Chapter IX

"So," Ikkaku drawled as he leaned against the table, "where's Ichigo?"

The tip of Kon's cue glanced off the edge of the ball and dug a hole into the felt of the pool parlor's table. He looked up nervously to see Ikkaku grinning at him.

"I am Ichigo. Ikkaku, you feeling alright?"

"Yeah, okay. How come you're not runnin' around going 'pyon' or anything?"

"I'm - not Ichigo. Fine. Mod soul. We don't do that stuff."

"That cancelled program?"

Kon wondered if he could outrun soul reapers if they were in artifical bodies. Probably. Then again, Ikkaku didn't suddenly seem concerned with getting him destroyed according to regulations. "I'm the last one. You called me Ichigo."

"Wonderin' about that. Was I s'posed to call you 'not-Ichigo'?"

Kon snorted and crossed his arms. "My name's Kon. Just take your turn!"

Ikkaku sank his last two solids, then the eight-ball. "So where's Ichigo?"

"Dunno. He just takes off and tells me to act normal. Don't tell Tatsuki. I'll rack up again?"

Ikkaku handed Kon the triangle and moved aside to let him set up the table.

Tatsuki followed Yumichika outside and down the street. "I don't think they were listening."

"Well, no. There's something Ikkaku needs to talk to Kurosaki-kun about, though. Confidential. You know." He shrugged, then smiled.

Tatsuki stopped. Raised an eyebrow. "You guys know that's not Ichigo, right?"

Yumichika almost tripped over a crack in the sidewalk and flashed her a confused look. "That's what they needed to talk about, yes. Did Ikkaku tell you that too?"

Tatsuki frowned and rubbed the back of her neck. It was nice to have confirmation that Ichigo wasn't- for lack of a better word- Ichigo, but that sort of got her wondering where Ichigo really was, and what he was doing and why he wasn't telling her - "No. He just hasn't felt like Ichigo lately. He's not that good at pool, either."

"You've had spiritual energy for quite some time, then. If you recognize his."

Tatsuki shrugged. "Not until a couple months ago. Before summer vacation."

"When you started seeing hollows?"

"Yeah."

"You should ask Ikkaku to take you out on patrol sometime, if he hasn't already brought it up. You can't exactly learn to fight hollows if you never actually fight hollows." Yumichika ducked into a convenience store and headed for the drinks section. "It'll be fun, I think."

Tatsuki swung her arms to loosen up her shoulders and cracked her knuckles while she followed him in. "I'll probably get in the way. That's how it always turns out, right?"

"You're strong enough to take on most of the hollows we run into on patrol. And Ikkaku won't let you get hurt."

"It's not that, it's-" Tatsuki picked up a bottle of some opaque white drink and fiddled with the cap.

"It's?"

"I don't like it when other people need to bail me out. Besides," Tatsuki continued with a sideways glance, "I thought you'd want to spend more time with him."

"Well, yes. But patrol's so boring and he always hogs the fights."

"So you do like him!"

"Different subject!"

"I'm right, right?"

"You humans have such weird taste in drinks, help me pick one?"

"Stop changing the subject-"

"I'm not changing the subject- well okay, yes I am-"

Tatsuki dragged him off to the cashier with an armful of drinks, grinning. Yumichika protested when she paid for them, but she cut him off by reminding him that they'd been paying for everything ("But we're supposed to-") and that they were too old-fashioned ("We're old; what did you expect?").

"You know," Yumichika muttered on the way back to the pool hall, "if anything were to happen between me and Ikkaku, we would've resolved it years ago."

Tatsuki was about to tell him that that wasn't really true and she didn't believe a word of it, but Yumichika cut her off with, You're quite free to pursue him! before ducking inside with a laugh.

"Tatsuki-chan bought you guys drinks! Not sure which ones you'll like, though."

Kon ended up with some strawberry-flavored drink and ended up scowling at Tatsuki on Ichigo's behalf. Ikkaku complained about not having beer, but seemed satisfied with coffee, and Yumichika had grabbed a can of tea for himself. Ikkaku was in the middle of racking up for the last game when Yumichika said, "Let's switch up the teams a bit! Me and Tatsuki-chan versus you two."

"Isn't that sort of uneven?"

