Chapter Two: I wanna love you.
"Hey, hey Mizuiru! Is there anybody home?" asked Keigo. He looked at Mizuiru in puzzlement. Ever since yesterday's surprise training for Mizuiru, he hadn't said a word. It was kind of odd, even for Mizuiru. "Dude, ever since yesterday, you've been acting kind of weird. What's wrong man?"
Mizuiru shook his head vigorously, as if waking up. He turned towards Keigo and said, "What did you say?"
Keigo sighed, "I said, 'what's wrong with you, you've been acting kind of weird.' Do you need caffeine or something?"
Mizuiru nodded his head in the affirmative, "Yeah, some coffee would be really nice."
They both went inside the coffee shop and got something to eat and drink. As they sat down, Mizuiru sighed after taking a sip of his coffee. "In answer to your question, I found out something yesterday that shocked me a little bit."
"What did you find out?"
Mizuiru sighed again and said, "Will you promise not to tell the others?" Keigo nodded. "Good, but the only reason I'm telling you this is because you are a Vaizard as well. I discovered that Ichigo Kurosaki is a Vaizard."
"WHAAAT?!!??!?" screamed Keigo.
Mizuiru waved his arms frantically at the elbows in order to try to calm his friend down. "Will you be quiet?! You're causing a scene."
Keigo looked around the shop only to see that almost everyone was staring at them. His face flushed as he looked down at his hands. "Sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to scream out like that. But it's just hard to believe that Ichigo of all people is a Vaizard. Is he strong?"
Mizuiru winced and rubbed his chest at the remembered wound. "Yeah," he said, "he's strong. He could more than likely defeat both of us at the same time, Bankai or no. I-"An explosive reiatsu suddenly appeared, shutting off their conversation. Mizuiru and Keigo looked at each other before nodding and putting mod soul pills into their mouths. They both popped out into their Shinigami forms and turned towards their bodies. "Stay here." ordered Mizuiru. The konpaku nodded their heads in the affirmative.
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Soi Fon gazed at the sky when one of her subordinates reported to her.
"Soi Fon-Taichou, I have an urgent report from the scouts in the real world."
She turned around to face him as she asked, "What is the report?"
The Shinigami underling bowed his head quickly before continuing, "It appears that several Arrancar have started to attack. Ikkaku-san has requested assistance from our division."
She was about to give out orders when another messenger appeared before. "Please forgive my interruption, Captain, but I have a report on the real world situation."
She raised her eyebrow in question, and then nodded for him to continue. "It appears that Yoroichi-san, Urahara-san, and another captain level Shinigami are pushing back the Arrancar. The request for assistance has become null and void."
Soi thought about the situation. On one hand, it was apparent that even captain class Shinigami would be hard pressed to push back Arrancar. But one the other hand, she knew how powerful Yoroichi and Urahara were. Though… "Who is the captain level Shinigami who is lending assistance?"
The second messenger reached behind for the written version of the message in order to give the correct information. He then stuffed the missive back into his uniform and said, "His name is Isshin Shiba, former captain of the Seventh division."
Soi Fon looked at him in shock. She then dismissed the two. She turned around and walked back towards her office. She sighed and popped her neck and fingers. She hated paperwork.
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"Is that your best, Shinigami?" said a confident Grimmjow. He sneered at his opponent, Mizuiru. When his opponent had pulled out that freaky mask, Grimmjow had been frozen with fear. Not like he would ever admit it though. He'd sooner die than say it. He rubbed the spot where his arm had gone missing. He growled in annoyance at the memory of that bastard Tousen destroying his arm like that.
He looked down and noticed that Mizuiru was struggling to rise, even though he was still severely injured. Grimmjow started walking down towards him, looking as if he were descending on invisible stairs. He unleashed his spirit pressure onto Mizuiru, forcing him back down just as his feet touched solid ground. He looked and the sight before him and tsked.
"What's the matter, Shinigami? And here I thought you were going to show me how much you've grown stronger. I didn't even need to bring my other arm here in order fight you. Pathetic, truly pathetic. I guess Ulquiorra was right in calling you trash, Shinigami. This has become boring." He then turned around and started walking away.
Mizuiru struggled to hold him self up as he said, "Where do think you're going, teme? I'm not through with you yet!"
Grimmjow laughed, "And what are you going to do? Die on me?"
"If you are looking for more of a challenge, Arrancar, I am happy to provide one." said a voice behind and above Grimmjow.
Grimmjow spun around and looked up at the speaker. He had never seen this person before. "Who are you? And why are you intruding on my fun?"
The speaker replied, "My name is Ichigo Kurosaki, and you are messing with one of my Vaizard."
Grimmjow sneered, "Vaizard eh? This should be exciting. I do hope you can provide more of a challenge than this wimp on the ground over there."
Ichigo pulled out Zangetsu from its sheath, and at the same time forced it into Shikai without calling its name. He then pulled his hollow mask out and placed it on his face. "I hope that you can provide a challenge at all, Arrancar. Piercing Fang!" he said as he threw his sword at the hollow.
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As the Arrancar were escaping, Isshin noticed that his daughters had wondered over near the battlefield. He waved at them that he would talk to them as soon as he knew the threat was past, before he wondered why they were there at all. He had told Ichigo when he had been his Gigai that he was supposed to take his sisters to a movie, and to protect them with his life.
Isshin sighed as his daughters approached him. It wasn't fair to Ichigo that Isshin's daughters knew about his Shinigami status, while Ichigo didn't even know of the existence of Soul Society. His eyes narrowed as he realized that Ichigo never once inquired about the recent supernatural events to his family or to his friends. Isshin thought he would definitely be asking questions when that Gillian had appeared because of the antics of the young Ishida. But Ichigo had said nothing, as if he had either seen its ken before, or if he had seen stranger things.
"Isshin," said Yoroichi, "I'm going to check on Mizuiru-kun. It appears the Arrancar he had been fighting still hasn't left yet."
Isshin nodded, "I noticed that too. Do you want me to come with you to check on him?"
Yoroichi shook her head no, "Nah, don't worry about it. You should just check and make sure your daughters are okay."
Isshin looked at his approaching daughters and winced. He knew he was in trouble if little Yuzu was pissed.
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The Arrancar, Grimmjow, and the Vaizard, Ichigo, had their swords locked together. They couldn't remove them, for if they gave even a millimeter, the other would be able to take advantage of it and destroy him. Power permeated the atmosphere around them, making hard to breath for even one of high spiritual pressure.
This was the scene in which Yoroichi walked in to. She realized that the one clad in black must be a Vaizard, for his spiritual pressure felt much like that of a Shinigami, and he was wearing the mask of a hollow. She frowned though, because his reiatsu felt very familiar, almost like….No, it just wasn't possible, was it?
She was puzzled because his reiatsu felt almost like Isshin's, but with a little of the late Masaki-san's thrown in for good measure. And she knew of only one of Isshin's children who was that tall, and that was Ichigo. She narrowed her eyes. That boy was going to have a lot of explaining to do when this fight was over.
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TBC
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