Date written: 09/09/09 – 18/09/09

Posted on FanFiction: 21/09/09

A/N: With the Midterms finally behind me (and hoping I don't have any red marks again . . .), I indulged myself in this chapter. The initial title for this chapter was Helena, which is like an extension of the 6-17 sub-arc. But I found what I had written flawed in so many ways that I scrapped it even when I saw that it was halfway done. I decided to forgo that part of the story and move on to the Four-eyed Archer's introduction. And for all you Ishida fans, that's not a derogatory term. I only coined that nickname because I find it odd that an archer, a person that's supposed to have keen eyesight, is wearing glasses. You don't see Robin Hood wearing square rimless glasses. But to be a little fair, I also have a nickname for another Bleach major character. Evil Superman. Can anyone guess who I'm referring to and why?

After a bit of fun with a 3D model customizer program a friend of mine shared with me, I realized something I haven't before. Did any of you ever notice that Orihime's hairstyle changed a bit after she awakened her Shun Shun Rika? The bangs on her forehead were prominent before, but as it goes on into the Soul Society arc, you will see that her bangs were lessened. It's either she had a haircut or the artists decided to shorten out the amounts of bangs to make it easier on them. She was only a minor character during the start, so she didn't have much "air time" you could say. Either way, I don't mind. It just gives me some kind of insight to the subtle changes the characters have gone through that we take for granted sometimes.

Now about that customizer . . . if you want to see the results of my half-assed work, the link is in my profile. I actually made three versions: (1) Orihime in her spring-summer seifuku, (2) Orihime in her fall-winter seifuku, and (3) Orihime in a nurse uniform. But for her sake, I only uploaded the first two. I don't want to raise a scandal (note the lame joke).

--- CHAPTER 15 ---

Secrets of the Cross

Two weeks had passed. During those mundane days, nothing out of the ordinary had occurred, though if one were to be very observant of Ichigo Kurosaki and Orihime Inoue during school hours, they will notice that one of them often disappear for an hour or so with 1-3's transfer student, Rukia Kuchiki. Fortunately, none were the wiser to this bit of news and the three spirit-sensitive beings were able to keep their shinigami duties a secret.

After what happened at the cemetery on the seventeenth of June, Ichigo had reluctantly agreed to Orihime's request to help in shinigami duties. She didn't have to do any of these since it wasn't her concern, but the girl was quite dead-straight in telling Ichigo otherwise. She said she was worried that people might notice his less-than-subtle disappearances now that the amount of souls that needed to be sent to Soul Society had increased during the past week. It was a tiny marginal increase, but even that caused Ichigo to skip two periods a day. It would put a damp on his academics, so Orihime thought it was her duty to help Ichigo out because she had the power to. And Ichigo couldn't deny her logic. He was also finding it harder and harder for him to get angry at her.

Rukia showed no complaint over the additional roster. She seemed to take all of this without any visible conflict, as if she had expected that Ichigo will eventually let Orihime do what she wants . . . or she might have planned on letting Orihime join anyway. This annoyed him a little, but he had no proof that that was what the midget was thinking. Other than giving Orihime some additional information concerning Hollow purification and soul burials, Rukia went out of her way to teach her some basic level kidou spells.

When asked, Rukia's answer would be this: "Inoue has potential in the demon arts. Why, jealous?"

Ichigo was, a little. But after mentally listing the pros and cons of learning kidou, he found that it had no actual use in his battles. What he relied on was his blade and his wit. A powerhouse kind of swordsman, if you would put it frankly.

Orihime's training was limited to only learning how to control her reiryoku (tr. Spiritual Power) and the healing kidou spell, so that whenever he or Orihime herself got injured during a Hollow fight, they wouldn't have to always rely on Rukia to heal their wounds. Rukia had refused to teach anything more to Orihime since most of the other kidou spells she knew of were to be known to official shinigami only. Rules are rules. But Ichigo suspected that a different reason was holding her back.

