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WE FEAR THAT WHICH CANNOT BE SEEN
AND WE WORSHIP THAT WHICH CANNOT BE SEEN
May 19th, 2001
"The fuck?!"
Daniel couldn't help but smirk at the scene before him – Ichigo casually scratching his hair while the group of punks around them were in an uproar over one of their friends getting the bottom of his kyodais shoe to the face.
"First you come on our turf asking us to get out, then the other one kicks Yama-chan for no reason?! You two have a death wish or somethin'?!"
"I wasn't asking. I was telling and you should've listened." Daniel shrugged as he moved behind Ichigo.
"Shut the fuck up!" raved one of the punks at him before turning to Ichigo, slowly forming his hand into a fist "And you, say something you bast-"
A kick to the face was Ichigo's answer, which made the rest of the group utterly terrified. It didn't help that Ichigo kept stomping on the guy that he just kicked, almost caving his face into the pavement.
"Toshi-rin!" a kid called out from the group.
"They're completely unreasonable!" cried the other.
"I literally warned you half a minute ago, but no – I am the unreasonable one." A deadpan Daniel noted, "Anyway, you all better shut up & listen to what my friend here has to say, if you don't want end up like Toshi-kun there."
Not missing a beat, Ichigo stomped over the unconscious Toshi and stood before the remaining punks.
"All of you CHUMPS, look over HERE!" Ichigo pointed towards the streetlamp near them – more precisely the knocked bottle that had a flower in it.
"QUESTION NUMBER ONE! YOU, THE SMELLY-LOOKING ONE!" Ichigo addressed a beanie-wearing punk.
"…smelly-looking?" silently commented the punk.
"TELL ME, WHAT IS THAT?!"
"AH! Umm…it's-it's an offering for a kid that…died here?
*DING~DING*
The source of the metallic ding (that would've not been out of place in a quiz show) was a grinning Daniel visibly holding a steel triangle in his hand. Before he could contemplate about the absurdity of the situation, the smelly beanie punk was knocked down cold by a kick to the face from Ichigo.
"GREAT ANSWER!" Ichigo responded.
"Mit-chan! You okay?!"
The smelly punk, now revealed to be Mit-chan, was, in fact, not ok – he was completely out cold.
"QUESTION NUMBER TWO!"
Whatever punks left standing yelped at the sound of Ichigo's oppressively fearsome tone.
"Why is the vase on its side?"
"It's, uh, cuz we knocked it over with our…skateboards?" answered one of the terrified punks.
*DING~DING*
The punks looked at Daniel who was still holding the triangle in his hand. His grin, however, looked a bit more menacing with his eyes widened, which deeply disturbed them.
Which made them completely open for Ichigo to knock them all down with a flurry of kicks.
"If you EVER do that again…"
Ichigo's face suddenly became scrunched out of sheer anger, with veins popping out of his face from how genuinely angry he was.
"Then the next batch of flowers will be for YOU! GOT IT?!"
*DING~DING~DING~DING~DING*
As a contrast, Daniel's face was now sporting a completely insane, sadistic toothy smile, blatantly showing that he was enjoying in the punks' suffering.
Unable to decide who was more pants-shittingly terrifying, the punks screeched in fear and ran in the opposite direction as fast as humanly possible.
"Alright, the coast should be clear." Daniel noted, quickly pocketing his musical tools.
Meanwhile, Ichigo was already at the street lamp picking up the vase & putting it back in its place.
"I'll bring you some fresh flowers tomorrow."
Right after Ichigo's statement a ghost of a young girl appeared right in front of him.
"Thank you for getting rid of them, both of you! Now I should be able to rest in peace." the girl cheerfully expressed her thanks, grateful for Ichigo's & Daniel's help.
"I hope you do." Ichigo responded, waving goodbye to the spectral girl as he rejoined Daniel.
"Let's go." Ichigo beckoned.
"Right behind you." Daniel unenthusiastically sighed as both of them began walking to their destination.
It didn't take long for the orange-haired teen to notice that his friend was acting dejected all of a sudden. Not one to let things lie, considering the guy was going with him back home for dinner, Ichigo confronted Daniel by asking:
"What's the matter, Dan?"
"It's…" Daniel exhaled, "Ghosts of old people & salarymen don't really bother me, mostly because I understand why they ended up where they did. But…", he paused for a moment before shaking his head, telling Ichigo to forget it.
It was an explanation Ichigo could understand. He himself was able to see ghosts almost as long as he could remember so he just got used to seeing them all. But for someone like Daniel who had that ability for almost month and a half, he could understand why seeing some ghosts would upset him.
"It's life, I guess. And life has a nasty habit of being unfair, doesn't even matter to whom. For us that are left standing we just gotta move on…for their sake. And ours."
Daniel suddenly chuckled, seemingly out of nowhere, and responded with:
"Look at you, the teen punk philosopher. No wonder you got half of the school's female population wrapped around your finger."
"Tch, like I asked for that in the first place," Ichigo vexingly retorted, "You, on the other hand – was that triangle back there really necessary?"
"Ichigo, you know me well enough to figure out the answer yourself."
"I've literally known you for barely a month and a half."
"Eh, long enough."
Seeing that this conversation is going nowhere, both Ichigo and Goichi decided to drop it and just chat about school on the way to the Kurosaki household.
"I'm home." Ichigo announced as soon as he opened the door to his house, completely unaware of the imminent danger rapidly approaching him.
"You're LATE!"
The danger being his father, who has just greeted him with a flying roundhouse kick to the face that sent Ichigo crashing to the floor.
