Beat the Invisible Enemy!

#A legendary star drop, #

'How many years has it been?' Ichigo wondered as he ran back to meet up with Suì-Fēng, and hopefully, Chad.

'She was a crybaby just like Yuzu, but ever since mom died...' His memories wandered towards their shared past.

'Yuzu tried her best to fill the gap, she cooked, cleaned, took care of us all; Karin wasn't as good at it as Yuzu, so she decided to at least never worry us.' Memories of Yuzu cleaning up, cooking and even cutting their hair came back to him, but Karin was in them too, always standing strong...

'She never cried; she didn't cry when she lost a fight with an older kid, she didn't cry when she kicked the ball too hard and broke the window in the principals office, she didn't cry when she fell and broke her arm.'

'Karin, I'll handle it, don't worry...'

"Are you really a Shinigami? Why do you stay in that shell?" The Hollow stood opposed to Suì-Fēng, she couldn't rush back to meet up with Ichigo.

She sensed it too late, she was tired from running and his spiritual force wasn't particularly strong either; Chad was quick though, his fist came from the side and impacted with the face of the great beast before she could yell at him to run away. He looked at his fist in bewilderment.

"It connected..." He himself wasn't sure what had happened, he saw the scene and it looked to him like the transfer student was cornered; he could barely see the outline of the Hollow.

'Impossible! He hit it? If he can see ghosts too then-' Her train of thought was interrupted when she saw him punching the air, not even in the direction of the Hollow.

"Maybe not... But how did he...?" she didn't voice the rest of her question, the Hollow was getting up slowly, it already knew that Chad couldn't see him clearly unless it moved quickly. So he looked towards Suì-Fēng. That was a mistake, constant exposure to the reiatsu of a captain, a substitute Shinigami, a Hollow and a trapped spirit made him more aware of spirits, but only slightly.

"A lucky hit, I almost thought you could see m-" He wasn't paying attention to Chad, and he wasn't expecting another fist to his mask. Once again the Hollow flew back from the impact, rolling across the pavement.

Chad took his position between the Hollow and Suì-Fēng; he still couldn't exactly see it, but the marks on the pavement that it left behind were giving him some clues as to where it was. Suì-Fēng on the other hand was slightly surprised, why did he stand in front of her? To protect her? She would normally kill anyone who would try and protect her from danger, but there was something different about Chad.

He of course didn't want to protect her because she was a girl or because she was tired; he protected people because that's what he was there for, that was the reason why he was so tough, so that he could protect people, another reason was Ichigo.

Chad knew how to read Ichigo, not that he did it often, but from what he had gathered so far, Ichigo cared about her more than he was willing to admit.

He couldn't help but wonder about her, Ichigo and the invisible monster somewhere in front of him, but as always, he would follow Ichigo even if the path led him to Hell.

'If he can't see it, he shouldn't be able to hear it either? How can a human like him stand up to a Hollow? Doesn't he know fear?'

The Hollow however was still hearing bells as it got up.

"Damn..." It didn't appreciate the punch, and while the next move might show some weakness on his part, it decided to take flight as it jumped upwards, hovering above the street.

"What now? Now you can't do a thing!" It spit out gleefully, apparently formulating a plan.

"Yasutora!" Chad turned to look at Suì-Fēng, she wasn't panicking, most people would by now start trembling, facing an invisible enemy.

"Run, there's nothing we can do against it while it's flying." her words confused him only slightly; she could see it fully, or at the very least a bit clearer than he could, and she wanted him to run, he didn't retreat, he didn't know how...

"Where is it?" His question was simple, as he walked to the telephone pole.

"What?" He wasn't listening to her, she clearly told him that it was flying, maybe he didn't hear her?

"!" He yelled as he ripped the pole at the base and held it in his hands.

"Where is it?" His question, once repeated, made a lot more sense now for some reason.

"Straight ahead!" The Hollow was flying and that meant that they would never outrun it, it was simply too fast while in the air. However, if it was grounded, that might give them some time.

"Wha-?" the Hollow was still staring at the human, his strength was simply impossible, tearing that pole with his bare hands was crazy, the said pole impacted with his body, bringing him down to the ground, making a small crater.

After seeing the mess Suì-Fēng dared a small smile and yelled at Chad.

"Now, run! There's nothing we can do to him right now!"

"What? Bu-" He never ran, and in this case, he didn't even know where he would run.

"Don't argue, it can't be killed like this!" And now it was her words that made sense to him. If he couldn't rid the world of this monster, what would he do? He would have to run, but then what? He decided to run with her, since she knew more about all this than he did.

