For a moment, he couldn't believe what he had just heard. Surely, he had eaten something out of date at breakfast and that had caused him to have a brief lapse in perception. There was no way that sweet, innocent, compassionate, silly Yuzu had just growled at him. Then there was an arrow coming at him and he immediately had to leap into action. His student was taking the lead today, with a ferocity he would never have imagined coming from her.
"Uh… Yuzu, is something wrong?" Uryu called from a safe distance, bow at the ready, but not drawing yet. Usually he would start on the offensive so that Yuzu could practice her defense before her stamina got depleted, but today it looked like he was going second.
"Yes!" She growled again, clenching her fist around the handle of her bow and firing three arrows in rapid succession. It was impressively done, considering he had only taught her the move last week, and she tended to take longer than that to master even basic moves. "Jinta had the nerve to come knocking on my window this morning and tried to kiss me! Like he didn't dump me a decade ago! I could tear his arms off and beat him with them!"
It was alarming, to say the least, seeing his student shouting. He had always assumed that if someone pushed her too far, she would cry long before she turned to anger. But then, he had known Ichigo for years, and interacted with the other twin plenty when she visited the fourth, so he shouldn't have been so surprised. She was a Kurosaki, after all. Although, that wasn't entirely fair. His aunt Masaki had been a Kurosaki. She had been a sweet woman, and he thought Yuzu had taken after her. Turns out, Yuzu did have a little Shiba in her after all.
"I can see how that would be a bit upsetting, but you really should calm down." Its not that he didn't appreciate the sudden challenge to break him out of the monotony of their usual lessons, but he was a little worried that she would work herself up into a rage and he would be witness to any number of things that could go wrong when a Shiba was pissed off.
Ichigo could blame him and tear him apart. Karin could blame him and tear him apart. Isshin could blame him and tear him apart. At this point, Yuzu might tear him apart. And most concerning of all, she had been so careful not to wake her inner hollow, and if this wasn't setting of sirens in her inner world, he didn't know what would.
It didn't really matter who got to him first. Jinta was so fucked.
"I will not calm down! Karin says when she is mad she trains, so that's what i'm doing!" The young woman spins and fires a hail of arrows in an arc around Uryu, and he thinks she has given up on aiming until she fired a barrage of Bakudo spells past the arrows and redirects them from a dozen different angles.
"That was… A really impressive move..." Uryu barely moved out of the way in time, one arrow grazing his ear even so. He hadn't taught her that. He was pretty sure no one had taught her that. And if she was acting on instinct, that was just another sign that she was on the verge of hollowfication. He did not want to be here if she was wearing a mask. Making a quick decision, he flicked an arrow in the direction of the Eighth, praying that his grandfather would guide his arrow and that the idiot would at least feel the impact of the shot.
"Did you just call my brother?!" Yuzu gave him a scowl he had thought he had grown fully immune to, and quickly realized he most certainly had a ways to go.
"Uh… Yes, but I promise, you will thank me later… Things were getting a little out of hand..." He began backing away, trying to keep moving toward the door of the Fourth Division barracks without presenting his back as a target. To his immense relief, he felt the familiar riatsu of the Eighth Division Captain coming only a heartbeat before he came to a stop between them. "Hey Ichigo… I swear this is not my fault. I think she's about to Hollowfy."
His words seemed to flip a switch, and Yuzu dropped the bow and covered her mouth, eyes widening. Ichigo rushed to her side and wrapped an arm around her.
"Hey, its okay Yuzu. It's a bit scary at first, but you've met Zangetsu, and Karin has Shinkiro. We aren't Visored, and we aren't at war. Your hollow won't hurt you." He sat down and pulled her on to his lab in the middle of the training field. "Just relax… Breath and close your eyes. You're gonna be fine."
"I-Ichigo… I was so angry! I wasn't even thinking about my inner hollow… I totally lost my head!" She was shaking, without the impromptu sparring match, the adrenaline was leaving her a jittery wreck. "I'm sorry, Uryu… I shouldn't have put you in a position like that..."
"It's alright. You are my student and I will stay with you through this, but I didn't want this to happen without your brother here."
"Thanks, Uryu." Ichigo turned his head to give his friend a grateful smile. He turned back to his sister. "I think you calmed down enough to stop it if you try. What do you want to do?"
"I..." She closed her eyes and tried to slow her breathing. She had been terrified of her inner hollow since she had first learned what a hollow was, but after actually spending time with Zangetsu, a lot of her rational fears had evaporated. But the irrational phobia that had taken root was still there, making her wary. "I want to try and talk to her..."
"I'll be right here."