Work of a Shinigami

#Somebody's cry, reflected in those sparkling eyes#

"Go~d Mo~rning, Ichigo~!"

"!"

"Damn you, why can't you just act like a normal person at least every once in a while!" Ichigo was pinning Isshin to the floor, after he tried waking up his son by jumping feet first on him.

"You are doing well my son, I have nothing else to teach you." Isshin struggled, but it wasn't good enough for him to get free.

"Wait, it's tomorrow? Is everyone alright?"

"What? What are you talking about?"

He was now standing outside, in the place where only a mere hours ago he had fought his greatest battle in life, he had saved his sisters and defeated the monster that threatened to kill them all.

'No one else remembers it, but it's not a dream. I remember everything. Is this how the Shinigami avoid being detected? They mess with the memories of people and place all the blame on others.'

'But I still have my memories, so that has to mean something. She said she would be in the city for the next month so I'll probably see her soon; and she did say that we'll end up dead eventually because of that...'

"Ichi-nii, you'll be late to school if you don't hurry."

"Oh, right." he walked Into the house, deciding that he had time to worry later.

"So Orihime, what did you bring for lunch?" Asked the short haired girl-

"Ah, today I brought ramen with fishcakes, honey and wasabi; would you like some Tatsuki-chan?" the other girl made a disgusted look,

"Ah, no thanks, I have my own lunch."

Neither saw Ichigo as he came from the corridor to their side before he bumped into Inoue. She fell and all her school stuff was sprawled on the floor.

"Oh, Inoue." he acknowledged her.

"Ichigo, apologize at least, dammit!" Tatsuki yelled at him.

"Oh, yeah, sorry, here," he offered her his hand but his eternally scowling face was a bit too close to her.

"It's alright," she was up in an instant, " I-Um, I... Um..." she muttered some incomprehensible sentence and ran off.

"The hell did I do?" Ichigo asked as he looked to Tatsuki for an answer.

"You've got one hell of a mean face, ya' know?" she said like it was an everyday thing.

"Why did you come so late anyway? It's already lunchtime." she asked, since Ichigo, despite his reputation as a thug, rarely comes to school late.

"Stuff happened, it's a long story, I'll tell you about it later." he walked off towards the classroom, to start getting ready for classes.

"So, Ichigo, I heard that a truck crashed into your house." his annoying friend Keigo said, "Did you finish cleaning up already?" his next friend Mizuiro (one of the few people in class that didn't annoy him) asked.

"Right, like we could clean up something like that quickly."

"Do you need any help?" the last person asked, a giant of a man.

"No need, Chad, it's not much."

Chad was a goodhearted giant, always willing to help, he was also in a band with some of his other friends.

Mizuiro was a womanizer, constantly chasing women, and never even glancing at the girls his age. And he was damn good at it.

Keigo was like the annoying little brother, more annoying and less like a brother, but still, he was a friend... of sorts.

Tatsuki was his long-time friend from back when his mother was still alive. They cared for each other but didn't really show it.

"Kurosaki Ichigo." he heard the voice behind him, he knew that tone, that feeling when she addressed him like she was looking down on him. He turned around to face her in an instant.

He couldn't really be mad at her, if it wasn't for her, his sisters would be dead now, and while he didn't want to show it on the outside, he was praising her on the inside; thanking the heavens that she was sent to help. He decided to keep his scowl on his face anyway.

One look at her arrogant face was all he needed to start getting some of that hate back.

"Suì-Fēng." He tried his best to imitate her tone; and he did it surprisingly well.

She just smirked at him.

"Why are you here?" He asked, holding his indifferent look on his face.

'That uniform fits her well.'

"Why do you care?" She copied him.

'He looks good with that serious face on.'

"We need to talk." He still had the same face, although, he was willing to ignore the way she acted, he actually wanted to say thanks for all she did, of course not in front of everyone here. After all he was the guy who beat up anyone in his way.

"In private." She knew that he would lead her somewhere private to talk anyway, but she had to make sure that his friends got the message to not disturb.

