Chapter 02: Helping Out the Newbies

"...so, what am I looking at exactly?" Keigo queried.

"Beats me." Ichigo had the audacity to shrug, much to Rukia's ire. "She literally harassed me into coming here after school."

"What I needed you here for, Asano-kun, was to train Ichigo in zanjutsu." Rukia gritted out, her knuckles popping from how tightly her fists had clenched while a vein throbbed in her forehead. "I'd earlier planned to use some pepper balls as a substitute, but a fellow shinigami is a much better deal."

"That's true, I guess." Keigo agreed, much to Rukia's relief and Ichigo's surprise. "You can't go on as you are without some swordsmanship training, no matter how little."

"...fine, then." Ichigo sighed before letting Rukia pull his soul out while looking astounded when Keigo easily freed himself. "How'd you do that?"

"You know how meditating's supposed to put you in touch with your inner self and let you astral project and stuff?" Keigo said as he gently placed his body onto a bench and arranged it to look like he had dozed off. A beat later, Rukia did the same for Ichigo's body, remembering how her new schoolmates had reacted to his limp body yesterday being carelessly left behind. "Well, astral projection's legit for us."

"...good to know." Ichigo hefted up his giant blade towards Keigo, who frowned at the sight of it. "What's wrong? Is it too intimidating for you?"

"No, it's... Sorry, I just forgot how much of a newbie you are." Keigo sighed, his words very much to Ichigo's affront as he drew his own sword. "I was already going to hold off my shikai, but it looks like I'll need to handicap myself further."

Rukia sighed in disappointment as Ichigo immediately fell for Keigo's taunt/truth, the taller teenager charging forward with an overhead swing that slammed down with enough force to crack the ground.

But as she'd predicted, Keigo had easily sidestepped it, slashing at Ichigo's shoulder from above with the back of his sword. If he'd used the bladed end...

"First cut."

Ichigo gritted his teeth and swung from below, gasping when his larger sword was immediately stopped dead by the pommel of Keigo's sword. Initially in shock, Ichigo grunted as he physically tried to push his taller weight against Keigo, but found himself not advancing forward by even the tiniest inch.

Rukia herself was just as shocked. 'That level of skill goes just beyond an average shinigami... Was he truly born here? I don't think he could match any of our captains... but I also can't think of any of the lieutenants matching him except Sasakibe-fukutaichō!'

And it wasn't like Ichigo himself was totally unskilled. Repeatedly charging forward with slowly improving movements, Ichigo's large sword clashed ineffectually against Keigo's katana with relentless swings from various angles. However, Keigo parried every single one with simple gestures, until Ichigo was soon panting from the exertion.

"Are you done yet?" Keigo asked, and Rukia immediately winced. If she had Ichigo's character pinned down yet...

"As if!"

...those were a poor choice of words. However, Rukia gasped as Ichigo's sword began to swell with his reiatsu as he charged forward again and swung, unleashing a shockwave that gouged a large scar through the ground for several meters.

Rukia was almost sure that Keigo would've dodged that, only to gape when Keigo had stood his ground to weather the blow, emerging completely unharmed as the dust and smoke cleared away.

"You've got a lot of raw power... but your skill in using it is terrible." Keigo sighed as he stepped back and sheathed his zanpakutō. "I'm not sure if I'm a good enough teacher for that, but you're gonna need a lot of experience to grow."

Keigo then turned his back and walked back towards his body, leaving Ichigo to stare at his own blade with utter defeat.

"I... lost."

Rukia offered no condolences. While Keigo hadn't seriously attacked Ichigo even once, the overwhelming gap in skill was so much that even an untrained person like Ichigo knew it himself. "Then just get stronger."

Ichigo stared at her with an undecipherable expression before sighing as he moved towards his own body. "Well, at least this was a whole lot better than whatever we'd have done with pepper balls."

"Kurosaki-kun! Asano-kun!"

All of three of them turned to regard a girl who had approached them.

