Chapter Nine:

Across Karakura town we watch as the sky begins to crack and shatter until a large hollow beast pushes its way through into the peaceful blue sky. It's head is the only part of its body that is exposed is its large masked face before an arrow comes out of nowhere smashing into its face completely destroying it. Following the arrows trail we see Ishida congratulating himself for managing to destroy the first hollow to appear.

"First one down." he mumbled more to himself until the side of his shirt was grabbed and he was hurled to the ground by a very angry Ichigo. "What's with that look Kurosaki Ichigo?" he questioned calming with the seething boy brought his face a mere inch from his own.

"Return it to normal. Drive the hollows back!" he ordered sweat coming down his face.

"Don't speak rashly, you saw it didn't you? What I just did? The 'death is cast' one could say. Soon hollows lured by the bait will flood this town, with that being said. Instead of grabbing me, I think you should run. If you wish to protect as many people from hollows as possible. And who knows, maybe the missing Yamamto Izumi may also appear to protect your beloved town too. Or wait, she would be protecting you, just like she always has right?" he snickered as he pulled himself from the ground and walked behind Ichigo.

"You bastard!" Ichigo yelled wanting to punch the boy and just destroy him all together for putting them into this mess but his next words threw him off is train of thought.

"Oh, and you should be careful, you should know by now that hollows have a tendency to prefer humans with high spiritual power as their targets." Ishida said not looking back at him as Ichigo sucked in a breath thinking of his sister who he knew had a high pressure since she was the very first person who the first hollow he had seen went after.

"Shit!" he screamed before darting off completely forgetting about the Quincy standing before him. Right as he was almost out of sight Kon darted off after him screaming his name.

"Just as I thought, he hadn't realized it.-" Ishida paused for a moment as he watched the soul mod sprint off after its master. "-Search well Kurosaki Ichigo, among the people close to you, it's not just your family who have high spiritual pressure. If you haven't noticed that , then you'll surely be defeated by me. Then because of your failure the disappointment will kill you; you'll be aware of the low level of you abilities, on the other side of defeat. However, I doubt Yamamato Izumi will allow for you to have such a crushing defeat." He glanced off to one of the roof tops to his left feeling a very faint spiritual pressure lingering there; giving evidence that someone had been watching them this whole time. He almost didn't notice it until it had spiked slightly when Ichigo had ran off in the direction of his home. Slowly Ishida pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose before a small sigh left his lips and he began to head in the direction of his home once more.

...

"Haah." Tatsuki sighed heavily as she took a break from her club practice. She thought about her victory in Tokyo and how she was in good condition physically and that her preparations for nationals were looking good. She thought about all the positive things happening for her and her team yet she was still lethargic and she couldn't pin point why. Actually now that she thought about it she did know; but she didn't want to tell anyone. She took a large sip of her drink then sighed to herself aggravated.

"Dammit, they've been flirting all day. Don't they realize they're just damn ghosts!?" she glared over to two floating bodies of a man and woman and watched as the woman ghost giggled at something the man had said.

"Hey Arisawa! Break time is over! Time for your next round!" one of her teammates called from within the school building catching her attention. She paused for a moment and sighed pulling her sweat towel from around her neck.

"Gotcha! I'm coming!" she turned toward the entrance about to go back in the club entrance behind the school not noticing the person approaching her.

"Tatsuki-chan!" someone called catching her attention making her stop. Only three people called her by her first name and she had hoped it was Izumi since she hadn't seen her in a few days and she had a bone to pick with her. But when she turned around it was her other good friend Orihime who had a hopeful expression on her face.

"Can we talk for a second?" she asked then smiled her naive little smile that Tatsuki found hard to say no to. Seeing Orihime made her think about when she first started seeing spirits, it was actually at Orihime's house about two months ago. The day she had gone over to hang out; that day was still a mystery to her since she couldn't remember of that night she just remembered not being able to breathe. She also seemed to recall a figure that resembled Ichigo's new friend Kuchiki-san prowling about the room. At first she had thought it was a dream but when she had asked Orihime about it she had said she had the exact same dream and since that day both of them had started seeing strange things. It started off as vague but then day by day things became distinct.

