Author's Note

Okay, I got back to this. I'll try and get this updated at least once a week, but I make no promises because my muse is a silly thing that likes to come up with scenes that I have to make tie-ins for first but then refuses to cough up the tie-ins without a fight. Or it goes on a story shot rampage. Stupid muse.

Anywho, chapter 17, enjoy!

It was on a whim that I decided to have a sparring match with Kurosaki. I've acknowledged that in terms of raw power, possibly experience too, he outclasses me, so I figured sparring with him would help me improve. There's also the fact that I haven't had anyone to spar with for years that helped me make this decision. Having convinced myself to do this, I made my way to Urahara Shoten. He seems to have moved from the shrine to live there since the overload a week ago. I was slightly surprised when Urahara-san just let me in and pointed me to the training grounds Kurosaki was using. I found Kurosaki down there with a large ring of maybe two dozen beach ball sized fireballs rotating around him. The flames alternated between the bright blue and the black tinged red flames I've seen him wield. His back was to me and he held his arms out to the sides, away from his body. I watched, trying to figure out the exercise, as he tilted his arms, the rotating ring of flames tilting with them. After tilting the ring some, he slowly brought his arms in, the circle slowly transitioning into a figure eight. About halfway through the transition, a small whumph could be heard as all the blue flames turned to black and Kurosaki let out a small curse. When the transition of shape was near completion, the fireballs started to swell, mixing with one another and making a stream of fire. Kurosaki lets lose a string of curses as he struggles to separate them into fireballs once more, but to no avail. Finally, he gives up and extinguishes the flames, sitting on the dusty ground, panting. I silently contemplate what I've seen. From what I could tell from our duel, the blue flames are weaker than the black flames, combined with the swelling fireballs near the end leaves me to conclude that he struggles with creating lower level constructs because he has too much power to add while also struggling with using higher amounts of power because he never got to learn proper control at a lower level. I shake my head as I walk forward. It really is no wonder he has control issues when you take into account his forced exponential growth rate.

"Tired already, Kurosaki?" I ask, causing him to turn around. It's just after ten, so he shouldn't have been working at this too long.

A smug grin splits his face. "You wish, Ishida. I'm just taking a breather." I notice that his pants are already almost gone and I conclude it was the focus that was required that was tiring him, not the actually reiatsu use.

"Then if you're not tired, you won't mind sparring with me." I reply, creating my silver bow and taking a ready stance. His grin widens as he pushes up to his feet.

"Not at all. Geta-boshi's not a bad sparring partner, but it'll be good to switch it up." He says as he stretches before sinking into his own ready position, black blade materializing in his hand.

"Let's go."

It's a very different fight from the duel on the riverside. Kurosaki doesn't try to overheat me this time, allowing for a more drawn out match and more maneuvering. We clash up and down the training ground and I use the rocky terrain and easily stirred up dust to my advantage to catch him in blind spots and create traps. He is also trying more complex attacks with his flames, changing from his constant charges to attempts to match my longer range to a certain degree. I revel in the challenge I can finally introduce to my training. I haven't had any sparring matches since my grandfather passed and forgot just how effective they are for training. It probably would have been even more satisfying if he didn't just tank all of my attacks when I did get my hits in, but I won't complain too much about it.

I must admit that I'm rather surprised by his level of skill. Not only does he have the physical capabilities that I saw in our duel, but a rather good head for fighting in general. I can only catch him by surprise with a maneuver a couple of times before he's adjusted to it and capable of minimizing the damage, if not outright escaping the attack. His learning curve for physical battle is simply amazing, not that I will ever tell him that. However, it is painfully obvious that he lacks any refined control over his powers and any good strategist like myself will be quick to capitalize on that. It also becomes clear as I pick at his lack of control that he doesn't have a very sharp reiatsu sense. He instead makes up for it with his enhanced physical senses and a very sharp instinct to pick up on killing intent.

The match swings back and forth in favor between the two of us, but I can tell that it's only because Kurosaki isn't trying to overwhelm me with brute force, instead focusing on learning what he can from the match. It pisses me off that he could take control of this match if he wanted, but I suppose facing the possibility of such overwhelming strength is part of the appeal of sparring him.

