Chapter 13
The Die is Cast
A few hours later Orihime's phone started ringing, rudely awakening both of the lovers.
Ichigo rolled over and buried his face in the mattress.
"Orihime could you please shut that thing up?"
The girl picked up the phone.
"Hello?"
After someone on the other end told her something she gasped before turning to Ichigo.
"Uryu is in the hospital!"
Ichigo shot awake at this.
"What? Why?"
"He was assaulted!"
Ichigo got up and the two got dressed.
Ichigo decided his normal outfit made him look like a cosplayer or something, so he dug through his closet and found some of his old clothes, a white T Shirt, a black jacket with zig zags on it, and some jeans.
"Orihime, do you want to go back to your house to change very quickly?"
"Yeah I guess."
Ichigo opened Gargantua. "Let's go."
After she had changed into some more casual clothing, Orihime and Ichigo soon arrived at the hospital where Uryu was being kept.
The door to the room the Quincy was in burst open.
Orihime went in first, followed by Ichigo.
Chad hadn't answered his phone when Orihime called, but Kon had. (Ichigo decided that it might be a good idea for Kon to be in the know for once)
"Uryu!" Orihime exclaimed with concern.
"Hello Orihime."
"Yo."
"...Ichigo. Honestly, you had him come too? You're taking things too far."
"Uryu..." sighed Ichigo at the Quincy's attitude.
"Taking things too far?" A voice said from behind Ichigo. "At least your mouth is fully functional. That never changes."
The voice came from Uryu's father, who walked past Ichigo and Orihime.
"Besides, I'm not supposed to have any visitors." Uryu countered. "What do you plan to do if my wounds worsen because people keep barging in here?"
As if on cue, Kon arrived.
Uryu's father was a tad confused at what appeared to be two Ichigos.
"It's a long story." the two said in unison.
Turning his attention back to his son, Ryuken pushed his glasses up.
"Are you stupid? Who do you think preformed the surgery. A little something like this won't open your wounds."
The elder Quincy narrowed his eyes.
"Those who let themselves get slashed by their enemies should not be telling their doctors 'do this' or 'don't do that'."
"Slashed?" Exclaimed Ichigo. "What's he talking about, Uryu!"
"It's none of your concern," Uryu answered simply.
"The hell it isn't! I return here to stay for a few months and you blow me off like that? If you got brought down like that, shouldn't we work together?" Ichigo fumed.
"It's important to share information," Ryuken added. "Do you intend to waste the kindness I've shown you?"
"You shut the hell up!" Uryu responded loudly.
"That was a close call," his father replied with a smirk. "Raise your voice another 5 hertz and you'll open your stitches."
Uryu growled.
"Sorry... I can't really tell you anything right now... could you please go home?" Uryu said, calming.
"Okay." Orihime replied.
She got up first and Ichigo followed.
"It's late. I'll walk you home." the Vizard told Orihime.
Ichigo turned to Kon. "Head back to the house. I'll show up sooner or later. Have to say hello to my sisters later anyway."
"Got it."
Ryuken was about to protest Ichigo's decision, but the teen lowered his sunglasses to reveal his eyes.
"I'll tell you something," the man said, lowering his voice. "It wasn't a hollow that slashed Uryu. It wasn't a Soul Reaper either. I examined the Reiatsu on the wound. I don't even know if-!"
"Human. It smelled human." Replied Ichigo. "But it smelled kind of hollow too. Odd to describe to a human, even a Quincy."
"Really? Interesting. It seems your eyes aren't the only part of you that's hollow."
"We'll be leaving now. Thanks for the tip. Come on, Orihime."
"One word of warning," the man added. "That person's next target will most likely be Chad... or Orihime."
Ichigo nodded.
He wasn't going home tonight.
Kon picked up his phone and dialed the number on the black card.
"Hello? This is Xicution..."
Ichigo decided he's be a tad more threatening in his Hollow form, so he'd tampered with the Gigai's seal a bit to allow him to be in Perfect Hollow form, which looked a bit funny given his outfit.
