Hey! I'm not dead! I know it's taken me forever, but here is the ninth chapter to 'A Second Life.'

Thank you so much to those who reviewed, it means a lot. Enjoy!

Chapter 9

The hollow attempted to hit Ruki and Ichi with more bugs, so Ruki jumped up and, with her red glove on, separated Ichi from his body, just as they exploded. Smoke was everywhere, so I couldn't see. Just then, The hollow flew above our heads, only to be sliced by a leaping Ichi. When the smoke cleared, the hollow was on the ground, bleeding, Ichi was a Soul Reaper, and Ruki was holding his body.

"Heheheh..." The hollow taunted, "You're too slow. But I can tell you soul is gonna be tastey."

I listened to Ichi's amazing deduction, before he said,

"What a coward. Time to pay!" I swear I was laughing the hardest I ever had in my whole life.

"The only price I'm going t pay is indigestion!" Scratch that; now I was laughing harder. "After I've eaten three more soul reapers!"

Then our main hero and the villain ran off to do battle. Ruki and I were with an Ichi body, which I was holding up on my knees, when Chad saw us.

"Ichigo!" He panicked. "What's wrong?!"

"There you are," Ruki said in relief.

'Don't worry about him,' I signed, letting Ichi lean against my chest to free my hands. 'Just get that bird out of here.'

"What's going on? What's with Ichigo?" He questioned. Ruki turned back towards the way the Orange hair boy had disappeared in.

"Ichigo is fine."

'He's fighting to protect us all,' I added, smiling proudly.

O o O

Later, I heard the sad story and apology of the bird. Ruki was horrified that he could believe that his mother would come back to life and Chad was... silent.

Ruki left me with Ichi's body and Chad to go 'help' Ichi, against my protest. She wouldn't get there until after the hollow was dead, so that she could strategically be there to explain what the Gates of the Underworld was for... good planning.

But Chad is so boring!

... The next day...

During breakfast, Yuzu and Karin were questioning Ichi's well-being, like good little sisters. Well, just Yuzu. There was a whole charade about how strange he was, and how much he'd been eating, (and a nice... analogy of just what he was doing by Isshin) when Ichi appeared and kick his father. I laughed as hard as I did yesterday.

"What's wrong with a little Parental Understanding?" Isshin questioned gravely, making a funny face.

"Understanding my ass!" Ichi exclaimed as the two wrestled.

"Guys, your breakfast is going to get cold!"

'Quiet morning, huh?'

...at school...

Ruki had just stolen Ichi from class break, so of course, I followed.

"Here," She said, tossing Ichi what looked like a PEZ dispenser.

'Oh, great. This episode,' I thought. I wasn't much of a Kon fan. I watched in fake curiosity as Ichi swallowed a pill. HE popped out of his body, but it never fell.

"Hi, good afternoon!" Kon greeted, "Nice to meet you, I'm Ichigo Kurosaki. Early to bed, early to rise, that's my motto." I laughed so hard, I was pretty sure everyone hear me suck in the air.

"Early to bed, early to WHAT?!" Ichi exclaimed, shocked.

"It's pretty amazing, isn't it?" Ruki said, looking smug.

"Amazing my ass!" I heard Wrath and even Sloth fall apart in laughter. Just then Ruki's soul pager went off.

"Perfect timing. We just got a mission. Why don't we leave him here at school with Mao." For once I didn't argue about staying behind.

'They don't know what they're missing,' I thought as Ruki dragged Ichi off to battle.

"Don't worry, leave everything to me, master," Kon laughed, still pretending. He didn't break character yet, I noticed, because I was still there. I smirked.

'Why don't you get use to your body?' I signed, smiling. Kon blinked. Oh yeah, I forgot; he didn't know I couldn't talk. I shurg and head back to class, leaving him there.

When I got to the class room, I watched him stretch through the window. No one else seemed to notice him. I saw the Kendo instructor confront him. Kon jumped over his head and landed on a low ceiling, shocking him. Then he jumped to the roof, where we ate lunch.

But today, just as lunch started, I ate with Orihime and Tatsuki, who didn't respond well to Kon jumping into our window (Which was hard to slid open, mind you.)

"Excuse me," Kon asked, "This is the ninth grade class, group three, right?

"Wait a second!" Tatsuki exclaimed, "How the hell did you get up here like that?"

"What do you mean, how? I jumped up." This caused a huge controversy, which made him grin excitedly for a second when no one was looking. He didn't seem to notice me, but he was all over Ori. Needless to say, he was attacked by Tatsuki.

"Hey, you're pretty cute, too, now that I look at you!" And Tatsuki blew it.

Ruki probably came to Kon's rescue, but he didn't realize it. Instead, he freaked when Ichi got here, kicked him across the classroom, and jumped out of the window.

Ruki looked at me.

`"What exactly happened that went wrong," She asked, exasperated. I shrugged, smiling innocently.

Later, Wrath told me that this was her favorite 'episode'.

I'm sooooo sorry this is soooooo short! But I needed to update, and I'm short on time today. I promise the next chapter will be longer. Thanks for reading, and I apologize.