Wow! I was not expecting so many reviews! I'm so happy. :D
Amaris Solbes de la Vega - Yes, 11 chapters! Well, more like about 13 now... lol! You'll get up. I've had this idea planned out for weeks and I made sure I had every detail planned out before I started to post them on here. I didn't want to start a sequel and then randomly stop. I hate it when people (and when I would) do that. It sucks! I'm sure you'll get back into your swing of things before you know it. Besides, I really want to know what happens next in your story! lol
GuitarGirl1418 - I made this one longer! lol I hope you're happy with that. :D
any, XxXLIFEafterDEATHXxX, and Morgan - I'm really happy that you like this story so far. :D
Please keep the reviews coming! I really want to know what you all think!
DISCLAIMER: I do not own BLEACH or any of its characters. They all belong to its creator. Not me. I only own my original character(s) and the story plot of The Secrets Within Her Soul.
Enjoy reading!
"Hey, Ichigo? Are we still going to the movies tonight?" Kana asked him as they walked down the streets of town. School was over and like everyday after school, Ichigo was walking Kana home at Kisuke's house. "That is, if your dad will let you out of the house," she added knowing about it seven o'clock curfew.
"Yep," Ichigo told her while subtly nodding his head. He was sure he was able to get out of the house, he just wasn't sure how protected the door will be when he tried to leave. "There's no problem there."
"That's good," she told him. "I don't want you to get in trouble because of me."
"I won't. Don't worry," he said as the two walked up to her current home at Kisuke's house. "I'll pick you up at 7:30 so be ready, okay?"
"Ichigo, picking me up will be out of the way," she said, not wanting to be a bother to him. "I'll just meet you there at the movie theater. It's not that far of a walk."
Not saying anything, he thought it over. He didn't like the idea of Kana walking by herself for such a long distance. She may say it wasn't far from where she lives, but it was about at far as their school, just in the opposite direction. After all that had happened in the Soul Society, he really didn't want her to be walking around by herself a lot. Against his better judgment though, he caved.
"Okay, you win."
"Thanks, Ichigo," she said with a grin on her face. She got on her tiptoes and kissed his lips. "I'll meet you there at 7:30. And I'll call you from my cell phone as soon as I'm leaving the house." That eased some of Ichigo's worries but not all of them and Kana could see it. "I'll be fine, I promise. Nothing bad is going to happen to me." She kissed his lips one more time before she said, "I'll see you at the theater. Don't forget!"
"I won't." She smiled. He smiled back. Slowly, he leaned down and kissed her. Before the kiss could get any deeper, the couple were rudely interrupted.
"You two need to get a room."
Kana jumped back, surprised to be hearing Renji's voice and blushed a bright red. Ichigo sighed and glared in Renji's direction who was leaning up against the shop with his arms crossed. Every time the couple had some time together, someone had to ruin it. Most of the time it was Renji pretending to be the big older brother.
"R-Renji? I didn't see you there," Kana stuttered out while trying to avoid the red-head's gaze. She looked up at her boyfriend and said, "I'll see you in a few hours. Bye."
"Bye," he said back and watched her and Renji walk into the house. Then he walked down the street to his own home.
.: - :.
Ichigo walked into his house and was greeted by a foot coming straight to his face. He was able to quickly dodge it and made the owner of the foot, his father, fall to the ground. He wasn't sure why Isshin was determined to beat the snot out of him, but he was getting irritated with it.
"What the hell?! Do you wait for me to get home? What if Yuzu or Karin walked through the door instead of me?" Ichigo yelled at his father. He looked around and noticed Yuzu and Karin were already home so his dad already knew he was going to be the next one through the door.
"Oh, Masaki!" Isshin began crying as he ran over to a huge poster of his deceased wife. "Ichigo is getting a major attitude! I thought he'd be nicer since he's had his first girlfriend, but it's not working!"
"Don't attack me the moment I walk through the door and I wouldn't get angry," Ichigo told him and began walking away from him.
"Where were you, Ichigo?" Yuzu asked while starting the dinner in the kitchen. Karin was sitting in a chair backwards and had her head rest on the back of the chair. "It's almost time for dinner."
"I was walking Kana home."
"Oh, your girlfriend," Karin said in a teasing tone. A sly smirk appeared on her face and gave Ichigo a curious look. "I bet that's not all you did."
Ichigo ignored his sister's comment and walked over to the stairs. He had the same basic routine everyday since going out with Kana. He would get home, almost get killed by his father, then get cute remarks from Yuzu or teasing ones from Karin. His family was starting to drive him nuts. They did before, but now they were really making him aggravated.
