It is time!
Part I
"We're getting close," Ichigo muttered. Rukia could feel it. The Hollow they've been looking for was just up ahead. She sprinted forward. They weren't going to lose it this time.
This Hollow was an allusive one, and according to Ichigo, very powerful, too. It had been causing trouble along this road for the last couple of days, but only now did they finally manage to track it down.
Rukia turned the corner, so close she could taste it. Behind her, Ichigo suddenly skidded to a stop.
"It's gone…" he grumbled with a scowl, hitting the phone a few times against his palm.
"Gone?" Rukia asked. "Do you mean it ran off again, or…"
"No, I mean it's gone," he said, insistently, and looking down the street Rukia could see he was right. There was a knocked over telephone pole, some mild road damage, and no Hollow…dammit.
"Not again," she mumbled. "What is this, the fifth time this month one has just up and disappeared on us? This is starting to get creepy."
"For once I agree with you," added Ichigo. "Even I don't know what's going on, here." With a sigh, he closed his flip phone. "Welp, nothing to do here. We should head back."
For once, Rukia didn't feel relieved at the prospect of not fighting a Hollow. This whole situation left her on edge, and she couldn't help but be puzzled about what on earth could be causing this.
"Do you think it's another Shinigami?" she asked, keeping pace with Ichigo.
"Naw," he said. "We would have come across them by now if that was the case. This has to be something else."
"Like…?"
Ichigo's lips pursed and his eyebrows scrunched.
"It could be another Hollow," he finally said. "Those bastards got a nasty habit of eating each other when Souls stop being enough to satisfy them. That kind of thing only ever happens in Hueco Mundo, though." Rukia frowned.
"Then our options are a Shinigami that we for some reason haven't seen and a ridiculously powerful Hollow that hasn't shown up on our radar, yet?"
"Pretty much," he said with a grimace.
"Sounds like fun," she said sarcastically.
"Hey, at least we're getting back in time for lunch period."
Rukia held back a snicker, but a smile crept on her face, anyway.
"What?" he asked with a glare. A few giggles escape Rukia's lips.
"Nothing, nothing," she said, walking forward. "I'm just wondering when you started caring about school so much."
"Watch it…" he warned. Rukia held up her hands placatingly.
"I get it, I really do," she started. "The last time you were at school was in the Heian Era and you miss it. Really, it's fine, gramps."
"Rukia…" he said ominously.
"Yeah?" She was holding back laughter.
"Start running."
She did, giggling all the way. He was chasing after her with pure murder in his eyes, and the chase took them all the way back to the school grounds. She wasn't even mad when eventually he caught up to her and cuffed her on the back of the head. If anything, she only laughed harder.
"Yeah, yeah you goddamn Hyena. You still gotta find Paku." If anything could sober Rukia up, it was that.
"I'll check the swim club," she said. Ichigo shook his head.
"The soccer club just started practice today."
Rukia sighed, "Of course it did."
In some ways, having Paku babysit her body was so much harder than just locking it up in the shed. Yes, a certain level of danger was gone, but seeing…yourself…sit on the stands where everyone could see you, staring dreamily at the boys' soccer club was just demoralizing. Rukia dragged Paku away by the ear.
"Oh, come on, just one more minute!" Paku cried out.
"No! And don't talk to me in public like this. Do you want people to think I'm crazy and talking to ghosts?"
"Should I answer that, or…"
A minute and a quick once over later and Rukia had a green piece of candy in her fist and her body back on her. She walked back to 1-3, meeting Ichigo right by the door.
"Soccer team. Knew it," he gloated, taking a long sip of his canned coffee.
Walking into the class, things were energetic as usual. Keigo came barreling towards Ichigo at high speed, the Shinigami sidestepping him at the very last second.
Class was starting soon, but it seemed no one was ready to let this break go. A few of the girls were in a heated conversation about the merits of the newest season of Ghost Hunter, Keigo (who had quickly recovered from his fall) was once again interrogating Ichigo about how he was apparently madly in love with Rukia, and Renji was quietly waving her over, flashing a few of his mom's homemade cookies.
