Sorry about the release schedule, my school works off a weird semester schedule, ands been nearing the end of this semester for me. Also, real quick, between the latin and Japanese, there are going to be a lot of words that hold accented letters and I'm sorry, but I will not be using said accents. I know that means that the words I'll be using are spelled incorrectly, but it would take a lot more time in editing to fix that, and I already have and irregular release schedule. I apologies, but I'm gong to have to leave those out, I'm sorry.
Hope you like the chapter, as always I do not own Danny phantom or Bleach,
Hidden Blades, Hidden Enemies
Jazz gave a loud sigh, "he's late, and he's only late when something happens." She gave a huff as she crossed her arms and stated tapping her elbows, a look of both annoyance and worry on her face.
The worst part was that she knew he'd be late, Danny attracted trouble like magnet, even before the accident, only back then the trouble wasn't potentially life threatening. Jazz dipped her head and gave a defeated sigh, when did it get so crazy? How did it get to the point that her clueless little brother was constantly wrapped up in the strangest and most dangerous of circumstances? As much as Jazz would like to deny it, it was probably due to the craziness of their family, not just their parents but the Fenton's as a whole. Their family had for generations intentionally sought to interfere with the supernatural, and as unscientific as it seemed, Jazz had learned that braving such unknowns usually brought with it a lot of baggage, and Danny was the unfortunate soul to carry that debt. Jazz brought her hand to her temple, she really had to stop thinking like this, it was unhealthy, for her and Danny, and lord knows Danny had enough troubles to deal with.
Just as she was about to bring out her phone to give him a quick text, the door to the roof opened and her little brother walked out, Jazz was about to greet him when she noticed the sheepish grin on his face. She narrowed her eyes, she knew that look, Danny always used that look when he did or was about to do something she would defiantly not like. Her suspicions were confirmed when Ichigo and Rukia walked out onto the roof right behind him, giving her brother a pair of the most suspicious stares.
Danny had told her that they both were soul reapers, which put Jazz on edge about the two, doubly so when she heard of Ichigo's more violent tendencies. Although he apparently only fought against thugs, so it seemed he did act by a code of ethics, which while slightly comforting, wasn't going to convince Jazz to drop her guard just yet. Still, there wasn't a guaranty that they'd be hostile, and they seemed civil enough to follow Danny, maybe this time they can get around a fight by talking it o … yea right, best not tempt fate, or this case, Danny's bad luck.
The group of one-part nervous brother two parts suspicious soul reaper finally reached her, her brother still holding his awkward grin, placed his book bag leaning against the roof fence and took his now free right hand and rubbed the back of his neck,
"hey Jazz…" She lifted an incredulous eyebrow at his clearly guilty expression and gave a flat "Something up little brother?"
He gave a small nervous chuckle, "hope you don't mind but Ichigo and Rukia have to … talk about stuff…" She kept her stare on him for a second before dropping her head and giving a loud sigh,
"I guess it was too much to ask to have a quite lunch," she heard him give another weak chuckle before lifting her head and glanced at both Ichigo and Rukia. Their intense look had softened just a tad during Jazz's exchange with her brother, but serious airs were donned as soon as both Danny and Jazz turned their attention towards them. There was a moment of silence as Danny put up his own serious attitude, putting his hands in his pockets, his back straight and while she couldn't see from this angle, looking both directly in the eyes, with a firm neutral line of a mouth. It was a stance he had developed when dealing with Vlad, a defiant, strong guard against the elder halfa's manipulations, and it both Impressed and saddened her that her once cute little brother had developed such a cold side to him.
The silence between them continued, both groups thinking of what to say first, Rukia gave a quick glace between Jazz and her brother before Danny spoke,
"you don't need to worry about Jazz, anything we need to talk about can be said around her." A small touch of pride sparked in her as Jazz suppressed the small smirk on her lips,
"besides, you should know already that both of us aren't your typical American kids." She could tell by her brother's tone that a small smirk danced on his lips before returning to his look of cold focus. Ichigo and Rukia shared a nod before Ichigo spoke up,
"aright then, I guess first things first, what the hell are you?"
Well that was kind of rude, she gave him a little glare for the comment before he continued,
"your clearly not a normal kid, forgetting your parents strange job, there was that fight downstairs …"
Fight?! Her glare intensified, but instead of directing it to Ichigo, she leveled it at her brother, who turned his head to give her a sheepish smile and whispered "I tell you later," She folded her arms and gave a huff before Ichigo resumed,
"that wasn't beginner's luck or some other bullshit like that, your trained, and judging by the weird vibes you give out, defiantly not by some crappy little sports club."
His eyes narrowed as he looked straight in Danny's, standing on guard for anything. Danny said nothing for a second before responding,
"you want to know what I am? no offence, but I could ask the same thing about you, after all …" He looked between Rukia and Ichigo for a quick moment, "from what I heard, soul reapers don't usually hide out with families in the world of the living."
Ichigo's eyes widened as he gave a surprised "what?!" before he regained his composure, glaring right at Danny. Rukia on the other hand, hadn't even flinched, she apparently wasn't too surprised that Danny figured out that they were soul reapers, but then again, according to Danny, Ichgo was about as subtle about his energy as the Box ghost was about his intentions.
Ichigo dropped his glare, giving a small calming sigh before donning a less angry, but still rather intense look at her brother, "I guess that's fair, I have nothing to hide, first off, I'm not hiding out with my family, I actually live there."
Jazz quirked her head, he lived there? But … "wait," she said, drawing everyone's attention, "You 'live' there, live there? But I thought soul reapers all came from soul society?"
"Not exactly …" He turned his head to Rukia, who seemed to debate for a second, looking between the two before giving a small defeated sigh,
"your right, but between Ichigo and myself, I'm the only that's actually from soul society." She folded her arms before tilling her head to the side, and Jazz could be wrong, but she looked a tad embarrassed,
"I was sent to oversee this town and protect it from hollows, but one night, a hollow caught me off guard and was poised to devour Ichigo, his family, and myself." She paused for only a moment, tilting her head down just a tad,
"without any options, I infused Ichgo with a measure of my spiritual powers, giving him the powers of a soul reaper, and leaving me temporarily drained of mine."
