I'm back, everyone! My animation is finished, and I finished a fight in my other fanfiction. Now we can get back to this one and work on this arc. Hopefully, I can make the pacing a bit better.


26

Recap: "Alright, be careful." Ichigo watched Tenebris leave, and saw Chad and Uryu still there. Shiro was still eating, but he looked to be almost done. "I guess I'll see you two later?" he asked.

"Yeah, we'll come over tomorrow and figure out what could possibly be going on. Tenebris should have news for us by the time we get there, right?" said Uryu.

"She won't if you come in the morning. She'll be sleeping," Ichigo pointed out. "But you are right. She should have news for us by tomorrow."

"We'll meet up at your house close to the afternoon then. See you later, Ichigo." Uryu turned and vanished from sight.

"Later, Ichigo," said Chad, and he too vanished.

"Let's get going, King," said Shiro, who was licking blood off his claws. "I'm tired."

Ichigo rolled his eyes at his hollow zanpakuto again.


Ichigo was sitting on the floor wondering when the shinigami kid was going to wake up. He looked over at Tenebris and saw that she was doing some reading. She had been looking at newspapers dating back to a year ago to catch up on what she had missed. She did ask him what had happened the day after she was freed, but he didn't really tell her what had happened outside his own little world.

A groan caught his attention. Ichigo looked up to his bed and saw that the kid they had saved two days ago was finally waking up. 'About time. I've been sleeping in Tenebris' nest just so he could recover, but her nest is nothing like my comfy bed,' he thought.

The kid sat up with a confused look on his face. "Where am I?" he asked, catching Tenebris' attention. She turned around but didn't get the chance to say anything.

"Good, you're awake," said Ichigo. "Now you can leave and go back to your job." He waved his hand dismissively as he spoke, but then he shouted in pain as Tenebris hit him on the back of his head with her tail. He hissed, "What what that for?"

Tenebris gave him a look that told him that she wasn't amused. "Don't be rude," she scolded. The dragon hollow then turned back to the kid, who was staring at her with a disbelieving expression. A second had gone by before the air was filled with the rookie shinigami's screams of terror.

Tenebris clamped her paws over her ears and gritted her teeth in pain. "Darn, this is reminding me of the day I met Rukia," she muttered. "But she had never made it where my ears feel like they were going to explode!" her words were becoming louder the more she spoke, telling Ichigo that she was going to snap soon, but then his closet door opened up to show Shiro inside.

"Will you SHUT UP?!" he demanded, causing the dark-haired, fearful shinigami to freeze, but at least he wasn't screaming anymore, much to Tenebris' relief.

"What is all the noise about?" Ichigo turned when he heard Uryu's voice coming from his opened bedroom door.

"How did you get in here? Ever heard of knocking?" asked Ichigo as both Uryu and Chad walked into his room.

"For your information, we ran into Yuzu," his cousin informed while pushing up his glasses. "Also, you didn't answer my question."

Tenebris, while rubbing her sore ears, answered, "The new kid on the block screamed after noticing me. Shiro yelled at him to shut up, basically."

The shinigami kid screamed again while pointing at Ichigo with a look of realization on his face.

"Shut up! Or else I will let Shiro have his way with you!" Ichigo shouted this time as Shiro summoned his sword.

"Y-you're those guys from last night!" the kid stuttered.

Ichigo rolled his eyes, and Shiro laughed at the young Shinigami's response.

"'Last night'? Brat, King and Feathers here saved you two days ago!" Shiro corrected after he finished laughing.

"W-who are king and feathers?" the boy muttered to himself, but both Ichigo and Tenebris heard him.

"He's King and I'm Feathers. Ichigo saved you by killing the hollows and I stopped you and your friend from bleeding to death," replied Tenebris.

"Hey, guys! I've brought some snacks!" Yuzu said as she came in with a tray covered in food.

Uryu and Tenebris smiled at her with words of thanks passing their lips. Ichigo also quietly thanked his sister before turning to the timid boy. "You might want to get into your gigai if you want any of this. It's right next to you."

The kid turned around in confusion and noticed an unmoving body that looked exactly like him, and for some unknown reason to Ichigo, the boy screamed bloody murder again. Tenebris covered her ears quickly, but the screaming stop just a second after it started. Ichigo looked up to see what caused the sudden stop in noise and saw Shiro standing behind the boy with a hand holding his head up and another gripping a giant, black sword at the boy's throat. The shinigami eyed the zanpakuto with fear of dying dancing within them while a small bead of sweat rolled down the side of his face.

"Jeez kid, how did you become a shinigami?" Tenebris questioned. "Not to be rude or anything, but you're kind of a scaredy-cat." That was when Ichigo's bedroom door opened up once again. He turned to see the female shinigami come in with a bag in her hand.

"Hey, I brought the cola," she said lifting the bag up to show them, but then her eyes landed on her friend, who was about to have his throat slit open. The bag dropped to the ground with relieved tears leaking from her eyes.

"Yuki..." she said, and then ran over to the boy. Shiro let him go with an annoyed groan, but it quickly turned into interest as the girl placed the boy into a headlock. The two began to bicker, and Shiro sat down next to Ichigo as he and the rest of their friends eat the snacks and ignored the two new shinigami.

Ichigo was talking to his friends when he realized something. "Hey kid, we never did catch your name," he said.

"Actually we did..." muttered Tenebris as she took a sip of tea.

"My apologies," said a voice that belonged to none of them. They all quickly turned toward Ichigo's bed to see an arrancar standing there with a small grin on his face. "My name is Asguiaro Ebern."

Ichigo narrowed his already scowling eyes at the man and said, "I don't know who you are, but get off that bed."

Tenebris made a confused expression. "Um...I'm pretty sure he just said his name, Ichi..." She then looked down at the food. "Is the chips bad or something?"

Shiro chuckled, "No, I think you just hit him in the head a little too hard." Tenebris scuffed.

"He was asking for that one. Besides, he was hit way worse and didn't lose brain cells."

"Maybe we're just now seeing the effects of all the damage his head took for the past couple of years," said Uryu with a smug smirk.

"Good point," replied Tenebris cheerfully.

"Will you both shut up!?" shouted Ichigo.

Tenebris looked Ichigo in the eyes and said, "Worry less about us and more about the enemy."

TBC


This should be fun. I might have Shiro fight this guy instead of Ichigo, because we haven't seen him in action yet in this story.

Shiro: Couldn't I fight someone stronger?

Enj/Dark: You'll fight someone stronger AFTER you deal with this guy.

Shiro: Really? *hopeful eyes*

Enj/Dark: Yes.

Ichi: Please review!