Ace napped in the grass of the backyard, not wanting to try and tune out the stupid ghost hunter show that Yuzu and Issho were obsessed with. It had this high pitched opening and the star's voice was hell. So he could usually hear it even up in the room. For once, it was something he couldn't tune out. Well, Kon was the other one, but he'd been staying silent at night, thankfully.

He napped until the alarm clock went off after twenty minutes, and he went inside to get some milk. They were still watching that show.

While he was upstairs, the milk on the clip-on stand that hooked securely to the head of his top bunk so he could have things beside him like the night stand below it, Marco texted. It was a pain texting with the phone he had, but he didn't complain because most phones were shitty with texting.

Want to go see something extremely stupid? Sorano is going and said one more person can come along.

What is it?

Spirits Are Always With You. Some ghost hunter guy, obnoxious but popular.

Oh no. It's infected you, too. If I go I'll die. My family is already doing that stupid fucking laugh thing.

We can go and make fun of it. Though Sorano actually is interested. They'll have food and drinks there.

I guess I can go. But I won't be very enthusiastic or interested about it.

Same. Ace smiled, and they planned the time to go the next day. It would take place at a hospital, abandoned and creepy one. Ace only wanted to go for the food. He went downstairs, the show's marathon blessedly over.

"Hey, I'm going out with friends tomorrow after work."

"We were supposed to go the showing as a family!" Yuzu complained.

"Well, it is at that place. So I'll have to see it, too. I wouldn't be fun to go with you guys, I hate it." Yuzu pouted, and Isshin looked disappointed. "Would you want me being all bored and annoyed?" he asked.

"Well, no. But we can talk about it afterwards," Yuzu admitted. "Ichigo is going with his friends, so I thought you could go with us."

"This time I want to hang out with my own friends," he reasoned. "I spend most of my time with you guys, anyways." He wasn't going to cancel his plans with his friends now. He didn't want to go to be entertained, he wanted food and drinks. And to hang out with his friends. Probably bash it together with Marco. He later found out Ichigo was pressured to go by both all of his friends and his family. He caved, and was going, too.

In the morning, Rukia was buzzed about going to the place, too. Rukia was like he was in the beginning, five months ago. Interested in most of the human things in this world. Ace learned a lot to function, but still learned new stuff all the time. He showered and dressed, and headed to work.

Most days he would come across a hollow. They were popular in the park he walked through to go to work. Even if that building was done being built, this company specialized in a certain area of the city. So he was able to walk there again, only it was about 20 minutes longer. He just left earlier, which wasn't the worst.

This time he ran into a hollow chasing a moving spirit. Ace rushed forward, and punched a hole in its guts. He didn't want to use his fire, punching nothing looked less suspicious than catching on fire. When it bent down Ace gave it a powerful uppercut, and crushed its mask into bits, shattering it into pieces to dissolve.

Ace couldn't speak with the spirit, but it was gone anyways. He dusted off his shorts. Everyone but those who knew about the fire (three people) couldn't understand how he wasn't freezing cold. His fire was sure handy in cold weather. When he made it there, this time he was helping pave with bricks.

This was more fun than carrying shit around every day. He was trusted to not fuck up at anything pretty simple, and he proved them every time that he was capable. Ace was racing with Ace and Shuts to see who could pave fastest, but also the best. Marco usually won all competitions, no matter how small or big, but Ace never stopped trying to top him at anything.

Once the wall was done enough for that day, so it could dry, Ace and Marco moved to helping with the cement, scraping it flat and smooth. It felt good to be trusted at 17 or 18. He didn't know when his birthday was, so it was hard to tell when he'd age up. They were just going to assign his birthday to New Years, which was easiest. So in one month he'd be 18.

After a day full of activities, Ace rinsed off in the handle showers in this set up, and then dried off easily, pretending to use the towel but really not. When he met up outside after all their shifts were done, Marco and Ace were driven by Sorano to the place, going to pick up his daughter first since she wanted to come.

This would most likely end up with Ace and Marco hanging out and Sorano with his kid, and that was fine. Marco was his closest friend (he thought more of Ichigo as a sibling than a friend), so it wasn't that bad. They saw each other out of work often, the age different not mattering to either of them. Ace was younger by a few years, but they got along well.

