Two

My Beginning, My End

The chilled night breeze, stronger from where she stood atop the light pole, howled by her ears. Her long mahogany hair danced freely in the air over her right shoulder; sections of the long tresses curling around the hilt of an unusually long sword strapped loosely to her back. Hanzō Kasumi, surveyed her destination; Karakura Town, Tokyo. This was where she had first entered into the living world and it was where she had left her companions not long after. She knew they had moved on since but recently returned to this place. It was a rare area within the living world with an unusually high level of spiritual energy which was something that made living more convenient for beings like them in a world like this.

The moon seemed abnormally large behind the woman. It's luminous shine allowing more of a view of the town than the scattered street lamps.

She turned her face in the direction of her old home, slender fingers gripping the tip of a dark orange baseball cap, tilting it lower. Though the rim covered a good portion of her face, a wicked smile curved her visible lips as she allowed the smallest of slips in her spiritual energy then silently flickered away.

A few miles away, a usually boisterous blonde stood silently atop the roof of a large warehouse, one foot propped up on the raised ledge and an uncharacteristic frown on his face. He was staring seemingly at the horizon but what had caught his attention was a flare in reiatsu only a moment ago. It had been so brief but he had felt it, felt the familiarity of it. He assumed she had come because of Sosuke Aizen. It was too much of a coincidence for her to be there for any other reason when Aizen had just officially became a traitor to Soul Society. But he wondered how she knew. Not a single one of them had spoken to her in almost a century, not even Urahara Kisuke. No one knew her whereabouts.

Shinji pushed off the ledge and turned to go back inside, pausing once when he reached the door to the roof.

There was no way he'd allow her to run around the same town as them without showing herself. He was going to get answers, even if he had to force them out of her. For now though, he would wait and see what she was up to.

She landed on the ground below the light pole. Her flip flops made a light tapping noise from her otherwise silent decent.

She straightened and no sooner had she begun to walk before she ran smack into the hard planes of a very manly chest. Kasumi stepped backwards, rubbing her sore nose with a hand and whining about how rough it was having to watch where you were going all the time when she stopped at the sound of a gruff chuckle.

"You told me you couldn't find the motivation to come back."

After realizing who the assailant was, she relaxed, adopting her lazy posture with a large yawn.

"Well, ya had me pretty worried. I lost some sleep over that phone call and it bugged me."

"The loss of sleep?"

"Yeah, of course. So I realized, it's prolly cause I should be where the action is. Not that I favor the bustle, I just didn't like the thought of not knowing what was going on…with everyone. You know." She waved her hand dismissively. "Enough about me, are ya gonna show me some hospitality or have ya lost yer last charming quality?"

Isshin smiled and turned, walking back the way he had come.

"You can have Yuzu's room. I don't think she would mind." He informed the silent presence beside him.

"I have often wondered what your human children would be like. Are the other two anything like Ichigo?" She knew a little about what was going on with Ichigo from Issin's last phone call. Her knowledge though, was limited to two facts: Ichigo had obtained shinigami powers and that he had soon after obtained hollow powers. She did not ask Isshin why he allowed Kisuke to do what he did to the former shinigami's only son. Her curiosity only went so far, knowing more than needed was troublesome.

"If you're asking whether they can see spirits or not…I don't know."

It was silent the rest of the walk to Isshin's home. Both lost in their own thoughts.

Isshin's family was surprisingly human. None of his children were aware of their father's past and Kasumi was vaguely amused at the demeanor in which Isshin acted around them. He was a completely different person than when she had known him. Of course, when she had known him, he occasionally did show a small playful side. It seemed he had adopted this side of himself for his family. It was for the best, she supposed, since she had immense trouble picturing the old Isshin raising children.

The youngest one, Yuzu, was extremely talkative and inquisitive. The moment Kasumi walked into the room the girl was asking all about her life and what she would like for dinner. She didn't seem to mind Kasumi using her room and even offered to run her a bath. Kasumi, always ready for handouts, accepted of course.

