I actually have a question for you guys. Since this story is already finished, and I just can't find a beta at all, all those chapters are just waiting. Would you like me to post them as I edit what little mistakes I can see with my biased eye, or just keep posting one chapter a week? Please let me know.


Chapter 7: Lost Souls

I shook my head of those thoughts. I couldn't change anything about it, and there was no point getting depressed. Ichigo and Rukia hadn't gotten very far, so I just sprinted towards them to catch up.

"Created against his will…" Of course I made it right on time for Ichigo to go on another sympathy trip. Weren't we all technically created against our will? "Ordered to be killed against his will… Then somehow he survives, and now finally gets a body."

"Tha's ridiculous Ichigo." Ichigo glared back at me. "Think 'bout it. He couldn't even exist 'less he wasn't takin' someone else's chance at life. It's yer body, 'n' there's nothing ta do 'bout it. Unless ya wanna wander 'round as a spirit fer the rest of yer life?"

"How must that feel, though?" I rolled my eyes. It seemed like Ichigo was bound and determined to beat himself up over nothing. Nothing I could say would ever make him stop. So I shut my mouth and kept running after him. A flare of energy nearby, thankfully Ichigo was running in the right direction, alerted Rukia and Ichigo to the mod soul's location.

We arrived just in time for Ichigo to stop it from kicking some kids to death. Well, Ichigo arrived. Rukia and I had to take the slow route because we were in weak human bodies. This time, Ichigo nicely avoided the fake soul's kicks and held his own just fine. "If I calm down," Ichigo began speaking to the mod soul, "your moves are easy to dodge." Ichigo picked his body up and threw it. Once up, the mod soul ran away.

Apparently I was the only one who remembered there were people around, because Rukia yelled for Ichigo to stop. Did they not realize it looked like she was talking to herself? "We've got an order." Rukia opened a cellphone, surprising me. They couldn't sense the Hollows by themselves?

Ichigo did as told and turned, annoyed, on Rukia. "What? At a time like this?" I know. Such a shame Hollows weren't considerate.

"A Hollow's going to appear. It's close!" So Rukia still couldn't sense the Hollows by herself. Urahara really needed to stop messing around and let the Soul Reaper girl regain her power and go back to Soul Society. If she stayed in the living world much longer, the repercussions would be… annoying.

"Ah! Damnit! Let's go!" They ran off again, with no direction. However, I could sense the Hollow closer than that. Rukia paused to look back at me.

"Aren't you following, Amaya?" I shook my head. Since I didn't want to blow my cover, I couldn't explain that we were already right where we needed to be.

At the very least, I could keep things under control until they figured out where the Hollow was. "Nah. It's exhaustin' runnin' after ya two. I'll jus' stay somewhere 'round here. C'mon back when yer done." Rukia nodded and left to catch up with Ichigo. What idiots. Running around like chickens with their heads cut off. They really needed to figure out a better way to check for Hollows.

Seeing as I was the only one left with the kids, I waved at them and walked off. Technically, I was still in a school, while school was in session. If any of the teachers saw me, they'd probably call the police on me or something. I waited just outside the school gate for the Hollow to show. Once I was standing still, though, I could feel the dredges of my illness threatening to invade again. Plus, I was in my normal body without the gloves Urahara gave me to fight Hollows when I couldn't leave my body. The best I could do was stall the Hollow until Rukia and Ichigo arrived; great. I was going to die.

I suddenly felt the darkness of a Hollow nearby, and I began running back into the school. It was closing in on those three kids that saw Fake Ichigo earlier. Jumping into the air, I spun for a roundhouse kick, seeing the mod soul on the other side. At the same time, we kicked the Hollow off course, but it still landed right behind the kids, knocking them from their feet.

"Just fer now," I glared at the mod soul, "I'll let ya be. We gotta take care 'o this nuisance." Fake Ichigo nodded, agreeing with me. I was surprised though. I would have thought it would let the Hollow eat those kids. So, the programming worked on the mod souls. That… was kind of sad.

We both charged the Hollow, and I could see it damage Ichigo's body. That idiot! It wasn't like he was staying in it. I landed another kick, sending the Hollow skidding back a few yards. Try as I might, though, I couldn't stay close enough. The Hollow chased me with long, red tentacles, forcing me to back away. It was easy enough to dodge, me being as light on my feet as I was, but hard to attack.

Thoroughly irked, I dropped to the ground in a negativa, and completed it with a leg sweep, knocking all of the tentacles out of my way for a moment's reprieve. A moment was all I needed. I brought myself up and quickly closed in on the Hollow with cartwheels, ending with a diagonal front handspring. Just as I was about to deliver Meia Lua De Compasso Dupla with all of my strength, the fake Ichigo drew the Hollow away and up to the roof. I let out a few choice curses as my feet landed back on the ground and I stood up.

No other choice remaining, I ran into the school building, aiming for the roof. I was going to be so pissed if he wasn't still there when I got there.