So when they arrived, there was a huge crowd there. They all wore merchandise from the show or the main ghost hunter guy. Ace linked arms with Marco to not get lost in the crowd, and he and Sorano and his nine year old daughter made a beeline to the food stands. They had a lot of what you'd call carnival food.

Unhealthy foods and drinks. Ace had quite the appetite all the time, but usually hid it to not be obnoxious at dinner. But he'd spent all his money he brought just on food the first twenty minutes. Once the show actually started, Ace heard the moans and looked over towards where it came from to see a blurry figure in front of the hospital.

Holy crap there was actually a ghost there! Was he really a ghost hunter at all? Ace took his last bag of cotton candy, already having chains of candies all tied together wrapped around his chest. "Let's go watch," Ace said.

"Really?"

"I wanna see what he does," Ace said honestly, leaving out much other reason there. He and Marco walked over, having lost Sorano to someone he knew, but planned on meeting back up once the show was over since Marco needed a ride. So they stood at the front of the crowd. Ace watched as the silly dressed man walked forward with cane, facing the blurry figure. He seemed to actually be able to see him. Ace glanced to where Ichigo and Rukia were, insisting he stop, looking worried.

Shit, was this gonna turn bad? Ace tried to get through the crowd to help his friends, who were being held back after making a fuss over him stopping whatever the hell he was doing. Ace had never been able to even hear a spirit before, so the wailing in pain was quite uncomfortable to hear. Marco grabbed his arm and stopped him.

"You shouldn't go over there."

"What? My family is being detained!"

"How will you being detained help them?" Marco asked calmly. "Besides, they already seem to have fixed it." Ace whirled back around to see Rukia still being held, but Ichigo was limp and lifeless. There was no way they killed him, so he saw he was in his shinigami form. Urahara was there, the guy Ace was interested in who came to get Kon out of Ichigo's human body.

Ace was annoyed with Marco before he saw his gaze was directly on the blur, and his face was set and jaw locked. "Wh-what are you looking at, Marco?" Ace asked. But then they heard a loud bang and a bright flash. Ace covered his eyes, and looked to where the screaming blur was. It was gone now, and Ichigo and Rukia both looked shocked and confused.

But ghosts turned into hollows, didn't they? When the chain (which looked like a thin string to Ace) dissolved, they turned into hollows. Did that guy go somewhere else? He didn't think he was invisible, because he couldn't sense him. Well, he was skeptical that was the end, and based on the arguing Ace heard Ichigo take part in, the ghost hunter guy hadn't done anything helpful to the situation.

Ace turned back to Marco. "A blur," he said, seeming cautious. "Could you see it?"

"Yeah! B-But how can you?! Well, how can I, though, too?" Ace asked. Marco shrugged, and said he'd been able to see them all along. "Since you were little?"

"Just as long as I can remember."

"Do you see the monsters, too?"

Marco nodded, saying, "As long as I ignore them and show no sign of seeing them, they leave me alone." Ace turned back to hospital scene where he sensed a growing presence from on the roof of it. "We have lots to talk about later," Ace said. They both watched as nothing gathered into something.

The white body of a monster formed from the bottom up, originally with head and face of a man, white plaster like material burst from the eyes, mouth and nose and formed that skull face. Like a white mask. Why was there a moment of pause? And why did it appear on top of the building? He still knew very little about hollows, but so did Ichigo.

Rukia wasn't all forthcoming with them, and answered questions along the way, saying only important bits. Like how she didn't tell them they were technically killing human souls until after Ace had fun trying new tactics. As Ichigo grabbed the ghost hunter to get him out of harm's way, Ace hurried into the alleyway, Marco hurrying after.

"Don't say shit about this," Ace warned him. "I'm gonna try and kill it from a distance!" he said. Marco didn't question him, and walked over to look, too. Ace pressed his hand on the ground, and was standing in between two very close buildings. He let the fire run in a straight line, forward and up to the roof before it enveloped the hollow, making it roar, but killing it nonetheless. "Haha, I did it! Did you see, that?!" Ace asked Marco, forgetting he shouldn't know that stuff. "Uh..."

"Hah, good job, I guess?" Marco said lightly, seeming entertained.

Ace quirked a brow. "You aren't… bothered?"

"I mean, you killed a monster, didn't you? Isn't that good?"