Jazz's eyebrows raised in surprise, she looked over to Danny who also gave her a quick look of surprise, before turning back as Ichigo spoke up,
"so now I'm acting as the substitute soul reaper of this town."
Substitute? She never heard of a substitute soul reaper, then again she barely had much knowledge of the soul reapers other than they exist.
"so you got my story, now how about yours?"
his intense glare was back, but judging from how relaxed Danny's poster was, he wasn't exactly eager to return the caution, and Jazz could understand why. At first, both she and Danny had feared that their presence meant that soul society had gotten word of his existence or that the presence of two soul reapers instead of the usual one per region meant that the soul society had a greater presence in the town. But judging from Rukia's and Ichigo's story, Jazz doubted that either were the case, there was always the chance that they were lying, but their story seemed to specific in detail to be a hoax. Danny looked back at her for a split second, the question "should I?" written plainly on his face. Jazz took a second to think, it really didn't seem like Ichigo or Rukia meant any ill intent, and it would probably do better to cooperate with that amounted to the local authorities then possibly antagonizing them. She gave her brother a quick nod before he turned again, his hand back to his neck before he spoke,
"well … my story is actually not too far off from yours." A small note of confusion passed between the two soul reapers and while they didn't completely drop their guards, Danny's more relaxed nature seemed to put them more at easy.
"Just to be clear here, I'm not some weird thing in disguise or some psychopath trying to hurt anyone in town, I'm just Danny Fenton, some American kid that came here when my parents needed to move for their work, simple as that."
Danny's head gave s small dive as he released a small sigh, "but your also right that I'm not exactly a normal kid … er … well, normal with weird parents."
Neither Ichigo or Rukia really responded, well, Ichigo did give a small snort but Rukia still stayed as focused as ever as Danny continued,
"look, it's like this, a few years ago, our parents were messing with something big in their labs, something to boost their research in ghost, a portal,"
Rukia gave a gasp as her eyes widened, "a portal? To the ghost's home dimension? That impossible! Normal humans can't open a gateway between the words without some source of …"
Her word cut off as she started wide eyed at Danny and Jazz, Ichigo was standing there, glancing between Danny and herself, looking horribly confused. Not the Jazz could blame him, it was hard to take in all at once. Before he could ask, Danny finished Rukia's statement,
"without a source of Reshi, which you probably noticed our parents have in the form of ectoplasm. Fortunately for us, their more eccentric and hunter like nature keeps them from actually learning about ghosts, and subsequently about anything else spiritual, but even without that, they somehow figured out how to use ectoplasm."
Rukia's head dipped as she brought a hand to grasp her chin, a contemplative frown on her face. There was a quiet moment before Ichigo spoke again, this time with look of annoyance mixed with his confusion,
"as interesting as that probably is, how about we get back to the question at hand."
Danny turned to Ichigo, "oh yea, sorry, didn't mean to get off track there, it's just that Jazz and I hear our parents ramble on and on about this junk so often that we could recite it our sleep."
Jazz herself gave a roll of her eyes and a quick huff, which brought the two soul reapers attention to her, which she responded to her brother's comment with a mixture of a raised shoulder and a quick nod. Danny continued, his hand never leaving his neck as he began to shift on his feet,
"So like I was saying, our parents where messing with this portal, and called me and Jazz down to show it off, but when they plugged it, all it did was fizzle out and die,"
Danny gave a quick sigh as he lowered his hand, turning his head to look at anywhere but another face,
"our parents were so disappointed, the portal was their life's work and I … I don't know, I just didn't like to see them like that. So a couple days later, when I was showing my best friends the portal I decided to … you know, check it out,"
He gave a small, unsure shrug of his shoulder, still determined not to look Ichigo and Rukia in the face, the two of which were listening intently, however with even less hostility, probably off put by Danny's clear discomfort. Jazz, however, was looking primarily at her brother, her frown turning a little more analytical in nature, Danny had omitted Sam's part in the affair. Jazz had never really blamed Sam for the accident, and she knew Danny certainly didn't, even though she knew for a fact that Sam held a measure of guilt for the incident. But his lack of anger towards Sam wasn't what bothered her, it was how her brother worded this explanation, making it sound like he was to blame. She already knew he did, Danny had always been too critical of himself even before the accident, an unfortunate trait he developed from his years of bullying. He was certainly more well-adjusted now, gaining a lot of self-confidence through his training, but he still had that that lingering self-conscious trait that sometimes did him more harm than a battle could. Looks like she was going to have another talk with him about that, even if she had to take the speeder to the zone and pound the lesson into his thick ethereal head.
"By a stroke of bad or good luck, I got the portal working, but not without a nasty shock that left a few … side effects."
Danny slowly raised his right hand, deliberately making sure not to have his palm face either Ichigo or Rukia so as to keep them from interpreting the action as an attack, and with his palm face up, created a small vortex of ice and snow around his hand. Both Ichigo and Rukia looked at the small snowstorm in his hand with wide eyes, Rukia particularly giving the display and intense gaze. Soon Danny dissipated the storm and gave them nervous shrug,
"and thats pretty much the story, since then, I've had these powers and I've ... you know, tried to live with them."
For a fraction of second, Jazz held her breath for their response, as relaxed as their postures had become, Jazz wasn't going to let her guard down until she knew they meant no harm. For a few seconds, Rukia and Ichigo looked at one another, their previous hostility seemed to have evaporated as both seemed to be digesting her brothers admittedly vague explanation. Finally, Ichigo stepped up with questioning look as he addressed her brother,
"So you got you powers from this portal thing, but what exactly are those powers?"
His tone, while a little abrasive, was calm enough to tell he didn't think Danny as much of a potential threat anymore, or at the very least calm enough to try and be civil. Danny's own tense posture soon relaxed as he spoke,
"well, the portal pretty much infused me with a high measure of spiritual energy, kind of like you, only with ghost energy."
Danny gave a quick look between both Ichigo and Rukia, probably to see if they were following what he was saying. Ichigo was nodding along, a contemplative look on his face as he absorbed what Danny was saying, Rukia herself was fully engaged, but she seemed more eager than her partner,
"So because of that, I got the usual host of ghost powers, flight, invisibility, intangibility, those are the basics, as well as command of a few spectral energies, like that ice I showed you guys."