Back to the present, Ichigo was currently walking through the gates of Karakura High School. On both of his flanks were Orihime and Rukia, left and right, respectively. The two girls were talking animatedly about whatever the heck they were talking about; for the moment, Ichigo didn't really want to tune into what they were discussing. He learned long ago that there was no stopping those two once their trivial conversations were out in full force. It would often take the presence of a Hollow to shut their mouths. His opinions rarely got into these talks, not that he was planning on adding any of his two cents into it. Doing that would probably do more harm than good. For his patience and sanity, anyway.

A few stares came their way, but Ichigo just walked on without batting an eye. He had gone used to the stares ever since elementary school when the other kids openly pointed and stared at his natural hair color. One of the adults had even pointed out that it was as bright and red as Carrot Top's, even though, in terms of color, they were quite different, according to Tatsuki. And Ichigo had no idea who this Carrot Top person was, so he hadn't a clue whether to take that adult's words as an insult or compliment. Tatsuki said that she'd show him who Carrot Top was when the guy appears on TV, but neither put much hope for that happening, so Ichigo gave up on finding out.

The sight of him would have been normal by now, yet some of the students were making a full-out staring contest right at him, and they were not even covering their tracks. Ichigo glared at a few of those who watched him pass by.

"Yo! Ichi—"

Clothesline to the neck. Victim spun vertically one whole 720 degrees before plummeting onto the ground in a painful-looking position. Hmm . . . maybe he had put too much force on the usual morning greeting ritual.

"Morning to you, too, Keigo," Ichigo greeted back before entering the classroom.

Keigo's reply was a quiet and throaty "Ouch."

Yep, a typical school day today.

. . . or not.

Ichigo just found out from Misato Ochi, one of their teachers, that their exam grades were given today. The board would be displayed on their floor, grading and ranking all the first years in the school.

He was a little worried about the state of his grades due to his extracurricular activities shortening his study time. At least he thought he did all right. Out of a mere afterthought, he looked towards Orihime's seat and saw her staring back at him. She smiled reassuringly at him, probably sensing his worry. And as much as he wanted to, he couldn't smile back. Rather he resisted the urge to do just that. It was not like he wasn't grateful of Orihime's concern, but just seeing that smile of hers made his stomach twist all of a sudden. He looked away before it got worse.

"WHAAAT?! T—T—T—T—T—T—Twenty-third place!!!"

Orihime winced. Keigo had shouted next to her, and it was not a pleasant experience. Their class had just come to the board which showed the ranks of the Top 50 students, and no one was more shocked than Keigo when he saw Ichigo's name in the middle.

Ichigo, however, looked nonplussed. And Orihime knew why. If it wasn't for his shinigami duties then he might've done better in the exams. At least she started helping him with his duties a few days before they had to really cram for the exam week. Surprisingly, Orihime did less than she expected.

5 – Inoue Orihime

Being a shinigami and student at the same time can be quite stressful. She barely had enough for free time and relaxation anymore, but at least she was prepared for the examinations. Orihime only did a bit of cramming, hit the sack early, and prayed that she'd have a good score. Her prayers were granted, it seemed, but she still honestly believed that she could've done better.

Tatsuki and the rest of the girls in her class congratulated Orihime on her achievement, even going so far as to say that they would never have expected she'd get inside the Top 5 ranks. Well, that was at least expected since she had been coined as an airhead. And stereotypically, airheads don't finish with very high scores. Orihime and Tatsuki had already established with themselves since middle school that the former was no ordinary airhead, excluding the shinigami part, of course.

By the time Keigo and Mizuiro ran away after finding out that their Mexican amigo was in the 11th rank, Ichigo took an interest on who held the top spot.

"Ishida . . . Uryuu? Who the heck is that?"

"It's Ishida-kun," Orihime said. "He's in our class." She then pointed on the left side of the board where beside the names of the students is the classroom they are in. And in bold, the number before Ishida's name was clearly 3, the section number of Ichigo and Orihime's class.

Ichigo flinched at that statement, and more so when he saw the number, his face clearly written in an expression that shouted 'I never knew that! How could I have not known that?!'

