Ichigo Kurosaki was starting to let his anger towards the Incubators get the better of him. He patrolled the city whenever he had the chance, trying to find them as quickly as possible - they needed to have a talk with his zanpakuto. And his hollow. With lots of explosions. Perhaps a casualty or two.
He also went to Urahara's shop daily to see if the man had any luck reversing the conversion of his sisters' souls into soul gems...and always came back out just as disappointed.
Even Orihime apparently couldn't do anything about it; the Incubators clearly had anticipated the possibility of anyone trying to undo the damage, because they found themselves rushing her to the nearest hospital when Karin's soul gem reacted violently, and unexpectedly released a wave of condensed magic directed at the orangette before anyone had the chance to react. Because of it's fiery nature, she got horrible burns all over the more important internal organs, and was currently still in a coma despite their efforts in discreetly using healing kido whenever the nurses had their backs turned.
Had it have been anyone else in their group, they probably would have been able to power through it, but Orihime wasn't used to receiving grievous injuries since she never really got on the front lines during the Winter War.
Ichigo made sure there was always someone to keep an eye on the twins - or more specifically, their soul gems - to make sure they weren't too corrupted and didn't get attacked by other Puella Magi, and his father accompanied the two in the labyrinths whenever he wasn't available. He even convinced his father to have them homeschooled to get rid of the possibility of them going in a labyrinth alone during school hours or lunchbreak.
Needless to say, the girls didn't appreciate being 'continuosly stalked', as they put it, and perhaps the older teen wouldn't have been so obsessed if it weren't for hisabsolute failure...but now, Ichigo couldn't care less.
He had to protect them properly this time. If that meant stripping away their freedom until the situation was finally dealt with, then so be it.
...He desperately wanted revenge on the Incubators.
The orangette was abruptly brought out of his thoughts when he felt a burning glare on the side of his face. He turned to see an angry Karin and a tired but upset Yuzu.
He thought of scolding them for being up at this hour - it wasn't even five a.m yet - but didn't bother. It wouldn't work anyway, not with he way the relationship between him and his sisters was beginning to strain thanks to their lack of freedom.
Ichigo was wondering why the two had come into his room without knocking though, but Karin answered his question before he had the chance to ask.
"IT'D BE FUCKING NICE IF YOU'D STOP THROWING YOUR GODDAMN REIATSU AROUND! HOW THE HELL DO YOU EXPECT ANYONETO SLEEP WHEN WE ALL FEEL LIKE WE'RE ABOUT TO BE MURDERED?!", she yelled to his face, not caring in the least about the fact that she'd probably woken up the whole block with her screaming.
"You know I can't control it. Deal with it.", he replied coldly, not in the mood for this so early in the morning.
Lately, he'd been having nothing but conflicts with the ravenette it seemed. The same could be said with Yuzu ; she ignored him for the most part and only communicated with him whenever she deemed it necessary - which was, as it turned out, incredibly rare. Both were giving their father the same treatment, though it didn't really seem to affect him. Ichigo could only wish he had that kind of patience.
"DEAL WITH IT, HE SAYS! I'M TRYING TO PROTECT YOU, HE SAYS! SCREW YOUR DUMBASS VERSION OF PROTECTION! ALL YOU'RE DOING IS IMPRISONING US!", the black-haired Kurosaki roared, red with anger.
Frustration joined the anger in his reiatsu.
Why couldn't they understand?! He was trying to help them for god's sake! Were they really that immature?!
Yuzu's eyes narrowed dangerously. Of course she heard that. No concept of privacy whatsoever, he couldn't even think freely anymore! Fan-fucking-tastic!
"I DON'T CAREIF YOU CAN'T SEE THAT I'M TRYING TO DO WHAT'S BEST FOR YOU! IT'D BE NICE IF YOU'D JUST TRUST -!"
"Yes, well why don't we take a look at where trusting you has got us.", Yuzu cut in with a quiet but acid tone. Not waiting for him to answer, she started counting off her fingers.
