Finding Friendship II: Earth Shattering
Imouto

"Anybody going to stop her? We already have enough problems as it is without her going berserk on us." Despite her dislike for the Shinigami, Liltotto found herself complacent with the loss. In part, her loss of powers meant she couldn't fight back, yet so far their enemy treated them well, and the food provided wasn't half-bad.

"I want her to do something. Things are honestly way to boring around here." Bernice of course felt the need to aggravate things with suggestions things would be better off if they were somehow moving against the Shinigami rebelling in some manner, and yet she didn't do a single thing. In fact, Liltotto hadn't seen the girl use her powers. "I'm surprised she's held her cool for this long. I've not known her to go a day without blowing something up."

Liltotto placed a cookie into her mouth, savoring the taste of the cookie wondering if this would be her last due to Basterbine's actions. Any hopes Bambietta wouldn't do anything were dashed when she suddenly felt the fiery rieatsu of the purple haired female. Even worse, she felt an icy reiatsu she'd felt before – the one which fought with Cang-du. She remembered Bazz-B hauling that person back, but how Gigi got that person as well. "Why is she bothering that Shinigami of all people?"

"That Shinigami?" One of Bernice's eyebrows shot up.

Candace looked over from where she looked over her nails, probably wanting to use nail polish on them, yet she didn't want to ask for any favors beyond what they got, particularly with Bernice there rubbing in the fact she felt they shouldn't be siding with the Shinigami. "That's right. You got taken out, so you didn't know about that Shinigami Bazz-B brought in. Gigi turned him into a zombie. Basterbine as well."

"Gigi decided to turn one of the king's favorites into a zombie?"

"Gigi said if she didn't that the king would have killed her himself." Menias' mouth formed a pout.

"Uh-huh. Do you believe that Lamperd?"

Liltotto took a deep breath. "Don't know, don't care." She put another cookie into her mouth. "Well, I care about the fact she's messing things up for us."

Bernice narrowed her eyes. "You're fine with things the way they are?"

"Never said that. There's nothing we can do and is it really worth making things worse." Things became quiet after that strangely enough. It surprised Liltotto when Bambietta Basterbine came back. She'd expected – what with the flare of rieatsu everyone felt – that the purple haired Quincy would find herself detained, yet instead Bambietta came back muttering something about tainted ones. Liltotto chose to ignore her, instead chomping down on a cookie.

She'd thought about going to the meeting on Friday despite knowing there would be Shinigami protesting the Shinigami Kids Society. Bernice pointed out the hypocrisy of the name due to the fact some of the members weren't Shinigami, but some were teens and not kids as well. Liltotto ignored her, yet she couldn't ignore what Bambietta said. "I'm going to kill him if he's not here today! That jerk!"

"Who?"

Candace sighed at Bernice's question. "She's talking about that Shinigami that Gigi zombified."

"Please tell me she doesn't have some kind of crush on him."

"I do not! That would be absolutely stupid!" Basterbine stormed out of the room then heading to the meeting, putting in a ton of gusto into her movements.

Bernice took a deep breath. "Yeah, the crush is rather obvious, but her putting on more bravado than normal is annoying. Plus, she's talking to that voice in her head again."

"Does that really surprise you, what with everything that happened?" Liltotto muttered. "I'm going to stay away today. Too much of a headache."

"But…" Meninas glanced in the direction Bambietta headed.

Candace rolled her eyes. "Don't. I don't want to deal with those protesters. As far as they're concerned, we're trash. Actually, everyone thinks we're trash."

Liltotto went back to munching on her sweets and enjoying the quiet. A certain someone of course ended up breaking the silence, stomping her way in an overdramatic manner which was starting to get annoying. The young Quincy continued carefully savoring her latest treat, knowing full well protesting the din Bambietta caused was pointless, what with her powers missing.

"Stupid idiot."

"Not this again. Just leave that Shinigami alone already. We don't need the trouble." Candace leaned up against the roll, rolling her eyes in irritation.

"I wanted to do paintball!"

Liltotto rolled over from her back onto her stomach, the snack she was savoring this time sticking out of her mouth as she spoke. "Say what?"

"We would have won!" Bambietta turned her head. "Our team would have won."

Berniece's mouth twisted into a scowl. She stood up from where she sat and walked over to Bambietta. She grabbed the front of Babmietta's uniform, not caring how she would react. "What kind of idiot are you? We're not supposed play with the Shinigami. We're supposed to fight them."

"If I want to play with nii-chan, I very well can. Plus, nii-chan isn't a Shinigami. He's a Quincy. The stupid Shinigami brainwashed him."

Bernice shoved Bambietta slightly, while the other female held up her fingers as if threatening to blow something up. "Your mental. You know full well your nii-chan is dead. That, or he never existed in the first place and was yet another figment of that mental image of yours. Seriously. Why is it all of you are either mental or traitors?"

Bambietta folded her arms defiantly. "We're not traitors. The real traitor is Bass-Buttbee."

"What do you mean?" Candace suddenly became interested, yet not in a good way.

"They let him out."

Liltotto ground her teeth together in fury. She watched Bernice storm out of the room, yet the other girl didn't go far. None of them had anywhere to go. She pushed herself up, removing her snack she was savoring from her mouth. "What do you mean they let him out?"

"You heard what I said."

"She means details." Candace took a deep breath.

"Something about serving community service hours."