Danny had been listing his powers off his fingers, curiously however, Jazz noticed he omitted overshadowing, though she could understand why, probably best not to admit to that power when trying to convince someone you mean no harm,
"beyond those basics they're aren't any real specific abilities, most of what I can do is manipulate a few pools of energy I have and channel them into techniques through my body and my sword…"
"Sword?"
Rukia had been the one to interrupt Danny, though Ichigo looked just as curious she, Danny looked between them.
"yea, do you guys want to see it."
They shared a look before Ichigo gave Danny a nod, then Danny brought his hand to his heart to pull out his blade, she never really liked how her brother stored his blade. Sure, phasing it was a lot safer and more practical than wearing it everywhere, and it was also true it didn't do anything to damage him, but it always looked so painful to her. Though she had to admit it was amusing to see Ichigo and Rukia's shocked faces when her brother drove his hand into his heart, even if the image made her wince just the slightest. It looked like the two were about to rush over to Danny to give whatever emergency aid they thought was needed before they saw Danny pulled out the hilt if blade straight from his chest. They both looked wide eyed and mouths gaping as Danny pulled the rest of his blade out with a small flourish of his wrist before holding it up for them to see,
"sorry, forgot to warn you, but I usually keep this puppy phased into my being for safe keeping, and it's a lot better than lugging it around all day."
"y-yea…"
Ichigo finished lamely, he looked a tad embarrassed about getting worked up over nothing, Rukia on the other hand, keep her wide eyed stare as she looked at the blade. Quick as a flash she rushed up to Danny, who in surprise by the sudden action took a step back as she inspected his blade.
"unbelievable, but this spiritual pressure confirms it, this is a Zanpakuto!"
"What?!"
Ichigo's outburst had startled Jazz as the orange haired boy looked wide eyed at both Rukia and Danny,
"you're a soul reaper?! I thought you said you got ghost powers?"
Danny regained his composure from his jump at Ichigo's outburst and gave the other boy a calm, reassuring smile,
"I did, but the infusion of spiritual energy also awakened my Zanpakuto, and meshed my powers between a soul reaper and ghost, giving me abilities of both. So I'm not really a soul reaper, but neither am I a ghost, I kind of … my own thing."
He gave a week chuckle as Ichigo's suspicious stare lowered into incredulous annoyance, while Rukia had stepped back gave Danny a curious glance,
"I've never heard of such a hybridization, but then again, if your story is true, I'd have no clue what such an experimental portal could do to a normal human."
Jazz raised an eyebrow, slightly offended at the doubt, but couldn't bring herself to blame Rukia for it, they had really nothing to substantiate it besides Danny's sword and their word. Her brother turned to Rukia after lowering his sword to his side,
"I know it's hard to believe, but if you want, we could show you the portal, my parents worked all night to get it fixed to the basement wall and get it working, and they certa-…"
Danny stopped in mid-sentence, which given Jazz's experience was never a good sign, doubly so when he rapidly turned to her with such a worried face.
"JAZZ, BEHIND YOU!"
She saw Danny taking one step before she quickly turned around, seeing a large black hole in the sky, with a maw of white masked teeth just a few feet away.
(~)
There were many times in his training that Danny asked Clockwork whether what he was learning was truly necessary, case in point was his Gradu- (quick step) technique, which was as Clockwork said, his equivalent of a soul reaper's flash step. It function essentially the same as any soul reaper flash step, only with a few added effects, with a blueish white light and high pitched static sounds. Its primary difference was that he could incorporate his intangibility with the move, eliminating air resistance and moving even faster than a regular flash step.
With all these benefits, it wasn't hard for Danny to see the merit of the technique, just that it was a difficult move to learn, taking many hours of training from Clockwork to grasp the technique. And given that Danny was 12, just 8 months into his powers, meant that he had a patience to match his age, but even through all his complaining, Clockwork was adamant that he should master this move, telling him over and over,
"there won't be a time where you do not thank me for this move."
And since then, Clockwork's prediction (or he guessed statement fit better) had never failed, especially now.
Quickly channeling energy from his other self in the ghost zone, Danny quickly used Gradu to get to his sister, pick her up while shifting his blade in his hand so as not to hurt her, and took another Gradu away from attacking hollow. He would have usually just cut it down, but the hollow by that point had smashed through the fence and damaged the end of the roof, if he had just cut it down, the force he would have created would damage the roof even more and possibly cause Jazz to plummet off.
After gaining a good distance, Danny gently put down his sister as she took a few calming breaths, before raising his blade towards their attacker. The hollow was shaped like a giant prey mantis, with razor sharp blades for pincers, a black body with four thin black legs and red, skin like wings on its back.
"Are you guys ok?!"
Ichigo shouted as he and Rukia stepped up to the creature, taking up defensive stances and giving the hollow focused glares. Despite the heavy atmosphere, Danny figured Jazz would do with a distraction from her shock, and responded with a small shrug, an amused note in his voice,
"Just fine, Jazz is a little frazzled, but she's always been a little too high strung."
That got him a smack on the back of the head as he looked back for a fraction of a second at her annoyed pout before turning a angered frown at the pest in front. The hollow hadn't spoken yet, simply looking erratically between him and jazz and Ichigo and Rukia. It seemed this thing was just another bug, not even aware enough to do anything but eat, attack and howl; good news then, the bugs were the easier ones to deal with. He saw Rukia move, pulling out a strange red glove with a stylized skull covered in black and blue flames. From what he remembered from Clockwork's lectures, he'd wager a guess that the glove was something to release Ichigo's soul reaper form from his body, but before Rukia could confirm his suspicions, the hollow reacted to her motion, and attacked.
The two quickly dove out of the way of the things blade like pincers, constantly attacking and coincidently keeping Ichigo from coming out of his body. Danny narrowed his eyes, that thing was defiantly too stupid to try such a strategy, something else was at play here. It wasn't uncommon for the less sentient hollows to be organized or commanded by the tougher, or smarter ones, it looked like a decently competent beast was pulling this bugs strings. It probably caught a sniff of Ichigo's raw power and thought this little scheme up get a hefty meal, too bad it didn't know anything about Danny.
