Disclaimer: I have a question; if any of us writers on this here site of ours made any money off writing the fictional crap we do, would the quality of the stories in general improve? Or would we have a pile of stinking waste much larger than we currently do? If it's the former, someone should start paying us, really.
This chapter is brought to you by my freezing fingers – dear gods I live next to the beach how can it be this cold during the day?
The First Guardian
Chapter Nine – Pimps and Gory Indiscretion
Ichigo wasn't sure how he was supposed to feel about Rukia – don't get him wrong, he knew exactly how he felt about her, he just hadn't decided what to do about it. But that's in an entirely different context than what he was currently thinking about.
To be more precise, at the moment, he wasn't sure how to feel about her behavior as of late.
First off, she was always around him. This wouldn't be strange, normally; she was always with him every day – what with school, family gatherings (which became quite more often than usual) and when going out with friends (not to mention sharing the same room, even if she said the closet was a separate room). But lately it started to get weird, for him, that is.
It was normally an unspoken deal that they would walk to and from school together, they had no reason to not do so and they both enjoyed each other's company, as well as that of their friends whenever they joined. Sometimes he or she stayed until a bit later or left a couple of minutes earlier but they'd always catch up on the way. Now, Rukia made it a point to either wait for him to leave, or make him hurry up. In the case of the latter, he'd tell her to go ahead without him, but then she'd come up with either an excuse about how she needs him or something along the lines of 'You're going to cause trouble if I leave you alone'. He resented that – she made him sound like a badly trained ape. And whenever he had other things to do, she just followed around and waited for him to be done, those times she didn't complain or say a thing, even if she did look a bit bored sometimes.
The second, and, perhaps to Ichigo, worst part, was that whenever they had absolutely nothing to do she'd drag him into whatever she currently felt like doing. He didn't mind it most of the time. Again, he had fun around her. When they went out with their school mates they usually had a blast (sometimes quite literally). But then, sometimes, she wanted to do other… things. With him. In the living room. With Yuzu and Karin, sometimes.
Playing around with the context aside, Ichigo really had to wonder who, when, and dear god, why, introduced Rukia to movies.
Once more, don't get him wrong, he loved movies. He didn't mind staying around all day indulging her and watching whatever she currently felt like watching. Well, that's not entirely true. Let's remember, for a second, that this is Kurosaki Ichigo we're talking about here. So of course, there's always an exception.
In his case, Disney movies.
There's something to be said about growing up and watching the good ole' Disney classics again. It's a pleasant and nostalgic experience. There's something entirely different to be said about watching it with a mouthy Zanpakutō stuck in your head.
"Why do they call her The Little Mermaid? Chick's rack has nothing little about it."
"Why do you have to do this? Now I can only focus on her breasts."
"I take the form of a six feet long blade. I'm all about size."
"I'm sorry, I can't think any overcompensation jokes right now, and you have forever tainted Ariel."
"Oh please, she did that herself. I mean, she made a pact with the ugliest thing ever to get something she wasn't sure she'd like in exchange for something she loved above all and was good at. Legs and her voice, respectively."
"… Now she's a retard with a nice rack. I hate you."
"Wait, wait. What? Are all girls like this nowadays? Or is it because the hair all over makes the Beast too manly to actually think about it?"
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"The Beauty and the Beast is a stupid movie that makes girls stupid."
"I'll regret this, but please, do elaborate."
"Somehow, Belle, our heroine, processed 'extremely violent, ugly but manly, kidnapper' and transformed it into 'Guy with a heart of gold'. Then she took 'house arrest' and made it come out as 'true love'. They're basically saying 'It's okay if he kidnapped you and threatened to kill you and your father! That means he's a great guy underneath and he really loves you!'."
"What the fuck is this shit? The guy went through hell and back to save her, he proved his balls to be basketball-sized several times over and made the word 'Sanctuary' sound several times cooler than it already is – and he doesn't get the girl at the end? What kind of crappy world allows that to happen?"
"I get you on this one. They're either trying to make Gypsies look like assholes, or telling everyone that if you're hideous, it doesn't matter if you win at the end, you'll never get the girl."
"Poor hunchback…"
"Cinderella is a stupid name for a stupid girl who doesn't even do stupid things because she does NOTHING AT ALL."
"No, not this time."
