Like everyone else, I'll do it too. I do not own Bleach or Fairy Tail.
Act 1: Scene 5 Continuing
"Hey, where are you two going? Come on! Join the fun!" Natsu yelled out with his foot on the victim he just knocked out, hands blazing. "You have to join the fight! You too Lucy!" He hooted.
"Don't look away from me, you bastard! Ice Make Lance!" Natsu was instantly blown away from the rods of sharp ice, disappearing from the two's sight.
"Hey, hey what are you doing? Is it really okay for you to just do that to someone?" Ichigo asked.
"Don't worry. We do it all the time. Besides, didn't you pretty much destroy him yourself when you first saw him?" Gray asked back.
"Yeah, that's true. I did kind of punch him quite hard; I guess I didn't really expect someone to be flying at me out of nowhere."
"Heh, that's fine by me. As long as he gets hurt, I'm okay with it." Gray said positioning himself to charge again. He ran toward Natsu to continue his fight, leaving Ichigo and Lucy.
"Well, at least he didn't try to fight me this time." Ichigo said relieved.
"Yeah. Good thing Gray is more level headed than Natsu, so you don't have to worry about him too much. He mainly likes to attack Natsu, and the same is with Natsu attacking Gray but he'll still attack anyone open for a fight." Lucy said.
"Geehee." A certain giggle came from the back. "So this is where you were. We still haven't settled our fight, you know. I skipped my night performance just for you." Gajeel presented himself, walking closer behind Ichigo with his hands ready to engage.
"Now it's Gajeel, huh? You guys can really be a pester." Ichigo knew that he wouldn't be able to dodge him and decided to just settle it anyway. "Well, I could just Shunpo away from him and come back for Lucy, but I have been sitting in the back for a couple of hours now and I think I should loosen up a little. Anyways, I don't think that he's going to stop confronting me so I should just do it." He thought.
"That's right. Last time we didn't have a proper fight and I want to finish this." Gajeel said.
"Alright, alright. This time I'll do it." Ichigo paused a moment. "But here's the deal. For the fight, you only have to force me to take my sword out. If you can do that, then you win and I'll fight you whenever you want. If you can't, you leave me alone. Got it?" He proposed to him.
"You make it sound as if it would be impossible for me to defeat you with your sword." Gajeel boasted back. "I'll show you how much you will regret that! Tetsuyruuken!" Gajeel yelled out, transforming his right arm into a large, dark metallic, double edged blade with spikes protruding around it.
"That's interesting. You use something similar to sword to force mine out. Let's see if that works out." Ichigo said.
"AARGH!" Gajeel instantly shot himself forward, swinging his weapon downward so hard that it would make slight shockwaves from impacting something on par. And it did. But not to something that anyone would expect.
"What? You caught it? You blocked my attack by just catching it?" Gajeel said in astonishment.
"Ichigo! Are you okay?" Lucy called out but to her surprise, he was completely fine.
"You're a tough son of a bitch! I like that! What is your skin made out of anyway?"
"Nothing. Believe it or not, it's just my skin. So, now what will you do?"
"What do you mean?" Gajeel asked as if he was being taunted.
"Your sword can't pierce me so that's not the best way to go. I remember you can turn your arm into an extending pillar, but that didn't do much either, now did it?"
"You're getting cocky, you know?" Gajeel smirked, then the protruding spike on his Tetsuryuuken started to spin violently, turning it into a deadly chainsaw. The sound of it was quite piercing due to the incredible speed it was spinning at. "Try blocking this and it will shred through you!" He charged again, swinging with the same hard force as before.
"Woah. That's kinda cool. It reminds me of that movie Evil Dead I saw years ago." He said. Ichigo this time didn't use his hand to catch it, since it isn't the best thing to catch something that's spinning, but used his arm instead. Gajeel clashed to his forearm and pushed on, somewhat blinded by the spark flying from the source of the contact.
"I can actually feel that." Ichigo thought. "Even that red haired girl's attack didn't really make me feel it as much as this." Though Ichigo felt it, the spinning Tetsuryuuken still wasn't enough to cut through his mighty Hierro. Urahara said that it could be even rivaled to the fifth Espadas Hierro, who self proclaimed that his was the strongest. But who knows if that's true?
"My Iron Dragon's Sword can cut through anything!" He claimed out.
"Gajeel! Don't you think you're overdoing it a little?" A voice of a blue haired girl came from behind.
"Don't come close, Levy. He still not done yet." Gajeel said. "What is this? His arm is completely fine. It's like it won't even budge." He then thought and pushed harder and harder. "URGH!" Gajeel groaned out to a pain in his stomach that he did not expect.
"Eh? What are you doing?!"
"No time to explain, come on." Ichigo said to Lucy who squealed out as he grabbed her to Shunpo away from the guild after kicking Gajeel in the stomach.
"Huh, where'd he go?" Levy asked seeing the two disappear from her sights.
"That bastard. Did he kick me just so he could run away?" Gajeel said annoyed from his actions.
"What's going on? I thought I saw sparks coming from here." A deep voice came from an unusually shaped black cat who was standing on his hind legs. The black cat then jumped on the table next to Gajeel.
"Nothing. I was just having fun." Gajeel said back still miffed at his recent opponent's escape.
"Gajeel. Was that what I think I saw?" Makarov was the next one to appear. He wouldn't come asking about anyone's battle since it is a usual thing and they're just having fun, but he came because he was certainly interested in the newcomers abilities.
"What do you mean?" Gajeel asked slightly puzzled.
"Am I wrong to say that he blocked your Tetsuryuuken with his arm with no effect to it?"
"Yeah. He did. I asked how he did it, but he said that it was just his skin."
"I see. So it was true. I heard about the battle with Erza and how he came out of her Blumenblatt unscathed." Makarov said putting his small arm to his rough chin to scratch it.
"Yes! I saw that." Macao blurted out. "At first it obviously seemed that it would be just some repelling magic used to block her barrage of swords but I'm starting to think that's not true."
