• • •
"A jumping high school student?" An old man questioned, sitting on the corner of his produce stand on the side of the street. For an old man, he surprisingly had his cartilage pierced and was smoking a cigarette. "I don't know. I never saw him."
"I see," Rukia said, looking down in discouragement.
"But… If you buy some vegetables, I might remember."
"R-Really?!" Rukia asked, her eyes sparkling.
"Idiot..!" I yelled, as Kurosaki threw his arm around her neck and began to drag her away from the shopkeeper.
"That shopkeeper is always like that! Ask someone else..!" Kurosaki muttered, rolling his eyes at Rukia's gullibility.
Rukia was the one that we had to settle for asking around for information. After all, nobody could see me or Kurosaki considering that we were in our Shinigami forms.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
"What; at a time like this?!" Kurosaki darkly muttered, watching as me and Rukia withdrew our phones to check. "Don't tell me it's an order..!"
"Unfortunately, it is." Rukia answered. "A Hollow will appear in five minutes."
"Although, we might have lucked out just a little bit for once. It's close by." I explained, looking at the radar screen on my phone.
"Not now..!" Kurosaki exclaimed, looking even more frustrated.
"Don't worry; it's just a small fry. I'll go ahead and finish it off while Rukia and you keep on searching for that Mod-Soul, okay?" I asked, memorizing the location before I stashed the phone back into its place down my kimono top. Of course, Kurosaki blushed. "But, remember that I called first dibs on beating the crap out of him~!"
Focusing reiatsu to the soles of my feet, I was gone in a flash before they could respond to my words. It felt good to use flash step again, to feel the wind whipping through my hair. If only Urahara would let more of my reiatsu be under my control, I would probably be able to go even faster..!
It didn't take me long before I could sense the Hollow, even if it was just a normal small fry. Although, when I was nearby I could see something other than the Hollow. It was a person, I was sure of that.
School uniform. Bright orange hair.
"It's him..! That idiot Mod-Soul!" I exclaimed, watching as it tried to fight off the rather large centipede like Hollow. With my sharp eyes, I could see the rich red blood that stained the white shirt of the uniform; that Mod-Soul had gotten Kurosaki's body injured!
I grit my teeth as I saw one of the centipede Hollow's legs come straight for the Mod-Soul, who had nothing to defend himself with. Narrowing my eyes, I withdrew Ankoku-Tatsu from her sheath, using Shunpo to appear in front of the Mod-Soul.
I managed to slice the arm clean through, causing it to retreat the rest of its body back a few steps as it cried out in pain.
"I remember you..! You saved me! My hero~!" The Mod-Soul exclaimed, his whole face lit up in delight. Let me say this, it's quite weird seeing all of these different facial expressions on Kurosaki's face. I still wasn't used to the show of emotions, I was used to seeing his scrunched up eyebrows and scowl.
"Yeah, yeah. For now you're off the hook, but that's only because I have to deal with this Hollow! I can't believe that you were stupid enough to think that you could beat it..!" I yelled, moving my Zanpakuto so that it was in a more comfortable position for my next attack.
"What are you talking about?! I was fighting that Hollow because it took too long for you and the others to arrive..! Well, mostly the others. I had no clue that you were a Shinigami, too~!" The Mod-Soul cooed in delight, smiling as I sliced another one of the Hollow's arms off. "Besides, if I hadn't fought then those kid's would've…"
"Aw..! Damn..! I'll eat the both of you!" The Hollow screeched, directly flinging itself towards me and the Mod-Soul. In a flash, I rose Ankoku-Tatsu and slashed the Hollows mask while the Mod-Soul landed a powerful kick with his strong legs. The combined force of my slash and the Mod-Souls kick was enough to send it flying back.
Suddenly, the Mod-Soul gasped and ran forwards. He ran towards the end of the roof, managing to jump up into the air and kick the Hollow away from the rooftop. However, his little stunt suspended him in air for a second, and he began to fall off of the roof.
