Author's note: Whee! More reviews per chapter than I've ever gotten at once! I'm a happy lad, I must say.
Disclaimer: See last chapter
Chapter four:
"Kuro...Kurosaki-kun?" she breathed, stunned at what had just happened.
"My name is Ichigo," he corrected her softly. "And I love you, Orihime."
"I-Ichigo-kun... I love you too!" Tears of joy were spilling from her eyes, and she pulled his face down and kissed him. He didn't hesitate to kiss back.
"I am truly an idiot," Ichigo thought as he kissed Orihime, oblivious to their surroundings. "How could I have not noticed her...? Her beautiful eyes; blue-grey, her incredible smile that could brighten the darkest days... I must have been really, really blind. She wasn't just some ditz from school all the guys except me wanted. She's so much more beneath that... and now, she's mine." He smiled internally at the irony.
"Kurosa- Ichigo-kun?" Orihime said after they parted briefly.
"Yeah...?" he replied, not really paying attention and instead gearing up to take another shot at her lips.
"Maybe we should go somewhere else," she said, gesturing towards the workers of the Shoten and Yoruichi.
"Huh?" Ichigo turned towards where she was pointing and blushed heavily, making his entire head look, appropriately enough, like a strawberry. "Oh, y-yeah! Let's... let's get going, Orihime!" Taking her hand, he flash-stepped them towards the exit after picking up Orihime's soulless body. After they'd exited the shop, Ichigo kept moving quickly.
"Ichigo-kun? Where are we going?" she asked as he carried her.
"To take a test," he said, stopping at the feet of a Huge Hollow. "Can you kill this thing, please?"
She knew what was going on. He wanted to see the extent of her powers. At this point, her zanpakutou had been resealed, so she summoned it once more. "Mamoro (protect) ! Himeno Hogosha (The Princess' Guardian)!" Again, the twin blades, giant versions of her hairpins, manifested themselves in her hands.
"Whenever you're ready," Ichigo said, sitting on a rock a short distance away.
"Alright... here goes!" she cried, leaping in the air. She realized that her shinigami body could move much more easily than her regular body... she could even land on the air, as the others did. Instantly, she noticed that Ichigo's eyes changed. A second ago, they'd been soft and loving, watching the woman he adored. Now they were scrutinizing her every move, checking for every little detail.
The Huge Hollow roared, sending a tremendous claw at Orihime. With a wave of one of her swords, her Santen Kesshun shield blocked the blow with great ease. The hollow waved its other claw at her. Another wave, and another shield had blocked this blow too.
"Two shields?" thought Ichigo. "The Shun Shun Rikka don't seem to be at the ends of each, and they're noticeably stronger... it must be an effect of the zanpakutou itself."
As she leapt aside, the Hollow dug its talons into the ground and missed biting her, making three massive craters in the ground. Orihime knew she didn't need to do this, but thought it would be a good test of her powers. Making a stroke of her sword, three Souten Kisshun shields appeared, healing the ground in a matter of moments.
"The zanpakutou must amplify her hairpins' strength," analyzed Ichigo. That means... this next move should be interesting."
Indeed it was, as when the Hollow came barreling down at Orihime, she raised both swords and swung them swiftly down. A much larger Koten Zanshun than tsubaki usually created blew right through the mask, finishing it off. Resealing her sword, she landed next to Ichigo, who clapped.
"Well done, Orihime. That was great."
She smiled excitedly. "You really think so? Oh, Ichigo-kun, that makes me so happy, I could just go home and make some bean paste cake and- mph!"
Ichigo had silenced her with a kiss. "Let's go back to class. I left my body there and people will start wondering about it."
She nodded and followed him as they went home peacefully.
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Urahara and Yoruichi had been sitting in the basement of the shop, enjoying lunch, when Yoruichi stood up and said, "Okay, that's it for me. See you later, Kisuke!"
"You're leaving?" Urahara asked, barely a tinge of sorrow showing through his voice. "When will you be back?"
She shrugged. "I don't know. Whenever."
Urahara was about to let her walk away without protest, but he'd recalled something Inoue-san had said. "Can't you understand, Urahara-san, what it is to love someone, to want them to stay with you, but knowing they can't stay for too long before they leave again?"
