For this interlude we're going back to Karakura town to tell a story I had a LOT of fun with. Enjoy!


Paku was quite literally at the edge of her seat, hands tightly gripping the armrests. She leaned forward in an attempt to get as close to the screen as possible almost as if it would help her see more, understand more.

"Minako…you're the one I love!" the man on the screen declared. The actress opposite of him let out a demure gasp.

"I knew it," Paku whispered to herself, a slight smirk on her face.

"Yusuke…"

The Mod Soul settled back into her seat, watching as the music swelled, the two romantic leads embraced, and the credits rolled. She followed the sparse crowd out of the theater as the lights slowly brightened. A satisfied smile was on her face as she walked out of the doors with a bounce in her step.

This was probably the best movie she'd seen yet, though that wasn't saying much. Love in Spring was only her third movie ever, and she'd hardly been disappointed by the first two.

Humans were odd, emotional, unpredictable, and generally unpleasant, but gods did they make some cool shit!

Of course, most of their stuff was made for someone who was more human-shaped. In that dumb stuffed bunny body of hers, Paku couldn't do much of anything, but with this new Gigai, the sky was the limit. She wanted to experience everything she possibly could, going everywhere and seeing it all (within Karakura town), and out of all the things she'd explored and experienced, the best human inventions ever were their food.

Speaking of which…

"Which flavor will it be today?" the server asked. Paku didn't know the girl's name and didn't particularly care, but she sure loved the tasty frozen treats this particular human provided.

Paku considered for a moment, looking over every labeled option through the glass partition. Her eyes lingered over one flavor…chocolate. She'd been wondering about that one. She'd seen it just about everywhere but hadn't actually tasted it yet. A part of her thought it too strange. She already knew what regular green tea tasted like so trying it in ice cream form wasn't too scary. She knew what vanilla was beforehand and after some hesitation tried things like mint and cinnamon, but chocolate…

On second thought, she didn't know what the Strawberry flavored ice cream tasted like, did she?

She ordered her cone, single dip, no toppings, and sat herself down at a metal table just outside, made just shy of uncomfortably hot by the summer sun. Taking a deep breath, she took a moment to just drink in the atmosphere.

It wasn't until Paku had spent a good amount of time in this new body that she realized just how much she'd missed with her old one. Even using Rukia's wasn't quite as good, mostly because Paku only ever used it in emergency situations. As she was now, she had both the ability and the time to just enjoy the sights that could only be seen at a proper human height, smells that, you know, required a nose, and tastes like the treat that she was holding right now.

Oh yeah. The strawberry flavor was good, too.

Happily eating her ice cream cone, Paku dug her flip phone out of her pocket. She had a full day ahead of her and had to keep track of the time if she wanted to get to it all. An Ultimate Frisbee contest was happening today at the park, and all the competitors were Third Year boys. Humans were weird, but dear gods were some of them hot.

The phone was off, but that was remedied with the quick press of a button. She turned it back on, watched as the display came to life, and suddenly felt herself stiffen with fear.

38 missed calls

"Oh, no," she muttered. Her fingers were trembling slightly as she speed-dialed the person that all those missed calls were from. She pressed the phone up to her ear and attempted to sound as casual as possible.

"Hi, Kukaku," shit, her voice squeaked, "w-what's up?"

A deep sigh sounded from the other end of line, long and painful. She could already imagine it: the slight slump of her boss' shoulders, the woman rubbing at the crease at her brow.

Kukaku asked simply, voice deceptively quiet, "Where have you been?"

Paku gulped. "Well, I was in the theater, and you know how they tell you to turn your phones off, right? So, I did, and–"

"PAKU!" the Mod Soul jerked the phone away from her ear the second the woman started yelling, face pale. She caught words like "the whole point" and "I ought to" and "what the hell", and for the most part Paku got the gist of it. This went on for a good minute or so, the end of the rant being marked by an eerie stretch of silence. Paku brought the phone back to her ear with great hestitation.

"I'm here now, aren't I?" Paku tried shyly. Kukaku let out an unimpressed snort but said nothing more. Paku knew that when she got back to the shop there would be more.

"Whatever, punk," Kukaku eventually said. "A Hollow was spotted at a park and I needed you there about half an hour ago. Find it, defeat it, and drag your ass right back here because we're going to have a little chat."

Paku started sweating a bit.

