"So...the Hollow wasn't there?" Orihime look confused, "But, Kuchiki-san's locator-"
"I know," Ichigo said with a sigh, "Urahara said there was nothing wrong with it when he checked it after we got back. But we checked that entire house-no Hollow."
It was Saturday and the four of them (Rukia, Ichigo, Orihime and Renji) were crouched on the roof of the school building waiting for the last bell to signify the end of classes, "And Hitosanai-san didn't seem to have any spiritual awareness," Rukia said with a shake of her head, "Of course, she could have faked not having any awareness to throw us off..."
"Hitosanai...?" Orihime frowned, furrowing her eyebrows. Ichigo looked around at her, "What's up, Inoue?"
"It's just...that name," Orihime poked at her forehead with a finger, thinking hard, "I know that name somewhere..."
"It's the woman who lives in that house," Renji said with a wave of his hand, "So what?"
"Hitosanai...Hitosanai..." Orihime muttered. Suddenly her eyes grew wide, "Hito...neesan?"
"What did you say?"
"The woman...did she have really long, pretty hair?"
"Yeah, I guess," Ichigo nodded, "We thought she was Starless at first because of her hair-"
"HITO-NEESAN!" Orihime leapt to her feet and the others stared at her, "She's Hito-neesan!"
"Hito...?" Ichigo echoed,
"Nee-san?" Renji and Rukia exchanged a glance,
"What are you talking about?"
"I told you before, didn't I?" Orihime pumped her fists excitedly, "That my brother had to get advice when he was raising me. Well, usually he went to Hito-neesan, because she lived down the street and had a little girl of her own!"
"Your brother went to Hito-neesan...!" Ichigo suddenly grasped what Orihime was trying to tell him, "Who had a little girl of her own..?!"
"Hito-neesan! Hitosanai! Reiko's mother!"
Ichigo stood and ran down the stairs leading from the roof, "After him!" Rukia shouted and the others followed her as they rushed after Ichigo, "I don't get it," Renji huffed next to her, "Why is it important that Hitosanai is this 'Reiko' girl's mother?"
"Because this all started when Sagara-san and her family got here!" Rukia gritted her teeth, "I don't know why we never realized it before...she has to be connected to Starless. If we could just get her to talk, she could tell us everything we need to know!" They flew down the hall, apologizing to a group of upperclassmen who were scattered like bowling pins after Ichigo plowed through them to get to the classroom,
"REIKO!" he shouted, throwing open the classroom door.
Her desk was empty. The lingering students all stared at Ichigo, who panted from running so fast, "Ke-Keigo!" Keigo looked slightly uncomfortable as a very sweaty Ichigo towered over him, "Where's Reiko?!" Rukia, Renji and Orihime stopped in the doorway, peering in anxiously,
"S-Sagara-chan...?"
"YES! Where'd she go?"
"She...she said she wasn't...feeling good so...I think she went home early...? Or to the nurse...I'm not sure which-"
"That's good enough!" Ichigo turned to the three waiting in the hall, "Rukia! You go check the nurse's office! Renji, Inoue, we're searching outside! She can't have gotten too far, and if she's heading home we'll know where to go!" They nodded. Rukia took off running for the nurse's office while Renji and Orihime followed Ichigo outside.
"Renji, you take the sky! See if you can spot her!"
"With hair that bright, it'll be impossible not to!" Renji said. He took a Soul Candy container from his pants pocket and pressed the cartoon cat head on top. A small green pill popped out of its mouth, which he swallowed. His soul seperated from the gigai and he lept into the air, calling down to the mod in his body, "You head back to Urahara's and wait for us there, where you won't be in the way!"
"Alright-nyan!" Renji's body waved a paw shaped fist, "He might even give me fish, purrrchance!" and bounded off.
"Stay close, Inoue," Ichigo said as the two of them ran down a small alleyway short-cut, "As of now, we have no idea who Reiko really is. I know her Mom was nice to you when you were a kid, but-"
"I know, Kurasaki-kun," she looked determined as she reached up to brush the flower pin twinkling in her hair, "We can't trust her until we know what's-Kurosaki-kun! Over there!" He looked in the direction she was pointing.
