Continuation of Chapter 9...
Ichigo narrowed his eyes at Uryu. "...A fight...? Between you...and I?"
"That's right." Uryu smiled ever so slightly. "In this world, shinigami are... unnecessary."
Ichigo crossed his arms over his chest and turned his head away from Uryu, "This is...ridiculous!"
"What did you say?" Uryu questioned Ichigo, annoyed by his anwer.
Ichigo ignored the question and kept talking. "Me, compete against you? Why do I have to do that? It sounds stupid! I don't know what kind of grudge you've got against shinigami, but I have nothing to do with it!"
"...How surprising. Will you run away?"
"I won't be provoked! I'm just saying you're no match against me." Ichigo turned to leave.
Uryu stayed silent for a moment. "...Yes. I see. I remember." Uryu pushed up his glasses as he continued to speak. "You're a shinigami whose power was granted to you by Kuchiki...In other words, you were a 'Temporary Shinigami'..." Uryu gave Ichigo a cold, harsh glare. "Without her permission...you can't even move a finger."
Ichigo stopped in his tracks. Slowly, he turned his head with a heated glare. Venom clearly dripped from his words as he spoke. "...What'd you say? Quincy..." Uryu did not answer Ichigo. Ichigo fully turned to face Uryu once more. "Okay..." Ichigo smirked. "Let's give this...competition thing a shot." Ichigo reached into his pocket and pulled out Kon's mod soul. "Rukia didn't make a mistake about her prediction." Ichigo swallowed the mod soul and his own soul pulled out of his body.
Uryu stayed silent as he watched the process. He silently wondered how in the world Hoshi could like someone so...ignorant, perhaps? Or maybe overconfident? What ever the right word was to describe Ichigo, Uryu just could not understand how Hoshi could be friends with him. Uryu began to pay attention to Ichigo once more when the carrot top mentioned explaining the rules of the fight. Uryu reached into his chest pocket. He pulled out a small round tablet-like thing. Hollow bait. "We'll begin the battle with this."
"...Huh? What's that?"
"Hollow bait. If I crush and scatter this, then hollows will gather in this town," Uryu explained to Ichigo.
Ichigo's brown eyes widened. "...What...?"
"The one who defeats the most of the gathered hollows within 24 hours wins...How about that?"
"What's that!? Quit screwin' around!" Ichigo shouted. "Are you trying to expose people in town to danger for the sake of our fight!? Who the hell do you think you are!?"
Uryu narrowed his eyes at Ichigo. "Keep your mortality to yourself!" Uryu suddenly crushed the hollow bait. "Worrying about other people is unnecessary! I will kill the gathered hollows with leaving a single survivor! You as well...If you have the confidence to protect people from hollows... You should be able to take on this challenge."
Somewhere in Karakura Town
Hoshi smiled as she walked around town with her dog, Kiba, by her side. She had went to the grocery store after school and then after she got home and put away her groceries, Hoshi decided to take Kiba out for some fresh air and exercise. At the moment, the two of them were at an old park that not many people went to anymore. Hoshi walked over to a large tree and sat at its base. Kiba followed his master and curled up beside her with his head on Hoshi's lap. "It's such a pretty day," Hoshi smiled, watching the clouds slowly pass above her.
Hoshi and Kiba stayed that way for several minutes, until Hoshi suddenly felt a lot of spiritual pressure from hollows. She quickly stood up and glanced up at the sky. There was a large crack with hollows pouring out of it. Hoshi's sapphire eyes widened at the sight of several hollows coming towards her. "This isn't good!" Hoshi flashed her eyes to her trustworthy companion when she heard him growl menacingly. She placed a hand on his fur in order to calm him down. "It'll be okay, Kiba. I don't know why this is happening but I wont let anything happen to you or anyone else."
"Is that so?" a dark voice asked from behind her. Hoshi whirled around to see a large bird-like hollow hovering several feet away from her. Hoshi then detected even more hollows beginning to surround her. 'Looks like you're out numbered." Hoshi didn't answer. The hollow didn't seem to mind Hoshi's lack of conversation though. It kept on talking. "It's real interesting to find you though. You have such a unique spiritual pressure. It's like none I've ever felt. I bet it will taste oh so delicious."
"Sorry, but you won't be finding out," Hoshi retorted to the hollow as a great gust of wind swirled around her body. A blue aura began to emit from Hoshi's body as she prepared to use her abilities. "I summon the Guardian Dragon, Seiryu!" Hoshi called out. The spiritual pressure Hoshi surrounded herself in, grew and shifted into the shape of a large blue dragon, taking a solid form.