"On it, boss!" she answered, and before she even got out the last word Kukaku had hung up on her. Paku flinched.

With a deep frown, she clicked over to the phone's "GPS" application, and wouldn't you know it, a blinking red dot was right at the outer edges of a local park. After a moment of squinting Paku realized exactly what park.

My frisbee boys!

With a gasp Paku stood up, sparing a glance at the phone's time display and realizing that she still might be able to catch the second half of their game. (She also realized that there was no game if the players got eaten, so…yeah.)

Now, this town had a high tolerance for the strange. Weirdos like Don Kanonji were accepted as local celebrities. High School girls that could see ghosts were just taken at face value. Girls that could run as fast as a racehorse were barely glanced at.

So, Paku sprinted toward the park, shoving the last bite of her cone in her mouth as she sped ahead running (a bit recklessly) through streets, back alleys, and walkways. She dodged around random passersby in her way and took another glance at her phone.

Okay, this was taking too long. It'd be another minute before she reached the park and that was one minute she couldn't afford. She'd miss the entire game at this rate!

The minute went by. The park came closer and closer, and it only took a second for her to figure out where the Hollow was. Yeah, she was no Shinigami, couldn't sense Spiritual stuff to save her life, and the GPS wasn't terribly specific.

No, the Hollow was just making a fuck ton of noise, guttural shrieks and hisses coming from just beyond the tree line. Paku let out a little sigh of relief. This was nowhere near the tournament.

Sliding to a stop at the edge of the trees for a moment, Paku waited, keeping her eyes open for any sort of movement.

"SCREEE!"

The unnatural voice rang through the air, trees trembling. She ran forward with a mumbled curse, straight into the thick of things to an area of the park that few strayed.

The Hollow kept on making noise, which made things pretty easy for Paku, even if it was annoying as hell. The Hollow also, as she quickly realized, left behind quite the trail of destruction, cracked and toppled trees leading right to the source of the noise. Oh great, it'd probably found some unlucky Spirit to chase.

She heard another screech then, higher pitched, and much less bone chilling. She didn't really want another ten minutes added to Kukaku's inevitable lecture about how she was supposed to protect Spirits and humans or whatever, so she ran a little faster.

The tree trunk that barreled towards her at high speed caught her completely off guard.

Paku veered out of the way, not having any time to see the source of the attack. She watched with wide eyes as it impacted the other trees behind her, sending the ground shaking. Whether in anger, frustration, or just plain pain, the Hollow let out another screech, and finally, Paku got a decent look at it.

The creature looked like a cross between a bat and a lizard and was several times bigger than her. It flew low to the ground on leathery wings, large talons digging furrows into whatever it got a hold of as it grasped another tree trunk with its skeletal tail, and oh god that trunk was coming right for her.

Paku pressed back into the tree next to her, facing away from the monster and holding her breath as the trunk careened past. Okay, at least this thing had terrible aim.

After a long moment passed Paku peaked around again, and apparently the creature wasn't too interested in her. Back turned, it was clawing through some nearby bushes, trying to catch whatever poor soul was hiding underneath. It didn't even realize the mistake it had just made.

She took a few steps back, pictured her path, and with a running start, jumped up to land a kick right in the back of its head. A few things happened after that.

The Spirit in the bushes shrieked and when she looked down, she realized it wasn't a Spirit at all. She was staring at a bland looking human teenager, running from the foliage. The Hollow dove for the boy, and she missed, foot burying itself into its wing instead.

The Hollow screeched again, as it landed on its three good limbs, limping forward to snap at her. It pivoted its masked face to growl at the human on the other side and curled into itself. It was confused and angry, like a cornered animal. Paku knew from experience that this was never a good thing.

"Come on Hollow," she muttered, "you don't want to eat me, do you? I'm just a Mod Soul. I'd probably taste bitter. You want a tasty human, right? So why don't you just turn around and…"

It lashed out, jaws snapping at her, and Paku jumped away to avoid it, back impacting a narrow tree behind her. She took one look at the tree and in a split-second decision, she wrapped an arm around the it. Using it as an axis, spun around it to land a hit right in the Hollow's jaw. The mask cracked, the Hollow staggering back, dazed, but it didn't break.

It flailed about, long limbs hitting the nearby trees, sending both Paku and the human ducking to cover. At this rate one or both of them were going to get killed. You'd think taking down just one stupid Hollow wouldn't be too hard. She almost wished she wasn't out here on her own.

