(A/N:So...yeah it's been a looooooooong time since i updated this story but fear not this fanfic is still on just I had a lot more bumps in the road than I thought mainly my laptop dying on my again which was fantastic -_-. But for now I'll save the explanations at the end of the chapter. So for now sit down get the snacks and enjoy.)
As Ichigo heads back home he quickly enters and rushes up to the second floor of his house, heading for the shower. He goes in and after 8 to 9 minutes he comes out with a towel thanks to Yuzu leaving it for him before he got in.
Rias was already dressed and having breakfast with Karin while Ishin was already at the clinic attending an early patient.
Ichigo goes to his room and saw Kon lying on the bed lifeless and sees his tiny candy sized orb on the desk. Instead of wondering where he's been all this time Ichigo thought he could talk with Kon later when he sees his clock read 7:25 am.
"Crap!" Ichigo then goes to his closet and takes out his school uniform and drops his towel only to quickly get his undershorts on and soon the rest of his cloths.
In the dining room, Rias was eating her sunny side-up eggs with butter toast on the side while having a conversation with Karin.
"So you're from Europe?" asked Karin.
"Yes actually, but I moved to Japan since I always wanted to come here." Rias answers as she takes a bite out of her buttered toast.
"Heck I'd like to go to Europe. Japan is not all that great, granted we have Tokyo but that place is too crowded for my taste" says Karin as she continues to eat her breakfast.
"I see, you know Karin I do have a friend that I would like to introduce you to. I do think you two would really hit it off." As Rias looks at Karin she can't help but be reminded of Koneko. She should really introduce her seeing as how Koneko could use more friends aside from herself and her peerage.
"I'm not interested in boys right now" Karin says not very interested in what she thought was Rias offering to set her up on a date.
"Don't worry she's not a boy" Rias says as she finishes her breakfast and at the same time Ichigo comes down from the stairs already dressed and ready to go.
"Ichigo, no breakfast?" Yuzu asks as she finishes with the kitchen and begins to quickly have her own breakfast.
"Nah, toast is just fine with me." Instead of getting a full breakfast, Ichigo just grabs a slice of toast out of the toaster, slams some blueberry jam on it and takes it to go.
"You know Ichigo, it's important that you have your breakfast since it's the most important meal of the day" Rias says in a sing song tone as she takes her plate to the kitchen and quickly grabs her school bag as she walks next to Ichigo.
"I know, I know but toast is fine by me, really" says the oranged-haired teen as the two head out to school.
"Have a nice day you two!" Yuzu says as she waves goodbye to them with Rias waving back.
"Thank you!" Rias says with a smile.
"Yeah, later Yuzu." Ichigo raising his hand up to Yuzu as well.
As the two leave and walk towards Karakura High, Rias and Ichigo started chatting.
"You know Ichigo, I am really starting to like it here. It's a lot more interesting than back home that's for sure" says the crimson-haired princess already who has had a pleasant experience in Karakura so far.
"Well if you say so, even though there's not much to look at in Karakura besides the paranormal stuff; but you know I'm glad that you're enjoying yourself. Speaking of home, have you tried talking with your folks yet?" Ichigo looks over to Rias wondering if she had contacted them yet.
"No...not yet anyway." Rias looks to the side sheepishly.
"It has been a while Rias, they have to be worried sick" says Ichigo feeling that Rias should talk to her folks at some point.
"I know…." Then Rias felt a presence on her right but as she looks over she sees nothing.
"Something wrong?" Ichigo asked as he looks at the same direction as Rias.
After a few minutes of searching for the presence she couldn't find it anymore. Then she looks over to Ichigo with a smile. "No it's probably nothing."
Ichigo didn't exactly buy her answer but he didn't want to pressure her if it's not there anymore. No point going after it now then they would definitely be late.
"Alright then, and Rias...about last night." Ichigo stops walking as he looks over at Rias.
"You mean when I crashed into your bed?" says Rias seductively while giving him a wink.
"No no, I mean about the whole memorial for my mom" Ichigo says as he tries to hide his blush but to no avail.
"Yes?" Rias looks at Ichigo while holding her giggle, watching him hide his blush.
"Well I haven't told you the whole story actually...about what happened."