"I mean-"
"Seriously, if you ruin it again, so help me-"
"-she wants everything out of life but all she does is obey orders and bitch and moan in songs. Any normal person would have told their family to shove it and gone off to find fortune. But no, she only cleaned and sang. And the bitch got a whole damn fucking Kingdom out of it at the end. Don't get me started on the glass shoes. Oh gee, Prince, congratulations. You married a woman who's only good at cleaning shit. She won't even get to do that because she's now too high up to do stuff like that. Might as well have married a hole in the wall."
"See, you're wrong about that. There's other stuff for married people to do. I figured you'd know that, you deviant."
"I don't think you see the whole picture. See, if the hole is just the right size, then you can-"
"I promised myself I wouldn't cry during Bambi."
"Me too."
…
"For future reference, let's not make promises we know we can't keep."
That was a horrible day and Rukia's joy at discovering Disney was the only thing that stopped him from throwing his sword at the river. It'd come back, it always did, but it would feel good.
So far, it had seemed as if that was the limit of the activities Rukia wanted to share with him – much to the annoyance of his Zanpakutō.
Or well, that's what it seemed, until…
"If there was ever an alternate reality in which I so much as considered accepting such arrangements, it would surely implode within minutes of its creation due to the ridiculous mass of focused stupid contained in it." Ichigo was not going to budge about this.
Rukia scowled, and then pouted when she realized getting angry over it wasn't going to change his mind.
"Why not? Don Kanonji is such a nice figure! I'm sure you-" And then Ichigo covered her mouth with his hand while giving her a stern look.
"Don't misunderstand me, I like Kanonji. Both he and I… well, let's just say I have nothing against him." Ichigo's palm suddenly felt wet, and he removed it when he realized Rukia had been licking it. She gave him a superior look as if she hadn't been the one to do something so disgusting. Nevertheless, he went on, "His show, however, is a different story."
"It's a fun show." She frowned both at his stubbornness and in thought – she had learned long ago that whenever Ichigo liked or disliked anything, it was usually for reasons only someone named Kurosaki Ichigo would be able to comprehend, with the sole exception being things that fit in his definition of 'Awesome'. Those were pretty obvious. She had voiced her thoughts on this matter to her female school mates, and the conversation didn't go anywhere, what with Orihime suggesting they change their names to see if it gave them any insight on his persona.
"Kanonji is a hilarious person. Made even funnier by the fact that he does not realize it. He's also good with pets, actually."
"What?"
Ichigo just shrugged, he was now finished wiping his hand on his pants. They were currently sitting on the sidewalk not too far from the Kurosaki home. It was one of those days in which the clinic had more patients than usual and he wasn't going to take any chances with his father.
"Helloooooo, Nurse!"
"But his show makes the idea of having my ears filled with particularly rancid vomit sound very appealing to me."
Rukia's frown deepened, Ichigo had just paused. That meant he was giving her some time to figure him out on her own. It was something of a habit for them, and she now realized it was not unconscious. Ichigo simply could not resist schooling others or driving them mad with their own questions. The fact that he didn't do it in these situations with her made her like that trait of him very much. She liked it because he would give her time to come up with her own ideas – coming to your own conclusions was the easiest way to learn anything, after all. If they were wrong, he would correct them accordingly and she would still learn a lot. She had learned to accept that he was the fastest mind of the two.
She also liked it because it made her feel special. It was always the small things when it came to Ichigo.
Ichigo waited a few more seconds, and then continued, "He was in Karakura once before, for two months. I had to follow him around because although the guy has some measure of Spiritual Energy that allows him to truthfully feel spirits and all that as well as actually throw around some of his powers, he has absolutely no idea what the hell he's doing. I had to follow His Royal Deviancy around to make sure he didn't fuck things up, and he ALWAYS did."
Rukia blinked, her frown now gone. Well, that was something she didn't know about.
"Surely it couldn't have been so bad?"
A snort was the only reply she got. Ichigo shook his head as stood up, he held out his hand for Rukia to take, and she reluctantly did so. She was not ready to give up on the subject, but he would only get more annoying if she kept asking.
"You don't know half of it. Anyways, let's head back home. They should have taken care of most of the work so it should be safe for me to just leave my body in my room." He started walking in the general direction of their home. Rukia followed.
"I didn't know you had any plans for today." She asked for no reason at all. She never knew when he was planning anything until something interesting happened. Or exploded.
"Well, I, for one, wish to partake in my Shinigami duties without any sort of hassle, emergency or spontaneous nipple twisting going on. And you, my diminutive princess, will meet up with Chad and the guys to attend Don Kanonji's live show."
Rukia had to resist letting out a sigh. She had thought she'd be able to talk him into going by pointing out that Kanonji (as he said) would only cause trouble and they could use the extra security. She still asked anyways.
