Title: The Devil's Plaything, Chapter 5 - Uninhibited
Warnings: AU, het (IchiHime, lots of other pairings eventually), blood, guts, testosterone, ANGST
Disclaimer: These characters belong to a lot of Japanese people, namely people like Tite Kubo and Shonen Jump. You'll notice how none of those are me. This will probably be updated… incredibly sporadically, until I eventually drop it like every other project ever. Not responsible for epileptic seizures or allergic reactions. May contain eye-and-brain-bleeding levels of radioactive ANGST and/or peanut products. Please sit a reasonable distance from your computer screen.
Author's Note: Once again, I apologize for the lengthy absence! It was almost two months this time! But I haven't forgotten this fic! I'll try my best to keep it updated, although I can't promise anything in the way of regularity. Either way, if you're still reading, thank you very much for sticking with me! And thank you for all the reviews! I hope you'll enjoy this chapter, although it's not quite what some reviewers guessed it would be.
"I thought you said she wasn't your Mark?" Urahara said from behind Ichigo's shoulder, causing the younger man to twitch and stifle an urge to punch him in the nose. He hated people reading over his shoulder.
"I don't even know what that is!" Ichigo protested, whirling around. Urahara looked genuinely surprised.
"You really don't know?" he asked, scratching his stubbly chin.
"No, I don't!" Ichigo replied, shaking the note, "Although between those two demons and this letter, I get the feeling they're talking about Inoue!" Urahara sighed before turning to Jinta.
"Thank you, Jinta-kun," he said, ushering the boy towards the ladder leading up into the main shop, "Why don't you go help Tessai with the window?" The red-haired boy looked more than a bit put out.
"Aww, no fair!" he whined, "You never let me hear the good stuff!" Urahara raised an eyebrow at that.
"I'll tell you when you're older," he said authoritatively, "Now go." Urahara and Ichigo watched as the boy scurried up the ladder, pouting.
"Well!" Urahara exclaimed after a few more seconds of silence, "I had wanted to wait a while to give you this talk, but it seems to be necessary now!" Ichigo could swear he felt his eye tick; the way the old man said it gave him a very bad feeling.
"What do you mean 'this talk'?" Ichigo said, suspecting the worst. It sounded like something his father would say before launching into some bizarre spiel about storks and special hugging.
"Well, Kurosaki-san, when two demons love each other very much..." Oh lord, it was exactly as bad as it sounded.
"Don't give me that crap!" he yelled, his patience having evaporated, "I want to know why everyone seems to think Inoue is my Mark! Whatever the hell that even is!" Urahara drew the brim of his hat down further over his eyes.
"In all seriousness," he started, scratching his scruffy chin, "It's kind of a complicated topic." Ichigo reigned in his irritation to give Urahara a chance to explain.
"First of all, it's not something you see everyday anymore. Very few demons put Marks on their partners, and those are usually Incubi. It's not really practiced in polite society."
"So it's something deviants do," Ichigo summarized for his teacher, a flat look on his face. He briefly wondered why he was even still surprised by the things people accused him of anymore.
"Exactly so!" Urahara replied, grinning, "It's a sign of ownership and domination. As you've probably guessed, it usually takes the form of a bite mark in a noticeable place, although really, any sort of scar on any part of the body will do." Ichigo sighed, remembering the night in the alley a week ago; the idea of that pack of thugs doing that to Inoue didn't sit well with him.
"And apparently it's a capital crime to give one to a human?" he asked, prompting Urahara to tell him more.
"It is," Urahara's tone became more serious, "Since the most common way to Mark someone is with the mouth, there's a chance the demon will ingest some human blood. And while it doesn't always happen, there's a very high probability the demon may become frenzied with bloodlust from it - it's commonly referred to as becoming rabid."
Ichigo's eyes shot open at that; that was exactly what Renji had said when he attacked him. For his part, Urahara looked somewhat absorbed in what he was saying.
"It's a vestigial trait, from when most demons were primarily foot soldiers and such a state was desirable," he continued, "It especially affects Wraiths. Unfortunately, however, that state is permanent and will usually result in the rabid demon attacking his own comrades, hence the need to put him down before he can do it."