"Are you ever going to invite Kana over, Ichigo? We haven't seen her in so long," Yuzu said to Ichigo.
After his family found out about his relationship with Kana, they've done nothing but be annoying about it. He was almost scared to invite her over because they would harass her. He could see it now. Yuzu would ask girly questions about boys, Karin would make comments about how she could go out with a guy like him, and then Isshin would make perverted assumptions out of everything that came out of her mouth and then go cry to the poster. That was something he didn't want Kana, or himself, to go through.
"I don't know," he told her as truthfully as possible.
"Oh, okay. Well, invite her over soon, okay?"
"I'll get right on that," Ichigo muttered and walked up to his room.
Once he got into his room, he turned on the light and placed his school bag on his desk. Then, he laid down on his bed and put his arms behind his head. He stared up at his ceiling and couldn't think of anything but Kana. That wasn't necessarily a bad thing though. He liked her a lot. Like, a lot a lot, so it was normal for him not having the ability to get her off his mind. Then again, he hadn't really tried either.
He was about to close his eyes to rest for a little bit when he felt something jump onto his chest. It wasn't heavy, and it wouldn't have bothered him at all if it didn't start talking to him.
"Ichigo! Take me to Uryu now!"
"Kon…" Ichigo groaned and let out a heavy, annoyed sigh. "Why do you have-" He stopped talking immediately after he opened his eyes. There in front of him was Kon with flowers on his felt mane and fake jewels glued to his stuffed animal body. He let out a half laugh and said, "Yuzu got a hold of you again. Right?"
All the lion did was glare at Ichigo. "You better take me to Uryu now or you're gonna get it!"
"I'll take you tomorrow, geez. You need to calm down," he told Kon as he sat up in his bed and swung his legs over the side of the bed. As Ichigo was doing this, Kon jumped off his chest and landed next to him on the bed.
"Why tomorrow?" Kon asked angrily while crossing his arms in a pouting manner. "I don't want people to see me like this. Are you doing this to torture me?"
"No. I'm going out with Kana tonight."
"Kana? You're beautiful and gorgeous girlfriend? Can I come?"
"No."
"Why not?!"
"Because I'm not going to carry around some talking bedazzled stuff lion around on my date with Kana," Ichigo told him while picking him up by the back of the neck. "And you are going no where near her."
"But why? I'll be good!"
"No."
"Ichigo! Dinner!" they heard Yuzu yell from the kitchen.
Ichigo dropped Kon onto the floor and walked out of the room. He almost left out one more reason why he doesn't bring Kana over anymore. Now that Kana and Ichigo knew about each other knowing about the Soul Society and soul reapers, Kon was more open with her. So open that Ichigo was ready to tear the lion to shreds with his remarks.
"Please, Ichigo! I want to see Kana," Kon said, pleading one last time to go as Ichigo began to walk towards his bedroom door.
"No," was Ichigo's final answer and shut the door behind him.
.: - :.
It was after dinner and Ichigo was getting ready for his date with Kana. He wasn't one to really get ready for something like that, but he did change into nicer, more comfortable clothes, than his school uniform. Just a T-shirt with jeans was his style. He wasn't going to change that for the movies. Plus, he wasn't a very fashionable guy. He didn't care what he looked like. That was just who he was.
It was almost quarter after seven so he should be receiving a call soon from Kana. He was waiting for her to call his house first before he left for the movies. He wanted to make sure he was going to be there before she was so that she wouldn't stand at the theater by herself. Yes, he was protective of Kana, but he couldn't help it. It was his nature to be that way.
He was happy Kon had been leaving him alone. Kon didn't have much of a choice though. Yuzu found him while talking to Ichigo and decided to make him look "cute and adorable" as she put it. So right now, he was getting tortured by bows and clip-on earrings. Ichigo could care less about it. As long as Kon was off his back and was available when needed, Ichigo didn't care.
Suddenly, the phone began to ring. It had been sitting on Ichigo's desk so his family wouldn't answer it and bother Kana to death. Quickly he picked up the phone and answered it.
"Hello?"
"Ichigo?" Her voice was shaking and she sounded so frightened. Obviously, something was wrong.
"Kana, what's wrong?" he questioned, starting to worry about her. Many things rushed through his mind then. Did something happen at Kisuke's? Did one of them do something to her? Was she hurt? Was something there? He couldn't tell but he was desperate to know the answer.
"There's someone following me," she said in a soft whisper. "I don't know what to do."
"Everything's going to be okay," Ichigo told her, though he wasn't sure himself. "Where are you now?"
