A/N: First, I will apologize for the ridiculously long gap between the first post and this one. I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue this story at all, and had some very serious real life issues to deal with that put my focus on original fiction and processing and stuff. Anyway, anyone who comes back to read this get a huge thank you. I write for myself first, but any author will tell you how great it is to have people reading your work.
I can promise a shorter gap between this chapter and the next-I have most of the next segment written already.
Also, for those who care to know, this was started before the introduction of Zero squad and that dude with the afro who makes the asauchis in canon. I drew on the winter war arc, but most things after the end of the war with Aizen are irrelevant.
Critiques and reviews are always welcome. The more coherent my plot can be the faster I will update.
X-X
"Hey, you! What are you doing here?" Kaoru glanced around, but the strange girl in a shamefully short skirt was talking to her. The strange girl could see her. And so, apparently, could the scowling strawberry blonde she was with. Unless talking to thin air wasn't unusual in this era. With a start Kaoru realized the boy was emitting a fairly large amount of reiatsu. And, if she focused, Kaoru could just sense power in the girl as well. That explained why they could see her at least.
"I am walking. Is that a crime?" Kaoru asked, a slight smile on her lips. Through some coincidence it had been a long time since she had spoken to anyone who wasn't a konpaku, and those encounters were brief as it was dangerous for a soul to linger unprotected in this world for long.
"You are not the shinigami assigned to this area. Why are you here?" The girl demanded harshly.
"Because I am. This place has a nice feel to it, does it not? Who is the local shinigami?"
The girl hesitated, "I- I am, of course."
"Oh." Kaoru blinked, she had honestly expected it to be the boy. That would certainly have made more sense in terms of power. "That's a nice gigai. Where did you get it?"
"None of your business." The girl snapped. "Why are you here?"
"None of your business, girl." Kaoru replied, not liking this rude girl very much, shinigami or not. A too-close spike of reiatsu interrupted any further conversation. Kaoru waited a moment, expecting the girl to go eliminate the hollow. She didn't move.
"Hey, Rukia," The boy spoke in a tone that matched his surly scowl, the girl, Rukia, glared at him. Kaoru's rust colored eyes flicked from one to the other. Something was going on between them, something that was probably why Rukia wasn't moving to dispatch the hollow.
With a last glance at the odd pair Kaoru flitted away from the riverbank. If that Rukia girl wasn't going to do her job it was no reason for innocent souls to suffer.
The hollow was weak, as they tended to be, and easily killed. She saved the konpaku it had been after as well, the ghost of a tiny, wrinkled old man. He had some flickering of power, his life in rukongai would be hard, a constant struggle for the little food he would need. The blue light of the Konso faded, producing a hell butterfly that would carry the man's soul through the gap between the worlds. Kaoru watched it drift up into the blue sky, maybe rukongai has changed she thought, she hoped, as it vanished out of sight.
That very night Kaoru picked up on the shinigami girl. She was, once again, with the human boy. More curious than ever Kaoru risked getting closer, keeping her reiatsu carefully hidden. She stumbled upon a festival of sorts. A festival that had disturbed a jibakurei. The spirit was shouting uselessly for the people to leave. A sea of laughing faces were turned up towards the sky where a strange man in a stranger outfit had just jumped from a plane. Their cheer was a jarring contrast to the spirit's anger.
"How's it going babies?!" The odd man shouted, to the crowd's inexplicable delight. "Spirits are always with yoooouuu!" The crowd went wild, making the red headed human stick out simply because he was not cheering like a wild thing. The man released his parachute, and crossed his arms over his chest, "Bwahahahaha!" He shouted to the crowd, who responded in kind. Kaoru took advantage of the chaos to touch down at the back of the crowd, near Rukia and her human friend.
"—Shouldn't we perform konso?" The boy asked, pointing at "Won't he turn into a hollow?" Rukia, with a distinctly fake smile plastered on her face, dismissed his worries.
"It takes months, even years for a plus to become a hollow. He won't suddenly change in the space of an hour! Exposed in the open like this it would mean trouble if there was a struggle and people got hurt. We can perform konso after the festival."
"SMELLS LIKE BAD SPIRITS!" The crowd roared in unison, exactly as if it had been rehearsed. Kaoru jumped at the unexpected outburst, but she had to agree with the shinigami. It would be trouble to make a ruckus now. She would wait and confront her after the crowd broke up.
Kaoru was moving away, she had never really like large crowds, when the jibakurei screamed. The same type of screams it would make as it made the final descent to a hollow. Kaoru spun, but was unable to see anything through the crowd. She jumped, gathering reishi underfoot so she could stand on the air above the people's heads. The people cheered as the strange man jammed a stick into the half-open hollow hole in the spirit's chest.
"Idiot!" She shouted without thinking, attracting the attention of both Rukia and her human, but how could she keep silent at this foolishness and still call herself a shinigami? In the blink of an eye she had crossed the crowd and tackled the moron to the ground. To her surprise his head didn't sound hollow when it cracked against the pavement. "You idiot! Do you have ANY IDEA what you're doing?!"
"Wh-what?" The man stammered, his over-exaggerated expression going beyond comical. "Why are you interfering? You're just a ghost!"