"Yes. He's certainly someone that you don't want to anger. I think it's safe to say that he has much more up his sleeve if he can do many tricks without that giant sword of his." He said. "Everyone!" Makarov yelled out, pausing their current events and bringing their attention to him. "You may have seen a new person appear in the guild today. Though he seems to be a good person and as much as this doesn't suit me to do this, I ask everyone to be wary of his actions. I need you people to see if he can be trusted or not. Everyone has more than likely felt his crushing, dark aura coming from his vicinity and that is the most important reason why we must be careful of him. We cannot allow to let a stranger in with hospitality, to only be ever betrayed by him in hopes of destroying us."
Makarov announced throughout the guild where everyone shook their heads in agreement.
"By the way. I'm going to a council meeting in the morning, so don't destroy the guild!" He added out of nowhere.
"But Master, you don't have any council meeting scheduled for this week." Mirajane came out the crowd and said in confusion.
"Apparently I do now. This one won't be long so I'll be back by tomorrow night."
Somewhere in Magnolia
"Eh, wha- where?" Lucy exclaimed to see she was surrounded by the towns boisterous noise, lights and people. "How did I get here?"
"Sorry if I startled you, but I wanted us to get out of there. I guess this is somewhere in the middle of town? I only traveled about a couple hundred meters before stopping." Ichigo told Lucy. Ichigo was surprised to see how many festivities had gone around him. To him the whole place seemed like a market of sorts. He looked around a little more and saw that multiple people were walking around others in an awkward manner. There was a peculiar man who is wearing a loud attire with a basket surrounding his hips, supported by straps hung to his shoulders going around people waving something in his hand. "Looks like he's trying to sell stuff for a living by going out and advertising it himself. It's kind of sad to see how people have to dress up like that in order to support their lives. I'm glad that there aren't people who have to do that anymore as much as they used too. I can clearly see it in his eyes that this is not a new thing that he has to do." Ichigo thought sympathetically, watching him dance around the civilians like a monkey.
"Uhm, yeah. I think we're in the Buyers-and-Sellers area." Lucy called out.
"Buyers-and-Sellers?"
"Yes. People come here to advertise their products as well as buy things. Usually the people here aren't the most high class, so they have to come here to get the most they can" Lucy said with the simple explanation.
"I thought so about the type of people here. Well, anyway I kind of left the guild because I wanted some peace and quiet and sadly this place is not what I was really hoping for." Ichigo said groaning to see this place was not the calm environment he was anticipating for. "Is there anywhere quieter around here?"
"We should head to my house then, seeing as I did offer you a place to stay." Lucy spoke a little nervous.
"Yeah, we should. I want to thank you again for the place and just so you know, I won't bother you at all while I'm there."
"No, no. It's okay! You don't have to be so formal and all. It's my pleasure." She replied skittishly.
"Now who's being formal?" Ichigo retorted.
"Let's head this way. Luckily my house isn't too far away so we'll make it in ten minutes." The two continued along the way, passing many sorts of sights throughout the town. The sky was wide open, amidst the exception of a few countable clouds, glistening with countless celestial bodies. Lucy noticed how Ichigo had the attention of his head pointing to the sky.
"You can see the stars clearly from here. Where I come from, there is usually so much light in the city that it blocks your vision of the sky." Ichigo said in slight awe admiring the infinite azure.
"What do you mean? You couldn't see the sky before?"
"Of course I could. It's just that no one could really see the stars, because of the city's luminous lights overpowering the sky's." With that, the pair were mostly quiet for the time being as they marched on. After a couple of minutes of Ichigo following Lucy, she started to contemplate about the mystery of a man walking next to her.
"Hmm. I think I should slow down a bit with him. I barely know him, so how could I just immediately invite him into my home after knowing him for hardly seven hours? Come on Lucy, you've never had this sort of attraction to any guy before. How could this happen now? Did I make a wrong decision? He even has a noticeable dark feeling coming from him. That's more than enough reason to be careful of him. Hopefully when he said that there is one of those hollow things in him, it happened to him without his voluntary choice. I feel bad saying that but if that's true, then he won't be an actual bad guy but a person who's trying to suppress that monster in him." Lucy started to doubt his words because of the fact that there is a risk of him doing something bad all due to him having one of those monsters inside him. She remembered back to where everyone was at the table in the evening and Ichigo had explained more of the berserk nature of them. She didn't understand how he could be so open about him saying that there's a potential danger inside him.
"Hey, Lucy. How far are we now?"
"It's just ahead across the river there. Hehe, it's funny how the streets name is Strawberry and your name is Ichigo." She giggled at that noticing the meanings of both. But Ichigo then grew a scowl on his face from the old joke. "Well, here we are. Come on in." She said getting her keys out to unlock the door. Ichigo looked over to her hip from the shine coming from it and noticed the many other keys that were there as well.
"That's a lot of keys you have there." He said.
"Oh. These are my celestial spirit keys! Why don't I tell you about them inside?" Lucy said excitedly entering her home. "And here we are. There's not much to it but this is all I really need. Come on, let me show you your room." She climbed up the stairs with Ichigo in rear, walked down the hall and went over to the door across from her room and opened it wide. "This is the guest room. Hehe, as you can see, I kind of made this into my collection room for my stuff." She chuckled lightly and went inside to start recollecting her stuff.
"Uhm, yeah. That sure is a lot of stuff you have there." Ichigo said lightly. Lucy went back and forth from her own room a couple times to gather up her things until there was close to none left in the guest.
"This should do it. The bathroom is out here in the hallway and the kitchen is downstairs so feel free to help yourself. And if you need anything, you can obviously just ask." She said blithely.
"I'm sure I don't need much anyway, but thanks for the hospitality. I appreciate it." Ichigo looked to her and made a warm smile on his face eliciting the blonde to blush. "You did say you were going to tell me about your keys. I suppose they have to do something with your abilities?"
"Oh, yes! They do. I'm a mage who uses holder magic. You heard about that before so I won't explain what it is. I use these keys to open celestial gates to summon spirits and these spirits are beings that have various abilities and powers to do many things. Some can even be used to do regular everyday stuff and not just battle like chores. A celestial mage is noted by how many units they own, which means the more keys you have, the more powerful and efficient you are with them. But the thing is that keys are usually difficult to find as they are rare and not very popular, which can be a bummer at times but I already have 15 keys so it's not a problem. So that's really all there is too it, I mean it's not that complicated." Lucy rambled on briefly as she likes explaining her abilities to people.