Ichigo nodded in understanding.
"So that's why it's a capital crime," he said with a bit more comprehension in his voice.
"Actually, that's only part of the reason," Urahara said, looking at a particularly interesting spot on the far-away cavern wall, "The other part has to do with the effect it has on humans."
"Effect?" What, was their bite poisonous?
"When a demon Marks another demon that is willing, they receive a great deal of ahh... pleasure from it," Urahara explained, causing Ichigo's eyebrows to roost in his hairline, "If they're unwilling, it simply feels like a normal, albeit painful, bite."
"But when they bite a human?" Ichigo prompted, waiting somewhat impatiently for the next part of the explanation.
"If the human's willing, it's pretty much the same as if they were a demon," the older man said, his eyes shifting beneath his hat, "If they're unwilling, the bite causes something of a paralysis for them." This got Ichigo's attention, more so than anything said thus far.
"I see you understand the implications of that," Urahara said, his tone serious, "It's not something anyone exactly wants to be accused of."
Ichigo felt his blood boil and his teeth clench; was that the reason those punks had bitten Inoue in that alley? They clearly had some seriously nasty plans for her, so it wasn't a stretch to think the bite was part of it. A demon that bit a human that way could do anything they wanted to them, after all...
"Yeah, I'm not keen on the idea myself," he grumbled, holding the note just a bit harder than was absolutely necessary. Urahara fanned himself idly.
"I suppose you'll be going after her, then?" he asked, his tone as light and nonchalant as it ever was.
The streetlights were just beginning to flicker to life as Ichigo's shoes pounded against the dilapidated, broken concrete sidewalk, the noise announcing his presence to anyone within earshot. Not that he cared much; his one thought was getting to that park before it was too late.
'Could not guarantee her safety,' he thought back to himself with a sneer. Sure, it was probably an idle threat, something to make him spring into action and come out of hiding. But he couldn't take the chance that the author of that note was actually serious. He was well aware that demons typically didn't see human lives as being worth that much; the life of one helpless teenage girl probably didn't mean a whole lot to much of anybody.
It was blessedly close now, he realized. Urahara's shop wasn't too far from his house and school to begin with, so this hadn't been a very far run. He was grateful for that, at least; he wouldn't have to worry about having received the letter too late. No, whoever set this up knew he was waiting in a convenient place.
So absorbed in his own thoughts was Ichigo that he hardly registered the shadows moving at the corner of his eyes, just off the sidewalk in one of the wooded areas off the main path. As soon as his mind really computed that he was about to be intercepted, though, he immediately stopped running and went for the leather band snapped around his left wrist. He was just about to tug it free when the source of the movement burst free of the underbrush, causing him to take a step back.
The newcomer was tall and muscular, his large frame covered in the same school uniform Ichigo himself usually wore. A thin sheen of sweat was scarcely visible on his face beneath his disheveled mop of messy brown hair. More than that, the look in his eyes glimmered with recognition of the redhead before him.
"Chad?!" Ichigo exclaimed, his eyes meeting the heavily lidded ones of his best friend. For his part, Chad looked shocked to see Ichigo as well, his hand having already been clutched tightly at the collar of his shirt when he emerged from the shrubs.
"Ichigo?" his friend parroted back, "Inoue, she's... I can't find her."
'Just like Chad,' Ichigo thought, noting that his tall friend hadn't even bothered to ask where he'd been for the past week or how he knew he was looking for Inoue as well. And that brought another question to mind.
"Wait, you're looking for her, too?" Ichigo asked, resuming his sprint towards the park. Chad simply nodded and gave him an affirmative 'hn'. Had Chad been looking out for her while he was gone? Well, he figured that was as much as he was going to get out of the giant on that topic; if he didn't want to talk just yet, he wouldn't.
"Whoever has her took her to the park down the block from the school," Ichigo continued, filling the silence between them. He received another nod for his trouble, silently hoping that whatever was there wouldn't turn Chad into another casualty. If nothing else, he could send his friend to grab Inoue and run for it while he fought them off.
