Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or Highschool DxD I only own my OC

Edited as of 7/2/16

Ryu glanced around, his visible eye wide, while he expected to wake up in his room to his father screaming his name, he instead awoke to an enormous natural landscape, the sun setting, painting the sky a wide variety of scarlets and oranges, in the distance, he could hear a waterfall, toward the west, he could see mountains showing themselves out of the ground, in the distance, he could see several islands, seemingly floating in the sky.

As for what he was standing on, it appeared to be the roof of some structure, it had clearly been standing for a long amount of time, the roof was cracked and worn.

Moving to the edge, Ryu glanced downward, revealing that he was standing on what appeared to be a ruined tower. Below him was a vast expanse of forestry. The grass and leaves waving slightly in the peaceful breeze, he could even see several animals wandering the ground, squirrels, birds, and even a bear were all searching the earth for something. What, he didn't know but they seemed rather persistent.

"Beautiful, ain't it?"

The hairs on the back of Ryu's neck stood up straight as he jumped to the side and rolled. He stood up straight as he turned around, seeing an enormous white blade withdrawing from the ground.

"Hoh? That's good." Ryu turned to the voice and his eyes widened; he was staring at an entirely white version of himself. The only difference being their clothing as he was wearing the outfit that Ryu himself wore when he gained that shinigami's power, it was just white in coloration with black lining. "Looks like you can sense malicious intent."

Ryu's visible eye shut tight as a blinding pain shot through his skull. Something deep within his mind was reacting to the words of the man in front of him as a voice that wasn't present spoke out.

"You won't always be able to see the enemy coming. So when you can't you need to be able to sense them."

"Something wrong, partner?" Ryu was jarred from his thoughts as the being began to walk towards him in a slow manner, the white blade that was swung at him resting lazily on his shoulder.

"'Cause if you're just gonna stand there…" The blade left the man's shoulder as it began to spin at high speeds. "I'LL KILL YOU!"

Ryu barely managed to sidestep another strike from the white blade as it began to spin in his direction. He managed to catch a glimpse of black cloth before he jumped to the side again, closely avoiding the blade as it spun back to its owner. The man continued to spin the weapon as its owner's face split into a grin of insanity.

However, said grin melted away when the owner of said weapon discovered that he could no longer spin it. Ryu looked and saw that the white blade was held to the roof of the tower by several glowing blue chains. The white being clicked its tongue out of annoyance before turning and staring at a dark-clothed figure behind them.

"Enough." The figure stepped forward to reveal that it was an old man wearing a long black overcoat that seemed to be made of darkness.

"Coming to ruin my fun again old man?" The white being spoke with boredom. "You know that we're gonna have to do this eventually."

"I acknowledge that." The old man spoke, "But that day will not be today. You will fight Ryu, but when he is ready."

The white being sighed before turning back to Ryu, "Looks like we'll have to finish this some other time, partner." His face split into a malicious grin as his golden eyes glinted. "Until then… Don't die."

-XXXX-

Ryu's eyes opened to the sight of his ordinary bedroom ceiling, sitting up in bed, he looked around to see that he was back in his room. There weren't any strange floating islands, he wasn't in the middle of a large forest, and there was no strange white version of him attacking him and no strange clothed old man stopping him.

'A dream?' He didn't know, everything just looked so real. But what did the white man mean when he said that he'd have to fight him. Not to mention the old man knew his name, and he'd think he would remember two people as strange as those. Then there was the feeling he got every time the white one attacked. The hairs on the back of his neck would always stand up; he could feel where that sword was coming from, almost lik-.

"GOOD MOORRNIGGG RYUUU!"

Ryu was suddenly jolted from his thoughts as his father flew into his room through the door; Ryu reacted, stood up and punched his father in the throat. Isshin gagged and Ryu took that moment to throw him on the earth and stom his lights out.

Now that his father was unconscious Ryu walked over to his dresser and grabbed his uniform before exiting the room, leaving his father unconscious on the floor.

-XXXX-

Ryu paused as he walked down the stairwell; in the middle of his wall was a large gaping hole, covered only by several boards nailed into place.

"Good morning Onii-chan!" Ryu turned from the wall to see a completely unharmed Yuzu smiling brightly at him a ladle in one hand and a bowl of rice in the other.

"Morning Yu-Nii." Karin gave him a lazy wave before going back to her breakfast.

