So glad I decided to split this up. Would have made chapter 3 over 11,000 words. That's way too big. _

Thanks for the positive feedback so far! It's highly encouraging. I hope to have the next chapter up for you guys before the end of this coming weekend. Please read, review, and enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, Rosario + Vampire, or any of the characters contained therein either story. I write this for my own amusement, the amusement of my fellow fans of said series, and for the sake of technical practice in writing itself. Do not ingest without first consulting a physician.

I waive ownership rights to any original characters created by me, for this crossover, if the original creator(s) of either of the two aforementioned manga wish to use them. However if said event occurs, I humbly ask to be consulted first.

Though frankly, if either author even so much as acknowledges this story exists, I think I might die from shock.

This story is rated M for violence, coarse language, and mild innuendo. Reader discretion is advised.

Chapter 4: A broken menagerie

A few hours later, Ichigo, Tsukune, Moka, and Koji arrived at a private countryside beach that had been reserved to them for the afternoon. The reckless driving of Tsukune's father left the three teens little time to enjoy the sights of the island as they left the main city limits of Honolulu, not that either Tsukune or Moka seemed to mind. The two had hardly spoken on the ride over, even to cry out in fear as Koji nearly sent them into a ditch for the fourth time that day. Totally absorbed in his driving, Koji paid their behavior no mention, instead babbling on about the wonderful time he had shooting rifles at the indoor range, and the lovely new compound longbow he'd purchased at the store. He might not be able to buy guns to bring them home, but he'd been assured by the clerk that a bow and arrow set should be no problem. Of course, the clerk was hardly an expert when it came to international law, but it was enough to draw Koji into making the purchase, regardless of the legality.

While Koji might not have noticed the distinct change in character of his son and the pink haired girl who sat next to him, Ichigo did. There was an atmosphere of palpable awkwardness in the car that irritated the fiery haired warrior to the point of forcing a genuine scowl onto his face. Part of him wanted to drill the two of them right then and there about what they'd done to upset each other, but he decided it wasn't his place to get involved in the affairs of what were barely more than strangers. Especially not during a car ride from hell.

The private beach was something straight out of a pure work of art. Cyan blue met porcelain white as a the waves of the sea swept up against the warm sand of the island coast in calm waves that might make a surfer pout. More a cove than an open beach, the entire northern, eastern, and western edges were overlooked by a tall rock face on all sides, with the ocean straight to the south. A sheer vertical drop of about three hundred feet made the beach safe, secluded, and private. Those who wished to get down to the beach had to park their vehicles on a small blacktop parking lot just off the side of the main road, along the northern cliff, and travel down a long, crisscrossing flight of stairs made of wood and stone.

At the bottom of the stairs were a pair of modern buildings made of wood, marked with the universal symbols for male and female. These restrooms doubled as a set of changing rooms for beach goers, complete with a few simple storage lockers for housing ones day clothes while enjoying the seafront in earnest. Next to the buildings were a pair of large charcoal grills, each set on wheels as to be better moved around by whomever might be using the beach at the time.

As it would turn out, they were not the first group to arrive. Kasumi, Mizore, Yukari, and Kurumu were busy frolicking about, each involved in their own set of activities. Mizore, Yukari, and Kurumu were busy enjoying the ocean together, though Mizore was compelled to take occasional breaks from the heat and hide in the shade to keep from overheating. Kasumi, on the other hand, was busy setting something up at the grill.

"We're here!" Koji cried out, waving his hand at his wife from atop the cliff face, who replied in turn with a wave of her own, "we'll be right down!"

True to his word, the human man and his charge made their way down the stairs, towards where his wife was toiling away at the grill. There, atop a large counter space lined with plastic wrap was a spread of different sort of meats and vegetables that were all to be grilled for the consumption of those present. Small containers of seasoning could be seen, here and there, along with a few cooking utensils, such as a pair of metal cooking tongs and a simple spatula.

"Did you all have fun on your little trip?" Kasumi asked, a stupid grin on her face as Koji crossed over to her, and in a fluid motion wrapped her up in his arms, a large cooking fork in her hands and all, and gave her a soft kiss.

"It was a blast," Koji said, his left arm still around her hip as she blushed like a lovestruck schoolgirl, "wasn't it, everyone!"