"Shut your damn mouth, moron!" Kaoru snapped, too angry to care she should be invisible. She glared daggers at the man, still struggling to free himself. He was fighting a losing battle. "Let me explain something to you, fool. You aren't exorcising that spirit, you're dooming it."
"Nonsense! My methods are fool proof! For I am the charismatic spirit medium of the new world!" Holding the man with one hand, Kaoru reached for her zanpakuto.
"You'd like to experience it for yourself, then?" She asked as she closed her hand over the brilliant red hilt of her zanpakuto. The so-called medium groped frantically for his spirit stick. Kaoru glanced back at the shinigami girl, expecting her to take advantage of what the annoying announcer was calling an 'unusually aggressive spirit'. She wasn't, although she was clearly conflicted. "What the hell are you waiting for?! Soon it will be-!" Kaoru shouted, "too late." She finished with a sigh as the jibakurei gave a final, particularly loud screech and vanished. "You, don't move." She commanded, only half expecting the medium to obey, but she wasn't going to sit here when there were so many potential victims. She was definitely going to have a few choice words for that supposed shinigami. She picked her out of the crowd in the interval before the hollow would be able to rematerialize. Scorn was etched in every line of Kaoru's face, and the girl at least had the decency to look away.
Then, to Kaoru's great surprise, that red headed boy, that human boy, leapt over the crowd and barrier in one go, shihakusho fluttering and a shamefully large zanpakuto on his back. The medium leapt up almost as soon as the jibakurei vanished,
"Mission Complete!" He shouted, grinning like the idiot he was. The crowd went wild, chanting
"Kannonji! Kannonji!" Kaoru tried to block it out, scanning for where the hollow would reappear. It should be close, even as hollows jibakureis, place-bound spirits, didn't stray far from their place of attachment.
"So, that's it?" The boy wondered aloud, looking from Kannonji to the spot where the ghost vanished.
"No, you fool!" Kaoru snapped, "It'll be back any second."
"Ichigo! Above you!" Rukia shouted from just behind the barricade before she was unceremoniously tackled by security. Both shinigami looked up, sure enough the hollow was on the roof, it's mask just now forming, giving the idiotic Kannonji a good look at its face.
"Wha-what is that monster?"
"You can explain, carrot-top." Kaoru sighed, moving to the rooftop in one jump. The hollow screamed at her, lashing out wildly. Kaoru dodged and cut the creature in two in the same motion. The two halves turned black and dissipated, floating up to the sky.
Poor thing, Kaoru thought as she watched the spirit go. He shouldn't have had to go through that. From her vantage point it was easy to see that some people had noticed something odd going on. A young girl with short black hair and a scowl very much like the human shinigami's, a well-endowed red-headed teen and her boyish friend, a tall, dark skinned foreigner, and a blonde man with an ugly green striped hat and a cane that Kaoru was certain was a zanpakuto. He at least watched her go, uncomfortable with the idea of being seen by so many people despite the loneliness that often plagued her.
Urahara felt the hollow vanish and jerked his head up to the rooftop. Kurosaki-kun was still explaining things to the rather dense Kannonji, so who had purified the creature? His grip tightened on Benihime when he saw the familiar flutter of a shihakusho. Another shinigami, but not one he recognized. He stared for a moment, and she spotted him. Their eyes met for an instant, rust to grey, before she, too disappeared. Urahara was left with one certainty: she, whoever she was, was powerful. In what way, he didn't know, but that would change soon. If there was another shinigami in Karakura-cho, their paths would undoubtedly cross again. Then Urahara took his leave as well, before Kuchiki-san could spot him watching her. She was too smart for her own good sometimes, that girl.
Kaoru sighed, there was yet another hollow. Maybe she'd be first to this one. It was awfully boring with nothing to do. That human kid was taking care of everything. He was a better shinigami than most Court Guard shinigami. Maybe she should go ahead and move on. Despite the high number of hollows here, the konpaku seemed fairly safe—Kaoru's hand went to her zanpakuto's hilt, but before she could even draw there was a flash of blue light and the hollow disintegrated, flowing down as if returning to the earth.
"Quincy!" Kaoru gasped, making the word almost a curse. In all her years of exile she had never met a Quincy. Not once. She had come across a few while she was still in the Court Guard, and liked none of them. They were exactly as their name said: destroyers, content to send the world to ruin. Whoever this Quincy was, he needed to be made aware of the dangers of his powers. And if he refused to see sense, dealt with. Even one Quincy had the ability to cause a great imbalance in the worlds.
It was easy enough to find the young Quincy, she simply had to follow the remnants of his reiatsu left by the arrow that had killed the hollow. He was with the rude shinigami girl, Ruka or something and her human. Perhaps that pathetic excuse for a shinigami was going to do her job for once.
"Ishida Uryuu, Quincy." The boy, dressed in the white Quincy loved, introduced himself. "I hate shinigami." He added, needlessly pushing his glasses up his nose.
All three of them jumped when Kaoru shunpo'ed into their midst, Rukia's hand automatically falling to her waist, one foot sliding back as she dropped into a fighting stance, useless without her powers or blade. Ichigo just swore.
"Who-" The Quincy started, his question dying on his lips as his sharp blue eyes locked onto the sword tip a hair's width from his slightly pointed nose.
