I sighed the next morning, having not yet gotten up for school, holding my hand in front of me and flexing it, worried as my hand shook. I used too much…That's what I get for getting carried away with that monster. Looks like I'll need to stop by his place. I sighed, sitting up and scratching my head with a yawn, before looking out the window to see a pair of yellow eyes looking back. I rolled my eyes and opened said window, letting Yoruichi come in and scratching behind her ears, earning a purr.

"I need to stop by Urahara's place, Yoruichi. You're welcome to come along, if you want." I said, pulling on my school uniform.

She meowed and jumped up onto my shoulder, rubbing her face against my cheek as I pet her and went into the kitchen to pop a piece of bread in the toaster. I checked the calendar, checking to see if anyone had any appointments with me today and if it was the anniversary of anyone I had promised flowers. Luckily, today was a pretty clear day and the only work I had was a bit of filing, which I could do later. As my toast popped up, I headed back over and put the corner of it in my mouth, holding it there while I cleaned everything up before heading out.

Urahara's place wasn't too far from where I was, but it was far enough that I knew I would probably be late to school. Oh well. I'll just say I had business to take care of and it'll be fine. Perfect attendance wasn't a goal of mine anyway. I yawned again, covering my mouth as I rounded the corner and quickly stopped, upon being spotted by someone unexpected.

"Hm? Aren't you…"

Kuchiki…I decided against saying anything and simply walked past her.

"Ah! Wait!"

I stopped with a quiet sigh out my nose, turning to look over my shoulder at her. "What?"

She fidgeted a bit, before gathering her courage and straightening her shoulders with a serious expression.

"Why are you not at school?"

I blinked slowly. "I could ask you the same."

She bristled slightly, face turning red in embarrassment, and I rolled my eyes with a sigh.

"If you really must know, I'm doing errands. There's a shop near here that I frequent."

I started walking off, but she followed me, looking suspiciously at myself and Yoruichi; who was curled up around my neck purring.

"But why do them now? Wouldn't it be better to do it after school?"

I didn't even look at her as I responded this time. "I have work after. Papers to file, accounts to balance, coffins to make. Death seems to have been a very popular business lately."

She grimaced, looking ahead and frowning curiously at the road we were taking. She probably recognizes it. I wouldn't be surprised if she goes to Urahara's place on occasion while she's here. Most shinigami do. I've even seen that afro one here a few times.

"Sounds like a lot of work for a kid like you." She commented. "Aren't your parents supposed to do things like that?"

I stiffened, something she noticed, and I quickly changed the subject.

"Are you doing errands in this area as well, Kuchiki?"

"Yeah, but…it's Rukia."

I nodded, filing that information away for later, when I rounded the corner and spotted Urahara's shop. The moment I began walking towards it, Rukia seemed to falter.

"A-Are you lost?"

I turned and gave her a bored glance. "No. The shop's right over there."

I pointed at Urahara's shop and she seemed to want to say something, but I didn't give her a chance before walking over and catching the broom handle that Jinta was using to bully Ururu.

"W-Who's there?! Tessa-"

He caught sight of me and I stared back, watching in slight amusement as he hid behind Ururu.

"I-I-It's you! W-What do you want?!"

I flipped the broom and whacked him upside the head with it, earning a complaint.

"Ow!"

"Respect your elders." I said, before handing the broom to Ururu and patting her on the head. "Good morning, Ururu."

"Morning, Satoshi!" She chirped with a smile.

"Do you think you could let Urahara know that I'm in?"

"Mmhm!" She then caught sight of Rukia behind me and I glanced over my shoulder at her as well, before pointing at her.

"She's here for some business too."

"O-Okay." Ururu muttered, before her and Jinta led us to the door.

"Hmph. Hey, Jinta. It's too early for opening hours!" Tessai said, until he caught sight of me. "Ah, good morning Satoshi."