"Damnit, you're injured!" I opened the door to the roof, seeing Ichigo gripping Fake Ichigo's uniform shirt. "Who the hell's body do you think that is?" I was actually a little surprised that Ichigo found his way to the Hollow so fast. He still would have been too late if the mod soul and I hadn't been here, but that was beside the point. "If you're gonna let a small fry like this bloody you up…" they both turned to look at the Hollow. The centipede-like Hollow was still laying in the middle of the roof. Just what had Ichigo done to it? "Don't even try to fight!" Yeah. He sure talked big for someone who got injured practically every time he fought.

"What're you talking about!" The fake Ichigo was shouting back at Ichigo. It was all well and good they were arguing so good-natured, but there was a Hollow a few feet away. Why didn't they just take care of it while it was down? Idiots. "I'm fighting because you took so damn long to get here!" Hear, hear.

Either way, I leaned against the wall, I didn't need to deal with the Hollow anymore. My fever was coming back with a vengeance, and it seemed like the world was against me standing on my own. "Shut up!" The Hollow got up and started towards the two idiots, "You call yourself a battle soul? You're pathetic." Ichigo would pick now to argue over something like that.

"You sons of bitches!" The Hollow spoke. Joy. Still arguing, the two didn't even pay attention as the Hollow drew near, but, right before it attacked, they paused long enough to stop it. Fake Ichigo kicked the Hollow, and Ichigo slashed it across the mask, effectively killing it. However, it's corpse, before dissipating, almost flew over the roof, and Fake Ichigo ran towards it and kicked it into the air. The Hollow disappeared, but Fake Ichigo was falling over the roof. Ichigo, caring very much for his body like he should, barely caught his body before it fell out of reach.

"You dumbass!" Ichigo was back to yelling at Fake Ichigo, "Look at the risk you took! If you break the Hollow's head, it'll disappear on its own! But you just had to kick it up…" Ichigo stopped scolding the mod soul, looking very surprised. He probably saw those kids on the ground that the mod soul saved.

Ichigo pulled his body up and they both calmed down. The mod soul squatted to the ground as Ichigo stood just behind him. "Didn't you hate those kids?" Ugh. Didn't he ever stop talking? I stood up, I didn't want to suffer their moment any longer. Just as I was about to leave, I was stopped by Urahara. It was about time he showed up.

"Amaya," Urahara froze when he saw me but smiled once he gathered himself, "what're you doing here?"

I sighed, "Nothin', apparently. Don' say ya know me. They still don' know." Nodding, Urahara playfully pressed his finger to his lips and walked past me. Tessai, though, noticed immediately that I wasn't in top shape. He forced me to stay still long enough to check me over.

"Miss Kurosaki, you just got over your illness. Please refrain from pushing yourself." I groaned and dropped my face into my hand. Minori was going to be so annoying! She probably wouldn't let me out of her sight for weeks after this whole ordeal.

"Well, well," Urahara brought the two boys' attention to himself. "I finally find you, but you're all torn up." He casually walked up to the two, eyes only on the mod soul. "Now all the equipment I brought is pretty much useless." Equipment? I looked at Ururu and Jinta, just noticing them after Urahara said that. Both were carrying their weapons. Although they looked like kids, and acted like it, they were pretty strong. Jinta sported something like a paddle, that he often used like it was a baseball bat. Ururu's weapon was taller than she was and was wrapped from top to bottom in bandages.

Urahara knocked Benihime, his zanpakto hidden in the cane he carried everywhere, through Fake Ichigo's forehead, forcing the pill-like fake soul out of Ichigo's body. "Collection complete." Still, Urahara didn't pay Ichigo any mind. Poor Ichigo; he was probably confused as all hell. Holding the mod soul, Urahara turned to the other three residents of his shouten, "Let's go home, everyone."

"What?" Jinta wasn't pleased. Ha. When was he ever pleased, actually? "What the hell, I thought I was finally gonna get to battle again." Ichigo tried to stop Urahara with a weak "hey."

"Wait a sec." He stepped closer to Urahara, and the older soul reaper paused and looked at Ichigo. "What're you gonna do with him?" Urahara looked very apathetic as he looked behind him, at Ichigo, never turning fully to face my brother.

"Well, I'm going to destroy it…" Did he have to say it like that? Now Ichigo wouldn't just let it go.

"You can see me, can't you." No Ichigo. He's just talking to himself, and he collected the mod soul with no trouble at all. He can't see you. Nope. Just what did I do to deserve such a slow twin? "What are you?" Now that was just rude. Normal humans could see spirits. Not that Urahara was a normal human.

"You ask me 'what,' but-" he continued to play with the pill and threw it in the air. Rukia took the chance to snatch it out of the air, making Urahara stop talking. What were these two doing? A mod soul should be destroyed, didn't they realize that? That was the law of Rukia's precious Soul Society, so she shouldn't let her sympathy get in the way of that.

