The Other One

by I've got Rhythm in my Soul

Enter Mai Li, new student, non-conformist, social retard and all around doomed teen. Meeting Ichigo Kurosaki just made it worse...

11. All About Kon and a Bit Extra

(Currently hiding behind a large billboard that states in big captials 'I'M SOOOORRRRRYYYY!') It's been a looooong time hasn't it. No, I'm not dead and yes I've had a pretty good reason for not updating sooner. To cut a long story short, at the end of last year I recieved a bit of unwelcome news and it ruined the coming months. It completely destroyed my ability to produce anything close to coherent in my writing as I was so worried about a particular family member. Anyway, by the grace of god and the universe as a whole everything got better. However it took quite abit of time for my creative juices to kick back into gear. So please enjoy.

Oh and from now on I'll be replying to reviews personally!

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, thank God.

Chapter 10:

All about Kon… and a Bit Extra

In the silence of the classroom I could hear the chirp of birds singing in the large tree to the left side window. The absence of any other sound apart from this however and all the eyes on me only made the constant thump of each pump of my blood that much more heightened. I was sweating. I was actually sweating.

I tried to put the whole thing into perspective and, well, couldn't. I mean could you blame me?

A hollow bound on a collision course with my body with the intent to feed on my soul? A cake-walk. Pie.

Yokai determined to cause the maximum amount of bloodshed and fear within a five minute time period? Love it, bring it on, I dare you…

…A class full of wide eyed students and all my friends, my first real friends mutely observing as their other buddy who they thought was Ichigo Kurosaki stare avidly at me, my hair, my breasts, my eyes, my hands, my breasts, my smile, my breasts, all the while smiling silly like the class idiot only without the usual frown and scowl he's normally so disposed to casting upon the world?

Probably the most intimidating thing I'd suffered through so far.

My left leg jiggled nervously under my desk. Crap-a-doodle.

And directly to my left the Gikongan wasn't making life any easier; his blush alone almost set the sprinklers off.

It was off-putting having Kurosaki's body sit so close and yet feel nothing even remotely resembling Kurosaki's reitsu. Normally it beat a bright pulse throughout the classroom and was easy to locate but the power of this sub-soul's aura… it was focused primarily on his legs. It led in a light-weight current from heart to foot and back again. The strength of it was so poor in comparison to its usual host's that it wasn't even remotely necessary to verbally remind me that it wasn't Ichigo sitting beside me. I didn't need to try to stretch out with my abilities ('use the force Luke' and all that jazz); the difference was palpable.

There was this smile almost smeared across his jaw; a jolly kind of leer incredibly off-putting on that face. Those eyes… where they could once be described as serious were now a droll, shining shade of chocolate. His mouth was open in a pure lustful daydream and I was surprised he could string two words together.

But speak he did… and God, if I knew what he was going to say before hand I would have gagged and bound him.

Finally over with his mental fantasy he moved his chin off his hands and pointed both index fingers at me completely ignoring the fact that he was supposed to be a surreptitious, incognito Gikongan with supreme acting abilities.

"Anything you need…" He began; his voice so very different from Ichigo's with that luminous grin and brought both index fingers to point back against his chest. "I will do for you."

…WHAA?!

He did not just say that. I leaned towards him in total disbelief and whispered. "Excuse me?" I mean, did he have no sense of where he was?

"Seriously, for you I will do anything." He said; explicit on the word 'anything' and decided that now was the perfect moment, since I'd moved forward in my seat, for his eyes to begin travelling down once more to guess where. "Anything for another moment of those-"

You know there's that moment for a girl; in fact there are several of these moments in one's life when you think 'that's enough of that'. That moment where no matter how kind, understanding or socially wretched a person you are, you just react. You react to the idiot making noise.

So when the left side of his face hit the wooden surface of his desk with a crack that made every single person in the room jump at the sudden burst of noise I almost began to wonder why it was my hand pressed against the his angular right cheek, my fingers lying part way into the hair above his ear.

And for a single moment I thought, oh god, I've killed Kurosaki's body.

But the dude in it just sighed happily into the wood as if I'd graced him with a kiss like a princess would a prince in those old fairy tales.

Already I felt horribly guilty; it would be Ichigo who would suffer any physical consequences to my actions and not the sub-soul.

And then of course the dreaded question arose.

"Er Mai? What's going on?"

Uber-crap-a-doodle.

My head shot up, eyes catching brown ones so dark in the shadow of the sunlight they were almost black. My mouth opened like a gaping fish and all Tatsuki could do was stare blankly at me, her hand lifting to point mindlessly at who she thought was Kurosaki in question. My eyes followed a line of sight from her to the teacher who stood close by blinking in complete bafflement, a textbook open and neglected in his fingers. Orihime had the most beautiful of blushes patterning her face making me think with a strange sinking sensation that she'd just heard each and every word the Gikongan had uttered so thoughtlessly (thankfully Tatsuki or any of the other girls didn't appear to have heard: he'd be annihilated). Those lovely grey eyes were as wide as Keigo's who sat precariously on his seat appearing hopelessly entranced with the scene in front of him. I swore Mizuiro was taking not-so-furtive pictures with his phone and Chizuru, Mahana and Ryo were peering, nosy and keen eyed over the rest of the students in class.

The sight seemed to freeze in front of me; a picture frame captured for the single task of incurring utter mortification.

I didn't stop applying pressure on the Gikongan's face however, so basically they sat there watching as I wore an 'I'm completely screwed' expression all the while grinding face into wood.

"A-ah…" The wordless sound of sheer helplessness was about all I could manage.

Tatsuki nodded in a 'uh-huh, sure, totally get it but really don't' kind of way, dropping her hand limply by her side and continuing to stare.

At the front of the classroom next to the blackboard the teacher seemed to jerk realising the now inattentive state of the class. He cleared his throat and snapped his eyes open to aim his 'I am a strict teacher: do as I say and not as I do' glare our way.

"Kurosaki, Li, you are disrupting my class. What is the meaning of this?"

I swallowed and straightened (or at least as much as I could with my hand on his head). "Well Sir, I-"

Suddenly the Gikongan pushed upwards against my hand, his own dragging it away until it hung loose and appalled in his grip. I stared at it uncomprehendingly and then back at him wondering why he'd chosen now of all times to completely lose any and all sense of his decorum. If he'd knelt at my feet I wouldn't have been surprised. He quickly scanned the class room until they landed on the teacher and he pulled a face, which on Kurosaki looked more like a pout. Wrong.

"Cool your jets chief; I was just sitting next to my favourite girl here."

IDIOT! In a corner of my mind I heard Keigo splutter incoherently in the background.

Wide eyed and wondering how on earth I was expected to survive more than one lesson after I so carelessly assured Kurosaki I could watch over his counterpart I pulled my left hand from his supposedly affectionate grasp.

I hissed. "I'm the only girl you know!"

Oblivious to the wrongness of his words he leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms over his chest stubbornly in a completely non-threatening attempt at masculinity. Ichigo Kurosaki he definitely wasn't.

"We're in love; can't you tell?"

Could you choke on oxygen? I just found I was indeed capable. And you know the extremely troubling part of that statement? He actually sounded sincere.

Again my left hand moved of its own volition. It reached up and smacked hard against the back of his head, fingers shifting into orange hair to once again ram his face back into the desk. There was a yelp; muffled words came out in a tangled web of sound that thankfully nobody understood.

A large exhale left me and reluctantly I peered upwards once more at the now sweat-dropping teacher.

"He's on medication." I spoke quickly. It really was the only thing I could think of; the only excuse good enough to warrant such a radical change in his behaviour. "It makes him somewhat… changed." I waved my right hand like a dismissive kind of fan. "He'll be back to normal in no time. Promise." Was I pleading with them or myself?

But my words prompted Keigo into verbal action. "Medication? What do you mean?"

"He's on medication?" Tatsuki muttered in confusion with an arched brow. "Since when?"

To which Mizuiro chimed in. "What happened to him?"

They all looked at me expectantly.

…Seriously should have thought this through.

I noticed Chad's gaze settled on me with his one uncovered eye and how Uryu watched the proceedings in extreme puzzlement and an elegantly arched brow.

Trying to smile conciliatorily at them (more like my skin stretching forcefully over my teeth) I lifted my left hand from the Gikongan's head. As he shot back up in his seat to say something to me that was undoubtedly inappropriate and utterly unhelpful in a classroom filled with students I sent at him a look of pure warning. Behave.

For a moment he stilled and blinked at me. Then, smiling once again he lifted up his right thumb in an 'it's all good' gesture. "Gotcha!" He whispered like a conspirator.

It would be alright to feel completely sorry for myself, wouldn't it?

My friends were still waiting for clarification. "It's nothing to worry about." I informed them. "He, uh, got into some kind of accident last night. A very small one! He received some antibiotics for it but they seem to, er…"

"…Mess with his head?" Keigo provided weakly.

Pressing my lips together I looked back in consideration at the sub-soul. He was still smiling; twiddling his thumbs, blushing and behaving completely unlike his proprietor. Nodding slowly I turned back towards Keigo and breathed out in one long sigh."…Yeah."

---

Luckily for me… so extremely lucky, lucky, luckily for me the bell rang.

And almost immediately after it ended, just as the ringing in my ears came to a halt, I found myself being jerked up and out of my chair.

De ja vu anyone?

Blinking upwards at the sudden lurch my eyes travelled from the hand pulling on my elbow, up the arm connected to it and towards the smiling face of the Gikongan. Oh no… bad feeling. Bad, bad, bad feeling here…

"Come on! Let's go!" He yipped, moving forwards whilst still attached to a limb I didn't really want ripped off at the shoulder.

So I quickly stood to accommodate the flow, almost tripping over the legs of my desk and wondering what on earth I'd accomplished today to be dragged and pulled this way and that.

"Where are we going?"

He marched forward; arms swinging madly back and forth as if competing for the world's longest stride and I watched; an eyebrow cocked in utter bemusement. Once again I was being swept along in a tide of weirdness. We arrived at the threshold to the class room door and I glanced helplessly over my arm at my friends who weren't quite quick enough to follow. They all stumbled, falling over each other in their bid to be the first to discover the reasoning behind their friend's bizarre behaviour.

Students in the corridor paused as we passed; their heads followed us, question marks and sweat drops amassing though there were a couple of them, females mostly (mostly?), whose eyes darkened under perfectly painted lashes and sculptured eyebrows.

Kurosaki's fan club. Good. Great. I so obviously needed this new round of petty rivalry.

Every now and then the so-called club saw fit to try to re-educate me in the rules their club beheld. 'Try' being the operative word. They weren't exactly the most intimidating bunch of girls around. Mostly I just felt somewhat sympathetic towards them (or maybe pitying would suit best); they were wasting their time with me. I could neither give them what they wanted nor bow down to the whims of their dreams.

The Gikongan didn't let up. "Where are we going?" I repeated.

"We're going to our next class!" He sang; oblivious to the rest of the world.

Hmm… maybe he really was just lonely.

Though my next words brought him back down to earth fairly quickly. "But third period doesn't begin for another fifteen minutes."

He stopped and whirled around to look at me letting go of my arm. "Huh?"

Coming to an abrupt halt I had to perform a rather risky twirl, narrowly avoiding capsizing a rather encumbered looking third year student.

"We have a small break between second and third period." I explained.

He blinked. "Oh…"

For a moment he looked completely lost and it threw me.

His behaviour indicated a level of free will that, from what I could discern from Rukia's hurried explanation, was supposed to be absent. For instance the ability to refuse a certain level of compliance with orders from his owners and argue over meaningless tripe, his indiscretion towards the general populous of the fairer sex (though this is something I have yet to prove), the demonstration of such a clearly straightforward mental state (he didn't lack for concision, that's for sure) and the circulation of an aura that focused primarily on the sub-souls legs.

It left me standing in unfamiliar territory; I was absent in the knowledge of how to deal with him. Everything he currently did was a contradiction of what he was supposed to do and of what he'd already done. I'd only met this guy an hour ago and already I was lost.

But then almost instantly afterwards he recovered. Eyes bright and completely perverted once more he stepped closer towards me and internally a piece of my soul withered; it was just so… weird.

I've been using that word a lot today.

"But that means we get to spend the whooole of break together then doesn't it?!" He fervidly informed the whole school; eyes closed, blush ever present.

I took a breath… "I suppose so, I mean if you'd like to."

"I do like! Yep, yep!"

I sweatdropped, almost smiling. Almost, because, you know, Gikongan in Ichigo's body. "Erm, good." Pausing I glanced around before leaning closer to him. "Actually there's something I need to talk to you about."

His head tilted to the side and I stared at how the action made that very face appear so… young. I mean it was young obviously; the physical body was that of a fifteen/sixteen year old but the venire of strength Ichigo carried in excess normally made him appear somewhat more mature than his fellow classmates. Not older; just not young. A good example would be that unlike every other teen I'd seen Ichigo didn't seem to possess an ounce of baby fat and he didn't whine or drone on about any physical defects. Sure he had a temper but so far he hadn't had a single paddy. Ever. And he didn't seem prone to moments of insecurity where he cared about the opinions of those around him. He was what he was and he liked it.

Completely self-assured.

This Gikongan possessed nothing of that nature.

In many ways the sub-soul felt like a little kid.

A child in that he was brand new and ignorant yet overly knowledgeable about delicate subjects and not a substitute soul with a specified inbuilt personality like an expert hard drive.

Possibly the only thing he felt completely self-confident about was his extreme fancy towards females.

"What about?" He asked but then for some bizarre reason his eyes started to sparkle and gleam and I could only conclude that his rampant thoughts had once again taken a cruise somewhere along the river of 'Blind Lust'. "Oh! Confessions of love!" He planted a fervent hand on his chest. "For me!?"

Buh…?

"Confessions of l-love?" Commence unsightly blush on thy cheek.

"You brought me out hear to proclaim your undying affections for me didn't you?!"

I shook my head in a 'nuh-uh, no way' sort of fashion. "Actually, you brought us out here."

"It was love at first sight, wasn't it?!"

…And he wasn't listening. "No. No it wasn't. You were kind of forward earlier. And you're in my friend's body. I've never seen you before."

Those normally sharp orange brows tilted in an almost perfect approximation of the sorrowful countenance of a kicked dog. "But I wrote you a poem!" The last word he stretched in an annoying whine.

I blinked.

He… he what? Since when?! Had he even have the time to write a poem? He was being facetious, he had to be.

"Er, why?"

"For our future love!" Riiight…

"I barely even know you; you are not in love with me." You strange, strange soul society item.

His countenance was asinine I knew that but… but he didn't see. Not me anyway. All he could visualise was the first image he'd been born to: the developing physical aspects of a 16 year old girl. He didn't see or know me.

There was nothing there to love.

Was it just my breasts? Was that it? …Was he that desperate? It was a conclusion far more acceptable to believe than the former. "I would like to be your friend if that's-"

"I'll give it to you!" He interrupted; his voice echoing down the hall.

I paused; eyes darting around in confusion. "Give what to me?"

"Our poem!"

God, it was like a one track mind with this guy. "I don't want it?" It came out like a question.

But then he made everything that much worse. "I'll read it to you!" He decided vivaciously.

"I don't want you to read it. Hey, seriously, I really don't want you to read it!"

But he did anyway, whipping out the same crumpled piece of paper me and Ichigo had written on to exchange our notes. To read poems some believe a pose to shame the greatest of thespians was a necessary requirement. As such the Gikongan who was more or less the most ostentatious idiot I'd ever met in my life had to do the same. An arm outstretched itself, the hand of which grasped the note in its palm whilst the other hand pressed gaily against his sternum.

"Oh sweet perfection; how I adore thee!"

Head moving back and eyes shooting to the ceiling I blew out a long breath. "Oh, here we go…"

Honestly? I was far more discomforted about Kurosaki's body behaving in such a way. This was so surreal and I was having a hard time looking at the sub-soul in the face without blushing like a fool.

"I will compare thee to a summer's day!"

My eyes flickered back down to him. "You're butchering Shakespeare." This I did not find amusing…

"My love is like a red, red rose…"

"That's Robert Burns." But then something hit me and made me wonder. "Wait…" I said, head tilting sideways as the Gikongan blinked and glanced at me, pulled away from his scribbled notes. "How do you even know Burns? Where you programmed to recite poetry?"

All at once he jerked and I knew I'd said something wrong. Eyes wide and suddenly hurt (but I had a feeling it was utterly superficial) he shouted before I could piece together a coherent apology. "Programmed?! Hey, I'm a person you know and I-"

"Kurosaki kun?"

Like a siren call to any sailor lost-at-sea Orihime's soft voice reached our ears and only one such as hers, a voice inherently devoid of malicious intent could bring a halt to this fiasco of a conversation.

It was however filled with a curious form of concern.

Orihime's voice… it was very expressive. Yes, expressive. Good word.

A voice as malleable and without avarice (except at meal times) such as hers it was sometimes embarrassingly easy to garner the emotional consistency of her thoughts and words. It often allowed us a brief warning for when she was about to begin on one of her sweet but incredibly daft rants about the exquisite nature of a high school girl's life as oppose to the reality of her fantasies.

More often than not her constantly cheery disposition suggested a genuinely innocent heart held strong by the harsh wheels of time.

At this moment however she sounded so… uncertain. Curious but unsure. And it was so unlike her. It made a difference to my reaction. Like Tatsuki, Orihime displayed a level of affection for the orange haired scowler that suggested a delicate crush. Not delicate in that it was easily broken but one that she hadn't begun to suspect whether it possessed true strength or not.

Strangely, I worried for the day she did.

But then again Pei had explained to me once when she was recovering from the emotional wreckage of her own devastating crush about fourteen months previous that crushes for teenagers were analogous with the seasons. Generally they wilted and died, weather beaten from unrequited affection and the inevitably expected refusal. They changed; sometimes they transformed into feelings of friendship or anger that would normally disperse after a period of healing. Occasionally they were forgotten amidst the sands of time between school and adulthood but rarely were they reciprocated. Even more infrequently did those few reciprocal relationships grow into stronger feelings of love and need; friendship turned romances where the future altered from muddled and undecided to being set in stone.

I suppose Orihime may find that her feelings slowly slip away from her. If it was indeed simply the crush it seemed and it did appear that way given Tatsuki's numerous explanations of her blushing friend's only fairly recent announcement of affection then hopefully they would disappear.

…Because in all honesty I felt that when it came to romantic attachment Ichigo Kurosaki could very well be blind, deaf and dumb. It wasn't that he was completely insensitive; it was just that he wasn't the most receptive of people when it came to the emotions directed at him especially from the girls (he'd have more luck with Rukia if he was). However he was the type of person who, once he knew what he wanted he'd go for it; the type of person who didn't settle for mere crushes because it would probably take all his perceptive capabilities to even recognise such feelings from a girl or of any form of blooming affection within himself for what it was anyway. And once he did, well… that would be it.

So basically, it could get extremely awkward.

But who knew where Ichigo's tastes lay. And Orihime wasn't the air-headed, big chested weirdo she seemed. Things change and so do people; it's the past that remains the same.

Feeling utterly tactless at how I'd left my friends without an explanation my expression turned contrite. I turned away from the now silent sub-soul to my left to see my auburn haired friend standing in the corridor with us. She took a step hesitantly in our direction, a finger pressed to her lips, a curious air about her.

Oh one thing; if strange delight in unworldly food combinations entranced her, another quality that could one day become a hazard for Orihime Inoue was her curiosity. It was just shy of my own in its sheer nosy-like worth.

The Princess was shielded behind her bodyguard who more or less looked at the Gikongan like the intruder he was rather than the friend she'd known for years.

Tatsuki's intuitive skills were decent.

Behind the two of them stood Keigo, Mizuiro, Ryo, Chizuru and Michiru. Where Mahana was I didn't know but I was currently blindsided by the intrigue displayed in their eyes; Keigo and Mizuiro were already moving closer to Suki and her ward and Ryo didn't even have her trusty novel at hand as a tool to ignore the tedium of the classroom.

I was stumped as to what to say.

Should have really thought about what to say ages ago! Mind moving much slower than it was supposed to, I'm sorry…

"What's going on Ichigo? Why didn't you tell us you were hurt?" Tatsuki queried almost normally but there was slight caution in her tone.

Also, something that nearly made me loose focus was her aura.

That night at the funfair she'd displayed above average levels of spiritual intensity but these still were only slightly above the margin line. What little of it she did have here, and it was by far more than the majority of the student population twisted and tensed as it reached out, almost as if she were conscious of it and were directing its flow, using it to confirm her suspicion.

It was her awareness, honed through years of martial arts practice informing her that there was something innately off about the Ichigo Kurosaki standing before of her.

Swell job Mai Li.

Raising a hand to ruffle the loose hair at the back of my neck I smiled weakly. "Ah, it was kind of a long day yesterday Tatsuki." Like today as well and probably tomorrow too. Lucky me. "He was er, tired is all."

I trailed off as I noticed out of the corner of my eye that the sub-soul had gone completely silent and still. Frowning I caught sight of his face and…

Uh-oh.

Poised in his previous pose his head had turned like mine towards the soft call of 'Kurosaki-kun' only for his eyes to suddenly land upon the perfection that is the undisputed beauty of Karakura High.

Those eyes hadn't shifted. Not once.

Crap-tastic. I should have seen this coming.

They'd zoomed in, focusing on an extremely specific area of her anatomy (definitely a 'breasts man') and shined appreciatively, wonderingly.

He blinked twice, a pause between each and I swear I could hear the tap of each lid with the amount of pressure he placed on each blink. It was as if he were trying to verify that she definitely wasn't an apparition caused by his attention starved mind.

And I'd wished for this to happen? For him to meet her? Seriously? I needed a brain bath…

I moved towards him with an outstretched hand hoping to remind him of his so-called duties when, before I could even utter a word, he super-sped from in front of me so quickly that my hair actually lifted in my heavy plat.

I blinked dumbly; one large lift and settle of the eyelids at the now vacated space. Then I heard a vehement exclamation and my head shot to my left in one robotic twist only for my mouth to drop open in horror.

He was kneeling at her feet as if about to propose.

His left knee holding him in place on the floor while his right stretched poised out in front of him he held Orihime's right hand in his two, staring ardently and transfixed up at her: brown eyes once again chocolate. So not Ichigo!

BRAIN FALLEN INTO FAULT.

The Princess looked about ready to faint. Her blush was blooming and I just stood there stunned; mouth open and drenched in a miserable aura, a hand reaching out towards them as if to somehow halt the mind blowing scene in its tracts.

But Orihime wasn't the problem.

The problem stood about ten inches to her left who appeared to be suffering some sort of aneurism. The shock had prevented Tatsuki from reacting but by the 'oh my god he's lost his mind' expression dragging down over her face the cataplexy wouldn't last.

And then of course he had to start talking again didn't he? Because he just didn't know bloody well when to stop.

"Hello lovely lady." Oh Christ. His voice was soft and everything! Ichigo's going to kill me… "Might I have the pleasure of knowing your name?" And indeed he was polite when he wanted to be the little…

But then, rooted to the spot I translated the intention in his cheeky eyes as his head moved downwards as if in thrall by gravity. His hands rearranged themselves so that his right was palm to palm with her own, the other moving to wrap its fingers around her wrist, clamp-like, bringing the limb close to his lips and… Yep. He kissed her hand.

Have you ever seen the film 'the Mask' featuring Jim Carry? You know that comically cartoon-y expression the green skinned dude pulls where his eyes bug out and his mouth opens far too wide for human standards, his tongue shoots about three feet out in utter incredulity/horror/stupidity and he shrieks like a lunatic?

That was almost exactly how I looked right now; minus green skin. It really shouldn't have been such a big deal, but god it was.

Each of us: myself (floating away in a tide of complete disbelief), Suki (mortified confusion making her forehead throb), Keigo (staggering in shock and envy), Mizuiro (completely thrown if the blank expression on his face meant anything), Chizuru (HORROR… need I say more?), Michiru (aghast disturbia at having her previously intimidating image of Kurosaki further darken by this mind-screw of a display of public affection), Ryo (absorbed, entertained and questioning), and Orihime (still blushing but looking, surprisingly enough, the calmest one of us all and by the small frown gathering suspicious too), we all heard and suffered the imminent 'smack' noise of lips against skin.

