"Are you sure this is a good idea, Urahara?"
Rukia's voice was a tense whisper in the dark alley, where the air was still and the only sound was the distant hum of Karakura's traffic.
Ichigo tightened his grip on his backpack strap. "Of course it's not a good idea. It's Urahara's idea. They're never 'good' ideas."
He looked at his sister, who was standing next to him with her arms crossed. "Karin, are you sure you want...?"
"Shut up, Ichigo," Karin muttered, not looking at him. "We're already here and my stomach hurts, so let's just get this over with."
"Ichigo's right about one thing," Rukia said, adjusting the sleeve of her Gigai. "His ideas are never 'good,' they're just... ideas, and this one seems particularly stupid."
"Ah, so cruel! And after I try so hard for my new business partners!"
Urahara's sing-song voice came from above, so the three of them looked up. He was sitting on the edge of the roof of an abandoned warehouse in front of them, fanning himself cheerfully, completely unconcerned about being in a dirty alley waiting for a monster to appear.
"Get down from there, Urahara," Ichigo snapped. "You're making a fool of yourself."
"But the view is excellent!" Urahara laughed. "I'd say my ideas are magnificent. This one, for example, brings us dinner and a show! What more could you ask for?"
Karin snorted. "Stop calling it 'dinner.' It's disgusting. You're going to make us eat... monster parts."
"Ah, but that's where you're wrong, Karin-san! Technically, it's leftovers! Pure energy particles! It's only disgusting if you think about it too much!" Urahara pointed his fan at her. "And you're hungry. You're very pale and almost trembling, which means that hunger isn't normal, is it?"
Karin clenched her jaw and didn't answer. He was right, and that infuriated her.
A black cat, sleek and with overly intelligent yellow eyes, landed silently on the chain-link fence next to Ichigo.
"It's approaching." Yoruichi's voice was deep and direct, without any of Urahara's flourishes.
Ichigo tensed immediately and dropped his backpack as fear mixed with a strange surge of adrenaline. "Already? This fast? Where is it? I don't see anything."
"Urahara didn't bring you here by chance, brat," Yoruichi said. Her yellow eyes scanned the darkness beyond the warehouse. "He placed a small spiritual bait in that warehouse an hour ago, but it's not a big fish, just a low-level 'Soul Runner' that's fast, but stupid."
"A Soul Runner?" Rukia repeated, frowning. "Not even a standard Hollow?"
"It's a generic term for those that are faster than they are strong," Yoruichi clarified. "The ideal appetizer for our young ladies."
"Great," Ichigo muttered, stretching his neck. "Second-rate scraps. I feel like I'm just taking out the trash."
"And such important trash!" Urahara exclaimed from the roof. "Just what the doctor ordered! It's on the perimeter, sniffing the bait. Time to work, Ichigo-san! You don't want your companions to keep starving, do you?!"
The mention of the girls' hunger made Ichigo grit his teeth. He looked at Karin, who was trying to look indifferent but was rubbing her arm, and then at Rukia, who was biting her lip in her borrowed body. The constant drain made him feel weak, but he knew it was worse for them.
"Alright," Ichigo said, and his voice sounded firmer than he felt. "I've got this."
He dropped his backpack onto the dusty alley floor. "Okay, here we go."
He turned to Rukia and Karin. "The first step and we're already stuck. How do I get out of my body? You didn't bring that weird glove, did you, Rukia?"
Rukia shook her head, frustrated. "I'm in this Gigai, idiot. I can't push a soul out of a body, and my glove is back in your closet."
Ichigo looked at his sister. "Karin?"
Karin raised an eyebrow. "What? You want me to knock you out? I can do it. Probably."
"No!" Ichigo yelled, taking a step back. "You hit too hard! The last time you punched me in the arm for eating your ice cream, I had a bruise that lasted a week. You are not punching me in the head!"
"Maybe if I concentrate really hard..." Ichigo said, closing his eyes. He tried to... push. To separate from himself, but nothing happened. "Dammit. It's completely useless."
"This is pathetic," Karin said.
"Oh, how careless! Totally unforgivable!"