"Where are they, boy?" Kaoru's voice was quiet, but undeniably dangerous. The Quincy coughed nervously, sweat beading on his pale forehead.
"I don't know what you mean." He sniffed, clinging to the shreds of his self-confident attitude. A feat made more difficult by the scraps of reiatsu slipping out of Kaoru's control and biting at the air around her. Ichigo was the only one unaffected by her lapse. He started forward, fully intending to interfere.
"Not another step, carrot top." Kaoru growled, auburn eyes not moving from the Quincy. "Weaklings make good bait. That's what I mean. Now if you want to live a few more minutes you will tell me where the others are."
"There are no others." Ishida glared at the female shinigami, his anger temporarily overwhelming the fear. "Thanks to you shinigami I am the last Quincy." The boy spat the word shinigami with all the poison Kaoru expected from his kind. She didn't think he was lying, but nor did she see the Quincy cross he should carry if he was truly the last. She did not believe for a second the proud race would let it fall into their enemy's hands if one of them was left alive.
"Where is the cross?"
"How do you-"
"I'm asking the questions here. Now where is it?"
"Stop this foolishness!" Rukia jumped in, using every ounce of her borrowed Kuchiki authority to hold her ground despite being nearly defenseless. "What grudge could you possibly have against this human boy? He has done nothing to you." Kaoru's eyes widened in disbelief, surely she wasn't hearing what she thought she was hearing, from the human maybe, but from a shinigami? What kind of shinigami would stand up for these soul-killers?
"He is a Quincy. That is reason enough. Surely you, a shinigami, aren't going to defend him after what his people have done?"
"I have done nothing. You shinigami are the ones who wronged us!" Ishida burst out, once again seeing his grandfather falling under the claws of dozens of hollows. A sudden burst of reiatsu was the only thing that saved the young Quincy: his knees gave out, dumping him to the pavement even as Kaoru's zanpakuto sliced through the spot where his head had been.
"Rukia!" Ichigo shouted, looking frantically at his shinigami friend. She was barely standing, gasping under the pressure of Kaoru's reiatsu. "Damnit!" Ichigo muttered, hesitating. What could he do stuck in his human body?
Kaoru's zanpakuto jolted to a stop mid-swing, mere inches from Ichigo's neck.
"What are you doing?" She asked, reiatsu filling even her words, Ichigo didn't so much as flinch, a stubborn scowl on his face.
"That's my line, idiot. You can't just go around killing people."
"I can when they are Quincy." Kaoru growled, shifting her grip on her sword, "Now move, or you will be first."
"Not gonna happen." Ichigo scowled, clenching his fists, wishing Rukia would get the hell up and lend him a hand before he got his body killed, because no way would he just stand there and watch someone die.
"Oh my, how gallant of you Kurosaki-kun!" A voice chirped. Kaoru's eyes flicked to the source, a blonde man with impressively well hidden reiatsu, a hideous green hat and haori was grinning at the scene, swinging a cane in one hand. "He has a point, however. I'm afraid I can't stand by and watch this." He tapped his cane on the ground and in a sudden flash of intuition Kaoru knew it was his zanpakuto, a hidden blade, and every ounce as sneaky and conniving as its master. Unable to gauge his power Kaoru reluctantly lowered her sword. That made two shinigami who stood by the Quincy. It made no sense, even if a shinigami was neutral they would never stand to the defense of a Quincy, much less offer a fight for one, essentially saying they would die to protect them. Such an act would get you killed by your comrades.
"Why do you defend a Quincy? They are our enemy."
"A Quincy?" The strange shinigami's grey eyes narrowed. "Do you mean to finish what Soul Society started?"
"I will not forego my duty simply because one such as you has said to." Kaoru's word choice made the grey-eyed shinigami pause, curious.
Kaoru glanced from the human boy to the strange shinigami, and finally leveled her glare on the Quincy. She might be strong, but she knew when she was outmatched. Still she did not sheathe her katana. Not in the presence of one of the treacherous Quincy.
"Do not let me see you again." She threatened, then vanished, taking her reiatsu with her, once again tightly under control. It wouldn't do for one of the shinigami assigned to monitor the human world to think to report her presence to the stubborn Captain Commander.
When she had calmed down somewhat, Kaoru went in search of the strange shinigami. He, unlike the rude girl, seemed to have some idea of the conflict between shinigami and Soul Society. Perhaps he could explain the girl's ignorance and his own actions. She would prefer to avoid spilling the blood of one so young, if given a reason to spare him. The young could be taught, even one as prideful as the Quincy.
She tracked the strange shinigami to a small shop, a rundown sort of thing, tucked away in at the end of an otherwise empty street. Urahara Shop, the large sign over the door read. It would be rude to simply barge in, so Kaoru waited in front of the shop, radiating just enough reiatsu that if the strange shinigami was as strong as she had guessed he would sense her easily.
It still took almost an hour before the cunning bastard poked his head out. Half his face was hidden behind a fan, and his eyes were shaded by his hat, but Kaoru got the impression he was laughing at her. She reigned in her reiatsu, but not before the shinigami caught the slight bite of anger it carried.
"Don't tell me you decided to kill me after all?"
