Disclaimer: Insert supposedly funny event Kubo Tite owns Bleach. I do not. Insert long string of curses.

EDIT: Chapter edited and fixed as of the 12/16/12 update. Pretty sure I missed stuff, should get a beta reader.

This chapter is brought to you by an absence of good video games!

The First Guardian

Chapter six – More annoying than a Disney bird.

Kuchiki Rukia wasn't sure how to feel about life as it was for her in the last few weeks. Or well, it would be more accurately to say she wasn't sure why she felt as she did during those days, and this ended up with her constantly looking insecure and lost in thought. Something Kurosaki Ichigo, the guy whose closet she lived in (She still didn't want to kick him out of his bed), picked up right away.

She knew that he saw something was amiss, but he never pressed her for an answer. He just asked if she was okay with an unusual tone that made her focus on the ground and want to put her hair behind her ear for some strange reason.

She obviously said everything was alright, and he stopped his inquiries. That wasn't all that much; she knew how mature Ichigo could be on matters such as this.

What she still couldn't believe was how easy Ichigo could get her out of her funks seemingly without effort. So much that she actually made a bit of an effort to make him notice her discomfort, and then he'd work his magic with both wise words and incredible insight, or with an unprecedented fit of extreme idiocy the likes of which Rukia had not seen before. That was saying a lot, really.

She had been a good friend of Abarai Renji long ago, after all.

Rukia was contemplating all of this as she and her friends (Not just Ichigo's now, but hers as well) were having lunch on the school's rooftop. And once again, Ichigo was able to pick up her mood and motioned for her to stand as he did the same.

Everyone else minus Chad, who had not arrived yet, saw the display. Some shared knowing looks; others looked like they were bending iron bars around their necks. All for the same reason.

They both walked a bit far from the group to ensure they wouldn't hear them talk. Ichigo turned towards Rukia and waited for her to speak, he already figured what this was all about, but it was courteous to let her talk her mind first.

"What, you're a feminist now?"

"What if I am?"

"Ichigo, I…" Rukia hesitated, she really didn't know where to begin "I've had… problems thinking about things, I've been unable to focus on the situation, and it's been driving me crazy to…" What was she doing? She was suddenly speaking her heart out to him, something she hadn't ever done before, the only being close enough to her to talk like this to was her sword, and you can't exactly tell your sword a secret, not one they didn't know about anyways. "… I want to focus on the future, but I've been distracted. And I have no idea why, it's so frustrating."

Ichigo smiled, this was exactly what he figured would be. He walked closer to her and put his hands on her shoulders and looked her in the eyes.

"Don't worry, Rukia. Right now, just enjoy and be yourself. Let me do the thinking for now, everything will be alright. I promise."

Rukia hesitated, for several reasons. First, he was basically telling her that he would take care of her, something that made her feel strange. Second, he was also telling her that she should not worry about her duties and fate, again, because he'd handle everything, and the fact that she felt he could do this without fail made her feel stranger. Thirdly…

Well, she liked when he touched her.

She smiled and nodded, then shook her head as they walked back to the group. He was giving her time to explore this and herself as she was now, as if he knew that that was what she wanted the most right now.

"A parakeet." Ichigo could not have made that sound any plainer if he had put it in a mold beforehand.

"How cute! Is it yours?" Rukia was now fawning over the bird that, incredibly enough, Chad had brought to school with him.

"It's a fucking parakeet."

"Yes" Came the answer form the gentle giant, who was holding the aforementioned bird's cage in one hand, seemingly tense for some reason.

Rukia then noticed the shift in atmosphere.

Everyone was acting strange, they all seemed pretty tense, as if they had bit down tin foil and couldn't let go. She then noticed their eyes were darting between Ichigo and the bird in Chad's cage.

"That's… a parakeet." Ichigo's voice seemed to make everyone else tense up even more, and Sado visibly took a step back.

"Yes" Sado was sweating, but his voice betrayed no emotion.

