"..." speech
'...' thoughts
"BOLD" powers/spells being used
Re: fresh my soul
"Damn that woman, it's past ten thirty already either hire another worker or take care of the last-minute jobs on your own!" Ichigo Kurosaki Growled to himself walking alone along the streets of Karakura Town.
Seventeen months had gone by since the Aizen's defeat, and the subsequent loss of his soul reaper powers. He sacrificed his powers to defeat the mad man in his pursuit to usurp the soul king. The cost of protecting everyone close to him as well as the citizens of Karakura town was steep. All the struggles he had gone through from fighting to save Rukia in Soul society, to Orihime's rescue in Hueco Mundo. All the threats against those important to him were overcome because of his powers. The power he obtained in order to protect those around him had been the center of his life. The power that had made him as many friends as enemies. Ichigo said he had no regrets about the decision to use the final Getsuga Tensho, yet it felt to him that a hole was left in its place.
Ichigo's friends took notice of that void within him as well. While Orihime, Chad, and Uryu would continue to hunt down the hollows that plagued Karakura Town. It's wasn't like they could just rely on Kuruamadani to kill them all, or at all for that matter. However, the trio wouldn't bring up the hunts to Ichigo, preferring not to hurt him over his loss. Ichigo understood this as well, yet the fact that they wouldn't talk about it at all hurt all the same. Ichigo was still a protector, and without the ability to protect what purpose did he have.
The loss of Ichigo's powers gave way to the normal life he had always wanted. No powers brought peace of mind with no sight of hollows nor souls in sight during his everyday life. Now a typical high school life for a typical high schooler was what life boiled down to. If only this normalcy had extended itself to his current employment, odd jobs for an odd lady fit an odd life Ichigo had since led. Ikumi Unagiya had hired the teen as her sole employee at her Unagiya Shop Odd jobs business. He learned since then that taking her offer was a horrible mistake. Not only was she short-handed, but she was a single mother that took care of her grade school age son off and on throughout the day. So, getting behind on work was commonplace. The black-haired woman was aggressive to boot, willing to hunt him down and drag him in for a shift from wherever he found himself in town after school regardless of what he was doing. As someone who understood hardwork, Ichigo begrudgingly respected her. Though never to her directly, as the two mixed about as well as water and oil, especially during any sort of conversation.
The job she had said highschooler running had turned out to be much more than just a quick furniture move for a family moving into a new house. Instead of giving the details of who was moving where, she got distracted with a call asking for 3 orders of eel. "We don't serve eel you IDIOT! ICHIGO! What are you just standing there for?! Go to Komatsu street on the double and help the Yamada's move into their new house like they paid us for you slacker!" If Ichigo had known that it was a huge new western style home for a household of six with just him doing the heavy lifting he would have tried to refuse or at least drag her with him for some of it.
'Guess I'm warming up leftovers from whatever Yuzu cooked tonight. No wait, Dad was taking her and Karin out to eat since I told them I was going to be out late working. I'm on my own for dinner, and it's too late to bother whipping something up at home. Looks like it's the convenience store for me.'
After a short walk from where he had been house furnishing well into the night, strolling into a close by 24/7 corner store for a quick bite. Ichigo began to browse his choices of cheap and easy food. The choice between soggy looking sandwiches, riceballs, and instant ramen was all he found. Debating between the riceballs and ramen, was when a sudden presence began to wash over him. It felt ominous and smothering like someone was grasping at his very soul. Yet it only lasted an instant no longer than a blink of an eye.
'What the hell was that, it didn't feel like spiritual pressure and no one else is here but the clerk.' He quickly glanced trying to find the source of the disturbance but found nothing out of place.
"How would I even sense spiritual pressure if it was, I have no powers anymore. I'm probably just tired. If anything, I can ask Uryu about what I felt later." He said trying to calm his nerves.
Deciding instead on instant ramen and some water Ichigo made way to the clerk keeping alert for anything that could go wrong. His trademark scowl deepening as he went further into his own thoughts of what exactly he had just felt.
"Cup ramen and a bottle of water; your totals 1000 yen" the clerk stated lamely pulling him out of his thoughts. "Oh, right here" Ichigo replied distracted reaching for his wallet in his back pocket. Instead of his wallet however, what was in the pocket was a small wooden charm with a strange skull backed by an X shaped cross. His soul reaper combat pass.
'Right, I moved my wallet to my front pocket earlier when I changed for work' I've kept it on me daily, more as an important keepsake nowadays than a quick way to get out of my body to fight as a soul reaper.' Ichigo reminisced to himself.
