Chapter 7

Ichigo's Mistake

Rukia and Ichigo get nearer and nearer to his house, when his substitute license starts to beep a hollow warning, and Rukia's phone starts to beep at the same time. They exchange meaningful glances with one another.

"I should have known we couldn't get a full day off!" Ichigo grumbles as he pops out of his body. Rukia pops her pill and gives Chappy a look.

"Take Ichigo's body home." Rukia orders Chappy who smiles obediently before grabbing up Ichigo's body and heading for his house.

It's a bit disturbing, how easily she moves, holding Ichigo's body like that, at least it's disturbing for Ichigo to see. It looks unnatural, how easily that little girl is carrying his body…even though he knows Rukia has certainly carried him before.

"Come on!" Ichigo says, and Rukia turns around to head for the location. It's on the other side of town, so they make use of their shunpo to get there.

"Don't be reckless Ichigo, they look like they're some strong ones!" Rukia says as she looks at her phone with worry evident in her eyes. Ichigo nods at her, with a serious look in his eyes.

"Got it!" Ichigo calls out, and they land on location, where two hollows have appeared.

"This can't be right!" Rukia says under her breath, as Ichigo charges forward to exterminate the hollows. He's so quick, that Rukia is still staring at her phone, trying to understand what in the hell is going on, but then she looks up, and sees two hollows high above, dropping down towards Ichigo is currently slashing up the first of the two hollows that he charged at.

"Psh!" Ichigo scoffs, as he quickly swings to kill the second hollow.

"Ichigo!" Rukia screams, and Ichigo continues his swing, even as Rukia uses shunpo to reach him.

Ichigo hears her voice sounding really frantic, but suddenly he's pierced by a hollow that he hadn't seen, coming down from above. A second hollow lands behind the first. Ichigo is shocked, since he hadn't expected it.

"Shit…" Ichigo says in a weak voice, as he closes his eyes, and the hollow rips its tentacle out of Ichigo. It prepares to do the same thing to Rukia, but she smartly keeps her distance as she releases her zanpakutou.

"Dance…Sode No Shirayuki!" Rukia calls out before she angrily stares down the two hollows. "Way of binding number nine, Geki!" Rukia shouts out, and as the hollows become immobilized, she stares them down with cold eyes as she calls for help from her zanpakutou. "Second dance, White Ripple!" Rukia calls out as she surrounds both hollows with a thick layer of ice.

She hurries over to Ichigo's side and looks upset at the serious gash inflicted on him. She sheathes her zanpakutou as she falls to her knees next to Ichigo, and looks at him worriedly. Ichigo can see the fear in her eyes as she stares at him.

It's bad.

"Did you actually think that you had won, Shinigami?" A sinister voice inquires, and Rukia gasps as she stands to look around nervously.

The hollows she surrounded with her shikai ice attack, break apart into nothingness, but she holds her breath as she tries to locate the source of the new unnerving voice.

"Who's there?" Rukia asks loudly, as her hand quickly goes to the hilt of her zanpakutou again.

Rukia looks up and sees the source of the voice. Her eyes widen in complete shock and terror, because she knows without a doubt, as the thing starts to release its reiatsu, that it is definitely a Vasto Lorde.

It is very small, right in between hers and Ichigo's height, it seems that it's a he, and he has brown hair and red eyes. His facial features are completely covered by a mask, but his reiatsu is undeniable. He's got a human like body with a long whipping tail behind him, and he appears to have scales on his skin.

"For killing my loyal subordinates, you will die. Just like your Shinigami friend over there, will die. Without fail, I will kill you." The thing informs her, and Rukia feels an anger build up in her that has never been there before.

"Dance! Sode No Shirayuki!" Rukia says quickly as she pulls her blade out and prepares herself for battle.

"Kurosaki-kun!" Inoue's voice sounds loud and frantic as she heads towards Rukia, and a fallen Ichigo.

I have to lure this thing away from here, so that Inoue can have the chance to heal Ichigo!

"Second Dance, White Ripple!" Rukia calls out and she builds up for a powerful shot at the insanely strong opponent. He easily steps out of the way before it hits him though.

Rukia immediately uses shunpo to get away from Ichigo's side, and she breathes a sigh of relief when the Vasto Lorde decides to follow her instead of staying to chop off Ichigo's head. She knows, that if this Vasto Lorde knew who the girl yelling was, he'd certainly stay and decapitate Ichigo before coming after her.

Rukia's relief is short lived however, when the Vasto Lorde catches up right next to her in the middle of a shunpo step and slashes her across her side. Rukia shrieks for an instant as she flies backwards, but she holds her feet and doesn't crash to her back. She grabs her side with one hand, and clutches Sode No Shirayuki with her other hand, gasping from the pain of the hit.

"Damn you…fucking hollow!" Rukia hisses even as the pain starts to shoot up her side more strongly.

"How very weak you are. Only a truly strong Shinigami could have a miniscule chance at killing me. You're no match for me. You'll be dead soon enough. I'll put you out of your misery now, you wretched Shinigami." The Vasto Lorde says with a bit of a smile, as it advances towards her again. Rukia looks up at the thing with anger lighting up her eyes.