"H-h-hey! You big dumb…uh…thing!" a trembling voice called out. Paku nearly froze in shock. What did that human think he was doing?

The Hollow shook its head, finally starting to calm down and orient itself. It turned towards its original meal, the source of the sound, starting with a stumble that developed into an uneven run.

Paku charged the second its back turned, jumping over its dangerous tail and going feet first right into the back of its head, sending its face into the ground. She heard a single solid crack. She didn't relax until the body beneath her started dissolving.

Now, she was standing on a bumpy, torn up ground, and with a sigh she pushed her sweaty bangs from her eyes. Pulling out her phone, she checked the time.

Fuck, the game was over.

Letting out a long sigh, Paku pocketed the phone. All that was left now was facing an even bigger monster, her boss. She turned, trying to figure out which way would lead her to the shop, decided that it didn't really matter and just picked a random direction. She got into a running stance.

"Hey, wait!"

Paku glanced over her shoulder. It was the human. Shouldn't he have run away by now? She thought of running away herself, just to avoid whatever this was. Then, on a whim, she turned back to him, arms crossed, thinking, He gets thirty seconds.

For a few of those seconds he stood there, hands on his knees, panting. He was sweating buckets, face red from exertion, and though it took a moment, Paku recognized him as being from Rukia's class. She didn't recognize much else.

"What was…" his eyes darted around the destruction. "How did…" he looked her up and down searching for something. He finally settled on, "Uh…thank you."

Paku raised her eyebrow, nodding slightly and not saying anything.

"Hey, ugh…what's your name?" he asked. "I don't think I've seen you around here before, and you don't look like a Spirit, so…"

The thirty seconds were up, and Paku wasn't going to wait another thirty just for him to stutter out a single sentence. She got back into her position and ran off, leaving nothing but a trail of dust.

"Uh, my name's Keigo!" he called after her. It didn't take a genius to realize she hadn't heard him. "Asano…" He was only speaking to the air.

When Paku got back to the shop she was met with exactly what she expected. Kukaku was leaning against the counter with that deep Shiba scowl on her face. With a sigh, Paku trudged up to the woman, eyes to the ground.

The lecture lasted for what felt like hours as Kukaku went into extensive detail about responsibility and privileges and…yeah, Paku stopped listening a while ago. The only thing she caught was the "final verdict".

"You report to me every hour or that new body of yours is going into storage until Rukia and the others get back. No more going to shops, no more 'hanging out', and definitely no more going to the movies."

"What?!" Paku yelled, slamming a hand on the counter. "No way, that's not fair!"

"Hey, if anything I'm going easy on you," Kukaku said pointing a finger at Paku. "You could have gotten someone killed, you know that, right?"

With a pout Paku thought back to that human, the one that was running from the Hollow, the one that thanked her.

"Why should I care about a couple of humans," she muttered quietly. Kukaku stared at Paku with a strange look in her eye. She shook her head.

"You know," the woman said, "for saying you love human things so much you sure do…" She let out a sigh, shaking her head again. "Consider yourself grounded, and don't think I won't know if you violate it."

Paku left the room in a huff after that, going deeper into the shop feeling so frustrated she wasn't even sure what to do with herself. She went to bed mad, she woke up mad, and when she stuck was patrolling at the edge of the park she was at yesterday, she was mad.

The day wasn't even half over, and she was already bored out of her mind. All she could do was walk along having nothing more interesting to look at then the city construction workers that were probably there to repair all the damage that was done to the park yesterday.

It didn't help that it was almost time to check in with Kukaku again. She wouldn't even have anything to say to the woman because nothing had even happened all day. The sky was clear, the weather was nice, and here she was like a dog on a leash!

With a growl she took another glance at the time on her phone before stuffing it back into her pocket with more force than strictly necessary. She had a couple of minutes left, at least. She walked ahead, slow as ever.

"Hey!" a voice called out to her.

She kept walking. Whatever construction worker was calling out to her, she was going to get out of the way soon.

"Hey!" it called again. "Uh…you!"

Fists clenched Paku turned to the source of the voice, glaring harshly at the human. What she saw was the boy from yesterday, shrinking away from her harsh look. His mouth shut immediately, but he didn't run away. Eyes wide, he thrust a small box towards her, silent.