It was just pure luck that the real Kurosaki had shown up at that moment, managing to grab his body by the leg and haul him back onto the rooftop.
"You idiot!" Kurosaki seethed, glaring at the Mod-Soul. "What are you doing?! Jun had sliced that Hollow's mask! Hollows vanish on their own if you cut their heads! Why would you kick it upwards? What are you thinking? It's as if you didn't want it to land there…" Kurosaki trailed off, the light bulb on top of his head finally burning bright.
Both of our eyes trailed to the spot where the Hollow would have landed and we both sweat dropped.
Ants; a line of ants were steadily making their way across the rooftop.
That's what he wanted to save? A line of ants?
"…A line of ants..?" Kurosaki spoke, voicing my thoughts exactly. "It can't be… You aren't going to talk like a saint and say that you didn't want them to be crushed, are you..?"
"Y-Yeah! So what?!" The Mod-Soul asked, glaring and actually looking like the real Kurosaki for a moment, before the look faded and became more sad and pathetic. "I…I won't kill anything! Right after I was born, Soul Society ordered the Mod-Souls to be destroyed… And the day after I was born, I was already chosen to die! Every day, while I was in that pill, I was afraid. I watched my friends disappear each day. Even after I got lucky and escaped the storage among other pills, I feared being discovered and killed… As I trembled in fear, I would think… Life isn't something that should be taken by others. I was born like this! I should at least have the right to live and die freely!" The Mod-Soul exclaimed, fervently. "Whether it's humans or insects, or even us, it's the same. That's why I won't kill… I won't kill anything..!"
I could feel the downward tugging at my lips, realizing that I was frowning; there was a very Kurosaki like look on my face. His words actually made me feel some form of apathy for him. Even after what he had pulled earlier. I didn't feel like I could blame him anymore; after all, he'd been isolated and scared for his life for countless years.
"My, my~…" A strikingly familiar voice drawled out, causing my eyes to widen. The clanking sound of wooden sandals against the roof's surface met my ears, "We finally found you and you're all roughed up. This makes all the equipment we brought totally useless…"
"Ah..!" The Mod-Soul gasped, eyes widening as Urahara raised the end of his cane and struck him in the forehead. On the bottom of the cane was the all too familiar flaming skull. The pill flew out of the back of his head because of the cane, bouncing across the ground. Kurosaki's body fell limp once more.
Urahara clambered over to the pill, picking it up and tossing it into the air and catching it again. The look on Kurosaki's face was priceless; he looked so shocked.
Oh..! That's right..!
This was his first encounter with Urahara!
"Well, mission complete~!" Urahara happily mused. "Let's go home guys!"
"Huh?!" Jinta exclaimed, furious. "I thought we were going to see some action for the first time in a while!"
"Wait! What are you going to do with him?!" Kurosaki yelled, trying to catch up to Urahara who had already turned and had begun making his way towards Tessai, Ururu, and Jinta.
"What..?" Urahara asked, tilting his head back so his deep gray eyes were visible from under his green and white striped bucket hat. "Dispose of it. Why?"
"You can see me..?" Kurosaki asked, eyes wide. "Who are you..?"
"Oh, how should I answer that…?" Urahara mused, bringing his other hand up to scratch at his hat out of habit. This was his so called, 'thinking' pose.
"For starters, you could begin with the fact that you're a greedy, perverted salesman." I said, hoping to distract him once I saw Rukia walk across the rooftop. "He's also my former teacher."
I was actually quite successful in distracting him, letting Rukia swipe the Mod-Soul from his hand.
"Ah, Kuchiki-San! Don't take that..!" Urahara spazzed out.
"What, Urahara?" Rukia asked, lightly tossing the pill up and down in the air. I kind of felt sorry for that Mod-Soul… I hope he didn't get motion sickness. "Does your store take items you sold to a customer without proper compensation?"
"Oh, well… Then, I'll pay." Urahara feebly answered.
"There's no need. I am satisfied with the product." Rukia responded, "Plus, you guys are working outside of the law anyway. You don't have any responsibility to recover him."
