"Okay, Kori. Today is the day." Kori said as she motivated herself in front of the girl's bathroom. "Today's the day you tell Renji and change everything. That will show Ashi she was wrong. Her vision can't be true." Kori tried to get herself ready for her big confession to Renji thinking today was the day she does it. She stepped out of the bathroom and saw Renji coming her way. When she saw that, she gained the courage she needed. "Renji! Hi!" She said as she went over to him. "You probably don't know me."
"You're...Kori Kusanaji, right?" Renji questioned.
"Yeah! I can't believe you know my name!" Kori said as she felt flattered. "I was wondering if... Do you think you could meet me after school on the field?" She said with her face turning red.
"Sure. I don't see why not." Renji said. "I'll see you then." He said and walked away with Kori amazed he actually said yes and thought things were going to go great, but there was a problem. That wasn't Renji.
'I've been stuck in Renji's body all day. We each even had to lie and tell our families we were staying late at a friend's to work on projects. This better work.' Ichigo thought as he remembered what Uryu said.
"It's quite simple. All you have to do is remain in Renji's body and pretend to be him. That way, you can take his place and turn Kori down gently. It might seem underhanded, but it's all we've got now." This is their last chance to hope that something good comes out of this mess.
...
The Supernatural Club
"So, Ichigo is in Renji's body and is going to try and turn Kori down gently?" Ashi said as she walked through the halls with the Supernatural Club. "That could work. I remember seeing that Kori, Renji, and Ichigo were together in my vision. Since Ichigo is in Renji's body, this probably did change the future."
"Let's hope so. Have you tried getting other visions about what happened?" Rukia asked as she was still in Ichigo's body. They couldn't risk Renji ruining everything or getting away, so they left him in Rukia's body.
"I did kiss Uryu to see anything." Ashi said with Uryu blushing. "I had only one and it looked like Ichigo and Kori were happy. Maybe that means the future has changed; but given Ichigo's ability, I don't know if it was the real him."
"All we can do now is trust that he can handle it." Uryu said.
"I'm sure Ichigo will have everything under control." Orihime said. They reached the clubroom to check on Renji. However, they opened the door and saw that Renji was gone. When they saw that, all of them freaked out as this was bad.
"Oh no! Where did Renji go in my body?!" Rukia said.
"How did he get out?" Chad questioned.
"Oh man! I bet he's looking for his real body! We need to find him now!" Uryu said as this could end up messing up everything again.
...
The School's Field
'Okay, Ichigo. You've got to try and let her down easy. She thinks your Renji, try to be gentle, and you've got to be careful with how you do this so she might go back to Ashi and still feel good about this.' Ichigo thought as he waited for Kori to show.
"Renji!" Kori called as she ran out on the field. "I hope I didn't keep you waiting long."
"No. So what's up? What did you want to talk to me about?" Ichigo said as he tried to keep the illusion going for just a little while longer.
"Well... You probably don't remember, but you helped out when there were these jerks harassing me. I was afraid of what they were going to do, but you jumped in and saved me." Kori said with her face blushing. "I never forgot what you did for me. So... I... Well, I..."
'Come on. Just spit it out before anything else goes wrong.' Ichigo thought as he was getting impatient.
"Renji, the truth is that I really like..." Kori was about to confess her feelings and it was almost Ichigo's que. However, it never happened. That was when the real Renji in Rukia's body at the worst moment. He grabbed a hold of his own body and kissed it right in front of Kori with her shocked that happened and Ichigo not liking this at all.
"It worked!" Renji said as he was him again. "I'm back in my own body!" This was bad. That was also when Ashi and the others showed up and saw what happened.
"Oh no! We're too late!" Uryu said with Ashi worried on what's going to happen to Kori now. Renji looked really mad now as he grabbed a hold of Ichigo in Rukia's body now.
"You've got some serious explaining to do, Ichigo Kurosaki, or whoever you really are!" Renji said as he sounded mad.
"Ichigo Kurosaki?" Kori questioned.
"What the hell is going on?! Why did we switch bodies when we kissed?! Why did you pretend to be Rukia on my date?!" Renji said as he wanted answers, but Ichigo was more concerned about Kori.
"Kissed? Date? What?" Kori said as it looked like she wasn't handling this well. "Is this... Is this some sort of sick or cruel joke?"
"Kori, wait! It's not what you think!" Ichigo said. "I might have pretended to be Renji, it looks bad, I was trying to let you down easy... I'm not explaining this well."
"I can't believe this!" Kori shouted and just ran off. That was it. That was the first vision Ichigo had and it looks like he couldn't prevent. All those who knew the truth couldn't help but feel sorry for Kori. The one who felt the worst was Ashi as she wanted to prevent this, but still failed. The future was now the present and they couldn't change it now, but Ichigo wasn't going to let things end like this. He can't change the future, but he needs to focus on the present this time.
