I don't own Blea-
Hey guys, it's the 20th chapter! Wow, I got this far on my first story. First of all, thank you for all the support and time you take to read my little story, it really means a lot. I may not be an active conversation… ist, but I really appreciate the reviews, may it be little comments, suggestions or questions. And so, because I think I talked too much now, without further ado, here's:
Chapter 20: Play, Save, Reset, Load, Continue
"Going to interfere, Ginjou?" Tsukishima asked his former comrade as he raised his sword and pointed it at him.
Ginjou snickers for a split second before answering. "Guess we don't see eye to eye on that one. As far as I'm concerned, you're the one who's interfering."
"Ginjou…" Ichigo calls him, holding his own injured shoulder. "Get outta the way."
Ginjou turns away from him and changes to a serious expression. "No can do."
Ichigo stands up and puts his hand heavily on Ginjou's shoulder. "Listen to me… I said get outta the way."
Ichigo orders but is suddenly elbowed in the back of his head by Ginjou, knocking him down to the ground.
"Don't you get it? I'm saying you'd just get in the way. There's no way you're okay after being pounded into the ground from that height in a living body. You're barely able to breathe as is." Ginjou orders him, getting a glare in return but he was unthreatened. "I can't have you dying on me so just shut up and lie there."
"Are you really going to do this? You will die if you fight me, Ginjou." Tsukishima taunts Ginjou, but is once again unfazed by the threat. He raises his blade and points it at him.
"I guess we just can't agree on anything…" Ginjou complains while scratching the back of his head. "If you and I go at it, then you'll be the one that ends up dead." He said as he also raised his blade and points it at his adversary.
Ginjou dashes at Tsukishima and unleashes a heavy slash, which was promptly deflected. They continue to exchange attacks, with Ginjou delivering powerful slashes while Tsukishima made quick successive cuts. Their battle takes them leaping from building to building. Ichigo attempts to stand but loses balance and falls down.
"Ichigo!" Nozomi called out as she kneels down beside Ichigo and rests his head on her lap. "Stop pushing yourself, you idiot. You're gonna kill yourself."
"Nozomi…?" He tries to stand up again but promptly falls down after a jolt of pain coursed through his body. "Damn!"
"I said stop it! You can't win in your current condition!" Nozomi angrily reprimanded him, causing him to look at her in shock.
"She's right, Ichigo."
"Chad…?" Ichigo looked behind Nozomi to see his friend looking at him.
"Give it up. You should have already noticed the difference between your power and his. It's impossible to beat him while you're injured like that." Chad said to him, causing Ichigo to grit his teeth in anger.
"So you're telling me to just stay here and watch the bastard who attacked Ishida and Inoue walk away!?" Ichigo angrily retorted and forcibly pushed his body up and dashed towards Ginjou and Tsukishima.
"Oi, you idiot!" Nozomi grunts angrily and follows Ichigo, despite her own injuries.
"Hey wait, you two!" Chad attempts to stop them but fails.
Ginjou manages to get above Tsukishima during the chase and charges up an even more powerful swing. He gets ready to swing his sword down but suddenly stops, allowing Tsukishima to counter and quickly slash at his head. Luckily, he manages to move his head in time to reduce the damage to a shallow cut on his right eyebrow.
"That was close. What if you slash too hard and kill the people inside the building too?" Tsukishima taunts him as he raises his sword.
"Don't worry. I make sure we jump onto abandoned buildings." Ginjou replied after wiping off the small amount of blood on his forehead, but notices Ichigo charging from behind Tsukishima.
Ichigo makes another blade on his right arm and swings it at Tsukishima, but is easily blocked.
"You just don't get it do you? Your Fullbring is still incomp-" Tsukishima scolds him but is slightly shocked when the Reiatsu surrounding Ichigo increases, forcing him to push him away with his sword. "Your Fullbring changes that quickly? Very nice. Your current power… has become quite close to what you once possessed."
Tsukishima gets ready to reengage Ichigo, but quickly jumps out of the way to avoid a wave of pink Reiatsu that crashes down on the building, courtesy of Nozomi.
"And you, miss." Tsukishima turns to Nozomi after landing on a stone ledge. "Your ability is quite intriguing and formidable. But even with the two of you, I am still too strong, I'm afraid." He confidently gloats, causing Ichigo and Nozomi to prepare another coordinated attack.
"Invaders must die!" A voice shouted out, interrupting Ichigo and Nozomi's attack as the space around them starts to pixelate and envelops them.
"W-what the?" Nozomi tried to break free but was completely enveloped and completely disappears, her Reiatsu completely vanishing as well.
"Nozomi! Hey! NOZOMI!" Ichigo frantically tried to break out but was completely covered and disappeared as well.