Just before the hollow could get in another strike on the two, Danny gave one more Gradu and moved in front the hollows blades, blocking both with his own before pushing back against the bug, making it leap into the air before its wings spread out and hovered in the air, giving Danny a loud howl. Wasting no time, Danny lifted up his left hand, as a glowing white, icy blue mist gathered around it. He leveled his glowing palm at the hollow, his eyes gaining a small icy blue glow as his voice gained a subtle echo,
"Falcibus et Glacies Ventus- (Scythes of Wind Ice)"
The icy mist gave a quick flash before vanishing from his hand, as the hollow was suddenly sliced diced into perfectly cut pieces, and slowly dissolved into nothing.
Danny hoisted the flat of his blade to his shoulder before turning to Rukia and Ichigo, who were staring wide eyed at where the hollow had been before. They leveled their wide eyed stare at him Ichigo shouted at him, causing Danny to take a step back,
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?! How in the hell did you do that?! Where in the hell did you learn that?!"
Lifting his hands into a calming gesture, after Ichigo startled him, Danny lifted his hand to the back of his neck again,
"well … that was essentially my equivalent of an elemental Kido spell, you know some kido yourself, right?"
Ichigo gave a few blinks as he bore a clueless face,
"… Seriously? No Hado, not even a Bakudo or Kaido? I know you're a substitute, but from what I was told, Kido was like, soul reaper 101."
At this point, Ichigo's head was turned away, his shoulders slumped as his face seemed to increase in levels of sulking regret by every word Danny spoke. So much so that Danny quickly back pedaled, lifting his hands into another calming gesture,
"hey! Hey! It's cool, I guess it's not your fault, I mean, where would you learn stuff like that right?"
"exactly,"
Rukia had spoken up, but her tone was not exactly comforting, it held a serious tone about it that brought Ichigo out of his sulk. And Jazz, who had sufficiently calmed down and had come to stand by Danny, Rukia's tone was not as cautious as it was previously, more intensely curious,
"you don't just learn Kido without training or study, so where did you learn yours?"
She had folded her arms as she looked him dead in the eye,
"You might have some unique abilities, but getting power is not the same as mastering it, so who taught you?"
Danny had lifted his blade from his shoulder, as keeping his blade there caused it to cramp up, and brought it down to his side. As much as he wouldn't mind talking to both Rukia and Ichigo, seeing as they wouldn't be attacking him just yet, they unfortunately had bigger things to worry about. He gave a loud sigh,
"guys, I'll tell you everything, I swear, but we've got a bigger problem right now."
All eyes turned to Danny in confusion before Ichigo gave him a serious look and asked,
"what do you mean, what's the problem?"
Danny turned to him before turning to the whole group,
"Didn't that fight seem a little off? That thing was just a bug, it couldn't even speak outside of a howl, so how did it know to keep you from getting out of your body?"
Rukia folded her arms, turning her head to the now damaged side of the roof, her eyes gaining a sharp edge,
"your right, a hollow of that level couldn't have been smart enough to catch us off guard like that, let alone figuring out how to push us into a corner like that."
Ichigo turned between them,
"so what does that mean? Was it just smarter then it looked?"
Jazz had stepped up, giving a shake of her head, "No, it means something more intelligent was controlling it."
Danny turned to give her a nod before facing Ichigo,
"we've seen this before, back in Amity, the constant ghost attacks kept most of the more intelligent hollows away, but some of the cleverer ones would use their less sentient cousins to flesh out pluses or people to them."
Rukia gave a nod herself as she turned to the group,
"It's a usual tactic of the more intelligent hollows, usually to lure members of small soul reaper teams, and pick them off one by one." She turned to the damaged side of the roof again, having her whole body face the edge.
"My guess is that he's somewhere in town, close enough to sense when we would have been weak enough to deal with himself, yet far enough to keep us from picking up on him in case we survived."
Danny gave an amused chuckle as all but Jazz looked at him curiously,
"He might be untraceable to a normal soul reaper,"
He lifted his free hand, his palm facing skyward as a familiar, cocky grin formed on his face,
"but as we've established, I'm not normal."
A white flame ignited in his hand, blazing in a foot long plum before eight bursting white embers began to shoot from the top. The shots of flame grew and twirled as they flew in the air, taking shape into a pack of wolves, each made of shifting, moving white flame with solid glowing green eyes. They moved through the sky as if running on air, a few ghostly howls and growls issuing between them before as they descend to the roof. As they landed and moved about the roof, they felt no burns or scorch marks, despite being made of flames.
"Lupus ad Tartara"- (Wolves of Tartarus)
One of the wolves walked up to Danny, being the size of a typical wolf as it stood to just above his waist, as he extinguished the flames in his hand tuned to Rukia and Ichigo, bring his free hand to the wolf's head, which bore his hands weight while not even leaving a hint of damage. Ichigo and Rukia were looking at him in shock again, Rukia especially looking shocked as it looked like her eyes were about to pop out of her skull,
"That's impossible! Ice spiritual energy is rare enough, but two, and that being fire?! That's- "
She didn't finish as she soon tried to regain her composure, rubbing her temples as she gave a few, albeit strained, calming breaths.
Danny in the meantime lifted his hand to the back of his neck and gave a week chuckle,
"what can I say? I'm just full of surprises,"
He brought his hand down to the wolf's head,
"more importantly, these guys can track down our hollow, I just need you guys to prepare."
Ichigo gave him a nod as Rukia gave one more look at the wolves and took a deep breath before re-adjusting the glove on her hand, and pushing said hand into Ichigo's chest. It spoke to Danny and Jazz's experience that neither really didn't respond to what others might see as a potential attempt at evisceration, well, Jazz did flinch, but beyond that she didn't respond in any way. Rukia gave a quick tug and in a flash of blue, pulled out Ichigo's soul reaper form by the folds of his Shihakusho, displaying the beast of a sword on his back. Danny almost asked him why he didn't compress his blade into a smaller size, just because Danny could be swinging around a building sized blade doesn't mean he'd want to. But then he remembered that Ichigo had just recently become a soul reaper, he probably didn't even know how to control his spiritual powers to such a degree yet, so he didn't say anything. He did however give a silent thank you to his instructors, from Pandora, to frostbite, to clockwork and Dora, to even ghost writer, if they hadn't so diligently beaten their lessons into his head, Danny would be nowhere near as skilled as he was.