The third match comes to an end with my victory. I was able to trick and outmaneuver him, getting myself set up with an arrow to the back of his head. We both flop to the ground, panting and exhausted, yet satisfied with the good matches. A minute later, Tessai-san brings bentos and drinks down to us and we both thank him, happily tucking in to the provided meal.

"You're pretty good, Ishida." He says after a while of eating in silence. "If we both had the same amount of power, you'd probably kick my ass every time with all those plots and traps." I silently bask in that acknowledgement. It may not be exactly what I was looking for, but it's fairly close.

"Hmph. I still beat you, even with our power difference." I point out. He just chuckles. "Brute force won't always give you victory, Kurosaki. As you saw, a good tactician can overcome a brute." He scowls a bit at that, but I'm sure he gets the point. Use your head, it has a purpose.

"Yeah, yeah. I still beat you two times outta three." He grumbles. I roll my eyes at his stubborn nature. We lapse back into silence, but it is a companionable silence. I hadn't really thought of it much until now, but my lack of friends tends to leave me lonely at lunch time. It's a rather nice change of pace to have someone else around, even if it is this moron. We finish the bentos and set them down at the base of the ladder.

"Ready for round four, Ishida?" Kurosaki taunts, blade in hand.

"Are you, Kurosaki?" I reply, bow materialized. He just grins and we charge into the fray once more.

It's the weekend after Kurosaki-kun got overloaded and he has been stopping by almost every day since he followed me to school. He just comes and finds me in the garden while in his cat form and follows me around for a while. Sometimes we chat if there's no one around to see a "talking cat." I know some of the others who work at the temple have seen Kurosaki-kun as a cat, but they haven't tried anything, so I don't think they realize that he's not a normal cat. Rukia-chan said that she attacked us the first time because she thought Kurosaki-kun would try to hurt people unprovoked, so if the others aren't attacking they must not think he's a problem. Rangiku-san actually picked him up and cuddled him on his first visit, but I don't think he liked it very much. She said she wouldn't tell Kuchiki-sama about him being here, but I'm fairly certain she meant that she wouldn't tell him that a cat had taken residence here. He hates cats. I don't know why he does, but Kurosaki-kun says he probably had some bad experiences with Yoruichi-san. I'm glad that he seems to be doing better now. I haven't seen him yet today, but I suppose he's busy with whatever it is that he does.

Sado-kun is took me out to a café to talk about something. He didn't say what when he asked, but I wasn't going to turn down a friend's request. I hoped that nothing was wrong. He didn't say anything until after we'd ordered our lunches. I was surprised when he told me that he knew about Kurosaki-kun. Apparently he had figured it out when Kurosaki-kun had come to school and had decided after confronting him that he would keep his escape a secret as a long as he didn't cause trouble. He said that they'd also talked some more over the past few days and he didn't think that we'd encounter any problems. I was relieved that he was willing to give Kurosaki-kun a chance. It was also nice to know I had someone else that I could go to for yokai problems. Sado-kun is a good friend.

We were taking a short-cut through one of the parks to get back to the temple when the air ahead of us rippled and broke open, like someone had cut a hole in the air. A masked, armadillo-like monster came lumbering out of the hole and I realized that this was another one of those hollow creatures. Sado-kun took up a position in front of me, his arms transforming. Even though I was scared of the hollow coming our way, I still had enough time to think Sado-kun's arms looked really cool. His left arm was white with a red stripe running down it. There was also a red tipped spike coming out of his shoulder. His right arm was black with red patterning on it and the forearm was shaped like a shield. The hollow looked toward us and roared before charging.

"Get back." Sado-kun orders, sinking into a fighting position. I quickly move back the way we've come, but I keep both Sado-kun and the hollow in sight. I can't help but hold my hands close to my chest, hoping that he'll be able to handle this hollow on his own because I know that there is little, if anything, that I can do to help him against such a monster.