"Rukia, quick! Switch back with me! I need my real body!" Ichigo called. Rukia hurried and did just that as she kissed Ichigo and the two of them switched bodies. When that happened, Ichigo ran after Kori in hopes he can still fix everything.
"Will someone please explain to me what the hell is going on here?!" Renji demanded.
...
Kori
Kori just kept running until she found a bench she could sit on and tried to pull herself together. She felt like a mess as she was going to confess to the guy she likes him. It ended up becoming a whole mess and she found out the hard way that her crush doesn't even like her the same.
"Hey!" Ichigo called as he called out to her.
"What do you want?!" Kori said. "What the hell was all that about?! What was Renji talking about?! Did Ashi do this just to prove her stupid vision was right?! Were you all trying to make fun of me?! Wait. You're the guy from before. Is this some other attempt to sweep me off my feet or something because I'm not in the mood!"
"Will you just shut up and listen!" Ichigo said as he grabbed her by the shoulders and got her to be quiet. "We did this all because Ashi asked for our help. She was worried about you and wanted to help you."
"Ashi?" Kori questioned.
"Let me start from the beginning." Ichigo said as he came clean about everything and explained what happened. He had to tell her about the other witches, his powers, the stunt on the stairs, and why they did what they did. "And that's what happened. I pretended to be Renji in hopes to end this in a good way and that everyone got what they wanted. Ashi was afraid of you getting your heart broken and wanted to prevent that, but it still happened. I'm sorry to tell you, but Renji likes Rukia. I'm sorry you had to find out like this."
"I see..." Kori said as she was starting to feel depressed again.
"Hey! None of that!" Ichigo said as he caught her before she slipped too far. "Don't go beating yourself up just because of some guy! You need to learn to stop caring so much about what some guy thinks! Just because he likes some girl over you doesn't mean there's anything wrong with you! You don't even need a guy! You still got Ashi! She sees you like a sister, doesn't she?! She's your best friend and has been for a long time, right?! Are you really going to throw that all away over some guy?!"
"Why does it matter so much to you?" Kori questioned.
"It's because... I had a relationship like that." Ichigo admitted. "It wasn't with a close friend or anything. It was with...my mother."
"Your mom?" Kori questioned.
"Yeah." Ichigo said as he remembered what his mother was like. "She was like the center of our family. Everything was better because of her, and my little sisters and my father loved her dearly. I was real close to her and felt like everything was going to be fine because I had her. At least you have a chance to get Ashi back. I can't with my mother because...she's dead."
"Dead?!" Kori said as she was surprised to hear that. "How did she die?"
"Some idiot driver came out of nowhere and ran her down." Ichigo said as he remembered how horrible that day was. All he did when he was just a kid was just watch as he saw a careless driver run her over and he couldn't do anything to help her. "I'm telling you this to understand that no matter what happened, you still have one person that you have a great relationship with. Are you really going to let something like this ruin it? Ashi had us do this because she cares about you."
"He's right, Kori." Both of them looked and saw Ashi came joined them.
"Ashi..." Kori said as she sat up and saw her friend once again. With Ichigo saying what he did, Kori was moved to tears and ran straight to Ashi with her wrapping her arms around her. "I'm so sorry. You were right all along." She cried. "I should have listened to you. I guess I just...didn't want to believe it."
"I know, Kori. It's all okay now." Ashi said. "I knew how much you liked Renji, and how much you wanted it all to work. Knowing what was going to happen, I knew I had to do something."
"But we couldn't change the future." Ichigo said.
"I wouldn't say that." Ashi said as she thought differently. "In my vision, I only saw you, Kori, and Renji. I didn't see your friends there, Ichigo. Maybe it was altered, just not changed the way we wanted. In the end, it doesn't matter because I have my best friend back. That's really all that matters. She and I can just start again." Kori really missed Ashi and being able to talk to her best friend. Ashi is right. What matters is that the two of them are together once again. Ichigo let the two of them have their moment. It took a moment for Kori to calm down and pulled herself together, but it looks like everything was back on track. "You okay? You calm now?"
"I am. Thank you." Kori said. It was then she looked at Ichigo and surprised him as she hugged him as well.
"What's this about?" Ichigo questioned.
"Thank you, Ichigo. It looks like there are some nice guys." Kori said. "I was so upset about what Ashi said in her vision, didn't want to believe it, and it soon turned into a huge argument that almost ruined our friendship. For a long time, I wondered why she would do that. Why do people do what they do? I use my powers to find the answers, but they could never work on Ashi. So, I didn't know what to think until now."
"She's right, Ichigo." Ashi said as she moved so that she and Kori were standing on both sides of him. "Thank you for this, Ichigo."