"Huh." Was the last thing that came from Ichigo before he turned and left the rooftop, slowly walking down the stairs.

Everyone let out their breaths, and Rukia just couldn't take it anymore.

"What just happened?"

"Huh?" Tatsuki seemed confused for a bit, and then she realized "Oh, of course. You weren't around a year ago."

"What? Why, what happened a year ago?"

Everyone got strange faces, but Keigo put on a brave one and stepped up to Rukia "It's a tale most of us would rather not remember, but I suppose that, for your own safety, we should tell you."

Rukia couldn't help but swallow nervously, it was something that apparently freaked them all out, and she wondered just what the hell was this all about.

"What happened?"

Keigo nodded grimly, and then sat down on the floor and motioned for Rukia to do the same. Everyone else followed and they all formed a circle, with Keigo sitting opposite from Rukia.

"We don't know how it all began, but we all know the consequences. It wasn't long after me and Mizuiro befriended Ichigo, it was still pretty hard keeping constant contact with him, he was even more absent from school than he is now." Keigo took a deep breath "Back then, Ichigo had a… problem of sorts."

"A problem?"

"With animals." It was Orihime who answered, to which everyone else nodded.

"… Animals?" Now she had an idea of where this was going.

"Yes, sometimes… dead animals turned up where he was."

Yeah, now she was sure, they were talking about his animal experiment- err, Healing Kidō training. Yeah.

"We were all very worried about him, he never struck us as a sadistic person, and we were all just hoping it was a phase. Turned out that it was, but it did not end until one particular incident occurred."

Rukia felt the need to sigh – she had an idea, or well, a feeling that this would be, to put it bluntly, stupid.

"One day, Ichigo showed up at school with a bird on his head…"

"A parakeet?" Rukia guessed.

"Yeah. Anyways, the bird wasn't there because he wanted it to, it was there for what we can only guess was revenge."

"What?"

"It was constantly chasing after Ichigo, pecking him and hitting his head with his beak, it followed him around for about two weeks, and then Ichigo got fed up with it. He started muttering about… dark things, things he wanted to do to the bird. Sometimes we'd hear him mutter about spears and empty halls, and other times about masks made of flesh. He was…"

"Scary." Chad and Mizuiro spoke at the same time.

"Then one day, Ichigo came to school with the parakeet once again harassing him, and then the bird started calling him a wizard, and started to say out loud strange things, like the ones we heard Ichigo mutter from time to time. Ichigo jumped to his feet and left the classroom, looking extremely angry and for once, the parakeet was running away from him.

"Ichigo didn't show up until the day after that, and when he joined us at lunch, we couldn't help but notice that he was eating a very overcooked chicken…

"We don't think that was actually chicken."

Rukia stared at him, wide-eyed, "Um… excuse me." She got up and left towards the stairs, she closed the door to the rooftop behind her as she did.

Then she broke down in a fit of laughter unlike any she had had before.

How could she not? It was ridiculous, though they didn't really know it; they were making a big deal out of nothing. This was Kurosaki Ichigo, he'll destroy a thousand Hollows and not give a damn, but then you'll say there's something strange about his hair and he won't sleep for a week straight just thinking what the hell it was.

She'd know. She tried that already, and it worked.

It wasn't that he was narcissistic; it's just that Ichigo is the kind of person who looks more at the small things than the whole. Though that didn't mean he didn't keep an eye on everything.

And now this, this… situation with the bird. It probably just saw him doing Healing Kidō on some animal and got mad and sought retribution. Rukia was sure that whatever Ichigo had done to get rid of it, he didn't eat it. Probably used it on a Kidō experiment… and Kidō accidents aren't edible at all.

Then she laughed some more at that though, she really liked it here.

"This is driving me crazy" Ichigo was sitting by a tree on the school grounds; he had just left behind his friends and the… bird.

"Why don't you just do the same you did back then?"

Ichigo scoffed "I'm not talking about the bird. It's this infernal card."