"Why won't you go if you know Don Kanonji usually messes things up?"
"Hah, don't worry. Lord Spiritual Flashiness usually ends up harassing Plus Souls with his cane. Nothing you shouldn't be able to deal with, so don't worry about that!" With that he grabbed her and jumped up to his room from outside the house. She started putting on her glove, but looked apprehensive as she said, "Are you sure?"
"Nope, not at all. But hey, what's life without some excitement?"
She smacked his face with her gloved hand with a bit more than the necessary strength. Ichigo looked unfazed; she didn't know why she tried anymore.
Ichigo suddenly took a kneeling position before her and held her hand to his lips.
"Very well, fair maiden. I must now bid you adieu."
Rukia would have blushed if it wasn't for the fact that as soon as the final word left his lips, he proceeded to run his tongue all over hand.
"ICHIGO!" But he was already gone.
"I knew you had it in you. Kinky." Spoke the smug Zanpakutō.
"And I knew you'd read too much into it." Answered the resigned Shinigami.
Rukia laid Ichigo's body in a more comfortable position on his bed. She had once wondered why holding him like that – his body pressed against her by gravity as she held him up or dragged him around – didn't make her feel flustered at all, unlike many other moments did. But now she understood at some level that, while Ichigo was not in his body, his body was not Ichigo at all. She just couldn't feel him as Ichigo during those times his body was devoid his presence. She figured it wasn't unlike a gigai, and that it was actually normal.
If she'd had more experience in the human world and perhaps gigai manufacturing, she would have known this wasn't normal at all.
She nodded to herself as she decided Ichigo's current position wouldn't make his body ache when he returned to it. Then she made her way to her 'room'.
This began a routine, actually. She'd take the five or so steps from Ichigo's bed to her closet, however, during the halfway through the fourth step, her closet door would open, and she'd have to duck under the plushy projectile that constantly wanted to cuddle with her.
"Rukia-nee-chan!" Megatron, as he liked to refer to himself, didn't really feel any sort of big connection with Rukia – at least not one that would make him really call her 'nee-chan' – but he understood that his own freedom, no, his whole existence, hinged on the fact that Rukia tolerated him.
Sure, Ichigo was the one to save him and 'convince' Rukia to let him stay, but he knew that if Rukia really wanted him gone, with good reason backing up her decision, Ichigo wouldn't even blink as he effectively 'got rid' of him.
That's how he saw it, anyways.
So then the Kaizō Konpaku decided that he would get on Rukia's good graces, that way his chances of survival would be greatly increased. But this being a somewhat deranged Mod-Soul that wanted to be called Megatron, he went around it the wrong way entirely.
His lion-plushy body was backflip-kicked by Rukia as he passed above her crouched form, and he flew out the still-open window to a destination only known to the ground he'd eventually hit.
Rukia didn't even blink this time. That was the eleventh or so time she did that. She really ought to thank Karin for teaching her how to do that kick.
She didn't need much from her closet, just some more comfortable shoes. She wasn't the kind of girl that spent hours getting ready – she had her own reasons to hate make up as well as overly-done preparations. Being a Kuchiki had its downsides, but that was neither here nor there.
She made her way out the window after placing a do-not-disturb sign and locking the door. The sign had a little bunny drawing holding up a heart. That way anyone that wanted to go into the room would think… something was going on in there and wouldn't dare interrupt. It was how she usually made sure nobody would find Ichigo's unmoving body and think he was dead or something.
She was quite sure Ichigo would blow a gasket – or a whole city block if he ever found out. She could almost see him ranting about his father going mad about it.
She'd meet up with Tatsuki and Orihime, and then they'd catch a bus and meet up with Sado, then they'd just walk to where the shooting of Don Kanonji's show would be. She was actually kind of excited.
Not because of the show, mind you. But because she was going to get to ride a bus. In all of her time in the human world, she had never been able to ride a human vehicle, mostly because Ichigo just carried her around everywhere. Also because Ichigo himself apparently had something against public transportation. She asked him about it, and then he calmly told her that he'd rather commandeer a military tank and crash it against school than ride a bus there. She stopped questioning it when she felt his Reiatsu spark, but she knew there was a story there.
"Kuchiki-san!" She was pulled out her thoughts when she heard Orihime's voice coming from the bust station, followed by Tatsuki's telling her not to be so loud.
