I do not own Bleach nor One Piece. I am not going to say anything witty to that effect about what would be if I did for either or preferably both... because I'm greedy like that! With that said, this story is for entertainment purposes only and I hope you I hope you enjoy this whilst I brood.

A Reaper amongst Straw Hats

Chapter 2: That thing we call life

Going Merry, an hour later

"Damn it...Damn it...Damn it!Why...? How did this happen...?!"

"I just wanted to protect you guys! So why...?!"

"Why did I regain my powers for?!" He looked up in time for a dark haired man with a small angled scar running just above his left brow, dressed in dark dress passed equipped with suspenders running just above a white long sleeved collared shirt. In his right hand was a katana.

The younger of the two gritted his teeth as he glared at him with all the rage he could muster. "Tsukishima!"

"Hey!"

Nami couldn't help but jerk back when her one sole companion on the deck snapped himself awake thanks to her; her features grew pale when she realized in her retreat she almost shot off the pistol in her grasp.

"Sorry," he offered with a slight frown. "It's just you looked like you were having a nightmare there."

Though he scowled his usual scowl, it was one of understand as he both groaned and combed a hand through his hair. "As I said before, I'm just not feeling it today..." He looked about the ship, a small caravel ship or so he was told, with a rounded, smiling goat's head as a figurehead at the front of the ship. A small part of him wondered how he got here yet he was quick to remember: Members of the Franky Family were spotted leaving the premises with two suitcases, with 'Kaku' hung over their shoulder.

It was all too easy to deduce what had happened. Unfortunately since they had a head start, combined with the fact they knew the backstreets like the back of their hands, they were long gone before anyone could stop them. Given what had happened, as an apology as a company concern for their wellbeing Ichigo was both as much a volunteer as he was a suitable 'candidate,' according to Kalifa, to escort at least Nami back to her ship, her friend having taken off in hot pursuit to find Usopp.

As they were on their way to her ship they found a crowd, Usopp, battered and bloodied, was in the center of it... rather than risk injuring him some more they were forced to leave him to get the ship's doctor. As a force of three, the gathered crew, sans Luffy, Usopp, and a woman named Nico Robin, had left them behind to find, remedy and bring back Usopp.

Rather than leave her by herself in case the Franky Family got greedy Ichigo agreed to say till they returned.

With a concerned frown Nami looked to the minute island the ship was moored to for any sign of movement. Sighing, she leaned against the mast and crossed her arms while Ichigo settled himself back into his spot on the railing across from her.

A span of a few minutes had passed before either of them spoke. "Hey," he looked up at her in curiosity, "do you mind if I ask you a question?"

"What about?"

She grimaced and looked away, though probably in a random direction out of instinct, her gaze pointedly rested on the ship. "You're a shipwright too, right? Is there any chance that your friend was... wrong?"

He raised a brow and lowered it after he puzzled together what she meant since he wasn't there with them. With a muted groan he ran his hand through his hair again. "Not to kick you while your down but I'm not going to argue with him."

Nami sighed and tilted her head down. "I see."

"To be honest though," she looked to him in dulled interest and perhaps faint hope, "I'm not really a shipwright."

Her lip curled in puzzlement. "You're a foreman aren't you?"

He shrugged in return. "More in title really," he admitted. "Kind of why I'm not going to argue with Kaku or anyone else. I may hate it but I'm nicknamed "The Guard;" what I really do is make sure no one gets hurt by accident or when a customer who throws a fit."

Her frown increased by a smidgeon. "I think I see... just kind of odd though."

Again he shrugged. "No argument there. As you may have guessed earlier, Iceburg is kind of weird like that."

She hummed in agreement. "So, out of curiosity, does that mean you're strong?"

He reached up and scratched his head in brief thought. "I guess you could say that," he answered her. "I already spent a good deal of my life fighting so I wasn't exactly going to turn it down," he added.

"Oh?" Though she had a frown still, it was far less noticeable than before. As for Ichigo, he sighed and dropped his hand to his side only to raise it up and tug at his hair a little.

"Even today I get the occasional idiot wanting to take a swing at me because of my hair color."

"Ah..." She paused. "Have you considered dying it something else then?"

