AN: Hey guys. Sorry it took so long to come out with this chapter. This fic isn't dead, I swear. I started writing another fanfic, which I only intended to write a couple chapters for before coming back to this one, but instead I wrote 7. I'm gonna get a pattern going so I can write both of these.
Anyway, on to the fanfiction.
Chapter 11: A Challenge is Issued
"Outrageous!" The Karakura high gym teacher, Mr. Kagine, yelled at the students gathered in the principal's office, the meeting being attended by the principal himself and the students' homeroom teacher. He was a tall, stocky man, with buzzed hair and a thin mustache. He was wearing a red tank top and sweat pants, and was currently screaming his head off at the gathered students. The students in question? Ichigo Kurosaki, Keigo Asano, Mizuiro Kojima, Rukia Kuchiki, Tatsuki Arisawa, and Orihime Inoue, who were looking at him in varying degrees of shame, confusion, or irritation.
"Don't you see the damage you kids have done?!" He continued to rant at the students. "This ridiculous show was broadcast on national television yesterday. Just look." He hit a button on a remote, turning a TV attached to the back wall on and displaying a recording of the "Spirit Hunter" broadcast from the night before. "Two of our students were there for all the world to see." The recording played out, showing Ichigo attempting to hop over the barricade separating the audience from the film crew, before being dog-piled by security. Rukia then attempted to jump in and help him, before suffering the same fate.
There was a perfectly logical explanation for why they did that, of course. Except only Ichigo and Rukia themselves were aware of just what that explanation was.
When the two of them had arrived at the taping, they were expecting Don Kanonji to be a total hack, but lo and behold, it turned out he genuinely could see spirits. Unfortunately, they also learned that his preferred method of "exorcising" spirits involved forcibly ripping out their Chains of Fate, unknowingly turning the poor souls into Hollows. As soon as they realized what he was doing, Ichigo tried to jump the barricade to stop him, but the security guards got in the way. Rukia put her glove on and tried to turn him into a Soul Reaper, but her actions were misinterpreted by the guards and she was tackled, too. Thanks to security, Don Kanonji was allowed to transform the Soul into a Hollow, but luckily for them, Kisuke (or "Mr. Hat 'n' Clogs" as Ichigo called him) was on the scene, jabbing the teenager in the forehead with his cane to transform him. Ichigo was able to defeat the Hollow before anybody got hurt, but nobody outside of the ones directly involved knew what really happened, which led to the tongue lashing they were all getting.
"Rukia and Ichigo," Mr. Kagine continued. "This is very serious. Never in the history of this school has any student ever dishonored this institution by committing such an act of civil disobedience," he ranted, grabbing Ichigo by the collar and lifting him up slightly.
"Mr. Kagine?" Tatsuki called, stepping forward with her hand raised. The teacher in question stopped yelling at Ichigo and turned to look at her. "Sir, I can understand why you're angry with Ichigo and Rukia for acting like idiots, but why are Orihime and I here when we didn't have anything to do with this?"
"You were there with them the whole time this was going on," Mr. Kagine said.
"That was a coincidence," Tatsuki said matter-of-factly. "We were just walking by and suddenly got dragged into the whole mess."
"Great, thanks a lot," Ichigo said sarcastically, still being held by the collar, while Tatsuki just stuck her tongue out at him. "I'll remember this the next time you need someone to bail you out." Orihime just looked between the two worriedly.
"Anyway," Tatsuki said, "this has been fun, Mr. Kagine, but we're going back to class if you don't mind. Come on, Orihime." She turned to leave, Orihime moving to follow her before stopping to bow to the teacher.
"Goodbye, Mr. Kagine," she said before following Tatsuki.
"Yeah, me too," Keigo said, slowly inching towards the door. "I've got some homework."
"Not so fast, Mr. Asano," Mr. Kagine said, grabbing Keigo by the back of his shirt and pulling him back into the room. "You were there with him, yet you did nothing to stop them, so you're just as guilty as Ichigo."
"I still don't get what the big deal is," Keigo said, annoyed at his escape attempt being foiled. "It was just a stupid TV show."
"You don't get much, do you, mister?" Mr. Kagine yelled, lifting Keigo up so his ear was directly in front of his mouth. Prime yelling distance. "That's the trouble with you kids today, no awareness of the consequences of your actions! It's depressing!"
"I'm so sorry," Rukia said, tears welling up in her eyes, her head lowered in shame. She pulled a handkerchief out of the breast pocket of her shirt to wipe her tears away. "I really did try to stop Ichigo, but he wouldn't listen," she said between sobs. "All he ever thinks about is himself, and he was so obsessed with getting on television." Mr. Kagine dropped Keigo, who landed with a yelp of pain, listening intently to Rukia's obviously fake sob story. "The whole thing's all my fault. Go ahead and punish me."
"Please don't cry, Rukia," Mr. Kagine said, holding his hands out towards her in a gesture that indicated he wanted to comfort her, but knew that he probably shouldn't touch her. "I understand. I'm sure you did everything you could." While he was trying to comfort the "distraught" girl, Ichigo, Keigo and Mizuiro slowly made their way towards the open window. The principal's office was only on the ground level, so all they had to do was step outside, and they were home free. It was lucky that Rukia's acting had gotten better so she could distract him.
