5 That totally was a kill steal!

Chapter five.

''Girls aside, at least it looks line none of our friends betrayed us by entering the top fifty!'' Keigo said, with a slight smile as he looked over the top students of the school.

''Look closer.'' Mizuiro pointed out, the tip of his index finger touching a certain name on the list. ''He's there.''

''W-wh-what!?'' Keigo blurted out in shock, stumbling backwards as he managed to read something truly outrageous.

23: Kurosaki Ichigo.

''Twenty-third!? It's a lie! Why are you so high up the list!?'' Keigo cried, now looking at his friend Ichigo in a completely different light.

Most of the other students looked at the scene with amusement, and among them was no other than Tatsuki and Orihime.

''You placed quite high, Orihime!'' Tatsuki complimented her friend, giving her a pat on the head.

''Hehe!'' The orange haired girl laughed, tilting her head cutely.

'… Did I really place under Ichigo?' Next to both girls, Kuromiya was having a hard time believing that he was only twenty-sixth. 'Whatever, I guess it's due to the fact that I skipped three entire days.'

It still felt out of place for him to see his name in the same list as some anime characters, but this was his new reality, it didn't matter if he found it weird.

''Kurosaki-kun!'' Someone screamed, catching the attention of quite a few students.

A few heads turned away from the board with their placings and found themselves looking at Rukia Kuchiki, who seemed to be running towards them.

''Huh?'' Ichigo muttered, now staring at her too.

''Come with me for a second!'' Not waiting for an answer, Rukia yanked Ichigo away from there, pulling him by his hand.

''… Kuchiki-san really is forward.'' Keigo commented, completely misunderstanding the situation.

''They must really be dating after all, then.'' Mizuiro agreed, again, completely missing the mark on just what was going on there.

Although most students were confused by this strange scene, Kuromiya knew exactly just was going on.

'I guess it's about time, any second now…' The fullbringer thought, looking towards them.

Just like the boy had thought, just when Rukia and Ichigo were running while whispering at each other, the later of them accidentally bumped on a certain someone. That someone was, of course, Uryu Ishida.

''I'm sorry!'' Ichigo apologized, but still kept running away from the school hall nonetheless.

''…'' Not even turning to face him, the quincy kept walking straight, completely disregarding the shinigami's presence.

. . .

''… After all that, there's no hollow again!'' It was already late at night, and as Rukia was yanking Ichigo's empty physical body alongside her, the real Ichigo was complaining to her for the absence of a hollow.

In the middle of Karakura's empty street, no one was there to witness their discussion.

''Shut up!'' Rukia replied, just as upset as the substitute soul reaper. ''Just get back in your body.''

The black haired girl clicked her tongue, and opened up some sort of device resembling an old looking phone.

''Seriously, do something about that worthless phone.'' The teenager told Rukia, finally getting back inside his physical body.

''Are you saying that's it my fault!?'' Visibly offended by that remark, Rukia turned her gaze towards the substitute. ''I just tell you exactly what appears on the command receiver, that's all.''

''I just told you, fix it and be done with it.'' Ichigo repeated himself, turning his body towards her.

''Believe me, I would love to.'' She assured him, her frustration evident to anyone who could see her.

''… Dissension in the ranks?'' Catching both of them by surprise, an unnoticed person joined in their conversation. ''What a disgrace.''

Ichigo and Rukia turned their gazes towards the middle of the street, where they could vaguely see the figure of a black haired teenager with glasses walking towards them.

''Good evening, Kurosaki-kun, Kuchiki-san.'' Now finally in front of them, Uryu Ishida stopped not more than two meters away from them.

''… Who the hell are you?'' Ichigo asked, not able to recognize the boy who was talking to him. ''How the hell do you kn-''

''Kurosaki-kun.'' Ishida interrupted him, his glasses illuminated by the light poles on the street. ''You can see ghosts, can't you?''

The surprised looks in both of their eyes said it all, they were clearly shocked by the fact this this boy knew Ichigo's secret.

