Chapter 12: Summons and Petition

September 1st

The rest of summer break went on as it did before the camping trip. There had been no word from Urahara, no more hollow appearances, and as time went on, Ichigo and his friends began to allow everyday life to take over the majority of their thoughts.

I was still warm when school started up again on September first, but much more comfortable than the sweltering days of July and August. Apart from the students' general laziness from being away from their studies for a month and a half, there was nothing remarkable about the first day back.

September 2nd

Ichigo noticed that Tatsuki and Orihime were talking a lot more than normal in class, somewhat secretly. He chalked it up to "girl stuff" and didn't give it a second thought.

September 3rd

-Morning-

Ichigo noticed that Orihime was a bit later than usual showing up for class. When she finally arrived, she smiled more brightly than usual and made somewhat of a display of coming directly to his desk and wishing him a good morning. Then she hesitated, giving him a vibe like she was expecting something. When he just replied with his usual 'good morning', her grin fell a little, and then she went back to her desk somewhat reluctantly and crestfallen. He couldn't figure out why.

-Noon-

Ichigo had lunch with the guys on the roof as usual. Orihime ate with Tatsuki and her friends on the lawn. They were making more of a ruckus than usual, but it wasn't extreme. Ishida had joined the girls, for some reason he couldn't fathom.

-After School-

Orihime lingered at her desk a bit after the last bell rang. Usually she would go to the handicraft clubroom right away. Ichigo would normally go home immediately after class unless he had a substitute club job, which he didn't today. He packed up his things and threw his book-bag over his shoulder, turning his direction toward his girlfriend.

"Don't you have club today, Inoue?"

"Yes, I'm going there now, I just…" she answered in an uncertain tone.

"You just what?" he pressed gently.

"Um, nevermind Kurosaki-kun. Are you substituting today?" she asked, hopefully.

"No, I'll just go home after this," he answered carefully.

"Oh," she replied dejectedly. "Alright, I'll see you tomorrow, Kurosaki-kun," she added quickly and dashed out of the classroom.

'What was that all about?' Ichigo wondered to himself.

-Evening-

Ichigo's phone buzzed. He looked down to see a message from Ishida. 'What could he want?' Ichigo thought to himself, opening the message.

September 3, 7:05 p.m.

From: Uryuu Ishida

Why are you being such an asshole?

Ichigo groaned inwardly. He had enough on his mind with Orihime acting so weird the last couple days. He really didn't want to deal with Uryuu picking a fight. His pride wouldn't let the insult go, though, and he found himself tapping out a reply after a minute.

September 3, 7:07 p.m.

From: Ichigo Kurosaki

WTF Ishida? I didn't do anything to you.

Ichigo waited for a minute, almost looking forward to having it out with his fussy friend. He could use to blow off some steam. What happened, though, was the last thing he expected. His phone started to ring.

"Shit!" Ichigo nearly dropped the phone. No one ever called him, not even Orihime. He looked at the caller i.d., and sure enough, it was Uryuu. Ichigo took a deep breath, sighed, and answered.

"What do you want?" he answered, already irritated.

"I want to know why you are doing this to Inoue-san. Do you have any idea how hurt she feels right now? What kind of boyfriend are you?"

"I haven't done anything! Mind your own business, Ishida! If she feels badly, it must be something you did, because I haven't really talked to her all day."

"Oh. My. God. I can't… Are you for real, Kurosaki?" Ishida was truly flabbergasted. This caused Ichigo's first inkling that there was something else wrong. His mood shifted from aggressive to apprehensive.

"What are you talking about, Ishida?" Ichigo asked carefully.

Ishida groaned dramatically. Ichigo could hear him slapping something and then muffling the phone, but not well enough to stop Ichigo from hearing Uryuu yell, 'what does she see in this guy?' before putting the phone back up to his face and answering.

"Today is Inoue's birthday, you idiotic dumbass!" he shouted into the phone so directly that his voice was somewhat distorted.

Ichigo was silent. He had the kind of feeling that one has upon waking from a nightmare, unsure whether this was real or not.

After waiting for a reply that never came, Uryuu was even more incensed. "So, tell me, Kurosaki: why is it that I was the one having lunch with your girlfriend, and I was the one walking her home after handicrafts club, and I took her out for dinner with her friends, I gave her a gift, and I sat with her while she tried not to cry while trying to convince me that she's ok with her supposed 'boyfriend' totally blowing her off, huh?"

