A/N: Here we go! Next chapter is up! But first, here are the Review Responses:

bleach hui: You caught on fast. At least I know that someone reads these.

skylark dragonstar: Thank you! Yep, that's what made Bleach so great. There are some more of those conversations in this chapter.

Ermilus: I'm so glad you like it.

PartyPony2: I was waiting for you to review before I posted this chapter up. Thank you so much for the comments and the advice.

Disclaimer: I do not, in any way, own Bleach! All of it belongs to Tite Kubo.

And thank you all for the favs and the story alerts!

~4~4~4~4~

Chapter 4: The Cursed Cockatiel and the Nightmare Hollow

It was nighttime, and a siren was wailing in the distance.

"A cockatiel that's cursed?" He couldn't believe it.

"Yeah. They say whoever owns this bird gets bad luck too. All of its owners had been in terrible situations and died because of them."

"Are you serious? That's not a good sign."

"So, Shigeo, do you want him?"

The cockatiel listened intently.

"Not after you tell me that! How stupid do I look to you? Why don't you go dump him someplace?"

"No, that would be too cruel."

"What about you, Chad?"

"Yeah, isn't he cute?" The cage was held up to Chad's face.

"Knock it off, you idiot. You know Chad has a weakness for cute things!"

Above them, a construction bar started to distort and blur. The bird screeched and Chad knew that something was up. The bar started to move, out and over the ledge. Then, the bar fell. The bird still screeched.

The mist cleared and the found Chad standing above them, the now crooked bar straining against his back. His two friends merely sat there in awe.

"C-Chad?"

"A-Are you alright, Chad?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Chad said, blood dripping down his forehead.

"Fine? You're bleeding, bro!"

Then came a voice that no one expected.

"Thank you for saving me." Chad looked down at the cockatiel, which was speaking. "My name is Shibata Yuichi. What's yours?"

"What? Did you hear that?"

"The bird...it just spoke..."

"What is your name, Mister?"

"Sado Yasutora. I'm fifteen years old."

"Hey, check it out. Chad's interested in the bird."

"Geez, I can't believe my injuries only healed in a day," Ichigo exclaimed the next day.

"Why are you so surprised?" Rukia asked him. "I got the best grades in my kidou class. I have a talent for it. Momo here does too." Here Momo nodded. "Healing you was easy."

"You got graded?" Ichigo asked.

"You mean there's actually a school for Shinigami?" Toushirou asked.

'Why are you so surprised, Shirou-chan? You went there once too,' Momo thought, but she said. "Well, yes."

"I have a question, though. Tell me. How do I drink from this?" Rukia asked, holding up a juice box.

"Same here," Momo said, with a hint of red on her cheeks from being embarrassed.

"Oh, you just poke a hole in it with the end of your straw," Ichigo said.

"Straw?" Both girls asked. Both boys nodded.

"So...you four are together again, huh?" A voice sounded among the rooftop. The four looked at the source of the voice. "You four seem pretty chummy. Kinda like a double date."

"Mizuiro, shut up," Ichigo said. "Does this really look like a double date?"

"Am I wrong?"

"Hell yes!" Toushirou snapped.

"Well, to be honest, you four do seem to be pretty close. But, people are gonna talk. And sooner or later, everyone with think that you and Rukia are an item, as are Toushirou and Momo."

"Whatever," Ichigo said, poking his straw through his juice pouch.

"You know, if Ichigo and I really cared about what people thought, we would've both died our hair black a long time ago," Toushirou said, doing the same.

"That's true," Mizurio said.

"Aha! So this is the straw!" Momo exclaimed. "See, Rukia? It's right on the back."

"Oh, thank you, Momo," Rukia said. "Now I see."

"But...where do we poke it?" Momo asked. Mizuiro noticed.

"Hey there, Momo," he said.

"Why, hello...um...Kojima-kun?" Momo asked, unsure.

"Yep. I suppose we haven't been properly introduced. I'm Kojima Mizuiro. I really like-"

"Pickin' up chicks," Ichigo interrupted.

"Huh? No way, Ichigo, that's not cool!"

"Watch it, he may look like a dork, but he's a real flirt," Ichigo said. "Watch out, you two."

"Cut it out! You'll permanently damage my reputation!" Rukia blinked and finally got her straw in the box.

"What reputation?" Toushirou retorted.

"Why are you being so mean today, Toushirou?" Mizuiro asked.

"Because you thought we were on a double date," Toushirou retorted back. "And I didn't get enough sleep last night, so shut up!"

"Come on, Toushirou, be nice! Besides, I'm only interested in older women," Mizuiro said. "You know that." Rukia sipped from her juice box.