In their own ways, Moka, Ichigo, and Tsukune all deadpanned, though Moka's was tinged with a bit of an awkward, sweet smile, and Tsukune's a slight, hesitant nod.

"See?" Koji went on, not missing a beat, "they had the time of their lives!"

"Oh my," Kasumi cooed, a hand over her face as she stifled a giggle, "I suppose they weren't quite as interested as you were in seeing slugs of metal shot from a cannon, where they, dear?"

"Er..." Koji stammered, forcing a quiet bit of laughter from the three onlooking teenagers, "I don't know what you're talking about! They didn't have any cannons there!"

"No?" Kasumi gasped, "well, what took you so long to get here, then? I thought you must have at least fired half the ammunition in Hawaii."

"Tsu-ku-ne!" Cried a voice from the beach, as Kurumu came galloping up from the surf towards the conversing group by the grill. Dressed in a hot pink, two piece swimsuit, her outfit was cut more conservatively than those who knew her might have guessed she'd wear, as it bared only a little more skin to onlooking eyes than the one worn by Mizore.

Which, if you think about it, was still quite a bit of skin of skin to show, nevertheless.

"Kurumu?" Tsukune said, holding in a sigh as the succubus charged towards him, her arms outstretched wide. He knew what was about to happen, it was always the same, and he really, really didn't feel like having his head enveloped by Kurumu's chest at the moment. Doubly so when it'd be in front of his parents. Holding up a hand in front of his person, Tsukune gestured for the blue haired girl to stop, but critical mass had already been reached. For Kurumu, there was no turning back. She would press Tsukune's body against hers, and to her there was no debating the point.

Unfortunately for her, nobody told Tsukune that. At the last moment, just before the succubus would have latched unto him in her suffocating embrace, Tsukune deftly backpedaled out of the way of the succubus. The motion was performed with such a sudden ease that Kurumu failed to notice, until long after she'd practically crushed a wide eyed Ichigo between the sinuous curves of her breasts.

"Pervert!" Kurumu whined as she tossed Ichigo backwards with a huff, accidentally using an inhuman amount of force on the young human and hurling him back several yards, towards the jagged rock wall.

Tensions spiked, as Kurumu realized just what she'd done. With the amount of strength she had used, there was no telling where Ichigo would stop or how hard he'd hit when he got there. After all, he was human, not a monster. No matter how good of shape he appeared to be in, that fact didn't change. To make matters worse, Tsukune's parent weren't in on the truth regarding his friends. If the orange haired boy got hurt because of her carelessness, there would be questions, and not just from the family of the injured human.

It was to the shock of everyone there, then, when Ichigo contorted in mid fall and managed to catch himself on the ground, skidding to a halt just inches from slamming face first into the rock wall. He had been hurtling backwards, towards the rock face, when he suddenly shifted hard with both of his arms, forcing his body to spin 180 degrees so that his torso faced the ground. In the same motion, he thrust all four of his limbs towards the ground, digging into the soft beach soil to slow, and eventually stop his movement altogether. When he stood up, a tiny bit of blood dripped down the tip of his left ring finger, the friction having scraped away a thin layer of flesh just above base of the nail. Everyone held their breath, awaiting the inevitable tirade of accusations and threats.

"What the hell do you mean, pervert!" Ichigo yelled as he pointed an accusing finger at Kurumu, shattering everyone's expectations, "you're the one who decided to try and crush my head on your chest like a nutcracker!"

Kurumu was struck dumb. Had he not noticed how hard she'd thrown him? No, the bigger question was, how the hell did he manage to pull off that level of acrobatics? Certainly, she'd seen humans perform similar feats on television before, but they were always in elite martial arts, or gymnastic competitions. As far as she could tell, this orange haired boy was neither. She could simply not comprehend how he'd done it.

"S-sorry!" Kurumu replied, snapping back to reality when she noticed that all eyes were now fixed squarely upon her, her face flushing red, "I didn't mean to shove you, I-I was just surprised because Tsukune moved, that's all!"