He was holding the Torn Card in his left hand, and looking at it intently as he channeled his Reiatsu into it.

"What's wrong with it?"

"I don't know, and that's the problem. I've been filling it up with Spiritual Energy the whole day and it still keeps taking it."

"So? It's probably become a massive container; it's been four years of taking your ludicrous Reiatsu, after all."

"It's not just that. It's just that I can't feel it at all."

"Huh?"

"They energy is there, I can feel it. I can reach for it and use it for Kidō, but unless I'm actively using it, I can't feel the energy contained in it at all. Is as if something's blocking it off from my senses."

"… Interesting."

"What's eating you?" Ichigo looked up, Rukia apparently followed him.

"Nothing, just thinking about things."

"So, I heard you have something against parakeets."

Ichigo twitched, "Whatever do you mean?" He really didn't want to take this right now.

"They told me about you and a certain bird last year."

"Of course they'd tell her."

"They also told me that they think you ate it."

"What?"

"What?" His sword was just as confused.

"What?"

"They saw you eating some chicken or similar avian creature the following day, and since the parakeet wasn't around anymore, they drew conclusions." Now she was snickering, and it only annoyed Ichigo.

…

"Ichigo?"

"Yes?"

"You didn't really eat that bird, did you?"

…

Rukia laughed again. Ichigo felt better now, he really liked that sound.

"I'll worry about this later"

Urahara Kisuke was staring at… a wall in his store, he wasn't really looking at it, it just happened to be on the way while he was in deep thought.

"What's on your mind?"

Kisuke turned around, his loyal friend and companion Tsukabishi Tessai, former captain of the Kidō Corps was standing in the door frame, wearing an apron. He was a big guy, wearing sunglasses, a muscular body with a tan and what Kisuke would forever remember as the smoothest mustache to ever grace a face.

"I recognize that look, anyone who knows you does. You're thinking about something serious, aren't you?"

Kisuke closed his fan and smiled, he didn't really like being that easy to read (at least his friends said he was) but it felt good to have people who knew him that well and still remained around him.

"Just thinking about… a game."

Tessai almost snorted, Kisuke always thought of life as a game, and fancied himself a particularly good player. But this was serious, Tessai didn't have to wait for Kisuke to elaborate "I… can't help but think I've lost some cards. But I'm also not sure whether or not this is a bad thing."

"Oh?" Now he was really curious, the geta-wearing man always liked to be in control of a situation to minimize losses, that he lost some element in his plans would have driven him mad, normally.

"Or maybe, just maybe, those cards weren't mine to play with. There is probably one more player I hadn't noticed; perhaps it's a good thing he's joined the game, and with a hand that not even he knows about. Oh, but it's a good hand, I can tell. Probably a winner, if he plays it right." Kisuke was smiling now, while he seemed glad about something, it had a hint of sadness and perhaps nostalgia to it.

"Is it an ally or enemy?" Tessai knew what the answer would be, but Kisuke probably needed to say it to feel better about it.

"I guess… it depends on how I play my hand, really." He frowned in thought, and Tessai took that as his cue to leave. Kisuke would now begin to think about his next move, and probably wouldn't notice if a Menos crushed their home.

"Huh? Chad, what's with the bandages?" Ichigo and Rukia heard the voice of Mizuiro asking as left school for the day.

"A steel beam fell on top of my head and then a motorcyclist ran into me." Everyone stopped and stared, Chad just kept walking while holding the cage containing the parakeet. It was funny how none of the teachers said anything about it, probably the same reason they never said anything about Ichigo's bird.

They're kind of scary-looking.

"You're kidding right? A steel beam?" Tatsuki couldn't really buy that.

"Yes."

But their gigantic friend never lied, either.

"Rukia."

She turned from staring at Sado (and wondering what a motorcyclist was) and looked at Ichigo.

"What?"

"We might have a problem. Look at the bird."