"Leave it, Orihime," Tatsuki said. "The guy doesn't even know the names of half the class. I doubt that he'd know anything about Ishida."

"Is that true, Kurosaki-kun?" Orihime asked.

He nodded slowly.

"Then how about we reintroduce you to him?"

"I decline," he answered impassively.

"Eh~? Why?"

"He'd just forget him twenty seconds later," Tatsuki explained with smile.

Ichigo grunted. "Shut up."

"Is that even possible?" Orihime asked her.

"With Ichigo, anything's possible."

"I don't know whether to take that as an insult or a compliment," Ichigo said dryly.

"Then consider it both," Tatsuki replied. "It can mean anything after all."

"Whatever." He sighed. "Well, since there's nothing else interesting around here, I'm going to get some lunch. You girls wanna eat with Chad and me?"

Sado looked at the girls, though the expression on his face was vague and close to being regarded as unfazed. He didn't really mind whether the girls rejected their offer to eat with them or not.

"What about the two simpletons who ran away earlier?" Tatsuki asked.

"After knowing that me and Chad are in twenty-third and eleventh, respectively, I don't think they'll come near us for the rest of the day," Ichigo answered. He then added, "Which is pretty much a godsend."

She nodded and said, "Only if you're buying."

"Condition refused, offer withdrawn."

"Hey, don't be like that. I was just kidding around."

"I know." He smirked. "Come on."

"Wait!" Orihime exclaimed as the others were turning to go.

"What is it, Inoue?" Ichigo asked.

She didn't answer his question; her attention was on her best friend. "You and Sado-kun can go on ahead. I have to do something with Kurosaki-kun."

Ichigo kept quiet while Tatsuki closed in on her and made a huddle with her. Orihime was already thinking up some good defensive formations for the opposing team to try and get through before she realized that there was no opposing team and they weren't playing American Football. Her mind just assumed that by huddling, that meant they were playing American Football. Maybe she'll suggest a basketball-football hybrid game like she and Tatsuki did with baseball and soccer. It would be quite interesting to see people being tackled while dribbling a ball.

"Is this about the spirit stuff?" Tatsuki whispered in her ear.

"No," Orihime whispered back, mimicking Tatsuki. "I just think Kurosaki-kun should need to remember at least Ishida-kun in our class. Kurosaki-kun might not have noticed but Ishida-kun seems to have an above average spiritual presence."

"But I don't see the point in introducing those two with each other. They're more likely to kill each other than to sit down and talk civilly over some tea and scones."

". . . scones?" She titled her head.

"Never mind. Anyway, you get what I mean."

As a matter of fact, Orihime did, but she wasn't about to let that little obstacle keep her from doing what she intended to do. "I still think they should at least be acquainted with each other."

"And if he refuses, still?"

Orihime didn't answer.

"You're bent on introducing him to Ishida no matter how much he protests, right?"

"Well . . . that's a little . . ."

Tatsuki smiled at her. "Go for it, Orihime."

"Heh?"

"The guy with the memory gap needs reminding." She pointed her thumb at Ichigo, who was asking Sado something. "And I don't think he'll refuse you a second time if you're insistent."

"Do you really think so?" she asked timidly.

"There's no harming in trying, is there."

Orihime thought about it a bit. "No, I guess not."

"Then good luck with that." Tatsuki moved away from their huddle and walked towards the giant. "Come on, Sado." She then turned to the remaining two, "We'll be on the roof."

Sado followed her.

"So . . . what do you want to do?" Ichigo asked Orihime.

Gathering her courage, Orihime grabbed Ichigo's wrist and started walking down the opposite corridor. She had caught a glimpse of his surprise from their contact, but thankfully he didn't resist her dragging him to wherever.

"Where are we going, Inoue?"

"To class."

"Why? You forgot something there? Your wallet?"

"No, I have mine right in my pocket." She tapped the area below her right hip twice.

"Then why are we going back there?"

"To first check if he is there."

"Who's he?"