Paku almost took a step back, looking at him bowing slightly in front of her, at the box in his hands, and then back at him. With great hesitation, she grabbed the box out of his hands, took a step back, and brought it close to her, studying it, trying to figure out what this guy was pulling here.

She shook it, brought it up to her ear, took note of the pink packaging with brown polka dots, and found nothing suspicious, per say. He stood there awkwardly. She looked up at him with a hard stare.

He shifted for a moment, bringing a hand up to his neck, before finally saying, "I…just wanted to thank you, for yesterday, I mean. I'm not really sure what you get someone that saves your life, but…I dunno it seemed like a good idea at the time, right, and I just…"

He was still going on, but Paku wasn't paying much attention. She just stared down at the box, a little more intrigued and a little less hostile. She pried open the packaging, setting aside the gold sticker holding it shut. Inside the box were two neat rows of brown candies.

"These are…chocolates, right?" she asked. The boy paused in whatever he was saying to look at her, surprised that she had spoken. It took him a moment, but he answered her.

"Well, yeah," he said sheepishly. "Girls like chocolate, right?"

Paku shrugged, eyes still on the box. "I've never had it."

"…Really?" he asked. "That wouldn't have anything to do with… Before you'd said something like you…" he glanced over his shoulder, trying to see if anyone was listening, "weren't human. Are you really? Not human, I mean."

He almost seemed to be joking, but his face lost all humor when Paku nodded just as she started inspecting the first chocolate. It seemed good looking enough. She brought it up to her mouth and took a tiny bite.

Her eyes widened a bit and she popped the rest of the treat in her mouth. It was so delicious…

"It's good," she said simply, looking up at the boy. He turned an interesting shade of pink before glancing away.

"I'm, uh, glad you like them." He stuck his hands in his pockets, kicking his feet as he seemed unsure of what to even do with himself. Paku would give him two minutes this time, just because he brought the chocolates. "My name's Keigo Asano," he said finally.

"Paku," she said.

As she reached for another chocolate, Paku took the time to take second look at the boy. He was about as average looking as you can get, though he did come off as a bit goofy. He seemed to alternate between stuttering and talking way too much. None of these were good qualities in Paku's mind.

She'd tolerate him though, at least for another minute.

Walking away from the construction site, Paku kept a slow pace. She didn't protest with Keigo started following her.

"I was actually wondering," he said, starting to seem a bit more comfortable, "what was that thing from yesterday? I couldn't see it very well, but something was definitely there."

"That was a Hollow," she said. Hey, it wasn't like she was obligated to keep it a secret. Then, a little harsher she asked, "How are you seeing them, anyway?"

"I don't know, I just could!" he said, putting his hands up in defense. "I'm not like Rukia or anything I can't…" then he paused, catching himself. "Rukia's this girl from my class, she can–"

"I know Rukia."

"You do?" he asked surprise on his face. "Do you, like fight those things for her? Do you save her, too?"

Paku wasn't going to lie, that did send a little swell of pride through her chest. With a smirk she said, "As a matter of fact I do. Rukia wouldn't be able to handle all those Hollows without me."

"Woah!" Keigo gasped with a grin. "Do you mean she fights them, too?"

Deflating a bit, Paku said, "Well, maybe a little."

He looked like he was going to say something else, but Paku's phone chose that time to buzz in her pocket. With a deep frown she pulled it out and answered.

"Yes, Kukaku," she grumbled out.

"Everything going all right, so far?"

"Yeah," Paku said with a sigh. "It's just a boring, normal day."

Kukaku let out a chuckle. "Come back to me when you have a busy day. Then we'll see if you'll complain when things are boring."

"Whatever you old hag. I'm still on patrol, so everything's good."

"Hey! Call me an 'old hag' again and things won't be so good, got it!"

Paku hung up after that. She checked in. She was good for the next hour. She wasn't up for pleasantries, today.

"Woah, was that your boss? Are you a part of a secret organization that fights Hollows or something?" Keigo asked. Paku almost jumped. She had forgotten he was there for a moment.

"What?" Paku asked incredulously. What was he even going on about? "No, I mean, she's my boss, but there's no secret organization."

Well, unless you counted the Soul Society, but she wasn't "affiliated" with them.

"Close enough," he said with an easy smile. "What are you, anyway?" he asked. "Wait, is that a rude thing to ask?"

