Disclaimer: Bleach, characters and plot line, belongs to Tite Kubo. Any other character and plot lines belong to me.
Edit: Chapter has been updated as of 11/6/13.
Chapter 2: First Encounters, the Good and Bad Kind
"Jeez, it feels awkward walking with Gesshoku and Nisshoku on my lower back," I complained as I made my way to school.
Today I decided to change up my uniform a bit. I wore the usual grey skirt, white blouse, and grey blazer, but instead I left the blazer unbuttoned, shirt untucked, and was wearing thigh high black socks so that I could strap Kiba underneath the sock. Around my neck was the choker that Urahara-san and ojii-san had given me. I got swag, ne?
Making my way to the front of the school building, I found it odd that Chad wasn't here yet.
"Maybe he's running late," I shrugged while changing out of my chucks and into the school shoes.
Going up the stairs and into the hallway, I walked into my classroom hoping to find Chad already there. He wasn't. Like I said, he must be running late. Hopefully he makes it to class on time.
Class continued on with me glancing occasionally towards the door waiting for Chad to come in. After the first bell rang, signaling it was time for our next class, I was really getting worried. Chad wasn't the type to just not show up to school, especially when he looked completely fine the day before. There must have been an emergency or something. Yeah, an emergency. Jeez, it sounds like I am overreacting, but I can't help it. The man is my best friend.
It was until lunch time when Chad finally showed up, right when I was about to leave the classroom and head towards the roof.
"Chad! Are you alright?" I freaked when I saw him bandaged up.
"Yeah, I'm fine. But the guy that was on his motorcycle that collided with me was much worse, so I carried him to the hospital."
There have been many times when I have seen Chad injured, but this was worse. I sometimes wonder what this kid is made of. Not only that but he had a birdcage which had a white cockatiel with red cheeks and brown eyes. Staring at the bird, I felt some weird vibe coming out of it.
"Where did you get the bird?" I asked.
"Yesterday night, after a steel girder fell on top of me."
I almost toppled to the ground after hearing that statement, "Chad, are you sure you alright? Maybe you need to go to the hospital or something."
"I'm fine. Let's go eat lunch," He said leading the way towards the roof.
I followed behind with my usual packed onigiri. My eyes kept looking at the bird, who was staring right back at me. As soon as my mouth was about to open up to say something about the cockatiel, we were already at the roof. Already there was Kurosaki, Kuchiki-san, Asano, and Kojima. Chad and I walked up to the group and right when Asano accidentally bumped into Chad, that's when our presence was noted.
"Hey, Chad. Tatsumiya," Kurosaki greeted us from where he was sitting.
"Hey," I greeted as Chad just lifted his hand, his own form of greeting.
"You're…injured."
Asano turned around to get a good look at Chad, "Whoa, it's true. What happened?"
"The one on my head is from a steel girder that fell on me yesterday," Chad began to explain his injuries.
"A steel girder!" Asano's reaction was way too overreacting.
"The one on my hand and arm is from a head-on collision with a motorcycle. The rider was hurt badly, so I carried him to the hospital and just got back."
"So that's why you're late."
Kurosaki had a sweatdrop on his head as he spoke, "More like, I'm still wonderin' what the heck you're made of?"
"That's the same thing I was thinking when I found him before coming up here," I told the group while Chad placed the cockatiel's cage onto the floor.
"Hey, what's with the bird?" Asano asked as he began to stare at it.
And that's when the unthinkable happened. The bird actually spoke a proper sentence, "Hello, my name is Shibata Yuichi. What is your name?"
'That's not normal,' I thought as I stared in disbelief. Apparently, I wasn't the only one who got a weird vibe from the bird. Kurosaki and Kuchiki-san both made a face that showed what they were just witnessing was not normal.
"Whoa!" Asano moved closer to the bird, "This thing can seriously talk! My name is Asano Keigo. Say it."
"Chad, where'd you get this cockatiel?" Kurosaki asked.
