7 We found you.

Chapter seven.

''Not going to lie guys, but that thing looks a little too big for us to handle.'' Kuromiya had a hard time thinking just what Kubo had been thinking when drawing something so big, it wasn't even funny.

Even though he was sure that it's spiritual pressure wasn't that big of a deal, the size of that thing was more than enough to make up for it. It was probably to their benefit that the fight was taking place at a park, otherwise the city might have suffered great damage just with that thing walking around the place.

''I'll have to agree, I don't think my arrows would be too effective against it, not in my current state at least.'' Ishida agreed, the problem was the fact that none of them were on top form, since they had been fighting for well over an hour already.

''You two are worrying to much! The answer is pretty simple, when you're fighting things so big…'' Ichigo interrupted their conversation with a confident smile, seemingly already having a plan of his own in order to deal with the beast. ''You just slice them up and down the best you can, let's go!''

The orange haired soul reaper raised his massive zanpakuto above his head in some sort of battle cry, and started running towards the beast without even as much as a second thought.

''Wait, Kurosaki!'' Ishida called, but he was stopped by Kuromiya's hand. ''Kuromiya, it's not going to work!''

''I know, but he's not going to listen to us until he tries it at least once.'' Ichigo was still at a point where he was a bit too cocky for his own good, charging head on against things that he couldn't really comprehend.

It happened just like any sane person would be able to predict, the moment Ichigo arrived near the Menos Grande's right white leg, he attempted to slice it with his zanpakuto and…

''Eh?'' Ichigo muttered with a blank stare, watching as his blade got stuck after piercing an inch deep into the beast's leg. He tried to pull it out, but found himself being lifted up when the hollow merely shacked its leg around, throwing him back next to his allies.

''Augh, agh, ah!'' The orange haired boy rolled back comically towards them, and it looked more than a little painful to watch.

''I told you so.'' Ishida admonished his classmate for his recklessness, and fired three of his blue arrows against the massive hollow's face. Just like he had expected, the arrows didn't do any noticeable damage against the beast, making him click his tongue in displeasure. ''Kurosaki, are you okay!?''

''… Yeah, perfectly fine.'' Ichigo assured, kneeling at the ground. Unfortunately for him it didn't sound so convincing when he was bleeding deeply from his forehead, almost covering his face in blood.

''You don't look okay, though…'' Kuromiya pointed out, now looking up at the beast who appeared to be walking towards them. ''Again, we need a plan, and fast.''

By now, the thing was now completely out of the rip it had created on the sky, and it was approaching them fairly fast.

''Kurosaki, get up already and let's think of a plan toget…'' Ishida's words didn't ever come out of his mouth, the moment he had attempted to help Ichigo up, he had accidentally touched the tip of his sword.

The reaction was almost instantaneous, much like a chemical reaction it happened all in a second. While Ishida's bow had always been quite big, it now was around twice its original size, as if it was being feed unbelievable amounts of spiritual pressure.

''I think we finally got our plan.'' Kuromiya commented with a slight smile, even though he wasn't very proficient at feeling spiritual pressure, he could feel that the bow would have more than enough power to wound their opponent.

''I think so too.'' Ishida said, but they were forced to look up when a gigantic shadow completely covered them. ''We need to move!''

The three of them jumped back, just in time to dodge one of the Menos Grande's immense feet from crushing them.

''It's… Ishida, prepare that arrow right now!'' Kuromiya urged the quincy to get ready, after all he had just noticed that the Menos was opening its mouth up, which basically meant one thing. ''It's going to fire a Cero, prepare that arrow or we are toasted!''

''…A Cero? Waagh!'' Ichigo's question was interrupted by Ishida, who appeared to understand that whatever that hollow was preparing was a huge deal.

''I'll get down, just put that sword at my head and pour your spiritual pressure into me, quickly!'' Kneeling at the ground, the quincy prompted Ichigo to prepare himself.

The serious behavior from both of his classmates seemed to have an effect on the substitute soul reaper, who now placed his sword right on top of Ishida's head.

''I get it, even though this looks silly I guess it's the only way.'' Making contact once again, Ichigo's spiritual pressure flowed like a torrent into the blue bow, doubling its size for a second time. ''Don't fuck it up, Ishida.''

Just when their preparations where down, the Menos appeared to be done with charging his attack too. With its massive mouth completely opened up, a sphere of what appeared to be high concentrated spiritual pressure was forming itself.

