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

PartyPony2: Actually, an empath exists in Yami no Matsuei/Descendants of Darkness, named Hisoka. If you want a more inside look on the power of empathy, look at his profile somewhere. Spiritual empathy is merely empathy on spirits. More flashbacks will probably appear later on in the story. And thanks so much for your advice!

HiddenChaser: Yeah, well, I have a knack of doing that a lot. And here is your update.

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!

Note: I decided to skip the Kon, Grand Fisher, and the Don Kanonji chapters. Let's just say that that Toushirou and Kon don't get along very well, especially since Momo's a bit naïve and Kon's…well…a pervert. *Wink, Wink, Nudge, Nudge*. The other two chapters went exactly as they did in the anime/manga, but this is actually where the climax of the plot takes place, so this is it. This beginning bit is like an epilogue from the Don Kanonji chapter, just like the anime in Episode 14. But thanks again to PartyPony2 for all the advice to "don't be afraid of change'!

~6~6~6~6~

Chapter 6: The Last Quincy

"This is absolutely outrageous! Don't you kids see the damage that you kids have done?" Mr. Kagine's voice rang through the principle's office. "This show was broadcasted on national television yesterday! Look at this!" Mr. Kagine presses the button on the remote, which turned on the TV.

The TV showed Ichigo getting jumped on by loads of burly security officers.

"Kurosaki Ichigo and Kuchiki Rukia! Do you know how much dishonor you two have brought upon this school by committing such an act of civil disobedience?" Kagine grabbed Ichigo's collar.

"Mr. Kagine, sir, I understand why you're angry with Rukia and Ichigo for acting like a couple of pure-bred idiots, by why are Orihime and I here too? We didn't have anything to do with it," Tatsuki said.

"You were there, too, weren't you?" Kagine retorted.

"That was just a coincidence," Tatsuki interjected. "We met them by total accident and were never involved."

"Great," Ichigo mumbled, "Thanks a lot. I'll remember this when you need someone to bail you out."

"Anyways, we're going back to class," Tatsuki said, her and Orihime bowing and exiting the room.

"Goodbye, Mr. Kagine," Orihime said.

"Yeah, me too..." Keigo said.

"Not so fast, Mr. Asano," Kagine said, pulling him back by his collar. "You were there with him, yet you did nothing to stop him. Therefore, you're just as guilty as Ichigo!"

"I don't see what the big deal is," Toushirou angrily intervened. "It's just a damn TV show."

"You don't get it!" Kagine said, grabbing Toushirou by his collar, whose stoic, angry face remained, by some miracle, unfazed. "That's the trouble with you kids!" ("Kid?" Toushirou mumbled angrily.) "You kids are never aware of the consequences of your actions! It's depressing!"

"I'm...so sorry," Rukia said, tearing up. "I really did try to stop Ichigo, but he wouldn't listen. All he ever thinks about is himself and he was so obsessed about getting on television. The whole thing is all my fault, and now my last day at this school is ruined because of it. But, go ahead and...punish me..."

"Oh, don't cry, Kuchiki-san. I understand. You did everything could."

Meanwhile, the boys, plus Momo, were slowly headed towards the window.

"Oh, thank you, Mr. Kagine. So you'll punish Ichigo and let me go?"

Kagine looked at the window, which was wide open and in the distance the six students were running away.

"YOU PUNKS! GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW! YOU'RE NOT GOING TO GET OFF THAT EASY! I KNOW WHERE YOU ALL LIVE!"

'That's just plain creepy,' Toushirou thought.

Kagine turned around. "Oh, great! Now Kuchiki's gone too! Principal!"

"Just do me a favor. The next time you see Ichigo, could you get his autograph for me?"

"HAS EVERYONE AROUND HERE LOST THEIR MINDS?"

"Way to go, Rukia! Thanks to your awesome performance, it let us all off, free of all charge," Keigo said.

"Oh, thank you. It was nothing, really."

"You idiot, don't compliment her. She tried to sell me out," Ichigo said.

"You do have to admit, Ichigo, it was her phony crying that you were able to get away too," Tatsuki said.

"Actually, I kind of enjoyed it. After all, it was just an act," Rukia said. "But trust me. I would never sell out a good friend like Ichigo."

Ichigo grit his teeth, and Toushirou thought, 'Yeah, right.'

Momo's soul pager beeped.

"Oh, Ichigo-san, Rukia-san, can I talk to you for a minute? In private?" Momo turned and bowed. "Please, excuse us, everyone." Then, she, Rukia, and Ichigo ran off.

Toushirou narrowed his eyes sadly. 'Of course, all I can ever do is wait. Why do I have to be so helpless? Why do I feel so useless?' Toushirou sensed something else and turned toward a window up on the second floor. He noticed a strange figure, which paused and walked away. 'Who...is that?' Toushirou turned to Chad, who he noticed saw the figure too. 'This place just gets weirder and weirder,' Toushirou thought before turning away and following the others, Chad closely behind him.

"What the hell is this?" Ichigo asked. "There's no damn hollow here!"

