly) top student in his class, could barely make out some of the words in English. Allen's quick snap of "How many times do I have to tell you, stupid Kanda? My name is Allen" came out as, after being funneled through Ichigo's (rather slow) brain, something like "How… tell… Kanda? … My name… Allen", which, of course, hardly made any sense.

"Che," Kanda spat, regardless of Ichigo's confusion and Allen's indignant remark. The orange head noticed that he reverted back to Japanese. Thank God; he could actually understand them now… "You're in Japan, moyashi. Speak Japanese and blend in with the people here… or are you to stupid to do that?"

Before Allen could make a witty remark that Ichigo was sure would be in English, the shortest of the three clamped his mouth shut and walked as pointedly and purposefully as possible ahead of the group.

"Oh, yeah… Lenalee," Ichigo called over his shoulder, turning to look at the trio behind him. Rukia's eyes perked and she grinned rather oddly, the way she would when alone with Renji, Matsumoto, and him.

"Ahh, Ichigo," she announced rather haughtily, clamping a hand onto her taller accomplice's shoulder. "Long time no see! Glad you finally noticed us back here. Were you too involved with trying to place on a move on one of those two?"

"What?!" Kanda and Ichigo snapped at the same time. Allen froze up, but continued to stride forward.

Lenalee giggled. "She's kidding, Ichigo, Kanda. What do you need?"

He sighed, scratching the back of his head absently. "I just wanted to know… Where's Komui-sensei? Shouldn't he have taken you to school?"

"Yeah, Komui-nii-san normally would," the shorthaired girl replied, a slight hint of bitterness apparent in her voice. "But he decided today wasn't a good day to drive me to school; he said he had some work to do before we got here."

Ichigo nodded slowly when Rukia grabbed his wrist. Both of her hands fit snugly around his wrist as she dragged his shoulder down.

"I need to talk to you alone during lunch," she whispered.

After an exhilaratingly scary lesson on European history by Komui-sensei, Rukia and Ichigo managed to snag a quiet corner in the back where they could talk. Unfortunately, Chad, Orihime, and Ishida were held back because Kanda had snapped at them, sparking an argument between his three classmates during class. As understandable, Kanda was held back as well. Upon finding the quiet little spot, Rukia jogged forward and sat down by the tree to claim it.

Promptly, the young-looking teen flipped open a cell phone-like transmitter to connect with Soul Society. After punching in a few numbers, she finally snapped it shut. Violet eyes met piercing amber irises.

"They're not ordinary humans," Rukia sighed at length.

Ichigo scoffed, sitting down next to her. "That much is obvious. Up close, I could feel someone's reiatsu. It was really strong."

"It's almost as strong as yours," she added quietly.

Ichigo turned to look at his girlfriend. A contemplating look was on her face—it was the one she used back at the Soul Society.

A noble's solid, impeccable face.

"That strong one came from Allen-kun. Remember the hidden one I had talked about with Inoue and Ishida? That one is Lavi's. Lenalee's reiatsu is somewhat hidden; it's a bit sloppy, but it's pretty well-hidden for a human." She chuckled lightly. "Her disguising is way better than yours; that's for sure."

"So what are we going to do about it?"

Rukia flipped open her transmitter again. "That's what I called you out here for, Ichigo. We're going to call Soul Society."

She punched in a few numbers again, pressed the receiver to her ear, and then pushed another button. The dial tone rang out from the speakers.

"Hello, Kuchiki-san. What do you need to report?"

"There are four new, unidentified reiatsu in Karakura Town. They are similar to a shinigami's, so I'm requesting permission to stand by and observe for several days, maybe a few weeks, with the Shinigami Substitute, Kurosaki Ichigo, should he need backup. He happens to be in their class."

There was a pause as the operator scribbled down a few notes. The voice came back on again. "Thank you, Kuchiki-san. We will contact you as soon as possible with any information on what you are allowed to use. However, release of your zanpakuto is banned at the moment." That's the way it had been since Aizen was executed; there was nothing new about that.

"Thank you."

After Rukia shut her phone and slipped it in her pocket again, Ichigo sat back down. "Well, I was a big help there," he remarked.

Before she could say anything, Ichigo's Seal of Approval and the transmitter reacted at the same time. The couple looked at each other, the same two thoughts flitting through their minds.

There are Hollows in the vicinity.

Will the new transfer students be there?

When Rukia and Ichigo noticed the Hollows' presence, the Exorcists had already begun to make their move on the intruding Akuma.

Allen's eye had foreseen it all. The eye had gone crazy in its socket, finally announcing the presence of some Akuma.

The Exorcists grabbed their weapons (in the case of Kanda and Lavi) and shot out the door. Kanda reluctantly held back, relying on the stupid bean sprout to determine where the damn Aku—Hollow was. He corrected himself for his own sake; Komui had stressed that they call the Akuma Hollows. Personally, no one wanted to see what Komui could come up with as punishment.

A young girl—most likely a stray spirit—ran by, shrieking. The Exorcists had no time to react to her, for Allen muttered a quick warning—"They're here, guys"—before invoking his Innocence.

"Innocence, activate!"

He never got tired of the feeling that washed over him as he activated his weapon. Crown Clown, it whispered in his ear. It was a kind of warmth; the desire to protect settling on his shoulders as his cloak enveloped him. His left hand extended; the claw reaching out in elongated, black fingers sharpened to a deadly point. The cool metal of the mask settled on Allen's face, clearing off his left eye's peripheral vision.