Rukia made a beeline for Renji, mouth already watering. She didn't have much time to eat earlier, so this was a godsend!
In the midst of all this controlled chaos, there was one person that seemed to be in his own little world. He was sitting down at his desk eating a store-bought lunch and keeping his head down. He would have seemed lonely if he didn't look so serious.
That kid, the one so introverted that even Rukia thought he could stand to live a little, was Uryuu Ishida, and he certainly was an odd one. Then again, that might not be a fair statement, considering how little she actually knew about him.
She knew he didn't like to drag attention to himself. He stayed quiet, sat in the back, and always kept silent during class meetings. The only time she's ever heard him speak was when asked to specifically do so by a teacher.
She also knew that despite all these attempts to stay under the radar, he just couldn't seem to do so. Even with his plain looks he had an intensity about him that made him hard to ignore. It didn't help that he happened to be at the very top of the class, either.
Rukia watched quietly, munching on a cookie as Michuru approached Ishida, looking very unsure of herself. She was clutching a strange looking cat doll with a wide tear on its side.
"Ishida…" she eventually started, "I was wondering if you could–"
Before she could even get the next word out, he had snatched it away from her hands. He quickly retrieved a sewing kit from his bag, and with a few fancy flourishes, the tear was gone.
"It…it's fixed!" Michuru cried happily, doll back in hand. "Thank you, Ishida!"
"There's no need for gratitude," he said coldly. "It wasn't a difficult fix." After that, he turned back to his lunch and his book.
She almost forgot to add that he was on the sewing club with Michuru. According to her, he didn't talk to anyone there, either.
Just as Rukia was about to turn away, she found Ishida staring right back at her, holding her gaze. His expression was blank, but his eyes were intense.
With a gulp, she turned away, trying to pretend that she was caught up in the conversations around her.
Part II
Renji thought that today had been pretty normal, good even. Nothing freaky had happened, and Ichigo and Rukia had come back from their Hollow-hunt in record time. There was no second Hollow, no strange twist. He didn't even have to help. Things were peaceful.
This is what he felt walking side by side with Rukia out of the gates of Karakura High, wrapped up in a conversation about the Judo Championships.
"So, it's a bet then?" she asked with a sly smile.
"Pfft, yeah, let's call it a bet," he said with his own. "If for some crazy reason Turkey doesn't take Gold in Heavyweight then I'll…" he trailed off, unsure.
"No, no," Rukia interrupted, "when Russia gets Gold in Heavyweight you're taking Paku home for a night." Renji paled at the thought. Still, it wasn't like he could just back out.
"Deal," he said confidently, grinning, but he was distracted by Ichigo coming up behind them in a fast paced jog.
"Rukia," Ichigo said, "we have to talk about today."
"Something happened today?" Renji wondered out loud. "But you guys were back so quickly."
First, taking a cursory glance around the area, Rukia said, "Another Hollow disappeared on us. Ichigo thinks a larger one might be hunting them."
"It's more of a hunch," he said, "but basically."
"Sounds serious," said Renji.
"It could be if we don't take care of this, soon," Ichigo agreed.
"Yeah, 'soon'," Rukia said with a frown. "We haven't even picked up the thing on the locator, yet."
"Wait, how is that possible?"' asked Renji.
Ichigo crossed his arms and with a scowl said, "It shouldn't be, but we can't discount the possibility." He turned to Rukia. "Clear out your schedule, tomorrow. We're investigating this thing."
"I have school tomorrow," Rukia said with narrowed eyes. "I can't just clear my schedule."
"Call in sick or something," Ichigo suggested. Rukia made a face like she had just bitten into a lemon. Renji snickered. "I'll see you first thing in the morning at the school gates," Ichigo finished, stepping away. After a quick wave, he left to where ever he went to after he just kind of…runs off. Rukia didn't have a good answer, but whenever someone asked him he'd say he lived with his "aunt."