"Oh, I don't know. The way I usually kill them was passed by Rukia, but this time I burnt it to death. Did others see?!" He looked back through the crack, and it seemed nobody had seen the flames. Just like they didn't see Ace touching the hollows, they didn't see his flames. Useful! "But - why are you so chill? I just made a bunch of fire out of nothing!" Ace said, his confusion and wariness all catching up to him.

"I don't know. Maybe I'm weird," Marco said easily. "Or just fascinated. Well, it sure does make you more interesting. I won't say anything about you, or Ichigo. Your secret's safe with me, and I won't ask unnecessary questions."

Ace believed him. Marco was always true to his words and not someone to gossip. "Okay. Even if you asked questions about it, I have no answers about why I can be on fire."

"Must have been scary at first," Marco said. The crowd had dispersed by now at the explosions and that the ghost hunter man was done with his spiel of doing all the work. Ace couldn't see everyone else, his friends or Ichigo's friends, so he was unsure where they went since the audience dwindled drastically, everyone moving to get autographs or flock the food wagons.

Then Ace remembered his candy and started eating the long candy chain. "We should go meet up again," Marco said, looking at his watch. Ace nodded, and kept a close eye on Marco, to see any sign that he was faking, and it really freaked him out. Ace controlling fire… it was different than some ghosts or monsters.

But he seemed genuine and not freaked out or disgusted. And he didn't ask a thing about Ichigo's appearance and sword, and how he exited his human body. Marco and Ace got into the car, with Sorano animatedly interacting with his very, very excited daughter. Ace and Marco didn't speak, and Ace knew he'd probably never have a kid. There was no way he could fake interest in so many things.

The father and daughter dropped both off at Marco's house, and walked Ace back home. Marco was true to his word, and didn't ask a thing the whole 45 minute walk. It was shocking someone could be so anti-nosy. He dropped him off at home, near dinner time by now. He said goodbye with a bright grin.

"It was a fun time, and now we have more in common!"

"Heh, take me monster hunting with you some time."

"Nah, you couldn't handle it," Ace said. Marco just chuckled, and walked away. Ace turned around to face Yuzu at the door. "That's my friend, Marco. He's a super nice guy, you'd all like him. What's for dinner?" he asked happily.

"Ramen! But I want to do everything for tonight. To see how long it takes me," Yuzu said, Ace taking off his boots at the entrance. Ace needed a nap, and told her to wake him if she needed help, though he knew she'd do no such thing. Ace yawned and walked up to the bedroom. He flopped onto the bed before Ichigo or Rukia could say anything, and fell asleep.

Ichigo woke him twenty minutes later. "Yo, did you like my hollow torch?" Ace asked. Rukia glared at him. "What? It was super fast, wasn't it? And it didn't even scream or make any pained noises, right?"

"You're still playing around with them like toys!"

"How is that any worse than Ichigo chopping off limbs before finishing the job?" Ace demanded. "Isn't that drawing it out? I'm tired of you being mad at me for doing what you should be doing," Ace snapped.

Ichigo raised his brows at Ace's clear irritation and impatience. Rukia frowned, but it seemed Ace stumped her. It really did make no sense why taking them down slow and painfully was better than what he did, which was very quick and clearly made no mess. "I'll kill hollows if I want, how I want."

The room was silent and awkward, and Ace left and grabbed a book from his shelf before heading outside. When the sliding glass door opened, it was Karin that came out. She shut the door behind her, and sat beside him. "Hey, Karin," Ace said. "How'd you like the festival?"

"I guess it was okay. I saw… some weird stuff." Ace nodded. "Ace, will you tell me what Ichigo is in those black robes? He carries a big sword with him." She looked up at him in earnest, and he wasn't going to lie or tell her she was crazy. But it wasn't Ace's secret to give out.

He asked, "Why didn't you ask Ichigo?" She frowned and looked at her feet.

"I don't think he'd tell me the truth. I've seen him like that a couple times. Nobody else can see him but for you. Did it happen because you came? How you have those powers, too…"

Ace closed the book he hadn't been reading, and leaned back on his hands. "It wasn't me that caused it. I don't know if you remember what did, though. You seemed to have forgotten. Remember the hole in the wall, that truck driver that crashed into the house, and you and Isshin and Yuzu were hurt a bit?"