"We're not responsible, then?" Urahara asked, looking quite serious for once. "If trouble comes, we'll play dumb."
"Don't worry. I'm getting used to trouble lately." Rukia muttered. She then walked over towards Kurosaki, tossing the pill to him. "Here. Let's go."
"…Yeah. Thanks… For not throwing him away." Kurosaki muttered, staring down at the pill in the palms of his large hands.
"There's no need; I've already been thanked." Rukia offhandedly answered, walking away.
Kurosaki blinked, a perplexed look on his face. I chuckled a bit, walking closer over towards the pill in his hand. I faux glared at it, before sighing and shaking my head. A serene smile passed over my face, causing Kurosaki's eyebrows to dramatically raise and get lost in his bright orange locks.
"See you later, too, Kurosaki." I happily said, waving as I walked across the roof and followed after Urahara and the bunch.
• • •
Déjà vu.
I glared at the homework that was resting on my desk; it was taunting me once again, just lying there and mocking me with its emptiness. A hefty sigh escaped my lips as I slumped over and rested my head on the desk.
I was such a bad procrastinator..! I was good at schoolwork; some would even consider me to be near the genius level, intellectually. I just couldn't get motivated to finish school work; I was just way too lazy.
Besides, it was just too warm in my apartment for my liking. I had the windows pulled up, while I sat there in a pair of my crops, tight like skinny jeans that cut off right below my knees. A black sleeveless V necked shirt completed my outfit, which had bright neon pink paint splatters over it. I had gotten frustrated with my hair after I had blow-dried it when I got out of my shower, so I just pulled it back into a pony tail. My bangs were pinned back as well, in a rather large poof.
Knock… Knock! Knock!
Who in the world could that be?
Somebody was knocking on the door to my apartment, well more like banging. I first thought that it was Rukia, but then I knew I was wrong; she was probably out wiping the memories of the people from the classroom earlier. So, if my thoughts were correct, that ruled out Orihime and Tatsuki.
"I'm coming..!" I exclaimed, as the knocking had started up again. Rolling my eyes, I made my way to my front door, throwing it open as soon as I got there. "Oh, Kurosaki? What do you want?"
The strawberry's eyes narrowed, pointing a finger towards the TV that I had in the living room space of my apartment. "Turn on the TV."
"To what, exactly?" I asked, rolling my eyes as I moved and let the traffic come in to my apartment, lightly shutting the door behind him.
"The news, quickly!" He exclaimed, causing me to sigh. I quickly walked over to the remote that was lying on my small coffee table, switching the channel from my music station to the local news.
"Today around 1 PM in Karakura City, reports were coming in about a flying young man. Here's some special footage of the young man sent in by local viewers. Unfortunately, it was taken from a cell phone, so the quality isn't the best. Also, because of the shadows from the surrounding buildings, only his silhouette can be seen. But, look at him go!"
"Um, wow." I spoke, not being able to fight off the grin that was tugging on my lips. "I never thought that this would make the news..!"
"So, what exactly do we do about this?" Kurosaki asked, lightly glaring at me for finding this whole situation amusing.
"I don't know. I mean, I don't think that this can cause much harm. Look, even your glowing orange hair was covered up by the shadows! That's a miracle. And, because of that, people can't technically prove that it was you." I explained, laughing at the expression on his face once more. "Hm. I would think that people would forget all about this. I think it kinda looks like an actor shooting a movie. Like, maybe a human who gained superpowers..?" I mused, putting a finger to my lip in thought as I continued to watch the video footage of the Mod-Soul jump from rooftop to rooftop.
"Okay," Kurosaki sighed, giving in. He knew that I was probably right; nobody could identify the silhouette as him. "But what do we do about the people who knew that it really was me?"
"Knowing Rukia, she's probably gone to erase their memories right now. She's usually ahead like that." I answered, lightly shrugging my shoulders. I then switched the TV back to my music channel.
Kurosaki nodded, "Now, what do we do about him?" He pulled the small round pill from his pocket, letting it rest in the palm of his hand.
