4
Ichigo was babysitting a rat while the owners were out. Before the owners left the house, however, they asked Ichigo if he could clean the rat's cage, which was what he was doing right now.
"How did I get into this mess?" he asked himself. "Oh yeah… I was kidnapped by some crazy lady who is now my boss."
~Flashback~
Ichigo would say the last thing he heard before the door to the Unagiya Shop closed was Shiro laughing his butt off; however, he can't say that, because he can still hear it through the door. That didn't really surprise him, sadly. Shiro has a laugh that could be heard from across town – at least Ichigo thought so.
Ikumi Unagiya threw him onto the couch, forcing a yelp out of him at the sudden contact with the furniture.
"What the heck, lady!?" Ichigo shouted. "Why did you just drag me in here for?"
"Watch your tone!" Ikumi firmly said. "Besides, I already told you. I need a young, strong man like you to help me in this list of odd jobs that I have been getting." She grabbed a semi-thick stack of paper from the coffee table in front of the couch Ichigo was sitting on. "This is that list. I'm going to give you ten of these, while I'll take the other ten. Don't worry about not finishing them all in one day, but I expect them to be done before the end of tomorrow."
"Why in the world would I help someone that just kidnapped me?" Ichigo questioned like the woman in front of him was insane. 'Also, who does a job interview like this?'
"I wouldn't call it kidnapping if you were already looking for a job, and I'm looking to hire. So what will it be? I hire you now and you start getting an income, or you go back to job hunting and not getting anyone to hire you simply because of your hair?"
~End of Flashback~
Ichigo had nothing to say to answer that particular question, because as much as this job was already driving him nuts, he knew Ikumi was right. There really wouldn't be anyone that would hire him due to his hair color.
'Can't they see that it is natural?' Ichigo thought with a sigh as he finished putting the bedding into the rat's cage.
An hour later, the owners came back. They thanked him and paid him what they owed. Ichigo thanked them for the money and left to go back to Unagiya Shop.
"Well, at least the pay isn't too horrible," Ichigo muttered as he walked. He was glad that this rat-sitting job was his last one for today, because the day felt like it was dragging on. He had to clean someone's bathroom, fix someone else's roof, find a lost cat, walk someone's dog, and take care of that rat.
Ichigo sighed depressingly. He wasn't looking forward to tomorrow. He had seen his list and decided to do the harder ones tomorrow. One of the jobs he had to do was find someone's bike in the river.
'Why couldn't they just buy a new one?' Ichigo thought. 'Oh yeah… it was a gift from their late grandfather.' He could understand being sentimental for something like that, but... 'They shouldn't have ridden the bike around the river then; it would have had less chances of getting lost.'
With a tired sigh, Ichigo walked up the stairs to Unagiya's and knocked. When Ikumi opened the door, Ichigo handed over the pieces of papers of the job requests that he had done today.
"I'll do the rest tomorrow," he said before walking away.
"See ya tomorrow then!" Ikumi said from behind him, sounding cheery.
Ichigo got home in time for dinner. He could smell Yuzu's delicious cooking from outside, so he quickened his pace to get in the house faster and eat. Today was unexpected and tiring, which made him feel like he hasn't eaten anything for days.
When he walked in through the door he ducked under his father's flying kick. "Good evening, dad," greeted Ichigo as he stood back up. He started making his way over toward the kitchen.
"Where have you been all day, Ichigo?" Isshin asked from where he had landed. He sounded slightly worried, but Ichigo was sure it was just his imagination.
"Didn't Shiro tell you?" Ichigo asked confusedly.
"Shiro just got in," Karin said from the kitchen table.
Ichigo looked around for his inner hollow, and found him by the stairs. He may not be able to see it, but he knew that his hollow was smirking slyly.
"I thought it would be funnier if you told them," he said with amusement lacing his voice.
Ichigo sighed again, and then turned back to his father. "I was forced into a job." That was all he had to say for that, which just made Shiro laugh harder than he himself expected.
"YA WERE KIDNAPPED BY SOME INSANE WOMAN AND MADE TA CLEAN BATHROOMS AND RAT CAGES!" Shiro howled in his mirth.
"Wait…" Ichigo started to say with his eyes narrowing, "Were you following me this whole time?!" he demanded.
After a minute of Shiro laughing hard enough he couldn't breathe, and then catching his breath, he finally answered his king. "Well, sadly, not all day. I did have to kill some hollows after all, and eat a few."
Ichigo had thought he heard his shinigami badge go off a few times, but he wasn't sure until now. He knew he could trust Shiro enough to handle killing the hollows while he was busy with something else. Not only that, but if Shiro couldn't reach the hollow in time, he was sure Uryu or Chad could get the ones Shiro could not.
"Speaking of eating… Hey Yuzu, when will dinner be done?" Ichigo asked.
"It will be done in ten minutes!" Yuzu answered.
'That is perfect. That gives me plenty of time to take a shower,' Ichigo thought. He changed his course for the bathroom so he could get cleaned up before dinner was ready. "I'm getting a shower," his announcement told Shiro to move out of his way, because he was blocking the stairs.