Orihime didn't reply, and it was good timing that they reached the door to their classroom. Before Ichigo could ask her again, she slid the door open and scanned the room. And there, sitting in the middle of the crowd of empty desks and chairs, was the person she was looking for. He was alone, eating his bento by himself, with a thin pocket book in his right hand. As if he had practice it for years, he masterfully turned the pages of the booklet one-handed while serving his mouth a chunk of rice. His eating was slow and precise, his attention mainly on the words in the book. Orihime was familiar with the novella Ishida was reading. While he was already reading the fourth volume of the series, she was just starting out with the first volume.

"Come on," she said to Ichigo, and pulled him inside the room and towards Ishida's seat.

By this point, Ichigo already put the pieces together on her plan. "No, no, no. I said we don't need any reintroductions."

Unfortunately, his words fell on deaf ears.

"Ishida-kun," Orihime greeted.

Ishida looked away from his book and acknowledged her. His eyes then moved towards the one she had dragged into the room. Orihime wasn't sure but she could've sworn that Ishida's eyes narrowed a little at the sight of Ichigo. Shrugging it off as probably refraction from Ishida's square-shaped, rimless glasses, she pulled Ichigo closer to Ishida's seat.

"What is it?" Ishida asked, his eyes showing a small bit of annoyance.

"We were here to congratulate you for being the top ranked first year student in the school," Orihime said, though she stuttered and sounded really nervous. Even if she considered it somewhat a white lie, she still had trouble lying something this simple.

Thankfully, Ishida didn't look suspiciously at her or Ichigo. He just settled down his chopsticks to adjust his glasses by pushing it back to the top of the bridge of his nose. His gaze was solely on Ichigo now as if waiting for him to vouch her reason.

She elbowed Ichigo lightly, and he clearly got the message. "Yeah," he said.

"Well, you've now done what you came here for," Ishida replied, taking his chopsticks. "And I prefer to eat alone and in silence."

This is not going so well, Orihime thought. Tatsuki had warned her about the possibility of this happening, and Orihime could already see the way Ichigo's eyes narrowing from Ishida's rebuff of their attempts. Ichigo doesn't like people acting in an almighty way around him.

When Ichigo was about to retaliate, she instinctively grabbed his forearm. Her grip was tight, and it had the desired effect on the recipient. Ichigo turned his head at her, and she gazed meaningfully at his eyes, sending a silent message that she didn't want him to start a fight. While Rukia placates him with an aggressive front, Orihime does the opposite and tries what she can to calm Ichigo down by using gestures and words. She rarely initiates contact of her own accord, but when she does it always means something deep. Orihime wasn't sure what it was but understood that it was deep. And every time she did so, Ichigo often calmed down. Doing this again, right here inside the classroom where a few of their other classmates had been witnessing the exchange between the orange-haired duo and Ishida with little interest but soon had their whole attention once it was clear that a fight—verbal, not physical—was about to occur, Orihime felt very self-conscious with half a dozen students staring at them, not to mention when she heard a group of girls eating lunch and whispering about what her hands were holding on. But this wasn't about her at all. She had to keep Ichigo from making a bigger scene than the one they inadvertently made already.

When Ichigo closed his mouth, she let him go. He must've understood the other part of her silent message because he didn't turn to leave right away. She wanted him to at least try and be civil with Ishida. That would make it easier for them to interact with him when, by chance, his sensitivity to the supernatural heightens to a formidable level that seeing Pluses wandering around in school and in the city will be as common as seeing people go by in Times Square. And that was not an exaggeration. Orihime wasn't sure what propelled her in putting them both into this situation but it was just one of her strong gut feelings that motivated her. It never wronged her before, and she had been feeling it for quite a while around Ishida since the time they went back to school on the eighteenth. Before she could initiate conversation with Ishida again, her companion beat her to it.

"Are you Christian?"

Orihime wondered where that question came from.

Ishida sighed, and then closed his book, knowing that he won't be having much reading time while the man standing beside his seat was scrutinizing his very presence. "What's it to you if I am?"

"Nothing, really."

"Then why ask?"