He nodded and turned around to leave, he noted that his friends were wide-eyed after witnessing their short exchange.

They got to a private place in front of the school.

"Alright, now why are you here?" his scowl was more shallow this time, but he was still scowling, "After last night, I know for a fact that there's better stuff for you to be doing." He wanted to add an insult at the end, but decided against it, no need to agitate her any further.

"There's a lot that would need to be explained if I wanted you to understand the full story. So I'll keep it short and simple, at least for now. First, transfer of powers is illegal, if the others find out about it, I will be executed, you would probably end up the same," she raised her hand to stop him from talking, "Keep it a secret, or those who know of it could be in danger too."

"Second, I was planning on transferring only a portion of my power to you, but somehow you took all of it, if I had been in a better condition I would have already turned myself in." she said it as if it was normal for her to throw herself to her death.

"What? Turn yourself in? Why"

"Don't interrupt me, Third, it's now your duty to protect this town from Hollows since you have my powers and I still haven't recovered."

He didn't say anything for the next few seconds, he just looked at her as if she was joking.

"Oh hell no... I'll be damned before I fight one of those things again!"

"You fought one last night, and you fought well enough."

"Yeah, well, not to sound selfish or anything, but my family was on the line, I can't fight for complete strangers."

She saw through him, he had the will to fight, was he afraid of Hollows? That was something she could understand, she couldn't move when she saw her first Hollow. He had the will to fight, his reputation was enough to tell her that. He cared about innocent people, the way he helped the ghost of the girl told her that much. Yet somewhere deep inside him, there was fear.; she didn't know him well enough yet to figure him out completely.

Urahara told her that she would have to spend a lot of time with him, and her authority had nothing on Ichigo, he would just shrug it off or try and top her. She could try faking some informality with him, it could help making him more cooperative.

"Follow me." She turned and left to some bushes that were on the side.

"What do you think they're talking about?" Keigo asked, since they were all at the window watching the new transfer student and Ichigo.

"Ichigo seems upset about something." Tatsuki said, to no one in particular, deciding to ask him about it later.

Then they left towards the bushes.

"Oi, they're going to the bushes!" Keigo once again said what was on everyone's mind.

They disappeared in the bushes and everything was still for a few moments and then they saw the upper part of Ichigos body fall down on its back; completely still. Suì-Fēng walked out of the bushes and quickly grabbed his shoulders, she hid his unconscious body in the bushes, dusted off her hands and left the courtyard.

"Did she just... knock him out cold?" Mizuiro was the one to break the silence this time.

"I think so... I don't want to be anywhere near him when he wakes up, he's gonna be really pissed." Tatsuki said, knowing that Keigo was already getting ready to rush down and besides, Ichigo deserved this for never telling her about this girl since they seemed to know each other well.

"Alright class, settle down." Ochi-sensei came into the classroom and the class continued, most of the witnesses thinking about Suì-Fēng.

"What did you do?" Ichigo yelled looking himself over.

"I separated your soul from your body, you are now in your Shinigami form." Suì-Fēng told him as she hid his body from sight. "Now follow me."

"What if someone sees me?"

"You are like a regular spirit, you won't be seen."

She left without repeating the order to follow her. He followed, interested in what she had to show him.

They arrived at the park where Suì-Fēng stopped and checked her phone.

"Why are we here?" he didn't see anything strange around.

"Orders from Soul Society, as far as they know, I'm still the one that is purifying the Hollows, I get notified of Hollow activity."

He was going to ask if there was a Hollow nearby but his unspoken question was answered when he heard a scream that sounded just like the one from last night.

He saw that a young boy was running from a spider-like hollow. He grabbed the hilt of his sword right away.

"Wait!" Suì-Fēng commanded, "Two things, can you slay a soul knowing that it used to be human? And isn't that boy just a stranger?" She was gambling, she knew that if his resolve was to falter the boy would be devoured, from what she knew of him, he was tough for a human, but he was no longer judged only by human standards.

