- Chapter 4: Quincy - ​

So, as it turned out, I wasn't wrong when I said that it'd be hard for me to keep up to the "one update a week" posting speed; this could well be considered a very late update for this week, but I'd honestly feel better if it was considered a early update for the next one instead. Hopefully the chapter's quality will be good enough to make readers forgive me for that.Also, I will again ask, to people who read the story but didn't like it, leave me a comment to tell me why! Writing this is harder than I thought it would be, especially since I have no help, and any sign that it is being read - even negative comments - will help with making it easier for me. Thanks in advance!Within the following few days, Ichigo did not see Rukia any further; the girl didn't suddenly appear to continue their training, nor did she let any type of message for him, and he did not have any way to contact her wherever she currently was staying - assuming she hadn't just gone back home to wherever Soul Society was, which was very possible.Having no other recourse, he continued to try and train himself into learning how to sense the spiritual power of the people around him, using the radar Rukia had given him as a mean to verify the result of his attempts. He found he could even practice while at school, as sensing pressure didn't require him to be a spirit outside of his own body, even if it did became easier when he was. He could just close his eyes and focus at any time to practice with his classmates, which was easier because he could more easily verify how well he was interpreting the information about their feelings... but it also lead out to him learning a number of interesting things.The first was that his Zanpakuto, Sode no Shirayuki, was apparently the strongest spiritual presence in the school by a very large margin, having twice as much power within itself as the three most powerful human souls he could sense put together. This was not, however, immediately apparent; the sword's power was somehow sealed, with a vastly powerful inner core that he could only perceive through the connection, whereas using normal sensing would instead reveal a soul just a bit smaller in power than his own.Speaking of which, he was somewhat surprised to discover that his spiritual presence was, apparently, only the third largest in the school. According to Rukia, the strength of his soul was one of the reasons he could interact with ghosts easily; that might mean that the other two people with stronger souls might be aware of ghosts as well. He wasn't sure what to make of that - having the chance to talk about this whole spirit thing with somebody other than his family might be nice, but it might also cause more trouble, especially since Rukia did said that her mission was supposed to be a secret.The most interesting thing, however, was that what was the strongest soul in the school - not much stronger than his own, just enough so to be noticeable - seemed to react whenever he tried to sense it, disappearing so fast that he'd have thought it a mistake, had he not had the spirit radar to confirm what his senses were telling him.He had to wonder what this might mean. The only person he'd ever met capable of changing what her soul detected as was Rukia, but he was sure this wasn't her; while he still had trouble discerning many details, he could discern enough to tell this was somebody else, completely lacking the determination that had been so overpowering in her. Also, this soul barely had a third of the power Rukia had shown him, and he wasn't even sure if she'd shown him all of her power.Still, the fact that the most powerful soul in the school was capable of hiding itself from Ichigo's perception meant that its owner was the best bet he had for finding somebody who could help him with his training; so, he decided to try and find this person, at least to speak with them. However, after two days of trying and failing to locate the owner of that soul, it became clear to Ichigo that he was being avoided on purpose. Which meant that he was left with only one spirit he could turn to ask for help from. With a sigh, he went to meditate to the same spot where Rukia had been training him, reaching for the link with his Zanpakuto again.When he opened his eyes, he was once again on a rooftop in the city of skyscraper being battered by hail, with Sode no Shirayuki watching him with an imperious glare; apparently she had found a way to better accommodate the chains holding her, for while she was still wrapped in them, they were now arranged so as to mostly appear draped around her figure, clearly restricting her movement far less if her crossed arms were anything to go by.As he tried to decide how to open the conversation and explain what he wanted to her, the sword spirit once again beat him to it and said, her tone fittingly cold:"So you're back, thief. Come to make more demands of me? What do you want this time?"Ichigo was about to answer, then paused, considering the woman in front of himself again. Then he said, wanting to see her reaction:"You have to do anything I ask of you, isn't it? The chain are in place to ensure that."She scoffed, annoyed at his words, and shot back:"Indeed. Are you here to gloat then, that you have to remember me the condition of my imprisonment? Or do you plan to humiliate me by giving me degrading commands? I will not be that easily broken, I warn you; my soul is made of steel as much as my body is."Ichigo shook his head."I'm not here to hurt you. I just... is this how the bonds work for everybody? Are Zanpakuto the slaves of their Shinigami, forced to bend to their every whim and grant them all power they require?"Sode no Shirayuki suddenly moved, in a burst of speed and the same kind of instantaneous movement the hollow had used, a power so primal