Her giggling quickly stops as Rias looks at Ichigo with a concerned look, quick to respond before he would say anything. "Ichigo, you don't have to tell me. Maybe I was out of line with my opinion since-"
"No, no Rias your opinion is fine, it actually helped me a little."
"Ok...so what is it exactly?"
"It's… nevermind I can tell you later. Come on we're going to be late anyway." Ichigo then keeps walking ahead.
"Fine... later it is then." Rias looks at Ichigo before she continues to walk catching up to him.
As they continue to walk away the same two hooded figures from before were following them until they sensed that Rias noticed them and quickly retreated. They found their target.
"Tsk...look at her walking to a new school and being with a boy she hardly knows. Hehe… someone is desperate."
"It really doesn't matter if she's with a boy or not. So long as she's here, my brother will be very pleased" says the hooded blonde girl.
"Mmmm… and I do like it when Master Riser is pleased" The cloaked woman with violet hair says as she licks her lips.
"Ok too much info! Let's go before anyone notices, or worse, we bump into any of her peerage."
"No problem." With a feeling of being watched, the violet haired woman looks up and spies a black cat staring down on them. The woman simply glares back but the cat didn't budge remaining still and staring right at them.
"Hey what's wrong?"
"Nothing, just a stupid cat" says the hooded woman as she walks away while the cats gives her a hiss as if it knew what she said and quickly leaves.
-Urahara Shop Training Grounds-
Ever since this morning, Issei has been training non-stop using Urahara's training regiment. He did some of the necessary exercises and practiced his Dragon shots with his sacred gear. Afterwards, he had sparred with Kiba for a while until Kiba had to head out and see the rest of Karakura. Now the boy is currently sparring with Tessai while Asia sits on the sidelines cheering Issei on.
"Come on Issei, you can do it!"
"Damn this guy is no joke" says Issei, breathing heavily while wiping the sweat off his brow.
"Well what did you expect? I used to be a Captain of the Kido Corps back in my days in the Soul Society. If this was a real fight you'd be on the ground, knocked out."
"Y-yeah… good to know… but for Rias' sake I have to get stronger. Now come on!"
"BOOST!"
"Very well, here I come!" Tessai, in the blink of an eye, dashes towards Issei and winds up to deliver another punch to the teen. Issei quickly blocks his fist using his sacred gear. "Well, you're starting to catch on."
"Yeah it took a while and a few jabs but I'm starting to get the hang of this."
"BOOST!"
"Hmm… yes but let's see if you can handle this." Tessai backs away and fires a Kido spell at Issei with the teen barely dodging it in time.
"BOOST!"
"Alright I'm ready to go! Take this! Dragon SHOT!"
Tessai moves out of the way from the dragon shot blast and quickly flash steps towards Issei and just as he was about to deliver a powerful uppercut...
BZZZZZ! TIME!
Tessai stops his attack mid-way when the training timer went off. "Hmm how time flies."
"Oh thank you timer!" Issei then slumps on the ground feeling the exhaustion catching up with him after training as long as he did.
"You did great Issei!" Asia hands the boy a towel.
"Thanks, Asia." Issei takes the towel and places it over his forehead.
"Yes… you've come a long way and have improved a great deal, but for now I must head back to the shop, and handle a few orders. For now, take a rest." Tessai then leaves the two alone in the training ground as he climbs up the ladder leading up to the shop to attend its daily necessities.
Now with the two of them alone, Issei just lies on the floor catching his breath while Asia hands him a water bottle.
"So Asia..how did it go last night with Orihime?"
"Oh it was great, we had such a wonderful time and Orihime is such a good cook. She's going to teach me some of her cooking techniques."
"Nice, that's good to hear. Kiba and I had some of Tessai's cooking, it wasn't much but it was good any-POW!" Before Issei could finish his sentence the teen was smashed in the face with a baseball.
"Oh no, Issei! Are you alright!?" Asia exclaims as she goes to Issei's side.
"D-Damn it, that hurts." Issei slowly gets up with his nose bleeding a little from that hit.
"Hey punk, break time is over! Now it's my turn to kick your sorry ass!" Coming out of the store and wielding his baseball bat and sporting a sleeveless blue shirt, edged with white and grey pants, was the red-haired member of Kisuke's crew: Jinta Hanakari.
"Damn it kid, I was in a middle of something!"
"Well tough shit, now you have me to deal with! So you got the power of a dragon, huh? You don't look all that great to me!"