"You know," Renji said after Ichigo disappeared, "I hope that this whole thing doesn't last for too long. If this dragged on until midterms, you'd probably have an aneurism."
Rukia's eyes widened. Renji blinked.
"You seriously forgot, didn't you?"
Rukia nodded numbly. "When are they, again." Renji hesitated for a moment.
"The day after tomorrow…"
She turned pale, and wow, Renji never thought he'd see the day when Rukia Orikasa forgot about a test. Most of the time when this conversation happened it was the other way around.
"Okay, okay, don't sweat it," Renji said with a shaky smile. "We can both study at your place. It's still early, you know?" Her shoulders relaxed a fraction. Hey, improvement was improvement.
It was endearing, in a way, that the same girl that could face down monsters and spirits like it was no big deal could get so high strung about grades.
"Thanks, Renji," she said with a nervous smile.
"No prob."
It wasn't a very long walk to her house. They were at the front door in only a few minutes. The house was still empty, leaving the living room wide open for their afternoon study session
Rukia ran up the stairs quickly to put Paku back in her plush body. Renji started setting up the table. Hopefully his notes would be enough.
…
Yeah, they were probably screwed, but Rukia didn't need to know that.
She came padding down the stairs soon after, soft squeaks right behind her. It took about a second for Paku to spot him and rush over to jump on his lap with happy "squee!". At this point, he wasn't even surprised.
"Rukia, you brought Renji! Renji!" she cried with a few happy bunny-hops. Renji backed away, feeling the urge to throw her off. He was relieved when Rukia did it for him, grabbing Paku by the ear and flinging her into the TV. She his it with a gentle bounce.
"I was thinking we'd start with math today," said Rukia, professional and not missing a beat.
"Good of a place as any."
She cracked open the text book, going to their most recent lesson, luckily taking out her own detailed notes to go from. They spent roughly the next hour reading through them, running practice problems, memorizing key terms, formulas, the works.
To be honest, he didn't get much of it. Math was never really his thing, and even with her help, so much of it went over his head. He accepted himself as a lost cause to this stuff a while ago. She insisted there was no such thing.
Despite her best efforts, Renji ended up getting distracted somewhere between here and there. He kept on noticing these little, strange things, like the way Rukia kept tucking her hair behind her ear, the way she rolled her pencil between her fingers whenever she was thinking, how her brows knitted ever so slightly when she came across a difficult problem. He felt how warm she was, sitting this close to him.
He thought about how, despite his new powers, in the world of Shinigami, Hollows, and Mod Souls, he was slowly falling behind.
Part III
The next day came, and with it, came a loose plan for catching this hypothetical Hollow. Find it, chase it, wait. It wasn't rocket science, but hopefully it would be enough.
Well, maybe it was a little more complicated than that. They were going for the same method they used when tracking down Paku. They were to cover as much ground as possible using Rukia's abilities, Paku's speed, and Ichigo's senses to their advantage. (And while a fourth man may have helped, Rukia couldn't let Renji come along when they could be going against such a powerful Hollow. His abilities were still new, and her conscience just couldn't handle her best friend getting hurt like that.)
Shaking herself out of her thoughts, Rukia kept a keen eye on the town. She couldn't afford to be distracted.
All day she'd been out here searching, and she's found nothing but two incredibly weak Hollows that took about a minute each to dispatch. There was still no word from Paku or Ichigo.
Standing up on the corner of a tall office building, she couldn't help but think hey, at least the view isn't bad. Looking over the town like this wasn't something you got to do every day.
Karakura town was mesmerizing, everything buzzing with a quiet energy below her. The sleepy little town felt peaceful, alive. The traffic was mild, people milled about, and here she was, standing above them all like a guardian angel. To be honest, it wasn't a town she minded guarding.
Her eyes were dragged away from the view by Paku, bounding over rooftops at top speed. Finally, something was happening.
As Paku came closer, Rukia noticed a few things. She looked a little roughed up. She wasn't hurt or anything, but she was disheveled, like she had just been in a fight. She came to Rukia out of breath and off balance. Something was wrong.