"Oh, thank you, Mr. Kagine," Rukia said, continuing to play her role expertly. Or he was just really dumb. Either way, it worked, as the boys managed to step onto the windowsill. "So you'll punish Ichigo and let me go?" At the mention of Ichigo, Mr. Kagine turned around and noticed the boys halfway out the window. After staring at each other for a few incredibly awkward seconds, the boys jumped out and booked it.
"Hey!" Mr. Kagine yelled back at them. "You punks come back here right now! You're not gonna get off that easy! I know where you all live!" He turned around again, only to see that Rukia was nowhere to be found, either. "Oh, great, now Rukia's gotten away, too. What do we do?" he asked the principal, whom hadn't said a word the whole time.
"Just do me a favor," the principal said, "when you do find Ichigo, could you get his autograph for me?"
"Has everyone around here lost their minds?!" Mr. Kagine screamed, tears streaming from his eyes like waterfalls.
"Way to go, Rukia," Keigo praised once the group had gotten back together. They were all in the school's courtyard, walking back to class, and the two girls that had left had been filled in on what happened. "Your awesome performance got us off scott-free with no detention."
"Oh, you guys," Rukia said, putting her and on her face in fake humility. "It was nothing, really."
"What are you talking about?" Ichigo asked, irritated. "She was trying to sell me up the river." After all, she had flat-out asked Mr. Kagine to punish him and not her.
"You gotta admit," Tatsuki said, "that her phony crying covered your getaway. You ought to be thanking her."
"Actually," Rukia said, "I kind of enjoyed putting on the big act and fooling Mr. Kagine, so no thanks necessary. But you have to know I would never sell out a good friend like Ichigo." Ichigo's only response was to simply grunt in annoyance. Suddenly, Rukia's Soul Pager starting beeping from its place in her breast pocket, causing her and Ichigo to pause.
"Oh, Ichigo, can I talk to you for a second in private?" She stepped in front of the group and gave a quick curtsy. "Would you guys excuse us for just a minute?" And at that, the two ran off, leaving the other four behind.
"Well, that's weird," Keigo said.
"I never noticed before," Orihime said a little apprehensively, "but those two seem to like each other, don't they?"
"No, you're imagining things," Keigo said as the group continued walking to class. "Ichigo might like Rukia, but there's no way she'd be interested in him."
"Well, something's suspicious," Mizuiro said. Suddenly, Keigo stopped, as he noticed another group of students talking. He took a closer look, and realized that it was Chad and the other new girls. Keigo took off sprinting towards him, jumping up and attempting to deliver a double flying kick to the back of Chad's head. The impact caused all three girls to leap back in surprise.
"What the hell?!" Yang exclaimed, and Blake made a noise that sounded distinctly like a hiss, as if she was a startled cat. Chad didn't so much as flinch, and Keigo slowly fell to the ground, clutching his feet in pain.
"Damn it!" Keigo exclaimed as he rolled around. "What are you made of?!"
"Hm?" Chad finally turned around and noticed his friend on the ground. "Oh, hey, Keigo," he said simply. "Why did you kick me?"
"Where were you last night?!" Keigo demanded, forgetting the pain in his feet as he stood straight up and pointed angrily at Chad. "We waited all night for you, and you never showed up! What the hell, man?!"
"I was with them," he said, pointing at the three girls next to him. Keigo's jaw practically hit the floor.
"What?!" he yelled. "How did that happen?"
"We just happened to bump into him at a convenience store," Pyrrha said, her trademark smile on her face.
"Yeah," Yang said. "We dragged him out to the club with us. I never would've guessed that he was such a good dancer," she finished with a smirk, lightly jabbing Blake's shoulder with her elbow, causing the girl to blush. "He even got Blakey here a new ribbon." True to her word, Blake now had a pristine new white bow atop her head instead of the usual black.
"How could you?!" Keigo yelled. "You traitor! Ditching us to hang out with…" His brain finally caught up to him and he realized what he was saying. Chad had gone to a freaking dance club with three hot girls. At this realization, he instantly threw himself to the ground, prostrating himself before Chad. "You're my hero! Please, instruct me in your ways!"
"You can start by not screaming," Yang said, her hands covering her ears. "Seriously, there's something about this guy's voice that really pisses me off, but I can't place it," she said a little more quietly. "You got any ideas?" she asked the other two girls.
"I'm not sure what you mean," Pyrrha said.
"I'm sure you're just imagining it," Blake said flatly.
"Keigo!" Mizuiro called. "Come on! Class is starting soon!"
"Oh crap!" Keigo yelled. "We're gonna be late!" He sprinted off into the building, leaving a thick cloud of dust behind. Yang glared at the door he went through, swiping her hand in front of her face to keep from breathing in the dust. She, Pyrrha, and Chad started moving towards the building, as well, but Blake stopped Chad. Yang looked back at them with a smirk on her face before leaving for class.