Paying the amount owed for the meager dinner and turning to leave the smothering presence rose again; once more only lasting a mere moment. The feeling wasn't like that of hollow was watching over him in hopes for a strong soul to eat. Now that Ichigo felt it a second time it was more like a presence was looking over his shoulder looking directly at his face and grasping all around. Keeping himself from flinching the best he could as to not involve the clerk, he briskly walked out of the store.
"Okay who ever or whatever is doing this I'm ready for you so bring it.". He stood at the ready on the sidewalk in front of the store for what felt like an hour but couldn't have been more than five minutes. What finally broke the tension was a car passing by.
"Nothing's happening…Am I just that tired from work?" Closing his eyes and raising his head to center himself, confused and tense from the presence, but was anything wrong or was he just being paranoid?
"No with how strong my body is from all the training I've done to fight no way is this fatigue. Something is going on, while that feeling was not malevolent it did feel ominous that for damn sure." He resolved.
Taking a free hand and brushing down his face sigh "Something weird just would happen to me today." Once opening his eyes however, he was blinded by a sudden glare.
"Wha….what the hell. Where am I what the fuck just happened.". With my eyes adjusted to what turned out to be sun light he began to panic at a sudden change in surroundings. Ichigo found himself in a medieval looking western city busy with people of varying skin tone, and what could only be described as species going about their business as if it was a normal day. Hardly believing his eyes when lizard man bumped into him by accident walking by. A stark contrast to the streets of Karakura Town Japan at night where he had been a moment before. The sun was in the east, so it was still early in the day, even though it had just been closer to 11 pm as well. From what he could tell the city was quite old too. Ancient looking buildings further up the large hill the city seemed to be built on that seemed opulent compared to the brick and mortar part of the town where he stood. Looking at what looked like a main road, carriages being drawn by large two-legged lizards like they were horses filled the street like cars would.
With no information to go on Ichigo began to wander about the city in search of answers. A rather large problem he encountered immediately while looking at the various shops and stalls that dotted the streets was the language. It looked nothing like Japanese, in fact it didn't look like any language he'd seen before either. "Well there went any hope of reading a map. Guess the English they taught us in school will be useless as well." He lamented.
Listening in on conversations was his next approach at figuring out anything that could give a clue at where he was. What came as a surprise was he could understand what was being said, the people in the market he wandered to were speaking Japanese.
"Reading anything might be impossible right now, but since I can understand what's being said asking around is my only option." Pulling out his wallet once more to grab some change he walked up to a stall that sold fruit.
"Hey boy weird looking clothes, not from around here are ya?" a green-haired man with a large muscled build running the stall smiled and asked me, while chewing on a piece of what looked like straw.
Looking himself over Ichigo could see what he meant. Wearing a Unagiya shop shirt Ikumi forced on him while out on jobs and blue jeans. It was no surprise he looked completely out of place in the medieval market.
"How much for the apples old man?" Ichigo said pointing at the red apples sitting in a basket to his left.
"Those are appas can't you read? Their one silver and twenty-eight coppers. Travelers always as rude as you boy?" The fruit vendor replied flatly.
"You take anything like this?" holding out his change Ichigo hoped that maybe the coins might hold significance with the man.
"Huh? What kind of money is that? It's useless out here in Lugnica, if that's all you got then your flat broke. Don't waste my time freeloader get outta here!" The fruit vendor yelled whilst pushing him out from in front of his stall.
"Why that son of a….., forget it I got more information out of him then I got out of just wandering aimlessly and eavesdropping."
Continuing down the street at random, Ichigo saw that a small alley way looked like it connected to one of the main city roads. Deciding to check it out he noticed it was shady compared to the market street, with 3 small steps separating the entrance to the market road that was higher up. Leading down the dark alley way was what looked like the main road from earlier.
With a sigh he sat down at the top of the steps overlooking the lower part of the alley to calm myself and think a bit about the predicament he found myself in. Ichigo began to recount what he had learned. "The country I'm in is called Lugnica, my currency was useless so I'm broke, and while I can understand the language, I cann't read a thing." Emptying his pockets and plastic bag of food he took stock of his belongings next. "Instant ramen, water, wallet with useless money, Smartphone with 60% battery on battery saving mode, and my substitute combat pass" he paused "Great…what the hell am I gonna do" he cradled his head in sorrow.
Putting his woeful belongings away he heard several footsteps approaching. Looking up to find three of what he only assumed to be thugs, judging by the looks he was receiving, glaring him down. 'Different world same magnet for trouble.' Ichigo thought to himself. 'I would normally assume it to be because of my hair that my luck was this bad, but honestly with lizard people walking around I doubt it.'
The largest of the three had a large muscled build with a big belly, he had a trident looking goatee with a wispy mustache, his hair was done in dreadlocks, and he was wearing a green vest with a white shirt and pants. The second tallest had shoulder length grey hair with pink highlights, he wore a grey shirt and pants. The shortest and last of the three had a short brown bowl cut, he wore a pink shroud with red-brown shirt and pants.