An amused Tsukishima watches as his opponents vanishes from sight and simply smiles before looking to his right. "I see… you don't even want to let an incomplete Kurosaki Ichigo have any contact with me. You even hid Shinigami-san. That will become truer as he reaches perfection, won't it? Yukio."
Yukio was standing on the adjacent building, still holding his game console which was displaying a saving screen and a progress bar. The bar completely fills after a while, changing the display from "saving" to "completed".
"… so now, this means that will escape without allowing me to interact with the nearly complete Kurosaki Ichigo. But aren't you making a mistake? If that's your objective, then you should be locking me, shouldn't you? Tsukishima asks Yukio, who remains calm, or rather, indifferent.
"Sorry. But I don't have enough battery to save you. And besides, that wasn't the point of saving Kurosaki. Listen, you can hear that, right?" Yukio nonchalantly tells Tsukishima as the sound of people talking and gasping can be heard from below the building.
"Onlookers are gathering now. And I don't know who called them, but the cops and the fire department are coming too. And since we've been blowing everything all to hell, I'm sure a TV helicopter will even show up, if you'd like. And something like that, would trouble for you too, wouldn't it? Tsukishima-san."
Riruka suddenly appears behind Tsukishima and points a Riruka-themed gun at his back at point-blank range, causing him to stop his movements, but not his confident smile.
"… Love Gun…" Tsukishima said as he looked behind without moving his head.
"That's right, you know exactly what this is! Since you are the one who made it!" Riruka declares, still holding Tsukishima within range. "Would you mind getting out of here? I don't like stuff like this."
Yukio walks forward slightly and places one foot on a ledge. "We're gonna disappear. And we're taking Kurosaki with us. If you'd like to become a public spectacle, then I recommend staying here just as you are."
…
Ichigo opens his eyes to see his surroundings pitch-black. He looks around for a while before remembering what just happened.
"Hey, what's going on!? Nozomi, where are you!?" Ichigo frantically looks around for her but fails to find her. "NOZOMI! HEY, WHERE ARE YOU!?"
"Stop shouting, idiot." Nozomi answers from behind, greatly relieving Ichigo.
He immediate brightens up and rushes to her, but is tripped by her and he comically falls to the ground.
"Ouch! What was that for?" He complains as he gets up.
"You were going to hug me you pervert." She sharply tells him off, making his eyebrow twitch.
"I wasn't! And what's the big deal if I was? We've already hugged like, twice."
Nozomi blushes upon hearing his words and immediately turns away and crosses her arms, in typical tsundere way. "Sh-shut up, pervert!"
"Wonder where we are…?" Ichigo immediately changed the topic upon witnessing her reaction.
...
"Load complete." Yukio said as the "now loading" progress bar on his console was fully filled.
A black mass of pixels appeared in front of him, dropping Ichigo and Nozomi on the ground.
"Where… are we?" Nozomi asked upon immediately standing up and helping Ichigo do the same.
"Our spare hideout. It's far from being comfortable though." Ginjou informed them.
"Hey, saying it like that isn't going to make it more comfortable you know?" Yukio complains but was largely ignored, causing him to nonchalantly sulk. "I swear, all you do is complain even though it's someone else's money… and it'll probably be my money that repairs the old hideout too. But it's all because someone caused an explosion like that, I guess I'm gonna have to move money and calculate whether it's cheaper to fix the old hideout or build a new one."
"Sorry… talk to Chad about that…" Ginjou tells him.
"… what about Tsukishima?" Ichigo immediately asks after looking around.
"He withdrew… for now." Ginjou answered him, causing Ichigo to raise an eyebrow.
"Something not sitting right?"
"… nah. If his intention was to damage us, the he could've fought his way out of that situation. Especially if you factor in his strength. Riruka was inside his range of attack, and he probably could've even cut down Yukio." Ginjou answers but part of his statement was proven wrong by Yukio.
"Tsukishima-san knows my ability. I was hiding the console so he couldn't attack me in that situation. That goes double if he's interested in Kurosaki."
"… true…" Ginjou affirms his statement.
"All right then, guess I'll give Giriko a hand." Yukio said as he started to walk out of the hideout. "There's probably a limit to how well one person can deal with that explosion. Ah, what a pain."
"Wait, Yukio." Ginjou stops him before he can leave though. "Stay here and assist Ichigo with his training."
"Whaa!?" Yukio immediately protests to the idea. He was not the type to help someone, let alone help them train. "Why me!? I can't do a thing like that! And my console's almost out of batteries too!"
"I said it because you can do it. Do it while it's plugged in."
"No way! I got tired all of a sudden!" Yukio made a poor attempt at weaseling out.
