Chapter Thirteen:

We watch as Orihime laid sleeping soundly peacefully mumbling in her sleep with Chad watching over her. He had woken up several minutes before her and had noticed she was having a nightmare of some kind about Ichigo; he leaned down to look at her thinking of if he should wake her or not. However right before he could shake her awake she shot up in her sleep making her head smash his nose; blood began to trickling down his face. He stood surprised for a moment holding his nose while she seemed oblivious.

"Huh? Morning Sado-kun." she smiled innocently at the big man as she sat up and leaned against the wall. She didn't notice the blood rolling down his face and didn't even ask why they were alone together in an unknown room.

"Morning, you know your head is surprisingly hard Inoue; you had quite the nightmare too, what was it about?" he asked genuinely worried for his friends health. But he seemed pretty confused when her face began to redden making him think she was having an embarrassing dream instead of a nightmare.

"Sorry, I can't say, it's a secret. In any case where are we? This isn't the school is it? So where are we?" she finally noticed that they were in a random building instead of the school yard where she had passed out.

"Oh my, it looks like you guys finally woke up." Urahara stepped out of the corner of the room surprising Orihime. He stood with her arms crossed and a smile on his face; personally he already knew who they were since they were friends of Izumi's but they had no idea who he was since Izumi liked to keep her family and school life separate.

"Who is he?" Orihime asked watching as Urahara stayed a decent ways away from them to appear unthreatening. She looked over to Chad who had sat down beside her cross legged.

"I don't know either, it's just that somehow we were saved by him.-" Chad nodded to the the man indicating that he was going to start talking to him. "- Now that Inoue is awake, please tell us more about what you were telling me when I first woke up. About the reason that a strange power was born from us and about how that pertains to our connections to Ichigo and Izumi." Chad drawled off not wanting to say too much since Orihime had yet to hear the man's word himself.

"Izumi-chan and Kurosaki-kun? What about them?" she asked a small bit of concern bubbling up when her childhood protectors and her crush's names came into conversation.

...

In another part of town we see a large feathered hollow was climbing from rooftop to rooftop then get cut in half by Ichigo's zanpakuto. He was still on the wild chase looking for his sister in town, not knowing that she was perfectly safe and sound do to his friends.

"After this Ishida I'll make you cry and fix this mess!!" he pictured the black haired boy fixing his glasses and saying something crude about him being better than Ichigo and something about Izumi which just made him more angry. "I'll definitely find you soon! Don't underestimate how good my instincts are Ishida!" he screamed to the sky pushing himself harder and farther since he was fueled by anger. He also wished for Kon to hurry in getting Rukia's phone so he could locate more hollows.

....

In another part of town we watch as a large hollow's head exploded with three arrows destroying it's mask. Following the trail we watch blood drip down Ishida's fingers as he breathes heavily.

"It's getting harder to kill them with one strike." he mumbled to himself as he calculated the odds. He thought it was strange that the level of hollows was much higher than normal; much to high for the small amount of hollow bait he had spread and he knew that it went on much longer he would lose. Thinking of his past experience with a soul reaper made him glare and scold himself. He convinced himself that he had not made a mistake by challenging Ichigo and knew he had to win to prove himself to his grandfather who had taught him all that he knew of his legacy.

...

In another part of town we watch as Rukia tries to fend off a small hollow. However she was losing, she had been in her Gigai for two months and she still hadn't regained any of her strength. Her knees bled heavily showing her struggles and she knew she couldn't take another hit. That being said when the Hollow pulled its arm back preparing to swing all she could do was grit her teeth and prepare for it. With all that was happening she hadn't noticed the figure of a woman watching her silently; Izumi had wanted to see just how powerful the soul reaper really was. Though she was fairly disappointed when all Rukia could do was kneel on the ground completely helpless without her dark arts. She was weak, and that was all Izumi could see as she watched the hollow prepare to attack; Izumi felt that watching Rukia's end wasn't even worth her time. With that being said she hadn't noticed Kon in Icigo's body rushing the beast, if she had she would have stayed instead of flashing away to the sky above the town.

