Sorry it took so long to update but here's chapter 4! I hope you guys like it :D I appreciate all the reviews ive been receiving and please continue :D and also please vote on my poll!
Chapter 4. The Hunt
The next night
"Where are you going tonight Ichigo?" Rukia asked as Ichigo threw on a dark black hoodie at 8 o'clock at night.
"Me and Uryu are going hollow hunting tonight," he replied as he allowed Zangetsu to slither up his arm. The snake settled into his position on Ichigo's shoulder.
"Can I come?" she asked enthusiastically. She was practically on the edge of the closet.
"Not in your condition you can't," Ichigo laughed at her.
"What the hell's that supposed to mean?" she barked back.
"You passed out the other day performing a weak level kido spell on me, and then you passed out again at school today during gym class. I'm taking you over to a friend of mine's place though to make sure your safe while were hunting." Rukia got out of the closet and made her way over to Ichigo. She grabbed her sweater and followed Ichigo out of the door.
Rukia followed Ichigo down the cold, dark street. She stared at the back of his bright orange hair, which bounced slightly every time he took a step. Why am I being hunted? Our people have lived peacefully with the vampires and humans for centuries. Why now was my race nearly wiped out? What do I not know? I do know that vampires and Demonic Princesses are somehow related, but I don't know anything beyond that. Damn. I need to focus on something else. What about Ichigo? How did he become a vampire? None of this makes sense! I guess for now I'll just play it by ear. She returned from her thoughts in time to see that Ichigo had led her to a small shop in the middle of nowhere.
"We're here," he stated as he turned his head to face her.
"It's about time you got here!" Uryu scolded as he walked out of the shop. Before Ichigo could argue, a small black cat appeared behind Uryu and made its way over to them. It sat a few feet in front of Rukia and looked up at her.
"Hello, my name is Yoruichi Urahara, welcome to the Urahara Shoten. We'll be looking after you tonight miss Kuchiki," the cat stated. Rukia nodded, not at all fazed by a talking cat, and walked into the shop. She turned back around and looked at Ichigo.
"Please be careful?" she asked. Ichigo nodded his head and Rukia went into the shop. "Let's go Uryu." Uryu nodded and followed.
Hollows are vampires who have lost all sense of humanity. They gain an incredible thirst for blood and death. They seek out the blood of others and kill indiscriminately. Their faces were replaced by white masks, the only thing holding back raw instinct. They gained a giant hole in their chest, representing the loss of the heart, and lost their human shape, becoming monsters. Hollows are usually created by vampires who were turned from humans; or vampires who watched everything around them fall apart, losing all will to live. Uryu and Ichigo were hunting these hollows.
"Ichigo," Zangetsu started in his deep voice from his spot on Ichigo's shoulder. Ichigo glanced up at him.
"I think we need to be extra careful tonight," he said in a very concerned voice.
"Why ya say that?" Ichigo asked his serpent companion, not caring that people on the street were staring at the fact that there was a snake on his shoulder, never mind the fact that he was talking to it.
"Something evil is out tonight. You need to be aware of your surroundings at all times, be careful. Not to mention, the ration is causing more vampires to lose their minds, there are bound to be an increased number in hollows." Ichigo nodded and continued walking. Him and Uryu suddenly stopped and looked up. They ran into the nearest ally, knowing what it was. A hollow was on the roof. Ichigo and Uryu stopped in the middle of the ally and used their powers to jump up to the top of the building. They landed on the room and looked at the disgusting creature that stood before them. Its body was that of a monkey with dark red skin. It had long purple hair that extended to its waist. Its tail was armed with spikes and its feet and hands with sharp claws. The mask covered his whole head, even giving the creature a large horn on the top of its head. His hole was where the bellybutton would have been. It turned around and let out a loud roar at the boys.
"You ready Uryu?" Ichigo grinned as Zangetsu slithered down Ichigo's arm. Ichigo stuck his right arm straight out and Zangetsu wrapped himself around it, his head fitting securely in Ichigo's hand.
"I was born ready," Uryu smiled as he stuck his right arm out to the side. A blue energy began to swirl around his hand. He closed his hand as a long handle formed against his palm. The energy flowed in a circle and formed a bow in the shape of a spider web. "Are you?"
"Always," Ichigo smirked. A black energy began to flow around Ichigo's arm. Zangetsu's red eyes began to glow a bright blue. The black energy then extended a way's past Ichigo's arm. Ichigo looked the hollow directly in the eyes as his eyes began to blow a bright blue to match Zangetsu's.
"Protect them, Zangetsu." The black energy exploded, enveloping the entire rooftop. When the dust and energy subsided, the snake like Zangetsu was gone, instead being replaced by a giant sword held in Ichigo's right hand. It had no hilt, and almost resembled a giant knife. White fabric was wrapped around the base, and flowed behind the sword. Ichigo and Uryu looked at each other, nodded, and vanished. The hollow let out a huge roar as Uryu appeared behind the hollow in midair. He pulled back the bow and began firing dozens of arrows at the hollow. The hollow roared in pain as some of the arrows made contact, piercing his skin. It jumped out of the way, jumping from rooftop to rooftop. Uryu continued to follow it, keeping pace with it easily. Ichigo suddenly appeared a few rooftops in front of the hollow. The hollow had little time to stop, and was soon right in front of Ichigo. Ichigo lifted his sword as Uryu appeared to corner the beast.