and terrifying Ichigo instinctively took two steps back - not that it would have saved him, if she'd been able to reach. Unluckily for her, but very luckily for Ichigo, the chains stopped her, blocking her arms even as she desperately tried to break through to deliver some sort of hit to him; but eventually she relented, and stepped back to her position before saying, voice filled with cold hatred:"Of course not! How dare you? How can you be so brazen as to compare this prisony you imposed upon me to the true bond between a Zanpakuto and its true wielder? That you even think the two comparable is the greatest insult I have received since the beginning of this torture."Ichigo was truly surprised by the vehemence in the spirit's voice, but he was quick to rally as he said, his tone measured:"So, this is not how the bond normally works. You speak of me as a thief, and said that your power is not meant for me. And Rukia said the soul of my sword felt very similar to hers, and knew your name even though, going by how much you fought the chains for it, you would not reveal it to just anyone."Sode no Shirayuki looked completely unimpressed as Ichigo explained his reasoning out loud, and said in a very annoyed, commanding tone:"Get to the point.""You are not my Zanpakuto, you are Rukia's. The Auswhal did not copy a connection, it stole it and forced it to attach itself to me."That seemed to leave the spirit confused, as she asked:"What are you speaking about? You kidnapped me."Ichigo shook his head."That might have been the result, but it wasn't the original intention. We just wanted to copy your powers so I could use them against the hollow."Sode no Shirayuki's eyes narrowed as she looked at him."And of course, I'm supposed to just believe you? That this was just an accident, and I'm wrapped in chains that will torture me if I disobey you simply because you didn't know what you were doing?"Ichigo could tell that she wasn't going to, so he simply shook his head and answered:"You can believe what you want; I will not force you into anything, but if you could help me with a few questions I have, that would be great. And I promise they're not questions about you, just general stuff that I'm sure a normal Shinigami would already know."She eyes him suspiciously."And then you will leave me alone?""If your answers help me with what I'm doing, I will have no other reason to bother you."Sode no Shirayuki seemed to consider this, then nodded."Alright then, ask your questions, so that I can be rid of your presence.""I've been trying to locate a particular soul, but they keep hiding from my senses. I need to find some ways of tracking them without being noticed. Can you help me with that?"She scoffed."Of course I can. You're probably sensing actively, by either drawing stray reiatsu toward yourself, or sending pulses of your own reiatsu out and sensing the results when it rebounds back to you. Anybody with control of their own reiatsu would notice if it was being tugged or smacked, and react to it by drawing as much of it inside themselves as possible, which would hide them. What you need to do is to sense passively instead. Collect your reiatsu around yourself, without letting it escape or allowing it to draw other in; instead keep it stable and as still as possible, but also, expand it to cover as much of an area as you're capable. When it brushes on other souls, you'll be able to sense them, but to them, it will feel no different than any of the other souls moving around, and thus not cause them to react by hiding."The Zanpakuto spirit then glared down at him, and added:"Naturally, the more powerful you are, the more reiatsu you have to use, the easier it is to sense things in this manner, and over a larger area too; and naturally, greater control also helps. Covering any area greater than a few meters would be impossible for one such as you."Ichigo shrugged and answered, not at all daunted by the spirit's words:"It's still the best shot I have, so I will try anyway. And thank you for the help, in any case.""Just be gone from my sight, as you promised."Ichigo nodded, but before he left he added, trying to convey how truly sorry he was:"I know you have no reason to believe me, but for what it might matter, I did not intend for any of this to happen at all."Then he once again focused on the connection and used it to return to the real world.Before trying out the suggestion Sode no Shirayuki had given him for sensing things passively, out of pure curiosity, Ichigo decided to try out the other mean of active detection she'd mentioned; he was pretty sure that the one he'd been using until now was based upon drawing in external reiatsu, so he tried to focus his own to instead send it out in a pulse. He wondered how he could do this, since he really wasn't sure how exactly reiatsu was controlled, but then he remembered what Rukia had said of the nature of reiatsu: that it was the result of spirit particles with opposite emotions colliding. So, he focused on memories that caused him conflicting emotions, and sure enough, he could feel his own reiatsu reacting, agitating inside him; he continued to focus, and managed to push a lot of reiatsu out at once.The effort let him somewhat winded, but he could also feel as his reiatsu bounced off of all the souls he was surrounded by, the feedback informing him on them... and he realized, with surprise, that while for the majority the data he received was the same, there were a few subtle details that, if not different, at least stood out differently. Whereas his normal method emphasized the current emotions the soul was feeling more, this method seemed to make the emotional core hidden underneath the whirlpool of ones being felt in the moment much easier to discern.Resolving to experiment at some later point to see if any use could be made of these