"I don't know," Paku answered the second question with a shrug with a shrug. She hummed for a moment. "Guess."

Keigo stopped, considering, a hand brought up to his chin. Then, as if he had made a great discovery he exclaimed, "Alien!"

"Pfft, no."

"Esper?"

"…What's an Esper?"

"Time Traveler!"

"You watch way too much TV."

"Oh, come on!" Keigo whined. "Just tell me!"

"You've only guessed three times," Paku pointed out.

"I've already guessed three times," he corrected. Paku snorted at that. "Hey, what's so funny?" he asked with a pout.

Okay, this human was pretty entertaining. She realized that his time had been up for a while, but she didn't really care.

"I'm a Mod Soul," she said with a half-smile. "That's an artificial Soul."

"An artificial Soul…" he said, considering. Then, he shook his head fiercely. "How would I have guessed that?! Wait a minute, does that mean that your body…" He looked at her, horrified. Paku had seen exactly one horror movie but she already knew what he was getting at.

"I didn't steal the body, stupid! It's artificial, too!" She punctuated this by punching his arm.

"That's a relief…"

The questions kept coming after that, Keigo probably being the most curious person that Paku had ever met. For some reason, she didn't mind answering them, though. She wondered if that had anything to do with how she almost…kinda…sorta got him killed, even though he thinks she saved his life. She wasn't sure, but she still answered with whatever knowledge she had, the only caveat being that he couldn't go blabbing about this to Rukia, Ichigo, or any of his other classmates. She may not have been sworn to secrecy, but even she knew, on some level, that she wasn't supposed to be saying all this.

The explanations gave Paku a pretty good opportunity to add her own commentary here and there, and by the end Keigo knew about everything from Shinigami to the Soul Society mission that she's still pissed about not being invited to. She even got to bitch about her "grounding".

They talked for a long while, enough that Paku checked in a few times before eventually Keigo had to go.

"A guy like me, I've got things to do, places to be," he explained. He tried to sound suave, but a tinge of familiar nervousness was in his voice. She could tell that he had his own "Kukaku" to get back to somewhere. "You understand, right?"

"Oh, yes," Paku said with a nod, humoring him.

"Where can I find you tomorrow?" he asked. "I don't have a phone, so…"

Paku raised an eyebrow, a little confused. "I answered all of your questions, didn't I? Do you really have more?"

"Not really," he said sheepishly. "I…just like talking to you."

Paku took a moment to seriously consider. She knew that she could tell him to just buzz off. She didn't have to see him again. She answered his questions, accepted his gift. They were even.

The thing was, talking with him turned a boring day into something a little less boring. She might even say she…liked talking to him, too.

"Outside the park, same place same time," she eventually said. Then, as an afterthought she added, "Bring more sweets."

Keigo pumped his fist in the air yelling, "Yes! I'll see you then, Paku!" He ran off, sending a wave over his shoulder.

She waved back, butterflies in her stomach. It wasn't a bad feeling.

When Paku came back to the Shiba Shop that night having just gone through an otherwise uneventful day, she was quieter than usual.

"You checked in every single time," Kukaku said seeming impressed. Paku scrunched up her nose at her boss. Did Kukaku think she wouldn't? "Dinner's in fifteen. Go wash up."

Paku moved past the woman heading to her room. Just before she crossed the threshold she was stopped by a question.

"Did something happen?"

Not much happened in retrospect, but still, Paku answered, "I met someone. He was nice."

"That's good," Kukaku commented. "I don't think you've made a friend before."

She hadn't had she?

Paku went to the park the first thing in the morning. She knew it didn't make much sense, that she would be waiting there for a while, probably, and that after all that there was a chance that the human wouldn't show up at all.

Still, she sat there on the bench, twiddling her thumbs as she kept waiting to see when Keigo would show because when thought of patrolling elsewhere until the right time came, she felt all kinds of uneasy, like if she didn't show up as early as possible, she would be doing something wrong.

"Miss?" She looked up to see a worker standing there with his hands on his hips. "You're going to have to move soon. We need to close this place off for safety reasons.

Paku stood up, wanting to protest, but just not sure how to do it. Didn't he know how important it was that she wait here? She wanted to give him a piece of her mind, and just as she was figuring out how it turned out she didn't have to at all.