Nobody tried anything that night.
The next day, Ichigo, in 'Shikuro' form, arrived at the school, and bumped into Kon.
"Where're you going?" the Vizard asked.
"Somewhere important." Kon answered.
"It has to do with that card, doesn't it?"
"How did you know?"
"A hunch."
"...Orihime's waiting on you."
"Fine. Take care of my body."
"Will do."
With that the two parted ways.
Ichigo walked about until a window opened.
"Ichigo! I found out Chad hasn't been to school lately. I figured he might be sick, so I thought I might drop a gift off at his house later. You want to come along?"
"Sure. I've been meaning to talk to Chad anyway."
"Great! Meet me after I get off today."
"Will do."
The two arrived at Chad's apartment and Orihime knocked on the door.
No response.
"Chaaaaad? Are you there?"
Ryuken's words echoed through their minds.
Orihime shook them off, but Ichigo was processing them and the fact the attacker was human over and over.
It helped to have three people in his head at once; he could 'steal' the processing power of his hollow and Zangetsu's 'brains' to think faster.
Orihime hung the bread on the door and asked some nondescript god to have Chad get better.
"I'll see what I can do, " Ichigo joked, cheering up Orihime.
Ichigo was glad it worked; he liked her smile. It was a good counter to his usual scowl.
Kon walked the blocks, trying to get to an address.
"District 7...7...1..."
He looked up.
"A derelict apartment building? Guess this is it."
"Yo!"
Kon turned to see the man from the other day.
"Five minutes early huh? How professional." The man commented.
"It's not five minutes, it's three." Kon replied, holding the Ichigo act.
'If these guys are the ones that attacked Uryu, best to play along...'
"So? What'd you wanna talk to me about?"
"A buddy of mine got his ass kicked last night."
"And?"
"I want you to give me a hand."
"Oh? You said you didn't trust me."
"You know about me and my dad," Kon lied. "You can't be a normal human."
"Maybe. Maybe not." the man replied.
"It isn't that I trust you, it's-"
"You have no one else to turn to." the man finished. "Alright, follow me."
Soon they reached a room that was poorly lit and had a bar.
But it was a damn big poorly lit room.
"Why is it so big?" Kon asked.
"We knocked down the walls of five apartments. One of our members has some money." the man replied.
He walked forward a bit then stopped. "So, before we get started, I'm going to tell you our objective."
"Objective?"
"Yeah. Our objective..." the man smirked. "Is to help you get your Soul Reaper powers back."
Kon's eyes widened.
'That can't be all to it though,' Kon thought.
"How are you gonna do that? Just what the hell are you after?"
"Taking this rather well, aren't we?"
"I'm not the same immature kid I used to be," Kon answered in Ichigo's voice. "Now answer me."
"I can't all at once. Take a seat, and I'll explain everything; the night is long."
Kon did as instructed.
"You want a drink?"
Kon raised an eyebrow.
"We have just about everything on the menu."
Keeping his facade, Kon shook his head. "Not really interested."
The man looked to another man, wearing an eye-patch and a bartender's uniform.
"Get him an orange juice."
"Yes sir." the bartender replied, pouring a glass and setting it in front of Ichigo on a table.
"We," the man began, "are 'humans'. Of course, like you said, we aren't normal humans. We all were born with a special ability."
"A special ability?" Kon asked.
"It'd be faster to show you." The man lowered his hand over the glass of liquor in front of him and there was a glow for a moment before the liquid moved, as if on its own, out of the glass and into the man's mouth.
"What...?"
"What I did there was draw out the 'soul' of the 'alcohol' in the glass and make it assist me in drinking the alcohol."
"Huh?" Kon asked.
"Our ability is to draw out the "soul" in all matter." the man explained. "The look on your face says you don't get it. You thought that only living things had souls?"
The man went into a lengthy explanation of his power, finally getting to:
"If we have an affinity with an object, we can even change its very shape."
He held up a cross on a chain around his neck.
"For instance, this necklace of mine. Watch."
