I do not own Bleach. Sorry for the late update I have been without internet for the past two days.

Chapter 17 A Quincy's Anger

Uryu felt his anger rising. Hinata had left school early yesterday, hadn't come for training later, and she hadn't come to school at all today. He sent another glare towards Ichigo Kurosaki. It was all his fault. Ever since he had become a Shinigami, Hinata had been sadder than normal, and the silly, short Shinigami, Rukia, who was always with him. He pushed up his glasses. Sending another glare their way, he stood up. It was time to start his revenge. He would make Hinata happy again and he would prove that quincies where stronger then Shinigami once and for all. As he left the room, he couldn't help but have one more thought. For some reason, he felt that Ichigo Kurosaki didn't even know who he was.

. . . One Week Later . . .

Ichigo scowled at the ground. It had been a week since the anniversary of his mother's death, and Hinata had been acting weird. She hadn't come to school the next day and no one saw her at all. After that day it had been the weekend, and she hadn't been seen then either. When Monday came around, she had been quiet; her normal smile hadn't been as bright either. When he asked her what was wrong, she had said nothing with a small strained smile. It didn't help that everyone said it was his fault and demanded that he fix it and give them their Hinata back. Their Hinata! It was his sister for crying out load. To top it off, Rukia had been dragging him around more than normal to find hollows that didn't even exist. Stupid soul pager doesn't even work. Then there was the weird kid who wore a weird white dress thing. What his name? Ishima, Ishiro, ah who cares; he was causing problems.

"You know what, Rukia," he said, looking over at the shorter girl, "this is all your fault." With that, he took off running towards school.

"My fault! What's my fault?!"

He didn't look back as he ran, slowly leaving her in the dust with his longer legs. He needed to talk to Hinata. When he got to school though, the front hall was full of students. As he got closer, he realized it was the test scores from the last exam. He watched Tatsuki patting Inoue's head. He quickly checked the board. He gave a smile when he saw that Hinata was ranked second, he then quickly scanned down until he saw his name at twenty-three. He smirked as Keigo and Mizuiro both gave a cry of dismay at his placement. They both ran off as well when they found out Chad had placed even higher at eleven.

After they left, his mind went back to the pressing concern. What was wrong with Hinata? He looked around again and didn't see her. His next concern: who was that jerk from last night who had said he hated Ichigo.

"What was his name again? Ishida Uhhhh. . . Willy. . .? That's not it. That one's a failed entertainer. Wally? No that's wrong. At this rate I'll never come up with it."

"What about Ishida-kun?" Ichigo was surprised to find Inoue talking to him.

"You know Ishida?"

"I know all about him. . . he's in our class after all. Ishida-kun I mean. He's dating your cousin, Ichigo."

Ichigo was so shocked to find out that the mystery boy was in his class that he missed the last thing Inoue said. She walked over to the board and pointed. "See Ishida Uryuu-kun, right? Here, look, he tied with Hinata for first."

"Wha!" He got first place and he tied with Hinata!

"See?"

"It's no use, Orihime. This guy can't recall people's faces and names at all. He probably doesn't recall half the class at all." Tatsuki spoke up, but in a whisper told Orihime, "but still, for how much he loves his cousin, how come he doesn't seem to know Ishida even though he is dating Hinata?"

"Oh, well, Ishida-kun doesn't really talk much. He doesn't stand out like Kurosaki-kun's group, so he might be hard to remember," Orihime chirped up.

"You know him pretty well. Inoue, are you two close?" Ichigo asked.

"Not at all! We're just in the same handicraft club together."

"Handicraft club!?"

For the next five minutes they peeked around the door, staring at the boy Ishida Uryu. They watched him fix a stuffed toy for a girl!

The girl even tried to thank him. "It. . . it's fixed! Thank you, Ishida-kun!"

"No need for gratitude. It was no big deal." He replied while pushing up his glasses.

"Eh. . . Ah. . . right. . . sorry. . ." The girl slowly walked away.

Ichigo looked down at Inoue.

"Ahh. There he goes again. He'd be a nice guy if he didn't talk that way. He's only nice when he's with Hinata."

Ichigo shook his head and looked back down at Inoue. "What?"

Inoue looked up at him, "Yeah, Ishida-kun and Hinata are dating, and he is only nice when they are together."