"You delinquent! Dinnertime in this household is ALWAYS at seven o'clock!" his dad, Isshin Kurosaki, said sharply.
It took less than a second for Ichigo to recover completely, now standing right in front of his father & getting close to his face.
"And you're a jackass! Is this any way to treat your son who laid his life on the line to help a ghost rest in peace?!"
"C'mon Isshin-san," Dan spoke as he entered the house, "Ichigo here really did help -wait, is that Yuzu-chan's absolutely delicious curry I smell?"
"It is Danny my boy! Feel free to have some, but only if you'll back me up to teach this rule-breaking no-goodder a lesson about breaking house rules!" Isshin said, his stern expression immediately shifting into a cheery, polite host.
"Oi, Goat-chin," growled an irritated Ichigo, "Not only you're a draconic father with your overly strict curfew rules, you are also so corrupt that you'll stoop to bribing your own son's friends to turn against him!"
"I consider that as asking for intervention for being a punk! What kind of a father would I be to not check the company that my son keeps around and make sure they have his best interest in hands?! Isn't that right, Danny my boy?" Isshin enthusiastically exclaimed as he turned to Daniel, expecting an answer.
"Seconds please, Yuzu-chan." Daniel politely asked, sitting at the dinner table having already cleared his plate, as he gave it to Yuzu for a refill.
"Right away!" Yuzu chirped.
Seeing how his dad looked defeated over Dan completely ignoring him, Ichigo thought he could let it all be and went for the dinner table.
The sudden hand on his shoulder proved otherwise.
"And where do you think you're going, young man? Strutting around, thinking you're above me because you see ghosts and I can't?!"
"Oh, don't even go there – I never asked for this!"
All of that culminated into a punch out that Ichigo wins with a decisive straight that sent his father flying through the house.
"As I said before – your rules are way too strict! Decent fathers don't force their teenage sons to be home at seven o'-"
"Ichi-nii, you got another one beside you." Karin casually commented.
"On your right." Dan added as he took a spoonful of curry.
"Huh?!" Ichigo turned to see a meek ghost of an elderly man who was looking at him with shock & wonder, which irritated the teen even more.
"When did THIS guy appear?! I help a single ghost and another one already latches onto me! Dammit!"
"Thanks for the dinner." Daniel & Karin said as they set their bowls and turned around to see Ichigo hopelessly try to shoo away the newcomer ghost.
"Poor Ichigo…must be a real pain to be constantly surrounded." Karin casually noted.
"But I do sort of envy him and you. Daniel-san," Yuzu said, "I can sense their presence but I can't really see them clearly – they're just blurry shapes to me."
"Eh, you're not really much missing out on anything Yuzu-chan," Daniel spoke as he took a sip of water, "Sure I can also touch & talk to them but after a few encounters you'll see that it's not that different from speaking to a regular living person. And drop the 'san', just call me Dan" Yuzu faintly blushed at his proposal for informality.
"Whatever, I don't believe in them in the first place." Karin spoke.
"Really, Karin?" Dan questioned, "Don't believe in the stuff you can see?"
"How come?! I mean, I'd understand if dad said that since he's the only one that can't see them…" Yuzu sheepishly added.
"Nope, I'm in permanent denial. If I'm not believing in them then, for me, they do not exist."
The chill of Karin's statement, even though not directed at them, was felt by both Yuzu and Daniel, as if a sharp, winter wind hit them right in the face.
"So, here's my latest plan," Karin added, "Ahem – 'Want to flirt with ghosts while being caressed by the first breeze of summer? Karuizawa Ghost Picnic, limited to month of May only."
"Wait, the cherry blossoms were last month, right?" Yuzu remarked.
"Hey, that's a good idea. You need a business partner?" inquired Daniel.
"Only if you got contacts. Don't need you otherwise." Karin bluntly stated, to which Daniel smiled in response.
"Do I see a shrewd businesswoman before me? At your age? I'm impressed."
"Neither of you are making money off of my grief! So don't even think about it!" Ichigo interjected while still trying to shoo away the ghost.
"Watch the legs." Daniel casually stated.
"Legs? Wh-"
While Ichigo was being swept from the floor by Isshin's surprise attack (all the while his father gloating how his son left himself wide open), Daniel & the sisters continued the conversation from before.
"But seriously, didn't you mention a week ago about having your…uncle I think in some talent agency?" Karin asked.
"And it's because he was an actor before, right?" added Yuzu, her question making Daniel cough a bit before letting out a chuckle.
"Well, the former is that my uncle isn't in a talent agency – he owns one. As for the latter…let's just say a former stuntman has a surprisingly large amount of good connections and keep it to that, yeah?"
"Wow, definitely not shady." Karin sarcastically commented.
At the same time Ichigo prevailed over his father by knocking him out cold. After being sure his dad is down for the count, Ichigo went towards the stairs to get to his room.
"Never mind," Ichigo sighed, "Not even hungry at all. I'm going to bed now."
"Yo, tomorrow's studying still on?" Daniel asked across the room.
"Yeah, yeah." Ichigo nonchalantly acknowledged as he kept going upstairs. Dan in response waved at him while Yuzu desperately called her brother out to at least grab a bite before going to sleep.
"Oh well, he's gone. Shouldn't have done that, Dad." Karin casually spoke.
"Wait, why? What did I do?!" Isshin meekly asked, now seemingly completely recovered from the previous beatdown.
"Dad, Ichigo has been under a lot of pressure lately! He told me that more ghosts than ever have been haunting him. He's fed up!" Yuzu pointed out.
"Can confirm that." Dan added as he sipped on his glass of water. "I don't see any difference when it comes to me, but he did mention a few times that he's been seeing way more than ever before."