"Yesterday," Chad paused. "I got it."
"Wait one minute!" Asano shouted while pointing at Chad, "You got lazy in the middle and shortened the story just now, didn't you? This is a bad habit. Tell us, tell us everything."
While Asano kept on shouting, Chad sat down in front of the bird and began to feed it.
"I didn't shorten it."
"Nooo, you did! You know-"
"Asano, please shut up," I interrupted him once I sat down next to Chad.
"Tatsumiya-chan! You must know the story since you're best friends with him!"
"It's how he said it. He got it yesterday," I told him while taking out my lunch.
As I took a bite of my food, thoughts about the bird kept revolving around my head, 'There is something about this bird. I know it's not something evil, but I should probably investigate tonight. Ojii-san has wanted me to keep on practicing at night more often, especially scouting.'
My mind was really focused on the bird that I didn't notice someone staring right at me until I felt a creepy feeling. I turned my head to see who it was.
'Kuchiki-san, you need to make it less obvious that you are staring at me,' I thought before turning my head back and focusing on the bird.
It was finally night time, close to midnight to be exact; my time to investigate what was going on. Changing out of my school uniform, I began to place my "ninja uniform" that ojii-san designed for me. I placed on my mid-thigh black shorts that already had holsters attached on the back to hold my kodachis. My dark red sleeve-less shitagi was placed on next and on top of that was a black sleeve-less kosode that had a black hood sewn onto it to cover my face since I wasn't that into wearing a mask that would cover half of my face. To make sure the kosode and shitagi stayed in place, I wrapped a dark red sash around my waist.
"Not bad, old man. You do actually have a taste in style."
I went into my closet and pulled out the last two things that I needed to complete my outfit. Grabbing the below-the-knee length black boots with pockets, both inside and outside, I placed them on. Inside the pockets held smoke pellets, bandages, and other necessary items incase if I was to get injured. I preferred the boots rather than the traditional long jika-tabi because it was more modern and I have been practicing with these since I was kid.
"I should maybe start wearing these boots to school," I thought aloud as I placed Kiba inside of my right boot.
The last thing I placed was my past-the-elbow black gloves that had a black metal plate covering. Seeing that I was fully dressed, I grabbed Gesshoku and Nisshoku from where I had last left them and placed them into their holsters. I walked towards my window and barely opened it when the door to my room opened.
"Oh and where you plan on going, Kaede-chan?" Ojii-san asked as he walked in. His grey, short hair was messy while his dark brown eyes revealed that he was wide awake. Something which I believe a fifty-two year old should not be.
"I thought I would do a little practice outside tonight. You know, maybe see what this choker does when those demons are around," I told him while leaning against the wall next to the window.
"Hollows, Kaede-chan. They are called Hollows," Ojii-san corrected me.
"Sorry. For a moment, I forgot you called them Hollows since it's exactly like the monsters you would tell me as a kid in those Seireitei and Soul Society stories."
Ojii-san simply smiled at the comment, "Remember that if you plan on tracking someone, try and concentrate on their reiatsu. And if you focus hard enough, you can probably be even able to grab their reiraku (spirit thread)."
"Thanks, ojii-san," I smiled before making my way to the window. Stepping onto the window sill, I turned to look at him while placing on the hood, "Don't stay up waiting for me."
And then I jumped off the window sill to grab hold of the roof tiles. I pulled myself up and once I had the proper footing, I began running.
Now the coolest thing about all my training was how fast I could now run and how far I can jump. When I first started this part of training, it was hell. I would always end up with various forms of cuts and bruises, but ojii-san was always there with a hand to lift me back up and encourage me to try again. Thanks to him, I can run and jump long distances. All of this is why Ryō-san kept pestering me to join the track and field team.
Seeing that I lived not too far away from Chad, maybe roughly about six streets away, the trek towards his house was by far easy. Since I always practiced in this neighborhood, I knew how to time my jumps from each building and the objects I need to grab in order to achieve making it on top of a building.