Ryu furrowed his eyebrows as he thought back to the previous night; both of his sisters were acting far too ordinary considering what they had seen, (felt in Yuzu's case).

"If you're wondering about the hole, it's because a truck crashed into our house in the middle of the night." Ryu looked up to see his father speaking to him from the stairwell. Ryu's eyebrow rose, as he remembered his father had a meeting with some medical friends last night and wasn't home.

However despite his suspicions Ryu merely nodded before turning around to exit the house.

"You aren't going to eat breakfast?" Ryu turned and gave his sister a small smile.

"Sorry Yuzu, I'm not that hungry this morning, I'll eat later."

Yuzu pouted before giving a reluctant nod, Ryu turned back around and his smile faded, exiting the house, he went back to his thoughts.

-XXXX-

"RYUUUUUU!" Ryu glanced up from the floor before sighing and sticking out his arm, smirking slightly as his "best friend" collided with his bicep, falling to the floor and clutching his forehead.

"Good morning to you too Keigo."

The now named Keigo bolted to his feet and pointed an accusing finger towards the man that clotheslined him.

"You're such a jerk! I'm trying to show you my feelings of friendship, and you just-"

Keigo suddenly found it very hard to breathe as he found himself on the ground again, wheezing and trying to catch his breath.

"Stop being so dramatic." Ryu scowled down at his "best friend." All he did was knock the air out of him, that shouldn't warrant this kind of reaction.

"Morning Ryu." At hearing his name, said Kurosaki turned slightly to meet with the eyes of one of his other friends.

"Morning Mizuiro." Ryu gave him a nod before stepping over the still wheezing Keigo and into his classroom, making light conversation with Mizuiro.

"I heard that a truck hit your house, I'm surprised that you didn't come in late for helping clean up."

"I already cleaned up, got up early this morning."

"Need any more help?"

Ryu turned and glanced upwards, eyes locking with that of a friend he considered a brother, the corners of Ryu's mouth twitched upwards into a small smile.

"Thanks for the offer Chad, but I think we've got it taken care of."

Chad merely nodded.

"Oh? Are you Kurosaki-kun?"

Ryu turned at the strangely familiar voice and locked eyes with a very familiar head of black hair and violet eyes. Ryu's own eyes widened as he stared at the face of the Shinigami, Rukia if he correctly recalled, whom saved his life and the lives of his sisters.

"Kuchiki-san is a new student who just transferred here, if I'm right, she's going to be sitting next to you Ryu." Mizuiro explained, after which he turned back to his friend, "Huh? Are you alright, you look like you've seen a ghost."

Ryu faintly registered the sound of laughter at the remark of his friend. Quickly regaining his composure, Ryu offered her a small smile as he outstretched his hand to her.

"It's nice to meet you, Kuchiki-san, I hope that we can get along with one-another." Ryu greeted with false cheer.

"I hope so as well, Kurosaki-kun." Rukia outstretched her own hand before turning it upward revealing the words, "make a scene and you're dead" written on her palm.

Ryu grasped her hand and gave it a firm shake; afterwards Rukia turned around and made her way to the desk next to his. Ryu's smile faded as his face slipped into a small scowl, 'What is she doing?' He wondered, 'Shouldn't she have gone back to that 'Soul Society' place?'

Ryu's train of thought was ended as the bell rung, sighing, Ryu walked over to his desk and sat down in the chair. He glanced over to the shinigami that was sitting just a few centimeters from him.

Rukia returned the gaze and gave him a false smile before turning back to the teacher as her name was called.

-XXXX-

Ryu sighed as the teacher excused them to go eat lunch, the instant she did, Rukia stood up and grabbed his hand.

"Excuse me, but I need to speak with you on something Kurosaki-kun."

Without another word, Rukia dragged him from his desk to the doorway, Ryu tuned and shot Chad a raised eyebrow, said friend merely shrugged as he was dragged out of the room and into the hallway, once there Ryu promptly yanked his hand out of her grasp.

"You don't need to drag me around you know, I can walk by myself." With his piece said, Ryu walked ahead of her towards the back of the school; at least there they'd be able to speak without any interruptions.

-XXXX-

Ryu leaned against the low wall, regarding the shinigami in front of him with a half-lidded stare, he appeared lax, but a careful eye could see that his lean muscles were tense, almost like a spring wound too tight.

"So," Ryu began, his voice calm and collected, "What are you doing here?"

Rukia regarded him with similar caution, while most shinigami would reprimand her for being so careful around a human, she was powerless and he was obviously strong, his ease with that hollow just proved that he was more than he seemed.