''Ishida, match the attack for as long as you can, I'll attack it once he fires that beam!'' Kuromiya had a plan of his own, this particular Cero had been portrayed as a continuous blast, which meant that the beast would be forced to keep the stream of spiritual pressure going if it didn't want the technique to end.

''It's firing it!'' Ichigo screamed, warning his two classmates of the incoming danger.

The red beam was overwhelmingly quick; it took only an instant for the attack to cover most of the distance between its target. It didn't matter though, since Ishida had been preparing an arrow to match it already, and that he did.

Ishida fired what had to be the strongest and largest arrow of his entire life, covering the air in nothing but blue as it clashed against the pure red coming from the Cero. The very moment that both attacks had clashed, Kuromiya vanished from his spot.

Firing a second arrow against the attack, Ishida used the almost unlimited spiritual pressure coming out of Kurosaki to keep the clash of attacks even. It didn't matter how much stronger his arrow was, he needed to keep matching the continuous flow of spiritual pressure that the Menos was realizing or else they would be crushed.

''Where the fuck is Kuromiya? I can't see him.'' Ichigo complained, even though his reiatsu was unbelievable high, it wasn't unlimited by any means.

''If he's going to attack…'' Ishida trailed off with a cold trail of sweat running through his forehead, after all even though he was borrowing the spiritual pressure to fire this attacks, his hands couldn't handle much more of it. ''He should either be targeting his mask or his hollow hole.''

''But how can he reach up there, it's too... He's levitating!?'' Ichigo gasped, it was hard to believe that a human could be standing in midair after all.

Kuromiya had been using the sky as a platform, climbing higher and higher until he was able to reach the spot he guessed would be the most vulnerable. Right now he was standing right on top of it, and that place was no other than the Menos Grande's mask, right in between its two human sized eyes.

''Looks like you finally notice me, huh?'' Kuromiya talked, gathering all his remaining spiritual pressure on his sword. ''I'm sorry but I want those points, so you are going to die right here.''

Both of the hollow's eyes were now looking straight at the black haired boy, and it would surely have been an intimidating view if not for the fact that the beast was stuck in a clash with Ishida and Ichigo at the moment.

''What's wrong? Not going to stop that Cero?'' His spiritual pressure finally reaching its peak, he smirked at the beast, mocking its inability to defend itself. ''I would imagine you don't want to do that, don't you? After all you'll be pierced by that arrow if you do.''

Deciding he had enough of mocking what was more than likely an unintelligent beast that couldn't even comprehend his words, he smashed his asauchi deep into its mask.

''Now for the finishing blow…'' He moved his body until he was perfectly imitating the position of a runner right when it was about to start a race, and started casting Bringer Light on his feet in order to gain as much momentum as possible.

''Graaaaaaaaah!'' The beast emitted a disturbing scream, trashing around in pain as it felt an incredible amount of pain all over its body. The reason for that was simple enough, Kuromiya had dragged his sword from the top of the Menos's head down to its feet in an instant, thanks to Bringer Light.

Much like a chain reaction, the fact that the beast was trashing around meant that it was unable to keep firing the Cero, and that meant…

''It'll hit!'' Ishida yelled, watching as the last arrow he had fired landed against the Menos Grande's chest, piercing a hole right through it.

''It's retreating…'' The quincy muttered, watching wide eyed as the beast seemingly grabbed a piece of the sky and used it like a blanket, retreating back to Hueco Mundo.

''… Haaa, aaaaah!'' Ichigo's ragged breathing caught Ishida's attention, making him turn his gaze away from the sky. ''It's victory for us!''

Not even a second after screaming that, the soul reaper fell unconscious.

''I guess there's a benefit to working with a soul reaper after all…'' Ishida said, trailing off as he tried to search his other classmate's location.

''… And a fullbringer.'' He added, finding the unconscious body of his last ally not too far away from them. Judging by how he had plummeted from the sky after that last attack, it was obvious he had poured every single drop of spiritual pressure onto that one last attack.

. . .

Two days later, at Urahara's store.

It was almost night already, and Urahara's store was just as lively as ever, with their newest addition mixing in surprisingly well with them.

''… I won't do it again, I'm sorry.'' Kuromiya apologized, a few pained tears falling from his face.

The reason for those tears was nothing else but three long claw marks running all across his face, courtesy of an angry black cat. This was the consequence of attempting to pick Yoruichi up when she was having her sleep time, clearly not his brightest choice.