In a matter of ten minutes, give or take, I had arrived at his house. I silently moved to get a look at his bedroom window to see whether he or the cockatiel would be in there, but to my disappointment, they weren't. Thinking that it was odd, I decided to take a look and see whether his window was open. While carefully balancing myself, I began to see whether the window would open. To my relief, it did and just like that I slipped into his room.
"Definitely not in his room," I whispered to myself.
His place was just like how it looked every time I stopped for a visit: clean. It actually puts mine to shame. Walking out of the bedroom to check in all the other rooms, I found it pitch black. Not a single light was on here. Even his bathroom light was off.
"If they both aren't here, then where the hell are they? How the hell am I supposed to find him now?"
That's when ojii-san's words came into mind. I could always try and track them based off of their reiatsu. But Chad doesn't have any. Well none that is entirely noticeable. But that's when it hit me.
"The cockatiel!"
Closing my eyes, I began to try and remember the feel of the cockatiel's spirit. Considering that I have never done this before, I wasn't sure whether this was going to work out. My first attempt was a complete fail.
"How the hell am I supposed to do this!" I complained, "Why did ojii-san recommend me try that method?"
Looking down at the floor, I noticed something that resembled like a feathered quill. Bending down to grab it, I found it to be one of the feathers from the cockatiel.
'I wonder,' I stared at the feather.
Closing my eyes, I held the feather's tip towards the center of my forehead. The sudden smell and touch of the feather flowed through my entire body and that's when I starting feeling something even though no reiraku appeared before me.
"Alright, so that's how it is supposed to work," a grin came onto my face.
In a minute, I recognized the bird's reiatsu, but what surprised me was that this bird actually had a human's spirit in it! More specifically a little boy! Something horrible must have happened to him. I dropped the feather and watched it float down slowly. I looked towards the window with more determination to get to the bottom of this. In no time, I left just as the same way I entered.
I ran through the roofs just to realize that the reiatsu of the boy is nowhere in our neighborhood. Jumping off a roof, I began to run on the streets back towards the direction of where I lived, while making sure that I stayed within the shadows. Having to cross the bridge over Karasu River, I had an awkward feeling as to where both Chad and the bird, or kid, were going to be at.
"I hope that my gut feeling is for once wrong," I muttered as I began to make my way up a tree and jump onto a random houses' roof.
Following the boy's reiatsu, I finally arrived on top of the roof where both he and Chad were in. As I looked down from the roof top, I found another roof ledge that I can easily land on and a window to look and see whether the two are in there. I got on my knees and slowly moved off the roof, gripping the edge, and safely landing.
"Ah, crap."
Inside the bedroom I was peeking into, I found Kurosaki sleeping. His reiatsu wasn't the only one that was in there. I felt Kuchiki's reiatsu from somewhere inside as well. As I was about to turn and jump down to the bottom, seeing that this floor was mostly bedrooms, one of my kodachi's hit the window and created a rather loud noise. Kursaki immediately woke up and looked towards the window. I was grateful that I was wearing mostly all black and that is was dark, so that it can hide me, especially since he was moving closer to the window. Looking from left to right for somewhere to hide, I found a perfect hiding spot just around the corner and ran to it. In my moment of panic, I realized that my reiatsu wasn't hidden.
'I hope he can't sense reiatsu!'
Waiting for three minutes felt like an eternity, but I had to make sure that he went back to bed. Noticing that his reiatsu has calmed down, I decided to just jump off the roof from my hiding spot to avoid something like that happening again. Once I touched the grass, I ran to every window to look for Chad. On my second try, I found him there laying down on one of the hospital beds that Kurosaki's otou-san has for his clinic. Next to the bed was the cockatiel inside of his cage with such a sad face as it was sleeping.
'I'll deal with this tomorrow since I really don't want to break into another house right now,' I thought before turning around and running back home in the shadows.