"Ichigo…" Paku panted. Rukia paled.
"What's wrong?" she demanded. Paku gulped down another breath.
"Hollow…" she finally said. "There's a Hollow, a big one." Rukia felt ice grip her heart.
"Take me there."
Without a word, Paku led Rukia back, going as quickly as she could without leaving Rukia behind entirely, and the closer they got to the scene, the more that Rukia could sense.
Yeah, the Hollow was a big one, powerful, too. In the back of her mind, Rukia thought that this might be the Hollow they were looking for. Mostly, though, she was worried about Ichigo.
She knew he could handle a smaller Hollow with a Kidō spell or two. His powers have recovered at least a little since she first "borrowed" them. She also knew that what she was sensing was beyond his current capabilities.
They made it to the battle scene much later than Rukia would have liked, in a downtown residential district. There stood the Hollow.
It was a large spiny monstrosity. It had huge claws (stained red) and was covered in bone-white armor. It was crouching in the blown-out wall of a condemned apartment building, and inside that apartment was Ichigo, back to a wall, preparing a Kidō spell with one hand and clutching his shoulder tightly with his other.
The Hollow approached with a low growl and Rukia knew she couldn't afford to waste any more time. With an angry cry, she drew her sword and charged right for the monster.
The Hollow stopped in its tracks suddenly. It took Rukia a second to see the beam of light that was skewered through its head, piercing its mask. Without a sound it disintegrated.
Rukia's grip on her sword loosened. She was utterly speechless. What the hell…
She saw a flash of white out of the corner of her eye. It was right on the roof of a building, only a few meters away, right across the street. On the top of it stood Uryuu Ishida.
He was dressed in all-white, a cape around his shoulders. A bow made of light was in his right hand, and with a flick of his wrist, it disappeared. He stood there, radiant as he looked down at the scene before him, something like disgust in his eyes. He stepped away from the ledge of the roof and retreated out of sight.
"Sh-should I chase after him?" Paku asked quietly.
"No," Rukia said, eyes still on that roof. She said again, firmer, "No, we have to help Ichigo. I doubt Ishida will go very far." Without thinking twice about it, Rukia ran into the destroyed building towards Ichigo.
He was still standing at least, struggling and leaning heavily against a weakened wall. A growing bloody-spot was staining his t-shirt. It was just enough to be worrying, and Rukia found herself almost afraid to touch him.
"We need to get you to a hospital," was the first thing out of her mouth. "You need help."
He shook his head "no" but with the movement, grimaced in pain. He sucks in a breath.
"I've had worse," he ended up saying. "I know someone who can fix me up, anyway."
"And what are you planning on doing?" Rukia asked, frustration seeping in. "Are you just going to stumble through the streets all bloodied up to get there?"
"Kinda, yeah," he said, deadpan. Rukia narrowed her eyes, unimpressed.
"How far is this person?"
Ichigo blinked, considering, before his face fell. "At least a few kilometers away…" he almost mumbled. Rukia would have felt vindicated were the situation still not so dire.
"Yeah, well, the hospital's only a few minutes away from here. Paku, I'm going to need my body back."
"Uhh, okay boss," muttered Paku. Ichigo dug his glove out of his pocket without much struggle.
The moment Rukia was back in her body, she went to Ichigo's side, slinging his good arm over her shoulder in an attempt at support.
"Lean on me," she said, "you look like you could fall over any minute, now."
"It's really not that bad…" he insisted, but he ended up putting some of his weight on her, anyway. To be honest, she made a poor crutch being almost half his size, but it ended up being better than nothing. They slowly limped along, recent events settling in their minds. Eventually, Rukia couldn't handle it anymore.
"So, I guess it wasn't a Hollow that was making those other Hollows disappear, huh?"
Ichigo made a noise in agreement, not really responding.
"What was that?" Rukia asked. "What was he?"
"Honestly," Ichigo said quietly, "I don't know."
Rukia didn't know what to say at that.