"Well… He could stay in that form, but I don't think that he would enjoy it that much. Why don't you go and look to see if you can find any dead animals to put him in?" I asked, thinking about the situation. "You can't place him in a living thing, cause it would force it's soul out. We wouldn't want that to happen. Not even the Mod-Soul would take a body like that if it had those consequences. After all, it's like killing the animal."
"Yeah, right. That's easy for you to say." Kurosaki said, shaking his head. "I don't even know where to find a dead animal."
"Hm; why don't you look around in the streets? There's bound to be an animal that was hit by a car or something, as sad as it is to say." I said, lightly frowning and folding my arms around myself.
"There's no way that I'm going to be poking around in the streets for a dead animal alone..! Do you know how suspicious that looks?" Kurosaki said, a deadpan expression on his face.
I let up a pent up breath that I hadn't realized I'd been holding. I placed my hands on my hips as I rolled my eyes, giving in. "Fine. I'll tag along with you, you big baby. Besides, maybe now I'll get the chance to tell off that Mod-Soul. After all, he still needs to be taught a lesson."
I turned around to slip on my pair of black gladiator sandals, quickly zipping up the backs of them. Because of this, I missed the pink that dusted Kurosaki's cheeks as he thought back to what he had heard happened; the Mod-Soul had kissed you…with his body!
"Come on, aren't we gonna go already?" I asked, opening the door to my apartment. I jingled my keys, hoping to jog Kurosaki out of whatever he was thinking. He kind of jumped at the sound of my voice, shaking his head as he headed over towards me.
"Alright, let's get this thing started." Kurosaki mumbled, forcing the warmth from his cheeks as he shoved the Mod-Souls pill back into his pocket.
• • •
"Gah..! I didn't think that it would be this hard to find a dead animal!" I exclaimed, lightly stretching my calf muscles by rocking up to the tips of my toes. We'd been walking around for quite a while now just looking for a dead animal to place that Mod-Soul in. The sun was just beginning to set, casting everything in a warm orange and red glow.
"Yeah, well, I didn't think it'd be that easy." Kurosaki said, rolling his eyes as he looked around for any sign of a dead animal.
"I'm thinking of calling it quits for today. I've still got homework that I need to finish." I moaned, bringing my hand up to slap my exposed forehead.
"Maybe you're right," Kurosaki agreed as he took the pill out of his pocket again, "We can figure out something for him later."
I nodded, taking a few more steps forward. However, some dark lump on the ground caught my eye; it was located on the side of a road, not too far from a street lamp that was just flickering to life.
"Hey, I think I see something~!" I squealed, not too sure if I should be happy or not if it really was the carcass of an animal.
"What is it..?" Kurosaki muttered, slowly following behind me. I was just creeping towards it, covering my eyes with my hands. Although, I was peeking through my fingers, so it's not like it did any good in the first place.
I let out a sigh of relief; it wasn't a dead animal. "It's just a stuffed animal. And a dirty one at that." I felt kind of torn; should I have been sad that it wasn't an animal's carcass? Did that make me a bad person..? Ah, this was so confusing..! I was in a freaking moral dilemma thanks to that Mod-Soul!
"Maybe get can get Rukia to find us a dead animal, or something. She's always showing up with random crap…" Kurosaki muttered, thinking back to all of the stuff that supported his theory.
"Hey, watch it Kurosaki. She got most of that stuff from me. And I definitely don't have any dead animals." I warned, before my eyes fell back onto the lump of the lion plushie. "Wait a second, why don't we try and put it in this?"
"Sure, I don't see why we couldn't try." Kurosaki agreed. "It's not like it'd hurt anything."
Shrugging, Kurosaki shoved the small pill into the plushie's mouth.
We both sat there in silence, staring at the stuffed animal.
Waiting for it to move. Waiting for it to show any sign of life.
I blinked trying to fight off the sudden urge I had to just poke it. The temptation was too great, so I caved. I slowly moved my finger towards it head, and gave it a sharp poke before moving my finger and observing it with wide eyes.
