Brothers wish, sisters wish

#To live as fully as possible, day by day#

"What was that?" Tatsuki voiced her question, slowly walking towards Orihimes kitchen to check the noise.

Orihime stood up and followed behind Tatsuki, wondering what was happening.

She felt something strange in her body, when she looked down she saw that she was bleeding heavily from her right shoulder.

"W-What...?"

Ichigo was jumping from roof to roof, from telephone pole to telephone pole and Suì-Fēng was on his back, holding a bit tighter than he would like her to. Well, considering what his dad just did to him, he doubted that he could look at the woman normally ever again.

"Manipulate the spiritual energy of the surroundings to your advantage, try using the energy inside you to boost your speed mid-flight." She was instructing him to speed his progress, out of need, since they were in a hurry now. She decided that she would need to have an extensive evaluation of his abilities later. She noticed something else, he was still blushing, even in the dark she could see it, that had to mean that whatever had happened back there must have had something to do with her, but without enough information she couldn't draw any conclusions.

She could always ask Urahara but the risk of it being something embarrassing for her too was too great, she would just get it out of Ichigo later.

"Orihime!" Orihime didn't react, she just fell lifelessly to the ground, Tatsuki tried running towards her but an invisible force launched her into a wall.

She tried getting up but her chest hurt, one of her ribs must be cracked. Whatever it was that hit her must be big, she could see some sort of distortion in the air in front of her but nothing else. The distortion then rushed at her slamming her harder into a wall and throwing her across the room.

"Tatsuki-chan!"

"It's no use Orihime. She can't see or hear us." The great monster that Orihime was so scared of spoke in a deep voice.

Tatsuki was unconscious and on the other side of the room, Orihime decided that Tatsuki was as safe as she can be for now.

"How... do you know my name?" maybe talking to it would help.

"I'm sad Orihime, you have forgotten me already..." it outstretched it's arm towards her,

"No! Stay away!" she cowered from it.

"I'm sad! I'm sad! I'm sad! Orihime!" the great claw flew towards Orihime and she closed her eyes ready to accept her fate. Death never came for her, she opened her eyes and saw that Ichigo was in front of her, defending her with a huge sword. She turned around to see Suì-Fēng next to Tatsuki, checking her over with glowing hands.

"I'm not letting you get away this time, you bastard!" Ichigo yelled and pushed back the Hollow.

And it got away.

"Dammit!" he was visibly frustrated,

"Kurosaki-kun..." he turned to look at her, "it really is you, but how..."

"Inoue, how can you see..." he saw the chain connecting her soul to her body and relaxed a bit, there was still a chance for her to survive if he could get the fight to move away from her.

"Yes, she can see you... because she's dead!" the Hollow emerged from the wall and Ichigo charged, but his sword swipe was dodged and the Hollow grabbed Orihime while at the same time using it's tail to smash Ichigo through a wall. Ichigo didn't notice that he was standing in mid-air, he knew it was one of the basic skills for Shinigami, but he was too concentrated on the fight to notice that he had done it unintentionally. Just as he was about to charge forward,

"Don't move!" the Hollow had Inoue in it's grasp, and Ichigo had to stop in order to ensure her safety. But he didn't get to watch the scene for long since he was slammed towards the ground with the same tail that had got him outside of the house.

He hit the ground hard, getting knocked out.

"Hey, wake up! Wake up dammit!" there was urgency in Suì-Fēngs voice, she knew that alone she couldn't face that Hollow and win, at least not without sacrificing someone.

"Kurosaki-kun!" Orihime tried to struggle but the claw that held her wasn't moving. "Let go of me!"

"Orihime... have you forgotten me?" the big monster that held her was not yelling at her, it asked her a question, and after looking into it's eyes, she knew the answer.

"Bro...ther?"

"Wake up!"

"Shut up, I'm fine..." he acted all tough despite the fact that he probably had a slight concussion, judging by the blood flowing from his forehead.

"Don't talk to me like that! Can you still fight?"

"Yeah, I told you I'm fine."

"Good, and remember, even if it was her brother, it's a Hollow now, it must be destroyed."

"You can't be! My brother wouldn't do something like this!"

It can't be, it must be a lie...

"I was lonely... you used to pray for me every day, and I was so happy; but then, you met that girl and prayed less and less... and after you got to high school you stopped praying completely!

Tatsuki-chan is my friend, I wanted to show you that I'm not living in the past...