"Eh, it's too early!" I complained the next morning once I walked downstairs to eat breakfast.
My blazer was open and my button-up shirt was untucked since both of my kodachi's were currently placed on my lower back. Once again I had on my thigh high black socks with Kiba hidden and this time I did decide to wear my ninja boots.
"That's your fault, Kaede," Okaa-san lectured me as she placed my plate of food in front of where I should be sitting. Her long brown hair was kept down today. Her light brown eyes then looked back at me and said, "What were you doing so late at night?"
"Practicing no doubt," Otou-san looked at me with his brown eyes in a serious matter. He ran his hand through his black spiked hair, "Were you careful this time?"
"Yes, I was otou-san. I'm not a little kid anymore."
So maybe as a child I would sneak out to practice, but seeing that since this was in the middle of the night I thought that it would be alright since everyone was asleep. Of course my parents disagreed with the idea, especially right after when you are being escorted by police officers back to your house for being out late at night without a guardian. Back to the present, I quickly finished my breakfast and was handed my bento for school. With a quick goodbye, I left the house.
I was barely outside of my gate when a sudden shock overcame my body. The choker around my neck suddenly glowed and shot out a beam of light leading me towards a certain direction.
"A demon must be around," I muttered to myself as I touched the choker.
But something felt completely odd once I touched it. There was fabric on top of the leather. Quickly pulling out a compact mirror from my backpack, I learned what the hell had happened. A black mask was covering half of my face from my nose and down to the choker.
'Ojii-san, you are gonna get it when I come back home!'
Once the thought left my head, I threw my backpack over my gate and began to run towards the direction of where the beam of light was taking me. While running, all thoughts were out of my mind. It would be the first time that I would actually face a demon on my own. The one and only time I had faced a demon was two years ago when I was with otou-san.
As soon as I was near, I heard what sounded like an explosion and that was where the beam of light was leading me to. Immediately I ran up a wall, which I had learned to do since I was little, to climb one of the closest trees so that I could analyze the demon and see what my situation would be.
'Kuchiki-san! Chad!'
Down below was Chad, who actually managed to punch the demon. On his back of his floral yellow print shirt was blood that was shaped like if he was stepped on. Knowing that the demon had attacked my best friend, I got pissed. The demon itself was ugly. To me, it resembled a frog with retractable bat wings on his arms. Bat-like fur was around its neck and it had bat-like feet.
'Holy crap! I didn't know Chad was that strong!'
Chad had somehow managed to break in half an electricity pole made out of wood and began to use it as a weapon. Once he learned which direction to hit, he swung the pole and hit the demon.
Kuchiki-san ran towards the demon, with Chad behind her, "Now, give up. Someone who can get rid of you will be here soon."
The demon simply laughed.
"What's so funny?" She exclaimed.
"Geez," the demon began as it started to get up. "That's why every one of you Shinigamis gets beaten by us!"
'Shinigami! They're actually real?'
All of a sudden, rustling was heard in the bushes that were around the tree I was in and the ones across. I saw movement and that's when I noticed these weird bug-looking creatures. Immediately, they jumped out and attached themselves to Chad and Kuchiki-san.
The demon laughed, "This is what they call a reversal of fortune. You damn Shinigamis underestimate us Hollows, that's why stuff like this happens to you. Let's see, which should I eat first…"
"How about neither one of them!" I suddenly shouted.
Unintentionally, I revealed my presence.
"Oh, another Shinigami to play with," the demon chuckled.
Pulling out Gesshoku, I jumped out of the tree I was in and making sure that I was in level with the sun. Since the demon, or should I start saying Hollow, looked directly towards the sun, it blinded itself. This gave me the perfect opportunity to slice his right shoulder causing him to scream in pain.
Flicking Gesshoku to remove the blood and placing it back on its sheath, I glared at the Hollow, "I'm no Shinigami. I'm a Ninja."