Karin, who was his oldest daughter, was the complete opposite of Yuzu. She was almost intimidating in the way she opted to observe Kasumi from across the table. She seemed to be silently calculating just how much time it would take to jump the table and kill their guest if she so much as made a crude comment. She was certainly her father's child- well the old Isshin anyway; serious and seemingly confident in her killing abilities. She didn't ask questions but it was obvious she was paying close attention to Kasumi's answers to her younger sister's inquiries and Kasumi wondered briefly if the girl's suspicion stemmed from sensitivity to spirits therefore allowing her get that familiar feeling of wariness around this particular stranger. Kasumi offered her a smile, deeming the dark haired girl worthy of such a taxing expression. Even if it wasn't real.

Ichigo wasn't there but it didn't seem to surprise his two sisters. Even Isshin, after proclaiming dramatically about his worry for his son becoming a delinquent, seemed pretty used to the boy's absence. Kasumi was slightly disappointed. She wanted to meet Ichigo but his absence could work for her. It wouldn't be hard to seek him out and wait until he was alone. She wanted to see what was so special about him, besides his unique powers. He certainly wasn't the only shinigami with access to hollow powers. But something about the boy must have sparked an interest in Urahara in the first place, for him to have risked so much in restoring Ichigo's powers.

She escaped through Yuzu's window later that night with every intention of finding the newest Vizored and as she had guessed, it wasn't hard to find him. There were a few strong but unrecognizable presences around the town. One interested her, considering it was a Quincy; something she had believed to be extinct. She didn't seek him out though, deciding to stick to her original plan and find Ichigo. Ichigo being the second presence she had focused on.

Minutes later she stood atop a bakery roof and watched as the tall boy with obnoxiously orange hair walked the sidewalk in a direction she knew wouldn't lead toward his home. He obviously had something on his mind as even though her gigai concealed her reiatsu, her presence should have been detected though he remained oblivious to the baseball cap clad woman standing mere feet from him.

She dropped from the roof a small distance ahead of him reminding herself that this was Isshin's kid and if she wanted to remain friends with him she would have to hold back.

"Kurosaki Ichigo," His name flowed off her tongue smoothly and he looked up to see the silhouette of a slender young female leaning against the stone wall of the walkway. "I challenge you, to a battle."

"Eh?" Ichigo blinked, looking around. "What's a little girl doing out here this late? Wait, how did you know my name?" He couldn't see her face but he heard an indignant grunt. She pushed off the wall and the light hit her.

"Ya scared of a little girl, Substitute Shinigami?" She taunted unenthusiastically as she drew a long sword from the sheath at her back.

"Shinigami...you know about shinigami?" He mumbled softly, glancing down at her blade. It was odd looking and had a wooden handle with a chipped and tarnished blade. The sword looked more unkempt than Kenpachi's Zanpakuto.

"You wanna fight me with that thing?"

"Hm?" She looked down and inspected the blade in her hand. "What's wrong with it?"

"Is that even a Zanpakuto?"

"Nah, it's an antique samurai sword. I bought it for cheap." He stared at her leerily. Kasumi raised her brows a fraction. "Come on, I could probably beat ya easy with no sword at all. I was just showin respect by drawing one in the first place."

"Who are you? Where are your parents?"

"I can't be bothered with long introductions," Ignoring his oblivious insults. "My name is Hanzō Kasumi. And if your aura is anything ta go by you won't stand a chance against someone like me. It's easiest just ta kill ya and be done with it." She vanished, reappearing behind him her leg already positioned for a devastating blow.

"Shunpo...?" Ichigo yelped when she kicked him between the shoulder blades sending him rolling down the street with a string of curses following his abrupt departure.

"Ya ready to fight me yet?" She called to him.

