A/N: Wow... so this is what getting reviews is like... is smells like... victory... or reads like it anyway.

I'd apologize for the late update, but that would insinuate that this isn't going to happen again, because it will happen again... more often then not as a matter of fact. Three things you can count on in life, death, taxes, and me updating late.

However never assume that I'll just drop the story, because I ever do decide to call it quits, I will be sure to inform you. I'll make it blaringly obvious no less, unless I died in some freak accident...

More to the point I give you the next chapter.


Bleach

The Devils Cry

Chapter 2: The Best Laid Plans of Strawberries and Shinigami

It took a few seconds for the alarms kick in for Ichigo, but when they did they very nearly leveled him where he sat. As Dante got himself introduced to the class, Ichigo felt a growing sense of panic, like the walls were closing in on him. Sweat beaded its way down his forehead and his breathes started coming out in ragged gasps.

Dante stood at the front of the class a few moments more, answering questions and what have you, the usual affair, "is that your natural hair color" and the ever popular "what are you 40?" His mind was else where though, focusing his concentration pass the idle chatter beyond the range of normal human sight. He found the air so thick with spiritual energy that Dante was surprised the students could breath with all the crap in the air.

A quick count confirmed his fears, there were two to three definite sources of spirit energy in this room alone, and anywhere between 6 to 7 partial sources. Things looked bad, and he didn't know who to trust, he may have very well left his troubles in America just to kick up even MORE trouble in Japan.

He noticed the teacher was talking to him again, a quick overview of what they were studying and what not, Dante as you can appreciate had more important things to worry about, like a classroom full of potentially demon possessed students...

The teacher pointed to an empty seat in the back, and Dante took this as a queue to take a seat so they could move on with the day.

He took his time striding down the aisle casting his mind about the room in an attempt to home in on the source of the spirit particles, he was close, very close indeed...

He turned his attention to the aisle ahead about halfway to his seat, when a flash of orange hair caught his eye.

'Now if that ain't the kid I almost ran over I'll eat my hat,' thought Dante, as a wicked half smile formed on his face in light of the irony.

Coincidence was one thing, but this was too much, the boy was definitely the one...and so was the girl to his right it seemed...

'Well, best let them know what they were in for,' thought Dante as he quickly hid his smirk, closing with the orange haired kid on his right, and the raven haired girl on his left.

Ichigo thought it was bad before, but it was just getting worse the closer that guy got. The alarm had gone from far away siren, to 'right next to my ear' siren, and it was beginning to take its toll on him. The instinct was almost overwhelming him, the instinct to do what he had no idea... something... ANYTHING... besides just sitting on his ass while... Ichigo ground his teeth and frustration and gripped his desk in frustration, his knuckles instantly turning white with the effort.

If Ichigo was more mindful of his surroundings he might of noticed that he was not alone in his adverse reaction. A certain bespectacled book worm at the head of the class, starred at the clean white paper in front of him so intensely, he might actually burn a hole through it if he wasn't careful. The pencil held in one hand, gave out under the strain snapping in half... then snapping in half again...

The orange haired girl felt it too, but more deluded then the others, and her dark haired friend next to her hardly noticed at all. She put on a smile determined not to let her worry despite how, invasive, the presence felt.

A grunt escaped the lips of Chad, and that was all, but then again that was enough...

Rukia, seemed perfectly fine, seemed that way anyway. If Ichigo had been paying attention he probably would have picked up on it, but he had other things on his mind at the moment.

And just when he thought it couldn't get any worse, it got worse.

Just as Dante strode past him, time slowed to a crawl, and the alarms in his head reached a breaking point, as the NORMAL kids around him suddenly became light headed, and as if by accident he locked eyes with the silver haired America... and froze...

If you could give hell a single specific color it would be the shade of red that shone froth from Dante's eyes at that moment...

Stunned Ichigo blinked, and suddenly Dante's eyes where a normal shade of grey blue...

He let out a breath he did not know he was holding as he slumped into his chair, as Dante reached his seat in the back, and sat down.

Suddenly the urge to do something was back, stronger then before, but Ichigo was familiar with this urge, the urge to protect In a semi dazed state he very nearly rose from his seat to fight Dante right in the midst of class...

"Ichigo..." a familiar voice to his right whispered to him, causing Ichigo to snap back to reality sharply

He turned to face Rukia, who held a look of steely determination in her eyes...and something else...

"...calm down...relax...breath..."

Strangely enough Ichigo actually felt the tension ease up at her, oddly soothing words, taking more controlled breathes as he relinquished the death grip on his desk. It took a moment for Ichigo to gather himself, before he turned to look at Rukia again. His eyes said it all, as did her's.

'We need to talk...'

'I know, try to bare it until then...'

'I will if you will...'