differences, Ichigo instead tried to focus on creating the bubble of reiatsu around himself that was supposed to allow him to detect things passively. It took him a couple of days to be able to control his emotions well enough to keep the bubble up for more than a handful of seconds, but once he did, he took advantage of the first free period he got to tour the school until he finally managed to locate the person with the powerful spirit. As it turned out, it was a boy with straight, chin lenght black hairs, sharp features, and square glasses over blue eyes. He decided to speak with him once school was over, but the boy was, apparently, a participant in one of the afterschool clubs - the arts and crafts one, of all things - and thus, Ichigo had to wait until that was over to approach him.When the boy finally left, however, he wasn't alone either; instead, he was speaking with Orihime, and walked her all the way home, which surprised Ichigo somewhat. He followed them until the boy said goodbye to Orihime on the door of her home, and only then did he went to meet him; the hope was to greet him, but the very moment he showed up, the boy turned toward him with a cold gaze in his eyes, and Ichigo could quite literally feel the boy's disdain as he let if filter to the forefront of his soul."I see you finally decided to reveal yourself, Kurosaki Ichigo; I was wondering if you wanted to follow me home."Ichigo frowned."How do you know my name?""It wasn't hard to find out. In case you forgot, you are carrying at your side a spiritual power that is equal to your own; anybody with even the slightest bit of sensory ability would notice two paired souls like that. What is hard to believe is that you would take this long to even realize I existed; I was aware of you from the moment you first entered the same school as me, long before you gained your new spiritual bond. But maybe you're just that bad with sensing spirits, are you?"Ichigo frowned. That wasn't nice at all, but then again, it was true that he wasn't that good at this whole thing yet. Thus he answered, keeping most of his annoyance out of his voice:"Yeah, that's exactly what I wanted to speak you about. My teacher isn't around anymore, and I need to learn how to use this power I have to protect my family, so I wanted to see if you could help me train."The other boy kept looking at him, and when he took a step forward, he could feel the cold emotions in him - disdain, arrogance, and annoyance - grow stronger as he asked, in a tone that perfectly matched what his soul felt like:"You are asking me for help, yet you wield a weapon with a powerful spirit within it. Do you see any of that on me, to think the two of us have anything in common?""No, but I thought you knew of a way I could fight hollows; you can do that, right?""You really have no idea, do you? Do you even know what I am?"Ichigo was starting to get really annoyed with the guy's attitude, so he took one step forward himself as he asked the question the other boy clearly wanted to hear."Why don't you tell me then? What are you?""I am Ishida Uryu, a Quincy. And initially I thought you might be one too, but that's not it at all, is it? Somehow, you are a Shinigami."Ichigo couldn't see any way to deny that, so he answered:"Of a sort, yeah. I am not a real one, but I do have the power of one. What does it matter? And what is a Quincy, exactly?""A Quincy is an enemy of the Shinigami; we hunt hollows as well, but our methods are different, and Shinigami want us to stop. They think us... unnecessary. Nocive, even."He eyed Ichigo up and down, as if sizing him up as a potential opponent, and then went on:"And I suppose you're the first step into replacing us, aren't you? A new type of Shinigami, made from the living rather than the dead?"Ichigo honestly didn't knew how to answer that, although it did seems plausible; Rukia had said that the Auswhal was a prototype project meant to quickly train Shinigami in the human world, after all. It wasn't far-fetched to think the project was meant to replace these Quincy if they really were enemies.Still, Ichigo wasn't anybody's enemy, he just wanted to learn how to protect himself and his family, so he shrugged and answered:"Maybe, but I don't care about that; I just want to learn how to fight hollows.""Oh, but there is no need for you to. I shall prove to you that it is Shinigami, and not Quincy, who are unnecessary in this world. So, unless you want to fight me, I suggest you just go."It was Ichigo's turn to scoff at Uryu, as he answered:"Like I would let myself get provoked into a fight like that. You might have a grudge with Shinigami, but I don't have anything to do with it. If you don't want to help me get better, that's fine, I'll find other ways to train myself."With that, he turned to leave, but before he could, Ishida spoke again."It doesn't matter if you run away now, Kurosaki; soon enough, you'll realize that you're in over your head, and that you should leave the hunting of hollows to those who can handle the task. And when you do, I'll have proven the Shinigami wrong, and my people right. I hope you're ready to learn how much of a failure you are."Ichigo didn't answer - he wasn't really sure he even had any answer to give, at this point - and simply left, but he couldn't help but feel worried. The glint of challenge in Ishida's eyes had been very real, and as he continued to speak, his soul had kept filling with more and more anger, until it was the only emotion left within him. It was too strong for Ichigo to think that this would be the end of it; he needed to prepare for whatever Uryu might be planning, because he was sure he would just not make such a scene if he didn't have a plan ready to turn his threat into fact. Ichigo needed to learn more about him, if he was to be prepared for whatever the other boy