In this chapter, Ichigo and Rukia are going to be sent to Soul Society...they've been bad and now they're suffering the consequences...and the consequences are deadly!
It looks like it's up to Luffy, Orihime, Nami, Chad, and Uryu to try to find a way to save them...
Oh...and Yuzu, Karin, and the Straw Hat Pirates are going to be swallowed by a giant whale. Yummy in the tummy!
Chapter 13: Bad Boys, Bad Girls
Ichigo woke up, ready to start a brand new day.
Curious, he noticed that the house appeared to be empty. Yuzu, Karin, and his father were nowhere to be found.
"Where have they all gone?" asked Ichigo. He was a bit worried that Grand Fisher had returned and that he had eaten his family's souls in revenge for what happened yesterday night.
Taking a closer look around the house, he discovered a note on the fridge.
"Hmm?" inquired the Soul Reaper.
He decided to read the note out loud.
"Dear Ichigo, I'm off grocery shopping. Please look after your sisters while I'm gone, especially after what happened last night. Do you have a deal?" read Ichigo.
"Well, that explains where my father went. But what about my sisters?" asked the substitute Soul Reaper.
Looking outside, he noticed Rukia sitting on a building nearby.
Curious, he decided to go visit him.
"Hello, Rukia!" exclaimed Ichigo.
"Hey there, Ichigo.." stated Rukia.
Curious, Ichigo noticed that Rukia seemed to be rather depressed.
"Why the long face?" asked the substitute Soul Reaper.
"I think that Soul Society is coming to arrest us today..." explained the wanted female Soul Reaper. She knew that they were bound to find her sooner or later. After all, she had decided that she wanted to remain in Karakura Town rather than go elsewhere.
"What makes you say that?" asked Ichigo.
"I can sense someone's reiatsu..." answered Rukia. It seemed fairly powerful as well.
"Alright, freeze!" exclaimed two voices.
As it turned out, Rukia was absolutely correct. Soul Society had come for her.
In this case, they were her adoptive brother Byakuya Kuchiki and her childhood friend Renji Abarai. It felt funny seeing them like this, to say the very least.
"Hello?" asked Ichigo.
"You're under arrest, Rukia...make it easy on yourself..." stated Byakuya.
"That goes for you too...your name is Ichigo, am I correct?" asked Renji.
"Alright, you've got me...to be honest, I was getting homesick anyway..." acknowledged Rukia. How long had it been since she had last been home? Perhaps they had been worried about her.
Immediately, she stretched up her hands in the air. Already she had accepted her fate. Sure, they were going to execute her...but there were a lot of worse things than death, right?
However, Ichigo had no attention of going with Renji and Byakuya so quietly. He hadn't even been to Soul Society before. Why go there now?
Suddenly, Rukia found herself being grabbed by Ichigo.
"Huh?" asked the teenage girl.
"Let's get out of here, Rukia!" exclaimed Ichigo.
"We're resisting arrest?" questioned Rukia.
"We've got nothing to lose!" answered the substitute Soul Reaper. After all, if the two Soul Reapers caught them, they were probably going to be executed.
Immediately, he and Rukia entered a nearby vehicle and began to drive away from the duo.
"Resisting arrest? I don't think so..." stated Byakuya.
"I guess we're just going to have to do this the hard way..." answered Renji.
Wasting no time, the duo began to pursue them.
Meanwhile...
"I'm glad that you managed to stop me from being executed...but I want to go home..." stated Luffy.
"About that...I think that it would be best if you remained at my world for the time being..." answered Orihime.
"What makes you say that?" questioned the pirate.
"You seem to be having a lot of encounters with the marines lately...they must really want to bring you to justice..." said the teenage girl.
"True..." acknowledged Luffy. The marines really had been trying
"I think it might be best to stay here for a while where you'll be safe..." suggested the bizarre chef.
"I suppose...but what about my crew?" asked the pirate.
"I think they'll be fine...the Marines only seemed to want you..." noted Orihime.
"True..." answered Luffy. Perhaps they would be fine without him. Maybe they could do something other than be pirates for a change. Sanji in particular wanted to start his own restaurant.
Immediately, he decided to sit down and watch TV.
"I think I'll watch the show that Rukia showed me...do you want to join me?" asked Luffy.
"Sure..." nodded Orihime.
"I'll go get my friends!" exclaimed the pirate captain.
Immediately, he stretched himself out and went to look for his friends.
As it turned out, Nami was currently hanging out with Chad and Uryu.
"I just took on a giant Hollow...if only it didn't get away from me..." stated Nami.
"Great job!" exclaimed Chad.
"I heard about it...it's eaten quite a few Quincies..." noted Uryu. He felt sorry for his poor kinsmen.
