7 Ch. 7 Awakening

As Ichigo walked through his house he had his eyes closed and opened the door to the kitchen.

"I'm home~" He walks through the door.

"Hhhyyaaaaah!" Ichigo's dad, Isshin Kurosaki, comes out of nowhere and kicks his son in the face. The kick knocks Ichigo backwards into the air. "You're late!"

Ichigo lands with a thud and releases a grunt. He lands on his shoulders with his legs past his head and his ass in the air.

Isshin stands proudly with his fists on his hip and a wide smile showing off his pearly whites. "You let your guard down~. Always stay alert when you enter a room and you're late for dinner again" He reprimands his son.

Ichigo appears infront of his dads face with a scowl on his own and a tick mark on his forehead. "Oh-C'mon! Is that any way to greet your own son after he just risked his life to help a spirit find peace!?"

Isshin moves forward and butts heads with Ichigo. "I don't wanna hear it!". Now also with a scowl on his face. "Only punishment awaits those who disrupt our family time, no matter what the reason is!"

They push their foreheads together but neither gains any ground. They jump back a foot each and start flailing their arms at each other.

"Or what, are you bragging that you're the only one who can talk to and touch ghosts?!" Isshin shouts at his son while continuing their fight.

They jump back and take a breath before leaping into the air towards one another and continuing their fight mid-air. As they fight they somehow rise into the air.

"I didn't ask for this power!" Ichigo states.

"Stop it you two!" Yuzu pleads.

Yuzu and Karin are sitting at the table and eating their dinner. Yuzu is facing the father and son while Karin has her back to them. "The food is getting cold". She says trying to get them to stop fighting. It doesn't seem to work at all.

"Let them be, Yuzu" Karin interjects her twin sister. They are twins, but they aren't identical. Yuzu has light brown hair while Karin has black hair. "More please". Karin holds her bowl out for Yuzu to scoop more rice into it since she is holding the rice scooper.

"But Karin….." Yuzu doesn't like them fighting.

Isshin is about to land a right hook but is stopped by Ichigo's foot planting into his face knocking him back across the room until he hits the wall.

Ichigo stands up and points at his dad while he shouts. "First of all, making a healthy male high school student come home at 7 every night is unimagi-!"

"Ichi, you've already got a new friend" Kirin says not even turning around. She then continues eating from her bowl.

Ichigo turns around to see a translucent ghost of an older man with a comb-over hair style and no legs. "Wha-…When did you?!"

He tries to grab him but the ghost easily moves to his other side. "I exorcise and exorcise and they keep coming, dammit"

"Thank you for the meal" Karin puts her bowl and chopsticks down and turns around in her chair.

"Ichigo has it rough being hi-spec" Karin rests her arm on the top of her chair and her other arm is on the table. As she watches Ichigo try and catch the ghost.

Yuzu says how she's jealous. She can only sense their presence but can't see them. Karin says she doesn't believe in them even if she can see them.

Yuzu is surprised to hear this. Karin says that if you don't believe in them, it's like they never existed.

The room grows cold to Karins response and the ghost is frozen solid.

Ichigo is able to relax as the ghost float away from his. "Dinner…"

A foot sweeps Ichigo's legs out from under him and Isshin puts him in an arm lock as he sits atop him. Isshin is really proud of himself.

Ichigo throws his dad off as he stands up. And then both father and sun punch eachother in the face and hold their ground for a few seconds until Isshin falls to the ground.

"Forget it. I'm going to bed" Ichigo wipes off the pain from the punch he received and turns around to walk out. As he's about to exit he turns around. "Yuzu, Karin. You have a guest" and then Ichigo leaves. "I'll see you tomorrow" he says his good bye to Jotaro who stayed out of view in the hall.

"A guest?" Yuzu wonders. Her brother didn't bring anyone inside, but then again their dad attacked him before he could do or say anything really.

Jotaro walks in the room and sees Isshin still on the ground. Isshin looks up hearing footsteps and sees the tall and muscular Jotaro.

"Jotaro Kujo! It's been a while! How ya been?! Hopefully you haven't been worrying your mother too much!" Isshin jumps to his feet and pats Jotaro on his shoulder.

"I've been fine, Isshin"

"Jotaro!" Yuzu shouts and jumps across the room and gives him a hug.

"What are you doing here? Haven't seen you in years" Karin says as she walks over.

"Made up with Ichigo. Decided to see how you two have been" Jotaros voice doesn't change and he doesn't hug Yuzu back, but he doesn't push her off either.