He was still shocked when he looked up again to see Hinata skipping into the room.

"Uryu!"

Ishida gave a smile as he stood up. Hinata had her arms out as if to hug him. Ichigo gave a growl as he jumped up and ran in between him holding out his arm, catching Hinata by the head and preventing her from getting closer to Ishida.

The room went silent. Hinata looked up at Ichigo with big eyes. "Ichigo?"

"What are you doing Kurosaki?" A growl rolled out from behind Ichigo as a hand descended on his shoulder. He looked back to see Ishida was glaring at him.

"Back off, Ishida," Ichigo growled back. Ichigo felt his arm go slack and was surprised to see Hinata appear between them.

"What are you doing, Ichigo?" she asked innocently, tilting her head to the side.

Another growl began to rise in his throat as he watched Ishida put an arm casually around Hinata's shoulders, and pulled her closer. Hinata was looking back and forth between them, confused. Ichigo was reaching out to grab her when the teacher walked in, calling the room to attention.

Ichigo made sure to grab Hinata every break and pull her out of the room. He had asked her about Ishida being her boyfriend, but all she had said was, "Uryu is a friend who is a boy." Ichigo scowled; Ishida wasn't acting like just a friend. Hinata was too innocent to know what a "boyfriend" was. When he looked up from his thoughts though, he found that both Ishida and Hinata were missing!

. . .

Hinata was so confused. Uryu and Ichigo seemed to be mad at each other, and she couldn't figure out why. She had always known that Uryu didn't like Ichigo, but they had never fought before. They were on their way to Uryu's to practice. Uryu had grabbed her hand when the last bell of the day had rung, and they had run out of the school. Uryu still seemed on edge.

"What's wrong, Uryu?"

He gave a slight jump before looking at her and pushing his glasses up. He gave a sigh before responding, "I'm just mad."

"Why are you mad?"

He looked about to answer before thinking better of it, and instead called out to behind them, "Do you intend to follow us all the way, Kurosaki Ichigo?"

Hinata looked back to see Ichigo step out from behind a wall. She had felt him following them for a long time, but he kept hiding, so she had left him alone to his game. His face was in a deep scowl as he glared at Uryu.

"Found me out, huh. When did you notice?"

Uryu rolled his eyes before looking at Hinata and then looking back up to answer, "From the beginning. It's due to your foolish inability to restrain your spiritual power. Even a monkey would know." With that, he turned and began to walk again, giving Hinata a gentle pull as she continued to walk with him.

Ichigo's angry voice rose from behind them, "What did you say?"

"You are like that. You seem to lack the ability to sense people with high spiritual strength. The evidence is that you didn't even notice my existence until today. It has been rumored for months that I was dating Hinata, and you still didn't notice me."

Ichigo gave a growl. "My bad! I'm bad at remembering faces! So, with you, I. . ."

"That's not all. The second thing is right here beside me." He held up his hand that was holding Hinata's. "She has more than me, and if I'm not wrong even more then you do, but you have never noticed have you?"

Hinata looked confused back and forth between the two boys while Ichigo's eyes went big and he looked to Hinata.

"But that is not all I noticed. Since I entered this school, I noticed how your spiritual power is unusually high, not as high as Hinata's, but still high. How in mid-May, you acquired the power of a Shinigami, and Kuchiki Rukia's true identity."

With that Hinata watched as ribbons appeared all around them. She reached out, gently touching those close to her. "Pretty," she whispered. Uryu shot her a small smile.

Ichigo cried out, "That's!"

"Yes, it's reiraku, something that compresses and visualizes the spiritual auras in the atmosphere. Only upper-level Shinigami can visualize them, and only upper-level Shinigami can touch them. As a Shinigami, you should have heard of that. However," Uryu's hand shot out, grabbing a red tattered ribbon, "did you know? The color of a Shinigami's reiraku is different; it's red." Ichigo's eyes got even wider as Uryu let go of the ribbon. "I am a quincy," he pulled Hinata closer, "and Hinata is one as well. One who holds the power to kill hollows. Won't you fight us, Kurosaki Ichigo?"

At that, Hinata's head whipped around to look at Uryu. "I can't fight Ichigo, Uryu!"

