Chapter 26: Bait
Ichigo felt his eyebrow twitch as he looked down upon the frightened us spirit. It was of a overweight male, but once again Rukia's cell phone had brought them to a spot where no hollow was. "Damn it!" he cursed before looking over his shoulder at her. "This is the fifth time this week that thing has gone off only for no hollow to be waiting for us, what the hell is going on?" He was upset because he'd been interrupted in the middle of an important history test and had been forced to leave Kon in his place. Good thing Kon knows to make an excuse, like faking sick, to get out of a test. he thought as he looked around the area but found no hollow anywhere. "I'm beginning to think that thing is broken.
"How odd." Rukia stated curiously. "It shouldn't be like that."
Just beyond their senses a man watched from the shadows as he took notice of the younger male shinigami that was with Rukia. He had lost her the other night when she'd left the human house, but then found her a day later. Since then Eikichiro Saido had kept pace with the woman. Right now the two were arguing like they were siblings or maybe worst enemies?
"Give me a break! I'm in the middle of exams right now!" Ichigo yelled at her.
"So am I!" Rukia yelled vehemently at the orange haired teen.
"Deal with it! This happened because that machine of yours is broken!" Ichigo yelled louder causing the plus spirit to shrink away in fear.
"I told you that it can't be!" Rukia countered even louder.
"So what, are you saying there's another shinigami running around town?" he asked her exasperated. "That he or she is killing the hollows before we do?"
Rukia blinked in surprise, she hadn't thought of that. "Err...no. Shinigami are strictly sorted into different districts. So that not it...I think?"
Silence filled the area before the plus decided to jump out at them. "I was really really scared! Thank-you so much!"
Ichigo slammed his foot into the plus spirit's face. "So tell that to the guy who saved you!" he yelled at the spirit.
"Ichigo!" Rukia yelled in shock as she felt a headache coming on. This boy is going to drive me insane!
"I'm sorry, I don't know what's going on." the plus spirit said. He then pulled out a figurine. "I'll give you my magical girl figurine as an apology."
Both Ichigo and Rukia gave the man a deadpan look before Ichigo began to approach the spirit. "Okay, I think it's time for a konso." Ichigo said trying not to sound annoyed by the spirit.
The spirit shrank back. "What, what are you doing with that sword?" he whimpered in fear as Ichigo brought the butt end of his short sword to touch the man's forehead. A brilliant blue light filled the area before a swallow tail butterfly was seen flying up into the sky.
"I still can't understand it." Rukia muttered as she looked her cell phone over later that afternoon. This can't be broken. she thought, but in the back of her mind the thought that perhaps it was malfunctioning, was there.
"Cell phones break." Ichigo told her as they walked towards the boards that had the grades from the exams earlier that week. The exams they were currently taking were the harder ones, the ones already done were a breeze to go through. Ichigo felt his brow twitch at seeing that Uryu had bypassed him once again, as had Chad. Damn it. He cursed inwardly, both of his spirits were being quiet at the moment, but he knew they were holding back their chastisement due to him already feeling bad about his grades.
"Looks like you're eighteenth Ichi." Verena told him as she had come up behind him. "You should've studied more and made the top ten."
"How?" he asked as he pointed towards Rukia. "She drags me off every time that damn phone rings."
"Break it." Verena told him gaining a glare from Rukia.
"I can hear you two!" she hissed quietly at them.
Verena chuckled as she nodded at her own grades. "I passed." she pointed at her name being close to sixth. Ichigo glared at her, causing her to laugh lightly at his pain. "At least you didn't get a failing grade." She pointed out causing him to groan at that thought.
"True." he relinquished a sigh from his lips. In the background the siblings could hear Keigo complaining about the unfairness of Ichigo being smarter than himself. As the two siblings went to leave school they saw Uryu standing by the gates. "Was that you this morning?" Ichigo inquired.
Uryu pushed his glasses back up his nose. "You're getting slow Kurosaki." he said coldly, but the sly smirk on his face said he was teasing Ichigo.
"Maybe if I didn't have these exams plus a visiting shinigami on my back, I'd have gotten it faster." he grumbled.
"Ichigo has gotten faster over the last year Uryu." Verena told the other boy who looked towards her like he'd just noticed her.