Yumichika picked two cues off a rack and handed one to Tatsuki. "Well, I'm getting the hang of this game. I think we can take you down."

"We can totally take them down." Tatsuki and Yumichika high-fived.

Kon rolled his eyes. "They disappear for half an hour and suddenly they're friends."

Ikkaku flashed him a grin and clapped him on the shoulder. "This'll be easy."

"Better not underestimate us."

"Remember the last time you underestimated Tatsuki-chan?"

"Let it go already!"

Yumichika sighed and tipped the last few drops of tea into his mouth. "You know, I honestly expected us to win after he said that."

Tatsuki crossed her arms and frowned. "I did, too. You always jinx yourself. We only got, what, three turns?"

"Four. Ikkaku's accustomed to brutalising his opponents, I suppose. It's a little strange to be on the receiving end."

Ikkaku laughed and spun the tray on a finger before he started returning the balls to their places. "Just gotta know how to hit the right spot."

Yumichika choked and had a coughing fit in a corner while Kon and Tatsuki flashed each other confused looks. Ikkaku changed the subject before they had a chance to ask him what was so funny. "Everyone's heading home?"

"Yeah, we both have homework."

Yumichika looked at Tatsuki like she'd just said the most ridiculous thing ever. "You do homework?"

"Well, it's not hard," Tatsuki conceded. "It's just boring so it takes longer."

"Don't I know it."

"Ikkaku, you don't do paperwork."

"Yeah well, I get bored just watchin' you do it."

Ikkaku dumped his gigai onto the guest futon and threw a blanket over it. Yumichika rolled a soul candy in his palm and frowned. "What if Mizuho walks in and sees that you're not breathing?"

"Better'n Mizuho walking in and seeing me cowering under the bed. Or you cursin' them out. Lieutenant's got a pretty sick sense'a humor."

Yumichika stuffed the soul candy back into its dispenser and struggled out of his artificial body while Ikkaku checked his soul phone. "Couple hollows across town."

"I thought we were doing the boring patrol?"

"Kuruma-whatever's doing ghosts."

"And you'll hog the hollows."

"Hey, you might get lucky. We're takin' Mizuho and Keigo out for dinner in a couple days."

Yumichika paused, both hands on his gigai's shoulders and feet still solidly attached. "Oh. Why?"

"We owe 'em?"

"I know, I know. But Mizuho will be all over you."

Ikkaku grabbed a fistful of Yumichika's uniform and pulled him completely free of his gigai. "Same as always."

"Point. Where?"

"Lettin' Mizuho decide."

"I always knew you were suicidal, but I didn't think you were suicidal."

"It's one dinner. Ya won't die."

Yumichika very pointedly adjusted his uniform. Ikkaku ignored him and passed through the wall to land on the street, then flash-stepped to a nearby roof, tapping Hoozukimaru on his shoulder while he waited. Yumichika joined him a few seconds later, still running his fingers through his hair. "Shouldn't take more than a few seconds to get across town. You left holes in the sidewalk again."

Ikkaku grinned and disppeared in a flash of black.

Yumichika tapped Ikkaku on the arm and glanced over the edge of the apartment building's roof. "Ikkaku, is that who I think it is?"

Ikkaku shrugged him off and muttered, "If you say Ichigo, distract 'im while I take care of it."

"It's not Ichigo."

"Then just make sure no one comes around while I-"

"It's Tatsuki-chan!"

Ikkaku heaved a sigh. "I'm not even surprised."

"Want me to get her out of here?"

"No. There's only one hollow." Ikkaku joined Yumichika at the edge. "An' she's not attacking it or anything."

"Well, she's a smart girl. Also not, you know, you."

He flashed Yumichika a dirty look and dropped twenty stories to street level to clap a hand over Tatsuki's mouth. She had both hands on his wrist, ready to slam him into the nearest wall until he whispered, "Hollow around the building. Wanna take it?" while she had a minor heart attack.

"Are there any more?" Tatsuki asked once she could breathe normally again.

Ikkaku shrugged. "They turn up as the night goes on."

"I wanna see how you guys fight this one, then." Tatsuki headed around the building, expecting Ikkaku to go ahead of her, but he dragged her back by the collar.

"Wait. Get up on the roof and stay with Yumichika."

"Um."