Oh yeah… so going to be killed by Ichigo. R.I.P, dead by Thursday, grave lot already picked out, goodnight sweetheart goodnight.

The least I could do was make sure he didn't do anything worse.

Like possibly make another inexorable blunder when Tatsuki reached down with both hands, grabbing both his ears, hauling him up on his feet, ignoring the yelps and flailing arms as she shouted, "What the hell are you doing you moron?!"

Staggering, he stumbled and snipped back. "Hey, watch it!" But I noticed he didn't even swat her hands away. Maybe he has a 'guys don't hit girls' rule.

Instead the moment his eyes weren't blinded by 'Orihime vision' and he got a good look at her he paused in consideration.

Tatsuki's vexed face found its hard edges diminishing as an unsure blush blossomed across her cheeks at attention she clearly wasn't used to. It looked kind of odd with him standing hunched right in front of her what with her hands still wrenching his ears.

"W-what?"

"Nothing it's just… you're pretty cute up close." He said this so nonchalantly.

She promptly let go of him and took a step back.

"Huh?"

Moving further forwards so that his face was right there, almost pushing into hers and making her, by the way she'd hunched her shoulders and stared at him uncomprehendingly with that blush spreading exponentially across her face like a sand storm grazing the surface of the Sahara desert, very uncomfortable. He tilted his head continuing to gauge her features, his nose almost touching hers and I sweatdropped. He obviously had no sense of propriety of the borders and barriers of 'personal space'. "I didn't get a good look at you before but you're pretty easy on the eyes and-"

"-AND THIS IS WHERE WE LEAVE THE CONVERSATION!"

Huddled somewhere in a corner in the deepest recesses of my mind my restraint shed a single perfect tear.

To passers by it probably looked like I appeared from out of nowhere as I wrapped my right arm neatly around the Gikongan's throat and yanked. I'd more or less screamed in Suki's face, my own taking over the position of the sub-soul's as if to take her attention away from the impostor in front of her.

The Gikongan didn't appear even remotely discouraged.

"Hey! I'm not-" He started but with my front pressing against his back it was easy to gain leverage on him. I tensed the muscles of my arm around his neck pressing him along the right side of my body and his words ceased in a choked breath.

…But I made it all look like I was simply wrapping my arm around my buddy. I glanced up at my friends with a smile that didn't betray the shear dread within me. "Oh, he's a riot this one isn't he?"

God, I sound like a moron. No, the Gikongan was a moron!

"Look what medication does to you Ichigo!" I sang lightly in the Gikongan's ear as I hauled him back with me down the hallway. His hands grabbed at my arm but for all the effort involved they might as well have been trying to move a car.

Our friends were so nonplussed by everything they just stared with giant sweat drops hanging from their heads so large they were threatening to flood the corridor.

"Well anyway, I'll just hold onto this guy and make sure he doesn't do anything phenomenally stupid while the medicine wears off! See you in class alright?!"

And with that I zipped off down the corridor at warp speed absolutely determined to get this idiot away from the eyes and ears of semi-normal people, the Gikongan trailing behind me like a leaf in the wind; his legs flailing in mid air as his face bloated up from lack of oxygen.

…Leaving my friends to stare at tumbleweed blowing softly by.

---

At the first EXIT stairway I came across I flung myself through the doorway, slamming the metal barrier behind me and vigilantly swept the area with my eyes, checking for any students or teachers.

"C-can't… breathe…"

My eyes narrowed, forehead throbbing. "Tough." I tightened my chokehold as I made my way towards the landing area between the upper and lower staircases.

Since these passageways bear the sole purpose of egression it made sense that from lack of use they would be somewhat duller in comparison to the bright corridors of the rest of the building. The walls were a boring shade of cream and for a bright and warmish morning in early June the air was quite chilly unlike the clement climate of the classrooms.

And then the moron stuck to me (though it was all my fault really) somehow managed to simultaneously fight for release and squirm allowing certain parts of his anatomy to brush against certain parts of my anatomy and then linger there in such a way that was by no means accidental.

Ohhh, what?

Add to the fact that both of his hands had now ceased their relentless assault on the limb currently bracketing his body to mine and were now elsewhere equalled to not so pleasant sensations on my behalf.

My ass would never be the same again.

Okay, that was IT.

That my left hand was free was a gift sent from heaven. I reached behind me, fingers wrapping tightly around his left forearm with the thumb pushing against the inside of his wrist… and then twisting. Hard.

He yelped and I retracted my arm from around his throat, my right foot taking one small step behind me as I manipulated his arm to strain backwards. As his right shoulder fell forwards I took the time (because I had so much to spare) to wonder at why I always observed trivial acts of force such as this one in slow motion; as if they were inconsequential or not worth worrying over since I'd always managed to handle myself well. Fear had never been a viable option. But this time I had every reason to be a little… upset.

This guy… he'd hacked at my calm.

As I watched him meditatively he began to turn to face me to compensate for the overwrought angle of his arm and the rebounding pain so I just rammed the heel of my palm between his shoulder blades. Pushing against him I shoved my right knee against his lower back sending him slamming into the dreary coloured wall.

"AH-OW! GEEZ!"

Served him right.

Before he could get a handle on himself I gripped his left shoulder and flipped him around to face me. He 'oofed' and I got right up in his face and shouted.

"Are you out of your mind?!"

Since he couldn't move further back his head thumped against the wall behind him. His hand moved up to massage the back of his skull. "W-what! I didn't-"

"What is wrong with you?!" I hissed.

"Nothing's wrong with me!" He shouted back in an indignant little huff.

I almost, almost stamped my foot in irritated exasperation. "Then why are you such a perverted little idiot?!"

"I'm not perverted!"

But he sweatdropped at the expression of sheer disbelief displayed on my face mixed in with an unhealthy dose of 'whhaaaaaattt?'

And he had the audacity to shake off the sweatdrop and roll his eyes as if I were overreacting. "Come on; if I see a pretty girl what am I supposed to do?"

I quirked a brow at him. "Not fondle her, I'm thinking."

"You don't understand what you're asking! They… they were super-sized!" Ah… the breasts again. "I mean could you help yourself if a girl as developed as that Orihime girl came up and spoke to you? Could you?!"

Er… "I can honestly say that I could definitely resist temptation." Having my argument proven so decidedly I raised my brows at him. "And you don't think you're perverted?"

Oh so innocently his head tilted sideways. "I'm normal."

"You kissed Orihime!"

He shrugged nonchalantly and I felt my composure crack. In fact I was faintly surprised he couldn't hear the sound of my fracturing equanimity echo throughout the staircase. "So, what's the big deal?" He placed a hand on his cheek (the one that was slightly red…oops) and fluttered his lashes in a sickeningly decent version of a lamenting teenage girl. "Oh, a kiss on the hand, whoopty-do! It's so naughty; I've climbed the stairway to adulthood alrea-"

"Stop talking."

"Hey, what do you-" His mouth snapped closed and he looked at me in silence.

Sometimes, when I would decide to really concentrate on a person, an object or even an abstract concept or the untouchable, for example the sunset, my eyes would take on an edge I'm not entirely comfortable with acknowledging.

Pei once referred to it as the halo effect.

Disregarding the scientific phenomenon whenever this focusing action emerged the dark green ring around my pupil would apparently take on a subtle shimmer, as if it had an aura of its own. In the dim light of the EXIT corridor I knew it would appear as eerie as it did back then.

But it wasn't something I could help; there was never a trigger to it, it would just happen. Unfortunately it was one of the many reasons my middle school days were so miserable.

Intent and observing my eyes stared up at him through my lashes quite calmly and steadily. After several seconds my head tilted to the side as if trying to solve a very bizarre puzzle.

…Because I'd caught it: the barest hint of trickery desperately hidden underneath layers of excessive perverseness.

My mind whispered to me daily about the qualities of energies surrounding me. Right this very moment it spoke to me; a voice not my own calling out from some far off place and I knew, utterly and completely that this guy wasn't… wasn't…

…Dangerous.

But he was a liar. A helpless one.

And lies in themselves can get people killed, especially if the desperate are backed into dark corners that possess no exit.

My gaze held him in place against the wall and wouldn't let him go. I was too immersed, too intrigued. I didn't blink as I looked through him and into his core, trying desperately to discern the true colours of this creature before me.

I could tell it made him increasingly uneasy.

He kept shifting, eyes darting all over the place like he was looking for a way out though they kept retreating back to my own as if conceding obedience.

Finally I let out a large sigh and shook my head, eyes drifting closed for a second. "Do you even realise the amount of damage you could have caused just now? I mean in the corridor?"

He blinked. "Damage? I-"

"Male friends don't kiss female friends anywhere so freely, especially friends like Ichigo Kurosaki and Orihime Inoue. It implies certain things and leads to complications of which you should be more than aware of judging from your apparently enormous existing knowledge of the methods of physical affection." I knew my voice had risen but this guy was just…

…An idiot!

"Uh, I-"

"You were chosen specifically to secure Ichigo's identity, to nullify any revolving suspicion he may or may not have already acquired." I didn't once let him free from his enclosed space at the corner wall. "To keep his physical body of which you are making a complete ass out of by the way, safe!"

The Gikongan took my pause as permission to speak. "Look I was only-"

"…Being a noob?"

His face comically slanted in confusion. "A wha…?"

"A noob: a person new to specific stimuli. Actually it's a game player's terminology; I stole it."

He looked totally lost. "Huh?"

"I meant you're like a child."

Silence reigned once again as eyes not his own stared so uncomprehendingly confused right at mine.

After a moment I did my one shoulder shrug thing. "Either that or you just don't give a crap." I concluded and figured it was probably more of the latter than the former.

The muscles in his face suffered a spasm. He looked away. "Maybe."

I watched him again; eyes moving in a soft crawl over the lines of a face I'd grown so accustomed to examining in the past two months; perhaps a little too closely to be admitted without shame (but Ichigo possessed such intriguing features it was difficult sometimes not to stare).

Then I turned from him stepping aimlessly across the small landing. "And here I thought you were just lonely."

"Lonely?"

He sounded startled.

My back came against cold stone and I slid down until my bottom hit an equally chilly floor. My legs sprawled out and my hands settled lazily on my thighs. "I don't normally allow guys to shove their faces into my breasts you know. True, I was a little shocked at first but it just felt as if you were crying for escape."

The sensation of being 'trapped' in a bubble of domination had floated around him.

Shooting him a look to my left I grounded out the next words. "At least that's what I thought at the time."

Letting it go with a sigh I bit my lip and waited.

Moving away from him had been a primary factor to what I hoped would occur next. For a guy who seemed to worship physical intimacy, my presence near to his seemed to almost paralyse him. Intimidation it seemed wasn't a trait you lost over the years. You just buried the talent.

He finally seemed to unwind the longer I remained seated several feet down the wall from him. I heard him release a breath until finally he muttered something.

"…Maybe that's what it was."

I blinked; my head moving around to look at him. "Pardon?"

He'd stepped away from the wall looking a little chilly in just his short sleeved school shirt and trousers. But he just stood there, staring down a flight of stairs with a blank expression of a kind of curious concentration on his face. The dim light covered him and I took back the notion of loneliness I'd felt described him perfectly.

Because it wasn't loneliness. It was acceptance.

But over what?

He didn't stand at all like Ichigo did. A taught physique layered with years of physical in built confidence and assertiveness, tapered off with a confounding emotional depth and understanding that was at most times confusing as hell; Kurosaki stood like a shield.

This Gikongan stood under a shadow of time, like a countdown.

His natural defence was poorly constructed, as if he just didn't care, as if he were just far past that. As if he had made a decision and was running against a tide, waiting for the inevitable and trying to enjoy himself as much as possible along the way.

"I never thought of it as being lonely before." He began speaking again and I started in surprise, jolted from my analysis.

Speaking with his face drawn in a contemplative manner and away from mine he followed up. "I mean, I'm what I'm supposed to be. But I don't know, maybe I…"

"Stuck as a pill for god knows how long can have a detrimental affect no matter who you're supposed to be." I said, watching as he turned towards me and blinked.

"That pill is a part of who I am; it doesn't upset me at all."

I frowned. "Then what are you focused on?"

For a moment he was quiet.

"I think… time."

"Huh?" Now it was my turn to be confused.

He walked closer surprising me again and leant against the same wall I'd settled against; sliding roughly to the floor and bringing his legs up to lean his elbows against his knees. "Don't get me wrong. I like being me. And so what if I'm a little…" He searched for a word; forehead crinkling slightly.

"Amorous?" I offered.

Clicking his fingers as if he'd just got it he grinned for a moment. "Yeah! Amorous! I like girls! I'm not going to apologise for it!"

"Wouldn't dream of it." I mumbled but he didn't hear me.

Instead he lost the happy go lucky rhythm he was expelling in excess; the smile on his face began to look a little fragile. "It's the waiting that gets to you."

My eyes shot back to his face. "Waiting?"

"Yeah." He looked down; head bowing slightly and there was this bleakness to his expression I didn't understand. "You have no idea how long I waited in that pill. Just sitting there, helpless and wondering." I watched as his arm moved to settle across his legs; long fingers digging into the material of his trousers. "It was almost enough to drive me crazy."

"I don't understand; you would have been chosen eventually."

Eyes drawn to him I measured his form on the floor to my left. Back hunched half-against-half-away from the wall, head almost fully bowed I gazed into his skull, moved to engage his soul; to seek out secrets not mine to possess. There was no outward sign of emotion to explain my need for understanding but the energy within me, the power I now encompass… it demanded an explanation.

Tell me.

I wasn't trying to force him but my presence, my intrigue… it made itself known. With each beat of my heart the rhythm of my energy stirred. A controlled pulse spreading in an unseen hum throughout the stairway.

And I'm sure he could feel it.

Tell me.

Those eyes flickered over to me once above the arm settled on his right knee. Brown flashed for a moment and somewhat startled only to wane back into an unsure, deliberated stare.

"Who are you?"

I blinked. "Sorry?"

He looked… confused maybe? "You're not a soul reaper are you?"

"No I'm not." I replied, tilting my head slightly to the side and wondering why he was inquiring.

"And you're not a substitute like your friend." It wasn't a question.

I answered slowly. "Correct."

His stare was beginning to focus a little too intently on my features, looking at him made the observation all the more apparent. He didn't speak for a whole minute and so my nerves forced me to initiate the questioning. "What is it?"

It took him a second to answer. "Why are you involved in this? An ordinary human wouldn't have any reason to be, so what's your story?"

I looked at him. It was a direct question that deserved such an answer. But what could I reply with? My existence confounded me. However the second he asked the question something stirred within me; as if a knot had existed behind my heart and in my head that had slowly begun to unravel.

"I'm…" I tried; my brow furrowing in concentration. "I'm connected."

It just came out; the word left my mouth before I could stop it and I knew it, instinctually, to be truth.

I was connected. How could I not be?

But connected to what?

…No, I wasn't analogous to Rukia whose sole purpose in a life far longer than my own was to carry out the many duties of a death god; to bring stability to the reams of souls in the world of the living and in the soul society and to put right the hollowfied of wandering spirits.

Hm. To put right the hollowfied state?

When Kisuke Urahara uttered those words to me I'd wondered vaguely whether the paradigm that is hollowfication wasn't simply another form of transformation. The dematerialisation of the spiritual matter existing within all creatures that reconstructs into the molecular density of a monstrous archetype for instinct: the most basic nature of the soul made real. This, defined no longer by the social beast that is the 'human' but by the common causality that links all organisms; a function laid at the root of all human drives facilitating our commonalities be them want, need, trust, hope, fear, hate or love etc. A similarity connecting the species through biological drives; a yen so cavernous and intrinsic that its origin has never been established, existing via its own awareness, too incomprehensible to be categorized by mere mammalian vessels. The link between physical and spiritual drives.

One basic capricious, illogical and yet supremely logical foundation for the requirements of the 'human' disposition:

Hunger.

The need to feed.

Physical hunger merged with abstract: the frantic struggle to obtain their hearts. The sensation of fulfilment missing within each of them that they may have lost or given up.

It centred on 'choice'.

A seemingly simple and underappreciated facet of humanity was literally the one thing that separated us from the despair of hollows.

So was it right to view such creatures as abominations of the soul? They were clearly manifestations of our darker halves, our unexplored souls, our fear and yearning; I could never view them as creatures that were never meant to exist. Abominations they may be, but they came from us. From the part of us that makes us human, the part that wishes for what we take for granted: our humanity.

They originate from the soul. They wear what matters most, what they have lost, as skin. Like armour. And that in itself was an incredibly human quality.

But it wasn't simply the soul that I felt attune to. I'd always been well aware of the connection between the spirit and the body because my energy reflected that unseen union.

The troubling aspect of such an alliance was that every creature I'd so far come across: Rukia, Chad, Uryu, Urahara etc, each of them displayed only spiritual atoms; reitsu, in various forms: the divining energy that breeds supernatural sensitivity and brings forth latent potential.

…What if I was the abomination?

The Gikongan's furrowed stare only made that sensation appear more valid with each passing second.

But the taught atmosphere broke my mobile decided now was the perfect time to vibrate fiercely against my thigh. Glancing away without explanation or any expression of intent at all I extricated the cell; the fingers of my right hand deftly flipping open the black device after my eyes swiftly took in the caller ID.

"Urahara?"

It had been a deliberate utterance as I needed to be sure of the Gikongan's reaction. So when he suddenly stiffened before even the second syllable of that name had escaped my lips I decided now was the time to play the part of the unobservant one. Keeping my eyes trained forward I waited for the expected.

"Mai you've got trouble coming."

Okay, not quite what I was expecting, I'll admit. I blinked at the abrupt statement. "Erm, sorry but could you could be a little more specific?"

"Did Rukia use the substitute soul pill yet?"

"Yes she did."

"Oh man." His heavy exhale tickled down my ear.

"What is it?"

"The merchandise I gave her was defective. An accident at best; a catastrophe as an inevitable."

So trouble already arrived then, huh?

A sigh like hum left me as I pondered, my eyes gazing into space. In one way, the most understandable way, his words could implicate a rather dangerous shift in my perception of the Gikongan's manner. In referral to my innate alertness to his presence, his demeanour of casual juvenility and natural licentious could now be interpreted as a possibly unstable psyche that currently inhabited a body he could try to steal at any moment. Outstanding.

But it didn't exactly trouble me: I didn't even consider the risk.

He still wasn't dangerous. In fact, rather than suddenly curse my current situation I almost smiled at how absolutely not perilous this 'defective' property was. If I trusted my instincts as Urahara suggested I definitely should I'd stay he was the complete opposite. Defective merchandise implies a certain flaw in the character of any product. But a soul no matter its birth couldn't possibly be characterised as a 'product' in any form. It would imply engineering of a sort and that was the ultimate contradiction in this case: this soul had been created. Souls were by far the most complex of all existing possibilities. From my own past experience, to entail that a person is in any one way a defect was to suggest a misunderstanding in accordance to the principles of the person in question in comparison to the perspectives of the perceiver.

That person is a freak because he isn't similar to the rest of us. He's 'other'.

In other words: the term 'freak' used as a descriptive was almost always in direct consequence of the misunderstood.

"Defective in what way?" I finally queried.

The soul next to me shifted; obviously aware I was talking about him. Slowly and silently he straightened his long legs, Ichigo's long legs, the shoe covered heels of which scraped lightly across the floor. Those able fingers I'd previously witnessed wrapped and able around the hilt of a huge and heavy zanpacto fisted then protracting, as if grasping for tangible calm.

Urahara continued his explanation. By the quiet, steady taps of wood on wood echoing over the line it sounded as if he were walking. "The first prototypes for the Gikongan were originally designed as combat mock souls created solely for anti-hollow combat purposes. They were referred to as Kaizo Konpaku. They were eventually rejected by the unanimous vetoing of Central 46: the Administrative Monarchy of the Soul Society, a Supreme Judicial Government body."

Yikes. Even the words with no tangible depiction to describe the authority behind them sounded threatening. Though it should have been natural, really, to assume that Rukia's home would have a more than stable and incredibly reliable legal system seeing as their principle duty as soul reapers was an ongoing mission to eradicate the unfilled creatures we humans create from the many, many possible outcomes our souls portend. Now that I thought more about it there was a high possibility that her home was one of strict regulations and physical restrictions.

And for a moment I was diverted; surprised that Kisuke Urahara was so willingly divulging to me what were obviously high-level Soul Society secrets.

"Alright." I spoke after one of the many small pauses that he was frequently granting me. "So I'm guessing something went wrong with their design preset?" I asked, listening with a rapt ear. My eyes concentrated on nothing in particular as the… mod soul… to my left I could tell, by the tense shifting of the muscles underlying his form, I was sure was preparing to bolt.

I just needed to understand why.

"Not exactly. They were developed for a project labelled Spearhead and were to be placed in the dead after their own souls parted. These souls would then be used to face hollows."

I tilted my head sideways contemplatively. "In one way it could be seen as the complete opposite of the Gigai: the body proxy."

"In one way." He allowed.

Could I arbitrate on a way of life so dissimilar to the one I inhabited 24/7 because of a decision made so very long ago? Was it even right for me to pass judgement on a society that has existed since god knows when and will continue to breathe life into itself after I'm long departed from any of the existing dimensions? On a choice they made, one they had considered necessary in order to protect other souls?

I don't think anybody has that right. But still…

Expendable warriors? Was that really necessary?

"What happened to the program?"

"The project was abandoned due to ethical concerns." There was a pause which lasted a little too long to be considered a good thing. "And an order was given to destroy all the mod-souls."

For a long second my brain literally failed to comprehend the latter half of his explanation. "W-what?"

Being stunned, one tends to miss the goings and comings of their surroundings.

If I'd paid closer attention the Gikongan wouldn't have had the chance to twitch never mind run for the hills.

I almost missed catching that tiniest flitch of movement, that honest little detail indicating a slew of panic and fear; that slight widening of the eyes, the constriction of his chest… He was in my peripheral before the speed in which he rose to his feet had me dropping the phone instinctively; the sleek metal and plastic slipping from my grasp to lie inert on the floor, Urahara's calls echoing dimly from the speaker.

I had to lunge forwards in order to stop him. My left hip collided against the cool stone tiles on the floor, both arms successfully reaching their target to wrap securely and tightly around his knees.

I tugged backwards and he immediately stumbled as he simultaneously tried to hop away; the back of his legs fumbling for stability, his calf muscles straining against my chest. However gravity decided to gain my favour and work against him. Instead of parking him in neutral he inevitably collided bodily with the floor.

Landing with a 'flump' his knees forced my arms down which had me falling inelegantly on top of the back of his legs. Good work Mai.

I could have groaned at myself: how epically had I screwed up for one day?

Face pressed awkwardly into the back of one of his thighs (…yeah) I breathed an apology. "Sorry." My arms were flattened by his body and were taking umbrage to the uncomfortable position. Lifting my head I shifted, loosening the hold I had on him and leaned bodily to the side to lift my weight. I'd given him more than enough bruises to feel particularly horrid about for one day, week, year…

"But you're not going anywhere just yet." I finished, looking at the back of his head as I spoke, as if from force of will alone I could make him see the understanding in my eyes.

Almost immediately he lifted his head up; those orange locks bouncing peculiarly and twisted around to look me side on. Hands holding his upper body a foot or so off the floor one single brown eye met mine over a locked shoulder blade. It widened momentarily, fearfully; heavy anxiety evident in its depths before suddenly narrowing.

A small frown pulled my brows together. "What's wrong?"

Before I'd even finished the query he was moving. Reitsu shot down him as he twisted and pulled his left leg forcefully out of my grasp. Blinking at the jolt I backed away slightly, half-lying half-sitting on the floor and was so surprised by the action, by the sheer strength that solitary pull alone had possessed that all I could do was stare dumbly at his limb as it lanced outwards, arching away only to swing full force back at me. I received an immaculately clear view of his heel coming in for a landing against the side of my head.

And God, did it hurt. The shock of it was like the resounding crack of a volcano in mid eruption.

Lidded vision flashed white before painting itself red and black. It had been so unexpected and for a moment all I saw were brilliant sparks; like fibre optics patterning my opaque sky with stars.