"Morning. I got business with Urahara, her too." I thrust a finger over my shoulder at Rukia, handing the broom back to Jinta. "You think you could wake him and possibly make me some coffee?"

He nodded and just as he set the boxes he was carrying down and went to get Urahara, the man himself walked out with a loud yawn, rubbing his eyes as he walked over.

"G'mornin' Tessai, Jinta, Ururu, Yoruichi, Satoshi. And welcome, Miss Kuchiki." He adjusted his hat a bit with a smirk. "We received new products from the other world just yesterday. So, what would you like today?"

Rukia let out a fake laugh as I rolled my eyes and went over to browse through the aisles for what I needed; Yoruichi jumping off my shoulders and wandering over to Urahara, walking in and out of his legs.

"Ahahaha! You're so funny, Urahara! 'Other world'? You're such a joker!"

Urahara's smirk grew bigger and I felt his eyes on me as I picked up an energy replenisher and pretended to look over the label as I sent him a meaningful glance. Don't you dare give me away.

"You don't have to worry, Miss Kuchiki!" He said. "Satoshi's been stopping by for ages. Him and his step-father are long time customers. He probably doesn't have any idea what I'm talking about."

"Step-father?" Rukia questioned and I glared at Urahara, before chucking the product I had in my hand at his head, only to be disappointed when he caught it with a smile.

"Is this what you needed, Satoshi?~"

"Yeah." And for you to keep your big mouth shut. "These too."

I threw a few more at him and he easily caught them.

"Now, now, Satoshi. No throwing things in my store."

I clicked my tongue, but stopped throwing things, waiting as he added up the cost for what I needed and taking the bag of things from him before paying. He continued to smile pleasantly, but I could feel Rukia's stare on my back, and turned around.

"I'm going on ahead." I said to her, opening the door and sending one last glare at Urahara, before walking out.

After a bit of walking, I pulled out the energy replenisher and drank it quickly, not liking the bitter taste when I stopped, realizing something and turning back around with a frown. I headed back to Urahara's shop and opened the door, earning a chuckle from the man himself.

"Forget something?~"

"I want my coffee." I grumbled, feeling more tired than I should after this busy morning.

Tessai walked out from behind the man and handed me a to-go cup with coffee, to which I thanked him and drank deeply from the cup.

"You came back here just for a cup of coffee?"

I lowered it and gave her a bland look. "Tessai makes the best coffee."

"Thank you for the compliment, Satoshi." Tessai said with a small bow, and I nodded back, before looking down at Rukia.

"I take it you're done with your business?"

She nodded, hesitantly. "Y-Yeah. Why?"

I lifted my wrist and checked my watch, glancing back over at her. "We've already missed our first two classes."

She face palmed and we both hurried out, her waving quickly and myself sending back a lazy wave as we started on our way to school. Things seemed tense on the way there though and with all the glances Rukia was giving me, I was quickly becoming slightly annoyed..

"If you want to know, just ask." I finally grumbled out.

She seemed hesitant, but did ask. "He said step-father. Are your parents…divorced?"

"No."

We went back into silence, her obviously wanting to know more, so I sighed, pulling a hand through my hair.

"I don't have any parents. My step-father is the man who adopted me."

She looked up at me with a worried expression, making me flinch. Don't do that. I hate that look. That pitying expression. They always make that face…every time…and then…

"Get out of my house!"

"You're a monster!"

"Look what you did!" Slap!

I drank some more of my coffee, hoping that it would relax me a bit as Rukia spoke some more.

"You're adopted?"

I nodded. "My real parents are…dead."

"Oh."

Things went quiet and we finally reached the school, Rukia and I reporting to the teacher and explaining our lame excuses, but she let us off and we headed to the classroom, where Rukia made her entrance.

"Good morning everyone!"

"Ah, good morning, Kuchi-" Mizuiro started out, but Keigo cut him off.

"Kuchiki!~ You're as lovely as always!"

I scratched the back of my head as I walked past her and over towards my seat, but Mizuiro caught sight of me.