''What are you talking abo-'' Once again, Ichigo was interrupted by the quincy who now was looking away from them, right to a spot a few streets away from them.

''A new hollow has appeared.'' The quincy declared.

''What?'' Rukia questioned the stranger incredulously, finding it hard to believe his words. However, not even a few seconds after her question, her phone started ringing.

Opening up at lightning speed, Rukia watched with barely hidden surprise what the device was showing her.

''One really has appeared!'' The black haired girl informed her partner. ''We've got work.''

Just before any of them was able to say another word, the phone's alarm stopped.

''… It looks like he already dealt with it.'' Ishida commented, seemingly unimpressed by the swift killing of the hollow.

''He?'' Rukia questioned, but she herself couldn't deny the fact that the hollow had effectively been killed.

''It's really none of your business.'' The quincy disregarded the question with little but no regard. ''But if you can't even tell where a hollow is, can you really call yourself a soul reaper?''

''Tch…'' It looked like Ichigo was finally losing his patience, now glaring at the pretentious student who had done nothing but to patronize them.

''I'd recommend you to not get in my way.'' Fixing his glasses, Uryu gave them a few last words. ''It's fine if he wants to deal with hollows, but we don't need any soul reapers here.''

''… What the hell are you?'' Ichigo finally asked, judging by this stranger's words it was crystal clear that it was him and another person the ones who had been dealing with the hollows, but he couldn't conceive how a normal human could be able to do such a thing.

''… Ishida Uryu, a quincy.' Some sort of cross ended up falling from his wrist, and it started glowing with spiritual pressure after. ''And I hate soul reapers.''

Now in his hands was an immense spiritual bow, glowing in an impressive display of blue spiritual pressure.

''What the hell?'' Ichigo wasn't unsure on what was more surprising, if the sudden declaration or the weapon he was wielding.

''Don't you understand?'' Uryu asked, a cold smile now on full display. ''Kurosaki Ichigo, I hate you.''

. . .

'Woah, is it finally over?' Not so far away from them, the fullbringer was watching over their encounter after finishing up the hollow. 'Man, this sure was a good purchase.'

He was the one who had ended up finishing the hollow, after all he had received a certain quest earlier which stated:

[Hidden quest obtained:

Kill the hollow before Ishida manages to do it himself, ruining his cool introduction.

Reward: 500 I.P.]

'No idea why would I want to ruin his cool introduction, but I'll take the points.' He told himself, smiling at his well-earned reward.

How had he managed to kill the hollow without using something like a fountain full of water, exactly? The answer was resting on his right hand, and it was quite sharp.

The fullbringer was holding a traditional looking katana, more precisely, an asauchi. But that did rise some question, naturally.

If he wasn't a soul reaper, how did he manage to get his hands onto an asauchi? His store was the responsible for that, after all an asauchi was pretty cheap, around five hundred influence points to be precise.

'It's a shame it's just a random sword right now.' The boy lamented, if he was a soul reaper then he might have been able to start imprinting his essence into the sword, but unfortunately for him that wasn't possible right now.

Still, it was more than enough to deal with some random hollows, and that was just all he needed for the time being.

''It's quite ridiculous, though.'' He complained, pouting slightly as he looked at the store. ''How am I supposed to get 15000 influence points? That's way too much to become a Shinigami.''

That was the price required to acquire his second race, and it was ridiculously high.

''I should leave though.'' Talking with himself, he stored the empty sword inside his Inventory, the katana disappearing from thin air. ''And I should spend this points I've stored once and for all.''

Disappearing in the already familiar pale green light, he escaped the place at a fast pace while using Bringer Light.

. . .

''It's been quite a while since I've heard that name.'' Urahara muttered.

It had been over a day since Rukia's encounter with the strange boy that apparently had been exterminating hollows all around the city. To her displeasure, due to the lack of information she had regarding the term 'quincy', she was forced to ask to the only person that could answer that question for her.

''Quincy…'' The store owner said. ''It's been a long time since I heard that.''

