( Edit:10/4/16: So, someone pointed out how OP Orihime's healing ability would be and I wanted to address this immediately, so I will fix my description of her semblance in the Author's Note at the bottom of the chapter. Her healing factor will be toned down a lot compared to the actual manga or show. And I am sorry for not explaining this better, I'll try my best to make sure something like this doesn't happen again.)
Stay Together
"Wow, they're really going all out with this," Ichigo looked around at the city, decorations and banners were everywhere. The somewhat bleak street were now blooming with life and activity as the citizens prepared for the upcoming Vytal Festival.
"Well of course they are. The Vytal Festival is the largest event in the entire kingdom of Vale," Rukia explained the subject as if she were an expert, like Ichigo, Orihime was currently mesmerized by the amount of preparation put into the festival. Tatsuki looked at her teammates and sighed.
"Shouldn't we go and size up the competition?"
"Actually, that is a great idea," Ichigo and Orihime nodded at Rukia's approval of the proposed plan.
"So, where to?", Rukia looked at Ichigo with a bewildered expression on her.
"What do you mean 'where to'? The docks Ichigo! Geez, you act like you've never been to the Vytal Festival before…", the short girl took a step back as Ichigo looked at her with a confused expression.
"Don't tell me…", the orange haired boy nodded causing her to gasp. "How haven't you gone to the Vytal Festival?!"
"Well to be fair, none of us have," Orihime spoke up causing Rukia to gasp once again...and even louder than before.
"Yea, you don't really get to go these big city events when you live in a small town by the mountains," said Tatsuki, Rukia nearly screamed as they started to walk to the docks.
"And none of you ever wanted to go?", Ichigo shrugged as they walked.
"Believe me, all of us wanted to, but we were busy with combat school so, none of us really cared all that much," Ichigo started to look at the well decorated city once more.
"I gotta say though, This is a lot more than I was expecting," as they continued to walk, they noticed some familiar faces darted past them.
"Was that Ruby's team?"
"I think so," Ichigo looked over his shoulder at Tatsuki.
"Wanna go see why they're in such a rush?"
"I guess, I mean it must be something important.:
"Alright, let's go then!", Ichigo turned on his heels and began to sprint in the opposite direction as he was soon followed by the rest of his team.
"Salutations!", Ichigo turned the corner and stopped as he saw team RWBY hundled around something...well, from the looks of it, someone. The members of the team simply looked at the girl on the ground with a confused expression on their face.
"Um, hello."
"Are you...okay?"
"I'm wonderful. Thank you for asking," Ichigo just stood behind the four girls as his team quickly caught up with.
"Ichigo! What's going o-", Tatsuki stopped and stared at the scene that was unfolding in front of her. Ruby looked back and awkwardly waved as the rest of team RIOT arrived before turning back around.
"Ichigo what is happening?", Rukia leaned over and whispered as Ichigo just stared.
"Um, I, uh, I have no idea," it was at this time that Yang chimed in on her team's conversation with the strange girl.
"Do you ...wanna get up?"
"Yes," the mystery girl flipped herself back onto her feet causing the two teams to back up a bit. Ichigo whispered to his teammates with a puzzled look on his face.
"Should I be worried or impressed here?", they all just shrugged and turned back to the girl.
"My name is Penny! It's a pleasure to meet you!", the uncomfortable air got thicker as Penny randomly decided to introduce herself.
"Hi Penny. I'm Ruby."
"I'm Weiss."
"Blake."
"Are you sure you didn't hit your head?", Blake quickly hit Yang for the comment.
"Oh, I'm Yang," Penny looked behind the group and waved at Ichigo and his team. Ichigo awkwardly waved back.
"Uh, hi, I'm Ichigo."
"I am Rukia."
"Tatsuki."
"Hey Penny! I'm Orihime, it's nice to meet you!", Tatsuki sighed at her friend's overly bubbly personality.
"It's a pleasure to meet you!", Weiss looked at her suspiciously.
"You already said that."
"So I did!"
"Well, sorry for running into you."
"Take care friend!", Ruby waved at the girl as everyone began to walk away.
"Okay, that was odd," Ichigo blurted this out as they walked down the street, Yang nodded in agreement.