"I… yeah. That's not what happened?"

"Can you see the monsters? Like the one from today?" She nodded, looking frightened of them. "They're called hollows. Ichigo ended up like that because the hollow attacked us all." He wasn't going to speak of Rukia. "I don't know if there's any way for him to go back to normal. He doesn't seem to want to in a way. It's mostly his secret, and he'd be annoyed if I said anything."

"Thank you for being honest about it. I still have questions, but I don't want you and Ichigo to get in a fight. But you don't know about yourself?"

"No fucking clue. I found out that black stuff you saw once is called 'haki', but I still can't explain what it is, since I don't know. I don't know where the fire came from, either. It's one of the only reasons I want to know about my past. Find out why it's like that. I mean, I like it, but I worry. What if I'm some government lab experiment? Or crawled out of hell and ended up here?" he said that part jokingly.

Karin laughed. "I don't think you came from hell. If you did, you're a pretty good liar in not being evil."

"Maybe I'm conditioning you all to trust me so I can feast on you later. Ichigo is the first born child, so I'll go for him first." Karin started to openly laugh. "Hah, don't tell others about this, god forbid they take it seriously."

"Your secret's safe with me," she said, and seemed genuinely much happier than she did when she came to talk.

-x-

"Crap! That's a lot of stuff I need to know," Ace said, looking at the computer that showed the kinds of things he'd need or the exam to get a diploma without attending high school. "I'm okay at most of this stuff but not nearly good enough to pass a test…"

He wasn't alone in the living room, and Isshin looked over. "You don't need to go to college the moment you turn 18. You also have no idea what you want to study."

"Shouldn't I already know what I want to do when I'm older?"

"No. You're young, don't be so worked up. You have plenty of time to learn all those things. You can start now, you know, to feel productive," the man explained. Ace felt odd. Sometimes he felt he came from another country. But in another country he would have known what school was there, so that didn't make sense.

Ace said he was going to the book store. "For what?"

"Science, geography, history, math, english," Ace listed.

"Do you know what kind of those subjects you need?"

"Japanese science, Japanese geography, Japanese history, advanced math, english."

Isshin didn't laugh at him, which was appreciated. Ace was panicked about it, hating not having ever been to any school. He never told anybody, and just said to his coworkers that he was homeschooled. It was just embarrassing. He was sad, now.

"Don't be in such a hurry! First, choose one of those things. Don't immerse yourself and be overwhelmed. That will doom you from the start. What are you most interested in right now? What would you like to learn?" he asked from the couch.

"Geography," Ace said automatically. "It sounds the most interesting."

"Then start at that! Find a geography book that interests you. With only part time work, you have plenty of added time to learn the few subjects needed to pass that test. Sure, it's a lot to learn in your eyes, but digesting what you read instead of going overboard will suit you better in the long run," Isshin said.

Ace blinked. "Why are you never this serious with the others?" he asked, a question he'd had for a long time. The man didn't say anything for a long moment, and Ace didn't know what to expect.

"I'm not sure. It's not that you're a lot more serious than Ichigo. I guess I'm boring around you, huh?"

"I don't know. Sometimes people being overly weird is annoying, but it's not that bad. Though I'd appreciate it if you didn't kick me face in like you do with Ichigo," Ace said. "Just be you, there's no problem with that. I'm gonna go buy a book, now. Bye!" and he left with his wallet. He didn't pay rent, but he helped cover food costs significantly, so he still had his own spending money. It wasn't that much, but he rationed it well for personal use.

He sensed a hollow, and since he had no time to come home, he hurried that way, and found it. He ran at it and shoved a hand through its head, killing it, "Hah, that makes twelve!" he said, dusting his hands off. "Time for books," he muttered and went back the other way. It was during the school day, so Ichigo was busy.

Luckily, he and Rukia had made up and weren't angry anymore. Ace knew she just didn't like him much because he was very different. And he did things very differently from how shinigamis did. She'd live in soul society for her whole life, and there were only humans or shinigamis. Having something weird like Ace might make her uncomfortable.

He had a strong feeling he'd seen some weird shit in his life and that's why he got used to shinigami and hollows fairly easily. He went to the book store in the shopping center not far from Yuzu and Karin's school, and perused the science area until he got to the geology and geography aisle. There were so many for so many places. He should choose one more like a textbook or encyclopedia. But he didn't know what to pick.