"Satoshi too? It's rare you two are late to school, especially since you two walked in together."

"Huh?"

I gave Ichigo a bored expression and Rukia went to cover for us both.

"Yes. I had some business at home and bumped into Satoshi while he was running some errands for his work." She then turned to Ichigo. "By the way, Kurosaki, do you have a moment?"

"Huh? What is it? If you need to talk then why not right h-Urk!"

Ichigo suddenly collapsed as Rukia had punched him in the stomach and she began dragging him out of the room, obviously not wanting to say whatever it was out here where people could hear. I could care less though and simply sat in my seat to await the teacher's return. When she did, she took a look around the room in confusion.

"Where's Kurosaki? He was here earlier."

I raised my hand, figuring that I could cover for him this once. "He wasn't feeling well. Kuchiki took him to the nurse."

The teacher nodded with a grin, slapping down her lecture. "Alright. Then on with the lecture!"

I could feel myself dozing off throughout the lecture and was thankful when it was over, only to remember that I didn't bring any lunch with me and that I had spent my money on the energy replenishers. Sighing, I grabbed one from my bag and chugged the shot-like drink down, hand twitching for a cigarette.

"Hm? No lunch today, Satoshi?"

I glanced to my right to spot Mizuiro with Keigo and Chad.

"No. I spent my money on things for business and I forgot to grab something before I left this morning."

He frowned. "That's too bad. Do you want to come with us down to the vending machines? I'll get you something, but you have to pay me back." He held up a finger and winked, but I shook my head.

"No. I'll be fine. I'll just grab something on the way home." I have a bad feeling too…I wonder why.

"Well, alright. I'll see you later then, Satoshi."

"Mm." I hummed, turning towards the window with my chin in my palm as him and the other two headed out.

Not long afterwards, I cringed upon hearing Orihime shout from across the room.

"Yay! It's lunch!"

"Not again!" The girl beside her said; one I hadn't been introduced to yet, but one I recognized from the time I helped deal with Orihime's brother. "It's just lunch, so calm down!"

"What are you talking about, Tatsuki! Normal high school girls only come to school for lunch!"

Tatsuki, huh…I glanced at her in curiosity. She seems different from the other girls. Orihime must have caught me staring, for she soon called me over, excitedly.

"Satoki! Come join us for lunch!"

I sweat dropped and stood up, grumbling to myself. "It's Satoshi."

She just grinned as she pulled out a huge loaf of bread and a little can of honey. "What's your lunch, Satoshi?"

I held up my little energy shot as I pulled out a chair beside the couple of desks her and Tatsuki pushed together.

"That's not good for you, Satoshi!" Orihime scolded as I finished it off. "Here! I'll share my bread and honey with you!"

Tatsuki next to me scoffed, taking a bit out of her own food. "You better do what she says. Knowing her, she probably won't let it go until you do."

"Mm. No kidding." I muttered, taking some of the offered bread and hesitantly dipping it in the honey.

"I'm Tatsuki, by the way. Tatsuki Arisawa. Don't know how you met Orihime here, but you seem like a decent guy. Better than Ichigo, anyway."

"Satoshi Yuuma. And I helped her from being hit by a car." I said, dipping some more bread in honey since it was actually pretty good.

"She did what?!"

Before Tatsuki could do anything, another girl suddenly showed up, holding out her wrapped bento excitedly.

"Hime! Let's eat together!"

"Yeah! Okay!" Orihime said, a smile on her face, though crumbs stuck to her cheeks.

This new girl seemed to get really excited about that and tackled Orihime in a hug.

"So cute! Eating a whole loaf of bread and smiling with crumbs on her mouth. A normal person can't replicate this cuteness. This is the girl that captured my heart!" She suddenly cupped Orihime's chin, making me pause in my eating in surprise. "In many ways. I want to eat you~"

Tatsuki had seen enough. "Hey, Chizuru! Not during lunch! Why don't you just eat a quiet lunch in the girl's tennis room? Orihime has no desire to walk down your path!"

