Chapter 2:

"Where is the target axis?""It's not confirmed.""Hello, where are we being sent?""We're moving out. Release the hell butterfly.""Captur or.... Kill." In the sky right now there are two Shinigami talking to each other. Two black butterflies appeared from nowhere, flew to the two of them and led the way. In one person's hand was a notebook containing many personal photos, in which they were all looking at a photo of a short-haired girl named Rukia Kuchiki."This isn't a job for a Soul Reaper, is it?""It may be."━"Oh my.... Where's my house again...?" Mei wandered the streets with a map from dawn until it was so dark that the moon was high in the sky. She looked around these unfamiliar streets with a map in her left hand and an ōdachi in the other. She remembered that there was a very big tree growing in her neighborhood.... But she didn't remember what tree it was.Besides, it seemed like she had walked around this street 5 times already, until she turned the map over and it was the correct route, which couldn't help but make her sigh. Her stomach grumbled because she hadn't eaten all day. She once again sighed and took a peach from her long furisode sleeve. She ate it but one thing she didn't expect was.... She only felt a little sweetness on the tip of her tongue, other than that she couldn't feel anything."Hm...?" She ate it while looking for her way home and didn't notice that her sense of taste and sensation became more and more dull.Until she walked to a random street and heard the sound of someone swinging a sword. She slowly and stealthily approached that place. There were two men dressed in strange black clothes, the other was wearing a white scarf and a small woman was dodging the attack of a man with red hair.SWOOOSH!SHOOOM!An arrow of light shot towards the red-haired man, but he quickly raised his head to throw the arrow within an inch of his life. The owner of the arrow of light that was fired was a student with black hair and wearing glasses, his left hand held a bag of convenience items and his right hand held a bow of light, it was Uryū Ishida."Two armed men against one defenseless girl.... What's this world coming to?" He calmly spoke sarcastically and blackly mixed with a bit of anger. "That kind of thing... Reallt makes me mad.""Who are you!?""Just a classmate.... One that hates Soul Reapers.""Uryū... What are you doing here?" Rukia was a bit surprised and asked her classmate."Just passing by. No big deal. Well, if you must know...." Uryū answered while adjusting his glasses, then he picked up the bag he bought from the dressmaking shop called Sunflower Seams. ".... I felt a sudden urge to go to Sunflower Seams, that 24-hour Dressmaking shop. There's a branch near here. That's where I was headed at this late hour.""I certainly didn't bring this bag with me just so I'd have an excuse for suddenly leaving the house.... Because I sensed the spirit energy of a Soul Reaper, okay?""Wow.... That may be the worst lie he ever told. Can he be that stupid?" Rukia thought helplessly in her heart. Suddenly, something sharp grazed Uryū's arm, causing part of his bandaged arm to get cut a bit and the handle of the convenience bag tore off, causing the bag to fall to the ground with a thud."Stop yapping, four eyes. I'm asking you.... A question. Who are you?" Renji was resting the sword on his shoulder with an annoyed expression but it was quickly replaced by a disdainful and sinister smirk. He held his sword and pointed it at Uryū and Rukia. Uryū remained silent and frowned looking towards Renji. "Well? If you don't feel like answering, fine. I can just.... kill you""Wait, Renji! He's got nothing to do....""What was that? I'll answer you." Uryū interrupted Rukia's words and answered Renji. "I'm a classmate of Rukia's, one who hates Soul Reapers""That's not what I asked you!""