"That boy…he never talks about stuff like that with me!"
"Of course not. You're over 40 and yet, your communication skills are that of a preschooler. Who'd want to tell you anything?"
Karin's razor-sharp words were the straw that broke the camel's back for Isshin Kurosaki, who stumbled towards the oversized poster of his late wife Masaki, crying about how cruel his daughters have become as they grew older.
Daniel, meanwhile, noticed that it was pretty late – meaning it was a good time to leave.
"Eh, might as well go home. You need help with the dishes, Yuzu-chan?"
"Ah, no, not at all! Thank you for offering either way Dani- err, Dan." Yuzu sheepishly answered, a faint blush rising on her cheeks.
"Then I'm off. I'll see you all tomorrow evening."
"Later."
"See you soon, Dan!"
"Be safe on your way back home, Danny my boy!"
After saying his goodbyes, Daniel left the Kurosaki household and began walking to his home. He already knew what the quickest route was due to him visiting the Kurosakis pretty often, mostly at Isshin's suggestion, but also went with Chad whenever Ichigo directly invited him.
One would think that visiting the same house a couple of times every week for the last month & a half would've gotten old pretty fast, but was in fact quite the opposite. It was both lively & working in harmony, despite the family having a lot of distinct (and sometimes clashing) personalities. Isshin's constant ambushes on his own son was a source of amusement for which Goichi was grateful as it was a better source of entertainment than any comedy movie he has seen so far.
Imagining the annoyed look on Ichigo's face if Dan would ever admit that would've been absolutely priceless.
'I can already imagine it-hm…?'
THUD
Daniel stopped in his tracks, so did his train of thought.
The temperature usually dropped a bit on the bridges, but what he was experiencing at the moment was something else entirely.
The sudden chill made Daniel's skin crawl and he found himself breathing cold air, in front of him the breath he exhaled being visible like it should be in the middle of winter.
THUD
Feelings of peril & dread crept up his spine. Familiar feelings tied to the past he wished he could've forgotten.
All of those feelings weighed on him, like a sinner feeling the weight of his sins, and thus he found himself slowly losing the will nor the desire to move.
THUD
The sound of massive footsteps grew louder and louder with each moment, as if whoever or whatever was making them…was also getting closer and closer.
THUD
And closer.
With considerable effort, Daniel managed to force himself to at least turn around and see what was approaching him. And if there was something to compare it to, Daniel believed it to be as close as it could be to a materialistic representation of downright inhuman malice of some people he had the misfortune of meeting, mostly on rare occasions when he insisted on following his father to work.
Towering a few heads above him, the grotesque creature in front of him looked somehow both malnourished & bloated. Its limbs and neck were thin to the bone and its ribcage was visible through its dark grey skin. The bloated part being its stomach, inflated like a ballon to almost absurd proportions.
But the most distinct characteristics were the hollow hole being directly on the left side of its chest. The second was the head, specifically the bone-white mask that covered its face.
The look of the mask resembled than of a Hannya that Daniel has seen on some Noh masks and quite a few tattoos of yakuza he met in Sotenbori. The difference being that the mask in front of him was completely white & had some characteristics shared with the human skull.
It was standing merely a few feet away from him, so close that it could not even smell, but feel it's breath. The chilling sensation was now amplified tenfold and introduced a new one, one that he got acquainted with a while ago.
The sensation of death.
"Hungry…"
The creature's deep, raspy voice felt unnatural & ethereal, something that not any instrument or microphone in this world could recreate.
"Soul…"
Dan noticed the creature's gangly arm slowly rising & extending towards him, but run away he couldn't, all of his strength now gone. He was frozen like a deer in the headlights and most likely the thing in front of him was somehow responsible for it.
'Is it the chill coming out of it that's holding me stuck? Something else maybe?'
The details of its hand were now visible – the equally skinny fingers paired with crooked fingernails that seemed to have been chewed out for a while served only to add to the creature's grotesqueness.
"Soul."
The creature's hand was getting closer and closer to him, with no way of defending himself from it. The chill was so strong that he couldn't muster the strength to even bring his arms up. No matter how much his mind wanted, the body would not, or could not, listen.
"SOUL."
He could see its eyes much more clearly – a bright, glowing shade of sickly yellow that stared into his eyes, like a predator would stare at its prey before inevitably ending its life.
"GIVE."
Goichi Daniel knew that he was going to die there and then, most likely in a violent, gruesome manner before being eaten. It wasn't the kind of death that he'd personally prefer, though he did hope that the creature would have enough courtesy to kill him before devouring what would be left.
'With my kind of luck, I'm probably not getting that luxury.'
And so, he waited for the oblivion that was to come and take him from the mortal coil.
But it wasn't Goichi's Daniel time. Not yet anyway.
Once she saw the Hollow reaching out to the paralyzed human, she knew she had to act fast.
While still airborne, she unsheathed her Zanpaktou and took an overhead stance above the skinny fat Hollow. And in the next moment, she landed right in front of the Hollow as she cleaved it in half.
The Hollow was dead before it could register what happened to it, hence the death was silent & swift, it's body already dissolved into Reishi and the soul already on its way to Soul Society.
She took a short glance at the human behind her, who looked dumbfounded and completely confused.
'He could probably sense the Hollow but it doesn't seem like he saw it. No need to wipe his memory.'
She left the human and proceeded with her mission, which was searching for elevated levels of spirit pressure.
Couldn't really pinpoint where exactly, something that frustrated her a bit. She just knew that it was somewhere nearby.