If I could even remotely describe how it felt to be hammered by that single heel strike I'd illustrate clearly that the sheer entropy of having your insides forced one way inside you as the rest of you went in the opposite direction was… disorientating to say the least. The velocity of my head being battered into the stone wall to my right left me stunned.

But what… what did I do wrong?

My consciousness must have floated away for a moment because there was a feeling of being dragged back into the light of day.

"Ugh…"

The dull expanse of cream walls blurred into life as I opened my eyes again only to glimpse the mod soul tearing away through the EXIT.

Needless to say I came too pretty fast.

"Wait!"

Normally the mind hurries forward faster than the body can follow but it seemed the same rule didn't quite apply to me. I don't even remember crashing into the metal door; one second I was laid out on the floor, the next my hands were commanding metal to make way.

The speed of it all was simply overwhelming to me. I wasn't even aware of it until the emergency exit door banged against the wall, almost ricocheting off its face; it was all a blur of light. My hands came into contact with the ground, my body falling forwards on all fours.

Blinking down at tiles my head pounded. I cast my gaze to the right, down the longest corridor in school and focused incredulously on the figure speeding towards his exit. He'd already flashed down four classroom doors. For the one second he was in view I glimpsed how swiftly his feet flew against the ground, barely tapping with his lightness of foot. My mouth firmly dropped open, forever I fear to stay.

Then he was gone; paper once pinned to the various boards plastered against the wall rendered airborne at the force of his corner turn.

Whoa…

H-how many miles an hour did that make?

What was Urahara not telling me?

Shaking myself clear of my astonishment I tried to stand but the moment I got to my feet the blood that had somehow surged north came rushing down to my toes and my vision swam. I wobbled, staggering forwards and almost tripping over my own feet.

A pair of large hands suddenly took a firm hold of my shoulders and set me straight and I tried to orientate myself. He didn't release me. That strong, but gentle source of verve…

Chad.

"Are you alright?" His Mexican coffee voice was as steady as usual but there was an almost silent undercurrent of concern laced there.

I rubbed the pads of my palms into my eyes and sighed.

"…Yeah."

My voice held with it a tone of weary incredulity: the day was going so well.

Those huge hands, which were surprising careful (even if they were the size of shovels) lifted away from my arms and I felt him step out from behind me until he stood at my side.

I could feel the gaze of his eyes as they trailed searchingly over me, checking for any visible hurts. They landed, predictably, on the side of my head the mod soul had seen fit to brutalize, the area of which had started to throb slowly, dully. The broken skin covering the egg (the melon, a purple one) was merely an echo compared to the rhythmic pounding the drums of reality were playing in my skull.

Obviously my tact had failed somewhere between talking to him and pouncing on him. I'd once expressed Rukia to possess the quality of tact analogous to a 'fat guy on crack'. Heck, it seemed I wasn't much better myself.

The sub soul had been afraid of me. I'd done something unknowingly to make him react, as if to an attacker rather than a friend and now I had to make amends. I didn't want him to fear me.

Not when I already feared myself.

When the dark behind the lids of my eyes started to colour yellow I dropped my hands. Fingers almost dragging down the skin of my face I squinted sideways up at Chad with a slightly self deprecating lip twitch of what I figured was a failed attempt at amiable reassurance.

"Hey Sado."

"Hey." The eye not hidden by his rich brown hair remained fixed on the left side of my head. It tapered slightly; the pupil and iris shifting, the impression of troubled confusion painted there in serious shades of dark brown.

After several minutes of comfortable examination (Sado was the one individual whose stares didn't make me feel uncomfortable or… bothered in someway, cough' Ichigo 'cough') on his part he finally muttered something.

"You're bleeding."

Bleeding…

Blinking, I remembered that I was definitely the type of person to down play an injury. As in 'a broken arm = only a sprain' kind of down play. It wasn't out of some kind of stubborn big-headedness; it was just something I'd always done having seen no sense in complaining about injuries that couldn't be taken back. However it also implied that I sometimes forgot to check the seriousness of any damage done to myself and that was a hazard in itself. I couldn't afford to underestimate any threat, not with what was beginning to occur within the walls of Karakura. Wait does Karakura even have walls?

Anyway (space cadet)…

I hadn't thought it was that big a deal. It hurt but, so? Splinters hurt too.

Assessing my physical condition I lifted my left hand up towards the area and probed it with single finger. Ow. I winced and brought the digit back down, taken aback by the red shining wetly on the tip.

Oh…

It was to be expected I supposed. I mean, he hit me pretty hard. Well, whatever.

"I'm alright, but I should probably get something to clean myself up with."

Not that I would. I really needed to find the mod soul, preferably before Kisuke Urahara. I didn't begrudge Urahara his duty to his customers but I felt that this wasn't a case for judicial authority where the crime is punishable by incarceration or worse, a death penalty.

I think all that was necessary… was the assurance of a friend.

Hmmm… My phone.

Brushing back tendrils of hair away from my eyes I moved around Chad and walked back into the EXIT way. My feet came to a clipped halt next to my fallen cell and I crouched to scoop it up, reading the call screen.

Call disconnected. I sighed.

"Everything alright?"

I took a breath and turned to look backwards at Sado through the open door, acknowledging the subtle concern he was throwing my way.

You know, in this one area he and Ichigo were as opposite as bookends.

Chad's overt presentation of any form of preoccupation generally tended to be miniscule. To the watchful observer the play of emotion on his face was as explicit as the most histrionic response any thespian could procure with one huge difference: his was honest concern. He was big, intimidating and hard to read but underneath that I figured he was probably as fluffy as a marshmallow.

He would also know when not to worry as well. When anxiety wasn't necessary because he knew that, well, some of our friends were, er, whimsical and over-the-top teens in disguise as true idiots. Being as silent and as borderline uncommunicative as he was Sado held the noteworthy position, one seemingly taken for granted, of the bystander. He witnessed everything and everyone and would undoubtedly catch the subtle nuances and emotions in any person most wouldn't want heard or seen.

Most would consider the role a thankless one. But I think Chad, a boy used to empathizing with the discriminated inferior, used it to gage when and when not to step in. You had to know him to read him well, as Ichigo already does, and as I am beginning to. Their friendship was the very definition of masculine fondness and acceptance. They understood a piece of the other most couldn't.

But Ichigo…

Physically Ichigo wore concern like a second skin. It was at times almost unbearably evident that it was actually indiscernible. A paradox. Not many noticed it, instead writing him off as another delinquent ass.

He wore it, heavy and ardent in the core of his eyes, just as he wore every form of emotion I'd encountered from him so far. Some burned deep; a flame so dense and indiscriminate I felt that it had to remain dormant for the safety of his soul. Other feelings he accommodated would transform his eyes to the warm solace of melted copper, the calm openness of russet leaves in late summer, the hard resolve of orange sunrises and the wicked liveliness of auburn sunsets.

The time when Kurosaki didn't express any form of overt or expressive sentiment would I think be the time to worry. A time when those emotions become too profound for him to bear and as a result he'd ultimately try to bury them beneath a venire of apathy before they could attempt to consume him.

The restrained play of feeling expressed on his face whenever we spoke was always fascinating to me. Beguiling and… stunning. Each nuance under every scowl would, at times, stop me still.

Truth be told he controlled himself very well; most wouldn't be able to perceive or extinguish the feelings he experienced beneath his skin but I'd always…

From the first moment Ichigo Kurosaki had considered me worthy of a single word I'd been… captured, I suppose you could say by, well…

By him.

The person. His thoughts and notions, actions that served no personal gain and haunted by the pull of his prevailing reitsu against my own; that yearning ache that howled for control, connection and completion, tempered by pride and strong-minded obstinacy. He was so impetuous, so intriguingly poignant that at times I felt like a bard straddling the line between friend and admirer and making note of his adventures.

My embarrassingly revealing pensive prose now over with I shifted around to face my friend, nodding in reply to his question. "More or less. I just…" Glancing back at my phone I pressed my lips together, coming to a conclusion and quickly forming a plan. "I've got to make a phone call."

I looked back up at Sado and quirked a brow at how he'd turned to glance down the long hallway. The extremely well developed muscles in his face flexed and I examined his honestly striking features. They suited his personality: steady, defined, reserved and sturdy and kind.

'Lucky' was a term I'd never applied to myself before moving to Karakura as a means of description. All my friends; they made me so incredibly lucky.

Sado's hair covered his brows but it wasn't difficult to tell they were pulled in a deep frown. Hmm.

I moved through the EXIT way. "Are you alright?"

"That wasn't Ichigo."

Rocked, I almost took a step backwards. Oh. Wow.

He… knew?

Staring at him with clear eyes I tilted my head, trying to gauge his thought progressions. He knew Ichigo. Better than many. Probably better than Tatsuki did. So it wasn't completely ridiculous to conclude that maybe, just maybe, he'd figured a few things out. It wouldn't take much more beyond astute perception and an interest in the welfare of the person in question. The required element however was belief.

That and actually bearing witness to hollow slaughter can help tremendously with any scepticism he may have previously felt; meeting Yuichi Shibata may have instilled an increased spiritual awareness of the dangers lurking behind invisible walls.

And the idea of lying outright to him made my stomach slowly turn counter clockwise.

"No. It wasn't Ichigo." I decided to say.

He didn't respond at first. There was silence for a while where he seemed to contemplate something before his eyes flickering back to me. "Do you need any help?"

Do I need any help? Just like that.

It seemed so easy for him to just… believe like that, to have that level of faith in the people around him. I was blinking at him like a fool for at least a minute (thankfully he didn't comment), in wonder at how quickly he'd decided to trust my word.

I smiled. "No. I… I think I can handle this by myself. Besides I'll be moving fast." Super fast.

My words didn't seem to bother him. "Be careful."

I frowned uncomprehendingly at his caution. "I always am."

By the expression of pure stone featured on his face I could tell we were in complete disagreement with that statement. I wasn't that bad… was I?

Well, yes, maybe I was. Cue internal eye roll.

"I'll be back later." I said to him before pausing to consider something else. "Chad?" My call was unnecessary; he was still watching me. "Would it be too much trouble to ask you to watch my things for me? Until I come back?"

He gave a quiet grunt of assent, the way he always did.

I nodded briskly. "Thanks."

Turning my attention back to the phone in my hand I twisted sharply on my heel, walking purposefully in the same direction the Konpaku went down. A few buttons pressed and ample patience later and Urahara was back on the line.

"Urahara?" I made way around a corner.

"You're back!" He intoned joyously.

"Er, yeah. Listen, what do you intend on doing to the modified subject?"

"Under normal circumstances I would be under strict obligation to apprehend the fugitive substitute soul pill, but…"

"But?"

"I'm guessing you have something you plan on doing?"

My feet tripped to a stop. "A-ah, how did you know?"

"Intuition! Intuition my dear Mai! As I knew you would call and explain your lovely fine self this very late morning!"

"Are you on something?" I asked quietly, as if someone were listening, concerned for his mental health.

"Tessai made me some tea. I have reservations as to what's actually in it."

Tessai and his tea. Hmm… Kay. Tea addict. Wait. "Didn't you drink it anyway?"

"Yes?" He replied, as if the idea of not drinking the tea was something unthinkable.

"Um… okay. So anyway…"

"Yes, we have more important things to discuss."

I was silent for a moment. "You said that all the Kaizo Konpaku was sentenced for termination?"

"I did."

My feet started moving again, walking slowly this time. "Don't you think it's…" I struggled to find the right word. "Wrong, that they were destroyed for being exactly what they were created to be?"

"It wasn't for me to judge the decision of soul society law."

Which could be interpreted as a law passed by officials who only monitored state affairs whilst being apart from them? A senate with no democracy, possibly, or was I over thinking the technicalities? Nevertheless the words he didn't say spoke louder than the words he did. "So this mod soul fears disposal, huh?" I chewed on my lower lip for a moment, concentrating. "Urahara? Were you the original scientist behind the design specifications for the Kaizo Konpaku?"

"No, but I can see why you'd think it was me."

I could ask who the previous manufacturer was but it was currently irrelevant information. "How was he able to run so fast?"

"Oh. I said earlier that they were combat ready substitute souls, which basically means that they could supercharge an area of the body they possessed."

I made an intuitive leap. "So he enhanced the power in Ichigo's legs?"

"Yes; they're identified as an underpod type: incredible leg strength."

This would definitely explain the pain currently dominating the area just west of my left eye. "That also means he probably has elevated jump capacity." Just great. "How did this slip-up happen anyway?" Accidentally confusing a Gikongan with a Kaizo Konpaku didn't occur everyday of the week.

"It was an accident. I asked Ururu to pick up Miss Kuchiki's package and she misplaced the item. An error on my account I'm afraid; she was just following my orders."

I blinked, poor Ururu. "This isn't exactly a situation where punishment is merited. There was no wrong done. This mod soul isn't exactly a criminal."

"He could be dangerous Mai. Who knows what he could do in a body?"

"I know there's a certain amount of risk involved but what if he's not?" I questioned gently.

"What do you have in mind?"

At the end of the hallway leading to the main stairway a wide window sat in the narrow space at the head of the fourth floor staircase. I slid to a stop; shoes almost screeching against the floor...

That window was always kept open.

"Friendship." I finally muttered, staring at the pane of glass. Tilting my head considerately I saw that it was large enough, perhaps, to fit a human through, even at speed. It would do.

"Friendship?" His voice sounded strange; surprised but at the same time knowing.

"Why not?"

My feet carried me forwards and with my unoccupied hand I lightly pushed against the glass. The window opened instantly outwards into the sunlight, a slight breeze ghosting across my face wafting in the blossoming scents of early summer; the earthy freshness of tree leaves and dirt coming in from the small woodland area next to the main school building.

"What is it you're thinking about?"

I peered out over the frame and stared down at the ground. It looked reeeaaaaally far down. "I'm thinking…" I was what? Thirty five, forty feet up? "…About jumping out of the window."

"Jumping out of the window?" He spoke each word clearly, deliberately. "Oh. How not random."

But it wasn't really. "Well, I figured it would be best to avoid the rest of my friends before they ask me any more questions." Questions that I didn't have a clue of how to answer never mind lie about. "Leaving this way seemed more efficient what with the head start he's got on me and-"

"I was just teasing you Mai."

Oh, the cons of simply being too literal rear its ugly head once again. Jackass. "Thank you."

I could practically hear his smirk. "What floor are you on?"

"Um, fourth."

"Fourth? Have you ever jumped from such a height before?"

"Ah, no."

"And you think it's a good idea to test your endurance for altitude levels… now?"

I chewed on the inside of my mouth. "Er… yes?"

"Huh." There was a moment's pause. "Keep me on the line?"

I wondered why but took the request, instead, as another one of Kisuke Urahara's singular quirks. "Kay."

Grasping hold of the white window frame I placed a foot on the edge and pulled myself up so that my body sat comfortably balanced on the balls of my feet on the sill (thank god for pants).

Leaning out my heart rate revved up, automatically responding to the sheer drop and the weight of gravity pulling at me. I anticipated the coming fall; just the knowing that I was about to jump clear out of a window four stories high. A thrill of something flashed through me, blooming from my chest, down my oesophagus and into my stomach and all of a sudden the height was nothing but a statistic.

I'm guessing adrenaline was playing my synapses as strings like an expert fiddler. It coursed through my system, shooting up my spine, screaming at me to just jump already.

So I let go, fingers slipping from their grasp on the pane, plunging feet first towards the ground.

The velocity of it hit my chest like a battering ram. My breath caught in my throat, failing in its release as the steep fall begged for absolute focus. Not a second could be spared for a quick intake of oxygen. My blood surged insanely through my veins as momentum crashed my body against the air, compressing skin to muscle and organs to bone.

It was absolutely thrilling.

There was something so overwhelmingly encompassing about having nothing stable beneath my feet; a visceral, vital acknowledgment that every creature alive must obey the law of physics and that I would eventually land. That all journeys must definitively end, that everything follows along the linear progression of time and space and for a moment my soul dabbled in the knowledge that maybe, just maybe I could be exempt from this universal certainty. The notion of 'impossible' could very well be 'possible'. It was something I'd always considered to be completely factual; a very juvenile view of physics I suppose and as a mere child had accepted the truth of reality against the realm of fantasy that only youngsters appear to adhere to. But I had lost this belief somewhere, or more appropriately misplaced it along the tide of my memories only to be stored unconsciously within the somewhat unstable subliminal power I possessed.

Falling as I was, it didn't feel even remotely like a descent. More like a climb. A single moment of forever underpinned in unmitigated sensation.

Until I hit the ground that is.

I landed hard, a fleeting tinge of green energy flaring. Feet first, my legs bending in a fast crouch, I balanced forwards resting my weight on my right hand. "Oof!" Whoa…

Dude.

"Mai?"

I raised the phone back to my ear as I looked back up over my shoulder in wonder at the open window. The soles of my feet stung; pins and needles throbbing in tangent in protest to my audacious flight.

God damn… "Urahara?" I breathed.

"Hmm? You okay?"

"Oh yeah. I'm just fine." I was fairly sure that any shock still present in my expression was completely outdone by the gratified shine in my eyes. "That was incredible." God, I wanted to do it again. Right now.

"You liked it huh?"

Laughing lightly, I shook my head. "What tipped you off first?"

Like? Hah. Massive understatement.

---

A Few Minutes Later…

Tiring legs were being pushed to their limit as they sped across the concrete ground outside of Karakura Principle High School. Gasping but still managing to scurry after her paranoid, replacement death-berry head Rukia's sweat glistening face attempted a deadpan façade of total casualness. Or at least rather than the outright exasperation she felt.

"Think we got here fast enough?" Oh Ichigo Sama the Excessive One, she thought derisively.

Yeah… he might have annoyed her a tiny bit on this last hollow hunt. What, with him bouncing on the spot like the first kid at the fastest ride in a theme park; his impatience so overwrought it practically came off him like steam. He constantly barraged her with questions like: "So is that it already? Was that the last one? Can we go back now or what? We can go now right? Right? Right Rukia? Hello! Rukia!? Answer me already!"

The boy in question, currently sprinting towards the school entrance cast irritated eyes at her over his shoulder. "Just move it already!" He barked; head throbs threatening abound. "This is no time for jokes!"

Breathing heavily she managed to quirk a brow at him. "W-who (deep breath) …got your panties in a wad?" Common colloquialisms at their finest ladies and gentlemen.

He slammed open the door. "Hey, shut up; this is serious! I don't like the idea of having that Gikon-thing in my body for a minute longer than it has to be." He dashed inside, up the first flight of stairs.

Automatically following him her feet tapped on every step, eyeing the flapping cloth of his shinigami robes and absolutely refusing to take him seriously. "What is the problem Ichigo?" A haughty smile threatened her lips. "Are you afraid he'll do a better job than you in your classes? You're already kind of hopeless as a guy; the least you could do is make sure you keep your grades up to par."

She said this as if it were complete fact, as if it were obvious to everyone but him. Yep, she was still peeved.

"OI!" He spun round to shout down at her as he reached the final flight of stairs (he was faster in soul reaper mode). "What do you mean 'I'm hopeless as a guy?! Don't try to change the fact that this was beyond the worst idea in the history of all ideas. Oh and, remember how it's all, you know, your fault?!"

Rukia squared him a look. "You don't know if there's going to even be an issue with this Gikongan or not." I'm failing to see the problem here.

Head turning neatly to the right he threw her a look. Then he peered broodingly upwards through the concrete towards the next floor as if he could see into the classroom and change fate. "I don't know…" He brought a hand up to rub at the back of his neck "Something doesn't feel right to me."

He huffed at himself scathingly. Not like that's saying anything with how my life's been going lately. But this Gikongan. He doesn't feel right. I can't put my finger on it. I don't even have something to compare it to. It doesn't help that he's a freaking perv! And I left him with Mai. When I was tired and not thinking straight…

He stared down pensively at the floor; his eyes a well of thoughts.

Finally coming to a stop Rukia looked at him in exasperation, thinking up the appropriate vernacular or colloquial term for a response. Eventually she gave him her best 'so are you done here because we've got a job to do' face. "And the award for best melodrama goes to…"

Irritated brown eyes flashed at her. "Shut the hell up."

Then he was off again; sprinting up the last leg of stairs with a weakened ex-soul-reaper in a degenerative Gigai dragging herself after him.

He slid to a stop outside of their third period classroom.

Completely ignoring Rukia as she finally caught up to him he placed his hands against the door frame and peeked urgently through the glass panel, eyes searching. For some reason she couldn't fathom he froze managing to blink incredulously, irately and dumbly all at once. Rukia sweatdropped and paused, deciding (for her own sake) not to take a step closer to him, especially when he practically flattened his nose against the transparent partition.

"She's not in there!"

Decidedly puzzled she frowned. "Er, who?"

His head whipped around so fast to face her she actually jumped, a little startled. "Mai! Who else could I possibly be talking about?!" She noticed how he didn't remove his hands or move even an inch away from the door.

Rukia decided to try and be helpful. "One of your many other female friends?"

Momentarily diverted he dropped the panicked expression. "Many other female friends?"

Does he not know? He sees them every single day… "Er, you know you've got Mai and then there's Tatsuki Arisawa and the rest." When he continued to stare at her in total bafflement she followed it up. "And Orihime Inoue, Ryo… Ryo Kuneida, I think that is her name." She brought a hand up to her chin in serious thought. "That vivacious redhead whom I'm fairly certain is a lesbian…"

His cheek twitched and he raised a sceptic brow. "Gee Rukia, which book did you read to figure that one out?"

She ignored him, as was the norm. "There's that other one, the bashful looking one with bobbed light brown hair. And the one they call 'man eater Mahana'…"

Man eater Mahana? What the? "Whatever. Look, I need you to go in there and find out where Mai went."

Rukia's head tilted. "She's probably just gone to the bathroom."

"And she what?" The drawling crawl in his voice only highlighted his scorn. "Took the Gikongan in there with her?"

"You did tell her to keep an eye on him. Both eyes in fact."

He rolled his. "Now is not the time to get specific. Would you just get in there already!" And with that he opened the door, pulled/pushed Rukia through with the other and followed her inside.

"That wasn't necessary." She muttered crossly, straightening her uniform.

"It's my body." Ichigo reminded her and searched the room. "Chad isn't here. Go ask them." He gestured towards his friends.

"Alright." She sighed and moved forwards. "But I doubt it is anything to worry about."

He looked like he was about to ring her neck. "Humour me, will you."

They were sat together, clustered around four adjoining desks and leaning forwards to look at something. Mizuiro sat in the centre next to Keigo, Tatsuki across from them next to Inoue, Ryo inclining over the two boys, and Michiru, Mahana and Chizuru propped above the two sitting girls.

As the two death reapers reached them Ichigo realised that they were all engrossed with something Mizuiro was showing them on his mobile but he couldn't see what it was.

As per his 'perverted sensor array', Keigo was the first to spot Rukia. Head shooting up he almost sprung out of his seat. "Rukia! You came back!" He spoke as if she'd been absent for years instead of half an hour and from his personal life instead of simply from the school grounds; his would-be lover gone and lost forever.

Ichigo shook his head. Never change Keigo.

And Rukia, well… somehow she managed to flutter her lashes, glitter appallingly brightly, and curtsey all at once, unfalteringly on form. "Hello Everyone."

And Miss Impostor makes her début. He could practically feel the twitch in his eye pulsing to the rhythm of his annoyance.

As if feeling that particular pulse on her back, Rukia hurried onwards. "Do any of you know where Mai is?"

Her words had an effect that went totally against Ichigo's expectations.

For one thing Keigo actually paled, looking as if the grim reaper himself had paid him a visit. So convincing was the expression that Ichigo actually checked to make sure he still couldn't be seen. Mizuiro didn't look any different at all except that the smile on his face appeared strained; as if he were unsure as whether to laugh or…

Nah, he just he just looked like he wanted to laugh his head off about something and it was taking all his restraint to hold back.

Tatsuki looked as if she were about to breathe fire down on the poor, unsuspecting desk she sat at. Arms folded tightly across her chest, she chewed on the inside of her cheek, glaring daggers at the phone clutched safely out of reach in Mizuiro's hand as if the device had done her a personal insult. The palpability of her obvious annoyance was so strong that Chizuru actually took a step away from Inoue; blasphemy on the girl's 'religion' to be sure.

