Ichigo's Point of View

I was eating lunch on the roof with Chad, Orhime, Uryu, Keigo, Mizuiro and Evie.

It had been a month since we met Evie. The amount of hollows attacking started decreasing after the day we first met. Evie didn't relax from that though. She thinks that it's some kind of trick set up by Yajimaru.

I sat with my back against the fence as I watched Keigo try to flirt with Evie. Evie kept trying to get away without offending Keigo, but I knew that that wasn't going to work.

It took a while, but Evie got away and sat next to me.

"Are you alright?" I asked her.

She sighed. "I'm fine, but he's persistent." That, I knew, as a fact.

We were halfway through lunch when two familiar spiritual pressures walked on the roof. I looked up and saw two of my friends.

"Rukia! Renji! What are you doing here?" I exclaimed. I noticed that they were in gigais.

"Hey, Ichigo," Rukia said. The look on their faces told me they wanted to explain, but something was preventing them from doing so. I looked at Evie through the corner of my eye. She was studying them, probably noticing that they were soul reapers. I knew she was the reason that prevented Rukia and Renji from explaining.

"Yes, Rukia and Renji are soul reapers, and yes, Evie knows about them," I said.

All three of them looked at me surprised. "That's not something you just blurt out!" all three yelled.

I shrugged my shoulders. "Too late."

"Well, this seems important," Mizuiro said. "I guess we should leave." Then he literally dragged Keigo out the door. "If we see Tatsuki, we'll let her know what's going on!"

"See ya!" I called out. For some reason, when it comes to soul reaper business, Mizuiro always wants to avoid getting involved.

Rukia and Renji sat down. "Well," Rukia said. "Would you mind explaining who this girl is and why she knows about soul reapers."

"Hi, I'm Evie," she said. "I'm a Hollow Hunter." Then she explained what that was.

"So, why are you here?" Uryu readjusted his glasses.

Renji started to explain, "The Department of Research and Development started picking up some unfamiliar spirit energy in your high school. They decided to send us because we've been here before and know you the best."

"Yajimaru," Evie murmured to herself.

"What was that?" Rukia asked.

"Yajimaru. He's a half-being." Then she gave them an explanation of what she knows. She even added that he was our substitute teacher at the moment because our's had an 'accident'. "It's possible that that's the strange spirit energy you guys were picking up."

Rukia nodded. "Squad 12 doesn't recognize the spirit energy. They would know if it was a soul reaper, hollow, Bount, and even a zanpukuto."

We sat quietly for a minute, trying to figure out why Yajimaru was here. All of a sudden, my combat pass went off and Evie's right hand started glowing.

"I'll get it," she said and stood up. We all watched as her gloves unraveled, goes around the rest of her body, only revealing her hands and eyes. Then she jumped up and was gone.

"Woah," Rukia and Renji said.

Orhime laughed. "I've seen it so many times already, and I still can't get used to it. It's so fun to watch!"

The rest of us nodded. It really was an interesting power.

I turned back to Rukia and Renji. "So, will you be joining the class then?"

They nodded. "If Yajimaru really is the strange spirit energy, then we should be around him to make sure," Rukia said.

Soon, the bell rang. I started to get worried about Evie because she hadn't returned yet.

Everyone sat down on their seats. Yajimaru was a strict teacher and got angry easily.

Rukia and Renji walked in like they were here yesterday. Judging from the looks of the classmates, the memories of yesterday involved there two.

It had been 10 minutes already since the bell rang, and Yajimaru has yet to make an appearance.

I looked nervously at Uryu, Orhime, Chad, Rukia and Renji. They looked like they had come to the same conclusion that I had. Yajimaru had confronted Evie.

Before any of us could move, Keigo jumped up from his seat and started pumping his hands in the air. "Oh yeah!" he shouted. "Free period today! C'mon everybody! We can do whatever we want now!"

Everyone ignored him. "Sit down, Keigo," Mizuiro said.

Keigo sat down disappointed from the lack of a reaction from the class.

I bolted out of my seat and ran out the door. "If Yajimaru comes back, tell him I went to the bathroom!" I called out to my confused classmates.

"Yeah, same here!" Uryu, Orhime, Chad, Renji and Rukia called as they ran after me.

When we stepped outside, I used my combat pass and pushed myself out of my body while at the same time Rukia and Renji used Gekongai to replace them inside their gigai.

"I don't sense Evie's or Yajimaru's spiritual pressure anywhere," Orhime said worriedly.

"We should split up," Rukia decided. "We'll find them faster. If we find someone, spike you spirit energy so we know where we can find you."

We split off in different directions. I flew in the air, hoping that Evie was alright and that we were were worrying for nothing. But, knowing my luck, that wasn't the case. All I knew was that we needed to find Evie. I had a feeling that she was in danger.

