Chapter Eleven

"Officers!" Kisuke yelled, pretending to gasp for breath, as if he'd carried Tatsuki in his arms for miles.

"What happened?" An officer asked, standing up to greet Kisuke. They didn't know him. In fact, he was rather bizarre looking, but seemingly harmless.

"My niece was just sexually assaulted… We… We brought her right here…" Kisuke muttered, collapsing into a chair that they offered him, looking at them gratefully as they took her out of his arms.

"Her legs are both broken. She needs a hospital. She's fine… Just sleeping…" Kisuke said as Tatsuki twitched in the officer's arms, waving her arms, accidentally punching the officer in the face, yelling at him to get off of her. In fact, Kisuke had put a mild sleeping spell on her.

"She would be asleep until woken up by one of the officers. Orihime had begrudgingly reversed the repair of Tatsuki's legs and eye so that they still were broken and bleeding. Otherwise, it may not have been convincing.

"Well… Hey, Miss… Please wake up…" The officer muttered, gently prodding Tatsuki, who woke up by punching the officer in the face again and screaming for him to get away from her.

This almost caused the officer to drop her. He held her fast, though, and took her to a room and sat her down. Her legs were killing her and her eye was worse. It was still under the eye patch, but the eye patch was now stained red with blood.

She remembered suddenly why they were there and sat up straight, looking alertly around the room, pretending to be slightly paranoid.

"W-where am I!? W-what happened to… Him?"

"Him? And who is 'he'?" The officer asked gently. Tatsuki thought for a moment.

"Tabito Megumi. I remember because it was kind of a feminine name. He was definitely a boy, though…"

"It does happen from time to time. And where was it that this happened?"

"In an alley by the intersection of Kichi and Araki. I don't usually go to that neighborhood, but I was sure I was being followed, so I wanted to lead him somewhere open. It worked against me, though… I-I got lost… Oh, God… Th-this is all my fault…" Tatsuki muttered, tears filling her eyes.

The tears were real. For hours after the event she realized, she had still been in shock, and now that she was coming down from that bizarre and terrifying high that had her body so tense that she was sure it would snap, she felt like a little girl again, crying to her mother.

"It's not your fault. Please just tell me what happened… If you can remember, as best you can…" The officer said gently. He was a father to a young woman about Tatsuki's age as well. She and Tatsuki could have been friends in any given situation.

"First off, what did you say your name was?"

"T-Tatsuki… T-Tatsuki *gulp* Arisawa…"

Wait… Tatsuki Arisawa? He knew that name… Of course! The karate nationals a few years back. She had come in second place, even with a broken arm. Her daughter had been kind of a tomboyish girl for years as well, and had followed the karate nationals every year.

"Miss Arisawa… Can you tell me what happened?"

"Y-yeah… I was walking down Kichi onto Araki when I was stopped by this guy. H-he said he saw the karate nationals and was a fan of mine… I-I knew I shouldn't let him approach me… But he seemed harmless… I guess that was stupid of me, wasn't it?"

The officer couldn't argue that it wasn't careless of a young woman to allow herself to be approached by a strange man for any reason. But he said nothing, and Tatsuki continued.

"Well… He ranted for a minute or two about the karate nationals, and how he enjoyed watching me fight. But then, suddenly he was right at my side, and he tazered me.

"W-when I woke up, I was in an alley bound in ropes and he was there. He started bragging about… How he was trying to improve the world with better genetics… I have to say, I'm not really the academic type, so I didn't get some of what he said…"

"That's alright. I think I understand more or less what he was saying to you. Please continue."

"Well, while he was monologuing like some James Bond villain, I managed to get out of my leg ropes…"

The man stopped there to admire Tatsuki's guts and determination. She was truly a fierce woman if she still planned to fight after being tazered.

"And I kicked him a few times and got into a fight… B-but he was stronger than anyone I've ever met… I-it was like he wasn't even human, and he crushed each of my legs… With one hand… "

The officer had to admit that this was odd. Very few men alive, even highly trained special ops agents could crush a person's leg with one hand…. Most couldn't do it with two. It typically required a strike to the area being broken. The officer made a note of this in particular.