"No problem." Ichigo said as he was ready to leave, but Ashi pressed her hand against him and kept him from leaving. "What now?" He said, but then noticed the grin on Ashi's face.
"What do say, Kori? I think he's earned the fire and ice combo." Ashi said.
"Well... He is pretty good-looking, and it was really sweet of him to go through all of this just for us." Kori said.
"Wait. The what?!" Ichigo said as he wasn't sure he would like this. Just then, both of them held him by the arms and they both planted a kiss on his face with him blushing. "That's it? Oh... Well, it was nothing."
"We're not done." Ashi said as the two of them pushed him and the two old friends did something together for the first time in a long time.
...
The Clubroom
"No way! Witch powers?! A girl can literally put you under some sort of spell with just a kiss?!" Renji said. With everything that happened, the others told Renji the truth of the situation. That means they told him the truth about the witch powers. "This is unbelievable!"
"Hey. What's all the noise about?" Grimmjow said as he and Nel came in.
"Is everything okay?" Nel said.
"Hell yeah! You guys got to let me join the Supernatural Club!" Renji said with all of them surprising. "Come on. You've got to let me in! I can help find the remaining witches, you get a new club member, and a cute girl could kiss me. If you ask me, this is a win-win situation."
"Hold on. I thought it was me you liked." Rukia said as she found this suspicious.
"I guess you should have thought of that before skipping out on our date." Renji said. "Maybe you're a witch, Rukia. Why don't you give me a kiss to find out?" That ended up with Rukia giving him an uppercut.
"Did you seriously just try that?!" Rukia said. "Besides, we wouldn't have been able to switch bodies if I was one!"
"What do we do? Should we let him join?" Chad said.
"We gave Rukia a chance. We don't really have any reason to turn him away." Uryu said.
"By the way. Why didn't you guys just tell me about Kori as soon as you knew I liked Rukia." Renji said. "I would have understood, helped out, and you didn't need to do anything." It seemed so simple that they all thought they were idiots for not thinking of that. As they were all debating one what to do about Renji, Ichigo opened up the door, but he looked terrible and sounded like it as he was taking deep breaths.
"Ichigo! Are you okay?!" Orihime said as she was the first to notice him.
"I didn't think they would ever let me go!" Ichigo said as they saw his face was covered in red and blue kiss marks with Orihime and the others shocked at what they saw on him.
"What the hell happened to you?!" Grimmjow said as he was laughing and found Ichigo looked completely ridiculous. These past few days have been hectic.
...
The Bathroom
Orihime waited outside the boy's bathroom as Ichigo was cleaning his face off of all the kiss marks. When he came out, he was getting the last of it off with a piece of cloth.
"Thanks for letting me use this, Orihime. I'll clean it off and give it back." Ichigo said.
"It's not a problem." Orihime said. "How's your head? Doesn't it hurt from having so many visions happening at once or something?"
"I didn't have any. I guess the powers only work with lip-to-lip contact." Ichigo said as they started walking. "I don't know what Kori's so worried about. She and Ashi are great together. Both of them are nuts."
"They were just trying to show appreciation for what you did to them, Ichigo." Orihime said.
"I wish they thanked me less." Ichigo said. "Although, this whole experience has me realizing what Aizen meant, about how the witches are students with problems."
"What do you mean?" Orihime questioned as Ichigo thought about what he's learned so far.
"Nel wanted people to be nicer to each other, so she got the charm power. Ashi wanted to see problems ahead of time. Kori wanted to learn more about herself and others by seeing the past." Ichigo said with Orihime starting to see what he meant.. "It seems like the powers are tied to problems or wishes the witches have. That must have been what Aizen meant when he said they have problems. They either have mental or emotional problems, a wish, or have something they wanted to change. That has me thinking... What about me? Why do I have this power? I must have wished for something, but I don't know what."
"You can't think of a problem you have or anything about yourself you wanted to change?" Orihime said.
"Not really." Ichigo said as he was drawing a blank. "What about you? Can you think of any problems or wishes you had that has something to do with body switching."
"Uh... None that I can think of." Orihime said as she thought it over.
"But if that's the case, I feel sorry for them." Ichigo said as he felt some form of empathy. "If that's what's really going on, I feel compelled to help them. I don't know why, but that's just how I feel. Weird."
"I don't think it's weird." Orihime said as she was smiling at him. "I always thought you were a good guy despite what people think about you, Ichigo. Some might say you're just some delinquent, but I know you're more." She claimed with Ichigo unable to help himself but blush. It's not just about finding the witches anymore. That's four down and only three to go. With a new member, new insight, and a new resolve; the hunt continues.
AN: JamesBlafking, this does not apply to you. You're doing fine. To everyone else, as much as I do appreciate the guy for leaving some reviews, I would like to see some reviews in English if you could please.