"Ichigo, I know you have a problem with the bird, but that's not ground to-"

"No, you insufferable midget. I mean LOOK at it."

Rukia frowned, and decided to do as he said before smacking him (or try to) for the midget comment. "Wait… that's not a bird." She berated herself for not noticing it before.

"Chad's probably not going to like it… but we have to do a soul burial on that bird." Rukia was whispering now as they waved good-bye to Orihime and Tatsuki, the red head was apparently going to stay at the tomboy's home tonight.

"Konsō, huh?"

"Come to think of it, you haven't performed any yet."

"I know. I haven't seen any Plus souls around, either, now that I think about it."

"Think the man in the bucket hat takes care of them?"

"Probably. But we have one now, I'll take care of it tonight."

Ichigo nodded at Rukia, and Keigo chose that moment to notice that they were both leaving in the same direction; Ichigo would have given his nose a dose of elbow, but then shivered when he saw the look on Rukia's face.

"No, don't you dare-"

"Of course, Asano-san, we live in the same house, after all."

Silence, Mizuiro experimentally let a little button he had in his pocket hit the ground, everyone heard it. And then Keigo began hyperventilating.

"ICHIIIIIIGOOOOOOO! How could you? You live with the hot new student and didn't tell me, your best friend since forever about it? You're so mean!" Keigo's tirade (and his voice) slowly faded as Mizuiro dragged him away from Ichigo and Rukia while waving them good-bye.

"Why did you do that?" Ichigo sounded resigned.

"Whatever are you talking about?" Rukia batted her eyelashes; Ichigo didn't like the effect that had on him.

"Just- you…" He sighed "Nevermind, let's go home."

Rukia giggled, now this is how she could get back at him for being… him.

Ichigo and Rukia were now in his room, getting ready to get their homework done when they suddenly heard some loud noise coming from downstairs.

When they both went down to check, they saw Yuzu and (surprisingly) Karin wearing the nurse dresses his father had ordered for them. That wasn't the only thing that got Ichigo's attention; it was the fact that they were both carrying a very bloody Yasutora Sado towards one of the clinic's beds.

"Chad? What happened?" Ichigo was worried; this was one of his best friends, after all.

"Car accident, clear the way!" Yelled the voice of Kurosaki Isshin as he ran to help his daughter put Sado on one of the beds.

"How can I help, dad?" Ichigo stepped towards the bed, but Isshin put a hand on his shoulder and shook his head.

"Lie on the ground in fetal position and stay out of the way."

"What?"

"I like your father."

"Keep him, then."

"Hell no."

He left the room, dragging Rukia with him before his father decided she'd look great in a nurse uniform. "Come to think of it…"

"Pervert."

"Stuff it, you overgrown knife."

He ran a hand over his long, orange locks, he'd sneak into the room later tonight – perhaps early in the morning, and help Chad with some of his own healing Kidō, not to heal him completely, since that would be extremely suspicious.

"Yuzu would think he's the Superman or something."

"Mexican bootleg Superman?"

He snorted, and Rukia looked at him funny. He just shook his head and Rukia understood. She once had an indirect conversation with Ichigo's Zanpakutō, with Ichigo as a mediator. The experience was worse than when she saw her friend Abarai Renji kiss what he thought at the moment was a woman. She almost threw up when an inebriated Renji kissed an extremely effeminate (but most definitely heterosexual) 11th division officer. She would never, ever, let him live it down, though.

"Chad's a tough guy; it'll take more than a car crash to do him in. That's not what's worrying me, though."

Rukia frowned and wracked her brain; she refused to count solely on Ichigo to assess every situation. She was more experienced, damn it.

"The parakeet?" Sado didn't have it with him, she realized.

"Not just the bird, stretch your senses."

Rukia sighed but did as she was told, then she felt it, very clearly.

"Hollow."

Ichigo nodded "This wasn't just a car crash, a Hollow was involved, and if the string of unfortunate events that Chad's been experiencing the whole day is any indication, this is not the first time the Hollow tries to get him."