Kanda fell into his quiet, brief moment of meditation before invoking his own Innocence. Finally opening his eyes, he hardened them with the instinct to fight. Grabbing the hilt of his sword, Mugen, Kanda wrenched it out of the sheath. "Mugen, battou!" He pressed two fingers against the base of the blade and pulled outwards. The familiar metallic sound of a sword being pulled out of its scabbard rang out.

Tightly gripping the small handle on the figurine-like hammer that was his Innocence, Lavi took a fighting stance. As if by magic, the handle extended and grew to fit firmly in his grip. Lavi smirked. "Odzuchi Kozuchi! Ban, ban, ban!"

Lenalee couldn't shake off the eerie feeling her Innocence had given her that morning, but put it aside. She had business to take care of. "Dark Boots, activate!" Her blood red anklets grew to encompass her legs in a pair of dark boots. Butterflies decorated their high-heeled ends. (Surely anyone would fall in those heels…? Those things are HIGH.)

Four Exorcists might be overkill for one Akuma/Hollow, but they couldn't be too sure of themselves—especially Allen. Although he was the strongest, Allen remembered the least of his life as an Exorcist. This irked Kanda, especially when Kanda remembered about their relationship and Allen didn't. ("Che," he would snort contemptuously. "That bean sprout was the first one to admit it, too.")

However, romance was the least of their worries. The Hollow arose, its heartless scream making Allen and Lenalee shudder slightly. As if on cue, more Hollows gathered around the four reincarnated Exorcists. Kanda gave an indignant snort as Lavi grinned, voicing their thoughts.

"Well, won't this be fun?"

At the same time, the redhead's amused expression disappeared as wonder struck his face. He glanced around, almost in a full circle, before his eye fixated on one point and the grin arose again. A pair of black shihakusho, outlined against the sky, stood not too far from where the Exorcists were.

To his comrades, he called, "We've got company."

Ichigo and Rukia were no doubt surprised by what they encountered. It wasn't beyond what they'd encountered before, but to think…

But to think… there were other humans that had spiritual power that had manifested itself in a weapon form already.

Allen, with his clawed left arm and bankai-like change of clothing.

Lenalee, with her green-flamed, butterfly-decorated black boots.

Kanda, with his zanpakuto-like sword.

Lavi, with that odd, gothic-style hammer.

Rukia knew on sight that each of those weapons had some sort of spiritual power manifested inside it. How it had come to be escaped her; it was a concept beyond that which she had experienced. However, she had an idea.

Brushing all thoughts aside with the cry of the hollow, she drew her sword. A whisper of cloth beside her told Rukia that Ichigo was doing the same.

"Stay on guard," she murmured, not so much as a warning to Ichigo as it was to herself. "You don't know if they'll turn on you."

The two shinigami leaped forward, swords raised in an attack at two of the Hollows. Both of them hit the earth, effectively slicing one Hollow each. They split up, rushing in different directions.

In the corner of her eye, Rukia saw Lenalee take to the sky and slice open several of the Hollows with one graceful, midair kick. Holding up her zanpakuto in a parry, she glanced out in the other direction to catch Lavi swat away three Hollows with a swipe of his shape-shifting hammer.

Ichigo, after cutting down his first Hollow, saw Kanda's (rather reckless and similar to his own) swordplay. With a smirk, the orange-head stepped in to slice open an advancing Hollow. Noting the absence of the Hollow that had previously been there, Kanda glanced back and grimaced.

"I could have gotten that," he said tersely.

Ichigo smirked. "Really, now? It looked like you were kind of busy."

A white, threadlike substance divided the two, making Kanda take back the step he had just made forward in an attempt to intimidate the other. The reincarnated swordsman glared at the invocator of the substance.

"Hey, bean sprout! Watch where you're attacking!"

An innocent smile plastered on his face, Allen replied a cheery "yes, sir" before turning to slice open two Hollows with his left hand.

Before long, all of the Hollows were exorcised; but before the Exorcists could turn and make their escape, Rukia's voice knotted around them tightly.

"Wait!"

Her authoritative voice made Allen and Lenalee hesitate. Noticing their hesitation, the other two stopped as well.

Violet eyes searched the faces of her new classmates. "Who… who exactly are you people? How…"

"How do you see Hollows?" Ichigo finished as his girlfriend's voice died away, unable to finish her sentence.

Lavi squatted. "Well," he replied cheerfully in an attempt to lighten the mood, "you might want to sit down if you want the whole story."

Lenalee, Kanda, and Allen glared. "Lavi," Allen drawled, "if you're the one to explain to them about us, we'll be up all night."

"More like for the rest of the week," Kanda grumbled. "Damn Bookman training. Learn to make things short."

With a sigh, Lenalee closed the distance between the Exorcists and shinigami. Holding out her hand to Rukia, she grinned. "We'll tell you, if you'll come back with us."

Before Rukia could act, Ichigo grabbed her hand firmly.

"Tell us everything. Don't leave anything out."

Well. How was that? I think that was the longest chapter I've written. o_o

Umm, sorry about this. I'd finished this chapter last week and came to this page with the intention of uploading it, but then the weird "My Stories" page was being stupid... and then I posted a new story... and tried it again... and it worked. Huzzah.

Liked it? Hated it? Loved it? If there are any questions, feel free to ask (although I do believe htey'll be answered next chapter, along with a bit of story direction). :D Thanks in advance for any reviews~

Sora Pwns x3