A Pure Sword, A Pure Soul (Bleach)

Just like the last time you came to Mirror Mirror, the yard's sole occupant is Ui and the shop looks to be closed, despite it being the middle of the day. It makes sense that Kori would close the shop, she probably expects you to be (justifiably) upset, and doesn't want customers (who may be spiritually aware?) hearing the discussion coming from the back rooms. For her part, Ui seems a lot less content with being on cleaning duty than behind the counter, where she seemingly doesn't have to work very hard considering the light amount of traffic the shop gets. More than once you've pondered on how Kori manages to stay open despite her store's lack of business, but it's probably better you don't know. However she manages it, it's definitely shady.

"Piss off, we're closed." Ui grumbles as you approach the store. She doesn't even look up from her sweeping.

"It's Chiyu," you reply as flatly as humanly (soully?) possible. Getting to Mirror Mirror after school took a while, and you're not about to be turned away. "Kori's expecting me."

Still focused on her menial task in hand, the redhead just shrugs. "Yeah, boss'll meet you in the back." You hear the older Soul Reaper stop sweeping after you pass her, "I get that you're upset, but you might not wanna go in there mad, it's no use with her."

You can't help but let out a 'huh' as you turn and look back at Ui. When you do she just shrugs and goes back to sweeping. If anyone you know knows Kori Kagami, it would be Ui. Not to say that you're necessarily mad, but you are pretty upset. Fed-up might be the right word, or irritated. Either way you're not going to walk in and throw the bracelets at Kori's face and refuse to hunt Hollows for Mai anymore. If anything, you can understand where Mai's coming from, even if you don't agree with how she went about it. Kori, well, you can't say you really get Kori Kagami.

Once inside Mirror Mirror, you finally meet the rest of its staff. Well, meet isn't the right word. All five of the weird, expressionless kids (three boys and two girls all of varying heights, hair colors, and apparent ages (though they're all the twins' age or younger)) stocking the shelves don't react to your presence, besides the one closest to the door turning his head when you come in before turning back to the shelf. You guess that they were told that Kori was expecting you the same way Ui was, but that kind of goes to the back of your mind when you realize that they're probably too young to be working at a store at all. And wasn't today a school day?

You shake your head and put the weird kids out of your mind once you enter the back room, they're probably just weird soul pills inside of weird gigai anyway.

"Welcome Chiyu-kun! It's nice to have you back here, despite the circumstances," Kori greets with characteristic cheer when you enter her office. It's the same as last time, down to the hastily-cleared desk she sits behind, and Mai Koukin standing awkwardly off to the side. "You should sit, so we can talk this out."

You take the offered seat across from Kori as the other Soul Reaper shuffles to her side. "So, Koukin-chan told me what happened with the Demi-Hollow, first—"

"Let me guess, you want to apologize for not being clearer from the beginning?" You cut in, arms crossed. You're still not mad, but you do want to be done with any more hollow platitudes.

"Not quite," Kori manages to chuckle without laughing at all, before pushing her glasses up her nose. "Perhaps I should have explained the realities of the world better, despite the limited scope you have compared to most Soul Reapers. But I had my reasons for not being clear from the beginning. I will apologize for not making you aware of that fact. I typically do tell any Soul Reapers who work with me that I'm secretive for their sake as well as my own, but I thought your lack of a connection to Soul Society would make that unnecessary. So yes Chiyu, I am sorry. I should have told you more earlier."

Momentarily, you're speechless. It's such a nonapology despite at the same time being an actual apology. "What about using me? I get that you want to help Mai, but you could have been more up front with that too, I would have agreed to it." You hold up your wrists, bare in your human form, "I even suppressed my own powers."

"Yeah, you did. But it's not about that," Kori says with a sigh.

It's now that Mai pipes up, "I-I am so-so sorry Chiyu, I di- I didn't want to use you, I-I didn't mean to. I-it's just," she sucks in a breath, unable to meet your eyes, "I don't know how to h-handle these things, I-I thought th-that the way I went a-about things was right. I really, really am sorry." With that, the honey brunette hangs her head, "I didn't want to use you. I shouldn't have treated a friend that way."

"I want to make something else clear," Kori says, before you have time to process Mai's apology, "the reason I hid so much is that, if Soul Society finds out that Mai transferred her powers to you," the shop owner puts her hands on her desk, looking at you without any humor in her voice or eyes, "you will be executed. And the best our friend Koukin-chan can hope for is several hundred years imprisonment in what I will only refer to as the Great Underground Prison."

[] Accept both apologies, you'll keep working with Kori and Mai as you were before, but you want to be told about everything that doesn't endanger you from now on.

[] Accept Mai's apology but tell Kori you want to stay at arm's length. You want less to do with her than she wants to do with you. Mai doesn't have to stop working with her, but your meetings will be less frequent from now on.

[] Accept Mai's apology but tell Kori that you're done working for her. You'll keep the bracelets for Mai's sake, and Mai can keep working with her, but you're not going to be kept in the dark or used anymore.

[] Tentatively accept Mai's apology. You don't blame her for acting the way she did, she clearly had no idea how to handle the situation she found herself in, and you appreciate her giving you her powers… but you're not sure you'd call her a friend. You'll take what Kori can give you, but you're not going to work with her closely anymore.

[] Tentatively accept Mai's apology. You don't blame her for acting the way she did, she clearly had no idea how to handle the situation she found herself in, and you appreciate her giving you her powers… but you're not sure you'd call her a friend. Don't accept Kori's apology, you'll keep working with Mai, and keep the bracelets so she gets her powers back, but you're done being used.

[] Write-in (please address both Mai and Kori in your write-in.)

[] Write-in any questions you have regarding Soul Society and how the World works, Kori will answer any questions that you're ready to hear the answers to as well as any that don't endanger you or Mirror Mirror directly.


Despite wanting to fall into bed and sleep like the dead (maybe that expression isn't the best), you remember that today is, indeed, Friday. And you agreed to take Natsu and Tousuke out for ice cream after school today. So despite the mental exhaustion from both Rokougi-sensei's extensive battery of tests and having to deal with the Mai and Kori Kagami situations, you will yourself out of bed and into a more casual outfit.

"You took your time getting home, Shu-nee," Tousuke says with an audible eye roll as you descend the stairs. "I thought you might be waiting to get the drop on Soichiro so you could take us all out."

Then it's your turn to roll your eyes, "Come on Tousuke, you know my pockets aren't that deep."

"Aww, So-nii's not coming with us?" Natsu pokes her head in from the kitchen, where she's been packing everyone's lunches for tomorrow, "you shouldn't joke like that, Tousuke."

"I didn't say he was coming with us," your little brother clarifies as he stands, his tone far less flippant with his twin than it was with you, "I just said that Shu-nee was taking so long it was like she was waiting for Soichiro."

Natsu huffs and dips back into the kitchen, "Maybe no dessert with your lunch tomorrow will teach you what and what not to joke about."

"H-hey hold on—" before Tousuke can rush into the kitchen and stop Natsu from whatever evil she's inflicting upon his lunch, you drag him to the door. "Shu-nee, it wasn't that bad, right?"