''My, my, there's no need to get so violent, Yoruichi-AGH!'' Urahara had attempted to defuse the situation, but the only thing that he managed to do was to get three claws imprinted on his face too.

''What's that about there's no need to get violent? I was having a nice dream!'' Yoruich replied, still in her cat form. ''And don't think I've forgotten about the fact that you decided it was a good idea to walk over a Menos Grande's mask, if it had decided to aim that Cero at you it would've been over!''

''Ugh, not this again…'' Kuromiya sighed, ever since he regained his conscience Yoruichi had been admonishing him for being so reckless. ''It's not like I had another choice, though! Besides he couldn't move or else Ishida's attack would have hit him.''

''That's the problem though, most Menos aren't intelligent beasts, it could have easily decided to ignore his own wellbeing in order to harm you.'' The woman reasoned, and Kuromiya had to admit she had a point.

''Look, I get it.'' He half agreed with her, after all even though it was dangerous, it still was their best shot. ''I'm curious about something though…''

''Curious? About what?'' Urahara joined the conversation once again, although it was hard to take him seriously with three long cuts across his face. ''We can have another talk after work if you want, we are about to close anyway…''

''Urahara.'' Kuromiya interjected, after all it was impossible for him not to know what was going on. Something about his serious tone made both Yoruichi and Kisuke look at him now, it was clear that they knew something was up. ''You shouldn't take me for an idiot, I can feel it too…''

Their eyes widened at the sudden comment from their newest ally, both surprised at the fact that he had noticed the arrival of a few certain people.

''Looks like it's going to rain…'' Urahara trailed off, looking out from his store towards the clouded sky.

''… You shouldn't play dumb with us, Kisuke.'' Yoruichi added too, after all she had been waiting herself for him to make some sort of comment regarding the two spiritual pressures that had arrived at Karakura. ''They are here.''

Urahara looked at the both of them, his hat shadowing his eyes.

''… I know.'' The store owner answered, this situation was overall incredibly difficult for him to deal with. It was true that with Yoruichi's help, the two shinigamis sent from Soul Society would stand no chance at all, but that would end up revealing his hiding spot to them, and the next time they would send twice as many men for Rukia.

. . .

''Hey, Rukia!'' Ichigo entered his room holding a tray with food on it. ''It's dinner tim… Huh?''

Ichigo stopped in his tracks, unable to find the short haired girl inside his own room. Leaving the tray on top of his desktop, he failed to notice a note standing right next to it.

''She's out somewhere again.'' The orange haired boy reasoned, not thinking much about the whole thing.

. . .

''Rear appearance match, 113.'' Two figures dressed as soul reapers where at Karakura, their presence going unnoticed for all the unaware humans living there.

''… Neural attachment ratio, 88.5'' One of them kept muttering to himself, a weird black device covering his eyes. ''Are you serious? She really is in a faux body!''

The two of them were waiting on top of a building, now finally able to locate the whereabouts of their target.

''Kuchiki Rukia… We found you!''

. . .

''We are just going to let them do what they want, then?'' Kuromiya asked, of course he understood Kisuke's reasoning but even then it didn't feel right for him to let them take Rukia without even lifting a finger to stop them. ''Send me there, I'll deal with them.''

''For what reason, exactly?'' The shop keeper questioned, pushing his hat down just enough for it to cover his eyes from the boy. ''Do you even have an idea about what they want? Even if you managed to stop them, it won't solve the problem.''

''I know that already.'' Kuromiya insisted, he was already feeling the spiritual pressure of both soul reapers making contact with his classmate, and Ishida wasn't too far away from them either.

''Right now, you don't stand a chance against them.'' Urahara reminded him, after all even though his spiritual pressure right now was at the level of a third seat, it still wouldn't be enough to even scratch a captain. ''If you want to go there, then I won't stop you, but…''

Even before Urahara managed to finish his sentence, the boy was already long gone from the store.

''… I guess it can't be helped.'' Urahara didn't make any attempt to stop him, it was his decision after all.

''Again, I don't like it.'' Yoruichi repeated now that the fullbringer was gone, both of them started talking with each other again. ''You told me before that he would want to fight against them, so why not stop him if you already knew that, then?''

''He has been winning nonstop since he managed to get his powers, I think this will prove to be a good learning experience for him… And for Kurosaki-san too.'' Urahara replied, making known the fact that he had been expecting his new employee to join this fight. ''The rest is up to him.''

. . .

End of chapter seven.