"Paku!" a familiar voice called. Keigo jogged towards her from the other side of the street, barely sparing the construction worker a glance. "I didn't think you'd be here this early," he said with a nervous laugh. "You weren't waiting long, were you?"

She looked at the retreating construction worker, and back at her…friend. "Not really," she said.

"That's a relief," he said with a sigh. "Ah! I almost forgot!" He slipped a hand into a plastic bag he was carrying, pulling out another colorful package for Paku. "These are Mochi," he explained with a grin. "They're kinda the best, so I just knew you had to try them."

Paku tore open the packaging, inspecting one of the treats, and finding it oddly squishy, kind of like jelly. She notes that they were covered some kind of powder. She popped a green one into her mouth and nodded appreciatively. The texture was different, but nice, and they weren't overly sweet. Paku walked forward as she continued to sample them, pretty much expecting Keigo to follow.

"What are these made of, anyway?" she asked with glance.

"Uh…" Keigo's face twisted as he wracked his brain for a bit, "bean paste, flour, I think, sugar… I guess I'm not one hundred percent sure, but hey, I know this old lady in my apartment building that makes them for her grandkids. We could ask her!"

Paku paused. Cooking human foods herself, she hadn't thought of that! This grounding might not be so bad after all. With that thought she popped another mochi into her mouth.

"You sure like sweets, don't you?" Keigo said with a laugh. He blanched soon after. "Wait, that's a rude thing to say, right?"

"Yeah to the first one. To the second one…I don't know," she said honestly. "Trying human things is a hobby of mine. It's why this grounding sucks so much ass."

"I don't think I've ever heard someone call 'human things' a hobby," Keigo said. "Then again, I've never met someone who wasn't human before."

"You've met Ichigo," Paku pointed out.

Keigo stepped back for a moment, like he hadn't considered that before. "Oh yeah," he said with a furrowed brow. "I remember that weird thing he had with canned coffee. That makes a lot more sense, now."

Paku grimaced. She hated coffee, especially the canned kind. It was just so bitter and weird.

"Well," Keigo said, puffing out his chest. "It seems you have a problem, and I've got the answer. You want to keep going with your human hobby, and here I am, a certified human with all kinds of humanly knowledge!"

"Really?" Paku asked, scrutinizing him. "So, you'll tell me anything I want to know? Anything at all?"

"Of course!" he exclaimed. Then, face falling slightly he added, "I mean I may not be able to answer everything, but my sister has a computer at home so we could probably find out later."

Paku almost cheered. Her grin was plain on her face.

"Sweet! First question, then," she said. She knew she had to make it good! "Because you mentioned it, what's a computer? I've seen them, but I'm still not quite sure."

Keigo smiled haughtily. "Ha! That's an easy one. See, it's this thing that…" he trailed off, smile falling into confusion. "Well, it's a machine that you can, um…" He was starting to really struggle, and Paku's face fell, too. Was he okay? He did have one in his house, didn't he? "Gimme a second."

Eventually he did answer her, though it turned out he didn't have an answer for everything. He was able to quickly tell her about what types games were the best, how those movies got made, and what anime is, but he didn't really know how they got hard candies to taste like melons except for that they made them in a lab somewhere.

During this whole exchange Paku took another look at Keigo and thought that she was a bit hasty in her initial judgements. He was still plain looking, but that was easy to forget when you saw him talk and move.

He exaggerated, gesticulated, seemed to literally never run out of energy, and there was something charming about that. It was something that made you forget he was even plain looking because no one could be boring when they were making five different facial expressions a second and spoke exclusively in hyperbole.

"Humans have crappy bosses, too?" Paku asked, a little amazed. "I'm glad I'm not alone there," Paku said with a scoff, eyes set on the water fountain in front of them. It was just so mesmerizing. Keigo sure knew some interesting places.

"Pfft, yeah! You should have met my boss from last summer. He was a total slave driver. He was all 'Keigo, get back to work!' 'Keigo, you can't nap during work hours!' 'Keigo, you're fired!'"

"Ha! Tell me about it!"

"That's exactly why I'm taking it easy this summer."

"I wish I could do that," Paku sighed out.

Bzzzzzzt!

Bzzzzzzzzzzt!

The sound was coming from Paku's back pocket. For a moment she was confused. Had another hour passed already?

"Is that your boss again?" Keigo asked with a quirked eyebrow.

