"Goddammit!" Ichigo shouted, dismayed by the fact that they were running through the Koryuu current dimension yet again "Why are we going through here again!, didn't we take the official gateway?"
"Is there really such a thing like an official gateway?" Layne shouted back "I feel like we've been lied to"
"Quit bitching" Yoruichi called back to them, having returned to her cat form as a preference for travel, "We're at the exit already"
Unfortunately everyone was too busy adjusting to the light difference between the skyline of Karakara Town and the dark environment of the Koryuu current dimension, that they didn't notice the fact that they ground beneath their feet had disappeared into nothingness
Layne was the first to realize, and looked down, seeing seeing nothing but buildings far below him and muttered to himself
"Oh shit"
The group fell from the sky, shouting and screaming as the ground approached ever closer
A tremendous blast sounded, like the blast from a cannon and the group got hit by a huge cloth object, which bundled them all into a ball, a tangeld mess of body parts and their descent was halted as they shot upwards, propelled by the impact of the fabric they were caught in
As they were yelling so loudly they didn't hear the "Jinta Home Run!", but Layne felt the impact as a giant bat came crashing down on the ball, coincidentally, exactly where Layne's back was.
The ball began flying downwards even through a "Tessai Death Catch", until suddenly it stopped moving, and the fabric was pulled off the group, who were all splayed out on a flying carpet
"Welcome back everyone" Urahara said, his tone happy even though he didn't turn to face them, seeming to be driving the flying carpet
Layne and Ishida just groaned, while everyone else remained silent as Urahara turned to face them, something akin to apology in his demeanor
"Kurosaki-san…" Urahara began "Did someone, tell you about me?"
Ichigo had loosely relayed the gist of the story to Layne, Chad, Ishida & Orihime, so they had an idea of what he was talking about
"Yeah" Ichigo replied calmly "I heard"
Urahara took off his hat, and faced Ichigo, head down
"I'm really, really sorry"
Ichigo glanced around at the rest of his party, ending up catching Layne's eye, who shrugged as he noticed Ichigo's gaze upon him, expressing his entire opinion with a simple gesture of disinterest
Ichigo decided that it was a pretty good example to follow in this situation
"Don't do that" he told Urahara "I never said was pissed off or anything, It's not like you did something bad, and you helped us to get stronger and got us into Soul Society and everything…we are all grateful for your help"
Ichigo sat back down on the carpet "You should apologize to Rukia though, even though she'll say the same stuff I did"
Urahara turned to Layne, who raised an eyebrow
"And … Trell-kun"
Layne raised a finger to stop him
"Don't even think about it, Urahara-san, I found Joel, knowing all the information would of made no difference anyway...at least to me." Layne said dismissively
After that exchange, they all rode the carpet in silence for a few minutes until Orihime spotted a familiar landmark close by
"Ishida-kun? Isn't that your house?"
Ishida nodded, and stood up "Yes, Urahara-san, could you pull over here please?"
Urahara inclined his head and pulled the carpet over, stopping a short distance over Ishida's roof
"See ya Ishida," Ichigo said, as Ishida prepared to jump off the carpet, "If we need your help, we'll just call you"
"Have you forgotten…Kurosaki?"
"Eh?"
"You're a Shinigami and I'm a Quincy…The next time we meet, we're enemies"
And with that he jumped off the side of the carpet
"Damn Him," Ichigo fumed "Who the hell does he think he is?"
"He thinks one thing and says another" Orihime said, almost apologetically, and then perking up "But that's one of Ishida-kun's strong points
Layne smiled to himself as he watched Ichigo, Chad and Orihime interact. Hanging with these guys is going to be badass
Urahara pulled over the carpet again, presumably for Orihime because she said "I'll get off here then" and jumped off, waving as Chad, Ichigo and Layne waved back
Eventually they dropped off Chad and Ichigo and it was just Urahara, Yoruichi, Layne, Tessai, Jinta and Ururu on the carpet
"Where to then, Trell-san?" Urahara questioned
"Why are you asking me?" Layne replied lazily "I truly have no idea what I'm going to do now"
Urahara nodded and directed the carpet again, headed for Urahara's shop
Once they arrived at the shop, Tessai, Ururu and Jinta left to do whatever it was they did around the store when no one was watching, and Urahara led Layne and Yoruichi to the sitting table, where Layne unhooked his swords and placed them on the floor beside him as he sat down, and Yoruichi jumped up and sat down on the table
"So, Trell-san, what are your plans now?" Urahara asked, sitting down opposite from Layne, and offered him a glass of water, which Layne accepted thankfully
"Like I said, I have no idea what the deal is" Layne replied after emptying the glass he was given, placing his hands behind his head and leaning against a conveniently placed cabinet "I sorta figured that since I helped Ichigo's group, and by extension, You, that this was over... You wouldn't have any use for me anymore, and that you would force me to go back where I came from"
"The option is open, but we would have to seal your powers, cutting off all contact from your Zanpakuto Spirit" And your inner hollow Urahara added mentally
The sheer disgust on Layne's face showed what he thought of that idea, and answered for him
"Well, what else can I do?" Layne asked, a slight trace of distaste remaining in his voice after a brief pause "I don't want to go back... there is nothing for me back there, here i'm something...i'm relevant"
"How about you work here at the store?" Yoruichi spoke up, valiantly trying, yet failing miserably at keeping the smirk off her cat face "You could keep me company here, it gets very lonely here"
Her teasing had the desired effect, eliciting a look of jealousy from Urahara that he quickly hid with his fan, and Layne turned the same shade of red as a tomato and looked away.
