They had been expecting this to happen, and the fact Fon was the first came as no shock at all. At least, to those who were from the Underworld anyway.
One moment he was sparring with Ichigo, who was a true delight as the young man picked things up incredibly quickly and had proven to be a warrior born, the next the warmth that most flame-actives craved but were rarely lucky enough to gain filled his very being.
Ichigo stumbled slightly and looked incredibly confused.
"What the hell was that?"
"Harmony," said Renato simply. He had been watching with interest, and his respect for the young man had grown...even if he still attempted to forcibly wake the Sky up in the mornings just for his own amusement.
"What?"
"It's the aspect of Sky flames. When an Element and Sky are compatible, there's a high chance that they will harmonize."
Ichigo blinked, then groaned.
"Oh, so that's what he meant."
Fon and Renato looked at him.
"Who?"
"Urahara. He warned me about the mafia families before I came for the exchange program...he said that with my luck I'd likely have these 'flames' and that it would give me no end of headaches if I wasn't careful. He mentioned about the types of flames, but we didn't have any way to test if I had any at all. And we couldn't really figure out what the hell 'harmony' was, since he got most of his information via hearsay," said Ichigo annoyed.
And most of the information they got was second-hand from a yakuza who managed to avoid going to hell or being eaten by Hollows long enough to pass what he knew to Squad 12. Considering the fact that most flame-actives were practically catnip to hollows, the soul reapers really wanted to get to the bottom of their society to better deal with them.
Especially since the higher the rank they had in the underworld, the higher the chance the gates of hell were open. Sometimes the reapers specifically went after their souls upon their death to show their trainees what the gates looked like.
"Ichigo, what exactly did they tell you about Flames?" asked Renato slowly. You never knew when dealing with civilians.
Ichigo settled in, since their sparring session was over for the day.
He repeated most of what Urahara told him and noticed Renato and Fon twitch a few times at certain inconsistencies. Usually about specific flame types or hilarious misunderstandings given from a low-ranked lackey who didn't really know the full truth.
The rest of the house sat down for this overdue discussion.
"Where exactly did this 'Urahara' get his information?" asked Verde.
"A low-level yakuza they managed to track down," said Ichigo, avoiding mentions of hell and the afterlife for now.
It wasn't like they'd believe him until a hollow showed up, or worse he had to inflict Shiro on them however briefly.
The matter was dropped, outside of giving Ichigo a far more thorough explanation on flames and what they meant. He honestly had no idea that these Sky flames were akin to spiritual glue.
Though now that he thought about it, he did have an unusually tight knit group in Orihime, Chad, Uryu and oddly enough Tatsuki. Was it possible he had harmonized with his friends and didn't know it?
He would find out soon enough when Verde began to experiment with something he had found half-buried inside Kon's stuffing. Kon had always assumed it was some odd button Uryu had put in there, and had ignored it.
He would regret not cleaning his stuffing out thoroughly considering the mess it was about to cause.
Ichigo was half asleep taking a nap when Kon woke him up rather abruptly.
"ICHIGO! GET YOUR ASS UP! THERE'S A SWARM OF HOLLOWS OUTSIDE!"
Considering that shout was followed by the all too familiar sound of a hollow's roar, Ichigo shot up, fully awake and pissed. While his spiritual powers had made a swift recovery, the fact was that the Italian branch of the afterlife was unusually on the mark and he hadn't seen a single hollow except in the distance for a brief moment.
With the number of active flames in Europe, it made a lot of sense they'd stay on the ball and deal with any hollows very quickly.
Ichigo took one look at the number of hollows outside and swore.
He grabbed Kon and roughly removed the pill, before popping it in his mouth allowing the mod soul to take over.
He took a brief moment to note that Kon was apparently a Lightning like Verde...he had gotten better at distinguishing their soul ribbons and had noticed that flames gave them a slightly different tint to the ribbon.
Ichigo was out of the door before Kon had time to do more than stumble slightly.
Third POV
"Where the fuck did these things come from?!" shouted Lal.
"I don't know, keep shooting!" shouted Renato irate.