"Yasu," Blake said, a heavy blush on her face. "I was thinking, um, I haven't really gotten the chance to thank you yet for everything you did last night, so, um…" she started fidgeting in place nervously. "Are you free tomorrow?" she finally blurted. "We could go out after school."
"I'd love to," he said without hesitation. "I have band practice immediately after class, but we could go out to eat after that's over, if that's ok."
"Yeah, that's great," she said. "It's a date, then." She managed to keep her voice calm, but inside her head, she imagined herself doing backflips. The two of them started walking to catch up to their friends, smiles on both their faces.
"What's going on?" Ichigo asked. "There's no stinking Hollow here." He and Rukia had followed Rukia's Soul Pager to a small alleyway, but sure enough, there was no Hollow to be found anywhere. All there was, was a spirit of some chubby middle-aged man cowering in the corner. He wore a tank top and sweat pants, and large round glasses. Classic basement-dweller. Probably died a virgin, too. Rukia was fidgeting around with her Pager, trying to figure out what happened to the Hollow's signal. "Don't tell me I got all dressed up for nothing. I think your pager needs new batteries. "
"That's really weird," Rukia said. "It was a strong signal, but now there's no trace of it."
"Hey you, spirit guy!" Ichigo called out and walked over to the man cowering in the corner, causing the man to flinch. "You didn't by any chance happen to cut the head off a Hollow recently, did you?"
"I'm not sure what you mean by a 'Hollow'," the spirit said timidly, "but I sure did see something scary. This thing was so big. It looked like a huge, slimy black bug. When I saw it, I almost peed my pants!" He dove at Ichigo, arms outstretched and tears streaming down his face. He was stopped by Ichigo firmly panting his foot into said face.
"I don't care about your problems," Ichigo said in irritation. "I want to know what happened to it."
"Let me talk to him," Rukia said, walking up to him. To Ichigo's shock, she roughly grabbed the spirit by the collar of his tank top and pulled his face closer to hers. "Since you can describe the Hollow so clearly, no doubt then you must have also seen who killed it and how."
"Well, not really," the man said, "because I had my eyes closed the whole time. I was so scared!" he puckered up his lips and inched his face closer to Rukia's who took the same evasive maneuver as Ichigo and planted her foot in his face.
"Well, it's Konso time, I suppose," Ichigo said, resting his massive sword on his right shoulder and crouching down so he was eye-level with the spirit.
"Huh?" the man asked, beginning to panic. "What's a Konso? What are you gonna do? No, no, get that sword away from me! No!" Ichigo put his complaints and the man himself to rest with a tap of the hilt to his forehead, flooding the alleyway with a bright light. After a few seconds, a single black butterfly flew upwards past a building, where a tall, dark-haired boy in glasses wearing all white was watching them intently…
It was time to post the exam test scores. The members of Ichigo's class, with the exception of Rukia, who was nowhere to be found, were all checking out the bulletin board to see how they did. Surprising everyone, next to the number 3 spot was none other than Orihime Inoue.
"Third in the class?" Tatsuki asked, astounded at her friend's score. "Pretty smart for a girl, Orihime." She affectionately pat Orihime's head without looking at her, causing the strawberry-blonde to giggle nervously.
"This sucks," Michiru complained. "Orihime has both brains and boobs. It's just not fair."
"If it makes you feel better, she's a terrible cook," Tatsuki said to her.
"Orihime, you're my best friend," Chizuru said, hugging Orihime and nuzzling her face on hers. "I'm so proud of you!"
"Knock it off," Yang chastised, pulling Chizuru off of Orihime. "Quit bugging her." Orihime and Tastuki sent grateful smiles to Yang.
"So, Yang," Orihime said. "How did you do?"
"Well, let's see," the boisterous blonde said, sauntering up to the bulletin board. After a few seconds of searching, she found her name. "Ah, there it is. Number 15, huh? Not bad. Not bad at all." She was actually quite proud of herself.
"Yang did better than me, too?" Michiru said, distraught. "Does having big boobs give you better brain power or something?"
"What can I say?" Yang boasted. "I got the goods."
"That's very good Yang," Pyrrha complimented. "Congratulations!"
"Aw, thanks Pyr," Yang said, smiling and rubbing the back of her head sheepishly with a small blush on her face. "What about you?" Pyrrha simply pointed near the top of the board. Yang followed her finger, and was astonished by the number her friend's name was next to. "Holy crap! Number 2?!"
"Wow," Blake finally chimed in. "Impressive."
"I try," Pyrrha said in embarrassment. "What was your score, Blake?" The black-haired girl walked up to board and quickly found her name.
"Number 10," she said plainly. "About what I expected."
"Hey," Yang said happily, pulling her two friends in for a group hug. "We did pretty good, huh girls?" Her happy mood was instantly killed by a certain someone opening his mouth.
"Aw, let the girls have their high scores," Keigo said. "At least none of our gang embarrassed us by making it into the top 50, right, Mizuiro?"
"Take another look," his friend said in disappointment, pointing at the board. He was pointing at Ichigo's name, and the number next to it made Keigo's blood run cold.