"Don't say things that could be misconstrued" Layne said hastily, having caught the look on Urahara's face
"Anyway" Urahara said quickly, suddenly all business, "I regret to inform you that the Urahara Store has no open positions at this point in time, I thank you for your interest.
"…"
Layne had been rejected from jobs before in his lifetime... but it had never quite felt as personal as what had happened just now, it felt honestly awkward to be in the room at that exact moment, so Layne opened his mouth to try and remove the tension he perceived, but was interrupted by Tessai entering the room,
"Boss, we've finished"
"Ahh, wonderful, Trell-san, Yoruichi-san, would you follow me please"
Urahara led them down the ladder into the underground training area, and it was only now that Layne appreciated just how truly massive it was.
Layne and Moll had only received their training in one small area of it, and Urahara had set up his special Senkei gate in another area, but Urahara was leading them to neither of those places.
Layne began to notice that the way they were heading, the walls began to get higher and higher, like they were walking into a canyon
They rounded and corner and Layne stood, mouth agape as he stared at the sight of his house, completely reconstructed, looking almost brand new, and standing there, exceedingly out of place in the middle of this large canyon under Urahara's shop
Layne turned to look at Urahara, unable to close his mouth and form words because the utterly impossible sight of his house, HIS house standing good as new, had probably melted his brain down into mush and caused it to leak out his ears, but there were no visible signs of that so far
"Everything was sucked through my portal, so to distract ourselves as we waited for news from Soul Society we scoured Karakura for pieces and reconstructed the entire thing, I believe the inside will be as you left it as well" Urahara explained
His explanation fell on deaf ears however because Layne decided that running would take too much time and simply flashstepped into his house
Inside Layne looked around, It's all here! TV, Fridge, Moll's Room, Joel's Room, Computer, and My Room
Layne's house was a two level brown brick house, that used to house 3 people but after Layne's mother had died He'd had the entire house to himself, and so he moved most of the house's contents into one room and thrown some cloth over it, both to save time and to do his best to not remind himself, which had left the other rooms bare, until Joel and Moll had practically moved in with him and decorated the spare rooms with their own stuff
Urahara and Yoruichi entered the front door and looked around, Yoruichi whisting in appreciation, even though there were barely any furnishings in the main room she'd walked into
"Pretty nice place Layne" Yoruichi commented, while Urahara said nothing as he had seen it all before
"Yeah, this is my place, but Moll and Joel used to spend…"
Layne trailed off as he noticed a couple of things on the table that shouldn't have been there
His schoolbag and the contents of his pockets on the day he had been sucked through the portal
Seeing the bag, struck Layne with an idea
The couple of days, Ichigo walked down the halls of his school, a little disgruntled that he hadn't had much downtime to relax after returning from Soul Society, though the Hollow population had been giving him a break, his family wouldn't let up
He rounded the corner, coathangering the Keigo-blur that launched itself at him as he did
"O-su Keigo" he said, stepping over him
"Good morning Ichigo," greeted Mizuiro, also stepping over Keigo, who began muttering threats under his breath
"O-su Mizuiro" replied Ichigo
The two of them walked together until they reached the door to their classroom, making various small talk about their holidays
"Good Morning Kurosaki-kun!" Orihime waved and jumped around happily as Ichigo entered
Chad merely nodded, and Uryuu threw some light insult that Ichigo ignored
"Ichigoooo!" Keigo shouted yet again, having somehow recovered from Ichigo's attack earlier, and appeared behind him "What's up with that combo, Why is Chad, with Inoue-san, and Uryuu? That's like… Beauty and the Beast plus Glasses!"