You shrug, "The kitchen is Natsu's domain, I have no power over her in there. Besides, you remember what happened last time I tried to intervene in dinner." Your brother shares the shudder that passes through you.


"Hmmm, no, no that's too much," Natsu changes her mind for what might be the seventh time, inevitably to come up with something even more excessive. You and Tousuke have long since decided on what you wanted, and the overworked high schooler behind the counter's smile has gone from genuine to forced.

"Maybe you only need one sauce," Tousuke gently prods his twin.

Natsu's reaction is instant. You're not sure you could move that fast in your Soul Reaper form. The younger girl wheels on your brother and sneers, "Come on Tousuke! Think of the possibilities; three scoops with fudge, marshmallow, and strawberry syrup, the number of flavors they have. Besides, we have to take advantage of Shu-nee's kindness and generosity, right?"

Tousuke just smiles and nods, and you do the same. Maybe your little sister has taken after your dad a little too much.

Eventually, Natsu does settle on a completely ridiculous combination of three flavors, three sauces, and all but four of the toppings the store has. Tousuke went with a scoop each of cotton candy and pop candy (it's not your business if he rots his teeth out) with marshmallow and gummy bears. While you went with a scoop of ube and a scoop of adzuki topped with wafers, much more sensible than your siblings' ridiculous bowls.

"So Shu-nee," Natsu says around a mouth of pure sugar, looking between you and her twin, "are you seeing less ghosts lately too?"

"I-huh," that question takes you completely by surprise. "I suppose?" It's more of a question than an answer, you don't really know how to answer it. You can't mention your Soul Reaper exploits, especially not to Natsu, but you think that lately you probably would be seeing less ghosts, if you weren't going out of your way to look for them. "Yeah, there's definitely less of them, but I didn't really notice till you said anything. Wait, you aren't seeing ghosts now, are you?"

Your sister shakes her head, looking into her bowl. "No, but Tousuke was telling me that there were less of them around," ah, that explains it, the twins share pretty much everything, "I wonder why that is."

You… even with your out-of-body experiences, you don't know why that is. Maybe it's because you and Mai are a better team than the Soul Reapers they usually send to Banmuro City. But you really can't say.


"I think you and Nao picked what we were gonna do the last three times, I'm right, aren't I Shu?" Ryo, arms crossed, throws at you the second you get to the park your friend group decided to meet in.

"Uh," you can't help but look between Nao, Mio, and Ryo before you decide to side with the sportier boy, "yeah, that does sound right actually."

Ryo beams at the answer, while Nao just rolls his eyes. Mio doesn't look like she feels as strongly as the boys, but she does seem slightly offended for Nao's sake.

"So," you don't let the awkward silence linger, eager to get the day started, "what did you have planned, Ryo?"

The madness in his grin makes you take a step back, "laser tag."


"Okay Nao," you say through grit teeth as you blind-fire over the cover you found, "I'll be the bigger person and admit that you and Mio usually have better ideas."

"Well thanks Shu, maybe you can—" his eyes become as wide as saucers when a grenade of all things lands between you. You didn't even know that laser tag had grenades.

With your spiritually honed reflexes, you grab the projectile and throw it back towards the sender. Even with the sharpened senses and heightened physical abilities your time as a Soul Reaper has given you, somehow your team is down to just yourself and Naoto. Meanwhile there are five- four, you realize, as you hear someone get eliminated by the laser grenade- people left on the enemy team, which includes Ryota and Mio. Mio is sneaky, but not much of a threat to you or Nao, who know her too well to get tricked by her. But Ryo, Ryo is a menace. You don't know how or when he got this good at laser tag, but he's able to not only get the drop on, but outplay you.

During when the enemy team's suppressing fire dies down a little, you and Nao take the opportunity to stick your heads up and lay down some fire of your own. You can hear the beeps of two vests in the darkness, but you know that you don't have any time to celebrate evening out the playing field.

Especially when you hear the beep of Nao's vest. You don't even look at your friend before you vault over the cover and throw yourself behind another wall.

"It's over Shu, come out and we'll make it quick," Ryo says as if you're in an actual warzone.

"You know how crazy he is Shu, don't—" you cut Mio's good cop routine off as you roll between pieces of cover and nail her in the chestplate, eliminating her. "Aw crap," you know that Mio is sulking off after that humiliation.

It's not even three seconds before you feel Ryo's laser gun pressed into your side. "End of the road Shu, those were some good moves, but now? It's over."

"I just have one question before you eliminate me," you know that even you can't spin and shoot before he can pull the trigger, but you have to ask, "how the hell are you so good at this?"

He doesn't answer before eliminating you.

"I suppose it's a few things," your friend says with a grin as the lights come back on. "Maybe you should try some video games instead of just being so active, Shu."

You could start playing games with Tousuke, but you know how bad the ribbing would be if you were worse than him; you don't even want to think about how he would react if you were any good. Honestly though, you're not as interested in video games or electronics as your friends are, so you just shrug, "Maybe if I get the time. I'm not that big on the whole shooting thing though."

Ryo shrugs and collects his grenades, "Suit yourself."


Training yourself in knife fighting is both easier and harder than you expected. Considering the size of your zanpakuto, the weapons training you've had in karate helps somewhat, but its shape, weight (not that it weighs as much as it should, either because it's a spirit weapon or because it's made of a Soul Reaper's powers), and balance are all different enough that you struggle to make progress.

So training yourself in better utilizing your weapon as an actual weapon instead of just an extension of your regular techniques. You run through some katas, practice some knife and sword drills, and by the time you're finished with that it isn't too late.

So you settle down and try to meditate. It wasn't your first idea, but after going through all of the other options in your head, it seemed like the best one. After all, you're supposed to be using your spiritual pressure and spiritual power to strengthen your own body, so concentrating is probably the best way to start strengthening yourself with it.

Meditation has never been the easiest thing for you, and when you've got a lot on your mind it's even harder. But this time, you have something to focus on, molding your spiritual power and concentrating it into your body. It's still not very easy, it's actually pretty challenging, moderating the flow of spiritual pressure into your limbs and body without pumping in too much and hurting yourself, or not dedicating enough and not feeling anything.

After a few hours of meditating, you finally get up and attempt to perform conscious physical enhancement while moving. It's tricky, doing it without concentrating, but eventually you're able to increase your strength and speed enough to be closer to how strong you were before you suppressed your powers, though it does quickly drain you. After physically enhancing yourself for five minutes, you find that you're as tired as you would be if you'd fought a particularly strong Hollow. That's fine though, it's a start.


"Makiyou." You wouldn't say that they were yelling at you, or even calling out, but that doesn't mean the raised voice trying to get your attention doesn't make you cringe.

Oh joy. It's these two.

You had hoped that you wouldn't have to see the Iwaba twins outside of school for at least another week, but running into them when you were out for a Sunday morning jog to clear your head was definitely the worst case scenario.

"What do you want?" You turn and face the Quincy twins, who have quickly caught up with you, likely because they're able to use their powers in their human bodies. Maybe your tone was a little too harsh, but they did just get the jump on you in public.

"I- uh, we," Eidou starts, taken aback by your tone, "we wanted to apologize, actually. So, sorry."