"That doesn't make much sense, why would the Hollow go out of its way to torture Chad instead of just attacking him? That's what Hollows do; they're not exactly geniuses or evil masterminds."

"Ichigo, what if he is? Maybe this is Chad's Lex Luthor."

Ichigo slapped his forehead and Rukia didn't want to ask why.

"Let's look at the facts here, Rukia. Chad's been having indirect attacks on him, by what we believe is a Hollow. I can think of two reasons why this would happen."

"What?" Rukia was too damn curious to not ask now.

"This is either an extremely weak Hollow that can't even fight a human directly. Or…"

"Or…?"

"Come on Rukia, you can get this one, what's the other new factor that's come into the equation that you can think of?"

"A new factor? Something changed? What's new with Chad…?" Her eyes widened.

"The bird!"

"Yes, that's the other reason. This thing could be targeting the bird, but there's also the fact that it's not doing so directly. The bird is something I can't account for. From the parakeet come a bunch of reasons this whole thing could be happening. However, our course of action has become clear now."

"We go after the bird, and get our answers, right?"

Ichigo smiled and nodded, it was the only course of action they could follow.

"We'll wait for Chad to wake up; I want to make sure he's fine and that the Hollow isn't really after him. Then we'll follow him so he leads us to the bird."

Rukia nodded, that was a sound plan.

"Parakeets suck."

"You big baby."

Ichigo woke to someone hitting his chest – hard.

"Onii-chan, wake up! We have a problem." It was Yuzu, and he had no idea she could actually hit anything that wasn't a door, and her knocking was still hard to hear.

"I'm up, I'm up, what is it?" Ichigo looked at his alarm clock, 2 A.M. Of course it had to be two in the goddamn morning.

"It's Sado-kun, he's gone! I was going to check on him – I was supposed to do it every two hours. But when I checked just a couple of minutes ago, he wasn't there!" Now she was tearing up, she was really sensitive.

"Calm down, I'm sure he's okay. Where's Karin?" They normally took shifts watching over patients in Chad's condition.

"Karin's been feeling bad since Sado-kun arrived yesterday, which makes me wonder if it was the blood and…" Ichigo tuned her out for a second "Karin… could it be…?" He put that thought away with reluctance; he had something else to worry about.

"Onii-chan, where's Rukia-nee-san? Shouldn't she be sleeping with you?"

Ichigo heard a barely audible thump from his closet, which Yuzu thankfully failed to notice. "She's probably using the bathroom. Go wake up dad, I'll get dressed and get Rukia."

Yuzu nodded and left. As soon as the door to Ichigo's room closed, the closet's door opened and out came Rukia, fully dressed and seemingly annoyed.

"You're gonna have to lock your door from now on, they might get suspicious."

"Dad's gonna get even more insufferable if he sees that I need to lock my door."

Rukia rolled her eyes, Ichigo did not appreciate the effort she put into coming up with her plan to live in his house with permission – it really wasn't all that much, but still.

"Where do you think Chad is?" Rukia turned around and faced the wall as Ichigo got dressed. Ichigo didn't mind if she – or anyone, actually – looked, but Rukia still got quite red whenever he walked into his room with a towel. And only a towel.

"I have no idea, but my guess is that the Hollow won't be far from him – or the parakeet, which I suspect is what Chad's looking for. So if we keep our senses stretched and find the Hollow…"

"Then we find Chad and the bird!" Rukia turned around as she finished her sentence, and was surprisingly disappointed to see Ichigo was now fully clothed and handing her the skull-adorned glove.

"We go talk to dad and Yuzu first, and then we pretend to go out and instead climb back into my room. You know the rest." It wasn't the first time they did something like this, Rukia had yet to use the Gikongan and Ichigo made sure it wasn't necessary, he didn't trust an artificial soul with his body. He'd only take it if there was truly no other choice.

"Let's go."

