"When are we going to get a real meal
A Hideout in the Menos Forest:
"When are we going to get a real meal?" The Adjuchas asked in a belligerent tone. "There's nothing but low level hollows and Gillians left here and the rest of us are itching to taste some arrancar flesh or better yet some shinigami."
"If you're that impatient, why don't you try and take a bite out of me? After all, I'm not that imposing am I?" The sarcasm was literally dripping from his words.
The Adjuchas eyed the cloaked and hooded figure with contempt. "I didn't get to this stage of development by having Aizen use his special process on me. I did it the hard way you bastard! I climbed out of the cesspool of the gillians on my own."
"And how long ago was that? A year ago? Ten? One hundred? And just how much longer do you think that it will take you to become a Vasto Lorde? Another hundred? A thousand?"
The Adjuchas, goaded by the patronizing remarks, lunged at the figure. The lung was halted by a single outstretched hand on the mask. The eyes of the hollow grew wide with terror as the hand started to glow. The glow enveloped the helpless hollow and its body started to compress down into a dark sphere that radiated a malevolent purple haze.
The figure clutched the sphere and started to laugh. "The ignorant fool, ah well, I guess that I'll keep him around as a snack for later." He placed the sphere into a bag at his hip that didn't appear to be large enough to hold the sphere.
"Where is the next test subject? WAHAHAHAHA!"
Traveling through the Menos Forest:
"Hey hollow, are you sure you're not lost?"
"The name is Loly, shinigami, and I'm not sure anymore."
"Just for the record, it's Ikkaku, not shinigami."
"Fine, what ever. I'm feeling something big ahead and it isn't your friends."
"Could it be what we were looking for?"
Loly's face scrunched as she carefully used her pesquisa to try and see what was there. "I'm not sure. It could be a large concentration of gillians but it has a different feel to it."
Her face froze. "Shit, they spotted me. And here they come. Let's get the hell out of here!"
Ikkaku scooped her onto his back and shot off at an angle to their previous course.
Loly looked back and could make out the leading hollows as they attempted to close in. She held her hand out and charged a cero letting it fly at a massive tree causing a huge cave in. "You're going to have to treat me to a dinner date for keeping you alive you know." She quipped into Ikkaku's ear.
"Like hell, who hauled your broken butt out of a tree and watched over your knocked out ass for three days?"
"And your point?"
"What ever, as long as we get out of here and it isn't a dinner of souls."
"I want lasagna."
"NANI!"
"I tried it when I went to Urahara's one time. It might not be soul food but it does taste good."
"You are one mixed up hollow."
"Yeah? So what. You are one mixed up shinigami. And I think you're alright as far as that goes."
Karakura Town, Kurosaki Residence:
"Kon, Where is Shiro?" Ririn asked as she was feeding Haruka.
"He said something about studying for finals with Mayuki. He said that they would be at her house." Kon replied as he continued to grade papers.
"Well, I can't blame him. Every time they start to study here it seems that they have to rush out and head in that direction anyway. It seems that the locus is centered just beyond the park there." Ririn replied. "Ouch! Are you getting a tooth?" She asked Haruka, not really expecting anything like an answer. What she got was cheerful gurgling from the infant sized former mod soul.
"No, that wasn't funny, it hurt. Be nice to your mama." Ririn softly chided Haruka.
"She definitely has your humor streak. Like when you first met Ichigo and his friends." Kon observed.
"Well, as least I didn't bite them, and from what I heard, you were a pretty tough character to catch the first time you took that body out for a test drive."
Kon snorted as he remembered that first time as he gleefully ran all over town, bounding from roof top to roof top. "Yeah, Ichigo was sort of pissed that I was running around and even more pissed that I kissed Tatsuki."
"The same Tatsuki that we live next door to?" Ririn looked at him with an agitated look on her face.
"Yeah, and she made sure that she expressed her displeasure when she found out about my plushie body. It took Ishida almost a half hour to put me back together. Then the bastard dressed me up in a French maid costume and gave me directly to Yuzu Kurosaki. It took me three weeks to get rid of that stupid costume."
Ririn started to giggle when she heard the rest of the story. Haruka seeing her mother giggling started to burble happily also."
"That's just great! I'm mocked by all the women in my life. What's a man to do to make up for past mistakes?" Kon complained.
"The answer is obvious you idiot." Ririn said with a glint in her eye.
"Oh? And what, pray tell, might that answer be?"
"Maybe you will figure it out by bed time." She teased.
Menos Forest:
"Come on, this direction." Menoly yelled. "This is the direction that I felt something."
"Are you sure?" Matsumoto asked.
"She's my sister. If there was anyone that could feel her presence it would be me." Menoly responded.
"I don't sense Ikkaku though." Renji observed.
"I don't think that Loly would have killed him. Her orders were to help you guys. Nel-sama wouldn't be very happy if she snacked on him." Menoly's comment was cold.
Renji and Matsumoto looked at each other and shivered.
They followed Menoly closely keeping her in sight as they made their way through the forest. After a time they came upon the remains of a shattered tree and the cave in that had been caused as it had come crashing down.
Matsumoto placed her hand against the scorch marks and could feel the residual spirit energy from the cero that had brought the giant down. "It feels like a cero." She voiced.
Menoly also touched the spot. "It's Loly for sure. This is her signature."