"Nothing happened" muttered Ichigo, going to join Uryuu, Orihime and Chad, causing Keigo to wail "Nooooo, my fear of being the odd one out is coming true!"
A foreboding shadow caught in the corner of Ichigo's eye but he was too slow to react
"Goood Morning Hime!" Chizuru shouted, sneaking up behind Orihime and beginning to fondle her breasts
A foot slammed into Chizuru's face and she went flying backwards
"Jeez, All you ever do is try to get some" Tatsuki said disdainfully
"Ok Brats! Time to scurry into your seats!"
The teacher had arrived and slammed the door from behind her, seemingly oblivious to the small yelp of pain from the person she had slammed the door on
"Alright, listen up, there's a new student in today"
The door opened and Layne walked through, holding the bridge of his nose as nosebleed preventative, and muttering something under his breath darkly
Ichigo's eyes widened a little, Uryuu pushed his glasses up, Chad sweated a little and Orihime had to restrain herself from throwing out an enthusiastic greeting
The teacher talked a little, but Layne paid no attention, he was happy that he'd been able to surprise everyone by turning up at their school
When Layne had said to Urahara, "Why not just go to school?" Urahara had laughed, and told him to talk seriously
So on the fourth try, they got down to details
"So the house down here has electricity, gas and water?" Layne asked, having checked it out to find that it was exactly as he had left it as Urahara claimed
Urahara looked offended "Of Course, all my reconstructions are accurate down to the last detail"
Layne grinned "Then I'll stay down here, it's far enough out of your way…and I'm close enough to help out with Hollows and anything else that could crop up"
Later Layne would look back upon that moment and regret how prophetic and open ended that statement ended up being, but he had no way of knowing at that point in time
Urahara thought for a second "How about supplying yourself with food?"
Now it was Layne's turn to think "If you give me what you usually spend on groceries, plus a little extra, I'll do all the shop's shopping and my part can be payment...although you did say that there were no positions available..."
Urahara nodded again, it went against his tightassed soul, but he owed both Ichigo and Layne, as well as Rukia and everyone else and this could be part of it
He turned to leave, but then remembered something
"Trell-san, you never did tell me why you chose to turn down captaincy, and return to this world"
"Cause Ichigo did" Layne replied simply "I can't really explain it, but there's something in me that's telling me to stick close to Ichigo, that he's going to need my help… and anyway, that line was drawn and I pledged my devotion"
Urahara raised an eyebrow, even though Layne couldn't see it because Urahara had his back turned
"You do realize, from this point there is no turning back"
"If I was going to turn back I would have done it after you sucked me through that portal…and anyway, turning back is cheating"
Urahara grinned; Seemed like Layne was the right person to get
He left, conveniently forgetting to mention the haircut Layne was going to require to be allowed at Karakura High. Yoruichi would kill him for denying her some fun after all.
Layne was assigned a seat diagonally behind Ishida, and everyone took a second look at him, as he looked significantly different with his hair cut to school regulations
Ichigo had been privately under the opinion that Layne didn't actually have ears, because they had both always been completely covered by his ears
His hair didn't go over his ears anymore, and everyone could see the two large rings in each ear, as well as the two studs through his right helix, other students were already whispering amongst themselves about Layne's level of delinquency
The haircut was courtesy of Yoruichi, who ambushed him after he had gotten into his body, taken a shower, dressed and gone to scrounge some food from Urahara
She had been waiting for him as he left his house in the underground training area, with scissors and one hell of a nasty grin on her face
Layne had spotted the grin, and decided to try and run, but in his body his speed was no match for hers, and she had held him down and taken around three inches of hair off, before walking off, chortling to herself
All things considered, it didn't look to bad.
Lunchtime came around, and as the only one who didn't bring a lunch from home, Layne was walking from the Cafeteria to the roof, where Ichigo said that him, Chad and Ishida hung out
Layne took one look at the flight of stairs leading to the roof, and sighed "So they don't have elevators in the place do they" he muttered under his breath
When he (finally) made it to the top of the stairs and out the door, he looked around and caught side of Ichigo's group being accosted by a pair of jerks
As Layne got closer he caught the thread of the conversation
"This is real nice Kurosaki…I wasn't planning on it, but I can finish up with you right here and now" one of the jerks said, pulling out some brass knuckles and slipping them on
Layne was surprised, back where he came from the bullies only used their fists, the occasional knife was pulled to threaten, but no one actually used a weapon
Uryuu, Chad, Ichigo and their black haired friend had seen Layne approaching and didn't even look impressed as the guy with the knuckles stepped forward menacingly, though Ichigo's brown haired friend was going hysterical
Layne tapped the guy on the shoulder causing him to turn around
"Are you serious? This is a school"
"What the hell are you going to do about it?"