After Rukia caught Ichigo's limp body, she turned to Danny, "you said you had a ghost's invisibility, does that mean you have the same control as one?"
He gave her a quick nod as he silently phased his person out of sight to normal humans, to Rukia, Ichigo and Jazz, nothing happened, but if any normal humans were present, it would have looked like he vanished into thin air.
"there, I'm only visible by spiritual attuned beings now, good thing to, I'd rather not explain to anyone what I'm doing out of school."
Jazz gave a shake of her head as she moved to next to Rukia to give her a hand with Ichigo's body before giving her brother a stern look, "frankly you shouldn't have any reason to leave at all." He gave her a few nervous laughs before she relented with a defeated sigh,
"but I guess your hero complex always gets the better of you,"
His nervous laugh morphed into an annoyed pout before she continued,
"and we can't very well let this thing get away to set up another trap, so just be quick, and a least try to be safe, for my sake?"
The little brother in him would have given a sarcastic reply to that, if he didn't hear the small, strain in her voice, to anyone who didn't know Jazz, it would have gone unheard, but Danny had more than enough experience to notice the worry in her voice.
Technically speaking, Danny was in no real danger, even if the hollow turned out to be tougher than they thought and took out this Danny, nothing would happen besides the him on this side vanishing. That was the great thing about duplication, it didn't matter what happened to one of him, so long as there was another, he wouldn't die. Of course the power wasn't omnipotent, while he could make a good number of himself, they all pulled from the same pool of power, meaning he had to micro-manage how much each of him got. Not only that, but each time one of his selves did get taken down, Danny would loss the power he invested in the double. For the low powered copies, the toll it took was nothing, something he could recover in a breath, but if a high powered copy was killed, then it would deal a significant blow to his stamina, and he'd need a moment to recover.
But even the fair amount of power he gave this version wouldn't be too taxing for him, meaning the risk to his person was minimal, nothing to worry about. But as he looked at the small smile of his sister, it was clear that the words "don't worry" would do more harm than good, even with such small risk, Jazz would still worry, if only a little. He gave a small nod and a small smile in return.
There wasn't much he could say, after all, a sister could worry.
He turned around to the city line as his wolves began to sniff air and around the battle scars on the roof. It took a moment, but Danny could feel when they had locked onto the scent of the hollows spiritual pressure as he could feel them instinctually turn with him to a point in the city skyline and growl. Danny glared in the direction of the hollow, not turning his head as he moved his eyes over to Ichigo,
"I've got the scent, follow the wolves, and they'll take us directly to the pest."
Ichigo looked him in the eye and gave an affirmative nod before the pack jump up in a burst of white flames, reforming into wolves in the air as they seemed to run on invisible ground. Ichigo jumped from the school roof and onto an adjacent building, leaping from roof to roof in pursuit.
Danny turned his head one last time to his sister and Rukia as they held up Ichigo's body before his person disappeared in a blueish white flash as he followed after, using his Gradu to travel from building to building,
Time to hunt.
(~)
"this so isn't fair,"
Ichigo grumbled under his breath as he gave another great leap, gracefully landing as Fenton waited for him, as small smirk on his face. Not even a second after Ichigo landed, the not-so-emo emo-looking kid gave off another quick flash of light and appeared 3 buildings away.
Ichigo gave another silent grumble, not even trying to hide his pissed off face as he gave a flourish of leaps to make it to the same roof. They had been tracking the hollow for a few Minutes now, Following the wolves as they flew over head towards their destination. At first, when he noticed that Danny hadn't followed after, Ichigo was worried that he'd have to wait for Fenton to catch up. But it wasn't even a second after that thought that a quick flash of light and the sound of high pitched static to his immediate right scared the crap out of him as he took a step back. From the light came Fenton, looking like he gave a light step forward onto the top of the roof. He didn't stay long before vanishing again, but not before flashing an annoying smirk at Ichigo. Ichigo wouldn't have minded so much if it wasn't clear that Fenton was clearly intentionally slowing down do Ichigo could keep up, and if there was one thing Ichigo couldn't stand, it was being baby'd.
Before his feet touched the final roof, and before his "guide" could dash away, Ichigo asked in an angered growl
"how the hell are you doing that?"
Fenton, who had turned away to scope out his next destination, turned to him,
"It's a step technique, called Gradu, its basically my version of Shupo,"
Ichigo gave a a confused tilt of hi head while Fenton looked at him as if he knew what in the hell he was talking about, before giving a small nervous chuckle,
"… right, your new to the whole soul reaper thing, sorry, I kind of forgot about that, what with how much spiritual pre…"
He stopped, rapidly turning back around to where the wolves had started to circle above a wide and well-lit space between two fairly large apartments.
"there, my wolves have it cornered in that alley."
Ichigo tensed as his face set into a focused stare as he gave one last leap into the air, towards their target…
Or at least he would have, if his jerk of a partner didn't grab him by the back of his shirt and pull him back, landing ass first on the roof as the jerk said
"whoa there tiger, you need to know something first,"
Ichigo shot him a glare as he stood up and rubbed his bruised tail-bone, "the hell man?! What's so important,"
Fenten put the hand not holding his sword up in a defensive gesture, a sheepish smile on his face,
"sorry about that, but I need to warn you about this creep's ability first,"
"ability?" Ichigo had finally stopped rubbing his pained spot as he looked at Fenten with a curious expression as the guy turned from Ichigo to look at the alley,
"yea, my wolves were able to track and trap the hollow here, but funny thing is none of them have even gotten a glimpse at the thing, my guess is that it's got some kind of camouflage, it's probably waiting to ambush us."
Ichigo turned back to the alley, trying to look for any sigh of the hollow, which now that he thought about it, should be fairly visible for a giant screaming monster. But even though he couldn't see anything, he was getting all kinds of bad vibes coming from the spot, like he could feel that it wasn't safe.
He turned to Fenton, "so, what do you propose we do?"
Fenton didn't say anything for a second, looking intently at the spot where the hollow was hiding.