May 20th , 2001
Standing near the Hirohyaku Supermarket, Ichigo waited for Daniel to arrive & meetup for a study night. Next week had a couple of grammar tests waiting for them at school, so the two friends already made a deal a few days before to help each other out – Daniel helped Ichigo with English while Ichigo helped Daniel with Japanese.
But school tests weren't the thing that was on Ichigo's mind – this noon he went downtown to check out an explosion that happened near the train station, which was also near his house. That and to give fresh flowers to the ghost girl from yesterday.
Only to find himself running away from some kind of insect-like monster, which was chasing the said girl.
And then she appeared – a swordswoman, dressed in some sort of 19th century clothing, cutting that thing with a katana like it was nothing. She merely glanced at him and then disappeared without a word. The monster itself vanished in thin air as soon as she cut it in half, with no trace of it anywhere.
Up until today, he has never seen such things in his life – not the freakish monsters, nor the swordsmen who wield katanas and cut said monsters. It bothered him quite a bit since he couldn't come to any reasonable conclusion whatsoever. If he was a more superstitious person, he'd probably think today was some kind of ill omen.
"Yo, Ichigo!"
His train of thought was broken upon looking at the source of the familiar voice – it was Daniel who had his bag filled with textbooks lazily hanging on his shoulder. He was casually walking in his semi-slumped posture, not too different from how a drunk man would walk, which constantly gave Ichigo a minor urge to reprimand him to walk straight like a normal person.
"Good timing – forgot to buy some stuff that we'll need for tonight. Told you to wait me at the supermarket for a reason." Daniel said.
The reason being that Daniel wanted to buy iced coffees for both of them, which would be the best drink to have considering they'll be studying a while. Ichigo had no complaints with that, so he picked himself a BOSS Black can while Daniel picked an American brand ice coffee stored in a glass bottle.
What caught Ichigo's attention was that Daniel would sometimes pause in the middle of something and his eyes would just stare into nothing, but after a few seconds he'd snap out of it & continue as usual.
But then he remembered the conversation he had with him regarding the ghost of the little girl.
'Must've hit him harder than I thought.' Ichigo thought.
He could see ghosts for as long as he could remember, so stuff like figuring out the context behind how some ghosts died or why they are there didn't bother him that much. Ichigo would like to think that stuff like that made him a tad bit more mature than his peers, but a part of him had to admit that it might've also be the case that he's seen so many ghosts like that girl that he's grown numb to it.
The and…the death of his mother contributed to that.
He knew that Dan's family passed away recently, though Dan himself didn't share any more details on the matter, besides the deceased members of his family – his father, step-mother and half-sister.
Add to the fact that he can also see ghosts now and no wonder that a ghost of a little girl obviously distressed him, no matter how much Daniel tried to hide it.
'Funny. Kinda speaks more about me than him if I look at it differently…'
So, in relative silence, they picked everything Daniel needed from the supermarket and went to the register to check out.
With that out of the way, the two teens went directly to the Kurosaki household and got there relatively quickly, though the sun was slowly beginning to set, the night being close on the horizon.
Both Ichigo and Goichi were surprised when Isshin didn't greet the former with some sort of a surprise attack, but Karin said that he was at work and won't be coming home tonight, which made Ichigo feel a bit relieved that he wouldn't have to put up with his dad's antics for once.
So, after having dinner both of them went to Ichigo's room and quickly went to his room, sat in the centre of the floor & opened their textbooks. Thus they began studying their respective languages, using example sentences from one textbook and translating it to another, back & forth – it was the quickest and best way to help each other, especially since they could always check with one another for mistakes.
One hour later both of them opened their coffees and the same time, though while Ichigo took a few sips Daniel gulped half a bottle.
"Everything good on your end?" Ichigo asked.
"Mhm," Daniel nodded as he finished the rest of the bottle, "You know me, figuring out stuff is the easy part. Memorizing is the problem."
"Guess you just have to practice until you can remember it."
"Yeah, yeah, so…" Daniel put the glass bottle on the table, "C'mon, tell your kyodai – you found a girl yet?"
"First, I'm not your 'kyodai' – we ain't yakuza." Ichigo sighed, "Second, no and when did my love life become your business?"
"Became my business when we became kyo- friends! That means I'm here to help in every way possible, relationships included." Daniel explained.
"Still, I don't remember asking you to do so." An mildly annoyed Ichigo retorted.
"Dude, I told you before, you got the looks to be a modern-day Casanova. And the starting choices are pretty good – Tatsuki-chan, Hime-chan. I'd say even Chizuru-chan would be a good pick." Daniel laughed.
Ichigo knew that this was the way Daniel had fun at his expense, by trying to goad him into doing some stupid bullshit that would ruin the reputation he carefully made and managed.
"Quit portraying me as a Casanova. Tatsuki & Orihime are my friends and I'm pretty sure Chizuru isn't into guys."
"Things change, people too and if there's anyone who can make that change it could be you. Also, I am sure that Hime-chan has a small crush on you, alongside a good amount of the female school body. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if women were coming through your window to get you!"
Something, be it either God, or fate or karma, must've heard Dan & decided to deliver an absurd punchline because right after he said that a woman entered (landed to be more precise) into his room through the window – the same woman that he saw this morning cutting up the insect-like creature.
Both Daniel & Ichigo were completely caught off-guard by the uninvited guest who, judging by the look on her face, was acting like they weren't there.
The woman gripping the sheathed katana on her hip didn't exactly help to relieve neither Ichigo's nor Daniel's nerves.
"Oi, who are you? What do you want?!" Ichigo demanded, but the woman didn't even acknowledge him, and kept looking around.