"That's great! Ichigos been having a tough time recently! And you've changed so much!" Yuzu has to turn her head all the way back to look up to Jotaro's face.

"Now that you mention it. He's been seeing them more and more lately. And what did you do? Take a bunch of steroids or something?" Karin sees his muscles underneath his right fitting shirt. She had only seen muscles like that on tv.

"No. Drugs are bad" Jotaro looks at Isshin who seems shocked.

"Nani?! Ichigo tells you two about that kind of thing?! He didn't tell me…."

Yuzu let's Jotaro go and moves next to skating.

"Of course not. Who'd talk to father who's past forty and still communicates like a child…" Karin coldly points out.

Isshin loses the blood in his face. He shuffles over to a giant poster of his wife, Masaki. "Oh mother… Lately, maybe because of puberty, our daughters are being SO mean!" He collapses below the poster looking up at it. "What should I do?!"

"First do something about this ridiculous house" Karin once again coldly points out.

The giant poster has Masaki's smiling face and shoulders with flowers and text along the bottom portion. It has a gold frame that reflects a little light.

Jotaro walks to the poster and stands infront of it. And the collapsed Isshin.

He looks at her happy face. Then he remembers the day she was murdered. How she was protecting Ichigo. All the blood. Ichigos screams and how Isshin reacted along with his own morher. How he should ha-

"-ro! Jotaro!" He looked to his left and saw Yuzu pulling his blazers sleeve. "Jotaro! You ok? You zoned out…" She looks from his face to the poster with a sad expression. "Do you miss her too?"

Jotaro closes his eyes and puts his hands in his pockets. "I just stopped by to say hello. I've gotta head back"

He turns around and Yuzu let's his sleeve go. Isshin stands up. "Stop by from time to time!" Yuzu shouts as Jotaro stops in the doorway.

"It'd be good to catch up" Karin says with the happiest voice he heard from her yet. But it wasn't a lot. Just a hint.

"The Kujo household is welcome to stop by whenever. Just give a heads up!" Isshin give a big smile and a thumbs up.

Jotaro straightens his cap. "Yeah, whatever" And walks out. He puts his shoes on and walks home.

He gets home and sees Orihime and Saiko sitting on the couch.

"Jotaro! How's my baby doing?!" She jumps from her seat and wraps him in her motherly love filled hug.

"Where have you been?" Orihime asks as she eats a chip.

"Ran into Ichigo on the way home. Went and saw his family" Jotaro waits a few seconds and then moves to the kitchen.

""So you made up with Ichigo?!"" Both Saiko and Orihime exclaim in surprise and happiness. Saiko let's Jotaro go and goes back to her seat.

Jotaro hears his mom and Orihime talking excitedly. He didn't think it was that big of a deal.

He reheats his dinner in the microwave and sits down at the table and eats. He looks to the tv and sees that they were watching a guy try and exorcise spirits and ghosts from buildings. Then the guy crossed his arms in an x and went "Bwahahaha". Jotaro recalled the guys name. It was something like "Don Kononji". Jotaro wasmt the biggest fan of his but he knew of him. He's gotten popular as of late.

He cleans his plate and goes towards his room.

"Goodnight JoJo!" He hears Saiko shout to him. Apparently it was his mother who taught Orihime that.

He just gives a small wave as he continued towards his room.

The next morning Jotaro sleeps in compared to his usual routine again. He gets ready for the day then heads to the kitchen. He makes himself some toast and walks to the couch where his mom was sitting. On the news it was talking about how the ground shook and several buildings blew up.

"Oh my…" Saiko covered her mouth with her hand. "I hope nobody got hurt. And it's nearby"

"Take a different route today, Orihime" Jotaro walks towards the door.

Orihime was watching silently when she heard Jotaro and saw him walking out. "What?"

"Wait! Where are you going? Aren't the three of us going together again today?" Orihime asked and was about to stand up when Jotaro turned his torso to face her slightly.

"Not today. I have something to talk to Ichigo about. Privately" He turns back around and leaves.

This left Orihime and Saiko confused. They just left it at guy stuff.

Jotaro left his house and went towards the Kurosaki Clinic.

He went to their front door and knocked. He heard Yuzu shout. "One second!"

She opened the door and saw Jotaro. "Hey Jotaro! You here for Ichigo?"

Jotaro nodded his head once.

"He will be out in a sec. he's just grabbing toast. Did you see the news? There was an explosion this morning. You and Ichigo should be careful on your way to school" Yuzu had a very energetic and compassionate personality.