"I say we spring the trap, he might be smarter than the bug on the roof, but he isn't that much stronger, probably relies on his ability to hide and ambush, but unfortunately for him…"
Suddenly, his eyes flashed a neon green for barely and instant before returning to blue as a small smile graced his face.
"I have a couple tricks to find things that try to hide."
His person disappeared as he used his movement technique to pop up just in front of the alley, followed by Ichigo who landed to his side as they turned to walk to their target. Ichigo gave a quick look around, but didn't see anything out of place, a few dumpsters where around, the pavement was cracked in a few spots and there were a few graffiti signs in the walls and floor. But as they walked, Ichigo couldn't help but feel a little unnerved, like there was a dagger just out of reach, pointed at his back.
"Well lokkie here,"
A voice echoed around them, giving no clear indication as to where it originated. It sounded slimy and slurred, like a snake trying to talk. Ichigo looked around for any signs of movement, but saw nothing,
"and here I thought I'd have to bide my time before getting another chance at the fledgling soul reaper… ke, ke, ke, but I see I gave you too much credit when I thought you'd do the smart thing and hide."
Ichigo narrowed his eyes as he crossed his arms, a defiant look of annoyance on his face, "che, like I'd hide from week pest like you."
This thing was trying to scare them, but was clearly failing as Fenten himself held his sword lazily, looking as bored as can be, Ichigo might be cautious of an enemy he couldn't see, but that didn't mean he was so easily frightened.
Fenton himself gave a little chuckle at Ichigo's jab at the monster, "those are some pretty tall words coming from a bug cornered by my wolves."
As if to accent his points, the circling pack, who had just before landed to watch the alley from the buildings roofs, started to growl in unison. An angry grunt came from the echoing hollow,
"Don't you dare call me a bug, you pest! I'd have gotten both the fledgling and the weakened soul reaper if it hadn't been for your meddling! I've been stalking those two for days now, just waiting for the right time to strike, and then you went and ruined it!"
Ichigo reached up to hold the hilt of his blade, itching to shut the hidden creep, while scanning the area. He was looking for anything, a shimmer of light, the smallest bump coming from the dumpsters, but he couldn't see anything. The ghost kid was standing still, his blade pointed down but his hand tensed around the hilt, keeping his focus firmly straight, down the alley.
"I'd have eaten you and that girl too, if not for that stench, the girl's scent was small enough to stomach, but you? I can barely stand talking to you right now."
The creature sounded genuinely disgusted, leaving Ichigo pretty stumped, while he never (and would never) get a good whiff of the Fenton siblings, he was pretty sure they didn't reek. His confused pondering was broken when Fenton gave a small, amused snort,
"can't blame you, from what I've been told, hollows don't really have the stomach for ectoplasm."
"oh" slimy, smug note entered the hollows tone, "so it is ectoplasm, I thought it was, but I couldn't tell, your soul's scent is a little weird, like not all of it is here, so I guess your some kind of ghost then?"
"close, but not really, I am very well experienced with ghosts though."
Fenton turned to face Ichigo, sword slowly rising as a look of confusion passed through Ichigo's face before his eyes narrowed.
"and that means …"
Fenton said, taking a stance with his sword fully raised, the green runes on one edge of the blade starting to glow as black and green flames began to bleed from the metal. Ichigo crouched slightly, slowly beginning to draw his blade when suddenly, before he could even pull a third of his blade out, Fenton flashed out of sight. He reappeared right in front of Ichigo, smug smile on his face with his blade thrust into the air half a foot to the right of Ichigo's head. An unearthly, pained scream and a gout of red blood came from the stabbed air as the creature phased into existence just a few feet behind him.
"… I know just how to deal with hidden bugs."
Ichigo took this moment to leap away from the hollow, unsheathe his sword, and stood a few feet behind Fenton as he pulled his sword from creature's face and gave a small leap back himself. As the beast gave a few more wails of pain, Ichigo got a good look at it, its body was forest green, with a humanoid torso and legs, its signature hole placed smack dab in the middle of its chest. Its hands looked fairly human, excluding an extra thumb on the opposite side of both its palms and the fingers unusual length. The feet were structured much the same way, only longer as the creature stood in a hunched, digitigrade stance. Its mask held a large frontal crest that split its face down the middle and had small, curled horns on the top that curved backwards. Just below its left eye, there was a bleeding gash where Fenton had buried his sword into him. The creature's pained cries soon dissolved into raging breaths,
"Bastard! I'll kill you for that!"
Its eyes glowed a deeper red as it lowered its stance, looking poised to strike; Ichigo brought his weapon up as he prepared for the hollows counter attack. But his tension broke when looked over to Fenton, who just stood there calmly as he lazily taped the flat of his blade against his shoulder, no longer gaving off black and green flames.
"Sorry buddy, but you won't be able to do anything to me, or anyone for that matter,"
"oh," the creature said, a hint of amusement shining through its rage, "And how can you be so sure of tha-"
The hollow stopped just as a burst of the same black and green flames shot out of the wound on its face as it arched its spine backwards abd reached both hands to cover the wound and gave another round of pained shrieks.
"What is this?!"
It howled between its pained screams, and Fenton responded, sounding unconcerned, but not nearly as amused as he was before,
"Gloria in inferno (Touch of Hades), it's a technique were I mark my opponents with fel flames, letting them burn the target to a crisp."
His tone came off far more neutral now, losing that playful note he had not too long ago. The flames on the beast spread from the wound on its face, slowly engulfing the hollow as it screamed in agony. Fenton flinched at the noise,
"personally, I don't really like this move, I try and avoid killing my opponent when I can, but I make an exception to things that willfully try to eat others. These flames may not be pretty, but their effective at purifying hollows like you."
The creature gave a few more screams as its whole body was engulfed by the flames, its shape thinning as its frame was swallowed by green and black. Ichigo sheathed his sword and stood upright, giving a small sigh as the black and green flames shrank into nothing as the flame wolves above them quickly disappeared.
"looks like where done here," he said, walking up to Fenton as the guy turned around and gave him a small smirk, his good mood apparently returning.