"It's close…" the woman muttered, and that was when Ichigo decided enough was enough so he kicked her in the ass.
"How's THIS for close, idiot?!"
The woman unceremoniously fell on the floor and turned around, looking completely dumbfounded to what just happened.
"First you scare the living daylight out of me, then you just ignore me?! I'm asking who you are!" Ichigo angrily pointed out, to which Daniel nonchalantly added:
"Don't want say you asked for the ass-kicking…but you kinda did, invading private property and all."
The strange woman turned towards them, still sporting the same flabbergasted look.
"Y-you can see me? Both of you? Wait, you just kicked me too…" she spoke.
"What are you blabbing to yourself for? Of course we can see you!"
When she got up from the floor and collected herself, Ichigo noticed that she was quite short – not that he was towering over her, but a head, head and a half was a pretty noticeable difference between them.
"You're the one I saw in the town earlier."
"Just noticed that, have you?"
"And you," she turned to Daniel, "are the one I saw on the bridge last night."
Ichigo was a bit surprised upon hearing that, but guessed that Daniel either didn't have the opportunity to talk about something like this or, in the fashion of Goichi Daniel, forgot to mention.
"Last night was kind of a blur for me, but I think it was you I saw as well."
She approached towards Daniel and looked at him a bit – almost like she was searching for something on him.
"Or maybe not, who knows." He quickly added, probably thinking it was something he wasn't supposed to say out loud.
Then the woman turned towards Ichigo with the same expression she had for Daniel, though this time she grabbed his chin as well.
"That is strange…people don't usually see me, much less interact like you did…"
The chin grabbing was getting really annoying, so Ichigo swatted her hand away and went to kick her in retaliation.
"Quit talking nonsense!"
The short woman deftly jumped over Ichigo's kick and vaulted above him by tapping his head with her foot, which made Ichigo stumble down.
"Hm, not bad." Dan commented, impressed by the woman's agility while trying his best not to laugh at his downed friend.
"Why, you…!" growled Ichigo.
"Very well," she interrupted him," I will answer your questions now."
The woman's tone got serious, without a hint of trickery or smugness.
"I am a Shinigami."
Even her facial expression wore a steadfast, no-nonsense look as she began explaining who she is, where she's from and what's her purpose, as well as explain what exactly happened in downtown Karakura this morning.
She also recounted the events of last night, specifically what happened on the bridge.
While Goichi looked half-confused, but most of the time genuinely interested in what she had to say, almost looking like he believed her…with Ichigo it was a different story.
"So, you're a Shinigami from a place called Soul Society and you're here to exorcise these evil spirits, like the one that was near Dan yesterday and the one that attacked the little girl this morning. Am I getting this right?"
The woman nodded, completely unaware of Ichigo's subsequent reaction.
"Are you out of your freaking mind, you idiot?! Who'd believe a tale like that?!" Ichigo angrily yelled out, throwing a small table over in the process.
"Was the table violence necessary?" Goichi made an off-hand comment that was ignored by everyone.
"You're saying that, even though you can see ghosts! Yet you don't believe in the Shinigami?!" the woman confronted him, while also looking back and forth between Ichigo and Goichi.
"Of course! I only believe what I see with my own eyes. And unfortunately for you, I have never seen nor heard of a Shinigami before in my life!" Ichigo retorted, to which Dan added some of his own words.
"Yeah, I've been in business of seeing ghosts for a month so I can't say I've seen it all. As far as I'm concerned, he's the expert – what he says goes."
"But both of you can see me!" the woman got up to Ichigo, but nothing was convincing Ichigo into buying her story.
"I'll admit that you're no human. But do me a favor and go play "Shinigami" somewhere else, you little brat."
The sourness of his voice was followed by a patronizing headpat, which visibly angered the woman.
"Hey now, no need to be insensitive like that, Ichigo. It's not like the tomboy chose to look stunted like that."
Daniel's words were the drop that overflowed the cup, and the woman looked like she just had enough of both of them.
"Stunted? Brat? You dare call me that?!"
With Ichigo's hand still on her head, the woman swooshed her right hand (with which she extended her index & middle finger) at both of the boys and exclaimed:
"Bakudo No.1: Sai!"
Neither of them could either question or mock the weird incantation as their arms contorted and eventually locked behind their backs, the sudden tension & pain was enough for both to have lost their balance, which made them fall on the floor.
"Ngh! What…did you do to us?!" Ichigo gritted through his teeth, trying to break free from this unknown, invisible force that was tying his arms back.
"You can't move, can you?" she stated in a matter-of-fact way, "This is Kido. A high-level incantation that only Shinigami can use."
"Really? Thought I heard number one…doesn't seem high-level to me…" Daniel joked, though he was visibly struggling to keep his smirk.
"Oh? Are you telling me I need to use higher level kido on you?"
It only took her to notice his smirk turning into an expression of worry to get her answer.
"Fools." The woman began, now looking like she took Dan's cocky smirk and put it on her face, "I may not look like it, but I have lived nearly five times longer than both of you combined. Yet you dare call me brat and mock my appearance!"
While Dan's worrisome smirk now turned into one of annoyance (as a reaction to the lecture he got), Ichigo consistently wore an defiantly angry expression that grew angrier & angrier the more she talked.
"I would kill insolent fools like you, but the provisional spirit laws forbid unauthorized executions. I'll let you off with minor paralysis – be grateful for that, brats!"
Then all of a sudden, she began unsheathing her sword.
"Also…"
With the way she was handling, both Kurosaki & Daniel thought she might've changed her mind about the whole 'execution' thing…
Until it turned out that she lightly struck a familiar ghost, who was kneeling next to Ichigo, with the pommel of her katana.
