Chapter 9: Monsters Are Real

Instinct. An innate, typically fixed pattern of behavior in animals in response to certain stimuli.

Nine year old Shiro looked at the definition again and again. His instincts were telling him not go outside today. It was raining, he hated the rain. He hated getting wet. He hated the mud that would get on his boots and clothes. He hated that he'd get pushed into mud puddles by the other kids. He hated that Ichigo would end up fighting them for him. He hated that his brother would always end up with bruises because of these fights.

"Shiro! Time for school." his mother's voice echoed up the stairs into his and Ichigo's room. He tugged at his school uniform. His dark eyes looked at the falling rain once more. He really hated today.

Ichigo grinned at his brother as they sat in their desks next to one another in the back row. The teachers had placed Shiro in the back of the because he was a supposed distraction. Ichigo then punched the kid in the back seat next to Shiro after the kid had called Shiro a demon. The next day Ichigo was placed next to Shiro. Today they were having a pop quiz. Most of the kids groaned, but the twins loved quizzes. If one knew the answer but the other didn't, they'd use their code system to give each other the answers. They were sneaky like that and the teachers had yet to pick up on what they were doing.

Ichigo looked over the paper and grinned as he realized he knew everything but a few answers. Shiro on the other hand glared at the piece of paper as he only knew a few of the answers. Shiro sneezed once, Ichigo tapped out the answer with his pencil in code. Shiro wrote down his answer. When Ichigo came to his problems he tapped the eraser end of his pencil on the desk. Shiro tapped his fingers on his desk. The back of the paper was an essay question that both could fill out without a problem. Finishing at the same time, the boys were left with five minutes before class let out.

After classes were finished Ichigo glanced up to see Tastuki walking up to them with a glare. "What?" he asked innocently.

"I don't know how, but you two are cheating on tests." she accused him.

Shiro turned his golden eyes towards her. "Prove it." Ichigo dared her knowing exactly what Shiro wanted to say without saying it.

Her cheeks flushed at him. "If we weren't in school..." she began as a threat was making its way out only for her to stop. "Are you two coming to the dojo today?"

Both twins grinned.

Shiro ended up on his back on the dojo mats. He'd just been tossed over Tatsuki's shoulder and thrown on his back. He hated fighting against girls. Girls were meant to be protected. That's what Goatface had always taught him and Ichigo. Girls were meant to be protected and cared for. You were to never ever punch a girl, only bastards did that. He'd love to tell Tatsuki that, but he didn't want to get punched in his face, that and he had yet to speak since he was four.

Ichigo suddenly was on his stomach next to him as Tatsuki had taken him down as well. The two boys groaned in pain as they sat up. Tatsuki was grinning ear to ear at the two of them. Both were now wondering why they even were here today. Lightning suddenly struck causing all the other students in the dojo to gasp in surprise. After that the teacher dismissed the class.

"Ichigo, you're getting all wet!" Masaki yelled at the orange haired boy whose hair was getting soaked by the rain.

Shiro was hiding under his yellow umbrella. He also wore a matching raincoat and boots. He hated the rain. As Masaki bent down to put Ichigo's hat on Shiro held the second umbrella for her. "Thank-you Shiro honey." she told him as she took her umbrella back from him. "Ichigo honey, please walk on this side."

"But Mama, if I do that I can't protect you properly." Ichigo told her. "If I walk on this side, I can."

"Oh Ichigo." Masaki chuckled lightly.

Ichigo's eyes suddenly turned towards the river. "What's that girl doing?" he asked her.

Masaki turned to see who Ichigo was talking about only to see nothing there. "What girl?" she asked.

Shiro turned his head to look at where Ichigo was seeing the little girl at. He didn't just see the girl, but he saw a hook that was against the girl's neck. Frowning, Shiro realized that something was going on and he felt as if something was wrong with this picture. His fingers tingled with heat as he continued to look at the girl by the river. He saw Ichigo move out of the corner of his eye and grabbed his brother's wrist. Before Ichigo could saw anything Shiro did something he hadn't done in years, he spoke one word. "No."

Masaki covered her lips as a gasp left them. She was so shocked that Shiro had spoken that she didn't realize the danger they were in.

"But-" Ichigo began to protest.

Shiro nodded towards the girl. "Wait." He told his brother. Time seemed to stand still for the twins as the girls seemed to suddenly look angry, very angry before jumping into the river.

Ichigo's eyes widened as he feared for the younger looking girl. "Shiro!" he yelled at his brother.

"Wait." Shiro whispered causing Masaki to look towards the river.

As her eyes looked upon the water it suddenly seemed to explode upwards dozens of feet into the air. One word registered to her mind in that moment. Hollow. Fear gripped her heart as she grabbed up both boys under her arms and ran. Though she couldn't see it, a monster hollow known to the Shinigami as Grand Fisher was high on her tail and closing in on her with every beat of her heart.

Shiro had never seen a spirit transform into something so hideous as the thing that was chasing them. It looked like a swamp monster with a mask and an angler as a tail. Suddenly Shiro found himself on his back in a wet puddle. The creature screeched as it whipped its tail at them. "Mom!" Ichigo's voice cried out as the lure was about to catch ahold of her. Masaki grasped both of her boys tightly to her. Thinking that it would be bad if that thing touched them, Shiro did some quick thinking and threw his umbrella at the creature. The handle grasping the string of the lure as it went flying at the monster.

"Get up Mom!" Shiro yelled at her.

Masaki, however, found herself terrified to move. She'd always known that it would happen one day. That they might come across a hollow and that she'd have no way of protecting her children from the monster. A defining sound pierced the air suddenly causing her to cry out as she covered her ears.

As this was happening, Grand Fishers hook that had been thrawted by a mere umbrella was now hooked onto an electric wire because of the umbrella. He screeched in pain as electricity went through his body. Angrily he pulled the lure away, only to pull the pole and wires with it. The pole went down with a crash.

Masaki's screams echoed in the air as something hard and heavy landed on her lower back. Both Ichigo and Shiro wiggled our from under their mother. Shiro spotted the live wires everywhere. "Shiro, Mom needs help!" Ichigo cried out as blood seeped from a wound on their mother's back.

Shiro looked away from his mother to the monster that was sizzling but still very much alive. His instincts were telling him to both run and protect. How can I do both? How can I protect Mom and Ichi? How can I get to safety? How- Without thought of what he was doing, Shiro found his body acting on it's own. Raising his hand and holding it up at the creature, Shiro yelled out. "Go away!" A beam of red and black swirling energy shot out from his hand towards the monster. Tearing through flesh and bone, disingrating it to a pile of ash. The monster screamed as it's front leg and lure were destroyed instantly by what could only be a cero. Quickly, it escaped through a dark portal which sealed behind it.

"Shiro..." Ichigo said with awe in his voice when suddenly he heard a plop sound as Shiro passed out leaving Ichigo alone in the street with both his mother and brother unconscious and not knowing what to do.

Meanwhile, across the city in an old run down storage building a group of eight people suddenly felt the release of a powerful cero within the city. Worry etched their faces as they knew what this could only mean, the Shinigami would come and investigate this town in order to find the hollow who had released such an attack. At the same time within a small shouten candy shop, Kisuke Urahara looked out at the city through the bamboo shades on the windows of his shop and worried about the consequences that would be inflicted should he and those hiding within the city be discovered by the soon arriving Shinigami investigators.

M-Angel: So Masaki lives. Yes this will change things to the story. Not sure by how much just yet. I listened to everyone's requests to let her live. Now we shall see what changes because of this. Hope you liked that I gave Shiro his cero, now he's about to learn where this power came from and what he truly is.