"But brother, I-"

"Listen to me Orihime! If you care for me even a little you will do as I say! I will eat that Shinigami first and finish this..."

Why are you doing this...?

"Wait! Please don't hurt Kurosaki-kun, he has nothing to do with this, please-"

"Silence! This is all your fault anyway! You will listen to me or I will kill you!" Ichigo chose this moment to fly in through the hole in the wall that he had left; and he stabbed into the tail of Inoues brother, he twisted and tried cutting it off but it was too thick to cut off in a single attack.

The Hollow dropped Inoue and she rolled away, Ichigo jumped in front of her, not wishing to repeat the mistake of attacking first. It payed off as the Hollow tried attacking with its right claw and Ichigo, being ready for him, sliced it clean off.

It howled in pain and Ichigo looked at the two of them. Suì-Fēng walked into the room and surveyed the situation.

"You bastard... do you even know why big brothers are born first? It's so they can protect the little brothers and sisters that come after them! A big brother can never tell his sister that he'll kill her, not even if it costs you your life!"

"Shut up! Orihime belongs to me! I raised her and took care of her when our parents left us! Orihime, come here now..." It outstretched it's other claw towards her, beckoning her to come closer.

"It's a trap." Suì-Fēng said as she placed an arm on Orihimes shoulder, so that she would be able to stop her from running off on her own. Her hair clips glistened and reflected a ray of light, making the Hollow scream and grab it's head. It slammed it's head into the wall a few times.

"Orihime... belongs to me!" the Hollow opened it's jaw wide and aimed straight for Ichigo.

"That's bullshit! Inoue is Inoue, she doesn't belong to anyone!" Ichigo raised his sword and grabbed the blade with his free hand, placing it in front of himself, effectively stopping the Hollow.

He pushed harder and managed to get the Hollow out of the house, charging straight after it. He jumped off, raising his blade high into the air.

The Hollow had another trick left, it spat out a blob of acid and hit Ichigos right hand, covering his fist and forearm in acid, making him drop his weapon. This time he fell on his feet and barely managed to straighten himself before seeing the Hollow flying towards him at great speed, mouth agape, ready to devour him.

He wasn't harmed, once again he was saved by the one he wanted to protect.

Inoue had jumped in front of him and took the attack, luckily for her though, the Hollow stopped before tearing her in half.

"Orihime..."

"I'm sorry brother, it's my fault, because that night, I said 'don't leave me alone'... it's because of me that you couldn't go to heaven...I knew you were always watching over me, that's why... I wanted to show you that I could go on, I wanted to show you that I'm not sad anymore, I wanted to show you that you can go to heaven happy, knowing that I'm happy..." she fell down, and he screamed, his mask shimmering in and out of existence.

"N-No, it's not... your..." he screamed as his mask started cracking

"What's happening now?"

"He's struggling against his nature, he was forced into becoming a Hollow, so there is still a part of him that is free of it."

The mask broke, revealing the face of a young man, disturbingly out of place on a body of a beast. He looked down sadly at his sister, looking at the hair clips he had given her as a present so long ago.

"Stand back, she can still be saved, the wound is not deep."

"I heard those were from you, she said she wears them every day because they remind her of you..." Ichigo said seeing that he was no longer facing a raging beast, but instead he was looking at a tortured soul.

He had hurt his sister, almost killed her, he had harmed her best friend and genuinely hated her while he was in his previous state. He didn't want it to happen again; he went over to the sword that lay on the ground.

"If I stay like this, I'll turn into the same beast eventually, I don't want that to happen."

Suì-Fēng saw that Ichigo didn't like it, but he didn't protest either,

"It's the right choice, there is no coming back from being a Hollow, he is doing it to protect his sister."

He was about to do it when he heard a weak voice.

"Wait, brother... that day, when you bought me these hair pins, I thought they were childish, and I didn't say anything as you went to work... that was our goodbye... so please, let me say it properly this time... brother, I'll see you later..."

"Yes, see you later..." he smiled, his resolve as high as it could be and he did it, he disintegrated with a smile on his face as the sword fell to the ground.

Ichigo solemnly looked at the scene, happy that it was over and slightly amused at Suì-Fēngs face. Inoue was weeping into her shoulder like they were great friends, all Suì-Fēng wanted to do was wrap things up as soon as possible and get back to her warm closet.

