"That's everything we know, sir," Rukia said, concluding her report to Captain Ukitake of Squad 13. Ukitake, two times his normal size on the projector screen in Urahara's backroom, folded his arms across his chest as he thought out loud, "A mysterious woman with spiritual power similar to a Menos...and you're sure she's not an Arrancar?"
"We can't be positive, but the mask she wore looked handmade. Also, she had no weapon that we could see," Ukitake furrowed his eyebrows, "That's what concerns me," he said, "Someone powerful enough to control a Menos-level blast...we need to make contact with this 'Starless' and find out if she will stand with Soul Society, or perhaps one day prove to be a threat." Ichigo and Rukia shared a look. They had left out of their report the part where Starless had insulted Soul Reapers. They doubted she had much love for Soul Society, either.
"Very well," Ukitake said, drawing their attention again, "I will bring this to the next captain's meeting. I'm sure the others will agree that this is a matter of great importance. We'll most likely send a few people to support you, just in case."
"Sorry, Kisuke," Ukitake said to Urahara, "Do you mind keeping this network running? We'll need a way to stay in touch..."
"Not at all, Jūshirō!" Urahara said with a wave of his fan, "Things were getting a little quiet for my tastes."
"We'll send word as soon as possible," with that, Ukitake's face vanished and the screen went black.
"Things are getting exciting," Urahara said, "I wonder who Starless really is?"
"Your guess is as good as mine," Ichigo said as he stood, "We need to get back to school. We'll stop by after to talk about the alarm on those damn crystals," he glared at Urahara, who had told them before their report to Ukitake that, to keep the locater functioning at "full capacity", they would have to charge it every night for at least a week. Urahara laughed merrily from behind his fan, "Such a scary look! But it can't be helped, it's a prototype after-all!"
Ichigo grunted as he ducked his head under the entrance curtains, "I'll be needing that new shipment of Soul Candy, as well," Rukia said with a wave, and they walked away.
"Yes, yes! I'll have it waiting!" Urahara waved his fan in farewell until Rukia and Ichigo disappeared around the corner. The moment they were out of sight, he snapped his fan closed and peeked up from behind the brim of his hat, "And what might I be able to do for you today," he asked, looking at the figure that had been silently hovering above the shop, watching Rukia and Ichigo leave,
"Miss Starless?"
They made it back to school almost an hour after they had first left. Ichigo slid into his desk with a sigh in the middle of his English language class, not that the teacher paid him or Rukia any attention. In fact, he had acted as though he hadn't noticed they were missing at all, which Ichigo found strange. Mr. Okubo was a stickler for attendance and had made Ichigo run laps for being late on many occasions.
"Did you get what you forgot?" a voice whispered in his ear. He turned his head slightly and caught a glimpse of Reiko's grey eyes. He had to turn away; her stare made him uncomfortable, "Yeah," he muttered, "I got it."
"That's good," she said, and he could hear the smile in her voice, "Seeing how...important it was." He didn't say anything, but he became determined to talk to Reiko after school before he set out for Urahara's. If she had spiritual power, like him and the others, then she might even be able to unmask Starless.
This is boring.
Then take a nap.
Is that a joke? It's not very funny.
I thought it was pretty funny.
Hm. You're in an awfully good mood, all of a sudden.
Shouldn't I be? If this repellent Kisuke gave me works, we won't have to worry about Hollows for a while.
I was never worried. With my assistance, why be worried?
Well, I was! I'm tired of fighting Hollows everywhere we go. I want to settle down somewhere; make friends. Have a hometown, even if it is filled with damn Soul Reapers. You know, like a normal person.
Again? Didn't you try that already? I'm pretty certain it didn't work out very well last time-
Torusei...she warned.
I only meant, he hastily changed the subject, even if the repellent works, you aren't exactly "normal", my lovely.
Thanks for reminding me, she said, filled with sadness.
No tears, he surprised her by sounding soothing and kind, After all, I'll always be with you.
She didn't feel reassured by his words. Not anymore.
"I have to say, that was very impressive, Kurosaki," Uryuu turned to him when class was finally finished for the day, "You could tell that Okubo-sensei was surprised too, by the way he backed off in the end."