Orihime had the slight suspicion that Ishida absolutely hated Ichigo's guts, but maybe she was just imagining things. The two rarely speak or even acknowledge each other; that lack of communication didn't necessarily mean that one harbors great hatred towards the other. Yeah, she was probably just imagining it like all the other imaginative nonsense Tatsuki said she spewed sometimes.

"You're wearing a cross," Ichigo said to Ishida.

"Your point?"

"It's a Celtic cross, too."

"Just because I'm wearing a cross that has religious history on its symbolism does not mean that I'm into that religion. I might be just wearing it for the fashion, have you ever thought of that, Kurosaki?"

"Didn't think you'd be the fashionista kinda guy."

"Is there anything else you two need?" He raised an eyebrow. "I wish to get back to my lunch before classes resume."

Orihime understood that part of Ishida's character. Being in the handicrafts club with him gave her time to discern bits of his personality, so she knew immediately that he wanted to end the conversation now. And that meant now.

Ichigo grunted and turned away from Ishida. Orihime watched him go for a few steps before following him out. She took one final glance at Ishida over her shoulder and saw him going back to eating. But his gaze never left Ichigo and her until they were well out of sight.

Lunch came and went. The same went for classes. By the time that it was after school hours, Ichigo and Rukia were already at the gates and heading for home. Orihime, however, had to stay because there was a scheduled meeting of the handicrafts club today. All members had to attend, which included her and Ishida. Orihime fixed the things in her bag and moved out of her seat. She and one other person were the only people left in the classroom; Tatsuki had already left for the Karate club.

"Let's go," Ishida said, as he slid the door open for her.

This was almost tradition to them since joining the club. The club itself didn't really take much of their time since meetings only occur twice a week, and recently meetings were adjourned a week before the exams until the last day of the exams. So today everyone in the club had a lot of catching up to do.

What stuff they need to catch up on is classified information. Orihime believes all of you will understand.

While she and Ishida descended the stairs to the ground floor, her curiosity on Ishida's subtle hostility towards Ichigo resurfaced and she couldn't let it go. It clung to her like she was its last lifeline. And it didn't seem willing to go away until she fulfilled what it wanted to know. She had to relent to it.

"Um, Ishida-kun," she paused, waiting for him to acknowledge her. When he stopped walking, she continued, "Are you mad at Kurosaki-kun, by any chance?"

No one but them was there; the stairs in which they were still on and the first floor corridor where to the west leads to the handicrafts clubroom were pretty much deserted, but there was a bundle of activity at the back of the school, where most of the physical-type clubs like the Karate club, Track and field club, and the Soccer club were training at. That didn't make Orihime relax at the tense atmosphere, however. There may be ambient noises frolicking about in the air, but the silence permeating between them was louder in a sense. Much, much louder.

Because his back was to her, she couldn't make out what his face was like when she asked. But she was positive that he had been calm with his answer.

"I'm not mad at Kurosaki per se, but I hate what he represents."

"Hate?" Orihime repeated in disbelief. That would explain his hostility but not the reason behind it. What did he mean by 'what he represents'?

"To put it plainly, I can tolerate him being in the same class as me, but I reach my limit once he starts talking to me, breathing the same air as me. I absolutely abhor his kind."

"You don't like punks?" Orihime asked, not really getting where he was taking this conversation. "Because Kurosaki-kun is not like that at all. You just didn't give him the benefit of the doubt. I'm sure that if you two try to like each other, you'll see that friendship is not far from—"

"I detest you as much as him," Ishida cut through her rambling.

Orihime felt like she had been kneed in the gut. It took a while for her to fully process the sheer intensity of his seven-word statement and how it affected her and her feelings. She had never met anyone who would hate her as much as Ishida was saying to her. She didn't know how to react to this other than shock.

Ishida glanced over his shoulder, and Orihime finally saw how true his words were to his emotions, the intense hatred borne in the eyes behind the lenses. "Because you are the same as him."