"W-hat is this?" the hollow questioned as it was weighed down from the spiritual pressure of the girl and her dragon.
The dragon kept its long body wrapped protectively around Hoshi and her dog as it surveyed all the hollows gathered around them, all of which wanted the girl's soul. Seiryu – the name of the dragon – growled at the hollows as they started to move towards him and his mistress. He moved his head down towards the girl and spoke within her mind. "May I proceed in destroying these foul beings?"
Hoshi nodded her head. "Yes. Go ahead, Seiryu." That was all the dragon needed to hear before lunging toward a hollow that was trying to inch its way towards them. With a snap of his teeth, Seiryu destroyed the hollow plus three others. He then used the end of his tail to swat away other oncoming hollows.
The hollow that had previously spoken to Hoshi soared towards her, hoping to get her while Seiryu was occupied with the other hollows. As it came closer to Hoshi's half exposed form, it began to laugh in triumph, like it had already won its prize. "You're mine!" it cried out, almost reaching Hoshi. Just as it was within a couple of feet of the snow haired girl, Seiryu's jaws clapped down on the hollow, instantly silencing it. After finishing off that hollow, Seiryu made quick work of the rest.
"Thank you, Seiryu," Hoshi smiled once the hollows were disposed of.
Seiryu lowed his head down to the girl he was protecting. "You are most welcome, my lady," he growled as he nuzzled his head against Hoshi's much smaller body.
Hoshi laughed lightly and pet the dragon. She looked down when she heard a soft whine come from her dog. Hoshi reached out a hand and scratched behind Kiba's ear. "I'm glad you're okay, Kiba." Kiba let out a bark of agreement. Hoshi smiled again before turning her attention to Seiryu once again. "Seiryu, I hope you don't mind staying out for a bit longer…" The azure dragon tilted his head in question. "I just have a feeling something is going to happen. And I would like to make sure there aren't any more hollows wondering around."
Seiryu nodded, "Yes, of course." Seiryu lowered his body to the ground, allowing Hoshi to settle herself and Kiba on his back before taking to the sky.
As they flew through the sky – not being seen by anyone who does not possess spiritual pressure – Hoshi noticed Orihime and Chad stepping out of a small shop behind a man. Hoshi was going to just fly on past them but she noticed something different about the two of them. Their spiritual pressure was much higher than it had been earlier that day. Hoshi decided to go down and talk to them. "Seiryu, go down to that little shop were those people are standing." The dragon said nothing as he followed her order.
It came to no surprise when everyone stumbled away from the hulking dragon as it landed in front of Urahara's shop. Hoshi slid off the dragon's back and turned to her friends. "Orihime! Chad!"
"Hoshi!" Orihime and Chad exclaimed in surprise. Orihime ran up to her white haired friend and pulled her into a hug. When she pulled back, Hoshi noticed that everyone was staring at the large azure dragon behind her.
"Oh…you all must be wondering about the dragon behind me." Hoshi received several nods. She figured they were too shocked to really speak. "This is Seiryu. He is a part of my soul. I can summon him into a physical form by allowing my spiritual pressure to take a form. There are three others I can summon."
"That is very interesting," a man with a green and white striped hat commented.
Hoshi shrugged and turned her attention to Orihime and Chad. "The both of you… I'm assuming you can see hollows now."
Orihime nodded her head rapidly. "How did you know?"
"Your spiritual pressure has changed… Aside from seeing hollows, I'm also going to take a wild guess and say that you both have powers now…" Orihime nodded again. "I see…" Hoshi looked over at the other people that were with them. "Well, if you would like, I can give you all a lift to wherever you're needing to go."
The man smiled while fanning himself. "Well I'm certainly not opposed to that idea. What about you guys?"
"Nope."
"Not at all."
"No sir."
The man turned back to Hoshi. "Well then, it's settled. We'll accept your offer."
Hoshi smiled and nodded. She then turned her attention to Orihime and Chad. "What about the two of you? Will you be coming with us?" The two of them glanced at each other before looking back at Hoshi.
"Yeah."
(A/N: I would like to apologize for the very long wait. I guess you could say there were multiple factors that contributed to me not updating sooner, such as writer's block, laziness, no access to a computer… but mostly laziness I think. Anyways, I feel really bad for not updating sooner like I said I would do. T_T I'm terrible! Well, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. If you have any questions concerning this story, such as Hoshi's power, or anything else, please let me know and I'll try to answer as best as I can without spoiling the story!)