"Right, we are sorry Makiyou," Tenko echoes. "But, there was something else."

You roll your eyes. There's always something else.

"We were thinking about how you purified that Hollow, instead of destroying it," the Quincy girl continues, "and we were wondering if you would want to help us take out some weaker Hollows this week. You know, so the souls are purified."

"And we can see how soul burial works," Eidou adds excitedly, earning a glare from Tenko.

"If you want to," she helpfully adds.

"Right, right," Eidou jumps in, less helpfully, "if you want to."

[] Agree to go with the Quincies on their Hollow hunt, if only so the Souls aren't destroyed.

[] Agree to go with the Quincies on their Hollow hunt, but you want something in return. You'll think of something during the hunt, but for now you'll say they owe you one.

[] Only agree to go on the hunt if they bring someone responsible. You would bring Mai, but she went last time, and while she can still use kido, she's still at risk in a real fight, more than the rest of you would be.

[] No, you're not going to be working with the Quincy again. Not so soon, at the very least. You accept their apology, but that doesn't mean you want to hunt with them again.

[] Write-in (include a yes or no answer, unless you have a special request of some kind.)

A/N: This one was a really bad case of writer's block, or maybe several. When I actually managed to commit to it (after getting rid of a previous attempt), it flowed pretty well. It probably didn't help that this wasn't really a planned chapter, but the rest of this volume should go a bit smoother, even if the individual plot points diverge from the outline pretty significantly.

"Fine," you finally accept the apologies, resisting the urge to throw up your hands. "But," you hold up a finger to stop Kori Kagami from saying whatever she's about to say, "I want you to tell me everything from now on, as long as it doesn't endanger me directly."

"That's… reasonable, Chiyu-kun, I think we can both agree to that," the shopkeeper says with what might be the most earnest smile she's ever given you, before she looks up at Mai.

The other Soul Reaper, standing behind Kori's desk and to the left of the shopkeeper, has been trying to make herself as small as possible, even during your apology. "Y-yes Chiyu, that sounds good. S-sorry again…"

"Alright, that's enough apologizing," you (gently) put your foot down, then glance at the clock hanging above the door behind you. You do have to be aware of the time, since you agreed to go out with your younger siblings this afternoon, but that doesn't mean you have to leave right away. "But I do have questions."

"Naturally," Kori nods, leaning forward to rest her chin on interlocked hands, "I'll answer what I can."

'I guess I should start with the biggest question first,' you think to yourself. "So, what's the deal with Souls?" You start, before shaking your head, "I mean, how does it all work? Like we're all Souls," you indicate yourself as well as Kori and Mai, "but only ghosts—"

"P-pluses," Mai corrects.

"Right," you nod, "but only Pluses have the chain," you gesture to your chest, "and Hollows are Souls too?"

"So," Kori decides that leaning back would be more comfortable, and does just that, stretching as she does so, "that's a pretty big question. What it boils down to is what part of the Cycle a Soul belongs to, or what 'World'—" she puts 'world' in air quotes "—it calls home. Pluses are bound to the World of the Living, which is signified by their chain. If you were taken out of your body without Soul Reaper powers, you would remain connected to it via a chain. We call this chain the Chain of Fate. Most Pluses, or 'ghosts' as you call them, are typically bound to the World of the Living because of a sudden death or minor, unresolved issues. Their chains aren't connected to anything and will slowly degrade over time. Most Pluses of this type are purified by a Soul Reaper, absolving them of their lingering attachment and allowing them to move on."

"The other type of Plus is known as an Obsessed Spirit, or a Soul that's been bound to a specific person or area in the World of the Living by serious regrets, spite, attachments, or any other manner of feelings. These Pluses tend to be harder to find, because of their sedentary or solitary nature—"

"So, like the Demi-Hollow?" You cut in.

"N-not exactly," Mai answers, before allowing Kori to continue.

"Right, not exactly. Over time, an Obsessed Spirit will become a Jibakurei, a truly Earth-Bound Spirit, which is the first step to becoming a Hollow. The elongated Chain of Fate of a Jibakurei will decay unevenly, which can take years, but is inevitable, and once the anchor of the chain has fully decayed, that Soul becomes a Hollow."

"I'm sure you're aware that Hollows all have different, unique abilities," Kori asks redundantly, but you still nod, "and also unique masks. Well, that's because a Hollow's mask is its heart, and its mask governs its abilities. Once a Chain of Fate is fully encroached upon, the Plus' bare heart will leak out of its chest and cover its human face. Don't be mistaken, Hollows are completely different from Pluses, their thought process is inhuman and the majority are completely insane. It's a combination of their fixation in their early afterlife and the hunger that drives them. All Hollows have to feed on Souls because of the emptiness that comes from their lack of a heart. Oh, going back to the 'Worlds' thing, Hollows have one that they call home. It's called Hueco Mundo and it's a wasteland, don't worry about it for now—"

You decide not to worry about it for now, but file the name away for later.

"—anyway, most Hollows stick to the World of the Living because, while the density of spirit particles in the air is enough for the weakest Hollows to subsist on, it's also full of the strongest of their kind. The strongest Hollows are called Menos, they're what happens when a cannibalistic Hollow feeds on enough of its own kind, again, not something you have to be concerned with. They never appear in the World of the Living to cause trouble because of the backlash they get from Soul Society." Kori sort of rushes through that last part, but it doesn't seem relevant so you don't pry any further.

"Soul Reapers and the other denizens of Soul Society don't have a Chain of Fate because they're unbound, their spiritual body and form are one and the same. All Souls, which I'll use to differentiate them from Pluses, do have something analogous to the Chain of Fate of Pluses. I suppose you could call them organs, even if they aren't physically present. They're called the Saketsu—" she gestures to a point on her sternum, just below where the chain would be on a Plus, "—and the Hakusui—" she indicates a point below her xiphoid process, "and they govern the amount of spiritual power a Soul has, which is the measure of their potential to be a Soul Reaper. Soul Reapers are really just Souls who are able to channel their spiritual power as spiritual pressure, and who have bonded with a zanpakuto. A zanpakuto will come to reflect its owner's heart after constant exposure to their spiritual pressure, eventually awakening a spirit of its own, with its own name."

"Wait wait," you hold up your hands. "You're telling me that the zanpakuto I've been using this whole time is also a spirit? How am I even using it if it's Mai's?"

"Because you took so much of her power," Kori explains, "normally, not that the process of a human gaining Soul Reaper powers is normal, your zanpakuto would look generic and not be able to do anything besides what any basic zanpakuto could do," she shrugs, Mai just stands there, silent and awkward as ever. "Anyway, just like every Hollow has its own unique powers, so does every zanpakuto. There are different types, like elemental and melee; the latter of which is probably what you would have, if you had your own zanpakuto, but all of them are truly unique. Guards, handles, pommels, even sheaths all start generic and slowly morph to fit their spirit and owner." The shopkeeper exhales, "I think that's about it for Souls, at least as an overview."

"What about the Quincy? And humans with high spiritual power?" You ask, "Can humans have powers, while staying human besides the Quincy?"