Speaking of Inoue… she seemed pretty centred, if not kind of concerned over her best friend to whom she cast apprehensive glances every other second.

"Ah, um." The girl spoke softly. "Mai has, er…"

"Run away with the fairies?" Offered Keigo, weakly.

"Taken leave of her senses?" Tatsuki muttered, bitingly.

Inoue bit her lip. "Tatsuki…" She said but couldn't seem to speak the necessary words to fill in the sentence.

Perplexed, Rukia looked from one to the other. "Is something wrong?"

She was almost completely ignored and Ichigo would have smirked at the irony if he wasn't so busy tending to the growing feeling of uneasiness stirring in his gut.

In the quiet pause Mizuiro spoke up peering at Tatsuki of all people. "It wasn't exactly Mai's fault Tatsuki."

Dark eyes flickered towards him. "Oh, I don't blame Mai." She said with measured rancour. "Though for the life of me I can't understand why she didn't let me pummel him to death!"

Looking for all the world like he just didn't give a damn, Keigo stretched hands moving to the back of his neck as he reclined in his chair. "Maybe because you were too busy picking yourself up from the impressive puddle of goo that you melted into?"

The reaction was instantaneous.

From the moment Rukia had endeavoured to ask the question of a certain dark haired, anomalous teen's whereabouts, Tatsuki's foot hadn't ceased its perpetual tapping against the floor. But at those words the limb literally exploded upwards, the tip of which rammed into the underside of Keigo's chair. It capsized violently and forced the boy out of his seat and onto the floor.

Sprawled there pathetically he opened his eyes, looking like he'd been banged on the head one too many times. "Ah yes." He wheezed rather sensationally. "The classroom floor. It's been a while hasn't it my old friend."

It took him a moment to orientate himself to realise that Tatsuki had stood up too and was standing over him like some vengeful Norse goddess. Swirls of fury literally radiated out of her every pore and he tried, hard, not to wet himself. He'd been on the receiving end of Tatsuki's demonic temper before and no matter how many times he asked for it the experience never grew more endurable. As his eyes quivered with poorly suppressed terror he tried to compose what was supposed to be an amiable smile across his lips. However, since Keigo had never been of the impression of an intuitive kind of guy, the attempt fell right on its face, as it were.

The group could practically hear the pitiful gulp that got caught on its way to his oesophagus.

Tatsuki's fist actually trembled with how much force she'd put into controlling the urge to not batter the boy she stared down at. "Just who… was a puddle of goo?"

"C-certainly n-not you Tatsuki."

"You don't sound sincere."

"I'm sincere! I'm definitely sincere! The spokesman for sincerity, that's me! All the way! Absolutely! No wait, Tatsuki don't- no, DON'T HIT ME AGAAAAAIIIIN!"

The duo (and subsequent noise) was ignored, not so surprisingly, by the rest of the group during which Rukia had watched with curious indifference and Mizuiro had simply begun pressing buttons on his phone.

"We're seriously missing something here." Ichigo muttered, scowling at each of his friends. "And where the hell's Chad? He's never this late."

Then again, the teacher was late too. And it was what? Twenty minutes into the lesson? Let's hear it for teacher-student commitment.

Before Rukia could utter a response Mizuiro offered her his phone from his outreaching palm.

"Here's the abridged version." Was the random response to the question in her eyes. "You might want to sit down for this one. It's not something you'd expect to see on any day of the week ending in 'y', at least not from Ichigo."

If he could have, Ichigo would have leapt over the diminutive Rukia to shake his annoyingly evasive friend by the shoulders. Instead he settled for simply projecting his angst that was currently sprouting up with definite cause, however…

His far from intelligent, solitary thought was 'say what' and that's about as much as he could come currently up with.

Mizuiro smiled freelyat a gullible Rukia. "There it is: irrefutable evidence."

The powerless soul reaper blinked at him wonderingly before glancing down at the cell now in her right hand. The call screen presented to her what looked like some sort of camera recording. A video of some sort? She was still quite a bit behind on the intricacies of modern technology.

Without warning Ichigo's surly face appeared over her shoulder from behind. "That's the school's website." He sounded confused.

Head tilted sideways with intrigue Rukia pressed the play button… and almost immediately Ichigo regretted it.

…Because it was him. On camera. In the classroom filled with other students, his friends. Or rather it was his possessed body on camera that was, from what he could see in just the first five seconds, making an absolute pillock of itself.

Crap.

They both watched, their dread increasing by the second: Ichigo slowly turning the colour of puce as the dark shadow of 'I knew something like this would happen' mixed in with a healthy dash of 'I hate you Rukia Kuchiki' settled over his eyes, Rukia quite quickly becoming the proverbial sandwich meat between Ichigo and his friends as the Gikongan more or less threw another student out of the way in his hurry to sit beside Mai.

The sub soul stared at her like she was his absolute favourite whipped cream topping, after being deprived of the sugary substance for years, with added strawberries and a huge table sized spoon. There were actually sparkles present in his eyes. In his eyes. Ichigo's eyes, which in a universe of possibility was an impossible prospect. And to add insult to injury he was smiling like a happy little idiot.

The sheer dismay that sparked the tide of panicked sweat on Rukia's face was incomprehensible to Mizuiro and co who watched her with confused frowns.

"Are you alright Rukia? You're… sweating."

"I'm fine! Really! Whatever gave you that idea?! Hah ha ha ha!"

Of course they couldn't see the irrepressible wave of angry reitsu seeping out of Kurosaki like an aura of doom and gloom, spreading out across the back of Rukia's shoulders.

And then the Gikongan's voice rang out loud and clear, grating on Ichigo's nerves, sounding less like his strong baritone and more like a whining punk.

Not like me at all, thought Ichigo. The little doofus!

It didn't help. He already felt like beating the shit out of the guy, his body or no.

The moron was screwing with him and with… well, with Mai.

It wasn't something he could readily explain. The friendship he'd built with her, (though 'friendship', to him, didn't really feel like the correct appellation to append to it) was a fairly new development if he actually considered its progress. Yet it had never been a tenuous affiliation; even when trust had been an issue. At its core, a centre that had developed quickly, there had always been an inquisitive kind of expectation: a need for connection. A commonality. He'd felt it on more than occasion.

Understanding and curiosity had enabled what might have been quite straightforward to grow into something that somehow settled into his life like a missing jigsaw piece, which had confused him at first.

I was surprised…

It didn't take long for me to consider her a friend. A good one. And even less time to trust her, without reason or cause. It didn't make any sense and yet it felt…right. Even more confusing was the fact that it didn't bother me that I was beyond curious about her, that I still am or that my 'probing' might seem a little odd to others.

This wasn't explained: the 'why' of his need to uncover everything about Mai; her secrets, her abilities and their differences to him. It was relentless; a night and day preoccupation.

Maybe it was because it was something different.

He had to admit that the pull had been based, strongly, on the fact that she too could channel, see, touch, hear and speak to spirits just like he could. The first person he'd ever met, before Rukia, who had been able to. Or at least at first it had. But the things she did, when she did them and why both involving and irrelevant of her supernatural abilities… absorbed him completely.

She doesn't react like other people, like Tatsuki, or Inoue, Keigo, Mizuiro or even my sisters.

Even when she referred to her own family, people she spoke so little of, or when something that appeared so small and simple to him was a thing that could surprise and fascinate her. And just purely the way she expressed herself. Or how the way she reacted made him respond and always in a way he never expected. It wasn't even about how different she was from others. It meant nothing really that she could see hollows and… glow.

It was simply necessary. So he accepted it as it was. He wanted it in his life. It was important.

And here the marvellous soul society item was, stomping all over it like a tactless tank filled with impending explosive devices.

"Anything you need…" The sub soul began (with, as Ichigo readily noticed, emphasis on the 'you'), spelling out Ichigo's end in clear and crystal form. "I will do for you."

If he'd been holding a pencil, or well anything at all, Ichigo would have crushed it with the strength with which he closed his fists. I'm going to kill him. It. Whatever. He's history. End. Of. Story. No more listening to Rukia's speeches about how great this guy is; he's a goner. I just hope he didn't do anything more embarrassing than this…

But as usual, if wishes were horses beggars would ride.

"He's on medication."He heard Mai say and pretty quickly too, as if taking the time to pause would take her nerve away. "It makes him somewhat… changed."Actually it was kind of impressive how calm she sounded. "He'll be back to normal in no time. Promise." Who was she even promising this to anyway?

Ichigo almost snorted. Medication? Way to make it sound like I'm a crack head Mai. Or an escapee from a mental institution.

He continued to watch the video, scornfully, and with dread dripping down like lead to his gut as Mizuiro, a newly recovered Keigo, and the rest of the guys sprouted, oh so helpful anecdotes to fit each moment.

"I've never seen Ichigo get that close to a girl before. Or even want to get that close. Not that we knew him middle school or anything but the guy's kind of vanilla when it comes to girls."

Vanilla? What the heck?

"Yeah, he seemed real eager to be alone with Mai."

"You're still going on about that?"

"Hey, a dude has a right to be jealous over his hero man!"

"You still see her as a hero Keigo?"

"You don't just forget a thing like that. They create bonds. We're connected!"

"Er, are you trying to convince us or just yourself?"

"Hey!"

"Meds do strange things to people."

"Are you speaking from experience there Chizuru?"

"What? No!"

Useful things like that.

The overall theme, every five freaking seconds, seemed to relate to the obstinacy of Mai's will: How long could she truly last? Most of the time she appeared kind of lost as to what to do. Plus the sight of his body being used to display romantic overtures as he butchered Shakespeare made Ichigo feel faintly sick. As if his body were being pulled and twisted by some invisible puppeteer.

It was official: the Gikongan had made an absolute prick out of himself.

In my body. Ichigo's jaw tightened. Years of carefully crafting my attitude and image flushed happily down the toilet. Wanker.

It seemed Mizuiro and the bunch had followed them outside the classroom too. Geez, they were that bored?

But it wasn't until they witnessed the sub-soul bend on one knee in front of Inoue (whom they could only see the back of) and a revolted Tatsuki, their friends gathered behind her with expressions that looked about as spastic as clowns on LSD, that Ichigo's day truly and completely hit rock bottom. If a herd of dinosaurs suddenly stampeded over them he wouldn't have cared. If a hollow arrived and bit him in the ass he'd just shrug it off and brave the humiliation of informing his father to get him to rub cream all over his gluteus maximus, and he'd do so quite happily.

He's on his knees! And he k-ki-kis… He couldn't even voice it. He did that to her! It didn't matter that the body part that was kissed was only her hand. What the fu-

-And Mai, having no hope of picking up the pieces to the scene practically stood there to the side of the camera with what he would have probably thought was, if the circumstances were different, the funniest, most disturbing look of horror to ever cross the face of another human being. Not like he blamed her or anything; he was suffering from severe symptoms of disbelief himself and all from second hand viewing.

But that didn't last long.

When it appeared the sub soul was about to make another colossal ass of himself, a blunder that could never be washed away, this time with a thoroughly befuddled Tatsuki, Mai snapped out of it.

And for this particular moment Ichigo paid rapt attention; eyes focused on the screen, skin tense over ready muscles, with a certain expectation he'd long since developed concerning Mai. That she'd always and forever shock the shit out of him. And she does. Frequently.

One second she was there and the next she suddenly she wasn't.

Mai moved almost too fast; a blur of the school's uniform colours and the deep brown of her hair. Mizuiro would probably blame the camera. Her left arm reappeared around the Gikongan's throat shutting him up almost instantly and, Ichigo observed, with enough strength to almost lift his body clear up off the floor so that the tips of his shoes barely scraped the tiles.

He watched her, wanting maybe to understand something. Something more. It was the only time during the running of the video that his scowling face had lessened into just an introspective pull of his brows.

But after a moment he was back once again in the reality of this sucks, watching as Mai hightailed it down the hall dragging his unwilling body alongside her while their friends stood there attempting to process everything.

Peeking now over her shoulder Rukia managed, barely, not to flinch at the mother load of all manic twitches that had developed just under Ichigo's right eye. There he goes again. Or at the inhuman scowl he threw her way, as if the sun had gone in behind the clouds leaving behind the darkness of night personified in the form of Ichigo Kurosaki. The narrowing of his eyes under the heavy shadow of lividness was kind of alarming, even for one Rukia Kuchiki whose brother just happened to be one of the most intimidating men on the planet.

"'This is such a good idea Ichigo', you said," Ichigo reiterated in a deliberately falsetto and denigrating approximation of her voice. 'It's a marvellous soul society item', you said. 'Just wait till you try it Ichigo' you said. Next time I'm just going to shove it in your mouth and make you eat it Rukia." He all but hissed at her.

Passing the phone back to the dark haired boy Rukia smiled, attempting to make a show of seeing, just as the others did, the humour of it all. "We'll sort this out, calm down." She muttered, glancing at the others who were laughing at something that had been said on the video recording.

If Ichigo began breathing fire through his nostrils she wouldn't have been surprised. "Calm down? This is a catastrophe! We leave him for twenty minutes and he ruins everything!"

Before his forehead could erupt like Krakatoa the door to the classroom opened and closed shut and Chad walked into the room.

The boy paused at the threshold. "What's going on?"

Being a large guy of few words he simply looked past the invisible Ichigo, who had been previously glowering at everything from the ceiling to the floor almost immediately straightened, blinking at his comrade's sudden arrival. "Chad?" He said as if the boy could hear him.

Deep Mexican brown eyes travelled to Rukia and then focused on the phone now back at its rightful place: in Mizuiro's hands. Said boy perked, glancing around Rukia. "Hey Chad, why so late?"

Chad's large hands found their way inside his pant pockets. "I…" A lengthy period of time passed before he spoke again. "…No reason."

It was enough of a gap to incite Keigo's meddlesome nature, the finger of 'thou shall not keep secrets from Keigo Asano, the undisputed lieutenant to the master of the rumour mill' pointed towards him with passionate conviction. "Come on man! You always do that! You omit, keeping the good stuff to yourself! Friends share man. Pony up the details!"

"It's nothing." Chad shuffled forwards and then for some reason reached down beside a desk for something. Not that his large frame could ever disappear behind such a diminutive object. Sometimes Ichigo wondered how Chad actually managed to fit behind a desk at all.

"I just came for Mai's bag."

The mighty finger of Keigo justice drooped a bit. "Mai's bag?" A surprised blink later. "Did she ask you to come get it for her buddy?"

Physical expressions of emotion weren't exactly Chad's strong point but even a stranger would have been able to read the unease in his shoulders. "Something like that."

Back in her chair Tatsuki folded her arms again. "So is she taking Ichigo to the nurse's office?"

Behind her Michiru's normally shy appearance was for once more baffled than bashful. "What do you mean Tatsuki?"

Instead of turning to face her Tatsuki tilted her head back looking at Michiru upside down. "As obnoxious as he was being even someone as demure as Mai would have hit him by now. Mai's pretty strong; I figure her punches are hard." Her left arm involuntarily flexed as if recall were giving her whiplash.

Mizuiro's eyebrows flexed and frowned. "Mai wouldn't hit Ichigo." The certainty in his tone caused most of the group to stare at him.

But Chad only shook his head. "That's not it." And then ceased speaking, pulling the school bag across his shoulder.

The light frown on Ichigo's face intensified. He stepped around Rukia and spoke as if Chad could hear him anyway, his eyes focused and intent. "Chad, where is Mai?"

And surprisingly enough Chad answered. "She left. She ran after… after Ichigo."

Ichigo's head shot back as if yanked by the hair with invisible fingers. He stared at Chad. His friend wasn't looking at him but at Rukia whose mouth opened and closed, eyes shooting to and fro from one friend to the other. After a moment of shock the orange haired hot head, aware of the growing distance between him and his body, merely nodded at Chad, whether the action could be seen it or not.

"Thanks Chad."

He shot passed him; opening the classroom door at speed with a bang (the nearby students jumped rigid in their seats) and disappearing down the hallway.

"W-whoa." A ruffled Keigo stared at the doorway that had seemingly opened by itself. "What was that? Did you guys see that? I mean, it just opened by it-"

When he turned to catch Rukia's eyes (because anything that occurred within school premises that wasn't 100% academic was worth the energy it took to scrutinize, at least it did to Keigo) he found her missing.

"Er, Rukia? Guys? Anybody?! What's going on today?"

One weirdo event after another.

---

Ichigo

He didn't even think to take the stairs.

Instead he leapt out of the first open window he came across. He landed lightly and surely on the freshly mowed grass at the back of the building. He'd become used to leaping off of or out of tall buildings now, like a subsequent nature. Like breathing out and breathing in; he didn't even think about it anymore.

It wasn't as if he didn't enjoy it; the unmitigated awareness that sped through him as he fell, even though he knew that as a soul reaper he wouldn't even have to hit the ground if it wasn't required of him to do so.

Four stories? Pssh, it was nothing at all.

Now on the ground it was difficult to ignore the pervasive pull of his own reitsu. Whether it was because it was massive, a mess, or just constantly under his nose he'd recently realised it created an incredibly annoying barrier between him and the rest of the world.

As he always had been Ichigo was a creature of instinct and his instinct was telling him to move, to run in several opposing directions. He scowled at nothing in particular. Concentration was key to sensing hollows or other people and it was something he lacked talent in. Nor did he like being reminded of this fact.

Mai however had shown him a different approach, one that was somewhat easier for him however time consuming it was. Something she'd said…

"Reitsu isn't a force observed with the eyes but with the soul. And yet manual searching requires use of our eyes. Our brains process all data and our sensory processors; our auditory pathways and primary cortex etc make sense of it. And finally, the sensitivity of our skin and our awareness of balance, our… sixth sense to be coy, are also involved. So it isn't really just your reitsu that you can see or measure with." She'd said to him one afternoon between classes. "Reitsu is everywhere, it's in everything. So see with everything you have: your mind, your body and your soul. Trust in yourself. And give it time… I'm sure you'll get it."

So it involved his body and mind just as much as it did reaching out with his reitsu. It could be done with just the aura or the diminishing leftovers of reitsu waves. It was like the thrum of a heart beat and each piece of him was a specific mechanism; carefully constructed to fit whichever task he assigned himself.

Closing his eyes he welcomed the slight breeze that rustled his robes and concentrated on locating Mai's energy.

He'd once found the 'searching' feeling involved with discovering varying forms of reitsu that spirits emanate disconcerting. Mai's approach was even more unsettling; the sensation of each pore in his skin opening up, the natural stratum of energy continuously circulating around his body sensitized to the extreme, analogous to some sort of sensory transmission and receiving platform.

Using everything he possessed. Yeah. Mai always gives her all in everything she does. It made sense.

It was the responding current that tended to alarm him: there was always a thread of whichever particular emotion the spirit or person was feeling at the time laced into their energy.

But then he realised that if he didn't receive this literal snapshot into the spiritual psyche then he would never know how wretchedly alone Mai sometimes felt and how it puzzled and intrigued him. Or how achingly desperate to hope she was.

Or how her energy hummed in response to everything, including him.

The pulse of it was a rhythm that seemed too 'great' to understand, but it sent subliminal shocks of information into him anyway. There was something about it that raised the hairs on the back of his neck; something almost unspeakable.

Something dangerous.

And it was a… a realm of… of nothingness. It was hard and cold; a freezing calculus of unremitting judgment. But there was also something warm, something hot, even searing, and genuinely compassionate about it that fit in smoothly with the opposing sensations. A genuinely caring nature.

It was a wholeness. And its presence did something to him beyond the physical. It was strangely soothing. It gave him a form of reassurance to even recognise it in the air.

But underneath all of this was something so… so… God, what was it? So primordial. It was something so ancient and somehow primal its presence touched deep to the bone.

So it should be pretty easy to find her, what with an energy signature like that.

"Looking for someone?"

GEEZ! Ichigo whipped around in alarm, heart rate jumping a solid steel beat in his chest only to find a certain dark haired classmate standing straight against the wall behind him, the light from the sun glinting annoyingly off his spectacles.

Huh. Doesn't he ever slouch?

Uryu Ishida definitely didn't seem the type.

Wait a second…

Eyes widening in realisation Ichigo could only stare. He's looking right at me! He can see me? How did that happen? When did that happen? His eyes almost crossed in confusion. What the hell am I even thinking?

Wait. He was waiting for me? Because that's not weird or anything. At all.

Focusing on him he remembered the previous Friday and almost took a step forward. What had that even been about anyway? He acted like he knew me, like he'd recognised me or something, but had already formed his opinion about me and had decided to hate me. That sure as hell wasn't new. Most of the third years hated him on the simple principle that Japanese hair colour should always remain in the realm of brown and black. And it wasn't like he particularly gave a crap about what this guy thought about him. It was just incredibly irritating to have a complete stranger stare at him as if he'd done something unspeakable, like rape his mother. As if he'd personally insulted him in the past. As if simply breathing was his sin to atone for.

But I didn't even recognize him. I'd still have no idea who he is if Mai hadn't…

Orange brows pulled inward.

Mai. They'd been talking before he'd shown up. And she'd appeared… uncomfortable. As if she'd known something. His scowl lost some of its tension. She always seems to know what I don't, he thought. The side of his mouth almost lifted…

But true to his nature, Ichigo wasn't the type to back off once a person picked a fight with him, the figurative kind or not.

Plus the guy could see him. It was a problem. And freaking weird. I get why Mai can see me but… this guy?

Gaze hardened, it settled back onto those thin glasses. "Uryu Ishida."

A perfectly shaped brow (…er, say what?) arched behind a lens. "I'm surprised you know my name."

"Mai told it to me."

"Of course she did."

He didn't know exactly what it was but something about that just raised his hackles up. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Ichigo almost growled.

"That you're apparently as dim-witted as I expected."

There was a moment filled with silence. Then…

"What did you just say to me?" It took a lot for him to get it out into words rather than something less constructive.

"I don't need to repeat myself. In fact you're doing a better job at proving me right all by yourself. I mean, really…" Lifted slightly from the wall, his head shifted so that the stark blue of his eyes was brought into sharp focus. "Even a monkey would notice that someone had been standing behind them for several minutes."

With how hard Ichigo was clenching his teeth it was a wonder half the students in the building couldn't hear the grinding noise of bone on bone.

But after a moment he forced himself to cool. A hard, shrewd look manifested itself on his face. "Okay, you know what? I'm not falling for that. You've probably heard by now how easy it is to get 'Ichigo Kurosaki' riled up. Well it's not happening this time."

Uryu pushed completely off the wall, taking a single step towards Ichigo. "Oh, it isn't?"

"No, it isn't." His voice was deceptively low and calm but to anyone who actually knew Ichigo, this was when the storm broke. Basically, it wouldn't take much more for the proverbial water to break the camel's back. "Look, you're obviously pissed at me for something. And while I'd like to spend all my time figuring out why you're including me in this little PMS thing you've got going for you, I've got something more important to do." His head began to turn away from Uryu.

"Important as in locating where your body ran off to?" Uryu guessed, somewhat conceitedly. "With Mai Li in hot pursuit?"

Brown eyes shot quickly back to blue. "You saw them?"

"I might have." Being vexingly elusive on top of being lofty wasn't just a strong suit of Rukia's it seemed.

And so the camel's back broke.

It took maybe a second for the fingers of Ichigo's left hand to wrap themselves up in Uryu's collar, pushing the guy back against the wall again and then pulling him upwards by his shirt. "Where did they go Ishida?" He demanded; his expression a testament to how close he was to hitting him.

The day (and the 'morning' period wasn't even over yet) hadn't been a kind one after all.

"Let go of me Kurosaki."

"Tell me already!"

"I don't have to tell you anything."

For a long moment Ichigo stared into Uryu's face, searching. Then a slow smirk stretched out on his face. "You don't know do you? You haven't got a clue!"

Pale hands wrapped around the peach skin of Ichigo's left arm and yanked. "Let go of me!" Uryu restated.

Managing to step back instead of stumble, Ichigo's smirk grew into an all out manic grin. "Now look who's riled up."

An irritated tick appeared on Uryu's angular face. "I was going to tell you. But now I think I'll just keep it to myself. Man ape. Do you manhandle everyone or is it only me who has that pleasure."

