11 The Bookmark.

Chapter eleven.

[Side quest obtained

Oh boy, that's a creepy one. Is this man staring at you with his eyes closed? He might kick your butt, but it couldn't hurt to give him something to remember us for, right? If you want those sweet points, that is.

Reward for making a scratch on him: 1000 I.P

Reward for making him open up his eyes: 500 I.P]

'What's going on, system? That's a low reward for fighting someone whose spiritual pressure is around twice as mine.' Kuromiya complained, walking next to Ichigo just in case Gin intended to launch a surprise attack.

[Rewards are decided upon calculation of the danger that your life is in, meaning that...]

'Yeah, yeah, I get it.' He interrupted the system mid-sentence, already knowing what the explanation would be. 'Since he isn't here to kill any of us, I'm not really in danger.'

Walking under the gate together with Ichigo, the blue eyed boy murmured a few words for only him to hear.

''Ichigo, it's one of them.'' Kuromiya whispered, just in case his airhead classmate had decided to forget Urahara's detailed explanation about the captains of the Gotei 13. ''Let's tag team, if you can make him concentrate on you, I'll land a hit on him.''

''Fine by me.'' Ichigo answered, Zangetsu was now fully drawn, and he wielded in front of him with both of his hands on the hilt.

''Huh, what are you two whispering about? I wonder… You wouldn't happen to be formulating a plan would you?'' Gin was now at around fourteen meters from them, still inside the side of the Seireitei. That was a distance that Kuromiya could cover in an instant. ''But before that…''

Turning towards the gatekeeper who was still holding the door, the silver haired captain's smile widened.

''I wonder, why is our gate keeper opening up the door to a group of intruders? There must be some kind of explanation, surely?'' The next thing that occurred was something that no one could have predicted, Kuromiya aside.

Jidanbo's right arm which was holding the gate was amputated from his body with one lethal strike. The gigantic limb flew in the distance, landing on the roof of one of the Rukongai's houses.

An incredible amount of blood splattered all over the area, painting Ichigo and Kuromiya in droplets of red. This naturally made the gate keeper lose his grip from the colossal gate, but he managed to stop it with his own shoulders just before that.

''This is unacceptable.'' Gin said, his hand finally leaving his zanpakuto. That single gesture was the only indicator that suggested he was the one responsible for the attack. ''A guardian of the gate isn't supposed to open the gates.''

''...'' Jidanbo struggled to remain quiet, looking down to the floor as he forced himself to resist the pain.

. . .

''We were careless.' Yoruichi thought, watching the situation from the other side of the gate. 'I didn't expect that someone like him would come all this way. It doesn't matter how strong this two have become, he's too much for them right now.'

''What did he do?'' Ishida questioned, despite the fact that he had been watching the situation the whole time, the quincy had only noticed the attack right before it had actually landed.

Inoue wasn't doing too good either, since her hands were covering her mouth in an attempt to muffle the horrified scream from such a gruesome scene.

'It's better if we retreat for the moment, even if somehow they are able to handle it, I can feel two spiritual pressures of lieutenant level approaching…' Yoruichi concluded, and with her decision made she decided to make the others aware of it.

. . .

''Opening the gate is what's expected of a gatekeeper who has lost!'' Jidanbo was now on his knees, using them as support in order to hold the gate.

'Yeah, no.' Kuromiya thought, the whole idea of opening the gate for a few intruders to go in was incredibly silly to him, he had to agree with Gin on this one. Still, knowing well that his moment was close, a faint green glow was visible for just a second in his necklace activating a certain ability of his.

''What are you saying?'' Gin started closing the already short distance between him and the intruders. ''A guardian who loses isn't supposed to open the gate… When a gatekeeper loses, it means death.''

The giant smirk that the silver haired soul reaper was showing them was enough to make Ichigo finally react, jumping towards the captain and clashing sword against him. The clash lasted for around a second, and that short amount of time was more than enough for Kuromiya to make his move.

Once their sword clash ended both of them retreated backwards, and the moment Gin's feet left the floor, the blue eyed boy appeared in a flash of green behind him. His sword aiming at the back of his neck, he prepared a slash with the full intention of decapitating the man.

This particular attack was premeditated; he had selected this one moment as the one in which their opponent would be at his most vulnerable, meaning this was his best shot.

''!?'' It was clear that their opponent wasn't expecting them to have such coordination, and even if he had expected it, it was impossible for him to know just how much each of them had improved during their training.