"She was weird…", Weiss paid no mind to these comments and set her eyes on her current goal.
"Now. Where did that Faunus riffraff run off to?", the group suddenly stopped.
"What did you call me?", it was Penny, how she got ahead of them so fast was currently one of the many questions running through their minds at the moment. Weiss pointed to Yang and began to quickly look behind the group and back at Penny.
"Oh, I'm really sorry, I definitely didn't think you hear me."
"No, not you…", Penny walked past Weiss and Yang before pointing at Ruby, "You!"
"Me?!", Ruby began to nervously stumble with her words due to the sudden amount of pressure placed on her.
"I-I don't know, I-what I-uh,uh"
"You called me 'friend'. Am I really your friend?"
"Ummmmmm", Ruby looked back at the group, who were all signaling her to say 'no'.
"Ya, sure! Why not?", everyone had a horrified look on their face as they fell over, Penny smiled brightly before laughing cheerfully.
"Sensational!", she then looked Ruby right in the eyes, "We can paint our nails, and try on clothes, and talk about cute boys!", Ruby leaned over to Weiss, who was currently getting back up, and groaned.
"Is this what it was like when you met me?"
"No, she seems 'far' more coordinated"
"So," Yang decided to speak up, "What are you doing in Vale?", Penny looked over at here with a straight face.
"I'm here to fight in the tournament."
"Wait, you're fighting in the tournament?"
"I'm combat ready!", Penny turned to Weiss and gave a quick salute.
"Yea, we're going to go...Later!", Ichigo waved before sprinting away, Weiss turned to Rukia.
"You guys aren't going to leave,,,right?", Rukia smiled nervously as Tatsuki took off.
"Sorry but...we have errands! Yes, we have errands to run!", Rukia grabbed Orihime by the arm and began to run.
"I did not have the willpower to stay there any longer! What is with that girl?!", Ichigo was currently shouting at the top of his lungs due to the recent events involving Penny.
"I thought she was kind of cool!", Orihime said with her tone indicating she was in high spirits, Tatsuki patted her on the back on sighed.
"Of course you did 'Hime," she smiled as Tatsuki said this, Ichigo looked over at Tatsuki and tilted his head.
"So what are we gonna do?", Tatsuki grinned as Ichigo asked this question.
"Well," she stepped forward and placed herself beside Ichigo, "Judging from that little sprint we just did, I think we need a bit more training!", Orihime and Rukia wore gloomy expressions as she said these words. Their expressions got even darker as Ichigo started to nod in agreement.
"Yea, I mean we could just hang out in the city tomorrow."
"Or! We could just stick with our initial plans! Come on Tatsuki didn't you want to go see the competition?", Rukia began to plead with the two but they simply just grinned and laughed a bit.
"Ugh, my everything," Rukia groaned as they walked down the busy city streets.
"Stop complaining it wasn't that bad," she sent a glare at Ichigo, who just rolled his eyes at her. Orihime looked over at Rukia and smiled.
"Come on Rukia, it was actually kind of fun! Exhausting but fun."
"You call that fun? I'm scared to know what else you think is 'fun'," Ichigo started laugh a little.
"You really should tune the sass down to about zero. Seriously, you're like an angry kid that got dragged to the store."
"Oh you can shut it Carrot Top," she pointed at Tatsuki, "You two are actually trying to kill me with these sessions aren't you?!", the accused pair stared at her for a few seconds before they busted out laughing.
"I'm being serious here!", Tatsuki and Ichigo were rolling on the ground laughing, Orihime began to snicker...it didn't take long for her to join in the pair.
"Oh man that's rich," Ichigo got up, wiping away a tear in his eye. As Tatsuki and Orihime got up, a slight beeping sound could be heard. The team stood there for a moment before realizing that the noise had come from their scrolls, they then swiftly pulled them out only to see a message from team RWBY.
"Blake's missing…", Orihime spoke out in slight shock as she read the message.
"She has to have a good reason for disappearing on them like that," Rukia had some bitterness in her voice as she spoke.
"I'll kick her ass next time I see her!", Orihime looked at Tatsuki with a look of worry on her face.
"Tatsuki, she's our friend…", Ichigo stepped forward as he put his scroll back in his pocket.