"Oh yeah?! Wanna see what I can really do?!" Issei gets on his feet ready to fight Jinta as he summons his sacred gear.
"Come and get some!"
"BOOST!"
"Fine by me!" Jinta readies his bat while producing a baseball size orb of spiritual energy. Jinta then tosses the spirit ball in the air and when it went down the red-haired teen hits it with his baseball bat firing it at Issei which the brown-haired teen dodges and when he got close enough he delivers a punch with his sacred gear only for Jinta to block it with his spiritual energy covered bat.
"Hmph is that all you got? And Kisuke said that you had sort of potential."
"Heh you haven't seen anything yet!"
"BOOST!"
"Now take this Dragon Shot!" Pushing Jinta's bat away, Issei quickly fires his attack, connecting with Jinta and sending the teen back several feet.
"Hot hot hot… damn Kisuke wasn't kidding. Alright, now let's get real serious!" Jinta increases his spiritual power now getting serious for a change.
"Heh...alright let's go!" shouts Issei as he and Jinta begins their fight with Asia cheering him on from the sidelines.
-In the streets of Karakura-
Since Orihime left for school, Koneko has been exploring Karakura for a while after she's been given some time off from Rias.
The white-haired girl would look around seeing all the sights that Karakura had to offer. So far there's not much to look at since most streets look rather the same to her.
Eventually she walks by the waterfront where she sees a bridge that connects to another city. It was a pretty site but she kept on moving as it can only hold her attention for so long.
As she walks through the shopping district, she takes a left and notices a black cat following her around.
At first she ignores it hoping that it would go away, but it kept following her. She tried to take a sharp left but the cat could keep up with the white-haired girl as she keeps taking sharp corners hoping to lose the black feline but to no avail.
Once they were alone in an empty street, Koneko turns around and looks at the cat.
"Quit following me, I don't have anything to give you" says the young white-haired girl feeling a little annoyed by the cat constantly following her.
"I'm not asking for anything" the black cat speaks with a charming male voice.
Koneko was a little surprised by the cat speaking even if she doesn't show it. "Wait...did you just-"
"Talk, why yes." the cat answers as it walks towards the young school girl and sits in front of her with his piercing yellow eyes looking up at her.
"You know normal cats don't talk" says Koneko plainly.
"Perhaps, but I'm no normal cat by any means. My name is Yoruichi" the cat says, introducing
itself.
"Mine's Koneko."
"Very nice to meet you."
"So what do you want?"
"Ah straight to the point, I like that. I'd simply like to chat with you is all."
"…"
"Don't worry, I'm friends with Kisuke. Well actually I live with him, so you can trust me."
Koneko gives Yoruichi a good long look, still suspicious of the black cat even if she is friends with that bucket hat guy; but seeing that there's nothing for her to lose, she feels she can go along with the feline. "Alright, what do you want?"
"Oh nothing special, just a friendly chat. Mostly about what you kids are getting into and to inform you that you're not the only ones visiting Karakura Town."
Koneko looks at Yoruichi.
"As of now they know that you're all here."
Koneko widen her eyes when she heard what Yoruichi said knowing who the cat was talking about.
"It seems to me that a storm is coming and by the looks of things it's going to be a fierce one indeed. I think it's best that we round up everyone and prepare for the worst."
"So I take it you want me to head back to that guy with the bucket hat's store."
"For now, that would be the best course of action for the time being."
Koneko simply nods in agreement.
"I'm sure your other friends are somewhere in town; I'll be sure to fetch them as well."
"Asia should be there, she wanted to spend some time with Issei."
"Oh very good then, that should make things easier for me." says as the cat and Koneko head back to the store and as they do they were watched by a few new figures in cloaks.
"Nya… we could have jumped her."
"If it wasn't for that cat, I'd agree… nya."
-Karakura High-
During class, Ichigo was paying attention to his teacher until Uryu suddenly stands up from his desk.
"Teacher, may I have permission to go to the bathroom!"
Before the teacher could even give him a response, he had already left.
"Hmm...must be a bad case of the runs." In reality it was just an excuse for him to take out a hollow that was nearby and on the prowl.
As the day rolled on, it was lunch time and, like before, Rias and Ichigo went up to the roof with Orihime and Tatsuki close behind.