Jotaro saw Ichigo walking towards the door. "When I said I would see you tomorrow I didn't mean first thing in the morning"

"See you later Yuzu. Be careful on your way to school". Ichigo walked past Yuzu and went up to Jotaro. "Where's Orihime?"

"Bye" Jotaro says to Yuzu. He puts his hands in his pockets and turns around. "She's going on her own today"

"Then why are you here?" Ichigo walks next to Jotaro as they head towards their school.

"Felt like it"

"Whatever. Guess we'll be walking by the explosion area on our way to school. Do you think it was really an explosion?"

Ichigo was expecting a response but got nothing. He turned to Jotaro and saw he just wasn't responding.

"I know you don't like talking all that much but c'mon! Did I reach your word limit already?!" Ichigo gets a little ticked off.

They ignore eachother until Ichigo stopped infront of the flower store. "Jotaro, hold up. I'm gonna get some flowers for the girl from yesterday"

Jotaro stopped and turned towards Ichigo. "Isnt she a little young? And kinda dead? Or are you into that now?"

Ichigo was shaking with rage. "Why you…!!!" He swung at Jotaro's face.

Jotaro just tilted his head to the right causing Ichigos fist to only his air. Then he used his left leg to sweep Ichigos leg and cause him to fall to the ground. "If you want to fight me you're about three weeks too soon. Or I guess a day too soon. Depends"

Ichigo stands back up. "Depends on what?! And what's your leg made of? Metal?" Ichigo feels his shin aching in pain slightly. He kicked a guys face through the road the previous day and he didn't even feel any pain.

"You'll see. And go get your flowers" Jotaro goes to the wall of the flower shop and leans his back on it as he folds his arms across his chest.

Ichigo sighs and just goes inside. 4 minutes later he comes out. He sees passerby looking at Jotaro. They're mostly girls admiring him and blushing.

Jotaro stands up and puts his hands in his pockets. A woman walks up to him, she's wearing a business blazer and skirt on. "Hi there! I work with-"

"No" Jotaro turns to Ichigo. "Let's go"

"But you haven't even heard what I said!" The woman cries out. She had a business card in her hands as she was about to give it to Jotaro.

Ichigo catches up to Jotaro. "Dude. Does this happen often?" He sees the girls stare at Jotaro as he walks. He hadn't noticed the previous day. But the girls in class also seemed somewhat interested in Jotaro.

Jotaro doesn't respond but sighs and closes his eyes for a few seconds.

There's more silence until they reach the area where the explosion occurred. It was down a side street and there was 'keep out' tape and police around.

Ichigo and Jotaro are walking in the busy streets of town when they hear the cry of a monster. "Did you hear that?" Ichigo asks and looks around.

"Yeah. It's nearby" Jotaro is looking down the street, a hollow was down the street and to the left from where they were.

Then the ground shook and windows were blown outwards from a building. The building was getting scratched by the hollow and the pavement was destroyed under it. The dust was kicked into the air as Ichigo and Jotaro ran past the fleeing people and towards the source of the mess.

Ichigo and Jotaro run into the smoke and stop when they can't see. A few seconds later and the dust and smoke settle down.

Ichigo looks up and sees a weird bug humanoid monster thing with a white mask covering its face. The white mask has green eyes and small purple highlights around its eyes and mouth.

"H-help!!" The little girl from the previous day appears and runs towards the two teens.

"Run!!" Ichigo shouts.

Ichigo turns and runs beside her. Jotaro stands in place with his hands at his sides clenched tightly. He wants to shred this thing to pieces already but knows it's not his job this time. He turns and jogs behind Ichigo and the girl.

"What is that?!" The spirit girl shouts as she runs.

"Hell if I know!" Ichigo responds.

Not even two steps later and she falls to the ground hard. Ichigo turns around and Jotaro stops behind the fallen girl.

"Hurry!" Ichigo shouts as he runs back to her to get her up.

Ichigo sees the monster stand right in front of Jotaro.

Jotaro stands there with his hands now in his pockets.

"Move Jotaro!" Ichigo shouts out.

"Yare Yare" Jotaro shakes his head.

Ichigo watches as the mask opens to reveal teeth and a disgusting tongue. It lunges at Jotaro who still hasn't moved. Then a butterfly goes past his eyes.

Ichigo watches as a girl holding a sheathed katana appears in midair. She falls slowly and draws her blade. As she drew it she continued its arcing path across the hollows mouth. The cut gave it a wider mouth and blood gushed out of its new wound. She even broke its teeth and a part of its mask.

The monster back away as it tries to stop the pain with its blade like insect arms. It writhes in pain as the girl falls to the ground between Ichigo and Jotaro.