...." Uryū was silent for a moment, wondering whether or not to tell Renji his name before he made his final decision is to briefly introduce his name. "I'm Uryū Ishida. Nice to meet you.""Huh? You're strange.""Well... I just thought you had a right to know. You're a Soul Reaper, but.... You should know the name of the one who kills you.""That does it! You're dead meat!!!" Uryū's sarcasm successfully infuriated Renji. He gritted his teeth and gripped the hilt of his katana, preparing to fight Uryū."Renji, No!!! Uryū!!""See? What did I tell you?" After the fight between Renji and Uryū, Renji wins. He smirked smugly and rested his sword on his shoulder as he glanced down at Uryū lying panting on the ground. He coughed and gasped, unable to move his arms and legs. He was stabbed in the stomach by Renji, causing blood to flow on the ground."He's strong! Even stronger than before! I couldn't stop him.... I couldn't even move!" Rukia stood motionless as the scenes unfolded and her classmate was seriously injured. Her body trembled and chills ran down her spine as she looked up at the katana Renji was holding to end Uryū's life."Now.... Time to finish this. Reflect on your stupidity as you die." Renji raised his sword high and pointed its tip towards the sky. "I'm Renji Abarai... The one who killed you!""Nice to meet you!!!" He swung his sword down to mercilessly finish off Uryu when a hand grabbed his right wrist, preventing him from delivering the killing blow. Renji was startled and turned to look at the person who interfered with him."Moshi moshi...." It was a tall woman has short hue purple hair with droopy purple eyes with strange diamond-shaped pupils. She suddenly appeared behind Renji grabbed his right wrist, made Renji startled and he jumped back to observe the person who was just whispered in his ear."W-wha--!? When did you--" Renji panicked and raised his sword in a defensive stance when he saw that his opponent was also carrying a sword. Is that a Zanpakutō, if so, why doesn't he know this person's face? Is she also a human? If that, a human like her can see him? Tens of thousands of questions arose in Renji's mind when he saw the woman. She still hadn't looked at him once until she just glanced at him enough to send a chill down his spine. "Who are you, !?""Raiden Bosenmori Mei.... Merely a burrowed name. You can call me whatever you want... Thus, I am Mei...." The woman crossed her arms and sighed, as she tilted her head to look at Renji. She did a few getsures that, despite not having murderous intent, still made Renji flinch and frown. The place he was standing on suddenly cracked open, forcing him to jump on a nearby gate wall to avoid it.BOOOOM!"What!?" Renji was a bit wary when he saw another Shinigami appear nearby and stand in front of his two friends. It was Ichigo with his oversized Zanpakutō, standing next to the woman with purple hair. "Who are you guys!?""I'm Ichigo Kurosaki! The man who's gonna beat you!! Nice to meet you!!"Mei replied with a blank expression, her eyes narrowing slightly as she held her ōdachi forward in a defensive stance. Her gaze shifted from Renji to the Shinigami wearing the white scarf. He was definitely much more dangerous than the red-haired boy, based on the amount of Spiritual Power he had. "I'm merely 'a passerby'. There's no need to worry about me too much.""A shihakushō? Who are you? What unit are you with? And where'd you get that...." Renji frowned and spoke in suspicion as he looked from the woman calling herself "Mei" to the boy wearing a Shinigami uniform calling himself Ichigo. Both of them have two ridiculously oversized Zanpakutōs, especially Ichigo's. "....Ridiculously oversized Zanpakutō!?""What!? It's big? I thought it was just big compared to Rukia's. Up to now.... I had nothing to compare it to!" Ichigo spoke with extreme seriousness, causing Renji to pause and think about why Ichigo's Zanpakutō was so big. Usually Zanpakutō is proportionate to the wielder's spirit energy. It's impossible for Ichigo's power to be that great, it's just impossible for him. "And who are you!?"Ichigo then spoke loudly and pointed in the direction where Mei was standing, she was placing her sword on her left hip ready to pull it out at any moment. She didn't answer Ichigo directly but tilted her head and gave him a look of "Can you be serious?""Ichigo! You fool.... Why did you come?" Rukia said with a worried look, her face had a wound on her cheek and it was still bleeding. Even though she was standing between the two sides preparing to fight, she did not panic."I see.... Now I know who you are. You're the human who stole Rukia's powers!" Renji paid attention to Rukia's every word and then he began to connect the dots together. It turns out that Ichigo was the one who took away Rukia's Shinigami powers, and the other woman's identity is still a mystery, making Renji more wary of her.'What're you gonna do about it?'"Kill you!!" Having said that, Renji picked up his sword and rushed towards Ichigo to attack him. In the distance, the remaining Shinigami was muttering Ichigo's and Mei's names, his gaze always following Mei's movements from the beginning."Raiden Bosenmori.... Mei.... And Ichigo.... Kurosaki..."KLANNK!KLANG! KLANG! KLANG! KLANG!"Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!! Fight!! Fight!!" The sound of swords clashing was fierce and both Ichigo and Renji refused to yield to each other. But Ichigo still struggles to block more attacks because his sword is so large that it slows his speed. "Well!? Is that huge sword just for show!? Huh!?""You talk too much. You'll bite your tongue!"Ichigo winced as he had to continuously block the lightning attacks coming from Renji. He silently cursed when he saw Renji's speed surpassing even his, making it difficult for him. As soon as the opportunity arose, Ichigo used his sword to strike down a blow, but Renji jumped up right before Ichigo could strike. He slashed the back of Ichigo's right shoulder, causing it to spurt blood and causing Ichigo to slump to the ground. Ichigo was shocked and raised his hand to cover the wound to stop the bleeding."It's over. You're dead. The power will go back to Rukia. And Rukia... will go to the Soul Society and die." Renji triumphantly rested his Zanpakutō on his shoulder and propped his hip with his other hand as he smirked triumphantly looking down at Ichigo from above. "Man, you're as dumb as they come. She ran away to protect you, if only you stayed home. But you had to chase after her.""Did you actually think you could save her? A phony like you couldn't put one scratch on a real Soul Reaper." Renji triumphantly rested his Zanpakutō on his shoulder and propped his hip with his other hand as he smirked triumphantly looking down at Ichigo from above. He was suddenly slashed from bottom to top by Ichigo, causing a small wound to appear on his chin, making him bewildered."Oops, my bad.... I know you were in the middle of a pompous boast.... but your guard was down, and I just couldn't resist." Ichigo staggered to his feet. Even though he was still injured, he gave a mocking smile and spoke sarcastically about Renji. "You were saying? Please.... Continue. Something about one scratch?""That does it!""Your guard was down.... Renji." The remaining Shinigami suddenly spoke up after the fight between Renji and Ichigo, causing Renji to immediately turn his head to look at the Shinigami with black hair."Captain Kuchiki.... So what sir!? For him, this maybe a big deal, but... That child Ichigo Kurosaki with that weird woman...""I thought I'd seen them somewhere.... There were some image-only report from the Secret Mobile Force 33 hours ago." The man called Captain Kuchiki interrupted Renji and continued speaking. His gaze was cold and sharp as if it saw right through Mei's being, causing a frown to crease her brow when her gaze met Byakuya's. "So it said.... Menos Grande was driven back to Hueco Mundo by a weird sword wound....""Hmph.... Hahahahaha!! Hahahahaha!!!" Renji laughed loudly when he heard the ridiculous information about Ichigo, and Mei was looking down at the ground and remembering what happened yesterday. But what happened yesterday? She wondered to herself. After Renji laughed loudly for a long time, he spoke rudely loudly and pointed at Ichigo, shrugged off everything the captain had said to him. "Yeah right! The Secret Mobile Force isn't what it used to be!! This one wounded Menos!? I can't believe it!!!""Renji....""Look, Captain! Look at his Zanpakutō!! It's just a big, impotent embarrassment! He obviously can't control his spirit energy!!" He suddenly turned to Ichigo and asked. "Hey, you! What's your Zanpakutō's name!?""Huh!? Name!? It doesn't have a name. You named your Zanpakutō!?" Ichigo asked again in confusion and bewilderment, this was the first time he had heard that each Zanpakutō had a name."I knew it. You can't even ask your Zanpakutō its name!! You think you can fight me as an equal?" Renji swipes the blade of his Zanpakutō causing its shape to transforms into an even longer 6-part segmented blade; each segment is wider than the one preceding it from the hilt. A transforming Zanpakutō? That also caught Mei's attention. "You're two thousand years too early!!!""The Zanpakutō!?""Howl, Zabimaru!! Look! There stands...." He then launched into the air swinging his sword down like a whip. The segments are connected by a stretchable thread causing the sword to have increased attack range, and it slashes Ichigo's left shoulder blade. "....Dinner!!!""It's over, boy!!! You lost to Renji Abarai!" He then spoke excitedly and swung his sword upward. Ichigo unconsciously dropped his sword and knelt to the ground. "You'll die here!!!"