"I'm here to keep an eye on you." Rukia finally answered, "You're the human with my shinigami powers after all."

Ryu raised an eyebrow at that, "What are you talking about? I only used that power once, and I have no interest in using it again."

Rukia's eyebrows furrowed at that, this was going to be difficult, perhaps she should choose her words more carefully if she wanted this human to help her.

She almost scoffed at that idea, a human, helping her. It would be the equivalent to an ant trying to brew rice. Out of all races in this existence, humans were the weakest, they possessed little-to no spiritual capability, with humans with high enough spiritual energy only existing to see spirits, not enough to actually be a threat to soul society or any shinigami in existence.

"Oi." Rukia was snapped out of her thoughts by the voice of the human standing a few meters from her.

Rukia forced down a blush at being caught lost in thought, clearing her throat Rukia looked up at him expectantly.

"Why don't you just go back to that soul society place?" Ryu asked, "I already told you that I'm not going to use that power again, so there's no need to 'keep an eye on me.'"

"I can't go back to the soul society." Rukia replied solemnly, "Only shinigami can return to the soul society, last night, almost all of my power was given to you." Rukia said while pointing a finger at the center of Ryu's chest. "Which is why I'm asking you for help."

Ryu raised an eyebrow, why would this shinigami want his help? After all, he was just a normal high school student. Okay, his hair was a little odd despite being natural, but that was beside the point.

"My help? Why do you need my help?" He asked with his brow still raised.

"Didn't you hear me? I don't have my shinigami powers anymore, so I need your help to take care of my responsibilities."

Ryu looked towards the ground, his eyebrow furrowed in thought, it was true that this woman was powerless, but was he willing to risk his life for people he didn't even know? Ryu almost slapped himself at that thought, he must really be stupid, and after all, why had he helped all those spirits with their problems?

"Fine, I'll help you out…" Rukia gave a small smile at his words; at least he had some sense of responsibility.

"But I have some conditions."

Her smile faltered at that, before she nodded, "Name them."

Ryu regarded her for a moment before closing his eyes, "First off, I don't want you to lie to me. If it's personal or you can't say it just say so, I'll do the same to you."

Rukia nodded, it was only natural that he'd have questions about shinigami and the soul society.

"Second off, if I'm going to help you, then I'm doing my way, I'll take advice, but I'm going to have the final call when it comes to certain subjects."

Rukia narrowed her eyes before giving a slightly more reluctant nod.

"Finally…" Ryu paused and opened his eyes as they began to glow a pale red color, "Under no circumstances is my family or friends to be involved in the affairs of the afterlife, I'm not going to tolerate any harm befalling them, from hollows, or you."

Rukia hastily nodded to calm the teen down, the last thing she wanted was to make a scene, after all, a seeing someone with glowing red eyes harassing a girl certainly wouldn't look good by human standards.

The pressure that had been on her shoulders vanished and the temperature had returned to normal along with Ryu's eyes.

Ryu opened his mouth to say something before her daireishinki started to beep, pulling out of her shirt pocket, she flipped open the screen and quickly read the message.

Looking up at her substitute she pulled on a gokon tekko and slammed her hand into his lower jaw, ejecting his soul from his body. She grabbed the front of his shihakusho and dragged him off before he could protest for her sudden movement.

"We have orders."

-XXXX-

"Here me god! Why was I born? Hear my plea and summon me back your si-"

"What are you doing?"

Rukia scowled and turned around, obviously displeased at being interrupted during her prayer.

"I'm researching the language of this era!"

Ryu turned around, "You're off by a few centuries." With that said he began walking away.

Rukia puffed her cheeks in displeasure before following after the substitute. Looking back down to her manga she lost her thoughts about the day, there seemed to be a strangely large amount of hollows, true Ryu had little knowledge of controlling reiatsu and leaked it like a faucet, there still had been a large amount of hollows.

Rukia was suddenly drawn from her thoughts as she heard a screech from ancar stopping, Ryu stopped and she did next to him, looking from the car to the reason it had stopped, she saw a girl lying face down on the blacktop.

Ryu ran forward and knelt down to help the girl up, she was rather attractive with long auburn hair and gray eyes her bangs were parted on her forehead and she wore a pair of snowflake-shaped hairclips, as for clothing, she wore a purple buttoned up shirt and a yellow skirt with splashes of orange, she wore a pair of flats for footwear.