So they ran, unfortunately they had to run away from the clinic since the Hollow was getting up and was between them and the clinic, meaning that it would take more time for Ichigo to catch up.

They didn't get too far though, soon after they started running Suì-Fēng noticed small creatures chasing them, they were fast and soon they caught up.

"Yasutora, he has some kinds of minions, they are following us." He grunted in response, quickly looking back to check if they were more visible, sadly for him, they were not.

One of the small creatures spat out a few fleshy objects.

"Move!" She had already grabbed him and pushed him to the side, narrowly dodging the explosion.

"It looks like he can detonate them to explode too." she was coming up with plans to buy time, she could easily bind the Hollow but it wasn't in sight, she might be able to pull off something to get rid of the smaller ones, but she didn't know if there were more of them hiding. Either move would cost her a lot of reiatsu. Hopefully, she could lead the chase into a circle and return to the clinic; or Ichigo could move his lazy ass and catch up already.

Chad on the other hand was thinking about Shibata, he should go back for him and make sure that he stays safe. Like he was reading his mind, the Hollow jumped down in front of them with a few of his minions holding the cage with Shibata behind him.

"Looking for this?" Once again he was gleeful, as if he has just cornered his prey, in a way, he did.

"Shibata..."

"I'm sorry..." Shibata spoke with a familiar sad tone but didn't get far in his apology, the Hollow needed his prey to be still, and once they stopped, he had them in his trap. Now he could have some fun.

"If the guy moves, I'll blow the kid up, as for you... I want you to run!" Suì-Fēng could feel his smile behind the mask.

His psychopatic nature from when he was a human came back to him, oh how he enjoyed the thrill of chasing tiny, helpless women...

"Don't move. He'll destroy the cage if you do..." Suì-Fēng warned Chad, seeing that he was ready to pounce at the blurry object in front.

"Transfer student, what about you?" He noticed that she did move, in fact, she turned around and looked like she was going to run off on her own. He couldn't let that happen, but moving meant harming Shibata.

"He wants a chase, I'll give him one..." she was dead serious (pun intended), there was no fear in her eyes.

"Will you be al-" She cut him off before he could finish. Her face now sporting a scowl very much like the one Ichigo carried , she obviously didn't like to be underestimated or thought of as weak in any way.

"I'll be fine! If Kurosaki comes by just tell him where I went!" Chad looked at her as she left running, he felt the creature move after her. One thought stayed on his mind once everything cleared.

'I could use some answers...'

Suì-Fēng was running through the empty streets, chased by many smaller creatures. So far she was unharmed, though a lot of it was because of luck, she had spent a few weeks training for urban environments before she left Soul Society. That seemingly unimportant training had probably saved her a few injuries now.

Her luck soon ran out though, she jumped over a few of the explosive leeches but didn't notice that one of them was hiding in a tree above. The damn Hollow was sneaky, she didn't expect this sort of tactic.

She was in mid air and she had no way of dodging the creature completely, so she tried twisting her body since the small minion was aiming at her head.

No leeches hit her on the head, but there were now half-a-dozen of them on her left leg, from thigh to ankle. The Hollow showed it's ugly face as she managed to land clumsily. Apparently it wanted to look her in the face while it detonated the explosives.

It hurt a lot, but she was used to pain, despite her small form, she could still handle more than most male Shinigami. And if looks could kill, the Hollow would have died by now, she was glaring at him, her leg bloody but still in one piece.

"Hehehe, I like how nice blood looks on you, you should wear it more often!" It ended the sentence in a yell, throwing one of its minions at her.

She dodged and started running away again. Pain surging through her every time she used even the smallest of muscles in her wounded leg. It wanted to play with her so the explosions were weak, not much damage was done, she would be able to heal herself as soon as it was over... Now all she needed was Ichigo showing up; yes, that was it, he would show up, she would insult him for being late and he would finish this.

"You know, you can fight back, this is getting a bit tiresome." The Hollow told her, now no longer hiding but freely chasing behind her. Thinking that she was helpless.

She wasn't, while he was talking, she was silently whispering an incantation, as she finished she felt a familiar spiritual signature nearby.

'Perfect, this riverbank is a great place...'

"Bakudo #4 :Hainawa!" It hit directly into the unsuspecting target, binding it in place.

Ichigo came running from behind the Hollow, he couldn't do anything to it right now and when he saw the binding spell tie up his target he smirked.

'This is going to look cool...' Suì-Fēng would say that his entrance was too flashy and loud.