"So let me get this straight, you're living with Ichigo?" asks Tatsuki.
"Why yes I am. He was so generous to let me stay" Rias answers.
"It was my dad's idea" Ichigo added.
"Oh, well now that makes more sense."
"Yeah and Rias' friends are here in town too" says Orihime with a happy little tone.
"Really? Well isn't that quite the party" Tatsuki says, a little surprised by what she heard.
"You have no idea" says Ichigo with a deadpan look.
"Hm… why do you say that?" asks Tatsuki, feeling a little confused about what he said.
"Tell her Rias." Ichigo says.
Rias turned to Ichigo with a concerned look.
"Don't worry, she knows about the whole soul reaper gig and other supernatural stuff."
"Ohhhhh" Rias says in acknowledgement.
"Ichigo… what's going on?" Tatsuki looks at Ichigo with another concerned and worried look thinking that something is going on and it has to do with Rias.
"Let's just head up to the roof and we'll tell you everything."
"Good idea." says Orihime.
Once on the roof of the school and settling down for their lunch, Tatsuki listened intently to what Rias has to say.
"You see, Tatsuki, I'm a devil and I've come to Ichigo to ask him for his help with a problem… a marriage problem."
"Wait, you mean forced marriage? Are those still a thing in this day and age?"
"Well technically it's an arranged marriage but it really does feel like a forced marriage. Honestly, the man I'm forced with isn't exactly my type." says Rias in a momentarily frustrated tone.
"Ooookay… so how does Ichigo fit into all of this exactly? Granted I know he's going to help you but how's he going to do that?" Tatsuki takes a bite out her sushi roll.
"Simple… Ichigo has to become my boyfriend."
With that phrase said, Ichigo shockingly spits out his drink at what he heard while Orihime just faints on the floor, unable to take in what was said.
"SAY WHAT?!" Ichigo exclaims in surprise and horror.
"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! That's Brilliant! You and Ichigo together...Pfffft….Hahahahahahahaha….sigh…...well actually I can see that" say Tatsuki.
"Can it Tatsuki! Rias, what the hell? We barely know each other! Not to mention wasn't the plan suppose to be me fighting the guy!"
"Yes, exactly right." Rias says with a smile.
"Then I ask again. What. The. Hell?!" asks Ichigo with a serious tone.
"Ichigo just listen, for now my first part of the plan is for you and me to act like we're in love. That way when my family does come and find me they'll see that I've found another that I fancy, then they would have to respect my wishes and call off this whole thing."
"What if it doesn't Rias?"
"Then… we will have to fight even with the knowledge that Riser won't be taking this lightly."
"You know I would go straight to the fight instead of pulling something like this even if it is just an act" says Ichigo.
Then it came back to Ichigo, what he was suppose to ask Rias about earlier. "Speaking of Riser, I got to ask. What power does he have?"
"Oh right I forgot to tell you that. Thankfully you brought that up when you did." Rias answers as she takes a bite of her lunch, chewing and swallowing as she looks at Ichigo.
"You see Ichigo, Riser has inherited the powers of the immortal bird, Phoenix, granting him immortality and instant regeneration" says Rias as she explains to Ichigo.
"Instant regeneration, huh?" Ichigo quickly remembers that ability when he fought the Arrancars.
"Yes, not to mention he wields the phoenix power but it's mostly pyrokinesis" Rias explains.
"I see." Ichigo acknowledging the situation.
"Yes and he also has a full set in his peerage. Riser has all fifteen pieces under his command." Rias says as she looks down knowing that even if they would fight they would be at a disadvantage.
"And how many do you have?" Orihime asks, wanting in on this conversation.
"Unfortunately I only have my pawn Issei, my knight Kiba, my rook Koneko, my queen Akeno, and lastly my bishop Asia."
"Only 6 of you? That's not good even if we add myself, Orihime, Uryu and Chad we still be outnumbered."
"Even if we do have to fight, you can rely on us to back you up" says Orihime with a cheery attitude.
"Ah… hello, what about me?" Tatsuki chimes in.
"What about you?" Ichigo asks.
"You're kidding right? I mean honestly Ichigo who's the girl that kicked your butt in karate since the 5th grade?"
"You did, until that one fi-"
"Yeah, yeah but again tell me, who went to the national karate tournament and got to second place with a broken arm?"
"You did Tatsuki, not to mention that was years ago."