"Inoue-san, Tatsuki-san." Rukia nodded towards the both of them as she said their names, it was a habit she picked up from her brother, and he'd do that only out of courtesy. Never any sort of respect. Come to think of it, did her Nii-sama respect anyone?
"Kuchiki-san." Tatsuki returned the gesture; she was rather polite whenever she wasn't angry about something. A rare thing.
"Um, Kuchiki-san, didn't Kurosaki-kun come with you?" Orihime looked puzzled and somewhat disappointed. And Rukia had to sigh.
She did not want this, this would be one of the rare times in which Rukia interacted with Ichigo's friends without any sort of purpose while he wasn't around, and she always felt like an outsider. She guessed that she only had herself to blame – after all, if she had not made sure he was always there, she'd have gotten used to it, and she wouldn't be so awkward. When did she start caring about not screwing up such little things anyways?
It would have been weirder if she hadn't come after telling Ichigo how much she wanted to, though. He'd have probably realized something was up.
"He had somewhere else to be." She shrugged, but her eyes narrowed when she saw Tatsuki and Orihime share a strange look at her answer. However, she fixed her expression faster than the other two could turn back to her. It wouldn't do to be suspicious of them; they were not enemies, politicians, or nobles. They weren't the sort to have all kinds of hidden motives, just two friends silently communicating. She wished she could have done that with Renji, that way she wouldn't have to punch him to make him listen all the time.
Tatsuki kept the conversation going, "Oh well, can't be helped. He does that from time to time, doesn't he?"
"Kurosaki-kun disappears sometimes, but I'm sure he's not up to anything bad." Orihime answered.
Rukia felt a chill go down her back. "She… she just jinxed it."
Ichigo wasn't doing anything bad, or well, nothing bad as in, bad. He was just stalking Rukia and his friends. Stalking wasn't bad in his book. Not when he did it anyways.
If he was just going to do this, why didn't he go with Rukia in the first place? The answer was simple; he didn't want any of his friends that he was there. The reasons to that were two-fold.
First, if he was hidden, it would be much easier to fix things if Lord Pimp-Staff messed up everything, as he was bound to do. He was counting on it, actually.
That led to the second reason, and it left a bad taste in his mouth. The subject of interest today wasn't Rukia, or even Kanonji himself. No, today was a day of experiment, today the focus was his best male friend, Sado.
The last few days of school, the gentle giant had a strange presence about him. It wasn't anything in his demeanor or his looks. He could just feel something strange about him, something familiar that he simply couldn't place. Then he remembered the time with the bird, Sado managed to dodge the Hollow's attack, and he could tell it wasn't just luck. Sado had strong spiritual energy, and he could feel more beneath the surface of what was obvious.
Today's 'experiment' was to be a strange one. All he had to do was nothing. Kanonji would surely screw things up in some way, and Sado being Sado, would seek to protect the girls with him. It was part of the oath they took – to protect what the other would. Sado would surely find himself in a combat situation, and Ichigo's purpose was to watch, and if it seemed a too dangerous, intervene. Otherwise today the show was all Sado's, contrary to what Don Kanonji would think.
"I feel rotten."
"You know well this is necessary, Ichigo. If all goes as we expect it to, then it'll work to Sado's benefit."
"I know… I know. But it still doesn't make me feel any better about what I'm doing."
Ichigo had worked some… manipulations in order to set up the day. Sado wasn't much of a fan of Kanonji's show. He'd rather be at that animal show he liked so much, and he going out with the girls without the guys there was very unlikely.
The first thing he did was make sure his family wouldn't be there. They had planned on going, so Ichigo spent the time just before dawn roaming around the ugliest parts of town. How is any of that related? Well, Ichigo wasn't someone you'd overlook, and around the parts of Karakura where delinquents and the like hung out he was a beacon for people with ill intentions, so they'd try to get one over him, rob him, beat him up or whatever. None of that would work, Ichigo would beat up people, maybe break a few bones, and then send them to the clinic telling his family there was an accident with a gas line. He even blew up an alley to make it seem convincing. He got to keep his family home, and he taught a lesson to the bad guys of town.
He very much liked win-win situations. Where he won twice, that is.
Then he had to make sure Tatsuki and Orihime would go, that was easy, really. He just off-handedly mentioned that Kanonji was a fun guy, and they'd both think that he would actually go to the show, so when Rukia mentioned it, they agreed to go. And Ichigo knew Rukia would mention it, after all, Don Kanonji's show was one of the things that Yuzu got her hooked on to.