"I'm two blocks from the store. Kisuke wanted me to go out and get something from there real quick," she told him, almost going into tears. "Ichigo, I'm really scared. I can't see him, but I can sense him. He's close, Ichigo. Really close."
"I'm coming. Okay, Kana?" he told her in an urgent tone. He ran out of his room and started to look for Kon. If he used his Soul Reaper badge and his family found his body in his room, he'd have a lot of explaining to do. "Hide wherever you can, okay? I'm on my way."
"Hurry, Ichigo. Ple-" Then the phone line went dead.
"Kana!" he yelled into the phone even though he knew he wasn't going to get a response. He hung up the phone and punched the wall, not enough to damage it though. Yuzu walked out of her bedroom with Kon in her arms and stared at her brother with worry.
"What's wrong, Ichigo?" she asked him, not used to see him so angry and frustrated. "Did something happen to Kana?"
He put on a fake smile and said, "Everything's fine. Can I see that, though? I'm planning on giving it to Kana at the movies."
He could see Kon's eyes light up with delight, happy that Ichigo caved. He was wrong though. Yuzu stared at him with the same eyes as Kon, but for a completely different reason. She had the hopeless romantic look in her eyes which almost made Ichigo sigh at.
"Really? That's so cute!" she said while handing the lion over to Ichigo.
"Yes, adorable. Thanks, Yuzu." Before she could say anything else, he ran back into his room.
"You finally- Galf!" Ichigo stuffed his hand into Kon's mouth and pulled out the pill. He swallowed the pill and his soul reaper form jumped out of his body which Kon now controlled. "What's going on here?"
"Kana's in trouble. I have to help her." Then Ichigo jumped out the window, disappearing from Kon's sight.
.: - :.
Ichigo ran through his hometown, trying to get to wherever Kana was as fast as he could. He had to help her and murder whoever was following her. He already almost lost her once to Aizen, her uncle who betrayed the Soul Society, and he wasn't going to lose her now. Not after they've been through
Suddenly, he felt low spiritual pressure coming from a few blocks ahead of him. Ichigo immediately recognized it as Kana's and ran faster than he's ever ran before. As he was doing this, he thought that whoever was following her found her. That was the only explanation he could come up with to explain why she would uncover her spiritual pressure. If that happened, then he had no time to lose.
He pulled out his zanpakuto and stopped in the middle of an empty street. It was a back street that he and Kana used sometimes as a short cut to get to school or the movies or something like that. Not a lot of people walked through it so it was nice to walk through without any disturbances. Cautiously, he looked around the area and didn't see any sign of Kana anywhere.
"Kana?" he called out, hoping to hear a response back.
He didn't hear anything.
Maybe he was wrong about where he felt Kana's spiritual pressure? Maybe he was at the wrong place? He hoped that he wasn't, because if he wasn't, then he couldn't help Kana. He also hoped he was in the wrong spot because that meant that there was a chance he could still save Kana. If the place was correct, then something happened to Kana. That was something he didn't want to think about.
"Kana!" he yelled in desperation as he walked down the street. He looked in all directions but saw no sign of anyone. "Kana!"
Then, he heard someone jump from the roof of a building and land a few feet behind him. He knew Kana didn't have the ability to do that, so quickly he turned around and swung his zanpakuto at whoever it was. He was surprised to see Renji there blocking his attack with his zanpakuto.
"What the hell, Ichigo?" he asked in an annoyed tone.
Ichigo didn't say anything, but he did pull back his blade and placed it on his back. He really hoped it was whoever was chasing Kana. He really wanted to have the chance to kill him.
Renji looked around at the area and sighed. "She's not here, is she?"
The carrot-top knew exactly who the red-head was talking about and dropped his head slightly. "No. She called me scared to death about someone following her with spiritual pressure. I told her to hide until I came, but whoever it was found her. What are you doing here?"
"I felt her spiritual pressure disappear and then come back. I knew something was wrong so I came to look for her."
"I guess we're both too late."
They both stood in silence so only the breeze could be heard around them. They were both feeling the same emotions. They both felt like failures to Kana.
"She has to be hiding still. She's just not-"
"Ichigo, look."
Ichigo looked at Renji and noticed he was gazing to the brick wall behind him. He turned around and saw a piece of paper stuck to the wall by a small dagger. The two walked over to it and Ichigo was the one who tore the paper from the wall. What was written on the paper only scared Ichigo more and made it more real that Kana was indeed kidnapped and in danger. And it was all his fault.
Thanks for reading this everyone! Please review! I want to hear from you!