"What?!" he screamed in horror. "Ichigo is ranked number 23?! You cheater!" he accused with a comically large amount of tears streaming down his face. "There's no way you could have possibly scored that high!"
"Shut up, Keigo," Ichigo said, barely aware of Yang seconding that motion. "I score high on tests because I study for them. You should try it sometime."
"Aha!" Keigo yelled, pointing at Ichigo. "So that's what you were doing all those nights when I was asking you to come hang out! You always said you were too busy, but the truth is you were studying like a total nerd! Oh, no! I'm friends with a nerd!"
"There's nothing wrong with applying yourself," Pyrrha said.
"Maybe not if you're a nerd!" Keigo said petulantly.
"Ugh!" Yang groaned. "Can I punch him, yet?"
"Not yet," Blake said, disinterested. "Give it a couple minutes."
"Maybe you need some thick nerd glasses like these, pal," Keigo said, getting up close to Ichigo's face with thick round glasses on.
"No thanks," Ichigo said, hitting Keigo in the face with his knuckles, breaking the glasses and causing Keigo's nose to start bleeding.
"Aw," Yang whined. "I wanted to do that. Why didn't you stop him, Blake?"
"Because I'm not responsible for Ichigo," she said simply.
"What are you, my babysitter?" Yang asked crossing her arms in front of her.
"Yup," Blake said simply.
"Hey!"
"It is a bit of a surprise to learn you really study," Mizuiro said to Ichigo, ignoring Yang and Blake's argument.
"My hair gets me enough abuse," Ichigo said. "I'm not gonna be an academic loser on top of it."
"Good point," Keigo said, sounding defeated. "Sorry I ragged on you. So how about…If I give you this complimentary nerd headband instead?" He got close to Ichigo's face again, holding a white headband with the word "nerd" written on it.
"I told you, no," Ichigo said, pulling out a pair of scissors and cutting it.
"All right then, have it your way," Keigo said, making a rude gesture towards Ichigo. "But see if I ever ask you to hang out with me again." He ran up to Chad and gave him a few playful jabs in the ribs. "At least you wouldn't go and do something embarrassing like score in the top 50, right Chad, old pal?" Chad's only answer was to grunt and point at the board. They followed his eyes and saw the name "Yasutora Sado" next to the number 11.
"Wow," Blake said excitedly. "Nice job, Yasu." He gave her a thumbs up in response.
Yang whistled and patted Blake on the back. "Wow, he's hunky, handsome, and smart. You really know how to pick 'em, Blakey. You snagged yourself a triple threat. Watch out I don't steal him."
"Not cool!" Blake groaned, blushing profusely.
Both Keigo and even Mizuiro screamed in horror, not nearly as pleased with Chad's score as Yang and Blake were. The two of them ran a little ways down the hallway before stopping, Mizuiro assuming the fetal position. "I'm horrified!" Keigo yelled. "I had no idea I was hanging out with a bunch of geeks and Brainiac's! I'm through with all of you!" The two of them took off in a full sprint down the hallway.
"Oh well," Tatsuki said. "They'll be back."
"God I can't stand him," Yang said.
"I don't know," Pyrrha said. "I don't think he's all that bad."
"That's just because he's like Jaune and Nora rolled into one," Yang chimed back.
"I suppose," Pyrrha said a little sadly at the mention of her old team-mates.
"Seriously, though," Blake said. "Why bother getting so worked-up over test scores?"
"He's just an idiot in every sense of the word," Tatsuki said.
"With how he reacted to the scores we got, I guess it's lucky for him one of us isn't in the number one spot," Ichigo said, looking at the board, "Like Ametatsu Ishida," he said with a little difficulty.
"Who?" Yang asked.
"I've never even heard of him," Ichigo responded.
"That's Uryu," Orihime clarified. "Uryu Ishida."
"You know him?" Ichigo asked.
"Yeah, of course. He's in our class." Ichigo completely froze up, likely from sheer embarrassment.
"Nice going," Yang deadpanned.
"You'll find that Ichigo has an uncanny knack for forgetting people's faces and the names that go with them," Tatsuki said before grabbing Orihime's arm and dragging her down the hallway. "Come on." Ichigo put his hand up to his chin in thought.
"That's weird," he said.
"What is?" Yang asked.
"Who the hell is Uryu?"
Rukia was standing in the school's courtyard, holding her Soul Pager, listening to the dial tone. She had some choice words for a certain blond man. The Pager just kept ringing and ringing.
"How come he's not answering?" She asked frustratedly as the tone for the answering machine rang. She put the pager on the ground leaning up against the wall and pointed angrily at it. "Urahara, why don't you ever pick up when I call you in emergencies like this? You call yourself a businessman? Then why do you show up when you're not wanted, and then when I really need you, you don't answer?" She stared at the Soul Pager for a few minutes before sighing in defeat. "I need Urahara to come take a look at this Soul Pager." She kneeled down in front of the device and began poking it with her finger. "I mean how am I supposed to know if this stupid thing is working right or not?" Suddenly, it started beeping, indicating a Hollow was nearby, so she scooped it up and ran off to find Ichigo.