"yea, looks like it,"
The ghost kid positioned his blade off his shoulder and leveled it with his chest, quickly driving right into his heart. This would have startled Ichigo far more if he hadn't see Fenton pulled his sword out before, though it still freaked him out a little. Speaking of freaking him out,
"oh and thanks for the heart attack by the way,"
Ichigo said arms crossed, eyebrow twitching as he leveled a glare at crazy American. Said crazy American gave a small wince,
"sorry about that, but I had to stop him from taking a bite out of you and I didn't have time to shot a heads up."
He kept his glare on Fenton before dropping his head with a sigh, it was hard to stay mad at the guy when he was the one who did all the work. Sure, Ichigo could have taken that oversized iguana down himself, but Fenton moved a step ahead of him. He passed a critical eye at the American for a quick second before speaking,
"we should head back, any longer and will be late for class,"
Fenton blinked before he dug into his pockets and brought out his phone, looking at the time and groaning,
"And here I was hoping not to repeat my crapy attendance record,"
He put his phone back in his pocket at walked past Ichigo, moving in the direction of the school, but was stopped when Ichigo placed his hand on his shoulder, and gave him a firm stare down,
"don't think were done talking, you still have some questions to answer,"
Fenton looked back, his eyes growing cold as his face settled into the same hard stance as it did at the beginning of their talk,
"I might not have Rukia's experience, but even I can see her point, you don't just "get" skills like those,"
They stared in silence for a few seconds, before Fenton dropped his cold look,
"ok, ok, I understand, how about we talk after school?"
Ichigo looked him dead in the eye, looking for any sign of a lie,
"I swear I'll give you your answers, so you don't have to grill me anymore, were on the same team after all,"
Ichigo gave one more glace at the American, but he still saw no hint of a lie, so he gave a small nod and lowered his hand as Fenton walked past. Ichigo turned to him, trying to giving a much calmer expression, albeit still fairly neutral,
"Sorry about that, just trying to be cautious,"
Fenton just gave a small shrug,
"no sweat man, a little caution is necessary to deal with weird crap like this,"
Ichigo gave an amused snort as Fenton turned his head and gave a small smirk, the kid might not be so bad. But before Ichigo could respond, Fenton disappeared in a flash of bright light and hi-pitched static.
Ichigo crossed his arms and grumbled, "show off."
(~)
"please tell me your joking,"
Ichigo groaned as he, Rukia, Jazz and Danny walked down the road, on their way home from school. Dann was finally getting to the question of where he got his training, starting off with Pandora,
"your telling me that not only does a Greek goddess exist, but that she's training you?"
Ichigo's face didn't show so much skepticism as much as aggravation, apparently cursing the fact that this was what he had to live with, something Danny had seen in much kinder expressions with Jazz, whom shot Ichigo a look understanding,
"I know how you feel, but it is the truth, I've met her myself, she's actually very nice, when she doesn't point a spear at you."
Ichigo looked at her with an incredulous eyebrow raised before breathing out a defeated air, Rukia however looked straight at Danny, contemplating his words,
"So this ghost Pandora is your instructor, but how did you come into contact with her?"
Danny turned his head to fully meet her gaze, determined to show his honesty, after all, this all was hard to swallow,
"well, I first met her in her kingdom, my first instructor recommended her to further my training, so I speed through the ghost zone to meet her,"
That brought back memories, he remembered standing in the clock tower, and getting a good thwack on the head, which he was told was for a soon to be asked stupid question. And indeed, soon after clockwork told him who he was going to meet, previously mentioned stupid question popped out of his mouth and caused him to wince as the time master lifted his staff. Danny chuckled at the memory before Ichigo asked,
"first instructor? You have more than one?"
Danny gave a quick nod, "yea, at first, when I got my powers, I was left trying to figure out how they worked, which I had to learn fast given that my parents open portal gave a free pass to all kinds of spirits to do whatever they wanted with the town."
Rukia tipped her head as she held her chin in one hand, "so an open portal really has been open and causing havoc in the world of the living, I had heard reports that there had been some strange readings coming from North America, but as it was apparently in a strictly restricted sector, nothing had been done to investigate it," she turned her head and mumbled "although I have heard squad 12 was petitioning to research the site."
Danny's step faltered for a second before continuing his pace; in hindsight, he should have known the soul society wouldn't be quite forever, but now he knew how close to disaster they had been. He didn't know much about soul society, beyond relevant techniques that Clockwork would parallel with his own, there was little about the squads that circulated the rumor mill. But even then, if even half of the rumors about squad 12 were true, they made the GiW look like saints. Never in the entire time that his family moved had he felt so relieved that they did. Sure, it made seeing his friends more of a hassle then he would have liked, but if he had stayed by the time squad 12 came around … best not to think about it.
"So anyway," he said, trying very hard to change the subject, "my protection of the town eventually got the attention of some of the highest powers in the zone, many of which have a thing against hybrids."
Danny's eyes narrowed for a spit second as an image of Vlad entered his mind as it took a good amount of effort to keep himself from lowering the temperature in the air,
"There was a debate about what they should do with me, most agreed to take me out, until one ghost offered to train me himself, that guy is my first instructor, Clockwork."
Rukia stopped dead as she looked in wide eyed shock, whispering "… that's not …"
Ichigo looked between her and Danny before asking "who's Clockwork?"
Rukia turned to face him before turning to Danny, lingering on his face trying to look for any deception. So Soul society knew about Clockwork? Well that wasn't too surprising, ghosts were notorious gossip hounds, and of all the big shots in the zone, not many were as famous as the time master himself.
Eventually Rukia turned away from the group, her face morphing into startled contemplation,
"I've told Ichigo before, but not a lot is known about the ghost zone, what little we do know are from stray conversations with passing spirits, hearing about a few legends and names"
She paused for a moment, "Among them, one name is spoken with reverence and awe,"
She finally turned to the group, "Clockwork, the time master,"
Ichigo's eyes widened from just a split second, "time master? So he what, controls time?"
"not exactly," Danny interjected, causing both Rukia and Ichigo to turn to him, He hadn't meant to interrupt them, but much like his parents, ha had heard way too much from Clockwork about the nature of his work
"Clockwork doesn't control it as much work with it, monitoring and balancing time, he describes the job more like being a housing inspector than some supreme authority."
