CHAPTER 10

Ulquiorra looked around the room after having heard his name being screamed. He saw a few familiar faces that looked at him with shock written all over his face. What surprised him a bit was that he could also see a bit of relieve in their eyes while looking at him. He would ask about that later. The big man nodded to him in a greeting, and he nodded back. The man didn't know so it was probably normal to just greet. Ichigo started to talk next to him, making him focus on his words and the people around them.

"You already know Ishida and Inoue so I won't introduce them but next to Inoue sit Chad and next to him are Tatsuki, Keigo and Mizuiro." Ulquiorra nodded, showing that he understood and remembered or tried to remember and focused on Ichigo, waiting for him to ask the question he had mentioned. Ichigo noticed the stare and started:

"I want to ask you if you could stay here and help me fend off an organization of some sort that wants to, you could say steal or kidnap me. It was just today that the suddenly appeared before us and ask us about the spirit flower. One of them found out that I am the spirit flower and has probably told the others already. The only thing that we have as lead is a symbol that was visible on their hands but nothing more. The sou-taicho has told me that I would need to go back if it becomes too dangerous but I don't want to leave. Could you help me?" Ulquiorra understood the gist of the situation. Ichigo didn't want to leave but he had promised to go back to soul society if it became too dangerous. Now that something might happen he hoped for Ulquiorra to help him so that the situation wouldn't get out of hand and he could stay here.

"I will help you since I have been ordered to protect you." The sou-taicho himself had given him the mission. He had been surprised that they trusted him, to protect Ichigo from any harm. He was to inform them if the situation would be too dangerous and come back if needed to. Ichigo seemed to be able to handle himself right now and he wasn't injured anywhere so he didn't see it as life threatening.

Ichigo gave him a small smile and nodded happily. The others could only watch the weird interaction between them before Inoue suddenly asked the question that they had all thought about.

"Where did you meet Ulquiorra?" It was then that the two of them stopped talking or more like Ichigo talking and Ulquiorra staring at him and looked at Inoue. Ichigo looked at Ulquiorra with a questionable look and he nodded as if allowing him to talk about it. Ichigo started to talk about what happened again.

"You remember that I went to hell right?" They all nodded "I also told you that someone helped me reach the flower right?" They all nodded again. "Well, it was Ulquiorra here that I met. He had already forgotten everything but when he saw me he started to remember. When he had gotten back all his memories he come with me and offered his help. It really was good to have someone with me since just by looking at him I could remember a bit of my memories. He also helped me defeat the monster there and helped me reach the spirit flower."

The other nodded while Ishida looked like he was deep in thoughts. He looked at Ulquiorra as if searching for the truth. He seemed satisfied after some minutes and looked nodded in some kind of approval. Ichigo wondered what he had searched for but he couldn't ask or do anything when the earth suddenly started to tremble and they could all here a loud noise coming from the outside. Ichigo wanted to open the door but Chad suddenly moved in front of him and opened the door himself. It was like he expected this weird organization to appear and attack again. He was right. It was in the same second when he opened the door that someone came or tried to come running in just to hit something like a solid wall. Chad, without letting him have a time to recover hit him, making him look like a disappearing star. The others started to form a circle around Ichigo with him standing in the middle to prevent him from getting harmed or kidnapped. They stood still like this for a few seconds where some wondered if time had stopped when the first members of this organization attacked again. His friends had the upper hand but were injured and Ichigo saw the blood flow out of the wounds. He felt miserable that he could do anything to help them and wanted to jump out of the circle but the look he had received at the beginning from the others prevented him from doing so. He now wished that he had at least the cool ability of Inoue to heal or make a barrier. It was then that his thoughts became reality and formed a barrier around his friends.

They could only watch how Ichigo suddenly started to glow and a golden barrier started to surround them. In this barrier their wounds slowly disappeared or better said fade away and they almost felt as if power was rushing through them. The attackers didn't seem to be able to come inside since they seemed to bounce off and their weapons even bend with unrealistic ease.

Ichigo opened his eyes and noticed the barrier that was surrounding them. Had he done that? Maybe he could create anything (expect for souls) with just his thoughts. He tried again. This time he thought about a big wolf and a big tiger that attacked the members outside the barrier. It functioned. A gigantic silver wolf and a gigantic golden tiger appeared outside the barrier and attacked the members with their claws and teeth. They seemed to be made out of the same material as the barrier because the weapons they had didn't function on them and they didn't seem to get hurt.

Ishida looked at him and asked: "Can you hold up the barrier?"

Ichigo nodded after a short time of thinking. It didn't seem to cost him any reiatsu at all. His friends suddenly moved outside the barrier and started to attack the members also, and Ishida seemed to try to get as much information as possible out of them. Ichigo thought about a barrier that surrounded them like skin and let them move around freely and created it around his friends. They noticed since even the injuries that they had just now received vanished and the ones they should have received through the strike of a sword didn't even appear. The swords bend and broke like they had done at Ichigo's first barrier.

It was a few minutes later that they had won the battle and the members had pulled back. Ichigo sat down at the couch with a tired expression. It didn't seem to cost him energy at all but it seemed to be a bit stressful on the mind. It wasn't much but it still did make him a bit tired. If he was a human, only using the spirit flower he would have probably died from this much use. It wasn't so stressful because he was the spirit flower and it was theoretical his own power.

"So that's the ability of the spirit flower." Mizuiro said thoughtful. He had been surprised, even if he hadn't shown it, when Ichigo had done all those things.

"Have you found out any information?" Tatsuki asked an already proud looking Ishida. Ishida nodded.

"I have found out that they are only normal human beings. They don't have any connection with soul society and don't even know what it is. The organization was formed about twenty years ago and they tried to find the spirit flower since then. It seemed that the boss for better terms of words has a wish he wants to have fulfilled and the spirit flower seemed to be able to do that. They also seemed to know about the poem and have tried to interpret it since they think it is some kind of code. They have searched on earth for the last twenty years and have tried to find the flower. It about a week ago that they noticed Ichigo sudden change of appearance and used a machine that could sense reiatsu to determine why. It was then that they found out about the spirit flower and that one of us, we visit him very often would have it. They have watched the house since then but because they couldn't see any flower they decided to attack us and find the flower themselves."

They all tried to progress the information that they had gotten and find it hard to believe. Ichigo wondered how they had found the poem while the others were wondering how they had been able to build a machine that could sense reiatsu. There were so many questions open but those needed to be discussed and thought about later because it suddenly rung. Ichigo stood up moving to the door but was stopped from Chad again. Chad moved down the door handle and moved the door to the site.

"Hey Chad, what are you still doing here?" came the greeting from his sister Karin. There school had ended and they had come home. Chad let them in with a nod as greeting and they saw everyone sitting in the living room.

"So, what's up?" She asked curious but also suspicious. Ichigo's friends were always gone around this time. Ichigo looked around before deciding to tell them. They would be in danger if those men targeted the house.

"There is a big problem" The twins knew from experience that there brother didn't say that when he had problems with school or anything else. It was something more serious like the shinigami war.

"What problem?" asked Yuzu worried.

It was Ishida that answered this time.

"Someone wants to kidnap Ichigo and use him for his own ambitions." There was a dead silence in the house and no one moved. The twins just stared at him for the longest time before Karin seemed to burst and scream:

"What?"

Sorry it's so short.

The next one will be longer!

Hope you still enjoyed it