Chapter 6 - Burnin' Up

In the previous chapter...

"Well well, Cero. Looks like you have a pretty powerful Zanpakuto there," I looked over to Ichigo, who was in shock. He quietly muttered 'Woahh...' before Urahara placed Benihime back in his cane,

"Looks like today's training is complete,"

--

Worn out from being in the training room for what seemed like forever, I tiredly emerged from the hole at the top of the training room, back into the Shoten. Urahara, Ichigo, and I entered the room where everybody had been before we'd left. They seemed to be getting impatient, with Rangiku yawning loudly, Renji draped over the table, fighting the will to sleep, Rukia leaning back on her hands, rocking side to side, and Toshiro drumming his fingers on the table. They all stood up when they saw us enter, and Rangiku and Rukia instantly rushed over to us,

"So, how did it go?" Rangiku asked enthusiastically, but with a hint of worry in her tone. Rukia nodded in agreement to Rangiku's question as they leaned in closer. I put my hands in front of me,

"Woah, woah! Not so close! Don't worry, everything went fine. I found out the name of my zanpakuto," I smiled as they jumped up and down. Toshiro cleared his throat,

"It sounded like you were in a bit of trouble earlier. We heard a massive blast and the whole shop was rumbling," he spoke the whole thing without even making eye contact. I laughed nervously as Urahara placed his hand on my shoulder,

"Yes, well, it seems that Kishiko-chan can perform Cero from her zanpakuto," though he said it in quite a cheerful tone, everybody had looked up, switching their views between my face and Kirilo, who I'd placed back on my back. Renji, who had seemed to be dead, was now fully awake,

"She can perform Cero?" Ichigo nodded,

"Yeah, she can perform it out of that big star thing. Speaking of which, how on earth did you do it?" I shrugged,

"I dunno, I just got really mad when Urahara said that he'd...killed...my...speaking of which, I still haven't killed you!" I lunged for Urahara again, only to be grabbed by Ichigo and pulled back, restraining me. Urahara flipped his fan in front of his face again,

"Oh, did I say that? I was only joking, it was to see how strong you were!" Though I felt better, I couldn't help but get angrier,

"How dare you! Using my weakness against me? You bastard!" I struggled to get free from Ichigo's grip, and Urahara sighed,

"Kishiko, a lot of people will use your weaknesses against you. You must learn to deal with it," my struggles ceased as I sighed, and was let out of my restraint,

"I guess. I suppose I should get home. Could I at least have my body back?" I remembered that those two random brats had dragged it away. Urahara nodded,

"Of course, it's over there," he pointed towards the corner, where my body was slumped against the wall. I picked it up and, doing what Ichigo had shown me earlier, morphed back with it. Urahara unflipped his fan and begam to walk away,

"Well, I need to start researching into Kishiko-chan's mysterious first encounter with becoming a Shinigami, since it seems that she did not gain these powers recently," he turned around to look at all of us,

"Shouldn't all of you be finding a place to stay?" they all sighed and stood up, except for Renji. I cocked my head,

"Renji, where are you gonna go?" he looked up to me,

"Hmm? Oh, I stay here whenever I visit the real world," I nodded looked around at everybody else, waiting to see if anybody was looking for a place to stay. Rangiku stretched out,

"Well, I suppose I should get going to Orihime's! Taichou, you should come to this time instead of being so anti-social!" she grabbed his arm and dragged him out with her, waving to everybody and grinning at me. Rukia began to follow them,

"Well, I'm going back to Soul Society. Nii-sama wants me to do something for him. Kishiko-chan, it was great to meet you, hopefully I'll see you soon," she waved goodbye to Renji and Ichigo, and then made her exit. Ichigo bowed his head to Renji, to which Renji replied with a gruff 'See ya, Ichi. Bye Kishiko' before we both left. When we got outside, Ichigo sighed in relief. I laughed,

"Glad to get out of there?" he laughed in response,

"Yeah. Hey, lemme walk you home, it's the least I can do for gettin' you into this," I smiled,

"Sure thing."