Urahara had suddenly appeared behind Ichigo, having vanished from the roof and reappeared in the alley without making a single sound.
Ichigo yelped and spun around. "What...? How did you...?"
THWACK!
Urahara's cane-sword struck the back of Ichigo's neck with an expert, precise, and painful force.
"OW! You bastard...!"
Ichigo's complaint died out, but it wasn't him speaking.
His soul, dressed in the black substitute Shinigami kimono with jagged, red-dyed edges, popped cleanly out of his physical body. His real body, the flesh-and-blood one, crumpled lifelessly to the ground, eyes closed. The black leather suppressor bracelet was visible on his soul's wrist.
"You could have warned me, you jerk!" soul-Ichigo yelled, rubbing his phantom neck. The blow still stung.
"But it would have hurt just the same!" Urahara laughed, showing no remorse. "Besides, the element of surprise is key in training. Lesson number one!"
"This isn't training, it's a forced dinner!" Rukia snapped.
"The best training sessions are!" Urahara grinned, ignoring her anger. "Now, to your positions! The guest of honor is about to enter through the back door!"
He turned to the girls. "Rukia-san, Karin-san! Up, to the catwalk! You have front-row seats! You don't want to get splashed!"
Karin glanced at Ichigo's slumped body. "Hey, what about... him?"
"Ah, he'll be fine! Most low-level Hollows aren't interested in empty bodies. They taste like cardboard!" Urahara made a dismissive gesture. "Quickly, quickly!"
Rukia and Karin exchanged an exasperated look, but they had no other choice, so they ran to a rusty fire escape on the side of the building and climbed nimbly until they reached a metal catwalk that crossed the dark interior of the warehouse.
Ichigo's body lay by the alley door, looking unsettlingly dead.
"Don't you dare go through my pockets, Urahara!" Ichigo shouted as he ran toward the center of the vast, dark warehouse, a place filled with old machinery covered in tarps.
"Stop complaining, brat, and focus!" Yoruichi's voice sounded from the darkness, where she was crouched on a high beam. She had moved so fast he hadn't even seen her enter. "It's coming. Get that sword of yours ready."
Ichigo nodded as his anger was replaced by a sharp tension, and he put his hand on the hilt of his weapon to draw it.
He held the enormous butcher knife, as tall as he was, with a ragged edge and tattered bandages around the hilt, and it felt right in his hand.
He stopped in the center of the concrete floor.
A deafening metallic screech echoed through the warehouse.
Ichigo spun around sharply.
A rolling metal door at the other end of the warehouse, one that led to a loading dock, bent inward with complete ease.
SKREEEEECH.
A thin creature, lizard-like but with the black, oily skin of a Hollow, burst in. It was the size of a large horse and moved on four thin, overly-jointed legs. But the worst part was the mask: a plate of white bone that covered its entire head and had dozens of small, unmoving red eyes clustered densely together.
The creature stopped and sniffed the air with a low hiss until it saw Ichigo, fixing all of its eyes on him.
"Seriously?" Ichigo said aloud, more to himself than to the monster. "That's it? It looks like a giant cockroach on stilts."
The Hollow didn't appreciate the comment. It hissed, a sharp, violent sound, and lunged at him, its claws scratching the concrete.
Ichigo glanced up instinctively toward the catwalk. He could see the silhouettes of Rukia and Karin, standing by the railing, while Urahara was behind them, fanning himself calmly.
They were watching him, and a new pressure settled on him, because he didn't just have to win, he had to do it "right." He had to prove to them that this ridiculous system could work, that he could protect them... and feed them.
"Well," Ichigo said to the approaching Hollow, raising his enormous sword. "Sorry this has to be quick. I've got people to feed."
The Hollow leaped.
It was incredibly fast and jumped in a high arc, its jaws open to bite his head off.
Ichigo didn't bother dodging, but instead just stepped forward, into the attack, and raised his huge Zanpakutō to block.
CLANG!
The Hollow crashed against the flat of the blade with a force that made the air tremble. The impact was tremendous, but Ichigo's arms didn't even budge.
The monster bounced off and hit the floor, confused.