In the distance, flying low enough that her feet could brush the pavement, was Starless; dressed in the cloak and mask Ichigo had seen in Hitosanai's house. She no longer flew with the feathery black wings Ichigo and Rukia saw her use last, but instead sat side-saddle on what appeared to be a long metal pole.
"Isn't that...?"
"It is! STARLESS!" the mask turned in their direction. At the sight of them, Starless took off down the street at an amazing speed; oddly enough, she kept low to the ground, "Damnit!" Ichigo pressed his Badge against his chest, taking off after Starless once he was separated from his body.
"Wait! Kurosaki-kun!" Orihime called after him, holding up the limp form of his body, "What should I do with your body? Kurosaki-kun!"
Whether he ignored her or thought that he would loose sight of Starless if he turned to answer, Ichigo left Orihime to struggle with dragging his body somewhere where it wouldn't attract attention as he slowly gained on Starless.
"Hold on!" He called when he was within earshot of her without having to yell, "I just wanna ask you-" Starless quickly turned to face him. She'd taken a hand off the pole as she flew, and held that hand out to Ichigo, palm facing him.
"Shit!" Ichigo veered just in time to avoid the burst of bright red flame that shot from Starless' palm. It flew past him, struck a brick wall on his left, and covered him in a cloud of dust and debris. When he emerged from the dust, coughing and rubbing at his eyes, Starless was further away. She seemed to have lost some speed. He glanced at the wall where the flames had collided before taking off after her again, making a mental note to keep his distance and not give her another opening.
He ran after Starless; far enough so that she wouldn't fire at him again, but close enough so that she knew she was still being followed. After a couple blocks, where Starless seemed to be flying slower and slower, she took a sharp right turn and vanished into an alley. Ichigo quickened his pace and soon reached the alley himself. He turned down it and stopped.
Starless had driven herself into a dead end. She hovered, her feet (which Ichigo noticed were bare) barely brushing the pavement, "Ran out of places to go?" he took a slow step forward. For some reason, Starless seemed...weak. The blast she'd sent at him hadn't seemed very powerful, although he dodged it out of instinct, and it had barely made a hole in the wall it hit. And then there was the question as to why Starless was flying so low to the ground, when she had demonstrated that she was very capable of soaring high in the sky.
Could it be she's too weak to fly that high? he thought to himself, taking another step forward. Starless tensed and raised a palm to face him again, "That's not gonna work this time," Ichigo said with a grin,
"Think I haven't noticed? You're weaker than last time. You're probably too weak to even shoot another one of those weird fireballs." Her arm dropped a little, telling him he was right in his assumptions.
He took another step forward, "We just want to talk, is all," another step, "Why don't you just come back with me to my friend's shop," a few more steps and he'd be able to snatch her right off that pole, "and then we can go to Soul Society and explain to them-" he knew the moment he said it that he'd screwed up.
At the mention of Soul Society, Starless tensed and raised her arm again and aimed it square at Ichigo's chest. A flash of brilliant golden light made his eyes tear up before he was thrown backwards off his feet from the force of something hitting him. He groaned, laying on his back on the ground, and looked down at his chest. His entire body was wrapped in glowing gold chains.
They wrapped around his shoulders and all around, all the way down to his feet, pinning his arms to his sides. He looked up, incredulously, at Starless. She glanced down at him once, and he could have sworn he heard her chuckle, before she took off into the air, soaring over the wall and into the sky. She'd apparently found her strength again.
"STARLESS!" Ichigo bucked, trying to break the chains that held him, but to no avail. They weren't anything like the binding spell Rukia had put on him the first day they met. He felt like they were actually draining him of energy as he struggled to break the chains. He had to do something, he thought as he desperately watched Starless soar even higher, if she was related to Hitosanai and Reiko somehow, she would most likely go to their house. There she would wait for them, impossible to ambush, and even if they wanted to, she would no doubt become their enemy afterwards (if she wasn't already, after this).