"I'll make you regret saying that." Rukia says as she struggles to stand straight while still gasping hard.

"All talk." The thing says, as it takes another step closer.

Inoue gasps when she feels the desperation in Rukia's reiatsu flare up instantly. She's quickly healing Kurosaki-kun, and he's already got his eyes open and he's looking beyond concerned.

"Rukia!" Ichigo's voice is filled with concern, longing, and…love. Inoue closes her eyes at the feeling of defeat that washes over her body.

Inoue hastily finishes healing his serious wound, and he doesn't have time to thank her as he uses shunpo to get to Rukia.

I promised to protect her!

Ichigo finds her, spurting out blood, and looking a bit woozy when he approaches.

"You're finished, pathetic Shinigami!" The Vasto Lorde shouts with a laugh, and Ichigo snarls with emotion filling his chest.

"Getsuga…Tenshou!" Ichigo shouts it with every fiber in his being, and the Vasto Lorde jumps away from Rukia, rather than take his attack head on.

"You can still move, Shinigami?" The Vasto Lorde says as he looks at Ichigo in surprise. "I'm truly surprised, and impressed. You looked nearly dead, the last time I laid eyes upon you. This is most interesting." The hollow says as he stares curiously at Ichigo.

"Getsuga Tenshou!" Ichigo shouts again, as he sends another attack towards the offending opponent. The Vasto Lorde laughs as he jumps out of the way of Ichigo's oncoming slash attack.

"So this is why there has been so much talk about this place. A Shinigami that can stand after what you've been through in the past ten minutes is certainly a worthy adversary!" The Vasto Lorde says with a laugh, and Ichigo's eyes narrow, even as Rukia appears to be straightening up.

"Bankai….Tensa Zangetsu." Ichigo says in a steely voice, and the Vasto Lorde gives him a look of surprise.

"It really was worth it to come here, Shinigami. You're exactly the kind of opponent I like to fight. It had been hundreds of years since I've met an opponent as worthy as you. I've only seen one bankai in my life, and it was magnificent, although it was nothing like yours. It was huge." The Vasto Lorde says in a conversational voice, and his eyes widen when Ichigo disappears.

"Getsuga Tenshou!" Ichigo calls out, before he flies around and just starts sending attacks at the creature from every angle.

The Vasto Lorde takes one very severe hit while managing to block the rest. This one hit though, it infuriates him. Rukia watches in horror as he sends the fastest cero she's ever seen right at Ichigo's face, forcing an explosion to occur right at his head, and he falls to the ground.

Rukia doesn't even know how the Vasto Lorde pinpointed his position, since Ichigo had been moving around at such a terrifying speed, as his bankai allowed him to.

When she realizes Ichigo is no longer in bankai, and Zangetsu is back in shikai form, she freaks out instantly, without any thoughts beforehand, she simply reacts. She loses it completely, and the giggling starts to sound very loud in her ears.

She is still with it enough to sense that Inoue is nearby and so she immediately sends a small amount of ice flying at his head, before she takes off away from Ichigo's location, by use of shunpo. She can't let Inoue even glimpse what is about to happen to her. She can feel it coming on.

The moment she's far enough away, the giggling starts to take completely over in her mind.

"You're going to die too," The Vasto Lorde says in a bored voice as he walks slowly towards her.

Rukia looks towards the ground with her hair covering her facial features, and the mask begins to form. When Rukia looks up, the Vasto Lorde can't hide his surprise at what the Shinigami in front of him has a hollow mask as she stares intensely at him.

Rukia flies at the Vasto Lorde a few times, and she doesn't manage to cut him, but she comes pretty damned close, which aggravates the hell out of the Vasto Lorde.

She ends up getting hit in the face by his whipping tail, and her mask reformulates on her face, very quickly. Suddenly, as he's preparing the same type of treatment up for her that her partner had to experience, she unexpectedly shouts for a shikai attack.

"First Dance, White Moon!" Rukia calls out with a hollow sounding edge to her voice, except that she's quite far away from him, about twenty meters. It doesn't matter though, because her first dance is so wide she could have easily covered the space even if she had been fifty meters away.

The Vasto Lorde, who is starting to die due to Rukia's insanely strong shikai technique begins to start blasting through the ice, but she covered him in such a thick layer, all he can do is delay the inevitable.

"I don't fucking believe it! That girl shouldn't have even been able to touch me!" That ends up being the last thing he says in his life as Rukia's shikai consumes him completely and then shatters into nothingness. Rukia feels her body shudder from all of the reiatsu that she used.

Rukia falls to the ground, gasping, as she tugs at the mask. It takes some effort, but she's finally able to tear it off. Once again, she uses her kidou to completely destroy it and then she falls down and lays on her side.

"Ichigo will come and take me home soon." Rukia mumbles very quietly, before she closes her eyes. She has absolutely no energy left.

It had taken a lot of reiatsu to accomplish that feat, as drained as she was from being injured, and now she can't even keep her eyes open. Her last thought before she drifts out into oblivion is one she's had in the past.

Freaking pathetic, Kuchiki Rukia.