"Well the Quincy are really just humans," Kori starts after thinking for a moment, "not to say that there's anything inferior about humans or that the Quincy aren't anything special, but they are mortal dwellers of the World of the Living. Their origins aren't clear, but the reason they fight Hollows is. Quincy souls are extremely weak to Hollow spiritual pressure, and even limited exposure can prove fatal to them."

'I guess that changes things with the Iwabas, I'm not sure I'd care what happened to Hollows if a scratch could kill me,' you have to (internally) admit.

"The mechanism of what happens to their souls is also unclear, but we know that they're destroyed, the same way a Hollow whose mask is destroyed by a Quincy arrow is."

"As for other humans with spiritual powers, it is rare, but possible. The most common spiritually empowered humans are called Mediums, and their ability to express their souls tends to be pretty weak, usually all they can do is use spiritual pressure to manipulate objects or energy. Other empowered humans are called Fullbringers, and they're a lot less common. Fullbringers are humans whose mothers were attacked by Hollows before they were born, leaving them with the ability to manipulate the 'souls' or 'spirits' of the world around them. I wish I could explain better, but that would be getting into metaphysics. They're also not very relevant. Their potential can be high, but their spiritual pressure is often low. On account of their mortal bodies, the real danger in confronting a Fullbringer is the often strange nature of their powers, but I haven't encountered enough to comment on that."

"So a human couldn't awaken their own Soul Reaper powers?" You follow up.

"No. Not on their own, at least. They would need an existing source of Soul Reaper powers to do it, and they would need someone to get rid of their Chain of Fate for them. I wouldn't recommend it," Kori quickly shoots the question down. Though it sounds like she knows how to give a human their Soul Reaper powers back.

"I should get going, but I do have to know, how does Soul Society even work? What does it look like? Who makes all these weird rules?"

"Soul Society is ruled by the Soul King, though he's a pretty hands-off ruler. The day-to-day running of Soul Society is handled by a body called Central 46, which is made up of," the shopkeeper does a drum roll with her fingers on her desk, clearly getting weary of explaining things, "you guessed it, forty 'wise men'—" again she brings out the air quotes, though this time she explains further, "who are really just elected from the nobility of the Soul Society, and especially the Seireitei, and six judges, who do have a bit more merit. They really just sit around and talk until they decide to pass an edict, which the Thirteen Court Guard Squads, the organization to which all Soul Reapers belong and the military of the Soul Society, enforces. Soul Society looks a lot like Earth, really. I'd say there's less water, and it might actually be flat, but otherwise they're pretty similar. Technologically, it is a few decades behind the World of the Living, but that's only because the afterlife has what humans might call magic, and the majority of Souls don't have to eat or drink, though Soul Reapers do. Soul Society is massive though, and the number of Soul Reapers isn't that high, so there are some areas of the Rukongai, which is the part of Soul Society that surrounds the Seireitei. The Seireitei is where the Court Guard Squads are based, and where the Central 46 meets. It's basically a country-sized city."

"How are people nobles if everyone in Soul Society is a Soul? Are Souls born there?" You can't keep the confusion out of your voice.

"Well, Souls can have children together. Our very own Koukin-san was born in Soul Society," Kori holds an open hand out to indicate the other Soul Reaper, who seems paler than normal. She does, however, nod in confirmation. "She's part of the upper nobility, even."

"Y-yes, u-um, my family are ac- they're, I mean we- um…" Mai trails off, the color rising to her cheeks nervous red instead of healthy pink. "I-I'm t-technically actually p-part of the F-Four Great Noble- uh the Four Great N-Noble Families, a-actually."

"That sounds important," you observe, though it's directed more at Kori than Mai.

"They are," the shopkeeper nods. "But we don't have to get into that right now. It's probably best if we leave it here."

You nod at that, "Yeah, you gave me kind of a lot to think about."


A/N: This chapter isn't done, but this is both a pretty solid chunk of it and a self-contained update. The Quincy Hunt will be coming out shortly. Just want to get something out really, hope you enjoy it.
Sorry for the delay but the motivation for this quest in particular was a bit up and down for me. This was helpful for getting back in the groove of things though.

A/N1: Splitting this into two actually, even though there isn't a vote. The second part is getting kind of long and I'm not sure it's even halfway done yet.

"Why would you give yourself more work to do on a Tuesday?" You grumble to yourself, sitting at the top of one of the high-rises across from that upscale coffee place the Iwaba twins like. You'd actually beaten them here this time, since you sent Aizo home in your body after karate practice. For whatever reason, the Quincies had decided to schedule their Hollow hunt for Tuesday, whether or not you decided to go with them. It's apparently a regular thing for them, to pile even more work onto themselves so early in the week. It's not even like they do it every day, no, they choose to do it on Tuesday, every week. They do it on some other days too, but that isn't the point. Maybe you're just in a bad mood because someone noticed you were distracted in club, no no, it's the Tuesday thing, you're sure of it.

Mai wasn't going to be going with you this time, which suits you fine. Not to say you don't want to spend time with Mai, but not having to deal with her and the Iwaba twins at the same time is an arrangement you're more than comfortable with.

Despite Tenko's chiding last time you met up at Dutch Bean, the two Quincies, like every coffee snob, clearly take their time in enjoying their beverages. Or maybe you really were just that early, but that doesn't excuse them for being on-time. Or maybe it does, you really can't tell with people as order-driven as the twins.


"Did you scout this one out too?" You ask the twins, keeping pace with them as you head toward the parkland that borders Kanawanatake.

"Not quite," Eidou is the one who answers, glancing back at you. You're not sure why he's taking point, considering you're the only one who fights up close. "We did some scouting, but after school today, we realized that its movements were getting more regular, and it kept coming back out here," he points to the wooded parkland at this edge of Banmuro City.

"The problem is," Tenko picks up for her brother, "it's pretty far out there, maybe at the river."

You mentally kick yourself for being relieved that Mai wasn't coming this afternoon, because you only have the vaguest idea of the Soul Reapers' patrol zones. "If it's all the way out by the river then Soul Society might have been alerted to it already."

"With the phone? Koukin-sensei mentioned it," Tenko asks.

"Yeah, the problem is that her patrol zone is Banmuro City, and I'm not sure how far out that goes," you do know that it goes pretty far out, but you're heading in a different direction today then you were the time Kori sealed your powers.

"That could be problematic, but I don't see an issue if we deal with it quickly," Eidou reasons. "Besides, I can still sense it out there."

Despite yourself, you nod, "Let's go then. Just in case."


To your relief, the Hollow's den isn't quite at the river, though it is close. No, it's in a big depression in the ground, some ways off the main trail through the woods, surrounded by massive concrete pipes. Some stick vertically out of the ground with doors and windows cut into them, while others lay horizontally, half-buried in the ground. The ground here is mostly gravel, with some patches of grass beginning to poke through. Clearly this was done as some sort of point of interest in the otherwise empty section of park, but standing here, in the fading light of the late afternoon, it just seems like an empty municipal gesture. But the location isn't the weird part, no, that would be—

"I- huh- I've never seen anything like this," Eidou, as usual, is the first one to speak up.