"Do not be ridiculous. If I meant to kill you you would already be dead. I came seeking answers."
"Hm, that seems to be a common occurrence today. However, I don't like answering a stranger's questions. Go away." The finality in his tone was sharply underlined by him snapping the shop door shut.
"If you don't help me, I will have no reason not to go back and kill that boy. And I have few qualms about going through that stubborn brat first. Or second, if he's the vengeance-seeking sort." She told the shop doors, her voice carefully casual. As she expected, the shop doors slid open as soon as she mentioned the human boy. Someone this cunning would not get in the middle of anything without reason.
"You don't need to go that far, but you could at least tell me who you are." Kaoru allowed herself a small smile, victory was hers in this battle, small though it was.
"I am Kamiya Kaoru, formerly of House Kamiya, and former Captain of the fourth squad of the Thirteen Court Guard. And you?" The shinigami's grey eyes narrowed slightly, and he hid his smile behind his fan. She was probably expecting a proper introduction, but that would be a tad too informative.
"Oh, me? I'm just a humble shop keeper."
"Do not mock me, shinigami." Kaoru snapped, in no mood to be toyed with.
"Shinigami?" The man looked around, over-exaggerating the action, "I see no shinigami here."
"You carry a zanpakuto, therefore you are a shinigami. Soul Society has no power over that title. That they assume so is naught but arrogance."
"I see." The strange shinigami replied, trying to figure out how on earth this stranger had recognized his zanpakuto when she had only seen it up close once. As far as he knew, no one else had been able to do so. "I am Urahara Kisuke."
"It is a pleasure to meet you." Kaoru replied with all the emotion of someone reading off a script.
"Well, if you're going to ask me something, Kamiya-san, ask away." Urahara snapped his fan shut, stepping out of his shop and sharply closing the door behind him. He didn't want anyone as perceptive as this Kamiya Kaoru too close to Uryuu and Jinta.
"What do you know of the Quincy?"
"They are humans with high reiatsu who trained to fight hollows. As time went on their numbers increased, and Soul Society noticed an unbalance in the three worlds. They traced the source to the Quincy. They hunted hollows to protect humans, like shinigami, however they, unlike shinigami, completely destroyed the hollows they killed, removing them from the cycle of rebirth. Soul Society repeatedly asked for them to stop hunting hollows, but the Quincy stubbornly continued, and so Soul Society came to the unfortunate decision to eliminate the Quincy. There were a few survivors that were placed under surveillance. There are very few of them left in the world today."
"So you do not know." Kaoru glanced away, her reiatsu flickering in irritation. Nothing good could come of hiding this truth. "I suppose, then, I can forgive you defending the Quincy boy."
"Don't know what?" Urahara demanded. He knew for a fact he had read all Soul Society had on the subject, even a few of the harder to get tomes, courtesy of Yoruichi.
"The whole story, of course. It is not nearly as simple as you made it out to be. We first discovered the Quincy when one of them attacked a shinigami. The exact circumstances are unknown, however both of them died, and that is the source of the conflict. Both sides sought revenge, and to varying degrees they got it, ensuring the conflict would continue. The fighting dragged on, and hollows ran rampant, as the Quincy attacked any shinigami entering the human world, leaving the hollows to wander. That is when the balance became so badly affected it was decided to extend a peace offering, citing the need to protect normal humans. They were never confirmed to my knowledge, but there were rumors the Quincy were plotting an attack on Soul Society not long after our resolution was rejected. That, I suppose is where your story picks up, although I cannot be sure as I was no longer in Soul Society at the time."
"Are you saying the Quincy had power equal to that of shinigami?"
"Of course, otherwise there would have been no conflict. I heard at one point that their leader had confronted Genryuusai and come out alive." Urahara tilted his hat down over his eyes, privately thinking Kaoru was either hugely mistaken or making a very bad joke.
"Well, thank you for the history lesson."
"I am glad someone other than myself knows the truth. Thank you for informing me of the latest chapter in the story."
"Will you leave the boy alone now?"
"That is up to him." Was Kaoru's cryptic reply.
Of course only the next day Kaoru discovered the Quincy had somehow drawn a huge swarm of hollows to Karakura. Ichigo was wildly running around, his huge zanpakuto drawn as he searched for hollows, completely lost without Rukia's cell phone. She herself took a hand in helping to destroy the gathering hollows, although there were too many over too wide an area for her to deal with alone, not without releasing her zanpakuto and creating a hell of a lot of collateral damage in both structures and souls.
It didn't take long for the stronger hollows to start coming through, the sheer press of them making the sky bend. Kaoru couldn't help but notice how many people noticed something. That brat was starting to affect the people around him with his wild reiatsu. That was the only explanation. A concentration of spiritually aware people as high as in Karakura simply wasn't normal.
"Hey, Kurosaki!" A child's voice shouted somewhere below Kaoru. She paused her hunt long enough to glance down,
"Hurry up and kick it!" Someone else called. Almost directly below Kaoru a dark haired girl in a baseball cap was staring wide eyed up at the sky, rooted to the spot. She could see it too, Kaoru mused, glancing back at the slowly widening distortion hovering over the town. If she was a Kurosaki it was inevitable, a brother that strong and uncontrolled would make anyone able to see ghosts. Poor child. Kaoru sighed, there wasn't anything she could do for the girl, and dashed toward the nearest hollow. In the field, the young Kurosaki's eyes flicked toward her for an instant, latching onto the sudden movement.