had in mind.And since there was only one person he knew who could help him better understand Ishida, the following day, as classes ended, Ichigo went to speak with Orihime."Oh, of course I know about Uryu! He's the best with sewing in the club, and will always help people who ask him for it. But he's also very cold with people; I don't think he likes being friendly."Ichigo nodded, then frowned and asked:"Really? He accompanied you home yesterday, didn't he?""Oh, yes, he did! He said he was going to check something in that area, and since he was already going in that direction, we went together!"She then paused, looking thoughtful as she seemed to consider something, and asked:"How do you know that, though?""Ah... I just met him in there, and he mentioned it - that's why I asked about him to you in the first place."Orihime seemed satisfied with that answer as she clapped her hands together."Oh! So you two are on the treasure hunt together? Can I join in?""Treasure hunt?""Yeah, when he left he said that he was close, but not there yet. What else could he have been talking about, if not a hidden treasure?"What could a hunter of hollows, who apparently disliked hanging out with people, have gone along with Orihime to check, only to determine that it was close but not yet there? Ichigo suspected he knew the answer to that, and so he said to Orihime, in as reasonable a tone as he could manage:"I don't know, but maybe it's worth checking out. Would you mind if I accompanied you home today?"Orihime seemed to blush at that, apparently not knowing what to say; even her emotions, when Ichigo took a moment to try and sense them, where very confused. In the end, however, she settled for allowing Ichigo to walk home with her. He tried to focus on practicing his sensing while accompanying her, paying very limited attention to her high speed speech that seemed to be some tirade about marathons or some such, and sure enough, as he had expected, he found that Ishida was already in the area, apparently waiting patiently somewhere nearby. However, that took a backseat when they reached Inoue's house and he realized that a soul was inside, one that felt strange, wrapped in pain and guilt and hatred, and waiting impatiently for something.And he knew that Orihime had lived alone for the last two years.Whatever was inside, Ichigo wanted to see for himself, so he quickly turned to Orihime, which seemed unsure over what to say, and asked her, in the most casual tone he could manage:"Orihime, could I ask you for a glass of water? With how hot it is, I'm really thirsty right now."Once again, it took a few moments for Orihime to agree, but once they were inside, Ichigo immediately found who the soul was, as he moved to an altar standing in a corner. He was still looking it all over, when he heard Orihime moving behind him, and he asked her, softly:"This is to remember your brother by, isn't it?"As she spoke, the girl's voice was unusually serious, and even if Ichigo hadn't been able to just sense the emotions she was feeling, he would have recognized them in her voice, so full of them it was."Yes. I try to speak with him everyday, to tell him of what's going on with my life. It's the only way I have to keep him close; I like to think that he's always watching over me."Ichigo raised his eyes, looking at the ghost floating above the shrine dedicated to himself, and said in a low tone:"I guess that's a way to see it."The ghost floating over the altar had very little in common with the smiling man in the photos Orihime had collected. While he was undeniably the same person, he looked gaunt and tired, and his clothes hung over a body that looked skeletal, like a man that had long been starving. In his eyes burned a fever and a deep hatred that were now focusing all of their intensity on Ichigo himself, as if only some old, nearly forgotten instinct was keeping the ghost from attacking him. But most worrying of all was the chain of fate: instead of the normal golden color Ichigo was used to seeing it be, the chain was almost entirely black, every link deeply corroded and clearly damaged, cracking and screeching stridently with every movement the ghost took.Then, the ghost spoke, with a voice that only barely resembled what he'd had in life, deep echoes and a rasping breathing entering it."Kurosaki Ichigo... I know you... she speaks of you so often... you're one of those... one of those who are taking Orihime away from me... I won't let you... she belongs with me..."Ichigo frowned as he reached for his sword and said, completely focused on the ghost:"You've remained here too long. You need to go to the afterlife, meet the rest of your family in the Soul Society and wait for Orihime there. It's time for you to go.""Ichigo, who are you talking with?"He turned toward Orihime, not even really sure how to explain to her what was going on, only to see a opening forming in the air behind her, with two powerfully muscled arms slowly tearing it apart; and the moment it did, Ichigo could feel the huge power and limitless hunger as the Hollow entered the room. It was a big creature with dark blue skin, and what looked like wings made of bone sprouting from the back of its forearms; its mask was a large and long snout that sported huge teeth without any lips, its eyes where thin vertical slits of golden light repressed deep into small and circular sockets, and it had curly green fur to both sides of the mask, like large sideburns, as well as two large patches of the same on the chest.It let out a long chuckle as it finished emerging from the cut it had opened in the sky, letting it close behind himself, and then said, in a mocking tone:"Come on, why do you want to send the friend here away? He's so close to discovering his true self! It'd be a shame to cut his journey of self-discovery short when it's so close