Isshin left to look for Sado along with Ichigo and Rukia, though they had only walked a few yards away before turning around and entering through Ichigo's window back into his room, where Rukia pulled his Shinigami form out of his body.

They were now running along the dark skies of Karakura, or at least Ichigo was, Rukia was riding on his back.

"Feel anything yet?" Ichigo asked his companion "Nothing, keep heading north, then we'll check west."

Ichigo nodded and kept running, sword in hand, he'd put the thing on his back where it would hang on apparently nothing, but it was currently occupied by the Shinigami girl.

"Ichigo, I sense something!" Ichigo stopped.

"What is it?"

"North-east from here."

"There's a construction site that way, are you sensing the Hollow?"

"No, but I'm feeling the bird. Chad is probably with it."

"This is a new kind of Hollow, it seems."

"A Hollow that can hide its presence… I wonder what other kinds there are. You'll have to plan for more contingencies than we originally believed, Ichigo."

"Don't remind me."

They found Chad sitting against a wall with the bird's cage in front of him; Ichigo and Rukia hid their presences as best they could. They would wait for the Hollow to make an appearance and then Ichigo would strike it down.

Then they heard the parakeet talking, further confirming their initial suspicions about its nature.

It told Chad a rather sad story, about how every owner that's ever taken care of it has had horrid luck, and Ichigo had to resist laughing at Chad's deadpan 'I know.'

Then two things happened.

One, a garbage can was knocked over by a very pale-looking Karin, who was calling out Ichigo's name.

Two, a Hollow jumped down on Chad and the bird's cage.

Ichigo couldn't react, he would have destroyed the Hollow by now, but his sister was there and he just had to put himself between her and the Hollow.

"Ichi-Nii… I'm not sure how, but I knew I'd find you here."

Ichigo closed his eyes "So she can see me." He didn't like this, not one bit.

He heard a crash and saw that Chad had somehow dodged a swipe from the Hollow, who then chased after his running form.

Ichigo looked at where Rukia was hiding; she nodded towards him and started chasing the Hollow. Ichigo knew she wouldn't put herself in danger for no reason.

"Karin, what're you doing here?" He knelt down and picked her up, she was sweating and breathing hard.

"I had to tell you, Ichigo… that bird with Sado-san… it's not a normal bird."

"Karin's awfully perceptive; she managed to feel my presence and to detect the true nature of the bird."

"Quite strange that she'd be capable of this, she's been denying the existence of ghosts forever, even if she could see them."

"Not just that, Ichigo… it's a little boy, and he… he feels like you did back then."

"Huh?"

"He's… He's lost his mother to a horrible creature, and it has been tormenting him ever since."

Ichigo's eyes widened, and he had to use a great deal of self-control to not tighten his hold on his sister, he didn't want to hurt her. This creature, this monster had taken the life of the parakeet's – no, the boy's mother. And even now continued to torture him.

"This Hollow shows intelligence. Greater than that of the first Hollow I faced. Hollows are supposed to be mindless, but this one has a set of skills of its own."

"Yet more to prepare for. At least we'll keep busy."

"You'll be alright Karin, close your eyes, I'll take you home."

He had no time to waste, he had to take her home and get back to Rukia, so he used Shunpō to get Karin home and into her bed before he ran back outside and started to feel for Rukia.

He frowned, he could feel her, and that was strange. She was outside the usual range of his senses, and she was the only thing she could feel outside of them.

"That's so sweet; I can make some candy with it, if you want."

"Shut up. I'll dwell on that later."

He arrived at the location she could feel Rukia at, and she was firing Kidō at the Hollow. It wasn't even feeling her attacks, not because it was strong, but because her attacks seemed rather… weak, which troubled Ichigo, he was sure her attacks had been stronger the last month.

"A Shinigami girl, weak, but no matter. A Shinigami soul is a Shinigami soul." The Hollow bellowed and turned its attention from a passed-out Chad and the bird cage towards Rukia.

That was his cue.