"DAMNIT-!" Ichigo's swear was drowned out by another voice, "Howl! Zabimaru!" Renji appeared in Ichigo's field of vision (he could only see what was directly above him, thanks to the damn chains). At his command, Renji's ZanpakutÅ, Zabimaru, awakened as he rushed at Starless.
This isn't a good idea, Torusei hissed as she willed herself to fly higher and higher, with your spirit energy being unstable, the power could give out any moment! You could fall!
I don't have a choice! He's right, I don't have the power to fight, let alone cast a proper binding! If I don't find some clouds to cover me, he'll follow me once it breaks. You heard him! They'll drag me back to Soul Society!
That won't matter if the power gives out and you fall to your death.
Shut up! She screamed at him, her own fear and panic at the truth of his words making her angry, Just shut up-!
"Howl! Zabimaru!"
Zabi-what? She glanced down in time to see...something...is that a sword?...fly towards her. Without thinking, she took both hands off the pole, cutting off the flow of energy, and threw her arms out to protect herself. She felt a searing pain in her arms as she was knocked off the pole, and then she was falling.
Once again, I told you so, Torusei tsked in her ear before her power peaked and fell once more, dragging her into unconsciousness with the feel of the wind rushing through her hair while she plummeted to the ground 20 feet below.
Both Renji and Ichigo were shocked when Zabimaru connected with Starless. They were even more shocked to see the blow knock her out of the air. Renji stared in amazement as Starless hurtled towards him,
"I didn't think she'd go down that easily," he muttered while Ichigo screamed below him, "CATCH HER, YOU MORON!" Renji dove forward, making a grab for Starless' hand. His fingers closed on it before she slipped out of his grasp. She was going to hit the ground!
"Santen Kesshun!" Something whizzed over Ichigo's head and towards the falling Starless. In a gleam of light, a large triangle shaped, nearly transparent shield of energy expanded in mid air, catching Starless just before she hit the ground. Ichigo craned his neck back to see Orihime standing at the entrance of the alleyway, panting hard from running to catch up with him, "Inoue!"
"Just...in time..." Orihime smiled and flashed the peace sign, "But...why are you laying on the ground, Kurosaki-kun?"
"Why? Can't you see these-" he flexed against the chains to emphasize...only they weren't there anymore. In his surprise at seeing Starless getting knocked out from a single blow, he hadn't noticed the chains break and vanish when she'd been hit. Ichigo sat up, rubbing his head where he'd hit it when he fell, "It was...they were right...nevermind! Renji!" he waved at him, "Go get Rukia and meet us at Urahara's!"
"On it!" Renji sheathed Zabimaru and started off back the way they had come, towards the school.
"Bring her down, Inoue," Ichigo stood, looking up at the figure of Starless in Orihime's Three Sacred Links Shield, "We're gonna unmask Starless right here and now!" Orihime nodded and raised her hands to direct the shield down to them. She dissolved it just before it reached the alley and Starless' limp body dropped lightly into Ichigo's arms. He crouched down, carefully laying her on the ground. Her long raven black hair pooled around her and Ichigo had a hard time not stepping on it.
"She's hurt!" Orihime exclaimed, pointing at the bloody gashes on Starless' forearms, "Renji used a little more force than he expected she could handle," Ichigo said, "From the descriptions we've given Soul Society, who would have thought she'd go down without even a Bankai?"
"I should-"
"Not yet! Not until we know who she is."
The two of them stared down at the strange tiger mask. Ichigo slowly reached out, and was stopped by Orihime's questioning hand on his, "Don't worry," he said, seeing how worried she was, "We won't hurt her if she really is an ally."
"And if she's not...?"
He didn't say anything; he didn't have to. They both knew what would happen if she was an enemy.
He placed a hand on Starless' mask, and glanced at Orihime. She nodded at him. He nodded in return, turned back to Starless and pushed the mask up to stare down at Reiko's face, flushed with fever.
Reiko Sagara wasn't only connected to Starless...she was Starless.
-To be continued