"And then… He…"

"He raped you?"

"What? No… Then my friends showed up… The people who brought me here… Th-they arrived just in time. I-I think they scared him off… M-my friend out there with the orange hair looks like a bit of a delinquent, but he's a good person…"

"Do you think you could describe him to a sketch artist, Miss Arisawa?"

"Just call me Tatsuki… I can do better than that. I'm a pretty good artist, so I could draw him better than I could describe him." Tatsuki said determinedly. She wasn't sure if this was a good idea. She was told that the police might ask her to give a description and to lie about what he looked like as he was too dangerous to be apprehended by the police.

"I guess that's fine. Here… Just draw him on this…" The officer said, handing Tatsuki a pencil and some paper. Tatsuki set to work replicating what she had decided he was going to look like. Instead of the slender and lithe man that he actually was, Tatsuki drew him as a tall and muscular man with rather ominous features and long and grizzly hair.

When she finished, she felt proud of how she had done at lying even in giving a description.

"This is an excellent picture. We should hire you to take our sketch artist's place…" The officer said with a sheepish laugh.

"We can call an ambulance if you like, Mr…"

"Urahara. No. We have a friend who runs a clinic… We can take her to see him…"

"Okay… Please hurry… She looks ready to keel over…" The officer said. Kisuke nodded and grabbed Tatsuki, knowing that he couldn't have her healed in front of the officers.

And so, he grabbed her and took her to another alley. He couldn't deny the irony in this. She had been attacked and very nearly beaten to death in an alley, and now she was being healed in an alley.

"Miss Inoue… Would you do the honors?" Kisuke asked, setting Tatsuki down on a clean blanket he had brought with him. Orihime nodded, and knelt over Tatsuki, apologizing briefly for unhealing her, and using her powers again to fix Tatsuki's legs.

This time, her healing was much more effective. Though she still couldn't replace Tatsuki's eye, she was able to remove the scar along Tatsuki's face. Orihime was glad of that. She had always thought Tatsuki was beautiful, and didn't like to see her face harmed like that. In that moment, Orihime promised herself that she would hunt down Tabito Megumi and make him suffer for harming her friend.

"Are you able to walk now, Miss Arisawa?" Kisuke asked. Tatsuki nodded, standing up and wobbling on her feet before steadying herself and walking with Kisuke and the rest of the group back to Urahara Shoten.

"There you are! It took you guys long enough to get back!" Came a slightly obnoxious female voice from the kitchen. Ichigo jumped as Riruka came out with her trademark glare on her face.

"Hi, Dokugamine-san… How is school going?" Ichigo asked politely. Riruka raised an eyebrow, laughing now.

"Did you really think I would stick around with those quarter-wit children!? My first day of school, I was surrounded almost as soon as I got in the damn classroom with jejune, puerile girls asking me questions about what shampoo I used!

"Did you want me to go to school or did you want me to go to hell!?"

"I only hoped that maybe you could make some friends your own age… I know you and Inoue are friends, but…"

"I am not friends with this bimbo!" Riruka snapped angrily.

"W-we… We're not friends?" Orihime asked, looking deeply hurt, making Riruka suddenly regret saying that they weren't friends.

"W-well… A-anyway, somehow that idiot Yukio found me and offered me a job at his company designing clothes! How many fifteen year olds can say they work as fashion designers?" Riruka asked with a very self-satisfied smirk.

"Really? You're working now!?" Orihime asked excitedly, apparently having forgotten that Riruka had just said they weren't friends. "That's great!"

"Yeah, yeah… That's great…" Riruka said, waving her hand dismissively. "Anyway, I felt a familiar spiritual pressure around here just earlier today.

"Then I ended up running into Tsukishima, and we came here together, thinking that the old pervert could give us some insight…" Riruka finished, feeling quite hurried.