"Look my point is I want to help. Clearly you guys are outnumbered by this guy and his goons."
"I don't know Tats-OUCH!" Tatsuki quickly grabs Ichigo's arm twisting it and quickly traps him in one of her holds.
"Ow! Hey Tatsuki knock it off!" Ichigo exclaims as he struggles under Tatsuki's hold on him while Rias watches with amusement.
"I will if you let me join." Tatsuki then puts more pressure on her hold over Ichigo.
"But… you… don't have… an ability… OW!"
"So what?! I survived my encounter with that Aizen guy AND I can see spirits like you used to AND I can hold my own in a fight! Not to mention I survived a lot of hollow attacks too. So you better give me some credit."
"Geez… alright you can help… just let go of my damn arm already!"
With a smirk, Tatsuki lets go of Ichigo releasing him from her hold. Rias was very impressed with the girl.
"So Rias, how about it? Mind letting me kick some ass?!"
"Not at all! After hearing all of that and seeing what you did to Ichigo, how can I turn you down?"
"Yes!"
"Great" Ichigo murmurs under his breath.
"Well at least we have one more on our side" says Orihime with a smile.
As they continue to chat and have lunch, the school bell rings signaling that lunch time is over.
"Ah crap there goes lunch" says Tatsuki having to rush her lunch and almost choking on it.
"You know it's strange that Uryu and Chad didn't join us" says Rias as she noticed for a while that neither have come up to join them.
"Uryu is probably still dealing with that hollow, although he should be done by now" says Ichigo as he gathers his stuff and throws away his finished lunch in a waste bin.
"Plus Chad had to go to a meeting with his music club" says Tatsuki as the four teens go down the stairs and head to their next class.
Before they could continue talking, the school bell rings once more, bringing their conversation to a premature end.
"Welp catch you guys on the flipside" Tatsuki says as she quickly gathers her stuff and discards the unwanted trash before leaving the roof with Ichigo, Rias and Orihime following suit.
"Yeah we can talk more about this later" says Ichigo as he gathers his leftover lunch into his bag as the group heads back to their classes.
-After School-
With the afternoon classes coming to a close, despite how uneventful they were as usual, the final bell rings as everyone heads out and walks home.
Tatsuki and Orihime walked on home together with Orihime talking about her usual misadventures and bizarre, yet delicious, food ideas.
While Ichigo and Rias head back to the Kurosaki residence, they reach the large park with Rias stopping to gaze at it.
"Something wrong?" says Ichigo wondering.
Rias then looks over to Ichigo and smiles at him. "Let's go on a date."
"Say what?" Ichigo asks a bit befuddled.
"Let's go on a date, silly. I mean you did say that we should get to know each other better so why not walk through the park, just the two of us spending some time together."
Ichigo just looks at her with a raised eyebrow.
"You don't have to deal with your dad" Rias says with a sly smile.
"Ok let's do it."
"Yay date time!" Rias quickly grabs Ichigo's arm and heads into the park dragging the poor orange-haired teen by the arm.
"What did I gotten myself into?" Ichigo thought as Rias drags him with her bust pressing against his arm making him blush a bit.
Ichigo got into it as the two strolled around the park and eventually stop by the swing as they talk with one another.
"Really? That actually happened?"
"Yup the guy is a real maniac, it was a miracle that I actually survived that fight let alone won it. Not to mention everytime he sees me he's all like: Hey Ichigo come and fight me!"
"Hehe, all of that to save Rukia? Oh Ichigo would you do the same for little old me?" Rias says with puppy dog eyes as she pouts her lips and pressing her chest making Ichigo blush more making him look the other way as he tries to hide his blush.
"Ah… well … you know, I..."
"My Rias, aren't you just the humblest one, clinging to this human peasant and all."
Ichigo and Rias look back towards the sound of the arrogant voice and there he stood; a handsome young man with blonde hair and an outfit consisting of a burgundy blazer with gold embroidery on the right with matching pants and black dress shoes. Underneath his open blazer is a white dress shirt that is not fully buttoned with just one button short giving a slight view of his chest.
"Riser!"
"So that's the guy?" Ichigo asks as he can feel the arrogance and smugness from a mile away.
"Rias you simply need to have better standards for yourself. What would your family think?"
