Chapter Eighteen:

"Stand together?" Ishida groaned as him and Ichigo slowly began to stand; neither boy had realized just how tired they truly were until Izumi had dropped them onto their butts. In truth it was hard for both of them to push themselves to stand back up.

"You didn't have to be so rough Zumi." Ichigo whined a little bit as he stretched his arms above his head. He had no problem working together with her, they had been inseparable since they were children. Ishida on the other hand, didn't really understand her angle; why exactly did she, a soul reaper, want to help him?

"Oh shut it Ichi, I'm mad at you." she growled refusing to look back at him. Actually she only turned around to look at Ishida when he began speaking to himself.

"Do you mean to work in a united front?" he paused looking terrified, the boy was scared of the mere thought of betrayal, he couldn't wrap his head around the idea of gaining help from soul reapers. Izumi had helped him before yes, but in truth he never really counted her as a true soul reaper; he now realized just how stupid of an idea that was considering she was the strongest woman he had ever seen.

"Quincy and soul reaper?" he questioned staring into her caring eyes. She knew this would be a tough ideal for him to grasp but before she could offer any comforting words Ichigo cut in with his usual blunt, uncaring persona.

"Would there be any other meaning? You see anyone else around here willing to help you?" Izumi immediately glared at her friend, and watched as Ishida looked even more troubled than he had a minute ago.

"Don't sprout such nonsense! For a soul reaper and a Quincy to work together is-" before he could finish Ichigo smacked his hand down on his shoulder and yanked him closer to his face.

"You're still talking about that?!" he screamed in his face before ripping him out of the way of an incoming hollow attack. Using his body as leverage, Ichigo hurriedly volted over Ishida's body by supporting all of his weight into his arm. The force of his weight shoved Ishida down towards the ground. Izumi grabbed hold of another incoming hollow and redirected him with her strength and strength alone; she whipped him into one of the surrounding buildings. Both her and Ichigo allowed one hollow to approach Ishida, both smirked pleased once he quickly destroyed it with one of his arrows.

"That's right." Ichigo smirked, he was sure he had won the dark haired boy over. But Ishida simply glared at him before clenching his hands into fists.

"Don't misunderstand! If I hadn't of shot that hollow just now, I surely would've been killed!" he huffed in a breath to continue before Izumi snickered catching his attention. Both boys looked over at her seeing she had completely destroyed over half of the surrounding hollows, leaving them only about four to take care of.

"You doubt me that much Quincy?" she glared at the dark haired boy while he gulped loudly, he had forgotten her declaration from when he had first met her in his Quincy form. She had sworn on her life that he would live a long life. He had thought it was strange, she was his enemy yet she had sworn to keep him alive and well.

"A small fry Hollow like that wouldn't have touched you; I merely allowed it close to remind you of who you are." she growled out before looking away from his surprised expression. Ichigo momentarily glared at the boy, he didn't understand their relationship; he knew that he was Izumi's best friend; not this Ishida boy. How much of his friend's life does he not know about?

"I merely wanted to express that I'm not cooperating with this idiotic plan of yours!" Instead of keeping her stare he looked down to the ground and frowned deeply.

"That's enough. It's do or die, though it's hard to do alone. So we have no choice but to work together!" Ichigo paused and looked from Izumi to Ishida's confused look. "That should be good enough of a reason to work together!"

Ishida remained silent as Izumi crossed her arms and watched her best friend stand straighter. She knew he was jealous of her bond with the Quincy boy, and she'd have to explain it to him later. But she just hoped he would keep his cool during any up coming battles.

"I was originally human, and honestly I don't know much about soul reapers, other than the fact Izumi is one and what she has told me; I don't hold much pride to this job but I respect it because of her. The only reason I'm standing where I am to day is because I want to destroy hollows." Izumi stared at her friend before looking down in shame, neither boys noticed her entire attitude change. She hated thinking about what she had done to Ichigo all those years ago, and the only reason his views on what happened have changed is because of Rukia's loud mouth.