Ichigo huffed, but decided to leave it at that. Even with his preternatural reflexes, his body had barely been quick enough to respond in time to prevent colliding with the wall. He didn't have the incredible speed or strength that his powers had given him in the past, but now, he was quite thankful that losing his shinigami powers had done nothing to diminish his perception of velocity or survival instincts. At the speed he was flung by Kurumu, if he'd collided with that wall, there was a sizable chance he'd have found himself in the hospital, or worse, if he landed at the right angle.

To Kurumu's credit, she'd kept herself quite collected, despite her embarrassment. Under different circumstances, she might have yelled back at Ichigo, even though he had every right to be upset with her. After all, it was decidedly not his fault that she'd tossed him. It helped that she felt oddly betrayed by Tsukune, who's last minute movement caused her to grasp hold of Ichigo by mistake. Something had happened while they were away on their little side-trip, and Kurumu had a growing worry in her heart that whatever it was, it wasn't something that would please her.

The tension passed quickly, as Ichigo proved to be surprisingly forgiving towards the blue haired girl. There were no awkward questions, though Kurumu mused she'd found a fan in Tsukune's father, Koji, who marveled at her impressive strength for a girl her size. After a brief moment where he and Tsukune offered their aid to Kasumi, who needed the boys to gather up some lighter fluid and charcoal for the grill from a storage shed up in the parking lot, the two boys found themselves sent to the changing rooms to join the girls playing in the ocean.

Ichigo really wasn't one to get himself worked up over these sort of things. 'Playing', as his sister Yuzu had so put it, just wasn't exactly the sort of thing he did. At least, not if he wanted to maintain the image he'd so carefully crafted for himself. It would be a deathblow to the bad-boy aura he'd so painstakingly put together if his family walked onto the beach and saw him splashing water at girls in swimsuits, playing volleyball, or commencing in whatever stereotypical things people did when they went to the beach. 'No', Ichigo reasoned to himself, 'I'm just going to go for a swim, and then I'll go back to reading Macbeth.'

On the other hand, Tsukune's thoughts revolved around a much more complex matter. His mind still swam about, as if detached from reality in the wake of Moka's confession. "She loves me..." he thought to himself, emotions melting together in a confused, indecisive soup, "I... I've been waiting so long to hear those words, but... why? Why am I not jumping for joy? Why do I feel... so strange?"

"Oi, Tsukune," Ichigo called over towards the brown haired boy, who was still stuck in his reverie.

"I love her, I know I do, I've known it for forever now," Tsukune thought to himself, ignoring Ichigo completely. His trembling hand gently grasped the handle of his locker as he pushed it closed, his thoughts marching on as if in a trance, "but... why can't I say it to her? Why can't I even say it to myself out loud?"

"Hey, Tsukune!"

"What am I so afraid of?" Tsukune wondered, shaking his head slightly as he slowly stepped towards the doorway back to the beach, "Am I afraid of making myself so vulnerable to one person? Am I afraid of showing everyone what I really feel? What? What am I so afraid of?"

"LISTEN TO ME, DAMNIT!"

Without warning, the flight of a shoe interrupted Tsukune's musings, striking him in the side of the head with enough force to nearly knock him off balance. Rubbing the side of his head, Tsukune turned to face Ichigo, his emotional soup adding a new ingredient to the mix – anger. At least, until he finally heard what Ichigo was trying to tell him.

"What the hell are you doing?" Ichigo demanded, both of his hands on his head as he looked at Tsukune, aghast, "You don't even have your bathing suit on!"

Looking down, Tsukune finally realized the truth that Ichigo had been trying to convey to him for almost a full minute. He stood there, just before the doorway to the beach, totally naked. It was enough to almost make the troubled boy pass out.

After a brief moment spent getting his green colored swim trunks on, Tsukune sat across from Ichigo in the middle of the locker room. Ichigo briefly considered trying to break down the process of putting on pants to Tsukune, but decided that such a remark would just be too snide. "Have I always been this snarky?" Ichigo thought briefly to himself as he crossed his arms, eyeballing Tsukune with a single open eye and a scowl on his face, "and what the hell should I do with him? He's a wreck, if he goes out there he's half likely to forget to come up for air if he goes in the water."

Ichigo sighed. He should just let the boys parent's handle it, of course. But somehow, something in his gut told him that neither Koji or Kasumi had noticed the depth of their son's strange behavior yet, if at all. Something had to be done about it, and while he hardly enjoyed this sort of thing, it seemed to Ichigo that someone needed to say something to get this guy's head out of the clouds.