"Whoa," Ichigo whispered, surprised by his own strength. "That... that didn't hurt."
The Hollow recovered and hissed, furious this time. It ran at him, but this time in a zigzag pattern, trying to flank him.
"Not so fast."
Ichigo spun on his heels, moving the massive sword with him, and while it wasn't elegant, it was effective. The Hollow tried to dodge, but the blade was too wide.
Ichigo brought it down with all his strength.
CRUNCH.
The sword was too big and heavy for such a thin creature, so it wasn't a clean cut, but rather a smash.
The blade struck the Hollow's bone mask and split the creature in half, from its multi-eyed head to its tail.
The monster didn't even have time to scream. It froze, split in two, and then... nothing.
"Dinnertime," Ichigo said, feeling the familiar pull on the blade.
His sword's blade began to absorb immediately, so most of the Hollow's mass, the two halves, dissolved before they could hit the ground, being drawn into the metal blade as the sword vibrated, satisfied.
But not everything went to the sword.
The rest of the Hollow's being, the energy the blade didn't consume, exploded outward.
A cloud of thousands of tiny red and black particles erupted from the spot where the Hollow had died.
The particles began to float slowly in the stagnant warehouse air, glowing faintly in the darkness.
On the catwalk, Karin felt the hunger in her stomach suddenly intensify.
"There you have it!" Urahara's voice was cheerful and echoed in the silent warehouse. "The main course is gone, but the chef left the leftovers! The 'broth,' so to speak!"
He looked at the two girls, who were watching the floating particles.
"Now, ladies! Don't be shy! Breathe deep! Like Yoruichi-san said, it's time to eat! Don't let it get cold!"
Rukia took an instinctive step back, an expression of absolute disgust on her Gigai's face.
"It's... raw energy," she whispered, her voice trembling with repulsion. "It's... it's disgusting. It's... Hollow."
"I don't care what it is."
Karin's voice was harsh. She was extremely pale, but her dark eyes were fixed on the particles floating below them.
"I'm hungry."
Before Rukia could stop her, Karin moved to the edge of the catwalk and gripped the rusty railing to keep her balance, her knuckles turning white.
"Karin, wait..." Rukia started.
"Shut up."
Karin shut her eyes tightly, opened her mouth instinctively, and took a deep breath.
The sensation wasn't like breathing air; it was a cold, electric inhalation.
The red and black particles closest to her were instantly drawn in, swirling in a small vortex toward her mouth and nose.
Karin shuddered violently, gripping the railing so hard the rusty metal creaked under her fingers.
Her eyes snapped open.
For a fleeting instant, less than a second, they turned completely black, and her pupils glowed with an intense, hungry red.
Zzzt.
The leather suppressors on her wrists glowed faintly with a pulse of blue energy, and her eyes returned to normal, though wide with shock.
She let out a choked gasp.
"I..." Karin panted, feeling a wave of heat spread through her limbs, filling the sharp emptiness in her stomach. "I feel... full."
She staggered back, but she didn't fall. She felt... strong.
Rukia watched her, horrified, as she saw the momentary transformation and the flash of the suppressors.
"Dammit," Rukia whispered, her heart pounding.
She looked at the remaining particles, which were beginning to slowly disperse in the air, and the hunger in her own Gigai, the artificial emptiness Urahara had installed, screamed in response. It was a horrible sensation, a craving that went against everything she had been taught.
I am a Shinigami. A noble of the Kuchiki family. This is... unthinkable.
But the hunger was real, the weakness was real, and the solution, however disgusting, was right in front of her.
"By the Soul Society... may they forgive me."
Rukia squeezed her eyes shut. She pinched her nose with one hand in a gesture of disgust and opened her mouth, inhaling sharply through it.
The particles enveloped her and the taste was awful, so bad she wanted to gag.
But the feeling...
The constant hunger that had plagued the Gigai since she occupied it died down, and the emptiness was filled.
Down below, Ichigo watched everything.
He had felt the familiar drain the moment he killed the Hollow, the pull from Karin and Rukia, but the instant the last red particle was absorbed by Rukia, he felt the drain stop.
The cramp... was gone. Completely.