He had thought Sado would be the hardest part, not because he would be hard to convince. No, it was because what he would have to use to convince him. He just told him that he wouldn't be able to make the show, and that he had a strange feeling about it. So when Sado heard the girls were going, and figuring Ichigo wouldn't make it, he volunteered to go, if only to watch over them.
"I feel like a puppet master of the worse kind."
"Things like this are necessary, Ichigo. That way, when the situations we really have to be prepared for do come around, less people will end up getting hurt."
"Again, it doesn't make me feel any better. This sort of plan… is something only a twisted bastard would come up with."
Urahara dropped his fan as he sneezed. He blinked in surprise before Tessai hoisted him on his shoulder.
"Wait, where are you taking me? Put me down!" Urahara comically kicked and punched to get free of the man's hold.
"You could be coming down with something. We must medicate you properly with this." He held up a little pill behind his back, so that Kisuke could look at it. "With some of my special soup." Kisuke paled, Tessai's 'special soup' was a grain of salt short of a tongue-murderer. "Otherwise, if you do get sick, we'll have to use this." He held a significantly larger pill this time, about palm-sized.
"That doesn't look too bad, I'll just wait and if I get sick, I'll take the larger-"
"It's a suppository."
"On the other hand, better safe than sorry."
Ichigo saw Rukia and the girls get off the bus at their destination, keeping up with it while hiding his presence wasn't hard at all. He wasn't much of a stealth person, rather preferring to bring down a building than infiltrate it, but the situation required a bit of delicacy.
Sado walked calmly behind the girls, a single one of his steps equaling three of girls'. He stood back watching them, making sure they didn't stray or nothing strange crept up on them.
It was a habit Ichigo used to have, actually. Before he met Sado, he was always the one walking in the back of the group, watching out for all of them. Now, Ichigo took the front, the spot of the one leading the group, and Sado took the back. It was an unspoken agreement between them, that way they could protect everyone with them from both sides.
Ichigo smiled, he remembered just why Chad was his best friend.
The group of four, with Ichigo following from the rooftops half a block behind, reached their destination. It wasn't hard to find the place, what with the multitude of people (mostly parents with their kids) already there. Ichigo frowned when he saw the girls making their way through the people, using Sado's intimidating figure to make way between the veritable human walls. That would make it harder to follow them, the rooftops helped when it came to hiding, if he just floated around, someone was bound to notice or feel something. Someone like Kanonji. Or worse, Rukia.
If Rukia learned that Ichigo set the whole thing up, and she probably would, then he was in for a world of immense anger. And she would probably be disappointed in him. He didn't want that, even if he felt a bit annoyed about himself at that moment.
"Quit it with the whole emo attitude. Stay sharp, it's starting."
Rukia smiled as the show began, Don Kanonji did look a bit clownish and had a rather over-the-top hero attitude, but you couldn't deny that he had a bit of presence as well as a great love for his audience. The man himself sported sunglasses (at night?) and a mustache; he was very tall and perhaps too thin for his height. He wore a flashy outfit with huge shoulder pads beneath a long-sleeved, rather tight-looking shirt with an absurdly thick fur collar. On his back hung a cape, and on his head an equally flashy hat.
Kanonji introduced himself and the crossed his arms on his chest with both hands semi-opened in clawing gestures towards himself. Then he laughed loudly, very deeply and quite hilariously.
"BOHAHAHAHAHA! It smells like bad spirits!"
Orihime and Tatsuki stood on either side of Rukia; they were clapping along with the entire audience, though Tatsuki seemed to do it because she found the whole situation ridiculously funny.
Sado didn't even move from behind the three of them, he was like a bodyguard on a dangerous mission, though his attitude wasn't any different than usual, so the girls didn't find it weird.
Ichigo braced himself for what was to come, he was hiding behind a tree not too far away, but not as close as he'd like, with his hand holding onto the handle of the sword hanging on his back, just in case he had to move in fast.
Rukia's smile disappeared and now she really looking at what was going on, Kanonji made a show out of exorcising a spirit, but she hadn't known that there would be an actual Plus Soul chained down to the old hospital the show was being filmed on. Kanonji made a real big show out of approaching the-
And then her eyes widened, and Ichigo's words from earlier replayed in her mind.
The Plus Soul grounded in the hospital – it wasn't too far from becoming a Hollow. At this point, there was only a fifty percent chance of a Konsō working, and the man, Kanonji, was no Shinigami.