"Alright, I don't know what the hell happened between you and Moka when I left to go try on these swimming shorts," Ichigo declared bluntly, jabbing at what he thought was the heart of the issue, "But it's left you a complete mess. You need to get a hold of yourself."

"I-I know, Kurosaki, I'd just embarrass myself if I went outside right now," Tsukune replied meekly, not sure if he was being read a riot act, or if Ichigo was trying to ask him what was wrong.

Ichigo frowned, struggling to come up with more words to say to keep the ball rolling. His mind desperately clawed at his imagination, as a single question raced through his mind: what would Rukia say?

"This isn't about embarrassing yourself," Ichigo said, coughing slightly as he imagined the pint sized shinigami ranting at him after he did something stupid. He left out the various jabs at his intelligence that he was sure Rukia would have added in, as he continued, "whatever was said between the two of you was so important that it made you forget to put your pants on in public, and people don't get that confused over just any little thing."

Tsukune's eyes were locked intently on Ichigo. Obviously, his words were having some effect, though the complete and total dedication of Tsukune's attention to what he was saying made Ichigo more than a little nervous. He paused, his mind racing to make his mental picture of Rukia speed through conversations regarding bad pictures of hollows and deformed bunny rabbits, and back to Tsukune's problem.

"Bah," Ichigo cried, his mental image of Rukia falling apart faster than you can say 'shatter, Kyoka Suigetsu', "I guess what I'm trying to say is to not sweat the small stuff. If you said something stupid, then apologize. If she said something stupid, tell her what pissed you off so you can work it out. If you sit around all day and try to rationalize whatever is bothering you, you'll just end up walking off without your pants again."

Tsukune blinked, having not expected such remarks from Ichigo. It made sense, in a way. If he kept worrying about everything that could happen, he wouldn't go anywhere with anything. Ever since coming to Yokai Academy, he'd wanted this very thing to happen. Why was he hesitating? It was just as Ichigo said, if he tried to rationalize everything away, he'd just end up messing up everything regardless.

"I get what you mean," Tsukune said, smiling softly, "Thank you, Kurosaki, I know what I need to do now."

"Yeah, don't mention it," Ichigo replied, eying Tsukune suspiciously. That was way too easy. There was no way that could have worked, could it? No, he was going to go out there and do something outrageous, then blame him for it. Ichigo was certain of it. What else could he say though? It took everything he had to come up with that, and it was by no means great advice. Sure, Ichigo wasn't all that bad at reading peoples more base emotions when it came down to it, but when it came to the deeper stuff that dwelt beneath the surface, he was about as clumsy as was possible. Standing, the orange haired boy resolved that there was nothing else he could do, and said, "Come on, let's get out of here."

The water off the Hawaiian beach was truly something else. Warm, pristine, translucent, and tinted with a faint cyan luster, it bore an almost ethereal quality that was pleasant and mystifying. For Ichigo, it proved to be a worthwhile distraction from the background noise of three girls lusting over a single boy. At first it seemed a little funny to him, although there was no way Ichigo would have admitted to thinking such a thing. Now, after having put up with it for several hours over the past two days, any humor he might have felt towards the situation had drained away. In it's place, he found himself filled by a strong desire to find a random vasto lorde to discuss the finer points of epic poetry. Or perhaps a twelfth division representative, so he could volunteer himself to Mayuri as experimental fodder. That would work just as well, too.

It was really more two girls lusting over Tsukune than three, though it made little difference to Ichigo. For the most part, Moka was relatively subdued at the beach. She seemed afraid of the water, Ichigo noted, and it seemed like whatever had been affecting Tsukune was still bothering her just as clearly as it had been bothering the brown haired boy.

Speaking of Tsukune, he had found himself caught in the center of a tug of war between Mizore and Kurumu. It would start when one of the two would pull Tsukune off to the side for a moment (typically, Kurumu), drawing the ire of the other. Said other would march over, say something at varying levels of irritation, and after some words from Tsukune, they would all go back to whatever group activity they were doing. It was a well rehearsed dance that all of the parties seemed familiar with, and Ichigo couldn't help but wonder just how often they did this sort of thing.