"Orihime's right, we need to be more understanding and find out about her situation," Tatsuki sighed and looked at the ground.
"Yea, sorry I just got a little heated," Rukia stepped forward with a determined look on her face.
"Alright, let's go find her then."
A few hours had passed by now, team RIOT went all over the city in an attempt to help team RWBY find Blake, unfortunately with little to no progress, until they asked an old shopkeeper
"Find anything yet?", Rukia looked up at Ichigo as he exited the store.
"Yea, according to the old man, she, or at least someone who matched my description of her, was with a blond guy with a monkey tail"
"Any other noticeable traits?", Ichigo scratched his head as he thought of the old man's words.
"Yea, he's a bit shorter than me, tan, and he was apparently wearing an unbuttoned shirt," Tatsuki sighed.
"Well at least we have some sort of lead now," Orihime nodded.
"It's pretty specific, so we just have to keep an eye out for someone who matches that description.", her teammates nodded in agreement as a slight rumbling could be heard. Orihime's face goes a bit red as she covers her stomach.
"I guess all this searching made me a bit hungry…", Rukia went to say something but was interrupted by ichigo.
"Well, I could go for a bite to eat... "
"How could either of you think about food at a time like this?!", Tatsuki came up and slapped Rukia on the back as she walked over to Ichigo and Orihime.
"We've been at this for hours, we gotta eat sometime don't we?"
"I-uh, We-uh…", Rukia stopped talking and pouted as the group began to drag her by arm.
"So, what do you guys want?"
"I dunno," Tatsuki turned to Orihime, "'Hime you have anything in mind?"
"Well, when we were searching, I saw this burger place that looked pretty good…"
"Alright, Orihime lead the way!", she had no time to react as Tatsuki and Ichigo positioned her to lead the team to the place she was talking about.
"Ahh, that hit the spot!", Ichigo wiped his mouth with a napkin as he finished his meal.
"Seriously we need to let you pick where we're going more often!" Tatsuki patted Orihime on the back.
"Really, it's nothing. I just thought a burger would've been good right about now."
"Well you're definitely right about that!", Rukia shouted a bit as she went back to devouring her burger.
"Wow, I thought we shouldn't have been thinking about food," Tatsuki leaned over the table with a smug face as Rukia glared at her.
"Shut up," Tatsuki started to laugh at Rukia's irritation; Ichigo got up and headed for the exit of the restaurant.
"C'mon, we've gotta get back to searching."
"Right," the other three got up and quickly followed him.
"So, where so should we start?", Orihime asked as she looked around the area.
"Maybe we cou-", Tatsuki's sentence was cut off by loud bang that seemed to come from the docks. A large, black cloud of smoke soon raised up into the air.
"Probably over there, if I had to guess…", Rukia looked at them for a few seconds.
"What are we waiting for? Let's go!"
"Wait!", Rukia stopped at a corner causing her teammates to stop dead in their tracks.
"What is it?", asked Ichigo, she signaled for them to look.
"Isn't that…", Tatsuki squinted as she attempted to get a better look at the masked soldiers that were currently occupying the area.
"The White Fang…". Ichigo shook his head as he saw large crates of dust being loaded onto airships.
"What the hell are they doing here?"
"I don't know but something tells that Blake is probably here," she looks back at her teammates and takes a deep breathe.
"Alright, Ichigo and Orihime go find Blake. Tatsuki, you and I will distract those grunts," they simply nodded in agreement to her plan. Ichigo and Orihime run off to the other side of the crate as Tatsuki and Rukia drew their weapons.
"Dance! Sode no Shirayuki," the White Fang grunts looked over at Rukia as she pointed her Zanpakuto at them. They started to laugh as one of them mockingly started to speak.
"Kids shouldn't playing with swords, why don't you put th-"
"Tsugi no Mai, Hakuren!", a large mass of ice erupted from the white blade and shot out at them. As it made contact, a large portion of the area was now coated in ice.
"What the hell!", a few grunts saw the large ice formation as Tatsuki jumped off the top of one of the large crates before striking them with her bo staff.
"Tatsuki, I've got the ones over here!"