"Sometimes," he admitted as he let go of his hair. "Too much of a hassle really."

Nami blinked in confusion. "It's natural then?"

"Hm?" He looked her square in the eye and she waved her hands about as if to diffuse a tense moment. "S-sorry!" she stuttered in a laugh. "Just I never met a guy who naturally had orange hair!"

He gave her a noncommittal grunt in return.

Before anything else could be said a shout was heard for the sake of being noticed. Both turned their sights to the returning crew of the Straw Hat pirates, minus one Nice Robin. In a stretcher between Zoro, a green haired swordsman with three swords held against a green sash, and Sanji, a blond haired man in an orange striped suit mostly covered by a black vest and equally black dress pants, was Usopp wrapped in enough bandages to imitate a mummy from the neck down.

"Well they're back," Ichigo pointed out. He grunted slightly as he pushed himself off the railing and turned to it. "See you later then."

"For what it's worth, thanks for watching the ship with me!" Nami all but shouted as he hopped over dropped down to the ground below.

"Hey!"

"Hm?" Ichigo looked over to the blond man as he neared.

"thanks for watching over Nami for us."

"You're welcome." Zoro simply nodded as Ichigo passed by them. Luffy, on the other, waved and smiled at him, the latter albeit strained to an extent. While it warranted a small raise of his brow, he never stopped once, not until he was called on again.

"Oi!" He turned to them with his usual scowl. "If you see Robin tell her we're starting to get worried, will ya?"

While perhaps unperceivable, the foreman nodded before turning back around and making his way to the city beyond the minute strip of land.

XVX

Ichigo's apartment, Water Seven, hours later, night

Another Day, another dollar; one paycheck left to collect before he could call it quits at last. It was a long shot and he knew it but it sure beat sitting in one spot and praying for a miracle, so to speak. If there was a means to get here then surely there was a means to get out, if not here then somewhere else.

Still, in any case, it wasn't a time to rest in any case, as if he made a habit of it. Sure he had the occasional day off, by choice, yet, as accused, he was often found in whatever dock that either needed him or simply was being patrolled by him as opposed to relaxing. Tomorrow would be no different.

Satisfied with reviewing the bank statement he collected after deposited his check earlier, he tore it up as a precaution and dumped the remains into a small trashcan before tucking himself into bed.

"Another day..." Ichigo mumbled to himself as he reached over and turned off the only light in the room.

XVX

Morning

"Ring-ring-ring-ring!"

A groggy hand slapped the alarm clock...

"Ring-ring-ring-ring!"

"Hm?" He cracked his eye open and stared at the blurry image of the rustic, alarm clock he scrounged up that had served him faithfully for the better part of the past year. Whatever it was it wasn't his clock...

He blinked a few times and squinted at the time.

"OH CRAP!" He through the blankets off of himself and rushed through his daily morning routine with the same grace as a man who had a leg and a hand tied behind his back. "I OVERSLEPT!"

By one hour and twenty-nine minutes, a record for him since working at Galley-La. While perhaps given his current record it wouldn't be implausible that they would turn a blind eye to this as far as performance, it still meant less pay despite all the overtime he had accrued to hasten his agenda.

"Ring-ring-ring-ring!"

He glared at his clock, wondering why it didn't go off earlier, as he tried to discern the source of the noise only to shift his attention to around the apartment.

"Ring-ring-ring-ring!"

Finally his eyes landed on and blinked owlishly at the one sole luxury he had within the entire apartment, aside from a fridge of course; sitting in the corner near the foot of his bed sat a dark blue snail transponder, courtesy of the company upon his promotion, eyes wide open and teeth grit as it 'rang.'

Given who was to ever call him for anything, usually because of trouble, he couldn't help but scowl a deeper than before as he picked up the receiver. "What's going on?"

"Finally!" someone yelled from the other side. "I've been calling all over the place looking for you! Get down here at the main office on the double! Iceburg's been found shot in his office!"

"What?!"

"Iceburg's been shot! He's alive but in a coma right now! We're calling an emergency meeting of all the foremen so get down here!"