She saw him lift his staff, and for a second she thought the man was about to perform a Konsō ritual with it, but then he shoved it into the hole in the semi-hollow's chest. The man was only accelerating the process of the soul becoming a Hollow. From four to six months to just a few seconds. She hated it when Ichigo was right. That was all the time, though she wouldn't admit it.
Rukia winced as she saw the soul protest in pain, and then grit her teeth and had to try hard not to turn away as he saw Kanonji spew more of his crazy talk while wiggling around his rod in the semi-hollow's hole.
"I feel like I missed a very funny sentence that could be taken out of context."
"Don't distract me, now's when it starts."
Sado could see it, he had thought the show to be fake, and as his best friend would put it a 'steaming pile of bullshit', but now he saw that the host, Don Kanonji, was actually interacting with something. He couldn't tell just what it was; all he saw was a blurry humanoid shape moving on the other side of the host's staff. Then he got that feeling.
It was the feeling he usually got when some of the street thugs he and Ichigo used to fight tried to sneak up behind him, only this time he felt it coming from in front of him, or more specifically, the shape in front of Kanonji. It was the feeling of danger. The blurry figure chose that moment to stop being blurry and he very clearly saw what was going on, as well as hear the… thing screaming.
Rukia looked around for options, she couldn't just jump in and blast the transforming soul, there was a lot of security men around; not to mention it would be nigh-impossible to modify so many memories of her throwing lightning. Not without at least a dozen other Shinigami, anyways.
Then it was too late, the soul broke free of the chains holding it to the hospital, let out an unearthly scream that even those in the audience without enough perception could hear, and moved too fast for normal eyes to see.
Kanonji blinked, then smiled and turned around to face his audience, "Exorcism success!" He bellowed, and the audience applauded and cheered loudly.
Rukia knew otherwise, though, that soul was now a Hollow, and if her senses were right, it was now in the hospital it was previously chained to. She could also tell Tatsuki and Orihime felt something was off as well, and she remembered Ichigo mentioning that those two were strangely perceptive, and he was afraid of showing any power around them for that same reason. He looked resigned to some strange fate as he said that, though.
"Please stay in there." If the Hollow did, then she could just bring Ichigo later to get rid of the Hollow, when there was no audience or any of their perceptive friends around.
Then everyone heard another scream and Rukia's hopes vanished.
Everyone looked up to where they heard the unearthly scream coming from; no one except a select few (those being Rukia, Kanonji, Sado and the hidden Shinigami) saw what was standing on the rooftop of the hospital.
Kanonji's eyes narrowed, and then he addressed his audience once more, "It seems the foul spirit I banished had a boss! Tonight's work is yet to be finished, and I, the great Kanonji, will put to rest this foul spirit!" Then he looked up and saw the figure jump off the hospital, on the opposite direction from where they were, so he signaled his camera crew to follow him around the building. He also told the security crew that it would be best if the audience stayed and saw the whole thing later on TV, it would be difficult to do his job with so much people moving around. He struck his pose and laughed before he ran around the building.
Sado felt at odds, he had to stay with the girls and protect them, but then that creature would probably hurt someone, and he couldn't bear to just stand to the side while that happened.
"Where's Kuchiki-san going?"
Sado started at Orihime's words. Then he looked in the direction she was pointing at and saw Rukia speeding past the security crew and after Don Kanonji and his camera men.
And there went his doubts.
"Orihime-san, Tatsuki-san, stay here. I'll go make sure Rukia's alright."
Both girls blanched, they had almost forgotten that the Mexican wall was standing behind them. Tatsuki was the first to recover.
"But, Chad- no! Wait a moment!"
But now the big guy was running past the security men. Unlike with Rukia, in which she used her small size and speed to maneuver around them, the men just paled as they saw him move faster than any guy his size should move, and let him pass through without so much as yelling 'halt!'
Tatsuki chewed on her lower lip, now Chad was gone too. She could feel that the whole situation was dangerous, and she had wanted to keep an eye on everyone with her. But now the security men were joined by even more security personnel, and she didn't want to get arrested for beating them up to get through, she'd just have to wait and see.
"Of all the days, Ichigo chose this one to not be around." She lamented.
Finally, it was time. Ichigo stood from the branch he had been crouching on, then leapt to the hospital's rooftop to get a view of the other side.
"Come on, Chad."
Sado arrived to see Kanonji get backslapped by frog-thing-whatever creature with a white, bony-looking head. The proclaimed exorcist, surprisingly, got up and took a fighting stance in front of the creature again. Rukia was standing to the side looking as if she wanted to do something, then her eyes landed on him and she got a panicked look on his face which then it changed to curious when she saw him focus on the creature.