"Alright, Let's do this!", her eyes narrowed, activating her semblance as she approached a group large group of grunts. Tatsuki slammed her staff into one's knee, knocking them onto the ground before she turned to strike the next one in the ribs. Two grunts attempted to swing at her, however she ducked as she split her bo staff into dual wakizashis; taking the opportunity she sweep kicked the two before slashing the next three grunts in their chest, arms, and stomachs and finishing with a swift wheel kick into their jaws.
Rukia launched her fist into a grunt's chest as she slammed the pommel of her katana into another;s gut before she slashing them down the middle.
"Quick jumping around damn it!", a grunt attempted to hit her with a downward strike, Rukia simply jumped over their head before striking them in the back of the neck with a heel kick. A few grunts approached causing her to sigh.
"I'm ending this. Some no Mai, Tsukishiro!", Rukia swung her blade causing a giant pillar of ice to emerge from a circle of frost, ensnaring them. As it shattered, Rukia scoffed.
"That was pathetic", footsteps could be heard as Tatsuki walked over with her bo staff resting on her shoulders.
"That was a bit underwhelming wasn't it?", Rukia chuckled a bit at her comment.
"Definitely," the two began to laugh a few seconds.
"Come on," Rukia turned around and began to walk to a different sections of the docks, "We better go catch up with those two."
Ichigo and Orihime saw a flare like projectile fly towards the roof of a building as the came across an open space.
"Orihime, distract however just shot that and then go check on the people on that roof," she nodded as ran towards a crate. She turned the corner and looked at an orange haired man.
"Koten Zanshun, I reject!", she ran her fingers across her hairpin and aimed at the man before launching a golden projectile at him. The man barely dodged the projectile as it cut through a crate before a golden triangular shield erupted from it.
"Wow, that was close!", the man looked Orihime right in the eyes and smirked.
"Sweetie, that was very, very close," he took a drag from his cigar before throwing it on the ground and stepping on it.
"But, no cigar," Orihime simply turned around and ran towards a building as Penny jumped from the roof of it and engaged with a few grunts.
"Oh no you do-", he stopped mid sentence as he saw a faint red glow from the corner of his eye.
"Getsuga Tensho!", the black and red wave of Aura crashed into the ground, destroying a large portion of it and threw the orange haired fellow about 13 feet back.
"So…", Ichigo got up from his crouched position and looked forward. "You're Roman Torchwick...gotta say you're pretty bad your job ain't ya?", Roman got up and dusted himself and glared at him.
"What's up with the mask? You know this isn't a costume party right?"
"What's up with the eyeliner? I thought this was a fight not a drag show," Roman winced at that last comment.
"Geez, kids these days are brutal," he stepped forward, "So, you're here for a fight? Then why don't you stop running yo-", his sentence was cut off as Aura began to erupt from Tensa Zangetsu and Ichigo darted towards him. Roman was nearly brought to the ground as Ichigo delivered an overhead strike, as he struggle to shift the odds in his favor Roman kicked Ichigo in the stomach and proceeded to swing his cane at him. Ichigo parried the blow flawlessly before punching him right in the jaw before smacking him into a crate of dust with the flat side of the black blade.
"Seriously, you dress like a rejected mob boss and you fight like a middle schooler," Roman clicked his tongue at Ichigo's comment.
"You better quit running your mouth if you know what's good for you kid," Ichigo chuckled a bit.
"Oh really now?", Ichigo cracked his neck, "Because the way I see it, I'm one who's currently kicking your ass right now," he grasped the blade tightly as a colossal amount of Aura began to pour out of the blade. He glared at Roman with his black and yellow eyes.
"Getsuga Tensho!", he swung the blade horizontally, unleashing a giant black and red crescent; Roman attempted to jump out of the way, he failed to completely remove himself from danger however. When the smoke cleared, his jacket was now ripped and missing an entire sleeve.
"Fuck! And I really like this jacket!", he shot a flare at Ichigo as he growled. Ichigo unleashed a nameless Getsuga to counter it, the two projectiles caused a rather large explosion as they collided and when the dust cleared, Roman was nowhere to be seen.
"Damn!", as he cursed his luck, a large green beam of Aura shot out from behind and after a few seconds an airship began to take off as Penny peruse it, launching a multitude of swords at it.
"This day just keeps getting better and better doesn't it?", Ichigo raised his hand to his face and dismissed his mask as he groaned.
