Jim shook his head, this headache was causing him to both see and hear things, and there couldn't possibly be a short black haired girl in black kimono running around, hiding in the corner of his vision and disappearing whenever he turned to lay eyes directly on them, almost like they were directly avoiding him

He smiled and shook his head at his thought, his own hallucinations being afraid of him? What a strange reversal of the way they were usually supposed to work


"It's been two weeks and we haven't seen hide nor hair of those sick fucks…we're no closer to finding Layne than if we'd sitting around with our thumbs up our asses in the Seireitei"

Moll's complaints were bitter as she stood with her arms folded, scanning the streets below her, arms folded and her expression one of annoyance

"They came so suddenly and now we haven't heard a peep for them for over three weeks? I don't fucking buy it, we should be out hunting them down and bringing Layne back!"

Joel turned to look at her, his brow furrowed into a frown of exasperation

"Listen up Moll, I am going to say this only once, I agree with you, I want nothing more than to find the guy that stabbed me, return his sword violently and pull Layne out of whatever hell he's stuck in while it explodes behind us"

As Joel spoke he gripped the unfamiliar weapon strapped at his side, the Katana of blood that had nearly claimed his life bothered him every time he was reminded of it, but he'd needed to keep it close to him for whatever reason for his wounds to heal completely

He continued, pounding his hands together repeatedly for emphasis

"But. These. Are. The. Orders. And we will follow them!"

His reply caused Moll to take a step backwards, she didn't realized he'd been pushed so far

"Joel...I'm sorry… I just want him to be okay"

"We all do Moll, but if you start disobeying orders now and running off halfcocked you're going to lose more people that we care about…they already nearly got me"

"…Joel"

"I'm okay Moll…we'll get these bastards"


For the fifth time in the last hour Jim hit the mat hard, floored once again by Tatsuki

"Not bad 'Denkyu'" Tatsuki said with a smirk as she reached a hand down to help him up

Jim grinned as he accepted her hand and was pulled to his feet

"You heard about that hey?"

Tatsuki laughed "I don't think there's anyone at the school who hasn't heard about it Denkyu, you're famous now… though I would stay away from the maintenance staff for a while."

Jim shook his head as he accepted a towel from one of the other karate club members and wiped the sweat from his brow, his back beginning to ache from the fall he'd just taken and he declined when Tatsuki challenged him to another round

"Nah, I think I'm going to go home and rest, I can't spend my whole exchange having you beat the crap out of me"

Tatsuki laughed at that and waved him off, before roping another unfortunate victim into her arena


Having a friend like Tatsuki has been great, a lot of the people here are polite, but not interested in getting to know me… and some people…like Tatsuki's friend Inoue, the giant she's always with, and the jerk with the glasses seem to avoid me entirely, the culture is pretty insular here

Jim's ruminations depressed him somewhat, and he decided to take the scenic route back to Ichigo's house, hoping that some of Karakura town's sights would distract him from the dull ache in his side, and the hallucination of the girl in the black kimono that only seemed to appear in the corner of his eye and disappeared as soon as he paid attention to her


The figure reappeared in a building out of Jim's eyeline, watching him move off into the distance

"This human is very perceptive; if I didn't know better I'd say I'm more or less completely visible to him…but he seems to be irrelevant, and the Shinigami that have been assigned here are restless, and off balance…The Mountain is shaken by his near demise…and I believe we have a new toy… shall we take it for a test run?

The woman turned to look at the loose circle of other figures who had gathered behind her, Blood and Hookhand among them

"What do you say everyone, time for a little blood sport?"


Joel ducked instinctively, narrowly avoiding having his head lopped off by a flashing blade

Rolling forwards he sprang to his feet and span around to get a good look at his assailant

"Oh, well done Mountain-san, last time we met you had an unfortunate incident with my blade…which I'll be needing back from you" Blood sneered as he dropped the knife he'd been holding

"Joel!" Moll shouted in alarm, as she processed what had just happened

"Be careful what you wish for Moll… we just might get it"

A second slower and I would have really died…so that's how it's going to be

"Moll" Joel said slowly, withdrawing his zanpakuto "We need a limit break…now, Renji, Rukia, Ichigo, Nemu, Urahara-san, Yoruichi-san, everyone"

"You look like you're about to wet yourself Mountain-san, have I got you so afraid that you can't face me without all of your friends behind you?" Blood taunted him

"Shut the fuck up you ugly bastard" Moll shouted back, angry for Joel's sake

"Moll, limit break, please" Joel said calmly, before directing his attention to Blood, unhitching the sword at his side and tossing it on the ground in front of him

"If you want to fight me, you're going to need that" Joel said, indicating the blade on the ground with a tilt of his chin

"You're right, I'm terrified, I came really close to not existing anymore and that's killing me on the inside… but I can rise above, I don't have time to be paralyzed by fear right now… Make Your Choice, Riku"

Joel ran his hand over the side of his blade and it morphed from the sealed Katana into the batwing form of the Soul Eater

"I wonder if you can stomach being beaten by a coward?"


Jim sat on the side of the river, completely obvious to the gigantic hand emerging from the sky behind him.

"That one looks appetizing"