Special thanks to ChaosSonic1 and Yinshadow for inspiration
Before the Hollow could come back, everyone vacated Orihime's apartment. Though simply leaving wasn't going to be that simple, especially when Orihime thought up what the building manager would have to say about this. To build up an alibi, the group went down to the nearest payphone and had Orihime call the police, claiming there had been some damage to her home. She couldn't say exactly what it was, claiming she hadn't seen it, and feared any follow-up damage to herself and the other tenants so she had to get out of there. She hung up before they could ask for any contact information.
"Okay, now what?" Rukia asked, annoyed by the delay. "A Hollow is after you, and there aren't many places on Earth they can't go to."
"So you're seriously saying that a ghost did all that because it wants Orihime?" Tatsuki asked, still confused over the whole experience. She wasn't the only one. "And Ichigo here had some kind of out-of-body experience to fight it?"
Ichigo was back in his body and Rokumon was riding on Rinne's shoulder.
"Yes, and frankly he was doing a crap job of it." Rukia commented.
"Hey!"
"When that Hollow comes back we're in big trouble if nobody talented can fight it off." The shinigami girl muttered to herself.
Rinne adjusted his shirt for a moment. "I've got to go get something. It will take a bit, where should I find you all if I get back before the Hollow does?"
"Orihime can come to my house. For some reason, ghosts never actually come inside it." Sakura suggested.
Rukia looked to the braided girl. "You certain?"
Sakura nodded. "Yes, I've seen ghosts follow me home and stand outside in stalkerish ways, but not a single one has ever come inside. I don't know why and personally I'm not about to change that if I can help it."
Rukia and Rinne looked to each other, as if they both knew something.
"Was that really my brother?" Orihime asked, sounding less than happy. "What happened to him?"
"Better save the stories for when you're safe." Rinne suggested, then picked up Rokumon and handed him to Sakura. "Here, if trouble comes your way he'll come to me and let me know."
Sakura nodded. "Thanks Rinne."
He nodded then disappeared into the spirit road.
"Whoa, what was that?" Tatsuki asked, seeing the strange thing.
"C'mon, let's get to my house first." Sakura offered, and everyone complied.
Rinne left the spirit road and found himself in the part of Soul Society that was known as the Rukon Districts. Soul Society was a big place, with the Rukon District being the biggest part of it. Fortunately, the redhead only needed to go to one specific part of it. A small shop located in the ninth district known as Dead Weight.
He went inside hearing a small bell chime. The place was clean but cluttered and filled with all sorts of mementos. But none of them were the things that Rinne was there for. He went up to the desk, and soon enough a man in white robes came up.
"Oh, it's you. I've been expecting you." He said.
"I need it back."
"Well the bad news it I don't have it anymore." The clerk replied.
"What? I told you I'd be back to get it!" Rinne argued.
The clerk sighed. "And I told you that while it was here anyone could buy it before you. That's how this works boy. And if you were paying attention, I told you that was the bad news. The good news is I know who bought it, and they said if you were interested, they'd be willing to work out a deal with you at this location."
The clerk gave Rinne a slip of paper, and while Rinne didn't like this he was in position to refuse this. He took it and went outside the pawn shop, checking the address listed.
In Sakura's house everyone was seated in the living room trying to decompress from the situation. Sakura threw some popcorn in the microwave to help them ease up a bit. Fortunately Sakura's parents were out on a date so they were all alone right now.
"And that's what Hollows are and how they are made." Rukia said, finishing up her discussion of the subject to Orihime and Tatsuki.
"I can't believe that happened to Sora." Orihime said, not at all happy about this.
"And you know all this because..." Tatsuki asked the shorter girl.
"I'm a shinigami, currently stripped of power and having to guide the boy who's got the biggest but most useless zanpakuto I've ever seen."
"Hey!" Ichigo yelled.
"Well until you know how to fight it pretty much is useless." Rokumon added.
Tatsuki and Orihime practically jumped out of their seats. "The cat is talking!" Tatsuki almost yelled.
"And you're yelling." He replied.
"Black cats have always been helpers of shinigami, at least that's what Rinne told me." Sakura claimed, coming to them with the popcorn in hand.
"Personally I'd prefer a white rabbit." Rukia thought out loud.
"So Rinne is a shinigami too?" Orihime asked, and Sakura nodded. "How long have you known Sakura?"
"Since I met him not too long ago. I got attacked by a ghost on the verge of becoming a hollow, and Rinne came along and saved me. Since then, I've tried to help him out whenever he needs it."
"And how exactly can a mere mortal, even a sharp-eye, help a shinigami?" Rukia asked skeptically. "Unless you're a shaman, there's nothing you could do that could prove useful in facing down Hollows."