Ichigo took a step forward. "What do you think you are doing, Ishida?" His eyes where narrowed until he was standing just a foot in front of Uryu.

Uryu cast a look at Hinata before standing tall. "Between a Shinigami such as you, and a quincy such as I, which would surpass the other? I'll make you understand that Shinigami are unnecessary in this world, and that all you are doing by trying to be one is hurting Hinata."

"Uryu, Ichigo isn't hurting me."

Uryu patted Hinata's arm. "Since Rukia has shown up and he became a Shinigami, you have been sadder. I will fix this and make it so you aren't sad anymore." With that, he shot another glare at Ichigo.

Ichigo bristled, "You want a fight between you and me?"

"That's right. In this world, Shinigami are unnecessary."

"This is ridiculous! Hinata, come over here," Ichigo said while holding out his hand for her to take.

"What did you say?" Uryu glared back.

"Me, compete against you? Why do I have to do that? It sounds stupid! I don't know what kind of grudge you've got against Shinigami, but I have nothing to do with it! And you heard Hinata say it herself: I have never hurt her. Come on, Hinata, we are going home," he said, grabbing her arm.

Hinata's eyes went big and she pulled away, hiding behind Uryu. Ichigo was scaring her. He wasn't acting like himself; he was leaking anger and it was making her sick to her stomach. When he had grabbed her, it had burned. "You're scaring me, Ichigo."

Ichigo felt like he had been slapped as he watched her hide behind Uryu, holding her arm. She almost seemed to have tears in her eyes. Uryu stepped up, blocking her completely from his sight. "Back off, Kurosaki, you are hurting her."

In a stuttering voice, Hinata spoke up. "Its okay, Uryu. It didn't hurt that much."

Uryu had looked back at her when she spoke, but quickly turned back to Ichigo with more anger in his eyes. "So he did hurt you."

Ichigo felt all the color in his face drain away. He had hurt Hinata. He had hurt his sunshine. He fell to his knees; how could he do something like that?

Hinata felt his anger vanish and be replaced by sadness. She could never stand Ichigo being sad. She let go of Uryu's shirt, which she had been holding. Stepping around him, she fell to the ground beside Ichigo and went to touch him, but he flinched away from her touch. Filled with sadness, she let her hand fall to her lap, and she just watched him.

"This is what I mean, Kurosaki Ichigo. All you have done is hurt Hinata, and I'm sick and tired of how you treat her. Fighting with me will show who is truly strong enough to protect Hinata and keep her from being hurt again."

Hinata was startled. "What?!"

"Fine, if that's what it will take to truly protect her then I will." Ichigo said as he stood up, looking determined again.

Hinata tried to speak up, telling them this isn't what she wanted, but she found that she couldn't get her mouth to move.

Ichigo reached into his pocket and pulled the small white pill that was Kuon out. Popping it into his mouth, he left his body. "Kuon, grab Hinata and make sure she stays safe. Now, explain the rules of this fight."

Uryu reached into his pocket and pulled out a small object that made Hinata stiffen when she smelled it. If Kuon hadn't been holding her, she would have lunged at it. "We'll begin the battle with this."

"What's that?" Ichigo asked.

"Hollow bait. If I crush and scatter this, then hollows will gather in this town."

Kuon's, Ichigo's, and Hinata's eyes went wide. "What?" Ichigo cried!

"The one who defeats the most of the gathered hollows within twenty four hours wins. How about that? Nice and easy to understand the rules."

"What's that!? Quit screwin' around! Are you trying to expose everyone to danger!? Who do you think you are!?"

Hinata had finally gotten over her shock of what had just happened. "No! Uryu, you can't!"

"Keep your morality to yourself! This is your fault to begin with!" With that, he smashed the hollow bait in his hand.

And with it Hinata began to spasm in Kuon's arms as she tried to maintain what made her human. Both Ichigo and Uryu where surprised at Hinata's reaction to the crushing of the bait, but they didn't have time to think about it as Hollows began to pore into the town.

Ichigo growled out in frustration. "Take her to safety Kuon, and don't let anything hurt her." Kuon quickly picked up the thrashing figure, taking off at a run. Ichigo turned back to Uryu. "If she is so much as scratched, I will kill you Ishida!"