"Me either," his twin echoes, somewhat redundant. You're pretty sure that during the last hunt you went on with them, they mentioned only ever hunting together.

What 'this' is is a mass of Pluses, souls of all ages and backgrounds it seems, huddled into the center of the depression, kept in by four equidistant fence posts of seemingly spiritual construction. None of them look like they're in the process of Hollowfication, much less already Hollows. In fact, all of them look scared, unable to even look up at the three of you.

"Wait, where's the Hollow?" You ask what should have been the most relevant question.

"This place stinks of its spiritual pressure," Eidou observes, "but it's not here. Wait…" he trails off, looking in the direction of the river.

"Chiyu, you said you didn't want souls destroyed, right?" Tenko asks you, picking up on what her brother is thinking without having to hear it.

You nod.

"Well, how about we tire the Hollow out while you perform soul burial on them," she waves to the captive Pluses, "then we'll bring it back here for you to slay."

"That way you don't even have to get close to the city limits," Eidou adds.

"Yeah, that actually makes sense," you agree to the plan pretty quickly, it does make sense, and (from what you can sense at least) the Hollow doesn't seem that strong.

After the Quincies depart you approach the strange fencing. It actually turns out not to be some kind of invisible fence, instead it just sets the area the Pluses are allowed to be in. You have to calm yourself down when it occurs to you just how messed up that is, the Iwabas are already after the Hollow, you just have to send these Pluses off to Soul Society. Which… probably isn't as good as you've been telling the Pluses you've sent there, in retrospect. Well, it's still better than being Hollow food.


Convincing the first few Pluses to let you perform konso on them was awkward, to say the least. The first one you talked to wasn't that bad, but once the rest saw the office worker sink into the ground in a flash of blue light accompanied by the appearance of the hell butterfly (you definitely didn't tell it was called that), they sort of panicked.

It took you a while to calm the Pluses down, but eventually you managed to do it (it did help that they were too afraid of the Hollow to leave the fenced-in area). Once you'd explained the reality of konso to them, the Pluses still weren't really eager to be tapped with the pommel of your knife before disappearing. Still, they listened to you when you explained (again) that being eaten by the monster that led them all here would be worse.

A weird… crunching noise draws your attention away from the Pluses after you purify the fourth-to-last of them. Turning around, you see what looks like a giant, wingless bat crawling across the gravel ground towards you. Its nose takes up most of its face, leaf-shaped and ridged, while its mouth is wide and fanged. Unlike most of the Hollows you've fought, its mask is stark white, free of any markings, and its corpse-gray body is emaciated, leaving its ribs visible. Rather than having wings, the Hollow's arms are extremely long and tipped with two extremely long, clawed fingers.

The first thing you hear from the Hollow is a quiet, high-pitched clicking. "You…" click click "Soul Reaper…" click click click "you have no idea how much work it was getting all of those souls together…" click click. Its voice is a lot higher than either the Demi-Hollow's or Landlubber's.

"How'd you get past the Quincies?" You ask, careful not to use the Iwaba's names. Even if you don't think a Hollow could use the internet or a phonebook or something to get revenge on someone.
Click click "Heh heh," a long, pointed tongue emerges from its mask, licking its fangs as if they were lips. "They underestimated me…" click click "your little friends are fine…" click click. You're sure it would be smiling if it could smile. Click "let's just say they're a little… confused." Click. Click. Click.

You aren't particularly close with the Iwaba twins. You definitely wouldn't call them your friends. But the smugness oozing from this weak little Hollow pisses you off. Not only because it might've hurt your classmates, but because it's so confident despite the weakness you can sense from it. It's just a trickster.

Flipping your blade in your hand, you turn to face the bat-like Hollow. "I'm not gonna fall for your tricks, freak," you sneer, raising the knife in your forward hand.

The Hollow rapidly clicks, and you hear a sharp whine as the clicks get faster. As you realize it's not going to attack you, you decide to make the first move, and tense your legs for a hoho leap.

Instead of the tension exploding into fast-paced combat, it dissipates with a whimper. Well, more like confusion. Neither you nor the Hollow make the first move, you'd thought that you would jump forward and force the Hollow back, stopping its sonic attack from being released, but instead its attack was silenced by an oversized arrow spearing through its forehead, nearly splitting its mask in two.

"You said you'd let me purify all of the souls!" Is the first thing you can think of once you regain the ability of speech.

"Huh?" The voice you hear isn't one you recognize. It's older than Eidou and Tenko, and female. "I don't remember saying that," when the Hollow falls forward, you see the interloper.

You were right, she's definitely an older teen girl, and she's definitely a Quincy, based on the wisps of blue spiritual pressure coming off of the silver pentacle hanging from her right wrist (also the giant arrow lodged in the Hollow's crumbling head). The Quincy is relatively tall, taller than either Mai or Ui, and even in the dappled lighting of the woods you can see that both her skin and hair are too light to be from around here (as if her her somewhat awkward pronunciation hadn't given that away), her blonde hair is pinned into something of a bun on the top of her head, and she's dressed in all white, just like the twins. Color aside, her outfit couldn't be more different. Rather than looking like a priest out of some kind of isekai manga, the new Quincy seems to be going for a biker vibe; instead of a coat, she's got on a white leather jacket with a short collar and several pockets, and her pants are looser and silvery, instead of the more martial arts-inspired shoes Eidou and Tenko wear while hunting Hollows, she's arrived in a pair of black-accented thick-heeled boots.

The new Quincy flash steps into the depression, disappearing from her branch and reappearing behind the Hollow. "Go ahead and finish up your kansha," she says with a slight smug grin, "I've never had the chance to see it before." Now that she's closer, you can see her eyes are dark green and playful, with a hint of… something you can't identify behind them.

"It's konso," you say, deciding to finish with the Pluses before confronting her over destroying the Hollow.

Luckily, the Quincy's little demonstration spooked the Pluses enough that they readily accepted the soul burial rather than stick around for (what they apparently assumed would be) a fight. After performing the ritual on the last Plus, an older woman who just so happened to be the most reluctant and skeptical when you started purifying the other souls twenty-ish minutes ago, you turn to face the new Quincy.

"Who are y—"

"It's Noringrad De- er, Iwaba," she cuts you off, though she does answer your question, "you're the Soul Reaper who's been running around with the twins, keeping them out of trouble?" Despite her rising tone at the end, it's less of a question and more of a statement.

"I wouldn't say that," you keep the annoyance out of your voice, despite how quickly it's building. "This is only the second time I've gone out with them, and the first time was kind of…" you trail off, 'disaster' feels like too strong a word, but 'blunder' doesn't sound serious enough, "the first time was kind of messed up, really."

The new Quincy, Noringrad (which is a weird name, it doesn't even tell you where she's from), shakes her head, "Yeah, they're eager for how inexperienced they are. Especially for somewhere with such crazy high Hollow activity."

"So," you flick your eyes side to side, but don't turn away from Noringrad, still wary of her, "where's your partner?"

"My what?" She cocks her head, letting her mask of smugness drop just a little.

"Your partner," you raise an eyebrow, "the twins told me that Quincies fight in pairs."