"Tsukishima is here? Where?"

"I'm in here, Kurosaki…" Tsukishima said politely, turning down the heat on the stove, and walking out into plain sight.

"Oh, my… What happened to you, Miss Arisawa?" Tsukishima asked, looking concerned, and approaching Tatsuki, perhaps unwisely as in one moment, Tsukishima was walking up to Tatsuki, and in the next, he was lying on the floor with a broken and bleeding nose.

"Don't you come near me!" Tatsuki yelled, lowering her foot and curling her hands into fists, ready to fight again if she needed to.

"Tatsuki… Tsukishima is… Well… He's not really a friend, but I know him. He had no intention of hurting you… I think…" Ichigo said, though even he wasn't completely sure.

"S-sorry…" Tatsuki said nervously, reaching out and pulling Tsukishima to his feet.

"Wow… That was unexpected… I never knew you were so fast… But what happened to you? You look a mess… And you definitely had two eyes last time we met…" Tsukishima said, not realizing that Tatsuki didn't remember any of that.

"Seriously… I have absolutely no patience for stalker freaks!" Tatsuki growled irately. "I dealt with one already today…"

"Sorry? We have met before… O-oh… Of course you don't remember. Kurosaki? Maybe you could help me out? I'm feeling distinctly unwelcome here…"

"Tatsuki was assaulted today by some freak named Tabito…"

"Megumi-kun?" Riruka asked, looking shocked now. The group looked up at her except for Tsukishima, who seemed to have been expecting that.

"Yeahhh… What do you know about him…? Except for his girly name?" Tatsuki snapped.

"H-he used to be a friend of ours… It's a long and kind of embarrassing story…" Riruka muttered, blushing.

"Well, you better tell the damn story!" Tatsuki demanded angrily, getting more and more peeved with Riruka. How did she know Riruka? She was sure she had met her before… Oh yeah… Riruka was the girl she crashed into at school that day. Riruka had a pretty bad temper.

"Y-you see… Tsukishima and I used to be dating… I-it wasn't even all that long ago… Maybe a year and a half ago at most… It was right before Kurosaki came into the picture… Then Ginjo and Tsukishima came up with their bizarre plan to mess with their own memories to make a perfect plan to steal Ichigo's powers, and he broke up with me.

"That was when Megumi, who had been our friend for a few years came and asked me out. I rejected him… He's always been kind of a creepy bloke… He didn't take rejection well, and swore revenge on both of us. I don't know why he started raping women… Maybe he just has an inferiority complex… But anyway, that's about all there is to say."

"So… You and Tsukishima were…"

"Yeah… So? I don't know what Megumi is up to, but it can't be good. I could find him and kill him… But I really don't feel like seeing his face again… Besides… If even Miss Butch Lesbian here couldn't beat him in a fight, what chance do I have?"

"What!? What did you call me you stupid bitch!?" Tatsuki yelled, furious that Riruka was being so blatantly rude.

"Dokugamine-san… Could you please not antagonize my friends?" Ichigo asked, not really wanting to have to deal with a fight between two girls who could probably both be a match for him in his human form, even if not in his Shinigami form.

"Sorry. Working for Yukio's company is stressful… And I thought that school was hard work." Riruka snapped. She wasn't planning on quitting. Yukio would never let her hear the end of it. But it was harder than he made it seem. Being on a deadline to produce ideas made thinking of them more difficult.

"That is so cool, though!" Orihime said cheerfully, running over and hugging Riruka tightly. Riruka shoved Orihime off of her and told her rather vehemently not to touch her. She had always been slightly averse to being touched.

It made her uncomfortable. Whenever someone touched her, she was overcome with a strange tingling sensation that started to burn after a minute or two.

"Sorry… But what do you do for Yukio?"

"I told you! I-I'm a fashion designer… He wanted to expand into clothing, and apparently he thought I had good fashion sense… I must say, he has excellent taste."