"Like I said, Rukia, look out for this guy," Ichigo said.

Then...

"What's this? Rukia and Momo, the hot new transfer students come to eat lunch with Ichigo and Toushirou? How did that happen?" Keigo asked, jogging over to the group.

"Ichigo and Toushirou picked them up." To this, Toushirou's ears perked up and he blushed a deep red.

"I DON'T LIKE HER LIKE THAT!"

"Good job!" Keigo gave the two brothers a thumbs-up.

"Thanks...I guess," Ichigo said.

Momo noticed a shadow against her face. She looked up to Keigo giving a salute.

"Greetings! I'm Asano Keigo and welcome, lovely lady, to this garden of manliness," Keigo said.

"Um...hello," Momo said.

"Alright! Lunch party! Right here! Right now!"

"With milk coffee and yakisoba bread?"

"Shut up! It's the feeling that counts! Oh, and Momo, if you find yourself needing anything, don't hesitate to call," Keigo said.

"Great! Open this!" Momo said, holding out her unopened juice box.

"Sure-!" Keigo's word was cut short by a kick in the face.

"Leave her alone, you jackass!" Toushirou, who was not in the mood for this nonsense, yelled.

"Whoa...so you really do like her?" Mizuiro teased. Toushirou's face went red. "He already filled in the category for defiance, quite a few times actually."

"SHUT UP!" Toushirou was definitely not in the mood.

Keigo backed up at the fury in his voice. He backed up into Chad, who was covered with bandages on various parts of his body.

"Chad!"

"Hey, Chad...are you okay?"

"Yeah, what happened?" Keigo asked.

"A steel beam fell on my head yesterday. As for my hand, I had a collision with a motorcycle. The force of the collision threw the rider off and he got hurt bad. So I just carried him to the hospital."

"No wonder you were late," Toushirou said.

"Yeah. Are you okay, Toushirou? You were yelling just now," Chad asked.

"Yeah, just Keigo being a complete idiot."

"Hey!"

"But geez, what is your body made of anyways?" Ichigo asked.

Chad set down the bird cage he was holding.

"Hey, what's with the bird?" Keigo asked.

"Hello, my name is Shibata Yuichi," the bird said.

Toushirou stopped in his tracks. Momo stopped her fussing with her juice box. Ichigo looked at it, as did Rukia.

"It's nice to meet you. What's your name?"

"Hey, that's amazing! It really does talk!" Keigo seemed fascinated. "My name is Asano Keigo. Can you say that?"

"Hey, Chad," Ichigo said. "Where'd you get this bird?"

"Yesterday...Someone gave it to me."

"Hold it!" Keigo shouted. "There you go again. You were about to tell us, but you got lazy and cut it short! Again! That's a bad habit you have! Now, explain!"

"That was the whole story."

"There you go again-!"

"Would you idiots knock it off?" Toushirou punched Keigo in the face. "I'm trying to study for a test next period that I didn't have time to study for last night!"

Ichigo was silent.

"Don't worry," Rukia said. "Something is in that bird, but it's not evil. It's probably just a lonely spirit. But we can't just leave it. It might turn into a hollow. We should perform a konso tonight."

"Great, another sleepless night," Ichigo mumbled.

"Hey, don't complain. It doesn't help," Momo said.

"I think he knows that," Toushirou said, putting down his book and taking Momo's juice box out of her hand. He took her straw and poked the hole with it and gave it back to her. "There."

"Thank you, Shirou-chan..."

Toushirou paused. He slowly turned to face her, but said nothing. 'What did she just call me?' Instead, he said, "No problem."

"We both met Chad, back in the eighth grade, which was the grade that Toushirou skipped, so he was in seventh at the time. The color of our hair always got people's attention, but not in a good way. And it got us into these fights. It was when we got into a little scrape. He just came up and saved us, but he didn't fight back. He never does. Not even when people egg him on," Ichigo said, reminiscing.

"He's an odd one," Rukia said, all four watching Chad feed the bird.

"Yeah," Ichigo said.

"This juice is good," Momo said.

"Enjoy," Toushirou responded, gently.

"Hey, Toushirou," Chad said, after school. "I'm going to the book store, and I hear they have the book on sale, the one you want to read so badly. You wanna come with me?"

"Sure," Toushirou said. He turned to the other three. "Don't worry about me, Ichigo. I'll be with Chad, okay? I'll be home before dinner."

"Okay, just be careful," Ichigo said.

That night, Ichigo walked into the front door of his house.

"I'm home!"

"Move, Ichi-nii! Out of the way!" Karin yelled, running past him.

"Hey, what's going on? Where's the fire?" Ichigo asked.

"Welcome home, Onii-chan," Yuzu said, also walking past him.