"C'mon, Kurosaki!" One of her friends shouted, waving at her to pass to him. She blinked, refocusing on the black and white soccer ball, telling herself she had been seeing things. It wasn't like the sky could actually break, right?
"It's gone?" Kaoru paused, the remains of yet another hollow dissipating behind her as she looked back to the field. She had barely encountered this hollow when another appeared moving straight for the field where the Kurosaki girl was, but now the other hollow was gone. She supposed she shouldn't be too surprised. If the brother has as much power as he does, it's not strange for the sister to be able to destroy a weaker hollow like that, especially if she was protecting her friends.
Another hollow appeared nearby, and Kaoru ran towards it almost without thinking. She hadn't worked this hard in a long time. If every soul in the area hadn't been in danger, she would have said it was fun.
"Hado #4, Byakurai!" There was no mistake, that was the voice of the rude shinigami girl, finally getting off her butt and doing some work. Although Kaoru couldn't help but notice she was still in her gigai. Her very well made gigai, if the kidoh did not damage it. Soul Society had nothing of that level when she had been there. Kaoru arrived on the scene just in time to see a cross between a pig and a caterpillar take the white beam of light like it was nothing and swat down the shinigami girl. She swore, apparently pretty helpless. Kaoru decided to go ahead and save her, and just because she didn't like the violet eyed girl she pointed at the hollow from her foothold twenty feet or so in the air.
"Hado #4, Byakurai." She commanded just loud enough that the shinigami girl would hear. Her violet eyes widened as a powerful beam ripped into the hollow. When it faded the creature lingered for a moment, headless, before it began to dissipate. "Are you okay?" Kaoru asked, floating down to street level.
"I am fine." The girl replied, her voice cold. Clearly she didn't appreciate being saved, or maybe she realized she was being mocked.
"So, are you stupid enough to try and fight with no powers or were you expecting something more?" The girl scowled at her hand, like it was the cause of her lack of power.
"I should be stronger than this by now." She muttered half to herself.
"You're still going to be a target. You should find somewhere safe to hole up until this mess is over."
"You're telling me to run away?!" The girl exclaimed, shocked and insulted in equal measures.
"If you cannot fight, you have no right to be on the battlefield." Kaoru shot back, looking down on the young shinigami's stubbornness. Knowing when to admit defeat was important for a soldier, especially when others could get hurt protecting you.
"I will not-"
"Nee-saaan!" An obnoxious voice squealed from Kurosaki's mouth, his body leaping to tackle the young shinigami. The body no longer had the human shinigami's reiatsu, so Kaoru knew immediately somehow another soul had taken possession of the red head's body.
Next on the scene was the Quincy boy. Even though she didn't necessarily want him dead, Kaoru still instinctively raised her zanpakuto. The Quincy kept his distance, fear hiding behind his glasses.
"Is this your doing?" Kaoru asked, but Ishida did not answer, afraid that if he said yes she would attack him, and Quincy pride or not he had to admit he would be almost powerless against this particular shinigami. Especially as he was already exhausted from fighting hollows all day.
"No." He replied, pushing his glasses up to hide that his eyes were drawn to Kaoru's zanpakuto as if by a magnet.
"Liar." Kaoru scoffed, easily able to tell the boy was too afraid to say yes. She couldn't blame him. She also noticed his battered fingers, some of the skin stripped by the near-constant friction from firing his bow. "At least you're helping." She added, a vague, grudging sort of respect for the boy creeping into her voice. Quincy or not, he had a lot of inner strength for someone that young, if not reiatsu.
As Kaoru leapt back into the sky to kill more hollows, hardly needing to search for the beasts so hungry for her reiatsu, Ishida noticed with a tiny twinge of fear that she was not even out of breath. He had no time to dwell on the difference in strength however, as still more hollows chose that moment to descend on him en masse.
With a sudden jolt that sent shivers down the spines of every spiritually aware person in town, the strained sky cracked, peeling open to reveal an empty blackness that was the space between worlds, absolute nothing. Slowly, shifting the sky as if it were a curtain, a massive, bone-white hand curled thin fingers over the edge. The hand was followed by the long white mask and Pinocchio-like nose of a Menos Grande. Strong enough to simply feed off other, weaker hollows, Menos Grandes hardly ever ventured to the human world. Following the mask was a giant white foot, sticking awkwardly out of the fluttering edge of the hollow's tattered body, more like a robe than flesh.
Kaoru took off in a burst of shunpo, painfully aware of the destruction a Menos Grande could cause with just a few steps in the human world. Her reiatsu flared, drawing the huge hollow's attention like a magnet. The rectangular mask turned, the clash of reiatsu making the air vibrate, more bits of sky cracking into nothing, as without hesitation Kaoru let herself fall from just above the Menos, intending to kill it if she could. The last thing anyone needed was this thing returning when no one around was strong enough to take care of it.
Unfortunately, her blow only cracked the top half of the mask, enough to annoy the hollow, but not destroy it. The Menos lashed out at her with an oversized clawed hand, and Kaoru was forced to leap back to avoid the strike. Clearly, her power at the moment was not going to be enough.