"Calling spirits with keys, huh? I think I can relate to that. You mages here sure do have a lot of different types of magic. I barely know any, so I couldn't say which one I'd like" Ichigo said.
"What do you mean you can relate to calling spirits? You can do something like that?" Lucy asked as her ear opened up to those words.
"I didn't say that, I said I could relate to it. That could mean anything. Anyways, it's something quite fundamentally different from what you do, so don't worry about it." He said then let out a large yawn and scruffed his long hair.
"You seem tired. I guess I should leave you be then since we've been talking a while on the doorway and it's getting late. Good night!" Lucy did a farewell as did Ichigo after talking a little more and they returned to their respective rooms. Ichigo closed the door, took his zanpakutou and the red rosary-like strap that held it to his back and placed it leaning against the wall that was covered in a pink wallpaper that had large circles colored a darker shade of pink. Ichigo took off his straw woven waraji along with the white tabi socks and he fell freely to the bed in blue sheets and let out a loud groan.
"Uurggh. This was really a long day. I'm already starting to not kind of like this place. It's just weird and slightly depressing and everything is so different and old school. I really hope this isn't going to be too much a problem for Urahara-san to find me and get me back. I'm really tired as well, I'll just go to sleep I guess. I'm just worrying too much." Ichigo lifted the blanket over him and loosened the sheets around him. He layed back and closed his eyes to phase into a slumber.
"Yo...King."
"Huh? Oh, it's you, Zangetsu." Ichigo replied to the familiar distorted voice that everyone loves. He then drifted to his inner world filled with endless blue skyscrapers that shot out sideways. Ichigo stepped onto one of the buildings side, on the window. In front of him was his white counterpart that was identical to Ichigo in clothes and face, yet not in personality and a teenager with an emotionless, pale face with long, black, rough hair that just touched the traps of his shoulders who was wearing a black cloak tattered on the bottom and sleeves, completed with an unworn hood and black boots that matched his outfit.
"Surprisingly you've been quiet this whole time. I'd figure you would bother me a lot throughout the day."
"I would but Tensa here told me to leave you alone since he said talking to you about the situation would make you worry even more." Zangetsu replied in his usual mocking voice.
"I see. Thanks Tensa. I'm still glad to this day that I'm not stuck with this idiot all the time." Ichigo said jokingly and faced his Quincy heritage.
"There is no need for your gratification. You know our purpose is to comfort ourselves. Which means to comfort you." The more wise but stern Tensa said.
"Hey, are you insulting me?" Zangetsu broke in."You do know that I am your zanpakutou?"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. So? Why did you call me now at this time?" Ichigo asked.
"No particular reason. We wanted to talk about the Final Getsuga Tenshou and what happened in Hueco Mundo." Tensa said.
"I already kind of thought that through but with you talking about things, I sound like an idiot so I guess my explanation of how I got here still isn't the best."
"You got that right idiot. And did you really come up with an explanation? From what I heard, you just kept thinking that someone else might have done it you." Zangetsu said.
"Ichigo. You thought that it didn't seem natural occurring as it appeared on the slash of Mugetsu." Tensa spoke.
"That's right." Ichigo answered.
"From what I can venture, it could be both natural and unnatural."
"What do you mean?" He asked puzzled.
"That last Mugetsu was the strongest you've ever done. It can be a benign thing to say the mugetsu you did may have caused a disturbance in the bonds of matter, causing them to split which ruptured the fabric that holds the space of reality together. The effect created a warp between the two dimensions that had an incredibly strong positive force to it, which I cannot explain why. And you, being the most charged figure around due to the immeasurable amount of reiatsu circulating the surface of your body that had the strongest negative force, obviously jolted to the positive force that inevitably made you end up here." Tensa explained knowing Ichigo wouldn't understand at first.
"I didn't really catch on to what you said but one thing I do know is that the warp came to me, not the other way around."
"I think you and me both knew that he wouldn't understand right away." Zangetsu said.
"The inside of your body had so much reiryoku compressed into it, it made your body incredibly dense and made things attract to you like a magnet. The reiatsu on the outside was traveling at high speeds around your magnet-like body acting like a conductor that it produced an electrical charge. The electrical charge was negative and the warp was positive. From the standpoint of physics, negative things travel to positive things so the same applied to you and the warp. It seemed like the warp was coming to you but that was an illusion to your eyes as the space around you was changed. The reaction of this all made a huge lightning strike that it is plausible to say it destroyed a vast portion of Hueco Mundo greater than your Mugetsu did." Tensa re explained.
"Oi Tensa. I still don't think he'd still understand what you just said." Zangetsu aforementioned.
"No, I think I understand a little. So what you are saying is that the Mugetsu I did was the cause of all this?" Ichigo inquired.
"No. That is what I did not understand. The force of your attack was not near enough to do that to the fabric. There had to be something else involved with the Mugetsu that must have triggered this. That's the unnatural part." Tensa explained to Ichigo.
"I see." He said and began to think a little before speaking up again. "But now that I realize it, does this mean that in order for me to get back, the same thing has to happen again but in reverse? How will someone create something stronger than a Mugetsu to do the opposite? That would be impossible!" Ichigo said in anguish that he may really be stuck here.
"Do not be anxious. This doesn't mean that there is no other way to get back." Tensa walked up to Ichigo and placed his hand on his shoulder. "You still need to trust your friends to do what you know they've been doing the whole time you went missing. You know that they would work day and night to get you back to where you belong. Be patient. Pressuring yourself will not help in anyway." Tensa comforted Ichigo.
"That's right, king. Don't worry. You need to relax or do something yourself to fix the problem." Zangetsu added.
"Alright." He said calming down. "Hey, Tensa. How do you know so much about things like these? Like how atoms work and stuff. I don't remember as much as I did of these things I learned in high school."