"What about you?" he asked. "Where we're you?"
Verena gave him one of her smiles that said to tread carefully. "Killing a hollow near the grade school." she answered softly when Rukia came up to them.
Rukia looked at Ishida for a second, she'd never met the other boy before but she knew the twins knew hi. because of the photo's at their home of them with a younger version of this boy. "I don't think we've met." she said. "I'm-"
"Rukia Kuchiki." Uryu interrupted her. "You're the new transfer student." His glasses slipped down his nose a bit. "You're also a shinigami."
Rukia glared at the twins. "Did you two-" she began.
"They didn't." Uryu said coldly. "I'm their cousin through their mother's adoption by my grandparents." Rukia's eyes widened at this as the meaning wasn't lost on her. "I'm the last true Quincy."
"He's the reason the hollows have been being destroyed faster than we can get to them." Ichigo smile. "Guess I owe you an apology." he told her. "You're device isn't broken after all." He grinned at this, but the frown on Rukia's face had the smile vanishing. "What?"
Rukia had a mildly annoyed look to her face. "Another Quincy?!" she asked. "And he's your cousin!"
Verena stepped back near the wall Uryu was standing by. "This is gonna be good." she said to him with a grin.
"You purposely didn't tell her about me, didn't you?" he asked only gaining a light laugh from her. He gave a slight smirk at this.
"Why didn't you tell me about him?!" Rukia yelled at Ichigo.
"It was none of your business!" Ichigo yelled back as he towered over her trying to intimidate her.
Rukia grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him down to her level. "It is my business when it concerns hollows!" she growled at him. "Quincy upset the delicate balance of souls! Even one Quincy can upset that balance! When they kill a hollow the souls inside are not purified and given entry into soul society. They're completely obliterated and can no longer return to be reincarnated."
Back in the classroom the girls were looking over the top students with the best scores. "Amazing! Orihime came in third. She's that smart?" one of the girl's asked causing Inoue to blush.
"Are you kidding?" Tatsuki asked the surprised girl. "She's been like this since middle school. I know she doesn't look it, but really is smart!" She said this with great pride in her tone.
"Ryo is second." Orihime said trying to get the spotlight off of herself.
"She's got brawn and brains." Tatsuki said with a grin As she crossed her arms over her chest. "She was also the freshman representative we had during the opening ceremony."
"Eh?" Chizuru asked with surprise in her voice. "No wonder the teachers respect her." She chuckled. "I heard she's entering the national competition with her track team."
"Really?" Tatsuki inquired. "I'm actually entering the nationals as well." This seemed to get a few gasps. "I thought I told you guys this." Everyone shook their heads no. "Oh well, back in May I won the competition in Tokyo. Our karate club this year is awesome! The boy's team is also going. After all, I'm the girl who won three consecutive national competitions has joined!" She sounded very proud by this fact.
An outcry caused the girls to look over to see Keigo crying about the unfairness of both Ichigo and Chad being on the board along with calling both nerds. "They're loud as ever." Chizuru muttered with mild annoyance in her voice.
"Ichigo did make it to eighteenth." Tatsuki stated with a grin.
"Verena is sixth!" Orihime said with a gasp.
"Well, she is the smarter of the two." Tatsuki stated as she turned towards the door to leave the classroom. "Are you coming Orihime?" The Two best friends went to leave the room only to be followed by Chizuru who was talking about the scores shed seen Verena get over the course of the school year.
Ishida continued to watch Rukia and Ichigo argue for a moment. "You'd think they were married with how they fight." Verena joked.
"As entertaining as this is," he began as he stepped towards the two. "I have things to do."
As if he had been waiting for that Ichigo turned away from Rukia towards his cousin. "Hey Uryu, don't be a stick in the mud."
"Don't be rude Kurosaki." Ishida replied. "I'm not a stick in the mud as you so aptly called me."
"Yes you are." Ichigo stated with a wide grin.
Ignoring Ichigo's taunting, having known the orange haired teen for years Uryu knew he wouldn't quit until one of them challenged the other. "As for how I knew what you are Miss Kuchiki, is simple." He held his hand out to the side causing spirit ribbons to appear around them.