"Oh, maybe for training," she shakes her head and crosses her arms, "but unlike them, I'm a full-fledged Quincy."

That makes you roll your eyes. "So what? It's like Eidou said, 'Quincies only fight with bows', so you just run away when a Hollow gets up close and personal?"

"Nah," she shrugs slightly and takes a step forward.

Something about the way she steps towards you on the gravel sets alarm bells off in your head, and you slide back into a fighting st-

Another flash step places the older Quincy right in your face, "I do this."

You barely see the twitch in her shoulder that tells you her hand's moving before the older girl buries her fist in your stomach.

Not only does the punch knock the wind out of you, and not only does it lift you off your feet, it sends you flying over the berm and into the sparser woods that lean to the river at Banmuro City's official border. You had thought, when your classmates first came out to you as Quincies, and when you first saw them fight, you thought that you probably could've still beaten either one in a purely physical fight. Especially after they told you they only ever fought with bows and spells. Noringrad, on the other hand, is at least as strong as you are without your powers suppressed. Which means she's definitely stronger than you are now.

Re-righting yourself, you come to a stop just in front of the trees and plant your feet firmly on the ground. A split-second later, the Quincy lands in front of you, landing hard before swinging forward to slam a kick into your chest. You step forward and block the kick with your knife, the blade slicing through the sole entirely.

Noringrad throws herself back, the front half of her heavy boot tearing off as she lands. "Hey! That's not cool!" The older teen frowns, looking down at her exposed toes.

"Not cool?" You look at her like she has two heads, "you- you attacked me!"

"Gotta get a measure of you somehow," she shrugs again, her stance shifting into a combat stance you're unfamiliar with.

This time you're ready for the attack, blocking a backfist from the Quincy with your knife held in a reverse-grip. When you stop the left-handed strike you can see a shimmering, white-blue, geometric pattern snaking its way up her wrist and hand, and that her arrows (which she's seemingly using as a form of brass knuckles) are a much darker blue than the Iwaba twins', as well as barbed.

You roundhouse kick the older girl in the ribs, causing her to back up several steps, though her smile starts showing teeth when she does. "Not bad," she quickly says, before moving to attack you again. She still has two arrowheads sticking up from her fingers, though the white-blue glow has retreated from her hand. Flipping your knife over, you flick it and slash upward, aiming to cut the heads off from the arrows. Rather than things going as intended, Noringrad switches her hands up at the last minute, and catches the blade of your knife with her right hand. Stunned, your eyes flick from the other teen's hand to her grinning face and back, where you can see the same geometric pattern, now a darker blue, covering her wrist and palm.

"What?" You manage to get out before the Quincy girl snaps a roundhouse kick at your head, which you block just as quickly. The blow, while still strong, is far weaker than the initial punch that sent you flying.

"I told you," Noringrad says with an eyeroll, "I'm not some kinda novice," she continues, dodging two kicks and a slash from you, "I've got a lot more going for me than the twins." She punches you again, the darker blue pattern covering her hand rather than the lighter one. You block the strike and, again, feel that it's weaker than the first attack, though the impact is harder than the second's. Knowing that the dark blue pattern somehow makes your opponent tougher, you swing at her forearm, putting your core into it. The older girl pulls back, looking at you incredulously, "Hey, watch the jacket."

"I-" you blink, your expression mirroring hers "you, you attacked me."

"Yeah but your shihakusho repairs itself when you go back into your body," she tugs on the cuff of her jacket, "this is American leather, do you know how much it costs?"

"Oh yeah, I guess it does," you say, thinking for a moment, "wait, I don't care how much it costs! Don't you have my measure or whatever you wanted?"

She rolls her eyes at you again, you still haven't made your mind up on exactly how you feel about the new Quincy, but you definitely want to smack the smug out of her. "Yeah, I guess I have. We should probably find the twins, I made them sit tight but I just kinda had to wait for the dizziness or whatever to wear off."

Well, that answers what the Hollow meant when it said the Iwabas were 'confused.' Despite yourself, you follow Noringrad into the woods, apparently towards where she left the other two Quincy.

"How long have you been in Japan anyway?" You would've asked how long she'd been in Banmuro, but she's so obviously foreign (and not a ghost) that you decide to go for the broader question.

"Just flew in this weekend," the Quincy puffs up, "I'm a bit of a globetrotter."

"Really?" The word comes out a bit more skeptical than you may have meant, but you still raise an eyebrow, "you're like, sixteen, right?" She doesn't look much older than Soichiro, "how much traveling have you done."

"Been all over Europe, I've been to America twice, this is my first time in Japan though. First time in Asia, if you don't count Russia," she snaps her fingers, "you're close though, I just turned seventeen."

"How's that? I know you're a Quincy but like, I only know the Iwaba twins cause we're classmates," you're still wary of the older girl, but you're also interested in whatever her story is, especially if she's a Quincy first, unlike the Iwabas.

"Tutors and stuff, you're not really a Soul Reaper—" that could offend you, but it doesn't, in fact it's probably better she acknowledges you're only a Deputy or whatever than assuming you're a Soul Reaper "—so you can know. There aren't many Quincy left," she states, which you knew, "so the wealth sort of… consolidates." She turns away from the path you'd been travelling on for the past few minutes, into the somewhat tangled underbrush, which she walks over and you're stuck trudging through, "My family may have benefited from that the most—" confirmation that her early stumble was because her surname isn't really Iwaba, not that that really matters, for now "—but uncle Doutaro isn't hurting or anything," that would explain the your classmates' taste in coffee. "Oh, we're here," she observes as you step into a clearing, where the Iwaba twins stand, somewhat concerningly, motionless.

"Hey guys, you should be snap—" Noringrad steps up to the other Quincies and puts her hand on Tenko's shoulder. Or she would have, if her hand didn't go through Tenko's shoulder. "The fu—"

"What the hell?" Both you and Noringrad interject at the sight before jumping back and adopting fighting stances.

A sound that you eventually decide is laughter, but which also sounds like a particularly large horse whinnying, echoes through the woods. "Don't worry, snacks—" oh great, another Hollow, which can use illusions or something "—you took away the morsels the weakling gathered up—" you liked it better when they didn't talk "—but I haven't eaten your little friends yet!" More laughing, followed by the image of the twins flickering out before disappearing, "I think the four of you will more than make up for that scrawny weakling's stable. I'm waiting, little hunters!"

"Bastard," Noringrad says through grit teeth, perhaps forgetting her own lack of vigilance's contribution to the current situation. The Quincy draws a ginto from one of her jacket pockets and throws it into the air, where it immediately bursts into a thick yellow ball, "Nebel zieht auf, mein Hund erschnüffelt meine Beute, Entlarvung!" The ball quickly disperses into a thin yellow fog that remains high in the air, circling the treetops. "Found them!" She says after less than a minute.

"That was quick, but couldn't the Hol—" you don't get to finish your sentence before Noringrad flash steps off to the left, leaving you behind. "Maybe it can spoof its spiritual pressure or something!" You call after her, using your hoho to follow as best you can.

