7: Fight

The spirit known as 'Taicho' didn't know what to do. He sat on the porch at the back of the shop, watching the snow be blown across the lawn, and feeling the cool, refreshing wind brush across his face. And this was all very pleasant, but he knew that something was wrong. He knew that a lot of things were wrong. For one thing, he didn't know who he was, or why he felt he had earned the title of 'Taicho'. He couldn't remember anything concrete about himself, or where he had come from. He didn't know why he was so worried about Watanuki when the boy left the wards around the shop or why this worry came from the fact the boy could see him. He didn't know why he shouldn't be seen, and why it was such a big issue that these people could see him.

But his biggest worry was the emptiness he felt. He knew that there was something very wrong with him. He was missing something, and the feeling of wrongness was soul-deep. He felt incomplete. In fact, if felt like a piece of his soul was missing.

He wanted to find this missing piece. Find it, locate it, reclaim it. He wanted him back. Whether 'him' was a separate entity that held all his memories, or simply how his brain had chosen to represent that important missing bit, Taicho didn't know, but unlike most gaps in his knowledge, this one didn't bother him. It did not matter in the end what exactly 'him' was, for in the end, 'him' would be found, and all the lost memories would return.

And he had to find 'him' soon. The emptiness felt like a black hole; a whirlpool draining what was left of his memories and his energy. Taicho guessed that this weakness would continue to worsen. Where it ended he was not sure. He assumed the most probable outcome was his death. From the occasional looks he caught the human Watanuki giving him, it was clear the boy thought so too.

Taicho may have forgotten many things he once knew, but one thought lodged in his brain like a tree in the soil: I will not die.

Since they had arrived in this world, they days had had a specific pattern to them. Get up, eat, and search for Hitsugaya. Eat lunch where they could get it, and then continue the search. Ichigo and Renji returned to their temporary home once they were hungry. After they ate, Renji would leave again to go drag Matsumoto off the streets.

Today was no different, and the red-headed vice-captain had spent most of that morning looking for Hitsugaya-taicho. Like every other day, he couldn't find him. Renji wished he wasn't on this mission. Day after day of searching, with nothing to show for it made him wish he could battle an army of Hollow instead. At least then, he would feel like he was actuality doing something. Searching for Hitsugaya-taicho was important, but every passing day made it more and more likely that the youngest captain of the Gotei 13 would not be found. That depressing fact weighed down on everyone in the search party, but no one dared mention it, for fear of what Matsumoto would do to them.

As Renji glared down a street he knew that he had searched two days ago, he decided that a break was in order. The only question was where. There had been that river with cherry trees lining it, he recalled. Maybe there would be a good place to try and shake off this damn pitying feeling.

A wonderful plan, however, it was totally scrapped when a feeling of reiatsu-induced vertigo swept over him. He followed his senses to what he guessed was a high school.

Standing on the roof of the school, he felt the strange sense of vertigo again. There seemed to be two conflicting spirit pressures coming from the building, and they clashed against each other, their opposing natures creating strange currants in the air. It felt like he was standing near the 12th division's Super Hollow Bait that had gone off just inside a kido ward. As he watched an area that was probably the place where the students had their P.E. class, Renji couldn't stop himself from reviewing what he knew about their mission. There was something weird going on here, and it might affect the mission. Break time was over.

Though they had already checked practically every nook and cranny in the town, they didn't leave. Matsumoto insisted that she could feel Hyorinmaru's reiatsu, albeit faintly. Her companions didn't question her about it. Ichigo knew he couldn't sense his way out of a paper bag (and therefore never doubted anyone when they said 'I can sense –insert type of reiatsu here-' because he couldn't really say they were wrong), and Renji knew that a lieutenant knew the feel of their captain's power almost better than they did their own. If Matsumoto said Hyorinmaru was here, Hyorinmaru was here. And it followed that if Hyorinmaru was here, so was Captain Hitsugaya. All they had to do, Matsumoto insisted, was find him.

This was easier said than done. There was absolutely no sign of the kid, despite the fact that Hyorinmaru was in the area, and the red-headed shinigami couldn't help but wonder if they could find him, or if he even wanted to be found.

A crowd of cheerfully chatting humans interrupted Renji's train of thought. As he watched disinterestedly, a wave of swirling vertigo swept over him, and he suddenly snapped upright, all his attention focused on the group. The strange spirit pressures were coming from someone in that group.