"Poor bastard can't be much taller than Yachiru." Ichigo thought aloud.
'These idiots practically scream we are going to mug you with their get ups and posture, not like I'm not used to dealing with their types from back in Karakura.'
"Look what we got here. Why don't you cough up everything ya got and we can all be on our merry way huh?" the middle punk said to intimidate me. "Yea cough it up you scum!" the short one yelled backing up his friend.
"I'm not in the mood to deal with you three, piss off and bother someone else in some other alley. Unless you're just that stupid and you want to try your luck." scowling at the three Ichigo stood to fight. 'If experience tells me anything they weren't going to back down, these types never do. I might as well deal with them now before they bother some other person going about their business.'
"Oh, the traveler thinks he's a tough guy. Lucks got nothing to do with us taking your shit, its three on one just be a good guy and empty your pockets." the grey haired one spoke up again this time pulling two knifes from his back. "Why does this kind of thing always happen to me…" Ichigo complained to himself.
As the three felt they had the advantage they started to move towards the orange-haired teen, but just as they took a few steps a small teenage girl rushed by at high speed passing both them and Ichigo up.
"MOVE IT! MOVE IT! Hurry get out of my way!" she yelled out surprising us all as she zipped by, yet right as she passed me, she came to a stop.
The girl had short blonde hair with a small pig tail near the top of her head at the back. She wore a small brown vest with a black top and black pants that seemed to be missing a leg. As if to top off her look she also wore a red scarf that reached her calves. Her red eyes gave a quick glance before she leveling her gaze at Ichigo.
"Wow bro you got yourself in a bad spot, well I'm in hurry. LIVE STRONG OK!" she exclaimed as if amused while turning to jump up the walls to reach the roof tops above. The small exchange had all of them stumped for a second staring deadpan at where the girl had been.
"What just happened?" Ichigo asked turning to the thugs.
The muggers however looked unfazed by the sudden interruption. With no other option Ichigo charged at the trio. First looking to take out of the ringleader, the grey-haired middle thug holding the knifes Wasn't expecting Ichigo to suddenly charge in, nor his uppercut hitting his jaw. Next the large man was grabbed by the shoulders. He was still shaken from seeing the knife wielder taken out so quickly, so he couldn't react to Ichigo getting in his face and sweeping his legs. Once he was on the ground a quick kick to the face ended it. Finally, Ichigo turned to the small one, he was shaking by that point not expecting both of his larger friends to get taken out in a matter of moments. It was unfair to them, while its not at the same level as when he had soul reaper powers, the training and trails Ichigo endured through left him with physical abilities beyond what should be normally capable for someone his age. Picking up the small one to scare him a bit more for causing him the trouble of kicking their asses. Ichigo began to smile as he was formulating a plan to interrogate the little mugger for information.
"Put that poor kid down you ruffian and return what was stolen from me!" A girl's voice called out, looking up down the alley way to see a who it was that interrupted the little beatdown. Ichigo saw a girl with striking long silver hair that covered her ears, with a white rose and ribbon at the side. She wore what looked like a white robe with purple along all its edges, the sides of the robe had what looked like yellow birds on them. Purple eyes trained on me with her hands extended like how Rukia would cast some of her kido. What she was doing must have been something like kido as well, as there was a large chunk of ice floating next to her.
Both Ichigo and the small punk looked at each other looking for any signs of knowing this girl. When Ichigo showed no recognition the small thugs face perked up. Turning towards her and yelling, "Help me this crazy guy attacked me and my brothers! He's trying to mug us!"
"You little shit, no way are you pinning this on me!" Ichigo raged.
Starting to lower him, Ichigo began to respond only to see that the block of ice that was floating next to her wasn't there anymore and was instead hurtling towards his face. There was no time to dodge it before everything went black for him.
When he came to, Ichigo felt something soft under his head. Soft and furry. Opening his eyes to look at where he was, only to find myself in the alleyway still. Devoid of any sign of the three muggers. He felt he could relax for a quick second before Looking down to see what looked like furry legs. 'Am I on some one's lap?' he thought confusion growing. Quickly turning to see who's lap he currently occupying, he jumped after seeing something that made his heart feel like it was going to burst from my chest. A huge cat head smiled at down at Ichigo, it had grey fur and blue eyes with an ear turned down with a gold earring.
"It's just a thoughtful arrangement we made so you could at least feel happy until you woke up." The cat said in a faked female voice. This only served to disturb Ichigo even more than before.
"Woah what in the hell are you!" he screamed quicky running to the wall across from where he had been laying, trying to figure out who these people were. The huge smiling cat seem to be amused by his outburst, which served to irritate Ichigo.