"You alright Orihime?" Ryu questioned as he helped the girl to her feet, she looked slightly dazed before she locked eyes with Ryu. Realizing she was holding his hand, this 'Orihime' let go as her face lit up crimson.

"I'm fine Ryu-kun, really!" She said as she waved her arms about, her face red.

"Weren't you just hit by a car?"

"Huh? I-I think so…"

"'You think so?'" Ryu parroted, "Which way did it go?"

Orihime glance around before looking back at Ryu, "It drove away."

Ryu sighed out of exasperation no doubt. Then Orihime finally took notice of her standing behind Ryu.

"Kuchiki-san?" She asked, no doubt curious as to why she was here.

"Who are you?" Rukia asked, no doubt the wrong thing to say as Ryu bent down and whispered into her ear.

"Idiot, her name is Inoue Orihime, she's in our class?"

"Oh Inoue-san, how are you this fine afternoon?" She asked with a curtsey.

"I'm fine Kuchiki-san, thank you for asking." Orihime responded in kind. Suddenly looking as if she were remembering something, she stood up straight and turned around, "My groceries!"

Quickly running and picking up the fallen plastic bag, she gathered up the contents and examined them.

"Okay! Everything's still good." Then she winced as she grabbed her leg.

"Orihime?" Ryu asked as he ran up to her, then Rukia took notice of the burn on her leg, it appeared almost as if she had been grabbed by something.

"Ano… Kuchiki-san, is everything okay? You have a scary look on your face."

Suddenly realizing that Ryu and Orihime were looking her at strangely, Rukia quickly put a false smile on her face and clapped her hands together.

"Well, Inoue-san, I hope that you feel better soon."

Orihime nodded and smiled, "Thank you, Kuchiki-san."

"Want me to walk you home Orihime?" Ryu suddenly spoke up.

"N-no, that's alright, thank you for the offer, Ryu-kun."

And with that, Orihime ran off in the direction of her home no doubt, Rukia watched her leave with a critical eye.

"Do you know that girl Ryu?" She asked as she turned to the red streaked head of her substitute.

Ryu nodded, "Yeah, we're pretty close."

"Does she have any relatives that passed away recently?"

Ryu looked back at her before looking in the direction that Orihime ran, "Not recently, but her brother died in our clinic a few years ago… His name was Sora."

Rukia looked in the direction Orihime ran again, this time with a look of slight worry.

'I hope her brother hasn't hollowfied yet.'

-XXXX-

Ryu sighed as he lay down on his bed; the entire day had been really hectic.

First he had a strangely vivid dream while seeing an entirely white version of himself, then he had run into a shinigami in his high school, then he was dragged around the entire day killing hollows, Rukia had said that he would get practice with all the hollows he was killing.

At least he learned that you needed to cut the mask in order to kill the hollow, Rukia had said something about getting rid of the hollow fast and striking hard.

Ryu picked up the tempest shakespeare novel and opened to a random page, easily flipping through the book and to the place where he left off.

"Onii-chan, have you seen some of my clothes? My pyjamas and one of my dresses are missing." Ryu looked up from his book to meet the eyes of his younger sister.

"Sorry Yuzu, I haven't seen them, have you asked Karin or Dad?"

Yuzu nodded, "I already asked them, they don't know either."

"Maybe you just left them in the wash and forgot to take them out." Ryu suggested.

"Maybe…" Yuzu murmured with a thoughtful look, the likes of which looked very amusing on the soft face of his younger sister.

Yuzu later grabbed the handle and closed the door, all while having that amusing look on her face. Ryu smiled and shook his head before turning back to his book and reading the next few sentences.

He looked up and glanced around when something began to feel… Off, almost like there was a monster standing behind him, waiting for the kill… A feeling that sent shivers down his spine, one that he especially couldn't ignore.

Then he jumped slightly when he heard a series of high-pitched beeps, Ryu glanced around his room in an attempt to discern the source of the noise when suddenly the door to his closet flew open.

"Ryu!" Rukia yelled, "Look out!"

Remembering the dream he had this morning, he leaped from his seated position to dodge a giant clawed hand coming through the wall.