~*~*~(About 2:45am)~*~*~

As we approached my house, I gasped,

"Oh, holy shit..." Ichigo looked at me,

"What's wrong?" I pointed in the direction of my house; or at least where my house should have been. As he looked, a gasped slipped past his mouth, too. The front of the house had been completely torn down, and the roof was barely a roof anymore. Fire engines were swooped around the house, along with ambulances and police cars. Ichigo gulped, before he spoke,

"Go. I'll wait here, they won't be able to see me anyway since I'm still in Shinigami form," speaking the words, I took off down to the police tape, and pushed past the crowd, who cursed and muttered random insults. As I got to the front, a policeman shouted,

"Hey, hey, not so fast lady!" he pushed me back, but after the fight I had had today, I felt strong and pushed back,

"Not so fast my ass! This is my house! What the hell happened?!" the policeman stopped forcing me back and I stumbled foward slightly, catching the tape,

"This is your house?" he asked. I nodded, as he sighed,

"Well, about 30 minutes ago, one of the neighbours called saying they saw smoke. When we got here, it had turned into a big fire. You hadn't of happened to left anything hazardous on before you left, had you?" I shook my head,

"No, everything was off. Not even the heating," he raised an eyebrow and noted what I'd said down on a notepad,

"Okay, well, it looks like possible arson then," I gasped,

"Arson? Well, how much of my house is destroyed?"

"Pretty much everything," he spoke. I suddenly realized something,

"Oh, no! My pictures of Dad!" although the policemen tried to stop me, I tore through the tape and into the battered house. I heard one of them shout,

"Hey, come out of there! That house is unstable, it could collapse at any moment!!" he yelled. But I didn't listen. I started sobbing when I found the shrine I'd built for my Dad. The only thing there that could still be made out was an old photo, about 8 years old. Though it was badly ruined, I could still make it out. It was a day when we had decided to go to the beach. By the shore, two pairs of feet were being washed up by the waves. Hand in hand, stood me and my Dad. I wore a pink, yellow, and blue frilly summer dress, something I wouldn't be caught dead wearing now. I clutched my pink sandles in my free hand, and my hair was clipped up with pink butterfly clips. My Dad was clad in camo three-quaters, with a white shirt on. His flip flops were also in his free hand, and he wore sunglasses on his slightly spiked hair. We both had grins on our faces, as the sun beat down on us. It was almost as if I could feel the sun on the back of my neck, and the waves swimming around our feet, but in the end the only thing I felt were two hands on each arm, dragging me away from the house. I saw Ichigo approaching out of the corner of my eye. He'd gone back to get his body, as he was dressed in a white t-shirt with green and red stripes, and green ripped combats. He grabbed my arm, and tugged me, leading me away,

"Come on, wait for the people to come away. We'll stay as long as you want," I compressed a sob as I buried my face into his chest. He embraced me, wrapping his arms around me, almost protectively. He was extremely well-built. Although his chest was hard and muscly, it was warm and comfortable. His arms made me feel safe, and almost forget about everything that had just happened. I heard footsteps, and a man's voice,

"Excuse me, Miss, did you say that this was your home?" I turned my face so that I was still in Ichigo's chest, but I could see the man,

"Yes, why?"

"Well, you were very lucky to not be there. Sadly, we could not retrieve anything from your home. Everything has been burnt to a crisp. We can find you accomodation for toni-"

"She can stay with me. We have spare accomodation at our hospital," I looked up at Ichigo,

"You sure?" I asked. He nodded. The man made a noise of approval,

"Ahhh, Isshin's boy? Well, I'm sure she'll be in very good hands. As soon as we find out how this happened, and, if it was an arson, who it was. We'll get a court case set up and make sure you get compensation," I shook my head,

"I don't need charity. I'll find away around it, I have before," his expression became concerned,

"Are you sure? We can get you thousands and thousands for this case if it's an arson," I shook my head again,

"No, I'm fine," he raised an eyebrow,

"Very well. We'll contact you when we get any news. We'll get things finished up," I nodded as Ichigo led me away, saying goodbye and thanks to him. As we'd gotten away from the chaos, Ichigo looked at me,

"Are you sure you don't need any money? Our hospital can provide you with some money to get you a new house and get you b-"

"I'm sure. Like I said, I don't need charity, I can get by on my own, and I'll manage to find a roof over my head. Speaking of which, are you sure about me staying at yours tonight?" Ichigo nodded,

"Of course. We're a hospital, we can't refuse somebody in need," he still had one arm around me, and I rested my head on his shoulder, clutching the photo in my hand.