"I'm not sure," she said, checking the display. It wasn't a call. It looked like an alert. Flipping it open, she checked the GPS app.

"Hollow," she bit out. Keigo paled.

"A H-Hollow?" he asked, leaning over her shoulder to get a look for himself. "Like, right now?"

"Yeah, right now," she said. She was squinting at the display, trying to make sense of it. Just as she started to figure it out, a loud crash sounded. Her eyes darted up to the noise only to see a large creature tearing through a popsicle stand, the owner running away as fast as his short legs could take him, yelling obscenities.

Paku thrusted her phone towards Keigo who took it with fumbling fingers. She stood up from her seat, bouncing on her feet lightly and wondering what the hell she was going to do next.

"Uh…what do I do?!" Keigo asked frantically. She hadn't really gotten that far, yet.

"Don't get hit," she offered. At this, she ran forward at high speed, a little angry at the Hollow for spoiling the nice time she was just having. She aimed right for the head of this lion-like Hollow. It reared up, and dodged left, about as fast as, well, her.

"Shit!" the yelled, as she skidded on the pavement. She ran after it for another hit only for it to dart around her, stopping right in front of Keigo who was still seated and who looked completely petrified.

"What an interesting ssssmell you have, human," it said in a raspy voice, its tail swinging behind it.

"Not again!" he cried out. Phone clutched tightly in his hand he shifted, legs trembling. Then, he bolted left, Hollow pouncing after him.

"Paws off!" Paku yelled. She chased after, kicking it right in the side before it managed to land. It darted back, glancing between the two of them, though it didn't really look like a cornered animal. It looked like it was thinking. Oh, how she hated the ones that could think.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Keigo, no longer frozen and in fact waving his hands wildly gesturing to the fountain, and Paku couldn't figure out why. She definitely couldn't figure out why he started running towards the fountain, vaulting over the edge of the pool and crossing it as quickly as he could.

The Hollow saw this too and followed. Paku wondered if this human had some kind of death wish because he had to have realized that even most of the way across the pool as he was, the Hollow would be on him in a second. She chased after the creature, hoping that she would make it in time only to be forced to a stopped when a powerful jet of water went up, nearly hitting her, and definitely nailing the Hollow, right in the underbelly, soaking it from head to toe.

It stumbled back, growling and shaking, cursing their names to high heavens, and during this moment of distraction Paku nailed it in the face with a roundhouse kick. It disintegrated in seconds.

"Hell yeah!" Keigo cried, nearly collapsed against the lip of the fountain. His pants and most of his shirt were soaking wet, but he looked so happy Paku found herself smiling, too.

She walked toward him, wading through the water. "What was that?" she asked tiredly.

He shrugged. "It was a cat, right? Cats hate water." He laughed. She felt like laughing, too.

"You're a real idiot, you know that," Paku said, offering him a hand up.

After hoisting himself up, Keigo shook out his hair like a dog, sending water right onto Paku's face. She wiped it off with a hand, flicking it at him, not that it made much of a difference.

"I know," he said, "but apparently I make pretty good bait."

Paku was going to say something in response, maybe something snarky, maybe something a little bit flirty, but before she could Keigo paled. He reached into his pocket, and pulled out a flip phone, soaking wet.

"Uhhh…this can be fixed, right?" he said, holding it out to Paku. She accepted it carefully, a grimace on her face.

"Probably," she tried. "These things can take a beating, can't they?" She flipped it open, took note of the glitching screen, and shut it closed. "It's fine. I can replace it."

She should probably replace it soon, assuming she didn't want Kukaku to get mad at her. Looking at Keigo, she suddenly got an idea. She couldn't bring him inside the shop without getting in trouble, but…

"Keigo," she said. "Do you want to see a convenience store owned by a Shinigami, have lunch together, and then help me fight more Hollows?"

"Paku," he said, "and I have never meant anything more in my entire life, yes."


I ship it.

Seriously though, I probably won't make a habit of posting chapters with these two. For any of you who maybe didn't care for this one they'll stay firmly in the background from here on out. For any of you who do like them, they won't disappear entirely.

A quick progress report on the arc. Five chapters are left and some of them are absolute monsters. Word count wise we're a little over half of the way through. I'll talk about things like how long the Hiatus might be between this arc and the next (because the Visored Arc is nowhere near ready yet) later, but my hope is that it won't take too long.