"Oh…" yelped the ghost that Ichigo recognized.
"Hold on, you're the guy from yesterday!"
She lifted her pommel, revealing a glowing sign on his forehead. The ghost began to panic, begging her that he doesn't want to be sent to Hell.
But the Shinigami reassured him that it wasn't Hell he was going to.
"Worry not, you're going to Soul Society. It is a peaceful & restful place."
The ghost, now comforted, disappeared in a small flash of light. The only thing left from him was a black butterfly that emerged from the place where he vanished.
"What did you do?" Daniel asked, looking completely stupefied. Ichigo too looked like he'd want to know what exactly happened as well.
"I sent him to Soul Society. In your terms I believe the term is 'passing over'. It is one of the jobs a Shinigami must do."
The Shinigami sheathed her katana back & continued.
"To ask whether you believe me or not no longer seems necessary after what you just witnessed. So be silent & listen, I will explain it simply so even impatient brats like you can understand. Now…"
What happened next surprised them even more than the passing of the ghost, something that neither of them could ever expect or imagine in their lifetimes.
She pulled a notebook from her cloth that contained very detailed, yet simplistic, caricature drawings of animals of various expressions & colors.
"There are two types of spirits in this world – the first ones are normal spirits called 'Plus," she pointed towards a smiling, happy white bunny with red & white hearts surrounding it. It has the label of 'GOOD GHOST' below it, "They're the ghosts you usually see.
While she was on the same page, she has now pointed at a smirking white bear on a black background that was filled with streaks of yellow lightning. The label below the bear had 'BAD GHOST' written.
"The second one are called Hollows. They attack people, living or dead, and devour their souls. In other words – evil spirits. Any questions so far?" she asked.
"Well…first off, tell me why do your drawings suck?" asked Ichigo.
"Yeah, no offense but shouldn't you be good at this if you lived that long?" Dan added.
The Shinigami answered by taking a marker and drawing swirly moustaches on their faces.
"Hey! What gives?! Don't you laugh at me, you're in the same boat!" Ichigo complained, glaring daggers between the Shinigami and Daniel who was openly laughing at him.
"Let us continue, Messieurs…"
She then talked about the specific tasks a Shinigami has – to send Plus souls to Soul Society, like how she just did with the soul of the old man (the process called Konso, as she put it); second is to cut and purge Hollows.
What Ichigo really wanted to know is why the Hollow he saw downtown was specifically going after the girl. So after she finished her explanations, during which he and Daniel rubbed off their marker moustaches off the carpet, Ichigo asked about if it was normal for Hollow to act like one did this afternoon.
"I do not know," she plainly spoke, "We have yet to learn everything about them."
"Yet to learn? For this long? Seriously?" Dan sniggered, "Then again, you do dress like Shinsengumi wannabee and use a katana in this day & age…"
"What's that supposed to mean, brat? Do you suggest I should've left you be devoured by the Hollow last night?"
Ichigo could hear it, even among the escalating bickering between Dan & the Shinigami. The bloodcurdling shriek reverberating in the air, one that could only belong to a monster.
"Oi! Quit it, both of you! Can't you hear it?!"
"Hm? Hear what?" the Shinigami asked.
"The howl! The one that happened right now! What was that?!"
The shriek went off again, now louder than ever. Meaning it was now much, much closer.
And by the look on the Shinigami's face, she could hear it too.
"That's definitely a cry of a Hollow!" She got up, her hand already on the handle of her sheathed sword.
"Isn't that what you're after? Go hunt it down!" Ichigo hurried her.
A crash was heard soon after, and with it a painful cry of a young girl.
"That was Yuzu!" Dan shouted as he tried to get up, but the invisible binds were still too strong to resist against.
The Shinigami rushed to open the door and from it fell an injured Yuzu Kurosaki, who was leaning on it from the other side. Her head was sporting an open wound that was bled profusely, but still managed to utter a few words.
"Ichii-ni…Daniel-kun…Karin…" Yuzu coughed, and continued despite the pain, "Karin was…! Please, save her…"
The poor girl passed out right after making her plea. The Shinigami knelt to check on her but before she could confirm anything, she heard the Hollow roar again, and this time was accompanied by a scream of another young girl.
Both Ichigo & Daniel knew it was Karin and before either of them could say anything, the Shinigami rushed downstairs.
"Damn…it!" Ichigo growled, the anger of what happened to Yuzu and the fear of what might happen to Karin gave him the strength to rise up and stumble out of the room.
Daniel's eyes were transfixed on injured Yuzu, so much so that he barely managed to catch a glimpse of Ichigo exiting the room, even though he was still bound just like him.
He never would have thought something like this could happen. Under circumstances that were beyond his knowledge and control.
He could never imagine something that happening again.
"D-Daniel…Daniel-ku…"
His ears perked up upon hearing Yuzu's weakened voice again, hyper-fixating on listening to it.
"H-h…
His breathing was slowly escalating into erratic. His eyes watering from the lack of any blinking and every muscle of his being cramped.
"Help…Ichi-nii…"
With that, Yuzu passed out once again. A plea of a young girl, now begging to help her brother.
A plea that will be left unanswered and unfulfilled, for no matter how hard he tried, Goichi Daniel couldn't get up and rush like Ichigo could. In every way, both physical and mental, he was weaker than him.
And he was fine with that. He accepted it as a fact the moment Ichigo saved him, effortlessly beating multiple opponents while he simply accepted his fate.
The role of a coward suited him best, after all.
The only difference between that and now is that now there's someone else's life on the line.