Harsh, discordant energy rippled through the air as a tiny dot of red grew just below the tip of the hollow's long, pointy nose. The cero was aimed at Kaoru but would easily take out a couple city blocks if it wasn't stopped.
The human boy was watching from below, and while the Menos was still charging its attack, he began to run towards the creature's foot sword raised over his head and reiatsu flaring wildly. Not sure what he planned to do, but more than willing to take advantage of the boy's recklessness, Kaoru tamped down on her own reiatsu to reduce it to the barest ripple over her skin. The menos, blind but for its ability to sense reiatsu, immediately changed the course of its attack.
Ichigo swore when he saw the brilliant red flare unleashed on a collision course with himself. Whatever half-baked plan he had when he charged in, it didn't include this. On instinct, he swung his zanpakuto down to try and deflect the attack right back at the giant hollow. The pressure was almost enough to rip his arms right off, but all it took was the thought of the possibility of his family, his friends, getting caught up in the blast for his to hang on.
It was a deadlock. The cero couldn't break through, but nor could Ichigo repel it. Kaoru drifted to street level behind the red head, chanting quietly. She wasn't going to interrupt the struggle, that would be dangerous for not only the boy, but everyone in the vicinity. She was however, going to be ready should he fail.
Ichigo didn't notice when a ring of pavement about five feet across began to glow around his feet, he was too focused on pushing back the stupid hollow's attack so he could thrash Ishida for this whole ordeal in peace. With a determined grunt, Ichigo pushed back at the cero, slowly gaining momentum as he forced the reiatsu away from himself. The glowing circle flickered as Ichigo's own rising reiatsu threatened to break Kaoru's kidoh before it was even complete.
Even Kaoru was surprised when Ichigo suddenly jerked one arm straight, holding the cero off with apparent ease for just a second before slashing down, dissipating the hollow's reiatsu and sending a wave of his own power to nearly slice the hollow in two.
It let out a deafening screech and slowly began to retreat, pulling the edges of the torn sky together as it went. A sudden spike in his reiatsu drew all eyes back to Ichigo, the unexpected force pushing even Kaoru back a step. Ishida ran up, stuggling through the dense air around the orange haired shinigami, unable to just stand there and let the human's own reiatsu tear him apart. Before he could even get within five feet of his classmate, the Quincy's blue bow exploded into existence, ten times larger than normal and incredibly unstable. The sheer force it was drawing in without any effort on the Quincy's part was enough to make his very bones creak. He had to do something, get rid of some of this insane power or both of them would end up dead. Gritting his teeth against the pain Ishida aimed his bow skyward, and loosed an arrow into the distance that did next to nothing to decrease Ichigo's reiatsu output.
"Move, boy." Kaoru snapped, shoving the young Quincy away from the intense reiatsu before the strain killed him. She still didn't like Quincy, but wasn't so cruel as to let one so young die in such a painful manner. Ishida stumbled back, right into the strange geta wearing man whose friends had saved him and Ichigo before the menos showed up. For once Urahara didn't make any weird comments, he was far too interested in what Kamiya-san intended to do. More so because he thought Uryuu-kun's idea was pretty good. A bit crude, but effective.
Unaware of her audience, Kaoru withdrew a long, narrow piece of paper from her shihakusho, speaking under her breath as she folded it into a hexagon. Calm like Ichigo's very soul wasn't in danger of self-destructing, Kaoru let the folded paper fall to land exactly where Ichigo's hakusui was. The onlookers gasped, Rukia trying and failing to reach Ichigo in her weakened state, when Kaoru plunged her hand through the center of the paper with that same unshakable calm, her limb vanishing nearly to her shoulder in defiance of all the laws of nature. To Urahara, Rukia, and Tessai's surprise, Ichigo's reiatsu did not vanish as it should have. Instead it began to steadily decline, his oversized zanpakuto stabilizing before vanishing altogether.
A low hum, a vibration in the reiatsu still saturating the air, grew in strength as ever so slowly, Kaoru withdrew her arm, the sleeve of her shihakusho mysteriously gone. Under the hum, Kaoru was still speaking, her words too low to be heard. Rukia tried again to interfere, only for Urahara to block her way, paralyzing her with an unknown kidoh.
"Kurosaki-kun is not dead yet, interference may do more harm than good."
"You know what's going on?!" Rukia exclaimed, wishing she had the power to beat a confession out of the infuriating Urahara. The shopkeeper hid a grin behind his fan,
"No, not at all!" He chirped, before turning back to the spectacle before them his expression once again serious.
With agonizing slowness Kaoru stood as Ichigo's reiatsu continued to drop. "Kai." She whispered, her fist encased in a bar of light. At her word Ichigo's reiatsu leveled out, and the grimace faded from his unconscious face. The light vanished as Kaoru fell to the ground, something clattering against the pavement.
Rukia stumbled slightly as she was released from Urahara's kidoh and ran towards Ichigo. Urahara followed at a more sedate pace along with the Quincy. Kaoru waited for their reaction as she rubbed feeling back into her arm, more exhausted than she had been in centuries.
"Let him be, girl." She sighed when Rukia set about trying to awaken Ichigo. Rukia was all too willing to change targets.
