Hey everyone! Sorry about last week, I decided to take a break. Granted I have been having some problems with my stomach, which sucks. -_-' Anyway, enough about that. Let's move onto the chapter! XD
7
~Tenebris' POV~
I had left the house earlier than normal so Rukia couldn't follow me. I did not need a shinigami tailing me to the dark forest in this world. My wararks - AKA dark Warriors - would not take kindly to her for the time being.
I'm not a morning dragon/hollow, then again no dark being - darkling - is. Only the glows - light beings - are. Yet I had to wake up before the sun just so I could get to the dark forest before Rukia woke up.
'Why didn't I just wait for her to fall asleep and then head for the forest and just sleep in there last night? I wouldn't have had to wake up at this Gaia forsaken hour,' I thought.
I did take a nap after getting to my second home in the forest. It is my second, because my first is within a void, and my third home was with Ichigo. Anyway, I took my nap for a few hours, and when I woke up it was around lunch time for the humans.
I sat up on the rock I was napping at the foot of and roared loudly for my warriors to hear. 50 of them approached, all the rest were within the World of Darkness - our first home. I decided to start our monthly meeting now, and then head back to Ichigo. 'I just know Rukia is going to give me an earful.'
Ten minutes went by and the meeting ended. Throughout the whole thing, I felt something was off. I couldn't place it, which meant it wasn't me, but someone I knew, or it was something big. I doubt it was the latter though.
Now that the meeting was over, I left to go back to Ichigo. It didn't take me long to get back to Ichigo's school, even though it was on the other side of town from where I was in the forest. Luckily I'm a fast flyer.
I just got to the school when I felt my heart nearly leap out of my throat. Ichigo jumped out the window! "What do you think you're doing, Ichigo?!" I yelled, catching his attention. He gave me a fearful look, like he has never known me in his whole life or something, and took off in the opposite direction at a faster pace than Ichigo normally could. Now that I thought about it, his energy felt off.
"Tenebris!" I heard Ichigo's voice from around my level of hover, and turned to see him in the window his body just jumped out from. I gave him a shocked look, wondering what happened for his body to be moving on it's own. My question must have shown on my face somehow - there is a mask on it after all - because Ichigo explained, "My body is possessed by some fake soul."
"That explained why he felt off then. So what is he?" I asked.
"I think he's a mod soul," said Rukia.
"It doesn't matter what he, I mean me, I mean... forget it. What I'm trying to say is we need to go after my body before it does something to ruin my reputation even more!" After Ichigo finished talking, he too jumped out the window and went the way as his body went in.
'I wonder what he meant by 'ruining his reputation more'?' I thought to myself before following him. Rukia took the stairs and caught up with us in a matter of minutes.
We didn't find him. We had been looking for an hour now, and we have yet to find Ichigo's possessed body. We are in a warehouse right now, and it was here that I found out what happened to 'ruin' Ichigo's image.
"We have to find him, me, whatever! You saw what he did in my class. What he did to Orihime and Tatsuki! I mean that jerk used my body to...k..k..ki..." Ichigo could say it, but I already knew what was coming.
"He kissed them, yes, I know," Rukia finished what Ichi couldn't. Oh this was too good.
"This sucks! My life is over!" Ichigo exclaimed.
I rolled my eyes. "Stop being such a drama queen," I said.
"Yes, I agree. A kiss is nothing more then a form of greeting."
"It was a kiss on the hand?" I asked.
"IT WAS ON THE LIPS!" Ichigo shouted, making me winch at the echoing it made in the warehouse.
'That hurt my ears...' I turned to Rukia while rubbing my ears to sooth the ringing in them. "Rukia, a kiss is only a form of greeting if it is on the hand."
"It was on the hand. Ichigo is just panicking over nothing," replied Rukia. *
I felt a sweat drop roll down my neck. "Oh... never mind then." I walked up to Ichigo and hit him with my wing. "Calm down and let's continue looking for him," I said, and then I left the warehouse with Rukia right behind me and Ichigo slowly following.
As we left the warehouse, I caught Ichigo's scent with a hint of something else. "I think I found his scent. I'm going to follow it," I said as I take off into the sky. Rukia jumped onto Ichigo's back, and the two followed me from the rooftops.
I could smell that I was getting closer to Ichigo's body. It seemed to be coming from the school for younger kids. It is there that I sense that something has angered someone. I couldn't tell where the anger was coming from exactly, but I found out when the possessed body was within my sight.
"There!" I said loud enough for Ichigo and Rukia to hear me. Ichigo placed Rukia down and then made his way over to the mod soul and three kids. I landed not far from the two orange-heads. Ichigo blocked an attack from the mod soul that was aimed at the three kids. 'Why was he about to attack them?' I questioned mentally.