"I'm on my way!" He slammed the receiver back into place and utterly ignoring the snail as it fell asleep so he could better concentrate of stuffing his feet into his socks, then his sock covered feet into his boots. In no time flat did he barrel out the doorway.

XVX

Streets

He couldn't help but grit his teeth as he leapt over a stray barrel, not because of the exertion. In the distance he could hear the warning klaxon keened overhead as an announcer sounded the broadcast of Aqua Laguna's arrival just past midnight... as if there wasn't enough trouble as it was. The only thing he was thankful for, however, was that thanks to his sparse number of possessions he would only be forced to carry out the transponder snail in one arm and a bag full of his clothes in the other. Still, worst case scenario would mean he would have to move to a higher end building where the rent was much steeper...

"Now's not the time to think about that!" he grouched to himself as he rounded a corner and dashed up the stone bridge that traversed the canal dividing where he came from to Dock One; to the right, gathered in large numbers, were numerous none employees either on yagara bulls or standing at the main gate trying to get inside despite the presence of security guards shooing them off. Even from where he was, regardless of the fact he was indubitably getting closer, he could hear the shouts of people trying to ascertain Iceburg's current condition.

However just as he was about to cross the middle of the bridge, having just entered the structure in the middle of it, the shouting was suddenly drowned out by inexplicably loud drums sounding off, blaring, deep and set for a rhythmic dramatic entrance.

"What the..." He peeked his head out of a window offered by the bridge in hopes of spying on the source only to see the crowd below him just as confused as he was... more so panicked than confused really.

"Where is he?" he heard.

"No, no, no!"

"Let's get out of here!"

"Ah! He's over there!"

"He's here!"

Ichigo craned his head up towards the roof of the pavilion and scowled a deeper scowl. Whoever it was, whatever was causing the ruckus, was beyond his line of sight thanks to his current position. But he could hear something sounding like "Yow!" being repeated over and over again.

"Come on now, don't be shy, ask me my name!"

"Get lost!"

"You're behind Iceburg's attack, aren't you?!"

"It's gotta be him!"

"Get off this island!" people from the crowd roared from below.

Flitting into view was a large sheet as the man above spoke up once more. "I'm the number one super guy! The face of the Water Seven underworld! That's right! People call me... Frankly!"

Boom!

And with that the music died down... Down below the crowd was beginning to flee either by water or by land. While doing so the man's tone changed from ecstatic to serious, downright aggressive even. "Show yourself, Straw Hat!"

"Straw Hat?" He looked down below and, after a few seconds of searching, found the pirate himself alongside Nami sitting in the water on a bull; they were the only ones not moving in the onset retreat.

"You must be here, Straw Hat Luffy!"

"Hey! Bikini guy!" Luffy yelled back in kind from below.

"Oh great... it's going to turn into a fight," Ichigo groaned in exasperation. He parted from the window and dashed towards the Dock One exit of the bridge.

"So you are Straw Hat Luffy? You went on quite the rampage while I was gone, didn't you?" The music started back up again. "When I got back, I couldn't believe my eyes. Well, my house is totally unrecognizable. How dare you treat my underlings to badly?"

Whipping around the corner and dashing out a good stretched, Ichigo finally turned around and got a good look at the culprit for the current chaos in front of Dock One: A man in a Hawaiian shirt, dark sunglasses, uprising sky blue hair and a speedo was standing atop the middle of the bridge with both of his arms crossed like an X; on each arm was a tattoo of a star mimicking the color of his hair. To his sides were two women, twins with pointed noses and oddly enough squared shaped black afros. The one to Franky's right was a women in a red bikini bottom with a smidgeon of blue in the crotch, red knee bands and a red tank top with what looked to be a blue elongated teddy bear on the front. On her arms were pink arm sleeves. To Franky's right the woman was conversely garbed in yellow, her own top a bikini top akin to her counterpart's red bikini bottom and on her legs were yellow cargo shorts. Unlike her twin she wore a white feathery scarf and clear yellow goggles.

Like him their own arms were crossed into Xs.

"I can't take it anymore," Franky stated. "No one can stop me this week! No matter what you say, I'll tear you up like rags, my anger won't subside!"

"You there!" Nami suddenly spoke up, earning enough curiosity of Franky's part to lower his arms just enough to prove she had his attention.