He buried his face on the floor, so that his eyes could only see the split between darkness and the brown wooden floor. His breathing slowed down, hoping he could somehow fall asleep and wake up in a different reality where none of this is happening.
He wished it was all that easy. So easy to just shrivel in and assume someone else will do the work.
But he knew it wasn't just him – there was Yuzu, who was still lying close to him and was injured. Karin, who is in mortal danger and might be devoured by something similar to what he encountered last night.
And then it was Ichigo who, despite his capabilities that trumped everything Daniel had, was only one man. Only one mistake would take and he'd be no more.
Such a notion made Daniel fill with rage. Rage towards seeing the people that care about him hurt, rage towards the monster that injured Yuzu & has been hurting Karin.
But most of all, rage at himself for taking this long to get himself together. So he slowly got up…
…And began to struggle against the invisible barrier holding his hands.
"Stop it! No human strength can break it!"
He didn't care about anything the Shinigami next to him was saying, not even bothering to tell her to shut it. All he cared about is breaking out to save Karin, who was in the monster's grasp.
The more he pushed, the stronger the restraint resisted – almost as if it was a living thing, hellbent on keeping him down.
"Down, boy."
The pain of the memory from years ago and what came after only served as fuel to his fire as he pushed harder, despite every fibre of his being burning in protest.
"No! If you try to force it, your soul…"
He could feel the bindings now break, piece by piece. He was close and forced himself to endure the pain for the final push.
With a snap, Ichigo & Daniel were freed from the ethereal binds.
"KARIN!"
"YUZU!"
Daniel rushed towards the girl and with a quick pulse check confirmed that she was alive. The wound on her head was a cut that didn't look bad despite the initial bleeding, which by this point has thankfully stopped.
Carefully & gently, he carried her to her room and, instead of her bed so she doesn't fall of it by accident, placed her on the floor to her side. As soon as he did that, he rushed towards the bathroom and brought back the emergency first aid kit.
While he hoped he'd never have to use them, the basic skills of first aid that Isshin so adamantly drilled into him (as well as his insistence on training on mannequins, so much so that it has become muscle memory) did come in handy – clean the wound, sterile gauze combined with a mini-cold bag and wrap it all up with a bandage.
She looked much better now and, by the looks of it, was looking like she'd recover in no time. With his job done, Daniel went out of her room and made sure he closed the door, though he couldn't lock it since the it only had a doorknob.
As soon as he was out of the room, he heard the familiar cry of the Hollow coming from outside. So he went back into Ichigo's room and looked through the open window and what he saw was something he couldn't believe it.
"Oi! I've had enough of you!"
It was Ichigo, boldly standing in front of the Hollow that was easily twice his height and three times in size.
'This…this fucking idiot…'
Judging from the looks of it Ichigo wanted to fight the Hollow one on one. He quickly noticed that from the side was an unconscious Karin and the armed Shinigami, who was clearly more equipped to deal with the monster.
And Ichigo, for some reason, had to pick a fight with something that could effortlessly squash him into thin, red paste.
Seeing his friend about to throw his life away, Daniel quickly eyed the entire room for a weapon. The electric guitar was a no go – a heavy, blunt weapon that most likely wouldn't do much even if he swung it with all his might.
Then he noticed the glass ice coffee bottle and he already formulated a quick plan that, while it probably would have ended up in him dying, at least he would be able to buy time for the Shinigami to help Ichigo.
He took the glass and smashed it on the edge of the wooden table, breaking the bottle into a razor-sharp half that, while brittle, looked like it could do damage.
"You want my soul?!"
He heard Ichigo yell out, which meant it was do-or-die now. With the broken bottle in his left hand, Daniel vaulted over the window and stepped onto the front roof. He went back as few steps as it was possible due to the limited space he had, all so he'd have a running start to jump at the Hollow.
"Then fight me, one on one!" Ichigo desperately exclaimed.
'This guy…' Daniel thought as he began to run. One step, two steps, three step and jump right on the corner of the front roof.
The element of surprise that Daniel so relied on for this attack was gone out of the picture when the masked monster turned its head, most likely because its eyes were on the sides of its head.
That head turn proved to be a blessing in disguise since it gave Daniel a better angle to land and properly grasp the edge of its mask.
He knew he only had one shot at this, and it was either now or never.
With all his might, Daniel managed to stab the creature in its eye, which gushed blood out like a small geyser. The hollow screeched, the sheer volume so painful to Dan's ears that he felt losing the strength in his grip.
The Shinigami attempted to capitalize on the opening his attack gave her, but she too was affected by the Hollow's scream of pain and, by that point, it was too late to do anything as the Hollow managed to swath her away like a fly with its free arm.
Dan panicked at the moment, both from the Hollow's ear-bleeding shriek and from the fact that the Shinigami failed, so he pulled out the bottle and tried stabbing it again, only to hit the hard, white surface of the mask. The bottle was rebound and its razor-sharp edges pierced deep into Dan's left arm.
There was no time to acknowledge or even think about the injury as Dan felt himself yanked of the mask by the Hollow's hand that grabbed him by the legs.
"YOU! YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT!" The Hollow growled, its one uninjured yellow eye glowing, almost like its rage fueled the light.
And pay he did, as the Hollow slammed him onto the concrete.
The pain of the impact was secondary to the sudden & violent loss of breath as he landed back first onto the street. Then the Hollow finished its retaliation by throwing him onto the plated wall opposite of the Kurosaki household. This time the whiplash ended up in his head hitting the wall, the shock of pain so great that, to Goichi Daniel, the entire world became a buzzing mix of black clouds & high-pitched ringing in his ears.