The necklace glowed and then turned into a massive sword.
Kon's eyes widened.
"Kinda like this. We call this ability 'Fullbring'."
Then the door shot open.
"I'm back!" a girl with twin tails and an odd hat yelled.
"Riruka, you're back sooner than I thought you'd be. Did you find him?" the man asked.
Riruka growled. "Yeah I found him! Hey, that shiny thing is a sword, right? Why'd you bring it out here?"
Then she started bitching about the lights.
Kon groaned inwardly.
"I don't plan on turning the lights on. Put your glasses on!"
Kon almost broke his cover by laughing.
"I hate wearing glasses, but I hate wearing contacts more!"
Kon had to admit she was sort of cute, but she was a total bitch.
"I've got really big eyes, so contacts dry them out fast!"
"Who's that?" Kon asked.
"Riruka Dokugamine."
"Who's that?" the girl asked, squinting.
"I'll introduce you later. Bring him in."
"The hell.. acting like you're the boss. Bring him in!"
Kon's eyes widened.
"...Chad?"
"Ichigo?"
"What the hell are you doing here? You haven't been at school at all, so why-!"
"Calm down, Ichigo."
"Like hell! Tell me what's going on! IF I like your answer, I might-!"
"Calm down. Don't make me say it again." said the man sternly. "Now sit down. You too chad. I'll explain everything."
"What? They knew each other? I didn't know that!" fumed Riruka. She turned to the man. "Ginjou were you aware of this? I couldn't have been the only one who wasn't, right?"
"Bring Chad something to drink too," Ginjou told the bartender.
"Yes sir."
"ARE YOU IGNORING ME?" Riruka screamed.
Ginjou blocked the girl with his arm and pushed her back.
"Stay right here."
She complained something about not being able to see Ichigo's face.
"Later. Now that we're all here, let's get down to business, shall we?"
Kon glared at Ginjou, but he was really processing all this information.
He was a mod soul, not a supercomputer!
"You understand our power now that you've seen it with your own eyes, right?"
"Yeah." Kon replied.
"Then let's move on. Do you know why hollows have a hole in their chest?"
"They lost their heart."
"That's the obvious part. It becomes their mask, their form, even their powers. Every one of us," Ginjou started. "Had a parent attacked by a hollow before we were born."
"Traces of those hollows' powers remained in our mother's bodies, then passed on to us when we were born, going deeper than mere spirit. It's coded in our DNA. Ichigo, you once had hollow powers. You know how it feels."
Kon had seen the wanton destruction Ichigo could cause when he went berserk.
"We would like to eliminate this troublesome power from within us." Ginjou began. "We gathered allies who were the same, and eventually came to one conclusion: Our powers, are the exact opposite of us."
"If there is someone who has the powers of a Soul Reaper and a human, then we can pass our power to them."
"...That means..."
"There was at one time another Soul Reaper born of a human and another Soul Reaper."
"By surrendering their power to that person, they were able to discard their abilities. Do you get it? In order for us to go back to being human, we need you to get your Soul Reaper powers back."
Ginjou nodded to Chad. "As for Chad, we found him in this town. He understands how we feel and even agreed to voluntarily give us his help if it meant you getting your powers back."
"Chad.. is this true?"
"Yeah. You may not notice it, but you've been a sid sight since you lost your powers."
'Can't tell if he's referring to me or the cover we made for Ichigo after the Regai incident. Doesn't matter.'
After a pep talk from Chad, and an explanation of the terms, although vague, Kon agreed.
"I'm in."
The real Ichigo had been chasing Kon. He saw him enter the building and noticed several small Reiatsu inside the building. When Kon left, Ichigo let him run a ways before he stopped him.
"What was that about?"
"EH? Uh..."
"Don't lie to me."
"W-well the good news is Chad is okay!"
"That's great, now what where YOU doing?"
"Well if you can keep it a secret, cause I think these guys don't fuck around..."
Kon explained his situation.
"Fullbring? Inborn hollow powers? My mom was attacked after I was born!" Ichigo pointed out.