Wind rushed around her body as she looked down at Karakura town watching as hollows ran rampant before being destroyed by either Ichigo or Ishida. She had been up in the sky the whole time feeling free without her Gigai; in those five days she had been preparing for the battle ahead. She knew elite reapers would be coming to collect Rukia soon, and to most likely terminate Ichigo. She also knew that since she had lost control of her spiritual pressure for small millisecond multiple times that they would most likely be coming for her too. For all of these years she had been constantly training to keep herself in check, while also masking the presence of her friend's power too. She had masked Ichigo's spiritual pressure as much as she could after the incident with his mother; she also covered the girl's pressures too. In short she had been shielding everyone for years and hadn't thought that Ishida would make his move in her absence.

Taking a deep breath through her nose Izumi closed her eyes before opening them and seeing every single ribbon for every citizen in the town. One in particular caught her attention as she focused in on Ichigo who was still storming through the streets. She wanted to go to him and ease his mind about Karin but she knew looking for his sister was driving him to destroy the hollows. She knew if she calmed him down he would doubt himself and Ishida would prevail. An image of the young male flashed through her mind making her sigh heavily. Personally she wanted to stop the feud all together since she hadn't thought that Ishida was a bad guy; but when it came down to it she would always side with Ichigo.

She felt for the Quincy, she knew of his story and situation but when he had challenged her upon his arrival she declined. She was still attempting to mask everyone while keeping her own pressure in check while also doing Urahara's training in her current gigai; in short she couldn't afford to disrupt the flow of her life at that moment. She had thought Ishida had given up on his revenge after she shot him down but when Ichigo was made a soul reaper by Rukia she couldn't mask the change in his soul threads. Once a ribbon is stained red, it can never be masked.

She had confronted him on multiple occasions and forced him into submission more times then she could count to keep him away from her dear childhood friend. However, after the scene and betrayal of Kisuke, Izumi had given up on her chummy life as a human. Her best friend was now a soul reaper, something she was almost born into, and something she had been running from. She knew people would come for them thanks to Rukia's involvement and she was done pretending to be something she was not. She was tired of running from her memories and her banishment; from her the experiences that put her where she was today. She stood tall thinking of her past for a moment before her shoulder began throbbing where her scar was located; it was her curse, per say, since she still felt its pains even though the skin had healed. She grasped it softly before looking back around at the soul threads.

She noticed the dark blue ribbon representing Ishida getting closer to Ichigo's blood red ribbon; crouching down she wondered how it would end if Ichigo would see him right now. She smiled slightly imagining Ichigo's angry face. Looking over she also noticed that Orihime and Chad were currently at the Urahara shop which made her sigh. She knew she would have to bite the bullet sooner rather than later especially since they had interfered with each of her friend's battles. She knew her friends would speak of seeing her, more importantly seeing her without her gigai which would definitely give her dear uncle figure a clue on how to find her. Not to mention she knew her friends were also going to be curious and depending on what Kisuke decided to tell them about her and Ichigo; she knew her friends would have multiple questions. She just hoped that they wouldn't reject Ichigo, or worse hate him for his impact on their lives. Izumi could handle being rejected but she wouldn't be able to handle them rejecting her dear friend.

Digging herself out of her thoughts she watched as Ishida's soul thread finally stopped in where Rukia had been losing her battle. Looking again she realized the poor excuse of a soul reaper had survived her fight making her sigh. Izumi personally and really hoped the girl had died but in a small sense she was glad; she knew Ichigo would never forgive himself if something happened to the dark haired girl. Deciding to get a better look on the exchange between the Quincy and Rukia she dropped down quietly to a building's roof directly beside them. She watched for a moment as Rukia struggled with Kon in Ichigo's body; she concluded that his presence was probably the only reason she was still alive.

...