"Orihime-chan, good evening!" Keigo instantly greeted with a cheer.

"Yo, Inoue." Ichigo greeted. "How're you doing?"

"Hehe... Shopping for dinner." The girl called 'Inoue' rummaged through the nylon bag she'd been holding to bring out a leek. "I bought leeks, butter, bananas and sweat bean jelly!"

'Is there some kind of modern but difficult delicacy that can be made from that selection of ingredients?' Rukia wondered as the boys regarded Inoue's bag warily. 'I may still have much to learn...'

"So what are you guys doing? You and Asano-kun have been hanging out more often than usual." Inoue asked curiously.

"Ah? Eh..." Ichigo floundered for an excuse.

"We were just arguing about which is better between boobs or butts." Keigo immediately got the back of his head smacked by Ichigo.

"Like hell we were!" Ichigo exclaimed.

"Ichigo chose boobs-" Asano went down to a knee from the subsequently harder punch to the back of his head.

"Ah, Tatsuki-chan does say that you're boys, after all." Inoue blushed as she looked away, her gaze finally landing on Rukia. "Kuchiki-san?"

"Who the hell are you?" Rukia immediately asked, only to be met with both Ichigo and Asano's surprised expressions.

"Idiot! She's in our class!" Ichigo hissed into her ear. "Inoue Orihime!"

'Ah, quite the blunder.' Rukia immediately changed tunes, smiling pleasantly as she curtsied. "Ah, you're looking quite well, Inoue-san!"

"Ah, you're looking well also." Inoue reciprocated her curtsy, albeit in a confused manner.

Ichigo sighed before his eyes narrowed when looking at Inoue. "Hey, your arm... what happened? Did you fall and hit something?"

"Huh... Oh, this? No, no, I nearly got run over last night." Inoue chuckled as she gestured at her bandaged bicep.

"What?!" Asano exclaimed. "How did that happen?! Was that why you didn't show up in school today? Wait, did you manage to see what the car looked like?!"

"I'd gone out to buy a drink and- Bam! I've been getting nearly run over a lot lately..." Inoue chuckled weakly, trying and failing to find humor in her words as her classmates stared at her with naked worry.

Rukia herself was far more concerned with an abnormal bruise around the girl's left leg. "That bruise on your leg... May I take a look?"

"Huh? This?" Inoue lifted her long skirt slightly to regard it herself. "Sure, go ahead. This showed up last night as well, so it was probably from that car, too."

Rukia paid no more attention as a familiar whiff of scent reached her nose. 'This remnants... This is definitely from a hollow!'

"Kuchiki-san, why are you looking at me like that?"

"Huh? Oh, it's nothing." Rukia startled after realizing that she was now just glaring at Inoue's leg. "It just looks quite painful."

"How did you know?!" Inoue gasped. "My leg hurts even worse than my arm!"

"Then why isn't it bandaged too?" Ichigo deadpanned. "Let's get you over to the clinic."

"Huh?" Inoue stuttered when Ichigo moved closer to hold her by the shoulder, her cheeks reddening immensely. "Um..."

"Why are you blushing?" Ichigo asked, prompting Asano to sigh and Rukia to raise a brow.

"Well, I should get going." Asano stated. "My dinner isn't going to cook itself."

"Ah! I'm late too!" Inoue rushed past Asano and up the stairs. Even as Ichigo and Asano both offered to walk her home, the girl just blushed harder and refused, she and Asano heading away in opposite directions.

Rukia watched Inoue go on her way, hoping her deduction was wrong.

"ARE YOU FREAKING STUPID?!"

Orihime leaned back a little from Tatsuki's shout, making sure not to swallow her bite down the wrong pipe. "Don't be rude. I'm totally not stupid."

"Why, Orihime?" Tatsuki groaned. "Why would you blow a chance like that?"

Orihime frowned in confusion, wondering what she meant. "I... blew something?"