Momo was fumbling with her pager. Rukia turned to her, "Are you sure that pager works?" Rukia sheathed her sword. "That's strange. It was a strong signal, but it just up and vanished."

"Yeah," Momo agreed.

"Hey, you, spirit guy!" Ichigo shouted at the spirit. "You didn't happen to take off a hollow's head by any chance, did you?"

"Hollow? You mean that scary bug-like thing? I was so scared. I thought I was gonna pee my pants!" The spirit was stopped mid-hug by Ichigo's foot.

"I don't care about your problems. I want to know what happened to it!" Ichigo said.

"Wait, let me try," Rukia said. "Since you saw the hollow so clearly, then you also must have seen who killed it."

"Not really. I had my eyes closed the whole time. I was so scared!" Again, the spirit guy was stopped mid-hug by Rukia's foot.

"Well, it's konso time, I suppose," Momo said, turning to Ichigo.

"Wait a minute! What's a konso? Get that sword away from me!"

"Third in the class?" Tatsuki said. "Pretty smart for a girl, Orihime."

The test scores had been posted up.

"Oh..." Keigo interjected. "Let the girls get their high scores. At least no one in our gang betrayed us by getting into the top 50."

"Actually, take a look, here and here," Mizuiro said.

Number 23, Kurosaki Ichigo and Number 2, Kurosaki Toushirou.

"What? Number 23 and Number 2? Cheaters! There's no way you could be so high!"

"Shut up," the two brothers said, simultaneously.

"We score so high because we study," Ichigo said, before turning to Toushirou, "Good job, Toushirou. You seriously need to help me study more."

"Thanks, you're not so bad yourself," Toushirou, allowing a rare, small smile to spread across his features. Seeing this, Momo also smiled.

"It's actually a surprise that you two actually study," Mizuiro said.

"Our hair gets enough attention. We're not gonna be academic losers on top of it," Ichigo said.

"Good point," Keigo said. "Sorry I ragged on you. But…Chad wouldn't do something crazy like score in the top fifty, right?"

Chad pointed to his name.

Number 11, Sado Yasotura.

"AHH! I had no idea I was hanging out with a bunch of geeks and brainiacs. I'm out of here!" Keigo ran away, Mizuiro close behind him.

"Well, they'll be back," Tatsuki said.

"Well, at least, one of us didn't score in the Number 1 spot like...Ishida Ametatsu?"

"Ishida Uryuu," Orihime said.

"You know him?"

"Of course, he's in our class."

"Huh?"

"You'll find out that Ichigo has a knack for forgetting people's faces and the names that go with them," Tatsuki said. "Come on, Orihime, let's go."

That night, Ichigo, Momo, both in gigais, and Toushirou watched as Rukia, in Shinigami form, opened the Senkaimon with her zanpaktou.

"Well, I'll be seeing you later, Hinamori," Rukia said.

Momo nodded. "Good luck, Kuchiki-san. I hope they're not too harsh with your sentence."

Rukia nodded, who then entered the Gate, which closed behind her.

"Breaking up?" Momo and Ichigo whipped around to hear a strange voice, and a figure walking towards them. "The Shinigami couldn't take anymore and so she left? How unprofessional. Good evening, Kurosaki, Hinamori."

"Who are you?" Ichigo demanded, stepping in front of Momo and Toushirou. "How do you know our names if you don't mind me asking?"

"Kurosaki, you can see spirits, right?"

"What the hell are you saying?"

Both the stranger and Toushirou turned their heads in the same direction. "A hollow!"

"No way," Momo said. A few seconds later, her Soul pager beeped. "And there it is. And order."

The stranger pointed to the right, his back facing them. "It's over there."

"Huh?"

"Can you not sense such a simple thing? And you three call yourselves Shinigami?"

Ichigo and Momo didn't seem to notice what the stranger just said, but Toushirou caught it.

'Did he just say all three of us? He couldn't be talking about Kuchiki! She just left!'

With his cross-charmed bracelet, he formed an energy bow in his right hand. With it, he drew back an energy arrow and released it. The arrow hit the hollow dead on, which disappeared just like that.

"The signal just vanished!" Momo exclaimed.

"So tell me, who or what are you?"

"Ishida Uryuu, a Quincy, and I hate Shinigami."

"Damn! What is with that guy?" Ichigo stomped down the hallway. "What was his name was again? Mack? No. Iki-something. No. Iki-bow? No. Ichi-armadillo! Dammit!"

"Ishida Uryuu?" Orihime, who popped out from nowhere, asked him.

"Inoue...um, yeah."

"It's a pretty cool name, huh?"

"Yeah! I was just saying it to myself because it's just a cool sounding name!"

"I agree! In fact, I saw it too myself every time I sit next to him in the Handicrafts Club!"

"Handi-what?"

Uryuu walked up a flight of stairs later after school that day.

"You plan on following me all the way home, Kurosaki? Both of you?"

Ichigo and Toushirou came out of hiding.

"Don't blame me, Ishida," Toushirou counter-attacked. "It was all Ichigo's idea. He just dragged me along."