A woman near him looked smart, so maybe she was a teacher. And she was older, so she probably went to some form of school. "Excuse me, miss?" he asked, surprising her. "I have to learn geography for a college acceptance test. I never went to school, and I can't decide which book to choose."

"You look like you don't go to school. Shouldn't you be spending time learning instead of abusing steroids?" she said rudely, looking him up and down. Ace was confused with the rudeness.

"Fine, it seems you aren't knowledgeable enough to help a seventeen year old either. Sorry for the inconvenience," he said in a sickly sweet voice, and went to the book store owner. It left the rude woman in shock that he'd speak to her that way. He asked the book store owner the same, but just said it was to refresh on things he'd learned a long time ago.

This woman easily helped him pick out a book from 2020 that covered all the basics. "Once you relearn these basics, you'll be able to pick books with more useful information. Think of it like a stepping stone." Ace smiled brightly and thanked her for her kindness. He walked right past the rude woman, "Have a nice afternoon, lady," and left.

He was on a high on sort of standing up for himself. He would have felt worse if she'd not commented on his looks, because then her rude words mostly sounded petty and pointless. On his way back home, Ace felt a hollow nearby. He turned and hurried that way, nearly skipping. He got a book and it was the beginning of getting smart!

When he found the hollow, some other guy in white was there. He shot an arrow and it died. "Whoa!" Ace said in awe. "What was that?!"

The guy frowned at him. He was a teenager, and started to walk away. Ace wanted to follow, but he didn't. Well, he'd ask Rukia about it later. Maybe there were bows along with swords. But he wasn't dressed like Rukia or Ichigo. Hmm. Seemed like he didn't want to talk about it, and while it was kind of annoying, Ace thought he was warranted to not want to talk about something like that to a stranger.

It was cool anyways.

He sensed Ichigo on his hour long walk back, mostly because he was meandering on his day off. He made a beeline to him, and saw him slowly walking in the direction that was not home. Ace quirked a brow and walked up behind him. "Where the hell are you going?" Ace asked, making Ichigo jump.

"How long are you going to follow me, Kurosaki Ichigo?" that guy said. The one who ignored Ace.

"You blew my cover," Ichigo hissed.

"I knew you were watching me from the class with Inoue-san."

"Wow, great job, amazing." Ichigo did not like this guy. Ace had no idea who he was really, and he knew Ichigo never met him or noticed him or he'd have heard a rant or sleep talking about the guy.

"It's due to their foolish inability to control your spiritual power. Even a monkey would know." Ace looked at Ichigo, who glanced to him, and the older shrugged, not knowing what he was talking about. But it was clearly an insult.

"Did you kick his puppy or some shit?" Ace asked.

"I didn't do anything to him. He just randomly told me he hated me. I've never even talked to him before, let alone given him a reason to hate me."

"I hate you because you're a shinigami. I've known you were one since that day you changed. You already had ridiculously high amount of spirit energy already. I also know Kuchiki Rukia's true identity."

Suddenly his close friend's eyes widened. "What, what is it?" Ace asked, not seeing anything new.

"I see he can't see them, but you can." Something invisible to Ace. Bummer. He moved to stand against the wall to the left of them and just watch this confrontation. "They're called spiritual threads. Something that compresses and visualizes the spiritual auras in the atmosphere. Only upper level shinigami can see them and only upper level shinigami can touch them." Oh, okay, then it was normal Ace couldn't see them. Damn, Ichigo was upper level already? Nice.

"As a shinigami, you should have heard of that," the white dress teenager said. "However, did you know that shinigami's threads are a different color?" He grabbed something Ace couldn't see. What color was his thread? Maybe orange. He was made of fire after all. "I am a quincy, one that holds the power to kill hollows."

"Am I a quincy?" Ace interrupted, raising his hand. "I can kill hollows, too."

"I don't know what you are. You're not a quincy or shinigami," he said.

"Ah man," Ace mumbled, wishing he could find an easy way to figure out why he was the way he was.

The quincy turned back to Ichigo, and challenged him to a fight to see which of them was stronger. Ace wondered why the quincy seemed so angry at Ichigo, bitter, even. This guy seemed to have a deep seated anger and looked like he was taking it out on Ichigo. He also looked and sounded like he had a stick up his ass.