"That's great! But… That's beyond the point! You need to help us find Megumi! He assaulted Tatsuki-chan!" Orihime protested. Riruka snorted at this suggested.

"Why should I? I don't ever want to see that idiot bastard Megumi again!"

Ichigo sighed. Was he really going to have to do something this low? He would have never once considered messing with a girl's feelings in the past. It wasn't funny and it wasn't cool. He had asked for one favor in the past from Riruka, and that was for her to try her hand at school. She had failed at that, and he didn't hold it against her. He really had no reason to think that even he could get her to agree to deal with Megumi.

She was right. If even Tatsuki couldn't handle the bastard, why should Riruka be able to? It was true that Riruka had Fullbring, but he wasn't sure how prepared she'd be to use it against someone she didn't want to deal with in the first place.

"Please, Do… Riruka-san? Could you at least talk to Tabito and try to talk some sense into him? If you can't, perhaps Tsukishima-san could 'convince' him to confess his crimes."

"Well, Kurosaki… I could certainly try to use Book of the End to attempt to force some guilt on him. There's no guarantee that it would work. Book of the End generally inserts memories, not emotions. Emotions are often involved with the memories, but only because the human in whom I place the memories associate those emotions with the memory.

"For instance, if I were to stab Tatsuki with Book of the End and insert myself as her lover, she would associate love with my memory because that is what she associates with the status of being someone's lover. That does not mean that she actually loves me, only that she believes that she does.

"Furthermore, I cannot insert other people into a person's past… I can only insert myself into the past of something that my sword cuts. It is actually far more limited than you seem to think. I admit that I can probably defeat him fairly easily if I cut him even once.

"That would allow me to insert myself into his past and learn all of his abilities and the perfect counter to said abilities. However, I would have trouble convincing him to truly feel remorse over committing the crimes he has committed. That would require that he have a conscience, and I don't know that he does."

"Well, a-anything you can do, Mr. Tsukishima would be appreciated…" Orihime said, hugging Tatsuki close to her.

Riruka blushed. She knew that she would never take Rukia's place in Ichigo's heart, and that he would never love her, especially since they would probably not see each other again for a long time, and when they did, she would be an old lady and he would be the same.

But she couldn't deny him his irritating requests. Seeing Megumi again was frankly the last thing she wanted. He was an annoying person, and had hit on her relentlessly when they were 'friends'. He was a real creep. Because of this, Tsukishima had been forced to threaten him and cut ties with him. Megumi knew full well at the time that Tsukishima, a true prodigy in every sense of the word and a tactical genius could defeat him in battle in three blows with one hand.

Neither Tsukishima nor Riruka knew how far Megumi had improved in the years that they had been separated, but Tsukishima was still fairly certain that he could defeat him in a fair fight.

"Fine… I-I'll help you… Shukuro will as well… Won't you?" Riruka asked. Tsukishima sighed and

nodded.

"Of course, Riruka-chan…"

"I've told you to stop calling me that! Damnit! We broke up over a year ago!"

"Sorry… Old habits die hard…" Tsukishima said sadly. Privately, he still hoped that they could get back together. He still loved her, though he knew that she had a strong attraction to Ichigo. Maybe after Ichigo went back to Soul Society, he would have a chance.

"Kurosaki? Might I speak with you outside for a moment? I promise I won't try anything. I'll leave my Book of the End in here if you like…"

"No need. I don't fully trust you, but I know you couldn't hurt me if you wanted to…" Ichigo said confidently, walking out with Tsukishima into the dark yard outside of Urahara Shoten.

"So what's the deal? I'm tired and would like to get to bed. We haven't got long in the human world, so we need to handle the situation and get out." Ichigo said, not wanting to stay longer than he needed to. He didn't want to run into too many of his old friends in the Human World. It wasn't that he didn't want to see them. It was that he knew that if he saw them, he would have trouble leaving. He was just going to do his job and get going… No debate…

"No time to rest, then… Besides, if I know Megumi, and I'm pretty sure I do, he's careful enough that he'll be getting ready to move again. He won't stay in one place for long, and his overinflated ego now will encourage him to spread his genes as far and wide as he can.