"It was worth making myself big to see you happy." The cat replied amused in a what his normal voice.
"I ain't happy! What kind of person gives someone a lap pillow in an alleyway, better yet are you even a person at all!?" His only response was to put his paw behind his head and bashfully laughing.
Looking to the side of the cat Ichigo saw the same silver-haired girl from before he was knocked out, the same said girl who knocked me out. She was eying him warily, not trusting his resting scowl.
"First you hit me in the face with an icicle then you nurse me back up, what gives?" Ichigo demanded
"I'm so sorry, I thought you were with the thief that stole my insignia, and you were standing over those thugs so intimidatingly. When the small one begged for help I believed him without questioning it!" she bowed her head saying. "I healed up any damage you might have taken from my spell, so please accept my apology." She pleaded.
Feeling his head for any damage, he found nothing out of place. In fact, he felt a little less fatigued from the day of work turned into another day of supernatural teleportation to Lugnica. "You really did heal me?" Ichigo questioned gesturing towards the other end of the alley with a nod. "What happened to those three punks I was teaching a lesson too?"
"The little one ran to his friends and all three of them ran off before I could ask them if they knew anything about the thief that ran this way. I would have still thought you to be a mugger had the little one not decided to kick you while his friend picked up knifes from the ground while running off." She looked as if saying sorry again while giving her excuse.
"Little bastard…well if you healed me up no hard feelings I guess." Ichigo scratched the back of his head looking away. "Hey, you said someone stole something from you, that someone wouldn't have happened to be a small blonde girl with a red scarf would it?"
"You saw her!" she exclaimed obviously excited that she had a clue to finding what was stolen. "Any information you can give me I would appreciate."
"Tell you what, while I'm not going to hold it against you, with you knocking me out. But I'm kind of lost in this city myself. I'll tell you which way she went and help you recover what you lost. You help me afterwards by telling me how to get to some sort of authority here. How's that sound fair?" Bargining with this strange girl was the best option he had. Any sort of info or help is all he need right now. And she looked to fit the description of someone important with how she's dressed in Ichigo's eyes. 'Fine clothes, and magic to boot she has to be a somebody, I hope. Helping her out so that she owes feels kind of bad but what else am I going to do, I'm lost in some fantasy world with no idea of how I got here.' He thought out to himself.
She rose her hand to her chin as if she was internally struggling with what was proposed. The cat that had been the size of a person to had shrunk down to a size of a kitten and floated up to the silver-haired girl. "I don't sense any malice from him; besides he would make a good shield against anymore ruffians with how he took that spell to the face." The cat turned towards the orange-haired boy with what looked like a grin with the last bit he added.
Ignoring me scowling at the cheeky cat, she raised her head at me. "Alright, it if Puck says that. Ill try to trust you on the help. Although I can't promise anything from myself in terms of helping you out."
Sighing, Ichigo took the answer as a yes. 'Despite what she says I can tell just from the way she is looking at me that she is still suspicious. I also just signed myself up for a scavenger hunt for stolen item, but I still had no idea what was stolen. Or by who for that matter. All I have to go on is her description. Her saying she might not be able to keep up her end wasn't great news either. But this girl nursed me back to health and waited for me to wake up, she was too much like Orihime. I at least owe her the help, despite her being what caused both of our setbacks.'
The duo searched across the city of Lugnica in order to find where the blonde thief had run off too. After quickly finding out that the silver-haired girl had about as much idea of how to navigate the city as he did, however. The two decided to take a break at a staircase connecting a lower street to a street higher up, next door was a small closed shop.
"I figured this town was big, but this is just ridiculous." Ichigo lamented to himself while taking a seat on the stairway. "It's the capital of Lugnica, you didn't even know that, um…" the silver-hair girl who had been leaning on the railing of the stairs suddenly paused and looked at him remembering she didn't actually know his name.
"That's right. We haven't asked your name yet. Should we introduce ourselves?" The floating cat suddenly appeared again asking them both.
"Yea you're right. guess I should go first." He shrugged and began to walk towards the two. "My names Ichigo Kurosaki nice to meet you."
"And I'm Puck! Nice to meet you." Puck flew into his hand face first, extending his paw out towards him while doing so.
"It's very unusual to see someone who can touch a spirit so casually. Where are you from?" the silver-haired girl looked at me with surprise.
"An island nation as far east as you can go." Ichigo told as a half-truth, hoping it wouldn't bite him in the ass later. Telling her straight away he was teleported here somehow might make her think he was insane.
'Hell, I can hardly believe it myself, and I've been to the afterlife while still being alive.' He thought.
"Lugnica is the easternmost nation on the continental map, theses no nation east of here." She stated to me with a confused look. The plan for my background backfiring as quickly as I had come up with it.
