Chapter 2

Ichigo felt confused. He saw a flash out in the distance, but somehow no one else noticed. He senses danger around his school, but he cannot say if it is real or imagined.

Being a Substitute Shinigami has its perks, but this is not one of them. He cannot focus on school work because of his own powers. Ichigo decided to ignore the flash and just do his work-

"ICHIGO!"

A student was running towards Ichigo. Realizing who it was, Ichigo side-stepped the moving student. "Keigo, watch it!"

Another student, Ishida, quickly became angry at this, and glared at his peers."Look, we have enough work to do today. No more comical gags from either of you!"

Keigo ignored Ishida, as did most of the students in class. It was a friday, making Ishida's life as a studious prodigy more depressing.

Ichigo approached Ishida."Have you noticed a bright flash?"

"Yes, you are not brain-dead. Good."

"Shut up...besides, can't we just ditch class for that?"

At that moment, someone face-palmed Ichigo. He hits the floor, face first, and ends up making cracks on the school floor."Like Hell you're going now!"

Tatsuki appeared, her hand burned from the face palm. She raged about school, but Ichigo was not on the floor anymore. Instead, he got up and was talking to his friend, Orihime.

"Well, Ichigo, I'm not busy today. Do you want to form a study group?"

"Sure. I'll ask Ishida and Chad to come. Maybe even Keigo and Misurio. What time-"

Tatsuki stomped towards the conversation, but before anything terrible could ensue, Orihime interjected with,"Will you come to our study group?"

She nodded politely, and decided to concentrate on her studies.

Later that day, the study group met at Chad's house. It went normally until Chad asked about the light.

"I know that those who became related to spirits could sense the blue light. Isn't this like the red light from a couple of weeks ago?"

"Maybe," replied Ichigo,"But we found nothing. Urahara said that there is no evidence to suggest that it was out of the ordinary."

"You know," interrupted Misurio,"Perhaps you should have seen the new girl. You know, the black-haired one."

"She reminds me..of me...kinda." said Orihime. "She was so excited until she saw the flash."

"Is she...spiritually related?" asked Keigo.

"No...but...it's weird," replied Misurio. "She started to act like she should have known the flash. The aura around her felt condensed."

"Maybe because you were trying to go in her," suggested Keigo.

"You know, I am harmless against girls my age. Besides, the atmosphere after the flash was not like that."

"Maybe you guys are overreacting," said Tatsuki.

"I wish we were," answered Ishida. "However, something is not right about this."

Just then, there was a knock on the door. Ichigo answered the door, only to see three people that he became shocked to see.

"Renji! Byakuya! Rukia!"

"Well," said Rukia,"I brought Kon Make that four."

"YEAH!" yelled Kon as he jumped up.

The four came in and sat. Tea was served, and then Byakuya spoke up.

"We decided to check up on you humans. I decided to go sight-seeing for a few days. After the business of Ginjo and the Fullbringers, the Head Commander decided to give most of us breaks."

"That's cool," said Ichigo,"But...we have issues to work out."

"True...a new day, a new crisis." Byakuya sighed, sipped a little tea, and looked at Ichigo.

"Have you guys ever heard of a portal?"

Renji and Byakuya exchanged glances, and Renji spoke up.

"We saw the portal too. It exists, and we just saw a group of strangers. It's weird. I noticed that they had power, but it is not like spiritual pressure. There was no reiatsu, just energy. Also, we got more readings." Renji gulped before talking again. "One of them was a town near here. Some place like that. A "earthquake" hit it a few weeks ago."

"What really happened, Renji?" asked Ishida.

Rukia answered that question, looking at Ichigo. "We found dead people. However, the corpses had marks that no one had seen before. No one in Soul Society could figure it out until they found something out. Hisagi-you know, one of our vice captains-found two critical things out. He figured that not all the humans were of this world. He is certain that there is another universe involved."

"A...what?" asked Ichigo.

"Well, as you may know, there are other universes like ours floating around us. Physically, they can never crash. The barriers surrounding similar planets, such as our earth and their earth, can be broken. Basically, the barriers are breaking down between the worlds."

"Are they colliding against one another?" asks Orihime.

"Yes. Yet, universal barriers cannot be damaged by collision. True, it is not common unless the universal planets have similarities, which may explain the collision, but-simply-barriers still stay safe. You see, another dimension exists between the barriers of the universes. We call it the "seal" zone. The barriers must have been damaged by something. As barriers are damaged, some areas of one universe could have been pulled over and switched with another planet."

The room was silent. Only Ichigo and Ishida were calm about this.

"Who would want to do this to us?" asked Chad.

"What an interesting question." replied Byakuya. "We did research, and an odd event turned up. There was sightings of portals found near the USA and near Karakura town years ago. People reported sightings of men with scars on their body. However, the main media made the story seem ridiculous."

"Wait...you mentioned two things." said Tatsuki. "What else happened?"

Rukia coughed and answered the question. "There was some reiatsu that we found that belongs...to Ichigo's mother."

Ichigo turned pale. He looked at Rukia, prompting her to answer him.

"We have found more than just hers. We found Ginjo's reiatsu, Gin's, Tosen's, Kageroza-"

"Why is the dead rising?" asks Ishida.

"Someone must have collected their reiatsu. That area was full of reiatsu of the dead...but-"

"I think we need to understand the situation," said Keigo. "I mean, who would be behind this?"

"It is not an enemy that we know of," replies Renji. "The Quinceys are in agreement with us. We are checking for confirmation. Let's just have a sleepover here, okay?"

They all agreed, deciding to stay at the apartment. Ichigo called his father to make sure that his sisters are fine, and advised him to stay at home.

"Young man, tell me why-"

"Not now, Dad. Just be cautious."

At the same time, the group of strangers showed up near the house. Ichigo volunteered to approach them.

"Yo!" shouted Ichigo. "I need to ask you fellow people something!"

One of them looked at Ichigo. He looked like he was seventeen years old, with the black, sleek, spiky hair of an anime protagonist. He approached Ichigo cautiously. "Who are you?"

"Substitute Soul reaper Kurosaki Ichigo. What is your name?"

"I will be honest with you. I do not trust you, but the truth is that I do not remember my true name. Just call me the Monk, okay?"

Ichigo decided to trust the man, and showed the man and his friends to his group.

"Heh...this is study group, alright," commented Keigo. "So, you guys come from this other universe. What happened?"

"Well..." the Monk answered slowly. "Our universe is suffering, like your universe. However, the damage was confirmed to be something caused by a dimensionling."

Byakuya turned more pale than when Ichigo turned pale. "Dimensionlings?"

"I assume that you know of them. I will admit, I am one of them, but I only knew that after a friend told me so."

"It sucks, because we thought that the Monk would have remained bald," interjected Kormac.

"Don't be a scoundrel-" stated Lyndon.

"But you are the Scoundrel, bro!"

"That aside, this is the only piece of information that we had-"

"No." The Monk pulled out the cell phone that he found. "I know that you might not know, but...who is this?"

Misurio and Orihime realized who that person is. "Kagura-san!"

"Look," said Byakuya. "We have to wait for tomorrow. We will make sense of this later, but I have the feeling that we are being watched."

Everyone sensed the unsettling aura near them, but it disappeared in an instance.

"Everyone," said Eirena,"We have company..."