Chapter 15: A Warning

Walking home from Urahara's shoten that night was awkward as Ichigo ignored Rukia the whole way leaving Verena to listen to her, though she really wasn't saying much. Looking towards the dark haired girl, Verena saw that she seemed to be getting lost in her thoughts. Deciding that this could be dangerous, as Ichigo did the same thing by overthinking things, Verena wrapped an arm around Rukia's neck pulling her towards Verena's side.

"Wha-" Rukia cried out as she lost her balance and fell against Verena's side.

"Well since it's official," Verena began as she smiled down at Rukia. "that you're stayin' with Ichi and I, we should totally have an all girls night."

Up ahead of them Ichigo suddenly froze in mid-step. "A girls night?" Rukia asked curious about that prospect. What does this entail?

"Yeah!" Verena exclaimed as pure happiness seemed to be gushing from her. "We can have Tatsuki, Orihime, and our sisters join, oh! Mama too!" Verena waved a finger in the air as she said each person's name as she spoke. "We'll do each other's hair, fingernails, watch girlie flicks and girl talk."

As the two passed Ichigo he made a face at of the mentioned things his sister would do with Rukia. He was so going to be out of the house when they did this. Perhaps Chad will let me crash at his place. he thought, having been to his best friend's home a few times but he had never spent the night.

"And Ichi can be our servant boy for the night!" she teased Ichigo knowing he was more than likely thinking of a way to avoid this.

"No." he said sternly as a frown crossed his features.

"Aw, but Ichi!" she pouted at him causing his frown to deepen.

"No." he repeated vehemently.

"Yuzu can make her curry." she offered knowing he really liked their little sister's curry.

Ichigo's cheeks flushed because he knew his twin was exploiting his one weakness, Yuzu's curry. His stomach rumbled at the thought of eating that. He gave a deep sigh causing Verena to smile in victory. "Fine." he mumbled in defeat as he stuffed his hands into his pockets.

Amazing! Rukia thought in awe. She got him to agree even when he didn't want to do it. Her eyes were wide as she watched Ichigo pout as they walked down the street towards their home. "When will we do this?" she inquired, now very curious to see how servant Ichigo differed from normal Ichigo.

Verena smiled. "Next weekend." she said. "I'll have to arrange things with the girls this week."

School the next day began as normal, Keigo came into the classroom to give Ichigo his morning greeting, only to get a foot in his face. A surprised cry from across the room caused everyone to look only to see Chizuru grasp Orihime from behind, her hands landing on the young girl's breasts. It was quickly taken care of when Tatsuki hit the strawberry blond over the head, as she pulled Orihime behind her for protection.

Verena sighed deeply before shaking her head at the other girls. One would think Chizuru would learn not to mess with Orihime when Tatsuki is in the area. she thought as she took her seat next to Ichigo as Rukia took the seat ahead of her. Peering over Rukia's shoulder she found a grin appearing on her face at what she was writing. "If you want to know how to talk more modern you should read a magna or two."

Rukia looked over her shoulder at the orange haired girl. "Really?" she asked, amazed that Verena was helping her.

"Sure..." Verena grinned. She knew Rukia would most likely do it and not pick up that she was just kidding around.

"Thank-you!" Rukia exclaimed happily.

She's too easy to pick on. Verena thought as boredom began to fill her. Tomorrow we are to go for our weekly training with Shinji and them. Wonder how we're gonna do that with miss soul reaper around? she wondered as she barely paid attention to their homeroom teacher. Looking over to Ichigo she saw him grin at her. Groaning, she knew exactly what was going on. Ichigo had jumped out of his body again and Kon was left in charge again. I'll kick his ass later.

Later that afternoon Ichigo was back in charge of his body when he met up with Rukia and Verena in the park. Verena was swinging around what looked like a bat and hitting balls filled with something. Verena stopped swinging the bat when she saw him. "Your turn." she said as she threw him the bat. "Hit the balls with faces on them." she told him. "Rukia's idea of training." she explained.

Ichigo gave her a confused look. "You've gotta be kidding me?" he asked her before looking at the scribbles on the balls. "How many times?" he asked with an exasperated sigh.

"Only a hundred." she replied as she sat next to Rukia who was reading a horror magna from the library. Verena still couldn't believe she had actually gotten it. Looking up into the sky Verena watched the clouds go by slowly. "You do realize we've been training since we were kids, right?" she asked Rukia.

"I did not." she answered as she continued to read her book. She was becoming really involved in the storyline. "Give me the box! Sister Marianne! Now!" "No! We mustn't open the box! Francois! No!" Rukia felt her heart begin to accelerate and just as she was about to turn the page, a voice broke her concentration.

