Chapter 4: Friendship And Enemies
The rest of the week seemed odd, Takai had to learn quickly about human life and still play her innocent role, seeming to realize Rukia had the same role. "Good morning, Ishida-kun!" She set the school bag down on the desk, sitting down afterwards while Ichigo and his group talked off to the side of them. "Good morning, Takai. Your happy today…" Again, he pushed his glasses up like every other day or every couple minutes. "Of course I am, look at this." She pulled from her bag a small juice container and held it out for him to see. "It's juice." He spoke bluntly, but seeing her pout changed his mind. "It's awesome." He smiled ever so slightly before the teacher entered the room and everyone sat down.
"Good morning class, how was everyone's Monday yesterday?" The class responded like robots, "Great!" before silencing once again. The day was filled with class work until lunch, where Ichigo and his friends sat on the roof or in the courtyard. Today it was the roof where Takai was drinking her juice container and comments flew around her head, never entering and never having to exit. "Takai? Takai! Hello?" Ichigo flicked her forehead gently, knocking her back to earth in her head. "What?" "Did you hear the news?" The look on her face said no, she wasn't in to media even in the human world. "You didn't? Shame. Anyway, come by Urahara's shop afterwards, that's if you're not walking with Ishida home." Renji commented, getting a knee slammed under his chin before Takai sat back down like a gentle flower. "I have to walk with someone, I can't go shinigami on humans just because they hate my white hair and how long it is." They all shrugged, knowing it was a bad topic to discuss so they ate their lunch quietly before the rest of the day began again.
The first two arrancars entered like a meteorite hitting the ground, Ichigo managed to halt them from hurting Orihime with his blade, but got injured also so Urahara and Yoruichi stopped the giant arrancar while the smaller one just stood several feet back to observe. Everything got worse after they left, Ichigo was depressed because Orihime got hurt trying to save him and Chad was also injured. "Ichigo, what happened in that battle?" Takai was blunt, not taking his depression kindly. "Nothing." He said; they were walking to his house with Rukia. "Is it because of the hollow within you?" Rukia asked, seeing Ichigo tense and shoot a look right at her surprised. "Everyone in soul society knows about you and your inner hollow." Silence fell before Ichigo finally answered. "I'm having trouble holding him back when I use bankai…" The two females nodded that they understood not to go further in to the subject unless a need arises.
Could this class get anymore weird? We had another new student who proceeded to spell his name backwards in Japanese on the board. His name was Shinji and he looked weird compared to my beautiful male friend, Renji. "I hope we can be friends, Ichigo Kurosaki." His wide stupid grin forced people to look away and actually pay attention to the teacher. "Huh? Uh…sure, whatever." Ichigo seemed to snap out of whatever daze he was in, not knowing the meaning behind Shinji's words. "Where did you transfer from, Shinji?" I asked, he turned to look at me from behind, his eyes growing wide before they lowered. "I'm not Matsumoto so keep your eyes up here." His face turned to shock before nodding, obeying her request and/or demand. "And what is your name, beautiful?" He held his hand out, taking a piece of dangling bang hair from her face to twirl on his finger. "I'm Takai, nice to meet you." He smiled before letting the hair go and turning back to pay attention. My mind was in a daze afterwards, why did his presence unsettle my very being? Why did he look so ugly at the same time? So many questions ran through her head until lunch time, where the group sat in the courtyard, Ichigo was sleeping under a tree while the girls talked near him, Chad and Ishida weren't with us today, a shame because I wanted to see Ishida again.
"Takai, there you are!" Ichigo halted his running by the shorter women, breathing heavy before continuing his sentence. "I…met someone…called a Visor, what are they?" Her face warped to a shocked yet curious face at the same time. "They are soul reapers who accepted their hollow side, gaining a hollow mask and becoming even more powerful." She said, making Ichigo a bit confused until he saw the look in her eyes. "Are you a visor?" He asked; Takai grabbed his wrist before pulling him to an alleyway as to not be heard. "Not a visor, I'm just like you, but I've already learned to control my hollow side." She slipped the white mask out, its designs mimicked elven designs, one side had red lines, the other had black and it only covered her upper face like a masquerade mask. "Do you still have yours?" She asked; he shook his head before speaking. "It was destroyed…" He almost looked sad if he didn't continue. "I need to control my hollow to protect my friends, please help me." He pleaded and she shook her head. "We would need to see the Visored, if you want to control your hollow." Ichigo looked defeated, demolished by now because of her answer and he ran off, possibly to home until her cellphone got a message of a hollow nearby. "Good timing, I bet he'll let off some steam now." She popped a piece of candy pill in her mouth before changing to her Shinigami form, racing off to go watch if Ichigo made it before her.
The hollow was a low level one, one slice from Ichigo's sword and it was killed. "Good job Ichigo!" Rukia raised her clenched hand in to the air, applauding him for the extremely small victory. They both were happy until all three of us halted whatever we were doing, the spiritual pressure around us increased, getting heavier before we headed to where it came from. "What is this, Rukia?" Ichigo asked; this had to be a big hollow or a Mentos Grande. "We will see, but I can't tell what it is right now." If they had known what laid ahead than they would have went prepared.