"It's simple. He was with you your whole life as your subconscious. Whatever you learn, he learns it too but remembers it without ever forgetting." The loud, white man blurted.
"I see... Hey! That means that I can always just ask you for the answers on tests!" Ichigo said excitedly. "Why didn't I think of that before?"
"You idiot! Even if we may be with you at all times, it doesn't mean you can access us in your human body. Right now you're still in soul form."
"Aw, dammit. I got excited there." Ichigo said in disappointment.
"It's getting late Ichigo. You should return to consciousness and sleep well. You will need it." Tensa broke in.
"Okay, Tensa. I'll be going now." Ichigo started to fade away slowly back into the bedroom.
"Hey, king! I forgot to ask. Who's the girl you're staying with!?" Zangetsu yelled out with a large, mischievous smile on his face reaching from ear to ear.
"No one of your concern! Don't get any bright ideas!" Ichigo yelled back at him. He eventually fazed back into the bed he lay in and opened his eyes for a moment then closed them anew. Ichigo eventually plunged into a lethargic state and let the bliss of the dreamworld take over him as he finally fell asleep.
Lucy was in her room with Plue, just playing around for a bit prior to going to sleep as well.
"Plue. Are you okay? You seem kind of hung down today." Lucy asked the weird white figure. Plue continues to make its usual noises but only weaker.
"Oh, of course. It's because of Ichigo, huh? I know he has a pretty suffocating aura to him but I think he's a nice guy. There's no need to worry Plue. If you get to meet him, you'll eventually like him." Lucy said to Plue who then started making even more noises in response. "Well. I think I should go to sleep now, it's quite late now. Even the townspeople are going home now." Lucy released a large yawn, prompting her to sleep in which she did a few minutes later. Plue then disappeared back into the celestial world.
Act 2: Scene 1
The dark, quiet night that called for the towns silence resumed for countable hours just before the inevitable fireball arose from the East, calling all birds to a rehearsal of natural alarm, waking the inhabitants of Magnolia hour by hour. The solar system's king was glimmering yellow, with a slight hue of orange to it as a summer sun would, growing over the ocean's blue blanket, providing a sustainable light and visibility to the farms-men miles behind the sea-port city. Ichigo had been at the sun's presentation of itself at dawn before anyone had awoken. He witnessed it all from the window of his temporary room.
"Lucy sure does have a nice view of the sunrise." He thought appreciating his view. Ichigo got up from bed, stretched and yawned as a house cat would who slept and ate all day with his hands reaching to the moderate high ceiling to the point where he could place his palms freely on it. He put on his tabi and waraji and fixed his kimono so that it fit firmly. Ichigo then walked to his large cleaver known as Zangetsu and equipped it. He was planning on heading to the guild to help out with tending to Erza's injuries but he didn't really know the way there and wasn't sure if anyone would be there this early. He wondered if he should wait for Lucy to wake up and go with her but she was taking too long. Eventually Ichigo decided to depart on his own and would just ask the people around him for directions. He stepped out of the house and walked the opposite direction of where he came from last night to get to Lucy's house, retracing his steps back to the guild.
"Hey, old man. Do you know whe- Hey, where are you going?" Ichigo tried asking a shop owner who was outside, sweeping the floor before the store opened but he ran away from seeing him. "Are you serious? Urgh. I can't even get close to them either?" Ichigo groaned out. He tried asking multiple people to no success because his reiatsu was only scaring people away as he tried to get close to them. "Now that I think about it, the same thing was happening last night. There were certainly lots of people around but they always got out of my way when I was walking with Lucy. This can be really troublesome at times." Ichigo then continued on his way, forsaking the idea he had before. Ichigo jumped up about 100 feet into the air and stood there, viewing the town landscape to see if he could recognize the quite stood out guild. "Let's see. Where could it be?... Hoh? Really? Man I really can be dull at times." He thought seeing the guild far away close to the ocean shore. "The guild was right in the middle of the town on the edge." In the center of Magnolia, there is a large church-like building being the most noticeable site in the city with a wide central street leading straight to the guild. Ichigo landed back on ground and resumed his way to the guild. He eventually made it there with the sun leaving horizon of the ocean.
"Ichigo. You're here so early?" Mira asked the man who was the first to come in the guild aside from her as she was setting up the dishes and mugs in the cupboard.
"Yeah. I said I'd come to help with the red haired girl. didn't I?" He said approaching her.
"Very well then. Let's go inside the infirmary." Mira said in an ornate tone. She finished up with the stacking and the two then walked across the large, newly cleaned hall. Ichigo was relieved someone was here so he didn't have to wait outside.
"You're here quite early as well. And this place. It's so clean compared to last night." Ichigo praised.
"Of course. I come here early in the morning, before the sun rises to clean the place up. I clean up at night too when everyone leaves but I have to lock the building down so I leave the rest for tomorrow."
"You do this everyday? That's amazing. I could never do something like that." Ichigo praised even more. Mira nodded and opened the door to see the crimson girl wrapped in bandages, sleeping composedly. Ichigo looked at her with a solemn aspect for a moment then turned to Mira. "She's been sleeping this whole time? What did you do?" He asked.
"We placed a spell on her so that she won't wake up in pain."
"I see. So what do we need to do?" He asked. "Wait a minute. I'm learning about the human body aren't I? I should clearly have an idea of what to do." He thought.
"It's time to change her bandages. Here, take these scissors and cut the bandages while I get the new ones." Mira said. Ichigo rolled up the large sleeves of his kimono and tied a knot in them to hold them up. He also took his zanpakutou off and leaned it against the wall. Instead of cutting the old bandages right away, he first walked over to the sink and washed his hands, then cut the bandages. "Looks like the bandages are stuck to the bursted blisters. I can't pull this off or it will rip more of her skin. Mira, can you get me some hot water?" He asked her as she brought the new roll. She went back and ran the water from the sink until it was warm and filled a small metal bucket. She brought it back some minutes later and placed it on the table near the bed. Ichigo filled his palms with the warm water and sprayed it evenly onto the bandages that were stuck. He left it there for a little less than a minute so that it soaked up in the dead skin then carefully peeled the bandages off. Seven minutes later he removed most of the bandages except for the ones that covered Erza's breasts and went back to the sink to wash his hands thoroughly with soap again. He came back and took the new bandages and drenched them in the warm water.