Finally, just as the last shaded light of dusk was beginning to disappear, they made footfall at the sidewalk bordering the park. Covering ground quickly, the pair almost bounded the width of the concrete, their feet packing the wet playground sand beneath them as they landed. Their enthusiasm giving way to confusion, both Chad and Ichigo stopped to get the lay of their surroundings and see if they could spot their target.
The park was clearly made for families. There was a picnic area, along with bathrooms and several benches and gazebos for visitors to rest upon. Beyond that, there was a play area containing swings, monkey bars, a jungle gym, teeter totters, and several other small children's activities. That particular area was well-shaded, being bordered with trees as it was, and when the open picnic tables and benches did not yield what Ichigo and Chad sought, they turned their attention hence.
Upon closer examination, Ichigo thought he could see the outline of a figure slouched against the base of the jungle gym. The pale yellow of a school sweater confirmed it as he further discerned it from the shadows.
"There," he quietly hissed to Chad, who looked as though he had been wondering the same thing. The two began to run towards the playground, their footfalls heavy and solid. As they grew closer, they could better see what it was that was lying against the bars. The hazy figure came better into focus, first as belonging to a female, then to a redhead, and then Ichigo caught a glimmer of light reflecting off twin, blue hairpins.
"Inoue!" Ichigo exclaimed, forgetting his earlier quietness and hoping the girl was only sleeping and that he could simply rouse her with his voice. He quickened his step, but he and Chad were still more than twenty paces off when it happened.
A bright, bluish-white bolt of light fell to the ground at Ichigo's feet, as though it was flung from the heavens themselves. Pieces of earth were hurled skyward as Ichigo pulled up short, the shot stopping him dead in his tracks. Frantically, he and Chad looked around for the source of the attack; even though his senses were dampened by his inhibitor, Ichigo could tell that this wasn't the work of a demon. The residual energy left behind smelled too... artificial.
"You're late," a somewhat rigid voice called out to the pair. They followed the sound with their eyes, looking up to the top of the bars below which Inoue rested. There, cloaked in shadow, was a man in pristine white, all the way from his coat to the tips of his shoes. His slick, black hair framed a face made nondescript by the darkness, save the two glowing lenses that covered his eyes. And in his right hand, there was a bow made entirely of burning white light.
"Who the hell are you?" Ichigo yelled up to the man in white as he leapt from the bars of the jungle gym and landed gracefully right between Chad and Ichigo and the girl they'd come to rescue. As his head snapped up to regard them again, Ichigo had the feeling he'd seen him somewhere before, but couldn't quite place just where.
"Are you really that stupid?" the man in white asked derisively, "You don't recognize me at all?" Ichigo's eyebrows rose at the insult, but just to check, he looked over at Chad, who had a similarly confused expression. The large man shrugged, indicating to Ichigo that he had no idea who the kidnapper actually was, either.
"Sorry, man," Ichigo replied, turning back to him with a cocky smirk, "Should I know who you are?" The black haired man scowled and adjusted his glasses with a small 'clink'.
"All demons should," he replied, fixing Ichigo with a piercing gaze. Ichigo again glanced at Chad, this time with more than a little trepidation; how did this guy know about that? And was he about to expose him to Chad, as well? Strangely enough, Ichigo saw his own anxiety reflected back to him in Chad's face.
"Don't be stupid," Ichigo responded instinctively, hoping the man in white couldn't see the tiny beads of perspiration that had appeared on his forehead, "There aren't any demons here. Right, Chad?" Ichigo saw Chad's large massive Adam's apple bob once against his throat before he nodded his assent. His eyebrow rose, but he kept that observation to himself and said nothing.
"Oh? There aren't? What about the day you left your inhibitor at home? That just so happened to be the day Inoue-san showed up with her neck bandaged and you disappeared at lunch. Coincidence?"
Ichigo felt his blood freeze. This was the boy who'd given him such a frigid look in class that morning, he was sure of it. So he had known the whole time; like Rukia and Renji, he had felt his demonic aura as well. But looking at him now, Ichigo couldn't see anything demonic about him. He appeared for all intents and purposes to be a simple human.