Rukia stared at him befuddled, as if Danny had proclaimed as fact that Zeus wore a tutu and practiced ballet, whereas Ichigo just looked plain confused, before look of realization flashed and he spoke up,
"wait a second, I have another question, you said there was a debate between the ghost's highest powers about what to do with you, what about the ghost king, that dark guy?"
Danny gave a few confused blinks before turning to Jazz, who looked just as confused as him before she turned to Ichigo and asked,
"you mean Pariah Dark?"
"yea," Ichigo crossed his arms as both he a Rukia looked intently at Danny and Jazz, "he's still the king right?"
Danny looked between them, did soul society not know about Pariah's first defeat? Well, he guessed that made sense, by Rukia's own admission, the soul reapers didn't know much about the zone. He gave one last glace at his sister, a small sign that he'd tell as much as he was comfortable with, before addressing both of them,
"no he isn't, he was overthrown centuries ago,"
Ichigo and Rukia shared a look, seemingly not surprised about Pariahs downfall before Rukia spoke up,
"so he was deposed, then what about his successor?"
Danny quirked his head in confusion, looking between Rukia and Ichigo as he tried to make sense of the situation. They asked if Pariah was the king, but weren't surprised about his defeat, that probably meant that souls society knew about the zone's revolt, but not what happened after. But asking about his successor? At first he was afraid they meant him, but they were asking about the zones higher powers to begin with, so that couldn't be him. Then he realized, if Soul society knew little about ghosts, then they most likely didn't know about the politics of the zone, their only exposure probably being the giant green haired tyrant that knocked down their front door. Well, if that's the case, he better dispels some misconceptions,
"he never had one, because he never really had a kingdom to pass on,"
If Danny wasn't so focused on keeping his story straight, he might have laughed as both Ichigo an Rukia switched from being absolutely focused to absolutely lost, their faces shifting into looks of complete befuddlement before they both said,
"what?"
Danny gave a deep sigh before continuing,
"I think you guys might have gotten the wrong idea about Pariah, he didn't claim the ghost zone by law, he took it by force. He was never really "the king of all ghosts" no one was, that's just a title he gave himself after conquering most of the zone."
The looked at each other again, no longer looking so lost, but still fairly surprised, Rukia seemingly more so as she asked,
"but if there's no king, then who rules the ghosts?"
Danny turned to her,
"no one, at least, no one leads all of them, we are talking about an entirely different plane of existence, with a large and diverse population. Before Pariah, the Zone was a large number of independent kingdoms, each with vastly different cultures, landscapes, and even lifeforms. They rarely, if ever, came into contact with one another, which made it all the easier for Pariah to swoop in and take them one by one. After Pariah's defeat, they formed legislative parliament out of a reclusive group or scholar's known as the Obervants, to prevent the rise of another tyrant."
Danny looked between the two for their reactions, Ichigo seemed to follow along just fine, looking slightly relieved if not a bit unconcerned. Rukia meanwhile still looked amazed, staring right at him,
"but what about his armies of skeletal monsters? What about his second in command that rode a dark winged horse? What about his crown? According to what little soul society could gather, the Pariah's crown gave him unbelievable power, what happened to something so dangerous,"
She seemed to be having some trouble wrapping her head around Pariah really being gone, which he guessed was fair enough, it be hard to accept that a horror like Pariah just vanished forever.
"his armies were created by his own power, they vanished as soon as he was put down. As for the fright knight, he was eventually sealed away himself, and as for his crown,"
Danny paused, his other form in the zone feeling the Crown pulse around his head, as if aware that its master was talking about it,
"… it was placed somewhere safe."
He could feel Jazz's stare without even needing to look at her, it wasn't or much angry at his lie, or even disappointed in it, more like she was … sorry, about what he couldn't tell. Rukia in the meantime had crossed her arms and stared into the sky,
"Sorry about the outburst, it's just …this is a lot to take in, many in soul society grew up hearing the terrifying legend of Pariah, to think one of soul societies biggest boogiemen was just an upstart this entire time."
A moment of silence passed between the group as they finished their walk in front of the new Fenton works. Danny gave them a little wave,
"well, see you guys tomorrow, and remember, I'm always around if you have any hollow trouble, never hurts have a couple spare hands."
Ichigo gave him a nod in return, "thanks man, good to know we have some support, see yea tomorrow."
Rukia gave a wave back as they went their separate ways, walking up to their homes, but just as Danny was midway to the door, he sensed … something watching him. He quickly turned his head and scanned the houses behind him, narrowing his eyes.
"Danny? What's wrong?"
Danny said nothing for a second, standing there silently for a second before responding, "it's nothing Jazz, don't worry."
He turned around to try and give a comforting smile, but all he was met with was the incredulous stare of his sister,
"yea right, whenever you say 'don't worry' Is when I worry the most."
Danny couldn't help but give a small, amused huff, she had him there. "seriously Jazz, it's nothing, the towns filled with spiritual energy, it probably just tweaked my senses."
She stared at him for a moment before stepping through the door, probably figuring whatever the problem was could wait until after dinner. Danny followed her in, casting a glace over his shoulder as he honed in on the movement in the alley between two houses in front of their own.
He'd have to remember to keep an eye out for that black cat.
(~)
Ok, a lot happened in this chapter,
First being the whole building friendship between Danny, Ichigo and Rukia- I decided to structure this I a way to resemble the first season of bleach, where we get some intrigue about a character and said character and Ichigo have to deal with the hollow of the week. I did this as a means fit Danny a bit more naturally into the bleach universe.
Second, all the wolves- I was asked in the first chapter why I used so many images of wolves with Danny, and to be honest, it mainly boils down to "wolves are cool." I mean, I could say that when I think of an animal that best represents Danny, and arctic wolf is the first thing that comes to mind, but honestly, it's because I find wolves cool.
Danny telling Rukia and Ichigo the truth of Pariah- I know this kind of feels like I'm popping a big reveille too early, but trust me, I do have a plan for this. Besides, whether Ichigo or Rukia know this doesn't change too much about the plot.
Finally, something missing, Sam, Tucker and the other DP human characters- don't worry, they'll be here soon.
That's about everything I want to talk about, please post any questions or point out any flaws you see in the reviews, it really does help with my writing.
See you next time.