At that very moment, Luffy showed up, much to Nami's surprise.
"Luffy!" exclaimed Nami.
"Do you want us for something?" asked Chad.
"Hey there, Nami! Glad to see you again! It's been a long time, hasn't it?" asked Luffy.
"I was worried about you!" bellowed Nami.
"Well, I'm here now...do you want to want to watch TV?" inquired the pirate.
"I suppose. I have some free time on my hands..." noted Uryu.
Immediately, Luffy grabbed them and took them all towards Ichigo's house.
"I wonder why the house is empty..." questioned Orihime. Hopefully Ichigo wouldn't mind if they decided to relax at his house for a bit.
Luffy turned on the TV. As it turned out, he was watching Soul Reapers.
"This show is so awesome! You get to watch Soul Reapers do what they do best!" exclaimed Luffy.
Currently, there was a Soul Reaper beating a Hollow with a baton.
"Are you going to behave yourself?" asked the Soul Reaper.
"Yes, I will!" bellowed the Hollow. No more eating souls for him.
"Good. Why don't you go to Soul Society with me? We have cookies..." stated the Reaper.
The Hollow nodded.
The Soul Reaper used his sword to break the Hollow's mask, causing him to revert back to a Plus.
The Plus bowed to the Soul Reaper, and followed the Soul Reaper to Soul Society.
How many Pluses were there at Soul Society, anyway? The Soul Reapers seemed to be doing their job rather often these days.
"I'll go get some popcorn..." stated Orihime.
Immediately, Orihime went to do so.
"Alright, I'm back! And I brought butter!" exclaimed the teenage girl.
Unsurprisingly, Luffy was eating his awfully quickly.
"Careful, Luffy! I don't want you to choke!" warned Orihime.
"Don't worry, I'll be fine!" exclaimed the pirate captain.
Suddenly, they noticed that there appeared to be a car chase on TV.
"I wonder who they're chasing this time..." said Uryu.
Granted, he normally did not like the Soul Reapers...but at least their television programming was rather decent. Personally he thought this was going to be a very good episode indeed.
"Make way!" bellowed Ichigo on the TV.
Immediately, several pedestrians leapt out of the way.
"Careful, Ichigo...we don't want a hit and run added to our list of charges..." warned Rukia.
"I'm sorry! It's hard to avoid them when you're driving above the speed limit!" exclaimed Ichigo.
"Great...not only are we in danger of being executed...we're also in danger of getting a speeding ticket..." remarked the female fugitive.
"If they think they can escape the law, then they've got another thing coming!" exclaimed the narrator.
"Wait, haven't I heard that voice before?" questioned Chad. It seemed somehow familiar.
"The narrator or the fugitives?" asked Luffy.
"I think it was the fugitives..." stated Uryu.
Shrugging, he decided to continue watching.
Immediately, Ichigo and Rukia noticed the state borderline.
"You think if we cross, we'll be safe?" asked Rukia.
"Let's hope so..." answered Ichigo.
Little did they know that Renji had found a way to stop them in their tracks.
"Let's see how they deal with this..." stated Renji.
Immediately, he pulled out a spike strip.
Expectedly, Ichigo and Rukia ran over it...and their tires ended up being deflated.
Quickly, they noticed that their car had stopped completely.
"What happened?" asked Rukia.
"Oh god no! They must have deflated our tires!" exclaimed Ichigo.
"It looks like their attempts to escape the cops have fallen flat..." said the narrator.
"Heh heh...I see what they did there..." said Uryu.
"Wait a minute! That's Ichigo and Rukia!" exclaimed Orihime.
"Wait, what?" bellowed Luffy.
In the process, he nearly choked on his popcorn.
Orihime quickly gave him the Heimlich maneuver.
"You must be my guardian angel or something..." stated Luffy.
"Heh heh, yeah..." nodded Orihime. She had managed to save his life at least twice now.
Immediately, Renji and Byakuya pulled them out of the vehicle and began to beat them with their police batons.
"It looks like Renji and Byakuya have got the beat..." stated the narrator.
"Poor Ichigo and Rukia..." stated Orihime.
"Ow! This really hurts!" bellowed Ichigo.
"I actually kind of like it..." stated Rukia.
Ichigo stared at Rukia.
"The pain! The horrible pain!" exclaimed the female former Soul Reaper.
They then proceeded to spray Ichigo with pepper spray.
"Ow! Police brutality much?" asked Ichigo.
"Pepper is normally a delicious condiment...but not for people like these..." noted the narrator.
"I'd be laughing if Ichigo and Rukia weren't in big trouble..." said Orihime.
Luffy nodded.
"Not Ichigo!" screamed Nami.