The spirit girl stands behind Ichigo shaking in fear.

The katana girl wields her katana in both hands and jumps back into the air towards the creature.

She leaped so high that she was well above the giant insect like monster. She brings her katana above her head and gives a shout as she brings the blade down. She slices clean through not only the mask and head of the thing. But the entire body is cut in half. Right down the middle between its eyes.

The monster starts to disappear as she lands back onto the ground and sheathes her katana.

"H-Hey…." Ichigo quietly mutters.

The girl with the katana has short black hair and gray eyes. She glances back at Ichigo for a second then turns around. She narrows her eyes at Jotaro who stares down at her, his hands still in his pockets.

She takes a few steps towards the building and then disappears. Jotaro looks to Ichigo and the spirit girl to see the ghost girl also is gone.

"Hey you!" Ichigo calls out to the disappeared katana lady.

People start to crowd around Ichigo. Jotaro walks past Ichigo and grabs him by the back of his collar and drags him away. "Jotaro! Let me go! I can walk on my own damnit! No wonder the cat doesn't like being picked up like this!" Ichigo was trying not to get choked as he was dragged.

After a few more steps Jotaro let's him go and keeps walking.

"…Bastard…" Ichigo rubs his neck and catches his breath. Then he walks to school with Jotaro ahead of him. He wasn't really in a talking mood now anyway. They hear sirens going to where they just left.

School wasn't anything great. The girls and some guys tried talking with Jotaro but he just gave a few brief words or outright ignored them.

Jotaro walked home with Orihime since Ichigo had left quickly. Jotaro just wasn't fast enough to escape Orihime after she was done talking to Tatsuki. He was busy focusing on the other hollow who he could feel moving through the town.

Orihime was very talkative on the way home and Jotaro was forced to listen. Once he got home he went to his room to rest. His mother wasn't fast enough to greet him, she wasn't expecting him home so soon.

That night Jotaro felt the hollow strongly in town. Much stronger than he had felt all day.

He ran out of the house through his window. He stayed in his human body as he went towards Ichigo's house. When he was on his street he felt the soul reaper appear.

Jotaro jumped onto the roof of Ichigos house. He knew the ghost girl would be fine, and if she wasn't he would be able to tell. He had the modsoul in his mout between his teeth ready at a moments notice to go to her rescue. He wouldn't let her die because he messed with cannon already.

He can hear Ichigo shouting in his room, below where Jotaro was standing. He just kicked Rukia in the back apparently. He kinda wanted to see that, but focused on the hollow in the town.

He then heard Ichigo shout again and a body fall to the ground. A few minutes later he hears an object get thrown across the room.

A few second later he felt the spiritual pressure as a Kido was cast. It was a Bakudo art, and number 1 to be specific. It had a decent strength. Just a simple binding Kido, nothing special but it was enough to keep any human from moving completely.

Jotaro notices the ghost from the previous day is sent away to the SoulSociety.

Jotaro hears the speech about hollows and pluses. He didn't care for calling them that, but he would have to do it from now on. He sighs at the inconvenience.

Just then Jotaro feels the Hollow change it's path. He can feel it getting closer. And it's fast.

He watches as the hollow breaks a hole in the wall. It busts it down and the force knocks Yuzu away. Yuzu screams and then he hears her get to Ichigos room and collapse. Jotaro watches as Karin is grabbed from the house and screams in horror.

"Stop!" Karin pleads with the giant humanoid Hollow as she is grasped in its right hand. He feels Ichigos spiritual pressure surge and breaks the Kido. He also shouts extremely loudly as he does so.

Ichigo rushes out of the house holding a crutch to bash the hollow with. But he is only punched away by the monster.

"I found you" The hollow says. It brings its fist high into the air and slams it down towards Ichigo.

But before it can crush him, Ichigo dives out of the way as the fist makes contact with the ground and makes a crater.

As Ichigo dives out of the way the soul reaper brings her katana down on the hollows right arm that is holding Karin. The blade stops at where Jotaro assumes the bone would be.

The hollow drops Karin as it reels back in pain and cries out. Ichigo slides under Karin and catches her.

The hollow backs away and disappears.

"Hey! Karin!" Ichigo starts to freak out since Karin isn't moving.

"Don't panic your sisters' souls weren't eaten by him" Rukia says as she waits for the hollow to reappear.

"Really?!" Ichigo looks at her.

"He's seeking souls with high spiritual power. That's it! The Hollow from this afternoon wasn't after that girl"

She then goes on to explain her guess that the Hollow was after Ichigo and that when he came in contact with the girl his spiritual pressure started to leak out. And that the hollows were after Ichigo all along.