Evie's Point of View

I had just left Ichigo, his friends and those two soul reapers, Renji and Rukia.

I smiled, thinking about the way Ichigo just blurted out that they were soul reapers. I knew that before they even entered the building. What surprised me was that he said it in front of his human friends, Mizuiro and Keigo. I guess they already knew about the spirit world. Mizuiro didn't look anxious to talk about soul reaper business, though. I wonder why?

When I got to the hollow, I finished it off quickly. "That was easier than I expected," I murmured to myself.

Suddenly, I felt a strong, familiar spiritual pressure. I gasped and turned around. I watched Yajimaru walk out from behind a tree towards me. He was clapping his hands slowly.

"Well, done, Evie," he said with a calm look on his face. I had this sudden urge to slap him.

"What do you want?" I growled, glaring daggers into his skull.

He feigned shock. "What? Do I have to want something to watch my prize?"

I shivered at the way he worded that. "Just answer the question."

Suddenly, without warning, he charged at me with super human speed. It wasn't as fast as a flash step, but it was still quick. Fortunately, I was able to grab onto some Reishi, and pull myself to the left.

"Quick as ever, Evie," he had a smug look on his face this time. He was starting to get on my nerves.

"Don't you have a class to teach?" I asked. I didn't think he would confront me like this in the middle of the day.

"That's not as important as my true objective," he said simply.

"Oh, yeah? And what would that be? To become a perfect being?"

Instead of answering me, he charged at me again. Instead of dodging him like last time, I brought out my sword and swiped at his left cheek. I hit my target, but it was only a scratch. Blood started trickling down to his chin.

He put a drop on his finger and licked it. "Hmmm," he hummed. "It seems that you got me."

Be careful, Master, Michelle warned me. He's probably got some tricks up his sleeve.

I nodded, already aware of that.

Again, he charged at me, and again I swiped at his cheeks, waiting for me to miss. Within five minutes of this strange game of tag, he had gained 8 scratches. I hadn't even broken a sweat yet.

"It seems," he mused. "That you seem tired off this game." Then he clapped his hands together and brought it to the ground. My eyes widened in shock as I watched a sword form from the ground.

"H-how did you do that?" I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes.

"Oh, this?" he started to play with his sword a bit. "It's called Alchemy. Equivalent exchange. Now I have a weapon to use against you."

He charged at me once more. I tried to block but he moved faster than I suspected he would. He cut me on my cheek, cutting the fabric and giving me a scratch that matched his first one.

"See? Alchemy. Equivalent exchange. An eye for an eye. Now, will you come with me willingly? Or will I have beat the crap out of you in order for you to come?"

I glared at him. "How about, I beat you up and you leave me alone."

He started glaring at me. "That's not going to happen," he hissed.
Then he dropped his sword and transformed into a snake. He lunged at me. I grabbed the Reishi to my right and moved. His small size would make it difficult for me to cut him. He moved back to his sword and turned back to normal. He picked it up and faced me. "Are you sure you don't want to make this easy for yourself?"

Instead of answering him, I was the one that lunged. He deflected my sword and we were stuck in that position.

Suddenly a spike of spirit energy came from my right. I didn't turn my head in fear of letting it distract me. I didn't need to though to know who it was. Uryu.

"Move out of the way, Evie!" He shouted.

Taking a guess, I grabbed the Reishi next to him and pulled myself there. I stood next to him and noticed that Uryu was holding a bow and was about to shoot some arrows that looked like they were made of Reishi.

"A Quincy?" Yajimaru questioned. "I haven't seen one in over 200 years. I thought they were all extinct."

Uryu only raised his bow. "What are you talking about?"

"No one has ever revealed this before, but half-beings can live from 300 to 850 years old."

'Did you know about this?' I asked the eyes.

No, they said together.

"Are you alright?" Uryu asked me.

I nodded. "I'm fine."

Unexpectedly, Uryu fired a lot of arrows. They were moving so quickly that I didn't have a chance to count one. Unfortunately, Yajimaru moved out of the way.

"Dammit," Uryu muttered.

Suddenly, Rukia, Renji, Ichigo, Orhime and Chad appeared.

"Hey, Evie," Ichigo said. "What took you so long?"

I gestured to Yajimaru who was still dodging Uryu's arrows. "Well, you know, that bastard over there decided to pay me a visit."

Uryu's arrows stopped at the same time as Yajimaru stopped running. He started studying us, seeing who was on my side. "Well," he said calmly. "There's too many people here. I better get back and teach my class." He clapped his hands again, with his sword in between, but instead of putting them to the ground, he kept his hands like that. The sword exploded, but shards of metal didn't go anywhere. Instead, pebbles of dirt flew. Then he started to walk away.

We stared at him dumbfounded. Ichigo was the first to break the silence. "Hey! Wait a moment!" He was about to chase after Yajimaru but he disappeared. "What the...?"