Silence filled the warehouse, broken only by the ragged breathing of the two girls on the catwalk.
Fifteen minutes later, the group gathered back in the alley, next to Ichigo's physical body, which was still lying on the ground.
Karin felt strong. The world seemed sharper.
Rukia felt stable, though also deeply ashamed. She was rubbing the back of her hand across her mouth, in a useless attempt to wipe away the taste.
Ichigo, back in his soul, felt... normal. For the first time in days, he felt like himself.
"It worked," Yoruichi said from the fence. There was a touch of genuine surprise in her feline voice. "It's disgusting, but it works. The suppressors held because the energy was processed slowly, there was no full transformation."
Karin looked at Ichigo, who was standing next to his own body, staring at it with obvious confusion about how to proceed.
"So, this is the plan," Karin said. Her voice was firm. "From now on, we hunt."
"What am I supposed to do with this?" Ichigo pointed to his body. "Shove it in my backpack?"
Urahara chuckled. "Don't be silly, Ichigo-san! You just have to get back in! It's a simple process."
Ichigo looked at the body and then at Urahara. "This is weird."
"Just align your soul with your body and push," Yoruichi said.
Ichigo sighed. He leaned over his own chest and... pushed.
With a jolt, Ichigo sat up, coughing and gasping. "Ugh! That... that feels awful."
He stood up and his physical body stumbled a bit as it readjusted, so he dusted off his jeans. "Alright. I hate it. I hate all of it."
He looked at Karin and Rukia. "Are you guys...?"
"We're fine," Karin said. "I'm full."
"I feel... functional," Rukia admitted, avoiding his gaze. "But don't ask me to like it."
Ichigo nodded, picking up his backpack. "Bite to survive," he said, looking at them. "Hunt to recharge."
"It's a wonderful system!" Urahara said, appearing beside him and clapping him on the back. He was taking notes on his small fan. "A perfect symbiosis! You three are a self-sustaining ecosystem!"
Ichigo pulled away from his touch. "What about your payment, Urahara?" he asked, wary. "You said this wasn't free."
Urahara gave him his best shopkeeper smile, the one that made Ichigo want to check his wallet.
"Ah, yes! My fee! My modest fee for finding you these 'appetizers' and providing the state-of-the-art suppressors!" Urahara snapped his fan shut. "Well... let's just say it won't be cheap."
"How much?" Karin snapped. "Dad gives us an allowance. It's not much, but..."
Urahara burst out laughing. "Oh, Karin-san, how adorable! No, no, no! Money is so... simple! I'm not interested in money."
"Then what do you want?" Ichigo asked, stepping between Urahara and his sister.
Urahara's eyes darkened slightly, the smile becoming less cheerful and more calculating.
"You'll pay for it... in services."
"Services?" Rukia repeated, tensing.
"You see," Urahara continued, starting to walk back toward the main street, forcing them to follow. "The Soul Society is going to be very, very interested in why one of their Shinigami, a Kuchiki noble no less, has disappeared from the map, so they're going to send people. First, they'll send scouts. Then, they'll send... more serious people."
Ichigo felt a cold knot in his stomach that had nothing to do with hunger.
"They're going to come looking for you, Rukia-san," Urahara said. "And when they do, this little arrangement we have here... you, a Gigai; Karin-san, a near-Hollow human; and Ichigo-san, a soul-eating substitute Shinigami... they're not going to like it."
He stopped under a streetlight, his face half in shadow.
"You're going to need a place to hide, you're going to need information, and you're going to need someone who can... misdirect them."
"You," Ichigo said. "You want us to owe you."
"Exactly!" Urahara smiled again, the cheerful mask back in place. "I love a good barter system. I provide you with the means to survive and hide... and you, my little 'Special Assets Squad,' will run a few errands for me from time to time."
"What kind of errands?" Karin asked, no fear in her voice.
"Oh, you know!" Urahara said, waving his fan. "Things that are too dirty for the Shinigami... and too dangerous for normal humans."
He leaned in toward Ichigo. "Welcome to the business, partners. The first hunt was free. The next one... will cost you."
******
Followme on patreon.com/itszeroo