That's when I heard Chad behind me grunting. I turned to look and with such a force, he removed those creatures off of him.
"What the hell!" The Hollow shouted in shock, "H-H-H-H-H-How reckless the two of you are! You gonna let yer muscles and little sword do that talking and take care of every little thing. You muscle-boun-"
Chad threw a punch, almost hitting him. Seeing that he the Hollow was distracted by Chad, I ran over to Kuchiki-san and kicked those little bastards off of her.
"Are you alright?" I asked her while helping her stand.
"Who are you?" She asked me, eyeing the fact that we had on the same uniform.
"I don't think this is the time for that. Just know that I'm here to help. I'll tell you who I am later, but we gotta focus on the Hollow who is currently flying up towards the sky," I pointed up towards the Hollow.
"You can see it?"
"Of course."
"You're not a Shinigami."
"Nope. Just a human like Chad over there, but with my own reiatsu that allows me to do things others would dream of."
We turned to look at Chad who was still punching the air in front of him trying to find the Hollow.
"No, not there," Kuchiki-san told him. "In the sky!"
"The sky?" He questioned.
"I have an idea."
After she quickly explained her method, a sweatdrop adorned my head, "Kuchiki-san, I'll use my own method if you don't mind. You know, to double team."
She nodded her head and that's when they got ready. I moved towards the nearest electricity pole and waited for her to shout go.
"Launch!"
Immediately focusing on my reiatsu, I ran up the telephone pole. When I was little, this was one of the first techniques I learned in case I had to run away from a demon. The way I learned this was through ojii-san scaring me half to death.
Once I was at the top of the pole, I pulled out Gesshokue and Nisshoku. The Hollow began to freak once it took notice of Kuchiki-san getting close, but soon a malicious grin appeared and so did one of those little creatures.
"Kuchiki-san!" I shouted as I jumped.
The Hollow immediately took notice of me and had its little creature launch itself and spit those things at me. I managed to slice the creature and a few of those things, but three latched themselves onto my shoulders and left arm where I held Nisshoku. As I fell, I prepared myself to land and once I did, I was relieved to see that Chad had caught Kuchiki-san.
"Damn it, what are these? Leeches?" I heard Kuchiki-san as I walked over to her.
"I can't remove them either," I told her as I was ready to attempt trying to cut them with my dual kodachis.
"Exactly," the Hollow finally flew down. "They don't come off easily and I wouldn't cut them if I were you. Plus, those are my targets."
All of a sudden, a screech-like sound was heard coming from the Hollow. That was when pain hit both me and Kuchiki-san. The leeches had exploded on us. My upper body was in pain and I could see blood slowly start to seep through my clothes.
"Transfer student! Girl! What happened?" Chad looked at us worried.
"Surprised? Those leeches are mini bombs. They resonate with the sound from my tongue and explode. Geez! Lettin' yer guard down."
"That fucking asshole," I cussed as I stood up slowly and watched Chad walk towards the Hollow.
And that's when the Hollow did the most horrible move ever. It now had the cockatiel with him.
"Oh, he ran away just now to buy time to bring that here," Kuchiki-san watched.
"Shibata," I heard Chad.
The Hollow smiled, "Looks like you understand, huh, big boy. Now then, it's time to play with you, little Miss Shinigami and Ninja."
I moved towards Kuchiki-san and stood in front of her as he continued.
"Run around! So I can have fun hunting you two women."
Kuchiki-san stood up behind me slowly and spoke, "Don't move from here, Chad. If you move an inch, it intends to blow up the birdcage."
"Transfer student, girl, what about you two?" Chad asked.
"You don't need to worry about us," I told him.
"I won't slip up. I've promised that. That's fine with you?" Kuchiki-san asked me.
"Sounds fine with me."
"Promised?" Chad questioned.
I already had a feeling as to who it was that she had made a promise to; most especially seeing that said person isn't here at the moment.
"Let's go," I told her.
Just like that, we both ran.