Sure enough, just as Tatsuki had predicted, it only took Keigo about five minutes to realize that if he didn't want to hang out with "nerds", then he had no other friends and came crawling back, making plans with them like nothing happened. By this point, the only ones left in front of the board were Keigo himself, Ichigo, Mizuiro, and Chad.
"We could go to this new karaoke bar?" he suggested to Ichigo, who wasn't really listening. "There's a hot hostess there."
"Ichigo!" Rukia's voice called from down the hall.
"Huh?" Ichigo turned to look at her, and saw her running towards him.
"Come here, I need you," she said, grabbing his hand as she ran past him and dragging him down the hall with her.
"That Rukia is one aggressive chick," Keigo said.
"Maybe they really are seeing each other," Mizuiro commented.
"We have a Hollow alert," Rukia said, having stopped dragging Ichigo so he could run next to her properly.
"There had better actually be one this time," he said angrily.
"Just shut up and run." As they ran down the hallway, Ichigo accidently bumped his shoulder into another student. He was fairly tall with dark hair that framed his face and square glasses.
"Sorry," Ichigo called behind him as he ran past the unknown student.
"Damn it," Ichigo said, clad in his Soul Reaper garb. It was the middle of the night by the time they finally tracked down the source of the Hollow's signal, only for it to abruptly disappear. "Again, you drag me all the way out here, and there's no Hollow," he said to Rukia, who was dragging his motionless body down the street.
"Shut up," she said, dropping his body. "Stop whining and get back in your body." She pulled out her Soul Pager to take another look at it.
"Fine, but would you do something about that stupid Soul Pager?" He asked as he knelt down next to his body.
"These false alarms aren't my fault," she barked back at him as his soul re-merged with his body. "When it goes off, I have to assume a Hollow has appeared, so I report it. What else do you expect me to do?"
"Well get it fixed, because it's obviously busted," he said, back in his body and standing up.
"They don't fix them at television repair shops."
"Bickering, are we?" a new voice asked from behind them. They turned around and saw a tall, teenage boy with dark hair that framed his face and square glasses. He was wearing a long white coat zipped up the front, with a single blue stripe going down the center, long white pants, and white dress shoes. "How unprofessional." They watched him as he walked towards them, stopping a few feet in front of them. "Good evening, Ichigo, Rukia," he said calmly.
"Who the hell are you?" Ichigo asked. "And how do you know our names if you don't mind—"
"I don't mind," the boy interrupted. "I also know you can see spirits, Ichigo." Ichigo and Rukia were shocked by that statement.
"How do you know that?" Ichigo asked, suddenly a lot more wary of this mystery boy. He didn't answer, and suddenly looked over his left shoulder, as if he just noticed something.
"Another Hollow has just appeared," he said, not really at either of them. He just kind of said it.
"No way," Rukia said. As if on cue, her Soul Pager started beeping. She pulled it out of her pocket and looked at it. "There's a new one here all right. How did he know?"
"All right, which way?" Ichigo asked. The mystery boy turned around and pointed to the right, allowing the two of them to see a bracelet on his right wrist with a cross dangling from it.
"It's over there," he said simply, confusing the other two. "Can you not sense such a simple thing? And you call yourself a Soul Reaper." Ichigo and Rukia could only stare at him in shock, when a brilliant blue light burst forth from the cross around his wrist. The energy extended past his hand and took the shape of a bow made of pure energy. He grabbed the "string" and pulled it back, conjuring an arrow of pure energy at the same time. He took aim down the street and fired, lighting up the entire neighborhood with his energy. Ichigo and Rukia followed the beam with their eyes and saw it pierce the side of the head of a small lizard-like Hollow. The Hollow instantly disintegrated, but it looked different than when Ichigo killed them, as it faded into white particles instead of black. They stared at where the Hollow once was in shock before Rukia took another look at her Pager.
"The signal just vanished," she confirmed. Ichigo scowled at the mystery boy.
"So tell me, who or what are you?" he demanded. The mystery boy dismissed his bow.
"Uryu Ishida," he answered. "I'm a Quincy." He turned around and glared at the two of them. "Soul Reapers are my enemies."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Ichigo said in a warning tone.
"Is that too complicated for you?" The now named Uryu said in a condescending way. "I'll tell you again then, slower this time. Ichigo Kurosaki, you are my enemy."
"Damn, what's the story with that guy?" Ichigo thought out loud as he stalked the halls of his high school the next day. Class had just ended, and he needed to find that guy from the night before. What was his name again? Ah, whatever.
Who does he think he is, insulting me like that? Ichigo thought. I'll mess him up the next time I see him. Besides, who uses a bow and arrow anymore? He was taken out of his thoughts when he saw a familiar head of red hair.
"Hey, Pyrrha," he greeted.
"Hello Ichigo," she said pleasantly. While he found his otherworldly housemates annoying most times, at least Pyrrha was always nice. He took a look around, looking for Yang and Blake.
"Where are the other two?" he asked.
"I think Yang is at karate with Tatsuki," she said.
"And what about Blake?" His question caused Pyrrha to giggle, making him raise an eyebrow at her.
"She's on a date with Chad."