"Hey, you dad's a soul reaper. She might have been targeted before you were born."
"One second."
Ichigo dove into his inner world.
"Hey hollow! I have a question!"
"Ask and ye shall receive."
"You know anything about this Fullbring shit? I thought you didn't show up until I got my soul reaper powers back."
"Correct King. But they existed before me. I just kept them suppressed when we were in our body. I couldn't well have any MORE competition in here, now could I?"
"Tell me everything you know."
"Tall order. I don't even know much about them except they were here, dormant, when I came to life. I squandered them early on to keep the chance at dominance for myself! Hollows are very territorial after all. Can't have some braindead thing on my turf."
"Braindead?"
"Yeah, they were more liked demihollow powers. They didn't have the power I had, so I could keep them down easy. That, and they couldn't do much more than make wheezing noises and squeaky roars. That's all I can say. Let's keep an eye on the situation though... just in case."
"Agreed. Thanks."
"The king thanked me! The world is gonna end!"
"Shut up."
The next day Kon was called to return to the HQ.
"Why'd you call me out here again?"
"The hell? You got a problem?" Ginjou responded. "For being so pissed you sure showed up here obediently enough.
"Shut up. How am I gonna get my Soul Reaper powers back? I thought I'd be training in a big room somewhere."
"You are going to get your powers back! You are going to train in a big room!" said a familiar voice as the door was kicked open.
Riruka was standing in the door holding a dollhouse.
"How come you show up late every time?" Kon asked.
"Don't be stupid! I'm late every time because I have stuff to do!"
A boy on his own playing a portable game system sighed. "Hey Riruka, could you stop opening the door with your foot? Your underwear shows and I really don't want to see that."
A small (one sided) argument broke out, before it was stopped by a dark skinned woman.
"Why don't you explain to Ichigo that box?" she suggested to Riruka.
The girl fumed some more before setting the box down on a table.
"See this box?"
"Yeah...I see it... it's a box. So?" said Kon.
"It's cute right?"
"Huh?"
"This cute box will be your training ground!"
"Huh?"
"you don't have to understand because I"m going to show you my Fullbring right now!"
"What?"
"My Fullbring," Riruka explained, "Is called 'Dollhouse'. It allows me to freely move people or things into or out of things I think are cute!"
She flicked her thumb out of a fist and a small heart appeared hovering over it. She flicked it and it wobbled onto Kon's jacket.
"Wha-!"
"This is your pass. I allow you into my world!"
Kon felt disoriented as he was sucked into the dollhouse.
After some confusion, Kon found out his goal.
'Think... what object did Ichigo have on him at all times...' It hit him; the combat pass. Kon drew it from his back pocket and tried focusing his miniscule power into it. Nothing.
"Dammit work!" Thoughts flashed through his head. Why was he doing this? Sure to keep up the Ichigo act, but part of him wanted his power back. The events from the Regai attack flashed in his head, leading to an image of Nozomi's rare smiles.
'To protect!'
The wooden trinket flared to life as black energy poured out of it in a swastika shape.
"Yes!" The mod soul blocked an attack from the massive pig...thing... in front of him, then focus what little Reiatsu he had into the wooden emblem. A circle connected the four parts of the symbol and Kon recognised it; 'Getsuga...'
He spun to give the attack momentum and willed it to fire. A disc of black energy flew out and hit the pig like creature in the face.
He'd done it!
Ichigo had gone to meet with Leeds for something, so Orihime had returned home alone.
"Heeeeeey!" A voice yelled, shocking Orihime.
A young man was bowing. "I'm Moe from Miyashita Commercial High School. Pardon me, but..." He looked up "Would you mind dying here?"
Ichigo sensed the event; rather the strange, hostile Reiatsu, and used Gargantua to appear nearby.
He Hollowfied and jumped down through a sheet metal overhang, growling.
"Get away," Ichigo let out a low, animalisitc growl. "From my girlfriend."
"I did it, can I get out now?" Asked Kon.