"Be quiet. That's none of your business. You are pretty, but since your personality is so masculine, I have no interest." This Chizuru girl sighed dreamily. "Oh, what a waste. If you were just a bit more feminine, I could imprison you and slowly turn you on to the joy of women."

Tatsuki shivered and I slowly began raising my bread back up to my mouth.

"She looks cute to me."

All eyes suddenly turned to me as I chewed a bit of bread, not realizing I had said that out loud, and Tatsuki started to turn red before grabbing my shirt collar and getting in my face.

"W-What the hell are you saying?!"

Chizuru also pushed her way over. "Did you just say this tramp is cute?!"

I blinked, not really sure what to do about this situation, but Orihime managed to save me when she suddenly stood up and went to the window, putting a foot up on the window sill, making like she was going to climb outside.

"What is it, Orihime? Ah! Hey, your panties are showing!"

I turned her direction as well, but Tatsuki glared at me and forced me to turn away.

"Don't look, you idiot!"

"Sorry." I muttered, when she suddenly let me go and hurried to pull Orihime back from the window.

"I smelled Kurosaki!" Orihime said, making me question what her body was made of.

First her ridiculous diet, and now a suddenly keen sense of smell? Tatsuki seemed to agree.

"'Smelled'? What are you, a dog? Plus, this is the 3rd floor. Even if you smelled him, he couldn't come through-"

Now, I'm not one for believing in the impossible, but when Ichigo suddenly popped up in the window, I actually dropped my bread in shock. That is, up until I felt his aura and how different it was. That's not Ichigo…Tatsuki immediately screamed, pulling Orihime back with her in shock.

"You! How'd you get up here?!"

"How?" This fake Ichigo questioned. "Didn't you see it? I jumped up. You surprised?"

I looked around the class room, a bit nervous. There's too many people here. Whatever is in Ichigo's body, I can't do anything about it until he's somewhere more secluded.

"It's amazing, right? You're surprised, right?"

He seemed to relish in the shock that he'd inflicted on the students and I slowly stood from my seat, ready to move if I needed to; hand in my back pocket to grab my glove. He then turned his sights onto Orihime and jumped right from the window to the desk in front of her.

"Pleasure to meet you, pretty lady. Would you please tell me your name?"

He then kissed her hand, confirming that he wasn't Ichigo. Tatsuki though, took offense and put him in a choke hold.

"Ichigo! Do you know what you're doing?! This isn't funny! Get away from Orihime!"

He leaned back and looked at her curiously. "From close up, you're pretty cute too."

"Huh?"

He leaned over and kissed her cheek, and I felt a stirring in my stomach, quickly growing frustrated. Nothing I could've done though, would've compared to Tatsuki's reaction though, as she picked up a desk and hurled it at the imposter.

"Die!"

"Whoa, watch out! What? All I did was kiss your cheek, calm down! Are you in grade school or something?"

"Shut up!" She shouted, swinging another desk at him.

I wanted to get the imposter out of Ichigo's body, but at the same time, a small part of me was glad that Tatsuki was trying to kick his ass. Then again…I get the feeling that I got off easy when I called her cute earlier…

"That's enough!"

I turned to the door to see Rukia and the imposter went to run out the window, just as the real Ichigo showed up in his shinigami uniform.

"There he goes, Ichigo!"

"Yeah! Now, there's nowhere to…run?"

The imposter jumped out the window and I watched as Rukia hurried over to the window as well, mentioning something about a 'mod soul'. I was very confused, but just then, my cell phone rang and I answered it.

"Hey, Satoshi! I was wondering if you could possibly help me with something."

I slowly left the classroom, pulling a hand through my hair as I responded to Urahara. "It wouldn't happen to have anything to do with the thing in Ichigo's body, would it?"

"Oh! So you know about it?"