Rukia nodded in understanding, before turning back to the front of the class at the same time as Ichigo. Whatever the hell, THAT was, they would be ready for it, and they'd deal with it.

Meanwhile, not so far away in the back of the class Dante observed his possible enemies exchange, adding 'telepathy' to the list of powers to watch out for. He smiled at his handy work despite himself, he had successfully gotten under their skin, shown them he meant business and he wasn't afraid.

Yes the gauntlet had been thrown down, now all he had to do was wait.

'Your move kid,' he said smugly, as he leaned back into his chair, settling in for the actual class to start.


The second the bell for lunch rang, Ichigo and Rukia were off, raising more then a few comments. Normally adding fuel to the fires of the rumors about the two of them would have bothered Ichigo, but for once he had more important things then his reputation to worry about. They hurried out of class, weaving their way around Dante, not looking for a confrontation just yet anyway.

Normally they waited until school let out to discuss things, but that wasn't really an option when the very threat sat barely three seats behind them.

The roof was out, as it would no doubt be swarming with people shortly, and getting outside the school and then getting back inside would waste more time then they actually had. Fortunately Rukia was quick enough to think of an alternative.

"Great plan Rukia...," said Ichigo in a mocking tone, as he fumbled around in the darkness of the supply closet, "Lets go to the darkest, smelliest place in the whole damn school, AND FORGET TO TURN ON THE LIGHT SWITCH BEFORE CLOSING THE DOOR!!!"

Rukia sent a glare in Ichigo's general direction, made rather ineffective due to the lack of light, but she wasn't one to let a little thing like zero visibility stop her. Of course she had only the vaguest idea what a light switch actually was, but like hell was she going to let Ichigo know that.

"Well at least it was better then your plan...grr...damn it Ichigo we don't have time for this..." Rukia said, frustration warring with her sense of duty, as she tried to remain calm in the face of Ichigo's growing irritation.

An exasperated sigh was Ichigo's only response as he finally found the elusive light switch, turning on a partially burnt out flickering light on the ceiling. The room looked as bad as it smelled, but Ichigo couldn't concentrate on that, hell he couldn't even bring himself to continue arguing with Rukia, not after what he had just seen.

"Rukia..." he said, surprised at how solemn he sounded, "What the Hell was...that..."

Rukia blinked at him, taken a back at the lack of retort, it took her a moment to respond, and even then it wasn't much help.

"I...I'm not sure..." she said finally, her voice uneasy as she recalled the sensation of Dante's power surge...it wasn't unlike a hollow's, yet at the same time it was different, too different...

'Damn it, Ichigo isn't prepared for something like this....hell I'M not ready for something like this...this could very well be a new breed of hollow, one that can infiltrate human society itself...either that or something else...something else entirely...' though Rukia, her mind running a mile per minute connecting dots that didn't exist, and making rationalizations based solely on conjecture.

Her hands went to her temples, partially to clear away the mounting stress and partially in a vain attempt to massage some sort of answer from her frontal lobe. She had been able to keep a brave front up in class for Ichigo sake, but it all seemed so hopeless, if that brief spark was anything to go by, Dante could easily be classified into one of the menos stages...and even if he wasn't a hollow then what the hell were they supposed to do with him...Rukia was not surprised at all to find she had no answers for her questions.

Ichigo watched Rukia silently from the other side of the supply room watching her go from confused to pondering to frustrated to, something else he couldn't make out in the dim light. Unconsciously he stepped forward to get a better look, when suddenly she turned to face him, eyes cast to the ground. Defeated, that was the word he was looking for.

Ichigo didn't like that look, not on Rukia's face, not one bit. Why didn't he like that look? Well that was something he could figure out later, right now he was seething mad at a certain silver haired man, and he was going to make sure Rukia snapped out of whatever funk she was in.

"Rukia," he said, fiery resolve laced through his voice, "Get your glove out..."

Rukia snapped up from her pondering, the look of confusion renewed on her face.

"What!?"

"I can't very well kick that guy's ass in my school uniform..."

Rukia stood where she was, involuntarily drawn into Ichigo's burning auburn eyes, shocked that he would even consider just recklessly trying to fight something they both knew nothing about, right in the middle of a school no less. Part of her wanted to revert back to just kicking him in the shin, and calling him an idiot.

And yet...

"Alright fine, wait here then..." Ichigo said, interrupting Rukia's thought process as he turned towards the door, "...I'll just go get that stupid stuffed lion get some used out of his hide."

"Ichigo..."

And suddenly calm, collected, and in control Rukia was back, grasping Ichigo's shoulder firmly and impeding his attempts to implement his stupid plan.

Ichigo froze under her touch, slowly turned to face her, glad to have her back to normal, but also expecting a kick to his shins for trying to go through with his admittedly stupid plan. Closing his eyes he mentally and physically braced himself for the impact...

"Just...wait..."

...that never came.

