Chapter 6: Weird

Big. Ugly. Weird.

Halloween was still months off and Ichigo was pretty sure no one was in town filming a horror movie so what the hell was a creature like that doing here.

You ask yourself this as if it would be normal somewhere else…

Ichigo bounded to his feet still trying to shake off the nausea rolling up into his throat. Not only did the thing in front of him look repulsive, but its smell was enough to make even the hardest stomachs turn inside out. The talons that had pinned him to the ground were attached to one long leathery leg which in turn was attached to a feathered bird-like body. On top sat a short feathered neck and a long white masked face with two beady black eye holes.

Feathers ruffled and wings shot out to the side and Ichigo suddenly remembered he was still pretty close to the creature. Too close. A sharp dive to the left was barely enough to keep from getting a feather duster to the face, but the impact to his shoulder was enough to send him flying down the street. A few dizzying rolls later and Ichigo staggered to his feet again ignoring the pain in his shoulder as the creature let out an ear piercing screech and hopped on its one leg towards him. If the monster wasn't twelve feet tall and two hops away from killing him, Ichigo might have actually stopped to laugh at how ridiculous the thing looked. But he liked to think he was smarter than that. A turn of the heal and-

"No! Don't go after him!"

No!

Ichigo stumbled two steps into his retreating sprint and spun around to see a small pink figure standing in the middle of the road between him and the masked monster.

"What are you doing? Run!" Ichigo didn't hesitate. There was no time to hesitate. To think. The last time someone stood between him and an attacker they died.

His mother died.

Running back he grabbed the little girl under her arms and ran. It wasn't right that this little ten year old girl had more guts than him to stand up to that creature. It made him feel pretty pathetic. He had promised he was going to stop feeling that way; he was going to stop torturing himself over this stuff and do something about it.

Well now what? He thought wryly as he rounded the corner at the end of the street. Maybe next time he should think about where he was going to run to instead of why he was running. Of course that would imply that there would be a next time.

Not the time for this. Ichigo took another turn onto a familiar back road and skidded to a halt as he came up to the main road near his house. No cars. No people. Good. Sprinting across the street and down a short embankment he stopped at the edge of the river that cut his town in two. He put the little girl down keeping a hand on her shoulder and stared up at the road.

Did it follow us? I couldn't have lost it…

The burst of air was all the warning he had before feathers came down from above.

Kaien kept a firm grip on his Zanpakutō as he leapt from roof to roof over a small neighborhood. When he got back to Soul Society he was going to have a few words with his captain.

Karakura town was weird. And that was being nice. Ever since he stepped through the gate he could feel a strong pressure. Not from a single person or a collective of people, but from the ground; the Earth itself. Spirit was everywhere, the gardens, the river and lakes, the trees, and even under the roadways, sidewalks, and buildings. He had been on short missions in the human world before, mostly training missions, but this place was different.

And he didn't like it one bit.

He had read the reports from the previous Shinigami who had patrolled this town and they had mentioned something similar, but reading something and experiencing it were two very different things. Maybe he had been spending too much time doing vice-captain paper work to remember that. Maybe that's why Captain Ukitake sent me here.

Or not. He still couldn't fathom why his captain had pushed the other vice-captains to assign him to the human world and he had been too angry after getting the assignment to ask. He packed and left still red in the cheeks. Assignments down on Earth were good for experience sure, but how long had he been around now? They were for those who needed training in something they hadn't done before, getting practical experience under their belts and strengthening your checklist of "things I've done as part of the 13 Guard Squads". His list was pretty full of check marks.

It was embarrassing to be one of the oldest vice-captains around and then to be handed a rookie's assignment. He couldn't even say good-bye to his squad or his friends on other teams. He was just too discomfited. Had they all really lost that much faith him in? Was he failing that much at his job? Or maybe the captain did it to give him a slap of reality.

Well if that was your plan Captain, it worked. He hadn't realized how out of touch with things he had been until he started focusing on the job in Karakura town. That was more discomforting to think about than the possible reasoning behind the assignment. He was still going to sit down and have a long talk when he got back. A very very long talk. Preferably somewhere that nobody would hear him yell at a respected captain who had been around for hundreds of years.

There you are!

Kaien landed lightly in the middle of a road eyeing the hollow in the sky circling like a vulture waiting for it's soon to be meal to die. He had been chasing the dull minded creature for over an hour, which was another extremely embarrassing thing to think about. How could such a low level hollow manage to evade him so easily?

Easy answer; he was distracted when he shouldn't be. Shaking his head he drew his sword out and frowned up at the sky watching the hollow circle about it let loose a screech and its body went stiff as it went in for a dive like a bird diving for its…prey.

Crap!

Kaien barely registered the high pitched yell from the small girl on the river bank before he was in the air and barreling into the hollow with all his weight throwing it off course. Stopping himself midair he watched as it fell into the river with a huge splash and flailed around like a fish out of water. He took the moment to take in his surroundings: one hollow currently trying to right itself on its foot, one girl with a spirit chain hanging from her chest and one very ruffled orange haired teenager guarding her and staring up at him with narrowed, wary eyes.