"Rinne does more than fight ghosts, he works to make sure the still-normal ones can pass on." Sakura said.
Rukia rolled her eyes. "Oh, I see, he's a ferryman. That explains a lot."
Sakura frowned a bit. "Are you putting him down? He does the same job you do you know."
"Hardly. We work differently girl. I'm one of the guardian shinigami. He's one of the ferryman. We're as different as the police and garbage men of your world."
"Garbage men do important work for the community." Orihime interjected.
"The point is we have different priorities, and his are less dignified or hazardous compared to mine." Rukia started, crossing her arms. "Okay, in the human world there are two tasks shinigami are assigned to do. Guardians such as myself keep you living people safe by getting rid of the Hollows and the more aggressive ghosts out there. As well as fight off any enemies that Soul Society might have. We're essentially the warriors of the afterlife."
"Not to mention exterminators." Ichigo muttered.
"Well you're one of them now, 'exterminator'." Rukia remarked to the strawberry blonde. "The ferrymen on the other hand, they're for the safer jobs such as getting rid of the wimp ghosts and cleaning up messes and final wishes and all that junk."
"Junk?" Sakura repeated, sounding offended, then rose to her feet. "Junk? I've seen what Rinne does you entitled big shot. He makes sure that spirits can move on without regrets. While you're off fighting the monsters, he's the one making sure that innocent souls don't have to become those monsters in the first place. So they can go to the afterlife with their minds and sanity intact. You guardians sit on your butts waiting for Hollows to appear and attack first, never bothering to help a soul pass on unless they come to you. If anything you guardians are just taking advantage of the fact people like Rinne can't do all the work you think you're too good to be doing yourself."
Rukia stood up. "Well when that Hollow was there I bet you were glad an actual warrior and not an errand boy was there to save your ass."
"And if more shinigami did Rinne's job then Orihime's brother wouldn't have become that monster in the first place." Sakura refuted, then looked to the buxom girl. "Hear that Orihime? Your brother became that thing because people like Rukia thought it was a waste of time to help him out and expected overworked people like Rinne to do it for them."
Orihime gasped and covered her mouth, staring at Rukia as if the short girl had betrayed her.
"Think again pigtail, it takes time to naturally become a Hollow. If anything that spirit became one because ferrymen like Rinne don't do their job well enough. He had plenty of time to find that spirit, and no one is that overworked. Perhaps your ferryman friend isn't as good a shinigami as you think he is." Rukia snidely replied. She looked more annoyed than offended, but there was a glimmer in her purple eyes saying she wished she could do something to Sakura.
Rokumon slipped off the couch. "I'm not going to put up with this blame game, so if you don't mind..." He opened the spirit road gateway and slipped inside.
"I don't think I'm ever going to get used to this." Tatsuki muttered.
"Relax, when this is all over you won't remember a thing." Rukai replied.
'If you think you're erasing my memories think again.' Sakura vowed.
The address led Rinne to a place within the thirteenth district of Rukon. A lot of the buildings here were run down, looking like they hadn't seen maintenance or carpentry or even pain since before the steam engine was invented. Even the spiderwebs looked rundown. If it got any worse the beehives would have 'For Rent' signs on them.
Naturally none of the buildings had any numbers on them, none that weren't scratched on the walls in some way. But the address didn't list a street address or anything, it listed a building description. Most buildings looked alike if you didn't bother to look beyond the first impression, but there were a few that stood out more than others. Relics from when the thirteenth district was more full of life, in a death-world sense of the term of course. He was told to go to a three-story building with a tilted sign on it that showed an eagle, and go to the top. He did so, and from there was told to see the tallest building with a blue roof he could see from there.
'Whoever this person is, they seem to like drawing things out.' Rinne thought, bothered that it could just be a simple 'meet me here' kind of note. He saw the blue roof off to the south, a faded blue but of course still blue, and jumped from roof to roof to get to it.
When he got to the blue roof he saw a large hole in it, and footprints in the dust that showed someone had gone instead. Not seeing much of a choice, Rinne descended into it as well.
"Took you long enough, I was getting a cramp."
Rinne groaned, recognizing that voice anywhere. "What the hell do you want, Father?"
Standing beside the wall without leaning on it, there was Sabato Rokudo, looking like he didn't have a care in the world. "Oh it's about what you want my son. More specifically, this." He moved aside and there against the wall was a scythe.
"Blackmailing your own son. How many things on the 'Lows I Will Sink To' list do you still have to cross off you bastard?"
Sabato chuckled. "Oh no, no blackmail. You're my son, I just want to give you a present."
Seeing Rinne refuse to move, Sabato grabbed the scythe and held it out. "Go on, it's all yours. I don't know how desperate you got that you pawned your scythe of all things, but I couldn't let you go on without it. So I bought it back and knew you'd come for it, and made it where you wouldn't have to bleed yourself dry to get it back."
