Chapter 24: Red Moon

Ichigo watched as the rain fell from the sky to the ground causing puddles to form. Watching the rain fall from the window next to his bed, Ichigo realized how it was six years this week since his father's death. It was raining then too. he thought. Pop saved Mom's life by giving her his power and all. He rubbed his temple. I don't understand everything, but I understand that without having done what he had done Mom would've died and he probably still would've too. His mind filled with those thoughts, meaning he hadn't heard Rukia or Verena walking into the room.

"Yo Ichigo." Kon said his name but got no reaction from the gloomy looking teen. "Hey!" Kon jumped onto the teen's bed. "Ichigo!"

"Ichi?" Verena said his name, almost instantly getting a reaction as he turned his head towards her.

"What?" he asked sounding irritated.

Kon's eyebrow twitched on the stuffed lion plushy. Rukia would've chuckled had she not notice how strange Ichigo had been acting as well. "Ichigo, your been spacing out lately. Why?" she asked him.

"Have not." he argued as he laid back onto his bed.

"You were ignoring Kon." she pointed out. Kon was tapping his foot at the teen looking irritated and bit upset.

"Sorry." he apologized.

"Ah-ha!" Kon cried out as he pointed at Ichigo. "You never apologize to me. "So now we do know something is going on with you!"

Ichigo's left eyebrow twitched. "I'm fine! Alright!" he yelled at them.

It was like it suddenly dawned on Verena what was going on. "Ah, it's almost been six years. Huh Ichi?" Ichigo was silent as she sat down on the edge on the bottom bunk. "It's been harder for you because you two were close."

"Not as close as I am with Mom." Ichigo pointed out. "I was a mama's boy."

"Still are." she teased him.

Ichigo's cheeks flushed. He really couldn't deny that. He loved his mom and would do anything to keep her and his sister's safe. "Goatface and I use to tease each other and wrestle a lot." he said. "I think had he lived, I may have learned from him and not getabushi. Probably taught me some family secrets or secret styles that I don't know." He laid his arm across his eyes. "I miss him is all."

"Even though he could annoy you?" she asked recalling how their father would pick on them until it became annoying. She giggled at the memory. "Remember the first time you kicked his butt?"

Ichigo grinned as he removed his arm from over his eyes. "I threw him down the steps, literally." his smile didn't quite reach his eyes, but it was a start. "How about when that bully pushed Karin off of the swings?"

"I thought he was going to go ape shit crazy on that boy's father." Verena stated as she remembered the bruise on Karin that had brought on the semi-fight. "Though you weren't too far behind him on that one." She could still recall the look of pure hate towards the boy that Ichigo had held on his face. The little boy had been lucky that Ichigo had been reigned in by their mother or else he'd had been beaten up.

Ichigo gave a small chuckle. "I'll admit, I had been mad. Dad was worse though." he said. "You would've thought the boy pulled a knife on her and not just pushed her off of the swings."

"Dad really was protective of all of us." She looked under the top bunk to the photo's Ichigo had tapped onto the boards. "Wonder how he would've reacted to you being so strong."

"He would be proud." Rukia told them causing the teens to look at her. "Both of you are strong, though I've noticed that Ichigo is alot stronger than you are, Verena." She touched her cheek in thought. "I wonder why that is?"

Both teens looked at each other before looking away nervously. It was obvious as to why Ichigo was stronger. His hollow made him that way, plus he was different from Verena as he had his full shikai and she had yet to learn the name of her zanpakuto. She had trained more with her Quincy powers as Ichigo had trained more with his shinigami side, though lately he'd been able to access both due to him having accepted all sides of his nature. Shinigami, hollow, and quincy, they equalled everything that Ichigo was, while Verena was only two of the three. "It doesn't matter." Verena told her, hoping she would drop it, but knew that was doubtful.

Karin rubbed her temples as she sat the book down that she'd gotten from Tessai. It had several kido spells written within its pages, though she could only do three of them. One was for defense, one was healing and the third was an attack. "Ugh!" she groaned as she laid back on the floor with the book next to her causing Yuzu to look down at her from her bed.

"Are you okay Karin?" she asked sounding worried about her twin.