He resumed his descent from the stairs, not even concerned to what his harsh words had done to Orihime. She stood in the middle of those stairs for minutes, which might have stretched to hours if it wasn't for Orihime's sempai who was also a member of handicrafts club and heading for the clubroom threw her out of her funk . . . for the time being.

Needless to say, Orihime did not speak to Ishida for the duration of the meeting. She couldn't even make eye contact with the guy. Her mind was too wrapped up with questions as to the deeper reason of Ishida's hatred. But one thing was for sure: She wouldn't be getting answers today.

Ichigo yawned as he absently placed this week's Shonen Jump issue on his desk. He had done his homework not too long ago (which didn't take a lot of time since he only had homework for one subject today), and had settled for some entertainment in the weekly comics. None of the stories the thick comic book offered him was of interest, but he read some of them anyway because he really had nothing better to do.

Rukia was in her spot—his closet—and keeping quiet for hours. Ichigo didn't have a clue what she does inside those four constricting walls and didn't want to have a clue at all. The Mod Soul currently inhabiting the body of a lion plushie had a different goal in mind. Which was why he tied the mini-pervert up and hung him up on the ceiling, making Kon look like a piñata swinging around as if it had been hit by 'the stick' recently. Apparently, Kon had escaped from the clutches of his little sister not too long ago and wasn't about to come back to her in her open arms, so he turned to Rukia for some comfort.

"Traumatized . . ." he had wheezed as he lay on the floor after barging into Ichigo's room. "I've been forced to do things for two weeks."

Ichigo never asked what he meant nor did he care. He just tied him up, with some help from Rukia, and let him hang there until he deemed his little punishment over.

When Kon was once again trying to spit out some curses from his gagged mouth, Rukia opened the closet door and stepped out. She was looking at her cell phone, which Ichigo instantly knew what she was about to do.

"Time for evening patrol," she said, her eyes never leaving the small screen of the phone.

Ichigo looked out the window and saw the night sky and the town entering the dark atmosphere of the nightlife. If he were to judge the time current time, he would say it was between nine and ten. He glanced at Kon for a moment. The little bastard looked as if Christmas came early. And Ichigo knew why.

Hiding a sadistic smile, convincing himself that Kon's punishment was quite far from over, Ichigo said to Rukia, "Use your glove today. Kon's still in probation."

Kon screamed in indignation which was muffled from the gag. Ichigo was sure the mini-pervert was saying curses while he screamed.

"No arguments there," Rukia agreed, and slipped on her Soul Glove.

Once his soul was ejected from his body, and the latter was now lying on the bed with its eyes closed as if it was sleeping, both he and Rukia jumped out of the window, leaving Kon to keep on screaming at them until his throat hurt.

"So," Ichigo said as they landed on the street, "which area will we be patrolling tonight?"

"The western part of the city. There has been a recent influx of reishi (tr.Spirit Particles) in that area. It's small and not a cause for alarm, but better to investigate and see what is causing it."

"All right."

They silently made their way to the western side of the city. Rukia alternated between reading the radar and looking where she was going. Ichigo really didn't do anything, so he just walked along with her and waited for her exclamation of a Hollow or the trademark beeping of her phone.

He wasn't always the one Rukia had to drag all around the city for patrols. Well, not anymore, ever since Rukia and he accepted Orihime's help. The work load had diminished quite a lot, and that at least gave him the necessary time to study for the exams. It was around three days after they let Orihime in with the duties that Rukia had scheduled a patrol for each of them. Of course, she would have to be present with the current day's patrol, so whenever it was Orihime's turn to patrol around the city Rukia would go over to her house or state a meeting place via text message; thank goodness Orihime can read received text messages from her cell phone now. Ichigo didn't argue with the setup because it had its benefits, which was time for him to catch up with his normal life. That and it gave him time to mull over the recent predicament with him and Orihime alone for once; he couldn't really think as if he was alone when a 150-year-old old maid was in his closet.