"I see you've no answer to that," the man in white continued, "Let me explain with small words so you'll understand. I knew you'd come after this girl because you've already bitten her once. You left her alive for whatever reason last week, although every other girl you've attacked has been found dead. Tonight, I'm going to put an end to your predation of human women. Tonight is the night you meet your end at the hands of Ishida Uryuu, the last Quincy!"
Ichigo stared dumbfounded at this declaration. Just to be certain he had heard correctly, he turned to see Chad mirroring his own somewhat confused face back at him. After another few seconds, he could no longer keep a straight face and began snickering into his hand at the Quincy's flair for the dramatic.
"Sorry to disappoint you," Ichigo said, wiping a tear from his eye as his voice returned to normal after being carried away with laughter, "But we've not attacked any human women, especially not Inoue." As he looked up and saw Ishida's countenance, however, he realized that the Quincy didn't believe any of it.
"Give me one good reason to believe any of that," Ishida replied, leveling his bow at the pair before him. He 'strung' another glowing bluish-white 'arrow', the light throwing sinister shadows across his face as he did so. Ichigo realized too late that Ishida was entirely serious; only another second went by before he released his arrow with a 'snap', sending it flying at the two teenagers facing him.
Ichigo's right hand immediately went to his left wrist, his instincts having been honed over the last week in Urahara's shop. Even as he tore the leather wrap away from his skin, though, it was evident that he wasn't going to be able to react in time. And sure enough, Ishida's arrow was closing in at an alarming rate.
Before it could strike them, though, it was stopped shorted in a hail of light. As soon as Ichigo's eyes cleared from his own transformation, two things immediately occurred to him. First of all, something had intercepted the arrow before it could reach him. Secondly, his senses now told him that there was another demon standing right beside him.
Ichigo lowered his right arm, which was now holding his nodachi, and looked at the demon standing beside him. His arms were plated with red and white armor, the right forearm holding forth the shield that had deflected Ishida's arrow. And in his left hand dangled the coin necklace that Ichigo had long ago begun to take for granted.
"Chad!" Ichigo regarded him with a look of fascination. For his part, Chad was no less shocked upon seeing his best friend also in his demon form. His surprise lasted for a second before nodding in understanding.
"You were off training, then," he noted succinctly.
"You, too?" Ishida asked. He lowered his bow, clearly having been caught off-guard by this unexpected revelation. He quickly regained his composure as well, though, setting his jaw as he stared at the duo. "I won't excuse you if you help this criminal," he finally said firmly.
"I don't know what this is about," Chad returned, "But Ichigo isn't a criminal." Ichigo looked at his friend for a second, grateful for the support. Then, with renewed purpose, he set his sword before his face and gave Ishida a challenging stare.
"I don't want to continue this," Ichigo said, "Just leave Inoue there and go home and we'll forget this ever happened." Ichigo could tell as soon as he said it that Ishida wouldn't even consider it; his mouth set into a grim line as he stared down the redhead.
"Out of the question," Ishida answered sharply, "I won't abandon a fellow human to you, demon!" Ichigo's face contorted with confusion; Ishida was definitely human. But now that he thought about it, what human fired arrows from a bow made of light?
"Whoa, back the fun bus up a second here," Ichigo said, not lowering his guard all the while, "If you're human, how the hell are you doing all that?" Ishida's eyes shown with contempt.
"You really are ignorant, aren't you?" he replied with barely disguised malice, "I already told you - I'm a Quincy, a demon hunter." Ichigo started for a moment before turning to see Chad's likewise blank expression. For his part, Ishida seemed to be growing more and more impatient with the pair.
"Did you not pay attention in class at all?" he finally shouted in frustration, "Sekigahara? The Tokugawa? The Western Army? Is any of this ringing any bells?" The look on Ichigo's face said that it was not.
"I missed half that lesson," he replied with a shrug. Ishida's face fell for a moment, recalling that he hadn't been in class for the past week after all.
"It doesn't matter," Ishida finally said, adjusting his glasses out of frustration, "You don't have to know my life story to know what's going to happen next." And once again he notched his bow in Ichigo's direction.
"Chad," Ichigo said to his friend, "I've got this. Get Inoue out of here." Chad nodded his assent and began to move towards the unconscious girl. As he did so, Ishida huffed his disapproval, casting a resentful glance at Ichigo before turning to follow Chad with his bow.