The hollow is almost upon Sado-kun when he cocks back his left fist and punches it in the head, sending it tumbling back. The hollow rolls before regaining its feet, snarling before slamming a paw to the ground causing the earth to ripple as it rises up in a wave headed for Sado-kun. He brings back his right fist and punches forward, roaring "El Directo!" bright light flying off his fist and impacting with the wave of earth, breaking it apart. Sado-kun quickly charges in after his attack, punching with his left fist once more, only to hit the armored hide of the hollow's foreleg. The foreleg buckles in and cracks are left in its armor as Sado-kun pulls back before ducking in again, blocking a swipe from the hollow's other paw with his shielded right arm as he upper cuts it with his left fist. The hollow goes flying up, landing on its back, legs flailing in the air. Sado-kun walks around to its head, pulling back his left fist and I can see energy gathering around his hand. He calmly punches down on the hollow's head, finishing it off.

He turns to me and gives me a thumbs up and I can't help but feel relieved that everything's alright. I smile at him and start towards him. My worry seems needless now. Sado-kun is strong, he can handle himself. Feeling reassured, I'm about halfway to him when things go wrong.

"LOOK OUT, SADO-KUN!"

Sado-kun turns to look around and is blindsided by another hollow, getting knocked away. I scream his name once more, running towards him now to try and do what I can to help him. Unfortunately, what I do achieve is getting the hollow's attention. I scramble to turn around and escape from the charging hollow, tripping after I finally get a few steps in the other direction. I roll over, just barely slipping past the claws that come down where I was laying. I have no time to move as it strikes down with the other hand, so I close my eyes, waiting for the strike to come. It never does. I open my eyes to find Sado-kun braced before me, right arm holding off the hollow's claws. I can see the blood dripping down the side of his face and I let out a small whimper for his pain and our predicament. With a yell, he pushes the hollow's arm up, twirling around, grabbing me by the waist and running us both out of the hollow's range.

"We're retreating." Sado-kun says. I just nod my head as he continues racing forward. I honestly hope we can escape this hollow because, from what I can tell, that blow that Sado-kun took to the head is causing him some trouble. Sado-kun checks back over his shoulder, then suddenly throws me forward, whirling around to take an overhead strike on his right arm shield, getting knocked to the ground, but managing to get a punch in to its jaw. The hollow howls, moving back and clawing at its face and broken teeth. I scramble up and move to grab Sado-kun and drag him out of range of the hollow. I grab his arm and start to drag, but Sado-kun is heavy and I've barely moved him when the hollow has recovered. It advances on us and I tug at Sado-kun's arm, still trying to desperately get us out of the way. I fall over, losing grip of his arm and stare up as it raises its clawed hand in preparation to strike. I feel the dread and inevitability of the strike sink into me as the claws descend, closing my eyes at the last moment.

"You can open your eyes, Inoue."

I look up and he's standing there, holding back death with a slim black blade. I can feel the relief flooding through me. We're saved. He'll take care of everything.

"Kurosaki-kun." He just grins at me before turning back to the hollow.

"You messed with the wrong people, bastard. Now you've got to deal with me." he growls, swinging a smaller blade that I hadn't noticed him holding in his left hand, severing the hollow's hand. The hollow pulls back once more, screeching in pain. "Take care of Chad, Inoue. I've got this bastard." He says before charging at the hollow, blades carving arcs of black flame. I'm confused for a moment as to who he's referring to until I realize that it's a butchered version of Sado-kun's name. I crawl forward and check Sado-kun, finding him dazed but still conscious. I cradle his head in my lap, wiping away the blood as best I can, keeping an eye on Kurosaki-kun as he fights, hoping he wins and no more hollows come.

Ishida was surprised when I suddenly ditched our sparring match, but I didn't really have time to give a damn about his reaction because Inoue was in trouble. I raced as fast as I could to where my tag said she was, hoping that things would last long enough for me to get there and save her. The fear flowing through me made it hard to think. What if I didn't get there in time? That one question kept running through my head, taunting me with its "what if." I quickly moved over the roof tops, heading straight for her position.