"Really?" he asked, genuinely surprised. "Good for them, I guess."
"Yes, it's wonderful," Pyrrha said, a certain sparkle in her eyes that was starting to creep Ichigo out.
"Anyway, I need your help finding someone."
"Oh? Who?"
"Some annoying guy from last night with a bow and arrow. Really pissed me off."
"A bow and arrow?" she asked, shuddering at the memory of the weapon used by Cinder Fall. The woman that killed her.
"Yeah. How lame is that? Weird thing, though, he knew that I'm a Soul Reaper and he was able to kill a Hollow."
"That sounds serious," she said. "What was his name?" Her question stopped him dead in his tracks.
"That's a good question," he said, causing Pyrrha to sweatdrop. "Was it Mac? No, I think it was Iki-something." He was gripping his chin at this point, trying really hard to remember the boy's name. "Ikibo? Ikimo? Metasu! No. Ichi—Ichiarmadillo! No, that's not it either. Damn it!"
"Keep trying," Pyrrha said, tapping him on the shoulder. "I'm sure you'll get it eventually."
"Do you mean Uryu Ishida?" a familiar voice said from behind them. They turned around to see Orihime standing there.
"Oh, Orihime," Ichigo said.
"Hi, Ichigo. Hi, Pyrrha," Orihime said.
"Hello again," Pyrrha said with a small wave.
"Yeah, that was his name. Uryu Ishida," Ichigo said.
"It's a pretty cool name, huh?" Orihime asked.
"Uh, yeah," Ichigo said in a panic. "I was just saying it because it's such a cool sounding name." Pyrrha facepalmed at that. There was no way Orihime was going to buy that.
"I agree," Orihime said. Then Pyrrha remembered that Orihime was kind of a ditz. How did she get third in the class again? "In fact, I say his name to myself all the time when I'm sitting with him in the home handicrafts club."
"Home handy what?!" Ichigo asked in total disbelief.
"Oh, that sounds fun!" Pyrrha said happily.
"Right?" Orihime agreed. "Come on, I'll show you where it is."
The door to the home handicrafts club room opened and Ichigo, Orihime, and Pyrrha stuck their heads in to look inside. The room was almost exclusively filled with girls, except for one lone boy sitting in a desk in the middle of the room reading a book.
"See?" Orihime said. "There he is. Right there." Sure enough, the lone boy was the Quincy from the night before.
"That's him all right," Ichigo said, "but I can't believe he's really in the home handicrafts club."
"You can't always judge a book by its cover," Pyrrha said to him.
"But just look at him. He's reading, not doing macramé."
"Yeah?" Orihime said in a way that sounded weirdly challenging. "You wait." At that moment, Michiru walked up to him holding a small pink plush creature with a tear in its arm. "It looks like Michiru's got a job for him."
"Like he's gonna sew it for her?" He asked skeptically.
"Just wait and watch," Orihime said.
With a serious expression on his face, Uryu snatched the plush toy out of Michiru's hands and tossed it into the air. He quickly opened a small sowing kit, threaded a needle, and then caught the plush. In one fluid movement, the needle danced along the tear in the fabric, sowing it closed. He held the repaired plush dramatically before using his teeth to cut the excess string and tossing the plush back to the girl.
"Hey, it's almost as good as new," Michiru said happily. "Thanks so much, Uryu."
"It's all right," he said, sitting down and picking his book back up. "Don't mention it."
"Holy crap," Ichigo said in disbelief at what he just witnessed.
"That was nice of him," Pyrrha said.
"In fact, don't talk to me anymore at all," Uryu continued, causing Michiru to laugh nervously.
"Nevermind," Pyrrha said.
"Uh, I'll see you later then," Michiru told him before walking away awkwardly.
"Why would he do something so nice and then say something so unkind?" Orihime asked.
"Because he's insane, that's why," Ichigo answered before gesturing to Pyrrha that they should leave, and the two of them started to walk away.
"Ichigo, Pyrrha, wait a sec," Orihime said. "Do you have some kind of problem with Uryu?"
"Well, you could say that, but it's nothing we can't handle," Ichigo said.
"'We'?" Pyrrha asked. "I don't even know what the problem is."
"I'll explain on the way," he said to the redhead. "Come on, let's go." They walked away, leaving behind Orihime, who just down at the floor sadly.
Ichigo and Pyrrha poked their heads around the corner, watching Uryu walk home. He was climbing up a set of brick stairs into a residential district when he stopped at the top.
"Do you intend to follow me all the way home, Ichigo Kurosaki?" He asked. Ichigo sighed and he and Pyrrha walked out from around the corner, Ichigo slinging his school bag over his shoulder.
"Guess we're not as sneaky at we thought," he said.
"Oh, Pyrrha Nikos is here, too?" Uryu asked. "I was wondering which one of you was with him."
"How long have you known we were here?" she asked.
"From the time you two and Orihime saw me in the classroom," he said evenly. "You've been ducking in and out of shadows behind me ever since."
"That long, huh?" Ichigo asked. "Now that's impressive."
"The careless way you let your spirit energy leak out, even a monkey would have noticed it." Ichigo raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Amateur stuff."