He didn't have any kind of progress except for knowing that he and Orihime had gotten closer for the past month. If it weren't for Rukia's appearance and the subsequent events that played out, he might not have gotten this close to Orihime at all. But he wondered where his relationship with her lead to. Rukia had been hinting to him about something concerning Orihime, but he didn't quite get it. It was either he was just dense (which was unlikely because he was half-admitting it to himself, and dense people don't admit they're dense) or Rukia's hints were so obscure and archaic that a 19th century samurai will have better luck figuring them out than him. But at least he saw some improvement in Orihime after her initial death. She had always been known to be a bundle of cheeriness and energy, but deep inside he somehow knew that she was wearing a mask to hide away the deeper and darker emotions of her psyche. Not anymore, though. Well, maybe not all of the pieces of her mask were gone but it was better than nothing. She must have had a lot of stuff going on her shoulders: the suspicions of her birth, which was confirmed to be true, after all; acceptance to their group (Ichigo didn't know about this until she confessed about feeling like a third wheel); getting used to her newfound powers; and controlling Emi.

His thoughts suddenly derailed, however, when he heard the beeping.

"Ichigo, to the northeast," Rukia stated.

"Got it!" He was already gripping his sword when the beeping stopped abruptly. He also felt a sudden change in the wind.

"Wait." She examined the phone's screen. "That's odd. The Hollow's disappeared."

"Disappeared?"

Ichigo only got to say two syllables before the phone was beeping furiously.

"Another one. To the north."

The beeping stopped.

"Wha—?" Rukia said in disbelief. "It's disappeared, too."

"Hey, is that thing broken or something?"

"No," she answered vehemently. "Something's eradicating the Hollows seconds after they enter the Human World."

"And how can you be sure of that?"

"It's better than thinking that the radar is broken."

". . . you have really screwed-up standards, don't you?" Usually people would first think that the radar is broken before speculating of something doing a shinigami's job for them.

"And what is that supposed to mean?"

He didn't have time to answer.

In the silence of the street, the two heard the sound of footsteps approaching the streetlight in which they were under, interrupting the start of another argument between them. Ichigo could only see a silhouette that gradually turns white as it comes closer to the artificial light. He thought it would be just some passer-by, but after sensing Rukia tense at the presence of this person, he thought otherwise.

"Incompetent," the person announced, his face still obscured by the darkness of the night, but Ichigo could swear that he recognized that voice. "You call yourself a shinigami? You couldn't even do your job properly that I have to do it for you. Not that I mind. It's better for you to just disappear and let me do the job of eliminating the Hollows."

Ichigo tensed, keeping silent until he found his voice back. He was certain this person was human, but it shocked him to realize that the person can see him and know what he is. Was he another spiritually sensitive person like him and Orihime?

The person stepped closer to the light, revealing his face to the two. He had pitch-black hair, contrasting the white with blue stripes clothing he was wearing. And behind the square rimless glasses were a pair of eyes that directed hate towards Ichigo's general direction.

Recognition hit Ichigo lightly. "You . . ." Uh . . . what was his name again?

Like I said, lightly.

"Uryuu Ishida," he introduced himself. "I had a feeling you would forget who I am."

Ichigo felt insulted.

Ishida pointed to his right. "If I'm not mistaken, a Hollow will appear approximately four-hundred yards away from my position."

"What?" He and Rukia said in disbelief simultaneously. And a second later, Rukia's phone started beeping again.

"A Hollow . . ." She looked to her left, the same direction that Ishida was pointing, "will come from over there."

Before Ichigo could move, he felt that sudden change in the air again. And it was coming from Ishida. When he looked back at the bespectacled teen, he noticed something he hadn't before. Wrapped around his right wrist, which was his pointing arm, was the Celtic cross he had seen him wear during school. The chain was encircled neatly around Ishida's wrist that there was no question that it was quite secured. But that wasn't all. Dangling under his arm was one end of the chained necklace with a ring roughly the diameter of his thumb at the bottom. Power radiated from it.

"Let me demonstrate," Ishida said, "the right way in eliminating a Hollow."