Sado moved to stand behind and to the side of Don Kanonji, and he saw the showman hold his hand to the side and there, on the palm of his hand, a tiny, shiny ball of… something started forming.
Kanonji got a fierce look as he thrust the hand holding the ball of Spiritual Energy towards the Hollow. "Kan'onji-ryū Saishū Ōgi! (Kan'onji-Style Final Super Attack) Kan'on Ball!" And he threw it.
It soared towards the Hollow… very slowly, actually. It wasn't so much soar as it was gently float towards the enemy. And the Hollow just looked at it with a curious look on its face before snorting and batting it away with its hand. But the moment the Hollow's hand touched it, the ball of energy exploded quite fantastically for something so small.
Kanonji took on a victorious pose as the creature was engulfed in smoke from the explosion. Rukia had been told by Ichigo that the man could throw around some of his power, but she didn't think he meant this! So understandably, her mouth hung open and she stood unmoving in surprise.
Kanonji looked on as the smoke started to clear, and then three things happened in quick succession.
First, something- no, someone, sped past him and towards the smoke.
Second, the smoke thinned out enough to see the creature behind it was actually quite intact and angry, so it jumped at him with an angry howl.
And third, and in Ichigo's opinion, incredibly awesome, Yasutora Sado, also known as Chad, smashed the Hollow in the face with his right elbow.
The Hollow now fell back, holding both hands to its mask as it nearly cracked, the world looked very funny as it fell down to the… ground?
No, something stopped his fall, two powerful arms now held the creature in an embrace from behind, and then lifted it up, turned it upside down with ease, and then smashed its head against the sidewalk in a perfectly executed Texas Piledriver.
"Ichigo, the dumbest thing you've ever done in your life is not bringing popcorn today."
Ichigo actually agreed.
The Hollow currently knew only pain, but it was now in full survival mode, so the dizziness started to disappear and it was about to stand from where it lay when it suddenly felt as if someone had shot cannonball at its back.
Sado had no idea how to go about this, he just saw the creature was about to get dangerous and started attacking, the Piledriver was something he'd wanted to try for a while, but doing that to anyone he fought would have been a guaranteed kill, and he was no murderer. The same could not be said of this creature, so he felt it was fair game.
Anything to protect, he felt. He was a prideful person, and nothing made him feel prouder about himself than to protect those who needed it. His Abuelo (Grandfather) always in his mind.
He followed up on his attack by climbing a little over halfway up a utility pole, looking over his shoulder at the now-recovering creature, then jumped off the pole, executing a backflip mid-air and landing on with his kneed on the monster's back.
"That's the most amazing Moonsault I've ever had the opportunity to see."
No need to mention who said that, they both thought the same.
Rukia couldn't believe what he was seeing, or the fact that she felt kind of bad for the ludicrous beating that the Hollow was getting from Chad. She was about to join the fight, but then she saw him pull off that crazy leap and decided that maybe Chad could handle this.
Sado got off the creature, it's bony, frog-like head was up in a silent scream, and then it slumped, seemingly unconscious.
"Amazing! Simply amazing! Defeating a dark spirit with only the power of human strength!" Don Kanonji was now standing next to him patting his back in a congratulatory gesture, "Tell me, young man, have you ever considered-"
"Watch out!"
Rukia's warning came too late and Sado only had enough time to push away Kanonji as the creature leapt at them, grabbing onto Sado with its clawed hands. He held onto its wrists with and pulled to get it off him, but the creature's claws had begun painfully sinking onto his skin, then he saw it rear its head back and open its mouth as if to bite his head off, so he did the next thing that came to mind. He held the creature by the arms, close to its shoulders.
Then he pulled. He pulled really hard.
The creature's arms came off rather easily, actually, spraying a rather dark-looking blood. It screamed once again, much harder than before and Sado took a step back before switching his hold on both of the creature's loose arms, holding them by their wrists, then proceeded to smash the creature's body and face with them repeatedly.
"Ichigo, your status as the person I like the most in this world was just taken by the Mexican fellow who beat up a Hollow with its own limbs."
The screaming turned into bloody gurgling as the creature now resembled the inside of a pulpy fruit, and a panting Sado finally let go of the arms he had been using as blunt weapons. He heard some clapping behind him and turned to see Don Kanonji again trying to congratulate him. Then he heard the creature move, again, and he turned around while throwing a punch.
It connected, harder than he thought it would, and the monster crashed through the ruined hospital's walls.