If the orange haired boy had to draw a comparison to something, it reminded him of the mating habits of pack animals, only reversed. Instead of the males fighting for dominance with each other for the right to mate with the female, the females were fighting for dominance with each other for the right to mate with the male. It was all far more trouble than it was worth, Ichigo thought. If he was Tsukune, he reasoned, he'd have either just picked a girl already and been done with it, or told them all to back off. It was a shallow rational, drawn entirely from how things seemed on the surface, but it was one that Ichigo felt good about.

He had no idea what kind of circumstances made Tsukune willing to put up... no, that wasn't right, because in some ways, it seemed like he enjoyed it at times. Still, Ichigo didn't know why Tsukune kept up this charade with the girls, he didn't strike Ichigo as some kind of womanizer. Maybe he just didn't have a strong enough personality to tell people no? Ichigo didn't know, and decided it wasn't worth dwelling on. Romance wasn't something he was good at, and his ability to gauge what others were feeling was passable at best. The most he had experienced in that regard was...

Ichigo shook his head. He didn't want to think about that right now.

"Why so cross, Orange-peel?" came the child-like voice of a young girl from behind Ichigo, startling him out of his thoughts. Yukari floated there in a frilly purple one piece swim suit, her trademark witch hat still in place as she floated upon a white inner-tube, "you'll get wrinkles if you scowl all the time, you know."

Ichigo's scowl deepened, "what kind of a name is Orange-peel?" Ichigo growled at her as he turned to face the witch.

"Well, it'd be boring if I just made a strawberry joke, so I thought I'd get creative," she sneered, kicking a little bit of water at the now deadpanning teenager across from her.

"How considerate of you," Ichigo said flatly. He briefly considered flipping the little girl in her inner-tube, but decided simply swimming away would work much better. Unfortunately, Yukari had no intention of letting him escape that easily.

"Isn't it ugly, Orange-peel?" she went on, paddling beside Ichigo as he backstroked along the shoreline, "all of those scruffy looking girls trying to steal Tsukune away from Moka and me." She cupped one hand thoughtfully beneath her chin as she paused in mid-speech, before her eyes lit up as she said, "You're a boy, why don't you do something suave and pull their attention away from Tsukune for me!"

"Not interested," Ichigo said curtly, as he dove beneath the surface and swam away from Yukari, who tried to stomp her feet uselessly in the water.

"Oh come on, what kind of a boy are you?" Yukari demanded at Ichigo as he surfaced from the water a few yards away, "Wait, don't tell me you're...?"

"I'm just not interested in manipulating someone for you," Ichigo replied, his tone both harsh and condescending. His eyes cut through Yukari's gaze, in a way that made the young witch subconsciously wince.

"Why not?" She yelled at him, as he turned and swam away.

"Okay, Tsukune, what's this about?" Kurumu huffed, looking mostly worried, though slightly peeved at the brown haired boy, "You've been acting weird all day! What's wrong?"

Kurumu, along with Mizore and Moka, had been gathered by the younger of the two Aono men in a secluded alcove along the western wall of the cove. To the lavender and blue haired young women, Tsukune had been acting quite odd. Only Moka knew the precise reason behind his awkward attitude, and his less-than-usual warmth of personality. If the other girls had known, there was a real chance they'd dunk the sealed vampire in seawater, and proceed to bisect her. Fortunately, their ignorance to the reality of what had happened just a few hours prior kept her from any sort of mortal danger.

Not that Tsukune would have allowed it to happen regardless.

None of them, however, knew why they'd been gathered here. Neither did they know about the conversation between the boys in the locker room. So the enigmatically serene, yet steeled expression of Tsukune Aono was something that none of the girls could fully understand.

"Are you alright, Tsukune?" Moka asked, her voice deceptively quiet as she fidgeted, obviously uncomfortable in the situation. It was something that drew a sidelong glance from Mizore, who's visage contorted ever so slightly into a frown. She didn't like any of this, and the hot weather made her already agitated mood ten times worse.