"What did you do to him!?" She demanded, violet eyes blazing, unconsciously reaching for her absent zanpakuto.
"I saved his life." Kaoru replied, rising to her feet. "You may have this back, and perhaps recall why transference of powers is banned." Rukia gasped in surprise as she took in the familiar form of her precious Sode no Shirayuki. She did not hesitate, able to feel even from a distance that somehow, someway, this truly was her zanpakuto.
"You – what - how?" Rukia stammered, words completely failing her for once. All logic, everything she had been taught said this should be impossible, or rather she did not believe she had heard one mention of such a thing. Not even a whisper among the often ridiculous rumors of rukongai. She held the heart of her powers in her hands, she could feel them trickling back, however something was still not right. Two things were still not right. Surely her power should be returning faster than it was, and if her power was here, why was Ichigo still wearing a shihakusho and not reduced to an ordinary konpaku? Overwhelmed and more than a little confused, Rukia couldn't think what to ask first, indeed she was even having a hard time lining up her thoughts into sentences. She simply looked from Kaoru to Ichigo with her mouth half open.
"Hmm," Urahara hummed loudly, poking at the unconscious Ichigo with his fan, his expression shielded by his hat. "He didn't lose his powers?" the exile commented, cocking his head to one side. Even though he'd never admit it, the scientist was as close to stumped as he'd been in a long time. Even with all his illicit digging back in Soul Society and barely legal research he'd never heard of someone whose hakusui or sanketsu could be pierced without them losing their powers, whatever they may be.
"Of course not." Kaoru huffed, just a tad offended at the insinuation that she hadn't known exactly what she was doing. "But he'll need careful watching 'till he wakes up, his being human probably increases the chances of awakening his inner hollow." Being the highly observant person she was, Kaoru did not miss the way Urahara's expression darkened at the mention of hollows.
"Shinigami cannot become hollows." Rukia dismissed, still somewhat distracted by the unexpected return of her zanpakuto. Kaoru stared at her for a moment.
"By the blood, girl, where is your teacher? Or do you simply enjoy being ignorant?" she finally exclaimed, unable to believe a Captain actually allowed her into their division and then the human world.
"How dare you!" Rukia shot back, puffing up with her pride as a Kuchiki, adopted or not. "You have no right-!" The rest of her impassioned rant died on her lips as Kaoru gave her a glare to rival even the Captain Commander at his most supremely irritated.
"Shut up." Kaoru commanded evenly, more than out of patience with this particular shinigami. Had Kaoru known she would be so ungrateful, she would not have bothered to re-form the girl's zanpakuto. To the elder shinigami's surprise, Rukia recovered quickly, not backing down from Kaoru's intimidating glare even though she did not continue her self-righteous speech.
"Now, now ladies," Urahara interrupted the noble's glaring contest with a flippant wave of his fan and his usual cheerful chirp. "No need to be hostile, aren't we all friends here?" Urahara grinned, silently laughing at them and their pride.
"You are far too suspicious to be a friend, Mr. Shopkeeper." Kaoru very nearly smiled when she spoke, thinking it very clever how this man broke the tension and just a little ashamed she had lost her temper. It seemed she was too used to having only herself for company. Rukia looked away, realizing she had been acting foolish but unwilling to admit as much.
"No less suspicious than you, Kamiya-san." Urahara replied, his grin turning sly as he hid behind his fan, wanting little more than a few hours alone with this woman and a bottle of truth serum. If Kurosaki-kun stayed unconscious he might just be able to make it happen, too. A sudden flux in the significantly lower reiatsu Ichigo was emitting only made his job easier.
"Is it alright to just leave him like that?" Rukia asked, directing her words to Ichigo himself. Kaoru looked towards the not too distant heart of Karakura town and shook her head.
"That would not be wise. Unless anyone here is proficient in barrier-type bakudo." She added after a moment's pause. Back in Soul Society the Fourth Division had a few specially sealed rooms for this sort of thing. Rare though these cases were, it was worth the trouble, especially if it came down to a matter of execution.
"Ah!" Urahara exclaimed softly, a brilliant idea coming to him. "We can use my house!"
"Or we could just take him home." Rukia suggested, not liking the idea of putting Ichigo in Urahara's tender care when the man had that look in his eye.
"And risk those adorable little sisters?" Kaoru asked in disbelief. "I was curious." Kaoru shrugged at the surprised looks that comment brought. "And," She continued, a smirk spreading across her lips, "I'm not the one living in his closet." At that Rukia blushed bright red,
"Th-that is solely a matter of convenience!" She stammered loudly, her blush persisting as the older shinigami had a little laugh at her expense.
Once again completely serious, Kaoru hoisted Ichigo over her shoulder. Urahara hummed quietly when he saw no visible wounds on the boy, something that should be impossible as even Tessai, a former member of the kido corps, was unaware of any kidoh that would allow one soul to pass through another unharmed. "If you would lead the way, Urahara-san."
