Belonging

Ch.16 Mod Soul

I end up at some building that Ichigo stopped at. Parking my bike, I find my way to the top of the building. Once there, I see the reason why he stopped. There was a Hollow there, standing over him.

Ichigo was kneeling on the ground, clutching his bleeding shoulder.

What's wrong, he can't go into his soul reaper form on his own?

"Ichigo!"

He looks my way.

"Run away!" he shouts.

I do the opposite.

"What are you doing?!"

I stood between him and the Hollow with my arms out stretch.

"You're hurt, Ichigo. I'll buy you some time and make sure this freak doesn't hurt anyone else in the mean time. Go find Rukia right away so she can help you go into your soul reaper form."

"What-"

"Go! I won't let my brother get hurt!" I shout.

"Brother?" he tilts his head.

I look back at him and that's when I noticed his eyes. Confusion was the only thing showing from them.

"You're not Ichigo... Who are you? Why do you look like my brother?!"

"Interfering with my meal, little girl?" the Hollow addresses me.

I face it with a glare.

"I don't know who you are, but leave, quick! You won't survive if you stay." I address the fake.

"But...what about you? What are you going to do?"

"Me... I don't have any kind of power, but I know I can distract it for a bit... Even if it costs me my life."

"You sound tough, little girl." the Hollow mocks. "But I know underneath, there's someone who scared to death at the sight of me."

"Please, why would I be scared of an oversize caterpillar? If anything, I find you more grotesque then the waste the real thing leaves behind."

"You little- I don't know who you are, but a weakling like you shouldn't get involved!"

It shoots one of it's tentacles towards me. I prepare myself for the pain, but...

"Get away from my sister!"

The real Ichigo, in his soul reaper form, had appeared before me, cutting the Hollow's tentacle off.

"Ichigo..."

The fake stands up behind me.

"You... Did you save-"

Ichigo suddenly grabs the shirt collar of the fake and starts yelling in his face.

"I protected my sister, not you! Anyway, you're injured! Whose body do you think this is?!"

Body? ...What?

Letting go, Ichigo focuses his energy on the Hollow in front of him. However, he was still yelling at his look-a-like.

"If you're going to get hurt fighting trash like this, then don't jump in!"

Ichigo strikes the Hollow, cutting it deep.

"Gyaaaaa!"

"What are you talking about?" the fake questions him. "I'm fighting because you took so long to arrive! If I hadn't fought... Those kids from earlier would have..."

"Dammit! You bastards! I'll eat the three of you!"

That statement annoyed me.

You're eating who now?

"Shut up!" the three of us shout as we strike the Hollow in the face, at the same time.

Ichigo cuts it, while the fake and I kick it. The Hollow flies back, about to land when the fake suddenly shot towards it with incredible speed. While in the air, he kicks it up towards the sky before it vanishes. Ichigo quickly saves him from falling off the roof.

"You idiot! What are you doing?"

I walk over to them as Ichigo continues.

"Hollows disappear on their own if you cut their heads! Why would you kick it upwards...? What are you thinking? It's as if you didn't want it to fall there..."

Looking at the ground, I find the reason why the fake did that weird act. There was a line of ants passing by. The fake sits on the ground and watches them as Ichigo speaks.

"It can't be... You aren't going to talk like a saint and say you didn't want them to be crushed, are you?"

"Yeah, so what?!" the fake shoots back. "I won't kill anything!"

Both Ichigo and I stay silent as we listen.

"...Right after I was born, Soul Society ordered the mod souls to be destroyed... And the day after I was born, I was already chosen to die... Every day, while I was in that pill, I was afraid. As I watched my friends disappear each day. Even after I got lucky and escaped the storage among other pills, I feared being discovered and killed."

I'm finally starting to understand what's going on. This fake is a modified soul that Ichigo must have placed inside his body to go into his soul reaper form. The details are still a bit fuzzy, but I'll ask him about it later.

"...As I trembled in fear, I would think... Life isn't something that should be taken by others..."

The mod soul faces us.

"I was born like this! I should at least have the right to live and die freely! ...Whether it's humans or insects...or even us... It's the same. That's why I won't kill... I won't kill anything!"

...I understand.

"My, my..."