"I'm fine," Tsukune assured, his gaze shifting between the girls as he considered Ichigo's advice one last time. It wasn't exactly what he'd meant, but he felt he knew the spirit of what the boy had said as plain as day. He couldn't keep wallowing in the pool of indecisiveness and conflicting emotions anymore. He wasn't being fair to these girls, and he wasn't being fair to himself. The manner in which he'd pulled the three girls over probably wasn't a good idea, and if he'd taken more time to think about it, he'd have realized that. Love did strange things to people, though, and Tsukune definitely wasn't thinking straight. He hadn't been since Moka had told him those four words, and that was why he'd decided Ichigo's words meant, 'tell all of the girls how you feel as soon as possible'. He took a deep breath, it was now or never.

"I wanted to apologize to the three of you," the faces of all three girls deformed into a mask of confusion. Tsukune's heart felt like it was about to beat out of his chest, but he continued on without missing a beat, "for a long time now, you've been so kind to me. All three of you are precious friends to me, friends I want to keep forever. That's why... that's why this has been so hard."

"Tsukune?" Kurumu asked, thoroughly confused. The blue haired succubus still had no idea what Tsukune was getting at, though Mizore's face told a different tale. She understood, plain as day what was about to happen. She was afraid, hopeful, and angry at once.

'This is her fault...' Mizore thought as she shot a sidelong glare at the pink haired vampire, the fear she felt in her chest growing as realization slowly dawned upon her.

"I'm sorry, Kurumu, Mizore, but I can't let you keep pursuing me this way," Tsukune said, causing Kurumu's expression to twist from confusion to a mix of hurt and fear, like someone she loved was about to run her over with a truck. Someone named Tsukune, "I, don't want to string you along... when I've already made my decision."

'It's all her fault...' Mizore thought, as her body trembled like a leaf in a wind tunnel. Her thoughts, her sight, even her very heart felt as if it was masked by an ominous, terrifying fog. Her body was heavy, and she there was a growing nausea in the pit of her stomach. She wanted to jab a knife-shaped icicle between Moka's shoulders, climb the side of the nearest cliff to leap off, and find the nearest bed and weep all at once. Her body wouldn't obey any of her commands, though. All she could do was stand there, her eyes transfixed by the object of her affection as he slowly, systematically told her that he didn't want her.

Kurumu's reaction was much more mild, by comparison. Tears began to slowly well up in her eyes, as she understood what was coming. She was angry, embarrassed, and hurt all at once. Her head was a jumble of different, unfocused thoughts as Tsukune methodically was rejecting her. Compared to Mizore, though, she could at least still think, and she was contemplating neither murder or suicide. 'This... can't be happening! Tsukune is my destined one, the person who I was born to be with... isn't he? Isn't he?'

At that very moment in time, three things happened at once.

In the most somber, sincere tone he could muster, Tsukune told the three girls that he was in love with Moka Akashiya, who was beaming with a happiness that seemed to shine brighter than the sun.

Even before Tsukune was finished speaking, Moka bolted to him, intent on wrapping him up in her arms that very instant. A small clicking noise echoed out from the ground as Moka crossed the beach sand.

As Moka's foot left the ground, a rapidly spinning silver disc shot up into the air, coming to rest in motion at roughly chest level to the three teens. It made a shrill whistling sound, like the noise emitted by a steel circular saw cutting through plastic, and shimmered with a translucent emerald glow. In their emotionally compromised state, none of the girls or Tsukune had reflexes that were quick enough to fully register the device as it violently began to wobble. In all, it's entire flight lasted for only a few milliseconds.

Then, to Tsukune Aono, Moka Akashiya, Mizore Shirayuki, and Kurumu Kurono, it was as if the world around them exploded.

Ichigo Kurosaki was already a veteran of more battles than most people would fight in a lifetime. He had engaged beings with monstrous proportions, phenomenal power, and terrifying abilities. For a time, he had become one of the most powerful beings that existed, but in the end he gave it all away for a chance to spare the world from the tyranny of a brutal madman.

The experience Ichigo gained from those battles didn't leave him after he used the Saigo no Getsuga Tensho, however. Even before Moka tripped the land mine, the orange haired boys intuition knew something was wrong. Very wrong. In an onslaught of motion, Ichigo grabbed unto the back of Yukari's inner-tube, and before the young witch could protest, started swimming away from shore with every ounce of strength he could muster. That decision proved to be something that saved his life.