Immediately, Ichigo and Rukia were loaded to a police van, and the door was quickly shut.
Oddly enough, a portal to Soul Society then opened and they went right through it.
"It's time for you to meet your maker..." remarked Byakuya.
Ichigo and Rukia gulped.
"This is worse than the time I made a deal with a sea witch!" exclaimed Nami.
Nami (who was 16 years old at the time) was looking at an attractive merman...who for some strange reason had no shirt on.
"He is so sexy...I'm so glad he never wears a shirt...too bad I'm not a mermaid though..." stated Nami.
"I may be able to help you with that..." stated a nearby sea witch.
"Why does your hair look like seaweed?" asked the teenage girl.
"All my customers ask that...do I need to explain that to you, too?" inquired the witch. Personally she wondered if she should keep using magical shampoo products to change the appearance of her hair.
"Sorry I asked then..." apologized Nami.
"Don't worry about it. Now, do you want to make a deal?" asked the sea witch.
"What kind of deal?" inquired the teenage girl.
"I can make you a potion that will turn you into a mermaid for three days...if you manage to kiss him in that time frame you will be with him forever...of course, you won't have legs until you're thirty years old...but maybe you'll find it to be worth it...if you want I could also make you a potion to change you back if you want to be human again...though you'll probably get married to that merman..." explained the witch.
"Fair enough." nodded Nami.
"If you don't manage to pull it off in three days...you'll turn back into a regular human being...and you'll be naked from the waist down. That will be embarrassing, to say the very least. Not only that, but you'll be in my debt..." stated the sea witch.
"That seems fair...wait, won't I owe you even if the potion works?" asked the teenage girl.
"I'm feeling rather generous today..." noted the witch.
"Alright." stated Nami.
Immediately, the witch handed Nami a magical contract and she signed it.
"Open the hatch!" exclaimed the witch.
Nami did so, and the witch poured the contents into her mouth.
Shortly afterward, she transformed into a mermaid.
The witch waved farewell as Nami went to meet her (hopefully) future boyfriend.
A few days later...
Nami came back wearing a pair of swim trunks. Apparently, trying to get a kiss from the merman didn't go too well. She had been rather embarrassed when the transformation wore off, to say the very least.
"Did he already have a girlfriend?" asked the witch.
"He had a boyfriend..." stated Nami.
The sea witch sweatdropped.
"Well, you owe me a debt...as I said..." stated the sea witch.
"You're not going to turn me into a polyp, are you?" asked the teenage girl. That didn't seem too pleasant a thought.
"No no no. Nothing like that...I already got banished from a kingdom for practicing dark magic...why don't you walk my dog instead?" inquired the sea witch.
Immediately, a rather scary-looking bulldog came in.
"Are you sure that this is safe?" asked Nami.
"If you don't want to do that...you can just give me a gold coin..." answered the witch.
Nami gasped in shock.
"Give me the leash! Give me the leash!" exclaimed the teenage girl.
"Fortunately, that dog was not as fierce as he looked...but he peed on me three different times...I had to take a shower for over an hour..." noted Nami.
Suddenly, Orihime interrupted her train of thought.
"Wait, didn't they mention something about them meeting their maker?" asked the ditzy girl.
"Oh my god! Ichigo is going to die! And so is Rukia!" bellowed the pirate girl.
"We have to do something!" exclaimed Luffy.
"But in order to do that...we're going to have to find a way to get to Soul Society first..." noted Uryu.
"How can we pull that off?" inquired Chad.
"Maybe we can ask Ichigo's father? I heard that he was a former Soul Reaper..." suggested Orihime.
"That's a good idea..." nodded Luffy.
"I happen to know where he lives..." stated Nami.
A few minutes later...
Isshin Kurosaki arrived home, ready with some fresh groceries.
However, he noticed that none of his children seemed to be home.
"Where did they all go?" asked Isshin.
At that very moment, Luffy and his friends arrived.
"Can I help you?" inquired Ichigo's father.
"We need your help! Ichigo and Rukia are in the slammer! And they've been sentenced for execution!" bellowed Nami.
"What?!" exclaimed Isshin.
"Do you know how to get to Soul Society?" asked Orihime.
"Yes, I do...but unfortunately I do not have the power to take you there...I gave it up a long time ago..." stated the former Soul Reaper.
Nami snapped her fingers.
"However...I do happen to know someone who does." said Ichigo's father.
"You do?" asked Orihime.
"Yeah...he happens to run a shop selling Soul Candy...I'm not sure if you've heard of him..." answered Isshin Kurosaki.
"I think Rukia has..." noted Uryu.