Part IV
Rukia came to school the next day, and Midterms were the furthest thing from her mind. Everyone else was so focused on their tests, and she could only focus on Ishida, sitting in his normal spot, looking the same as ever, and Ichigo, his seat painfully empty. She tried to keep her mind on the task at hand, but just…couldn't
When the final bell rang everyone got up excitedly. Rukia stayed seated.
"Hey, the Bell rang," Renji said with a raised eyebrow.
"I know," she said, trying not to look behind her. "Go on without me today. Something came up."
Renji stared for a moment, eyes lingering, searching for something. He broke away and nodded.
"I'll see you later, then, Ruk."
"See you later, Renji." The words tasted bitter. He left.
She put her things away slowly and deliberately, walking out of the door at a measured pace. All the while, she kept her eyes on Ishida.
She saw him head straight, walk through the gate, turn right, and she trailed him, keeping out of sight.
She had no idea what she would find in following her classmate. This was all new territory to her. Hollows, she knew, Spirits, she knew. This was a person, and she wasn't even sure what he wanted yet, if he wanted anything.
Bringing a hand to the Soul Candy in her shirt pocket, she thought that she would at least be ready for the worst.
"I believe the point of following someone is to not get caught, Rukia Orikasa."
Rukia flinched, taking a large step back. The sounds of Ishida's steps had stopped. She realized they were alone.
"When did you notice me?" Rukia asked, keeping her voice neutral. She stepped around the corner, and saw Ishida, eyes fixed right on her from his spot on the steps.
"Honestly?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. "Back in the middle of May, when you first got your Shinigami powers."
Rukia gulped. A part of her was angered by his snide words, and a part of her was a little intimidated. Had he really been on to her that long? He seemed to read the unspoken question on her face.
"It was your Reiraku," he eventually added. She quirked an eyebrow. She'd never even heard of that word before. He continued, "Think of them as ribbons, made of Spiritual Pressure, pouring out from all living things."
With a blink, she tried to focus her eyes along with his words, and for a second, she thought she could see his, a brilliant white, surrounding him. He reached forward and grabbed one of her own, a dark blood red.
"Shinigami always have red ribbons. They give you away all too easily."
Rukia took a deep breath. She couldn't let this kid intimidate her. Schooling her face in a way that she'd seen Byakuya do before, she looked Ishida right in the eye.
"So, you know who I am," she said steadily. "What are you?" He made a disapproving clicking noise in the back of his throat.
"I'm surprised that powerless Shinigami didn't tell you," he said coldly. "For your information, Rukia Orikasa, I am a Quincy, a human born with the ability to kill Hollows."
As he said this, he looked at her with such intensity, such a burning in his eyes. It was the first time Rukia knew what it felt like to be looked at with pure and utter hatred. She looked back at him, gaze steady.
"Thanks for saving Ichigo," she said. "I'm sorry I bothered you, today."
"I'm not letting you go that easily, Orikasa," he said. "I saved him to get your attention, and now I have it. I believe Shinigami to be unnecessary, and today I'd like to prove that."
"What, do you want, a fight?" Rukia asked, gritting her teeth. The situation was going downhill quickly.
"More of a wager, really," he said, pulling a tiny object out of his pocket. It was a tablet about the size of a One Hundred Yen coin. He explained, "This is Hollow bait. When I break it, just about every Hollow in the prefecture will come flocking here. I want to see which one of us can destroy more in twenty-four hours." Rukia faltered.
"Are you kidding me?" she asked, voice escalating. "I refuse! Do you even know how many people could get hurt by something like that?!"
His eyes were cold and unsympathetic as he said, "Then you will have to do your job well, won't you, Shinigami?"
This was exactly why Rukia preferred going against Hollows. They would never do something as crazy as this.
"Besides," he said, tightening his grip around the tablet, "you don't really have a choice in the matter."
He broke it.
I had a lot of fun with this chapter, and I'd love to hear if you had fun with it, too! This was another close call for Friday, and I am considering a different update day to better match my schedule. I will keep you guys posted on any changes, but the next chapter should come out same time as always.