Ichigo sits straight up, as Inoue has had to heal him twice tonight, due to his complete inability to protect Rukia.

"Rukia!" Ichigo's first conscious words make Inoue wince, but she had pretty much expected it after the last time, so she's not surprised. Ichigo doesn't notice her negative reaction to his immediate concern for Rukia.

"Either the opponent died, or it went back to Hueco Mundo. It's gone, whatever it was." Inoue tells him, and Ichigo nods his head, even as he realized what she was saying was true even as the words came out of her mouth.

"I need to get to Rukia. She must be down if she isn't here." Ichigo tells Inoue, who nods her head, with big sad eyes.

Ichigo looks away from her. Seeing Inoue all sad as she heals him like that makes him mighty uncomfortable, though he can't completely put a finger on why, since she's doing him a big favor. He's pretty sure he was about dead until she came to help him.

"Okay, I'll come with you, Kurosaki-kun, in case she needs any help." Inoue says in a small voice, and Ichigo nods at her. He takes off running towards Rukia's direction, and Inoue chases after him.

After running for a couple of minutes, Ichigo spots Rukia's body, crumbled to the ground, and strangely, it looks as though she blew some sort of kidou spell at the ground, since the grass is singed as though she did.

"Rukia!" Ichigo yells when he sees her. He runs to her, drops to her side, and rolls her over so that she's on her back.

"Kurosaki-kun!" Inoue is huffing and puffing as she catches up, and she feels that ugly feeling on the inside that she gets whenever she sees him looking at Kuchiki-san in the way that he is right now. She would give anything in the world to have him look at her with that same loving expression. She frowns, when she realizes that he probably never will look at her this way.

Ichigo pats her body and checks her robes carefully. He then inspects her very closely before he lets out a very loud sigh of relief that she doesn't appear to be hurt.

"She looks okay, she must've passed out." Ichigo says, staring at his fallen companion, as he runs a hand very gently, through Rukia's silky black hair.

"I can probably help-" Inoue starts to say, but Rukia begins to stir causing Ichigo to cut her off. Inoue watches Rukia begin to move a little bit, and she holds her breath.

"Rukia! Thank goodness, Rukia!" Ichigo says anxiously as he watches her eyes begin to open.

"Ichigo…" Rukia mutters softly, and Ichigo smiles in happy relief as he stares into her eyes.

"You came out of that fight with the Vasto Lorde, a hell of a lot better than I did." Ichigo tells her in a quiet voice, once again amazed by her strength.

He had been so worried that the Vasto Lorde would overtake her as easily as it had overtaken him. She really is something else. He is glad for that, since he didn't want her to get hurt.

"I got lucky…sort of." Rukia mutters even as it hurts to sit up.

Ichigo grabs her and helps her sit up as he supports her. He gives her a look of heartfelt concern, but Rukia isn't looking at him to be able to see it. Inoue sees it though, and she wishes she didn't have to.

"I can help you, Kuchiki-san!" Inoue says, hating that the true reason she wants to help is to extract her friend from Kurosaki-kun's arms, even if it is just briefly.

"No…I'm okay, Inoue." Rukia says as she leans more heavily against Ichigo, who quickly puts his arm around her and carefully helps her stand up. He keeps his arm around her and she sags up against him.

"Are you sure?" Ichigo asks worriedly. "You were spurting up blood earlier," Ichigo whispers in her ear quietly enough so that only Rukia hears him. It looks to him like she could use the help right now.

"I'm just exhausted, that's all. Really." Rukia assures him, and with that, Ichigo doesn't even hesitate, he simply scoops her up, securely in his arms. He holds her tightly against him as he looks her in the eyes.

"Then I'll make sure I get you home safe." Ichigo tells her in a firm voice before he looks at Inoue and nods at her.

"See you later, Kurosaki-kun." Inoue says with a wave.

"Thanks for your help tonight, Inoue." Ichigo says before he disappears from her sight, using shunpo.

It's not an unfamiliar feeling to Inoue, to be left standing all alone, as Kurosaki-kun and Kuchiki-san leave together. As well as she knows this misery, it doesn't make it any easier to tolerate or accept it.

"I guess I'll never even come close to comparing with Kuchiki-san, in Kurosaki-kun's mind." Inoue says softly, before she turns to head to her own apartment, alone.

Ichigo hops in the window, and glares at Kon who appears to be trying to feel up Chappy, who is choking him blue. They stop their wrestling when they see Rukia in Ichigo's arms.

"Nee-san!" Kon shouts out worriedly, and Ichigo kicks him before he lays Rukia in his own bed. He thinks she'll rest the best there.

"She just needs rest, so don't disturb her, or I'll take you to Yuzu." Ichigo threatens Kon, who quickly and obediently shuts up.

Kon stares at Ichigo, who in turn is staring at Rukia. Kon just shakes his head. They've always been like this, he doesn't know who they're trying to kid. He's happy that they're getting closer, since he likes having nee-san around.

Ichigo stares at Rukia and feels terribly that she had to face the Vasto Lorde, by herself.

"Next time, we'll fight the opponent together, and I won't fuck up so bad." Ichigo mutters before he leans back and keeps an eye on her, until he nods off in his chair.