The mod soul jumped back away from Ichigo, but since I was so close by he crashed into my chest. Before the fake soul could react, I pounced on top of him and pinned him down on his front side.
"Alright, you mod soul. You're going to tell me what you think you're doing with my body!" Ichigo demanded.
"Let me go!" the mod soul ordered, but I wasn't listening. I could tell he didn't know what had him pinned, yet. I dug my claws in a little, just enough for him to know that something with claws has him trapped. The mod soul paled rapidly in realization and stopped struggling.
"Now answer Ichigo," I said calmly.
The mod soul just opened his mouth to answer when a loud beeping sound filled the air. I recognized what the sound was. It was Rukia's soul pager.
I sighed, "That hollow has really bad timing."
"Tenebris, stay here with my body. Let's go, Rukia!" The two leave me with the mod soul to go kill the hollow.
'I wonder where the hollow is going to show up,' I thought, and then turned my attention to the possessed body of my soul brother. I was about to question him myself, but then we both heard a howl from a low level hollow. My head snapped up in the direction I heard the hollow and saw that it was right above the three kids that the mod soul was going to attack a few minutes ago. 'Why didn't they leave?' I didn't really notice at the time that they were looking at "Ichigo" with fear, which would explain why they didn't run.
Right now, the kids' fears didn't matter. What did matter was their safety. I jumped off Ichigo's body and attacked the hollow. I killed the hollow swiftly and returned back to the mod soul, who looked hesitant to leave. Before he could make his decision to either run or help kill the hollow that is already dead, I pinned him to the ground again. Once he was down, I looked back over to the kids again and noticed that they were gone. I decided to grab the mod soul and bring him up to the rooftops before a teacher showed up.
Just as I was landing on top of the school building, Ichigo and Rukia returned.
"Where's the hollow?" Ichigo asked, looking around.
"I already killed it, slowpoke," I replied, and then we all turned our attention back to the mod soul. "Now spill. Why were you taking Ichigo's body on a test run?" I questioned.
The mod soul sighed in defeat. "Alright, I'll tell you," he said. "As I'm sure you already know, I'm a mod soul. We were created by the Soul Society to help kill hollows. We were to be placed into dead bodies of humans; however, they decided that this wasn't the right thing to do so they gave the order to have us eliminated."
I rolled my eyes. "No surprise there," I said, which earned me a glare from Rukia. "What? It's the truth. The Soul Society created them, only to destroy them shortly after? Maybe they should have thought of the idea as a bad one before creating life."
The mod soul looked at me in shock, while Ichigo nodded his head in agreement. He stepped forward to ask his own questions.
"If the mod souls were destroyed, then how did you survive?" he asked.
"I got lucky and was shipped off with a batch of goods by mistake. I had to wait until someone found me, and then have me destroyed," the mod soul explained.
"Why did you hesitate when the hollow attacked?" I asked.
"I wanted to help those kids," he confessed.
"But didn't you try to attack them?" questioned Ichigo.
"I was angry with them. They said something that sounded too close to what happened to the mod souls for my liking. No one should decide who lives and who dies!" The mod soul was starting to get a little emotional.
"That's what you need to tell the Soul Society, not us. They are the ones that like to kill things for being what they are instead of making a deal. If they didn't want to put you guys into the dead bodies of humans, then why not fake bodies? I know they have them," I said.
"They...didn't have gigai back then..." said the mod soul.
'Of course they didn't,' both I and Ichigo thought.
"WELL, so this is where we find you!" We heard a voice say by the doorway to the rooftop of the school. We all turned to see that it was hat-n-clogs. "You look a little banged up," he said.
That was when I heard Ichigo shout, "My body! Where did you get those claw marks?!"
'Claw marks...?' Then I remembered jumping off of his body to kill the hollow. 'Oops...I much have dug my claws in by accident.' I looked over to Ichigo with a sheepish smile. I didn't need to say anything for him to get the message.
"Tenebris! Be more careful next time!"
"Sorry..."
Hat-n-clogs then used his cane to force the soul candy out of Ichigo's body. "Mission accomplished, we're leaving now," he said.
"Hey wait! What do you plan to do with him?" Ichigo asked the man.
'What was his name again?' I questioned.
"I have no choice but to destroy him," hat-n-clogs said.
Ichigo looked shocked. "You can see me? How?"
"I'm not sure how to answer that," he said - and I had to agree with his statement - while throwing the candy up into the air, only for Rukia to grab it.