to the end.""Orihime, move!"The girl was confused, and the hollow was already reaching for her, so Ichigo didn't wait, drawing his sword and darting forward; he managed to get between Orihime and the monster just in time, blocking the attack... only to be sent crashing into the wall by it. The hit caused him an incredible amount of pain, and a moment later Orihime was at his side, helping him get up on his feet, while the hollow chuckled and said, amused:"Human bodies are just so fragile, aren't they? Really, if you're gonna fight an Hollow in melee, you need to have more durability than that."While he struggled to get back to his feet, Ichigo realized that the hollow was right, and also why: he was still within his human body, not in his spiritual one. Which meant that, if he didn't play this carefully, he was gonna get grave, possibly permanent wounds from this.The hollow, however, didn't seem to care about the advantage, instead moving next to the ghost of Orihime's brother and saying to him, with a dark chuckle that sounded almost like a gurgle:"Don't worry, comrade, you're gonna love it in Hueco Mundo; just let me finish taking those last memories of yours."And with that, he closed his fist around the chain of fate; for a moment Ichigo thought he would be ripping it apart, even if he didn't knew what that would do, but then he realized that, as the hollow touched it, the chain was corroding itself at much greater speed, which caused Orihime's brother to scream... and then he started to change. Dark grey scales started to grow all over his body, his legs fusing together into a long, serpentine tail, the finger mutating into scythe-like claws, his entire form growing in size, and finally the chain snapping free of the ground and the hollow's grasp to wrap itself around his face, mutating into a single thing as link after link fused together to form a domino mask over his face, the last piece of chain finally breaking free from his chest to join the rest of it, leaving a hole in the newly formed hollow's chest.The older hollow let out another chuckle, and then said, sounding gleeful:"So, what do you want to do first, brethren?"The new hollow's eyes moved to Orihime, and he hissed out, his voice vibrating with hatred:"I want... to kill her... for having left me alone... forgotten... I will kill her!"Ichigo got to his feet as fast as possible, brandishing his sword to stop the attack, when suddenly it was interrupted, the older hollow grabbing the tail of the newer one and dragging him backwards, just in time to avoid a dart of glowing blue energy that had come from outside and would have impaled him otherwise.Everyone in the room turned to watch outside of the window, where Ichigo was only somewhat surprised to see Ishida standing there, apparently in midair... except no, not really; he was standing on some sort of thin hovering platform also made of the same glowing blue energy the arrow had been. He was also wearing a weird white longcoat that made him look somewhat like a priest, and apparently it was some mark of rank as well, because the older Hollow recognized it as he said, sounding more angered than scared:"A Quincy! Why are you here?"Ishida looked down at the hollows with cold disdain, clearly disgusted by their very presence."To destroy you, of course."Then he raised his hand, which was holding a silver pendant, and a bow made of energy formed around it. Uryu took aim, and the hollows had to scurry away as another arrow was shot through the window; it traveled so fast, Ichigo had little doubt that the hollow wouldn't have been able to avoid it if Ishida hadn't had his field of fire limited by having to shot through the window.Still, it was distraction enough for Ichigo to release Sode no Shirayuki; once the white sword was in his hand, he said to Orihime, in a whisper:"Hide, Orihime - this is dangerous."Surprisingly, the girl shook her head and said, more forcefully than he'd ever heard her speak:"No, I'm not going anywhere! Ichigo, explain to me, what's going on? Where did you get a magic sword? ...is that Uryu?"He followed her gaze at the last comment, and saw that Ishida had entered the room; as soon as he landed, the two hollows charged at him from different angles, but just as they were about to slam into him, there was a glow of blue light under his feet, and then he was on the opposite side of the room, bow ready as he said, letting an arrow fly:"You are not fast enough to beat me, monsters."The arrow slammed straight into the older's hollow upper torso, causing it to fall to the ground; the hollow which was Orihime's brother darted to the side, then turned toward where Ichigo and his sister were and charged at them as he shouted:"If I can't do anything else, at least I'll get to kill you!"Ichigo braced for the attack, but then realized it wasn't him the hollow was going for; he swung to the side, draining away all heat from the air to create an ice barrier for the hollow to smash against. The hollow recoiled back, and Ichigo glared at him as he shouted, getting really angry at him:"What were you trying to do? Do you not know that big brothers are supposed to protect their younger siblings? Is nothing of that left in you?""Shut up!"The hollow struck at him again, and his strength was enough to crack the ice, but not yet to break through it; Ichigo prepared itself for the attack, but then the hollow stopped and threw himself to the side, and just in time to avoid an arrow of blue energy from slamming into him. Uryu looked annoyed."Are you ignoring me, Hollow? Very bad idea.""Indeed, we need a distraction here if we are to kill you all."Ishida and Ichigo both turned to the wounded hollow, who they had thought defeated; instead, he had gotten up, and suddenly darted for Orihime, who couldn't see the creature, and was instead trying to understand