"What'd you do with our money?! The two two-hundred million berries! Give it back to us!"

Franky, in response, leaned forth just a tad hand held a hand next to his ear. "Huh?! Two-hundred million berries?!"

"I already spent it! It's completely gone!" Ichigo armed himself with his badge, during which Franky straightened himself out with a smug grin as he watched the irritation on Nami's face grow. "Don't get uppity and try to protect the money you stole from somewhere! You're pirates!"

"It doesn't matter!" All eyes went to Luffy, including an annoyed Nami.

"Not true! Money does matter!"

"Nice to know you have a heart," Ichigo sarcastically mumbled from the sidelines as light blue energy slowly coalesced around both the badge and his hand.

"At any rate," Luffy spoke up again as he began to stand up in the small boat tied to the yagara's back, "I won't be happy till I beat you up!"

"It's me who won't be happy, bastard!"

"Hey! Come down here already!"

Meanwhile the remnants of the crowd that had yet to fall back were growing anxious. "This is it! Franky is gonna start going on a rampage!"

"Evacuate!" someone yelled. Even after shouting it again the crowd was already taking that man's advice. As for Franky, during which, his chest began to expand as he began to take in more than his fair share of air. Ichigo, in turn, fed more power into his badge and all but ignored the strange white wrappings it spawned in return that wrapped themselves around him.

FWOOOSH! The various members of the crowd found it within themselves to scream as they fled whereas everyone else put the extra effort into escaping a sudden wave, a geyser, of flames intent of destroying all within its path, namely the Straw Hats.

"Getsuga Tenshou!"

As is the nature of fire the river of flame dispersed under the sudden assault of a swath of light blue energy, a crack of light running within it as if it were lightning living within it.

"Huh?!" All eyes, even those reveal from under the dark sunglasses Franky wore were turned to the intervening party that destroyed the destructive geyser.

"Wait, isn't that Ichigo?!" Nami asked, albeit loudly to be heard.

"Ichigo?" Franky asked quietly to himself as his own cohorts as her stared down at the teen scowling up at him.

Gone were his works clothes without a trace as to where they were as if they vanished altogether from reality. In their stead was a black and white suit that covered all beneath the neck save for a V-shaped band that ran along his cheeks and met at the bridge of his nose whereas two stubby lines ran along them, ending underneath the corner of his eyes without coming near them to begin with. As for the suit, the bone white suit interspaced with simple black in between gaps, it covered his feet as shin high combat boots would, ending in a small gap covered in black cloth where it was contained by a ring of white; piecing the two segments together was a single thick line of white that covered his knee to reach the main body of the suit, dividing his legs in two as it were where black cloth dominated all it could touch save for a padding of white on the outer thigh for each leg. As for the chest it was predominantly white, almost including the noticable lines that were the suit's pattern here and there: Just above his waist where the tail ends of two combined yet divided lines that ran into the main body, the lines running up to mid chest where it helped tail into a pincer-like gap of black cloth whereas the white bands encircled his neck like a collar without the rise. To the sides of the side were similar bands closely hugging one another, their patterning however were akin to thick ribs of a ribcage interrupted only by a small pointed gap running beneath and directly under his shoulders. As for his hands they were like ordinary gloves that swallowed up the entirety of his forearms, further garnished by extra padding much like his thighs, like armor that stopped at the upper arm where the pattern of white gave way to allow an oval of black to add color to his arms, or the other way around as the dark clothing dominated most of the portion of that limb if one ignored his covered shoulders. Beneath and covering his neck slightly was the same pattern his legs displayed just before slipping away into the single band that united them, only in reverse.

But the most noticeable trait to him was the sword within the grasp of his right hand. It was like a machete in its appearance with a slight curve towards the uppermost tip of the blade, given a black body and a silver edge. What made it far more unique, however, was its guard: His badge had turned itself into the sword's hand guard, a black X running through it.

"Oi! Who the hell are you?" Franky bellowed from above. "Are you one of Straw Hat's cronies?"

The teen pointed his sword at him as his scowl gained a steely edge to it. "I'm a foreman of Gallay-La!" He answered him. "That aside, today isn't a good day to mess with me or the company."