"I think that is mine, thanks," she said.
'She's saving him?' I thought.
"Mr. Kuchiki, I'm afraid I can't let you have that," said the candy shop owner.
While they spoke, I walked over to Ichigo. "What made you think that guy couldn't see you?" I asked.
"Well...I...don't know..." he said while rubbing the back of his head. "I'm just not used to other people being able to see me?"
"That would make sense, but he came here to collect a mod soul. That should have been your biggest hint that he can see souls."
"Okay, it wasn't my smartest moment. I'm sorry. I had a brain fart, give me a break," said Ichi.
I shrugged my shoulders. "Okay, I'll lay off. It's not like I've done stuff like that myself before."
Ichigo stared at me. "...Did you just admit you made stupid mistakes before?"
"Admitting things lets you move past them. You also need to learn from past mistakes too, otherwise your back to square one."
"Here Ichigo," Rukia had walked up to Ichigo while we were talking, and handed him the mod soul. "He might be a pain, but he'll be helpful in the long run." She turned to me after that. "After all, I think Tenebris brought up a good point. Now that gigai exist, it's not wrong of us to keep the mod soul around. Why kill him?" She started walking the way back to Ichigo's house. "Let's go home."
Ichigo jumped back in his body, only to hiss in pain, making me feel guilty. I started to follow after Rukia with Ichigo right behind me.
Ichigo hissed again due to my claws scratching into his back earlier while we were making our way home.
"Sorry, Ichi..." I said.
"It's not really your fault, Tenebris." Ichigo then pulled out the mod soul from his pocket. "It's this little jerk's for taking my body for a test drive!" He paused for a second as if he's waiting for an answer. "Hey, are you even listening?!"
"You know, you look really funny yelling at a pill right now," said Rukia.
"He does, doesn't he?" I said with a fond smile.
"Is there a way I can give mod soul what's coming to him?" Ichigo asked.
"You need a body," I stated.
"Ah, right! I'm looking for a body, and when I find it, BAM is he going to get it!"
"Where are you going to find a body around here?" I asked.
Ichigo then noticed something. "Well what do we have here?" I looked over to see what he was talking and saw a lion plush on a pile of trash. "Hey Tenebris, do you think this would work?"
"Wait, that might not..." Rukia trailed off, looking thoughtful.
"Well Rukia is in a fake body, so it might work," I said.
"There is a possibility it could work with Tenebris' logic. Let's give it a try."
"Okay, how do I do that?" asked Ichigo.
"I guess just take the pill and shove it into the lion doll's mouth," said Rukia.
"Like this?" Ichigo said as he pushed the little, green pill into the lion's mouth. Nothing happened. Ichigo grabbed it by the arm and started swinging it in circles.
"THAT HURTS!" the lion plush toy shouted and punched Ichigo in the face.
'I guess it did work,' I thought.
"Ichigo Kurosaki, I challenge you to an all out dual!" declared the lion.
"Count me in," said Ichigo.
"Why...?" I questioned softly to myself. Rukia must have heard me, because she shrugged her shoulders.
"Wait a minute! When did you get so big?! Or did I somehow shrink?! What's going on?! I'm a cute plush toy with no muscle! This is not fair!"
Ichigo grinned. "Hey mod soul, relax. I think it's time I got a little payback for what you made Tenebris do to my body earlier." Ichigo grabbed the lion's head.
"What about what he did to Orihime and Tatsuki?" I asked.
"Oh, I erased the classes' memories, so they don't remember what the mod soul did," said Rukia.
"Oh...When did you have time to do that?" I asked, but I didn't get an answer.
"I guess I'll just have beat you just the way I am!" the mod soul said as he tried to kick Ichigo, only for his legs to not reach.
I sighed, "I'm going home. I'll see you three there." I flew off after stating my intention.
TBC
This was almost 3,000 words. Now If only I can get the next chapter to be nearly as long. -_-
* I know a kiss on the hand is not a common thing anymore, but Tenebris doesn't really understand why it isn't though. To her, it is nothing bad. If the kiss was on the lips, then she would think it's bad.
Ichi: I wonder if they still do the kiss on the back of the hand as a greeting somewhere?
Enj/Dark: I don't know, and I'm too lazy to look it up.
Shiro: I don't care either way. Just make sure that I'm in the next chapter. I need a little more screen time.
Ichi: You sure do like being in chapters.
Shiro: You and Tenebris have been getting all the fun!
Enj/Dark: I had you in a fight.
Shiro: That no one really saw. :(
Enj/Dark: I'll try to put you in the chapters more. Ichi, you go.
Ichi: Please review! :)