"Wait really" Ichigo replied confirming his worry of being teleported to another world.
"You don't know where you are, you have no money, you can't read, and you have no one who can help you. You might be in an even more precarious position than I am." She said while covering her mouth in worry. "Ichigo was it then?"
"Well your situation aside, you seem the be in pretty good shape." Puck floated away from my hand and said.
"I learned how to fight and work out with a close friend of mine back home, plus my hair isn't exactly normal where I come from. I got a lot of crap for it growing up so I just got myself to the point where they couldn't even think about harassing me about it. Not that some still don't try from time to time." Ichigo told truthfully to Puck. He felt no need to go into his supernatural experiences though. Even if this cat was some sort of spirit apparently. Somehow, he doubted that she meant that he was a soul and more of something magical.
"Well you must have been from a reputable family; your hands are calloused like from griping a sword and your muscles don't look like something you could get from doing field work." The silver-haired girl said while inspecting my hands. Ichigo couldn't help but to blush at this sudden contact. It was gentle compared to that of what he was used to with women close him. With the majority of those experiences being that of Rukia's manhandling.
"Well I gave you my name, so what's yours?" he asked.
She hesitated a bit, thinking it over and looking away for a second. "my name…it's…Satella. I've got no family name so just address me as that alright." she looked back at him with a deadpan look as she responded. As soon as she said it Puck gasped at his side. He knew right away she was lying. But she probably has her reasons and it's not like Ichigo himself was being totally forthcoming with her anyways. He felt it fair to not poke at the issue.
"Well Stella is a nice name." I smirked at her.
"Huh" she looked at me surprised, "uh you uh got the name, I mean my name wrong. It's Satella" she looked flustered and kind of like she was about to laugh now.
'Great I screwed up her name that quickly, I have to work on that.' He cringed to himself.
"R…Right Satella, uh sorry I'm kinda bad with names. Let's get back to asking around and finding what you lost ok." Ichigo looked away embarrassed. "Speaking of what you got stolen what was it exactly?" trying to break away from how awkward he felt about getting her name wrong on the first attempt.
Giggling Satella finally told him "A very important pendant, there will be big trouble for me if I don't recover it." She began to lead with Puck by her side back into the city as she finished explaining. With nothing left to ask Ichigo simply shrugged and followed her.
Returning to the market section of the city, the two asked around to no results. When Satella suddenly called to Ichigo's attention. "Hey Ichigo, do you think that child is lost?" He looked to the side of the street to see a small green haired girl in a pink hoodie looking around scared. It was obvious the girl had been separated from her parents.
"We haven't asked around much since we last stopped. Do you think we have time to help?" Ichigo asked
"If she's lost then we have to do something." She responded back, giving him a look of determination. He saw now it wasn't just out of a sense of guilt that she healed him. She was a good person, though the type of good person that would stick herself into bad situations for the sake of others. Not unlike Ichigo himself.
'She would have probably tried to help me had she been there before I started fighting those three muggers.' Ichigo thought proud of her attitude.
"If you don't want to help me with this it's fine Ichigo, I can handle this from here on out. I'm going to help that little girl." She said as she began walking towards the little girl. Ichigo sighed and trailed behind her to see if she needed any help anyway.
"Hey there, is something the matter, maybe I can help you. Did you come here on your own or with your mommy and daddy?" Satella asked the little girl making sure to get down to eye level with her to keep from scaring her. However, the little girl was timid and seeing a stranger begin to talk to her suddenly made the poor thing cry.
Pulling out some change Ichigo took a gamble, "what we have here is a 10 yen coin, no others like it in the city! Watch the wonders of this coin you two as it got special magic to help you always find it." presenting the 10 yen coin to both the little girl and Satella so that they could get a good look at it. "Now watch closely for the coin will disappear and reappear where I will it!" He tossed the coin in the air and caught it clapping his hands. Showing my empty palms to the little girl I continued. "Well where could it have gone? Hmm I wonder? Oh, I know!" Brushing his left hand against her hair and exclaiming "Look at that it was behind your ear!"
"Hehehe" the little girl laughed lightly calming down a bit, "here keep it, and take care of it for me alright?" She nodded back happily taking the coin.
"Thank you, sir!" she said beamed.
The three began to walk through the market to reunite the girl with her mother. Each of them holding one of the girl's hands.
"You know, walking with you reminds me of my sisters when they were your size. My little sister Yuzu would always be scared to walk outside without holding someone's hand." Ichigo thought out loud.
"You have siblings Ichigo? My imagining you as a big brother wasn't off then. Hehe." Satella giggled at him
"I'll have you know I'm a good big brother too." He was about to continue, but suddenly a purple haired woman stood in their way a little was up the street.
"Mommy!" the girl suddenly yelled out and ran forward to her mother that spotted the trio.