"Pft. Fine." Ririuka replied.
"Not yet," replied the bartender. "If the conditions have been fulfilled and that was Fullbring, then Mr. Pork should return to normal size first."
Sure enough the pig did so seconds later.
The girl grabbed Mr. Pork, tickled her nose with a tissue...
and sneezed on Kon, then Mr. Pork.
Kon popped back into the air, covered in snot.
"Need a towel?" Ginjou offered.
"No shit! You knew about this, didn't you!"
Then the Pass made noises; Kon recognized one of the voices: 'R-Rukia?'
"Wait, Ichigo."
The Vizard looked at her in shock. "What?"
The girl looked at Moe. "Were you the one who attacked Uryu?"
Ichigo realized; she was going to interrogate him. The Vizard backed down but stayed alert and poised to attack like some sort of rabid attack dog.
"Of course! Now tell your pet here to stand aside."
Ichigo growled. "Pet? I already said it once, she's my girlfriend! What do you think I am, a dog?"
Orihime rolled up a workbook from her bag and hit Ichigo on the head with it, shocking him and causing him to flinch.
"The hell! You aren't helping me Orihime."
"Be quite for a minute Ichigo! I'm trying to be like those detectives on TV!"
Ichigo sighed and crossed his arms.
"Now then, tell me about your friends."
Moe laughed. "You're gonna have to beat that shit out of me!"
Ichigo growled louder. "Gladly!" He lunged but stopped when he heard a voice.
"That's enough." Ichigo and Orihime turned around to see a man in his twenties reading a book while sitting on the railing of the path. "It was I who attacked "Uryu"."
"...Mister Tsukishima.." The young thug managed.
"Who're you?" Ichigo growled, shifting positions to put himself between the new arrival and Orihime.
"Shukuro Tsukishima." The man answered calmly before looking to Orihime. "I will be your-!"
"Mister Tsukishima! You didn't have to come all this way! I'll take care of the girl!"
Ichigo weighed the odds; he knew he could wipe the floor with either of them, but there was one of him and in these quarters he might accidentally hurt Orihime...
"No you won't" the elder of the two started. "I said you didn't have to do anything."
The man took a bookmark out of his book and it began to glow green.
It then turned into a sword.
"A sword...?" Ichigo questioned.
"No. This is my Fullbring."
Ichigo growled. He'd have to talk to Kon about this... and by talk he meant physically harm.
"...The book of the End."
Ichigo and Orihime tensed.
"You may relax. I'm not going to do anything to you today. I'll take my leave... right after I punish this boy."
Ichigo relaxed but not for long.
Orihime jumped in front of the boy.
"Orihime what the hell are you doing?"
"I can't let you leave yet; you're the one who attacked Uryu."
"That line would never make it into a book," Tsukishima said.
Then he began walking away.
"Not so fast! Santen Kessh-!" The man appeared behind her in a flash and 'cut' her from shoulder diagonally down the torso.
"Orihime!" Ichigo cried out.
He felt his control slipping again. It had gotten worse since the time he slept with Orihime, like an animal protecting its mate.
He fought back and jumped at the man, who once again stepped out of reach. Then the two assailants vanished. Ichigo heard cries.
"Orihime!"
It was Chad and Kon.
Orihime was on her knees.
She had felt the cut... but there was no wound.
"Ichigo what happened?" Kon asked.
"I... don't know. Some guy just appeared, cut her and left. Funny thing is, there's no blood. Not even a scratch. Which reminds me, we need to have a talk, you two. About your friends." Ichigo looked back as he reverted to his Soul Reaper form. "The guy who attacked her? He used 'Fullbring'."
END CHAPTER 13
Fun fact I was up working on this at 5 am because I couldn't sleep!
Then I had weird Bleach related dreams all night!
Ichigo's succumbing once again, this time to his primal instincts.
Kon infiltrated Xicution succesfully, and unlocked the first level of Fullbring.
The villains have apparently been revealed...
Next Time:
Ichigo's Sorrow! The Book of the End's power manifests!