"Yeah…He just jumped out of my third story classroom window and took off. Kuchiki and Ichigo are after him now."

"Good! Well, you see, I was thinking you could help us out by going after it and retrieving it for us. Or at least slowing it down until we get there. I'll even pay you a bit for it."

I started walking, having calmed down from the surprise. "Sounds interesting. Tell me about it."

"Well, it's what we call a mod soul. It was part of a project the soul society came up with. Putting souls in dead bodies to use as soldiers to fight hollows."

"Hollows…That's what you call those monster things, right?" I questioned, leaving the school and heading home, not caring about the classes I was going to miss.

"That's right. Each one has an enhancement and from what you were saying, this one has enhanced leg strength. They were supposed to have been taken care of, but seems one got into our package that we sold to Miss Kuchiki."

I frowned suddenly. "You mean…"

"Yup. They were ordered to be destroyed."

I sighed, having reached my home and begun pulling out my keys, tossing my bag aside once I'd entered and going to change.

"I'll see what I can do, but no promises."

"Thanks, Satoshi!~"

I hung up on him and pulled on my black clothes, frowning in the mirror as I put my sword around my waist. What it must be like, finally having a body after being told you were to be destroyed…I suddenly sweat dropped. He must be having a blast. I pulled up my mask and headed to the window, climbing up on the sill and jumping out onto the roof with a shake of my head. I wouldn't be surprised if he's just out jumping around the city like an idiot. Little did I know, that's exactly what he was doing.

By the time I found him, he was running across some rooftops not looking as happy as I expected him to be. Just as I was about to go down and knock him out of Ichigo's body though, I suddenly sensed one of those mon-hollows and hesitated. Looking down at him from the roof I was on, I was curious to see that he too, had stopped and was looking in the direction of the hollow. Odd…Is he planning on going to go fight it? I watched as he took off in that direction and followed him quietly, planning on watching for now, until I felt as though he was either going to be in danger, or was going to be the one causing it.

I didn't expect the hollow to show up at an elementary school though and even worse, Karin and Yuzu's school. Even now, as I kept an eye on the caterpillar monster, I was worried about them since I could feel their aura not far off. What's worse, this hollow is targeting those kids down there. Suddenly, the hollow attacked and the mod soul in Ichigo's body managed to pull the three kids out of the way. Safe for now. I sighed, watching the kids argue with the mod soul, before shifting my eyes back over to the hollow just as it went to strike. Cursing, I jumped down and just barely managed to deflect it's attack with my sword, though it still nicked the mod soul's shoulder.

"Ahh!" The kids screamed, running off, but the mod soul just sat on the ground in shock, a hand on his shoulder wound.

"W-Wha…"

I glared back at him, not pleased with his idiocy. "Move to higher ground!"

He nodded and ran up towards the roof of the building as I struggled to keep the hollow's attention on me. Problem was, I couldn't keep it down here where people could possibly get hurt and it's attention was focused solely on the mod soul. Reluctantly, I allowed it to follow the mod soul up to the roof and I hurried after it.

"I thought you were keeping it away from me!" The mod soul shouted as I jumped up behind the hollow.

"Had to get it away from the kids." I replied, dodging an attack from the hollow and jumping off it's head to land beside the mod soul.

The hollow growled as I glared at it. "Interfering with my meal, running around…I don't know who you are, but a weakling like you shouldn't get involved!"

It charged suddenly, but Ichigo popped out of no where and cut it's leg off, shouting. "Exactly!"

The hollow wailed in pain as Ichigo stood there in silent frustration.

"You…Why did you save-" The mod soul was cut off as Ichigo grabbed the front of his shirt and proceeded to yell at him, myself choosing to scoot back a bit to avoid conflict.

"You're injured! Whose body do you think this is?! If you're going to get hurt fighting trash like this, then don't jump in!" He scolded, stabbing the hollow.