Beyond the gates across the street high above them Eikichiro Saido saw the ribbons appear. Reiraku. he thought with amazement. But only high leveled shinigami can call forth those or touch them! He gave a sudden grin at this. My, my, what have you found here Miss Kuchiki?
Rukia's eyes widened as the Quincy boy called for this technique. "While most have white reiraku, shinigami have red." He held her ribbon close to her face.
"Ichigo, would you like to fight me?" he asked with a sideway glance towards the other boy. "I wish to prove to this shinigami that we do not need her kind here. That shinigami are unnecessary in this world."
Across town in the candy shop Urahara waved his paper fan in front of his face to cool himself down as he continued to go over the data he had collected from Masaki's last training session. She was advancing a lot quicker than he had expected. So much so that he believed she might learn the name of the asauchi sword that he'd given her. Her spiritual power had increased to the point he was certain that it was caused by what Isshin had, had him do to save her six years ago. Her power is not like Ichigo or Verena's. He thought as he tapped a pen against a pad of paper. In fact, if I were to guess, I would say it is very similar to Isshin's. He froze in all movement before shaking his head. No, that's not possible.
Standing up the shopkeeper walked out of his shop before pulling off his hat and looking out into the courtyard where Jinta and Ururu were playing one of their games. A wind began to blow bringing with it a coolness that was refreshing.
Ichigo felt his lips twitch before he spoke. "A fight...between you and I?" he asked. His sister walking over to them as they spoke.
"You two do remember what happened last time you two fought, right?" she asked them both grinning at her. Of course they remember. They only destroyed half of a mountain in that fight.
"Okay." Ichigo said with a shrug before taking Kon's soul candy out and tossing it into his mouth before popping out of his body in his soul form.
Uryu didn't show it, but he was impressed by Ichigo's new look. "You've got a new look." he muttered.
Ichigo looked at his clothes. "Ah, yeah, the white armor and straps appeared a few months back." he shrugged. "You should see my bow."
"Ichigo..." Verena warned her brother.
"I won't activate that. I promise." he said waving off her concern. He looked at Kon who was on the ground. "Kon, stay and watch the competition from here." He looked back at Uryu. "Now, hurry up and explain the rules of this fight." Ichigo told him.
Ishida pulled something out of his shirt pocket. He brought it up so the others could see what he had. "We'll begin the fight with this." he said. "It's called hollow bait. If I crush and scatter it then hollows will gather in the town. The one to kill the most within..."
"A day." Ichigo stated with a grin spreading across his face once again.
"A day." Uryu agreed. "Wins." He prepared to crush the disk. "Nice and simple rules."
"What the hell do you two think you're doing!?" Rukia yelled at them. "You're putting innocents in danger if you do this!"
"Keep your morality to yourself Shinigami." Ishida chastised her. "Worry about other people is unnecessary!"
"I will kill the hollows before they have a chance to hurt anyone!" Both Ichigo and Uryu yelled in unison as the disk was crushed by Uryu's hand and scattered upon the wind.
All across town cracks began to appear in the sky as hollows descended upon the once peaceful city. The first to truly appear was behind the teens and was the first to be killed by the Quincy boy. Ichigo pulled his sword from off of his back and took off towards the east that went towards the parks. He knew from experience that these places were always filled with hordes of hollows.
"First one down." Uryu said softly as he too took off in the opposite direction. Let's see how strong you've really gotten Ichigo. He thought as he took ran through the streets of Karakura Town completely unaware that he was being watched by Eikichiro Saido of second squad.
M-Angel: Sorry for the late update. I did have this mostly finished last night, but my pad froze and erased half of the chapter. It took me another hour to finish it today. Next chapter will be the battle royale. Since today is the last day of May, this means my May madness is over. I will be doing my once a week update from now on.
GunBlade2018: I was actually think of some way to heal Ukitake and I do have plans for that. I hope everyone likes what I do.
Antex-The Legendary Zoroark: It's two months and yes they will find out who the traitor is, though the question is, will it be in time?
PervyMast3r: I'm thinking you got your name from Naruto, didn't you? LoL. Sengetsu, (Crescent Moon) I like this! It's better than what I was leaning towards. Thanks!