Author's notes:

This week you get an early update because I'm replacing my computer during the weekend and I don't know if I'll have it running on Sunday. I didn't want to miss an update, so here you are….

Be warned for extreme Out Of Character-ness (especially on Renji's part.) Normally he wouldn't be this dense, I know – but I wanted to add another touch of silliness. That, and I liked the idea of the characters chasing each other. Hope you'll like it nonetheless.

VI: JUST GREAT

Three months, two weeks and four days ago

It wasn't supposed to happen.

That was all Renji could say.

It had started out like any other day – which meant with a loud fight with Arisawa Tatsuki.

Unfortunately, this time things had become rather – physical.

Later, Renji admitted – but only to himself – that maybe calling her "wicked witch from Hell" hadn't been such a smart idea.

Tatsuki hadn't liked it. Not one bit.

So, since he had been smart enough to shout his insult from a distance, with a lot of desks between them and with him standing very close to the door, she had done the only logical thing – if you can call it logical.

She had grabbed on the first thing she had found and had thrown it at him. Forcefully.

Later, the projectile turned out to be Orihime's Japanese dictionary.

It didn't even graze Renji – in fact, the Shinigami dodged it easily.

If he had known what would happen next, he would have gladly stopped the heavy dictionary with his face.

For right then and there, the door had slid open and the History teacher had come in – only to receive the dictionary in his stomach.

Consequentially, Tatsuki had been given a detention.

So, what was Renji doing there?

He had been given a detention as well for fighting.

Not only that, but he had to serve it with Tatsuki.

'Damn! I hated history when I was at the Shinigami Academy!' he though as he threw some books on the table. 'Now I remember why…'

"Stop slamming things, you moron." Tatsuki hissed. "If you ruin them, we'll get another detention."

"Shut up! It was your fault to begin with!"

"My fault? Who was the one who started?"

"Who was the one who overreacted? Ouch!" She had just elbowed him – hard – between two ribs.

"Hey! You wanna pick a fight with me, pipsqueak?" he shouted, getting into a fighting stance.

Tatsuki didn't even glance at him. "Shut up and work, otherwise we'll never finish this."

"Ha! You're afraid, aren't you?"

"Right. I'm so scared I'm about to faint!" she replied mockingly in a high-pitched voice.

"Whatever!" he snorted. "You're just…"

"Just what?" she whipped around to face him, her eyes burning.

"Just a girl." Renji finished lamely. 'I almost said human….I must watch my tongue or she'll get suspicious.'

Tatsuki threw him a glance that said "I-know-you-were-going-to-say-something-else-but-I'll-just-pretend-I don't-or-I'd-be-forced-to-kick-your-ass-again" and turned back to work.

Renji grumbled and started working again.

They had been doing so for about five minutes when suddenly his phone beeped: he had just received a message.

His shoulders tensed. 'Oh, please, tell me it's not what I think it is…' No such luck. 'Great! A Hollow-warning while I'm stuck with this…this human! Why the Hell are they sending this to me! It's not my area!' he checked on the message again. 'Oh, damn…'

The Hollow was heading toward a school.

Their school.

He jumped from his seat and almost knocked down the chair.

Tatsuki looked at him funnily. "What's gotten into you? Hey, where do you think you're going?"

"To take a piss. I'll be back in a minute. You stay here, ok?" He rushed down the corridor.

Tatsuki sighed and started re-arranging her pile books. Then, suddenly, her shoulders stiffened.

"Damn it! Where the Hell is he!" Renji grumbled as he checked the school building. He didn't bother lowering his voice since he was in his Shinigami form and no one could see him. "Damn! I'd better finish this quickly, before the Evil Midget goes looking for me and finds my gigai in that stall." he checked another classroom.

'He's around here – I'm sure. But he must be pretty good at disguising himself since I can't sense him…' he rounded another corner. 'If I only I hadn't been forced to waste so much time going to the bathroom… He has surely sensed me by now!'

The Shinigami stopped dead in his tracks, then turned around: he could feel an alien energy coming from around the gym.

"Nice try, but not good enough." he smirked as he raced toward his target. "I've found you…"

The gym had been originally located in a smaller, separated building: however, when a new wing of the main edifice had been built, the two constructions had been connected.

It wasn't that late, but, being in wintertime, darkness had already filled the sky. The cold wind pulled stray dark clouds in its race, sometimes pushing them over the full moon.

Renji dropped down in the yard: the spiritual pressure wasn't high, but it was clear. He unsheathed his Soul Cutter and walked through the wall.

Right in that moment, a cloud covered the moon.

The gym was darker than he had anticipated, but he was able to pinpoint the Hollow's position nonetheless.

'Weird, it seems – smaller…' he thought as he started charging at it. 'Watch out, it might be a trap…'

Renji had almost reached its target: he drew back his sword, preparing to swing it down with full force, when the "hollow" turned around.

And he found himself staring into Tatsuki's black eyes.

Renji almost tripped. 'What? What is she doing here?'

The girl jumped back, as if to avoid his blow, an arm raised to protect her face. "Hey! What the Hell are you doing?"

Renji stood there staring at her, flabbergasted. 'She…She can see me? No way! It must be a trick!' His eyes widened. 'Wait a moment! There are two different spirits! One is clearly a Hollow but it's…in the main building! What's going on?'

"Abarai! Answer me, damn it!"

The Shinigami blinked twice. "You can see me?"

"Of course I can." she replied, then studied his outfit. "You're a Shinigami, aren't you?"

He opened and closed his mouth a couple of times before he could will his voice box to work. "How is it possible? You…" then it dawned on him. "Kurosaki. I bet he's involved, isn't he? Just like it happened with Inoue and Sado."