"Tetsuki was a fluke. It just so happened that he recognized her from television and wanted her…" Riruka said. "I feel fairly sure that he doesn't know with any level of personal attachment any of the other women he's raped. Frankly, if he hadn't come to Karakura Town, I never would've known about him and never would've cared. Let's go."

Ichigo felt around the city, searching for Megumi's spiritual presence. It was true that he could be hiding it, but Ichigo was fairly certain that even if it was weak, he could find it. Rukia was better at these things, so she was searching as well. They had left Tatsuki and Orihime back at the shop, although they both wanted to come.

"I feel his presence, Ichigo. He's actually pretty close… He should be… About three blocks away…" Rukia said…"

"What presence are you feeling?" Riruka asked, scoffing at Rukia. "He's two blocks in the other direction… There may be a spiritual pressure in that direction, but it ain't his…"

"But…"

"Listen sweetie… I think I know Megumi's spiritual signature. Just follow me… And hurry." Riruka said, running left, forcing Rukia, Tsukishima and Ichigo to break into a run after her. After about five minutes of running, they arrived at a run down apartment. At that moment, they saw Megumi walking out with a small pack of things on his back.

He looked at them once and smirked before thrusting his hands out and releasing a blast of telekinetic force in their direction, nearly knocking them over. He then ran in the opposite direction, augmenting his stride both with Fullbring and with telekinesis.

Ichigo was sufficiently fleet of foot, though, to keep up with him, and finally, he used a low level Bakudo to bind him, causing Megumi to crash to the ground. Ichigo then walked up to Megumi and looked down at him.

"I'm feeling a bit conflicted… As a former human, I should turn you into the human authorities. As a Shinigami, though, you have to pay your debt to Soul Society…"

"You don't scare me, friend… You can't beat me. If you kill me, I'll just come back as a Hollow. It'll take a while… Maybe even hundreds of years, but I'll devour more Hollows, turn into a free willed Menos and evolve to the point that I become a Vasto Lorde and then I'll remove my mask and come back to get revenge on you."

"Answer my questions! How did you get these psychic powers?"

"Oh… You mean like this?" Megumi asked, grabbing Ichigo's arm and burning it with pyrokinesis, jumping up and shooting several fireballs at Ichigo, who blocked each of them, then used a higher level Bakudo to stop him. Ichigo admitted that he wasn't talented with Kido, but he was getting better.

"You truly are a worthy opponent… Ah… And I see that Riru-chan and Shuu-kun are here with you…"

"Don't call me Riru-chan, you pervy freak!" Riruka yelled furiously. "I am not your friend!"

"Ouch… That hurt… I understand that it's hard for you to admit your feelings, but you shouldn't deny that you're attracted to me… Dump Shuu-kun and come be with me instead…"

"I'm not dating Shukuro either anymore… We broke up a while ago… Besides… The only thing I would want to do with you is turn you into a eunuch so you can't cause trouble anymore. Ichigo, I don't know what he did to give himself those weird psychic powers, but you can't turn him into the police. Bring him back to Soul Society. Normally, I'd deal with him, but I don't wanna risk touching his filthy, pervy body…" Riruka said disdainfully. Megumi looked hurt at this.

"But… I-I loved you, Riruka-chan…" He said helplessly as Ichigo put him into spirit binding ropes.

"No you didn't. You lusted after me and you were jealous of what Shukuro had. Love and lust and jealousy aren't the same thing. Now you rape women to get back at me for rejecting you.

"You're pathetic…"

"Th-the glasses look nice on you… You never liked glasses. Even though you were badly nearsighted, you didn't get glasses because you didn't want to look nerdy, but the glasses look good on you…"

Hearing this, Riruka found herself slightly touched and surprised. She didn't think that Megumi of all people would remember all that about her. Maybe his interest in her had been more than just lust.

"Th-thanks…" Riruka said.

