8

It had almost been two weeks since Ichigo met Ginjo, and he had not made an attempt to call him and his little gang. Ichigo had decided to instead worry about his current side job with the kendo team and his real job with Ikumi.

Right now, Ichigo was with the kendo team for the last day of training. Tomorrow was the day of the tournament so Ichigo had to make sure that the team was ready.

"Shaito, you are supposed to listen to your surroundings in case of an attack. If you don't then you will be hit just like you were now by your partner. Kento, good job on the dodge and counter attack," Ichigo said to two of his trainees. He had to teach them how to protect themselves from an ambush because the team got jumped two days ago by their rival. Luckily Ichigo was there to protect the team from harm, so they were all still in the upcoming match.

Ichigo waited a few more minutes before calling out, "Alright that's enough, training is over for today!" The kendo team stopped what they were doing and lined up in front of Ichigo. "Good job today. Now the match is tomorrow so you must be careful when you leave this room and go out anywhere today and tomorrow. The rival team might try again to attack you or might send some gang to do it for them. We know the reason why they would do something like that, though. Cowards like them will do anything to win, but we're not going to let them. So tomorrow we'll show them not to mess with you again. With that said, have a good day." When Ichigo finished speaking, the team left for the changing room. Ichigo cleaned up and then went to get changed. After he was done, he turned to the closest exit out of the school building.

Ichigo made his way to his job with Ikumi. He was half way there when he heard someone call his name.

"Ichigo, wait up!" Ichigo stopped and turned to see that it was Uryu who called out to him. He waited for his cousin to catch up, which didn't take long. Once Uryu was in front of him, the quincy started to ask him, "Have you seen Chad anywhere? I haven't seen him in class for the past week and four days."

Ichigo thought about the last time he saw Chad and realized that Uryu was right. The last he saw him was around the same time as Uryu. "No I haven't. I think the last I saw him was a day earlier than you," Ichigo replied, his voice showing his concern.

"Where could he have gone? He started disappearing around the time this strange spirit energy appeared," said Uryu.

Ichigo couldn't help but think back to what Ginjo told him.

"We need your help in training your friend Chad."

"Let's go look for him at his apartment first," said Ichigo. "We might be able to find him there, or at least be able to track him, right?"

Uryu smirked, "Did Zangetsu suggest that?"

Ichigo glared. "I can think of good ideas on my own, thank you."

Uryu continued to smirk. "Whatever. Let's go to Chad's apartment."

The two started their search for their friend.


When they got to Chad's apartment they sensed that he wasn't there. Ichigo started to become slightly more concerned, but thought that maybe his friend was at work or something.

"Do you know where Chad's job is?" Ichigo asked Uryu, who shook his head no. "Darn..."

"Let's split up. Try to sense out his reiatsu while you search and when you find him spike your own, got that?" Uryu requested.

Ichigo nodded his head. "Yeah. We'll meet up at my place in an hour if we don't find him. That sound good?"

Uryu nodded. "Let's go." Ichigo and Uryu split up in hopes of finding Chad.

Uryu was jumping from rooftop to rooftop, looking for any sign of his big, bulky friend, but so far nothing. It had been a half hour since he and Ichigo started searching, and Uryu noticed that he was close to Ichigo's house; however, that wasn't the only thing he noticed. On the roof of a house nearby Ichigo's was a skinny man with black hair, a white, long-sleeve shirt, black pants, and with a book in his hand.

Uryu sensed that this guy had the same strange reiatsu that he had been feeling for a while now, and so decided to go after him, thinking that he might know what happened to Chad.

The man must have sensed him, because he closed his book and started jumping away. Uryu picked up his pace in pursuit of the man. The man's spirit energy would spike up every now and then, and each time Uryu would see a flash of green around the man's feet.

'So he can use something like flash-step and hirenkyaku,' Uryu thought.

Uryu ran/jumped faster to keep up, and just when he thought he was going to reach him, he saw a blur of black and white out of the corner of his eye, and then pain in his shoulder. He fell to the ground with a painful thud. Uryu tried his best to stay awake so he could see who it was that cut him down and why. Luckily he saw the person, but sadly could only make out some of what was being said.

"You know ... plan. ... revenge ... Soul Society ... tried to get help ... others ... didn't work ... fight ... left the group and ... revenge on your own." Uryu may not have made out everything, but he did understand where it was going. Someone wanted revenge on the Soul Society. Just as that conclusion entered Uryu's mind, he passed out.


Ichigo was looking for Chad when he felt Uryu's reiatsu level go down while another spiked up. He got a bad feeling, so he abandoned his search to find out what happened to his other friend/cousin. When he got there, he found Uryu knocked out on the street, covered in blood.

"Uryu!" the orange-haired teen called out in worry. He ran over to him to see if he was still breathing, which he was, luckily.

"Calm down, King! Of course he is still alive. If he weren't you wouldn't feel his spirit energy at all," said Shiro.

"You might want to call for help though," said Zangetsu.

"Right!" Ichigo said out loud while digging into his pocket for his phone. When he found it he quickly called for an ambulance. Even though the house was closer, Ichigo knew that they didn't have what Uryu needed right now.

When the phone was picked up and Ichigo was asked what his emergency was and he said, "A friend of mine is badly hurt." He also told the lady on the phone where they were.

"Alright, we'll send someone over right away," said the lady on the phone.

Ichigo thanked her and hung up. "Please hurry..." he said softly.

The ambulance showed up after Ichigo finished doing first aid. The paramedics placed Uryu on a stretcher and took him away to his father's hospital. Ichigo watched them go, and once they were out of sight Ichigo left to go home.

When he got home he was kicked by his father. Isshin knew something had to be wrong if Ichigo couldn't dodge his 'surprise attack'.

"Are you okay, Ichigo?" Isshin asked, not meaning the pain Ichigo was feeling in his head due to his kick.

"Besides your drop kick? No. Uryu was almost killed by someone," said Ichigo from the floor.

"That's not good. What happened?" his father asked.

"We were looking for Chad. He hasn't been to school for the past few weeks, so Uryu and I got worried. We searched the town for him, but while we were looking for him we split up. It was a half hour after we did so that Uryu was cut down."

"Maybe Ginjo knows who attacked your friend?" Muramasa suggested.

"Or it could have been him for all we know!" said Shiro.

"We won't know unless we talk to him," said Zangetsu.

'Do you guys think I should call that number?' asked Ichigo.

'That is up to you, Ichigo,' said Kikoo.

Isshin waited for Ichigo to finish talking to his zanpakuto before saying, "I could call Ryuken later to see how your cousin is doing."

"That would be great." Ichigo finally got up off the floor. "I'm going to go upstairs. Call me when dinner is done."

Ichigo went to his room and grabbed the card that was on his desk. He stared at it for a good few minutes thinking about what Muramasa said. 'If what he said is possible, and what Ginjo said was true, then Chad might be in danger. Maybe I should call, just to make sure Chad is alright.'

Ichigo grabbed his cell again and called the number.

TBC


Well, Uryu was still attacked, and I'm sure you all could guess who it was.

Ichi: Why did you have Uryu cut down? :(

Enj/Dark: The same reason as Kubo. I needed him out of the way, because he would have been able to stop Ginjo's plans for you.

Shiro: Which we all know you changed up a little bit.

Enj/Dark: Oh yeah, what gave it away? Was it the part where Uryu heard someone talking but couldn't make out all the way?

Ichi: Yes.

Enj/Dark: Well, we'll see how this plays out.

Shiro: You wrote the plans up this Tuesday.

Enj/Dark: Yeah, and I'm not saying anything about it.

Ichi: Please review! :)