Wow, the amount of positive feedback I got for the first chapter was amazing! I'm glad so many people are supportive of this idea. Requests for pairings are still open; the only suggestion I got was to put Matsumoto with Koga and bring Hinamori in to be with InuYasha. This actually isn't a bad idea, but then again, I'm not the one reading this; you are, so tell me what you think!
Once again, thank you so much to all who reviewed.
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, InuYasha, or any related characters. Seriously, would you really want to see these pairings in the actual shows?
Miroku looked at the strange beings in front of him, his mind still digesting everything he had heard. He wasn't sure what to make of it all. It wasn't that he didn't believe them, exactly; he just had a hard time adjusting to the concept of Shinigami and Hollows. His gaze wandered to Hitsugaya, the Death God that had done most of the explaining. His eyes narrowed as he noticed what the white-haired boy was staring at; or rather, who he was staring at, since his eyes were intently fixed on Sango.
Well, two can play at that game, the monk thought as he stood and began to walk over to the Shinigami.
"Oi, Rukia, would you get off my head?" Ichigo yelled up at the black-haired girl whose foot was pushing his head further into the ground. During the explanation of why the Shinigami had come to the Sengoku Jidai, Rukia had either forgotten what she was standing on, or was just having too much fun annoying the orange-headed Shinigami Representative. Most likely the latter.
Rukia looked down. "Oh, sorry," she said, taking her sweet time in removing her foot. "I forgot you were down there."
"Why you..."
"Ahem," Miroku said, approaching Rukia. He now had the attention of everyone in the area, Shinigami, humans, and demons alike. Rukia blinked. "Yes?" She was answered with the sudden grasp of her hands by the monk, who was now down on one knee. "Would you consider bearing my child?"
Silence swept the area as all present just stared at the strange scene in front of them. Rukia blinked again, once, then twice, before turning to Ichigo. "What does he mean, Ichigo?" she asked, confused. "How does one bear a child? We don't have to worry about that in Soul Society, do we?"
Miroku sweatdropped, but didn't give up; instead he stood back up and walked over to Matsumoto, repeating the proceedure. There was more silence, but this one didn't last long.
"You pervert!" Sango yelled, appearing behind him and leaving a large bump on his head with her Hiraikotsu. She was surprised to find that she wasn't the only one attacking the monk: there was soon another bump to match the first where Hitsugaya had whacked him with his fist, muttering "Idiot" under his breath. Matsumoto just laughed. "Sorry, sweetie. I'm already dead, so I don't think it would work."
"Don't encourage him, Matsumoto," Hitsugaya sighed as Sango dragged the perverted monk back to the rocks they were sitting on. The Taijiya had a scary look on her face that caused Miroku to flinch when she glared at him. "Seriously, Miroku!" she said, sounding just as mad as she looked. "They come here to help us, and you just had to be your usual perverted self. What were you thinking?"
"But Sango," Miroku whined as his captor ceased dragging him over the ground. "You know I can't help it! Besides, how was I supposed to know they were already dead?"
"That's not the point!" Sango yelled. "Besides, it should have been obvious! They're Death Gods!"
"But that doesn't necessarily mean they're dead…"
"Ahem." The two stopped arguing as Hitsugaya cleared his throat. "If you two are done, may we continue?" Both turned a light shade of red as they nodded, noticing that the temperature seemed to have dropped a little.
"As I was saying," Hitsugaya continued, his eyebrow twitching slightly, "we're not entirely sure about the cause of the sudden Hollow appearance. That's why we're here. We need to find out why they're here, and who's behind it. So, as of now, we will be traveling with you."
"What the hell? You never mentioned anything about that!" InuYasha protested. "Besides, you guys are trained to fight those things, right? It doesn't seem like you'd need our help."
"We don't," Hitsugaya replied flatly. "But, as we mentioned earlier, all of you have abnormal amounts of reiatsu. That means that whether we're with you or not, they will keep coming after you. At your current level, you will be no match for any of the stronger ones. Which is why we are going to teach you all how to use your reiatsu to your advantage when fighting them."
"Teach…us?" Kagome said as she and her friends exchanged glances.
"Yup!" Matsumoto said, stepping up beside Hitsugaya. "Oh, but Taichou, we have a problem. Including the cute little kitsune, there's five of them and only four of us. I thought we were each going to teach one!"