He ran up the Hollows back and jumped towards Suì-Fēng when he reached the top. She already had the glove on and was ready to punch him out of his body. He didn't even touch the ground before she pushed his soul out. That almost turned out to be a bad idea, with Suì-Fēngs wounded leg and his momentum, his now empty and limp body almost brought her to the ground. That would have been awkward.

She held his empty body as he drew his sword and turned to the Hollow. It was now surrounded by small creatures, a lot of them clawing at the binding ropes.

"What was that you said about not making me worry?" He asked with a smirk, he had sarcasm in his voice but he was worried on the inside, that wound on her leg didn't look pretty, his glances weren't noticed by her.

"Shut up..." She should have expected this from him," Those smaller creatures are under his command, they spit leeches that he can detonate with his tongue, he can also fly." as much as she wanted to hit him now, the Hollow was the priority.

"Alright... Will your leg be fine?"

"I don't need your concern." she replied as cold as usual and Ichigo, not thinking it through, tried to joke with her.

"I don't know, with what I'm seeing now, you may actually need someone to take care of you..." if the Hollow hadn't freed himself at this point, Ichigo would have received a knee to his groin. She promised herself to knee him later.

The Hollow was now free of the binds, having called his minions to help him. He didn't attack though, he was slightly confused, this Shinigami knew the woman he was chasing and they seemed like friends.

Ichigo turned to the Hollow, he thought about saying how disgusted he was that the Hollow wanted to chase women, but he decided against it, knowing that Suì-Fēng would not be happy if he said that.

"Suì-Fēng, get my body away from here and heal your wounds, Chad is probably coming here too."

His tone left no room for argument, not that she was about to argue with him. She got ready to move as soon as he attacked.

"I'm your opponent now, Hollow. You'll regret it if you don't fight at your full strength."

"Is that so?" the Hollow was amused, turning his back to this Shinigami was not an option, but he still decided to keep an eye on the girl, just in case...

"Ichigo!" Chad didn't know what to do, the transfer student was crouching and apparently fixing the gruesome wound on her leg without any medical supplies and Ichigo was lying unconscious next to her.

"Yasutora, good timing, take him and the bird to a safe place and wait."

"Transfer student, what is going on here?" Chad was at his limit, he needed to know what was going on, normally he wouldn't care much in a simple life-death situation, but nothing was normal today.

Suì-Fēng didn't give him an answer, instead, she concentrated more on healing herself.

Ichigo was running up to the Hollow, the battle so far was mostly repeating itself over and over. He would try and get close to attack, the Hollow would avoid him and buy some space with his bombs.

"You won't be running out of those bombs any time soon are you?"

"Hehehe, of course not..."

Ichigo got serious, he needed to finish this, everyone was safe but Suì-Fēng was hurt and he didn't know how serious it was. He charged again, this time instead of avoiding the bombs he just slashed them and charged through.

The Hollow wasn't expecting a direct attack and it couldn't detonate the bombs in time, but it did have enough time to avoid a fatal wound, Ichigos sword was buried in its shoulder, close to its mask.

"I want to know one thing, are you the one who killed the parents of that kid?"

"It's all my fault, all I wanted is for mommy to come back, those people got hurt because of me"

"What? Did that Hollow tell you it could bring her back?"

"Yes, I killed his parents. Back then I was famous, a serial killer, preying on helpless women. She was my last one, and the entire time she was trying to protect her son, it gave me chills!" The Hollow laughed but Ichigo was thinking of his own mother on that rainy day when he got her killed. The memories flooded back and his arm started shaking,

'He's the same, that kid is the same as me, this monster is the same kind of monster as the one that took my own mom away.'

"But then the bad part started, I cornered them on the balcony and the damn kid made me trip, I can't believe I died in such a stupid way. Once I got back I shoved his soul inside the bird." The Hollow liked talking, especially about this story and Ichigo was grateful for that, he wasn't sure if he could fight properly filled with hate like this. But still he kept himself at bay.

"Three months, I told him that if he runs away from me for three full months while looking like that, I would bring his mother back, Hahahahaha!" Ichigo would have asked if it was possible to bring back the dead but the laugh from the Hollow gave him his answer.

"The fun part of all this was killing every single human that tried protecting the boy. And every time I killed one, he would cry and say something like 'I don't want this, please stop'; Ha! And that's where my line comes in, 'Your mommy is waiting for you, do you want to disappoint her and leave her there? Don't you want to see her again?' Hahahaha!"

Ichigo was losing control, one of the main rules when fighting a Hollow was to not let it provoke you into rage but this was too much, no matter how hard he tried his hate for the Hollow was only rising.

"Look at you trembling!" The Hollow pushed away the sword and jumped away. "Your guard is open!" It threw a few bombs towards Ichigo, he ignored them completely and allowed his rage to take over the fight.