Sado would have gone after it, but he was currently focused on his right arm.
It didn't look anything like his arm. It was all black with a magenta strip running down its whole length, outlined by a white line, looking as if it was covered in armor. It fanned out of his shoulder in an upward extension that was only a quarter of an inch lower than his head. Said extension was parted in two, the divide only reaching his shoulder. His wrist had two wing-like protrusions on either side. It looked a bit like a rocket, or a sports car, now that he squinted at it.
"Brazo Derecho del Gigante." (Right Arm of the Giant) He nodded inwardly, that was a fitting name. Though he had no idea why he wasn't freaking out about it right now.
The Hollow dug itself out of the rubble, it was badly beat up but its arms had finally regenerated, just a few more moments and-
Then it knew no more.
Ichigo put his sword back on his back and ran his other hand through his hair as he saw the rest of the Hollow disappear.
"Well, overall, we can say that today's experiment was a success."
"I suppose the results make me feel a bit better about it."
He took a look outside of the building through one of the windows, and saw Rukia retreating as Sado nodded profusely at whatever Kanonji was telling him, his right arm was back to normal.
"That power has a funny feeling to it, but I believe we can safely say that as long as Chad remains Chad, we can safely give him anything and trust him to be alright."
"True enough."
Well, it was time to get back home; he'd take the scenic route and actually keep an eye out for Hollows as he did, though. He had to keep up the act, after all.
"You'll eventually have to tell her all about this, you know."
"I'll tell her if she asks or if it comes up. I don't like lying. Not to her."
Rukia looked up from Ichigo's pillow as she heard the door to Ichigo's room open. She was lying on her stomach with her head on top of the pillow to peruse her sketchbook in a more comfortable position next to Ichigo's body.
"Yo." Ichigo greeted her lazily.
"You're late." Rukia closed her sketchbook and glared at him.
"I didn't know I had a time to get home now." Ichigo raised an eyebrow.
She huffed, "Well, you do now. I had to pretend to be sleeping next to you a while ago so your dad wouldn't try to wake you up."
Ichigo's raised eyebrow was joined by the other, "Huh." He then dismissed the whole situation by jumping into his body.
"So, any Hollows around town?"
"Nah, the whole place was devoid of them. I wish days like this came when I'm minding my own business and not actually patrolling."
"Not all days can be exciting." She used the pillow to stifle a giggle. Ichigo smiled, "You're not telling me something." He told the laughing girl.
"If I told you, you wouldn't believe me."
Ichigo inwardly smirked. "Oh really? Try me."
That's a wrap.
Well, not much to say other than sorry about the delay, but it really went out of my hands. This chapter should have been out at least three weeks ago, but then I got hard-headed and wanted to check the previous ones and touch them up a little bit, halfway through that I got a lot of work dumped on me by my university.
And when I finally finished all that work, the country entered an emergency state due to floods caused by heavy rains, so classes were suspended in four or so states, including mine. I figured that gave me some more free time, then I got an email saying at least 3 professors had agreed that now that we had some time, they could give us more work. I'm not kidding. I finally wrapped everything up two days ago and got around finishing my reviewing of the previous chapters.
This was a bit of a filler chapter, I had to bring in Chad somehow, and this moment with Kanonji seemed perfect.
Some reviewers pointed out that it felt weird to have a Japanese techniques being numbered in English, as I did with all Kidō here, so I changed it to # + number. If you wish to hear it in either language, do so in your mind… what? Am I the only one who hears the voices? I also changed an incantation I got wrong, which I found a bit embarrassing. Must have been real sleepy or something.
I am also a little bit surprised people haven't pointed out the differences in difficulty that Ichigo has faced, Grand Fisher could tell what lure to use against him without even touching him. The day he met Rukia a load of Hollows were attacking his home rather than just the one. There have been a few hints here and there, I even made Urahara say it, but I guess I wasn't blunt enough:
This is Bleach Hard Mode. Things aren't going to be so easy for my Ichigo as if I'd just dumped him in the canon universe. Though any difficulties I do bring up will come as a consequence of his actions, it means the game will be harder. He's a force of change, after all. The greater he is the more things change around him.
I feel like I should upload the next one before the next week hits, but I kind of want to get around beating Arc Rise Fantasia and Dead Island (Video Games, for those who live in pineapples under the sea). But then again, I feel like I should give you guys a treat for my delays.
I also feel like I should get a beta reader already, I'm pretty sure I missed a lot of mistakes, hmmm…
Ah well, food for thought.
- Flameal out.