Suì-Fēng was walking through the corridor in school and cursing herself, she forgot to ask Ichigo about that embarrassing incident last night, she would have to ask him later...

"Hey there pretty girl, I hear you're new here..." if there was something she didn't need right now, It was this, a sleazy high school student hitting on her. She definitely didn't have time for this, so she stopped it before it got further.

"You're in the way, move." that wasn't a sentence, it was a command, he just ignored it, and that would prove to be a bad mistake...

"I'm Shibuimaru Takuo, you must have heard of me already." his smile was obnoxious, she was sure that if she wasn't trained she would have thrown up already.

But she had to admit, she did hear about him, he was known as a leader of the second strongest group of lowlifes in the school, first being Ichigo (although she wouldn't call Ichigos friends lowlifes, mainly because they actually attended school)

"Move." same word, same tone, same reaction from Takuo. He ignored her and went to place an arm around her. That was a bad idea.

Before the arm could touch her she grabbed it and twirled around him, twisting his arm behind his back, making him go down to his knees. With a carefully placed kick to his lower back she got the reaction she wanted to see. He arched and she slammed his back onto the floor grabbing him by his throat.

"I warned you twice, next time, there won't be any warnings before I castrate you, understood?" she had thought about dealing with him like Unohana would, with a creepy smile but decided against it, thinking that he could misunderstand the message, so she settled for her standard look she used for her lieutenant.

He nodded weakly and she got up to leave, she noticed that Arisawa was watching from a distance.

Tatsuki got a wicked plan, it would be perfect for what she needed. She hurried to catch up to Suì-Fēng before she could enter the classroom.

"Suì-Fēng-san," Tatsuki was as polite as she could be, "I saw how you dealt with Shibuimaru, would I be right to assume that you are proficient in martial arts?"

"Yes, why do you want to know?"

"I'm the school champion in Karate, would you care for a sparring session after school?"

'So that's what she wants, to bring me on a terrain I'm satisfied with and covertly interrogate me? Challenge accepted...' Suì-Fēng smirked

"Sure. When and where?"

Tasuki smiled, ' she took the bait...'

It was lunchtime and Ichigos group was having lunch on the roof, he was on the side with Suì-Fēng they got quite a number of glances thrown their way.

"Is that the effect of that memory thing?" Ichigo asked after hearing the story Orihime had about her house being wrecked.

"Yes."

"...did you ever use it on me?"

"No."

Silence fell between them, he knew why she was silent, he still hadn't told her if he would help her.

"I can't say that I'm prepared... I'm not a saint to give my life for anyone, but I'm not scum to see people suffer and not try and help them. So I'll help you."

"I guess... that will have to be good enough." He gave her his hand and she took it, "Good to be working with you."

Once more, silence fell and they stared into the distance.

"You still have to explain that thing from last night..." he gulped silently, but she noticed it,

"Not in the school, later." he quickly made plans about avoiding it further even though he knew that she wouldn't let it go.

"I have a sparring match against Arisawa after school." she said observing his face out of the corner of her eye. She wanted to see if he would be worried for either one of them, and what he would do.

"She challenged you, didn't she? I'll stay and watch." she smirked, his commanding tone needed work but he was getting better quickly.

Tatsuki and Suì-Fēng were standing on the mats wearing identical practice clothes, facing off. They were both smirking at the other, a large part of the class turned up to watch, including a few teachers. There was no referee needed, not that there was a person who would willingly stand between those two. They took off, Suì-Fēng running faster than Tatsuki.

Tatsuki didn't bother asking what martial art Suì-Fēng knew, and right now she was regretting it a lot; while Tatsuki used perfect Karate, Suì-Fēng seemed to use a style that didn't have a set stance. She would start low with a few kicks under the guard, jump up with a few punches, fall down trying to sweep Tatsuki off her feet and lunge forward with a combo of kicks and punches.

She didn't get any hits in, she tried a few times, but Suì-Fēng saw an opening every time and hit her instead. She barely managed to block the kicks aimed at her, punches were too fast and she had to absorb many of them. It didn't help that her ribs and shoulder were sore from yesterday...

Suì-Fēng found the spar enjoyable, she didn't care about the fact that Tatsuki didn't hit back, this was a chance to test the limits of her fake Gigai body. She decided to end it after a few minutes of fighting, the girl was definitely skilled, but she was getting slower and sloppier. Suì-Fēng jumped high and curled into a ball, before Tatsuki could figure out what the hell had happened a foot slammed into her right shoulder, taking her down.