"You really know what you're doing, huh?" Mira said to her surprise at seeing Ichigo do everything needed to do so far without being told to.
"Yeah. I know the basics of treating injuries. You do know what not to do with burns right? From what I see, the most important thing to not do is don't put cold water on the burns. That will cause a burn shock and that's not the best thing to happen." He warned.
"I will definitely keep that in mind." Mira replied.
"Alright. Now can you pick her up by the underarms so that her back is propped up?" He asked in which Mira did. Ichigo took the soaking bandages out of the bucket and wrung them but left some of the warm water in there. He wrapped them around the wounds lightly until all were covered. Ichigo was then finished with the bandage change and cleaned the area around him. "That should do it. Now I should check her body temperature. Do you have a thermometer here?" He asked.
"Yes. Certainly." She simply went to the table, located on the side of the bed and pulled the drawer open which was filled with various things. She got the thermometer out and handed it to Ichigo who brought it to the sink to rinse it with hot water for a while. He took thermometer and placed it under Erza's armpit and waited.
"37.4. Thankfully you guys use the same measurements I do. It's been about a day since the burns happened and her temperature is pretty okay. It seems that there aren't any pathogens or viruses that have entered through the burns yet but we still need to be careful not to touch the burned area with anything that is dirty or that has been touched by hands or something bad may enter. Before coming in contact with her, make sure to wash your hands with soap." Ichigo explained to Mira who listened carefully. Mirajane started to think how experienced he his with many things. In battle, treating injuries, and who knows what more. She wondered how this responsible man could ever be a deceiving person that the master warned everyone of. Even if his reiatsu was naturally dark, he still had a warm feeling coming from him. For the first time to anyone here, Ichigo's presence was actually welcoming this time. Mira started to doubt her disbelief and weighed more to the other side. After the passing ten minutes, Ichigo and Mirajane finished their jobs here and went out to the hall.
"Thank you for the help so much. You really are a good doctor." Mira complimented Ichigo with a kindhearted smile.
"Don't mention it, and I wouldn't call myself a doctor yet. There will more of me coming to help later on." He said back. "Hey, now that I think about it, I still don't know her name. You mind telling me what it is?" He asked.
"Erza Scarlet." Mira answered.
Ichigo and Mira then talked for a few minutes about various things on one of the tables and Mira started to grow quite fond of Ichigo. It wasn't like she liked him or anything, it was just that he was a really nice person if you actually get to talk to him. She wanted everyone to get to see this side of him and get along with him. After talking, Ichigo got up and headed to the gates only to be opened before he got close it. A small girl who had an eye-catching blue colored hair and a smaller white cat wearing a pink and yellow sundress that looked likes it belongs to a doll dashed in. The two named Wendy and Charla felt Ichigo's reiatsu from a clear distance away from the guild and were obviously worried of who it might be.
"Who are you?" The talking white cat demanded.
"Are you an enemy?" Wendy asked who was drowning in Ichigo's reiatsu.
"Wait, wait. I'm not an enemy, I'm only visiting here for a while." Ichigo said back quickly before they could say anymore.
"Oh Wendy, Charla you're here." Mira came and greeted them. "You two weren't here yesterday."
"Yes. Charla and I went on a job yesterday and we got tired after finishing so we headed home instead." Wendy answered.
"Are you two members here?" Ichigo asked.
"Yes." Wendy said proudly and weakly.
"Really? You seem quite young to be in a guild, specifically in this guild. I heard that this was one of the strongest guild around." He said back a little surprised.
"Don't underestimate Wendy, she- Huh!?" Charla was cut off while saying something and started to get spiked pains in her head.
"What's wrong Charla?" Wendy asked worried.
"What is this!?" Charla thought. "What is that!? It's screaming so loudly." She was getting fragments of visions filled with fire everywhere and couldn't find words to describe the thing that was screeching because she only saw it for a split second but it was ghastly nonetheless. Charla then noticed one other thing in specific that stood out. "I-it looks like a figure w-with large wings. I can't see anything at all, it's just fire everywhere." She focused carefully and tried to make the things out. She then fell to her soft knees out of pain.
"Oi. What's wrong with her?" Ichigo asked. Charla got up and dusted her small dress off after recuperating.
"It happened again. I saw a vision."
"What did you see?" Mira asked.
"Like usual, I cannot tell exactly. But is was so frightening, there was fire everywhere and something was screaming. It was screaming with a grinding voice so loud that it threw me off a little. The other thing I saw clearly was something that had large wings."
"Was it a dragon!?" Wendy asked loudly.
"No. It was definitely not a dragon. I don't know what it was but it had the size of something comparable to a tall person. It looked like it was fighting the other thing that was screaming. It was so terrifying. I couldn't focus as much as I could because I couldn't breathe well for some reason." Charla explained then walked over to the bench and sat down to level her breathing.
"She saw a vision? What does that mean?" Ichigo asked.
"She is an Exceed that can see in the future. She gets the visions randomly and are stressful when they happen." Wendy said.
"She can see the future? What about the other black and blue cats? Can they do that too?"
"You mean Happy and Lily? No they can't. She is the only Exceed along with her mother that can do this."
Ichigo then wanted to know if she would ever get a vision of him going back to his world. He became intrigued at that idea but Wendy just said that they're random so he didn't know if she would ever even get any about him. "How often does this vision thing happen?"
"Rarely. Charla gets them about every couple of months but she's trying to control them properly."
"I see." He said a little disappointed. Wendy then backed off from him because she could no longer handle his reiatsu and stood near Mira.
"That's not magical force. That's way too thick and dark. Who is he? Why is he here?" Wendy being the anxious girl she is, was palpably scared of him.
"Why don't you introduce yourself to her?" Mirajane said happily.
"Kurosaki Ichigo. I heard your name was Wendy?" He said.
"Y-yes. Wendy M-marvell." She replied shyly.
"People will be coming from now on. Why don't you stay and have some fun here?" Mira asked Ichigo.