The hollow reappears some distance away. Rukia tells Ichigo to leave but he spouts some crap about how it's HIS fault that the girl was hunted and his sisters nearly died. Jotaro would have stepped in if they were actually about to die. His Kaido healing skills could heal them easily.

Ichigo shouts as he runs infront of the hollow saying that if it wants him he was right there. Jotaro shook his head. Ichigo should have just let Rukia, the soul reaper, kill it. This one was decently strong but not enough to pose a real threat normally.

The Hollow shouts in its weird echoey distorted voice and then charges Ichigo, attempting to eat him. It was so fast Ichigo couldn't even react. Luckily for him, Rukia had already moved infront of him and took the hit. Well, technically the bite.

The Hollow bit down on Rukia's left shoulder. She had moved her katana in front of her but it only served as a giant tooth pick for the hollow. Rukia's blood sprayed out and she struggled to push the Hollow back breaking its mask and teeth. It only served to pain the Hollow and nothing more.

Rukia dropped to the ground. She reprimands Ichigo about his reckless acts as the Hollow flails around. She rests her back against the wall and holds her blade up towards Ichigo.

"You must become a Soul Reaper! Run this Zanpakuto through your chest and I will lend you some of my powers so you can defeat this Hollow"

"Alright, Shinigami" Ichigo grabs the sword with his bare hands and moves it to the center of his chest.

"My name isn't 'Shinigami'. It's Rukia". She holds the hilt with both her hands.

"I'm…." Pauses for dramatic effect as the Hollow charges towards him. "….Ichigo Kurosaki!"

He stabs the blade into his chest and a blinding white and blue light erupts from him.

Jotaro squints his eyes as he watches. It was nighttime and the light was like a flashbang as the wind picked up.

The Hollow was right on top of him but in a split second the Hollows left arm was cut clean off.

The light dies down and the wind stops as Ichigo puts his giant Zanpakuto on ahi shoulder after he sliced the arm off of the Hollow. Jotaro knows that he could have had a better pose.

Rukia's Shihakusho turns completely white as she gave away nearly all her shinigami powers. But she only meant to give half. Ichigo somehow took it all.

Jotaro doesn't know how to do that exactly. The whole 'give your powers to somebody else' part. Kisuke hadn't taught him that.

Jotaro jumps down behind Rukia without a sound. She was also too focused on Ichigo to notice him. She's surprised by his spiritual pressure and the size of his Zanpakuto.

Ichigo cuts the Hollows leg off in one giant swing of his Zanpakuto. Rukia was monologuing to herself. "And I've definitely never seen a Shinigamis Zanpakuto become that HUGE!"

"Clearly you don't know that captains limit the size of their Zanpakutos to something they can wield. And mines bigger than his" Jotaro mocks her.

"What?!" She shouts and turns to see the other guy from the hollow attack in the morning. Ichigo might be a boy, but the person standing behind her is no boy. He is something else.

"Watch" Jotaro says as Ichigo goes for the killing blow on the Hollow.

Ichigo tells the Hollow to go to hell after a short monologue about hurting his family.

The Hollow fall towards Ichigo and opens its giant mouth with saliva dripping down.

He raises his Zanpakuto above his head and swings down and slices the Hollow in half and shouts to give him some extra power in his swing.

Rukia watches as the Hollow disappears into nothing.

Ichigo then collapses to the ground.

"The hell?" Jotaro wonders why he collapsed right after he killed the Hollow. Then he realizes it's some plot armor. He should have collapsed sooner due to the sudden release of his spiritual pressure.

Rukia turns back around. "Who are you?!" Rukia calls out to Jotaro.

Jotaro goes to Ichigo's soul reaper body and picks him up by his waist under his arm and brings him to his human body. He tosses Ichigo into his human body and he sinks into it. He turns towards the Kurosaki Clinic that is destroyed.

Jotaro holds out his right hand. "Unique Kido art! Chikei no shūfuku!". His hand glows with white energy. The light covers the house and it repairs. Jotaro didn't know of any Kido arts to fix destroyed buildings or terrain so he made his own. Tessai was very impressed he did it on his own.

Rukia is shocked seeing this random human use a Kido. And one she had never heard of at that. There wasn't a chant, and he only said the name.

"Who really are you? You aren't a human are you?"

Jotaro lowers his hand after the house is fixed. He grabs the visor of his hat and lowers it and turns to look down on Rukia.

"Yare Yare….My names Jotaro Kujo"