Ichigo's and Ishida's powers. Ichigo moved to push her out of the way at the exact same time the hollow grabbed her; for a moment, Ichigo thought he'd succeeded, but then he saw the golden chain, and realized that the hollow had grabbed Orihime's soul while he pushed away the body, so the two were separated now. The bat-like hollow's grin grew even more scary as he shouted:"Now, you stand still and let yourself be killed by my friend, or I'll eat the girl!"Ishida's eyes narrowed as he answered:"You hurt her, and I'll destroy you. Why even try to take an hostage?""Better that than being reduced to nothing by you, Quincy!"Ichigo frowned, and interjected himself in the conversation."What are you speaking about? If we win you won't be reduced to nothing, you'll just be purified and sent to Soul Society."The hollow glared at him and spat back:"Do you really not know? That's only true for hollows that are struck by a Zanpakuto; Quincy just tear our bodies apart until there's nothing left for us to regenerate from. Death by their arrows is true destruction, and I won't subject myself to it."His grin then grew more malicious, as he pointed at where his shoulder wound had now completely closed - which, Ichigo realized, meant that the arrows were only as effective as Rukia's kido, not as much as a Zanpakuto - and added:"Also, this whole hostage stunt was only a way for me to buy time. My name is Shrieker, and I've killed two shinigami before; a clear beginner like you and a Quincy will be easy prey for me, when I'm using my full strength. Now, catch!"And with that, he threw Orihime toward the two of them... and Ichigo realized, it was the same trick the first Hollow he'd fought had used; he was gonna charge behind her to strike by surprise.As such, instead of simply waiting for Orihime, Ichigo jumped forward and upward, catching her in midair and carrying her toward her own body; he landed quickly and glanced back, seeing that the hollow had now engaged Ishida in close combat, keeping him from using his bow or the fast dodging technique he'd used before, while the other one was slithering along the room's wall, maneuvering himself to move around the ice wall suspended in midair and clearly planning to charge at the two of them.That was when Orihime, grabbing Ichigo's arm, asked, her eyes now moving between the two monsters, fear mixing with confusion in her voice:"Ichigo? What's happening? What are those things?""Evil spirits that wants to eat our souls. Stay here, I'll fight this one while Ishida keeps the other one occupied."He then moved away from the wall, raising his Zanpakuto in a guard position to be ready to fight the hollow... except that, once it had moved past the ice wall, the hollow did not charge at Ichigo, but instead went straight for Orihime, screaming:"I will not let you abandon me! I will keep you with me forever!"Cursing, Ichigo had to jump at the creature instead of waiting for it; his blade slammed into the wall just in front of it, causing the hollow to stop for a moment, and Ichigo used that to push away from the room's wall with all of his strength, draining away all the heat from the path his sword traveled as it dislodged itself from the wall - resulting in a new, thick ice barrier sprouting directly from the wall, boxing the hollow in.The creature jerked back at that, and Ichigo pointed his sword at him as he shouted:"What sort of coward are you, to go after the unarmed person that can't hurt you, instead of facing the one who is actually ready for a fight?"Those words seemed to strike a cord, for the hollow shrieked:"Can't hurt me? She's done nothing but hurting me since the day I died! Do you not know? Back then, she came to speak with me every day, telling me of how much she missed me, how alone she felt without me there to take care of her, how she felt sad and lonely all the time because I wasn't there. But then! Then she started to speak of her friend Tatsuki, and of you, Kurosaki Ichigo, everyday, smiling more and more and more, always happier that I wasn't there, forgetting me, leaving me behind! She stopped loving me, me, who had done so much for her all my life! I can't forgive that!"He tried to lunge forward, but Ichigo slashed his sword in an horizontal arc in front of himself, calling on Sode no Shirayuki's power; this time, he tried to control the heat-draining effect to shape it a bit, and as he'd hoped, the result was ice much thinner and sharp on the end the hollow was, practically a blade that, due to its own reckless charge, the creature cut itself into. The pain was enough to make it recoil backwards once again, hissing at them.That was when Orihime spoke, her voice trembling."Brother? Brother, is... is it... really... you?"The snake-like hollow turned to watch Orihime, who had gotten to her feet and advanced to the ice wall, placing her hand over it. The hollow moved closer to the opposite side of the ice barrier, and answered, his voice more emotional:"Yes. Can't you even recognize my voice? You've forgotten everything about me, replaced me with these friends, like him!"He gestured at Ichigo, but Orihime was quick to shock her head and shout back:"I never forgot you! I just wanted to show you... that I was happy... that you didn't need to worry about me... I thought that's what you would have wanted to hear..."That seemed to give the hollow pause somewhat; worried it might be a trick, Ichigo used a pulse of reiatsu to read his deepest emotions better. He could sense the maelstrom of dark feelings that the monster's soul was made of seem to placate somewhat, and a sense of something different, hard to identify but closer to guilt than the hatred and rage that had been there before, rising within the creature as it placed its own hand over the ice barrier, at the same height his sister's was, and whisperer:"Orihime..."And