Chapter 23: Another Day
Rukia's eyebrow twitched as the noise behind her continued. She usually wasn't irritated about things so easily no matter who it was that either pointed them out or was the one irritating her, with that said, she was irritated today. Why would you ask? Ichigo. Plain and simple. He seemed to do everything possible to irritate her today. From him pointing out about her drawing skill, again, to him poking and prodding her arm whenever he'd grab her in school for no reason. She was reaching her max of this boy today.
"Wanna go spar today?" Verena's voice pierced through Rukia's fog of irritation.
Turning her head she looked towards the other girl and gave a sigh. "I do." she stated, her shoulders sagging slightly.
Verena smiled at her. "It'll be at Tatsuki's dojo, not Urahara's training facility." she told her, gaining a cocked eyebrow for her to say why. "I've been sensing something around Tatsuki lately. I want to see what it is." She shrugged her shoulders. "I just want to check up on her."
Rukia recalled earlier that day that Tatsuki had been missing from the afternoon classes after having fallen asleep during the morning ones. From her observation of the girl, this was unusual behavior. Nodding, she agreed, it might be prudent to check up on her. "Alright." she then looked behind her at Ichigo and his friends who were following him today. They were way too noisy and Ichigo seemed to enjoy picking on the Keigo boy.
"It'll be just us, that way you can let go of all that annoying irritation out on me." Verena said with a knowing look in her eyes.
"How do you put up with the noise?" Rukia inquired, truly curious how the other girl hadn't killed the boys yet.
"Ichigo is usually a quiet person, but add his friends into the mix and you get a bunch of noisy boys." she said. "Ichigo alone is fine, but when he's like that, small doses are the best thing; otherwise, I think I might strangle his friends." She admitted the last part quietly but it still got the intended effect, which was a laugh from Rukia.
Behind the girls they could hear Keigo whine loudly. "Come on Ichigo!" he whined. "You've gotta know a few good moves, how else did you get Kuchiki to look at you the way she does?"
"Huh?" Ichigo asked confused. "Rukia looks at me in no special way." Unless she's annoyed. he thought with an inward smirk. He'd be the first to admit that he was kind of going out of his way to annoy her, but her reactions were so entertaining.
I'm surprised yer sis hasn't knocked you one for annoying Rukia. He heard his hollow comment offhandedly.
She doesn't really like her. Ichigo told the albino. You've been quiet for the past week. Something going on?
Nope. The hollow said quickly before he receded back into their shared inner world.
Ever since his mother's big announcement of feeling reiatsu she'd been training daily with Urahara, but what was weird was that Uryu had vanished from school all week long. Perhaps I should drop in on him. He suddenly stopped walking causing the other two boys to stop and look at him. "I just remembered that I have something to do guys." he was lying, but they didn't need to know this. "Perhaps we'll hang out another day?"
"Sure." Keigo said a bit surprised that Ichigo had forgotten to do something. After seeing him take off he looked at Muzurio. "Usually he's apt to do everything on time, this is new."
"So, he forgot to do something," Mizurio said nonchalantly as he continued to read the book in his hand before looking up to notice that the girls had vanished. "Huh. Kuchiki and Ichigo's sister are gone."
Keigo turned his head quickly towards where the girls had been. "What?!" he cried out in surprise. "We've been dumped." He said this in such a shocked manner that it caused Mizurio to chuckled. "It's not funny!"
"Yes it is." he replied before heading off towards the opposite street. "See you later!" he yelled out as he turned down the street that would lead him home.
Keigo stood in the middle of the side walk with a shocked look. I've been left behind.
As Rukia and Verena entered the dojo, Verena waved at a couple of people, the instructor being an older man gave a nod towards her as she headed into the back where the living corridors were. Climbing the steps the two girls went upstairs. Knocking on a door with a pair of kick boxing gloves on it, they waited for the door to open. "Verena, Rukia." Tatsuki greeted them both as she opened the door. "What are you two doing here?"
Verena crossed her arms over her chest. "Well, when you skipped afternoon classes I thought we'd come check in on you." she told her friend as she entered the room and collapsed onto Tatsuki's comfortable bed. "You okay?"
"Yeah." she stated as she pushed her bangs out of her eyes. "I've been feeling weird lately is all." She sighed as she sat down next to Verena.
"Guess you're not up for a spar?" Verena challenged causing the other girl to grin at her. Challenge accepted.
"Hand to hand or kendo?" she asked with an equally challenging grin.
"Oh?" Verena asked sounding surprised. "You've begun learning kendo?"
Tatsuki smiled. "After you and Ichigo begun talking about it back in the seventh grade, I began looking into it." she admitted. "I'm still no good. I'm way better with karate."
"Karate it is." Verena said deciding to do something that her friend was more familiar with. Tatsuki nodded as she led both girl downstairs into an unused room to show off that she was still better that Verena. As the three girls entered the room, Rukia frowned as she sensed a different kind of reiatsu beginning to emanate from Tatsuki.
Ichigo felt the edge of his lips tug slightly as he saw the irritated look upon Uryu's face as the other teen opened his apartment door. "What do you want Kurosaki?" he questioned him as he pushed his glasses back up his nose, though it would fall once again in a few minutes.