"I don't know, it's true that I don't really have a place to go. I would go back to Lucy's house but she's probably going to come here later and I don't want to be there alone. Alright fine, I'll stay a while. For a change." He answered indecisively.
"Heh? You're staying at Lucy-san's house?" Wendy asked surprised.
"Yeah, I didn't have a place to stay so she offered to let me stay in her guest room. Hopefully I don't stay there for long." Ichigo said. For the next hour and a half, Ichigo was at the guild again as more and more people started to come in. The guild this time was quieter this time as not many of the main people have arrived yet and most of the party happens at night. He decided to go upstairs to the second floor, restricted to the S-class mages because no one goes up there.
He looked on the board for the S-class jobs and was quite surprised at the payment gap between the regular jobs and these ones. He thought about something for a couple of minutes then sat down on one of the chairs. Back down stairs, Mira had called everyone into a group because she wanted to talk to them. In the group is Juvia, Wendy, Reedus, Bisca, Alzack, Macao, Wakaba, and some others who are less prominent.
"Mira-san, why did you call everyone into a group?" Wendy asked.
"I wanted to talk to everyone about Ichigo." Mira responded. "I just wanted to say that please try to be nice to him. He does have a dark feeling to him but if you actually talk to him, he can be very nice and that darkness goes away eventually. I know the master told us to watch him but I realized that he could be in stress right now. He told us that he came from a different dimension and I'm sure that he could be in apprehension from being introduced to a completely different world. Everyone had the same reaction with Gajeel and Juvia joining Fairy Tail after they attacked us but now we're all friends and the same can happen with Ichigo." Mira had told the members of Fairy Tail who just arrived to try and get along with people even if you don't exactly trust them. She argued that given enough time, people like that can become good from the right environment like Laxus did. Eventually everyone agreed to a point then went back to the things they were doing before.
"Good morning, Lucy-san!" Wendy called out to the blonde. Lucy greeted back and started asking people if Ichigo had come here, however they did not see him yet felt his crushing presence like he's been always here. Ichigo was back upstairs, drinking some tea prepared by Mira then ripped one of the requests from the board.
"Yo, Lucy." Ichigo greeted as he walked down the stairs.
"Ichigo? What are you doing up there? Regular mages are not allowed up there. Forget that, you're not even a member!" She babbled back. "And where'd you go in the morning? I brought you breakfast but you weren't there."
"Sorry, sorry. I had to leave to do something. Hey do you know how long it usually takes an S-class mage to do an S-class job?" He suddenly asked.
"Uh-I don't really know, I mean depending on the job it can take from two days to even a week judging by how long it takes Erza to do it. Why?"
"Just wondering. Do you know the land around here? Like pretty well?" Ichigo then asked.
"Yes I do but why are you asking these questions?" She asked suspiciously as a slight grin formed on Ichigo's face.
"Oh, nothing really. Can you follow me for a while?" He asked the third question.
"O-okay." Lucy did as asked and exited the building and walked about fifty feet out.
"What are we doing here?" She asked.
Ichigo pulled out a paper from his sleeve and waved it in the air. "We're going on a job."
Act 2: Scene 2
"What!? You can't just take a job offer from the guild! You're not a member!" Lucy yelled out.
"So what? Nothing's going to happen. I got bored sitting there for hours and I was looking at the board and this looked interesting." Ichigo said.
"EHHH! Is that a ten-year-job!? That's crazy!" She yelled even more.
"I'll say it again. So what? If that Erza could do these missions then I could do it even faster."
"B-b-but she rarely goes on ten-year ones!" Lucy stuttered. "Why are you taking me with you, anyways!?" She cried out.
"Because. I don't know any of the land here so I need you to guide me. You're the only one I kind of trust here." He said back.
"Y-you trust me?" She said toning her voice down and blushed moderately.
"That's right. You're the only one I have some acquaintance with. I'm not going to just ask some random person to go with me on a ten-year-job that I took from a guild without asking." Ichigo said in a slight sarcastic voice. "Anyways come on. I don't know how long this is going to take and I want to do this fast." Ichigo called out as he started walking.
"Wait! Urrgh, fine I'll go but I'm not doing the actual job." She groaned and ran after Ichigo.
"That's fine. Let's go then." Ichigo said.
The dyad walked across the city for an hour reaching the end of the city and entered Hargeon Town. Hargeon Town is a port town that has all the shipments of goods that come and go by sea. The other noted area in the town is the train station there that people use to travel long distances. That train station is where Ichigo and Lucy are headed. When all is said and done, they made it to the station, bought their tickets, and boarded the train all within fifteen minutes of arriving.
"That was a long walk." Ichigo groaned as he sat down in the train. "I saw a sign earlier that said Magnolia train station, why didn't we go there?" He asked.
"Because this station has a better route to where you need to go. Besides, that station didn't have any trains departing at this time." Lucy answered.
"How would you know that?" He asked annoyed.
"I just still can't believe you took me to a ten-year-job. I'm so gonna die!" She squealed quietly to herself in the corner. The train departed as the horn blew loudly and they were finally off. They were quiet for some time as Ichigo looked out the window to the land but Lucy eventually broke the silence.
"What's the job request anyway?"
"Huh? Oh, it says here that there are about 2,000 monsters that are locked up in a mine and needs to be cleared out. the town that owns the mine aren't doing well economically because most of their revenue used to come from that mine. The reward is 7,000,000 of these Jewels " Ichigo explained coming out of his gazing status.
"2,000 monsters? 7,000,000!?" She sighed even more at the carelessness of this guy but at the same time got delighted by the amount of the reward. "Why'd you do such a hard one?" She sighed out.
"Hard? I wouldn't really say so. I've done plenty more than this before." He said a bit haughtily.
"Well, let's talk about something else so I can get my mind off this. How about we talk about you. You've been kind of quiet about your abilities. Like what are those tattoos for?" She said pointing to his chest that had an x-shaped cross and his hands that were lined with arrowed black stripes leading to each knuckle.
"These aren't tattoos, they're a part of my power. It's embedded into my skin and even if it's burned off, it will just come back. Besides, I don't really like them and don't really care for them either."