that was when a glowing arrow of blue energy smashed through the ice wall and the hollow both, pinning him to the wall with a bone-shaking scream of pain.Ichigo turned to watch Ishida, and saw that he had once more the bow of blue energy within his hand; behind him, Shrieker was nailed to the ground by what looked like four javelins of energy, and the rest of his body had literally been torn into dozens and dozens of small pieces scattered all across the room.Ishida, however, didn't seem to care, as he glared at Ichigo and said:"Hollows are irredeemably evil; the person they were before is lost the moment they don their mask. You get tricked much too easily."Ichigo frowned, then answered:"I could feel his emotions there; surely if you're as good at sensing as you said, you could too?"Uryu looked down at him and said, sounding annoyed:"I can read it just fine, and all that is flowing out of him is hatred and anger."That wasn't right, Ichigo could tell. Well, not with the reading he's used. He tried the other method of active sensing, dragging the reiatsu flowing away from the Hollow toward himself, and indeed, only his strong negative emotions could be felt... but when he sent another pulse - which caused Ishida to frown in confusion - he still felt those more positive emotions there, buried deep within, but still stirring somewhat as the Hollow was looking at Orihime, one hand reaching toward her... as the girl was moving around the remnants of the ice wall to reach him.Ichigo's eyes widened at that - why was she being so reckless? - and decided that he could discuss the matter of who was right at another time; removing the hollow was more important. He let out a long breath and addressed Ishida more respectfully this time, saying:"It doesn't really matter, I suppose; in the end, the point will be moot once I've purified him."He then turned to walk toward the hollow, preparing his Zanpakuto for a strike - only to feel an enormous buildup of pressure from Ishida, and another arrow flew past him incredibly fast, bare millimeters from his cheek; and Ichigo knew that if it'd been aimed at him, he'd not have been able to dodge. But instead the arrow traveled toward Orihime's brother, slamming straight into his reaching arm and pinning it to the wall, causing it to let out another scream and Orihime to turn at Ishida and shout:"Stop! What are you doing?!"The Quincy didn't seem bothered, as he commented, his voice calm and controlled:"I'm destroying a monster. As I told Kurosaki already, we do not need Shinigami to protect us, we can do that on our own, and much better than they ever could."Ichigo turned toward Ishida, really annoyed at him and ready to start an argument... only to see in horror that, behind the archer, the many severed portions of Shrieker's body were moving on their own, reshaping themselves into a tidal wave of leeches that were silently sneaking upon Uryu."Ishida, behind you! Dodge!"The Quincy's eyes widened at that, and even as he turned, Ichigo could see that a thin platform of light was forming under his feet, and an even thinner, almost invisible road was forming underneath it; and as soon as they were completed, the platform shot forward at incredible speed, pushing along the path like a snowboard sliding down a slope... but even with the warning, Ishida hadn't been fast enough to avoid every single one of the leeches that had jumped onto him. Still, when they tried to bite down, their little fangs bounced away from his skin - Ichigo could have sworn the skin was giving off just the faintest hue of blue light in that moment - and Ishida settled his glasses properly back on top of his nose before saying, sounding genuinely angry:"You really think that such an attack would stop me, Hollow? I'm stronger than you by far, and this defiance of your fate will bring you nothing."Then he raised his hand, once again gripping the amulet that dangled from his wrist into a strong grip and summoning a bow of energy from it... but instead of answering the provocation, the hollow's tongue slitted out of his mouth, and it let out a piercing whistle that properly fit his name of Shrieker.And that was when all of the leeches attached to Ishida suddenly exploded.Somehow, the dozen or so of explosions going off all over his body simultaneously did not rip Ishida apart as one would have expected bombs to do, but he did collapse to the ground, smoke rising from his whole body - including his mouth - while his white robes were now ripped and a collection of bruises and burns had formed all over his body. Shrieker let out a long, shrill laugh and shouted:"And that's how I managed to defeat two Shinigami! You should learn not to underestimate an Hollow, but I suppose it's too late now for that lesson, since I'm going to eat you!"Then, the hollow sent another wave of leeches forward, this time aiming for Ichigo himself, as well as Orihime. Ichigo rushed to intercept, using Sode no Shirayuki to create two walls of ice, one behind the other; however, they only lasted for a few seconds, as one wave of leeches detonated the first to leave free passage for a second wave to detonate the other, while the rest organized themselves in layers, clearly preparing to destroy as many walls as necessary to get to them.Ichigo realized then that he needed a new tactic if he wanted to win this. He built another two walls to gain time while he thought of something to do, then his eyes narrowed as he noticed something: whenever the leech were detonated, the Hollow had his tongue slit out of his mouth, sending out another of those piercing shrieks each time. Which meant, Ichigo realized, that he had a chance, if he could just make it to the monster.He raised Sode no Shirayuki, considering the blade for a moment, then inspiration struck him and he darted forward, spinning the sword in front