Right before Ichigo's eyes, he saw the reishi gathered in the air concentrate onto the cross and materialize into a blue mass of light. It was shapeless at first, like water, but as Ishida shifted the form of his hand from a pointing gesture to something that looked as if he was holding a stick, the shapeless mass transformed, redirecting its flow to something that resembled a curve or a parabola.

No, it looks more like a bow.

Ichigo was right in his assumption, for as the mass of reishi assembled itself into a bow, Ishida inserted his left hand's forefinger into the dangling ring and pulled it back up to the joint of his right shoulder. Another mass of reishi materialized and concentrated itself into the shape of an arrow thrice the normal size.

Ishida let go of the ring, and the arrow soared through the air like a blue bullet.

When it dispersed—probably hitting its mark—Rukia's announced that the Hollow was gone. Her cell phone seemed dead without the beeping.

"Who are you?" she questioned Ishida.

Ishida adjusted his glasses, and said, "Like I said before: Uryuu Ishida. I am the Last Quincy."

"Quincy . . ." she murmured.

"And I hate shinigami." With that, he walked away.

"Hey!" Ichigo exclaimed. He was really starting to hate this guy. Not only did he show up abruptly, he was leaving abruptly as well. Ichigo didn't like his attitude. "Uryuu Ishida."

"What?" Ishida replied, his back to them.

"Face the one you're talking to, man. You're acting all high and mighty"—which is the cause of Ichigo's irritation—"and I don't like it."

"If I were to face you, then I'd be showing respect. Now why would I show respect to someone I hate?"

"What?" Ichigo gritted his teeth. Oh yes, this guy definitely needed an old-fashioned attitude adjustment with Ichigo's fists.

"I thought we had established that by now. You are quite slow. I hate shinigami." He looked over his shoulder, his eyes narrowed. "That means I hate you, Ichigo Kurosaki."

He didn't say anymore and just left.

"Ichigo."

He turned to Rukia, who put her cell phone back into her pocket.

"We should head home."

"Why?"

She looked towards the darkness, the place where Ishida disappeared to. "The Quincy will handle our duty for tonight."

"Wha—?" Ichigo was dumbstruck. "What the hell, Rukia? You're just gonna let that creep step on us like we're nothing. Well, I sure as hell won't and—"

"This isn't about your pride, Ichigo!"

"Of course it's not!"

"Then stop acting like a child for once." She paused and took a deep breath. "We'll let the Quincy take care of any Hollows that come, but only for tonight. As of now, neither of us knows how to proceed with this predicament. The Quincy are supposed to be extinct. They have been so for over two centuries now."

After Ichigo calmed down a bit, he asked, "So, what now?"

"You need to be educated about the Quincy and how they use their spiritual energy in eliminating Hollows."

He looked doubtful, because with Rukia explaining things, that always meant she would have her trusty sketchbook with her. "You're not gonna use any doodles, are you? Because I don't think I have the stomach for it tonight."

Rukia clobbered his head, much to his chagrin. And to add insult to injury, she did have drawings to illustrate her discussion.

Ichigo slept that night with dreams of bow-wielding rabbits shooting arrows with heart-shaped fletches.

Chapter Afterword:

I write everyone's names in Western order (first name before surname). The Japanese, however, put their surnames before their first names. Let's just put it this way: In the narrative form—which is me telling the story and stuff—I write them in Western order, but to stay true to the fact that the Bleach world is in Japan, I put all written documents and such in the reverse order.

I made an Easter Egg in this chapter. If you can remember the scene where Ishida was reading his book while in Orihime's POV, then you know that he's in the fourth volume of the novella series while Orihime's still in the first, right? Here's a trivia: Ishida's debut in the manga was in the fourth volume, and Orihime's debut was in the first. Pretty obscure, but at least I had a laugh out of it.

And I really can't see the canon Ichigo being sadistic to Kon. He is mostly indifferent to the little guy's misfortunes (though Ichigo's often the cause of it), but this is an AU and the differences from this universe from the canon-verse have caused Ichigo to have a small grudge on the Mod Soul. I guess his anger on Kon seeing Orihime topless went deeper than I thought.