"We can't go charging off sword's raised in ever situation, this will require tact, which I know is a new concept to you, but you'll just have to learn on the go," Rukia said, her authoritative voice in place, as well as a half formed smirk, signifying the return of her confidence.

"So then, what do we do, or master of tact," Ichigo said, in an annoyed sarcastic voice, not at all amused by the subtle insult in Rukia's words.

At this Rukia's half smirk completed itself, becoming the symbol of how much better she was better then Ichigo in every way possible.

"...we wait."


Sand, nothing but sand...

And endless desert as far as any eye could see, nothing but dust, and echoes.

Shadows, illuminated by a dead sun hanging eternally high in the sky, writhe and twist on the ground, driven by a single need.

The need to be whole...

When suddenly, they stopped, frozen upon the ground sensing, something they hadn't sense in nearly two thousand years.

Slowly the shadows took shape, each one a new and exciting mockery of life, the only unifying factor being the bone white mask adorning each of their grotesques heads.

Slowly they stalked towards their intended prey, clawing their way through the frail thin line that divided their world, and the world of the living.

They were hungry...but then again...they were always hungry...


The rest of the day passed by with relative uneventfulness, although it was still frustratingly long for Dante, who had been ready to leave sense about, 30 minutes after he arrived. The moment the final bell rang he was already gone, out to his bike, where he picked his trade mark red leather jacket from another compartment on the side of his motorcycle. He stuffed the school button up shirt into the compartment, and booked it out of there.

He didn't go home, not after spending the whole damn day cramped up in that room, no he needed to feel the wind in his hair again, get the lead out.

And besides, it would keep the two kids following him on their toes...


Ichigo growled in annoyed frustration as his target took ANOTHER last minute turn. Having switched to Shinigami form and stuck his body in an alley way underneath some cardboard boxes, Ichigo wasted no time in tailing Dante as he speed around town at break neck speed, with seemingly no destination in mind.

And if that wasn't bad enough...

"He's making a left up there Ichigo, COME ON KEEP UP..."

He also had to deal with a controlling midget back seat driver.

Rukia wasn't exactly having the time of her life ethier, but it was curial that they keep Dante in their sight as much as possible. They needed information before they could confront him, and the only way to get that, besides just walking up and asking for it, was tailing him like a shadow. Thankfully an arm band, that Rukia had 'barrowed' from Urahara's shop, allowed Ichigo to reign in his normally, unstable at best, spiritual pressure, at the cost of about ¾ his strength.

Which way, when they did finally stop the infernal chase, Ichigo didn't so much land on the roof overlooking Dante, as slam into it face first. Rukia, dusted herself off and climbed off Ichigo's back, unhurt from his crash landing, while Ichigo peeled himself off the gravel roof, and silently snuck over to the edge of the roof.

Sure enough, there was Dante, reclined against his motorcycle, a massive sword held idly in one hand, and a black pistol twirling on a finger of the other. He didn't have time to notice anything else however, as Rukia's 'soul phone' suddenly went off.

Fortunately Rukia had the foresight to set the thing to vibrate, yet the look in her eyes was no where near relieved.

'Hollows,' she mouthed to Ichigo, who nodded his understanding.

'Where?' he mouthed back.

Rukia looked back at her phone for a moment, before a look of surprised horror crossed her face.

"Here," she said, even as space in the street bellow began to distort, and a long, almost mournful wail echoed shattered the silence of the night.


A/N: Damn me, and my cliff hangers eh? All two of them thus far.

Alright I give to you people the third chapter in this soon to be epic saga, I know I know I said I'd have more action in this chapter, but hey that's the thing about people, sometimes they make promises they have to break, and I got a full week ahead of me, so I figured you guys would appreciate SOMETHING to show I hadn't just buggered off the face of the earth.

Now then Reviewer response time...

SplitToInfinity – Thank you for reviewing BOTH my chapters with out any overt attempts to trick...I mean talk you...into it. Also thanks for pointing out my grammatical mistakes, as I was painfully ignorant of them myself, which is rather sad given how glaringly bad some of them were. Again thank you again, and I award you the Gold Star of Reviewing for your efforts.

Kidcrud – Thank you for rewieing BOTH my chapters, and for falling for my attempts to tri...talk you into reviewing. In response to your question, Virgil will be showing up later on in the introduction arc, don't worry he'll be in there, and yes he will kick ass. And because no one else qualified I award you both the Silver Star of Reviewing and the Bronze Star of Reviewing.

And to everyone else, thank you for your time, and your words of encouragement, I wouldn't be able to keep going on without them.

And to end on a high note, the next chapter should be up relatively quickly thanks to the fact that it's MUCH more action oriented, which happens to be my specialty...if I do say so myself...and I DO say so myself...anyone got a problem with that...

No? Good, then I'll see you next update, until then...