Still nothing.
"I guess it didn't work." Kurosaki observed, looking a bit disappointed.
"Yeah, I don't think it worked either…" I mumbled sadly, looking down at the plushie for another few seconds.
However, its beady little eyes looked like they glinted in the light. The next thing I knew, the plushie had stood up and launched itself towards me, causing me to shriek out in surprise.
"Jun-Kun~!" The Mod-Soul within the lion plushie exclaimed, wrapping its arms around my chest.
Kurosaki's eyes dangerously narrowed as they zeroed in on the lion plushie clinging to my chest, who was snuggling into my cleavage, causing him to lightly growl. With a sudden movement, Kurosaki ripped the lion from my chest and threw him back onto the dirty street. "What was that about?!"
"I was trapped in the lint filled space of your pocket, not being able to get any fresh air at all! And the next thing I saw was Jun-Kun and I could move again~!" The Mod-Soul exclaimed, striking a pose only to pause. "But, wait..! You've all turned into giants!"
"You moron." Kurosaki insulted. "We're not giants; you're just small."
"I'm not…small…" The Mod-Soul trailed off, unsure of his words as he brought his clawed little hands up to his face. He observed that they were indeed stuffed, golden, and had plastic little lion nails attached to them. "Nooo~! What happened to me?!"
"We couldn't find a body to put you in, so this one will have to do for now. It's either this, or you can be in pill form and stuck in Kurosaki's pocket all day long." I said, gesturing to Kurosaki with my thumb.
"Thank yooooou~!" The Mod-Soul exclaimed, making a run for me yet again. I quickly crossed my arms, as Kurosaki grabbed him back the back of his big plush head.
"Stupid, perverted little…" Kurosaki muttered, glaring at the plushie.
"Let me go!" The Mod-Soul whined, making a reaching movement towards me again, "I must go and hug Jun-Kun to show her how much I appreciated her kindness..!"
"No way!" Kurosaki argued, glaring at the plushie.
"B-B-But, Jun-Kun…"
"I said no!"
"Guys, we still have to address the issue about who's keeping him." I brought up, blinking as they froze. The Mod-Soul had been tugging on Kurosaki's mouth, while Kurosaki was trying to pry him off. It was quite an entertaining sight.
If the plushie could have been drooling, I swear it would have. Its eyes looked all foggy and its little mouth was dropped down as far as it could go. Even Kurosaki's mouth had dropped open, and his face once again rivaled the color of his namesake.
"Um, guys..?" I asked, blinking confusion.
"Jun-Kun~!" The plushie cooed, violently trying to free itself from Kurosaki's grip, who just threw him to the ground and proceeded to stomp on him. He wouldn't meet my questioning gaze, as he continued to step on the wailing lion plush.
"Kurosaki..?" I questioned.
"J-Just uncross your arms, woman..!" Kurosaki sputtered out, still the color of a strawberry. I blinked, before looking down as well. I blushed myself; crossing my arms over my chest wasn't the brightest idea when I was wearing an extremely low cut V neck shirt.
"S-Sorry..!" I squeaked out an apology, quickly uncrossing my arms and pulling my shirt up some more to cover my chest. I felt strangely overexposed now…
"I want Jun-Kun to keep me~!" The plushie wailed out once Kurosaki stopped stomping on him.
"Idiot," Kurosaki darkly choked out, stomping on the plush again. "I guess he'll stay with me. I really don't think it's a good idea for him to stay with you."
"Thanks~!" I cheered, happy that I didn't have to have that perverted Mod-Soul staying in my apartment. He'd probably attack me in my sleep or something… "I'm sure Rukia will love him~!"
I waved toward him as I quickly spun around and made my way back to my apartment before Kurosaki could change his mind. However, I couldn't stop from smiling at the dumbstruck look on his face. I even giggled a bit, which wasn't like me at all.
I hate to admit it, but Kurosaki sure was funny at times.
He was actually growing on me.