"Right." Ikkaku glanced up the building and watched Yumichika wave to him a few times. Tatsuki looked at him impassively, like You're kidding, right? and he rubbed the back of his neck. "Listen, you trust me?"

"Sure."

"Good."

Without warning, Ikkaku wrapped a hand around Tatsuki's shoulder, hooked an arm behind her knees to scoop her up and launched himself off the ground, leaping between two buildings to get to the top of the apartment complex. Some time between the second and third jumps, Tatsuki had fisted both hands on the front of his uniform and pulled it so tight he'd be choking if it weren't for his incredibly strong neck muscles. Or so Ikkaku liked to think.

"You couldn't just flash-step?" Yumichika half-scolded once he set Tatsuki back on her feet.

"I have a hard enough time doin' that with just me."

Tatsuki took a very long, shaky breath and very casually sat on the low wall that went around the roof while Ikkaku ignored both her and Yumichika to drop onto the hollow below's head. If no ghosts were in any immediate danger and no hollows were popping up all over the city yet, he figured he could have a little fun. Tatsuki leaned onto an elbow to watch the carnage, and Yumichika elbowed her playfully on the arm.

"What?"

"That was fun, right?"

"Fun like a broken roller coaster."

They watched Ikkaku duck a swipe, then move back a few meters to avoid any more property damage than strictly necessary. Yumichika's phone went off and he pulled it out of his pocket with a sigh before he shouted from the roof that there was another hollow somewhere else. Tatsuki leaned over his arm to see what he was checking on the phone, and by the time she looked back at the fight on the ground, the hollow was in the process of disintegrating and Ikkaku had flash-stepped to the roof beside Yumichika.

Tatsuki decided that she had to learn that move sometime. Ikkaku rounded on her after Yumichika briefed him on the new hollow and scowled in her face. "What were you doin' out here, anyway?"

"It's like two blocks from my house. I wanted to make sure it doesn't get any closer."

"Were you gonna attack it?"

Tatsuki scoffed. "Are you kidding me? I wasn't even gonna go near it unless it got too close to my place."

Ikkaku nodded once- half in approval, half thoughtful. "How soon do you hafta be home?"

"Doesn't matter. My parents are out, but I should probably head back."

Yumichika shrugged. "Or you could, you know, not."

"What?"

"Not head home, he means. You were gonna take on the next hollow, right?"

Tatsuki bit her lip. "You guys are a horrible influence."

Ikkaku grinned like he'd already won. "Right?"

"Fine- wait! There's no way I can just meet you guys there?"

Yumichika dismissed her with a wave. "You're not fast enough."

"I run pretty fast."

"Not fast enough."

Tatsuki rubbed the back of her neck and frowned. On the one hand- leaping up buildings? It was pretty fun. In a broken roller coaster sort of way, complete with pants-wetting terror and images of falling a hundred feet to her death.

"Look, you can piggyback an' I'll run slow or somethin' if it's too scary-"

"Ikkaku, you could just flash-step Tatsuki-chan."

"You're better with passengers-"

"Passengers like Vice-Captain, but anyone bigger and-"

"Okay, okay. Hey, you trust me?"

"No-"

Tatsuki thought she heard Ikkaku say, Too bad! just before he wrapped an arm around her waist. The town seemed to jerk and blur around them before it snapped back into focus, then blurred again. She felt a wave of nausea as Ikkaku suddenly slowed down, then twisted on the landing so his shoulder hit the ground first.

Yumichika pulled Tatsuki to her feet and then extended a hand for Ikkaku to grab. "That was pretty nice of you."

"Told you I was bad at- what was?"

Yumichika sighed. "Never mind. You have grass stains on your uniform."

"How can I have stains on a black unif- you alright?" Ikkaku paused in his attempts to twist his head far enough around to see his back when Tatsuki rubbed her mouth.

"I feel kinda sick."

"Suck it up. Hollow's waiting around in the playground just through those trees. Kinda stupid."

Yumichika glared at him for being insensitive, but Ikkaku shrugged and Tatsuki immediately forgot about being nauseous. "No, a lot of high schoolers meet here at night. This one's mine, right?"

"I'll take over if you lose."

"I won't lose."

"Well, don't die either."

"Ikkaku!"

"What? I don't wanna hafta file the paperwork."