"You're a Soul Reaper, right? Why are you attacking me? I thought I was on good terms with you guys!" He complained, pushing himself off the ground.

"I'm not attacking, I'm challenging," She gave him a thoughtful frown before adding. "But if yer really this bad at defendin yourself I might actually kill ya on accident."

"What the hell?"

"If you want to live, then you had better dodge," She hadn't even fully spoken the last word before she shifted to her left slightly and flickered away again. Her fist connected with his face quicker than he could block.

"W-wait! I'm not even in soul form right now!"

"Neither am I. Or haven't ya noticed?" She wasn't, and that was why he had thought she was just a normal girl. He couldn't even feel her reiatsu unless she was right on him so the gigai she was in couldn't be a normal one. It was almost like the one Shinji wore.

She threw another punch but he caught her fist before it could make contact with his face. Using his grip as leverage she leapt and landed a crescent kick to his side. He could feel a rib cracking from the force.

"Give me somethin to work with Ichigo. If ya don't, I could get bored soon," She warned from his right. He turned and blocked her foot but the sheer force of the kick sent him several yards and into the wall on the far end of the walkway, out of the limited reach of light provided by the streetlamp.

A shift in the spiritual pressure around them was all the warning Kasumi had. A large black blade of spiritual energy shot at her from the dark.

She lifted a hand to block it but the force of the attack took her by surprise. She still managed to shift it but unable to disperse it herself she dropped her hand and let it fly past her left shoulder, crashing into a tree and splintering the bark.

Ichigo stepped into the light. His expression was irate and a little surprise at having a 'lost little girl' with a fake sword deflect such a powerful attack. The awe however, quickly dissipated.

"Tch. Ban...kai," Reiatsu bore down on Kasumi and she was finally shown just how strong this particular human boy was."There's no way some crazy little shinigami girl is going to beat my ass!"

"Man. You sure are impatient. Not ta mention, some of these comments are pretty unforgivable. Has anyone ever told ya you're terrible at first impressions?" She commented with a polite smile instead of her usual bored pout.

"Like I care what you think," He swung his sword in anger, the reiatsu flaring around it like a visible black and red breeze.

"Was that one attack all ya had ta offer before resortin to your bankai?" She asked him curiously. He only answered with a menacing glare as he roughly pointed his now thinner, sleeker sword at her. "Geeze. You're taking this personally."

"You're trying to kill me."

"Challenge you," She corrected once again. "If I kill ya, it'll be an accident."

"Who talks like that?" Ichigo's spiritual pressure increased surprising Kasumi though her face remained unperturbed.

"Kurosaki Ichigo." She said his name in awe. She wanted to push him further and see just how powerful he really was if he got serious. Her own reiatsu rose and twisted around her body in white spirals. "You seem to have alotta potential. Better survive this next attack or I might feel bad fer your end!"

Her form vanished and Ichigo's eyes widened at her sheer speed. Before he could even feel her presence behind him a familiar presence appeared to his right in the form of a blonde obnoxious transfer student that he recently knew to be a Visored like himself.

Shinji's hand shot out and stopped Kasumi's sword from the blow to Ichigo's back and the girl immediately stepped back, taking her now released sword with her. After the initial shock of seeing the grinning man who had occupied her thoughts for well over a hundred years she shunpoed backwards a safer distance away, schooling her expression respectively.

Standing in the air above the two males, Kasumi coolly addressed Shinji for the first time in a very long time. "My my," She commented airily. "You sure are a nice guy… comin to his rescue like that."

"You two were bein so noisy, it was keepin me up. So I figured I'd check it out." He seemed so nonchalant and just plain cool standing there in an almost mimic posture as the one Kasumi usually adopted. Being without him for so long, she had forgotten how beautiful he was. She wanted to look at him all night and just memorize everything all over again but her dignity would not allow it. And so she resorted to 'unaffected'.