The sound of something hitting the floor which got their attention, both now looking at Tessai who had placed a cup of tea next to Rukia. The three of them were now seating on the floor next to the entrance of the store where the conversation was being held.

''It most certainly has a nostalgic sound.'' Tessai added, his mind traveling deep into his memories as he heard that term. ''I haven't heard that word for almost two hundred years.''

''What do you mean by that?'' Turning towards the big muscled man, Rukia couldn't help but be curious about it.

''What he means is that since they're all fucking dead, it's not often you get to hear about them.''

Their heads turned away at the new voice that had joined in the conversation, and the three of them found themselves looking at someone they all recognized.

''Hm, Yoruichi isn't here? That's a shame.'' That person was Kuromiya, which both Urahara and Tessai had already sensed approaching for a few minutes. ''Do me a favor and tell her that I wouldn't mind if she visited me more often.''

''Kuromiya? What's he doing here, Urahara?'' Finally reacting, Rukia gave the store owner an accusatory look. ''Weren't you supposed to keep an eye on him?''

''But I'm keeping an eye on him!'' Urahara countered, standing up and walking next to the newcomer. ''See? He's literally next to me.''

Urahara was forced to bend downwards, narrowly dodging a flying phone coming directly at him courtesy of Rukia.

''Keeping an eye on him, my ass! It's not much of an investigation if he already knows you're doing it!'' The black haired girl argued back, now completely disregarding the presence of the fullbringer.

''Hey… I'm still here, you know?'' Waving his hand in front of the girl's face, the fullbringer tried to get the attention back to him once again. ''Though I must say I'm quite curious as to why did you request someone to investigate me.''

''That… That is…'' Suddenly feeling cornered, the girl realized that in the heat of the moment she had basically admitted sending someone to spy on him. ''Look, I can explain.''

''Can you, really?'' Tilting his head curiously, he prompted her to do so. ''Go on then, explain.''

''I just thought you were suspicious, that's it!'' Rukia finally answered, unable to give her classmate a better explanation. ''You were doing strange stuff.''

''Don't get so flustered, I was just teasing you.'' Looking away from her, he now faced Urahara, the man for which he was here to begin with. ''I've my answer, Urahara.''

"You still have a few more days." Kisuke reminded him, slowly standing up from the floor as he kept talking. "However, if you're sure about it..."

"I'm sure." Kuromiya interjected, walking closer to the man. "I will work for you, but under one condition."

Urahara's interest on the conversation reached its peak when he heard that, and for once he didn't seem to have that mysterious grin of his.

"Now that I remember, you did tell Yoruichi that you needed help with something, right?" The shop owner recalled, his mind revisiting every single thing that his old friend had informed him about.

"..." The fullbringer didn't confirm his words, after all there was still hearing their conversation silently. "We will talk about this later, but for now..."

Rukia's phone device started ringing from the place she had thrown it at, making everyone turn towards it.

"A hollow, huh?" Rukia mused, picking up the old phone from the floor and taking a quick look at it. "We will talk about this later, I need to..."

After no more than three seconds, the signal died down.

"It's already gone?" Rukia said in surprise and sounding a bit proud. "That Ichigo, he's sure getting good at it."

Yet again, the phone started ringing for a second time, and it went down just as quickly.

"What... What's going on here?" Her calm demeanor long gone, the female soul reaper looked towards Urahara and Kuromiya with a panicked look.

''Hell if I know.'' The fullbringer answered with a shrug, though he actually knew exactly what was going on right now. ''Ask him.''

''This feeling…'' Urahara muttered, feeling dozens of hollows all across the city. ''Akihiko, can I count with your help?''

[Main quest: Hollow raid on Karakura.

It looks like the self-proclaimed last quincy thought that it was worth risking over a hundred thousand lives in order to prove to a novice shinigami who was the strongest between them, you better get moving! Or not! It's time to farm it out!

Reward for saving a human: 100 for each.

Reward for killing a hollow: 200 for each.]

''…'' The fullbringer couldn't help but sweat at the quest's details, it almost felt like for each quest he got the system decided to throw a few insults around for no apparent reason.