"Sweetie! I was so worried! Mommy told you not to let go of her hand." The mother cried out embracing her daughter.
"Thank you two, I don't know what I would have done if I hadn't been able to find her. Thank you helping her find me." She exclaimed while picking up her daughter. "Don't forget to thank them too Plum."
"Thanks mister, thanks Lady!" the little girl said while waving us goodbye.
After the sincere thank you the duo finally resumed insignia thief hunting. Though like before, not too much success. Stopping yet again at a small bridge over a manmade river with fountains near the market to rest for a bit; after the small detour with the little girl the two felt they need another break.
"I'm surprised you helped me like that. You know you didn't have to? Satella frowned and asked. "I know you want my help with finding out more about Lugnica, but it's not like you needed to involve yourself her." She continued crossing her arms to wait for an answer.
"Well to be honest if you hadn't walked up to her, I probably would have myself. Besides what was that earlier about handling it from there on out?" He teased at the silver-haired elf girl with a smirk.
Satella blushed brightly and turned away, not expecting me to turn the questioning back on her. "Besides who needs a reason to want to help someone." He added, joining her to sit on the edge of the bridge.
"I'll admit you're not a bad boy then." She said looking down the waterway.
"What makes you act like I'm the younger one here, we can't be that different? Besides I'm definitely the taller one here." Ichigo reasoned.
"You may think that, but you couldn't be more wrong. Because I'm a half-elf….." she replied, looking down as if ashamed.
"Ok, so your ears are pointy, it's not like you have horns or something scary though. Besides." Ichigo started before pausing.
'God, soul king, whatever help me out here I'm not good at the whole comforting people thing.' Steeling myself for embarrassment and Looking her in the eyes to get her attention "the ears look pretty cute" he admitted before quickly looking away so she couldn't see his tomato face. Hoping at the same time he didn't make her mad.
"What am I thinking saying something like that out loud." He cringed quietly to himself.
"Huh? Didn't you hear me I'm half-elf." She only seemed to get more confused by the dismissal.
"I heard you just fine the first time." This time it was his turn to be confused by her insistence.
Satella jumped down from her seat, crouched down and covered her head with her hands. Hiding her face from the taller teen. He was about to ask what was wrong, when a very happy puck suddenly started doing spins in the air towards Ichigo. Puck finished off his little show by delivering what looked like a punch to the cheek with his paw. It felt like someone brushed his cheek with a tiny cushion.
"Uh Puck what was up with that?" Ichigo couldn't help but ask awkwardly.
"I just had to do something about this unbearable tingly feeling I have, don't worry it wasn't out of anger or anything like that!" he replied floating right in Ichigo's face while shaking.
"Ichigo you're such a dunderhead!" Satella turned and yelled, it looked like she had been embarrassed about what he had said, or that she was just expecting another response. Ichigo could only guess, but was happy he didn't make her mad.
'Who says dunderhead, better yet what does that even mean? What era are you from?' trying his best to hide his amusment at her dated choice of words.
"let's just keep searching then." Ichigo spoke up again hoping to bring them back to the task at hand. "Do you remember where about you had the insignia stolen?"
They found themselves in front of a familiar fruit stall as they back tracked. "Here I thought I had a customer, but it's just you broke boy." The same fruit seller said to me annoyed.
"I'm just here to ask a few questions, not like you were doing anything anyways." Ichigo snarked at the fruit guy.
"Uh, Ichigo just so you know I don't have any money with me right now either." Satella stated
"Wait really? Crap there went my hope of getting through to him."
"So, I've got two broke losers wasting my time now. Get out of here you to go bother someone who isn't busy!" The fruit guy yelled at them.
"Daddy!" suddenly the little girl from earlier ran up and hugged the fruit vendor surprising the three of us.
"Hey there's my girl, you and mom back from shopping already?" he looked down at her happy to see her home.
"Oh, it's you two again. Thank you so much again for earlier. Honey these two helped Plum find me earlier, we got separated in the market." The wife explained to her husband as she walked up to the shop behind her daughter.
"Thanks mister! Thanks again Lady here I got you a present!" the girl ran up to Satella hand her a small red flower.
"Thank you very much." Satella smiled at the girl taking the gift and pining it on her robe.
"Really these two?" the fruit vendor looked the two over again while asking "If you helped my Kid then I guess you aren't as good for nothing as I first thought. Still look funny though. Still you helped my daughter so ask me anything I'll be happy to help."
Ichigo could only grumble at his response. Satella instead decided to take lead of the conversation "I had an insignia stolen from me walking down this street, did you happen to see the blonde girl who stole it from me?"
"If it's a pickpocket around these parts then it was probably Felt then, I don't know exactly where she lives but in know it's in the slums. She famous around those parts. Sorry that's about all I know" He replied with a smile.
