All themes and characters of Bleach belong to Tite Kubo.

All themes and characters otherwise mentioned belong to MlBleach14.

The Demon

Chapter 2

It was, as of yet, a normal day in Karakura. Ichigo was woken up by his hyperactive dad, causing the entire family to fall into hysteria. Rukia only stood to the side and watched the exploding men bantering about fighting skills and "acting your own age." These constant episodes eventually came natural to her as she cherished the raucous behavior coming from the Kurosaki family. It was the perfect substitute to wake her up from that monstrosity of a beverage, coffee. It has been only a couple of months since Aizen finally fell in defeat and everything since then has finally fallen into somewhat of a routine. School and fighting hollows became a daily activity of the duo, along with Ichigo's Quiny friend, Uryu, the benevolent Chad and the healer, Orihime. Rukia couldn't help but let a small snicker past her lips as the two men rolled around on the carpet like two pigs in mud. Ichigo's younger sister, Karin, looked more annoyed than ever as she set her eyes on the scene before her. With a sharp punch from the young Kurosaki in the father's ribs, the two violent Kurosaki men eventually began to calm down, enough for them to be able to eat breakfast without someone requiring medical attention. After finishing his breakfast and thanking his other sister, Yuzu, Ichigo left the table, beginning to gripe about heading to another day of boring high school, leaving Rukia to follow behind his hurried pace. A sudden wave of panic hit her because for some unknown reason, Rukia felt like this wasn't going to be an ordinary day.

Elle stood in front of the full length mirror, checking out the image that was reflected right back to her. She looked at herself and muttered how uniforms were so disgusting. She already missed the American school system letting her wear whatever she wanted. Leaning forward, she took one last check of her makeup, and saw through the reflection Ryan coming through the door.

"Elle, if we don't leave now, we're going to be late." He leaned against the door frame and took in the petite girl before him, trying to wear the school uniform as risque as possible. "By the way, I would tone down on trying to look like a catholic school girl. I don't want any troublesome teenage boys trying to get their hands on you."

Elle smirked at his warning and left the mirror to approach the young man leaning against her door. "Jealous much? Please don't get into too many fights, at least for my sake." She put on her best innocent face as she tugged the hem of her skirt down, now covering a necessary amount of her long legs.

Ryan laughed as he pulled her closer and fastened another button on her uniform shirt. "It's not me I'm worried about, it's you. You know you are much more violent than I am." With a small peck on her lips, he turned to leave, but was stopped by the warmth of a familiar hand on his back.

"Ryan, why did you lie to me about your promotion? We've been together long before I left-" She was cut off by the hostile glare directed towards her.

"Exactly. You left. My position shouldn't even matter to you and besides, I didn't think you would even care." With that said, he left her there to stand, bewildered, as he headed out of the apartment for class.

"Of course I would care." The words never reached his ear, though, as the loud slamming of the front door silenced those said by the woman inside.

"Students, please sit down," the teacher warned again before being forced to take disciplinary action. "We have new students today. Is this the impression we want to leave?"

Rukia leaned into Ichigo. "New students, eh? I wonder if it's boys. That makes me so excited!" She left reality to dream about her favorite idol coming to their school wearing a Chappy logo shirt. A small blush crept on her face as her greatest fantasy started to turn explicit.

"Rukia, let it go," Ichigo complained. New students always gave him a odd sensation, whether there was a logical reason or not. Perhaps it was after the awkward few weeks with the strange Shinji Hirako as a student in their school, but he couldn't figure out the exact reason. "New students are always a bigger hype than they turn out to be." He looked over to the girl sitting in the desk beside him, groaning as he realized that nothing of what he just said was heard by the fantasizing person.

Little did Ichigo know, his speculation would turn out to be completely opposite. The two students walked in, a self-assured aura wafting around them, as if they were celebrities. Rukia and Ichigo stared in awe, taking in the two beautiful foreigners in front of them. The boy was tall, but muscular, and he looked relaxed leaning up against the chalkboard, hands buried in his pockets. His shirt collar was popped, but his jacket collar remained ironed and pristine. He glanced at the class in front of him, his sky blue eyes raking in the surprise plastered on the students' faces. His shaggy dirty-blonde hair fell softly on his face, giving him a shy but naughty look all at the same time. The girl beside was the complete opposite- her hair long and flowing loosely along her thin frame. The platinum blonde tint to her hair complimented her aqua eyes and tanned skin. She stood tall, despite her lack in height, and flaunted her improvisation to the school uniform she was wearing. She opened up her glossy lips to speak, but was interrupted by the teacher in front of them.

"Now class, this is Elle Cristiano and Ryan Black. They are exchange students from America!" Her enthusiasm was overwhelming and the exchange students gaped at her, wondering if everyone here was so starstruck over foreigners. "Please help them feel at home."

Elle immediately noticed a rare spot of orange towards the back corner of the classroom and her interest was automatically piqued. When the teacher dismissed them to their seats, she made her way back to the orange-haired boy slouched in his chair. Something feels strange about him. It's like he has some sort of power to him- not of a soul reaper though- he's human. She plopped down in the desk across from the boy and extended her hand to him. "Hi there! I'm Elle," she said. "And you are?"

He looked at her hand as if it was infected, sensing something strange about the spiritual power within her, like she had thought before him. "Ichigo Kurosaki," he mumbled, taking her hand lightly in his, shaking it out of politeness.

"My, what a strong grip we have," she mused. "If it was any stronger, I'm afraid my hand would no longer be recognizable." She laughed at her attempt to jokingly break the ice, causing a small smile to find its way onto Ichigo's face. Although she had a strange presence to her, she seemed harmless and not to mention, extremely good looking.