''Yeah, I'll deal with it.'' Kuromiya finally answered, after all he wasn't about to lose the opportunity to farm so much points.

''You'll deal with it? Have you gone crazy, Urahara? He's just a human!'' Rukia reminded the store owner, looking at the man like he had completely lost his mind.

''I'm not a human, I'm a fullbringer.'' The boy corrected her.

''A fullbringer?'' Rukia asked, just as lost as when they were talking about quincys.

''…'' Not bothering to clear her doubts, the fifteen-year-old started walking away from the store.

''Hey, Kuromiya-kun, wait a sec-'' Rukia grabbed his right arm at the exact time he had stepped out of the store, and unfortunately for her that was also the exact moment in which the boy had used Bringer Light.

The result was that both of them vanished in a burst of speed, leaving Urahara and Tessai alone at the store.

''… Are they going to be okay?'' Tessai asked, more than a little worried for the well-being of the two teenagers.

''Uh… Maybe we should prepare Jinta and Ururu just in case.'' Urahara ordered, after all he had sent the boy to test his capabilities out, but he wasn't sure if he would be able to protect Rukia too.

. . .

''Waaahk!'' Losing control with the sudden extra weight, he crashed face-first against a tree, violently shaking it around. He wasn`t alone though, because not even a fraction of a second later Rukia crashed into him too.

The two of them had been fortunate to crash against a tree, instead of smashing themselves head on against a concrete wall not too far away from them.

''T-t-the fuck did you do, midget!?'' The fullbringer screamed at the fallen girl, feeling his whole vision violently shacking. ''You almost killed me! You almost killed US!''

''… Ugh.'' Rukia was too disoriented to even acknowledge the fact that she had been called a midget, her legs struggling to keep her up.

''… Great, just great.'' Lending a hand to the girl, he grabbed her shoulder and acted as a support until she was able to recover. ''And they're all looking at us now.''

His gaze landed on more than twenty-two humans who not too long ago where just living their everyday lives with little but no worry, unfortunately for them that was going to change very soon.

'I guess they're coming already…' He found himself looking up at the sky, and the boy could already spot many hollows appearing from some sort of little black portals.

. . .

Not too far away from them, two individuals were having their own confrontation, and it certainly wasn't going any better either.

''Change things back right now!'' Ichigo Kurosaki had the quincy against the ground, grabbing him by his shirt. ''Get the hollows out of here!''

It was a bit easier to understand why Ichigo was so antagonistic towards him if you knew that the quincy was essentially the one who had attracted the hollow after defying him to some sort of challenge.

Their confrontation was being watched by one person, that being no other than Kon who was inside Ichigo's physical body.

''It's too late for that.'' Ishida answered, his face completely devoid of emotion. ''I already casted the bait, soon this town will be crawling with hollows.''

Ichigo tightened his grip over the quincys shirt, glaring at him with no small amount of anger.

''You shouldn't waste your time around here, don't you have people to save?'' The quincy inquired, pushing the soul reaper away from him as he slowly stood up. ''You better get moving if you're going to protect them.''

''… Damn you.'' Ichigo cursed, watching as the quincy walked past him without even glancing back at him.

''I sure hope you remember that hollows have a tendency to attack those with a high level of spirit energy.'' Uryu whispered at him, and it was clear by his smile that he was enjoying the situation.

''Huh!?'' The substitute soul reapear's mind pictured two people almost instantly, and those were no other than both of his little sisters. ''Yuzu, Karin!''

He didn't even bother to exchange another word with the quincy, running as fast as he could to his sisters' school.

''Wait, Ichigo!'' Kon called for him, running after the orange haired teenager. ''Wait for me!''

''…'' Watching them leave, Ishida couldn't help but feel disappointed. ''Your family isn't the only people with an abnormal spiritual pressure.''

Uryu knew better though, Sado Yasutora, Inoue Orihime, and even some of Ichigo's other friends would be subject to an attack from a hollow.