"We can always call for someone else if we need to," Hitsugaya replied. "In the mean time, I suppose one of us can just help two at once." It can't be that hard to instruct someone how to properly use their reiatsu, he thought, though he had never actually done it before.
"Um," Kagome said after a moment, "maybe we should get to know each other a little more first. I mean, Matsumoto-san said that you were going to teach us one-on-one, right? I just thought that before we did that, we should at least spend a little time together first. You don't even know our names, do you?"
"Yes, learning their names sounds like a great idea!" Ichigo said, grateful for the chance to get away from Rukia for a moment. Ever since she had been asked by Miroku, she wouldn't stop bugging him on the proper ways to bear a child on Earth. Needless to say, this wasn't exactly a subject that Ichigo was comfortable with.
So the group introduced themselves: First Kagome, then InuYasha, Shippo, Miroku, and finally Sango. "And this is Kirara," she finished, gesturing to the small feline beside her. "She's so cute!" Matsumoto squealed, running over and picking the neko up. Kirara mewed softly as the Shinigami pressed her gently against her face. "Isn't she adorable, Taichou?" Hitsugaya just grunted.
"If you don't mind me asking, why do you call him 'Taichou'?" Sango asked, reaching out and taking Kirara back. Matsumoto looked at her as if that were the most obvious question in the world, then laughed. "I guess we never explained that, did we? In Soul Society, there are thirteen different divisions. The members in each one are ranked according to strength. Hitsugaya-taichou is the captain of the Tenth Division, and I'm the vice-captain. Rukia over there is in the Thirteenth Division. Since Kurosaki isn't dead yet, he's only a Shinigami Representative and isn't in a division."
Everyone shot Hitsugaya a look that said, "He's a captain?" The tensai glared back. "Don't even say it," he said, which stopped any comments that the others were sure to say. He seemed about to say something more, but was stopped by a loud ROAR echoing throughout the forest.
"What was that?" InuYasha asked, instinctively drawing his Tetsusaiga. Hitsugaya looked at him. "Don't bother," he said, reaching to his own sword on his back and placing and hand on the hilt. "It's a Hollow. Leave this to me."
"Taichou, you really don't have to," Matsumoto said. "I'll take care of it. There's no need for you too." Hitsugaya sighed. "Thanks, Matsumoto, but I'm in the mood to do it myself." As he said this, the Hollow burst into the clearing. Along with its traditional white mask, this one had a large white shell on its back that was covering in spikes.
The small captain took a step forward before leaping into the air, headed straight for the creature. The Hollow let out another cry and shot multiple spikes at him, which he easily dodged with superhuman speed. As he got closer, he pulled the sword from its sheath. "Descend upon the frozen sky, Hyourinmaru!" There was a flash of blue, and the Hollow was gone. Hitsugaya landed gracefully on the ground, Hyourinmaru already back in its sheath.
The group stared in awe. "That was…amazing," Kagome said, breaking the silence. "So that's a captain's strength?" Hitsugaya gave a slight nod. "Of course, that was a weak one. It seems as though the stronger ones haven't appeared here yet." He turned to look at them. "So, anyone have any objections to us traveling with you?" Everyone shook their heads, InuYasha muttering, "Whatever."
"Well, now that that's settled," Hitsugaya turned to look at his comrades. "Matsumoto, what are Kurosaki and Kuchiki arguing about?"
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The Shinigami had never fought demons before.
When the first one had attacked, the group was startled, to say the least. It had been a large snake demon with venom visibly dripping from its large fangs. "Why doesn't it have a mask?" Rukia had asked, confused. InuYasha had jumped up and defeated it with one swing of his Tetsusaiga, a smirk on his face.
"That was a demon," Kagome said, answering their blank stares. "I guess they're kind of similar to Hollows, only they're not dead and don't have masks. Shippo and Kirara are demons, and InuYasha is a half-demon. It looks like we all have our strengths and weaknesses, huh?"
The Death Gods soon found out that their Zanpakutos were almost completely ineffective against them. The Soul Slayers, as their name implied, were normally used to purify souls and send them to Soul Society; their power was not supposed to be used against living creatures. When Matsumoto had attacked one, Haineko drawn, the sword had only bounced off and she had been hit with the demon's large claws. In a sword's Shikai or Bankai form, it would surely do at least some damage, but in its normal stage the Zanpakuto wasn't very effective at all. This left InuYasha and his friends to take care of the youkai, while the Shinigami dealt with the Hollows.