"W-What are you talking about? I'm fighting because you took so long to arrive! Even this guy was here before you!" The mod soul shouted in response. "If I hadn't fought, those kids would have-"

He was cut off as the hollow charged again. "I'll eat the both of you!"

"Shut up!" They both shouted; Ichigo cutting it with his sword and the mod soul kicking it.

The hollow was defeated, but I spotted the mod soul running towards it and kick it upwards, causing me to roll my eyes and hurry after him; grabbing him along with Ichigo before he fell off the roof.

"You idiot!" Ichigo yelled. "What are you doing?! Hollows vanish on their own if you cut their heads! Why would you kick it upwards?! What are you thinking?! It's as if you didn't want it to fall there-"

The two of us pulled the mod soul back over the railing and Ichigo stared at the ground in shock, a small line of ants walking where the hollow would have landed. Who would've thought…

"A line of ants? It can't be…" Ichigo turned to him with a small frown. "You aren't going to talk like a saint and say you didn't want them to be crushed, are you?"

"Y-Yeah! So what?! I-I won't kill anything!" The mod soul replied, before looking down at the ground. "Right after I was born, soul society ordered the mod souls to be destroyed…and the day after I was born, I was already chosen to die! Everyday while I was in that pill, I was afraid. As I watched my friends disappear each day. Even after I got lucky and escaped the storage among other pills, I feared being discovered and killed."

I flinched, a dark memory rising up from the depths of my mind. Myself as a child hiding in a small hallway closet, trying my best to stay quiet so they wouldn't find me. So they wouldn't hurt me. Trembling and trying to keep the tears from falling.

"As I trembled in fear, I would think…Life isn't something that should be taken by others. I was born like this! I should at least have the right to live and die freely!" The mod soul shouted, before quieting a bit. "Whether it's humans or insects…or even us…It's the same. That's why I won't kill. I won't kill anything."

"My, my." I heard from behind us and I turned to see Urahara standing there with his cane and Ururu, Jinta, and Tessai standing behind him with rather large weapons.

"We finally found you." He looked up at me. "If you would."

I nodded and pulled on my glove, slamming my palm into Ichigo's body and knocking the mod soul out, catching it in my other hand and lowering Ichigo's body to the ground.

"Wha…"

I started walking back over to Urahara, but paused as Ichigo began shouting.

"W-Wait! What are you going to do with him?!"

I stopped and looked back at Ichigo, but Urahara was the one to answer.

"What?…Dispose of it. Why?"

"You can see me…" Ichigo muttered. "Who are you?…"

"Oh, how should I answer that?" Urahara questioned, just as Rukia walked past him and towards me.

"He's a greedy salesman." She said, before holding her hand out to me. "I'll take that."

I blinked, unsure what to do as Urahara shouted in the background.

"K-Kuchiki! Don't take that!"

"What, Urahara? Does your store take items you sold to a customer without compensation?" She questioned, looking back at him, though her hand was still held out to me.

"Oh, well then…I'll pay." Urahara offered.

"No, need. I am satisfied with the product. Plus, you guys are working outside of the law anyway. You don't have any responsibility to recover him."

She got him there… I mused as Urahara grew serious.

"We're not responsible then? If trouble comes, we'll play dumb."

"Don't worry. I'm getting used to trouble lately." Rukia replied, turning back to me with a stern look.

I looked up at Urahara, but he nodded, of I dropped the small pill in her hand; speaking quietly as she walked past.

"Take care of him."

She turned around and faced me, but at that point I was already walking over to Urahara with a glare.

"I better still get paid."

He chuckled nervously, but nodded, pulling out his wallet and passing me some cash with an overdramatic crying face. I rolled my eyes and went to go, but Rukia wasn't having it.

"Wait!"

I paused, dropping my head at being stopped when all I wanted to do was head home and get some filing done.

"Who are you? And why do you keep showing up around us?"

I looked over my shoulder at her and sighed, shifting my glance to Urahara so he could explain without giving me away, but quickly decided against that and turned back.

"A friend."