No chain. Kaien frowned and then very nearly dropped his Zanpakutō. No chain? Then that means he's-

A wave of water splashed up from under him and Kaien took his sword in both hands and looked down. Right, hollow first, strange human later.

The hollow, now rightly on its single leg, flapped its wings vigorously, but to no avail. Weighed down with water the creature wasn't going anywhere. Knowing this its next plan was to try and hop its way to shore and water splashed all around as it struggled to wade against the current, but with each small hop it took it went backwards instead of forwards, barely being able to keep its awkward balance as it wound up to try again.

Kaien couldn't hold in a chuckle. It really did look ridiculous.

"What are you laughing at?" A cracked voiced plea came from the river bank. The orange haired kid was staring right at him; eyes wide and mildly panicked. "Kill that stupid thing before it can fly again!"

A small sigh on his lips Kaien straightened, dove across the air and with one clean slice of his sword cut the hollow's mask in half. One scream and a little more flailing later and the hollow slowly dispersed into the air around him. The river calmed and the sounds of a spring night returned with a chorus of chirping crickets and croaking frogs.

And the creatures of the night were interrupted with a violent curse. "What the hell was that?"

Kaien looked down at the river bank and crooked his mouth to the side. Considering the circumstances he would say the human was actually handling the situation with a great deal of grace. Most people who get caught up in the after math of a hollow attack just end up running away…or in circles. Especially since those people usually can't actually see the creature and just witness the cracks and small explosions in the road coming from seemingly nowhere. The fact that this kid was seeing those and the physical form of the hollow, Kaien had to give him bonus points for only cursing.

He let himself fall to the riverbank with a small splat onto the wet grass and looked over the teen. The hollow had obviously gotten a couple good hits in on him. Shirt torn on his sleeve, he could see a dark bruise appearing on the boy's shoulder. "Are you hurt?"

The kid looked startled. "Uh… no, not really. It got one lucky hit in."

Kaien nodded and leaned over to peer at the little girl standing behind the teen. She had her face nestled into his back and his shirt bunched up in tiny fists. "How about you little miss? Did the hollow hurt you?"

The girl opened up one eye and peered at him. "No, he protected me." She let go of his shirt and sniffed a little and looked up at the teen. "Why did it try to hurt you?"

The boy shook his head. "I don't know. I thought it had gotten you."

"It was about to, but then you showed up."

Kaien frowned as he watched the two talk as if it was totally fine for a spirit and a human to be chatting after getting attacked by a monster neither of them new anything about. A hollow going after a spirit was nothing new, but a hollow that had dinner in its claws…or claw… and then letting it go because a human was around? It could happen, feasibly. Whenever the stronger spiritual pressure was the hollows were sure to follow, but still to toss any spirit away, tiny as it may be…

What wasn't bizarre here? Strange spiritual pressure, an orange haired boy who could see him and talk to a spirit girl like it was nothing, hollows acting differently. Yes, Karakura town is definitely weird.

Kaien looked at the orange haired boy as he sheathed his sword. "Who are you? You are human right?"

The boy raised a thin eyebrow and eyed the weapon on his belt. "The last time I checked I was considered a human being and shouldn't I be asking you that?"

Good point. The situation was probably a little stranger for the teen than it was for him. Kaien scratched his head and let out a long winded sigh. No one ever told him what he'd have to say if a human caught sight of him. Not that it would matter, after all was said and done this kid wouldn't remember any of it anyway. For as rare as it was for a human to see a Shinigami they were pretty well prepared with memory altering devises.

Still, might as well give him credit where it due. Kaien crossed his hands over his chest and began slowly. "I am a Shinigami. I'm patrolling your town to make sure hollows, like that monster that just tried to eat you, don't harm the people who live here." He looked down at the girl and smiled. "Or hurt spirits who haven't found their way home yet."

"Uh….huh." The orange haired teen blinked at him. He was processing, but Kaien couldn't tell if he was believing his explanation or not. After a minute the kid twisted his mouth a little. "Name's Ichigo Kurosaki, thanks for keeping that thing from eating us, I guess."

That went better than Kaien expected. Maybe he was in shock?

"Ichigo." Kaien repeated his name and nodded; an old habit he had picked up while trying to remember names of new Shinigami that joined his squad. He looked down at the girl again and knelt down to be eye level with her. "How about you, do you have a name?"

"Karra." She said grabbing onto Ichigo's hand.

Spirit and human holding hands and Ichigo wasn't batting an eye so this certainly wasn't a new thing for the teen. He must have extremely high spiritual abilities. Which in the past had proven both a blessing and a curse for humans with them.

Shaking his head mentally Kaien smiled at the girl. "Well Karra, there is another very important part of my job. When I meet a soul like you, who hasn't moved on I'm supposed to help them."