In two flash steps, Renji was perched in one of the trees with the best vantage point. If one or more of these kids were making that weird affect… While he wasn't exactly sure what relevance it held, that bit of information might be important.

Gym class was always the worst. Since he was outside, (unprotected) they would start appearing. They usually wouldn't come inside the fence, but it was very hard to ignore them, and Watanuki loathed having to stare at things no one else could see. It made him stand out, and he knew he looked like a freak. He wished he could just ignore them, but too often, they would try and make a grab for him, some way or another, and he had to know where they were at all times. And that meant staring at 'nothing'.

This year, however, had been much better, in terms of not seeing invisible monsters than any previous year. He had wondered why until Yuuko-san had explained about Doumeiki's power to repel spirits. Since the annoying individual was in his gym class, it made sense, then, that he wouldn't see spirits during gym. He just wished that this good fortune had nothing to do with Doumeiki.

Watanuki had gotten used to having a normal P.E. class, so when he spotted the red-headed man in a shihakusho, and the strange, buff baboon with a snake tail, he was caught off guard.

"Wha-" Any inquiry he might have made was cut off when the soccer ball hit him square in the face.

Eyes watering, and the feeling of knives being shoved up his nose did nothing to sweeten Watanuki's temper, so when his vision cleared, and he saw Doumeiki standing above him, holding the soccer ball, (he assumed that it was the offending ball, just because it was Doumeiki, despite the fact that there were dozens of identical balls on the field) he was ready to start ranting at the world. Unfortunately, the throbbing in his head made it extremely difficult to cuss that stupid idiot out.

Doumeiki regarded the boy on the ground impassively as a few classmates asked him if he was ok. Not too many, though. Watanuki Kimihiro was a weirdo, and the less anyone had to do with him, the better was the general attitude toward the bespectacled boy.

As Watanuki politely waved off the few inquiries his blow to the head got him, Doumeiki could see how much the spirits had affected Watanuki's dealings with the world. Nobody asked his if he was ok, because in the past his answers had often involved things that others simply couldn't see or 'just didn't exist.' Even now, when the cause of his injury was obvious and mundane, no one cared. They had gotten used to not caring, and Watanuki had gotten used to them.

Doumeiki knew that the next thing Watanuki would do was flail about and shout verbal abuse. The archer didn't want to sit through that today, as he had already gotten an earful since Himawari-chan was out sick that day. Watanuki didn't yell half as much when she was around, however, she was not there to stem the torrent of shouting that was about to begin, Doumeiki interrupted him, distracting the boy, and temporarily saving his eardrums.

"What did you see?"

"What?" Watanuki's attitude immediately switched from offensive to defensive. "What do you mean?"

"You saw something that startled you. What is it?"

Watanuki hesitated. He still wasn't used to having someone his own age know about his ability and not only believe him, but take him seriously. Some days, he half expected Doumeiki to start telling him that he was crazy or schizo like pretty much everyone else did. Well, everyone who didn't live in a half-invisible shop. "There's a red-headed man in that tree," he gestured to the tree vaguely. Pointing directly at it, he had learned, would bring attention. And that kind of attention was always something Watanuki wanted to avoid. "In a shihakusho. There's also a really buff baboon thing that has a snake tail. Can you see them?"

After gazing in the direction Watanuki had indicated, Doumeiki said, "No. They must be spirits."

"Of course! Why else would I be the only one able to see them? Geeze. That guy reminds me of something, though…" Watanuki hit his fist into his palm as he recalled something. "I remember, the other day! Yuuko-san gave me the day off, and told me to go to the park."

"Did you?"

"I did!" Watanuki snapped. "I didn't mean to, though! Anyway, there was a lady there, and she was dressed the same way he is. Pretty much." He felt his face color as he recalled how… open the woman's gi had been. "And she said she was surprised I could see her. So I guess she was a spirit too."

"Seems that way."

"I wonder what he's doing here?"

"I can't see him. How should I know?"

These humans were kind of weird. Well, all humans were weird, but this group was stranger than most. Right now, Renji was watching one human in glasses flail around like a fish on dry land, shouting at another human who just stood there like the boy with glasses didn't exist. They way they acted vaguely reminded the red-headed shinigami of how Ichigo and the Quincy acted. What was his name? Oh, right Uryu Ishida.

