Sucked in

Not Fooled

Sun light floods into the room and into Yoshito's eyes. He growls and turns away from the light only to awoken again by an alarm clock. He slams his hand onto the alarm clock and looks at it. When his eyes focus enough he sees the clock reads 12:15. He sits up quickly and jumps out of bed in a hurry, "We slept for that long!? Hey Mei! We gotta go!" He doesn't get a response from her, "Mei?"

Mei sits up suddenly causing Yoshito to jump back in shock. She looks around dazed, "What?.."

"Hey you in there?"

"Damn it…" Mei falls back onto her pillow. "I forgot…"

"Forgot what?" He looks at her quietly.

"Where here in this world…" She says blankly, "What happened last night?"

"What? You don't remember?" Yoshito asks with disbelief, "Well… What's the last thing you do remember?"

"The last thing I remember was you leaving the room…"

"You don't remember anything after that?" He questions worried, and his worry only grows after she shakes her head to him, "Well… Ichigo came then other things happened…"

"Kurosaki? What did he want?" She says, anger growing in her voice.

"He… Wanted to kill me, but I convinced him otherwise, He just warned me to not hurt any of his friends." He was hesitant to answer after hearing Mei's voice and attitude suddenly change.

"Just perfect." Mei's anger can be heard clearly in her voice. Yoshito looks away from her as she gets out of bed.

He puts his hand over his newly formed hollow, and frowns. "Maybe we can get out somehow."

"Well while we're here we might as well learn something…" Mei's tone goes back to normal.

"But how are we going to avoid them?"

"Change…" She says calmly, "I already cut my hair…"

"I guess it's my turn then…" He responds carefully and stands up, going to the bathroom. Mei sits on the bed and runs her fingers through her chin-length hair to untangle it some. She sits there for about five minutes before Yoshito returns from the bathroom his hair styled differently than normal.

"Some hair dye might finish it off…"

"And how do we get that?"

"I still have some money on my card… I'm still a little surprised that it works here…" She pulls out her wallet, "But we should probably see if we could get a job…"

"Hopefully one away from them…" Yoshito agrees and sits down in the desk chair, as Mei grabs the newspaper from the side table. After a couple minutes of flipping through the paper, Mei throws it at the wall. "We're doomed…"

"Damn it!" Mei says regrettably, "The only possible job is an assistant nurse at Kurosaki Clinic."

"No way…" Yoshito sits back in his chair. They sit there in silence for a few seconds before Mei breaks the silence.

"I'll do it."

"What? No!"

"He wants to kill you more than me…"

"Tch True but still." He looks at Mei with serious eyes.

"I'll be fine… but in the meantime, we should change our clothing."

Yoshito nods and stands up, following Mei out of the room. They walk down the hallway when Mei stops quickly. Yoshito looks at her then looks out into the lobby to see Ichigo standing in the middle of the lobby, seeming to be waiting for someone. He was waiting for them.

"Kurosaki…" Mei says in the same abnormal tone as before. "Just try and ignore him..."

While his back is turned toward them, Mei and Yoshito quietly walk past him. They manage to leave the hotel without bringing too much notice to themselves. They give each other a quiet nod of approval as they make their way down the sidewalk. Mei looks into a few windows of shops, trying to find one that sells clothing. They eventually find a thrift shop, hopeful they go inside. Mei goes over and looks through as Yoshito goes through trench coats. He looks through calmly when finished he goes back to Mei to check out of the shop. They walk back to the hotel, keeping an eye out for Ichigo or any other of his friends. After a short walk back to the small, cheap, hotel, they go back into the room. Mei goes and falls into one of the chairs, using the back of it to help her stretch. Yoshito sighs with relief, only happy that they didn't get into any fights with anyone important.

"That was nerve racking…" Mei says calmly.

"It was…" He looks at Mei, "But I'm still nervous…"

"I am to… Go get dressed, I'll go in after you."