"Huh?" Ichigo cocked his head at him, "Whatja mean? What'd I do?"
"You answered every question Okubo-sensei fired at you without the slightest hint of hesitation. I didn't know you had a knack for English."
He didn't. Ichigo wasn't stupid, granted he could be dense at times; he was a very good student. Sure, he didn't get much homework done what with his Substitute Soul Reaper responsibilities, but he retained information well enough to spew out the correct answer on a test, and had thus kept from falling behind enough for them to hold him back. Except in English. For some reason, the language stumped him. It sounded weird, it looked weird, and he never planned on leaving Japan so he didn't see why he would ever need anything but Japanese.
"Okubo didn't ask me any-" he was distracted by the sight of Reiko leaving the classroom,
"Sorry, I'll have to get back to you!" Ichigo waved an apology and took off after her, catching Reiko just as she was making her way down the stairs, "Wait up, Reiko!" She turned in surprise, tucking a fly-away strand of cherry-red hair behind an ear, "Hm?"
"Do you mind? I need to talk to you about something."
"Me?" she pointed to herself (something Yuzu used to do in elementary school, Ichigo noted).
"Yeah," he jerked his head to the window where they could see the bike racks behind the school, "Could we go somewhere a little quieter? I don't really want a bunch of people to overhear."
"Sure," Reiko looked a little perplexed, but nodded anyway, "Let's walk out back, then." He agreed and followed her to the shoe lockers. On the way, they passed by a couple of first years. They stopped their chatter and looked terrified at the sight of Ichigo, scurrying out of his way like frightened mice.
"Tch," he gritted his teeth as he watched them hurry away.
"Pfft..." he turned at the small sound, looking at Reiko. She had her hand covering her mouth while her shoulders shook slightly; her eyes glittering with tears. It took him a moment to realize she was trying hard not to laugh.
"What's so funny?"
"It's just," she wiped a tear from her eye with a little giggle, "It's a little funny to see how scared people are of you, when you're actually a pretty pleasant guy. I've even been warned to stay away from you a few times."
"What? Why?"
"Oh, you know," she grinned as she opened her locker and started to change her shoes, "The usual rumors. You're crazy and love to start fights. You're the leader of a notorious street gang. You prey upon beautiful women, like myself, and make them slaves to your desires," she looked up at him as she adjusted her shoe with a tap, "That last one was a joke."
He blinked, not sure if he was expected to laugh or not and opted for changing his shoes as well, "It's my hair," he said; removing his outdoor shoes from his locker and throwing in his school ones, "People judge me because they think I dyed it or something. You'd think I'd be used to it by now,"
"I think it's more than that," Ichigo glanced at her while he tied his laces, "Well," Reiko continued, "You always look so serious," she furrowed her eyebrows and gave an impressive scowl. It was such a different look than her usual smile that it was his turn to laugh.
"I don't look like that!"
"Oh? You sure?" she puffed out her cheeks and made little "puu! puu!" sounds, making him laugh harder. She stopped suddenly, staring at him, "You have a nice smile, Ichigo."
He stopped laughing abruptly, feeling his face turn red, "You should use it more," Reiko said over her shoulder as she headed for the door, "I bet people would stop judging you for your hair, if you did," Ichigo was briefly reminded of his mother and something she had similarly said. He dismissed the memory with a shake of his head before following Reiko to the back of the school where they could talk.
"So," she asked, leaning against a pillar, "What's on your mind?"
"Yesterday," Ichigo wasn't really sure how to ask her, so he was going to go the round-about way, "Erm...yesterday was your first day, right?"
"Yeah...?"
"How...how did it go?" she stared at him, and he didn't blame her. He wanted to kick himself for how lame he sounded, but he continued, "Are you settling in alright? Making friends? Not getting lost or anything?"
"No...I mean, yes...I mean," she sounded really confused, "What's this about?" Her eyes suddenly widened with clarity, "This isn't you confessing to me, is it?" Now she sounded panicked, "You're a really nice guy and all, but I've only just moved here and we don't know each other that well-"
"No! No! Nothing like that!"
"Oh..." she sighed in relief (hurting Ichigo's pride a little) before looking even more confused, "Then what-?"