"That doesn't mean I can just let him die!"

"Don't be naive! Shinigami must be fair to all souls, if you save him now, you must be ready to save every other soul in the world!" She was pushing him to the edge, if he fails now, he won't be good enough as a temporary replacement.

The Hollow swung it's front claw at the boy. It was cut off and fell useless to the side; the Hollow screamed and retreated for the moment.

"Are you prepared then, Kurosaki Ichigo?" She was smirking at his back, glad that her plan seemed to have worked.

"Hell no."

"What?"

"I didn't save the kid because of duty, I didn't save him because I had to, I saved him because I wanted to save him. You're not much different, last night, were you thinking of your duty when you jumped in to save me?"

Suì-Fēng was wide-eyed, he was right, she could have attacked from behind and easily killed the Hollow, but that would mean that he would have died, why did she want to save him? Did she see something in him and his actions?

The Hollow appeared again, still missing a limb.

"Life is never sacrificed because of duty, at least not in my case!" He struck at the Hollow and purified it.

He had managed to get through two more difficult matters for any Shinigami.

'Am I ready to give my life for others, am I ready to sacrifice all I have to save innocent lives?'

'Can I look at a Hollow and see a tormented soul, can I look at a Hollow and purify it without involving my emotions?'

'He's growing quickly, I need to make sure he doesn't stand out too much.'

"Hey, kid, you okay?" Ichigo was now kneeling in front of the crying spirit.

"Oi, Suì-Fēng, I just place the hilt on the forehead, right?"

"Yes, it should be instinctive even for you."

He placed the hilt on the kids forehead,

"You should stop crying and go to heaven already, no use in staying behind like this."

The spirit turned into a butterfly and flew away, leaving the two of them on their own.

"I'm going home." He left her behind, she seemed like she was thinking about something but she caught up with him soon.

The day Ichigo got his powers was a Friday, Suì-Fēng came as a transfer student on Saturday, and now it was late Sunday, for the most of the day Suì-Fēng was missing and wouldn't tell Ichigo where she was. Right now they were in the town, walking around casually dressed, she was filling in any holes he had in his knowledge of Hollows.

"So, I should be able to take care of all the easier ones, but if I ever see one of those Menos, I should just run? That doesn't make sense, shouldn't I try and hold it back as much as I can?"

"That would be the advised course of action for a regular Shinigami of your strength, however, if a Menos comes into the city, Soul Society will send appropriate measures against it, and you're not skilled enough to evade them, you would be seen and probably placed under suspicion. We don't need them chasing us."

"Alright I get that, anything else I should be worried about?"

"Some of the easier hollows have special abilities that are difficult to go around, most common are cloaking and flying. The thing you should be worried about even more than Hollows is the fact that we will soon start training."

"Training? What kind of training?"

"We'll start by evaluating your skill, and then work our way through the basics of all four base Shinigami skills; Zanjutsu, Hakuda, Kido and Hoho. Sparring should also help me recover faster." Suì-Fēng was still holding her commanding tone, but was a bit more relaxed around Ichigo.

Silence fell between them for a few moments, Ichigo didn't want to break it but he had to know something.

"Suì-Fēng."

"Yes?"

"How many people did you leave behind?"

"...People I care about, or just people I general?"

"People that care about you."

"...Probably none, why do you ask?"

"...No reason..."

It was the first time they had a serious talk about private matters, they would scowl most of the time and a few moments of a private talk with actual emotions was something they both found soothing In a way, was it because of the nature of the talk or because of the company, they didn't know.

They heard a car abruptly break and saw that it had just hit a girl. They started running towards the scene as the car accelerated and ran away.

"Hey, you alright?" Ichigo was the first one there.

"Kurosaki-kun? Suì-Fēng-san?"

"Inoue? Are you alright? Did that car just hit you?"

"Oh? I'm fine, there's nothing to worry about."

"You sure? Do you need me to walk you home?"

"I'm sure, I'll just get my dinner and leave you two alone." She didn't show her state of mind, instead she put on a smile and sucked it up.