Anyway, these two seemed to be the source of the strange clash of reiatsu, though it was hard to tell which had what reiatsu. How could he find out…?

Watanuki wasn't sure he wanted to leave the school. The strange spirits had not left yet, and he wasn't sure they were friendly. Sure the other spirit who'd been dressed like that had been friendly enough, but the thing about spirits was that even if they were friendly, unfortunate things tended to happen around them.

"So they're still there?"

"Doumeiki! You jerk, don't sneak up on people!"

Doumeiki was privately astounded that Watanuki could go from contemplative to frothing with rage in the time it took to inhale. "I didn't. You just don't notice any of your surroundings. So, are they still there?"

Watanuki glared viciously at the taller boy before turning his glare back outside. "Yeah, they're still there. Why can't they leave me alone?"

Doumeiki shrugged. "I don't know. I'm not a spirit."

While Watanuki raged at that reply, Doumeiki debated whether or not he should skip archery practice to walk him to Yuuko's shop. He wouldn't like being looked after, and would whine the whole time, but if it meant that he got to the shop safely… wasn't that more important than his hearing? But, then again, was he even in danger?

"I wonder..." Doumeiki looked at Watanuki, whose mood had switched again. He looked thoughtful, now. "Rangiku-san, the spirit at the park, said that she was looking for somebody. Would he be looking too?"

"Who are they looking for?"

"Hitsugaya Toshiro."

"Never heard of him."

"Figures. You're no help what so ever," Watanuki grumbled.

"How am I supposed to know a spirit that I can't even see?"

"AARG! Just shut up! Stop being a jerk!" Privately, Watanuki knew he had a point; Doumeiki couldn't see spirits. How could he possibly know about this person- presuming Hitsugaya Toshiro was a spirit, of course. Then again, he did know all kinds of stuff about the supernatural- things his grandfather had told him. "Didn't your grandfather ever tell you anything about him?"

"No." Doumeiki paused, then said, "What about Yuuko? Maybe she knows."

"I haven't gotten a chance to tell her yet," Watanuki growled. "I'm going to tell her when I get to the shop."

"Alright."

"Hmph. Whatever, I need to get to work."

Doumeiki watched as the boy who saw spirits strode away. He doubted Watanuki would let him walk with him, even if the stubborn idiot was being followed by a spirit. "I guess I'll go to practice today, then…"

The red-headed spirit was still following him, Watanuki knew that. It was even more unnerving, knowing that the strange demon monkey was following too; it was unusual for such radically different spirits to be seen together. That meant there was something Watanuki didn't know, and he had learned that it was often the unknown that presented the most dangers.

He sped up, almost breaking into a jog.

The fence wasn't too far away.

Watanuki risked a glance behind him, at the fierce looking man. Who wasn't there. Panicked, he searched the area for the strange pair, a flicker of hope rising as he wondered if they had left. That hope was extinguished as Watanuki spotted the two strange spirits not three feet away from him, standing on the fence like it was solid ground.

Startled, he jumped back with a yelp. The red head looked at him with a calculating stare, as if trying to decide something. Somehow, the look was mirrored on the face of the baboon-monkey. This close, Watanuki could see the details on the two spirits. The man had a white bandana tied around his forehead, and carried a katana in a sheath. The strange baboon with the snake tail had black, abstract markings on its arms and body. They made an intimidating pair. Or trio, if you wanted to count the snake.

"Hey, you," the man called down at him. "Can you hear me?"

Watanuki nodded nervously as he got to his feet.

"Huh. I suppose I'm not surprised. I mean, you've got some of the highest reiatsu I've ever felt in a human, and your reiatsu feels like Hollow Bait. What the hell's up with that?"

"I'm sorry, what is Hollow Bait?" Watanuki asked. He hoped that Hollow Bait was something inedible, and that these spirits wouldn't want to eat him. They had moved ahead of him, and he hadn't seen them move. If they decided that he was on the menu, there would be no escaping them.

"Doesn't matter, really. I've just been curious, and I needed a break from this mission," the spirit shrugged. The baboon-spirit shrugged as well, in time with the human spirit. Its mouth moved, but Watanuki couldn't hear anything. The red-headed spirit didn't show any outward signs that he heard the baboon either, but he waited briefly until the baboon was finished before saying, "Oh, sorry, I didn't introduce myself. Abarai Renji, Vice Captain of the 6th Division."