"Die!" He was on him in a moment, the large sword coming down towards the mask of the cruel monster. As he made the slash the Hollow screamed.

Behind the Hollow emerged a gigantic gate, it was held closed by chains and Ichigo knew what it was immediately.

"...Gates of Hell..." Suì-Fēng told him about Hell before, but seeing it with his own eyes was a worthy experience.

He watched in awe as the gate opened and all that remained of the Hollow was consumed by hell. The gate closed soon after and with loud cracking noises it disintegrated.

"It's too late, his chain of fate is completely broken and he can no longer return to his body." Suì-Fēng said as she checked the bird. Shibata looked really sad the whole time, still thinking of his mother.

"We can't bring your mom back here, but we can send you to the other side, if you look hard, you might be able to find her." Ichigo remembered the promise he made to Karin. He needed to keep it, and there is a chance for the kid to be happy in the afterlife.

Suì-Fēng glanced at Ichigo, trying to figure him out a bit more, but failing. During the fight she did come to the conclusion that Ichigo felt it was personal; that was something she would need to investigate. But right now there was a spirit that needed to be sent away.

"That's right, but Souls Society is a really big place, so it will take a while." she was never a big optimist, but in this case she knew the statistics; it was very rare that two family members meet in the afterlife.

This was enough for Shibata, he perked up immediately, he was now eager to leave. He looked towards Chad.

"Mister, thank you for everything, I didn't get hurt because you carried me."

"It was nothing. Yuuichi... if I die and go to the other side, could I carry you around again?"

"Sure!"

Ichigo looked at Chad with a small smile on his face. It was now over, well almost.

"Well, let's go ahead with the Soul Burial then."

"Ichi-nii, thank you..."

#inside it there's so many narrow paths etched out.#

Authors Note:

Disclaimer still stands.

No one has contacted me to be my beta yet...

Fanking2 asked why Suì-Fēng doesn't mention her rank, there are several reasons;

-The thing is, no one is familiar with the Gotei and therefore her rank means nothing to them, even to Urahara it doesn't make much difference, since he's exiled and no longer a part of the Gotei.

-She already decided that there is no coming back to the Gotei, they would eventually find out about her actions, and she would never be a captain again. Her rank serves to remind her about it and she doesn't think about it much.

-In a way, she feels herself closer to Yoruichi now, and she hates it.

-While she is the kind of a person to use her position to to her advantage, she is not the kind of person to lie about it to others so that she could get what she wants; besides, Ichigo isn't good with authority figures, she figured that out soon after she had met him.

I didn't get a lot of feedback about the scene with Isshin in the second chapter; I'll try and explain why I did it, even though it was kinda 'on the fly' idea.

-In canon, neither Ichigo nor Rukia have shown any romantic interest in each other during the first arc, they are both healthy young adults and there should have been something at least, but there was no sign that they even thought about it; so I decided to use a catalyst, the condom scene, to MAKE Ichigo and Suì-Fēng think about each other in that way at least a bit...

-Since neither are very experienced or good at romantic stuff, skipping all that and throwing in thoughts about intimacy right away seemed fun, and it was, at least for me. :)

IMPORTANT: #Minor Spoiler alert# there will be a team sent for the extraction of Suì-Fēng from the mortal world, I want you, the fans to decide who it will be. I don't want to send Byakuya and Renji to do it, since they obviously requested the duty when it was Rukia in canon. (If you want it though, I suppose I could fit them in)

I will NOT be sending:

Yamamoto,

Omaeda (I have other plans for him),

Gin,

Aizen,

Tousen,

Zaraki/Yachiru (too soon for that encounter),

Mayuri (I don't want to scar Ichigo for life),

keep in mind, Rukia is not yet at the level of being lieutenant and even if she was, she is still just an unseated Shinigami, so she won't be sent, Ikkaku and Yumichika are both lieutenant-level and might come into consideration. There's a poll on my profile if you want to voice your opinion, it's 5 choices max (That doesn't mean that the 5 people you choose are the ones you want to go together, the poll is there for me to see who do you guys want to see go to the mortal world.) f you want you can use either Pms or Reviews to tell me what you want too.

Another thing to keep in mind about this is that Yamamoto felt it alright to send a captain and a vice-captain to check up on the unknown Substitute Shinigami who wounded a Menos and took powers from an unseated Shinigami. Try and imagine what kind of a shit-fit he'll have if instead of an unseated Kuchiki he has to 'rescue' one of the most loyal captains in the history of the Gotei.

Regular reviews and ideas are welcome as always.