"Wait a minute..." Franky mumbled. One of the twins leaned into his ear and whispered something into it. Immediately afterward he bopped his hand into the open palm of his other hand upon realizing something. "You're that super tough wandering foreman they call "The Guard" aren't you?"

Ichigo suppressed a groan but did allow himself to pinch the bridge of his nose in irritation. "I really don't like that name," he grumbled to himself, his eyes closed in likewise annoyance.

"Whatever your reason is, don't butt into our fight! Do you wanna get hurt?!"

Upon opening his eyes and scowling a far deeper scowl, he turned to glare at the man atop the bridge. "I don't care what your reasoning is, don't pick a fight at company property!" he yelled back.

"And that goes for you too!" he quickly added while switching his sights Luffy while pointing a finger at him.

"But he beat up Usopp!" Luffy half yelled, half whined. Nami, meanwhile, was directing the yagara to the sidewalk.

"I don't care!" Ichigo snapped. "It's bad enough here as it is for everyone thanks to what happened last night! And not only is it bad enough some lunatic," he aimed his glare back at Franky, "is reckless enough to endanger innocent people but I'm not going to stand by and risk someone wrecking company property in a brawl!"

"Fine! Have it your way!" Franky cried out as he extended his left arm and grabbed his forearm. With a sever twist his hand popped out to the size, revealing a cannon barrel underneath with four pellet size holes just above it. "Weapons Left!"

Ka-Boom!

Pow-Splash!

"Holy..." Nami left her jaw to hang while her captain gawked and cooed in amazement. Franky and his own gang was left just as stunned as her...

Ichigo, against all odds, against all laws of physics and basic reasoning, backhanded a cannonball and sent it crashing into the canal, his arm still outstretched as proof of it whereas the rest of him still held that stern facade.

And then he was gone...

Thwack! "GWAAAAAAAH!" Splash!

When he finally reappeared he was standing over Franky's old spot. The man who was in it before him having just been kicked into the canal before, the teen's uplifted leg, like his hand before, serving as the proof of what had happened. As he lowered his leg and stood up straight he utterly ignored the two women creeping away from him. Meanwhile Franky splashed his way back to the surface.

"That's it! It's on you little punk!"

BWOOOOSH!

The mountain of a splash erupted behind the bobbing man some distance away, stealing Franky's and just about everyone else's attention away long enough for Ichigo to disappear and reappear in front of the underworld boss just before the first droplets of 'rain' from the geyser began to pelt the both of them and their surroundings, the water acting as if it were solid ground for him. By the time Franky swiveled his sights back to Ichigo to where he stood atop the bridge, he jerked back and gritted his teeth in shock to find the teenager not only in front of him but pointing his sword in the direction of his forehead, the edge of it coated in the same ethereal substance that destroyed his flame not so long ago.

No one said a word, especially not Ichigo nor Franky as they stared at one another for what seemed like years... both glaring at the other, one daring the other into action while the other was defiant intimidation...

"Tch... Fine!" Reluctantly the blue haired man turned and swam away. As he retreated he snapped his head to Luffy and Nami, both on dry land now. "Don't think this is over though!"

Though he was satisfied with the turn out, the only evidence to which being in him resting his sword against his shoulder, he waited till Franky was out of the water and through the crags of the backstreets before he even considered returning to the Dock One sidewalk. Glancing up to check on the women that were with Franky, they themselves having vanished as well, he sighed contently as he crouched a little. With a single bound he leapt onto the sidewalk and held his sword to his side where it along with his 'costume' disappeared in a faint glimmer of light, returning themselves into the badge which rested securely in his clutch.

"That was so cool!" Luffy cried before, during and after a mad dash to Ichigo's side while the foreman holstered his badge. Not too far behind him was an equally amazed Nami. "Was that a devil fruit, if I may ask?" she inquired.

"Please join my crew!" Luffy soon added

"No it's not, and no," he sighed. When he turned to them he leveled a small frown at them. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm probably late for a meeting."

"Hey wait a minute!" Nami all but cried with her own frown, stopping Ichigo just as he was about to walk away. "You're having a meeting now of all times?"

