PokéBleach 3
The shop was a disaster. Merchandise strewn over walls, floors...it was a mess. Ichigo, Rukia and Orihime came over to see if Karin and/or Yuzu came here. They did, and well...it's pretty obvious what happened. "And I thought I was disorganized at school," Ichigo compared. He turned to Rukia for some reason. "Are you sure this is where Yuzu and Karin came to?" Rukia concentrated on something since her eyes were closed. Finally, something came to her senses.
"I do sense a rather weak strain of spiritual energy, but whether or not it's your sisters'," she observed. She couldn't finish because a paining yell crashed her focus. Then, a redhead little boy was flung over the three as he screamed in agony. Flying over the three, he smacked the pavement outside where he made a rather sick thud.
"Boss?" he whined. Ichigo and Rukia sighed, as if this was coming.
"Jinta's slacking off again," Ichigo grumbled. Guess this boy didn't like to work at the shop where the dusty man was not in the mood for tea.
"I think Renji's take on what happened here is more accurate," he voiced, causing the other three to glare his direction. "A bomb did sound unlikely." That's when he saw Rukia, thinking that she knew what to bring up. Acting as if the news was untrue about the shop having something to attract Hollows, he wanted to come clean again. "Rukia, I've already told you, I've got no Hollow bait." Rukia wasn't here about baiting things like Hollows.
"Urahara, did a pair of little girls come here?" she questioned. Urahara felt more in the dark. He had no clue that the sisters were monkeying around his store.
"First, accusations about my shop having a Hollow lure and now Ichigo's bratty sisters? Honestly, Ichigo, you can't watch over your siblings, even if your life depended on it?" Ichigo didn't appreciate the tone that fouled from his chapped lips. He connected fist to cheekbone, flooring the shop-owner.
"Sorry if my school doesn't feel the same way about my sisters." Urahara rose to a seating position, rubbing the bruise from the punch.
"I was being honest." He got to his feet, ready to address more. "Anyway, as you can already tell, my shop is a wreck. Ururu and Tessai have inspected the damage, calculating about 350,000¥, in addition to one item unaccounted for." An item? Was it the parasol?
"What's the item?" Orihime wondered. Urahara gave a clipboard to her, which read the items destroyed like shelves, candy dispensers...until she saw the note reading "ITEMS MISSING: 1 MARY PARASOL (STICKERED)." A Mary parasol? And what did it mean stickered? "It says that the missing Mary parasol had a sticker. Is it alright if we get the detail?" Urahara seemed willing to talk about the parasol that had disappeared from the store.
"That parasol is cursed. Anyone with a low spiritual sense would be sent to far away places. They could be stuck in odd places like say Pluto, or a much more known case to ours, the Soul Society." Well that doesn't really explain why you had one in the first place. Ichigo hadn't relinquished his anger. His sisters were in apparent danger. He clutched Urahara's robe, holding his face to each other.
"You had a cursed parasol this whole time that I could jack down your throat, and blow your damn begotten mind from this crap shoot?" Ichigo growled. The grip frightened Urahara, fearing that his lights would be shut off.
"Hey, hey, easy, Ichigo. It's not like they're dead. I'm sure the tech people can find them. I wanted to get that removed when I felt the power that parasol had inside, which I've still had for the past week." Past week? During the same time as all those Hollow encounters? Ichigo reorganized his thoughts, believing that the cursed parasol was what all those Hollows were after. What reasons, he would need to ask.
"Ichigo, if he had the parasol during the fights with the Hollows, then..." Rukia paused when Ichigo threw down a nod. Releasing his grip on Urahara, he planned his next move.
"Let's make our way to the Seireiti, and see about finding this cursed parasol," he suggested. "We find the parasol, we're more than likely to find Karin and Yuzu."
"Right," the girls answered. Hearing about the disappearances of the sisters, Jinta raced back inside the shop, wanting in on the search party.
"If you're going to find Yuzu, let me in, too!" he roared confidently. He was about to be denied, because Urahara and Rukia gazed fiercely at the pompous redhead. Something had to have happened that those two didn't want him to join.
"You have to clean the shop before we all get back, alone," Urahara ordered. "If not, I'll punish you by training Kenpachi." Jinta's eyes shot wide, scared about the consequences. This Kenpachi didn't sound too friendly. Even Ichigo felt sympathy for what may befall him.