"I see. Now tell me about your abilities then. What can you specifically do? And that big sword." She asked curiously.
"I don't have a specific. I mainly use melee and physical offensive attacks. And that big sword is my zanpakuto. Do you really want to hear the whole explanation?" Ichigo said leisurely because he dislikes explaining things and was never good at it.
"Of course I do." She said back.
"Fine, fine. Let's start off with the zanpakuto and what it is..." For a solid ten minutes, he described what a zanpakuto is and how it is related to a Shinigami's soul. Ichigo was quite free of telling her the details of the shinigami's main weapon because he didn't really care for the secrecy of what a zanpakuto is and that Lucy and maybe even some others would eventually find out somehow. He only didn't say about about his hollow power and the complications with the Quincy; he wasn't going to go that far in depth about himself. He only told her about how a zanpakuto progresses in its stages of Shikai and Bankai, what is the power difference, what it looks like, how many people attain it usually, and how it is attained.
"Bankai. Do you have a Bankai?" Lucy asked another one out of many questions to Ichigo.
"Naturally. Why wouldn't I?" He then looked out to the window. "Hey look, we're stopping." He stood up, stretched and yawned then grabbed Zangetsu and swung it on. Next he turned to Lucy with a stern and serious face that came out of nowhere. "Lucy. If you ever see me do Bankai or ever hear me say it, I want you and everyone near me to get as far away as you can. The fact that I ever have to do Bankai is more than enough reason to get yourself and your friends to safety." Ichigo has not been doing nothing after for the past four years. It is said that in order to be completely efficient with Bankai, one must train for over a decade with it. And that is exactly what he has been doing. Ichigo was taught by Urahara that a Bankai is a Shinigami's cornerstone and should not be never be used as often as Shikai. Due to this, Ichigo has rarely used Tensa Zangetsu since he is now acutely advanced in using Shikai as well as Bankai.
"What do you mean?" She asked back a little worried.
"Just a warning. If you ever hear me or see me do it, be careful and get away from where I am." He repeated. Lucy turned kind of silent at how serious he became from talking about his Bankai.
"Is his Bankai really that serious? Well, you have to consider that since he took down Erza without even using his sword so his Bankai must be extremely dangerous. Heck he wasn't even serious while fighting her." She thought a little scared.
"Come on let's go." Ichigo said returning to his normal attitude.
"Y-yeah." The two trotted through the aisle, without having to dodge the other passengers since Ichigo was like a shark in a pond of smaller fish. Lucy noticed this long ago that people were avoiding him but she couldn't blame them. They stepped off the train and walked out a couple meters.
"Well, it's your turn. Lead the way, Lucy." Ichigo twisted back to her and said in superficial mocking manner.
"I know, I know. Come on it's this way." She answered back. Ichigo and Lucy walked for an hour along a trail that lead into the town that requested the job and then stopped all of a sudden.
"Woah. This town is deserted. Where is everyone?" Lucy asked. The town was covered in a layer of sandy dust and some of the house's windows were boarded up. All that could be heard was the wind that blew through the town and the sound that rung from the old wind chimes hanging off the stores with the torn down signs. "Is the job even still in effect? I don't think that anyone's here to supervise the job."
"No. There are people here. They're just hiding." Ichigo said. The hidden inhabitants cannot fool a Shinigami who is well-adept at locating the energy of a human sole. He then walked in to the middle of the road that was slippery of sand and light gravel. "Hey! Come out here! I'm here for the job with the monsters in the mine!" He yelled out loudly then waited for a while.
"Wait Ichigo, I really don't think there's anyone should just go back" Lucy said who started to get even more chills from the job and the environment.
"Urrgh. You're really not going to come out are you?" He grunted then instantly shupoed to a house that was in a slightly better condition than the others than kicked the door open.
"Huh!? Please don't hurt me!" A frail voice came from a man who fell back from fear standing behind a couch in the middle of the living room. The man was short, skinny, and old visible with freckles, red hair, veiny red eyes and is wearing simple green trousers sported by a dirty white shirt that had a dark red stripe running down the left shoulder.
"Relax, I'm not going to hurt you. I'm only here to do the job that was sent out from this town."
"T-the job!? Are you really telling the truth? Oh, thank you! Thank you! Thank you so much!"
"Yeah, yeah. But first, do you have the money to pay? You don't really look like you would have 7,000,000 Jewels with you." Ichigo said the the short, jittery man.
"The money. Yes, yes, yes, yes. I most certainly do! Come. Come. Follow me to the mine just down the cliff." He was fast, jittery to talk like he was deprived of sleep and walked as if his legs had Parkinson's as he zoomed out the house.
"O-okay, hey! Slow down." He then quickly went after the man. "Come on, Lucy." He said to her who was standing outside.
"Who is he?" She asked and followed Ichigo.
"I don't know but he's leading us to the mine and says he has the money." They caught up to him shortly after.
"You know, you know that this, this town here w-was very prosperous at a time. Prosperous indeed, certainly. It was a-all because of that, that mine there, y-yes. Yes that there mine was the very source, yes the very source of our wealth here. But, yes but there came a man clad in black hung his shoulder with a white shawl, yes, he made this his den of pets, yes! Everything around him died just as this town eventually did. T-this was over thirty years ago, yes I sent the request out for a help but none came to assist, no. But here another man clad in black come to assist, yes. Come. Come. It is here. Help yourself in as you would this town please." The man was even more hyper and started to talk to himself quite fast while he lead the two to the mine below the cliff.
"What's wrong with him? He looks so crazy." Lucy asked feeling a little bad for the man that seemed to be traumatized.
"I don't know. Something must have gone wrong in his head when the town shut down." Ichigo answered back.
"Come. Come. In you go!" The man pointed to the mine then pulled out a large duffel bag out of nowhere and put it in front of him.
"Alright, Lucy you stay right here. From what I can tell by the amount of monsters there are and how much of this magical power they're releasing, I don't think this will take too long."
"Of course I'm staying right here. I'm not going in there!" She yelled back.