"Well… Take me away, I guess…" Megumi said, looking truly beaten, now. Although he had few wounds on him,

"Captain Kurosaki…" Rukia whispered. Ichigo scowled. Even if they were technically on business, it was kind of over the top to call him 'Captain Kurosaki'. Their relationship wasn't exactly a secret, and they had started dating before he became a captain.

It was really only Byakuya who saw anything wrong with them behaving familiarly while on the job. Ichigo admitted that a certain level of professionalism was important to maintain the proper level of distance while they were working. But they were in the Human world, now.

"Rukia… Just call me Ichigo… We may be on the job. I may be a captain, but we're still dating."

"Is that a request from my boyfriend or a command from a captain?" Rukia asked, looking completely serious.

"I-it's only a request… You know I wouldn't pull rank on you… Gimme a little more credit than that…"

"Um… As touching as this conversation is, perhaps you should just take me into custody." Megumi said.

"Actually, we got a revised order while we were at Urahara Shoten… Or I did, anyway." Rukia said. "Kill the one known as Tabito Megumi. There is no reason to keep him in Soul Society."

"W-we have to kill him!? I couldn't do that!"

"I could." Riruka said quickly, stepping forward. Tsukishima stopped her, though, and stepped forward himself, taking the bookmark out of his book.

Now, he was reading Defining Existence: An Exercise in Metaphysics

"I will, of course give you the ability to fight me to preserve your own life. Perhaps we should go to a more secluded area?" Tsukishima asked, bowing politely, waving his bookmark in front of the group.

Once they had gotten to a completely abandoned section of town, Tsukishima took out his Book of the End, and waved it to show that he was not using the memory altering function of it. Megumi looked hesitant to begin fighting.

However, he got into a fighting stance.

"Do not hesitate, Tabito-kun… There is no reason for you to feel obliged to hold back. Take out your Fullbring. I'm sure you have it on you. You used it on Miss Arisawa, didn't you?"

"To a degree I used it on Tatsuki… I didn't actually use the weapon itself. If I had, she would have bled to death just from the wound to her face. As it is, I'm pretty sure that the guy with the strange hat was able to at least mitigate the damage I did."

"I wondered why Inoue wasn't able to fix Tatsuki's eye… It must be a function of Tabito's Fullbring. Ichigo, stand by and be ready to take over the battle if Tsukishima loses. If he loses, he will almost certainly die. But we cannot hesitate to carry out Soul Society's orders.

"Riruka was allowed to live because you vouched for her. A few others may have survived, and Tsukishima was thought dead. This one has no excuse. We must execute him with extreme prejudice…" Rukia said firmly. Ichigo nodded. Although he was a captain and she was just a lieutenant, he had no intention of going against her. He had seen only once the power of her Bankai, and he was pretty sure he would be fucked if he had to go up against it.

"I am sorry to have to fight the man who taught me everything I know and the boyfriend of the woman I love. I deeply apologize for my actions both past and present. However, now that I see a chance to live…" Megumi said, disappearing in a startling flash and appearing right before Tsukishima.

Briefly, Tsukishima changed his Book of the End to Memory Form and clashed with Megumi's knife. He had never clashed with it before, as Megumi had never trusted him enough to allow it. Megumi had always been a fairly suspicious person, always on the lookout for betrayal. Now, Tsukishima knew everything about Megumi's Fullbring, Sanguinus Maximus…

Tsukishima commented to himself that it wasn't a terribly imaginative name. But he changed his sword back to Cut and slashed at Megumi, leaving a light cut across Megumi's chest. Megumi, surprised that the sword was so sharp that it was able to cut through his telekinetic armor that he had put on himself, stumbled backwards. Meanwhile, Tsukishima had planned to gut Megumi with that slash, so he didn't understand how it didn't work.

"Tsukishima-san! Tabito…"

"There is no need to tell me, Kurosaki. I can find out for myself…" Tsukishima said confidently, moving forward with barely a flicker and slashing at Megumi once he was at close range, and using Memory, once more barely breaching the telekinetic armor and this time not leaving so much as a scratch. Thus, he didn't gain the benefit of extra information about Megumi's other powers.