"He's a greedy merchant." Rukia answered Ichigo's question herself. Hey, hey. He was not.

Urahara pouted and added in, "You're not supposed to take that." Rukia just stared blankly at him, feigning innocence.

"What's this, Urahara?" Rukia started playing with the freaking pill, throwing it and catching it over and over again. "Your store takes back sold merchandise without returning any money?" Urahara paused. Crap, she did have a point.

"Well," Urahara sounded like he didn't really care either way, "I guess I have no choice. I'll refund you." Ah. He was a joker, but he did take his duties seriously.

"Not necessary." Argh! Did Ichigo rub off on Rukia? Was idiocy actually contagious? I sighed, no, but idealism was. They just had to go crazy over the ethics over the whole thing. "I'm satisfied with this product." How so? All it did was make us all go running around. "And in the first place, you people are acting outside of the spirit laws. You're not obligated to go that far to retrieve this thing." Did she not realize what she was doing to herself? Rukia was practically signing her death sentence, if she kept breaking the laws of Soul Society!

Urahara couldn't argue with her, though, since she did have a point. "It's out of my hands then. If trouble comes up, we'll be going into hiding."

"Don't worry," Rukia turned away from Urahara. "Lately, I've become used to trouble." She calmly walked over to Ichigo and handed him the mod soul.

"That's all well 'n' good." Everyone's eyes turned to me. Did they really forget I was here? Ah. That kind of hurt. "But, would ya care ta explain somethin' fer me, Miss Kuchiki?" Rukia looked shocked.

"Oh yes! You probably don't understand what that all was!" Rukia quickly walked up to me, as if she was going to explain with those crappy drawings again. I backed away, wary. That wasn't even—a flash went off in my face and I couldn't keep my body from dropping.


When I woke up, I was pissed. She tried to use a memory modifier on me! Luckily, since I had very strong spirit energy as well, it didn't work other than knocking me out. They took me back to school, since Ichigo didn't know where I lived, and Minori took me to the shouten. Maybe I should just tell her to get rid of the apartment since we practically lived with Urahara at this point.

"You're not going to try something like go get more sick are you?" I looked over to the door where Urahara was leaning against the frame. I didn't sense Minori anywhere nearby, which was strange.

"No…" I checked my plain black watch, scowling, "no point if I'm just gonna skip school right?" Urahara hummed in thought and came in, settling cross-legged next to me.

It was getting annoying that I kept sleeping away days at a time. Waking up on this day was no better. June 17. The day Masaki died. Ichigo was undoubtedly skipping school as well, going with the rest of our family to visit her grave. I never went. Not once. I don't have the right.

"Ah. It's that time of year again isn't it?" Urahara knew, and he leaned back. "There's something different this year, though, right? Maybe," he rested his chin on his hand, "you should visit her." It was unlike Urahara to try to get me to go. He should know I planned on never going.

He tapped his fan to my forehead. "What're ya doin' Hat-'n'-Clogs?" Urahara smiled at me. What was up with him? Seriously.

"You can't stay stuck in the middle for much longer." I stopped breathing. He was right. There was no way Soul Society wouldn't send for Rukia Kuchiki soon, and, when they did, I would have to make my decision. Side with Soul Society, or… It was a decision I didn't want to make. But, I couldn't understand what that had to do with Masaki. Urahara seemed to read my mind, since he answered, "It may be the last chance you get. It may even help you make your decision." I groaned and fell back to the futon, frustrated. He had a point. Why did he have to have a point.

"Fine." I threw the covers off, purposely throwing them over Urahara. "I'll go. Just this once. Never again." Urahara chuckled and pulled the blanket off his head. He hid his face behind his fan, only his shadowed eyes showing between his hat and fan.

"Come eat breakfast with us before you go!" I threw my pillow at him to hurry him out of my room, and Urahara ran away laughing. On top of today being my least favorite day of the year, Urahara was making me go to my least favorite place. Masaki… was a sore subject for me…

Once dressed in jeans and a loose tank top, I joined them all for breakfast, unable to bring myself to argue with Jinta as usual. Minori was worried, of course, but I waved her off. I ate quickly, trying to get out of there quickly. The faster I went, the faster I could come back. When I stood up, Minori made to stand up too.

I stopped her with an upraised hand, "Nah. Ya don' haveta come wit' me. Jus' stay 'ere and I'll see ya when I come back." I didn't expect Minori to obey, since she was probably worried about me getting sick again. However, Minori nodded with a tight smile and sat back down.

"Alright. Take care Amaya." Huh. It looked like Minori agreed with Urahara about me going to the grave. I shook my head, there was no point thinking about it now. I agreed to go, so I might as well go. Maybe if I hurried, I could get there before Isshin, Yuzu, Karin, and Ichigo. Saying goodbye to all of them, I left the shouten and started jogging towards the cemetery.