It doesn't actually take you very long to catch up with the older Quincy, since she hasn't gone that far. "Maybe it can spoof its own spiritual pressure," the blonde says, looking unimpressed, "but it definitely can't spoof theirs." The Iwaba twins, the real ones, based on the spiritual pressure you can sense coming off of them, sit against one of the largest trees, looking groggy but otherwise not worse for wear.

"Hm, you said you wanted to purify all the souls, right?" Noringrad asks, approaching (her cousins?) whatever your classmates are in relation to her, "well, there's your Hollow."

"What? Are you scared?" You counter, looking out into the woods, unable to see or sense the Hollow, "I thought you were the big, strong, 'full-fledged' Quincy."

"You said you didn't want Souls destroyed," the older teen shrugs, not rising to take the bait, "and maybe I still wanna see just how strong you really are."

You're not about to take her bait either, but she does make a good point. You didn't want her to destroy another Soul, even if it is a Hollow. So… "Alright, fine, I'll go after the Hollow and you protect these two, but after this—" you stop yourself, you really don't want another sit down or serious talk with anybody right now, especially not another one regarding the Soul Reaper part of your life and especially not with someone you just met, "you know what? Nevermind, I'll go after it, purify it, and we can all go back to Banmuro or wherever you're staying."

"Sounds like a plan," Noringrad nudges the still-groggy Eidou before leaning against the tree next to the, the cross bangle on her right arm hovering into her palm.


It doesn't take you that long to find the Hollow, as you find the beast not far from one of the most traveled dirt paths which crisscross the parkland. It's not big, as far as Hollows go, but it's still huge compared to you, or even the average human. The bull-headed Hollow is probably ten feet tall, with a purple, muscled torso and arms and the lower body of a cow. It's almost a perfect depiction of a minotaur, except for the spongy, disco ball-shaped organ pulsating on the top of its head.

You drop low to attack the Hollow from the side, but it stomps at you anyway. You roll away from the attack and spring up, swinging for the back of its leg. Your knife goes right through it, and you fall forward, having been relying on the impact to halt your momentum. Somersaulting forward, you quickly regain your footing and whip your head around. The whinnying laughter picks up again, filling the woods. Unfortunately, it seems like the Hollow's illusions can even produce sound, since when you try to pinpoint the laughing, it just sounds like it's coming from the fake in front of you.

"That's the idea, bocadita!" The Hollow's voice carries through the woods with a chuckle, "get yourself nice and tired out, I won't even have to season you!" The horsey laugh fades with the illusion, and once again you're left alone.

Realizing that frustration will do nothing but tire you out like the Hollow said, you close your eyes, take a deep breath, and center yourself. After a moment, you focus and send out a pulse of your spiritual pressure. Well, you mean to send out a pulse. It comes out as more of an explosion, flattening the grass and weeds around you. Despite that, you still get the result you wanted. The just-heightened spiritual sense your pulse of spiritual pressure grants you is enough to get a bead on the Hollow's location, and you dash off, almost in the direction you came from, to find it.

Propelling yourself through the woods, you try your best to shake off the lightheadedness you gave yourself exerting your spiritual pressure like that. You didn't actually strain it or come close to rattling Kori's bracelets, you didn't even channel it through your zanpakuto. Which is probably why it came out in such an uncontrolled manner and took as much as it did out of you. A part of you wonders just how much spiritual power you'd have if you had your own Soul Reaper powers, maybe you will ask Kori about that after Mai returns to Soul Society. But that's a thought for later, now you're more concerned with the Hollow.

Well, the Hollows. Plural. Because there are two huge purple minotaurs standing between the trees in front of you. "Clever," both Hollows sneer, well, you think they'd be sneering if their faces weren't masked. "But now you have—" you know what it's going to say 'attack the right one, or you'll just tire yourself out even more,' or something to that effect.

You throw your knife into the chest of the Hollow further away from you while aiming to kick the one closer to you in the mask. Again, you slip through the Hollow and land on the ground, this time landing a lot softer, on bent knees. Despite missing the kick, as you land you hear the Hollow bellow in pain, before its hand sweeps down in an attempt to grab you. You leap up, using the Hollow's arm as a springboard to grab your zanpakuto. Pulling the blade free of its muscled chest, you slash at its mask. In a surprising display of agility, the Hollow leans backward, throwing you free of it and kicking at your chest with a hoofed foot. Adjusting to the Hollow's speed, your blade slashes out at the same time as the kick, severing the hoof before it can make contact with your already-bruised stomach.

The Hollow bellows, letting out an ear-splitting howl of pain that shakes leaves from the trees and makes you take a half a step back. You can feel the Hollow's spiritual pressure build up as it attempts to flee, but you're too close for it to get away from you. As the Hollow moves in what looks like an attempt to flash step away, you ram your shoulder into its uninjured leg, sending it sprawling. Using your superior speed, you move to stand atop the fallen Hollow's chest, and aim your blade at its mask.

Before you can move to plunge the knife into the beast's head, the organ on top of its head flashes red, and you dodge to the side. The red beam cuts through the air and… doesn't do anything to the treetops that had been behind you. Kicking yourself, your head snaps back to the Hollow, just in time to see it crash through the trees on all fours. Noiselessly, because it can use its illusion power for that, apparently.

You curse under your breath and quickly follow the beast deeper into the woods. Once again, your speed advantage (which, considering how fast this thing can move, might be thanks to its missing foot) allows you to catch up to it rather quickly, and once it's in your sight you can see that it's got Eidou Iwaba pinned to the ground by one of its huge hands.

"Makiyou wa—" the Quincy boy pleads, holding up his free hand as if to ward you off, but you knee drop the Hollow in the back of the head.

The impact is enough to shut off the Hollow's illusion, and it grunts in pain when its snout is buried in the dirt. Again, you raise your knife to punch through the back of its skull, but the Hollow surprises you. This time, its with flexibility, as it raises its arm straight up, despite lying face-down in the dirt, swiping for your head. Using its other arm, it flips itself onto its back, even as you sever three of its fingers from its attacking hand.

The Hollow lurches to its feet as you turn back to it, holding your knife in a defensive position. Once more, you take the initiative to move in and cut it down, and again, the Hollow surprises you. Not with speed or flexibility or even being an illusion, no, it kicks at you with its injured foot, but it's… not. The hoof at the end of the Hollow's leg catches you in the side of the head, sending you stumbling and giving the Hollow a chance to punch you with its intact hand, smashing into the crown of your skull.

Seeing stars, you throw yourself backward to avoid the Hollow's third, fourth, and fifth attacks. Even after you regain your footing, the Hollow doesn't let up, growling as it swings its massive fists at you. You hack into its muscular forearm, burying your knife halfway into it. This close to the Hollow, you can see that the fingers you hacked off are still gone, so you know that while it has regeneration, it isn't fast enough to be a real threat, as long as you stay on top of it.

Which is far easier said than done. Now that the Hollow has dropped all pretense of trying to run away or use illusions on you, instead focusing on using its spiritual power and bulk to crush you flat. While the Hollow's attacks are fast and strong, you're still faster, and are more than strong enough to keep up with it, though the rapid-fire stomps, punches, kicks, and the occasional headbutt begin to wear you down quickly.