"Yesterday," he tried again, "Did anything...interesting happen?"
"'Interesting', you say?" She studied him and he forced himself to meet her eyes. The swirling grey pulled him in, surrounded him; trapped him, until with a blink of her eye, he was free,
"Can't say. Nothing I'd call 'interesting'," she shrugged, "Just normal stuff,"
"Although...I did get yelled at for staring out the window on my first day."
"Really?"This is what he had hoped for. Now she would tell him about the weird giant monster she had seen, and maybe even confess that she thought she had "imagined" Ichigo fighting and killing it. But that wasn't what she said at all. Instead he heard:
"The town is so peaceful to look at that I couldn't help stare. I didn't hear the teacher calling on me until she was right next to my desk."
"Oh," he was disappointed at first, and then glad that someone hadn't discovered his secret, especially this girl he barely even knew, "Don't worry about that, I've been yelled at tons of times."
"I don't doubt that," she said with a giggle, "Was there something else you needed to talk to me about?"
"No, that's it. Just wanted to make sure you were settling in alright. Let me know if there's anything I can do: I could show you around and stuff."
"Sure!" she waved as he jogged away. Once he was out of sight, she dropped both her hand and her smile with a sigh. She stretched slowly and thought about how Ichigo had looked while laughing,
"That surprised me," she muttered. She hadn't expected him to look so...cute.
"'Interesting'...huh?" Her eyes were cold when she turned on her heel and started to walk home.
"Ah! KURASAKI-KUUUUUN!" Orihime waved from the entrance of Urahara's shop, "Urahara-san!" she called inside, "He's here!" Sado raised a hand in silent greeting when Ichigo approached.
"Chad?" Ichigo had to crane his neck to look up at his enormous friend, "What are you two doing here?"
"Rukia told us to come," Sado said simply, "Ishida is inside," they followed Orihime into the shop and then into the backroom where they found Uryuu dressed in full Quincy attire,
"How did you...find time to change into that between school and here?" Ichigo's eyebrow twitched as he tried to, once again, come to terms with just how weird Uryuu's taste in clothing was.
"Naturally, I always keep an outfit on hand," You mean you actually carry it around with you? Ichigo thought, but decided not to say anymore on the matter as he sat cross-legged next to Orihime, across from Urahara,
"Any word from Ukitake?"
"The captains meeting ended a little while ago," Tessai said as he placed a cup of tea before Uryuu and Orihime, who smiled in thanks, "As Ukitake-san had mentioned, it had been decided that Soul Society will send you support."
"Who all are they sending?"
"Renji," Rukia said, appearing from the hall leading to the back rooms, "Elder brother chose him specifically for his skill in long-rang combat,"
"Ok, cool. Renji and who else?"
"That's it. Just Renji. Brother thought, and Captain Yamato agreed, that it would be unwise to send a larger force. It could give Starless the impression that we view her as an enemy, when we don't know whether she is on our side or not. We can't risk provoking her and loosing a potentially powerful ally."
"But what if she is an enemy?"They all fell quiet. They seemed to have a lot of enemies lately, and they didn't want to think of adding Starless to the list as well, "Do you think...?" Orihime asked, saying what had just popped into Ichigo's mind,
"Could Starless be working with Aizen?"
"It's a possibility, but I doubt it," Urahara said, taking a sip of his tea, "You said that Starless finds Shinigami incompetent, and Quincy laughable," he waved an apology in Uryuu's direction, who took it with a small grunt of disagreement, "So I don't think she would ally herself with the likes of Aizen."
"That's what I'm hoping" Rukia chewed on the nail of her thumb with a look of worry on her face, "She would be a formidable foe, even with Ichigo learning to control his Hollow side,"
"If her powers are really like a Menos," Sado looked a little worried too, throwing Ichigo a glance, "Then Hollow powers won't be enough to stop her, if it comes down to it,"
"Then it's a good thing I'm here!" Renji Abarai, Lieutenant of Squad 6, stood in the doorway. He grinned at them beneath his shock of bright red hair, adjusting the headband that covered most of his facial tattoos; Zabimaru tied to his side.
"Yo, Ichigo! It's been a while! Whose ass are we gonna kick this time?"
-To be continued...