She was right. Damn it all, she was so right. Here he was, brilliant founder of the R&D department in the Seireitei, inventor of the hougyoku and the untraceable gigai, a man over a century old, and he was being out-wisdomed by a sixteen-year old. He chuckled as he remembered the old adage about the mouths of babes briefly before approaching his best friend.
Before the flash master could do anything, he kissed her, full on. She wasn't surprised at all. They'd gone far beyond kissing in the past... she blushed remembering those wild nights when she'd arrive, straight out of her cat form in his bedroom. He often gave her goodbye kisses before she went out into the world again.
She was, however, surprised when he took off his hat and said, "Stay. Please."
Without the covering of the hat, she could see the sheer pain in his eyes, and as she gazed into them, she felt it overpowering her, the loneliness crushing her like a boulder. Slowly, she grasped his hand and said, "If you want me to stay... I will." She crushed her lips against his in a kiss once more.
It was as simple as that.
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A few days later, Ichigo was yet again lying down in his room. Rukia had long since finished her chorus of "I told you so," which had lasted three hours and only ended when Ichigo threw a book at her, narrowly missing her head.
After that, he surmised that life was indeed really, really good. He had the lovely Orihime as his girlfriend. His family wasn't dead and neither were his friends. And there were no major catastrophes going on in the spiritual world that needed his sword.
Or so he thought.
His ceiling tile creaked and out of it exploded the Hitsugaya expedition, save the captain himself, who once again had seated himself in the window sill. "Uncanny." "Oh, now what the hell is this?" Ichigo asked. "Aizen's dead, or did no one tell you that I killed him?"
"We've got different business, though it is related to Aizen's death," replied Hitsugaya, cool as ever.
"What do you mean?"
"There's a war about to explode into this town."
"What?" Ichigo was stunned. "B-but, we won! Aizen's forces and the Hougyoku are gone!"
"Apparently, they've found a way to create complete arrancar without the Hougyoku... if we don't do something fast, we're going to have to use Karakura Town as a battlefield."
Ichigo's eyes widened in horror. Images flashed in his imagination; Karin and Yuzu, dead after trying to escape. His father, dead in a pose signifying he'd been trying to protect them. Keigo, Mizuiro, and the rest of his school, gone. "Wh-what... are we supposed to do?" he asked quietly.
"We're going to venture into Hueco Mundo and prevent the attacks."
"Oh, great, I have to go back to that hellhole. Wonderful."
"There's a difference!" said Renji. "This time... we'll have the support of the Seireitei. We're not doing this alone, Ichigo."
Ichigo nodded. "I... I guess I understand. When will we get there?"
"We will have three months' worth of preparation, then we will strike Hueco Mundo at that time," said Hitsugaya. "Prepare yourself."
"Yeah," said Ichigo, "Now... If you'll excuse me, there's something else I have to do." Getting up, he wandered out of his room, out of his house. and began making his way towards his beloved's house. "Why is it always like this?" he thought gloomily as he walked down the sidewalk. "Why do I always have to protect my loved ones from some horrible danger? I mean, come on... Yuzu, Karin, Rukia, Chad, Orihime, and now the whole damned town? What if our preemptive strike doesn't work? This is so frustrating..."
More and more, dark thoughts filled his head until he arrived at Orihime's place. He knocked on her door and she let him in, greeting him with an electrifying kiss. "That's right," he thought remembering , "I'm going to fight for her. It's not 'I'm afraid this will happen,' it's 'I won't let this happen!" "Orihime," he said, stepping inside her flat, "There's something I need to tell you..."
"What is it, Ichigo-kun?" she asked, radiant smile still displayed on her features.
"For that smile, I will fight and kill anyone. I swear it." "There's something happening in three months that you should know about," he began.
O O O
"A war...?" she asked softly after Ichigo told her the details. "Oh no... what's going to happen...?"
"We're going to attack Las Noches directly before they unleash any attack on the town. Orihime," he said, "What're you gonna do?"
"What else, but fight?" she replied.
"I was afraid you'd say that."
"Ichigo-kun... please tell me why I can't. I have a zanpakutou now!" she protested, "I can do it!"