"Okay…" Yoshito goes into the bathroom with his bag. He looks in the mirror after he closes the door. He thinks over everything that had happened so far. They ended up enemies with Ichigo and his friends, not a good group to be hated by, Yoshito became an arrancar, and Mei's ended up a Quincy. He thinks over this morning, Mei's not okay… her personality during that conversation, was dramatically different, cold. No you're thinking too much into it idiot… She's just stressed… Yeah that has to be it. He stops thinking about it and changes into his new clothes then walks out.

Mei looks away from the window to look at Yoshito, "Looks good! Okay my turn!" Mei grabs her back and goes into the rest room. Yoshito sits in the chair to wait for Mei, She seems okay now… I just hope it stays like that…

Mei looks at herself in the mirror, her burning amber eyes looking back at her. She looks normal but, she didn't feel normal. She's had this feeling before but she just couldn't place when. She leans against the wall and holds her head her dark brown hair falling into her face. What's happening to me? I can't worry Yoshito too much… Whatever this is I have to keep it under control. She puts on her new outfit, consisting of a blue dress and a white jacket, and goes to the door. As she's going towards the door she stops. She thought she had heard someone say something… What? Who said that?

...No one...

Stupid it was nothing! You're worrying over nothing… It's just stress… Mei breaths and steps out.

Yoshito looks at the door when Mei steps out then stands up, "Hello madam!" He says mockingly.

"Oh! Quiet you!" Mei throws one of the smaller chair pillows at him. Yoshito only laughs at her as he catches it and sets it next to him. Mei looks at him annoyed then sighs, "Whatever, it doesn't matter. I'm going to go get that job"

"Alright…" Yoshito nods as Mei walks out of the room waving a 'goodbye'. He waits for a couple minutes before he leaves after her. When he gets out to the lobby she had just left the building. Mei goes across the street, looking at the street signs to find how to get to the clinic. Yoshito continues following Mei until she finds it. Yoshito stays on the other side of the street watching her, making sure she didn't get into any trouble or gets hurt. He turns to go back to the hotel when he feels a darker energy behind him by the clinic. How long has that been there?! Mei. He turns back and runs to the clinic to see a Hollow standing in front of Mei. He sees Mei back away from the demon and holding her hands together as she tries to manifest her bow.

"Damn it focus!" Mei swears as she has trouble with her energy.

"Stay away from her!" Yoshito towards his friend and unconsciously fires a cero at the looming creature only knocking it back some. Mei looks at Yoshito with shocked eyes, but ignores it. She manages to get her bow to form properly and shot an arrow through its head. Mei makes the bow disappear as it turns to dust. Yoshito turns to Mei concerned, "Are you alright?"

"I… I'll be okay." She says calmly as Ichigo walks out of the clinic. "Crap…"

"Who are you two?" Ichigo says knowing who they are, putting on an act in front of his father.

"Oh, um… I was just helping my little sister here find your clinic." Yoshito comes up with a quick plan.

"And what do you want?" Ichigo says as calmly as possible.

Yoshito turns away from the orange-haired protagonist and to Mei, "Maria," He picks a name from the top of his head, "I'm going to work now… okay, stay safe."

"O-Okay brother." Mei nods in agreement.

"What do you wa-." Ichigo starts.

"Dad! Ichigo brought another girl home!" Yuzu shouts mistaken.

"ICHIGO~!" Not wasting another moment Mei and Yoshito step away from Ichigo as the doctor runs out of the house. Ichigo, knowing his father's plan, dodged out of his way and kicked him into the ground. Mei and Yoshito stared at the grounded doctor with shock. They knew about Ichigo's fights with his father but seeing it right before their eyes was a whole other story. Isshin stood up pretty quick from his son's kick. "Good job Son! Better and better every time!"

"Well, you make it pretty easy when you're SHOUTING EVERY TIME!" Ichigo says annoyed. "Whatever… I'm going to my room." He goes inside afterward.

"Uh… Y-You must be Dr. Kurosaki!" Mei breaks the couple seconds of awkward silence with her introduction. "I'm Maria…"