The almost-navy arrow that blows apart the Hollow's left shoulder saves you from having to reach too deep into your spiritual power reserves, despite making Noringrad look a little bit like a liar. You take advantage of the Hollow's surprise by stabbing it in the throat and leveraging your weight to flip your opponent back onto its back. In twisting your zanpakuto from its throat, you elbow the Hollow's illusion-generating organ hard, further stunning it.

"Wa—" you don't wait to hear the Hollow's pleading, instead severing its head above the lower jaw.

You have to sit and catch your breath before going back to the Quincies, resting your head in your hands. Now that the adrenaline (if you even have that in Soul Reaper form) has stopped flowing through your veins, the dull throbbing between your ears, courtesy of the Hollow's punches, has risen to a sharp pounding resonating through your entire head. You think about just going to sleep when you get home today, whatever homework you still have can get done in the morning. There's something funny about thinking about doing your homework after having to hunt down a giant purple minotaur, but your head hurts too much to think about that right now.


"Makiyou!"

"Makiyou, I"

Both of the Iwabas clamor to apologize to you, speaking over each other but not getting up in your face, which you do appreciate. After a few moments of trying to talk over one another, the twins look at each other, before Eidou shakes his head.

"Sorry about that, Makiyou," Tenko says after another moment, "we got tricked by Hollows, twice, that shouldn't have happened."

You shake your head, "I underestimated one of them too, just be more careful next time." You would be tired of receiving apologies, but this one is probably the most understandable. The bat Hollow was very weak and the minotaur Hollow could cloak its presence, and they had only tracked one Hollow into the woods. "Just head home," you follow up, further waving off their concerns, "I think we both met our quotas for today."

It looks like Eidou is about to say something, but he keeps his mouth shut after seeing you pinching your temples to try to mitigate the pounding in your head. "Yeah, sounds good," he finally says.

"We'll uh, see you in class, Makiyou," Tenko follows up with an awkward wave.

Once the twins have disappeared in the direction of the nearest path, Noringrad, conspicuously silent since you arrived, decides to pipe up. "You were still holding back," she observes, fiddling with her Quincy bangle.

"I had to," you say, but don't expand further.

"You had to let that Hollow wail on you?" She looks up at you with a raised eyebrow, before rising from her seat against a tree, dusting off her pants.

"Yeah," is the only reply she gets.

Seeing that she won't get any more answers from you, the Quincy simply shrugs before disappearing via flash step.


"There's no chance you got any homework done, is there?" You ask Aizo when you find her half-sitting and half-lying on your bed, nose in a manga volume.

"Any wha?" She looks up languidly, ignoring the light purple bruise around your right eye and the way you're carrying yourself.

You can't help but groan. "Don't worry about it, I'll get it done tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Aizo, with an expression you wouldn't wear, turns in a way that you would never turn to look out the window, "Boss, the sun's not even down yet."

"Don't care," you say with a sigh, "get in the penguin, I'm going to sleep."

Aizo rolls her eyes, but complies nonetheless, and before you know it you're back in your body. The headache from the Hollow and the bruise from the Quincy are almost phantom pains, now that you're back in physical form, but the fatigue from the battle in the woods is even more acute.

"Hey boss," Aizo, now a penguin, tugs on your sheets.

"Hm?" Picking the forearm you were using to shield your eyes up, you roll over to look at the mod soul.

"Toss me my manga," she points up at the book, which had been left on your windowsill.

"Just be quiet, alright?" You comply, handing her the comic.

The mod soul nods, "sure thing." With that, she ambles over to your desk and manages to scramble onto the chair, picking back up where she left off. You can't help but laugh, seeing the plush reading a manga that's almost as big as she is.


Even after sleeping for twelve hours, you have more than enough time to finish your (relatively light) homework load. You even finish up the dishes for Natsu before she gets up. Of course, there are still downsides to getting up so early, even if you are feeling refreshed.

"Ah, Chiyu, up so early to make breakfast for your dear old dad!?" Said downside asks as he rushes into the kitchen. You dodge the hug-tackle which he smoothly transitions into turning on the coffee maker.

"Of course not," you say, rolling your eyes, "I could maybe make eggs and toast but I'm not going to risk it without Natsu even being awake."

Dad strokes his chin, "how wise of you Chiyu." He then sniffles, "I can't believe you've matured so fast in such a short time."

"Uh, yeah, me either," you nod along, not sure where he's going with this.

"Ah, speaking of eggs and toast…" Dad gets into the process of making toast and you decide to just sit in the living room and decompress before the day, deciding to cut your losses before you can get more confused.


"You must've been out like a light last night, Shu," Mio says as you walk to class together at the beginning of the school day. You ran into her at the front gate of Kanawanatake, which doesn't happen a lot, so you both took the opportunity to walk together. "I know you checked your phone at some point," for the second time in the still-young day, you're at a loss.

"I really was exhausted," you admit, "I don't even remember what we were talking about." You take your phone out of your pocket and open the group chat. Oh, they—

"Made plans for today, yeah," Mio says as you round the corner into the corridor class 2C occupies, and you see that it's another excursion into the city. Then you see that Mai is greeting students as they arrive. Which must mean she's waiting for you specifically.

"Abayumi, Makiyou," the disguised Soul Reaper greets you both cheerfully, "good morning. Um, Makiyou, could I see you for a moment, before class- before it starts."

You and Mio look at each other before you shrug, and your friend enters the classroom.

"What is it Mai?" You ask once you're far enough away from class that you won't be overheard.

"M- the denreishinki s-said something about high a- there s-seems to be a lot of activity in th- in the surrounding Zones, s-so we sh-should be on alert," she wrings her hands, "o-oh right. Um, we need to hunt Hollows t-today, after s-school. I-if it doesn't go off d-during class. D-don't worry though, nothing- I mean, none of the um, the Hollows have b-been very s-strong, just a threat to Pluses, y-you know."

"I get it," you nod. 'But I do, apparently, have plans this afternoon,' is left out. But you do have plans this afternoon…

[] Go out with your friends, Mai can tail you. She's decently stealthy and none of your friends are keenly aware of ghosts, not aware enough to sense someone like Mai stalking you from a distance at least. You'll take Aizo (in pill form) along too, and pop her in case the denreishinki goes off.

[] Go out with your friends for a while, but switch with Aizo at a predetermined time. She can hang out for an hour or so before leaving early. You'd rather you didn't leave your friends early, but you also want to minimize the time someone else spends with them in your body, so as not to raise suspicions and stuff. You'll hunt Hollows with Mai while all that's going on, if they're as weak as she said, it shouldn't take too long.

[] Go Hollow hunting with Mai. It shouldn't take too long like Mai said, travel time aside. Aizo will have to go out with your friends, but that shouldn't be too bad. You gave her instructions after all, and if she keeps quiet, they shouldn't notice anything's wrong, until you can switch out with her, that is.

[] Write-in a solution (What? Please make a plan.)

A/N: Something about these Quincies makes their chapters super long (this part combined with the last one is now the longest chapter at 9k words), not sure why exactly. Also not sure if the split chapter thing will happen again, I think it worked for the gap between the last two and the fact that the first half was an exposition dump, but it might not gel well with everything. We'll see.