However, the trained captain was quick to react, because in that fraction of a second that it would take for the sword to make contact he bended backwards, dodging it with just enough time to escape unharmed.

Gin didn't stop there though, since he unleashed an attack of his own with his body still bending backwards, forcing the fifteen-year-old to jump back further expanding the distance between him and the gate.

Despite his best efforts to dodge the attack, the captain's short blade had managed to make slight contact with his cheek, making a small amount of blood drop from under his right eye to his white clothes, further painting them in red.

''Woah, that sure was a close call.'' The second that Gin was able to dodge, he flash stepped away from them. ''You sure are two scary kids, almost got me there.''

Kuromiya clicked his tongue in annoyance, he was counting inside his head the amount of seconds that had passed ever since he had activated 'it'.

'I suck at this still, if I truly was accustomed to using it, I wouldn't have dodged at all, it was the perfect time for attacking.' Kuromiya cursed.

''Akihiko, Ichigo, get back here!'' Yoruichi's voice made them look back at the door, taking their attention back to the other side of the gate. ''We will retreat for now!''

''Huh.'' Before Gin could even make a single comment about them, Kuromiya's voice gained the silver haired captain's attention. ''Guess it's about time, oh well… I should get back then.''

''Do you really think you can get past me?'' Ichimaru smiled at that, the confidence of the boy was quite amusing to him. Right now, their current positioning meant that in order to get back to the gate, Kuromiya would need to somehow evade the captain who was blocking his way right now.

''As a matter of fact…'' The blue eyed boy trailed off, smiling lightly. Inside his head, Kuromiya kept counting, smirking as he reached a certain number. ''… I do.''

It was instantaneous, where once Kuromiya had been standing now there was no trace of him ever being there at all, forcing the captain to widen his once closed eyes in genuine surprise. It wasn't speed, that was not what happened, the boy had legitimately vanished from the spot.

''This is farewell, captain-san!'' The fifteen-year-old's voice made Ichimaru turns towards the gate, where the boy who had just vanished was now waving at him with his hand. ''You can drop the gate already, Jidanbo.''

The gate keeper obeyed, and without further delay he dropped down the gate, leaving a still shocked Gin do nothing but look at them leave.

. . .

''… You used that again, didn't you?'' Ichigo questioned his classmate, giving a quick inspection to his clothes and face. The orange haired soul reaper looked at the boy's face, more importantly he looked to the exact place where Ichimaru had sliced his face with his zanpakuto.

The wound that the captain had inflicted under the fullbringer's right eye, there was now nothing. Even the drops of blood that had ended up tainting the white clothes were gone, as if nothing had happened to them to begin with.

''…'' Kuromiya simply smirked at him, not giving a direct answer to the boy.

This had been one of his two new abilities, this particular one being named 'Bookmark'. Upon activation his necklace would start emitting a soft green light.

What did Bookmark do, then? It allowed him to leave a bookmark at a specific point in time, and thirty seconds after its activation, he would return to that point.

How was such a thing useful? Well, because all the damage that he sustained during those thirty seconds would disappear, even if he had an arm ripped off or his heart ripped out, once the time was over it would just return to its original form.

That was the reason why the wound on his cheek had disappeared, since Ichimaru had inflicted that wound after the activation of 'Bookmark'. This particular skill was useful for surprising an enemy, since he could afford to let himself receive a fatal wound in order to land his own blow against his opponent, after all the only wounds that would disappear would be his own.

There were just two flaws with this ability, which were that after those thirty seconds had passed, he would return back to the spot where he had casted it. It didn't matter if he wanted to do it or not.

This would mean that –provided his enemy already knew about this ability- his opponent would know where he would appear after that time, leaving him vulnerable to an attack. Taking that into account, he had decided not to tell anyone about the details of this specific ability.

The second flaw was of course that he couldn't spam it during a fight, since like most of his skills it had a restriction of eight hours per use. Though he was confident that it would be possible to make it even lower with enough time.

''Oi, Kuromiya!'' Ichigo's voice snapped him back to reality, making him look back at the angered teenager. ''Don't space out on me.''

''I won't tell you about it, no matter how many times you ask.'' The blue eyed boy replied, watching as the rest of the group approached them.

''… Kuromiya-san, that was so amazing!'' Orihime complimented, arriving alongside the rest of the rescue team. ''You moved so fast!''

''Right? I bet you guys couldn't even see me!'' The black haired boy accepted the compliment with a slight smirk.