"Uh, yeah!" Tatsuki clenched her fist. "You gotta reach out and grab it!"

"Grab what?" Orihime took a sip of water.

"The chance! If he was going to accompany you all the way, you should've agreed while hugging his arm close! Then when you reach a nice secluded spot along the way... you shove him down and get freaky!"

*SPLLOOSH!*

Water flew from Orihime's mouth in a fine mist, at least in the scenario that played in the young maiden's mind. In reality, there was a great deal of spitting and choking. "Tatsuki-chan?!"

"Hmm... On second thought, maybe you could use those magnificent boobs of yours to have him shove you down." Tatsuki joked, or at least Orihime hoped it was a joke. "Then you could have him 'take responsibility'!"

'I can't do that to Kurosaki-kun!' Orihime sighed as she cleaned herself up, wondering what she would do if such a thing actually happened. 'He'd probably have to be possessed... or be replaced by an evil entity...! Or at least a perverted entity as bad as Chizuru-chan.'

"Ichigo chose boobs-"

*PUNCH*

Orihime blushed harder, idly poking one of her own.

"Still, I can't believe that he's already pretty chummy that new girl..." Tatsuki hummed, raising her thumb against her chin. "I didn't think Ichigo ever noticed girls much. Then Kuchiki showed up out of nowhere."

"Oh, I saw them together in the park with Asano-kun this evening." Orihime spoke up. "I'm not sure what they were doing while arguing, but it got pretty wrecked."

"Wrecked? Now that I think about it, Asano's been hanging around Ichigo more often." Tatsuki took a sip from her own cup. "Probably misses Kojima a lot if he's directly with Ichigo now."

Orihime felt sorry for Asano. After Kojima had moved away with his mother, Asano had been so depressed when he'd once spoken as if he'd been talking to his best friend, only to turn and see that unoccupied table. The face he'd made at that moment was so terrible that even Ochi-sensei had pitied him, later rearranging their seats so that Asano wasn't near Kojima's former seat again.

*Crash!*

*Thump!*

"Huh, what was that?" While Tatsuki looked around for the source of the sound, Orihime gasped when she looked back to see Enraku having fallen down. "Oh, no! Enraku, speak to me!"

Holding up the fallen doll, Orihime gasped at the rip that was beneath his left eye. "Ah! How'd you get torn up?!"

"Whoa. Maybe the fabric's rotting?" Tatsuki suggested from behind her.

"That can't be..." Orihime stilled as something wet seemed to be dripping from Enraku's tear, staining her hand... red... "Wh-What's this? It looks like... blood-"

Something tore out of Enraku's wound and through her entire body, causing Orihime to collapse.

"Ichigo!"

Ichigo nearly smacked into the roof he'd just landed on, gawking at the thing that had just appeared next to him. "Who the hell are you?!"

The 'knight' that appeared to be completely made of darkness, save for its visor lined with vertical slits that glowed violet, gave a short wave as what he now recognized to be Keigo's voice spoke from it. "Ichigo, why the hell is your reiatsu is reverberating throughout the whole city block?"

"I see." Rukia spoke up from his back. "Asano-kun, we believe that Inoue is about to be attacked by a hollow. Please hurry over there at once."

"Understood. Luckily, me being the student council president means having to memorize the addresses of at least my classmates."

The knight immediately vanished into the ground, allowing Ichigo to continue his run. "What the hell was that?"

"Most likely his zanpakutō ability." Rukia answered. "So that's why he was so confident in being able to protect Karakura by himself. If he can create and command a personal army of his own, that's certainly possible."

"Does that mean that I can do something like that myself?" Ichigo asked. "Also, can you do something like that as well?"

"First off..." Rukia smacked the back of his head. "It takes years to attain a zanpakutō's esoteric abilities, or at the very least, their name. Secondly, I do have something of my own and I would've even used it to save your family back then... had I not gotten injured back then. The effects of my zanpakutō are too dangerous to use near civilians without the required precision."