When the land mine went off, it covered the area near the shoreline where Moka, Tsukune, Kurumu, and Mizore had been standing in a massive fireball. The area in which Ichigo and Yukari had been swimming would have been well inside the ensuing shock wave's kill zone, or the area in which an ordinary human being can be killed by the sheer force generated by the explosion alone.

Horror filled the teenager's expression as smoke billowed from the sight of the explosion, obscuring his vision of those who had been standing inside it's boundaries. It was quiet now, only the sound of a distant smoldering and the surf reached Ichigo's ears as he waded through the seawater. Such an explosion wouldn't have even registered as a blip on his radar if he still held his powers, but the others? As far as Ichigo could tell, the force of the explosion had all but vaporized them.

'Shit!' Ichigo mentally swore as he held unto Yukari in a one armed vice grip against his chest, refusing to let the small child out from his grasp until he knew the danger had passed. His warrior instincts told him that this wasn't the end. That beach wasn't safe, at all, and he wasn't about to let a girl no older than his sisters go back there to her death.

"NO!" Yukari screamed, as she struggled to get free from the human's strong grip. As a witch, Yukari possessed incredible powers, but physical strength that exceeded Ichigo's wasn't one of them. Without her magic wand, which she left back in the car, she couldn't even use those powers anyway.

"Calm down!" Ichigo hissed, squeezing the girls shoulder tightly with the arm he was using to hold onto her, "there's nothing we can do."

"They're not dead!" Yukari pleaded, gesturing to the explosion frantically, "that sort of thing wouldn't kill them, but they need our help!"

"No way, that beach is way too dangerous!" Ichigo shot back, barely able to hold the panicking little girl in place with his single free arm.

"For a human, maybe, but not for me!" Yukari growled, before she paled, realizing she just accidentally let the cat out of the bag.

Ichigo winced. There was a pain in the bottom of his stomach that he knew all too well, and Yukari's words outlined it all too perfectly. Dangerous for a human, and he was human. He sighed, and said, "are you sure you can do it?"

"A-ah... uhm," Yukari stammered, uncertain of what to make at Ichigo's non-response to her admission, "As long as I'm not in the middle of one of those, I'll be fine. I just need to get to the car, i-if I can do that, I can help them."

"... alright, I'll-"

Neither Yukari or Ichigo heard the last words that came out of Ichigo's mouth, as a deep, guttural roar pierced the soundless still. An object, roughly humanoid in shape and build, came tumbling down off the side of the eastern cliff and unto the beach below with a thundering crash.

"Outstanding!" it yelled, as the hideous creature stood up from it's crouching position. It was inhumanly tall, standing at what Ichigo reasoned was probably about twenty feet at the shoulder. It was dark blue, with scales that had a decidedly amphibious texture, that covered it from head to toe. It's head lacked a neck to support it, instead jutting straight forward, out from between it's shoulders as if on a third ball joint on it's collar bone. It's face was angular and bony, and covered in tribal markings made of blood. It's huge arms hung gangly down to it's feet, ending in webbed hands that looked big enough to crush the head of a human instantly if it managed to grab on. The blue behemoths legs, which while still larger than the limbs of any human being, were disproportionately thin compared to the rest of the top heavy creature. Most frighteningly, the creature's back, from the shoulders down, was covered in a coat of barbed spines. Each of the wicked looking protrusions was about a yard in length, and serrated in such a way that even grabbing hold of them would probably maim the flesh of whatever being was unfortunate enough to touch them.

It wore almost no clothing, save for a poorly crafted loin cloth and belt around it's waste. Strapped to it was what looked like a longsword appropriate to a human-sized creature, made of a copper colored material. To a beast that size, Ichigo reasoned, it was probably nothing more than a utility knife.

"I never thought my monster seeking mine would go off so quickly," It bellowed, holding it's belly with one of it's over sized paws as it laughed in a decidedly human gesture, "not that I'm complaining or anything. More food is good food!"

'Tch, what does he think he is, a hollow?' Ichigo thought as Yukari trembled, rage filling up the entirety of her little body as the creature went on it's merry way, oblivious to the two swimming just offshore.

"Get out of here, Ichigo," she said quietly, though the orange haired boy, "this isn't your world, there's no need for you to get involved in this."

