Chapter 3

Rukia and Ichigo were walking down the street, pretty much alone save it be for the occasional pedestrian. This suited them just fine, being away from their friends at this early hour. It meant that they would be able to talk amongst themselves without having to watch their words.

"So the new teacher is a live one, huh?" Ichigo asked.

"I think so. Urahara has also told me that he might be an agent of the American government. I wouldn't know why he would be here in Japan, though."

Ichigo laughed a little bit. "What? I know you don't watch TV, but you don't read the newspaper either?"

"Well maybe if they had something more interesting then the latest scandal, then I would!" she said. "I swear, you humans are just as immature as lower nobles with your gossip."

"It's cause of the hollow attacks," Ichigo said. "Everyone is thinking that they are terrorist bombings. This country doesn't have the experience with dealing with them. America, on the other hand, is fighting an unpopular war and has had multiple major terrorist attacks. The one that happened in 2001 is probably the example that everyone thinks of."

"What happened?" Rukia asked, honestly curious.

"A bunch of middle eastern terrorist hijacked four airplanes. Two of them hit these buildings in New York known as the World Trade Center were a lot of major corporations had their offices. Another one hit their military headquarters. I forgot what it's called, but it was some sort of shape. Americans don't seemed to be too keen on creative names, not that I mind too much.

"About three thousand people died within the span of less then an hour."

Rukia palled at such the large number of people who died that day. Three thousand people. That sort of number was unheard of, except in the great sagas of antiquity. "Why?" she asked.

"From what I heard, the terrorists did it because they thought the Americans were the tools of the devil." Ichigo said. "I think at first the Americans were shocked. Then they got angry. They proceeded to invade the country that the terrorists were based in. After they, they invaded another one which they thought had connections to the first's government."

Rukia blinked again. Traditionally the Seireitei, the government and the upper class of the Soul Society, took a dim view of the conflicts of the mortal world. However, carnage of this scale was not what she expected, especially from her peaceful surroundings.

"So, they invaded the second country because it may of aided the first."

"Something like that," Ichigo said. "My dad's a doctor, and he goes to a lot of conferences. He has a friend who works in the American Army that's based here. The way the guy explained it, the guy in charge of the second country thought that if he showed himself to be enough of a threat and had the weapons the Americans were so concerned about even though he didn't, the Americans would back down. They didn't."

Rukia nodded. She understood this sort of politics and it's effects, having grown up in the lower districts of the Rukongai and educated in the highest courts of the Seretei. "So they're going to march around official looking men, looking like they're addressing the problem, when the real work is quietly being done by their agents."

Ichigo nodded. "Yep. Had enough politics listening to Dad talking about trying to get funding for the clinic for treating his patients from the government, and that sounds about their style."

Rukia and Ichigo continued to walk down the street, before going back to their topic at hand. "So do you really think that our English teacher is that eccentric?" she asked with a bit of a smile, causing Ichigo to blanch.

"I hope not," Ichigo said flatly. "I have enough trouble dealing with goat-face as it is."

"I think he's rather funny, especially after Uryuu translated what he wrote."

Ichigo shook his head a little. "At least he gave us the rest of the class period off."

Rukia nodded. "He kinda reminds me of a Kido instructor I had my first year at Soul Reaper Aca…"

An explosion rocked the area, as both Rukia's soul page and Ichigo's Deputy Soul Reaper badge went off.

"Hollow! Hollow! Hollow!" The badge declared for anyone with enough spiritual pressure to hear.

"There's four of them three quarters of a kilometer down from here," Rukia said as Ichigo pulled out a stuffed lion from his backpack.

"HEY!" The lion yelled. "What's the big idea of waking me up from my nap!"

Ichigo pressed his deputy soul reaper badge aginst the head of the lion, causing a small green pill to pushed through the plush. Ichigo bent down to pick it up, taking care to dust it a little on his uniform before swallowing it. The result was him being pushed out of his body while the soul inside of the pill took residence.

"A little warning next time?" The new soul asked.

Rukia pulled out her own replacement, a duck shaped pez dispenser. She pressed it's head and gulped down the pill, forcing her soul out.

"Watch over our bodies and hit Kon if he does anything fresh." Rukia said to her body.

"Yes sir!" the body in question eagerly replied, saluting the Soul Reapers.

The two soul reapers flash stepped their way away from their now occupied bodies.

"So, you want to do anything?" Kon asked with a smirk, before getting hit in the head by the body of Rukia.


The two soul reapers ran down the streets. Everything looked normal, until they got a quarter of a kilometer away from the sight of the Hollow attack.

Surprisingly, the area had been cordoned off to the public, police officers redirecting the flow of traffic and trying to keep pedestrians from coming in.