I got lucky. I got there just in time to stop the hollow from finishing off her and Chad. The relief that she's unhurt calms my wild thoughts, allowing me to focus on finishing what I came here to do. I reassure her and tell her to take care of Chad while I handle the hollow. I summon my second blade and take off its hand in a single strike. I follow up with a flaming slash to its stomach and it punches at me with its still attached hand. I jump back to avoid the blow, swirling past its side and opening a large gash on its leg, crippling it further. The hollow's roars are now just pitiful to my ears, all bark and no bite. I coat my longer blade in black flames and strike, cutting it in half from tail bone to the tip of its nose. It begins to disintegrate and I dismiss my blades as I walk back to Inoue and Chad.

It seems that Chad has returned to working order during that short battle as he's sitting up and holding his head.

"You okay, Chad?" I ask. He just gives a slow nod in reply as he works his way to his feet, staggering a bit. Inoue frets over him, but he waves her off.

"How'd you know to come?" Chad asks, finally giving up on trying to correct me. It's not that I have anything against him, it's just what stuck.

"I tagged Inoue so I'd know when she was in trouble so I could help. The tag caught the hollow reiatsu, so here I am."

"Thank you, Kurosaki-kun. We wouldn't have made it if you hadn't come." Inoue says quietly, gratitude laced into her words. Chad nods in agreement.

"Ah, no problem." I reply, rubbing the back of my neck in embarrassment. "There's no need to thank me, you know." Inoue just smiles at me and Chad gives me a thumbs up. "Um, so let's get you guys home or wherever it is you're going."

"We're headed back to the temple. Are you coming with us Kurosaki-kun?" Inoue asks as we head off.

"Yeah. I'll at least stick around 'til we're almost there."

Ishida catches up with us when we're about halfway there and lays into me for just ditching him like that with no explanation, but I just mostly ignore him, which results in more arguing. She just laughs, making me very happy I got there in time to save her. I'm not sure what I'd have done if I hadn't, but I doubt it would have been good. For me or anyone else.

"It would seem that Kurosaki Ichigo has gained new attachments to several different individuals." The monotone voice reports.

"Oh? Mind reading the list of them to me?" Aizen asks, though it is really a command.

"Of course, Aizen-sama. He has been spending time in the company of Ishida Uryu, the Quincy who fought Leon Fuego with him, Sado Yasutora, a fullbringer in the employ of the Gotei 13, Kuchiki Rukia, a shinigami, Urahara Kisuke and his people, and Inoue Orihime, a human high schooler employed at the Daitaiyo Temple. His closest connection seems to be with that woman." The monotone voice reports.

"I see. It seems he has picked some sturdier people to surround himself with this time." Aizen smirks, "But he still has a weak link in his armor. The boy is so foolish to leave such an important piece so vulnerable, but that just makes things easier for us." Aizen sits back further into his throne, a pleased smile on his face as his eyes gleam with cruelty. "I want you to gather information on Inoue Orihime, find out how they are defending her. Look into the others as well, but prioritize the girl." He demands.

"Hai, Aizen-sama. I will report back my findings once I'm done." The monotone voice replies, bowing before leaving.

Kurosaki Ichigo, you are a fool, leaving your heart out for the world to see, putting it in the hands of someone so fragile. I will make your world crumble and fall.

So that's that. I got some more Chad in there and before you can complain about him being weak or something, he got jumped and hit in the head. That tends to disorient people and leave them unable to fight, sorry I wanted an Ichigo to a small rescue.

Please note that I intend to start a second story soon to hopefully get my crazy muse to play nice by giving it two stories o bounce between. However, there's a problem: I don't know which of my story shots from my Idea Dump to expand on. Every chapter has like one review saying it's good. This does nothing to help me pick one! So please read and review/pm me to get me to write your favorite, otherwise I'm going with whatever AoNoBleachShoujo, the author I beta for on here, chooses.

Also, check out my new one shot, FUN Warning. I posted that like, yesterday or something, and people seem to like it, so you guys check it out too.

Anywho, please comment/review to tell me how I did.