"Yuzu, what's going on?" Ichigo asked.

"An accident. There was a big car wreck down by the corner."

"A car wreck?" Ichigo repeated. Then he remembered. "Oh, yeah, is Toushirou home yet?"

Yuzu paused. "Um...yeah..."

Ichigo immediately knew that something was up. "Yuzu...is he okay?"

"Why don't you go check with Oto-san?" Yuzu suggested before turning around and walking away, back to her business.

"I just told you! You can't take that many? Well, here's a news flash. They need to go somewhere. We can't treat 'em all here! We're a small clinic. Tell your boss this is a request from Kurosaki Isshin. He'll find me some hospital beds that are open. No problem! Just do it!" He then slammed the phone back on the hook.

"Oto-san..." Ichigo said cautiously.

"Damn stupid idiots, they wouldn't know a stethoscope from a cell phone."

"Anything I can do to help?"

"No!" Ichigo froze. "Just assume the fetal position and stay out of the way."

So now Ichigo was sitting right outside the hall.

"Oto-san! We've got this one last patient!"

"Right! Man, this guy's as big as they come. Ichigo, come in here and get to work!"

"You bet!" Ichigo stood up and walked into the room and saw...

Chad, actually needing to use Isshin as crutch...

Toushirou...holding his shoulder, which looked like it was chewed off, literally...

And the bird, with a strange look of sadness on its face.

Chad took off his shirt after he sat down on the bed.

"Woah...what a horrible wound!" Yuzu exclaimed.

"What happened to you out there? This looks like a pretty nasty burn. But I think I can help you out," Isshin said.

'I got this feeling...' Ichigo thought.

Toushirou couldn't keep his eyes off the bird.

"Now with this burn, you're going to have to take it easy for a while."

"No."

"Huh?"

"I'm...okay now. Besides, it's Toushirou you ought to be worried about," Chad said, standing and walk to the door. That brought Ichigo's attention back to his brother.

"You're crazy! There's no way you're fine after losing so much blood!" Isshin exclaimed.

Chad fell back to the ground.

"See? Yuzu, Karin, get a bed ready for him," Isshin ordered.

"Gotcha!" Yuzu said. "Let's get you to bed, okay?" Karin followed suit.

"Ichigo, get Chad on the bed, and then come back down and get Toushirou up to your room," Isshin said.

Ichigo came back for Toushirou, who was being looked over one last time by Isshin.

"It's okay, Toushirou. Your bleeding has stopped, and I'll give you some pain killers, which might work. But they may not."

Toushirou could only nod, considering how much pain he was in.

Isshin got up and walked past Ichigo, saying, "Go ahead, Ichigo."

Ichigo swung Toushirou's arms over his shoulders and hoisted him up piggy-back style. Toushirou hissed in pain at the new position of his shoulder. Ichigo muttered a quick apology.

"Did you feel it?" Ichigo asked the two Shinigami girls up in his room.

"Of course. I felt it all the way in here. But, I sense nothing evil in Chad's bird," Rukia said.

"But both Chad and Toushirou's wounds...they really reek of a hollow," Momo said, sitting on the edge of Toushirou's bed, which was occupied by Toushirou himself, sleeping on his good shoulder.

"Toushirou...what happened...?" Ichigo asked.

"Hollow...burned Chad's back after it bit my shoulder..." Toushirou muttered painfully.

Momo hovered her hands over his injured shoulder and a green aura came from them. Toushirou immediately felt the pain subside. He murmured a quiet "Thank you". Momo only nodded, a look of worry ever evident across her face.

But the kidou that Momo was performing brought Toushirou's mind to something else.

*Flashback*

It was a quiet evening.

"Thank you, Chad, for bringing me to the book store," Toushirou said.

"It was no problem, really," Chad said.

Toushirou smiled one of his rare smiles.

"So, how'd you do on the algebra test today?" Chad asked.

"Well...I hope. I didn't get much sleep last night..." Toushioru muttered, rubbing some sleep from his eyes. He paused abruptly. Toushirou stopped and looked around cautiously.

"What's wrong?" Chad asked. The bird screeched in worry.

There was an intense silence before Toushirou suddenly shouted out, "CHAD, LOOK OUT!"

Toushirou shoved Chad away from him as hard as he could, and then felt a terrible pain in his shoulder. He faintly heard the bird screech. He looked to the side, feeling blood gushing from his shoulder like he was giving out free concert tickets, and saw, and heard, multiple cars crash into each other, and saw Chad fall with blood pouring from his back. Toushirou held his hand out, seeing the familiar trait with all hollows: a hollow mask, as if to tell it to go away.