"Excuse me?" Ichigo cried, his lips twisting upwards into a thin, almost sadistic smile, "you don't really think I'd abandon a little girl to face something that ugly alone, do you?"

"This isn't a joke!" Yukari growled, turning to face the orange haired human, "that thing is a real, living, breathing monster! Even a glancing blow from those arms would kill you instantly!"

"He wouldn't be the first," Ichigo replied cryptically, his eyes hardening as he watched the blue monstrosity slowly hobble across the beach, stopping only briefly to laugh at the stunned bodies of what Ichigo could only presume at this distance belonged to Koji and Kasumi. "Listen, Yukari. If you had whatever it is of yours that you left in the car, could you fight that thing and win?"

She nodded hesitantly, still unsure of what to make to the human's non-reaction to all of this, "it's not a even a high class monster, I should be able to beat it easily as long as it doesn't have more of those mines hidden around."

"Good," Ichigo said quietly, as he closed his eyes, "I'm going to swim up to shore. Wait back here until I get it's attention, then swim up behind it and get to the car. I don't know how long I can avoid that thing getting a hold on me, so if you don't want to kill me, you'd better hurry."

"Y-you can't be serious!" Yukari stuttered, as Ichigo started to swim back towards shore. When he didn't stop, she called out, "you're a human! You're just going to die if you try to provoke that thing!"

When he still didn't stop, she simply started to swim after him.

The blue monster loomed over the smoldering wreckage of his mine, a loving smile stuck upon his hideous face as he examined it's handiwork. Four bodies, all of whom were clearly breathing and still alive. One of the girls, who's lavender hair had all but been totally burned away by the blast was the worst off. Her now nude form was badly burnt along the front of her left leg and up her belly, though minor scorch marks lined the entirety of her skin. Most horrifyingly about her wounds, was that her entire right leg and her right hand were simply gone. Oddly though, the beast noted, was that her entire body had a sheen to it, like an ice sculpture sitting in the sun. If he didn't know any better, he'd say she was melting.

The blue haired girl definitely fared the best. Most of her clothes had been burnt away by the blast – a quality that all of his victims shared, though tiny bits of her tattered bathing suit remained. She must have been able to leap away from the blast at the last second, but not far enough to escape harm. 'Certainly not enough to retain any modesty' the creature added to himself with a sick chuckle. On closer examination, she'd only suffered minor burns along her hands and forearms, the concussive force of the explosion must have been responsible for her unconscious state. A thin line of drool slid down from it's lips, as he fantasized over what he could do with this intact prey before he decided to enjoy her in a more... culinary sense.

Of the other two, only the pink haired female was recognizable, though her face was burnt so badly that it would be difficult for anyone that knew her to identify her. The other body, the male of the four, was covered completely in second and third degree burns. His clothing was completely obliterated, it's breathing was shallow, and ragged. A thin gleam of reflected sunlight shone off something metallic attached to the boy's wrist, catching the monster's interest. Leaning down, it yanked up the thing, along with the boy it was connected to, and examined it more carefully.

"A lock?" The creature rumbled, using a single massive finger to poke at it inquisitively. As if in response, some of the chain links connecting it to it's owner seemed to glow. Frowning, the creature prodded them more forcefully. He was bound and determined to resolve the mystery of what was attached to his new meal.

Abruptly, the burnt hand being held by the monster twitched, turned, and latched unto the center finger of the beasts three fingered hand with such force that the burnt nubs of his fingertips penetrated through the creatures scales and into it's flesh.

"What the!" the monster yelped, so busy staring at the hand that now held his middle finger that he failed to notice the links connecting the locket to the boy's wrist shatter, and disappear.

Soulborn School of Scintillating Subjects and Supernatural Species

Serving scholarly sentients in superb submissions of salient specification!

Monster Seeking Mine: This is one nasty toy. Pretty much, the way it works is that it wanders near the shoreline, underground, of the spot it was planted. If it detects a monster within a certain range of it, it sends out a signal to it's owner, and places itself in close proximity to the monster. It then waits until a monster steps on it, then proceeds to detonate. The force of the detonation is enough to do roast an Abrams tank, and turn a regular human being into a gory paste if subjected to the explosion. The fact that the Rosario crew survived, despite being horribly wounded, is a testament to their durability. More details on the Monster Seeking Mine next chapter.