Chad and Inoue attributed his escape to raw speed, but people like Ishida who were skilled at high-speed movement techniques knew better.

'That wasn't speed, not at all.' Ishida thought, it was the first time he had seen the boy perform such a thing. 'Whatever it was, it happened in an instant.'

Yoruichi remained quiet throughout the whole exchange, her two yellow eyes remaining fixated on Kuromiya.

. . .

'Meh, at least I got the points for forcing him to open his eyes.' He thought, checking up on his current amount of points while the rest of the team talked with the elder of the town.

Just after their fight against Gin Ichimaru, the once empty town had been filled with people on the streets, whispering about them. Somehow the fight against the soul reaper captain had ended up making the people trust them a bit more, and the fact that Orihime had even healed Jidanbo's arm sealed the deal.

The night had already arrived, right now his team was seated at the elder's house, having a talk with him which wasn't particularly interesting until a certain topic was raised.

''Elder, do you know Kukaku Shiba?'' Yoruichi asked, that alone was enough to get Kuromiya's attention.

''W-what!?'' Shocked, the elder couldn't help but gasp at the question.

''I understand she's someone who constantly changes residences.'' Yoruichi added, making a few steps with her paws until she was a bit closer to the elderly man. ''I haven't been able to find out where she lives now.''

''S-Shiba K-Kukaku…'' His reaction might seem exaggerated to some people, but the elder had understood in an instant what was the cat's plan. ''You're not planning to go through the wall with that!''

'Hm… Was the cannon that well-known?' Kuromiya thought, he didn't recall much about how this conversation had transpired. '

''That?'' Orihime questioned, she had been listening to their conversation too and was curious about what the elder meant.

It was then that a man ended up crashing against the front door, rolling all over the hall of the elder's home.

'… Great, this whole boring ass fight.' The blue eyed boy thought, rolling his eyes. 'I wish I could just ignore it.'

Ichigo and the recently arrived Ganju were now having a brawl between them and knowing that he had around five minutes to waste, Kuromiya decided to annoy the system a little bit.

'Yo, system.' The fifteen-year-old teenager thought, a smile plastered all over his face. 'What do you call a pile of cats?'

[You're not about to… You know what, I'll bite. What's it?]

'A meowntain!'

[…]

'Come on, it wasn't so bad!' While Ganju and Ichigo kept beating the shit out of each other just outside the house, he kept having his own little conversation with the system.

[User, what do you call a retarded little boy who makes dumb jokes whenever he's bored?] The system asked him.

'That sounds oddly specific but… I dunno, what do you call it?'

[A dumb little shit who isn't getting bonus points.]

'Haha! That's a good one… That was a joke, right? Right!?'

[…]

''Dammit! Just who the hell is he!?'' Ichigo's enraged scream pierced the once peaceful night. His rage signaling the fact that his brawl was finally over.

He had ended up fighting the man who had rolled all over the elder man's house, and after beating each other for around five minutes, his opponent had escaped… Riding a giant pig called Bonnie.

. . .

The following day, the whole rescue team was already prepared for making their trip towards the house of the mysterious Kukaku Shiba.

''Still... Who's this Kukaku Shiba we're going to meet now?'' Ishida asked his classmates, both curious and worried about the lack of information they had; fixing his glasses with a quick movement of his hands, he added. ''Yoruichi-san never gives us any details.''

''I'm sure he has his own reasons.'' Kuromiya said, it felt really weird referring to Yoruichi as a male, but since everyone thought about her like that, he decided to follow their game. ''Not that I care about it, as long as we are not wasting our time.''

''It's probably someone who can get us to Seireitei without passing through the gates, right?'' Orihime guessed, her index finger resting on her jaw as she gave the situation some more thought.

''It might be someone famous for their skills…'' Ishida added.

''Oh! It must be a cat with pedigree papers!'' Striking her hands together in a short applause, Orihime explained her theory. ''Like a Persian cat! Or an American shorthair! Or a Dalmatian!

''… Orihime, just because Yoruichi is a cat, it doesn't mean that Kukaku is going to be a cat too.'' Chad started, sweating lightly at the girl's silly behavior. ''Plus a Dalmatian is a dog, not a cat.''

''… I'm going to check up on Ichigo.'' Kuromiya decided to bail himself out of the conversation, not quite interested in discussing about dog and cat's races.

. . .

''Ichigo, get up, we are all ready.'' Now inside the house belonging to the elderly man, he watched as the orange haired soul reaper sat at the middle of the room with his arm closed.