"I was curious to see what was so special with the infamous Substitute Shingami, but now that one of the heavy-hitters has shown up I've lost interest..." She shrugged, shouldering her sword and shifting to her left. She lifted a foot to walk away. "Continuing this, with someone like you, would be pretty demanding. I'll take a rain check, Ichigo."

"What?" Ichigo yelled up at her. "I didn't even wanna fight to begin with! Don't go offering rain checks when you're the one initiating fights!"

"I'd rather ya didn't make me chase ya, Kasumi." Shinji called, halting her retreat.

Her frozen foot resumed its trek and he watched her back as she shrugged. Both of them knowing she could get lost if she so choose. She stopped again, blinking with a questioning 'hm' and looked down to see a man standing on the walkway below her, not in front of her but in an obvious show of blocking her path nonetheless. He tipped his green and white bucket hat upwards to smile at her as she stared down at him, her orange eyes almost glowing in the moonlight.

Just what she needed, another heavy-hitter. She hadn't thought about what she would do when they did show but a part of her had expected it. She was exposing a good bit of her reiatsu after all, insuring most spiritually sensitive beings within that particular area were alerted of her presence.

"I felt a commotion." Kisuke called to no one in particular. "Is everything okay here?"

"This little girl was trying to kill me." Ichigo said, still confused as to why a 'little girl' wanted to kill him in the first place.

"Challenge." She offered.

"Whatever ya want to call it, you almost cut me in half at one point!" He yelled pointing up at her.

"Now you're just being dramatic. The fight was pretty anticlimactic if ya ask me." She said, not looking at anyone.

"Nobody did!" Ichigo fumed.

"So where do we go from here, hm? Do ya plan to capture me and bring me in?" Kasumi asked the two more experienced shinigami. "I have been gone for a while. There's no tellin if I'm even on yer side."

"I've already spoken with him and he's been nice enough to fill me in on your previous whereabouts as well as assure me of your reliance." Kisuke informed her cheerfully.

Kasumi sighed, "That takes the fun out of things."

"You two know this person?" Ichigo asked them.

"She's a shinigami who went off tha radar a long time ago." Shinji offered. "Aizen's recent betrayal was bound ta uproot a few vagrants. I wondered how ya heard about it." He commented to Kasumi then glanced at Kisuke. "Guess now I know."

"Vagrant sounds harsh, hm?" She complained. "I prefer 'misunderstood drifter'."

"You got a lot ta answer for, Kasumi. Now that yer back, yer comin with me." Shinji called. His confidence and all around lack of worry for the whole situation made her uneasy. Was he really so sure he could make her do anything she didn't want to do?

"I'd rather put that off. Being pummeled is no joke." And she was positive she would be. The others were probably itching to lay it on her for jilting them all without warning. Considering she gave zero explanations before up and disappearing on them, it probably looked much worse to them but even now she couldn't bring herself to tell them why. The reason wasn't a good one anyway. They would just have to accept that she had gone away and now she was back.

But that could be dealt with later. Hanzō Kasumi was not about to face a room of angry elites tonight.

"That's not possible. I'm sposed to bring ya in, whether ya wanna come or not." Shinji shrugged. "I'd rather you take a beatin fer runnin off than me takin one for comin back empty handed."

"You'll survive, probably." She reassured him, reading herself to shunpo away. But whipped around to face Kisuke. She jerked backwards but it was too late, the gold rope she knew to be Horin, had already wrapped around her waist. It tightened rendering her motionless and even faster than she remembered him to be, Shinji appeared behind her.

"G'nite, love." She barley registered the smug satisfaction in his voice before the hilt of his sword, none too gently, hit the back of her neck and all she knew was darkness.

Took a moment to go back and do a few corrections that were pointed out to me. The joys of not having a beta to do the work for you. :( Thank you Juliedoo! I had rushed through and made a few grammar errors as well so I skimmed and corrected. If anything is still off, forgive me!

I appreciate the reviews and will update asap! Thanks again!