Still no response.

Uryuu was beyond furious now. Red-faced and with a menacing tone, he went for a low blow. "Apparently you don't mind if another guy swoops in to take care of her. Fine. It's not as if she's just another girl, Kurosaki. This is Inoue-san we are talking about," he said her name with reverence. " You remember her, right? The sweet little thing who showed us all how much she's got going for her at the campsite? If you are willing to let a girl like her twist in the wind, believe me, there are a million other guys willing to step up and treat her properly in your absence. And actually, in that case, I'll be first in line!"

It was on, then. Ichigo may not have a fast reaction time to being assaulted with guilt, but his jealousy had a hair trigger. He was nearly out his bedroom door as he growled, "Where are you?"

"Oh, what, now you care? Are you going to come and show me what a big man you are? Bring it on, then. I'm outside Inoue-san's place, and I'll be waiting," he taunted, and hung up.

The run from Ichigo's house to Orihime's apartment took about 20 minutes at a quick pace. By the time he arrived, he was still angry, but somewhat out of steam. Uryuu, on the other hand, had had nothing to do but pace and stew on his anger while he waited. He sneered as Ichigo approached, waiting for him to start something. His will to fight ebbed, however, when he saw Ichigo double over, gasping for breath. His spiritually powerless friend was clearly not in as good of shape as he had once been. Uryuu crossed his arms in front of his chest, leaned against a street light, and waited, scowling at his rival.

Finally, Ichigo stood upright, and took a step toward Uryuu. Uryuu pushed off the streetlight and looked up toward Orihime's window and smirked. That was all it took to reignite Ichigo's fury, and he lunged toward Uryuu intending to tackle him.

While Uryuu was inferior to Ichigo in physical strength and experience in hand-to-hand combat, he made up for it in speed - Quincy Hirenkyaku speed - that Ichigo had no hope of even perceiving in his spiritually-lacking state. "Show yourself, Ishida!" Ichigo roared in frustration.

"I'm not hiding," Ishida answered in a soft voice, much too close to Ichigo's back for his comfort. Ichigo spun around, fist drawn. Ishida dodged Ichigo's attempted punch easily and began to taunt him, disappearing and reappearing just long enough for Ichigo to throw another punch, just to dodge when Ichigo was nearing contact.

Ichigo was tiring fast, and he was losing his patience. He knew he'd never be able to catch Uryuu unless he was able to get into his head. Ichigo decided that the circumstances called for playing dirty. "So this is what you do now, Ishida? Trail around other guys' girlfriends, waiting for them to make a mistake and then swooping in like a white knight? Is it because you know no woman would ever consider you otherwise?" He still wasn't able to pinpoint Uryuu's location. Then he made the decision to say something he knew he shouldn't. "Do you really think she'd ever take you seriously after seeing you in that ridiculous Quincy costume you're so proud of?"

He saw stars before he felt any pain. He realized he was on the ground, and when the stars started to fade, he looked up and saw Uryuu clutching his own fist, and saying something he couldn't hear. Slowly, his deafness gave way to ringing in his ears, which pulled back little by little into a muffled version of Uryuu cursing like he had never heard before. He listened, knowing he deserved it, as he heard him go on with increasing clarity. "You're a real bastard, Kurosaki. What makes you think any of this was about either of us?" He asked rhetorically, knowing Ichigo wouldn't be able to grasp his point nor speak coherently at the present.

Ichigo watched, unable to stop the world from spinning at the moment, as Uryuu stomped up the stairs and knocked on Orihime's door. He heard a bit of a commotion which sounded like Orihime fussing over Ishida. Ichigo groaned to himself and tried rolling over. He got about halfway to his side before giving up and looking back up to the sky.

After a few moments, he heard a surprised sound from Orihime followed by quick footsteps clunking down the metal stairs to her apartment. He cracked open his non-swollen eye and saw her run to his side, flanked by Uryuu, whose hand was completely healed.