"And I'm supposed to believe you're doing this out of the goodness of your heart? You're about as giving as a pay toilet."
Sabato shrugged and stepped away. "Believe what you want, it's all yours again." He then started to walk away, back to the hole to climb out of. "Though in the future, if you're willing to 'repay the favor' and do something that I want done, I'd expect my 'more noble than me' son to remember this kindness. I'd hate to think my own son is just as selfish as he claims I am."
He then left the building, leaving a fuming Rinne there. Nonetheless, the redhead teen grabbed the scythe and strapped it to his back.
"Finally, that was a hard trail to find." Rokumon said to himself, dropping into the building. He had to follow Rinne's reishi trail to find the half-shinigami. "Oh wow, you got it back?" He asked, seeing the scythe back in Rinne's possession. "How much did it cost?"
"Possibly everything." Rinne said before going outside and back to the spirit road.
Ichigo was up in Sakura's restroom, having been granted permission to use some of her headache pills. Sakura and Rukia were still arguing a bit, with Tatsuki occasionally making comments when she felt like it. Orihime was keeping silent, though it looked like she was really hurt by the claim that shinigami had been responsible for what had happened to her brother.
'Honestly I can't blame her.' He thought, taking a moment to relax before going back downstairs. 'If I find out my mom could be resting in peace but had become some monster because some shinigami never got around to her, I'd be a little resentment myself. And wouldn't really care who's job it was to stop it.'
He took a moment to splash some water in his face, then went for a towel. In doing so he briefly looked out the window and froze in place. Only for a second, then he ran downstairs.
"Ugh guys!" He called out, only to see the girls still bickering. "Guys?" He repeated.
There was a sudden bang and it felt like the house was hit with an earthquake, knocking everyone to the ground. A few things fell and the sound of shattering could be heard.
"What was that?" Orihime asked.
"He found us." Ichigo told them.
"How? We got to the safe zone." Sakura asked.
Rukia silently gasped. "I must have forgotten to mask the reishi trail. The Hollow followed us."
"Just relax, he can't get inside now can he?" Tatsuki pointed out.
The house shook again and this time it sounded like some of the wood got damaged this time.
"I don't think whatever anti-ghost barrier here is going to hold up if the whole house goes down." Ichigo pointed out.
"Then do something useful." Rukai said, putting on her red glove. Before Ichigo could react, she forced him out of his human body and into shinigami gear.
"Ichigo, you're not going to kill Sora, are you?" Orihime quietly asked, sounding like just saying that made her want to cry.
"I... I'll do what I can." He said, not sounding too reassuring, before heading outside. He knew how much Orihime's brother had meant to her. He had been the closest thing to a parent Orihime had ever known, he respected Sora for doing what he had done to provide for her and protect her from abusive parents. How could he tell one of his friends that he might have to kill such a person right in front of them?
Outside, there stood (if a snake thing can stand) the Hollow form of the late Sora Inoue. The mask had healed, but otherwise he looked no different than he had earlier that night.
"Give me Orihime." He demanded.
"Since you can talk I'm going to try to reason with you Sora. Do you really want to kill your sister? The one you saved from the very-"
"Shut up!" Sora demanded, lashing out to attack the strawberry blonde boy.
Ichigo jumped to avoid it, noticing he could jump higher than normal, and landed on the arm. Acting on instinct he stabbed it with his sword, hurting the Hollow. But Ichigo got a bad feeling and looked behind himself for a moment. As he suspected, the girls were watching from the window, with Orihime practically pleading for this to not happen.
"Stop it! Orihime remembers you as a great man! You want to ruin that for her?" Ichigo asked.
"She's already forgotten me!" Sora protested, trying to crush Ichigo with his other hand. Ichigo managed to dodge but the serpentine Hollow followed up with a tail crush attack from above. It missed too but the house couldn't dodge. There was a new dent in the upper level ledge that Sakura's parents would have to be blind to not notice.
"You're her brother! How could she ever forget you?" Ichigo challenged.
"She used to talk to my memorial every day when I died! I could hear her all the time telling me how much she missed me and wished I was there for her! There was never a moment I wasn't there, wishing I could make her smile again! Then all of a sudden she stopped mourning and instead talked about everyone else! Telling me about all the boys and girls she knew at school! It was like she didn't care I was gone anymore! Do you know how that feels?!"
"What? Did you seriously expect your little sister to spend the rest of her life crying?" Ichigo asked, trying to cut him again. The blade hit Sora's underbelly but unlike normal reptiles the scales were not softer here than the topside so the blade at best put a scratch on him. "Just because he's accepted your death doesn't mean she doesn't care about you anymore!"