"What did you say?" Ichigo growled at him.
"You heard me. It's obvious that you lack even the most basic ability to detect those around you with high spirit energy. How else do you explain the fact that you weren't even aware of my existence until today?"
"Yeah, sorry about that," Ichigo said. "It's just that I've always been really bad at remembering names and faces."
"Plus, you are very quiet in class," Pyrrha chimed in. "Besides, why are being so rude?"
"Is this all just because you're pissed that I've ignored you?" Ichigo asked. "I'll apologize if it'll make you feel better."
"That's not what I meant!" Uryu said angrily. "There's a difference between you and me. When you first started at this school, I sensed your high spirit energy. If you were any good, you would've sensed mine." Ichigo was really starting to get angry at the Quincy, clenching his teeth to avoid openly growling. Even Pyrrha was starting to get mad if the furrowing of her brow was any indication. "I even know the day in mid-May when you became a Soul Reaper." That took the other two teens by surprise. "And I know Rukia Kuchiki's true identity." His energy flared up, and he was surrounded by spectral ribbons. Ichigo and Pyrrha both recognized what they were.
"Spirit ribbons," Ichigo said.
"Just like what you used to find Chad and Blake that one time," Pyrrha chimed in.
"For once, you're right," Uryu said, never losing his smug tone. "Spirit ribbons are the physical manifestation of spirit energy in the atmosphere. And…" He suddenly vanished, reappearing in front of Ichigo with a red ribbon clutched tightly in his hand. The other two didn't even see him move. Just what the hell was this guy capable of?
"What is that?" Ichigo asked, looking at the ribbon in Uryu's hand.
"This is your spirit ribbon," he explained, before ripping a piece off of it. "You didn't know that? Soul Reapers' spirit ribbons are a different color than normal ones." He let the ribbon go, and it dissipated into the air, while the other ones surrounding him vanished from sight. "Why don't we play a little game, Ichigo Kurosaki? Let's have a duel to determine which one of us is stronger, the Quincy or the Soul Reaper. I'll show you just how unnecessary Soul Reapers are in this world."
"All right, practice duel!" Jinta said excitedly outside of Urahara's shop. "Rock, paper, scissors!" He threw out rock, and Ururu threw out scissors. "Rock wins!" He said happily. "Now this one's for real!" He held his clenched fist in the air, in the standard ready position. "Rock, Paper, Scissors!" He made the mistake of throwing out Rock again, as Ururu threw out paper.
"It looks like you lose," she said with a small smile on her face. Jinta yelled in absolute despair. "I get to choose a chore for you, Jinta, and I choose sweeping up," she said, holding out the broom to him.
"Oh, no, not so fast," he said. "You haven't won yet, Ururu. I said it's not over till you win two out of three."
"Hey, you never said that before," she whined. "No fair." At the moment, Jinta started grinding his knuckles into her temples, causing no small amount of discomfort for the poor girl. "No, Jinta, stop it!" she pleaded, tears in her eyes.
"Aw, quit your complaining, Ururu," he said, continuing to torture her. "The rules are whatever I say they are." Suddenly Jinta was grabbed by the back of his shirt and lifted high into the air by a giant of a man.
"Maybe you'd like to try that technique on my head, Jinta," Tessai said menacingly.
"Ah, put me down!" Jinta yelled, dangling over 3 meters in the air. "I was just trying to teach her Rock, Paper, Scissors!" A foot suddenly planted itself firmly in Tessai backside, the man not so much as flinching. He turned around and saw Rukia holding her foot in pain.
"Oh, hello there, Miss Kuchiki," he said. "I didn't see you walk up. Is there something wrong with your foot?"
"Nevermind," she said, holding back tears. "Urahara here?"
"Well, if it isn't my favorite customer," Urahara said, smirking behind his fan. "What can I do for you?" His smirk was wiped off his face when Rukia threw her Soul Pager at him, hitting him in the chin with it. He was knocked off balance, and fell onto his back.
"Don't play innocent with me, Urahara," Rukia scolded. "I had to come in person because I've been calling for days with a major problem, and you don't respond."
"Oh, sorry about that," he said, sitting up and rubbing his injured jaw. "We've just been really busy lately, but I was gonna call you today."
"Where are your friends?" Jinta asked. "You know, that weird, orange, spiky-haired dude, or those three dead chicks? I don't see them anywhere? Did they ditch you? Can't really say I blame them."
"Cut her some slack, Jinta," Urahara said.
"It's serious," Rukia said. "I need information."
"About what?"
"So when is this duel between us supposed to take place?" Ichigo asked to the Quincy in front of him.
"Right now," Uryu said, continuing to stare down the two teenagers in front of him.
"That is the dumbest idea I've heard all day," Ichigo said.
"I agree," Pyrrha said, impressed At Ichigo's self-restraint.
"Why do you say that?" Uryu asked.
"Because it would be a waste of time, and I've got nothing to prove to you," Ichigo responded. "I've never heard of Quincies before, and I don't know what you have against Soul Reapers, but it's got nothing to do with me."