She walked to the other side of the road, abruptly stopped and turned around.

"Enjoy your date!" she didn't see their faces or hear their confused mutterings and yells.

It most definitely wasn't a date, it took a total of 2 seconds for both of them to decide that for themselves. They stayed silent for the next 5 minutes, cooling off.

He hated to admit this about anyone, but Ichigo knew he needed her, she already taught him a lot, and there was still a lot more to learn from her, besides, she knew how to explain things simply and with enough detail to him.

She had to stay close to him, she knew that she could probably avoid the Soul Society for another few weeks on her own, Urahara said that in the worst case she would have to join the Visored, as they called themselves now, and hide with them. But Ichigo was brash and hardheaded, and that would get him into trouble. And if he get's in trouble, trouble would find her too.

This time Suì-Fēng felt the need to interrupt the awkward silence, but before she could Ichigo stepped in,

"Where are you staying?"

"Why do you care?"

"In case of emergency, I'm useless like this if any Hollows show up."

"Don't worry, I'll be close..." ' Closer than I thought possible... I'll kill Urahara if I live through all this mess.' It was time for a bit more intel gathering,

"How well do you know that girl?"

"Inoue? Not really well, never had a real conversation with her, she's more of a 'friend-of-a-friend' to me, why?"

"She might be in danger, that bruise on her leg was made by a Hollow."

"What? But shouldn't you have received orders about it?"

"It must have been a fresh Hollow so the barriers didn't react strongly to it, it should be detected normally next time."

"Why did it just give her a bruise? You said that Hollows want to eat the entire souls." by now awkwardness between them was gone.

"It could be the tormented soul of a dead relative..."

"Well, shit..."

Tatsuki rang the bell to Orihimes flat.

"Oh, Tatsuki-chan!"

"Orihime! What's wrong? Were you crying?"

"Oh, I was just cutting some onions and it made me cry, it's nothing really. Come on in."

Ichigo heard a knock on his door,

"Yeah?"

"Ichi-nii, did you see my blue pajamas?" Karin was looking around the house for a while now so it was only a matter of time before she ended up in his room.

"No, and I don't know where they could be." Karin left, deciding that it wasn't worth it to waste any more time on it.

Ichigo was reading a manga, or it seemed like it, he was on the same page for the last few minutes. He was thinking about Suì-Fēng; he had a reputation to keep, a tough guy that you shouldn't mess with, a troublemaker that does well enough in all subjects. He didn't like rumors, and he hated the ones about his love life.

Sure, he was interested in girls, he was a healthy teenager after all; but he didn't put much fate in physical appearance, to him, it was the personality that mattered the most. And on the inside Suì-Fēng was aggressive, hardheaded and commanding. Besides, she mentioned once that she was more than a century and a half old, sure he wouldn't mind dating a woman a bit older than him but that was just ridiculous.

Suì-Fēng was thinking along the same lines but in a lighter way. That girl thought that they were on a date, was that what a date looked like these days, it's been a long time since she had anything close to that. And she didn't forget the first impression she left on her new classmates, she thought it was good enough to show her and her substitute as a sort of 'rivals' or 'old enemies'. Rumors would definitely start going around, there had to be at least a few people like Matsumoto in the school.

She would usually try to deal with rumors preemptively, debunking them as soon as possible, since Matsumotos rumors about her were predictable. But she didn't know what to expect here, so she decided to keep silent about it at least for now, until she can see what happens.

Her phone rang and she opened it to see the orders. In a second she had the red glove on her hand and opened the door of the closet she was in.

To say that Ichigo was surprised would be a gross understatement, here he was thinking about her and she was in his closet all along, wearing his sisters pajamas.

"What are you doing-"

"On the floor, now!" she yelled and lunged at him, making his body fall in a heap on the floor and his soul crash on it's rear, looking at the big claw that just came out of the wall to try and grab him.

The Hollow emerged completely, showing it's snakelike body and two sharp claws.

"Shit!" Ichigo cursed, he didn't expect something like this to happen.