Ten minutes later, Ichigo was eating dinner at the table with the rest of his family. After they were done eating, Ichigo went upstairs to finish his homework, and then he hit the hay shortly after that. At least he tried to, but his badge went off again. Not wanting to get up, he asked someone else to do it.
"I'll do it. It has been a while since I killed a hollow," said the zanpakuto, Muramasa. It had been almost a year since Ichigo bonded with the whisper spirit. He had already mastered shikai with him, and has been trying to get bankai. Since he didn't have to worry about getting bankai as urgently as he had to with Aizen it was taking longer.
"Alright, Muramasa, you have some fun with it," Ichigo said as he closed his eyes again to go to sleep.
"Goodnight Ichigo," said Muramasa as he left Ichigo's inner world and left the house to deal with the hollow.
Ichigo relaxed within his bed, and fell into a blissful sleep.
It was the next morning, and Ichigo was making his way – reluctantly – to his new job. He decided to walk by the river, where he was going to have to come back to later, but for right now, he was not getting wet this early in the morning. As he was walking by, he noticed something falling out of the sky and crash into the ground.
'What was that?' Ichigo questioned, and then ran over to see what happened.
"It would seem that Shiro got into a fight with someone, but they don't feel like a hollow," said Zangetsu.
'At least it doesn't feel completely like a hollow,'added Kikoo, a phoenix zanpakuto that was once used for executions in the Soul Society. Ichigo took him away and bonded with him so he no longer had to kill and completely destroy souls. Ichigo had yet to get his shikai, because he had not asked for it. He wanted to make sure Kikoo wanted to fight again before daring to make such a request.
'If it's not a hollow, then what is it?' Ichigo questioned, but he didn't get an answer, which meant that the zanpakuto didn't know.
Ichigo made it to the dust cloud and waited to see what was going on. When the dust cleared up, Ichigo saw Shiro fighting what looked like a normal human with a really big sword. Shiro lifted his giant blade, charging up an attack.
"Getsuga Tenshou!" Shiro called out as he brought down his sword. The man was barely able to dodge the energy beam. Luckily he had succeeded, but Ichigo needed to stop this fight and demand to know why this guy was attack his hollow zanpakuto.
"Hey! Knock it off! What are you doing?" Ichigo exclaimed angrily as he approached.
The two fighters stop and turn to him. Shiro looked disappointed while the man looked shocked at Ichigo's arrival. Shiro knew that the fight was over, so he placed his sword onto his back.
"This guy attacked me," Shiro said. "I have no idea who he is, but I was just mindin' my own business when he showed up out of nowhere and attacked me."
"I only attacked you, because you're a hollow," said the man.
Ichigo sighed, "Are you a shinigami? If you are then you should know that Shiro here is my zanpakuto."
This shocked the man even more. "He's a what?! I didn't know that zanpakuto could become hollows!"
"They normally don't. I don't know how Shiro is like this. He's been this way since I was born," Ichigo explained as best he could. "Now tell me, who are you? You didn't answer my other questioned either, by the way."
"Oh right." The man rubbed the back of his head with a sheepish smile. "I'm Ginjo Kugo. I'm not a shinigami of the Soul Society. If you want to know what I am, how about I tell you over some ramen?"
"No thanks," Ichigo said as he turned around to go to Unagiya Shop, no longer interested in this guy. Shiro disappeared from the outside world and entered Ichigo's inner world so he could relax after his ten minutes fight with Ginjo.
Ichigo grabbed what was left on his list and was about to leave Ikumi's when there was a knock on the door. Ichigo opened it and saw that it was the same man from before. Ichigo took in his appearance.
The man has slick-back, black, shoulder-length hair, and brown eyes. He wears a white shirt under a black, leather jacket with a white fur-collar, black pants, and black dress shoes. Around the man's neck is a thin chain with an X shape pendant attached to it.
Ichigo spotted what the man – Ichigo already forgot his name – had in his hand. In his hand was a big take-out bowl of ramen.
Ichigo narrowed his eyes. "What are you doing here?" he questioned. 'What's his name again?'
"His name is Ginjo Kugo, Ichigo," replied Muramasa.
'Thank you.' Ichigo returned his focus back onto Ginjo.
Ginjo smiled, but there was something off about it. "Well, you took off so quickly that I didn't get the chance to ask you what I wanted to. You see, I was hoping you could help me with something."
TBC
Ginjo has appeared! It is going to take a bit of time before Ichigo starts trusting the man, but that is fine. If anyone has any suggestions on what I should do during this arc, please let me know. Thank you! ;)
Ichi: What help is Ginjo looking for? Is he "looking" for my dad again?
Enj/Dark: I'm not saying anything. You should know how I work by now.
Shiro: She's got a point, King. With your powers still here, this arc needs a major make over.
Enj/Dark: That is because the full bringers can't do the whole, "We can give you your powers back" approach.
Ichi: So how is this going to play out?
Enj/Dark: That is why I'm asking for suggestions. I have a few ideas, but not all of them are concrete.
Shiro: I'm guessing you know at least what to do here? Like what or who Ginjo is looking for?
Enj/Dark: Yes, I thought about it not long ago. So I got something for chapter 6.
Ichi: That's good.
Shiro: Whose turn is it?
Enj/Dark: Mine. Please review! ^-^