"I'll make you understand that shinigami aren't necessary in this world," he finished with a cocky, condescending smirk.

"A fight between me and you?"

"That's right. In this world, shinigami are unnecessary."

Ace was impressed when Ichigo said, "I refuse to get into a stupid fight with you and waste time and energy. This is unnecessary." He was flippant about it, refusing to be provoked. Ace smiled proudly of his friend/surrogate younger brother. For some reason, he didn't like calling Ichigo a completely brother. Maybe deep inside it was because he knew he'd already had siblings.

"I see, I remember. You're a shinigami whose powers were granted to you by Kuchiki Rukia. You're just a 'temporary shinigami'. You can't even lift a finger without her permission." This got to him, and Ace grimaced at the sick burn. He adjusted his book bag out of his hand and around his forearm.

"...What did you say?" Ichigo asked angrily. Then he smiled. "Fine, let's give this competition a try." Ichigo pulled out Kon's mod-soul pill and ate it, separating his human and shinigami bodies."

"I want to play," Ace said.

"This isn't playing," the quincy said dismissively.

"Sure it is. You're going to see who can kill more hollows. I mean, that's what you both seem to have in common. Don't know how you're going to summon them, but I want to take part, too," Ace explained, clearly hitting the nail on the head.

The orange hair was much less cool about this. "What are you thinking?! Are you trying to get innocent people killed?! Just for a superficial challenge?! Who the hell do you think you are?!" he shouted at the quincy angrily. He didn't snap at Ace, but sent him a glare. Well, at least if this happened, Ace could help get rid of them, too.

But it was true a lot of people could get hurt by this. "Keep your morality to yourself!" the quincy shouted. He indeed had a stick shoved up his ass under his white clothing. A very uncomfortable one that made him cold and mean. "Worrying about others is unnecessary! I will kill the gathered hollows without single survivor! You as well. If you have confidence to protect innocent people from hollows, you should be able to take on this challenge."

Then cracks opened in the sky, showing a black void. It sent chills up Ace's spine as he watched large hollows crawl out. There were more cracks around, and Ichigo tackled the quincy, shouting at him to return it to how it was. Then he started shooting arrows at the hollows as long distance attacks, even laying on the ground with Ichigo throttling him to try and get him to stop. There were already a ton out of the sky crack.

Ace ran to the nearest hollow, not sure of this, now. He had his own long distance attacks, and had found out that he only needed small amounts of flame sent for a hollow to burst on fire and die. He got on roofs, laying down as he shot small beams of fire out. They dissipated quickly as they traveled through the air, but as long as it hit, they worked. He took down six in an instant.

Heading to the others, he brought down one after another. Since the killings were quick, and he had to hide his very visible body each time, it wasn't as fun as other times. But this time he couldn't waste any time and play, even if he still knew it was a wrong way to think. He still killed them fast, though, so that was all that mattered.

He would never admit this hunt was pretty fun and exhilarating, and he was keeping numbers. There was immense pressure, and he sprinted and jumped from roof to roof, still holding the bag with his book around his upper arm. It was plastic, not paper, which was good or it would have ripped long ago. He jumped from roof to roof perfectly, landing neatly.

In his old life, he was sure he did parkour or climbed things often, since he could climb up sides of buildings and everything! He shot fire at a huge hollow above, dropping from the crack in the sky, still there and producing the monsters. "23, bitch!" Ace called, and continued on. All the people he passed could not see them.

But when he was on a very tall building, he saw something on fire, blue and gold flames. There were hollows that way, so he ran towards there, and looked down the alleyway where the fire had been. Whatever it was was gone, and left Ace disappointed. Some part of him had wanted so badly to see what it was, but now he couldn't.

When he attacked a small hollow, he'd killed it with a stomp, but the mask didn't break. That wasn't normal at all. At least he was never told it was. Was it a souvenir? He's ask Rukia. When he felt no hollows in the area, but sensed Ichigo and Rukia, he headed there. Jumping from the roof near the little alley they were in with the quincy, Ace surprised them by jumping too late and slamming into the wall right beside Ichigo.

"I'm fine!" he said immediately, and he was. Kon in Ichigo's normal body was there. "Ah, you guys in an argument again?" he wondered. "Have you been killing hollows? I got 76 so far."