"Judging by the footprints they were in a hurry." Renji said as he placed his hand on the foot print in the sand. "This was made by a shinigami. I don't see any footprints other than this though." He pointed in the direction that the prints led off to. "Ikkaku might have been carrying her."
"Then at least one of them could have been injured. We have to hurry up." Menoly sounded very concerned. "They are headed for the main entrance to the forest now. This would be very bad if they get there without backup."
The trio sped off after the pair.
Ishida House:
"Ren, why are you back here now? I thought that you were going to stay with Granfather to train in the Quincy way so that you could take over the family business?" Mayuki asked while squinting her eyes at her brother.
"Don't worry about me intruding. I just wanted to pick up a few things before I returned. I have no intention of being around you and your shinigami boy-toy." His comment was snide.
Kusanagi listened to the two argue as he attempted to do his English homework. He was having a hard time because he was remembering the day before when he met with Mayuki's grandfather.
"Please teach me how I can work most effectively with your Granddaughter so that I can best protect her." Kusanagi held a bow before the elder Ishida.
Ryuken considered the young shinigami before him. "Why would you be interested in protecting the living? That is the job of the Quincy."
"What had started out as an order has become personal. The times that she has healed me have made me indebted to her and also she is my friend. That is why I feel it important to be able to protect her."
"I am a harsh taskmaster. I do not pull my punches at the last second. You may very well die under my training. The Quincy technique is just as deadly to shinigami as it is to hollows. " Ryuken spoke with a voice that was colder than the tundra in winter.
Kusanagi gulped and sweatdropped. "I understand."
Kusanagi flexed his left hand that had been grazed by one of Ryuken's arrows. Even after concentrating on healing magic it still tingled a bit.
The arguing siblings started chasing one another about the room as Mayuki had had enough of her brother's rude comments. Their movements had escalated to near flash step speed.
The door opened and Uryuu stepped in. "No hirenkyaku in the house. The last time you two did this it cost me plenty to repair the walls after you shattered them."
The siblings looked somewhat sheepishly at their father. "Sorry Daddy." Mayuki said while looking down with her blinking eyes raised to look at him. Ren just looked away and snorted softly.
Uryuu just shook his head and closed the door retreating to the living room taking a seat next to Orihime. "For all their strengths they are still young. They need to calm down before they wreck the house."
Orihime took his hand in hers. "You wouldn't have them any other way. Admit it, you're proud of them."
"Yes, you're right. I am proud of them. I just wish that they would get along a little better."
"You know better than anyone that they love one another. They just have a hard time expressing themselves. In that respect they aren't much different than you and your father."
"I settled the argument with my father long ago. The only thing we disagree on now is my choice of profession. He would still have me go to Med school and take up the helm of the hospital. I don't want that because of the time that I would be apart from you and the kids. The tailor shop is perfect for me, and you can't argue about the income that I'm making as a result of my designs."
Orihime just pulled him into an embrace and kissed him on the cheek. "And I like having you home too."
Menos Forest:
Matsumoto was looking at the ends of her hair where it had been singed by the cero. "Does she always shoot first and ask questions later?" Her icy tone let everyone know that she was somewhat peeved at having her hair burnt.
"Well, you did pounce on Ikkaku from out of nowhere. Maybe she likes him." Renji commented with more than a little humor in his voice.
"RENJI, What the hell are you insinuating? Me and a hollow?" Ikkaku asked with outrage.
Loly got into Ikkaku's face. "Oh? And just what's wrong with me?"
Ikkaku went forehead to forehead with her. "Aside from the fact that we are mortal enemies, nothing."
"So what? You still owe me a dinner date!" She turned away from him and crossed her arms over her chest, nose in the air.
Matsumoto perked up at that. "Humm? Dinner date? An eleventh division bachelor taking a hollow out on a dinner date?"
Ikkaku looked over at Matsumoto. "She wants lasagna."
Renji commented to Menoly. "Are you sure that she's your sister?"
Menoly let out a sigh. "Yes, she's my sister, although her fascination for food from the real world is a complete mystery to almost every hollow in Hueco Mundo. It started shortly after that monster healed her leg."
"You mean Orihime?" Renji asked. "I'd hardly call her a monster. As a matter of fact she is about as timid as a mouse."
"A mouse that can resurrect the dead." Menoly shivered. "That woman scares me more than Aizen ever did."
"Then I guess that you wouldn't want to meet her children." Renji laughed.
"She had children?!" Menoly's face was in shock.
"Boy and a girl. They are sort of a cross between their mother and their father."
"Who is the father?" Menoly asked praying it wasn't some shinigami.
"It's that Quincy, Ishida."
"The one that beat up Cirucci Thunderwitch?" She shuddered again. "I can't even imagine what sort of monsters they are."
"Oh, they're pretty good kids. They don't do much as a rule to stir up trouble between hollows and shinigami."
Karakura Park:
"Take that back!" Mayuki screamed at Ren.
"Which part? The shinigami boy-toy, or the boyfriend?" Ren responded as he used hirenkyaku to escape his sister's wrath.
She growled low and launched at him with blood in her eye.
Quincy arrows and shun shun rika shilds were flying all over the place as the siblings continued their heated argument.
Kusanagi sighed and sat down under a tree and watched them for a while as they darted about. He pulled out his soul pager and reviewed the latest reports from soul society while occasionally glancing up to make sure they didn't go out of sight. "So much for my English homework. I hope that Kon-sensei will be a little lenient with me."