"What were you two doing out here?!" She half-questioned, half-admonished, as she summoned her healing dome. Ichigo recognized the way she held her arms and hands, and, together with the sudden warmth and peace he felt throughout his entire body, he understood that not only was she rejecting his head injury, she was also rejecting his stress and restoring his energy, whether or not she knew it. After his injury had completely healed, she still sat with the dome over his entire body for several minutes as the two boys listened to Orihime lecture them about how to be friends.

By the time Orihime retracted her dome, Ichigo was feeling pretty good. All that had happened before seemed so petty in the face of how he felt: like something that was lost had been found. 'I guess this is inner peace,' he thought, before laughing at himself. It wasn't just inner peace, though. He felt like he could take on the world. That led to a magnanimous feeling taking over his consciousness. He apologized to Uryuu sincerely. Uryuu was so amazed by the heartfelt nature of the apology that he was able to return one in kind, after which Ichigo took Uryuu aside and thanked him for teaching him an important lesson about how to treat the ones who are most important to us, throwing a meaningful glance Orihime's way. An onlooker would have found the whole thing creepy and unnatural, but the two boys were really feeling good about life after settling their differences and being healed up.

The boys parted ways amicably, and Ichigo returned to Orihime.

"Inoue, I'm so sorry. I didn't realize that today was your birthday," he said, looking down at their hands as he took one of hers.

Inoue was relieved that it had only been a mistake, but she was still disappointed about the whole thing. As she faced him to accept his apology, that disappointment was still evident on her face. Ichigo's 'inner peace' threatened to crumble when he saw it. He felt desperate to make things right. "Do you have time to come with me?" he asked gently.

"Um, what do you mean? I have time…" she trailed off, feeling uncertain.

Ichigo didn't answer. He started walking, pulling her along. She followed somewhat reluctantly, but Ichigo strode with such purpose that soon she was following eagerly. He led her to a cemetery on the other side of the river. They walked through it without slowing down. When they got to the other side, a small paved path meandered up the side of a hill. Ichigo continued to lead Orihime up the hill until they reached the top. There was nothing on the top of the hill than some unlit stone lanterns and a few benches. Ichigo took Orihime to one of the benches and they sat down. The view of Karakura from the hilltop was quite pretty; the building lights reflected in the river like rippling stars.

"Thank you for bringing me here, Kurosaki-kun. It's very pretty," Orihime said quietly. Ichigo smiled slightly, aware that he had a lot more work to do to make up for missing her birthday, but knowing this was a good start. She intertwined her fingers with his while she watched the scenery and he watched her. He tucked an errant strand of hair behind her ear.

"Happy birthday, Inoue," he said softly as he leaned in to kiss her. It was just a short peck, and afterward Orihime leaned her head on his shoulder, content to sit there with him quietly. Ichigo enjoyed the closeness, but after several minutes he was losing interest in the scenery, and was afraid Orihime might get too comfortable and fall asleep. He decided some conversation was in order.

"So, did you have a good birthday, despite your boyfriend being an idiot?" he asked.

She answered with a giggle first, then added, "Yes. Tatsuki-chan, Chizuru-chan, and Ishida-kun brought a cake at lunch, it was delicious!"

"Good," he smiled, glad that she had friends that cared about her too. "Speaking of Ishida, sorry about before…"

Orihime simply nodded in response. She knew that what happened between the two of them was a long time coming, actually. She was hopeful that going forward they would become better friends.

Ichigo, on the other hand, was curious about some of the things Uryuu had said. "So, he mentioned going out for dinner. Where did you go?"

"Oh, Ishida-kun and Tatsuki-chan treated me to Gusto*. I had pasta and a parfait. I'm still full!"

"Oh, sounds good. Ishida also mentioned that he got you a gift…" Ichigo kind-of-asked.

"Oh yes!" she said more enthusiastically than Ichigo would have preferred. "He finished altering my summer uniform! But he gave that to me on Sunday. I can't wear it for much longer now, but it should still fit next year. Also, today he gave me this!" she said, smiling, holding up her phone. Attached to the case was a charm made of vinyl that was in the shape of the 'Laugh Hour' logo with a caricature of the show's host on it. She laughed as she looked down at it, adding, "I really love this program, and now whenever I use my phone I can be reminded of how funny it is. Ishida-kun probably didn't want to make me feel uncomfortable with anything too special, but this charm, although cheap, shows how well he knows me and what a great friend he is. I'll treasure it." Ichigo thought to himself that it was a perfect gift from Uryuu; personal enough to be meaningful but cheap and frivolous enough to not overstep the boundaries Ichigo had set for Uryuu. He suddenly felt very guilty for how he treated his friend earlier.

