It turns out, we were having sandwiches for lunch, just easy, peanut butter and jelly, as Yuzu was too tired to cook anything, and Isshin burned most things he actually made. We had eaten in silence, and then went out for a walk, enjoying the sunshine, and were walking towards the park, not saying anything, just enjoying each other's company. Then I heard a shout as we walked near the park and a soccer ball came flying past, narrowly missing my head. I flinched when that did and stopped walking. Ichigo frowned and looked in the direction the soccer ball came from. I turned my head as well, to see a group of kids and one of them, a girl with black spiky hair came running towards us.
"Sorry about that Ichigo." She said, once she returned with the ball, tucked under her arm. "I think I kicked it a little too hard."
"It's alright Tatsuki, really. But I'm not the one you nearly hit in the head." He smirked.
The girl, Tatsuki, looked at me. "Sorry about that…umm…"
"Saru." I said quickly. "And it's alright."
I watched her eyes zero in on Ichigo and I's linked hands and her eyes shot to Ichigo's face, questioningly. He shook his head slightly at her, and she shrugged, like it didn't matter. But I could see the curiousity in her face and she looked at me again, then back to Ichigo.
"I'll actually see you at school, right?" She asked him.
"Yeah, we'll be coming on Monday." He responded rather bluntly.
"Good." She nodded and then ran back to her game; throwing the soccer ball hard to the other people she was playing with. I watched for a moment, and then just looked at Ichigo, waiting for him to do something. Then he tugged on my hand and we kept walking. I wasn't sure where we were going, if we were going anywhere in particular, but I didn't really care. Just as long as we could spend some more peaceful time together. I already knew that somehow something would come along and screw everything up. It just hadn't happened yet. So I was just waiting for it, although that wasn't something I should be doing. I needed to relax, just enjoy the nice weather…
Ichigo's pocket suddenly started buzzing loudly. He frowned and released my hand, pulled his phone out of his pocket, and answered it. "Hello?"
There was yelling on the other end of the phone. I couldn't make out who it was, but Ichigo was holding the phone slightly away from his ear and he was scowling.
"Calm down Rukia." He said, pushing the phone back to his ear. "I already knew about that. Is there anything else you need to tell me?"
There's no yelling this time, but Ichigo's face was dead serious, almost solemn. "I see. We'll head back right now." He hung up and shoved the phone back in his pocket. "We have to get back to my house. Now."
"Why?" I frowned.
Ichigo began speed walking back to his house, practically dragging me, he didn't say a word. It made me wonder what was going on. But his face was tense with anger, and I thought I caught a glimpse of fear as well. It had to be something bad to make Ichigo look this way. I felt my entire body go cold inside, and it didn't feel like it was me making my body walk. I was beginning to freak out, because of the look on Ichigo's face. We continued walking quickly back towards his house. His hard grip on my hand was starting to hurt, but I didn't say anything. We quickly reached his house and went inside; there was a dark haired girl, who I assumed was Rukia pacing the length of the living room. She looked at Ichigo.
"I already told your dad. He took your sisters out of the house to do something outside city limits. I don't remember what he said." She told him.
Ichigo scowled, releasing me. "What's going on that my sisters had to be taken out of the house?"
"The Arrancar. They've become more active and Renji deduced that they're after someone here." The girl looked at me. "Who're you? I can sense spiritual pressure and hollow pressure coming off of you."
"This is Saru. She has…control issues with her inner hollow."
"She got her powers because of Urahara didn't she?"
He nodded tensely. "Yes."
Rukia frowned and stared at me, and started her agitated pacing again. She continued looking at me, frowning. Ichigo looked confused and then blinked.
"Do you think they're after her?" He suddenly asked.
"It's possible; she's emitting a really strong mix of Soul Reaper and Hollow pressure. It's so hard to tell it apart its twisting together."
"Isn't that usually how Arrancar's pressure is?"
"Yes. And that's how hers is."
I scowled; they were talking about me as if I wasn't standing there. I was getting a little annoyed now. I didn't really understand what they were saying. Am I one of them then? That didn't make any sense.
"Are you saying I'm one of them?" I snapped, irritated.
"No, you're not. You've got a similar pressure, but you're definitely not. Arrancar are Hollows who took their masks off to gain Soul Reaper powers. They don't have any human feelings whatsoever. If you gain similar powers, which you may, you'll be more like a new breed of Vizard, since you'd be a Soul Reaper who gained Hollow powers, just to more of an extent." Rukia spoke in a rush; she was difficult to understand.
"Is that even possible?" Ichigo looked shocked.
"I don't know! I've never picked up on a pressure on a Soul Reaper that's extremely close to an Arrancar's before. It's safe to say a lot of things that we didn't think we're possible, are possible." Rukia frowned, looking at me again.
I crossed my arms; I didn't know what this meant for me. But it could be bad….I was beginning to think that I could become one of them.
I didn't want to become one of them.