"Why?" was the only question Ishida could think of as they watched the four remaining hollows get closer. Izumi braced herself as they waited for Ichigo's response, she knew memories would surface as she thought about the beautiful orange haired woman.

"Because a hollow killed my mother." Ichigo seemed calm as he talked of his mothers death, something Izumi hadn't been expecting. "Now, do I want to destroy hollows for that reason?" he paused and looked thoughtful for a moment. "If you ask that, then the answer would obviously be yes. However, it's not just that; what's it called? I don't want to make more of my kind." he paused thinking over if that made sense or not but in the end he really didn't care. "Mom was killed by a hollow, and it forced my dad and sisters to go through hard times. In my opinion I don't think we need anymore of that."

He swung his zanpakto at one of four hollows and destroyed it.

"I don't want to see the suffering anymore." he stayed crouched down as the hollow evaporated. "I'm not superman, so I can't say anything big like 'I'll protect everyone on earth'. And I'm not a modest guy who will say it's enough if I can protect as many people that my hands can handle either. But I will say that I want to protect a mountain load of people." he paused once again and sighed heavily when Izumi started clapping dramatically.

"Ishida, no matter what kind of reason you've got to fight, your approach to this fight is a way in which gets those people get caught up in danger. So quit screwing around. If anything happens to them I won't forgive you."

Silence followed before Izumi huffed loudly and stepped forward before drawing one of her twin blades; the last three hollows fell without an issue. As they all began to evaporate she crouched down and sheathed her blade on her hip.

"Right now is not the time to talk boys, there's still a lot of filth that we need to cleanse. So how about we wrap this up? Ishida, I get not wanting to work with this oaf, but right now there's no choice, so lets put on our big boy pants and get the job done."

Both boys nodded quickly when she turned around towards them with her long hair blowing in the wind, she knew there was something big coming, and she had to get their little issues with each other out of the way. Just when she gave them a nice smile multiple hollows dropped down from the surrounding buildings, circling them by closing off all exits.

Ichigo prepared to attack but Izumi quickly ordered him to stop; automatically his body stopped its advance and he looked over at her confused. Why was she stopping him? If they didn't fight they were going to die.

"Ichigo look at he hollows carefully. They're all looking up towards the sky." Ishida sounded just as confused as Ichigo felt until Izumi growled under her breath catching their attention.

"They're praying."

Just when she said that the giant crack in the sky was split open by the biggest hollow Ishida and Ichigo had ever seen. It's large white hands had long sharp looking nails, and on its mask was a large pointed nose, the teeth on the mask were very pronounced in a large smile.

"What is that!" Ishida exclaimed looking on in terror as Ichigo also started mumbling to himself. Both boys were panicking while Izumi stood silently watching the new surrounding hollows carefully. She knew once they had paid their respects that they would attack more aggressively than before.

"What do we do! We can't fight that thing and all of the surrounding hollows!" Ishida turned to Ichigo panic in full swing now that he peeled his eyes away from the monster in the sky.

"Shut up! If that's what we have to do then that's what we'll do!" Ichigo screamed back feeling defensive, he was panicking too, but he was trying to keep calm enough to think straight.

"Boys!" Izumi screamed catching their attention for the first time since the monster's appearance. She was the one truly keeping calm, but she was slightly on edge when she felt multiple familiar spiritual pressures approaching them from behind. Just when the hollows looked ready to attack, they were hit with multiple cannon fire. Looking back Ururu smiled nervously while holding a monstrously big weapon at her side which was wrapped in cloth.

Ichigo and Ishida turned when a Kisuke's voice rang out calling Ichigo's name. Izumi continued to look forward and ignored the obnoxious man she had called her uncle.

"Hey, you're Izumi's uncle right?" Ichigo glanced back at the girl in question before looking back at the man and his group with a sad look on his face. He knew that she was upset with them for holding out information about her home.

He knew this interaction was definitely going to be something else.