"Help me? How? I… I don't want to go!" She dove behind Ichigo hiding in her face in his dirty shirt.

Ichigo twisted around and pried her off his shirt and held both her hands. "Hey what did you promise me this afternoon?"

"That I would try my best to move on…" she sniffed, "But…if I leave now I won't be able to see the flower you bring me tomorrow."

Ichigo frowned and looked up and down the river bank. Letting go of her hands he dashed up the slope towards the street and out of site. The girl watched nervously and was about to take off after him when Kaien grabbed her shoulder.

"Give him a minute. He'll be back." And somehow Kaien knew what Ichigo was doing and for some reason that made his stomach knot up a little.

This kid cares. It wasn't that Kaien didn't care, because he did. He really really did, but he would admit before anyone else that he hadn't been putting his all into his job since he'd come to Karakura Town.

A minute later Ichigo returned with a large pink tulip in his hands and handed it to the girl. "It matches your dress."

Kaien couldn't help but stare at the boy as he showed the flower off. He acts like this is absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. But more than that… Why is he so determined to help this little girl? Is she a family member that passed away? A friend?

"Do you two know each other?" Kaien blurted out before he could stop himself. He cringed as soon as the words left his mouth. "Ah, you don't actually have to answer that."

The two turned to him and both shook their heads. Ichigo put a hand on his hip and shifted his weight. "Karra was hit by a car a couple blocks away from my house a few weeks ago."

"He brings me flowers since my parents stopped coming to visit." The girl looked up at the flower in Ichigo's hand and smiled wide, but the grin quickly faded and her voice dropped to just above a whisper. "He says he wants me to move on so my parents can feel better. He says I'll go somewhere better?"

Kaien nodded putting obvious oddities aside for the moment. He had a job to do right now. "Ichigo is right. You will go to a place called Soul Society. That's where I come from." He smiled as her grey eyes went wide. "It's very different from this world, but you'll have family and friends to take care of you."

Her small hand reached up and grabbed Ichigo's shirt again. "R…really?"

"Really." Kaien stood up and put a hand to his Zanpakutō.

And pink disappeared behind orange in the blink of an eye with a squeal.

Maybe he shouldn't have put his sword away before talking to the ten year old girl about purifying her soul. He drew the sword out slowly and made sure to hold the hilt out in front of him. Ichigo put his hands behind him holding onto the girl and backed up a couple of steps eyeing him guardedly.

"Trust me?"

"Trust the weird guy in an ancient gee who is holding a katana and who just killed a giant feathered monster like he was cutting through butter?" Ichigo shook his head and grumbled under his breath. "And you think me being able to talk to spirits is weird…"

Okay wrong choice of words. Kaien sighed and closed his eyes a minute. He put a hand on the bottom of his hilt and drew it away as it warmed under his palm. He held the blade towards himself and showed the bottom of his Zanpakutō to Ichigo. "No blades are going to be used. I'm a Shinigami, not a soul stealer." He gestured to the stamp that was now glowing on the bottom of his hilt. "I will perform a Konsō, or a soul burial. It will send Karra to Soul Society. No swords, no pain, just a small push to help her on her way."

Ichigo stared a moment longer and nodded stepping aside. He deliberately dropped Karra's hand and gave her a small push forward. "It'll be okay?"

Kara looked up at him tears in her eyes, but stepped forward. "Promise it won't hurt?"

Ichigo nodded and Kaien knelt in front of her. "Promise." A small tap to her pale forehead and pink faded away in a small glow of blue. Kaien looked up at Ichigo taking in the teen's impressed nod. He knew what he needed to do next, but there was something about this kid…

Bad idea. Kaien reprimanded himself. It was never a good idea to think about breaking protocol. He had to fix Ichigo's memories and move on.

But… "What did you say your last name was?"

"Kurosaki." Brown eyes narrowed. "You never gave me yours."

"Kaien Shiba."

"And you're a Shinigami."

"Yes."

"A death god."

"Not my favorite translation of the name, but yes."

"Right then." Ichigo bit his lips together and shoved his hands in his pocket wincing as the action jarred his shoulder.

The kid was somewhere between complete admittance of the truth in that statement and completely freaking out. Not that Kaien would blame Ichigo. It was hard to accept something that made the life you've known so much bigger than you thought it was. When someone or something pushes your horizons to an unreachable place.

For a human who knew about spirits to find out that there were people like Kaien on the other side? Yeah, that had to be crazy.

But this is getting uncomfortable.

Kaien smirked despite himself and let out a small snort. He put his hands up in front of him as Ichigo eyed him. "I'm sorry this is as awkward for me as it is for you."

"Wanna bet on that?" Ichigo shot back his own lips curling into a smirk. That was a challenge.

"No, no I think you would probably win and I don't carry human money." Kaien cleared his throat and approached Ichigo his hand going to his pocket. He fiddled with the device tapping his index finger against it before withdrawing empty handed.

No, there was something here. There was something there.

Something about Ichigo Kurosaki. Something…normal?