Ichigo, brow twitching, looked at him as if he were stoned. Manhandle? Who the hell says manhandle anymore? He rolled his eyes, sneering. "No. Sometimes I manhandle Mai too."

He blinked. Where the hell did that come from? Frowning deeply at himself he ignored the eloquent glance Uryu threw his way.

Undecided and unable to get to the cause however, he simply shrugged it off. "Whatever." He moved away from Uryu who was too busy brushing himself down to notice. "I don't even need you. I can find them by myself."

The upturn of Uryu's mouth was supercilious; a natural reaction to the heat of his embarrassment. "Even though we both know you're hopeless at sensing other people's reitsu? If you weren't you would have sensed me long before. Right? Kurosaki?" When he received no reply his mouth tightened, turning towards the person that could give an answer to his lifelong query. "What are you…"

The words paused in his mouth.

Ichigo stood there, sideways to him, with his eyes closed and his head low in a close approximation of a bow.

It angered him for a moment that the shinigami felt secure enough to close his eyes in close proximity with a proclaimed enemy. But the simple way he did it, added to the fact that Uryu too was concerned about Mai Li, made him lost as to how to function. Mouth opening and closing, genuinely confused, he could only stare. Enemy or no, he hadn't a clue as to what Ichigo Kurosaki was doing.

But then the air around the volatile soul reaper thickened with reitsu, condensing until it became an almost visible presence. A soft sound accompanied it, like the low howl that follows a strong wind as it blows its breath over houses and windows.

This sensation…

Standing still he quietly observed as Ichigo Kurosaki, possibly for the first time, summoned the tail ends of spiritual presences.

Eyes ceaselessly appraising the situation he thought to himself. I was under the assumption that he was ignorant of how to sense other spiritual entities; foes and companions alike. A shiver ran up his spine and along the exposed skin of his neck and arms as Reiraku, spirit ribbons, erupted in number around them.

This will need to be amended. He is my enemy: I need to stay on my guard.

But Uryu failed to consider the ramifications of any human being born with such a high capacity to learn so rapidly. Capricious though Ichigo was he possessed a perplexing potential that no other human did. Not just anybody could become a soul reaper after being relatively normal for the majority of his life and survive the experience. However, Quincy coloured glasses prevented any other intelligent thought from trespassing into Uryu's cortex.

Well, all but one.

Are spirit ribbons supposed to… glow? He cleared his throat, almost wanting to take a step back.

Surrounding him were the usual type of spirit ribbon, spreading in bright, white tendrils that seemed to shoot upwards from the ground, though Uryu knew this wasn't quite true. They came on command from the many souls around them. In fact the majority of them still couldn't be seen, only the few close by and those called for.

Except one of them, just one, was shining.

It was such a bright light that the shape of the ribbon within, if it was even a ribbon at all, was completely obscured by the radiance. Uryu actually had to bring a hand up to shield his eyes; the light was so brilliant.

And faint green.

"What is that?" His asked; his voice so awed it was but a whisper.

However, when he managed to squint at Ichigo through the minute opening between his spread fingers he found the guy staring, without shielding his eyes, at the glowing thread of life.

It floated in front of Ichigo; its light a stark contrast to the dark robes he wore. When he reached out with his fingers he did so somewhat hesitatingly. Hand flexing and withdrawing before reaching back out again, he drew closer to the undefined thread. It pulsed almost silently, except for the whirs felt in a steady rhythm against his fingertips and palm; a vibration thrumming in his ear drums but heard only in the deepest recesses of his conscious awareness.

Ichigo pressed his lips together, the intensity of the light reflected in the auburn-brown of his eyes.

It's Mai.

Encompassed in the light, the tips of his fingers touched the oscillating beacon. It flared glaringly until all turned to white. Blinded for one single second, he suffered what was probably the sharpest most searing sample of unmitigated wakefulness that any other human in Karakura had ever experienced before.

He saw… everything. How could he not with such a connection.

Every spark of life, every current of change, all the little tendrils of verve shooting off from commonplace objects like electrons firing into the atmosphere, and all in bright, luminous colours that made his eyes water even as they refused to close. It almost smothered him, but in a good way; a revealing way, without the pain that should have been attached with such an optical overload.

But his heart burned; literally, not figuratively. It actually hurt. With each pump the blood flowing ceaselessly beneath his skin simmered, bubbling, boiling, and almost fizzing in its yearning and excitement to sustain the brief connection, no matter how impossible. Rooted to the spot, that single second felt like an eternity; an eternity as a lesson. A lesson that taught him of how ignorant he was, of how much escaped his notice, of how much he still didn't comprehend; of how unprepared he was to face the future.

Like everything else however; all the uncertainties, all the paths taken or otherwise, every last drop of rain and grain of sand, every single tiny possibility no matter how truly small each and every one of them were, including the living eventualities that were Ichigo and Mai, present in the circle of life, all the dangers and horrors that lay hidden in shadows he shouldn't have been able to peer into but could, everything that had once been and was still to come, it was all…

It was all so… beautiful.

Oh.

This is how Mai sees the world. His own mind whispered to him in the light.

Is this what she sees all the time? Is that why she always uses that word to describe me and Chad? Even though I see no evidence of it in myself. It isn't as if I look at myself in the mirror everyday. I'm a guy. When it comes to appearances I'm kind of simple.

So I wonder what she really sees when she looks at me…

He'd understand if her use of the word 'beautiful' was born from her glimpse of these little sparks of life coming off his form, seeing the flow of energy under and over his skin and all the many other things. And yet he wondered if her reason lay someplace deeper than this visual wonder.

We're human beings. He may have smiled, he wasn't sure. We have layers. We glow, even though we can't see that we do.

Only Mai could. And her glow was pretty freaking visible.

It wasn't by choice that Ichigo allowed the energy to slip into him; it didn't give him one. Searching with a will of its own, it came to a stop at the precipice of his consciousness. An area so deep and dark in the unknown of his soul even he hadn't been aware of its existence. A place not barred by gates, metaphorical or otherwise, but rather it was pathless. He'd have no idea of how to get there.

Coming to the end of its journey the energy, in a flash of desperation, took away his sight.

Come to think of it, it was more of a snap; a flicker of intense power suddenly switching off the light. It could be felt at the nerve network behind his corneas and it was disconcerting, so discombobulating that the pain of it, as random as it was, couldn't be translated appropriately by his brain.

Vision blurring until all colour drained, Ichigo was left with a blank. A black and white canvas sketch not seen with his eyes but in his mind; like a memory being forced in there.

Then he was yanked backwards.

.

.

.

.

He opened his eyes to find himself standing in a void, a cavern forgotten in history.

Everything was indistinct. His vision was slightly distorted, out of sync with the reality he faced now.

Turning, he almost stumbled.

Standing there in all its grand splendour and illustrated clearly was a white pillar.

What the hell…

His eyes tracing the silhouette arching towards a sky as black and ashen as an erupted volcano, he realised it was situated in the middle of what he imagined World War 3 to look like.

Lightning flashed across the plain, stretching in vain towards a crimson horizon, as if the edges of the earth were aflame, revealing the rubble on the ground and the cracks in the ground surrounding the column. The pristine gleam of the pillar was out of place, even with the blood splattered in random arcs across its surface.

The dead lay at its feet. Not in piles exactly, but scattered. They could have been in thrall of the pillar; they'd simply fallen in front of it as if they'd been praying, killed where they stood. Except these men, women, these… people… beings he didn't recognise had been slaughtered. The features of their faces were covered with strands of hair, tattered pieces of red armour, black robes, white silk, blood, earth and other things he cared not investigate too deeply.

God… He couldn't stop staring in acute horror. What is this?

He didn't have the capacity to speak here, wherever here was. The very air itself felt heavy, toxic, and difficult to gulp down. Swallowing anyway he twisted and turned, checking out every angle of the scene, his heart racing about a million miles per minute.

It was a field. An endless piece of land stretching out into the horizon and everywhere… everywhere there were bodies, evidence of an epic scale battle. One fought between the red and black cloths of opposing sides.

What really got his attention however were the sounds of hundreds of swords being drawn, but they came through slightly mashed as if his ears were a little waterlogged. They permeated the eerie silence; daggers and god knows what unsheathed; that metallic scrape and ring that caught his attention by the small hairs on the back of his neck. He turned slowly to his left, a bead of sweat sliding at a snail's pace down his cheek.

There, almost growling in their ferocious ambition stood an army of… of…

…Soul Reapers?

They looked like a horde of shinigami.

Fearless would be the word for them: an army of men and women dressed as he was right now, all wearing unpleasant expressions on their faces ranging from the downright menacing and hostile to loathing, reluctant even, and… sad. Reconciled to the task.

Trying to explain why would have been an exercise in futility. You see…

There was another army to his right.

And these were… different.

They gave off an aura, one of incredible strength and dominion. If he were an expert in such energies he'd be able to guess by simply glancing their way that these beings were even less human than the spirit guardians of the many souls that inhabit the restless earth.

Remembering those graphic pictures from the countless history books read in class his mind sped over the sections detailing important historical events and political bombs. Instead his mind gave particular attention to the old pictures that illustrated the culture and fashion of whichever time they studied. Each soldier, if that was the correct term to use for these guys, wore Sengoku Era styled armour. The type worn prior and during the 1604 Battle of Sekigahara, Japan's known greatest Civil War, the war that brought in a new era: a monarchy under one shogun to replace the many. Coloured red and black and other dark colours.

Those masks…

Ancient samurai class like masks covered each face, characteristic of the warrior's idiosyncrasies or beliefs, or maybe they were simply random depictions of demonic deities adorned with horns and teeth the likes of which were far too feral for any human being to possess.

It was more than obvious: he'd been taken from his own time.

With a roaring battle cry both sides surged forwards, sprinting towards their opponents and giving Ichigo nowhere to run. The vibration of their feet as they raced against the heard could be felt and he had no idea what he could do to stop them. Dammit! Wait! STOP!

No sound came out of his mouth. In fact he was certain he couldn't be seen at all.

Hundreds of pairs of feet thundered at either side of him, roars and howling echoing out across the abyss. Before he was impaled and crushed between them a bright light flashed in the centre, just a few metres from where he stood.

Both armies, each barely ten metres from the other staggered and slid to a stop. Outcries on each fearful face were heard as heads turned upwards towards the sky, looking at something beyond Ichigo.

Said boy stood there; a wreck of nerves and fear, hunched with his arms stretching protectively overhead. Shaking and confused and completely out of his comfort zone he lowered his limbs and took in each soldier; his scowl absent, eyes frightened.

What are they all… Choosing instead to look around he was struck silent and dumb. All at once the fear and choking sensation of being completely alone as he stood in a very bright, alien spotlight left him.

If his voice hadn't been lost to him before his throat would have closed at such a sight. My god…

It was stunning.

The pillar had exploded with a magnificent light that, oddly enough, didn't appear to touch any of them or the war torn ground. It promised him peace, protection from harm. Yet a voice, one wordless and fathomless seemed to speak over the throng but came out, instead, as a hum. It turned into a wail, one that sounded more omnipotent than malevolent. A scream of agonizing sorrow and weary immortality. It could almost be called human but it wasn't. Consumed by the sheer authority and purity of the light each soul on the field were silent before it.

Ichigo didn't understand what he was witnessing but he received a faint impression of truth from the hum. That these people had somehow… betrayed this force. Had corrupted it. He couldn't take his eyes away from it.

Then he glimpsed through it and only then did he realise that the pillar was an illusion.

Its true form, no longer a pillar, but a column of pure energy that sprung up from deep into the earth in a perfect streak about two metres wide. Just by looking at it, peering into its depths, he could tell what the sea of warriors already knew. That this beacon, this gateway, this balance summit… it transcended anything that came before, in front of and after. It was life itself. No, it was more than that.

This was the energy that protected the natural flow of life. A never-ending stream of verve that connects everything. The existence between existences. Beyond reitsu. It gave birth to reitsu.

And yet, even after all that, what actually struck Ichigo so sharply that it was almost painful was that he recognised the colour from somewhere.

That pale green…

The lance of energy pulsed bright once, twice and on the third throb a beat of it exploded out, across the land in a wave. The warriors, soldiers, and killers shattered against it, melting into smoke: the smog of recall, a memory not his own. In an instant the forest of decay in which he stood melted away; an existence that knitted itself back together into what might have been a radiant paradise…

But it was only a shell; a façade of the beauty it once beheld.

How do you repave the traces of a previous goodness? The answer… is that you cannot. There is no going back. Perfection, like each life, cannot be replicated. There is only the lie of a wish. A mediocre copy. A dream. One that fades into memory, to legend and finally into nothing as it waits for rebirth into something else, something more, something less.

And as most legends depict, it would take the will of only one.

His last thought echoed uselessly, soundlessly. I could have sworn I saw someone in that beam, that light…

.

.

.

.

"Kurosaki!? Hey, Ichigo!"

Coming back to reality Ichigo blinked in the sunlight of the morning, eyes shooting rapidly to his surroundings, the panic of having his vision stolen and repaid fading into an unnaturally paced heartbeat. He was back at school and though he wasn't sure, he guessed maybe only a few seconds had actually passed since his slip into a realm of… whatever that had been. Uryu Ishida stood nearby looking baffled and a little silly with lopsided spectacles.

"Uryu?" Ichigo blinked again, staring at the black haired teen; still somewhat dazed. "What happened?"

An annoyed tick appeared topside on Uryu's head. "You're asking me? Why would I know? And it's Ishida! Don't call me Uryu!"

Ichigo gave a heavy exhale. "Alright, alright." He rolled his eyes. "Geez, don't get your panties in a twist." Turning away, he ignored Uryu's spluttering comment on his 'panties' and his pursed lips and turned on his heels, moving forwards towards the school gate.

Seeing this, Uryu frowned, finally straightening his glasses. "Where are you going off to, Kurosaki?"

"To get Mai." Ichigo replied, turning his head back to look at him. "Now that I know where she is it should be easy." He knew a fair few other things too whether he understood them or not but now wasn't the time to investigate it. "Oh yeah, Uryu. What were you talking to Mai about last Friday?"

With a haughty sniff Uryu looked away from him and the Kurosaki 'scowl of doom'. "That's none of your concern, Kurosaki."

"Ichigo!"

Both turning they watched as Rukia hustled out of the same fourth floor window Ichigo had initially flown through and shimmed courageously down the grotty drainpipe which both Ichigo and Uryu hoped had been cleaned recently but, sadly, knew better.

Before she reached them however Uryu couldn't give up another chance to insult. Keeping his voice low he used the tip of his middle finger to push the ridge of his glasses up his nose. Blue eyes peered intensely over his rimless lens. "Ah yes, here comes Miss Kuchiki, without whom we both know you can't even wipe your nose."

"YOU DI-"

"Ichigo! I need t-to er…"

Rukia stopped still on approach creating a wide triangle between the three of them. She'd probably only just realised that Uryu was even standing there and without knowing what his problem was or even that he was spiritually sensitive she had no idea how to explain her shouts to shinigami Ichigo.

Uryu didn't seem remotely phased. "Miss Kuchiki. Good Morning."

"Ah… go-er… hm?" Her large eyes shot from black hair to orange.

"Tell me, do you normally escape the confines of school by climbing down the plumbing?"

"Um, er, normally?"

"Or shout out names to specific persons to whom most of the populous cannot see?"

Silence.

In the span of a second Rukia transformed from the façade of a slightly ditsy, fun, bright classmate to the serious minded, duty laden, disempowered shinigami representative commissioned to Karakura for its protection that Ichigo knew so well.

Her arms folded across her chest looking for all the world like she was in complete control of the situation. "Who are you?"

"Uryu Ishida."

"An obnoxious jackass."

Having spoken at the same time Uryu and Ichigo glared at one another.

She opened her mouth once and closed it before clearing her throat. "Okay, what-"

"Excuse me but I have to leave." Uryu stated somewhat courteously before shooting Ichigo a superior glance. "Unlike some of us my education actually means something to me." He began to move, striding confidently away from them.

Orange brows lanced sharply, scowl intensifying. "This isn't over Uryu." It was more of a growl than anything articulate.

With a short backward glance over his shoulder Uryu re-entered the school building.

Rukia watched him leave. "What was that about?"

"I don't know, but one thing's for sure."

Blinking, she turned to Ichigo who was also scowling in same direction that she had been. "What?"

"I'm going to finish what he started." He actually sounded like he was anticipating that moment.

She managed, barely, to not roll her eyes at the mountain of testosterone imbued in the atmosphere. "Come on. We need to find Mai."

Shaking away his aggressive, hot-headed, one-track-mind he nodded at Rukia. "Already did."

"You did?" It was indeed a day full of surprises.

"Yeah. But anyway, what took you so long?"

Sighing, Rukia pulled her phone out of her skirt pocket. "I got a phone call…"

"Why does he always have to run off?" She muttered, running in the brash wake of his exit from class. "I know I do it too but at least I don't force him to follow me. His friends are going to think that he is weird."

Shooting down the corridor she came to a halt in front of window she knew Ichigo had just breezed out of moments before. Meaning to follow she braced a foot on the ledge when the ringer on her mobile went off.

Hmm. What timing. She took her foot off the sill and placed the cell to her ear. "Kisuke?"

"Fret no more! The situation is under control."

"Uh, sorry?"

Gaily, he clarified for her. "With the Mod Soul."

She did a double take, looking down at her phone for a second, eyes widening. "Mod Soul?! What do you mean Mod Soul?!" She exclaimed after putting it back to her ear.

"The one that currently resides in Kurosaki's body." He explained in a manner that suggested she was a three year old and everything about the world was a-okay!

Oh dear…

It wasn't good that's for sure. Thinking of Ichigo Rukia palmed her forehead. "Oh, he's going to kill me."

"Maybe not." Urahara replied shrewdly. "Mai knows all about it."

Is that why she disappeared? "Where did she go Urahara? Did you send her somewhere?"

"Mah, I said there was no need to fret anymore Miss Kuchiki. Mai knows what she's doing."

Annoyed with his calm, her head throbbed. "Mod Souls are dangerous Kisuke. She may need our help!"

"I doubt that. At least where the mod soul is concerned."

Not really caring what he even meant by that Rukia's gaze shot towards the window. "I need to tell Ichigo, warn him before he charges in."

"You worry too much about him. He'll be fine."

"But-"

"Miss Kuchiki, sometimes it's best to let them fly solo. He won't always need you and however that may sting you need to trust in your charge."

It was a bitter pill to swallow. "I can't do that just yet Kisuke, he isn't ready."

"That may be but if you look at the situation objectively you might see a few things you weren't previously aware of. Anyway, now isn't the time for discussion. Mai is actually in trouble; she's going to need some assistance."

This man! "I told you it was-"

"Not with the Mod Soul. She's already got that covered."

Oh… She blinked. "Then what are you referring to?"

"The mass of hollows heading her way." He said this so cheerfully it was difficult to ascertain his level of seriousness. "She gives off a pungent aroma you know; I'm surprised you aren't already getting calls for hollow appearances."

"Urahara!" Each syllable of his name was stressed.

"I'm already geared up and ready to leave should the situation get out of hand. With the state of Karakura being what it is having the mod soul, a spiritually sensitive material, amongst the other things surrounding them near to Mai; it would prove a most tempting beacon."

Rukia shook her head, palming the device one again. One day Urahara, you'll explain your secrets. She nodded to Ichigo, her tone imploring the possible danger coming and imperativeness for speed. "I'll explain it to you on the way. Let's move!"

---

Mai in Mashiba

Parkour.

It was a hard core sport I'd once enjoyed. I fully admit to becoming a tad obsessed with it a couple of years previously. I'd always been proficient at scoping specific details in my environment and with my adaptive balance it proved a good enough deterrent to unwanted thoughts.

Some people run when stressed. I did Parkour.

And it turns out it was like riding a bike. You never quite forget how to peddle. However I never thought I'd be going all out through Karakura central; sprinting like the bloody wind after a panic stricken mod soul gone renegade who had escaped his apparent usurpers and was fleeing with inappropriate style.

Seriously, he was first-class… at fleeing and jumping. I couldn't understand what I'd done to scare him so badly.

When he caught sight of me mere minutes after my getaway from school he'd frozen. Caught like a frightened rabbit he'd shot off in the opposite direction.

I'd attempted to follow, shouting out to him. "Wait!" Apologising for god knows what.

Then he'd leapt clear fifteen feet onto the roof of a moving truck and again onto a third story building before disappearing behind it. By the time I'd picked up my jaw off the sidewalk and ran towards the area he'd disappeared again.

So I came up with the conclusion that the only way to reach him would be to play his game. Only, do it my own way.

Full throttle free running… it was the type of thing that attracted a lot of attention and I'd only ever really seen it done by other people in some of Pei's and Jihi's action movies.

Performing it in the Mashiba District of Karakura? It was ballsy, even for me, especially for me. Hadn't I begged god and all the powers of the universe to not place me in the spotlight? And here I was throwing myself back into it.

Presently however I gave no thought to that; I was too busy leaving a trail of dust in my wake. You see the basic function of Parkour is to treat every obstacle as an assessable path. It can take years to master and the very best can scale buildings without fuss or fear. Training allowed us to measure our fears and slowly diminish their importance until all fear of heights or injury etc is suppressed. You never really finish training and I hadn't studied it for long.

However…

Since it was an ability I generally kept hidden it felt immeasurably good to let it loose for a while.

And let loose I did. And it wasn't difficult. I was good at it and with the added aid of my growth in strength I was even better. More or less flying through the borough I found him again running lightly through the market place.

I realised a little late that my strength and speed were augmented by my energy and not the other way around. I was 'super' because of the power coursing through me from my head to the tips of my fingers and toes. Though physically I suppose I was, well, superior to most but it wasn't by much at all. My verve gave me the rest.

Immediately I pushed myself into a sprint, running flat out, twisting around, off, and over stalls, a whole line of them with ease. Of course he saw me; I wasn't exactly being a dormouse. He flinched; panic controlling him and had whipped round, dodging the noon crowd before he hit the wall of the corner exit. Through a gap in the growing throng of people I watched him kick off the side and blitz through the alley way.

Alright then. He wanted to play? I was game.

Taking a single step I used my right foot to step on the back of a broad shouldered man in front of me like a spring board, apologising as I did so, twice, when I heard him curse and freak-out. But it was the quickest way forwards and I was off him before he had the chance to register any of my added weight. I'd never hurt anyone just to meet my goals.

Leaping from him up high in the air, very high, I rotated, spotting a foothold out of the corner of my eye as I spun. Landing without conscious thought in a spiral on the top of a metal beam I flipped adroitly down to the mouth of the alley way. Hadn't taken more than a couple of seconds…

"H-hey! Is someone shooting a movie?"

"Whoa, did you just see that?!"

"No wires man!"

There he was.

At the end of the alley way he stood there and just stared at me. I raised a friendly hand but paused at the streak of defiance I witnessed flash through him.

Then he moved so fast you could almost call it a flitch.

He ran, ran, up the side of the three story brick wall in front of him. Whaaaat?

Oh. Kay.

Truly I spared no time paying homage to my shock (or my awe), no matter how much my brain begged me to. Instinct was my guide now; if I paused for even a second I'd loose sight of him again. My feet pounded earth tearing after him, gritting my teeth and forcing myself not to think about how much it would hurt to land on my ass from such a height I kicked off the ground. My energy surged, distributing itself through my molecules and out of my skin. The earth tilted on its back as I dashed up that same wall; arms balancing my form, heart beating like a drum in my chest, the noise in my ears echoing the throb of my energy.

Disbelief at my audaciousness swept through me and I almost didn't register that I was in fact running up a wall! I'm actually running up a wall! As in a whole building sized wall, yeah. My first instinctive reaction was to quickly get my phone out and dial Ichigo's mobile number; ignoring the fact that he was still in his shinigami form just for the sake of sharing this huge, huge, HUGE, happening with someone.

In fact it was such a state of astonishment I was under that I lost traction close to the top. Heart plummeting down to the pit of my stomach when I slipped my hands shot out, latching onto the edge of the roof. Smacking into the side of the building I hung there for a moment, badly regretting it when my eyes choose to flicker down. I wasn't exactly afraid of heights but I will fully admit that it is kind of scary to be hanging from the side of a building. How does Lois Lane do it?