It soon became clear that, in order to be able to fight the Hollows, special training was indeed necessary for the humans and demons. Despite Hitsugaya's warnings, InuYasha had tried to fight one of them using his Tetsusaiga. The wound he had received had bled for ten minutes straight before finally stopping. Miroku's Wind Tunnel, while it had impressed the Shinigami, had only managed to suck up rocks and other such debris instead of the actual Hollow. Kagome had been too busy tending to InuYasha to shoot an arrow, and Sango could barely see the Hollow, let alone attack it. In the end, it had been Ichigo who had defeated it.
"Next time, leave the Hollows to us, got it?" Ichigo said as he put his sword back on his back. InuYasha snorted. "Yeah, same goes for you and the demons," he replied. The two then proceeded to glare at each other until Kagome had yelled, "Sit!" and sent the hanyou crashing into the ground.
Rukia smirked. "I wish I had one of those necklaces," she said after Kagome explained how she was able to 'sit' InuYasha. She shot a sideways glance at Ichigo as she said this, smiling evilly. "What the hell do you mean by that?" The Shinigami Representative asked, glaring back at her.
Sango sighed, watching two different arguments: the one between Ichigo and Rukia as well as InuYasha and Kagome yelling back and forth about why Kagome had told him to sit. She stood up, grabbing a water container. "I'm going to go get some water," she said to no one in particular as she began to walk away. Glancing over her shoulder she saw Miroku talking with Matsumoto (about what, she didn't want to know), and Shippo was playing with Kirara. The only other one who wasn't doing something was…
"You shouldn't go alone," Hitsugaya said, suddenly appearing beside her. "You know, in case a Hollow attacks. I'll go with you." With his arms folded across his chest, he began walking in the direction of a nearby stream.
"Thanks," Sango said, jogging a little to catch up with him. Even walking, the Shinigami was fast. They walked in silence for awhile before Hitsugaya spoke. "You have a hard time seeing Hollows, don't you?"
Startled by the question, Sango was silent for awhile before answering. "Yes," she said quietly. "I can't see them as well as my friends can, and I usually just get in the way during battle because of it." She placed a hand on her Hiraikotsu. "I'm a demon slayer, not a Hollow slayer. Most of the time my weapon isn't even effective against them." They had reached the stream now, and Sango bent down and placed the container in the rushing water. She gave her companion a small smile. "Sorry for ranting like this, especially to someone I hardly know."
"It's fine," Hitsugaya grunted, uncrossing his arms and letting them hang by his side. "I'm the one who asked, aren't I? Actually, you're a lot like Kurosaki, in the way that you have a lot of reiatsu for being a normal human." When Sango looked surprised, he continued. "I must admit, at first it seemed as if you had almost none at all. But you actually have a lot of potential."
"I doubt that," the Taijiya said softly, lifting the container from the stream. "There's no way I could have that kind of ability. I wasn't even strong enough to save my family…" Her voice trailed off; she hadn't meant to say the last part out loud. Before Hitsugaya could ask what she meant, however, there was a loud whizzing sound behind them; a second later, Sango dropped the container as a sudden pain spread throughout her hand.
Author's notes:
"Sorry, sweetie. I'm already dead, so I don't think it would work." Matsumoto's line towards the beginning of the chapter was a bit out of character, I'll admit. During recent manga chapters, she had made it clear that she doesn't take anyone being a pervert around her (especially when it comes to her breasts). I'm also pretty sure that, no matter how dense Rukia is when it comes to the Living World, she would probably know how to bear a child. Still, for humor purposes, they're a little OOC. I'll try my best to keep all the character's personalities in check, though sometimes little things like this will pop up.
Sorry, it got a little angsty at the end. Still, I kind of like how it turned out. A little longer than the first one, I think; in the next few chapters, I think I'll try to strengthen the relationship between my 'pairings'. Just as a quick note, just because I pair two people together doesn't mean there's going to be a bunch of mushy stuff between them. I know that will disappoint some of you, but that's just not how I write. Once again, requests are still open for other pairings, though not for much longer. Thanks again to all those who reviewed the first chapter. I hope I get more this chapter, since they help encourage me to get the next one out. Also, be warned that if I do bring Hinamori in, there will be some manga spoilers regarding her and Aizen, whenever I decide to bring him in.