"That doesn't matter, it shouldn't have come to this in the first place! We should have fought between us, not jeopardize peoples' lives! We'll fight one on one!" Ichigo shouted at the quincy, whose name he still didn't know. Looking at his hand that pulled the string back on his bow, his fingers were bleeding. Maybe he passed his limit.

Before they could continue their argument, which seemed to have started well before Ace arrived, a huge crack appeared,spreading outwards from the original crack, all the little ones forming together as dozens of hollows disappeared. Well, 76 was pretty good, and he was tired. The quincy ran off to deal with his mess. "Why's he hate Ichigo so much when he didn't do anything to him?" Ace asked.

"Because all the quincy are dead. And those that killed every last one - we thought - were killed by shinigami. He holds a justified grudge, clearly. 200 years ago, they went extinct. But it was to save the world from destruction." She explained about the fact that the quincy killed hollows and did not send them to soul society like shinigami did. Because the souls of the hollows did not go to soul society. Shinigami are responsible to regulate souls, and those in the next life return to reality as new living beings.

"Shinigami know what they're doing with regulating rebirth. It was up to us, and we did our job correctly. The balance was kept between both worlds. Then the quincy came. Their way of doing things was different than ours. They destroyed hollows completely, not sending them to the next life. Unlike your odd situation, they are unable to send souls to the next life even if they wanted to. But they had no desire to.

"The souls do not go to soul society then, and so they only stay in the living world. That ruins the balance, and soul society would spill over into the living world because the balance would tip more to reality, where more souls are returned to. A chaos that mixes life and death. In other words, it would be the destruction of the world," she explained in depth.

Ace frowned. "Wait, the ones I kill go to soul society?" he wondered.

"It seems to be that way by the way they disintegrate. The quincy's version explodes in light," Rukia said. "But I can't be sure from here."

Ichigo asked, "Did the shinigami even warn them before you committed genocide?" He sounded bitter about that part.

"No, the shinigami tried to reason with them, but they wouldn't have it, too obstinate. So, the only option left was to get rid of them in the only permanent way they could. By killing them all. It was a hard decision, but it helped keep the balance. Things went back to normal afterwards."

"Am I gonna be killed, too?" Ace asked, not sounding afraid, just curious, leaning against the wall he'd just crashed into, his book bag still on his arm.

"There's only one person out there like you. I doubt you'll be targeted. In the grand scheme of things, you don't exist," Rukia said bluntly. But Ace had no problem with that. He even had no problem going after hollows if he was threatened about it or anything. It wasn't his occupation. He wasn't bound to it like Ichigo and other shinigami.

"Well, should we get back to hollow hunting?" Ace asked.

"I want to go after Ishida," Ichigo stated. Then he ran off.

"Do you even know where he is?!" Ace called. Ichigo stopped.

"Uh, yeah!" He totally didn't, but clearly didn't want help tracking them.

"Did you really kill that many hollows?" Rukia asked Ace, facing him now. Ace nodded, confirming this.

"That's quite the feat," she said, actually sounding a bit impressed. "How did you kill them?"

"Burning them. Oh, look what I found!" Ace said, and pulled the hollow skull out of the plastic shopping bag. "It came off but the main body died." Rukia grew angry, and ordered him to destroy it. "But it's a souvenir." She punched his head, and he grumbled before breaking it with a haki covered foot. "There. Happy?"

But she looked troubled. "That isn't normal. The face needs to be broken for them to be destroyed. How did you really kill it?"

"I stomped on it. It was smaller, but I didn't do anything special with it," Ace explained. Ace froze when he saw a blue light from the other alleyway, lighting up the side of the building. Saying nothing to Rukia, he sprinted after the blue light, and peeked around the corner, seeing nobody special. But then he recognized the hair. "Hey! Marco!" Ace called brightly, running after him. The blond turned around, looking worried and unsure. "Why the hell didn't you say you could catch on fire too?!" Ace demanded, slightly annoyed but mostly interested. His flames looked nothing like Ace's.

Marco looked very uncomfortable. But he responded fairly quickly. "I didn't want to freak you out." Ace gave him a deadpanned face, knowing that was a lie. "I didn't want to do anything to bother you." Ace frowned, not understanding. "I don't want to talk about it." The teen sighed, but didn't ask again.

