Ichigo, confused, pointed to himself, "You mean, you can see me?"
"You're right there, why wouldn't I be able to see you?"
Toshiro sighed, well this is great, I've been trying to avoid telling them anything but now it seems that we have to.
At that moment the two soul reapers sensed it, the ominous, dark growing feeling of a hollow. The feeling was new to McGee, it was a terrifying aura that made him nervous. The dark feeling continued making the NCIS agent uncomfortable, What's this feeling? McGee thought.
"Things just keep getting better and better," Toshiro said aloud.
"Come on Toshiro, there's no one else to take care of it," Ichigo said ready to jump out the window.
"Hey! We're on the fourth floor! You'll seriously hurt yourself jumping from there! Wait, how did you even get inside? Don't tell me-"
"Through the window," said Kurosaki, very nonchalantly.
"Kurosaki, I don't know if you've noticed but I'm not necessarily in the best position to fight," Toshiro looked down at his body, his gigai. He'd much rather fight without the thing but if needed he'd fight in it. The real problem was the lack of his zanpakutō.
"Right," Ichigo said, remembering the young captain was stuck in his gigai and without a weapon, "You can explain things to the agent here, and I'll go take care of that hollow," Ichigo jumped from the window and left Toshiro to explain.
"He just jumped. From the fourth floor. Is he ok?!" McGee rushed to the window only to find the soul reaper not on the ground, but in the sky.
Toshiro, definitely not looking forward to explaining said, "You might want to sit down for this."
…
Karin couldn't stop the gothic woman from running outside. Abby was too curious to sit still or even to just stare at the strange being from afar. Karin tried to warn the scientist of danger, "Not good. Not good," Karin had repeated in English.
Abby noticed the girl was worried but her curiosity got the better of her. Abby had never seen such a creature, it didn't look real. It didn't look natural. Along the way Abby also noticed how familiar the girl seemed with the creature. Not this creature in particular, but how she was used to seeing such things, like they were natural, like it was a normal, an everyday sight. What the scientist glossed over was the apparent fear showing on Karin's face. Sure, the girl was worried, but who wouldn't be with seeing such an animal?
It happened very fast. The two girls found themselves in the street, in the middle of the night, being approached by the dark being. It snarled and bared long, sharp fangs. It's dark body leaning over the girls like a tower. It's glowing yellow eyes looked over the two with the strong spiritual pressure and ran it's long, slimy tongue over it's darkened teeth. The only thing the creature felt was a growing, unbearable hunger.
"Getsuga… Tenshou!" In a quick flash it was over.
The being disintegrated with a loud, deafening screech of terror and the only thing it felt then, pain.
"Why would you do that?" Abby said quietly, not understanding the gravity of the situation or the life threatening aspects.
"Karin?"
"Ichi-nee?"
The two siblings stared at each other, "You attract trouble here," her brother sighed jokingly in Japanese.
"Yeah, no kidding."
"What the heck is going on? Why is your brother here? What the heck is with the gigantic sword? And that kimono! Toshiro wore something like that when Ziva found him. Wait, don't tell me you're in a gang? No, no. More importantly what was that thing? Why did you have to kill it!"
Not understanding a single thing of what the scientist lady said Karin said, "She can see them now. And you, I'm guessing."
Ichigo, realizing he had to explain things, asked "Can we go inside? I'll explain things best I can."
…
"A soul reaper? Like a grim reaper?" After explaining the basics, Toshiro had stopped to take the American's questions.
"Kind of. We transport souls to the Soul Society and if they are on the earth too long they turn into hollows."
"And you're a leader?"
"A captain. I'm the captain of the tenth division."
"Why are you human then?" McGee inquired. If this kid was truly what he said why was he human at the moment?
"I'm in a gigai; it lets soul reapers appear human. It's easier to investigate certain things as a human. Though, I am stuck in this particular gigai, an idiotic design flaw."
The human was taking things very well. Though Toshiro supposed his open mind could have increased his spiritual abilities but his sudden appearance and the Kurosaki's must have instigated McGee's new found abilities.
"What happened?"
"What do you mean?"
"How did you arrive in DC?"
Toshiro thought about it. He still couldn't remember the exact happenings but he did remember the mission details, "I still do not know," he lied. The NCIS agent didn't need to know more than what was necessary.
McGee could figure the white haired captain was hiding something but didn't go into it, "What about the other one? Ichigo?"
Toshiro let out a small chuckle, "His story is much more complicated. Essentially Kurosaki was a human that turned into a soul reaper, and is now an entity called a substitute soul reaper. He was sent to find me."
McGee let the information sink in, "What about his sister? The one who was injured? How did that happen to her?"