Even Fon was having difficulty with these monsters. They had come out of nowhere, and had at first been incredibly fuzzy to their sight. But all too quickly their features solidified and now they could see the full extent of the creatures.
None of them had any idea what the hell they were, only that they were clearly intent on killing and possibly eating them.
So you could imagine their shock when their Sky came flying out of the house...almost literally in fact...with a massive sword that looked like a meat cleaver of all things wearing a black get up that wouldn't look out of place from the samurai dramas that Fon had stumbled across. He had mostly bought them to help the others understand the likely mindset of their Sky, since it was fairly obvious Ichigo had similar values.
Ichigo easily cleaved the mask of the nearest one in two with the knife, almost like it weighed nothing. The monster disappeared.
"Ichigo, what the hell..." said Skull staring.
Ichigo turned to look at them incredulous.
"What the... You guys can see me?" he said in disbelief. Then he seemed to consider something. "Of course you can see me...flames are like spiritual powers and it's not the first time those within close proximity awakened the ability to see the dead..."
That particular wording alarmed them greatly, but as the only official guardian of the oddball Sky had yet to start showing any signs of distress, the others decided now wasn't the best time to get some explanations over what the hell was going on.
"Look I don't have time to explain, but have any of your attacks shown effect on the hollows?" he asked.
"Is that what they're called?" asked Renato seriously. "One of my shots seemed to hurt it, but it barely did anything more than drive it off for a few seconds. Fon is having more effect but we're having trouble getting them to stay down."
"Aim for the masks," said Ichigo promptly. "Destroy them and they stay down permanently. Considering the number of them that's your best bet."
Armed with that very helpful knowledge, Renato aimed several Chaos Shots at the masks. To his relief, the beasts died immediately.
There were no bodies as they seemed to dissipate upon dying. Very tidy, that.
It didn't take long for them to fall into a new rhythm that allowed them to slaughter the monsters in droves. Ichigo naturally did the most damage as he was simply faster than the others and was able to run in the air like it was solid earth.
Then it appeared. It was as tall as a skyscraper and was far more powerful than any of the other beasts that had appeared before.
Ichigo seemed prepared for it though.
"Getsuga...Tensho!"
A blast of black and deep red flowed from his soul, followed by a pressure that felt like Ichigo's flames. It cleaved the mask of the creature in two, and it let out a massive roar that deafened the surroundings before disappearing.
Ichigo came back to the ground, looking very irritated.
"That should be the last of it..." he said.
"What the hell was that?!" said Skull, eyes wide.
"Menos Grande. Annoying bastards and not something most people can deal with," said Ichigo irritably. He looked around. "Kon! It should be safe to come out!"
"You sure?" asked a voice that sounded like Ichigo, but the tone was all wrong.
Ichigo rolled his eyes.
"If I'm right, then that should be the last of them. If not I'm sure the reapers from the Italian branch is already heading our way to deal with any further incursions."
Ichigo came out, but there was no way in hell that was Ichigo. The way he held himself was far too much like Kon, the weird plushie their Sky kept as some sort of twisted pet or companion.
Ichigo seemed to flow into his body, before coughing up an odd green pill.
"Ugh...at least these things don't have any taste to them."
He promptly shoved the pill into the doll, which started moving again.
"You ass! You know you could always just ask for me to cough it up, instead of shoving your hand down my throat!"
"And I rarely have the time to wait for that!" snapped Ichigo, as the two started bickering like brothers.
"Ichigo...what the fuck," said Lal, summing up what they were all thinking.
Ichigo sighed.
"First things first, I want to confirm what caused that swarm...and then I'm going to need a stiff drink."
He was almost certain the Italian reapers were going to show up and demand an explanation. If they didn't investigate the sudden appearance of a Menos then he was going to start ask questions.
It took him nearly an hour to track down the cause and when he did he started swearing.
"Verde, where did you get that tablet?" he demanded, pointing to the security feeds of the labs.
Verde squinted.
"That looks like one of the buttons I removed from that plushie of yours. Why?"