Late that night, with Ichigo still dead to the world and the other residents of the shop asleep, Urahara, Rukia and Kaoru sat in varying states of discomfort around a small, round table waiting for something to happen. So far Urahara had tried and failed to start a conversation seven times. Rukia was too worried about why it was taking Ichigo so long to wake up and too stressed out from feeling useless to talk to anyone, much less Urahara. Kaoru was more focused on the human boy as well, concerned because she had never had cause to use that technique on a human before. Not a one of them missed when a pair of shinigami entered the human world over Karakura.
Rukia jumped to her feet, recognizing the reiatsu in an instant. They had come for her at last. She had to go, had to get away so at the very least Ichigo could return to his normal life. If she was found here it would mean both their deaths, and perhaps Urahara's as well. She would not have that burden on her shoulders.
"Please tell Ichigo not to look for me when he wakes up." The Kuchiki asked Urahara, who merely looked at her from under his hat. She waited until she was outside before breaking into a run. She did not know where she was running, or why, she just ran. She knew she should stop and face her captors with proper Kuchiki pride, accept both her sins and her death, but for the first time in a long time her heart was in control.
"Will you help her?" Urahara asked after a time, curious about the way Kaoru watched the door long after the Kuchiki had gone.
"No." Kaoru replied, blunt in the extreme, distracted still by the oddly familiar feel of the human boy's reiatsu. She didn't particularly want to begin a conversation with Urahara, the only reason she was still here was the boy, but knowing and guessing could make a large gap. "Kurosaki Ichigo, is he of those Kurosaki?"
"Does it matter?"
"Supposing when he wakes up he will wish to chase after that obnoxious girl, very much so."
"Oh?" Urahara grinned, "Well, he is an idiot so he'll need all the help he can get."
"Do you know or not? Because there is a simple way to find out, although the danger is great." Kaoru began to rise, and Urahara's grin faltered. He thought she was bluffing, but could he really take the chance with Isshin's boy? What would happen to him if Ichigo died didn't even bear thinking about.
"He is. Why does it matter? The Kurosaki clan is no more."
"There is a debt to be paid." Was all Kaoru would say on the matter, the source was too long gone to be important to anyone but herself and the cause would be too long a tale with the night already half gone.
"You're quite a mysterious person, Kamiya-san."
"Of course, we did just meet." Kaoru replied with a sly smile, truly this was much better than conversing with konpaku. Even if Urahara-san was a cunning fox of a man.
"Geta-boshi?" A bleary eyed Ichigo mumbled from the doorway, drawing the immediate attention of both Kaoru and Urahara. "And," the boy squinted, "You!" He burst out, jabbing an accusing finger at Kaoru, "What the hell are you doing here?!" He shouted, completely thrown off his righteous-anger stride when Kaoru didn't get angry back.
"Is that any way to speak to one who saved your life?" She asked, all polite cattiness. Ichigo's jutting finger faltered, drooping as if no longer sure where to point.
"Who what?" Ichigo faltered, the last time he'd seen this woman hadn't she threatened to kill him? Why on earth would she turn around and save him?
"Your reiatsu was out of balance with your reiryoku, so I pulled some out."
"You what?" Ichigo blinked, more confused than ever. "Geta-boshi?" He looked to Urahara who simply shrugged, not about to actually say he didn't know much more than Ichigo when it came to what actually happened.
"Reiatsu is the amount of spirit energy your body emits, and can be controlled through will and concentration." Kaoru explained with tired patience. At least the boy had an excuse for his ignorance. "Reiryoku is your soul's energy capacity. It can only grow with time and training. Think of it as your overall potential." She clarified for Ichigo's sake. "When you fought the menos, your own reiatsu awoke, and because you had absorbed that Rukia girl's reiatsu as well, it was too much for your body to handle. So I pulled her power out."
"Uh, thank you?" Ichigo frowned, still not sure he understood, but the important thing was that he was still here, right?
"You are welcome." Kaoru smiled, thinking that wasn't going to be the last time she saved his life.
"Where's Rukia? Did she leave already?"
"She would rather you not look for her." Urahara replied with a poorly concealed smirk. A jolt of unfamiliar reiatsu cut off any potential reply, close and strong enough that even Ichigo could sense it. "What…?" The human-shinigami hybrid's scowl deepened in worry, increased by the knowledge that he was all but helpless without Rukia's glove to release him from his flesh. With a sneaky smirk Urahara brandished his cane, revealing a blue and white symbol on the bottom that matched the one on Rukia's glove. "However, she's my valuable frequent customer, so I'll help you out."
Without waiting for Ichigo to reply, Urahara jabbed his cane at the boy's forehead and with the faint blue glow of the new dissonance between body and soul, Ichigo's human body fell to the floor, effectively dead for the duration, leaving his shinigami form standing in its place, complete with his massive, but stable, zanpakuto, as yet unchanged from the after effects of Kaoru's handiwork.
"If you go as such you will be killed." Kaoru said, not mentioning that she would risk bringing anew the wrath of Soul Society before she let him die, preferring to stay out of this business if at all possible.
"I have to try." The human replied, face set and determined down to his eyelashes, before he ran out of the shop. Kaoru sighed and rose to follow him. Whoever was sent to retrieve that Rukia girl wouldn't be some low-ranked nobody and there was a very real possibility they would recognize her name. That was a headache Kaoru did not want to deal with. Of course, her life would have been very different if Kurosaki males didn't all have a stubborn streak wider than the gap between worlds.