This time, Tsukishima, pulled back and once more plunged forward, this time getting Sanguinus Maximus in his side. It was a fairly shallow wound, but it bled a good amount. He was sure that he could get it fixed up later. Despite the injury that he took, though, he had used both hands and pierced the telekinetic armor much to Megumi's shock.

Megumi had never known just how sharp Tsukishima's sword was. He had said that his sword was extraordinarily keen. Tsukishima had claimed on more than one occasion that Book of the End could literally cut anything. However, Megumi never believed him, and though Tsukishima had just proved that there was more truth to the claim than Megumi initially believed, it could not truly cut through anything as it had taken several tries to cut through his telekinetic armor.

However, Megumi knew that like his reiatsu, he could not expend psychic energy indefinitely. He had maybe ten or fifteen minutes left assuming there weren't abnormal fluctuations in the armor due to unforeseen circumstances. If he could keep Tsukishima from cutting him again, he could conserve power pretty well.

If not, well, he would first experience severe headaches, dizziness, nausea and nosebleeds, then he would likely pass out as if from a concussion. Of course, if he failed to protect his body from the sword enough times for energy conservation to matter, he probably would die before he passed out. The truth was that Megumi was nowhere near as graceful or as talented at fighting as Tsukishima.

Tsukishima had had years of training in swordfighting not only from Kugo Ginjo (whom Megumi hated with a passion), but had also taken Iaido, Kendo and Kenjutsu. He had excelled at all three and he would be rightly feared in any battle for his brilliance. So distracted, Megumi had been though by this musing that he forgot about the current battle, and before he knew it, he had been cut across the chest rather severely by Book of the End. Megumi gasped as blood spurted from his wound.

Megumi staggered back and gripped his knife tighter, activating its special ability that made it vibrate so that it would exacerbate further any wound it caused, making it bleed even more. This time, he was no longer frightened. He knew that Tsukishima would be off his guard now that he had already gotten in a major blow.

So Megumi plunged forward, moving to stab Tsukishima in the side with his Sanguinus Maximus, but missed because Tsukishima, knowing already Megumi's tactics dodged him rather easily and slashed along his back cutting his spine right where above his tailbone so that Megumi fell to the ground, no longer able to walk. Tsukishima then walked over to Megumi and kicked him once to ensure that he was still awake.

"You lose. It brings me no joy to do this. I must kill you, though. As your friend, I can't allow you to continue on your rampage."

"Please… You were never my friend! You never trusted me and you started going out with Riru-chan just to spite me!"

"No. I was your friend and I did trust you. I went out with Riruka because I liked her and because she agreed that she liked me as well. There was a mutual attraction. I'm sorry to have to do this, but… Goodbye…" Tsukishima said quietly, stabbing Megumi with Book of the End in the heart, ending his life.

"It's a shame. But, please tell me that you don't hold this against me, Riruka…"

"Of course not. He deserved worse. You should've tortured him a bit." Riruka said with a smirk.

"That wouldn't have helped anything. Perhaps you would be amenable to spending time with me again tomorrow?

"We can invite Kurosaki and Kuchiki if you don't wish to spend it alone with me…" Tsukishima said, making it obvious that he still liked Riruka.

"I guess so. What can it hurt? Ichigo? Will you join us? Kuchiki, you don't need to come if you don't want to." Riruka said, ending her statement dismissively.

"Wow… Way to make me feel welcome… But no. We do have to get back to Soul Society. If you could tell our friends that we hope Tatsuki gets better soon and not to give in to despair…" Rukia said confidently, taking out her sword and stabbing the air in front of her, forming a portal back to Seireitei."

"Bye, Ichigo… Bye Kuchiki…" Riruka said. Ichigo started as Rukia stopped him.