"I think so as well." she shrugged. "What's going on?"

Right in that moment, Renji realized something. "Hey! I told you to stay in the classroom! Why are you here!"

Tatsuki willed herself to ignore the first part of his sentence. "I felt something weird and I came down to check if everything was okay."

Renji completely lost it. "YOU CAME DOWN HERE ALONE! ARE YOU STUPID!" he yelled at the top his lugs. "THERE'S A HOLLOW HERE! H-O-L-L-O-W! DO YOU WANT TO BE EATEN!"

"Don't shout at me, I'm not deaf you moron!" Tatsuki scowled, crossing her arms. "What's a Hollow? One those things that attacked Orihime and me last year?"

"Wait, wait…You don't know anything?"

"Not exactly. I overheard some things and figured out others, but…" she shook her shoulders. "Nobody really explained anything to me."

Renji was about to bash his own head against the wall. 'Great! Just great…'

"Well, this is no time for explanation. There's a Hollow here, so go away and let me deal with it." he lifted his sword, ready to leave. "I suggest you to run all the way back home."

"Why should I?" Tatsuki replied. "I'm going to fight it with you."

The Shinigami dropped Zabimaru – which fell on his right foot.

After he finished jumping around on his left foot and cursing, Renji turned to glare at her. "Stop saying nonsense. You can't fight it!"

"I did it once, I can do that again." she answered back calmly as she walked toward the door.

Renji moved to stand right in front of her. "You don't have any power! You aren't trained! You don't know what you're going to face!"

Tatsuki clenched her fists. "I can fight. And you said it would be foolish to face one alone."

"Only for a weak human like you." As soon as those words left his mouth, Renji realized it had been the wrong move. 'Good job, Renji! Now she's even more determined to fight!'

"We'll see." she hissed coldly. "Now let's go."

"You aren't going anywhere! You won't fight, period!"

Tatsuki moved to reach the door, but Renji grabbed her by the arm and crushed her against his chest.

"Abarai! What…" she struggled, trying to push him away, but before she could truly put up a fight, he had hit the back of her head and she had collapsed in his arms.

'Arisawa's head it tougher then marble – ow! I think I actually hurt my hand…' he thought as he looked around frantically. 'Where do I put her, where?' Then he spied the door of a locker room. 'Found it!' he shifted his grip on her and rushed in the other room.

'She's so…light,' he thought as he laid her down on a bench, staring at her face.

Then, he shook himself. "On with the hunt!"

He ran back out, pulling the door closed behind him. He lost a few seconds by locking it shut. 'One can never be too sure with her…' he raced back in the main building. 'Now, where did that bastard go!'

He couldn't feel him anywhere. "Did he sense me and left?" he wondered as he checked another room. At the edge of his consciousness, he felt Tatsuki's aura raise again.

When he turned in the next corridor, he found the Hollow's trail. "Good, it's fresh. Now I'll know where it did go…" he followed it up through the wall, into the classroom of the upper floor – and found himself in a wrecked room.

Desks had been thrown against the wall, chairs smashed, books strewn everywhere. A schoolbag peeked from beneath the teacher's desk, while another had almost been torn to pieces.

Renji's eyes widened. 'This is the room where we were working! Why did it came here…' An ice-cold chill ran down his spine. 'Unless….unless he was targeting…'

An explosion of power coming from the gym cut off his thoughts.

"TATSUKI!"

Renji turned and ran, ran back as fast as he could. With horror, he remembered that Tatsuki couldn't even run, since he had locked her in.

'Oh, God, no!' he thought as he ran faster.

There was no time to go back down the normal way – so, when the outer wall came in sight, Renji kept on running. The Shinigami passed right through it, then fell down, right into the gym.

The landing wasn't fatal – as it would have been for a human – but it was still painful. Renji, however, didn't even wait for his dizziness to die down – for, as he reached the ground, he had heard an agonizing scream that certainly didn't belong to the Hollow.

'No, no, no, NO!'

His vision was still slightly blurry, but he charged into the locker room nonetheless.

The Hollow wasn't very big – probably one the reasons why it preferred to sneak around and attack from behind one's back. It closely resembled a octopus – but Renji only noticed that it was using two of his tentacles to pin Tatsuki against the wall.

The red-haired Shinigami let out an inhuman howl and charged straight at him. The Hollow barely had time to turn his masked head that it was chopped off. As the blow fell, Renji dimly noted that the Hollow's mask was cracked and the soul-eating monster was missing an eye.

"Tatsuki's handwork, I'm sure…"

The tentacles holding the girl up disappeared with their owner and she slid down on the cold floor, shivering and panting.

Renji was by her side in a second. "Tatsuki! Are you wounded? Did it do something to you?" he gently cupped her face and forced her to look at him. Her eyes were wide and unfocused, but he could feel that her soul hadn't been touched. "Tatsuki?"

The black-haired girl frowned a little, as if she was trying to recall his face.

Then, she punched him in the stomach.

The Shinigami wasn't expecting this reaction, so the blow hit him at full force, knocking the air out his lungs. "Hey! Is that your way to be thankful?"

"Thankful!" Tatsuki shouted, grabbing him by the collar of his kimono and dragging him to his feet with her.

Next thing he knew, she had slammed him against the wall and wrapped her hand around his throat. She wasn't choking him yet, but the firmness of her grip suggested that it might soon become an option. "If you do it again, I'll kill you. Is that clear?"

"Cry…stal…"

She let go of him, straightened her skirt and pointed to the door, tapping her foot. "Well?"

Renji sighed, stepped through the wall and unlocked the door.

And now, not only he'd be forced to explain everything to her, but they also had to start their chore all over again.

'Great. Just great.'

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