"There are three reasons," Ichigo said, getting up and pushing his soul out of his body with the license. Placing Zangetsu parallel to the ground, he roared, "Ban-Kai!" And as the smoke cleared, he was gone.
Immediately, he appeared behind Orihime and said, "This is reason number one." But as soon as she turned to see him, he was gone. When she turned once more, suddenly, there were thousands of images of Ichigo flying around her tiny flat. "You probably see... over five hundred after-images, right?" He hated doing this to her, showing her that she just wasn't strong enough like this. But it needed to be done.
He landed in front of her, held her close and said, "The second reason is that we need you on this side to help the healing effort. You're our best healer and we can't have those skills being wasted on the battlefront. But finally," his voice quieted down to a whisper in her ear. "The last reason is that if anything happened to you... I would never, ever forgive myself. So please, don't not fight for them. Do it for me."
Her previously tense shoulders relaxed. "Okay... if you say so, Kurosaki-kun."
"Oh, thank you, Orihime," he said, planitng a soft kiss.
"No need, Ichigo-kun," she said, smiling after they'd parted. "No need."
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Ichigo left Orihime's apartment some time later after spending some "quality time" with her (he blushed at that memory). But now, it was time to complete one last task before he commenced preparation for the war.
"Oi! Hirako! Are you there?" he called into the warehouse. Slowly, several signs of reiatsu began to show themselves as the Vizard emerged from Hachi's barrier.
"Heeeey, Ichigo," greeted Shinji. "We heard you mastered your Hollow mask down in Hueco Mundo. Nice job!"
"Thanks, but that's not what I came to talk to you about," Ichigo said, his tone tense; his eyes narrowed. "I'm here because-"
"You want us to help in the upcoming arrancar war, right?"
Ichigo's eyes widened. "Man, you guys are really good at the whole information-gathering thing. But yeah, that's why I'm here. What do you say?"
Glancing to the side, Shinji replied, "Well, Ichigo... we discussed it decided-"
"Hell no, baldy!" cut in Hiyori. "There's no chance we'll help scumbag shinigami!"
"...What?" Ichigo said softly. He couldn't believe what he'd just heard. "But... they're going to attack the town. Surely you've got loved ones you need to protect, and-"
"We have measures to protect everyone we need to on our own," said Shinji. "And we're strong enough to fight off the arrancar easily."
"But innocent people will get hurt!"
"And then what?" asked Shinji, his tone growing suddenly fierce. At this sudden change, all the vizard seemed to shrink back from their unofficial leader, even Hiyori, who stood with timidness and what seemed like a bit of admiration.
"We stick our necks out for these people and then what happens? The Shinigami will be on our backs, trying to arrest us and probably kill us!" Shinji clenched his fist, trying to hold in his anger. "Why should we bother to risk our lives for them when they've done nothing but treat us like criminals?" His tone softened. "It'd be just like before, Ichigo. I'm sorry, but I can't. We can't."
The pain in Hirako's voice made Ichigo understand. The Vizard seemed like good people, if a little wacky, but that was just how he saw them. To those elitists in the Seireitei, they were probably the pictures on most wanted posters. They'd been hunted, and for what? Trying to take control of something that would devour them?
They weren't like Aizen, who would purposefully give himself a hollow so that he could destroy. Ichigo recalled when Shinji had saved his life from Grimmjaw's attack. And who was he as a fellow Vizard to force them into this war?
"I understand, Hirako," Ichigo said finally, nodding. "Sorry to trouble you."
Shinji's goofy smile returned. "Don't worry 'bout it. If you need any more help with that mask, don't hesitate, okay?"
With a wave, Ichigo was off. As soon as he cleared the warehouse, a voice said, "So, they refused you, eh, Kurosaki-san?"
Without a reply, Ichigo said, "I need you to train Renji and Chad really, really well... for all our sakes. Will you do that, Urahara-san?"
The merchant smiled his cool smile, folding his fan. "Who are you talking to, Kurosaki-san? You can count on me!"
"Good," said Ichigo. "Then it's time to prepare... for war."
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I really like the Vizards. Their story seems very interesting, and their characters are so unique.
Anyway, please review! I really hate it when I can't know if people saw/liked my story, so it really helps if I get a review, even if it's anonymous!