"What are you waiting for?" Suì-Fēng almost yelled, bringing Ichigo from his daze; he swung his sword and managed to cut the Hollows arm making it roar.

"You idiot, not there!" she nearly face-palmed when he missed the mask next time; however, on the third swing he managed to nick it's mask, cutting deep enough to make almost half of it fall off...

"This is...?" he knew the person behind the mask.

"Not deep enough!"

The beasts roar was loud and it left, giving them some rest, at least for a while.

They heard a quiet noise and turned to the door, someone knocked on the door once and ran off. Ichigo heard that whoever had been at his door was now running down the stairs, opening the door of the house and running away. He understood why that was when he looked at the small object under the door.

Ishhin was going to take a bath and go to bed, however when he was passing Ichigos room, he heard his son yell.

"What are you doing-"

"On the floor, now!" the other voice was female, and from the sound of it, it was a mature woman too. Then he heard some loud crashing noises.

"What are you waiting for?"

"You idiot, not there!" Isshin almost fell to the ground despite the fact that he was holding onto the door frame with one hand.

"Not deep enough!" Isshin was now sporting a perverted grin on his face but his fatherly instincts took over and he left to his room as fast as he could, grabbing something from one of the drawers and going back to Ichigos room.

Isshin had just pushed a condom under Ichigos door, probably because he thought... oh god, he can't hear Hollows or Shinigami, all he heard was Suì-Fēng and what she had yelled at him.

"What's wrong? What is that?" inside his mind, Ichigo looked up at the heavens and thanked them for Suì-Fēng lack of knowledge.

"N-Nothing, it's not important." he quickly made his way to the door and grabbed it, throwing it in a drawer. "That Hollow was Inoues brother." he tried changing the subject.

"Then she is in danger, we don't have much time, we go now."

Ichigo silently cheered, happy that he avoided the bullet, bis father however would not be so lucky... the bastard would die a slow and painful death.

"And it most definitely is something, you WILL explain later. Understood?" Suì-Fēng was being commanding again, and his silent cheer died.

"Are you sure it was a date?"

"...No..."

Tatsuki sighed, she had no idea what to do, Orihime was a great friend, and she knew of her crush on Ichigo, but he was oblivious about it. Ichigo was a great friend too, and even though she wanted to punch him right now, she wanted to hit herself more than that. She should have at least done something, maybe hint it to Ichigo, maybe arrange them to have a few moments alone or something like that.

And now, an unknown girl comes along and steals away Ichigo. Well, she wasn't exactly challenged for him, and Ichigo never did show any interest in any girl, including Suì-Fēng.

"I'm sure it was nothing, they seemed like old acquaintances so they were probably catching up on stuff, now stop worrying and tell me what else had happened."

"Well... I got hit by a car..."

Tatsuki would have yelled but she heard something crash loudly in Orihimes kitchen.

#A wish carried on the wind, a request from the moon#

Authors Notes:

Well, this marks the end of episode 2/chapter 2.

I was actually thinking of making the relationship a bit deeper at this point but gave up on it, deciding that I should take it slower.

I've got no idea why I did that to Orihime, I don't hate her, but I couldn't and wouldn't just ignore her crush on Ichigo. Advice on how to handle Orihime is welcome.

So far no one guessed the references in the first chapter;

1: reference to the movie 300 line "this is madness!"

2: reference to Deus Ex:Human Revolution game "I never asked for this!"

3: reference to the movie sixth sense "I can see dead people"

answers:

VanguardXIII: I'm glad you like the story, in the start story will be quite similar to the canon, however, there will be some major changes further down the line.

HeavenlyXblueXangel: Indeed, if they capture her, it won't be as easy as it was with Rukia. A captains disappearance will be investigated by more people after all, *hint – hint* :D

As always, any suggestions should be sent as private messages, criticism is fine as long as you make an effort to make it constructive.

Here's the link if you want to see what Sui-Feng is wearing as casual clothes: .com/gallery/?offset=48#/d1ct2dz