Finally, with a good lead the duo made their way to the slums, the sun was beginning to set by the time they arrived. Ichigo had begun to feel the fatigue of his long night turned to day. Former soul reaper or not being in a human body and going from work to a day of searching in an unknown city was taking it's toll on the boy.
Walking through the slums reminded Ichigo of the outer edges of the rukongai, except these people were alive and not souls that didn't need to eat for the most part. A run-down decaying town with people that were either down on their luck, disabled, or drunk, these people needed help, but no one looked out for them. One would think with how clean and fancy the main city is that they would help people like this, but this situation can be found in any world living or otherwise. People walking down the street did their best to avoid them and eyed with caution.
"Maybe if we ask around someone will tell us where Felt is?" Satella suggested to both me and Puck.
"No one here is going to give up of their own, especially to a couple of strangers." Puck answered her. He was right wandering around like earlier was getting them nowhere fast. "Whatever you are going to do I suggest you hurry; I'm starting to run out of time here" he continued starting to slouch against Satella as if he was starting to fall asleep.
"what do you mean by that?" Ichigo asked
"Well while I'm able to keep up my cute appearance, I'm still a spirit. It takes a lot of mana for me to appear in physical form." He said dropping his head struggling to stay awake. "When the day becomes night, I return to the crystal I was summoned from. On average my ideal time is nine to five."
"What are you an office worker?"
Now that he mentioned it, Ichigo noticed the little green crystal that Satella wore around her neck. Him having somewhere he was summoned from, was starting to make since to the taller teen. Puck had been appearing seemingly out of nowhere throughout the day. Ichigo thought he was just floating off whenever we weren't looking but Puck having a magic crystal that housed him hadn't crossed the mind.
'I guess he really isn't anything like the spirits that I'm used to dealing with. Though the thought of Puck in a tiny shihakusho would be funny. He would probably make Yoruichi jealous.' Ichigo thought to himself.
"we will be fine without Puck we need to keep moving forward on this." Satella said to before dismissing Puck "Sorry to have worked you so hard today Puck we'll handle things from here so go ahead and rest."
"Good luck you two, don't do anything stupid. And don't forget you can use the od to summon me again. I'm leaving everything to you Ichigo." Finishing his goodbye, Puck began to glow before separating into motes of green light and being absorbed by Satella's crystal.
"Now don't go getting any pervy ideas now that we are alone Ichigo I can still use magic just so you know." Satella warned me wagging her finger
"And what the hell gave you the idea I would do something like that! You know what let's just get moving on find Felt." Grumbling at her rude jab they continued into the slums.
"Waiting to see if someone looks approachable is going nowhere, I'm just gonna wing it and ask the next guy I see." Ichigo concluded aloud before Looking around and spotting a man with brown hair walking opposite from them in their direction.
"Hey man you seen Felt anywhere around here?" He looked surprised at first by Ichigos sudden question but seemed to relax and raise a hand to his chin as if to think.
"Oh Felt, she's probably at the loot house at the edge of the slums. Old man Rom runs the place, wish you luck in bargaining for whatever she lifted of ya. Live Strong OK!" the man exclaimed using the same saying as Felt from in the alley. Their search had led them to the right place.
"Alright we got where she is let's get going before it gets any darker."
"Hold up, before we go, I need to consult the lesser spirits." Satella signaled to wait up. Having moved over a small rickety wooden bridge over an even smaller creek, next to a tree they came to a stop once more.
"Lesser spirits? What's that?"
"Beings that haven't quite become full spirits yet, they grow in strength over time and can become full-fledged spirits like Puck." She explained
Satella closed her eyes and began to mouth what looked like a prayer. Suddenly she began to glow not unlike someone raising their spiritual pressure, glowing bright blueish-white. The major difference came when motes of the same light began to glow and harmonize with her, as well as no actual feeling of pressure in the air.
'Being honest with myself she looks beautiful doing whatever it is she is doing.'
The two moved on towards the loot house after Satella's light show. It had gotten dark by then, meaning it really had been a full day here in the strange magical world. Ichigo was starting to worry if he would ever get back home, but the little scavenger hunt had kept my thoughts occupied luckily. They could see a ramshackle wearhouse as they walked. "Looks like this is the place."
"Hey, what did that guy from earlier mean about bargaining for what was stolen? We shouldn't have to pay for what was stolen from me." Satella asked worried.
"Don't worry about it, I'll convince them to part ways with it no problem." Ichigo began to smile mischievously.
"I don't like that smile your making, please don't start anymore trouble for yourself. Or me for that matter." She huffed. "Here take this, it's dark now and it'll help us see." Handing him a small stone that began to glow when she focused on it.
"Wow that's handy. What is it anyways?"