Much to Toushirou's surprise, a red light came from his own hand, to which the hollow sheilded his eyes and retreated into a black mist.

After that, Toushirou's world went black, only to wake up in the Kurosaki Clinic.

*End*

Toushirou slowly fell asleep, but he couldn't sleep. He couldn't stop thinking about the bird.

The next morning seemed normal.

"Good morning! Onii-chan, breakfast is ready!"

"Oh, good."

"Where's Shirou-chan? Oto-san wanted him to come to breakfast this morning, even though he's hurt," Yuzu said.

"He's still in bed. It's not like him, but he said he wasn't feeling too good. Almost as though he were sick."

"Oh..." Yuzu was now worried.

"Ichigo! Bad news! Chad has disappeared from his room!" Isshin burst through the door.

Ichigo ran down the street.

"Ichigo!" Ichigo stopped to let Rukia and Momo catch up to him.

"Any clues?" Momo asked.

"No, how about you?" Ichigo asked.

"No luck either," Rukia said. "How's Toushirou?"

"He's not feeling so good," Ichigo said, a hint worry present in his tone of voice.

"Well, the Soul Society can't detect anything either," Momo said. "And without Toushirou, finding the hollow is going to be even harder."

"The hollow is targeting Chad," Ichigo said. "I just know it. But if we wait for it to show up and attack him, it'll be too late!" Ichigo exclaimed. "Gotta think..." He remembered the bird. "I got an idea. That cockatiel that Chad had!"

"No, that's impossible," Rukia said.

Ichigo sighed, frustrated, then concentrated...

"What's this sensation?" Momo asked herself.

Toushirou coughed. "Ichi...go.." He painfully got up. "I have...to tell him..."

'He's trying to feel that soul in the bird. Even I can't sense such a weak soul,' Rukia thought.

Then, ribbons burst from the ground. Ichigo grabbed one. "Found him!" He then ran to the right.

'Amazing...he just saw spirit ribbons, visible rays of reiatsu...only a high level Shingami can see those...' Rukia thought.

Finally, the three found Chad.

"Chad!" Chad turned, looked at the three, and then turned around and ran in the opposite direction.

"Hey, wait! Chad! You need my help! Hold up!" Ichigo shouted back at him.

"Ichi...go..." Ichigo turned around to see Toushirou leaning heavily on against a telephone pole.

"Toushirou!" Ichigo exclaimed, and ran up to him. "Are you okay? You shouldn't be out here!"

"Ichigo," Rukia said. "Why don't you take him back home while Momo and I go after Chad, okay?"

Ichigo nodded and picked Toushirou up in his arms and ran back home.

"You're going to be alright, Toushirou! Just hang in there!"

"Ichigo...I...saw it...last night, the memories of the spirit that possessed that cockatiel...I don't know if it was because of my high reiatsu or something else, but...the strongest memory that remains in that child's mind...his mother was murdered...right before his eyes, and I saw everything that he saw...You must tell him that...if he goes to the other side...she'll be there, waiting for him...Please, Ichigo! You have to help that poor boy! Don't let him...be alone anymore...all the pain he's gone through...it must end...right here, right now!"

'Damn!' Rukia thought. 'It's not easy running in this gigai.' Momo was running beside her.

"What a nice smell..."

Both Shinigami stopped in their tracks.

The hollow appeared below them, then beside them.

"You smell...wonderful. Time to eat...your soul!"

The hollow attacked and Rukia did a back flip to avoid it.

"So you're tougher than I thought. And you can see me. That makes me curious. Who are you-?"

Rukia sent a knee kick to its face, and then swung herself on top of it. "The one who reigns! Mask of flesh, all creation, flap of wings, the one who carries the title of human! In the name of truth and temperance, dig your claws into the wall of sinless dreams! Hadou no San Juu San: Soukatsui!" There was an explosion near the hollow's head.

'I did it! I got my powers back!' Rukia thought.

Oh, but she didn't. The hollow remained unscathed.

"I know that attack. It's a Shinigami spell. But yours was so weak, it had no bite to it. Too bad," The hollow said, sounding disappointed.

"My, my, a tender little Shinigami whose lost her powers," the hollow teased. He turned to Momo. "I take it you're in the same situation."

"Yeah, right, you wish!" Momo said, swallowing her gikongan and departing from her gigai.

Toushirou let the tears flow. He buried his head into Ichigo's shirt and sobbed.

"Don't worry, Toushirou...Just let me handle everything..." Ichigo whispered.

~4~4~4~4~

A/N: And that's Chapter 4! Review, please! Geez, I update pretty fast…

Question of the Chapter: Can anyone guess what Toushirou just displayed? There's a specific word as to what he is.