"There's just a natural gas leak up ahead," one of the police officers yelled to the people. "Construction crews are already there to fix it but there's a chance it'll explode so everybody stay back. If you live in this area, find something else to do for the next few hours and we'll try to get this fixed as soon as we can!"

The two made their way past the police. "Well, that's odd," Rukia said.

"Hey. It'll mean that nobody will be there when we have to fight the things." Ichigo said to her, seeing something positive in this. "We don't have to worry about anyone else getting hurt."

"True. But they reacted a little too quickly. It's almost as if they knew…"

The soul reaper and her deputy both heard strange sounds up ahead. To Rukia, it sounded almost as if fireworks were going off.

"Ichigo. Do you hear that?"

"Yeah. Sounds almost like… ah no! Gunfire!"

"Gunfire?" Rukia asked, puzzled, before they turned the corner.

The sight that they saw was something they had never dreamed of seeing. There were six men and women in black suites all holding exquisite guns, inlaid with various symbols and words with gold and silver. They faced down one of the hollows like it was nothing, while the hollow was reeling from their fire, bullets impacting it's mask, chipping away at it.

Another three were carrying swords of various lengths and styles, holding down their own against another of the hollows, which looked to be a giant beetle. They moved quickly, one of them distracting the creature while another two slashed at it's legs, slowly crippling it.

The third was the English teacher, holding in his hand a wicked blade. The hilt was not like that of a Japanese sword, looking to be more like that of a European long sword. The blade was curved, going down about half a meter before jutting forwards, the rest of it curving like it was for another half meter.

"Where in the world is White?!" he yelled as they continued fending off the hollows. Another one jumped from the rooftops, land besides him and thrusting it's arm at him. The teacher dodged the attack from the hollow that he was originally fighting, holding his sword up to absorb the attack. It sent him across the street, right to the feet of the two soul reapers.

"Mr. Gregory?" Rukia asked.

"Wait, ah no." he said, realizing who the two of them were. He scrambled up, holding his sword at the ready. His suite looked dusty, but somehow not battered by the fall. "Stay here!" he yelled, going back into the fray.

Ichigo, of course, couldn't stand the idea of being bossed around. "Why you…" he grumbled, unsheathing his zanpakto. He flashed stepped forward, cutting the open the mask of the Hollow.

"What are you doing?!" Gregory yelled.

"I'm helping you!" Ichigo replied. "Where's the fourth one?"

"I don't know!" Gregory yelled back, before he caught sight of something.

"Everyone get down!" He yelled in English, jumping onto the ground. Everyone else complied, as Ichigo noticed a shape on the roof.

After that he was blinded. A stream of white hot plasma hit the hollow that went missing, disintegrating it easily. The shockwave from the meeting of spirit particles with the supercharged matter was strong, throwing Ichigo across the street and into the wall.

Rukia, on the other hand, was smart enough to go down when she saw that everyone else was. She looked up at what she thought was the source, rewarded with the sight of a small black woman holding a very large gun. Hollows were scattered across the street, yelling out in pain.

The woman had a huge grin on her face as she swung the gun around to take aim at the one that the other agents had previously shooting, only to be disappointed as it was already disintegrating. She then focused on the third one, the disabled beetle, before firing the thing again. Again, Rukia covered her head as the woman fired again, effectively ending the hollow's existence.

"Clear!" The little black woman yelled out in English.

"What do think you were doing, White?!" Gregory yelled to the little woman on the roof. "You've caused property damage and made it look like the gates of Hell themselves were opening! How are we going to explain that to the civies?!"

"You're problem, not mine," she said, hefting up the plasma gun on her shoulders before jumping down from the roof with ease. The thing was about as large as she was, and it would of looked somewhat commicle to the other agents save it be she could probably kill them in an instant. "At least we know your little toy gun works properly now."

Gregory sighed. "I suppose you're right," he said, before looking at the other agents. "Dispatch a cleanup team and a medic." He said, before turning to look at Ichigo. Rukia was already at his side, quietly using her kido to help heal the unconscious youth.

"How's he doing?" the teacher asked, switching back into Japanese.

"He's blind and has a concussion, but otherwise fine. I should be able to heal him, but it'll take a lot out of me." She replied, before looking up at him, still channeling the healing spiritual energy. "Who are you?"

The man just smirked. "I'm just a humble English teacher over here on exchange."

Rukia scowled. "And I'm a well meaning Japanese school student who happens to make horrible grades," she replied, with a little bite to her comment. "Who are you, really?"

"That is a question with a lengthy and convoluted answer," he said somewhat ominiously, before turning around to direct the relief effort.