"I see... Sorry." Ichigo mumbled before doubling his speed.

When she came back to her senses, it was to see some kind of naga monster with a white mask attacking Tatsuki.

'Am I... dead? I feel dizzy... A chain... I'm chained up? I can't breathe...' Orihime wheezed, weakly pulling at the chain that was stuck in her chest for some reason. 'I don't like this...'

"Argh!" Tatsuki gasped as the naga slammed it's giant hand over her chest and neck, crushing her ribs and denying her oxygen. "Urgh!"

"Tatsuki-chan!" Orihime gasped as she struggled to get up. 'My body feels so heavy...! My body...? My body! If I can... get to it...!'

Stumbling towards the limp body that was connected to her by the chain between them, Orihime only had to touch it before she felt a sudden yanking sensation. The next instant, Orihime sat up, feeling much better and without any chain on her chest.

"Tatsuki-chan!" Rushing forward, Orihime tackled the naga's arm off Tatsuki. "Tatsuki-chan! Get up, we have to run away!"

Tatsuki said nothing as she grasped Orihime's arms, trying and failing to speak as blood began dribbling out of her mouth.

"It's no use, Orihime." The naga spoke. "I made sure to crush her ribs. She'll suffocate and die momentarily."

Orihime shook. "How... do you know my name?"

"...have you forgotten my voice? That wounds me, Orihime!" The naga growled dangerously, slamming its massive hand upon her. Or at least, it would've had Tatsuki not thrown herself up against it, keeping it from crushing Orihime by shielding her with her own body. "What?! You... How many times are you going to get between us?!"

Even as she grunted against the naga's hand as it tried to crush and push her down, Tatsuki still managed to give a thumbs up towards Orihime before twisting the same fingers of that hand to send a very rude gesture at the naga.

"Die, already!"

"No!" Orihime screamed. She had to do something! If she didn't, Tatsuki would die! Like her brother! 'I can't! I won't let you die!'

Six brilliant flashes of light illuminated the room before one of those flashes immediately severed the naga's arm.

"Wh-What is this?" The naga retreated with a hand over its bleeding stump. "What are those small flying things around you?!"

The six lights flew protectively around Orihime and Tatsuki, the latter having collapsed into the former's arms. "...wait, what are these?"

"You don't even know yourself?!" The naga chastised. "How can you change so much, yet still be the same outlandish girl I raised?!"

'Eh? What does he mean 'raised'?' Orihime frowned at the naga.

"No. She does know us."

"She must know of our existence."

"After all, we know her as well as we know you."

The lights faded away to reveal six weird mixes between fairies and origami planes, all unique in their design as they hovered protectively. "It is utterly heartbreaking and disgraceful that you of all people would be the first we would manifest against, but we will defeat you if we must. For that is our primary objective as Shun Shun Rikka(Six Flowers of the Hibiscus Shield)."

"Whoa! Are you fairies?! Or origami planes?!" Orihime gawked in surprise. "How are you all talking?!"

"Oh, the fact that you can hear us so clearly is a fortunate response." One of the fairies responded. "But we're neither fairies nor origami planes. We are your Fullbring, the power born of your reihibiki(spiritual echo), that which is the memory of reiryoku or reishi that echoes your primal desire to live and thrive."

'My primal desire to live and thrive?' Orihime's thoughts suddenly became derailed when Tatsuki coughed one final time, going frightening limp in her arms. "Tatsuki-chan? Tatsuki-chan?!"

Of to the side, three of the six fliers had been distracting the naga, who remembered Orihime and began charging forward again.

"It appears that we can no longer be idle, Orihime." Another of the flies spoke up. "Answer us, do you wish to save Tatsuki and defeat this hollow?"

"Ho-Hollow?" Orihime asked.

"Answer, already!" A black flier demanded, causing Orihime to flinch.

"Y-Yes!" Orihime decided. "Please help me, Shun Shun Rikka!"