"First of all, you didn't tell us enough about just about everything and we always had to rely on an outside source - usually Hitsugaya-kun - because you supposedly would keep us safe by making us ignorant. I sure felt safe when I was kidnapped and dragged to hell - literally- without even knowing what was going on, and not having the faintest clue how to defend myself. Second, you clearly weren't paying attention when Karin and I were taken into the first labyrinth we'd ever encountered. Had you have been monitoring us, you would have noticed our reiatsu dissappear, but you had no clue anythinghad happened - even though Karin was obviously disoriented and I was wearing borrowed clothes when we came back home that day. In fact, daddy was the one to tell you that my reiatsu was missing. I'm sure the both of us felt incredibly safe knowing that you never noticed! Last, but certainly not least, with the way you've been treating us, neither of us have had pleasant emotions lately, meaning that our soul gems are getting much darker a lot faster than the usual. But, I suppose you don't care about that, do you? Oh, and it's been harder to find witches lately, but of course you've been completely oblivious to that as well."
The brunette raised a brow, as though challenging him to tell her that a single thing she'd said was wrong. Ichigo stayed silent, having nothing suitable to reply. She sure knew how to hit where it hurt.
As though trying to make him feel worse, she added:
"And a nice bonus is the fact that you knew something happened to Akemi-san once Ishida-kun called to notify you of it, but decided that we didn't need to know that. Don't try to deny it, I heard you. I'm absolutely sure you would have wanted to know if something happened to a friend of yours, wouldn't you? But, nah, your friends' safety is much more important than that of ours.
You aren't protecting us, Onii-chan. You're being a selfish asshole."
The orangette just glared at the wall behind them, trying hard to reign in his nigh-uncontrollable temper. Yuzu had never spoken to him like that before (or cursed, for that matter).
"...Get out of my room.", he growled.
0.0
Homura woke up to a completely different environment.
She could tell without looking that she wasn't injured in the least, though that directly contradicted what had transpired before she had lost consciousness.
Everything felt...different. Off. Like she was there but she wasn't at the same time, almost.
Her senses came to her, and she finally opened her eyes.
Nothing made sense.
She was on the roof of a building — a skyscraper — that was engulfed in violet flames, along with the rest of a very developed city. Purple meteors rained down and wrecked havoc all around, puppet-like children floated in the air, repeatedly screaming "Gott ist tot!", and there was a black void above her instead of a sky.
Red webs connected all the buildings of the city, and the air smelled of lilies despite all of the smoke rising from the fires.
Despite the chaos and destruction, Homura was strangely...at peace. It was like she'd known the place her entire life, and had just remembered, as strange as it seemed.
The ravenette wasn't startled when she heard an emotionless voice from her right, although she had absolutely no idea anyone else had been around.
"...I see you finally came."
She turned to face the owner of said voice, and saw something she wasn't entirely sure she wasn't expecting.
What seemed to be a woman at first glance floated beside her, gazing stoically at the city. She was so pale she practically looked like porcelain, and her impossibly long jet-black hair trailed on the ground behind her. She had unnaturally glowing red eyes, with red tear tracks down her face. She also wore an extravagant black gown with a dark purple ribbon around the waist and a crown of red lilies.
Homura wasn't entirely sure if she considered her to be beautiful or creepy.
The woman didn't bother turning her head to face her, instead settling for glancing at the ravenette out the corner of her eye before focusing on the destroyed city once more.
"Who are you?", asked Homura, surprising herself. She really should have asked where she was, or perhaps how she got there in her opinion.
"...You may call me Homulilly.", she answered flatly.
"As for where you are, you are currently looking in your soul. It would seem that that hideous creature has tampered with it, however. What a shame...I enjoyed the stargazing while it lasted."
Homulilly momentarily looked up, before continuing :
"You have business outside. Leave."
And with a dismissive flick of her hand, Homura was gone.
...
...
...
Homura opened her eyes — her real eyes — with a start, finding herself in a bedroom she didn't recognize.
The teen immediately summoned her soul gem, and to her shock, it looked completely different.
Instead of seeing what would look like a decoration in the shape of a fabergé egg, she found herself looking at what was eerily similar to a grief seed. Her purple gem was now a sphere, located where there would normally be an empty hole in the middle of a regular grief seed.
She turned it back into it's jewel form — which was now, as it turned out, an earring — as an aura...no, a reiatsu signature came towards her, and the individual opened the door.
It turned out to be the same young man she saw just before losing consciousness.