Taking a deep breath somewhere from the bottom of my lungs I pulled upwards on my arms, feeling the strain on muscles I weren't aware existed. As my head breached the top I scanned the area seeing no one, nothing. I lifted the entirety of my body; spine slowly extending, shifting and curving, face moving down to oppose the stone my hands gripped instead of forwards, shoulders rolling until the upper area of my body stood perpendicular to the granite roof. I performed half a handstand: a sort of folded over piece of paper image.

Then, placing all my weight solely on my shoulder blades, shoulders, biceps, triceps and phalanges I erected my legs into a full handstand and observed the world upside down. Breathe out, breathe in.

The play of colour and reversal of the topography was a little dizzying. Vertigo pulled at my brain demanding focus and attention.

Letting myself fall backwards I landed uncomplicatedly on my feet, standing straight and knowing I had lost sight my quarry. Sighing I lifted a hand to brush my fringe from my face and searched. The action was not carried forth with my eyes; it was with the 'sight' in my core that truly was all 'myself' but was also, at the same time… not me either.

It was a place within open to the numerous cords and connections of existence. Like a piece of the universe shielded in me. To it data was complied and inputted, sent to me in a stream, as if I were a receptacle. Linked to something so much more, to something I didn't understand. And I knew that if I were to follow the path back from my soul to the source I'd end up at the beginning. At the centre. Of 'what' I wasn't sure. It was alien. It was familiar. It was me. It wasn't me. It was the light and the dark and… I was born to it. From it? I needed it just as it needed me to function.

We were one, we were separate and yet we didn't exist apart.

What am I? Wasn't that just the question of the day?

---

Mod Konpaku

He couldn't run any faster even if he tried.

It had all gone wrong, fast.

At first it had been great. Like getting out of jail.

His supreme highness of gorgeousness had got himself a body; one that was fit, lean, healthy and young. All he had to do was find a girl. The girl. The one for him… which, basically meant just about anyone would do swell. Trust me, locked away for so long had made that impulse all the more insufferable. Straight away there had been one. Then two, three, four, five, the school had been filled with hotties! It was dizzying!

That Ichigo Kurosaki was one incredibly lucky punk! Except he had a perma-frown. What kind of teenager even has a perma-frown anyway?

And yet the girls seemed to swarm around him. Like that girl Rukia Kuchiki, who didn't feel so much a soul reaper as she did a teenage schoolgirl.

And…

…Mai Li.

She'd be toe-to-toe with that Orihime chick in the hotness factor if only she were as stacked. And as curvy. He thought this to himself as the renowned steam of smugness shot out through his nostrils. I forgot what the other girls were called… The names of the small bosomed didn't stick in the mind of the king of all perverts and randy idiots.

Though he had to admit her breasts were just fine, just big enough to combat memory erosion. Oh yeah. Even covered her legs looked fiiiine too, from here to there. Her lips weren't thin, which was just awesome inspiring all kinds of day long fantasies. Sigh. Perfect for attentive, affectionate administrations… How many A's could be used in a sentence? She was proportioned well enough and tall, taller than the other girls, tall enough to look straight into his eyes.

Her eyes however scared him to death.

Which explained why he was still running from her now.

She'd seemed so… nice at first. Gentle. Caring. Interested in him, in helping him.

But she couldn't possibly be. Not with eyes like hers.

At first they'd been almost ordinary. Two impossibly green irises with flecks of gold shimmering here and there and a gaze that saw into you, through you.

I felt sort of… naked. And on any other day this would be a good thing.

They'd taken on a light of their own; a strange halo like effect emboldened by the eerie shaded backdrop of the corridor. The way the green had pulsed more vivid than ever, the inner ring of her iris glowing dimly with a silver like quality to it. And while more colour didn't normally faze a person, even one as histrionic as this mod soul, the enriched aura of her eyes only further bleached the white and caused an irrational spout of terror to crawl down his spinal cord.

When she'd later grabbed him it was all he could do not to wet himself.

It wasn't as if they'd changed all too much but he'd glimpsed something deep in their depths, something that'd disturbed him and he'd wondered if his brain, if Ichigo's brain, was playing tricks on him. Her presence pulled at him, shook him on the inside and made him fear for himself. An innate fear, one without reason and caused by those eyes that shook the darkness and ate the light. Eyes that shone ancient intents, soldering them into his very being, forcing him to still and be taken, dragged into their depths…

Right after she'd made him feel safe in her encompassing aura. Safe enough to blab many secrets. It was impossible to reconcile those opposites.

With eyes like hers she had to be a member of the imperial guard or something.

But she said she wasn't a soul reaper… Had she been lying?

Maybe… maybe she was something else, something worse.

Or something much… better?

Oh.

She had seemed… genuine too. And hopeful. Warm, even when she held him down. Her grip hadn't even hurt…

He shook his head, hands rubbing vigorously at his skull. Ahh, I've no idea what I'm supposed to do now! I have enough problems already!

He needed to go somewhere she wouldn't think to find him yet. How she'd been tracking him so far he didn't know. I haven't even been sight seeing yet. All he wanted before he was inevitably destroyed was to have bit of fun.

Was that really too much to ask?

---

I'd found him and was following in his wake.

The mod soul couldn't sense my presence: he could only see me with his eyes. It gave me an edge.

I could feel the beat of the earth with every thump of my feet on tarmac. Its energy pulsed with my own and I eventually discovered a rhythm through it that lead me to an interconnected series of synchronised happenings that could guide me to my goal; call it what you will.

Fast footfalls hit pavement as I pushed forwards, towards the long road that settled between districts, straining to keep up with the traffic. The mod soul's movements were erratic; there was no particular pattern to them. He seemed as though he didn't have a destination in mind.

Unfortunately, as I'd already come to realise, he was somewhat of an attention seeker. Wherever he stopped he allowed children and adults alike to glimpse the superhuman capabilities of substitute souls, and he'd do it all with an asinine smile on his face.

So basically there was a very good chance that Kurosaki's image would appear all over the news come nightfall or at the very least that his face would pop up amongst other numerous miraculous happenings presented on Youtube. And it would be all because I couldn't keep him in check. Job well done. Ichigo had every right in the world to come spear me on his huge zanpacto. Just got to pick out coffin sizes, arrange funeral sights…

And unfortunately I was garnering some attention of my own. You see, I was currently er…

…Running alongside a car pushing forty.

Yeah… when I said I was trying to keep up with traffic I meant it. Literally. And it had surprised me. A lot. I hadn't even realised what I was dong at first. My breath heavy in my ears at the shock of it all I continued to run: eyes wide, stunned, head shooting to and fro to stare disbelievingly at the other vehicles surrounding me, marvelling at how I was running alongside each of them, keeping pace and thinking how implausibly surreal it all was.

The side of my mouth spasmed. I felt unbelievably exposed.

Worse still a child in the SUV to my right spotted me first: a boy, about the age of five. The moment he saw me his mouth popped open and he frantically threw aside the toys (heroic action figures) he'd been previously playing with to press his small nose against the window he sat beside.

Oh geez. I blinked at him, having honestly no idea what to do about it. So before his parents caught sight of me too I lifted my hand hesitatingly and gave him a little wave.

After a moment more of staring a podgy hand slowly unfurled some fingers into an approximation of the gesture.

I so had to get out of there.

Feeling cornered (I could just see a few people in their seats actually start to openly point at me), I pushed the energy within me crawling higher by the second down into the muscles of my legs and waited for the right moment.

A shock of intuition in my head had me veering sharply right, disappearing from view. Vaulting across the roof of a car using the lightest of touches from my hands, my feet barely touching the ground with each step I slid sideways and twisted around, latching onto the rear handle of a moving van and pull myself upwards, jumping onto its top with a roll.

I'm pretty certain the whole world caught a glimpse of me. Outstanding: super stealthy.

Eyes searching as buildings and objects flashed by my vision in a blur I turned towards the place I needed to go and conveniently glimpsed an outstretched advertisement pole in front of a single story building growing closer as the van picked up speed. Quickly, I leapt towards it; hands latching onto the metal bar and using my body's momentum to summersault up and over the large wall just beneath my feet.

I landed, crouched and motionless, balanced on my fingertips behind some dustbins, away from the noise of the interchange and gazing into the ground.

He was nearby.

It was easier to separate him from the thousands of lights and auras of the souls inhabiting the vicinity now that I was that much closer. Standing, I walked out from behind the secluded area I'd landed in and searched with my eyes, my mind and my soul.

But my ears picked up the sound of children.

Many of them; a lively, spirited kind of noise that only a few dozen youths laughing and shouting and generally enjoying themselves could procure. It was a sound I didn't understand when I was small, a sound that I felt apart from. Hearing it now made me feel somewhat… curious.

With a blank expression I headed off following the noise; a bit enchanted by the genuine cheer. Sometimes I had discovered that a child's light burns brightest. It had always fascinated me and I wondered whether innocence had a part to play in the natural luminescence of souls. Not innocence meaning purity; the innocence pertaining to the ignorant, those untouched by the darker shades that life can pull over you, seep into you, until you're someone else, something else…

Within minutes I was in sight of Karakura's leading Elementary School.

I stood there; peering wonderingly around a corner wall of an adjacent street. Across the quiet road stood four sides of concrete erected around the school yard. The walls were close to ten feet high by themselves. Between two of these partitions was a wire fence, easy to see through what with the large square openings between each segment of cable.

Beyond this several children, presumably in their final year, took part in gym class. I could just make out a young, curly haired teacher blowing hard on her whistle and shouting orders at the students who were separated into groups: some playing soccer, others rounders and the rest doing laps on a 200 metre track. Much groaning and griping accompanied each task.

Still…

Observing, I leaned the side of my head against the wall.

It looked… fun. They all appeared to get along well enough and no one stood alone. Their moaning was ephemeral.

Different to what I remembered.

…"Teacher! Teacher, Mai put a curse on the ball again!"

Again.

The bridge of my nose furrowed, brows pulling together as I stared down into nothing, remembering.

But I didn't… I couldn't do things like that. They never believed me. The sinking feeling in my stomach made me realise that today would be another one of those days.

"It won't go in the loop and it keeps hitting me in the face!" A young boy with his two front teeth missing exclaimed.

He always had a twisted look on his face; as if he'd been born hating the world and was disgusted with everything in it. He'd always had it in for me. Even as my eyes pleaded to be included in the game I knew he wouldn't relent.

Ignorance is the fear monger, its predicator.

"Not this again." The light voice of the round-faced gym teacher muttered, rolling his brown eyes. "Basketballs can't hit you in the face Taki."

"But it's every time she touches it!" Taki shot me a contemptuous look full of distrust but I wasn't paying as much attention as I should have been, staring instead across the track. I sucked anxiously on my lower lip. There were ghosts in the yard and they were waving at me…

At age eleven I hadn't been too predisposed to acknowledging the murmurings of my peers who were spoon-fed by parents whose idea of living dangerously involved choosing Chinese takeouts instead of Japanese or carpets instead of wooden flooring.

However, I did wish… just once… to be included instead of ostracized. I only wanted to play with them; it looked like so much fun. Maybe… maybe if I smile more… but they never liked that either. I laughed too much. Smiled too much. Was too happy. I was odd.

Being quiet didn't help either and no matter how hard I tried or how good I was at sports no one would ever choose me to play in their team. I was the outcast.

But I did try. Every single day.

By then another kid had joined him; a new member of Taki's growing flock. Sooner or later his group would be called a gang and the legend of his never ending juvenile criminal record would begin. "Yeah! And I saw her talking to herself again over there. Casting spells."

"She talks to ghosts too sir!" A girl shouted this; her wide blue eyes conveying a genuine anxiety that the teacher couldn't possibly ignore. Neither could I… A few weeks previously said girl's rabbit had died and to cheer her up I'd made her cookies and gotten her to smile and laugh with me. It was something Pei said I was good at so I'd tried. Evidently I'd done something to scare her. But what? I'd just wanted her to smile. What was wrong with that?

But then another voice shouted out a complaint.

And another. Another…

A sea of them, drowning out my own singular voice before I'd even had a chance to utter a word. It was always the same thing.

So I smiled, tried. Didn't cry.

Unfortunately when I was a child I was the biggest cry-baby of all time. My waterworks were closely connected to whatever triggered my anger, my frustration, my fear, and my disappointment. Luckily this wasn't the first time this had happened and it wouldn't be the last, otherwise I'd be shedding tears quicker than the tissues could collect them. Also, fortunately, though I was a major crier I was also stubborn and headstrong. They may upset me and make me cry but I cried when I was angry anyway. So they never saw my response coming until it was right their faces. Factually.

My small fists clenched and I sniffed. No tears.

The teacher, as usual, would be pushed into one of two corners: to punish the class for disrupting gym… or to punish me.

For doing absolutely nothing.

But I was already used to this. I'd learned to be a wall; a solid impenetrable force that couldn't be bent or twisted in their direction, to suit their standards of how I should be. A criterion I could never reach.

Eventually the teacher turned to me and I knew he'd picked the latter; though by the sympathetic look in his eye it wasn't what he didn't want to do. He just didn't care enough or have the courage to do otherwise.

So all in all the gentle smile on his face as he told me to sit on the bleachers and write lines for deliberately causing chaos in his class was more condescending than kind. More than a little cruel. Evil even.

All I could do was offer a trembling nod in return, a shaky smile. I'd found it impossible to deliberately make another living soul feel uncomfortable, or to upset them simply because they'd upset me. I always smiled.

I've changed a lot since then.

It was difficult to disregard the smirk on Taki's face or the dislike on so many others that I could see behind the teacher's back. But I chose to ignore; to lift my head high, stick out my chest and declare myself defiant. So instead of retreating to the bleachers to write lines I walked towards the group of souls beckoning to me in welcome: the triage of shining lights smiling freely in my direction. Simply because I could see them.

Simply because I heard.

And for a moment I smiled too; this time with sunshine and roses heaped into it… at least until the small rock thrown by Taki Sukamono struck against the back of my head.

Lightning flashed across my vision. Ring-a-ring-a-roses-we-all-fall-down. My parents would be called in. I'd be taken to the hospital were the results of my test scores would be replaced with a fabrication.

Funny… I'd dreamed it would happen, but I hadn't believed.

I hadn't believed.

Sound trespassed into my ears once again with the small reitsu signal on direct approach and my eyes snapped upwards just in time to witness the Mod soul skip gaily across the walls of Karakura Elementary. There was actually a beat between each skip where he'd jump high; another fifteen feet in the air so he was about twenty five feet up. I could practically hear him sing tra-la-la-la-la-la in his head.

What, for the love of all that's holy, did he think he was doing?! I think my eyes popped.

He couldn't see me, thank god, but sooner or later the children definitely would. I followed him with my eyes until he shifted round.

His back now to me I chose the only option I could.

I trounced him. I mean, what would you have done?

---

Karakura Elementary School Yard

Gym had always been a pretty easy (like adding 2 + 2), very straightforward (like giving instructions to gimps), and undemanding class (for a ten year old she was in excellent physical shape) for one Karin Kurosaki.

It was a breeze; she spent most of her time in reciprocal tandem with her sister. The coolheaded realist born twined to the dependable idealist; oh how irony plays its hand. The two were actually twins, dizygotic (non-identical) twins, and they couldn't be more different from each other.

One had black hair, the other chestnut brown. Dark blue eyes and light brown.

Karin loved sports while Yuzu, who possessed a love for all things cuddly, fluffy small and strange, only practised this talent during her gym hours. She burned calories by independently cooking and cleaning.

One was bold, bossy, assertive and hot-tempered… like her brother. The other, Yuzu, was sweet, caring, motherly and easily led to tears. And yet each was like a half of a whole that the other filled without conscious thought. They were almost always in each other's company.

But they did have some things in common. For one, they both adored and looked up to their older brother who had always endeavoured to protect them both. He was strong and able and adventurous and… just a little bit sad.

Yuzu thought he was special.

Karin did too, but mostly she just thought him a bit of an idiot. And quick tempered. At age Eleven (just turned) both girls were already unique individuals and probably a bit more mature than most their age.

They shared a brother complex.

Both were also, however, impatient. Like most kids their age. And as a consequence they were now, er, a little bit bored. For Karin it was based on a purely different objective than the simple tedium her sister held for a sport she shared no love for.

She stood there; hands braced on each hip, teeth chewing the inside of her cheek and a head throb the size of Okinawa currently threatening nuclear terror on the whole of Japan.

Really, it's difficult being a kid.

I swear no one takes me seriously. I always have to do something drastic before they pay attention. Hmph! And they wonder why I have aggression issues.

She focused chiefly on the trio of idiots hogging their gym teacher's time and began tapping her foot. Once again Hashigami, Kaneda, and Ino were causing trouble and cutting into Karin's time. Sure it was only gym class but Karin took any kind of soccer practise seriously. If she had it her way she'd have her own kick-ass team in under two years; one whose members listened and learned in accordance with one another. She had a group of friends already who she played with; Kei and Heita, Kazuya and Ryohei, and they weren't bad…

If Kaneda would just kick the ball already, towards SOMETHING! ANYTHING, instead of standing there like a total dork and playing on his DS!

Yuzu on the other hand tended not to get irritated at others like her sister. Always one to look for fantasy in her reality; an optimism that was as romantic as her father's (though not quite as overzealous) and on such a gloriously sunny day as this she had been the first to spot who she thought was her brother currently bouncing on the wall surrounding them about 100 yards away.

The orange hair wasn't exactly difficult to miss.

"Isn't that Ichigo?"

Rather than first thinking this was somehow strange (she lived with siblings who are sensitive to the supernatural, what do you expect) she blinked her pretty, light brown eyes before raising a hand to wave. "Hey, Ichigo!"

Hearing this Karin instantly looked sideways at her. Yuzu was facing away and waving at something in the opposite direction. Resigned to the fact that the teacher would probably be occupied for the rest of the lesson she moved towards her.

Still with her hands on her hips a frown occupied the space above her eyes. "What're you doing Yuzu? You're lucky teacher's too busy with the lug-heads to notice-"

"-Karin! I just saw Ichigo over there!" Yuzu interrupted brightly, half turned towards her sister with her hands over mouth to prepare for her next shout.

Karin arched a brow. Ichigo's here? It's almost lunch; he wouldn't skip school. "Huh? What are you talking about? Where?"

A small arm pointed like a cannon aiming overhead. "Over there; he jumped over the wall!"

Yuzu… such a starry-eyed kid. Her sister could be such an airhead. "Have you got a fever?" Karin queried with a superior sigh and a cynical smile that suggested her sister stay out of the sun for a while. "That wall is ten feet high! I know Ichigo's all muscles and no brains but even he couldn't-"

"-Look! See?!"

AHHH! IT IS HIM!

He was right there! Jumping! Really high and in front of everyone! Okay, well not everyone; most were being scolded and the rest were doing laps. When did he loose his noodle?!

And – Wait, is brother smiling? And not frowning? At the same time? Errrr…

"I told you Karin!" Yuzu was smiling too. It didn't matter that it was during school hours and that Ichigo could get into a lot of trouble; she was just happy to see him. She readied herself to shout out to him again when her sister slapped a hand over her wide open mouth.

Blue eyes shot every which way for witnesses. "D-don't idiot! No human can jump that high! It can't be Ichigo!" The hiss of her voice shot straight down Yuzu's ear, panicked sweat slipping down the sides of Karin's face.

Ceasing, Yuzu turned worriedly to look at her sister. "Then who is it?"

"I don't know!" Why is my family nuts?! "Just don't mention this to anybody! Ichigo's the usual suspect as is so if he's in trouble-"

Her words died away as her wide eyes cut over Yuzu's shoulder, witnessing another figure jump up alongside the same wall as her brother, or whoever this impostor was, and land crouched with a hand to brace against the concrete.

"What is it Karin?" Yuzu asked, soft spoken, eyes cutting back to her brother.

"Over there…" She muttered barely hearing her sister's gasp.

The figure didn't stay there for long. In fact the moment she had settled herself (Yeah it was a girl, wearing pants) she spun around on the tip of her right foot, the foot all her weight steadied on still crouched, just as the Ichigo impersonator landed and lashed out with her right arm against the back of his legs. Yikes! He buckled, stumbled and yelped, not sounding at all like their brother. It looked fast and painful and both sisters winced.

A hand flew up to Yuzu's worried lips. "Oh no!"

But the figure wasn't finished.

It was almost in slow motion the speed in which he began to fall but the girl moved so swiftly it was unreal. A hand whipped behind his back to grip his shirt as she kicked off against the wall's edge, falling backwards and positioning herself under him, cushioning what was sure to be a painful landing.

"Oh no, Karin!" Yuzu whimpered, turning to her sister for guidance.

Her sister was still in a state of shock however and remained silent for some time. Whoa… I mean it wasn't every day a girl took down her brother, or whoever this guy was. He wouldn't have allowed it which only strengthened her theory that the look-a-like was an impostor.

What's going on? She shook her head and put on her game face. "Come on. We should go see what's going on!"

"But what about class?"

"Teacher's going to be busy for a while. Let's go!"

And with that the sisters held hands and ran forwards towards the gates.

---

Mai

"Stop moving. I'm not going to hurt you. I swear I'm not going to hurt you, alright?!"

The moment we'd landed on the ground he'd struggled against me like a cat threatened with water. I'd rolled on impact but he'd used my momentum to cast me off him the moment my feet left solid earth. When he lashed out with his left arm I caught it in mine and with my right hand bent it inward, bringing him towards me. Unbalanced he'd curved at the waist and I used his weight to barrage him into the outer side of Elementary School fence.

By the way he still continued to flay about it was pretty obvious that he thought I was going to hurt him or something.

Dodging a fist with a quick flitch of the head I tried to reason with him. "St-stop trying to hit me for a minute! Seriously, I just want to talk to-"

Since I held him in my grasp it was pretty easy for him to balance on my arms with a hand on either one, bringing his feet up off the ground in an attempt to quite literally suplex me into the pavement.

I had to dive down fast; legs swiftly bending, crouching on my shins, platted hair shooting up with the movement, hands releasing his shoulders just managing to dodge and roll sideways as I, once again, let the mod konpaku slip through my fingers.

A stream of frustrated anxiety shot through me. No, this was not happening again! I mean was it too difficult to ask the guy to just stop and listen to me? That's all I wanted. For him to listen.

I watched him shoot off and without much thought at all to anything except preventing the guy from speeding off like the Flash or bounding up into the stratosphere like the Incredible Hulk I stood and stretched out my hand in a kind of 'stop' motion. Why, I'm not sure. However the moment I performed the action my body immediately flushed with energy, molecules racing through me fast, hot yet cold. I'm pretty certain the light in my eyes flashed and I felt my sense of awareness, my other eye inside my mind reach outside of me, analogous to a giant spectral hand, and towards the substitute soul.

I could feel him. The flow of his verve shooting down his legs felt almost static as I reached into it; feeling, almost touching, seeing: it looked like particles of light and I realised I was glimpsing the basic form of all reitsu.

Pouring myself into the life force I just wished for him to stop running from me.

He froze; arms outstretched in his run, legs elongated to match for large paces, as if he'd been struck by lightning and held perfectly in place by invisible strings.

My hands glowed. I could just see the faint shell of my tinted energy covering him like a thin shield or membrane wall. He strained against my will and I shook, barely managing to hold onto him.

Blinking at him like an idiot I could sense his rising anxiety. I was freaking him the hell out.

Oh. Him and me both.

I didn't like it, this… this manipulation. It wasn't right and the sensation of our energies as his hit against mine and mine forced his to be submissive made me feel sick.

Suddenly his reitsu fluxed and pulled and the rapid surge against my own energy had me reacting instinctively, fiercely and, once again, without much thought.

I was at the mercy of the whims of my instinct.

Quickly closing the spread fingers of my outstretched palm the mod soul squeaked as his limbs snapped back by his sides like a pole: perfectly straight. And, almost in the same instance, I slashed my now vertical palm sideways, sharply to my left and away from me.

As if yanked by an invisible hook he was hurled left, careening into the dustbins. My eyes followed; both as wide as my mouth currently was and about ten times as horrified.