"A light lagmite, you really haven't seen one before? Lagmite is used everywhere." She perked her head to the side looking at him confused at due to his curiosity.
"Nope never heard of em. We got a different way of lighting stuff up back home."
"Hmm, you'll have to tell me about that later then. You ready to help get my insignia back?" She asked
"Yea, ready as I'll ever be. Let me take the lead here, I'll call you in as soon as I can see it's safe." Despite all he been through today, having someone to potentially fight alongside felt good to him. 'Satella may not be Chad, Rukia, or Renji, but I can't say getting pumped with a new friend is too bad. Regardless of the situation, I should just live in the moment.'
"Alright then, ill leave it to you then. You know I'd be lying if you didn't hold me back a bit today, but I'm putting my faith in you regardless." Satella accepted.
'And moment ruined.'
"If it actually go's well ill consider today a bonus" she smirked smugly.
"Really no good luck Ichigo!" he said in a girly voice."Or something like that. And Here I thought I was making a good impression for once."
"Sorry I can't force myself to say something like that, however. Please do your best" she smiled at him warmly this time. Ichigo felt something shift within himself at the sight, he knew it wasn't bad in fact he felt happy about it.
"Remember I'll call for you when the coasts clear Satella." When she didn't respond he turned back at her to see what was wrong.
"Satella?"
"Oh, uh it's nothing never mind…when you get my insignia back ill apologize." She said with strange look.
Shrugging he pushed on into the loot house. It was pitch black inside, a good thing that Satella had the light lagmite on her or it would be impossible to see. The inside was filled with various knick-knacks, from full suits of armor and weapons to tableware. It was no wonder the place had the name loot house, though it felt more like someone's attempt at a pawn shop. "If it was all really is stolen goods then color me impressed, that girl has got some skills, a real master thief in the making." Ichigo praised out loud.
"Hey! Anyone here I need to talk to Felt!" No response. 'Hopefully that didn't startle Satella.' Taking a few more steps into the dark building, he was surprised by a splash from where had place his foot. "What's that?" He pointed the light to see what had spilled. Immediately he could feel panic rising at the sight of what came into vision. Blood was strewn all over the wooden floor Infront of him. Fresh blood. Quickly trailing the blood with the lagmite, Ichigo found the source of it all. A huge man old man with skin tone close to Yoruichi's was slouched up against a wall with a gash across his throat. His arm had been severed and was laying a just a bit ahead of Ichigo's feet.
"I need to warn Satella!" He began to turn so he could yell when suddenly from behind him he heard a voice
"Oh, dear you found that, I have no choice then." A womans voice came out from behind him in a seductive tone. He couldn't see her in the dark, but he did hear the whistle of something being swung his way.
"Gaaah" Pain erupted across Ichigo's right side as he tried to dodge out of the way, but he was to slow to dodge it completely. She had cut him along his right abdomen, a nasty gash that could have been much worse. 'My reactions are fast but I'm still human right now, and that swing was definitely much faster than some thugs cheap shot.'
"Oh dear, you were able to almost dodge that, now we can't have that. Can we?" The lady pouted from the shadows. Suddenly something flew by Ichigos left abdomen. Still recovering from his fall, he could only scream as the sound of flesh being carved from the flying knife that landed next to him. "Aaaah!" Quickly looking to his side he found a gaping wound along the left side of his stomach. "Fuck!"
"Ichigo what's going on, are you alright? I'm coming in." Satella Creeped inside after hearing me scream.
"No stay out, run please. Don't come." Ichigo could harled even squeak out. He felt cold, it hurt so much just to breathe. Just keeping conscious was asking too much of himself right now. 'I'm dying. No not like this please I have to at least save her!'. He put everything he had into reaching out my hand to try and warn her.
"Ichigo?...Aaaaaah!" she didn't even get a chance to see me before she collapsed from being cut.
"No, damnit not here, not now. I'm gonna save you Satella, damn you stay with me" he weakly grabbed her hand. "I'm gonna save you Satella I swear." Then everything went black.
Ichigos eyes hurt once again from the sudden sunlight glaring down on him when he opened them. Covering his eyes and rubbing them so that he could adjust to the sudden change. "Hey you want to buy an appa or what boy?" a familiar voice in front of him called out.
Opening his eyes once more he began to feel lightheaded at the sight of who was in front of him. The same fruit vendor from earlier this evening was looking at him pissed off. The same look he got when he first talked with the man.
'Everything's not right, it was just dark out again, and we were in the loot house when both me and Satella were attacked. Where I blacked out trying to save her pleading with myself to get up. But getting up from my wounds was impossible because no matter how you look at it we were both dying, bleeding out to fast to save.' Ichigos mind was racing searching frantically for any sort of answer.
"What the hell is going on!"