"If you want I can take you there..." stated Ichigo's father. He sure hoped that his son would be alright. Fortunately, it took a month before executions took place at Soul Society, so perhaps Ichigo's friends had some time.
He sure hoped that Ichigo and Rukia would be alright...they had some nasty execution methods nowadays. And more often than not, each of them led to people's souls being trapped in limbo.
He wouldn't want that to happen to Ichigo and Rukia now.
"I think I already know where it is, thank you..." answered Uryu.
"We have to save Ichigo! He's my best friend! And Rukia too! She's my other best friend!" exclaimed Chad.
"What about me..." stated Orihime.
"Well, you're a close friend..." noted Ichigo's best friend forever.
"Yes!" cheered the teenage girl.
"I guess we better get going..." stated Luffy.
Nami nodded. The more time they had to rescue Ichigo and Rukia, the better.
Immediately, the five of them raced towards Urahara's shop.
"Can I help you?" asked Urahara.
"We need you to open a portal to Soul Society...Ichigo and Rukia are in mortal peril!" exclaimed Luffy.
"Do something!" bellowed Orihime.
"Alright, but it will take some time...in the mean time, can you do me some favors?" inquired the man. Opening a portal to Soul Society tended to take a while.
"That seems fair...but it's all the same to you we've only got a month before the execution..." stated Nami.
"You should have more than enough time to rescue Rukia and Ichigo, I promise!" exclaimed Urahara.
"Alright." smiled Orihime.
"Can you take care of the Demi-Hollow outside my shop? He's been scaring all my customers..." stated the shopkeeper.
Sure enough, there was a Demi-Hollow outside the shop.
"Alright then!" exclaimed Luffy.
Immediately, he punched the Demi-Hollow in the face.
"Ow! My beautiful face!" exclaimed the Demi-Hollow.
"Hmm...only half of what he's saying is in bold..." noted Orihime.
"That's because he's only half-Hollow..." stated Chad. Perhaps he would be easier to deal with than a regular Hollow.
"That's good...maybe we won't have to worry about him eating our soul..." answered Luffy.
"If you don't want to happen, then you might want to hurry...I can see a mask appearing on his face..." pointed out Uryu.
Sure enough, there was a mask appearing on the Demi-Hollow's face.
Quickly, Luffy punched the mask before it could be completed.
"Am I not going to become a Hollow?" asked the Demi-Hollow.
"Maybe not..." answered Nami.
Suddenly, a Hollow approached the Demi-Hollow...and made him transform completely.
"Aw, man!" exclaimed Luffy.
"I guess we're just going to have to send him to Soul Society the old-fashioned way..." noted Uryu.
Chad nodded.
Fortunately, it appeared with the five of them, the former Demi-Hollow was hopelessly outnumbered. They managed to send him to Soul Society in no time.
"Yes!" cheered Orihime.
Once again, the five of them went back inside the store.
"How's the portal coming along?" asked Luffy.
"I'm still getting started...until then, maybe you can help my assistants..." inquired Urahara.
"How many do you have?" inquired Nami.
"I have three of them..." stated the shopkeeper.
"Then we'll help all three!" exclaimed Luffy.
Chad and Uryu nodded. That seemed a good idea as any. Hopefully the portal would be ready before too long. Ichigo and Rukia desperately needed their help.
Immediately, the five of them went to help the shopkeepers with their chores.
Meanwhile...
"Where are we going?" asked Yuzu excitedly.
"We're heading towards the Grand Line..." stated Sanji.
"The Grand Line, huh?" inquired Karin.
"Of course, in order to do that, we need to cross the Reverse Mountains first..." noted Zoro.
"It's going to be perilous!" exclaimed Usopp.
Yuzu hid behind Karin.
Suddenly, they began to hear the sound of a whale.
"Do you hear something?" asked Yuzu.
"What?" inquired Sanji.
As it turned out, there was a giant whale approaching them. The biggest whale that they had ever seen, no less.
How had it gotten so huge? Did it eat a magical fish or something?
"Whoa!" exclaimed Karin. This was quite a story she could tell to the marine biologists...assuming that they believed her and didn't dismiss it as a wild story. Her sister Yuzu tended to tell them quite a bit.
Unfortunately, the whale was hungry, and he swallowed them whole.
"Aah!" screamed the five of them as they went inside the whale's mouth.
Things don't look too good for the crew of the Straw Hat Pirates or Ichigo and Rukia does it...I suppose Luffy and Nami got off easy.
In the next chapter, we're going to explore the inside of the giant whale's stomach...and Ichigo and Rukia are going inside a prison cell. And of course our five protagonists in Karakura Town are going to help Urahara and his assistants out while they wait for the portal to Soul Society to open...
I'll see you later in the next chapter I suppose.