''Just go on ahead.'' Ichigo replied, not willing to move from there. ''I'm going to finish the fight with that guy from yesterday!''

''… You're joking, right?'' Kuromiya questioned, raising his eyebrows at the silly behavior from the boy. ''I've had just about enough of joking around; you're either getting up yourself or I'm dragging you to Kukaku's house.''

''No, no!'' Ichigo childishly held onto the wooden floor as Kuromiya tried to pull him out of the house. ''He'll think I ran away!''

''… Who the hell cares about what a fat-ass thinks about you? Ishida, come help me here!'' Screaming out for some help, Ishida arrived shortly and started pulling Ichigo from his shihakushō.

''Don't be an idiot, Kurosaki!'' Ishida admonished the substitute soul reaper. ''We have to go!''

Kuromiya's hands stopped pulling, now looking right at Yoruicho who had arrived just in time to defuse the situation. With her claws out, she approached the boy with quick steps and unleashed a ferocious scratch against Kurosaki's unprotected face.

''AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!''

. . .

''So this's Kukaku Shiba's house, huh?'' Kuromiya tilted his head to the side as he watched the house with a critical gaze. ''… I don't think I would like living here.''

Although most of the house was obviously underground, the entrance which consisted of a small wooden house with a Japanese roof and a pair of stone statues in the form of two arms grabbing a giant red banner wasn't quite an appealing sight.

''I think it's neat!'' Orihime said, voicing her own thoughts about the strange architecture.

''… Of course you do.'' The blue eyed boy muttered under his breath. ''Let's just get in and be done with it.''

'Aggh!' Ishida made a face of clear disgust as he saw most of his classmates walking inside the house. 'We are really going inside such an embarrassing house!?'

'I don't want to be seen walking into a house like that!' Ichigo thought, feeling much the same way as the quincy.

''Strangers!'' Someone's voice was coming from above the group, who were almost inside the house by now.

''And one is a soul reaper!'' Another voice pointed out.

Falling from above the ridiculous arm statues, two weird looking men were blocking their path to the even weirder looking house.

''Suspicious characters! I Koganehiko…'' One of them said, both of them crossing their arms against their chest.

''And Shiroganehiko…'' The other added, both preparing themselves for some sort of eccentric declaration.

''…Will not allow you to pass!'' The two of them declared in unison, their glares directed straight at the group. ''Be gone, or you'll die right here!''

[Side quest obtained:

Prepare for trouble, and make It double! Beat the shit out of this weirdos and be done with it.

Reward: You don't get to listen to them anymore.]

'That's not even a points reward! Plus, if I hit them Kukaku is not going to help us!' Kuromiya replied inside his mind, doing his best to ignore the two men in front of him.

''More gatekeepers again? What a pain this Soul Society is!'' Ichigo said, his hand landing on the hilt of his zanpakuto just in case.

Just then, both of the gatekeepers managed to see a black cat lifting its paw towards them in some sort of salute.

''Yoruichi-sama!'' Both screamed at the top of their lungs, recognizing the cat in an instant.

. . .

Walking down the stairs that lead them to Kukaku's underground house, the whole group was having a conversation.

''A descending stairway as soon as you enter? What's up with this house?'' Ishida asked, walking right next to Kuromiya.

''Please pardon us!'' Shiroganehiko apologized… Or was it Koganehiko? ''We didn't know it was you, Yoruichi-sama and your companions! Please forgive our rudeness!''

''We are not his companions.'' Ichigo argued back, once again referring to Yoruichi as if she was a male.

''That's all right. It's my fault for not notifying you beforehand.'' Yoruichi answered to them as they finally arrived to the end of the stairs and stopped in front of a door.

''Please wait here just a second!'' One of the gatekeepers said, but just before he was able to finish his sentence, the sound of a two short applauses from the other side of the door ended up shutting him up.

''Y-yes!'' The other gatekeeper said, answering to their master's calls in an instant. Kneeling just before opening the door, Shiroganehiko opened up the door, revealing the person inside it to the whole group.

Looking back at them was a youthful-looking woman of around average height, wearing white skirt and a revealing red robe exposing her ample bosom.

The beautiful woman was missing her right arm, and had a tattoo on her left one. She also had bright green eyes, and a few white bandages covered part of her long and messy black hair, quite similar to Kuromiya's own hair.

This was no other than Kukaku Shiba, the head of the Shiba Clan.

''It's been a while, Yoruichi.''

End of chapter eleven.