"Knowing how much an animal he is, I'd get this store cleaned on the double," he nicely warned. Oh sure, Ichigo, rub salt on his wounded pride, why don't you.
"Okay, okay!" Jinta freaked. He picked up a broom, sweeping madly. Let's hope it's done before they return. Meanwhile, Karin was walking alongside Ash, Misty and Max over to where Ash could show off creatures, known as Pokémon. Karin's twin sister, Yuzu, stayed at the house, helping Ash's mother, who seemed to know something about Soul Reapers, since big brother Ichigo was one of them. They were strolling down a dirt path, where these so-called Pokémon like Azurill, who was in Misty's arms, and Pikachu, perched on Ash's shoulder, would be.
"I'm sure Prof. Oak will allow you to see some of the Pokémon at his ranch," Ash confidently smirked. Karin sensed some sort of energy within Ash. Even though she claimed that there was no comparison to her bigger brother, she couldn't help but stay close by. That got on the nerves of Misty and Max, staying close to their good friend.
"I don't get why that stuck-up little girl has to be so attached to Ash like that," Misty complained. Max kept observing the young Kurosaki, noticing hard-nosed glares, as if there was a secret that Karin saw.
"I think there's something about Ash that we don't know about," Max gawked in curiosity. It can't be anything too big, right? "And keep in mind, she did say that her brother, Ichigo, is a Soul Reaper. For all we know, she might be a scout, looking for new recruits." Hearing his friends, Ash turned as if he didn't believe that about Karin and Yuzu.
"Karin, a Soul Scout?" Ash relabeled in question. "Have you been watching sci-fi movies, before I met you?" Science fiction movies that revolve around reapers? Don't you mean something like horror films? Karin decided to back Max's claim of seeing what the others wouldn't.
"Well, our family lineage has a history of seeing spirits like, say, Max and Misty see you," she tried to discuss. Her words didn't quite make sense, forcing everyone to freeze their feet.
"I'm sorry, Karin. What was that?"
"I mean...well, as a Kurosaki, I see ghosts or spiritual anomalies, reasons unknown. However, unlike myself and Ichigo, Yuzu doesn't have the same senses, if any." Poor Yuzu. Max began to feel sorry for the young sister. Ash, on the other hand, was piecing together what abilities she and Ichigo had together.
"Let me make sure I got it: you and Ichigo sense the paranormal, like dead people." Wait...did Ash see The Sixth Sense? It could explain how he determined what Karin had. At least no one had to steal Hayley Joel Osmett's famous line. Karin seemed aware that Ash knew what she was addressing while Misty, Pikachu and Max became hinted with fear. Dead people would freak the spirit from one's body. Ash seemed mildly flinched.
"More or less." Ash's composure made Karin awe at him. From the description, spirits tend to exit its vessel when that vessel expires. So where do the Hollows come from? Before anyone could fathom an intriguing point about ghosts or Hollows, an engine was heard. The sound made all turn to the direction of the hard-running heart of a vehicle, which Max was able to recognize.
"I know that four-by-four engine!" he excitedly cheered. The group watched from where the engine echoed. Sure enough a forest green jeep came flying over a bump on the road. The jeep spotted the kids and skidded along the dirt road, twisting and tires providing little traction, until the jeep came to a complete stop. Anyone hurt? A brunette girl was hopping out of the jeep in mostly red: red spandex t-shirt, red bandanna, white gloves with black fingers, and black shorts.
"Jeez, Prof. Birch, you need to watch your speed," she argued on her driver. The driver, this Prof. Birch, was a rounded brunette man with a short beard, teal shorts and sandals. From the professor's view, the girl's abatement rolled off his husked shoulders.
"Sorry about that, May," he humbly apologized. May? Max's sister? May hopped out seeing the group, but mostly at Max. Why?
"I'm not as mad at Prof. Birch as I am with you, Max. Why did you sneak away from home?" Max was under pressure as Ash and Karin watched.
"Y-y-you see, May," Max stuttered. "Prof. Oak had called me about helping with some of the Pokémon, which Prof. Birch brought me to see, and it so happened that as Birch dropped me off at Ash's house, he got a call from his own lab, and that's when I saw Ash carrying her and his Grovyle carrying her sister." May acted surprised. Karin was a little stunned to learn about something called Grovyle carried Yuzu while Ash whisked her to shelter.