of himself in the same way he would when releasing its shikai. Sure enough, this generated a set of ice rings in sequence, which acted like a corridor protecting Ichigo's sides as he ran forward; even as leeches slammed into the rings, breaking them, the slight delay was just enough for Ichigo to stay ahead of them, getting closer and closer to the Hollow.Of course, Shrieker wasn't going to let himself be killed that easily, and a wall of leeches raised at the end of the tunnel, so that Ichigo would be trapped between the two. Exactly as Ichigo had expected, and planned for. The moment the leeches got into range of the sword's spin, he stopped draining in heat only from the tip, instead drawing from the blade's entire length; as he'd expected, that turned all the leeches into ice, which he crashed through while Shrieker's watched in shock. Before the hollow could recover, Ichigo was on it; the wave of leeches that had been following him slammed into his head the moment he landed and thus stopped moving, but before the hollow could react, he'd grabbed his tongue with one hand, and used Sode no Shirayuki to severe it.He grinned smugly down at the monster, flipping the severed body part in his hand as he commented, idly flicking away one of the leeches that were clinging to him with his sword:"You can't really do much without this, can you? What will you do now?"Apparently, what the hollow wanted to do was run away, as it heaved with such strength that he ripped away his limbs to get free from the energy javelins that were impaling him. Before he could move much, however, an energy arrow slammed straight into him, and then another, and one more, and as Ichigo turned to watch, he saw that, even standing only on his knees and horribly bruised, Ishida was still firing arrow after arrow from his bow, and when Ichigo turned, he saw that, even as the Hollow's wounds were indeed regenerating very fast - whereas his tongue, cut by the Zanpakuto, wasn't - the amount of damage the Hollow was sustaining was simply too high, the rate of fire too fast, overtaking the Hollows' defensive abilities and inexorably destroying its body bit by bit.Ichigo let Ishida to it, and moved back to Orihime and her brother; while he'd been occupied with fighting Shrieker, the girl had finished making her way to him. She hugged his serpentine body, and said:"I remember that day... you gave me these hairpins, and I said you that I hated them... and I didn't speak to you, didn't say you goodbye when you left for work... that why I always keep them with me now... I was so sad I couldn't say goodbye... but I do love you, brother, I always will."The hollow touched Orihime's hairs with his remaining free hand, and Ichigo could feel how he was struggling, to keep his anger and hatred and hunger from overcoming the genuine love he felt for her. He could also tell that it was a losing battle, that the negative emotions would win over in a short while, but not yet. So he moved forward and said, in as relaxed tone as he could manage:"Don't worry, you'll be going to Soul Society now; you'll be able to wait for Orihime there. She won't forget you."The hollow nodded, and thrust his face forward slightly; Ichigo struck, a single vertical slash that cut the mask in two along the middle, sending both sections of it falling to the ground, and for a moment he - and Orihime too, as she looked up - could see the smile her brother was offering her, before the vortex activated and drew the spirit away within itself, leaving nothing behind.Ichigo left out a long breath, then put on his red glove and offered an hand to Orihime, as he said:"Come on - you should go back to your body now."She took his hands, hesitant, and he pushed her soul back inside herself; she seemed to need a moment to take in her surroundings, and that was when Ishida spoke, drawing Ichigo's attention to himself."You really are sentimental. We might have fought together today, Kurosaki, but if you ever get in the way of my task, I won't hesitate to take you down, remember it."Ichigo could see that the Quincy was somewhat annoyed at that, but with how worse for wear he was looking, Ichigo wasn't in the mood for starting an argument with him."Yeah, whatever - I don't care right now. If you want to talk about it, we can do it some other day."Ishida seemed to consider this, then nodded and raised his hands, collecting all of the blue energy weapons that were still peppering the room by - it looked like - simply drawing all of the energy making them up to himself, before using it to create a path outside from the window, and then using his technique to sprint away. Ichigo observed the path for a bit even as it dissolved - he felt like it could be a useful trick to learn how to create solid stuff out of thin air like Ishida had - but then Orihime grabbed his arm and said, insistently:"Ichigo, there's so many things I want to ask you! Can you explain to me what exactly was going on there, with my brother and Uryu and the monster and everything?"Ichigo let out a long breath, then explained everything as best he could, starting from his meeting with Rukia. Orihime listened attentively, and when he was done she asked:"So, you're sort of like a samurai ghostbuster?""Well, yeah, if you want to put it like that...""That's so cool!"It took him a bit more to calm down the girl after that as she started to talk of the number of things that could now happen - her suppositions getting more and more convoluted and unbelievable as she went on - until finally he managed to extricate himself and make his way home.Except that, when he reached the road leading to his door, he found a short girl with dark hairs waiting for him there, a serious expression on her face."We need to talk."Ichigo nodded to Rukia's declaration and answered, in a similarly serious tone:"Yes, we do."