"What?" Ichigo asked feigning innocence as he walked into the apartment. "I was worried about you."
"Tch." Uryu passed him by as he headed into the kitchen. "I don't believe that. You probably needed a reason to get away from that soul reaper or something."
"Jeesh." Ichigo said with a sigh as he ran a hand through his bright orange hair. "You know that's not true. You've been MIA for a week. It's my duty to check in on family if they go missing."
"Duty..." Uryu felt an eyebrow twitch. "Your duty should be to keep those appalling grades of your up to where they should be."
"Ugh!" Ichigo groaned as he flopped onto the couch. "Not you too!" he cried out. "I got yelled at by mom last night for my bad grades in math and history."
Uryu smirked at the admittance. "Do you need a touter?" he asked with some sincerity as he handed Ichigo a cup of tea.
"No. I can ask Getabushi." Ichigo replied as he took the tea, though he grimaced as he realized it didn't have any sweetening in it. "So why have you been missing classes?"
"Training." Uryu answered as he sat across from Ichigo. "I began to think about those dreams you always talked about after experiencing one for myself." He pulled out a book and handed it to Ichigo. "My dreams are filled with images of this man."
Ichigo froze as he looked at the all familiar image. "This man?" he questioned Uryu. "You've been dreaming of the same man who will kill me? Why?"
"You tell me." Uryu demanded. "You use to talk about those dreams all the time, only to suddenly stop. Why? What do you know about this man?"
Ichigo growled. "I know shit!" he exclaimed. "I stopped talking about those dreams because they're disturbing. People being killed left and right by this guy. Quincies and Shinigami alike!" He shook his head. "I can't understand why I have them but I know they're a forewarning of something bad that's going to happen." He placed the book down along with the tea. "Why do you think I threw myself into training with Getabushi after Soken's death?"
"You know very little about what it's like to be a Quincy because of that training." Uryu stated. "I'm the last true Quincy. You seem to have forgotten your heritage."
Ichigo grinned up at him. "I know more than you think." he warned his friend. "I have two spirits in my inner world. My hollow and the old man."
"I know that." Uryu scoffed.
"But did you know they're both my zanpakuto?" he asked causing his cousin's eyes to widen. "My hollow is my true zanpakuto. The old man held my powers back because he didn't think I was ready for them and to a point my hollow did the same. Once I accepted them both, my Shinigami, my Hollow and my Quincy sides, I got stronger then I had ever been before." He stood up. "So don't think that I've forgotten who I am. I know exactly who I am and what I am."
Uryu sighed. "Fine. I'll drop it." he said as he looked out of his balcony window. "But what do we do about that man?" he asked. "Even with all your power, you'll fail in fighting him. You've seen your death at his hands."
"Perhaps I'm meant to change that." Ichigo told him.
"How?" Uryu asked as he watched Ichigo walked towards the window and look out of it.
"I don't know." he admitted. "And that scares the shit out of me."
Uryu stared at Ichigo for a moment as his mind began to think up possibilities on how to help his friend out. He would need to do a bit more of digging into his grandfather's old things. He had books filled with images of ancient texts and other things. He wasn't sure if the man he had drawn was a Shinigami or a Quincy, but one thing was certain, both he and Ichigo were connected by this man for in his dream he had seen Ichigo's death as well.
"Memories." Uryu's voice broke the silence. "Could they be memories of some sort?"
Ichigo frowned. "Like a past life?" he asked.
"Or a future one." Uryu stated with uncertainty in his voice.
"I'd have to talk to Getabushi." Ichigo said. "That question is above anything I know."
"Probably above anything you know." Uryu jabbed.
"Funny. I was thinking the same for you." he teased back causing the other to chuckle.
"Are you staying for dinner?" Uryu inquired thinking of what he had to make for them both if Ichigo stayed.
"No." Ichigo answered with a shake of his head. "Mom is testing out a new recipe and she likes my honest answers." He noticed how Uryu had gone silent added to the invite, he gave a small smile. "Would you lime to join us?"
"Me eating with a soul reaper in the room?" he asked causing Ichigo to burst out laughing.
"I see your point." Ichigo turned to leave, with Uryu following. "See you at school next week?"
"Sure." Uryu nodded as he closed the door behind Ichigo, who was in deep thought about their conversation the whole way home.
Eikichiro Saido stood in front of a dilapidated old manufacturing building. The walls were crumbling and it looked quite dangerous, on the outside. He however sensed a very strong barrier around this building. Not only that, but he sensed great power beyond it. Whoever or whatever was inside was very powerful and it really didn't want to be disturbed. It however was not the energy source he was looking for, but that didn't mean he shouldn't have this place investigated on a later date.
Perhaps Captain Kyoraku would like to check this place out? Just in case it'll take someone of his power to destroy whatever that is inside. he thought before quickly engaging his fastest flash step to get out of there before he was discovered by whatever was inside.
Meanwhile inside the building eight former captains and lieutenants waiting inside nervously. Having sensed the single shinigami the group waited for their discovery to be made, but as the minutes ticked by the realized that the scout must have left. This, however, made them even more nervous. It was time to move to a secondary base before they were discovered.
M-Angel: Yay, I'm on a roll this week. I know there wasn't any fight scenes in this chapter, but the next one there will be. Promise!