Ichigo glared at him.
"That was hollow bait, you idiot! If you use that in a spiritually active area or around powerful psychics, it causes a swarm!"
"Wait...are you telling me that when he crushed that tablet thing, it caused those creatures to appear?" demanded Renato, twitching.
"The only time I've ever seen a swarm like this was when Uryu crushed hollow bait within six feet of me. I knew something was up when that Menos showed up at the end," said Ichigo twitching. "Though that does make me wonder where Kon found that tablet, since I know for a fact I didn't put that in there and Uryu wouldn't be stupid enough to leave one he knew would be in close proximity to me."
At least now he knew why they had attacked the house. Ichigo pulled out his soul pager and called the Italian Reapers, just to make sure they knew it was an accidental swarm and not the precursor to an invasion or something else.
They were pissed, but opted not to investigate considering they had seen Ichigo working his ass off to keep the situation contained.
Ichigo was rather glad the others weren't going to quibble about his age when he took a drink of the strong whiskey Renato had pulled out.
"So what do you want to know first?"
"How about what the hell those things were," said Renato swiftly.
"They're called hollows, and they're basically fallen souls. People who were either not sent to the afterlife for one reason or another, or were attacked by a hollow themselves and turned. From what I was told, they're called that because all hollows have a hole somewhere in their body and they have a white mask that covers their face to hide their emotions from the world. There are hollows who have part of the mask removed, but they're considerably more dangerous and most stay in their pocket dimension rather than bother coming here. The ones with only a partial mask are far stronger than the weaklings you fought earlier."
"What about the samurai get-up?" asked Skull quickly.
"It's a uniform worn by the Japanese branch of the soul society," said Ichigo.
Before Ichigo could go further however, Lal began to pitch forward.
A quick inspection revealed she had taken a serious injury she had ignored that was still bleeding out, despite the bandage she put around her midsection.
Needless to say they put aside any further discussion until she could be stabilized.
A few hours later...
Verde pushed his glasses up, a serious expression on his face.
"She's stable for now, but she's lost a lot of blood. And the wound is serious enough that if we attempt to move her to a hospital there's a chance it could bleed out before we reach anywhere with suitable ability to save her. At best we'll have to wait and see until she starts to mend," said Verde seriously.
"How likely is it that she'll live?" asked Renato.
"Fifty-fifty, and that's just surviving this. The chances of full recovery are next to zero, even with sun flames," said Verde promptly.
Ichigo frowned.
"Is there any chance she can survive the next twenty-four hours?" he asked.
"So far she's stable, but that could change at any minute. However the odds of her surviving the next day are acceptable," said Verde.
Fon looked at Ichigo.
"You're planning something."
"I know someone that can heal her, but it'll take time for them to get here," said Ichigo.
He had no doubts Orihime would be able to heal Lal. The issue was that Orihime was half a world away and would need time to reach them. Time Lal might not have.
"Call them," said Renato.
Ichigo pulled out his phone and dialed Orihime's number.
"Moshi moshi?"
"It's Ichigo. There was an incident involving some hollow bait and someone was badly injured. How soon can you get to Sicily?" asked Ichigo.
"I'm in Brazil visiting Chad. I could be on the next flight there, but I won't have enough money to make it back home after," said Orihime immediately. "Ichigo-kun...there's been some people who have been bothering Chad a lot. Bad people."
Ichigo could make an educated guess what was going on. His friends were all powerful psychics, so odds were the local 'families' had picked up on Chad's powers.
"Ask Chad if he'd like a vacation to Sicily. I'll pay for both your tickets," said Ichigo.
He heard Orihime ask, and Chad agree. He was getting tired of them trying to strong arm him into joining their illegal activities and a vacation sounded good right now. Besides, it felt weird being away from Ichigo for too long.
Ichigo turned to Viper.
"What's the fastest flight from Brazil to the nearest airport from here?" he asked.
"Mu. It'll cost you."
Ichigo scowled.
"A third of the next paycheck," he said.
"Deal," said Viper.
Ichigo sent them the details, and knew this would be a long wait.