"Well, thank you," Ichigo replied, a faint genuine smiling gracing his features. "Sometimes my own strength worries me."

She laughed. "So strong that you could easily beat me in a fight?" She flexed her muscles and gave him a feigned death glare, failing in all attempts to frighten him.

"I'll hold you to that," Ichigo taunted. "Show me what you've got, sometime, alright?"

Elle smirked. "Oh I will." Plopping down in a seat next to the window, she turned to look at the courtyard below. "I so will."

She was left to her musings, as the teacher began lecturing the class on electrochemistry. It wasn't long, though, until she felt the presence of a far too familiar being not far away from the building they were currently in. She frantically turned towards Ryan, mouthing the word 'demon,' as he already was in the process of nodding, telling her that he had felt it too. It was coming their way, as the pressure of it's presence came crashing down upon all of the inhabitants in it's perimeter. She saw the boy, Ichigo, stand up and search around him, trying to somehow grasp the feeling he was getting from the nearing monster. He rushed out of the room, grabbing onto a small badge hanging from him belt, as a few other students soon followed him in haste. Elle stood up to join them as well, but was stopped by a broad arm blocking her path. "Ryan-"

"I know you felt it too. There's something weird about that orange-headed kid." Elle nodded in agreement. "We will stay back and watch, unless they find themselves needing our help." By this time, the demon's spiritual pressure was too much for the others to handle, and Ryan and Elle found themselves as the only conscious ones left in the room.

"Ichigo!" The said man turned around to find his friends chasing after him. Rukia was the first to reach him and punched him hard in the ribs. Ichigo scrambled back, yelling at Rukia for her sudden attack. "You can feel that thing, Ichigo! It isn't a hollow!" It was then, throughout her frantic screaming, that he realized that Rukia was having difficulties breathing. She swayed from foot to foot as the fatigue began to take over. "Ichigo, I don't know what it is, but it's strong. You'll get yourself killed if you try anything."

Ichigo turned away from her and the rest of the crew that was watching the exchange from the background. "If I didn't try anything, then who would?"

It was Uryu's turn to bring the irrational boy back to his senses. "Kurosaki, even I am having difficulties with this being's spiritual pressure. You surely will be killed." The Quincy could tell that the soul reaper wasn't listening and scoffed at the stubbornness of the boy. "Do what you can, Kurosaki, but withdraw if it becomes too much."

"It won't." Ichigo tried to pinpoint the exact location of where such a presence was coming from and found it without much hesitation. It was only yards away from him now and Ichigo took in its features with a look of complete shock on his face. The creature was disgusting; it's human-like body marred with scars and burns of different colorings and textures. Its scalp was in the process of corroding and hairs were either gone or hanging barley onto loose skin. It was a decaying corpse, that somehow was able to contract a spirit to reside within it. Ichigo immediately flew off to battle it and during his flight, released a great number of getsuga tenshos in its direction. He couldn't help but grinning when he saw each attack hit dead on, but the grin was gone as quickly as it came when the creature flew out of the wreckage and clawed a deep gash into Ichigo's chest with ease. Blood cascaded out of his chest, almost like a waterfall, and he could feel that his lungs were ripped open with those claws as well.

Orihime gasped as she saw Ichigo fall to the creature's first attack and already had the infamous golden dome surrounding him. The creature growled at in annoyance and began harshly kicking at it causing a few cracks here and there. She knew she had to get closer for it to stay intact. Uryu's hand on her shoulder motioned for her to stay with him and Chad, but she shrugged it off and ran out to the injured boy. The creature took notice of her approach and swung fast and hard at her. She looked on in fear as it almost ripped into her as well, coming back for another swing. It came closer each time, and was almost to the point of hitting her straight on. She scrambled away and was gaining distance, but tripped over herself causing a sharp jolt of pain to her ankle, making her immobile for only a brief second. That second was just enough time for the creature to attack and she sat, wide-eyed, waiting for the claws to dig into her.

They never came. She looked and saw the very girl that had been introduced to her class that morning, with her sword drawn and holding the creature at bay. "Decay, Radium." The sword glowed a bright neon green and the monster was instantly screeching in pain as the body touching the blade began to completely melt away. It was a slow and grueling process and more than just the outside of the monster could be seen. Orihime had to close her eyes in disgust, as the image before her became too much for her to bear. The screeching came to a halt, beckoning her to finally open them again, and she saw nothing left but the girl requesting for her sword to simply "go back." It was disintegrated into nothing but particles reflecting the light of the sun, and reappeared as a ring on her right hand.

"Who are you?" She managed to ask and the girl turned around to give her a disdainful look. Orihime looked over towards the school and saw the other from this morning leaning against the concrete outer walls near their classroom, his arms tightly folded against his chest.

Elle scoffed at the trembling girl before her. Though she had interesting powers, the girl was nothing but mere trash in her eyes. Even the boy she felt had great power within him was a disappointment. "That thing you just faced and nearly got killed by, is a demon. As for I and my friend over there, we are nothing of your concern."

"Wait!" Orihime rushed to get on her feet and catch the retreating girl. "What if another one of those things comes back? Will you help us?"

"Don't even think of us as your allies. Soon this world is going to be every man for himself. Everything you know and love will be gone. Don't expect someone to always be there to lend you a hand."

And with that said, Elle, and the boy, were long gone.

666

Another chapter done! I hope you all are beginning to enjoy this. I hope to have another up soon! Reviews are always appreciated. Thanks for reading :D