Just as she was finishing up her thoughts a male ghost popped up behind her obnoxiously waving and wanting to be seen. Becoming fed up she turned around and waved her hand around making him evaporate.

"Aw man, it's just so annoying!" she growled forgetting all about her friend or where she was standing.

"Tatsuki-chan!" The orange haired girl called trying to remind her dear friend that she was on the school grounds and how crazy she looked.

"Ah, oh sorry! So you were saying?" sweat dripped down Tatsuki's face as she smiled nervously feeling bad for ignoring her friend and also a little nervous that her school peers had seen her. She watched as Orihime's face became troubled for a second before she spoke.

"Yeah, about that, you know it's no big deal but-" just as she began speaking a loud noise split the air startling both girls. They listened for a moment as people began screaming and panicking saying that the first floor windows of the school building had all exploded on themselves.

"Let's go check it out Orihime!" Tatsuki called as she began sprinting toward the chaos leaving the beautiful girl to herself expecting her to follow. But what Tatsuki didn't know was as she was running away the sky split catching Orihime's attention right away as she watched it happen confused.

...

Meanwhile in another part of town a rogue hollow that resembled a bug was about to reap the souls of two innocent ghosts until he was cut in half by a very distraught Ichigo. He had already purified three hollows in his search for his sister Karin. The only thoughts running through his head was where she went to play after school. Just as he was catching his breath and really trying to sense another hollows presence he heard roaring off somewhere behind him causing him to curse. He was aware that his detection range was much too narrow for him to properly find hollows like Ishida; thinking heavily he tried to remember how he had found hollows before and thought of Rukia's cell phone. Thinking quickly he ordered Kon to go and retrieve the phone from her. As he continued to scramble to find his dear sister, he still hadn't noticed the familiar figure following after him like a shadow protecting him from the dark.

...

In another part of town we watch as Ishida sends out yet another arrow toward his seventh hollow kill then his eight, ninth, tenth, and eleventh; he was sending out arrows one by one as the Hollows began appearing. Not a thought in his mind other than his competition.

All over Karakura town those with strong spiritual pressure began noticing the changes in the atmosphere. Much of them thinking of a familiar girl who had gone missing just days before.

...

"Hey! Kurosaki kick the ball this way!" children called toward Karin but she was too focused on the sky cracking right above her indicating that a hollow was about to make itself known. Of course she didn't know what hollows were or that the sky cracking above her meant that they were coming. But she could feel the change in the atmosphere which startled her catching her off guard. Little did she know that her familiar family friend was watching over her and that her brother was searching all over town for her.

...

Urahara had been ignoring the shift in the atmosphere as he was still in his small meeting with Rukia; it was only when he felt a small familiar spike of Izumi's spiritual pressure did he look up at the ceiling, seeming to look toward the sky. Tessai and the children did the same causing Rukia to question if there was something wrong or going on. But right as she asked, her hollow detector began beeping causing her to jump up in panic.

"Shit! A hollow at a time like this!? Sorry Urahara we'll continue this another time!" she began shoving on her shoes but stopped abruptly since the signal had disappeared. She didn't catch the tense air beginning to flow in the room as Urahara began trying hard to sense Izumi again. "The signal is gone? Already?-" silence settled in the room until she puffed out a noise of satisfaction. "That Ichigo is pretty efficient." she began putting her phone back into her pocket when it erupted in beeping again causing her to screech again and yank it out of her pocket confused. But just as she was about to say something the signal disappeared again making her think her phone really way broken but just as she was about to confirm it it began beeping without stopping.

"The number of hollows is rapidly increasing!" she mumbled to herself as she stared at the grid on her screen then stormed outside to look at the sky. What she say rattled her to her core and she couldn't understand what could possible be happening. Urahara remained silent as he looked toward Tessai who as already giving him a look.

"What is that in the sky? What is with that heavy spiritual disturbance? What in the world is happening!?" sweat began poring down her face as she tried to understand what could possible be happening.