The Double Edged Sword

18

Recap:

Izumi stood alongside Ichigo watching him closely while he began talking to Ishida. She knew that something was off, there was no way his body would just accept all that power all at once without it being used to it. Her body was different than his; Ichigo was raised a human, he wasn't meant for this life; her body was conditioned with the power it holds. Whether she spends it on one thing all at once or not, there aren't many life threatening repercussions for her, as there were for him.

"I helped you out here, you should thank me." those simple words were the start to something she wasn't expecting; suddenly her best friend dropped to the ground without another sound. Izumi let out a startled noise before she dropped down with him, at first she thought maybe he had just exhausted himself; but she was wrong. Very wrong.

"What are you doing!? This is not funny!" Ishida shouted out before he was silenced by a fierce glare from Izumi. Afterwards a worried expression took over, making him realize that the boy was not playing around.

"What the hell, Zumi I can't move my body." before she could say anything in return small electric looking power surges came from the arm that held his Zanpakuto; the sword was suddenly up in the air and was giving off heavy spiritual pressure. Ichigo let out a scream and looked towards his friend who held a look of fear and concern. He had no idea what was happening but he wanted it to stop.

....

Ishida stood back watching the scene in thought, he didn't understand what was happening; it seemed as though the sword was changing shape. He thought that the spirit of the Zanpakuto was loose, and that maybe it was out of control but most of all, he thought that he had to help in some way. Without another thought, the boy moved to rush forwards, but was cut short when a slash of wind flew passed his face nipping some of the long ends of his bangs. That wind was quickly absorbed into his body, which then focussed on his own spiritual weapon; power was flooding into him like it did when he had touched the sword earlier but now it was too much, it was overpowering his own control over his bow. 

Ichigo's spirit was so out of control that it had moved onto a different host trying desperately to calm itself down; by now it was flowing into both Ishida, and Izumi. 

Shooting off one arrow, Ishida felt the power start to decrease; when he turned towards his rival and friend he noticed Izumi was kneeling beside Ichigo while keeping her hand on his cheek, she held a sad look on her face while she watched him panic. Ichigo's body could no longer feel the pain of his power since it had moved hosts. Though he knew that his best friend was getting the bulk of the hit, he knew that his power had moved onto her and what little couldn't fit had traveled over to Ishida. 

Continuously without any other thought, Ishida continued to fire off arrow after arrow attemtpting to sedate what little of Ichigo's power he possessed now; cuts and bruises began to form on his arms as the power grew more angry. A small groan left Izumi's lips but she just smiled when Ichigo stared at her with little tears in his eyes. A long cut formed on the girl's cheek and blood ran down her jawline, though the smile never left her lips. 

"It's going to be okay, don't worry Ichi; I'll take it away." she said while looking up towards Ishida who was steadily making his way closer to where they were on the ground. "I'm going to take it all away." Izumi mumbled out while closing her eyes. Ichigo had no idea what she meant by that, but he could see the strain that her body was going through even if she was smiling. Looking on his other side he realizes what Ishida was doing and saw the amount of damage that the boy was doing to his body. 

"What are you doing?!" he tried to call out to the boy, but Ishida just shut him down; the dark haried boy needed complete concentration if he was going to get them out of the situation alive. "I know what you want to do, but don't over do it! You'll lose your arm!" Ichigo tried to reason with him, but when Ishida saw the blood dripping from Izumi's face, he knew that he couldn't give up until the job was done.