"Rukia, why did you call us out here?"
Tachibana Yu yawned and gave Kuchiki Rukia a lazy look. If she had not summoned him, he would have napped through math while passively absorbing spirit energy.
At his words, Rukia glared, tiny pink fists clenched. "Shut up, you rotten little perv. I asked Ururu last night. You do not have to support someone's butt when carrying them princess style."
Only after Yu left had she learned that the brat really had taken advantage.
"Ururu?"
Yu thought for two seconds, then remembered the "pitiful" girl at Urahara Shop. He coughed and argued, "People have different builds. For example, when I am extremely angry, I am extremely angry."
Rukia snorted, not buying it, then waved it off. "Forget it. I am not petty. Promise me one thing and I will forgive you."
"What thing?"
"You will serve as a Soul Reaper." She turned to Kurosaki Ichigo. "You too."
Ichigo blurted, "Yu took advantage of you. Let him be the Soul Reaper. Why drag me in?"
"You two drained my power last night," Rukia snapped. "I have no spiritual pressure now, so I cannot perform my duties. You will both help."
Yu glanced at Ichigo. "This is your fault."
"...?"
"You are coming too," Rukia growled at Yu. He had not taken her power, but that unbothered expression irked her.
"Sure," Yu said with a smile.
"Huh?" Rukia blinked, surprised he agreed so quickly.
"Working with a pretty girl like you sounds great," he said.
Her cheeks flushed. "Stupid brat, do you know how old I am?"
"Does not matter. I judge by face," Yu said, giving a thumbs up.
She huffed again, but inside she found him acceptable. A little lecherous, but not a bad person.
...
Three hours later, in a park in Karakura.
BOOOOM!
A thunderous blast carved a chasm through the grounds, the force nearly splitting the park in two. The ground shuddered and passersby cried out.
"An earthquake?"
"How did such a deep trench appear?"
"What a huge crack..."
"..."
"Yu!" Rukia stared at the gouge and regretted everything. She ground her teeth. "Can you not use a little less strength?"
After seeing the destruction Yu and Ichigo left last night, she had spent the whole night washing memories by the thousand. She was exhausted, and now this racket meant another dozen would need erasing.
Yu hefted his eighty meter blade helplessly. "Not my fault. With a sword this big, how do I use less strength?"
The length alone gave the tip terrifying speed. Even light swings did heavy damage.
Rukia glared at the sword. Eighty meters. In her whole life she had seen that only once.
She glanced at Ichigo, who was enjoying the show, and bit out, "Forget your help. Kurosaki Ichigo, you take point from now on. Do not cause large-scale damage."
Ichigo, caught by a stray shot, blinked. "...?"
"It is the sword that is too big. How is that on me," Yu muttered, shouldering the giant blade and trudging off.
He had planned to kill a few Hollows to farm energy, but that seemed impossible. Every swing killed Hollows and murdered the terrain.
"In the end I need to master my zanpakutō," he thought, remembering Ichigo's Zangetsu. Once you know a blade's true name, it can transform and reveal impossible powers.
"A name, huh." He waved to Rukia and Ichigo. "You two handle this. I need to check on Inoue."
"Inoue?" Rukia frowned.
"Our classmate," Ichigo said listlessly. "The blonde girl."
"Blonde..." Rukia remembered Orihime at once. Not because her memory was great, but because Orihime's figure was impossible to miss.
"Perverted brat," she muttered between her teeth.
...
"Inoue's brother. I warned him. It should be fine," Yu thought as he ran in Soul Reaper form, sprinting rooftop to rooftop in a straight line toward Inoue Orihime's home.
"... Here."
He dropped from the roof and slipped inside. His expression hardened at once. Reiatsu armored his body as he clenched his fists and headed for the innermost room.
"There is a Hollow's stink. Am I late?"
The rooms looked normal, but his sensing thread tasted corruption, unmistakable Hollow miasma.
He pressed to Orihime's bedroom door and heard a near-snarling laugh from within.
"Heh heh heh..."
"Human, are you still hiding?"
"Your sister is about to die by my hand. Do you not want to protect her?"
They noticed me. Yu froze, then realized the voice was not addressing him.
He eased the door open a crack.
Through it he saw a grotesque figure, body shaggy with green fur, a pallid mask horrifying to behold.
At its feet lay Inoue Orihime, soul ripped from her body, face twisted in pain.
...