Landing on his feet, he scowled as the hand retreated, but only to be replaced by a large white masked face, glowing red eyes glaring down at his body. Ryu grunted as his soul was ejected from his body, and drew his sword. The hollow growled as it unveiled its full presence. Its upper half was that of a human torso and its lower half was that of a snake. Ryu blocked the claw that had reemerged and leaped out of the way of the other one. Flipping back, Ryu used his wall as a springboard and raised his large weapon, slashing downwards. Ryu's sword made clear contact with the mask, however instead of the sword cutting clean through it, the mask cracked and broke away, revealing a portion of a human face. Despite it being a portion, Ryu knew whose face it was.

Before Ryu could say anything, the hollow retreated through a shadow, gripping its face in pain. Ryu stared at the former location of the hollow, eyes wide. His mind tried to make sense of this situation, the face, while only a portion had been...

"Ryu, let's go! It's not going to stay hidden for long!" Rukia's voice snapping Ryu out of his daze.

"Rukia… That hollow…."

"I know; I saw it too."

Ryu spun around, eyes wide as he locked gazes with the shinigami, "That face… That was Inoue Sora."

Rukia closed her eyes and sighed, "There's two reasons why I told you to strike the mask. One, so that you can finish it off quickly, two, so you'll never discover the hollow's identity."

-XXXX-

Orihime Inoue was not having a nice evening.

At first, it started out normally, with her friend Tatsuki stopping by to eat dinner with her, she told her of the day's events and how Ryu had offered to walk her home, then her teddy bear Enraku fell from the top shelf with a small cut in his head, his stuffing coming out.

Then she heard this ominous thumping, almost as if a large predator had entered her modest apartment and was now seeking out the two inhabitants.

Then, she underwent a sense of vertigo and momentarily blacked out, when she woke up, Tatsuki was sitting against the wall and shaking, her shoulder was torn open and bleeding.

After she had tried to reach out to her friend, she had come face to face with an enormous monster, it had the face and chest of a human with black hair, but the lower body of a serpent and large clawed hands, its face was covered by a bony white mask and it had a hole in the center of its chest, how it could survive was beyond her, but it was speaking to her and had hurt her friend.

"She can't hear you Orihime."

Orihime turned from her friend to face the monster, it's mouth was open as it spoke to her in a dark voice that sent shivers down her spine.

Gathering up her courage, she glared defiantly at the monster, "Leave us alone! Go away!"

"That voice…" The monster said, "It makes me sad… SO VERY SAD!"

The monster roared as it lunged towards her, Orihime bowed her head and closed her eyes tightly, however, instead of being bitten into, she heard something that sounded like metal scraping metal. Opening her eyes, she was met with the back of the boy that she admired, he was wearing what appeared to be a black kosode with similarly colored hakama, an enormous sheath was strapped to his back with a thick leather belt, in his hands was a wide-bladed katana, it was extremely long, almost as tall as he was, it had a red hilt with a rectangular tsuba and two blue tassels looped through the pommel.

The wide blade was currently between the teeth of the monster that had lunged towards her.

"R-Ryu-kun?" She asked with a small voice, instead of replying, Ryu gave a mighty roar and shoved the monster back, "Ryu-kun!"

Ryu turned at hearing Orihime's voice, "Orihime? How can you see me?" Ryu's attention was then drawn to the chain in the center of her chest.

"Isn't it obvious?" Ryu's attention was taken from Orihime to the monster, "Orihime can see you… BECAUSE SHE'S ALREADY DEAD!"

The monster roared and lunged again, Ryu raised his sword to defend from a claw swipe, but was knocked aside and through the wall. With no one to stand between her and the monster, it bent down and picked her up.

"Orihime… Do you not recognize me?" Orihime looked up into the monster's eyes, they weren't red anymore, they were brown and looked more human-like, and she had seen those eyes before, but in only one person.

"O-Onii-chan? Is that you?" She seemed to be right as the monster lessen his grip.

"Yes… Orihime it's me, Sora."

"B-but how? You died…"

"Yes… I did die, and you prayed for me to stay, whenever you prayed I would be at peace, but… Then you met that girl and you prayed to me less, after you became friends with that shinigami you prayed even less, then when you started high school you stopped praying at all… Do you know how sad you made me? How much I was suffering? But I won't have to suffer, after I kill that shinigami, we'll be together, just you and me."

"Wait! Onii-chan! You're going to kill Ryu-kun?"

"DON'T TALK BACK TO ME!"

Orihime flinched back at the tone of voice her brother took.

"It's because of you that, I'm like this…" Orihime gasped as her brothers' grip began to tighten, "...I'LL KILL YOU!"

"JUST TRY IT YOU BASTARD!"

