Chapter Sixteen:

Standing side by side we stood waiting for the hollows to get closer before we would advance. I knew that the Quincy boy didn't have much stamina left, he had been running all over town destroying hollows along with Ichigo. Finally after what felt like ages a hollow was advancing quickly, this one had arched wings that didn't quite work for its body, however they did allow it to fly. Ishida quickly shot it down and destroyed it without question. After the first hollow fell the rest just started piling in after us. Smirking I quickly rushed the two to my left and began slicing off whatever body parts my blades could land on.

Was I giving it my best?

No, no I was not.

A laugh left my lips as I continued to demolish the hollows as they came at me; though I did try to keep a watchful eye on Ishida since he had more of a long range weapon. Sometimes I did appreciate those bows but they were absolute crap in close combat. He seemed to be struggling and he was beginning to get surrounded.

"Hey Ishida! You good?" I rested one of my blades on my shoulder while I continued to defend against a large hollow. I don't think I really even looked at him since I was too busy looking over and watching the Quincy's fight. Honestly I was really bored, the hollows weren't putting up much of a fight and it all was just boring. But no one really knew of my actual strengths and right now wasn't really the time to give anything away; especially since I really needed to stay focused on masking everyone's spiritual pressure as well as my own.

"Don't talk to me Yamamato! I'm your enemy remember!" he glared in my direction as he shot of three arrows without looking. I smirked at him in response and just shook my head. This boy wasn't and never will be my enemy; not after the history I have with his race.

"Whatever you say!" I sang back to him while kicking a hollow away with my foot; well I guess actually I stopped him with my foot before shoving it away. What Ishida didn't think I noticed was the blood still dripping from his fingers; he was wearing himself out way too quickly and I don't know how much longer he'll last before he uses too much of his energy. Right when I opened my mouth to say something about it to him another voice rang out completely startling not only me but the Quincy as well.

"Ishida!" Ichigo screamed from somewhere behind us and started destroying all of my left over hollows and piling them up in a large mound. Only Ichigo would make a mountain out of hollow bodies then stand on top of them like he's king or something. And what is with that fighting style? It's so barbaric, I love it.

"Oii, Ichi!-" I called over to him and waved as I sliced the last hollow apart that was in front of me. He looked over at me completely confused and gave a nervous smile while he waved back quickly. Smiling to myself I sheathed both of my blades and lazily put my arms behind my head, there wasn't really anymore of a reason to have my zanpaktos out since these hollows were small fry.

"Eh? Zumi! Why're you putting away your swords!? You'll get killed!" Ichigo screamed, he always one to freak out over such trivial things when it comes to me or his sisters. Whistling loudly I pretended like I couldn't hear him and flashed up to the face on an incoming hollow, the biggest one in the crowd, before round house kicking it away and shattering it's mask. He stood silently looking extremely bewildered along with Ishida as I fell back towards the ground and stuck the landing. Behind me the large hollow was evaporating, and with my hands still behind my head I smiled at both boys seeming to not care at all. They both looked at me like I was a monster but I merely looked at them clueless.

"Did you say something?" I called up and inwardly laughed when both of them started shaking their heads back and forth with their hands in front of them. I just smiled and nodded before going back to picking out the bigger hollows to destroy to make it easier on Ishida.

....

Ichigo watched as Izumi continued to lazily destroy hollows with single kicks. He knew that his best friend was strong, but he didn't know she was strong enough to take on hollows without any spells like Rukia, or even without her Zantakto. He wanted to know exactly how strong she was, but in a sense he was terrified to find out. Looking away from her he looked down at Ishida and noticed him completely zoned in with his mouth open on Izumi. He guessed that even though the black haired boy was a Quincy and seemed to have been keeping tabs on Izumi, he didn't know that she was this strong either.

"Ishida!-" He screamed down to the boy gathering his attention. Ichigo wanted to express his feelings on the history of the Quincy race. He didn't quite understand everything or the hate Ishida held, but he wanted to ease it as much as he could. "I heard about your 'reason to fight'!"

The young Quincy looked completely startled and surprised that the freshly made soul reaper would know anything about his race since he knew next to nothing about his own race.

"Whether the soul reapers are right or the Quincies are right, I don't know anything about that stuff! And personally I don't plan on saying anything about it!-" Ichigo pointed up into the air as he approached his point on the matter. "There is one thing I do understand about it!-"

Izumi looked over and shook her head debating on whether she should stop the conversation before her dear friend got told a story he wouldn't be able to handle, or if she should let it play out. She didn't know what would be right in this matter. She knew that yes, the fall of the Quincies affected Ishida's up bringing, but that wasn't his full reason of hating all soul reapers. His real reason was because of the fall of his grandfather; his sensei, the one who basically raised him and taught him the meaning of Quincy.

"Your way of doing things is-" before Ichigo could finish his statement Ishida pushed up his glasses and sighed.

"I'm not interested in the fall of the Quincy race, that was two hundred years ago. Personally I've only heard about it from my sensei, to me, the fall of my race is just an old tale.-" Right behind him a monkey faced hollow began to charge with it's mouth open prepared to comp down Ishida's back. But right before it could reach it's mark another hollow body was hurled right into the monkey faced one. Pausing their conversation they both looked over and Izumi who was standing in mid air and just kicking hollows away back to back and destroying them. Both boys only had one thought when they saw her, and it was that she was a freaking monster.