"We were instructed by Captain Kurotsuchi to bring the body back with us so that he could perform an autopsy." Ichigo groaned. He really didn't like Kurotsuchi. He had only met him on a few occasions, and each time the man made Ichigo's flesh crawl like there were insects under it.

"I have to say, Rukia-chan… Killing Hollows is one thing. But killing humans just isn't easy…" Ichigo said, sighing unhappily. He knew that he didn't actually kill Megumi, and that made him feel a little bit better. As they walked through the entrance to Soul Society, they were immediately greeted by Byakuya. He looked down at Ichigo and Rukia dispassionately.

"I was asked by the Captain-Commander to come greet you. How did your mission go? Was it a success?" He asked, his steely gaze never changing.

"Yes. We assassinated the one known as Megumi Tabito and have taken into account his powers.

"He seemed to possess both a Fullbring, gained before Xcution was even formed and psychic powers to the effect of telekinesis. How he gained the psychic powers, I don't know, but we should catalogue them for the future."

"Good. Go immediately to Captain Kurotsuchi and give him the body. Don't dawdle. I'll give the report to the Captain-Commander." Rukia said, kissing Ichigo quickly before running off. Ichigo sighed and walked off, still not entirely sure where he was going. At least, he thought, he was better at directions than Zaraki, who seemed to get lost at every opportunity.

He hurried through the Seireitei, occasionally stopping to ask directions, finding that he was taking the very long route to 12th Division. As he finally got to the 12th Division and Shinigami Research Institute, walking in and looking around, seeing a number of Shinigami typing away at computers, and running tests over and over again to make sure of their results.

"Excuse me… I'm look…"

"Captain Kurosaki?" Came a dull, lifeless voice from the background, and a young woman that Ichigo recognized as Nemu came out of the gloom.

"You are here to deliver the body to us? Thank you. Father is…"

"Nemu! Who's there!? What does he want!?"

"Father… It is Captain Kurosaki with the body." Nemu said, bowing politely. Kurotsuchi walked over and kicked Nemu out of the way, kicking her once when she was lying on the ground in irritation, then turned to Ichigo.

"Ah, yes… Captain Kurosaki… I've wanted to dissect a Fullbringer ever since I found out about their unusual powers. Unfortunately, the captains and lieutenants either killed and destroyed or let go the only Fullbringers that we've run into.

"This is a once in a lifetime opportunity… Though…" Kurotsuchi said, leaning in conspiratorially. "I've heard that you have a lovely young magenta haired lady friend who's also a Fullbringer… I'd be glad to compensate you if you bring her to me alive… And when I'm done experimenting, if she's still alive, I'll return her to you good as new."

"First of all… She's not my 'lady friend'…" Ichigo said distastefully. "Second, if you so much as lay a hand on her, you'll be eating all your future meals through a tube…"

"Is that supposed to be a threat, Captain? I eat half my meals through a tube, anyhow. I'm normally far too busy to spare time for meals, so I have nutrient based supplements that I pump directly into my body instead. Get up, Nemu! Take this damn body back to the lab!" Kurotsuchi screeched with incredible venom, kicking Nemu in the side several times. Ichigo ran and grabbed Kurotsuchi pulling him away from Nemu.

"Leave her alone! Do you always treat her like this!?" Ichigo asked, appalled at the treatment Nemu received at the hands of her own captain.

"Why shouldn't I!? I made her! She's my clone! My own flesh and blood! I have the right to do whatever I want to her!"

"No you don't! You…"

"Get out! I have to get back to work! I don't have time to debate the finer points of a captain's relationship with his lieutenant!" Kurotsuchi yelled, pointing to the door. Ichigo ignored him and walked over to Nemu, helping her get up.

"Are you alright, Nemu?" Ichigo asked. Nemu turned slightly pink and simply nodded, walking away.

"Good! Now get out!" Kurotsuchi shrieked. Ichigo sighed. This was the thanks he got for bringing the body to Division Twelve? Some thanks. But tomorrow was Saturday, for whatever that meant.