"The truth comes out." Ginjou said with a victorious grin, before changing to a more serious expression. "I don't know how Tsukishima located our hideout, but it's reasonable to think that he did it by sounding out Reiatsu. If we assume that, then we need your Fullbring for the training since it can completely block off Reiatsu. You can do that, right?" He re-asks Yukio, getting him to reluctantly agree.
"So my training's gonna be an actual fight?" Ichigo asks him, clearly remembering how direct battle is what caused his Fullbring to evolve so quickly.
"Yeah. It's what really suits you best."
"All right, I'll tell you right now, I already beat Jackie. Who am I gonna fight now?"
Ginjou turns around before facing Ichigo again, his face being the epitome of serious. That is, before he made an enthusiastic grin. "… Me."
"All right then!" Ichigo enthusiastically pumped his fist and tightened his grip on his badge.
"Wait." Nozomi almost immediately interrupts Ichigo's joy however, with her serious tone.
"Nozomi, what's wrong?" Ichigo instantly asks her. It's been somewhat like instinct for Ichigo to ask her that time to time.
Nozomi stays quiet for a while, before looking Ginjou in the eyes with even more determination than Ichigo. "I'll train too."
Everyone stares at her for a while, including Yukio. She tightens her grip on her Zanpakutou before looking up again and speaking.
"Tsukishima handled me like I was a child. If I don't do anything to get stronger, then I won't be able to protect Ichigo. I'll just be in the way…" She begrudgingly admitted. It was painful for her to admit that she wasn't strong enough to protect Ichigo.
"Nozomi…" Ichigo said, surprised that she's still holding on the promise she made a year ago. It all struck him, they both swore to protect each other. But now that he's quickly getting stronger, Nozomi's afraid she'll just end up as a damsel in distress. Ichigo knew she despised being treated like a helpless little girl that always needs to be saved.
Ginjou doesn't give an immediate answer and just stares Nozomi in the eye. She returns the stare with the same level of intensity, even unsettling Ichigo and Yukio. After a while, Ginjou finally releases his stare and smiles.
"Sure. Why not?"
His answer relieves Ichigo and Nozomi, with the latter even almost grinning, but quickly looks away in embarrassment, arms crossed.
"This doesn't mean I trust you yet." She quickly said, causing Ichigo to laugh. "W-what's so funny?" She asks him, now blushing.
"You're welcome." Ginjou said as she watched the two bicker.
…
Ishida Uryuu was sitting alone on his hospital bed. It was pretty boring, to say the least. But with his condition, he practically didn't have a choice. It got pretty dull quickly, so he started reading a book. Things were lifeless, until a knock on the door was made.
"Come in." Ishida said.
"… Ishida-kun…?" Inoue peeked through the door, making sure it was alright for her to enter.
"… sorry for making you come here so suddenly. Thanks for coming."
"That's okay, no problem. Is it alright for you to be up already?" Inoue asked, clearly concerned for her injured friend.
"Yeah… if it's only this much." Ishida admitted. Despite his injuries healing, it was still not enough for him to be able to stand up without support.
"You know, Ishida-kun… I've been thinking for a while now… wouldn't your injuries heal faster if I treated them?"
"Yeah, they would. Honestly, I was pretty shaken back then… I was thinking that the information I had wouldn't lead to a resolution by itself. I figured that if I was the one being targeted, then I had to get myself away from everyone."
Ishida looked down for a while and closed his book, with Inoue watching him and anticipating his next words.
"But now, the situation's changed. I would like to you to heal my wounds." Ishida requested, full of determination. All seriousness can be detected in his voice.
"Changed?" Inoue asked, confused by his statement.
"Kurosaki… has encountered the guy who slashed me." Ishida stated, greatly shocking Inoue. "It feels different than before, but it's definitely Kurosaki's Reiatsu. I don't know the reason for the change, but what I do know is that I can't just lie around and relax. You've felt that unusual change too, right?"
Inoue looks down for a while before answering Ishida. "… yeah, I felt it. But I decided not to go since Kurosaki-kun hasn't said anything to me about it yet." She pauses, but decides to reveal everything she knows and pieced together to him. "… it's just… if the presence that's with Kurosaki is the person who slashed you… then I think he's the same person who cut me as well after all."
Ishida was mortified. Inoue was attacked as well, by the same person who attacked him no less. He stares at her in shock before regaining his ability to speak. "… what!?"
Chapter 20! Once again, it's Monday tomorrow. So sadly… I won't be able to update again until the next weekend, so sorry about that. Gotta survive another week of College. Thanks for bearing with me! Ja mata ne!
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By the way, to comemmorate this story's 20th chapter, I'm thinking of making a hand-drawn picture of Ichigo and Nozomi, so give me your thoughts about this guys! Alright, I'll be back next weekend, probably Friday.