Oh god…

No… I didn't mean to… "Sorry!" I rushed towards his form as it rolled dazedly over the lumpy dust bag he lay on.

It was Jinta all over again.

Along the way I stumbled and doubled over. My vision blurred for a moment and I felt dizzy, head heavy and aching and my mouth threatening an overload of bile…

But as I stared into the pavement all I could do was think about how I'd managed to move a person without touching them, no matter how much it had apparently drained me.

And why… why had I done it?

Licking my lips I inhaled a heavy breath and managed to straighten finding the mod konpaku balancing himself on his hands and knees.

"Kon!" I found myself shouting. Kon?

I reached him, preparing to pull him up, to suffer the wrath of his kicks once more, anything at all, but he stood up fast before I managed to even touch him.

Kurosaki's eyes flared the candid vulnerability of the mod soul. They were wide and a more than a little alarmed as he pointed severely at the rubbish now scattered everywhere. "See?! That is what I'm talking about, right there!"

Wait, what? I blinked, eyes looking about in confusion. "Erm, what are you talking about?"

His hands went into his hair. "You scared the crap out of me! And this is not helping either!" Another dramatic point towards his landing sight. "How did you even do that just now?"

"I… I'm not sure." No, I knew, I just couldn't explain…

"And you wonder why I keep running away from you!?" His heated admittance echoed around us.

Exhaling I took a step away from him. "Please Kon, I would never hurt you." He blinked, swallowing at my small expression of sincerity. "I'm not a soul reaper and have no interest in giving you back to them. What reason could I possibly have for doing so?"

That seemed to stump him for a minute: a hand escaping those short orange locks as he thought about it, eyes flickering over to me every couple of seconds.

"…Good point."

"Is that why you ran?" I queried tentatively. "I scared you?"

He shifted. "Well, kind of. Your energy did this weird thing when you focused on me. Like I had no choice or something…"

Where had I heard that before…. Oh yeah. With Seigi…

"…At the moment that you were brightest I couldn't do anything to control the outcome of what you were about to do." He lifted his hands in a kind of helpless pose.

He'd explained to me how my energy made him feel as if he were in the presence of something ancient, something that could rob him of his right to choose. I suppose what I'd just done to the mod soul didn't exactly help smooth communication between us.

"Wait a minute…"

Pulled from the haze in my brain I looked slowly back him.

The guy had this expression on his face that made me think he'd smelled something funny. "Did you just call me Kon?"

I blinked. "Yes I think I did." I tried to shrug it off but forgot I was terrible at that kind of thing. "Calling you mod Konpaku seemed somewhat demeaning."

His face looked even more bemused than before so I tried to clarify. "You're a living, breathing, cognitive life form. I can see this in your aura." I gestured vaguely to the body he inhabited and he actually looked down as if he could see it too. "You think, feel, want things… you should have a name. Though I admit I'm not the best at picking names." I allowed as I looked away, my hands gesturing about self-consciously. "In fact 'Kon' does seem a little bit simple but I didn't know what else to say and the words just came out…"

I rambled on anxiously completely unaware of the way Kon's eyes swept over my now completely harmless form contemplatively, again without the frown, and ending up looking bemusedly happy about something.

"Great!" He exclaimed, interrupting me.

"Erm, what is?" I asked apprehensively.

Arms outstretched, smile wide enough to fit a boomerang in there he took a step closer, eyes closed and expression beyond exuberant. "This means I can hug you again, right?!"

Oh great. One. Tract. Mind. Goofball.

He even flew forwards towards me at this and almost landed straight in my bosom, his target for all eternity...

My hands got there first: pinning him back into the fence by his arms. "Not so fast." But I was smiling slightly.

"Aw, why not?" His whinny tone had indeed returned.

I cocked a brow. "Your hugs are never just hugs Kon-"

Awareness abruptly caught my eyes immediately flickered, shooting away left and my skin puckered between my brows as I felt someone approaching. More like two someone's… two small, brightly glowing aura's…

From just to my right in front of me and still in my grasp the mod soul – Kon – shifted. "H-hey? What is it? What are you staring at?"

I didn't answer, instead choosing to slowly bend and peek under his arm and blink when I saw two young girls through the wire fence, perhaps ten or eleven years old each, coming to a stop and slightly out of breath.

Head tilting sideways I considered them both, noting almost immediately that the darker haired of the two had a more potent aura. Her energy shone like natural light but without any discernable colouring or idiosyncratic features and, god, did it remind me of someone.

She was looking at me too. Dark blue eyes dead set on my own; a determined, serious expression topped off with a quirky frown and sharp jaw that looked so similar. Similar to… similar to…

Karin Kurosaki.

I flinched at the sudden alert.

She looked like Ichigo… because… oh crap, she was his sister. Ichigo had sisters. Oh wow…

To be honest neither he nor I were the kind to place our lives on public display. Once or twice he'd mentioned his father just as I had mentioned to him about Pei but other than this we more or less kept to our selves… unless asked. Only if we were asked.

She was his younger sister. There were in fact two of them: the other had shorter, lighter hair than her black bobbed sister. This one had chestnut-brown coloured hair and eyes a touch darker in tone that held a much more sensitive and receptive melody to them than her sister Karin.

She was called… Yu… Yuzu?

They were both dressed for gym class and were probably non-identical twins but from the way they held themselves; Karin with an assertive pull to her frown and Yuzu with an anxious gait to her countenance they were opposites of the same coin. But from the way they gripped each others hands they were obviously very close.

They were both very pretty.

Immediately I was curious; happy to meet them and already I could glimpse similarities between them and Ichigo: both the physical and mental.

…And it was just perfect, wasn't it? I realised a little too late… his sisters were standing right there. And because god hated me they had a perfect view of me manhandling who they believed to be their brother, a guy who had no idea who these two were.

How screwed up could a situation get before it hits its limit button?

My stomach sank. As fun as the idea was that Ichigo would kill me for being unable to keep his mod soul in line, this was a more serious matter. My death at his hands was simply a happy memory now. His sisters couldn't get caught up in this. From what Ichigo explained weeks ago and more recently and Urahara's words the previous week, it had taken a fair amount of lecturing and visual evidence for him to even listen to Rukia when she'd first appeared in his bedroom, never mind believe her.

Which meant he probably hadn't told his family any of it.

Biting into my bottom lip I stepped backwards, releasing Kon and gave him the standard look to be careful of where he tread. Brows twitching in confusion he looked behind him and, startled, jumped away from the fence.

I looked from one girl to the next.

"Hello."

Yuzu spoke first, standing a little behind her sister. "Brother?" And yes her eyes took in her brother's body. She looked so concerned and unsure and I felt something in my chest being pulled inward.

Unfortunately I forgot to take into account Kon's 'knack' for tact.

"Wha…?" Was about all he could manage. His head shot in my direction, pointing down at the girl. "Who is this?"

Idiot! I cleared my throat and he blinked at me. I shot him three looks in quick succession: the first would definitely translate into a fabulously colourful expletive, the second an exasperated form of panic and the last look promised much pain if he didn't follow my lead.

He licked his lips.

"Come on Yuzu, that isn't Ichigo."

Eyebrows raised I glanced at Karin and spoke softly. "You caught that? Impressive; most wouldn't."

It was slight but I saw it: a small brush of pink across the girl's cheeks that had her folding her arms and shuffling as if she didn't want to seem too pleased by what I'd said.

…Which was odd considering I had no idea what I'd done to cause that small happiness.

Maybe, like her brother, she was simply generous with her responses.

"It was obvious!" The girl exclaimed vehemently. "Look at him: he doesn't even frown. And there's just no way Ichi-ni would loose so easily in a fight! Not to a girl anyway. You're not his friend Tatsuki; she could whip anybody's butt." She finished as if this were law.

So I nodded in total agreement, smiling openly, amiably at the two. I couldn't help it: they were so likeable. They called Ichigo Ichi-ni. Plus, I didn't want to give them any reason to feel unsafe.

"True. This guy isn't you're brother." I stated and pointed at Kon who, with anxiety induced sweat, smiled cheerily at the two girls and selling the fact that he definitely wasn't Kurosaki. "It's just makeup. For drama class. His look-a-like. Ichigo hates drama." I think he does anyway…

He doesn't seem the type to like performing in front of a crowd that could judge him based only on limited perspectives. He'd suffered enough of that already.

"Yeah." Karin sweatdropped and couldn't blame her. "…Pretty convincing makeup."

I could feel a twitch coming on. "Y-yeah." I reiterated.

When she looked back at me she considered me for a moment, her head tilting to the side considerately. I followed the action with my own incline. Her frown intensified until she took a step towards me.

"Hey, wait a minute…" She muttered.

I blinked down at her. "What is it?"

Wide eyed she looked as if she'd come to some sort of conclusion about something. "Now I remember!" She threw a hand upwards and pointed hotly at me. "You were that girl who was brought into the clinic last week!" She shouted this like an accusation.

Also, like her brother her reactions were pretty sensational.

"Sorry?"

This time Yuzu popped forwards. "I remember too Karin! Ichigo said she was in his class…"

"O-oh, right…" I replied, casting my gaze around uneasily.

"How are you even walking right now?" There was a dubious quality to her expression as Karin leaned around to check out my back as if she had x-ray vision and could see into my uniform.

Involuntarily my hand reached up to rub at the back of my neck where the glass from the car I'd landed on had cut into it. A mere memory now. "Ah, I heal very quickly."

"Huh?" She frowned upwards at me. "That's stupid. People don't heal that quickly."

I glanced sideways at her seriously for a moment before the corner of my mouth quirked slowly upwards, eyes softening somewhat as I tried to convey the general playfulness keeping a secret can entail rather than the guilty malaise my secrets normally induced in the pit of my stomach. People don't heal that quickly... but I do.

"I… wouldn't be standing here if I didn't." I said gently.

The baffled expression on her face actually made me want to laugh.

"Big brother was worried about you that time, wasn't he Karin?" Yuzu alleged causing me to look at her as she spoke to her sister who wore an 'oh yeah, he was' expression on her face.

A hand went to her chin in thought. "Now that I think about it he did hover outside your room. Dad had to tell him to get out of the way a few times." She gave me a once over with a curious tint to the blue of her eyes. "Are you a friend of Ichigo's?"

And the usual pleasant warmth I first felt when Kurosaki had proclaimed me his friend, someone who would notice when I wasn't in school, intruded back into my stomach and up to my neck making me smile with a little too much feeling.

"Y-yes, I am. Hi." I waved and then feeling like a daft idiot quickly dropped my hand.

They both stared at me. Great. Again, job well done you inept social-

"Hey there."

Karin Kurosaki ladies and gentlemen; the epitome of cool. I bow down to thee…

"Hello! It's nice to meet another one of Ichigo's friends."

Yuzu Kurosaki; the merciful mother of all…

I couldn't help but give them both a beyond grateful look. "Thank you."

The Kurosaki family… they were beautiful creatures. Wonder what his parents are like…

"She's pretty, isn't she Karin?" Yuzu practically gushed and my gaze automatically shot to her.

She thinks I'm pretty? Me? …Does she wear glasses and had perhaps forgotten to put them on in lieu of gym?

Well, people didn't usually tell me I was pretty or anything at all. In fact mostly I didn't think anything about my appearance as a whole, so it was surprising to even hear the words. I mean, it was all a matter of perspective right? It isn't that I think I'm ugly… I just don't think I'm anything else either.

I'm bathed in grey.

"I wouldn't say she's pretty." Karin said, her eyes searching my form which didn't make me feel like I was standing in a spotlight at all…

I glanced over at Kon and pressed my lips together. He looked a little out of his depth. I was right there with him.

"Karin!" Yuzu's aghast voice washed over the yard.

Through the fence I just managed to catch Karin's shrug. "I'm not saying she's bad looking; I'm just saying that 'pretty' doesn't suit her."

The piercing sound of a whistle being violently blown somewhere in the distance made the two girls jump in unison.

Karin grimaced a look of foreboding at her sister. "Oh man, if teach finds us over here she'll make us do laps."

Grabbing her sister's hand she made to shoot off but not before she gave Kon a look of deep distrust that actually had him flinching back towards me. When her gaze fell on mine I blinked, knowing exactly what she wanted. It was a surprising moment of non-verbal communication and, uncharacteristically enough, I nodded giving her a lazy two fingered salute. Anything to make her feel more secure.

It felt… pretty natural actually. Easier than the shrug thing. Translation: I've got this. You're brother is fine.

And she nodded back, trusting me (never thought that would happen so soon), and speeded away; her sister barely managing to keep up.

Well… that wasn't so bad after all.

And the day was yet young; the gorgeous light of the sun shimmering through the trees nearby hitting my face as a young wind cooled the left over anxiety we'd both felt all morning.

This town, I swear… it was one surprise after another. And it held the most interesting people. Feeling the resounding hum once again of a town with many secrets I was very glad to have moved here.

But then, as if to completely contradict my three second moment of equanimity, a shiver of dread seared its way up my spine.

My pulse shot up through the proverbial roof and I stood stock still, rooted to the earth beneath my feet, casting my senses automatically about me.

If the specific sensation of chained souls and hollows felt like the loss of innocence and the overwhelming reminder that death stalked behind each and every one of us then the pervading presence of yokai felt like a reflection of the pain death can procure and sheer chaos violence tends to produce.

Rather than resounding and murmuring in the skull the way hollow reitsu does, yokai energy crawled and wove itself into the spine, settling deep inside your stomach, making your heart race and skin shiver. As if their energy was cold, their blood hot.

It was proof that beings of supernatural worth could and did alter their surroundings. Just as Ichigo does. And just as I, with my prescience and energy do too.

Slowly, so slowly, my head turned to the side as I searched pointlessly with my eyes for something behind the tall buildings west of the school. Business building, parking lot… underground garage… behind the walls…

…There.

My hands fisted, vision searing into the distance.

I actually had to hold back the urge to hunt. What the…?

My energy began to softly pulse; I was more controlled than the last time this happened but it was still difficult to remain calm.

"Hey, er, Mai? You okay? What are you staring at?"

Yes, Kon was here with me and I had to remain here with him. How could I protect him if I went off like a fool to selfishly chase away my growing… urge?

…Because like warning bells in my skull I knew that we were already surrounded. And unfortunately the throb of my energy had probably pulled them closer towards us. Clever Mai, clever. Urahara had warned me to be cautious but boy, was that harder than I thought it would be.

Still staring into nothing I swallowed. "Kon?"

"Erm, yeah?" He sounded a little apprehensive and small. As if he was still somewhat unsure of whether to trust me but was giving it a shot anyway.

"I need you to relax alright. Are you relaxed?"

"W-what's going on?"

I needed to be extremely specific. "We're about to be attacked by hollows."

"Wait, what?!" He shouted and I could picture freaked out little jump he'd probably performed. "What are you talking about? How do you know even know that?"

Okay, maybe I was being a little too specific.

Sighing my insecurities, I turned back to face him. "Please don't panic okay? I-it's just… something I can do."

But he was staring at me now; eyes tenuous, licking his lips and altogether looking nervous once again. "Mai, your eyes are, er, glowing. Ahem, again."

I suppose I should have been surprised but… "I know. We've got about five seconds before they appear." Seriously, we were unbelievably surrounded and a trickle of sweat was beginning to form at the back of my neck. "Sorry for the ambiguity Kon. And thank you. Very much." I smiled slightly.

He looked about him, perturbed by, oh, everything. "For what?"

"…For giving me a chance."

He stopped twitching.

Rooooooaaaaaaarrrrrrhhhhhh…

Here they come-

Rrraaaaauuuuurr-ooooaaaaaarrrrr-ooooouuuuuuurrrrhh hhhh-aaauuuoooooohhhhh…

…Jesus.

There were so many, appearing from everywhere. Left, right, behind, from the air itself, from the ground; it didn't matter how fast I looked in whichever direction the numbers were in the double digits. I counted at least eleven. We really were surrounded. And we were well and truly screwed.

But I wasn't thinking about us. I was terrified about how close we were to the school behind us.

How close to Yuzu and Karin Kurosaki we were.

"There are so many of them…"

Hearing his shaky inhale I whipped around to look at Kon. He looked stunned and petrified all at once.

His eyes shot to mine and he spoke louder, over the shock now and feeling the complete craziness of the situation. "Where did they all come from?!"

The hollows to my left hadn't even seen us yet: huge, bulky bodies accompanied by heads that could crack granite. They shuffled around sniffing the air. However, the other hollows… yeah they were staring straight at us, well, mainly at me. Oh joy, hah, hah. One gangly looking hollow had this tripod shaped head so whenever the unfilled soul tilted it sideways as it looked at me and wondered what I was one of its three tips would hit the ground and scrape dully onwards.

I swallowed, licking my lips, feeling the tension. "It's us." Well, more me than him but… "Your reitsu and my…" I looked down at myself. "…Whatever the hell I'm generating."

"That doesn't explain a thing! There still shouldn't be this many."

And the words just poured out of me. "The balance has been corrupted and the stability between worlds is suffering the consequence."

…Er, what? Where had that come from? Be kind, rewind.

"Balance?" Kon appeared way past confused; brow quirking in a rigid arc, mouth wide and somehow twisted making Ichigo's face look like a caricature of its original self.

"Yep."

The low growl of multiple hollows around us caused me to automatically take position and decide on some sort of attack pattern. Our scent was driving them nuts; some of them actually shook and shivered in what seemed to be anticipation. Oh goody.

I felt Kon shift to my left and caught him sliding his feet a few more inches apart. Preparing.

Unlike last time there was no warning when the hollows attack and yet both me and Kon knew instinctively which way to go. He dived to the side faster than those incredible legs had managed to move so far and I shot upwards into the air.

My feet hit the smooth solidity of a hollow's shoulders and I lifted both hands overhead, clasped together creating a giant fist like club, and brought them down hard and swift, caving them into its rather dim skull head. I forced the slowly falling hollow (as if heaviness equated to lesser brain capacity) firmly into the ground with the heel of my right foot, landing lightly next to its skull. Pivoting, my leg lanced downwards and a shot of perfect verve pulsated out of my foot, cracking white mask and rhythmically humming.

The hollow disappeared in a cloud of reitsu particles and unnatural light revealing for a split second something shining and irreplaceable within before vanishing.

Allowing the emotional tide of the creature to wash over me (the colossal hunger and emptiness preceding the light respite) I exhaled and opened my eyes, calmly inspecting the throng.

It was… strange. Being surrounded by them; these numerous creatures painted white, all of them standing or hunched, height ranging between 15 and 25 feet looking about as cuddly as a starving panther and creating a silence that was deafening.

They were all so sad. Existences that stood upon the bones of the existence of others; it was sad. Slaying hollows wasn't exactly what you'd refer to as a complex sport. It was only their size that altered the perception of the opposing party.

So it made sense that I felt incredibly calm.

Then…

RRROOOOOOAAAAAARRRRRRHHHH!

Their funk over with the hollows were practically snarling and salivating now. Claws coming upwards, their feet, hooves and god knows what else digging into earth they charged forwards.

But I was momentarily diverted by the absence of one particularly lewd and lively modified spirit.

"Kon!" I called out to him, searching frantically with my eyes.

Had he… had he run away?

Dust kicked up into my eyes and I dodged to the side, panicking now that I couldn't find him. Narrowly escaping a large hollow hand built like a brick I struck out with my left foot, battering into what I could only assume was its wrist and leaving a deep dent in the appendage.

The momentum of the kick forced me in a roll under ogre like feet (did I mention that hollows have no body smell?) and I maxed out my energy to flare on my passing; it's raw vivacity so concentrated it practically ripped away pieces of white, breakable skin. A hiss of something like steam, the kind that's created when something hot meets something cool, smoked off its front and the hollow wailed, unable to move for a moment.

So it was far too slow to prevent me from breaking its legs from behind.

You know, I don't think hollows understand too well what the difference is between defence and offence. I knew they weren't, well, sshh, all too bright, but the difference between these small fry and the level two seemed quite extensive.

On my back I slid around 45 degrees and kicked both feet into its massive hind quarters.

As it went down to its knees a gap opened through the horde where, for about 2 seconds, I received a perfectly clear view of where Kon now stood on the other side of the school fence…

…Protecting the kids.

My stomach melted through my back and into the ground.

For a moment all sound ceased to exist for me. I observed with clear and focused vision as the Konpaku dodged what would have been a painful shoulder-blow from a centipede like hollow as he stood in front of several wailing and scampering children, guarding them. Terrified, they'd all run in a panic but some, being unable to see the creatures, had fled the wrong way.

Dear god, no… The hollows had gone right for them, for children. It shouldn't have shocked me; they were lumbering essences of instinct and loss, what had I expected? Maybe they were just like the yokai then: they don't discriminate.

And Kon, with no thought to his own safety, had jumped in to protect the helpless. Urahara had thought this boy dangerous?

But I was the one meant to protect him. I'd failed. Let him out of my sight and I'd utterly failed.

…I'm sorry.

But my hands fisted as I realised that one thing I could do, rather than pointlessly sitting there and doing something that could be fed and watered later, i.e. stewing in self-loathing, was to make sure he didn't get any more hurt than he already was.

Any injury he took would be my fault, my responsibility, my hurt. Right now I didn't matter; he did and the kids did.

Resolve.

I could remember clear as day when my old sensei passed onto me his gold medallion before I'd moved to Karakura; about how the medal signified the might of will and steadfastness under pressure.

"…Take it. It's yours now."

The medallion had been thrust in my fingers and all I could do was gaze down at it; a memento my sensei should have considered precious to him. Yet he'd presented to me like an old shoe, the smell of piped tobacco and other nicotine related substances breezing softly by as he passed me on his way to his kenjutsu corner.

Wearing my dojo uniform, which really didn't consist of anything more respectable than a pair of running pants and a well worn t-shirt, I'd turned to him with soft confusion written across my face. "Sensei?"

Teacher was in the process of packing his collection of antique katana swords. He was preparing to move, as was I. "You're leaving tomorrow, correct?" He grunted; a wizened tenor to what might have been an incredibly menacing voice had it not been for the cantankerous yet husky quality born to it probably from years of sake, cigars, and quite possibly battery acid.

"Yes."

"Then take it. It yours now by right. There is nothing more you can learn from me Mai."

I'd stared at him then: how could there be nothing more to learn? The man was beyond the norm; an incredible martial artist. There was always something to learn, millions of things he could teach me and whether I was leaving or not he wasn't the flaky type to lie to a student simply to make her feel blessed.

He knew especially to never do this with me.

Sensing my disbelief he'd spared a glance at me over his shoulder. A brow arched, lips twisted. "One day you'll realise that experience outweighs the personal aptitude for the martial arts."

"I have plenty of experience."

"Not that kind of experience." Progressing onto his next empty cardboard box, ready to be filled with his life's acknowledgments to a memory, he muttered. "Perhaps then you'll discover how useless these drills and katas can be." He wafted a negligent hand over the long wall of numbered exercise drills for ju-jitsu and several other arts were displayed.

Frowning I'd stepped closer to him, the medallion heavy and warming in my grasp. "If they become useless in the reality outside of this building then what good are they to practise in the dojo?"

"You're missing the point."

"I know."

Placing the box on a side table he sighed and stretched. "Sometimes the stakes are too high for simple belts and dans; where willpower alone prevails. Do you think all this means a thing out there?"

My eyes took him in and I spoke quietly. "You act as if I'll be fighting for my life one day."

He'd paused before dropping his arms and turning around. The serious look he gave me from under the shadow of his dark brows trapped me in grey.

"…One day."

Face hardening, eyes focusing, darkening with my determined epitaph to a worthy cause ringing in my brain I leveraged my body weight, flipping back on my feet and spin kicked the injured hollow before me. Swiftly cart-wheeling up its spine I twisted my body as I neared its front, grasping the top of the mask, forcing the momentum behind which all body weight lay down to my knees and double tapped its skull impediment.

Green light flared bright.

The sound of shattering; white bone splintering and falling to the ground as the force behind my strike blew a hole out the back of its head.

I didn't witness the resounding quiet; I was already gone, sprinting towards Kon as his fast feet managed to beat away the offending tendril of what I could only presume was one of the centipede's appendages that shot swiftly out of both sides of one of its many segments.

