{ Uryuu's POV }
Anxiety and fear circles around the scene like vultures waiting for their victims to die. He and Orihime were worried about Ichitaro's wellbeing.
" What are we going to do, Uryuu?" Asked Orihime.
With the cold wind whistling along the autumn air tune, Uryuu remained silent. Since he knew that Ichitaro witnessed a brutal murder of his only beloved friend, who turned out to be a soul reaper, while a strange woman wanted him to forget everything that had happened that evening.
" I don't know.", he answered and by the time he and Orihime were going back, a crooked dagger was placed at his throat, while a deep male voice commanded :
" Don't even move a muscle."
Uryuu didn't made any movement as he couldn't even looked at the male figure. Yet he did sense out his spirit energy, which made it clear that he's powers are more than a soul reaper.
" What more do you want, sir?"
" We'll spare a little pretty girl of yours and your life, if you tell me where the spirit demon is." he said.
" What if I refuse?"
He whistles the other man as he grabbed Orihime's both arms, went past them and placed her in front of him. Uryuu realised they knew Ichitaro's location, though they never knew he's hiding at a house-shaped tombstone. Not only that, but also he noticed that they mean serious business. So he had to find a way to outsmart these two men.
" You know that he's not here. I don't know what kind of spirit demon are you talking about. They're extinct, remember?" he asked in a calm manner.
' Uryuu, don't do this.' Orihime though.
" Don't talk shit, Quincy. You tell us where he is and we'll spare you and that pretty girl." said the first man.
" Leave her out of this." he said.
" Or what?" the second one asked.
Without any answers, Uryuu grabbed the first man's left arm that had a crooked dagger and threw him onto the ground.
" QUINCY, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!!!" cried the other man as he let go of Orihime and went towards him in anger. Uryuu, then activated his small bow on his bracelet and first shot both men in their arms, leaving Orihime going behind him just before his bow disappeared completely.
"....Or that. " he simply answered.
" Uryuu, let's check up on Ichitaro." said Orihime. He nodded before they went back to a tombstone. Luckily, it was opened and Ichitaro was there, making it very easy.
{ Ichitaro's POV}
Ichitaro looked around the entire tombstone and he find it pretty cool as it was filled with vintage curtains and old withered flowers. He then heard footsteps running towards the place. He recognised both of them and were about to close the door, but they left the door opened and he asked :
" Guys, what are you doing here?"
" We need to leave immediately." said Uryuu.
" What are you talking about?"
Just as he was about to tell him, two of the men had arrived. In anger, they their arms to prevent themselves from bleeding, one of the man said as he pointed out Ichitaro with his bloody finger:
" There he is. That's the spirit demon. That Quincy despised me. "
' Wait, what is he talking about? Is Ichitaro a __' he thought as he glanced at him.
Just he was about to escorted Ichitaro out, even if it meant killing these two men, one of the man took out a baseball ball which looked exactly like Koro's and was about to aim at Uryuu. Orihime rushed in between the two men and Uryuu and Ichitaro and activates her shield shaped like a big triangle from her blue hairpin :
[ HINAGIKU, LILY, BAIGON - SANTEN KESSHUN. I reject]
She activates and small orange like beam to cause a serious damage to the man that carried Koro's baseball bat and he dropped it, groaning on pain.
" No one hurt Ichitaro and get away with it." she said in fury.
" Oh yeah, little girl. Let's see how you like it.", he grins, " And you wouldn't have done that." Then the other man tried to punch Orihime into the stomach.
Orihime deactivated her shield, dodges that attack and kicked one of the man in the head. Uryuu, then activated his bow again and this time, he aimed it through the first man's knee. The man groan in pain, whilst Ichitaro quickly grabbed the baseball bat from the corner.
" You think you could defeat us?", grunts the first man, " No one will have a power to defeat us. Not even a Quincy like you."
" Sorry, but if you want Ichitaro so badly, you have to get through to us." said Uryuu.
In anger, the second man clenched his fist and went straight to Uryuu. Uryuu, tilted his head to the right and kicked him away from the house shaped tombstone. Both Orihime and Uryuu followed them, even Ichitaro wanted to help. Fortunately for him, Orihime stopped him by activating her shield again.
" Ichitaro, you have to go now." said Orihime.
" Wait, what are you doing?" he asked.
" You're going to find out about this.....on your own. Trust me."
" What about you guys?"
" We'll be fine. I wish could asked Ichigo for help, but his powers are gone. I usually took you in as a little brother. I'd like to say thank you for saving me for all those years. Now it's your turn. Don't do it for me, do it for everyone even yourself. " she smiled at him.
' Orihime.' he thought.
Without even saying goodbye to him and with tears in her eyes, she closed the door and Ichitaro wanted to stop her. But it was too late.
' Great, I have a baseball bat and some kind of a soul reaper pass. I hope Orihime will get me out of this after this crap. ', he thought,
' Who are these guys attacking me? Why are they after me? Could they be the ones that had killed Koro few weeks ago? What is going on today?'.
Ichitaro realise that he had to wait until either of them opened the door. He sat down next to a shallow grave layered by bricks and waited.....
~~~~~~
Several hours had passed and Ichitaro was falling into a deep slumber like a dead person. A crow plucked few of its charcoal diminutive feathers with its black beak just to wake him up. As it went directly into his nose, he almost cough it out and sneezed, waking him up. Ichitaro slowly stretched his arms after a really long nap.
' What time is it and why is it so quiet in here?' he thought. He picked up his phone and by lucky, it's still working.