"Well he's a lot more up to par than you would ever be." Rias stands from the swings and confronts the arrogant blonde.
"Come now Rias, think of our lineage, the honor of our respective families. You can't just throw all of that away." Riser comes towards Rias and wraps his arms around her. Ichigo stands up as well to interject but Rias quickly pushes Riser away.
"Stop it! I don't love you, in fact it's the opposite."
"Such harsh words Rias. It would be a shame if I had to knock off a few of your precious peerage to get you to come to your senses."
"What?"
"Oh yes, I know exactly where they are. I've had my own peerage scouting this….backwards town. Why you ever chose this place is beyond me. So… if you know what's good for you, your peerage, and perhaps this no name town, you do as I say." Riser then grabs Rias inappropriately and forces himself on her.
"Stop it!" Rias cries and as Riser was about to kiss her he instead receives a punch to the face from one enraged Ichigo.
Unable to hold himself back any longer, the former substitute soul reaper leaps into action and quickly punches Riser square in the face, forcing him to let go of Rias as he falls to the ground bleeding from the lip.
"The lady said no, you bastard!"
"You dare?! You dare put your filthy hands on me you...powerless human!"
"Ya damn right I would and I would do it again if you even think about touching her" Ichigo says as he stands over Riser but the blonde quickly gets back on his feet.
"You have no idea who you are up against, boy!" Riser's body erupts into flames, forcing Ichigo back as to not burn himself by Riser's flames.
"Ichigo!" cries Rias fearing for Ichigo's safety.
Ichigo stood his ground even if having to step away from the flames that surrounds Riser.
"What's wrong? Did I frighten you with my flames?"
"No just wondering if I could cook some hotdogs with your fire." says Ichigo with a smirk angering Riser even more.
"Ichigo careful you still don't have your powers back yet."
"I know but that doesn't mean I won't let this jerk-face have his way. I'm not backing down!"
"Oh~ cocky are we? Well then, if that's what you want you think, let me show you what you're up against." With a snap of his fingers Riser summons his peerage all fifteen members of his peerage and all of them are girls. From a woman with a revealing dress with violet hair, a girl in a kimono, another woman wearing a half mask, two very young girls wearing gym clothing, two woman wielding their respective swords, a pair of maids, one wielding a wooden staff, one that looks like a dancer, another in a chinse dress to a pair of twin cat girls wearing fighting gloves and lastly a girl with long blonde hair tied into twintails with large, drill-like curls and blue ribbons keeping them in place.
"So what you're a burning gigolo?" says Ichigo
"Watch your mouth you brute! My brother deserves your respect" says one of the girls with the same blonde hair as her brother.
"He deserves to get his ass kicked." says Ichigo definitely.
"Hmph… you do realize you're surrounded fifteen to one" says the purple haired woman.
"I've faced worse odds before, lady" Ichigo answers as all of the girls of Riser's peerage circles around him.
"Now, now... Ravel, Yubelluna, let's try to be civil in front of this uncivilized fool" Riser says with a smirk. As the odds begin to pile up against Ichigo, the teen refused to back down even when facing a full peerage and their fiery master.
"Defiant til the end I see, I'd say that's pretty admirable but completely foolish. Let's just see how you fair against my peerage then. Attack!" Riser's peerage quickly goes on the offense against Ichigo but suddenly...
"Riser stop!" Rias steps in as she fires a destruction ball, stopping Riser's girls from attacking the teen.
"Oh Rias, must you intervene?" Riser asks in an annoyed tone.
"I won't let you continue this farce any longer! I'm warning you Riser, if you don't leave right now..." says Rias in a crossed manner.
"What… what will happen? Let me remind you that you really have no choice in the matter. You don't have enough pieces to challenge me not to mention our families have already agreed on the matter. So why keep resisting the inevitable?"
Rias simply grit her teeth in response.
"Besides, what on earth would this peasant do? He's worthless and powerless… just like your whole peerage. So for the last time Rias come back and marry me or I will scorch your precious peerage and anyone who gets in my way! Including the peasant!" Riser threatens as he increases his fiery power, forcing both Rias and Ichigo back from the burning heat.
"Damn, that's hot." As Ichigo steps away, suddenly, out of the blue, Ichigo felt something sharply stab him in the back, a blue blade piercing through his body and sticking out of his chest.
"Ahck… wha-what the hell!?"
