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Chapter 4: The Ability of Thieves

Ichigo gingerly patted the back of his head. He rose up from the floor where he had been thrown against the wall and looked around. Almost everyone had landed on his or her own feet, unlike him.

"Is everyone okay?" Urahara called amidst the rubble.

"Ungg… yea. Karin…? Oh my god, Karin?! Karin, where are you?" His little sister didn't respond and Ichigo started getting frantic.

"KARIN? OI KARIN ANSWER ME!"

"I-ichi-n-nii…" Ichigo quickly looked down at the pile of wood near his feet. Suddenly, one of the planks twitched, and then twitched again. When it finally came loose, Tessai's back emerged. He rose up steadily, still protecting Karin from any debris that could have potentially fallen.

"Oh thank god, thank you Tessai-san."

"Don't mention it."

Urahara whistled, catching their attention. He jerked his head in the direction of the trap door. Tessai immediately picked up the still dazed Karin and carried her to the door, disappearing underground.

Reassured that Karin would be okay, everyone directed their attention to the giant hole in the side of the store.

From the cloud of swirling dust, a figure emerged. Just a blur at first, as it advanced forward, its shape became more and more clearly defined.

"What is that…?" Ichigo mumbled.

"A person… a girl… holding a sword?!" Ishida squinted. "But it has the reiatsu of a hollow!"

Finally, the figure stepped out of the dust and into the light of a nearby street lamp.

"Hinamori?!" Matsumoto exclaimed. "What are you doing here? Did you blow up this wall?"

"…"

"Hinamori-san? Why does your reiatsu…" Ishida trailed off, eyes widening slightly. Urahara's face darkened

"Well now, this doesn't feel right…" He muttered. "Hinamori-san, please refrain from taking anymore steps towards us. I have some questions I'd like to ask you. You weren't dispatched to the human world, so why are you here?"

"…"

"Why did you attack my shop?"

"…"

"… And why and how, may I ask, have you adopted the form of Hinamori-san?" Where she had been standing a moment before, there was only air. Suddenly, a grotesque white skull mask was up in Ichigo's face, mouth open and ready to consume. Taken completely by surprise, Ichigo could do nothing but watch as the hollow's face got closer and closer to his own.

But Urahara had been expecting no less. He immediately charged in and, as though from thin air, appeared by Ichigo's side, kicking the hollow's head away. The hollow landed on all fours, sliding along the ground.

Finally, everyone had a good look at what they had been chasing for the past few days, but it was not at all what they were expecting. Every single item that had disappeared was embedded within the hollow's skin or hanging from various parts of its body.

"Oh!" Matsumoto exclaimed as she pointed up at the hollow's forehead. "That's Hitsugaya-taichou's crystal!" Right in the middle of the forehead, against the pure white mask, the crystal shimmered, releasing a deceptively pure aura.

Urahara paled and his eyes grew wide. "That aura…!!" The hollow hissed at the recognition Urahara displayed. Returning once more to Hinamori's form, it shot into the air and, in a flash of purple light, disappeared.

After rummaging through the stocks of Soul Society goods, Urahara finally managed to find what he had been looking for. Rubbing the seemingly ordinary quarter between his thumb and middle finger, Urahara threw it with all his might through the giant hole in the wall left by the hollow's appearance. Immediately, threads of reiatsu wove their way towards the center of the hole.

"Now then… while that's mending, let's go downstairs. I have some very interesting news I have to share with you…" Urahara still looked a bit unsettled, so everyone promptly followed him through the trapdoor and into the underground training room.

When they reached the bottom of the ladder, they were greeted with a sight they did not expect to see. Karin was wrestling with Tessai, or rather, she was wrestling with the arm that was curled around her waist.

"Let. Me. Go. Tessai-san! They're fighting up there! I have to go help!"

"Karin! Calm down, we're okay. And didn't I say that if there was a fight, you were not to get involved?"

At the sound of her brother's voice, Karin stopped struggling and looked around.

"Ichi-nii, the fight's over? What happened?"

"We found… or rather, the hollow that stole Toushiro's crystal found us, but there seems to be something we didn't notice that Urahara-san did. He's about to tell us, so quiet down and listen okay?"

The group formed a small circle at the base of the ladder.

"Does anyone know what the 'Ability of Thieves' is?" Urahara asked. Matsumoto gasped and Tessai looked alarmed, but they were the only one who showed any reaction.

"The what?" Ichigo asked.

"I remember studying it at the academy." Matsumoto recollected. "It has something to do with stealing other people's powers right? The scrolls don't go very in depth about it, so that's about all I know."

"That's right. It's a rare phenomenon that happens once every 5000 or so years. The information I'm about to share with you is taboo. But considering the circumstances, I think it would be best for all of you to know. Every human spirit, as you know, has the ability to become a shinigami. Everyone has latent inborn reiatsu. But in addition to these two things, every human spirit also has a unique ability that has been locked away. The only time these abilities can be unlocked is when the Ability of Thieves manifests in either Soul Society or the human world."

"Why is this information taboo?" Ishida asked during Urahara's pause to take a sip of tea. "It doesn't seem like this information can cause disaster or anything."

"… Well, the last few times spirits had access to their unique abilities, catastrophes induced by these abilities resulted in the survival of only ¼ of the earth's human and spirit population…"

Author's Notes: Had a bit of trouble figuring out where the plot should go next. There are ideas exploding around inside my head like popcorn that needed to be sorted, so this chapter took a little longer than the previous ones ^^;;; Read and review please! :D