< 18:45 >
< 10 / 11 / 04 >
" Ah man, mom's gonna kill me if I show up late again. I have to get out of here." he said.
Rapidly, Ichitaro got up, dusted himself clean and took the Soul reaper pass and a baseball bat and opened the door to let himself in. He saw that Uryuu and Orihime weren't here and so does the two men that had brutally killed his only friend that truly loved him as a grandson.
He called Uryuu and Orihime but no one answered. It was dark, full of tombstones and spiderwebs are everywhere at the trees. He looked around and sensed out if they were here, either dead or alive. Not knowing what to do, he sensed a certain spiritual energy similar to a Quincy.
He, then ran pinpointed to a certain location where the mysterious spirit energy led. He became too close, got covered in thick spiderwebs from the trees and fall over a figure.
" Uryuu where the heck were you've been. I got worried sick about you.", he said as he grabbed its chest, "Where the fuck is Orihime? What happened to her?"
" Which ' Orihime' are you talking about? And I'm not that Uryuu person." said the figure and the voice was quite feminine.
Blinded by spiderwebs, the figure helped Ichitaro by removing spiderwebs from his eyes. After he opened his eyes, he didn't realise what he saw. It wasn't Uryuu nor Orihime, even though the figure's ` chest` was way smaller than Orihime's. He removed his hand from hers and got up quickly.
" I am so sorry for what I did to you.", he said as he assisted the figure wearing a delicate blue velvet cloak, " I thought you were someone else."
" Nah, it's okay. Hey, since it's getting dark, let's go to my place." she said.
" Uh, sure. Before we leave, are you from Karakura Town? " he asked
The figure laughed. " Me, in a world of the living? Hahaha, no. I'm from the Crystal Soul. It's probably couple of kilometres away from the Soul society. "
" Oh. Right."
Internally, he was shocked. He couldn't believe that he was in the spirit world and not in a world of the living. Despite not having that kind of power, it must be a link between the two worlds and a crow was the culprit. So he followed the figure to her home and it took them a few metres to here.
" We're here. I won't tell my mum and my uncle that you're here. And promise me you'll behave like a good kid, understand?" said the figure
" Yeah, I understand."
She opened the door and it was more nice than any other house that Ichitaro once visited Ichigo's place next-door. The house was decorated in cowboy-like 80s style; the walls were crimson red in colour and it had more elegant vintage paintings.
Ichitaro was impressed with the figure. He sat at the couch, which was more like sitting in a fluffy clouds or soft cotton candy and pretty unusual for a spirit world. Meanwhile placing Koro's baseball bat and his puffed jacket. The figure set alight onto the firewood and created fire. She even plated him some food to eat.
" It's on the house. I bet you're just as hungry as I am." she said as she gave him food filled with rice, meat and vegetables.
" Are you kidding me? I am starving. " he said. He ate the food slowly; not too hasty, but on a normal speed. Once he's finished he placed the plate on the coffee table and sighed completely.
" Thank you so much for this lovely food." he said, without any emotions.
" It's okay. You can stay here as long as you like."
" Alright."
He took off the shoes, lay his body onto the couch and tried not to fall asleep, hoping that it's a nightmare going away. Then, the figure grabbed a soft blanket and placed it onto him. He fell asleep once again and maybe it's either was a dream or had to find a way to search for more clues.
~~~~~~
Meanwhile in Karakuda Town.....
Trapped in a beam like prison and beaten brutally, Uryuu was left unconscious while Kazumi gave them a gentle kick to check if he was numb. Yet Orihime was nowhere to be seen. She turned around and said to the two men:
" I see that you were beatened by two teenagers. Luckily, I have to take care of them."
" Your Highness, they've stopped at our track when we spotted a spirit demon." said one of the men.
" So where is he?" she asked.
They've had pointed to where Ichitaro was - at the tombstone shaped like a house. She smirked when they've pointed out on Ichitaro's location. Meaning she thought Ichitaro had nowhere else to go. So, she grabbed the crooked dagger and went straight towards a house shaped tombstone. However, they're people who stopped her at her tracks. It was Neji, Sakura and Isshin standing in front of her.
" What do you think you're doing, Kazumi?" asked Neji, in anger.
She looked at neji and answered :
" Oh don't worry, Neji. I'll make your son's pain away quickly."
" You can't just kill him just for your own personal reason." said Isshin
" Or what? I have my own men, so you're outnumbered. "
" I see why you hated us from the start. It's because you're pure evil. "
" You didn't even let your men to rest after a brutal fight. You're just a cold-hearted bitch. " said Sakura
" Is that so?" she asked as she was about to snap her fingers.
Orihime jumped in front of her and beaten her even though she was injured. Sakura, Isshin and Neji were rapidly went to a house shaped tombstone. But Kazumi used telekinesis to lift them up and setting herself free from Orihime, against her will and all went down painfully.
She opened the door and discovered something astonishing. Ichitaro was gone. She was very angry when she saw this. While the rest, were crestfallen when they saw that he disappeared into thin air.
" He's at the Crystal Soul. If I find him, his blood will be mine. YOU HEAR ME, NEJI!!! ICHITARO WILL DIE ALONG WITH YOUR CHILDREN, ESPECIALLY TANJIRO!!!" she shouted in anger before she disappeared along with the two men.
Sakura looked around in sadness and learnt the hard way that they wasn't any evidence of Ichitaro. Except for the piece of paper that laid on the floor. She reads the message and was completely shattered.
" ICHITARO!!!", she shouted his name, making an echo sound to mimic the wind.