Now both her shoulders were sore, her forearms were practically burning from blocking all those kicks and breathing was difficult since her ribs were bruised all over, she lost. She contemplated getting up and continuing until she really couldn't move at all, but decided against that, she didn't get a single clean hit on Suì-Fēng, she can't win against her. So she relaxed in surrender. Sprawled on the mat breathing deeply.

Suì-Fēng had landed on her feet and looked at Tatsuki,

"For a few moments, that was actually fun..." Tatsuki stayed silent, hearing the whispers from everyone else in the room.

Tatsuki had completely forgotten about her mission to find out more about Suì-Fēng and even if she hadn't, she wouldn't have been able to get a question in through all the kicks and punches...

Ichigo left first, with Suì-Fēng following him as soon as she changed.

Ichigo and Suì-Fēng were walking slowly back to Ichigos house, Ichigo not daring to start a conversation out of fear that she would redirect it somehow. It was going good so far, they haven't spoken a word since they left school, and they were about half way home.

"Alright," Suì-Fēng stopped, " we're exactly half way between the house and the school. Now explain."

He knew what she was asking of him; and he was afraid, very, very afraid. How is he supposed to explain contraception to a grown woman? He subconsciously moved away from her to be just out of her reach and swallowed his fear.

Suì-Fēng noted his movement,

'He thinks I'll hit him, he's nervous; very nervous. The street is at least empty so I can hit him if I need to.'

"Um, you see..." she was surprised that she didn't need to repeat herself, " my dad was, well, he can't see or hear spirits, so all he could hear inside the room was you, and, from what he had heard, he must have thought that we, I mean, you and I were, being, um... intimate..."

Now that was not something she was expecting, he was sweating, scratching the back of his head, looking away from her and blushing all at the same time. She couldn't help it, she had a small blush too...

She was a trained assassin, there weren't many things that could surprise her in the world. She had ignored love in favor of training and becoming stronger than Yoruichi, but she wasn't immune to it, at least not completely. Being a master of reading faces she figured out what he was thinking.

He had thought about it, that was for sure, and by the look on his face he enjoyed thinking about it too...

"Don't flatter yourself." she was cold, but when he looked at her, he saw her blush.

"And what was that thing he slid under the door?" that was the last piece of the puzzle, but after seeing him blush even more, she said, "Do I even want to know?"

"Probably not." he jumped onto the opportunity to not explain how contraception worked to a clueless woman.

"I'll let it go then." she walked off, leaving him to sigh and follow.

'Everything went better than expected...'

"We will not talk of this again, ever." She was being commanding again, but this time he didn't care, he agreed with her.

That morning Isshin wasn't home so Ichigo didn't have to avoid or beat up anyone as he went to school, he was not that lucky after he got back home.

That evening, even though he was late to dinner, Isshin didn't say anything, he just beamed a giant smile towards Ichigo from behind the dinner table. Ichigo leveled him a deadly glare, took his dinner and went to his room. Suì-Fēng was already inside, having entered through the window. He shared his dinner with her in silence and went to bed, she slept in his closet.

#So that our wishes, too, will be in someones hearth someday.#

Authors Note: 3rd episode/chapter done, next up is the parakeet incident with Chad. Thank you all for the positive feedback, so far there have been no bad reviews. That's good :D

In case you haven't figured it out yet, the texts at the beginning and the end of each chapter are the lyrics of the first opening (one of the best ones IMHO) ep 25 starts with the second opening so in that one I'll use the lyrics from that opening.

As usual there is no release schedule, I'm mainly free during my days now, so I'll do my best to release as often as possible, no promises though.

Thanks to Hayden Shaolin David for telling me about the line breaks, I was putting in linebreaks in Open Office and didn't notice that they didn't transfer to the uploaded work, first two chapters have been fixed; if you notice any other mistakes, feel free to point them out.

This chapter is also shorter than the others, mainly because the episode itself is basically a single fight scene with some talking; so I added a bit of extra content to wrap up the 'hollow slaying/making love' incident.

I'm not happy with the way first part of the chapter 'feels' I don't know why...

I developed a 'thing' between Suì-Fēng and Tatsuki as you can plainly see... I don't know where I'm going with it. It might turn into a friendly rivalry or bitter hatred.

Suggestions and other stuff is welcome as usual, thank you for the favorites, story alert, writer faves and so on.