Ichigo entered the mine and walked into the dark, using the entrance's light to see before doing a small kidou spell that remained in his palm to use as a flashlight. "Woah. This is amazing." He said astonished with his voice echoing by the wide open chasm that appeared in front of him. He walked for a couple minutes and started to doubt the place because there didn't seem to be any monsters in sight, only the smell of something metallic and sour. "Where are the monsters? This better not be a fake job, that man did seem a little off but I still sense something. I guess I should keep following the energy footprint then." He thought while walking and avoiding the uneven floor. He came to a pretty straightforward path that had smoothed out walls from it being cleaned out for the minerals. "Huh? Is this...it?" Ichigo heard a faint growling noise coming behind a pile of boulders that was blocking the pathway. He certainly felt the presence of them now, stronger than he did before and heard the growling loud and clear now. He grew a small grin to his face then the small Shakkahou used for light grew bigger and brighter as it was readying to be fired off. "Let's begin." Were the only words that came out of his mouth as he blew away the boulders and dashed into the pitch black.
"Ohh. Ichigo's been in there for fifty minutes now. I really hope he's not dead; the loud screams of the monsters stopped ten minutes ago. Should I go inside?" Lucy began to get really worried and started to wonder if she should do something. She sat down against the wall near the entrance of the cave and closed her eyes to calm herself down. The man was by the duffel bag, muttering to himself and looking at the floor, poking at random things with a stick.
"Yo, Lucy."
"Huh? Ichigo!" She yelled excitedly.
"Eh, what are you doing?" Ichigo asked Lucy with slight blush marks who jumped at him suddenly, hugging him with her breasts in his face.
"Eh? Oh, sorry! I'm so sorry! I-I-I didn't m-mean to...!" She let go immediately as her heart started to beat incredibly fast with her face turning red like a ripe tomato. "I thought you were dead!" She cried out nervously.
"Something like this isn't going to kill me." He said as if he was being belittled a little. "Hey you, I killed them all. Is that bag really filled with 7,000,000 Jewels? Because I know that much paper money can't fit into a small bag."
"Yes, yes, yes, yes. It certainly is 7,000,000 Jewels." He opened the bag and showed them that it was not actually filled with paper money, but actual gemstone jewels.
"Ooohh!" Lucy gasped out amazed at the amount of money in actual jewels she's never seen before. She started to get a slightly wicked look in her eyes and thought about how many months of rent that could pay. Then Lucy's greed became foiled because she just remembered that she did nothing while Ichigo was the one that actually did the job.
"I'm glad you did the j-job, yes. take this here this, this bag here, it's all yours. Yes."
"O-okay." Ichigo said awkwardly. He took the bag that weighed a surprising one hundred seventy pounds (77.1kg) and lifted it over his shoulder. "Come on Lucy, let's go."
"R-right."
The two then left with Lucy in lead and had walked a quarter way so far but still had to walk for another forty minutes or so to reach the train station. Ichigo wanted to leave this place because that guy was really creepy and didn't seem natural. He's seen people who are schizophrenic, but he was different. The guy was conscious of things around him and could think straight but at the same time, something was always sparking his mind to make him like this. Ichigo put that thought aside because something else was bothering him more. Something.
"Hey, Ichigo. Your sleeve is ripped." Lucy called out from the short moment of silence.
"Yeah, I know. One of the monsters ripped it off while I was fighting." He said looking at the sleeve of his kimono.
"Now that I think about it, you're not even hurt! Did you really kill them all that easily?"
"I told you, I've done much more than this before. It's not something all that new to me." Ichigo said this because in the past, he has had to fight hollows for countless hours straight for endurance training.
"Did you use your Bankai?"
"You don't seem to realize the point of Bankai, do you?" Ichigo asked. "If this is really considered an extremely dangerous mission for an S-Class mage, then I am starting to think that there isn't much in this world that can force me to do Bankai." He said. Lucy became a little shaken that he really killed 2,000 monsters with only his sleeve to spare. She couldn't understand how someone like him could really just completely put everyone's strength to shame. She remembered back when she heard that when Phantom Lord attacked, there were thousands of these things called Shades that the guild had to fight and it was putting everyone on the edge of their lives and yet he fought 2,000 monsters with ease. To Lucy he was man that could be extremely dangerous if given the opportunity and she now understood his reason to get away from his range if he ever had to fight seriously.
After walking for a while, she forgot about these thoughts and started to think about something else. However, even these second thoughts were pushed aside when she felt an incredibly familiar magical force. She even stopped for a bit to think about it but she couldn't figure it out. The force was strong and a bit scary. Lucy obviously couldn't tell that the person who's magical force she was feeling was actually closer than she thought because it was being outweighed by Ichigo's own choking reiatsu that no one can compare to.
"I think there's a mage near here." Ichigo told Lucy since he felt it long before she did.
"Yeah, I felt it. I think I know this magical force." She said.
"You do? Who is it?"
"I don't know. I can't figure it out, but I do know it. I was never good at sensing magical force in the first place." They strolled even more on the trail and came across an old convenience store that sells things mostly for travelers. In front of the store is an area for people to sit under the umbrellas and in that area was a man who sat there, drinking. The man well knew that he should be careful of whoever was coming in his direction but he tried not to pay attention to it. But after a while the pressure grew on him to the point that he could no longer believe that someone had this kind of force to them and turned around to see who it was. He was surprised to see the girl more than the other stranger because of someone like her was with someone that even scared him slightly.
"Laxus!" Lucy yelled out in surprise to see him.
"Y-you're Lucy?"
...
AN:
Hello everyone! Here's the fourth episode of my take on a Fairy Tail and Bleach crossover. Please favorite, follow, and especially review since I love them specifically so much and give your opinion on this as well as suggestions to make this better. I do try to keep everyone in character as much as possible, so if I ever go off please tell me in the review and I'm trying to keep the story development real as well. I am quite committed to this story and I hope this will continue until the very end as I left some foreshadowing in this chapter. Can anyone figure it out? If so please message me and tell me what you think will happen. However this story will not be a cliche so get creative on the ideas because I might even use them in the story itself in the future. Hope you enjoyed this and I have ran out of things to say!
Until next time!