"What are you doing?" the deep voice asked.

"Ahhh!" Rukia cried out in surprise. Both Verena and Ichigo began to laugh. "Not funny!" Rukia yelled at them both.

Ichigo recovered first. "What are you reading anyways?" he asked as he went to grab the book.

"I'm studying up on modern speech." she stated as she pulled the book away.

Ichigo caught sight of the cover. "You're reading a horror magna." he said in a deadpan voice. Verena let out a snort causing her brother to look at her. Verena instantly pretended to be innocent in this.

"Did you hit the balls?" Rukia asked as she tried to get Ichigo's attention off of her.

"Yeah. I'm done." he said seeming to be bored. "Breaking open a hundred pepper filled balls. What kind of trading is this?" he asked her. Sounds like something Getabushi would've done when we were kids. he thought as his mind was suddenly filled with an image of Urahara fan himself and laughing at them when they were kids.

Across town Urahara suddenly sneezed. His eyes widening in horror. Looking around himself to be sure nobody heard him, he quickly sequestered himself away from prying eyes into his laboratory.

In the kitchen Tessai heard the sudden sneeze and went off to find out who was the one who had made the noise. The thought of one of the children getting sick was something he could not handle, worse yet would be if it was his closest friend who was getting sick. Perhaps I should find one of my home remedies, just in case. he thought as he went find where he had stashed it years ago.

"Sneaking up behind a hollow and defeating it in on strike is the basics of defeating them..." Rukia went to continue only to have Ichigo hit her on the head. "Gah!" she cried out.

"What kind of coward do you take me for!?" he half asked, half yelled at her. "You fight your opponent head on!"

"Fool! Save that kind of fighting for humans." she growled at him in frustration. "Your opponents are hollows. The same rules do not apply."

Ichigo grounded himself in his stance. "Perhaps, but then again I've been doing this for awhile now." he glared at her. "I'm helping you, but I'm not doing it your way. I'm doing it the Kurosaki way."

"Wha-" Rukia began only to be interrupted by a yell.

"HELLO KUROSAKI!"

"Aaahhhh!" Ichigo and Verena both cried out and jumped slightly as Orihime yelled at both from behind them.

Ichigo, who had fallen to the ground looked at her with surprise evident on his face. "Inoue?" he questioned. "What are you doing here?" he asked as he stood back up.

"Oh, I just bought some onions, butter, and banana's and gelatin for dinner." she told him.

What is she planning on doing with that? Both of the twins thought in unison.

Verena quickly pulled out her flip phone and sent Tatsuki a text about perhaps making sure Orihime had a good dinner tonight as Ichigo and Rukia spoke to the sweet girl. "What happened to your arm?" she heard Ichigo ask her. Looking up Verena saw the bandage around Orihime's upper arm.

"Oh! This?" she asked as she pointed at the bandage. "I got hit."

"H-Hit!" he yelled. "By what? A car? A bike?"

"A car." she answered as if it was the most natural thing. Ichigo and Verena felt sweat drip down their necks. "Actually I've been getting hit a lot by a lot of things lately." she rubbed the back of her neck nervously. "I zone out a lot."

Rukia narrowed her eyes at the young girl. So she's just an airhead. Rukia then noticed a marking on her leg. "May I see that mark on your leg?" she asked as she bent down.

"Oh sure. That must've happened last night too." she mumbled as Rukia examined her leg carefully. "Does it hurt?" she asked curiously.

"Oh yes. Much more than my arm." she said pointing at her arm.

"Eh?" Ichigo questioned her. "Inoue..." he was about to say something when Verena beat him to it.

"You should go see a doctor." Verena told her with concern in her voice.

"Huh?" Orihime asked before looking at her watch. "I've gotta go. It's getting late!"

"In a rush?" Ichigo asked her.

"Yes! Laugh Hour is almost on." she stated as she turned and ran off.

Verena looked between Rukia and Ichigo as they began to talk about Orihime's older brother who had died three hears prior. The mark on Inoue's leg was concerning. It made her stomach start doing twists and she didn't like the bad feeling she was suddenly getting. Something bad was on the horizon for her dear friend and she had to be the one to stop it. Orihime had already suffered from the loss of her brother, she wouldn't let the girl suffer again if she could prevent it.

M-Angel: Sorry for the late update. I wasn't feeling too good this weekend, so I wasn't able to update until now. Next chapter will have some action in it. I'm thinking of doing a bit of a twist on how Orihime's brother attacks his sister.

Shocked! I was told this story is boring. Sorry! Not all my chapters will be action packed as I'm trying to develop my character Verena along with a few others. I'll try to add a few fights in between chapters.