"Well, I should get back to hunting hollows. Bye bye!"

"Have fun."

"Don't tell anyone! That's a secret!" Ace shouted back. He sensed a huge amount of hollows in one place, and hurried there, only to find Ichigo and Ishida standing back to back. Well, Ace had gotten over 80 by now, he could stop for today. And he already had an experiment about keeping that weird mask. Was it really that unnatural? So how did Ace dismember it?

It was a question he felt wouldn't be answered anytime soon since Rukia had no idea either. Thinking he shouldn't help the two high schoolers, Ace climbed up the side of the nearest building, and sat on the roof, legs hanging over the side. None of the hollows saw him as he watched and heard Ichigo getting along with Ishida. Making new friends, maybe.

He kicked his feet back and forth silently, neither of them realizing he was there. While Ishida had said he could sense the spiritual stuff, it didn't work on Ace. Did he really have none of that stuff? So what was he, where did he come from? If a quincy had that, why didn't Ace? It wasn't only for shinigami, Ace thought that Chad could see ghosts and some hollows, so did he have spiritual pressure, too?

Then they heard a more deafening rip, and looked as the hollows faced the sky. Ace was distracted with this colossal enemy, clearly a type of hollow, to see that Urahara, the man who showed up to get Kon before they kept him, and three others, two kids he saw when chasing Kon in Ichigo's body. Ace watched the huge thing try to open the tear in the sky with bony hands.

They only realized he was on the building when he shouted, "I CALL DIBS ON THAT ONE!" and jumped from roof to roof to get closer.

"Wait, Ace! You can't fight that!" Rukia shouted.

"Damnit, I'll be the one to get it!" Ichigo shouted, but then Ishida came. Ace jumped off the building and landed gracefully, leaving his book on the roof of the building he'd been stationed at for a few moments. He wondered what Isshin thought of him taking so long to get a single book. He was super hands off, so he probably didn't care or worry.

Ace sprinted through the groups of people, and arrived at the bottom of the monster. He looked up as it ate other hollows with a huge tongue and then exposed teeth. It was huge, and looked like it could be wearing a long, black cape or poncho, with a white face and long white nose. Ace rocked up with his fire, nobody watching.

It sure was helpful nobody usually saw him doing strange things, even if he usually tried to be at least a little discrete. When he lost momentum, he dug his fingers into it, climbed rapidly, swinging around.

It opened its mouth to eat him, but he shot fire into its mouth, hanging off of its nose with one arm. It thrashed around, moaning loud enough Ace's ears rang afterwards. He was grinning like a madman. "That the best you can do?! Shout?!" he taunted, overcome with the thrill of this huge enemy.

He swing back up and covered both arms in haki, and slammed it into his head, then allowing himself to fall, ripping a hole in it as he shot fire inside. It screamed again, injured deeply. Ace watched it flee, severely damaged and swaying, entering the crack. Ace fell, and landed with a roll.

"Woohoo! Did you see that?!" Ace shouted, arms pumped up. Everyone he knew looked at him in shock. Had he done something wrong? "What's the problem? I got it to go away, didn't I?"

"Holy shit, Ace. What the hell kind of life did you live before?!" Ichigo demanded.

"You sure were having fun," Urahara said, sounding amused. The two children were shocked. Rukia looked shaken.

Ace nodded. "I mean, I got to see how strong I was, too. I dunno what ever made me this good of a fighter, but it was awesome!" he said brightly, proudly. He sighed, and sat down. "Now I'm tired…" and he passed out.

"Is he alright?" Ishida asked.

Ichigo nodded. "He has narcolepsy," he said. Ace was snoring lightly. Ichigo retook his body from Kon, and picked up Ace over his shoulder. "I'm taking him home. Oi, Rukia. Can you go to that building Ace was sitting on? He left his book there. What? He defeated that 'Menos' thing, surely you can go get his book," he orange head in light annoyance.

So, she went to get Ace's book, and Ichigo carried him back home, a long walk, but Ace was exhausted. When he got home, Rukia was there, having gone very fast. He opened the door and brought Ace to their room.

Isshin was working in the clinic, so he didn't see Ace, who was dirty and sleepy. What a damn eventful day.