"Excellent! As Shun Shun Rikka, we possess the capabilities of defense, support and offense. To put up a shield that repels all, declare the words: "Santen Kesshun(Three Sacred Links Shield), I repel thee!"!"

"S-Santen Kesshun(Three Sacred Links Shield), I repel thee!" Three of the fliers glowed brightly at her words, forming into a triangle-shaped shield that glowed amber as it completely stopped the hollow's assault.

"Wh-Whoa..." Orihime gasped.

"Be amazed at a later time, now it is time to save Tatsuki." Two of Shun Shun Rikka's fliers floated down over Tatsuki, causing Orihime to give them her full attention. "For the sake of support, we can create a spatial area that rejects any phenomena that has occurred within it, even if you don't know of it's existence. If you want to heal her, declare the words: "Sōten Kisshun(Twin Sacred Return Shield), I repel thee!"!"

"Sōten Kisshun(Twin Sacred Return Shield), I repel thee!" Orihime showed no hesitation in her words this time, smiling in relief as the two fliers formed a half-oval barrier around Tatsuki and glowed amber, not only healing her but also causing the spilt blood to slowly disappear.

"ORIHIME!" The hollow roared as it flipped itself upside down and swiftly climbed across the ceiling before dropping onto her.

""FUCK OFF!""

Those words came from two separate individuals. The first was Tatsuki herself launching herself up at the hollow with a cocked fist that shimmered with something invisible as it shattered most of the hollow's mask upon impact. The second was from Kurosaki as he and Asano came through the wall and slashed at the hollow simultaneously, launching it through her wall and out into the street.

"Wait, you two?!" Tatsuki panted as she gawked at the duo.

"Wait, you can see us?!" Kurosaki exclaimed, causing Orihime to be confused. Why wouldn't she and Tatsuki be able to see them?

"Near-death experiences can boost reiryoku levels." Asano explained to Kurosaki before turning to them. "I'm sorry, but we'll probably explain later."

"Probably?!" Tatsuki shouted.

"Wait, is it supposed to be doing that?" Kurosaki called out, prompting them all to come to the destroyed wall and see the hollow thrashing about before exploding in a bright flash of light.

When the light disappeared from Orihime's eyes, so had the hollow, too.

"I don't sense it anymore... but it definitely didn't die. He must've retreated to Hueco Mundo. Thankfully, we left it in a state where it won't be returning anytime soon." Asano sighed as he scratched his head, turning around and sheathing his sword before coming face to face with the girls. "So..."

"Are you and Kurosaki-kun superheroes, Asano-kun?" Orihime exclaimed brightly with her arms in the air, ignoring Tatsuki's disbelief.

"...absolutely. Do we get kisses- gurk!" Asano staggered as Kurosaki's elbow dug into his ribs.

"No, um, we're shinigami." Kurosaki looked like he wasn't sure of what to say himself, giving Asano a desperate glance. "I wasn't actually born one, but-"

"It's okay, I'll handle this." Tapping Kurosaki's arm, Asano went back to the hole in the wall. "Rukia-chan, I'll handle these two, so just go back home."

"Rukia? Wait, Kuchiki's in on this?!" Tatsuki moved towards the hole herself, only to halt when Asano made a gesture and said something that had the broken parts of the wall reassemble together("Shutchō Shūri(On-site Repair)."). "What the fuck?!"

"You guys better sit down for this. You too, Ichigo." Asano said as he headed towards the table and took a spot, the others slowly filling up the remaining sides. "To start off... all yōkai are real, which happens to include shinigami."

""What."" Both Tatsuki and Kurosaki said as one.

"I knew it!" Orihime had always believed so.

"To begin with, the world consists of multiple dimensions layered over each other, with our own being the material world called the World of the Living, or Gaia for short." Keigo began. "Normally, our realms shouldn't have any natural interaction with each other, but more than often, there are always abnormalities that allow them to come into here, especially as this world is the middle point between them all. Any questions?"