"Getsuga Tensho," Ichigo coldly stated as he swung his sword down. A giant burst of blue energy shot out of the sword directly towards the hollow. It made direct contact and the hollow exploded. Ichigo and Uryu smiled at each other as they jumped down off the roof. Uryu's bow began to swirl and quickly vanished. Ichigo held his arm out and another cloud of black energy swirled around his sword. It swirled inward and settled into the shape of a snake, wrapping around Ichigo's arm. The snake solidified and opened his red eyes. He turned around and slithered back up onto Ichigo's shoulder. "How was that Zangetsu?" he smirked at the snake. The snake simply shook his head.
"You're both so reckless. You're going to get yourselves killed one day," the wise snake sighed. Uryu and Ichigo laughed as they walked back out onto the main street.
"Yoruichi! I gotta bone to pick with you!" Renji shouted as he barged into the Urahara Shoten. He opened his mouth to shout again when he felt a shoe hit him in the back of the head.
"Shut up Pineapple head!" Rukia shouted at him as Renji fell unconscious to the floor. His zanpaktou, Zabimaru, laughed hysterically. Zabimaru was a strange zanpaktou. It was a bright white snake with purple stripes resembling Renji's tattoo's running down its body. The thing that made it unusually however, was the fact that it had 2 heads, one male, and one female. They both had red eyes, but the male's head was pure white, while the female's eyes were located in a sea of purple scales. Zabimaru made its way over to the table where Yoruichi, Urahara, Rukia, and Sode No Shirayuki were seated.
"So you think Aizen's lying?" Rukia asked as she sipped on her tea. Yoruichi and Kisuke simply nodded their heads.
"We simply lack the proof needed," Yoruichi sighed. The cat looked up at the man, who nodded.
"We also are uncertain, as to what Aizen's motive for lying may be." Kisuke sighed. Rukia continued to sip on her tea and Sode No Shirayuki moved onto her shoulder.
"So what your saying is that there is no blood shortage and that Aizen is lying to everyone in order to continue this ration?" the snake chimed. "So until you come up with the proof needed, what do you suppose we do about the fact that they're all starving?" Yoruichi and Kisuke smiled.
"Give us two week, and I think you will all be very satisfied," they grinned.
"2 weeks! I'm not sure how much longer I can take this ration!" Rukia cried as her head fell into her hands. "I guess the prospect of hope though is better than nothing." As she brought her head back up, Ichigo and Uryu walked into the Urahara shoten, panting quite fiercely. "What the hell happened to you guys?!" Rukia gasped as she ran over to try to stop the bleeding on both of them. They allowed themselves to collapse on the floor, the now down pouring rain falling into the Shoten from the open door. Kisuke closed the door as Yoruichi ran into the bathroom. Zangetsu, who was also beaten up but ok, slithered out of Ichigo's jacket.
"I warned you idiots! And now look at you! If you two weren't immortal you would surely be dead by now!" the snake scolded with a hint of fear in his voice. If his personality wasn't as calm as it was, he would have been in tears. Rukia, however, wasn't so cool.
"What the hell did you idiots get yourselves into," she screamed as the tears fell down her small face. She was holding Ichigo and Uryu in her lap as they gasped for air, the wounds in Uryu's chest beginning to close, Ichigo's remaining wide open. "Why aren't your wounds closing? Ichigo?" she cried. Uryu, who was now feeling better that he had caught his breath and sat up, looking down at his childhood friend.
"It's probably the lack of blood in his system, his wounds can't close properly," He explained as a tall, dark skinned woman ran out of the bathroom with a first aid kit and a bottle of what appeared to be blood.
"It's only the prototype, so it's not fully functional yet, but its artificial blood, and it's gonna be more help than nothing," she rushed as she handed Rukia the bottle. She placed her hands over Ichigo's wound. They started to glow blue as Uryu began wrapping the wound. Rukia placed the bottle in Ichigo's mouth and forced him to drink it.
"What is that Yourichi?" Uryu asked as it, along with Yoruichi's kido began to slowly heal the wound. Rukia looked at the women realizing that she too must be a vampire to have such transformation abilities.
"It's our artificial blood. We think it will be fully operational in about 2 weeks, and be able to help fill the void of the supposed ration. While it will never be as satisfying or powerful as human blood, it will be close. However, that is just a prototype, and not very functional at all, but still better than nothing. However, you never answered Kisuke's question, what happened," she asked with a stern look on her face.
"That wasn't a normal hollow that attacked us" he shook.
"No," replied Kisuke in a cold voice. "It was an arrancar."
So I hope that you guys liked it! Ichigo's Zanpaktou is always in its released state, so I had to come up for a way for him to release it, and since Ichigo always wants to protect people, I figured protect them would be perfect! So in the next chapter were gonna go into some history behind Ichigo and Uryu's friendship. Did anyone else find it weird that a vampire hunter would be best friends with a vampire? Stay tuned! Cant promise an update this weekend since I have a research paper due monday and an anatomy test but im gonna try! and please vote on my new poll, i really wanna see what people !