Liltotto's eyebrows shot up, while Candace said what she was thinking. "That is so not like Bazz-B. You really have lost your mind."

"I'm going to bed." Bambietta started towards her futon, only to stop. "By the way. We're all going to the stupid outing tomorrow."

"What?" Candace took a deep breath, rolling her eyes. "No way. I put up with that stupid Shinigami Brats thing for two days already. It was boring. They aren't doing anything we want to do."

"Why would they do anything we want to do if we don't show up?" Meninas piped up. "If we don't go, we don't have anything to say about anything that is going on. Isn't this our way of having some say?'

Liltotto took a deep breath, finally putting her snack back into her mouth. "Meni's right. I know Bernie says we shouldn't co-operate and should fight, but honestly we're outnumbered and tired of hiding. This seems like the best option."

"So then, it's settled."

Candace turned her head, not at all pleased with the situation. "Fine. Don't try getting her to come. Her opinion on this isn't going to change, but we shouldn't let her calling us names stop us from doing what is best."

As such Liltotto found herself waking up in the morning rather than sleeping in. They headed towards the location of the east gate. In the back of her mind, she noted the fact the Shinigami allowed them the ability to roam where they choose, yet something made her wonder if someone was following them just to keep an eye on them. The fact Bambietta wasn't punished for her escapade the other day also bothered her.

She found herself drawn from her thoughts when she crashed into Meninas from behind. Glancing at her companions, she realized something was bothering them. Tilting her head slightly, she saw someone waiting for them at the gate. A bunch of packs were waiting for them. "Oh, so it's the traitor."

"Would you rather there be less of you on the outside than there are?" Liltotto looked away as did Candace.

"It's actually kind of nice to have an adult Quincy out here with us."

Bazz-B let out a deep sigh, reaching up to rub the back of his head. "Yeah. Unfortunately, that's one of the things their head taicho said."

"The other?" Liltotto glanced over at Candace and saw how the older female Quincy's mouth twisted in disgust. She felt rather similarly.

"Why don't you let Basterbine tell you that one as she unfortunately came to the same conclusion the head taicho did."

"She what?"

Bambietta shrugged her shoulders as if this was no big deal. "That if they really wanted to foster positive relationships between Quincy and Shinigami they would have a Quincy teach at the academy."

The food in Liltotto's mouth almost went down her airway. She slammed a hand in her chest as both Candace and Meninas burst into laughter. Candace pointed a finger at Bazz-B. "You? A teacher? Why you?"

"Probably because I don't have any powers anymore."

Liltotto's head darted towards the ground, remembering she'd not yet told the other girls she no longer had her abilities. More specifically, Bazz-B openly admitted to such a fact making him either very brave, or an idiot.

"None of the Shinigami are here?" Candace decided to roll her eyes. "Seriously, it's so lame we're the first ones."

"Hmm?" Bazz-B took a deep breath. "You can't feel his spiritual pressure? I may have lost my powers, but I can still sense that icy presence."

"Who…"

"Imouto?" Liltotto found herself cringing, before turning towards the familiar voice she hated with a great deal of disdain. The four girls turned and saw two Quincy they'd not expected to ever see again. She wanted to punch the person who spoke in the face, his face proving to angelic for her liking, yet she also found herself startled by seeing one of the two now – well, two people.

"Imouto?" The Shinigami with them frowned, folding his arms across his chest. A rather small Shinigami dressed in clothes one might wear in the world of the living stood behind them. "This Quincy is your sister Thoumeaux."

"No, he's not."

Meninas blinked, turning her head. "But Lily-chan, that's not very nice."

"It really isn't very nice, imouto-chan. Aren't you glad to see me."

Liltotto walked over to the young man despite knowing full well what his powers could do, fear racking her entire body, her fists clenching. "My brother is dead. You're just a clone of the real thing, and only a partial one at that."

"Come now, Lily." Something felt off, and Liltotto noticed Gremmy's hands shaking, almost as if he wasn't in control of the situation like he normally was. "You know full well I was created by our parents because they wanted to recreate his powers and perfect them."

"A brain with genetic alterations is still any way you look at it not an exact copy of the original. I don't care how much better your powers are than his. Speaking of which…" Liltotto turned her head towards the other two. "What happened to you?"

"Siamese twins. Or at least they were." The person in the lab coat spoke, drawing her attention away. "And he's not simply a brain anymore."

Liltotto looked Gremmy in the eyes and noticed something was off, as if something was majorly bothering him. In fact, she thought she saw fear, something she'd never seen with him before. As for the other, she simply saw annoyance. Something told her she didn't need to be afraid anymore of the two – now three.

"Since none of the academy students are here, might I ask where Hitsugaya Taicho is?"

Bazz-B took a deep breath. "Probably hiding from me. I did a major number on him."

"If you're implying I'm afraid of you, I am not." The Shinigami who they saw dressed in a Sternritter outfit landed on the ground having quickly shunpooed from wherever he was. Today he was dressed in a brown yukata yet also seemed far more relaxed than when she last saw him. His arms were folded across his chest, and a stern look appeared on his face.

"Glad to see you're not afraid of me."

The young Shinigami didn't respond, but instead glanced at the young Shinigami hiding behind the other person. He opened his mouth to say something, when an opening began to appear. A person came out, yet Liltotto felt everyone tense. Bambietta spoke with disgust what every one of the Quincy wanted to say. "Tainted one."