''You don't need to worry though…'' He whispered, and without delay he summoned his spiritual bow from his quincy cross, and aimed an arrow towards a certain spot in the sky. ''After all, I'll deal with every single one of them by myself.''

He shot the arrow from more than a hundred meters away from its target, and that target was nothing more than a hollow coming out of a black portal from the sky. The shot was incredibly precise, since the hollow didn't even take a step before it was impaled by a blue arrow through its skull.

''That's one.'' He counted, this was a competition after all.

. . .

''Hey, Rukia, snap out of it!'' Unfortunately for the pair of students, Rukia looked to be quite a bit disoriented still, and more than one hollow was already feeling attracted towards them.

''Graaaaaawgh.'' The all too familiar scream of a hollow caused many glass to shatter around them, which only managed to make all the people around them scream in panic.

Right now they were in quite a busy street, probably near the center of Karakura, which probably meant that quite a few hollows would be near them.

''Fuck.'' What followed was almost like a chain reaction, at first it was completely silent, no one was moving until…

When someone decided to run the rest of them followed, pushing each other around in a desperate attempt to get away from the inexplicable situation.

The fullbringer wasn't taking it much better, it was even worse for him since he could actually see the hollows.

'One, two… Three.' He counted up to three hollows in just this street, and that was unfortunately more than what he could handle with his current power. 'One on one, I could deal with each of them but…'

There was no guarantee that the hollows would come towards him by themselves, and if they were organized enough to join each other to fight him…

He picked the still dizzy Rukia up, not even bothering to warn her about what he was about to do.

''Y-you, what are you doing?'' Rukia weakly asked, it was clear that the gigai that Urahara had gave to her was weakening her more and more. He paid no mind to her question and carried her bridal style.

''Isn't it obvious? I'm running.'' The fullbringer used Bringer Light for a second time, but this time he didn't use it to run away, but to go up.

''It's hard to control, just as I thought.'' Kuromiya looked downwards, still holding the girl against him. ''We should be safe up here.''

Even though it was hard to believe for Rukia, there was a human levitating in the middle of the air while holding her like it was something completely natural.

''… What are you?''

''I already told you, I'm a fullbringer.'' He repeated his words from earlier, and started looking to what looked to be empty space. ''Now shut up for a second, I need to concentrate.''

''Huh?'' She didn't attempt to ask what he meant by that, deciding that it was probably not a good idea to annoy the guy who was holding her at over twenty meters up the air.

'Store.' The fullbringer thought, and the store appeared in front of his eyes not even a second after.

[Reiatsu boost: 400 I.P]

He wasn't too worried about spending points here, after all the more hollows he killed, the more points he would be awarded.

'Think of it as an investment.' The boy told himself, and immediately purchased the boost.

That sensation he had missed so much enveloped him once again, and he had to make a conscious effort to keep his focus up if he didn't want to fall to the ground.

That wasn't the thing that mattered, though, what actually mattered was the fact that his spiritual pressure doubled in a single second. The fullbringer didn't stop there though, purchasing another reiatsu boost for eight hundred points.

The change was massive, his spiritual pressure which had been originally at around the level of a weak shinigami was now around a third seat officer. Of course, this change didn't go unnoticed by Rukia, nor by the hollows below them.

''This spiritual pressure…'' Since Rukia didn't know about the system, the natural thought would be that he was restraining his powers, and the fullbringer was counting on that.

''Mmmhm, it just feels so good.'' Kuromiya licked his lips, unable to restrain himself for any longer. The next thing that happened was too fast for Rukia to even comprehend, and the same applied for the hungry hollows bellow them.

While holding Rukia, both of them vanished from their spot at the air and reappeared on the ground, now only a few meters away from one of the hollows.

Leaving the girl on the floor, he faced the hollows with a confident look, he was absolutely sure that he could beat them even if he was bare handed.

'I can't summon that asauchi, I can explain my reiatsu saying I was restraining myself, but I can't explain summoning a shinigami's sword out of thin air.' He reasoned, which basically meant that he would have to beat those creatures to death.

