"I know about it, my sister. It's all hidden in that box, isn't it? The Jade box that mother gave you. Give me that box, my sister Marianne! Go on! No! Don't open that box! Francoise! Noooo!"
"Hey, what the heck are you doing?!" Rukia squealed in surprise at Ichigo who stood over her with a baseball bat over his shoulder.
"Oooh! You scared me!" she shouted at him.
"I think that was the point," I laughed.
"I'm studying the contemporary vernacular of this world!"
"You were not," Ichigo denied.
"Why are you using that to study again?" I asked.
"You were readin' a stupid horror comic trainin' my soul reaper butt off? Where'd you find it, anyway? And why don't you have to train?" he asked me and I shrugged my shoulders.
"I've been at this game for a while," I reminded him. "You're getting the crash course."
"Huh? You're done already?" Rukia asked confused.
"I hit these stupid pepper balls a hundred times, right?" he asked her. "I'm done! what's this supposed to accomplish, anyway? And where'd you get the weird pitching machine?"
"Fool!" She shouted at him. "Only the wrong balls had pepper in them!"
"Wrong balls?"
"That's right!" They stared at each other for a moment. "You didn't... hit every single one, did you?"
"Yes! Great!"
"You idiot! I told you to hit only the balls with the heads! What's the point of the exercise?!" she shouted at him and I sighed. They'd been doing this a lot since Ichigo and I agreed to help her out.
"How should I know?! And it's impossible to tell the head from the hands the way you draw!"
"Listen! The head is a Hollow's weak spot! One good whack will split it open like a melon!" Rukia explained. "The training will help you crack heads with precision, whatever the situation!"
"Why do I gotta do that?" Ichigo asked her. "I've been beating 'em just fine."
"Fool! When did you ever defeat a Hollow with one blow?! Approaching a Hollow from behind and killing it with one blow is the essence of Hollow hunting! It's a miracle that the two of you survived fighting them as you have!"
"Hey don't pull me into this!"
"Hitting them from behind is unfair, I can't do it!" he told her.
"Fool!" She really likes that word, doesn't she? "Save the code of Bushido for human foes! Hollows are your prey! Fairness doesn't apply here! That kind of thinking will get you killed!"
"... I just..."
"HI ICHIGO!" We all screamed in shock at Orihime appearing behind us.
"Ohihime! Wh-What are you doing here?!" Ichigo asked her.
"Hee hee! Shopping for dinner!" She told us happily. "I bought leeks, butter, bananas, and Bean Jam Jelly!" What the hell is she planning to cook with that? "What are you doing here Ichigo?"
"Huh? Me? I'm uh... um..." That was when Orihime saw Rukia behind us.
"Rukia?!"
"Huh? Do I know you?" Rukia asked her.
"Idiot!" Ichigo whisper yelled at her. "She's Orihime Inoue! She's in our class!"
"In our class?!" Rukia whisper yelled in surprise. "Well hello, Miss Inoue. How do you do, my dear!" Rukia curtsied and Orihime curtsied back.
"Oh, I'm fine, thank you."
"What the hell just happened?" I whispered to Ichigo watching them.
"I don't know."
"Your arm... what happened?" Ichigo asked her. "You fall again?"
"Huh? Oh this? No! I was run over!" She told us with a big grin on her face.
"Run over?!" Ichigo and I shouted.
"By a car?!" Ichigo asked.
"Yeah. I went out to buy a drink last night and- bam! I've been getting run over a lot lately. Hee hee."
"No hee hee! That's serious! Aren't you upset?!" Ichigo asked her.
"But they didn't hit me on purpose," she told us.
"But still..." I told her. "You have to be more careful.
"That bruise on your leg?" Rukia asked suddenly. "May I take a look?"
"Huh? This?" Ichigo asked her. "Sure, go ahead. I got this last night. It must've happened when the car hit me..." We watched Rukia inspect the bruise closely.
"Rukia? Why are you looking like that?" Orihime asked.
"Huh? Oh, it's nothing," Rukia told her. "It just looks so painful."
"How did you know?!" Orihime asked shocked. "My leg hurts worse than my arm!"
"Really?!" Ichigo asked her shocked.
"How can a bruise hurt more than something that needed to be wrapped up?!" I asked her.
"Maybe it's paralyzed or something?!" Ichigo suggested.
"You should go to the doctor!"
"Huh? ... Um..."
"Why are you blushing?" Ichigo asked her and I rolled my eyes at him. Why are boys so clueless sometimes?
"Oh no! I'm late!"
"For what?" I asked.
"In a hurry?"
"Yes! Shotten's gonna start!"
"You gonna be okay?!" Ichigo asked her. "Want me to walk you home?!"
"Huh?! N-No, I'm fine!"
"Okay! See you tomorrow then!"
"Huh? Um... Kay! See you tomorrow!" I sighed and smiled at the girl.
"Such a strange girl."
"Just watching her makes me tired," Ichigo sighed. "I hope she's all right."
"She will be," I tried assuring him. "He's just clumsy."
"That girl," we both turned to Rukia. "Are you three close?"
"Not really," Ichigo told her. "Well, kinda, I guess."
"We're not best friends or anything, but we've been in the same class a long time," I told her.
"She's best friends with this girl I've known since 8th grade," Ichigo finished saying.
"Any siblings?"
"Just an older brother," I told her.
"He was a lot older than her and he practically raised her."
"Had?"
"Yeah. He died three years ago," Ichigo told her. "I remember because I opened the door. I was just about to leave for school. The doorbell rang before we were open. A girl came in carrying her brother on her back."
"They'd said it was a car accident," I finished. "He was covered in blood, but we didn't have the equipment to save him. He died while dad was trying to arrange his transfer to a hospital. We only recently found out that the girl was Orihime."
"What's with all the questions?" Ichigo asked her. "Are you worried about her?"
"No. I'm not worried."
"Then what's wrong?" I asked.
"C'mon! We're going home too!" Rukia ordered.
"Hey... where do you go home to? You have a home down here?" Ichigo asked her.
"Does my private like interest you?" She asked him with a cocky look on her face.
"As if! Not in the least!"
"Then don't ask."
"If I didn't know any better I'd say the two of you were going out," I told him.
"As if that would ever happen!"
"Later," Rukia called out to us as she walked away.
I was doing my homework when I heard Rukia shout out Ichigo's name. What the hell was going on? I got up and went to his room in time to see Rukia hit Ichigo in the head, pushing his soul out from his body in time to see a large hand rip through the bottom of the bed.
"What the hell?!" I shouted in shock. A Hollow appeared from the wall going straight for Ichigo. I separated myself from my body and stood by my brother's side.
"Aim for the head!"
"We know!" Ichigo and I attacked the Hollow, but it only broke off a piece of its mask and the face we saw made my eyes widen. It quickly left and I had to close my eyes in surprise.
"It got away!" Rukia said. "Let's go!"
"Wait!" Ichigo ordered. "What's going on? That was Orihime's brother!"
"Didn't I say that killing them with one blow to the head from behind was the objective? To minimize the chance of injury, but there's another reason for it," Rukia told us. "One blow to kill them so you never learn the Hollow's human identity! All Hollows were living people once!"