He scowled slightly in annoyance but kept it to a minimum as he turned to her. "You heard the news, right?"

"Yeah..." Nami replied uneasily as she crossed her arms.

"Well then you should know that panic has gripped the company just as bad as it had the city," he stated. "With that said I imagine they're trying to calm everyone down here before something really bad happens. Now if you'll excuse me..." He made to leave again only to be stopped once more by Luffy this time.

"Hang on, could you take us to Ice pops?"

Ichigo turned to him. "No offense but I doubt they'd let anyone see him till he wakes up."

"I see," Nami responded for the both of them.

"Other than that, there's nothing I can really do without good cause," Ichigo spoke again.

"We understand," Nami sighed while Luffy gave a slight pout as he crossed his arms.

"Anyway... I'll be going now."

"See you later then," Luffy gloomily responded.

For a third time Ichigo was stopped, this time by the opening of the dock door to which he scowled a scowl that was both annoyed and curious between the interruption and just who it was that came from the door... as oppose to crossing the disproportional fence to the gate's sides. From the gate came the foremen of Dock One: Kaku, Lucci, and Paulie. With them was a exceptionally tall man of brown hair and a grayed beard who was at least a foot and a half above everyone else, shirtless and bearing the word "shipwright" in the form of kanji over from his left muscular peck over to over half of his left arm; Tilestone. With them was another shirtless man of a far more regular height, his own hair black in the company of a black mustache, both neatly combed save for a seemingly irremovable pointed cowlick to the side of his head. On his chest were green intricate tattoo that vaguely reminded the teen of hieroglyphics whereas his upper arms bore red, more tribal tattoos; Lulu, never seen without his red shades.

"What are they doing here?" he mumbled to himself. As soon as they were clear they moved as a unit in their direction. On each of their faces was either a scowl or something of grim determination like a soldier going to war.

"Hey Ichigo, we'll take it from here," Paulie said to Ichigo once he was within earshot.

"Hey guys..." Ichigo responded guardedly as he eyed them again, noticing for sure that Lulu was armed with twin barreled pistols. Three pounders for sure in their weight alone. "What's going on?"

Paulie regarded him for a moment as did the others in a silent debate that all shared in on a subconscious level. At last in response he and they only seemed to glare at the Straw Hats at first before Paulie spoke up at last. "Iceburg woke up not that long ago," he stated lowly, elicited a relived gasp and sigh from Nami while Luffy likewise did the same, albeit added a happy grin in the grin. Ichigo, however, remained stoic, suspicious even... especially when Paulie slowly raised a damning finger at the Straw Hats.

"And when he woke up he named the culprits: They were from your gang, weren't they!?"

"HUH?!" Both were, in a word, flabbergasted as well as shocked, including Ichigo via tensing and the widening of his eyes. It took Luffy a few good moments to launch a coherent response, by then Ichigo was observing at them... "Why would we do such a thing?!"

"So you're going to play innocent, eh?"

"But we really didn't..."

The finger lower and the hand it belonged to went still at Paulie's side. "When Iceburg came around, he told us he remembered two culprits. One was a big man with a mask on..." Ichigo silently scowled as he wracked his brain for any such person on the Straw Hat crew... "The other was a tall woman. When we asked the government, they said she's one of you guys... Nico Robin, the woman with a bounty on her head!"

"Robin?!" Luffy and Nami unwittingly gasped i unison as they tried to make sense of the news, earning a deeper frown from Ichigo as Paulie spoke up once more.

"Did you come to this island in order to kill Iceburg from the start? Or did you decide that after meeting him yesterday? I don't know what you pirates think, but we've come to know you're the culprits, we won't leave you at large!"

Without warning Kaku throw a wood carving knife at Luffy just as Lulu aimed his guns, Tilestone was on the charge, Paulie arming himself with his signature ropes while Lucci was flanking the Straw Hats. By the time any eye noted Ichigo in passing it was too late to realize he had drawn out his glowing badge.

Ka-pow! Swoosh! Clang! "AAACK!" Splash!