"Yeah, that's really nice," Ichigo said without letting his disappointment with himself show for her sake.

Meanwhile, in Soul Society

Though little evidence had been found to corroborate the initial reports of a 'demon creature' roaming around at night in Rukongai, the current and former captains of the twelfth division were knee-deep in hypotheses regarding Aizen's death, the Hogyoku's disappearance, and 'the incident'.

While both scientists agreed that it was nearly certain that Aizen's death was directly correlated to the Hogyoku's disappearance, their agreement ended there. Captain Kurotsuchi's current guess was that the Hogyoku must have consumed all of Aizen's reiatsu and then consumed itself, in essence black-holing itself out of existence, which might explain the strange energy surge.

Urahara's hunch was much less far-fetched and more in line with what the other division captains feared; that a being had attained or was born into soul society with a power level greater than Aizen's, attracting the Hogyoku toward him/her/it. He further posited that as a result of being tapped into Aizen, the awakened Hogyoku was able to absorb Aizen's innate reiatsu and use it to somehow escape the Muken in search of the new being. Being a rational man, Urahara wasted no time fantasizing on who in Soul Society could have reached such supreme power so quickly after Aizen's fall from power; that idea was absurd. Instead, he had spent the past several days creating a mental list of any beings outside of Soul Society that may have the potential to surpass Aizen.

There were a few suspects that came to mind immediately, including, of course, Ichigo Kurosaki. He would have been the obvious choice to most people, had he been able to continue his progress as a shinigami. Alas, his power being stripped, and being very much alive on Earth, he was out of the running.

A more likely person of interest to the Hogyoku, in Urahara's mind at least, would be Orihime Inoue. Her power, although not ever used to the fullest, had the potential to reject the entire universe out of existence based on her will alone, if she was able to maintain her reiatsu, making hers a power rivaling that of God the Creator. She, however, also being alive and well in the World of the Living, could not possibly be the answer.

He was left, then, with only weak guesses, among them: new souls, aliens, fallen and purified arrancar, or an experiment of Mayuri's gone bad. None of these guesses were worth pursuing at this point, since he had no leads of such a being's existence. No, the best course of action he could imagine would be to bring a being that might tempt the Hogyoku to Seireitei, and he had just the girl in mind.

As he made his case to Commander Yamamoto, the old man listened, nodding along from time to time. As Urahara suspected, it took little convincing for the Commander to greenlight his experiment: To bring Orihime Inoue to Soul Society in an attempt to draw out the Hogyoku.

Out of consideration to the girl in question, Urahara decided to send her a message to announce what was required of her, before sending for her two days later.

Back in Karakura

Ichigo had just wrapped his arm around Orihime as she snuggled into him on the bench on the hill, his unfocused gaze drifting toward a cellular tower in the distance. Suddenly, he felt what he assumed to be a moth fluttering around his face. He swatted at it distractedly and then put his arm back over Orihime's shoulder.

"Kurosaki-kun, what did you just do?" Orihime asked in a voice that held a spooked quality.

"Oh, sorry to startle you, there was just a moth around my face, I was swatting it away," he answered somewhat sleepily.

"Oh," she responded with a nervous laugh. "Excuse me a moment, um, my phone is buzzing," she lied as she stood and took several steps away into the shadows, turning on her phone's display for Ichigo's benefit in order to make her lie more believable. As she brought the phone near the side of her face, she extended her finger in order to let a very insistent hell butterfly land on it. She listened to its message, turned off her phone, and returned to Ichigo, wondering to herself how it could be possible that he was able to perceive the messenger from Soul Society at all.

She shook the thought from her mind as she told Ichigo her second lie of the evening: "That was my aunt. A distant relative has died and I am expected to go to the funeral this weekend, so I'll be leaving right after school on Friday and I won't be back until Sunday."

*Gusto is a Japanese chain restaurant that serves western and Japanese food at very low prices.

A/N: Thanks for reading! Please let me know what you think in the reviews or in a private message!