20 [] Wander around Karakura
You wake up on August third to the familiar pangs of hunger so deep that not even leftovers from the previous night manage to make them stop. You need a different kind of food, a moving food.
Maybe Tatsuki? No, you can't eat her. That's just not happening. You're not going to eat your friends.
But something.
You need to eat something.
It's still dark out, dawn just barely peeking over the horizon, so you flit across rooftops and down streets without fear of being seen. You roam around Karakura silently, focusing on your senses both spiritual and mundane. There has to be a better way than this. Rukia had some sort of spiritual cell phone, but wasn't it just receiving missions from Soul Society? That would mean that Soul Society can sense the spiritual pressure that supernatural beings exert on the world, implying that your own 'birth' was also marked and your presence noted.
You stop on the lip of an office building's roof, staring down ten stories to the empty street below. "I get talkative when I'm hungry." You realize.
And then you spot it, an eel-like hollow swimming six feet off the ground, trailing a businessman.
Fast as thought you leap down beside it and grab the hollow right behind it's huge, armor-like mask. You almost slash it in two with Zangetsu on pure reflex before you stop yourself. You can't purify this on- you need to- to-
It tastes kind of like chicken, actually.
When you're done you slash the rest with your zankaputo and send it off to Soul Society to be cleansed. Not enough room in the fridge to keep it.
With your needs taken care of, you turn your attention to your wants instead. You have Ichigo's memories, his grief, hate, and impotent rage at being powerless as his friend was taken from him, and you admit that's a large part of why you pushed Tatsuki so hard yesterday and the day before. You couldn't give a damn about people in general, but your friends are your friends. You'll spare them whatever pain you can.
But Tatsuki's good, you've gotten her to the point where all she's going to learn sparring with you is how to fight maniacs with huge swords, and that'd train her into bad habits against most shinigami if how Rukia tried to fight was representative of them at all.
So no more of that, and you're not sure if it'd be . . . okay . . . to visit your family. You remember them, but . . .
Yeah.
"Hey, I'm Ichigo's instincts and repressed feelings, and I'm not a bad influence on preteen girls at all! Yeah, right."
Not one to dwell, you move onto your last want. Some fucker's been spying on you, and today you're going to find out who. You've been going to the park for the past two days, which makes a pattern, so if you break that pattern maybe you'll throw your observer off their game.
With that in mind, you decide to spend today just walking around Karakura in an attempt to spot whoever is following you.
After a short trip back to Tatsuki's apartment to shout what you plan on doing through the bathroom door, you're off, wandering aimlessly through the town's streets, hopping over intersections instead of waiting for traffic to stop, and watching people without trying to look like you're watching them.
Nothing.
Once the Sun starts dipping down to the horizon you finally give up and go back to Tatsuki's. You were obviously too good at dodging watchers for your own good. Whoever it is must have gone to the park and then just given up when they didn't see you there.
"Scuse me." You say to the black cat sitting on her kitchen table. You pick it up with one hand and hold it to your chest while you go hunting for your friend. "Hey Tatsuki, what's with the cat?"
She's in the television room watching some nature show. "That's Yoruichi." She says with a wave of her hand. "She's the guide for the group going to Soul Society."
You look at the cat.
The cat looks at you.
The cat speaks in a deep, gravelly purr. "You can put me down now."
" . . . Huh." You say around the stupor clouding your mind. "A talking cat. Makes as much sense as anything else."
You put the bakeneko down gingerly. "Pleased to meet you I guess."
"And you as well, whoever and whatever you are."
"Whatever I am? That's rude."
The cat glances up at you and sniffs. "Aw, did I hurt your feelings?"
Tatsuki cackles, and you glare at her before turning back to the spirit cat thing. "So you're the guide, great. There's still four or five days until Urahara finishes the door to Soul Society, right?"
"Indeed, though you will not be able to cross through."
"You didn't say that to me." Tatsuki says, sitting up and paying attention. "What gives?"
"Yeah. I haven't even decided whether I want to go or not." You say with a scowl of irritation.
The cat somehow manages to shrug. "There's a weight limit on the door because it's a rush job, and Urahara specifically instructed me to say that if you put off confirming until after Tatsuki it wouldn't be strong enough to withstand your spiritual pressure added to the group's. It looks like you're going to have to stay at home while your friends risk their lives."
"You can't talk to me like that!" You snap, lunging for the cat, which idly leaps over your head.
"I just did." And then it vanishes out the window, leaving you a red-faced, irritated mess.
Nobody gets away with treating you so lightly! You're going to mess it up, or yeah! You could figure out how to get to Soul Society on your own! The hollows Ishida summoned with his hollow bait got to the human world, so why can't your hollow powers get you somewhere else?
[] Track that cat down and show it who's boss!
[] Figure out how to get to Soul Society on your own!
[] Swallow your pride and moderate your emotions
The last option is heavily weighted against, by the way.