Bullets were deflected, the knife was caught, a hand repelled with a rocketing fist and sent its sender into the canal with a startled yelp, a rope was cut in twain and finally the capture knife was tossed with utter precision to stick out of the ground as a warning before Lucci. Before them like a silent guardian was Ichigo, once more garbed in his other 'clothing,' armed with his machete of a sword. "Ichigo?! What the hell are you doing?!"

Ichigo for a moment he only stared them down, a quick glance spent here and there to ensure no one he knew on a more personal level had moved aside from a confused and hacking Tilestone as he heaved himself onto the sidewalk. "Because something strikes me as suspicious," he said at last.

"That's not a particularly good reason," Kaku stated as he armed himself with a pair of sharpened chisels. Paulie hunched forward and snapped a piece of rope behind his hands. Ichigo narrowed his eyes and glanced at Lucci just in case as he armed himself with a chisel.

"What really sticks out to me is that you said Iceburg knew the woman who attacked him and who she's with—"

"Robin wouldn't do such a thing and you'd know it too if you met her!" Luffy defended. Quickly Nami clamped a hand around his mouth to prevent him from lighting the proverbial fuse.

"—Other than that, she happens to be with someone wearing a mask?" Ichigo finished after pausing due to Luffy. "Why bother hiding his face if you're just going to find out and track down who his partner?"

"Maybe because they thought he died last night," Lulu offered his stern conjecture. "Or perhaps she wasn't wearing a good enough disguise." He dropped his pistols and armed himself with a chisel. "Whatever the case, please step aside, Ichigo!"

"I have no idea what's gotten into you but don't assume we will go easy on you if you help them again!" Paulie threatened as he took a step back in preparation. He gritted his teeth when Ichigo for a third time glanced at everyone around him save for the Straw Hats.

"... I see." His sword was alight with his strange power.

"OH CRAP!" BOOM!

Ichigo aimed his technique at the very gap between them rather than attack them directly, creating a screen of debris and dust that engulfed the foremen save for Tilestone by the canal's edge, even then his gaze was blocked by the cloud. By the time the cloud dissipated enough to reveal the hazy bodies of everyone else, Ichigo and the Straw Hats were long gone.

XVX

Rooftops

"Phew! Thanks a lot!"

"Yeah... thank you!"

Ichigo waved them off as he seated himself on a abandoned crate on the roof and sighed, his fingers drumming along the handle of his sword in thought.

"Not to look a gift horse in the mouth though..." Nami approached him and stopped a respectful distance away, Luffy not too far behind her, "what made you decide to help us like that? I mean I wouldn't be surprised if you lost your job because of this."

Luffy frowned and scrunched up his face as he considered that aspect himself. "Yeah, why did you help us?" He crossed his arms. Ichigo only continued to drum his fingers along his sword in the meantime.

Finally he sighed. "Because you don't come across as the kind of people who'd decide to attack a guy like Iceburg out of the blue," he answered them at last. His fingers came to an abrupt halt in favor of gripping his sword's handle a little tighter as he fixed them in a serious stare. "That, and I was a victim of something like this too at one time."

"What happened?" Nami asked, a frown marring her features much like Luffy as she crossed her arms. He only waved her off.

"It's a long story," he rumbled, his head tilting down to look at their feet for a moment. By the time he looked back up at them, his eyes had hardened. "Suffice it to say I'm not going to sit by and let this happen!"

Luffy nodded in both understanding and appreciation. "Ok, and thank you!"

"I just want to make one thing clear though so we don't have any misunderstandings."

"Hm?" Both of them regarded him curiously while he stood up and fixed hem in a hard stare.

"I basically been saving up a sum of money to go out on the Grand Line," he admitted as he shouldered his sword. "And while I saved up enough to say I'm almost at my goal, if I do lose my job because of this and find out you guys really were behind Iceburg's attack, I will bring you guys down." His glare gained a more stern edge to it. "Do we have an understanding?"

Nami creased her lips and made to speak when Luffy beat her to it. "I understand," he said with a solemn crease of his own.

"Good." Ichigo began to walk away towards a railing on the roof away from them. "I'm going to get my savings out of the bank before they lock me out of it because of today." He stopped and turned his head enough to catch them in the corner of his eye. "So where do you want to meet when I'm done?"