Team RIOT sat down by the police tape with Blake, Ruby, and the blond monkey Faunus boy.
"I'm Sun, by the way," he put his hand to Ichigo, who looked at it for a second and then firmly shook it.
"I'm Ichigo," he pointed to his teammates, "This is Rukia, Tatsuki, and Orihime," they all proceeded to politely greet him as footsteps approached. Ruby looked over to see Yang and Blake approaching. She got up and walked over to Weiss
"Look Weiss it's not what you think she explained the whole thing you see she doesn't actually wear a bow she has kitty ears and they're actually kinda cute," Weiss ignored her and walked over to Blake.
"Weiss. I want you to know that I'm no longer associated with the White Fang. Back when I was-"
"Stop. Do you have any idea how long we've been searching for you? 12 hours. That means in that I've had 12 hours to think about this. Andin that 12 hours I've decided,,, I don't care."
"You don't care?"
"You said you're not one of them anymore, right?"
"No, I-I haven't been since I was younger-"
"Upupup! I don't wanna hear it. All I want to know, is that the next time something this big comes up...you'll come to your teammates, and not some…," she looked at Sun for a second, "Someone else," she looks at her teammates and wipes a tear from her eye.
"Of course," Ruby looked at Yang and threw her arms in the air.
"Yeah! Team RWBY is back together!", everyone starts to huddle together as Weiss turns to Sun and points her finger at him.
"I'm still not quite sure how I feel about you," Sun just nervously chuckles as Ruby looks around.
"Hey, wait a minute where's Penny?", they all look around and shrug as Ichigo speaks.
"I have no idea…"
"You guys go ahead, I'll be right in!"
"Alright, don't be too long!", Ichigo waved at his team and team RWBY as they headed back into the dorms. He sighed and leaned against a wall, looking up at the moon, he smiled slightly. He took in every detail from the night sky...however his gazing didn't last too long. A ringing could be heard as he snapped back to his senses.
"Who would be calling me at this ho-", he pulled out his scroll to see who it was, when he saw the person's picture he stood awestruck for a few seconds before quickly answering the call.
"Hello?"
"Hello, Ichigo. It's been quite some time hasn't it?", the voice on the line was very calm and smooth, they seemed to be in a rather good mood from talking to Ichigo.
"Yea it has...So, how is your mission going bro?", the voice chuckled a bit at the question.
"Well, the Grimm surrounding the village have nearly been completely wiped out...Look, I'd like to apologize to you Ichigo," he was taken back by these words.
"Apologize? For what! You've done nothing wrong!"
"I missed the tournament and you leaving for Beacon...and for that I am truly sorry," his voice was had a tad bit of remorse behind it, he was really torn up about missing it.
"Okay, if you feel that bad, then why don't you come down and visit me during the Vytal Festival? Mom, dad, Yuzu, and Karin along with a lot of other people from Karakura Town are coming to visit then!"
"Alright, I'll make sure that I'm there. It was nice speaking to you again, see you soon Ichigo."
"See ya then, Zangetsu," he hung up and sighed before looking behind him.
"Welp, might as well go turn in for the night."
AN: I was honestly hoping to make this a long chapter but I guess it just didn't work out for me. Unfortunately this chapter isn't longer than the last but hey what can you do? Also, I enjoyed the little insults that were thrown between Ichigo and Roman, thinking of how a fight between those two would go down was actually very entertaining for me. Two more things: 1) Orihime's semblance, I'd like to state that her semblance is Shun Shun Rikka and all of the abilities that come with it , just wanted to make sure that I am clear on this so there is no confusion on whether or not she only has certain abilities. Also her healing ability, Soten Kisshun, cannot really heal major or fatal injuries. For example if she were to heal a severed arm, it would only stop the bleeding and possibly close the wound, it would not actually regenerate the entire arm. 2) The appearance/ mention of Zangetsu! Zangetsu in this story will basically be Tensa Zangetsu in terms of his appearance and his voice. As for him being Ichigo's older brother...well, I wanted to incorporate Zangetsu in this story some way or nothing and I've never really heard of a story where Zangetsu is Ichigo's brother so, I figured I'd give it a shot! Well, thank you all for reading as well as your constant support of this story. 'Till next time!