"Guess I'm not as sneaky as I thought I was. When did you notice?" Ichigo said.

"From the time you and Inoue watched me from the door."

"Huh...I'm impressed. You're something else," Ichigo said.

"You're carelessly letting your reiatsu leak out, like a fool. The younger brother, not so much. But, even a monkey would notice it."

"What?"

"I think you're lacking the ability to detect those with high reiatsu. How else can you explain the fact that you didn't notice my existence until today?"

"Sorry about that," Ichigo said, sarcasm evident in his voice. "I'm bad at remembering people's faces."

"I'm not talking about that," Uryuu said. Toushirou stepped back cautiously, getting a bad feeling about where this was going. "From the time you entered school, I knew that you had unusually high reaitsu, both of you. If you were any good, you would've sensed mine. I also know that you became a Shinigami around the middle of May. I also know Kuchiki Rukia and Hinamori Momo's true identities."

Spirit ribbons flew up from the ground near Uryuu's feet.

"Spirit ribbons!" Ichigo said.

"For a change, you're right. Spirit ribbons. They are the physical manifestation of reiatsu in the atmosphere. And..." Uryuu vanished and reappeared right in front of Ichigo's very eyes, and grabbed a spirit ribbon that was colored red.

"What is that?"

"This is your spirit ribbon. You don't know? Shinigami's spirit ribbons have different colors." He let Ichigo's ribbon go, and then out of nowhere, grabbed Toushirou's, which was a shade lighter than red.

"A Shinigami's spirit ribbon is red," Uryuu said. "But yours is dark pink. Why is that?"

Toushirou was so traumatized by this fact that he could not produce any verbal answer.

"Let's have a duel, Kurosaki Ichigo, you or me. I'll show you who is stronger. I'll show you how Shinigami aren't necessary in this world."

Toushirou wordlessly dropped to his knees.

'I've…been a Shinigami this whole time? But where did my powers come from?'

"Alright! Practice Round! Rock, Paper... Scissors!"

Jinta, Rock. Ururu, Scissors.

"Rock wins! This one's for real! Rock, Paper, Scissors!"

Jinta, Rock. Ururu, Paper.

"It looks like you loose," Ururu said, with a smile on her face. Behind her, Momo smiled.

"Good job, Ururu-chan. Is Urahara-san here?"

"So when does this duel take place?" Ichigo said, stepping in front of Toushirou, who wordlessly looked up.

"Right now."

Silence.

"THAT'S JUST PLAIN RIDICULOUS!"

"Why do you say that?"

"Because it's just a huge waste of time. I've never heard of Quincies before, and I don't know what you have against Shinigami, but it's got nothing to do with neither me nor my brother."

"He's not really your brother, though, is he?"

Ichigo paused right away.

"Not biologically, no! But he still acts like it! Isn't that enough? " Toushirou inwardly smiled.

'At least he doesn't care,' he thought. 'He's never cared about the fact that we're not related by blood. I've always known that, but it sure feels good hearing him admit that out loud.'

Uryuu continued as thought Ichigo had never spoken. "But, besides, I get it, you don't have permission. I forgot. You're a Shinigami who received your powers from Kuchiki. Without her authority, you can't even lift a finger."

"That does it."

"Quincy, you say?" Urahara asked Momo. "I haven't heard of that name in a long time."

"That does have a nostalgic ring to it, doesn't it?" Tessai asked. "It's been nearly 200 years since we heard that name."

"Well, who are they?" Momo asked.

"You mean, who were they? They were a tribe that became extinct centuries ago, but they were once a clan that specialized in destroying hollows."

"Extinct?"

"Yes...Humans who had powers like Kurosaki sensed the existence of Hollows abd began to train to fight against them. Like Shinigami, their mission was to destroy hollows. But there was one difference between them and Shinigami. And that was, whether to kill the hollows or not. The Shinigami seek to purify Hollows with their zanpaktou and allow them to cross over into the Soul Society. But Quincies sought to destroy them completely. When you think about it, it was a very human thing to do. Hollows devour human souls. They hurt and kill our friends and family. So why should they deserve the peace of the Soul Society? It was only natural that they opposed it. So they always tried to kill Hollows. They believed that they were avenging their fallen comrades. But due to that belief, they were destroyed."

"Alright, if a duel is what you want, then a duel is what you'll get," Ichigo said, unzipping his bag and then dropped it. He held Kon in his hand.

"Hey, Ichigo! It's about time! You may've been obeying Rukia's orders, but how dare you stuff me in that bag?"

"Cough it up."

"Forget what I said! You can put me back in there-!" Ichigo stuffed his hand in Kon's plushie mouth.

"Got it!" Ichigo groaned with disgust and then swallowed it, allowing him to transform.

"Kon, better get back. And take Toushirou with you. I'm about to kick his butt!" Kon ran to the side where Toushirou was. "So, how does this little duel work? Tell me the rules and let's get to it!"

~6~6~6~6~

A/N: Review, please! And Rukia got her powers back overnight, if you didn't already guess.