"I'm the one you wanted to fight, right?" Ichigo said, grinning as he lunged forward, "So keep your eyes on me!"
Taken slightly off-guard because of his hesitation, Ishida was forced on the defensive as Ichigo swung his sword towards him. He dodged to the side just in time to avoid serious injury; his coat, on the other hand, was not so lucky. Nor was his shoulder; there was a small cut, now oozing red, where his sleeve had been sliced cleanly. His cobalt eyes narrowed at the demon before him.
For his part, Ichigo was smiling broadly. His blood raced at the prospect of fighting a real foe on equal footing for the first time since discovering his demonic nature. This wasn't even a conscious thought; it was primal and instinctive, a deep inner joy coming from the adrenaline of battle. Unbeknownst to him, his eyes were happily flashing red.
He dove forward to cut Ishida again and draw more blood, but this time the archer was ready. Instead of another strike, Ichigo received instead a bow pointed straight at his face. He dodged just in time to take away nothing but a singed eyebrow, but the message was clear; this Quincy was not someone to be trifled with.
"You're pretty good!" Ichigo exclaimed happily, crouching and preparing for another lunge. Ishida calmly pulled back his left hand, another arrow forming there as his facial expression froze in place.
"You're not," he replied stoically, releasing the bundle of white hot energy in Ichigo's direction. Another dodge, this arrow tearing into the sand of the playground and kicking up the brown earth underneath. Ichigo knew he'd barely escaped that one; indeed, there was a scorch mark across his upper thigh, his black hakama burned away where the arrow had grazed him. Before he could strike again, however, he was interrupted.
"Ichigo!" It was Chad. Ichigo turned to see his tall friend passing his fight, Inoue hanging from one armored shoulder. He smiled, relieved that she was being evacuated. They could catch up once this was over.
When he turned back to his opponent, however, that smile vanished. Instead, cinnamon-colored eyes widened, their pupils constricted to pinpricks in the face of the blinding white light before him. While Ichigo had his head turned, Ishida had taken the advantage and leveled his bow at point blank range at the other boy's face. Ichigo could feel the searing heat from the arrow and the tension in the black haired man's fingers as it hummed threateningly before him.
"It's over," Ishida ground out, releasing the arrow.
Ichigo shut his eyes against the light, preparing fully for his face to be melted clean off. The promised face-melting did not occur, however; instead, there was a crash and even more light.
"Kurosaki-kun!"
Ichigo slowly opened his eyes. Was he dead? Was he hallucinating? That was Inoue, right? As his eyes adjusted to the light, he realized what had stopped Ishida's arrow: a glowing, gold, three-pointed shield as tall as he was and as flat as a sheet of paper.
If Ishida's face was any indication, he didn't know what had happened either. Both turned as one to the large man with the redhead slung over his shoulder. For their parts, Chad and Orihime looked just as shocked as the two combatants. And as for Orihime, Ichigo noticed that her hairpins had begun to glitter strangely, as though they were generating their own light.
Presently, Chad sat the now-conscious girl on her feet, and after wobbling for a second to regain her balance, Orihime headed towards the two fighters.
"Inoue-san..." Ishida's face, which had recently been so full of consternation, was now softened with concern. She drew up beside Ichigo and faced Ishida, her expression full of worry.
"Inoue," Ichigo repeated. He was glad that she was awake and well, but that didn't tell him where the shield had come from or how she had made it. Presently, though, it dissolved, the three corners zipping back towards her hairpins in small streaks of light. The glass flowers twinkled for a moment before settling back to reflecting the glow of the streetlights. From the expression of her face, though, he could only surmise that she was as clueless as they all were as to that shield's origin.
"Ishida-kun, please," she said, "Please don't attack Kurosaki-kun anymore. He didn't do anything to me." She appeared to be on the verge of tears, and that by itself seemed to soften Ishida's resolve.
"Don't be ridiculous," he said finally, "I don't know why you feel the need to protect him, but you should stand aside and let me finish this." Orihime's face went pale and she looked as though she was going to protest again.
"No, I think you should stand aside and let us handle this."