Ichigo flashed between Rukia and the Hollow, and pointed his sword at it "Hey, ugly. Before I tear you a new asshole, I need you to answer a question." Rukia could see Ichigo was strangely angry, though he hid it well.

"Oh? Another one? How lucky! I've already eaten two Shinigami that have tried to save this boy, he has certainly been useful."

Ichigo nodded inwardly, that explained some things "Tell me, were you the one who killed this boy's mother?" His hair was now shadowing his eyes, and his anger was building up.

"Hmmm? Oh, yes. My last kill while I lived. I was a serial killer, you see."

"He remembers his own past as a living being as well."

"The boy's mother was my last victim, but then the boy made me take a rather big fall. So as a way to pay me back for killing me, I took his soul and stuck it into the body of a bird. I eat anyone who becomes his owner, and eat any Shinigami that come to give him a Soul Burial."

Rukia understood Ichigo's anger now, the nature of the Hollow and its actions made it almost personal to him.

"I see." Ichigo now nodded towards the Hollow.

"Are you resigning yourself to your fate, Shinigami? That's wise, unlike-"

"You really talk a lot, don't you? I just wanted to make sure about where you'll go when I'm done. That's all."

Before the Hollow could even react to that statement, Ichigo was right in front of it, with his sword held back and about to swing. The sword suddenly burst into flame "Houou no Kizu (Phoenix's Cut)" He slashed the Hollow.

The Hollow didn't even scream, the sword split its face in half and the incredibly hot flames made short work of turning the rest of its body to ashes.

Ichigo landed and jumped back as he saw (not for the first time) the doors of Hell appear and open up before them, chains appeared from within and dragged the screaming and swearing soul of the serial killer to his punishment.

Ichigo sighed, and turned towards Rukia "Are you hurt?"

Rukia shook her head, she was sad, not just because she had been useless, but also because she had never seen Ichigo hurt like that before "It must have been a painful reminder."

Ichigo nodded and turned towards the bird cage and his unconscious friend, he kneeled and did a quick Kidō work to heal Chad's wounds. When he was satisfied he turned towards the bird.

"I'm sorry." The bird sounded genuinely sorry.

"That's okay; it's not your fault. If there's any victim here it's you."

"But still, your friend-"

"Say, would you like to see your mother again?"

The bird cocked its head and somehow pulled off a hopeful look.

"Here," Ichigo opened the cage "I'll send you with her." He gave the bird a light touch with his sword's pommel.

The effect was instantaneous, the bird started glowing and soon a boy's soul came out of it "My name's Yūichi Shibata. Thanks a lot, Shinigami-san!" Ichigo smiled at the fading soul and the bird whose body it had been occupying flew off.

"Rukia?"

"Yes, Ichigo?"

"Can… Can you please take care of the rest? It's… it's raining."

Rukia wasn't sure what he was talking about, but she got the feeling behind it.

"I've got it, don't worry."

Ichigo just nodded and left, he had many things to think about, but that could wait until the weather got better.

"Ichigo?"

…

"I hate rain."

That's a wrap for this one.

This one took longer than usual, mostly because I kept scrapping it since it didn't feel right, and even now I'm not sure I'm happy with how it turned out.

I won't be doing every single Bleach episode, I'm just going to do some that I feel are necessary, this was one of them. I was going to initially have Chad participate a lot more, but then I remembered that the purpose of this chapter is to put more things into Ichigo's mind – this is some necessary development. This is also the same reason I didn't pack much humor into it, I actually put some jokes away because of this (That was painfully hard to do). I hope you enjoyed it anyways.

Things pick up next chapter, I promise.

Edit: I forgot to put this in. Some of you may or may not have noticed that I skipped Orihime and her brother. There's a reason for that. I figured that since her brother realized Orihime was safe, then he'd be able to move on (he moved on while Orihime still prayed for him everyday). Ichigo's declaration about protecting her is what moved him to do this.

- Flameal out.