Karin looked at the leather bracelet on her wrist that had tiny beads embedded into the leather. "Yeah. My head just hurts from all of this information." she told her twin. Looking towards her from the floor, she saw that Yuzu was making something. "What are you doing?"

Yuzu grinned. "I'm making clothes for Kon." she said sounding proud of this.

Karin raised an eyebrow at this. "He's a stuffed plushy." she said sounding as if this should be obvious to her sister.

"But he never has an clothes that are his own!" Yuzu whined. "They belong to Ichi when he's inside Ichi when Ichi goes to hunt hollows."

"Guess that...kinda makes sense?" she said sounding unsure. Doubt he'll wear them though. she thought to herself as she closed her eyes. Chiyudou number five Kire no kizu is used to heal cuts to the body, but doesn't heal internal bleeding. She frowned as she thought about this. Guess it's like a bandage or something. Yawning Karin felt herself fall into a deep sleep.

When Karin opened her eyes she was in a field of grass under the night sky with a large red moon above her head that looked as if it was on fire. "Flames..." she mumbled. "Why is the moon in flames?"

"Why indeed." a feminine voice spoke from behind her.

Spinning around Karin saw a beautiful woman with black hair that had silvery highlights and red eyes. She was thin,with a voluptuous body. She wore a red tank top that shimered in the moonlight and black shorts with a short blade on her left hip. "Who are you?" she asked the woman.

"Ask your siblings." she answered her before giving the girl a glare that made her look like a demon to the young girl.

Karin felt a bit afraid of the woman before her but she held her ground. "Where am I?" she ask the woman.

The woman's ruby red lips lifted as if she was sickened by the questions she was being given. "Figure it out. I'm not a babysitter." She stated as she threw her hand up. Karin found herself airborne before she suddenly woke up with a start.

Yuzu looked up from her crafts when she heard her sister give a gasp. "Karin?"

Karin sat up quickly before standing and leaving. Running down the hallway she pushed the door open to her older siblings room. "I need to talk to you two!" she yelled with wide eyes. Her body was still rushing with adrenaline.

Both Ichigo and Verena looked from each other towards their younger sister. The disheveled look along with the wide wild eyes upon her face made them both realize that something had happened to her. "What's going on?" Rukia asked the younger girl, knowing that something had occurred for her to have that kind of look.

"Karin, are you hurt?" Verena asked as she looked her sister over, but didn't see anything.

"I'm fine." the dark haired girl said as she brushed her sister's concern off. "I just had a really weird dream and I think I need to talk to you guys about it."

Ichigo sat up on his bed before patting the mattress. "Sit." he told her.

Karin walked over to her brother and sat down before she began to explain what had just occurred. "I was studying the book Tessai had given me when I fell asleep." she explained as Verena sat on the chair next to the desk. "I woke up in this field with tall grass. Above me was the night sky, but the moon was on fire. Flames were coming out of a crescent moon, making the sky glow red." She the licked her lips as she continued. "A woman with black and silver hair appeared behind me. She had red eyes and a sword on her hip. I asked her who she was. She said to ask you guys." Karin then looked annoyed. "I then asked her where I was. She said she wasn't a babysitter. She flung her hands at me, then I woke up."

Both Ichigo and Verena looked at each other with wide eyes. "Impossible." Rukia's voice caused them to look at her.

"What is?" Karin asked her. "Do you-"

"You were in your inner world." Rukia explained to her. "That was your zanpakuto that you were conversing with." Rukia looked between the siblings. "I can't understand this. How can all three of you gain these powers so quickly?" She shook her head. "It can't be just from who your parents are. There has to be a reason." She turned towards the door. "I'm going to talk to Urahara. He has to know what's going on. This just isn't natural!"

After Rukia left Karin looked eco-friendly between her siblings. "Is something wrong with me?" she asked them.

Ichigo frowned towards the door before looking down at his sister. Placing his hand on her head he gave her a gentle smile. "No." he told her.

"Ichi was nine when his zanpakuto first made contact with him." she said looking serious towards her sister. "This just means that you're getting stronger and soon you'll learn your zanpakuto spirit's name and that'll make you even stronger!" She gave her sister and excited grin. "Heck, I don't even know what my spirit looks like, but I know he's a guy. His voice comes to me from the shadows in my inner world."