And that was the last thought he had, because in a burst of speed he rushed towards the nearest hollow and smashed his fist against its mask, sending the massive beast flying against one of the small stores on the now empty street.

The punch was devastating, so much so that even Kuromiya was surprised by just how much his raw strength had increased. It was no small feat, even if the hollow wasn't particularly weak its size was still over six meters tall.

The amount of difference between their reiatsu ended up deciding the battle in a single blow, since the hollow had been utterly destroyed in a literal one-shot.

''… Amazing.'' She muttered, finally understanding why Urahara had offered a job to a human. ''I can't even follow him.''

The fullbringer was forced to dodge to the side, using the ground as a platform to jump him into the air. This allowed him to narrowly dodge the foot of one of the two remaining hollows who attempted to stomp all over him.

''Hmh, it's difficult to maneuver in the air.'' The boy noted, it felt a little cranky but he attributed it to his lack of skill more than anything else.

He wasn't allowed to keep day dreaming after one of the hollows attempted to jump in order to get him down to the ground once again. The fullbringer ended up stepping on the air for a second time in order to dodge the beast attempt to bring him down, getting far away from its reach.

Even though he was now effectively away from their reach, the black haired boy went even higher, stepping on the air for a third and even a fourth time.

The teenager didn't stop until he was higher than any building on Karakura's Town and once he decided he was at an acceptable height, he started descending

It wasn't really surprising that Rukia was unable to follow his movements, after all the fullbringer was casting Bringer Light nonstop, appearing and reappearing so quickly that it almost looked like he was in several places at the same time.

Each time he used it, he landed a punch against one of the two hollows remaining, the hollows being completely unable to react against his speed, plummeting down towards the hollow without a second thought.

He was fast, so fast that Rukia had trouble even seeing the shape of his figure as he fell to the ground, but she was able to see one thing at the last possible second.

When he was less than a meter away from the beast, he started spinning his body in some sort of an attempt of a spin kick, building the momentum from his fall all into the power of this one single strike.

The result was devastating, that single kick completely teared the hollow in half leaving a huge crater-like hole on the ground, as if something massive had landed at that spot.

'This is…' Kuromiya was no longer able to stop himself from laughing, for each blow he landed against one of the hollows, he realized just how much of a gap existed between his powers and their own.

'Woah.' He shifted his body to the side with a quick use of Bringer Light, narrowly dodging a massive claw which was attempting to snap him in half. 'That was a close one.'

The responsible for the attack was the last hollow remaining in the area, and the beast was nothing more than two hundred points for him right now.

Two hollows were down, and just when he was about to finish the last one standing, a sudden pulse of reiatsu managed to catch his attention.

''Hadō #4 Byakurai!'' Rukia's voiced forced him to turn his attention away from the hollow, and he did so just in time to see how the black haired girl gathered a considerable amount of high spiritual pressure on her right hand. It didn't take long for all that high density spiritual pressure to be released in the form of a huge bolt of lightning, which smashed itself against the last remaining hollow.

The already beaten up hollow wasn't able to withstand any more damage, and it was completely obliterated from existence by the surprise attack, leaving only a pained scream behind.

''Rukia… You…'' Turning towards the now fallen girl, who was clearly exhausted after casting that kido.

''I'm not about to let a human do all the work.'' The weakened girl said with a forced smile, struggling to remain conscious.

''You totally stole my kill, dumbass!'' He shouted at her, finally closing the gap between each other.

''… '' Before Rukia could try to rationalize just what was happening, she felt her vision black out and fainted.

'I am counting it system! It was a KS, a kill steal!' Catching the girl mid fall, he mentally argued with his system. 'I want my points, I totally had that hollow!'

[No.] The system quickly shut any sort of argument down.

'What do you mean no!? It was!' Kuromiya retorted with anger, he had totally been scammed.

[Get the kill or no points.]

'... Not even half of them?' He begged, his voice now noticeably humbler.

[…]

'Meanie.'

End of chapter five.