"Whoa. Talk about coincidence. Sorry, I guess I should be more trustful to Prof. Birch." Birch smiled, as if bygones were bygones.
"Don't worry about it," he happily chirped. That's when he and May spotted Karin by Ash, in some deep thought. She had to be thinking about what happened between opening the cursed Mary parasol and waking up in a bedroom in Ash's house.
'I get it, now,' she pondered. 'Yuzu and I were blown from the shop because of the parasol that appeared to take us across some sort of dimensional screw-up. I think that's when Ash spotted both of us laid out, thus taking us to his pad. I guess my only question is whatever happened to that strange parasol?' As she got deeper into her brain drain, others looked on, wondering if Karin was okay.
"Uh, Karin?" Ash opened his mouth. "You okay?" She heard Ash, but reclined to speak up about it. Why was it?
"Ash, do you know where the parasol is?" She was wondering about the cursed parasol. Did she feel homesick? Ash gazed toward trees in the far distance. Was it somewhere over in that direction?
"I remember seeing something falling out of your hands when you fell from the sky on Route One. It could be that parasol that somehow brought you here." Karin had the look of relief in her eyes. For someone with a rambunctious attitude and free-spirited upbringing, her kindness to Ash seemed to blossom like mayflowers.
"Ash, what are you guys talking about?" May asked. Ash and Karin noticed May's unusual glare, thinking that there was something going on between them. Karin had observed May, detecting nothing.
'She doesn't have any spiritual energy,' she viewed. 'Neither does Max or Misty, or this Prof. Birch. Pikachu has some spiritual energy, but Ash...something happened to him where his energy had to spike.' Could this be what she was talking about before? This seeing of anomalies? Nothing in May, Max, Misty or Birch, but Ash had lots? That's not fair to the rest. Back at the issue at hand, Ash wasn't too concerned about the issue with Karin...not yet.
"Hey, let's talk about it when we get to Oak's lab," Ash dodged. "Okay?" Knowing that there was a big situation to explain, it would be better that everyone had a chance to hear Ash and Karin out.
"Don't see anything wrong by it," Misty trusted. Birch also agreed.
"Yeah, I'll go on ahead and meet you all there," he said as he got to his jeep. He drove off, leaving the kids to trudge the rest of the way. They would need a nice walk. Meanwhile back at Ash's house, sandwiches and fruits were being placed on a large tray as Ash's mother and Yuzu were making final touches. The mother was impressed with Yuzu's culinary skills, like her own mother was as exceptional.
"How many more berry sandwiches, Mrs. Ketchum?" Yuzu gleefully asked.
"One more should do it," Mrs. Ketchum answered with the same beamed feeling. "And besides, it's alright if you call me Delia."
"Sure thing, Mrs. K- Delia." Both shared giggles, then back to work. Delia seemed convinced about what Karin pointed out when she and Yuzu recovered from being blown from the Urahara Shop. Yuzu's brother, being a Soul Reaper, meant that she had connections to places that Soul Reapers would know about. Then, there's that thing about Byakuya that was rung up on her mind.
"Say, Yuzu, does Ichigo know anyone by the name Byakuya Kuchiki?" She didn't waste time. Yuzu became befuddled. She appeared to have no clue on a name like that.
"I can't really say. I don't know about you, but Karin's stories can be out there." She did have no clue on it. That had to bite. Delia gazed hard at the young blond that her son brought home, thinking that this was just a plain young girl who got caught with someone who was more spiritually superior.
'Her spiritual powers are very poor. Considering that they're twins, I would suspect that they would both have substantial spiritual awareness. Karin has it, but either Yuzu's is so poor that Hollows can't take her soul or it's dormant to protect her from an immense surge of energy to be leaked.' Spiritual powers dormant? That's when Yuzu had a stint in thought. What was it?
"Although, there is someone with the name, Kuchiki, that hangs around Ichigo. I think her name was Rukia." The one with Ichigo and Orihime at this point? Delia was a bit surprised with this news. What reason?
'Rukia? I think I've heard that name before. That's Byakuya's little sister...I haven't told Ash yet about family Soul Reapers and about Rukia being an aunt.' Wait...Rukia was Ash's aunt, meaning that Byakuya's Ash's father? Was Delia a Soul Reaper, herself?
TO BE CONTINUED...