The group turned to look as one at the source of the voice. They were almost knocked off their feet by the sudden burst of light from the floodlights accompanying the newcomers. There was no shortage of exclamations from the pain of the blinding light, and Ichigo even felt himself stumble just a bit from the force of it. Hands went to shield narrowed eyes as two dark figures were silhouetted against the light.
"A patrol," Ishida hissed, just loud enough for Ichigo to hear him, "We'll finish this some other time."
Ichigo turned to give him a good, hot piece of his mind, but in the second it took him to divert his squinting eyes to the place where Ishida stood, the white-clad man was already gone. As Ichigo turned back to the source of the light, his eyes already adjusting painfully, he saw a familiar flicker of silver and glass. He felt his stomach drop, and he barely avoided muttering a few choice words where Inoue could hear them.
"Well, well!" a familiar, too-cheery voice exclaimed, "Look what we got here! I Am Not A Demon-san and his equally non-demonic friends!" The taller figure pushed his goggles further up his forehead with his thumb, his toothy grin discernible even with the blinding light pouring in from behind him.
"Apparently," a second, more feminine voice answered the first, "At least Nii-sama will stop punishing you for misplacing him now." The three in the spotlight looked on in stunned silence as Renji sputtered.
"Whose fault was that?" he flailed back, "Who said 'He'll bleed out on his own', huh? 'We can come pick up the body after school', huh?!" This earned him cold, stony silence and a debilitating fist to the gut. Truth be told, Ichigo was beginning to almost feel a little sorry for the guy. Almost. But not really.
"I don't know how you managed to escape your execution," Rukia finally said, turning back to the three pinned beneath the glare of the floodlights, "But this is now a matter beyond our jurisdiction. You are hereby remanded to the custody of Lucifer-sama and the House of Pride until such time as Abaddon-sama will see you." Finally regaining some semblance of his senses, Ichigo stepped in front of Orihime and began to fire back at the petite demon before them.
"What makes you think I'm going to just stand here and let you haul us in? Huh?" Rukia's delicate eyebrow rose at this bold challenge. She lifted one graceful hand in his direction and pointed a slender finger at him. He could see her mouth moving, forming words, but he couldn't quite make out what they could be.
"...divide into six - Rikujou Kourou!"
Ichigo felt as though he'd been punched in the gut and back simultaneously. He could barely look down, but when he did, he could see six white beams seeming to impale his mid-section. He was also now aware of Chad and Orihime's panic at this.
"Ichigo!"
"Kurosaki-kun! What did you do to him?!" Ichigo watched Orihime turn towards the smaller girl, hurt and fear evident on her face. But what was she afraid of? They wouldn't worry over a human, right? His gut clinched as he realized that Orihime was stepping towards the black-haired girl, her tiny fists balled in anger and trembling.
"Inoue, no!" There was no way a human girl could handle a demon girl, let alone a demon girl with her large, ill-tempered bodyguard. Panic seized Ichigo, icy fingers clutching his heart. He'd only just gotten her back, dammit! For her part, Rukia looked impassive, and Ichigo was thankful for that much.
"He's merely paralyzed," Rukia replied, her tone and expression even, "And unless you would like to be, too, I suggest you two stay where you are for the moment. We will be taking you back with us." This caused Orihime to stop in her tracks.
"No!" Ichigo fairly well roared, "You wanted me, right? Well, you have me! Let them go!" Like hell he'd give them Inoue just like that. They'd almost killed him; god only knew what they'd do with her!
He was straining against his bonds with all his might now, pushing his body straight to its limit and probably beyond. He felt one stave crack and smiled with satisfaction. For her part, Rukia looked momentarily stunned - as though this had never happened to her before - but then set her face back into its customary authoritative scowl.
"Cut that out." Renji's voice came from behind Ichigo, causing his head to snap around to see the frowning redhead breathing down his neck.
"The hell I will!" he spat back, "You let them go or I swear I'll--"
It was then that he felt Renji's firm fist slam into the back of his skull. The force of the blow was enough to drive his knees into the ground. Ichigo's eyes rolled into the back of his head aimlessly.
Suddenly, everything was dark.