"Yeah. You, Ichigo." Tatsuki turned towards Kurosaki, gesturing at... all of him. "How long?"

"Okay, so you know how I can see ghosts? Well, it turns out its all due to this reiryoku stuff and I've got a shit ton of it." Kurosaki explained, which honestly stunned Orihime. "Naturally, hollows like to eat people with plenty of reiryoku so they soon found me."

Tatsuki's eyes widened. "That truck accident at your house a few days back wasn't an accident, was it?"

"No." Kurosaki grimaced. "Stuff happened, and I'm now a shinigami like Keigo and Rukia, helping souls pass on before they become soul-eating monsters."

Tatsuki blinked. "What."

"Right, so here's the stuff about hollows..." Asano grimaced as well. "Hollows like the one that just got away all used to be former people. If a person dies and their spirit is unable to pass on, they will be engulfed with their own negativity. Of course, this isn't a common scenario. Most often than not, souls pass on with their own power, whether to their respective afterlives or to Hell, depending on the pantheon they're most connected to. The ones that don't, spiritually degrade until they become monstrous facsimiles of themselves."

"But... why do they eat people, then?" Orihime asked. "Plus, I think that guy might have known me."

"Rukia told me that hollows tend to go after their loved ones first." Kurosaki reluctantly spoke up. "The holes in their bodies represent their lost hearts, driving them to haunt the ones they loved most in life. But because they're in perpetual hunger, it gets mixed up with the need to feed. That's why we shinigami exorcise them before they go on murderous buffets."

"Have you forgotten my voice? That wounds me, Orihime!"

'...onii-chan.' Orihime felt her heart break when she turned to regard Enraku, now seeing the connection between the rip beneath it's left eye and the initially destroyed part of the hollow's face mask before Tatsuki punched it. "So all those accidents before... were from him?"

"...most likely." Kurosaki admitted.

But that didn't make sense. Orihime was so sure he'd saved her from the car, even if he'd had to yank on her leg hard enough to hurt it. Hadn't he also screamed at her to 'watch out'?

"There's also another reason." Asano spoke up. "Hollows exist as an evolutionary species. If they eat enough and grow far in power, they can evolve into Menos Grande."

"Menos Grande? The hell's that?" Tatsuki frowned. "And why does that sound Spanish?"

"The first acknowledged Menos was discovered in Spain, so the reapers over there got naming rights for everything involved." Asano clarified. "A Menos gets formed when the void with a hollow gets so bad that human souls simply aren't enough anymore, forcing them to go hunting fellow hollows instead. Luckily, this is why you'd rarely find those terrifying guys here in Gaia, because their required food just isn't this world. In Hueco Mundo, the world of hollows, there're plenty of hollows around to have a cannibal party with each other as their meals."

"...woah. The world's a lot scarier than I ever thought." Tatsuki chuckled mirthlessly.

"...so um, back on yōkai." Orihime asked, which Asano looked relieved to focus on. "How many are they in Karakura?"

"Many. I'm still not sure if the land slowly became a Jūreichi(Concentrated Spirit Zone) because of the many yōkai living here, or if the land was already a Jūreichi that had begun attracting the yōkai on its own." Asano explained. "Most yōkai can easily fit themselves within human society, but there's always the troublesome ones."

"Ah, so even yōkai have thugs and the like, huh." Kurosaki crossed his arms with a sigh. "Do we know any of them?"

"I'm not going to give away their identities like that, but you're the one who's the most infamous in our community." Asano chuckled. "Unless they're prepared for it, every newbie with spiritual senses find themselves blind when near you. If you wanna find them back, control your reiatsu and cultivate your own sensory abilities."

"So Rukia wasn't even the first one I was affecting." Kurosaki grumbled, pressing his fingers against his brow. "Fine, then, I'll ask Rukia on that. So I hope this explains everything to you guys."