"He's right," Pyrrha said. "You said it yourself, he only became a Soul Reaper in May, but before that, he was just an ordinary human. Whatever the Soul Reapers did to make you mad, Ichigo certainly wasn't involved."
"I'm surprised," Uryu said. "You're afraid to fight."
"Forget trying to goad me into it," Ichigo responded. "Besides, I'd mop the floor with you."
"Ichigo," Pyrrha whispered. "Stop antagonizing him. It's not helping.
"What's four-eyes gonna do?" Ichigo said as he turned around to walk away.
"Oh, now I get it," Uryu said. "You don't have permission." His words made Ichigo stop walking. "I forgot. Your Soul Reaper powers came from Rukia. You're just a Substitute Soul Reaper. That probably means that on your own, you can't so much as lift a finger. You have to have her permission to duel, don't you?"
"That does it," Ichigo growled, turning back around to face him.
"A Quincy," Kisuke said, placing a cup of tea prepared by Tessai down in front of him. Himself, Tessai, and Rukia were seated on the floor in the back of the store. "I haven't heard that word in a long time."
"It does have kind of an ancient ring to it, doesn't it?" Tessai commented. "If I'm not mistaken, it's been 200 years since I've heard anyone speak of Quincies."
"Well, who are they?" Rukia asked.
"Who were they, you mean," Kisuke said. "The last of the Quincies became extinct centuries ago, but they were once a clan that specialized in killing Hollows. And at one time, there were many of them, scattered throughout the world."
"So what happened?" Rukia asked.
"Well, I suppose I should start at the beginning. The clan started out as a group of humans who had powers like Ichigo to sense the presence of Hollows in the world and began to train to fight against them. The whole mission of the Quincies was to defeat Hollows, just as it is for Soul Reapers like yourself, but there was a deep division between the two.
"It was a question of whether to cleanse Hollows or just kill them. Soul Reapers, as you know, seek to purify Hollows with their zanpakuto and thereby allow them to pass over into the Soul Society. But the Quicnies believed the Hollows deserved only destruction and sought to annihilate them.
"When you think about it, it was a natural reaction. Hollows devour human souls. They kill and maim our friends and family. Why should they deserve the peace of the Soul Society? The Quincies couldn't understand showing such mercy, and eventually began to hate the Soul Reapers for it. They were sure the only answer was to kill Hollows. They believed in doing so that they were avenging their fallen comrades.
"But then, it was this same belief that eventually led to their destruction."
"Alright, if a duel's what you want, then a duel's what you'll get," Ichigo said, zipping open his school bag.
"Ichigo, wait," Pyrrha said. "You don't have to indulge him. He's just taunting you."
"I know that. I just can't wait to knock this jackass down a peg or two." He pulled the stuffed lion containing Kon's pill out of the bag, dropping the bag itself to the ground.
"It's about time, Ichigo!" Kon screeched in that ever so annoying voice of his. Uryu narrowed his eyes at the plush, clearly having never seen such a thing before. "Why'd you leave me in that stupid bag all day? You trying to kill me? I don't care what Rukia says, don't you ever do that to me again!"
"Cough it up," Ichigo said, looming over the lion.
"Wait a sec," Kon said in a panic. "Forget what I said about the bag. You can put me back there—"
His protests were cut off by Ichigo shoving his hand down his throat to reach for the Soul Candy inside. "Aha!" he said, pulling the pill out wand wiping it on his shirt. He swallowed it, and within seconds, he was outside of his body in his Soul Reaper garb, while Kon fell to his knees inside his body.
"Kon, you better get back," Ichigo said, smirking at Uryu. "I'm about to give Mr. Handicrafts some stitches to sew."
"Uh, I'll be over here," Kon said nervously, before scrambling for cover behind a building.
"So, how does your little duel work?" Ichigo asked. "Tell me the rules, and let's get to it." Behind him, Pyrrha sighed at how easily he was baited into fighting. Seriously, it was like he was another Yang. Uryu smirked as he and Ichigo stared each other down.
This is really to become much more trouble than it's worth, I can already tell, she thought to herself.
To be continued…
AN: For those of you wondering, the main reason why I decided that Yang really hates Keigo was because he's voiced by Yuri Lowenthal, who also voices Mercury in RWBY. It's why his voice is what makes her so angry.
Also, I gotta say, I'm really enjoying writing Blake like a lovestruck schoolgirl.
As I said in the Author's Note at the beginning of the chapter, the reason this chapter took so long to write is because I started writing another fanfiction and ended up writing 7 chapters before coming back here. If you haven't had a chance to read it yet, it's called "RWBY: Aqua's Mission". It is a Kingdom Hearts/RWBY Fanfiction starring Aqua. It starts directly after Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep and ten years before the beginning of RWBY Volume 1. I would love for you guys to check it out if you haven't already.
I think I have finally come up with an upload pattern that will allow me to focus on both of these stories without favoring one over the other. I will alternate writing two chapters for each story. So after the next chapter here, I'll write two chapters for the other one, then two for this, and so on.
I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and give RWBY: Aqua's Mission a read. Thank you guys so much for reading. I'll see you all next time.