"He likes to tease you." Ichigo told her as he removed his hand from Karin's head.

"Then why is Rukia upset?" Karin inquired, recalling how Rukia really did look upset about this new development.

Both siblings sighed. "Because you're getting stronger, but she's getting weaker." Verena answered. "And we don't know why."

Outside of the Kurosaki household a lone figure watched from the shadows as Rukia ran from the home. Frowning, the stealth force shinigami decided to follow her and see why the Rukon Princess was still in the living world and hadn't returned to the Seiretei. This mission to the living world was turning out to be interesting after all.

A large hollow screeched as its body suffered from electrocution. It's body writhed in pain before it's body exploded. The sugegasa straw hat upon the pink clad shinigami's head threatened to blow away from the reiatsu released by the blast of the dying hollow. Having used a very deadly electric type kido to exercise the killing, the captain class shinigami turned his head towards a noise behind him. Four more hollows had appeared behind him. Unknown to the pink kimono wearing captain he was being watched from the shadows.

"My, my..." A silver haired man said. "It seems Captain Kyoraku has stepped into your trap." His eyes seemed to be closed, but he could see through his slanted eyes after years of practice and deception. Over his shoulders was a white captain's haori.

"Gin, be quiet." A brunette male with glasses spoke. On his shoulders was a white haori, meaning that he too was a captain. "This is quite unexpected. I was anticipating a low level soldier from the eighth to be dispatched, not for the captain to come himself."

"These modified hollows won't last long against him should he use his bankai." the dark skinned man beside them spoke softly as to not give away their position, though that was very unlikely.

"That will not happen." the brunette told his companion. "Kyoraku has yet to use that technique in all the years I've known him. No, he will use his shikai only."

"I'm surprised he came." Gin said sounding truly surprised. "Isn't this the time of day he usually is asleep or trying to hide from his duties?"

"He is a person of habit." the brunette smirked as one of the parasite hollows went in for an attack only for the duel wielding captain's zanpakuto to slice through the hollows body like a hot knife through butter. "Impressive as always. Amongst all of the gotei, I believe only he could be a true challenge."

"What about Kenpachi?" Gin inquired, his voice as always had the tone of someone who knew a secret but wasn't about to reveal it.

"He's a buffoon, though his reiatsu is the strongest, he is still no match for myself." The brunette continued to watch the battle and before long it was over. "Let us depart."

"Of course, Lord Aizen." Both of his men said before the three left, leaving no trace of them being there.

Kyoraku turned around at the feeling of something being off. Pushing his hat up slightly he allowed his brown eyes to scan the area. The twenty some hollows had been destroyed. It was true that he could've sent one of the lower seats to take care of this problem, but ever since Isshin Shiba's supposed death twenty years ago, he had begun to be a bit more diligent in what he did or who he sent out on missions. Something had felt off about this fight. The hollows had all seemed slightly, off. They had more aggressive in their attacks, but their movements had been almost coordinated, like they had talked this battle out amongst each other.

Hmm... he thought lazily, his mind feeling suddenly tired as his body ached slightly from the battle. Something is going on here. He began to walk towards the nearest village, thinking perhaps he'd find some food and drink before returning back to his squad. I'm going to need to talk to Jushiro about this soon. Pulling down his hat to cover his eyes slightly, he walked off still aware of having been watched.

M-Angel: Not as exciting as I'm sure everyone was expecting, but I did have a battle going on here. I'll admit, I could've gone into detail with the battle but didn't. Also, does anyone have any ideas on what Verena's zanpakuto should be called. I've got an idea but I'm not sure it's very good, which is why I'm asking everyone. Also, the poll closes in a week.

Juti - If you don't like the Ichigo/Rukia pairing why did you read the story? I have it clearly marked that they are a pairing in this story. Also, fanfiction is just that, fan based fiction; not canon. I'm certain that there are uncanon likes from other fandoms you like, but you don't dis the people who like canon just because you dislike it. Yes, Orihime and Ichigo are a canon pairing. Yes they are cute together. This story is not canon.