"Well, at least we now know why you two started hanging out more." Tatsuki sighed as she leaned forward to place her head on the table, before suddenly sitting up. "But what about Orihime's power?! Is she a shinigami, too?!"

"Ah! Am I a yōkai?! Like a tanuki?" Orihime perked up. "Or a kitsune, or a nekomata-"

"No, you're human." Asano immediately asserted. "Or rather, a supernatural subspecies of one. Specifically, a Fullbringer. The first known Fullbringer was from Ancient Babylon, with all of them bearing the same characteristics: Survival against a hollow and resonation with a valued armament. If for whatever reason a human gets attacked and injured by a hollow, it occasionally occurs similarly to an inoculation: if they can survive the corruption of the hollow residue they're exposed to, then they will become attuned to the interplay of reishi and reiatsu, becoming able to draw out a unique energy from themselves and their armaments: reihibiki(spiritual echo)."

"Ah!" Orihime pointed. "Shun Shun Rikka said something like that."

"Your Fullbring's sentient? Convenient." Asano nodded in approval and admiration. "It can literally teach you how to use it better than anybody else could. Additionally, just like hollows create masks to protect the naked instinct that's left after losing their heart, Fullbringers develop tactile telekinesis as their own 'shield' over their bodies. I'm... part human, so I somehow qualify as a Fullbringer, but because I never unlocked my Fullbring, my tactile telekinesis soon evolved into straight up telekinesis. However, I need my human body for that, so I can't demonstrate it here as a shinigami."

"I see..." Tatsuki muttered as she stared at her fist thoughtfully, Orihime remembering how it had crackled with lightning like a super sentai punch! "So about this Fullbring, what are they?"

"Fullbrings can be thought as armaments, developed through resonating with an object strongly enough to imbue your soul into it." Asano pointed right at Orihime, or rather, at her hairpins. "As it can't be any random object, I assume that those hairpins mean a lot to you, don't they?"

Orihime reached up to pull them free and hold them forward, smiling sadly. "They were my brother's last ever gift to me. There's no day where I don't wear them."

"Well, I personally don't have a physical item that I resonate with on that level, but good for you, I suppose." Asano finished before getting up. "Well, let's end it for today. I hope I satisfied you all."

"Yeah." Tatsuki clenched her fist. "For now."

Back in Ichigo's closet, Rukia laid in thought while the shadowy knight that had linked her senses to Asano's own, thereby granting her access to the exchange of information between her classmates, finally disappeared.

Despite her initial belief, she'd learnt quite a lot that she hadn't expected to this night, especially regarding the Fullbringers, who seemed to be a separate human subspecies compared to the Quincies.

Well, at least Orihime's hollow issues had been solved with minimal issue, along with Ichigo learning a lot more about the common knowledge that she didn't have to teach herself. If both Ichigo and Asano trusted those girls with this knowledge, then she would extend some courtesy to them as well.

As for the yōkai... She'd put a pin on that.

For now, she'd just she'd focus on recovering her powers and training Ichigo along with Asano. Hopefully he'd be strong enough to manage until her powers returned.

And before any of her superiors back home noticed anything amiss.

Acidwire screamed as f̶o̶r̶g̶o̶t̶t̶e̶n̶ new emotions and memories wrecked him apart, clawing at his partially exposed face.

"What are you two doing?!"

"Get away from her!"

"Orihime, we need to leave. Don't speak too loud."

"I swear, I'll protect you from them all. Whenever, no matter what happens!"

"Orihime! Get off! Get off! Get the fuck off!" A̴c̴i̴d̴w̴i̴r̴e̴ Sora Inoue screamed with all of his love as he ripped off another huge chunk of the mask on his face, releasing a gigantic burst of reiatsu that blew away several volumes of Hueco Mundo sand. Gasping for breath and calming down, Sora felt it all coming back to him. The memories, the emotions, his human body again! "I... am a brother!"

KingVessel: Dun-dun-DUUUH!