Orihime suddenly found herself on the ground as Sora roared in pain, looking up, she saw Ryu plunge his sword into her brother's tail. However, he was thrown off and out the wall again.

"Stay out of this shinigami!" Sora roared, "ORIHIME BELONGS TO ME!"

"ORIHIME BELONGS TO NO ONE!" Ryu bellowed before he slammed his weapon into Sora's gaping maw, "Let me ask you something Sora…" Ryu murmured, "Do you know why older brothers are born first?" Ryu didn't wait for a reply, "It's so that they can protect the siblings born after them!"

Ryu sensed something coming as he leaped back and managed to avoid a tail swipe aimed to knock him back, however he didn't dodge the acid that was spit at him, said liquid landed on his hands and forced him to drop his sword, Sora capitalized on his lack of defence and punched him towards the ground, landing on his stomach, Ryu shakily pushed himself up.

"Stop messing around Ryu!" Ryu turned and glared at Rukia before getting to his feet shakily.

"Shut up… I'm doing this my way."

Rukia didn't have time for a retort as the hollow had leaped down from the hole in Orihime's wall and was now glaring them down.

"DIE SHINIGAMI!" Sora bellowed as he lunged for Ryu and Rukia.

Ryu's vision was suddenly obscured by auburn hair and his ears were filled with the sound of flesh being pierced.

"Orihime?"

"Orihime…"

Both had spoke her name at the same time and said auburn-haired woman fell back into the waiting arms of Ryu.

"Onii-chan, I'm sorry…" She spoke weakly, "The reason why I stopped praying was because I didn't want you to worry about me… I thought that if you knew that I was doing okay, that you'd be able to pass on peacefully."

Sora's eyes widened as she said this, then he roared and threw his head back, clawing at the mask that covered the human face beneath.

"What's happening?" Ryu asked to no one.

"He's fighting it…" Rukia muttered in shock, "The human soul is resisting the hollow.."

Then the mask shattered, revealing the full face of Inoue Sora, who bowed his head as he caught sight of his wounded sister.

"Orihime.." He muttered, "I'm so sorry, I didn't know what I was doing."

"It's fine Sora." Ryu reassured him, "She's alright, but are you going to be…"

Sora shook his head, "The hollow is still there, it's trying to break free, but I'm barely holding it back."

Turning around, his eyes rested upon the hilt of Ryu's sword.

Ryu followed his gaze and widened his eyes, "Sora… You don't have to-"

"It's not like that Ryu." Ryu turned to meet the eyes of Rukia who was tending to Orihime's wound via a strange green light in her hands. "Exorcising a hollow and killing it aren't one and the same, when you cut a hollow with a zanpakuto, it's the equivalent of forgiving them of their sins and allowing them to pass on to the soul society."

Ryu's eyes widened in realization and he turned back to Sora who was now pointing the tip of his sword at his neck.

"Wait…" Orihime spoke weakly, "Do you remember these hairpins? You gave them to me; I refused to wear them because I thought they were too childish… That was the last day I ever saw you… So please, let me say what I couldn't say then…"

"Have a good day brother"

Sora smiled at his younger sister and nodded before sinking the blade of the sword into his neck, the hollow's body soon faded away as a hell butterfly emerged to guide the spirit to soul society.

Orihime let a sob escape her throat at seeing the smiling face of her brother fade away; soon, tears began to flow from her eyes as she struggled to hold in her sadness.

Suddenly she found herself in the arms of the man that had saved her, Ryu didn't say anything as he held her close.

Orihime buried her face into his shoulder as she let her tears flow freely, the sorrow of losing the only family member close to her for a second time rushed through her in full force.

Ryu didn't say anything; he just held her close and let her cry out her anguish and sorrow.

Well… That was a grim ending.

So that's chapter 2, and honestly? I don't really have anything to say about it, as for its length, well I want to get done with the important parts of the substitute arc ASAP 'cause then we can start getting to the actual crossover elements, that being said I wouldn't expect having any chapters longer than this. This one clocked in at just over 5k and I know that might not seem as long as other stories, for me that's a record.

EDIT: So again, not a lot of change in this chapter, the biggest one was the interaction between Ryu and Zangetsu. I wanted to portray their relationship as something a bit more like Ichigo's and cannon Zangetsu. Ryu will still get the real Zanpakuto, but he'll have to work to get Zangetsu's full power.

Anyway, Please Review, Favorite, or Follow.