Layne punched the idiot in his glass jaw, and he went down hard
The other guy moved towards Layne but Ichigo kicked him in the face, dropping him
"Is it always like this?" Layne asked lightly, shaking his hand to get rid of the aftershock "Brass Knuckles... really? The hell kind of place is this?"
Ichigo and Chad nodded
The brown haired guy was still going hysterical "You're that new student! How do you know Chad and Ichigo already?"
Layne ignored him and sat down, beginning to eat
He kept going crazy but the black haired kid approached Layne "Forgive Asano-san over there, he isn't normal like everyone else"
Layne grinned through a mouthful of sandwich;
I could get to like this guy
"Mizuiro! Whyyyyyy!" Mr Asano sobbed
"Shut it Keigo" Ichigo said, slapping him on the back of the head
They returned to eating lunch as, Keigo and Mizuiro asked Layne questions which he had to make up answers for, like "What school did you transfer from", and "What sort of things he liked doing"
Some strange sound broke the monotony, and the Seal of Approval that Layne had tied to his belt rose into the air and started screeching "Hollow Hollow Hollow!"
Ichigo's also started sounding off and he jumped about 3 ft into the air, eliciting strange looks from Keigo and Mizuiro, who out of all of them, seemed to be unable to hear the Seal's warning call
Chad and Ishida gave Ichigo and Layne a look that said "Hollow?"
Ichigo nodded, and ran off, used to the routine of hollow cleansing from being guided by Rukia
It was stash your body, and run out, confident in your own invisibility.
Layne however was slow, not knowing where the best place to stash his body was, and he didn't know that spiritual bodies where invisible to those without powers.
So after spending about thirty minutes just trying to get out of the school without being seen, he realized he could just flashstep, and as such got to the party late
The hollows just kept coming, swarming Layne and Ichigo, who initially came to deal with a single hollow in a primary school close by to Karakura High, but one had become many, and now the skies were full of them, and now Ichigo and Layne had to clear them before they decide to feast on the P.E class down below
"Isn't there usually one at a time?" Layne asked idly, parrying a swipe with his sealed zanpakuto and quickly cleansing the hollow responsible "That's all i had to deal with the last few days"
"Getsuga Tensho!" Ichigo shouted, the blue crescent cutting a swathe through the remaining hollows, but they swarmed together to fill the gap
Layne stole a glance down at the school kids playing kickball, completely oblivious to the struggle going on a kilometer above their heads
This is really strange, we're fighting spiritual monsters to save people's souls, but we're completely invisible to the living people who we save, what an odd dynamic
Stabbing a hollow that tried to sneak up on him, he looked closer and amended the thought in his head slightly as he noticed someone staring directly at them
"Oi Ichigo" he called out, "I thought you said we were invisible to normal people?"
There was one person, literally staring at the two as they weaved through the hollows
It wasn't a student, and she had a maniacal grin on her face as she surveyed the two, and Layne also noticed she was wearing a red shihakusho
As if she became aware of Ichigo's and Layne's counter-scrutiny, she disappeared from Layne's sight and caused him to double take in surprise, nearly taking a hit from a hollow that moved in while we was distracted
The hollow died, and Layne checked around again "Strange," he muttered to himself "Might have been a trick of the light"
He dismissed the sight and went back to clearing hollows
"Drift!, Roxas!"
Unbeknownst to Layne, he and Ichigo had actually been watched, and the figure made her way into a building on the other side of town, via kicking down the door
"How was that, Kira?" one of the buildings inhabitants asked, moving to replace the door
"The carrothead had a real nice reiatsu, but I couldn't sense the other one, he's probably not worth my time whatsoever" Kira sighed, sitting down in a conveniently placed chair
"He was hiding his reiatsu behind the Orange Haired Shinigami" a third voice sounded, as he walked through the open door of the building
Various impressed noises sounded, and Kira leant forward on her chair "You followed me?"
"Of course, I guessed you may have use of my enhanced reiatsu sense" The third voice replied, sounding bored "Was i wrong?"
Kira threw her head back and laughed "This is what I like to hear!"
"Is there any way for you to get an accurate measure?" The first voice asked
"I could only tell that he was hiding his reiatsu and how he was hiding it, you'd have to get into a fight to get him to reveal the full extent of it"