"It's her fault I became this monstrosity!" Sora accused, turning around and hitting Sakura's house with his tail, shattering the windows. The girls inside backed away and missed some bad cuts, but Orihime did get one on her arm.
Ichigo had to move to stay in Sora's line of sight, otherwise the Hollow would try and destroy the house. He tried to jump and thrust his zanpakuto into Sora's hand, pinning it to the ground, hoping that would slow down the beast if nothing else. Sora however grabbed him and threw him across the street, right into a streetlight.
'Oh that's going to hurt when I get back in my body.' Ichigo thought, briefly slumped on the ground.
Sora it seemed wasn't done with the substitute shinigami and came his way, opening his mouth wide and looking like he was going to chomp down on him. Ichigo struggled to move, hearing a pounding in his head that sounded like running footsteps, but his legs were being stubborn. Sora came at him like a snake going for a mouse, and soon there was a crunch sound.
To his surprise, Ichigo felt nothing, but when he opened his eyes he saw that Rinne was in front of him, blocking the serpentine Hollow's jaws with a reaper's scythe.
"Don't just sit there, move!" Rinne ordered.
"Easier said than done." Ichigo groaned, his limbs more cooperative but his spine practically on strike.
Sora pulled back his head and Rinne and the scythe came with him. Rinne moved the scythe to dislodge it and jumped away from the ghost's mouth, landing on the pavement. Sora glared at the redhead shinigami and two of the teeth on his skull mask parted before a stream of acidic liquid was fired out towards him. Rinne dodged and saw the pavement he had been standing on sizzle and melt a bit.
'Can't afford to deal with that kind of damage.' He thought, trying to get around to the back of the Hollow. In doing so he saw the door to the house open and Orihime carefully step out but stay close. "Go back inside. It's too dangerous out here."
"He's right." Rukia said, trying to pull the buxm girl back inside. Orihime however resisted and broke her hold on her, stepping out further.
Ichigo was trying to keep Sora's focus on him while Rinne tried to get a shot at him from behind. Sora was being more mobile since he had more than one target now. Rinne swung his scythe and Sora dodged at just the right moment to lose some hair and nothing more. To Ichigo's surprise, the ground under the Hollow changed color and the serpentine entity went inside.
"He's trying to run into the spirit road!" Rinne informed him, clinging to the Hollow's back. "Stay here in case he comes back!"
Before Ichigo could protest, both ghost and shinigami were gone and the ground was normal again.
In the spirit road, the monochromatic bridge between Earth and the afterlife, Rinne tried again to finish off the restless spirit. He gripped his scythe and jumped to his feet to have his best chance at an effective strike. Sora must have senses this and reared up while coming to a stop. The change in momentum threw Rinne off his back completely, sending him hurling through the air and right to the edge of the bridge. He dug his scythe right into it as his body dangled over, his legs kicking at nothing to prevent him from going over. You didn't want to fall off the spirit road, there was no telling which afterlife you'd end up in.
Rinne crawled his way up his scythe handle and got a better hold on the structure with his arms. To his horror, Sora had already retreated and went back where he came from.
'He wasn't trying to escape, he was trying to get rid of one of us, to making fighting us easier.' He concluded, getting up on the bridge more and pausing only to catch his breath. Once ready, he ran back to the world of the living.
Sora burst out of the ground much like the way he left in the first place, fortunately not damaging anything in the process. Ichigo gripped his zanpakuto as Sora stared down at him, then he lunged at the shinigami.
"No!" Orihime cried out, rushing towards the two.
"Orihime don't!" Sakura and Tatsuki called out, chasing after her too.
Orihime ignored them, for her it seemed like time had slowed to a crawl. Sora and Ichigo were about to kill each other, and she couldn't bear to see either die. Reaching out her hand, she prayed that somehow, someway, all this could stop.
All of a sudden, there was a flash of light, blinding her for a moment as well as everyone else. Sora continued his assault despite this, but found himself stopped by something. When the light cleared, everyone could see some kind of barrier between Ichigo and the Hollow. Confused, Sora tried to break through it, but it withstood his attacks.
'What's going on here? Did I do that?' Ichigo asked himself, though he was quite certain he had indeed not done that. In his confusion Orihime had reached her former brother, grabbing his arm firmly.
"Sora! If you can hear me, please stop this!" She pleaded, tears running down her cheeks.
The Hollow paused, his sister having a split effect on him. The human part of him was stricken by the sound of her crying and pleading, but the hollow side was aggravated and wanted to show her just what had become of him.
Rinne came out of the spirit road and landed beside Ichigo as the others came up as well, keeping some distance from the Hollow. "What's going on?" He asked.
"I don't know."