~*~*~

"So now she has nothing left. They think it might be arson." We stood at the front door, in front of the Kurosaki family. One of Ichigo's little sisters, Yuzu, was in tears, along with his Dad, who was hugging Yuzu. Karin was looking ashamed, aswell as Ichigo. Yuzu and Isshin carried on bawling,

"Oh, dear! Poor Kishiko-chan!" Yuzu cried,

"Of course she can stay tonight! And tomorrow night! As long as she wants!" Isshin cried in reply. I smiled sweetly,

"Thank you, Yuzu-chan, Mr. Kurosaki. I'll be out of your way as soon as possible," Yuzu hugged me,

"Oh, don't hurry! Stay as long as you want! I'll wash your uniform so it's nice and clean tomorrow!" I was confused,

"My unifo-, oh, of course, I still have it on!" I exclaimed looking at the side of my skirt. As I looked back up, my eyes met with Karin's, who was staring at me uneasily. I quickly diverted my gaze towards Yuzu, who was already rushing off towards the laundry room. Isshin slapped my back, knocking the wind out of me,

"Don't worry, Kishiko-chan! Yuzu will have your bed all set up soon. Will you want a bath?"

"No thank you, I'm fine," Ichigo slipped off his shoes and replaced them with slippers, making his way upstairs,

"She can stay in my room until the bed's finished," I slipped off my shoes and followed him up the stairs, and all the way I felt Karin's uneasy gaze tear a hole through me.

~*~*~

I came back into Ichigo's room, wearing the all-too-tight PJ's Yuzu had given me. I pulled down the vest, embarrassed. Ichigo blushed when he saw me. I laughed nervously,

"I told her I was a little too tall to fit into her clothes, but she insisted, and I didn't want to upset her," my laugh got a bit more nervous as I found myself blushing aswell. I felt like I'd put my PJ's on from when I was 5. They were very girly. The vest was a stripy yellow and pink, with pink shorts with a yellow heart on the right leg. The shorts felt more like underwear, and the vest felt like a skin-tight leotard. Luckily, it was longer than that, but it still came up past my belly button. I looked around Ichigo's bedroom. The decoration was very minimalistic. And I'd thought mine was bad. Ichigo walked over to his drawers, and rooted through it, until he picked out a blue shirt. He threw it at me,

"Here, give yourself some dignity," I laughed,

"Arigatou," I placed it over Yuzu's PJ's. If Ichigo hadn't been so well-built, it would have probably fit me, but luckily, since he was so muscly, the shirt was big enough to drape over me below my upper thighs. I gave him a quick hug, before opening the door, looking over my shoulder,

"Arigatou, Ichigo-kun. Goodnight," Ichigo smiled,

"Yeah, 'night."

TBC.

--

A bit away from the story at the moment. I hadn't planned to add this in, but it fits in with the eventual Ichigo smut :P I've moved foward the research part alot. Originally it was going to be the previous chapter, than this chapter, and now it's definately next chapter, because otheriwse it'll never fit in :P It was going to be this chapter, but this one's turned out longer than I expected xD Not really relevant to what's happened, but I felt like doing this sort of chapter :P By the way, even though it's really late at night, they were all up because Ichigo wasn't in his room x]

In the next chapter...

"So, figured out how she got her powers yet?" Ichigo asked. Urahara nodded,

"Yes, but it's so strange. I haven't seen a case of this in 350 years," Ichigo raised an eyebrow,

"What is it?"