"Karin Kurosaki has strong spiritual abilities, like her brother had before he was turned into a soul reaper. She is able to see hollows, souls, and us soul reapers. Why she was injured was a hollow's doing. The sudden occurrences of strong spiritual pressure attracts the hollows, Ichigo Kurosaki left to dispose of one. That ominous feeling you probably felt? That was you sensing the hollow."
"So because all of you-" McGee paused, then added, "-us, and our strong spiritual abilities, the hollow things are now more attracted to this area? To us?"
"Yes," said the captain.
"If you're a soul reaper and Karin a human, how are you so close?"
The question caused Toshiro's thought process to momentarily stop, he thought about his answer carefully but went with a seemingly care free answer, "It's much like Ichigo Kurosaki's story, a long one."
Toshiro knew their meeting wasn't too long of a story and not as complicated as it seemed, but the answer he gave sounded right.
…
"Soul reaper huh? I assume what I just saw was not a soul reaper?"
"No, that was a hollow."
"So that would mean it was a soul that was on earth too long?"
"Exactly."
Abby reviewed the information she just received. She has apparently gained strong spiritual abilities, hollows are bad, soul reapers are good and a lot like grim reapers, soul reapers wield swords with their own spirits, and Toshiro was a captain in the Soul Society while someone called Rukia turned Ichigo into a substitute soul reaper.
"I think I got it," said Abby.
"You're the second person tonight. That other agent McGee saw me in spirit form,"
Abby thought a moment, "He can see them too?! Well great minds think alike! Well I guess in this case see alike…wait that doesn't make sense… Hmm… well...when Toshiro was first in contact with his sword when he fainted and remembered a little, there was a bit of ice. Both McGee and I were there. I didn't think anything about it at the time. Then it happened a second time except it was only me there, in my lab. You think that could have anything to do with things?"
"His reiatsu…" Ichigo thought aloud, "Maybe both of you being exposed triggered the innate abilities to manifest?"
With that last thought, Ichigo noticed the sub rising and internally panicked, "I've got to get back, or that agent DiNozzo will find a body with no pulse…"
…
That day the group was gathered in Abby's lab. Karin, Toshiro, Ichigo, Abby and McGee stood around one of the evidence tables. Toshiro took his zanpakutō out of the evidence bag,
It's about time, Hyōrinmaru's voice echoed.
"What should we do?" asked Abby.
"About what?" Replied the captain.
"Should we tell Gibbs? And Ziva and DiNozzo?"
Toshiro thought about the question. There were advantages and disadvantages to both options. Abby and McGee were fairly open minded and could accept it, then again they could see it. The others couldn't. Well for all they knew they couldn't.
"Don't say anything for the time being, we don't know how they'll react," Toshiro finally responded.
"You think they can see them?" Questioned McGee.
"See who?" Said Gibbs as he entered the lab with Ziva and DiNozzo.
"Ah, uh, we were talking about the certain patterns in computer code! See?" Abby quickly pulled up a blue screen on her computer; random white letters started streaming across the computer, "So it would be a see what, rather than a who."
"We just wanted to see if these, uh, kids could see the patterns that we saw," added McGee.
"Tsk, McGeek, just 'cause they're Japanese doesn't mean that they can read your computer code," DiNozzo shook his head jokingly, "Stereotyping is very bad McGee, it hurts feelings."
McGee rolled his eyes and glanced at his boss seeing if he believed the story.
Gibb's showed no emotion but he knew it was a lie. The streaming computer code was evidence from their last case. Gibb's didn't bring it up, in a way he was curious about what the strange group could be hiding or even what was worth hiding from him.
Continuing on, needing to get farther in their current case, Gibbs asked "What do ya got Abbs?"
Abby smiled and turned to the evidence table and the group instantly noticed that the sword was missing.
"Abby-" Ziva started, but then she saw the previously amnesiac boy gripping the sword, "Hey! Abby you cannot just give a child a sword," Everyone's attention was on Toshiro, who did not want to put down his zanpakutō. Not only had he dragged the Kurosaki's into his mess, but he was absolutely defenseless and his zanpakutō was the only way to be of some use.
Knowing that the situation would only worsen Toshiro put his zanpakutō down onto the evidence table slowly, "When will my possessions be returned to me?"
A small, barely seen, smile crept on Gibb's face as he replied, "Once this case is solved."
…
Author's Note:
Warning: There will be slight HitsuKarin fluff throughout the rest of the story. Nothing that takes away from the plot or any filler stuff, and nothing serious. Just a warning though!
Are there any Bleach characters you guys would want me to include? Or any previous characters you'd want to see more of? (i.e. Rukia, Renji, Urahara)? Matsumoto will be back later, I promise! Eventually Rukia and Renji will be back. Would you guys prefer more or less of them? At the moment they (Rukia and Renji) aren't truly important to the plot.
Thanks for all the reviews, follows, and favorites!