Hurdling over the fence (which probably looked a little odd considering its height) I was struck by intuition.

"KON!"

In the middle of a risky jump I saw him flinch and search for me, eyes wide and filled with adrenaline he locked on to my approaching form.

"Fan out and move back! Then jump left!"

His forehead suffered a spasm as if to say, 'what's she thinking now'. "What?!"

"TRUST ME, PLEASE! IF YOU DON'T YOU'LL BE IMPALED!" He would be too, if he went to the right next.

Don't ask me how I knew.

"ALRIGHT, GEEZ!"

He moved as I'd asked, seamlessly dodging the hollow's attacks. I took to the air, eyes out of focus as I remembered…

…A hand, an unfurled glowing hand with its fingers pointed perpendicular from the ground and to the sky protruded out from the back of the thin mask made of bone.

And then an explosion of energy rocked the air.

A thin layer of verve circled my arm rupturing out along the limb down to about a metre in length from my finger tips where it pulsed. You could hear it; a loud whirr of natural energy. Then my hand fisted suddenly and I pulled it forcefully out from the mask watching absently as the dying creature roared and exploded in a cloud of light particles…

My body felt incredibly versatile and flexible, reaching towards the clouds, one leg lifted slightly higher than the other, knee touching my diaphragm. As if the atmosphere I swam through daily was solid ground this leg allowed me traction on the air for just a moment as I applied muscle memory to sense memory. Right arm coming up, hand unfurled, pointing straight down and eyes obstinately fixed on the target my energy revved up making the phalanges of my fingers tingle. My head cleared of all thought and I felt my body shoot down, faster than freefall or gravity would normally ensue towards the long back of the centipede hollow currently hunting Kon.

My hand slicing like a knife through the back of its head was all I could focus on afterwards. I have no idea how I looked right then but I felt… light. Right. Bright light spurted forth and I somersaulted away, landing close to Kon. Rest in peace. The hollow disappeared. In its wake a cacophony of loud, obscenely shaped footfalls followed; the ground vibrated with each step.

Eyes shooting towards him I pulled Kon by the arm. "Get behind me!"

BASH!

Caught in between two tusk-like appendages I stared into the face of a beefy looking hollow; its cheeks were surprisingly fat for a stone mask and its head a well rounded piece of musculature.

Teeth grinding I pushed against the ground, the kinetic energy pulsing through me and forcing the hollow backwards. Trapping the bone weapon between my sides and arms I smacked the palms of my hands underside their length. Catching the backlash with my biceps and the muscles at my rib cage I clenched and shattered the limbs.

As the hollow roared, indignant, I slid forwards ramming my right fist into the extremities of its mask. It cracked and I hit it again with my left, finishing it off with a pirouette and roundhouse kick so direct that the thing tore open in two.

I was getting use to energy distribution and discipline.

"Kon! The front line!" I yelled behind me and after what looked like a brief moment of confusion the mod soul nodded.

We shot forwards, both running at a sprint. Being so much faster Kon arrived their first; breezing past them. The hollows stumbled in their bewilderment giving Kon plenty of time to use those brilliantly powerful legs of his to vector backwards into their spines and heads.

Racing to meet the unfilled crowd I revved up the flow of my verve. Heart beating so strong I could hear it in my ears and through the lulling throb of my energy I braced my arms wide, stretched both out vertically along either side of my body. My hands were already glowing but now my arms, my chest and I'm pretty sure my eyes shone with the bright yet faint greenish light that lay heavy and dormant within me. Shooting down my legs and thundering into concrete my energy unfortunately cracked the pavement as I came to a severe stop just before my opposition. I had a mere second before the howling throng were upon me and I thrust out wildly with my energy.

It was like a shield but not: a temporary barricade that hurt and scalded the opposing forces. It lasted a mere second but I'd overcompensated for the foreseen physics to their weight and, with straining muscles, had battered the front line away from me and into the hollows behind them. Like dominoes they'd fallen.

Breathing heavily I jumped backwards and out of the danger zone; feet landing lightly back on solid ground as I signalled Kon to do the same.

He was panting when he reached my side, thankfully unhurt but winded anyway. "I don't think we can take them all. Once they start getting frustrated it'll be all we can do to run from them never mind stop them."

"I know and that's alright." He blinked at me, a little bit deranged and I peered into those brown eyes that shouldn't be so… not Ichigo. "I've just been playing for time."

Kisuke Urahara had informed me that my energy, while not as vast and encompassing as Kurosaki's, it was incredibly raw. As if concentrated and fine tuned to the world around me. Though I was becoming increasingly proficient in using it, extrapolating it, moderating the flow and distributing it throughout my form the subsequent effects could leave me reeling. I would have to acquire perfect control before I pushed myself to far again. Or if I hurt someone.

"Playing for time?" Kon queried, looking somewhat apprehensive and eyeing the group of hollows as their agitation grew. He was right; sooner or later they'd come at us without holding back. They were no longer curious but hungry, half starved already with agitation and with each pulse of my energy they seemed to grow more aggressive: each was already making unearthly, harrowing sounds that chilled the bone marrow.

I nodded, biting my lip. "I'm waiting for Ichigo."

As if on cue several hollows dived up and out into the sky, jumping high and, if I was correct about their trajectory (and crap, I so was) they'd land right on top of us.

Aw, hell.

Kon's eyes looked like they were about to pop right out of his skull. "AH, CRAP! WE'RE GONNA GET CREAMED!" It was as if he couldn't move; his eyes remained focused on the shapes in the sky that blotted out the sun for short moments.

I mean, we could have run but they'd still get us; their number and size were too vast, we'd be crushed. The best we could hope for was to watch their fall and estimate were each would land.

But before I could utter a single strained word (the hollows were literally on top of us) an arm wrapped tightly around the middle of my torso lifting me momentarily off the ground.

Surprise made me gasp quietly before I was crushed backwards into a warm, broad chest. I blinked, for an instant everything ceased to mean anything when I was suddenly sliding back, quickly and efficiently saving me from being crushed by greedy soul eaters. Gravity decided the fate of one of the hollows as the stroke from a very large zanpacto sliced into its head as we moved. My hand clutched the solid arm around my middle for balance as my eyes roved the scene, witnessing with a single sweat drop as one pretty fat hollow flopped like a fish on top of about six other hollows.

…Can hollows even get fat?

The sweat drop tripled in number when I observed Rukia more or less beat the konpaku out of the way, being far less careful and considerate in his rescue than…

Than Ichigo had been with me.

It wasn't as if I were shocked or dumbfounded but… I'd never been held by anybody outside of my family, in any way, shape or context of the word. This felt different and I couldn't even explain how. A piece of me that existed somewhere deep within settled and relaxed and I wondered at it. And truth be told Kon didn't look all that annoyed about the fact that he'd been beaten to the curb; in the process of their conjoined sprawl Rukia had ended up flat on top of him. His goofy yet leering smile almost as lit up as the sky today. Oops.

But then I felt warm breath ghosting across the back of my neck and remembered that I was only shorter than Kurosaki in height by a couple of inches. "What is wrong with you?" The low quality to his voice gave it an unusually husky edge and I was swallowing before I even knew why.

He was angry at me. Again.

My stomach clenched but I forced myself to look at him anyway, desperately trying to ignore the fact that doing so side-on only added to the intensity if his expression or to the fact that for some reason he had yet to release me. Glowing coals of liquid gold peered at me and I had to say something. "What do you mean?"

His scowl actually twanged in aggravation. "You freaking kidding me?!"

"Wha-I-"

"You took about ten years off my life expectancy!"

I realised a little late than my hand still clutched the arm curved around my waist and suddenly it was imperative that I let go… so that he could, in turn, let me go. Please. Before I do something or say momentously stupid that would embarrass me forever in front of him as was currently the norm of my life and he would remember and remind me of it for the rest of his life.

So close to his face I found myself watching, when I let him go, how he blinked once as if he'd forgotten were his arm was presently attached to. His eyes darted down to the limb and then back towards my face before clearing his throat for some reason and taking a step backwards, away from me, his arm sliding from around me without touching me again.

Turning, I watched him blankly as he ruffled his orange locks. Was he alright? "Ichigo?" I queried with a small degree of tentativeness.

The sun made his eyes appear somewhat fiery as they flickered towards me before their lids slid shut and he groused: a tetchy sound escaping from his clenched jaw. "Argh, you don't even realise do you?"

Perplexed I arched an inquisitive brow. "Realise what?"

"That you cornered yourself!" His arm waved about behind him where to Elementary school loomed and then towards me were the school gates remained shut tight.

And this is a problem… why? "So?"

"SO?! Are you a complete idiot?" His head indicated to where Rukia sat, slapping away an over amorous Kon. "Why the hell didn't you just wait for us to arrive?!"

What, seriously? He was upset at me because I didn't wait for him?! "I was just trying to-" I pointed at Kon. "WE were trying to keep them away from the elementary school kids!"

Ichigo rocked back, blinking.

Kon's head shot from Rukia to me. "Hey, don't drag me into this!"

"SHUT UP!" Ichigo barked at him, face darkening and the scowl there livid for the world to cower before. "This all your fault anyway and you're already on my shit list so don't make it worse!" He raised a fist at him. "I owe you pay back for the humiliation you put my body through in school!"

Rukia it seemed had had enough of remaining silent. "And for the lie you told." She stood up ready to join us and Kon jumped, eyes shooting towards me for aid.

Looking at her I gestured towards him. "You know, that doesn't matter any more. He isn't a bad guy."

Arms crossed, twitch above his right eye throbbing Ichigo snorted but his gaze was on me and curious. When was he not?

Rrrrrooooooooooaaaaaarrrrrrrrhhhhhh…

Oh yeah… I er, forgot about the hollows. Smooth Mai, real smooth.

Ichigo didn't appear to be even remotely bothered by the now charging throng of hollows advancing on us all at a swift pace. He simply sighed, looking at me once with an expression that made me want to beg and apologise and simultaneously want to smile. A hand reached up and over his shoulders to the sword he'd sheathed as he turned to face the enemy.

"Time to get to work."

---

A Few Minutes Later… (Seriously, because Ichigo arrived that's all it took).

"…So you decided to call him Kon?" I couldn't tell by the way he phrased the question whether Kurosaki figured it ridiculous or not.

Cue awkward shrug. "I admit I'm not very original when it comes to nick names but since he's a mod Konpaku I thought-"

"No, I get it." He shrugged too and it was much more effective than mine. "Mod Kon-paku. Sure, why not."

The moment the slaying had ended Ichigo and Rukia had more or less demanded an explanation. They'd stood around me as if trapping me in a half circle of authority: Rukia, not exactly the scariest of miniature horrors but I could understand why others thought so and Ichigo who wouldn't let me even fidget. Head tilting sideways at them I'd motioned to Kon to begin first and he'd sighed but agreed, choosing a place to park his butt on a path just round the corner from the school.

"…They would so easily destroy me. Even though I know why it was necessary at the time it isn't something anybody should have to live through. It changed me." He'd glanced at me then, the side of his mouth lifting to smile slightly with honest eyes. "I deserve to make the choice about how I live my life, just like all of you do. I may have been created but I'm sentient. I'm a soul. And I refuse absolutely to take a life."

Considering the impressive display of power in his legs killing hollows was an altogether different matter.

After he'd finished his justification Ichigo had been what Rukia had considered unusually silent. However, from the introspective almost understanding quality to his gaze on the mod soul I figured he was simply… agreeing with the guy.

The tranquillity did not last however. My orange haired friend had stepped forward, close enough for Kon to have to lean backwards were he sat in order to look at his face with bewildered eyes.

"Why did you do what you did at my school Kon?" His tone was almost a growl and by the way his hands tightened into fists I imagined that his temper was covered by the flimsiest layer of self control.

Kon literally looked like he didn't understand the question. "Huh? What do you mean?"

Oh boy…

I pressed my lips together, squaring a glance at Rukia who'd sweatdropped and looked at me balefully.

Ichigo's left brow spazmed. "What do I mean?" He reiterated in disbelief. "Did you just seriously ask me that?"

Kon still looked lost. "I don't get it. What's the big deal?"

Countdown starting now…

"What's the big deal? Are you a complete idiot?! You kissed Inoue! And you harassed Mai!"

Kon had the audacity to roll his eyes. "I did not harass Mai." Oh really? "And you call what I did to Orihime Inoue as a kiss? A peck at best and only on the cheek."

Impending explosion close by…

He sighed forlornly, leaning forwards with his chin on a single hand and ignoring the near to apoplectic expression currently raging in throbs, twitches and eternal; darkness on Ichigo's face. "If I'd know you'd make this much fuss I'd have done what I'd really wanted to and s-"

"SHUT UP ALREADY! YOU RUINED MY REPUTATION!"

There we go…

"You have a reputation?"

I was pretty sure Ichigo's brain had already fizzled with the heat of his aggravation. It must have been difficult and eerie to be conversing with your body, host to a foreign soul and seeing it pull facial expressions that he himself would never have pulled… ever.

I almost patted him on the shoulder sympathetically but reigned back. It might be considered a condescension and instead set him off towards a raging end. Not good.

"AH WHATEVER! KON!" His violent shout had the mod soul hurrying to stand a few steps away from the substitute soul reaper.

"W-what?"

"I want my body back. Now." His tone left no room for discussion.

Incredulously Kon sniffed and folded his arms. "No."

The commanding edge to Ichigo's voice vanished. "What?! WHY THE HELL NOT?!"

"It's not as if you even know what to do with it. This is a fine example of a male specimen and it's being wasted on someone like you."

I blinked. Underneath the various insults I was pretty sure Ichigo had just been complimented.

"WASTED?! I DON'T NEED ADVICE ON WHAT TO DO WITH MY LIFE OR MY BODY FROM A PERV LIKE YOU!"

Haughtily, Kon raised his brows, a cheeky grin pulling at his lips. "You sure? Looks to me like you could use a few pointers."

"DAMMIT, YOU DON'T ANYTHING ABOUT ME! FINE! YOU WANT POINTERS? I'LL SHOW YOU A FEW POINTERS!"

The subsequent screech that tore from Kon's lips could probably be heard by all the elementary school kids as Ichigo preceded to beat seven bells of hell out of his own body, a truth he realised little too late as he observed with a panicked expression as his body's nose and lip bled and at how a cheek puffed and puckered around his left eye.

"Great." He muttered and slumped, cursing the air.

Rukia palmed her chin, pursing her lips with a concentrated expression. "So, now the question remains of what we're going to do with him."

"Well, I think giving him back to Urahara would probably be the most immoral thing we could do seeing as how he'd have to obey the law of the soul society and dispose of him." I replied easily.

Though I didn't add that Urahara would probably discover a way to utilize such a commodity so that he wouldn't have to destroy him. Scientist though he may be, Kisuke possessed a compassionate heart.

Ichigo looked at me, frowning. "Urahara?"

The rate at which Rukia waved her hand in a stop sign behind Ichigo was nearly god damn spastic but I managed to pay no attention to it. He needed to know. "Kisuke Urahara." I pointed at Rukia, feeling a strange sensation of mischievous amusement tickle my stomach. "Rukia's friend. He gave her the Gigai she wears and the soul candy."

The expression on Rukia's face was borderline mutinous.

I shifted to look at Ichigo who was shooting Rukia a look of puzzlement and a searching kind of dawning comprehension. "I know him too. He helped me…"

I trailed off uncertain of how to describe all the ways he'd helped me so far. Freely presenting to me comprehension of myself and the world around me, a confidence in how I use my energy… an assured sense of purposefulness…

Ichigo eyes were on me, though their focus wasn't. "Is… is he the one who helped out that night at the fair?"

I blinked at the speedy deduction. "Yes, he is."

A brow twitched in Rukia's direction who stared back at him without shame. "…I see."

"It wasn't necessary for you to know yet Ichigo. I didn't want you anymore involved with the soul society than necessary." Rukia stated before shrewdly adding. "And aren't you the one who said you didn't want to do more than you had to? Just enough to help and that's all?" The smug smirk on her face seemed out of place with the meaning behind her words.

…What did she just say?

Surprised at the revelation and a little… something else, I glanced inquiringly at Kurosaki who looked to be chewing on the inside of his cheek and glaring at Rukia. After a moment however his eyes flickered towards me and they widened. He swallowed, a hand reaching upwards to delve into the back of his hair, the arm covering his expression but from the way his body turned slightly away from me and the tension now present in his shoulders he seemed a little… awkward.

But only… when he'd looked at me. Had I done something? Said something?

…Boys were so strange.

I frowned at Rukia who too seemed to be a little perplexed at the action but smiled at me anyway as if to say 'he's a complicated little human being isn't he?'

Eventually (Kon had begun stirring from his passed out state of the floor) she reached a tiny hand into the pocket of her blazer and pulled out… the glove. "Let's just get this over with." She exhaled and walked over to Kon, shouting back over her shoulder. "I'll have to heal your body first Ichigo, you know that right?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know." He drawled.

I watched as Rukia pressed her gloved hand into Ichigo's body and extract the pill. At once the body fell backwards, thankfully from such a short height. Then she proceeded to mutter something I was unable to tell and her hands lit up; not quite like mine. A ball of reitsu crafted light hovered a centimetre from her palm and began to slowly heal the distribution of Ichigo aided bruises and sprains.

It was during this moment of reprieve that I felt the soft touch of a single finger press gently on the wound at the side of my forehead. My eyes flitted left and I found captivating brown orbs inspecting the area where Kon had kicked me.

When Ichigo caught me looking at him his eyes flickered to mine and they widened infinitesimally for a single second and he froze; as if he, oddly enough, hadn't realised what he was doing. But after that moment his eyes returned to normal.

They searched mine. "Are you alright?"

I stared.

His fringe lay naturally over his forehead casting small shadows over his eyes from the light of the midday sun. It gave them an almost ethereal quality and I appreciated all over again how the daylight caressed his features seeming to favour him.

Wow…

Realising he was indeed waiting for an answer I shook myself feeling like acomplete idiot and even more discombobulated than usual. "Am I alright?"

His right hand lifted again, a finger barely tracing the dried blood under my fringe. "How did this happen? It looks pretty painful."

I blinked. "Oh." Oh yeah, my head wound. "It's… it's nothing. An accident on my apart. I should have realised…" Inwardly I cringed. I just didn't know when to shut up. "Never mind."

Ichigo's scowl appeared more perceptive than angry. "This isn't an injury from a hollow. It looks like you were kicked or something." His hand dropped back to his side as he watched me.

I just looked at him, saying nothing.

Eventually his head turned away, eyes focusing at where his body lay…

Almost reading his mind I spoke. "I scared him. It was my fault; I should have kept a check on my energy."

He'd been scowling until then but when I finished speaking he seemed to come back to himself, his eyes shooting back at me incredulously. "You scared him?"

I tried not to chew on either of my lips and ended up mashing them together anyway. "…Yeah."

"You?"

I looked about me, puzzled as to his tone and nodded.

His expression remained disbelieving for about three seconds until he folded his arms and snorted with a frown. "You think you're scary?"

I flinched. "What? No! No, of course I don't! It's just that…" I glanced over at Rukia and Kon. "…They might."

"Well they're wrong." His expression was the epitome of cocky. "Because you're not."

How could he… "They are? I'm not?"

"Yes and no. You're not. At all."

But it wasn't true. There were many things about me that living beings feared: souls and people alike. Rukia and Kon-

"So don't get any ideas thinking that you're any different from the rest of us."

I stared uncomprehendingly at the ground. I wasn't like the 'rest of society'. I never have been. He didn't understand and it was my fault for being so incapably of explaining something recognized and simple. Slowly, I looked back at him and found him watching me again with that inquisitive slope to his brow, that slight tightness of his jaw that indicated a certain level of focused attention.

My mouth opened and closed; I didn't know how to say it. "I…"

"Mai, I'm trying to tell you that you're not necessarily… as bad as you think you are. There's nothing scary about you."

Crack.

...What?

He… he saw that?

No…

My expression turned blank.

I felt my eyes widen and take him in and I lost all care for what the rest of my body was doing.

He saw… too much about me. It was dangerous. For him and for others. He couldn't find out, couldn't see… he'd loathe me.

Please… please don't see me.

From an outsider's perspective the agonised, desperate, despairing quality in my stare would have appeared almost disturbing. It pulled at the skin of my face. Years of repressed fear and emotional chaos held stable solely through my determination to erase the 'me' of the past had cracked; the fingers of my self disgust dragged upwards against my face, clawing down my cheeks and giving my eyes a slightly more manic appeal. I shouldn't be doing this, I shouldn't be at the whim of my broken core but it was taking everything I had not to snap in two under the pressure of buried memories.

Yet Ichigo's gaze didn't stray from me. Not once. Even though I knew I'd rattled him. In fact those eyes travelled over me, studying how my fingers were involuntarily twitching, how my breath had seemed to halt midway between my lungs and trachea. They grew ever more probing and involved by the second.

"Mai."

It wasn't a question or a demand, as if he wasn't sure what to do or say. There was an undercurrent of concern running through it and a whisper of some unnamed emotion buried so well under his forced casualness I nearly missed it, whatever it was.

And with it I breathed again, feeling tired for some reason.

Since all was now silent I was hit suddenly by reason, more than aware of the reitsu combined between Rukia and Ichigo and that my own energy added to the odd amalgamation could only attract more unwanted attention.

A soft smile settled ironically on my lips. I didn't look at him yet. "I think I'm actually improving at this."

Startled at the sudden noise and change in subject Kurosaki's hand quickly moved to the back of his neck "Er, at what?"

"Being abnormal."

"Oh. Me too I guess."

"You're not angry at me?"

His frown deepened but his usual ever-present scowl was somehow not so present. "Why would I be angry?"

I looked over at Rukia hovering over Kon. "I let you down."

He blinked, as if he'd completely lost his capacity for short term memory. I suppose I was really putting his brain through the ringer today. "Oh that. Forget about it. It was a ridiculous request anyway."

"Still, I-"

"Forget it Mai." He finished quietly.

But then I remembered something, with a gulp this time instead of a swallow. "Er, Ichigo?"

"Yeah?"

Did he have to sound so… accommodating? I stepped back. "So er, I was chasing down Kon and… ah…"

"What is it?"

Taking another step back I tried to smile politely at him. "Your, er, sisters saw us. Me and Kon."

His expression froze in place. Crap.

I took another step back. "They thought he was you."

Boy was his silence deafening. He'd practically turned to stone.

"They came over to speak to us and I had to tell them I was your friend and that Kon was impersonating you for a school play and that he was just being a bit of an idiot to which Yuzu seemed to accept but Karin did not and…"

The tips of his ears were growing red, as was his neck and a large vein began to protrude out of his forehead.

"…I'm sorry but I had no explanation for why they witnessed him jumping fifteen feet into the air as easily as he did and er... we protected them from the hollows but I'm not altogether certain that they didn't see anything and I… I'm sorry!"

And I proceeded to run like the wind in the opposite direction to where Ichigo was facing.

It was maybe two seconds before the evident, eventual, and inevitable eruption of the volcano named Ichigo Kurosaki fractured violently through the air.

"MAI!"

The vibration of what sounded like lightning-fast, furious footfalls followed and I was stunned to find him closing in on me as I peered over my shoulder. Jesus!

"GET BACK HERE! STOP RUNNING!"

"IF I STOP RUNNING YOU'LL KILL ME!"

"I'M NOT GOING TO KILL YOU!"

The purple pulsating head throb spoke otherwise. "THEN WHY ARE YOU CHASING ME?!"

"PUNISHMENT, DAMMIT!"

"OH LIKE THAT'S GOING TO ENCOURAGE ME TO STOP?! WHAT A GREAT MOTIVATIONAL EARNER! YOU'RE SO DEFINITELY GOING TO MURDER ME!"

"HEY, HAVEN'T WE HAD THIS CONVERSATION BEFORE!"

"YOU… oh yeah, we have…"

"HAH, GOT YOU!"

"CRAP!"

So... my writing has probably changed a bit and will be much more noticeable later. But God do I feel better for getting this out. PHEW! It was one of those annoying chapters where it seems like a lot happens but nothing really happens at all. Yet it had to be done!

SO REVIEW! Er… please?