"Oh, er…" Watanuki hesitated. Yuuko-san had told him that knowing a birth name gave an individual power over that person. Knowing that, Watanuki wasn't sure that he wanted a random spirit having that power over him. At the same time, he didn't want to be rude to a spirit with a sword. Fortunately, he was struck with inspiration- a diversion tactic. "What about that other spirit?"

The Vice-Captain of the 6th division looked confused. "What other spirit?" he glanced around, searching for what the human had noticed that he had not. The baboon/snake copied him, looking where Abarai looked, and turning in eerie synchrony when he turned.

"The spirit standing right next to you. The one…" he paused. The phrase 'that looks like a monkey with a snake tail for a head,' he realized, sounded very rude, and the spirit in question looked as if it could pulverize him into meat jelly. Insults to such a spirit would be a Very Bad Idea. "With the black markings," he finished instead.

Both spirits stared at him for a moment while the words sunk in. Then, their eyes (all six of them) widened, with that same synchronous thing they had going on. The shock was clearly visible, even on the snake's face. "You…" the red-headed spirit finally said. "You… can see… you can see Zabimaru?" His tone sounded somewhere between awed and disbelieving.

"Is that the baboon-snake spirit standing beside you?"

"Yeah…" the spirit said slowly. "That's Zabimaru. How the hell can you see him?"

Watanuki was a little surprised at this question. Why shouldn't he be able to see Zabimaru? Wasn't he a spirit as well? "Well, I can see you," he started to say, but was cut off.

"No, that doesn't matter. You're not supposed to see zanpakuto spirits unless you're training for bankai, simple as that." The man was starting to look uneasy, and very freaked out, as he contemplated what was going on. "I know I'm not training for bankai right now. So. How the hell can you see Zabimaru?"

Watanuki was used to having humans freak out about his abilities, but for the most part, spirits didn't really question him on the 'how can you see us.' With spirits, it was generally, 'can you see us? Oh, really? Ok, then' and then they went through with whatever plans they had to ruin his life in some way, shape or form- er, got on with their lives. He'd never had a spirit question his ability to see other spirits before, and he really wasn't sure how to handle this. All he could think to say on the subject was the truth. "I was born with the ability to see spirits. I see what I see. That's all I know, sorry." When the man gave no response, and continued staring at him, Watanuki felt he needed to add something. "They usually try to eat me," he offered.

That got the red-head's attention. "What? Man that sucks, kid, but I suppose it figures, I guess. Especially with the way your reiatsu feels," he said, not unsympathetically.

"Er, how does my, ah, reiatsu feel?" Watanuki asked. "Like 'Hollow Bait'? What is that?"

"Well, Hollows are warped spirits of humans who eat the souls of other humans. And for some reason, something that attracted Hollows was invented, called Hollow Bait. Your reiatsu feels like the energy that Hollow Bait gives off," Renji explained.

"I… see." That was a lie, but Abarai-san didn't need to know that. There were other things that the red-headed vice captain didn't need to know- like Watanuki's real name. Yuuko-san had- "Oh crap." Yuuko-san! The shop! Work! "I'm late!" He was going to be late for work! Watanuki took off, sprinting towards the shop, not really caring if the spirits followed him; they hadn't seemed hostile at the time, and if he could get to the fence, it didn't matter if they wanted to eat him or not.

Renji briefly wondered if following the human was a good idea. It didn't last very long when he realized that the alternative to chasing the human was going back to the depressing duty of searching for Hitsugaya-taicho. Besides, a human like this one was bound to attract trouble, and by following him, Renji would be able to help him out of any trouble he might get into with Hollows. That was a shinigami's job, wasn't it? There was also the small, infinitesimal, practically nonexistent chance that this kid might actually know where Hitsugaya-taicho was.

A/N: I made up the 'Super Hollow Bait,' in case anyone cares, or couldn't tell.

I'm really sorry about the late updates, but Real Life started pistol-whipping me in the face. I had also run out of backlog chapters, so just as I needed time to actually sit down and WRITE something, Real Life decided, 'No, you don't get your time. I'm just going to sit here and rub it in your face that you're such a procrastination loser.' Most of that quote belongs to Littlekuriboh. (Who is an awesome, awesome person. If you don't know who he is, you should.) So, in the end, I'm very, very late with this update, and I've gotten more projects in my head, but don't worry, weekly updates will most likely return by the end of this month. I hope.

Please review? –hopeful look-