"Ichigo!" Rias turns and sees Ichigo being stabbed right from the back.
He never saw it coming at first he thought it was one of Riser's girls that did the deed but as he turned his head and sees a blurry figure holding what looks like Kisuke's spirit sword. At first the figure was very blurry but as the seconds pass by he can see the shadowy figure turn into the a an old friend he hasn't seen in quite a long time. She is short and petite, has light skin and purple eyes. Her hair is black, with several strands of hair always hanging between her eyes. It was Rukia.
"Hello, Ichigo."
"Ru-Rukia?" Ichigo states in shock.
"Rukia?" Rias asks as she herself can see the soul reaper before her; on how she manages to avoid detection is anyone's guess.
"Who is that girl?" asks Ravel.
"Ru-Rukia...is that….really...you?"
"Yeah it's me, now hold still."
Before Ichigo could react, Rukia twists the spiritual sword while still jabbed inside Ichigo. An explosion of reishi unleashed with everyone resisting the spiritual shock wave that resulted.
Everyone shields themselves from the immense light emanating from Ichigo's direction as the shock wave blows away the fire that Riser created. As the smoke clears, everyone is shocked at what they see standing before them. Ichigo is dawning his soul reaper outfit and on his back is his zanpakuto, Zangetsu, but his Shinigami attire is completely different than before. The outfit now consists of a thicker strap across his chest and has four black vertical lines on his forearms and black, tattoo-like bands crossing over his chest, wrists, and ankles. Similar bands, but with white ends, lie around his neck as collars.
Then there is his massive blade. Like before, Zangetsu has the appearance of an oversized, black khyber knife almost as tall as Ichigo himself but this time the zanpakuto has a hilt colored in red and sporting a short chain by the end of it; its hilt is colored red and coming with a cloth-wrapped tang wrapped around the blade.
"I-Ichigo... is that…?" Rias taken by surprise, in awe of what she sees before her as Ichigo looks completely different than before.
"Yeah... I'm back" says Ichigo as he grabs his zanpakuto and the cloth unwraps itself as he prepares to take on Riser.
To be continued!
(Alrighty then now we're on the role next chapter we will have our full on stand off between Team Rias + Ichigo and friends against Team Riser and I' will leave it at that for the time being. Plus I will say this again this fanfiction is still going it's not canceled in anyway plus this chapter was mostly done for a few months.
But as for what happened on why this took as long as it did. Well...here are the explanations.
No 1. No/Busy Editor: My editor Ashton Mesmer had to leave the position mostly because college/work kept him busy. So I was left with no editor for a while, but I found myself another but he was busy as well and when he was finally free to work with I had to let him go do to our differences in standards. I looked around to find another who is well versed on both series to work with but to no avail. I won't publish a chapter without an editor's ok considering that I'm still not all that confident with my writing by itself without someone with more writing experience taking a look at and undo any errors I would make.
No 2. Laptop Troubles: It died for a second time in a row and I had to wait for a month to have the chance to head out of town to Best Buy so that Geek Squad would tell me I had to wait 2 weeks to repair something that should have taken a day at most to fix. I tried to use my WiiU and PS3 as replacements for the laptop...didn't work out as well as I thought but at least I could watch Youtube with them.
No 3. Pokemon Moon: I'm a Pokemon fan through and through and when a new main series game comes out I will play it.
No 4. Trials of Cold Steel: While my laptop died and was away in repairs with Geek Squad I had this game on the shelf for a while only playing small bits here and there. But once I started playing the game I was hooked on it and after a while of playing it for days on end I beaten it. It's great game and if your into RPGs and if you still have a PS3 pick this up plus the sequel.
No 5. Personal Life: My life keeps me busy especially with my folks plus the holidays and other responsibilities didn't make things any easier.
Also I am working on several chapters mostly for season 2 and I do have the whole fanfic planned out but I won't say anything so not to ruin any good surprises ;)
But for now I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter and hopefully the next chapter won't take as long to make and release. Please do leave a review they help out a lot to motivate me to continue with this series even with all the bumps and holes that I had to deal with. Plus if you're new please do Fav + Follow for more The Devil and The Reaper. Til next time fans, later.)
(The Devil and The Reaper is written by Alpha Espada and edited by Ashton Mesmer. Please support the official release of both series used in this crossover.)