Ichigo was frozen in shock when Dan fell from the rock wall and onto the street. The force of the impact was strong enough to leave an indent, accompanied with a trail of blood that led to the back of his head.
"DAN!"
Ichigo rushed towards his friend, who was now sprawled on the concrete in positions that the human body would end up if they were hit by a truck.
He knelt down and found him not only alive, but coughing up words, as if he's trying to say something.
"A-a…apol…apologies…"
The orange-hair teen thought the entire scene felt like fate was playing a brutal joke on him. Not only did he learn that it was his fault that the Hollow came after the little ghost girl in the first place and then later attacked his family, but when he tried to pull his little suicidal stunt to get the Hollow off of his sisters, Dan jumped in to save him.
And now his friend is a barely functional mass of broken bones and brain damage. And its all because of him.
"D-Damn it!" Ichigo exclaimed, now truly prepared to die as punishment for his stupidity as the Hollow quickly recovered and began rapidly extending its neck towards him.
But death didn't come for him – instead, it came in his aid.
The Shinigami got right in between him and the Hollow at the right place, but not at the right time as her guard was too wide open to properly block the Hollow's attack with her sword.
Instead, she took the brunt of the Hollow's bite with her body but did manage to shove her sword in between its teeth. Before the she could be bit in half, the Shinigami quickly slashed away, cutting off its tooth, which made the monster recoil in pain.
"Shinigami!" Ichigo yelled out as she collapsed to the ground, the damage too much for her to handle.
"You…fool." She murmured, "Did you seriously think…that if you offered your soul, it would all be over & leave everyone else?"
Still kneeling over Dan, he watched as she crawled towards a lamp post while still holding her sword. It was clear as day that she was in no condition to fight anymore.
"At this rate…we will all simply become its food."
Ichigo threw a quick glance at the Hollow, who looked like it recovered enough from the pain of losing its tooth. It was clear as day that it will attack again.
"Hey…do you want to save your family and your friend there?" the Shinigami asked, who was leaning on the lamp post at the moment.
He immediately got closer to her upon hearing the question, the answer to it already set in stone.
"Of course! I'll do anything, just tell me the way!"
"There's one way…the only way."
She pointed her katana at him and exclaimed:
"You must become a Shinigami!"
The statement caught him off-guard. But before he could think of the irony of becoming something that he himself didn't believe in in the first place, the Shinigami went on explaining:
"Run the point of this Zanpaktou through the center of your very being and I will pour my powers into you."
"Are…are you sure you can do something like that?" he asked, clearly unsure of the idea.
"I don't know. I'm not sure if it'll even work…but there's nothing else we can do."
Two choices were presented in front of him – do nothing and everyone becomes Hollow chow, or try something that's not guaranteed to work and still become food for the monster.
Or maybe even get lucky and succeed in saving everyone.
For the first time since the situation happened, Ichigo was able to confidently smirk. He could work with chances like those.
"Alright Shinigami, give me your sword."
"My name isn't Shinigami," she smiled back at him, "It is Kuchiki Rukia."
He grabbed the blade with both his hands and got the tip close to his heart.
"I'm…"
It was almost like a race between the sword and the Hollow on who gets to him first.
"Kurosaki Ichigo!"
At that moment, the winner was decided and everything turned to white.
AND THUS, BRANDISHED IS THE BLADE
'Looks like I didn't have to intervene after all.'
A statement that will remain in his mind for…all of eternity, he supposed. Unless he wanted Isshin to come crashing down his shop & kicking his ass.
As for the boy, not only did he take almost all of Kuchiki's Reiatsu, he was also fast enough to cleave the Hollow's arm in half.
When the dust cleared, he had to stifle back a chuckle since he couldn't decide what was funnier – Kuchiki-san's reaction to the sheer size of Kurosaki's Asauchi (which was a goldmine of jokes in of itself) or Kurosaki himself striking a pose with that massive sword on his back.
'It really wouldn't feel out of place if someone would play a 90's pop-rock song.'
The kid's moves were telegraphed and clumsy, but what he lacked in technique he made up with power and sheer brute force. The latter was frankly the only thing he needed, since it didn't take him much effort to slice the Hollow's leg off before going for a clean bisection.
Kurosaki Ichigo did it – he became a Shinigami, purified the Hollow & saved his family. And as much as this made things interesting in this little game of chess that he was playing with a…certain someone, it also made things much, much more complicated.
Many plans now have to not only be rescheduled, but also revamped from grounds up. Especially since he might need to include folk he never would think of including before.
Said folk also need quite a lot of training as well as live long enough to survive to it.
The moment Ichigo fell unconscious due to the strain of just turning into a Shinigami, he knew it was go time.
He quickly introduced himself to Kuchiki-san and, despite her suspicions, assured her that he was a friendly enough to offer some services. With that done, he was looking to immediately begin on the clean-up.
'Replacing that missing chunk of the house will take a while, no way I'm doing that in one evening.'
Before he could finish that train of thought, he noticed something very peculiar that caught the corner of his eye.
He knew that, when purified, Hollow blood that was spilled in battle should usually evaporate and leave no trace behind whatsoever.
So what he found peculiar is that all of the spilled blood, both human & Hollow, is somehow gathering itself together and converging into one point. That being the still body of the Karakura newcomer, Goichi Daniel.
The converging blood looked almost like it was accelerating the healing process, which was useful since the boy did take quite the beating, though the wounds on his left arm seem to not heal completely but leave very visible scar tissue.
'Guess I'll be keeping an eye out on you too, Daniel-kun.'
Apologies, life happened + got lost buying milk. Hope you enjoyed the chapter!