And here's the next chapter! Hope you guys like it!
-o0o-

Chapter 4: Dealing with the Consequences

-o0o-

The next morning Akira woke early, his eyes opening slowly so he wouldn't blind himself. He'd done that plenty of times and it wasn't pleasant. His mind was foggy with sleep but his body was sore. Why was that? As the fog began to clear the events from last night flitted in front of his eyes. He shot up, his eyes widening. He looked around himself frantically. He was back in his and Ichigo's shared bedroom, his brother sound asleep in the other bed. Akira watched Ichigo as his deep breathing reached accross the room, the sound that had relaxed Akira so many times before. As usual it's calming effect washed over him and he could feel his muscles unclenching and relaxing as the deep breathing filtered into his ears.

"Was it all just a dream?" he asked himself quietly. It seemed like it but then why was his body so sore? He looked down at his arm and there it was, the gash he'd received the previous night. It had stopped bleeding a long time ago it seemed and nothing was left of it except a long white scar running from his elbow to mid way to his wrist.

"It wasn't a dream then," he whispered as he stared down at the scar and then back at Ichigo. He turned his head and looked at the alarm clock resting opn the table between their beds. He still had about a half an hour before their father came in to wake them up -cough- try and sneak attack them -cough-. He carefully got out of bed and crossed the small distance between his and his brother's bed before raising a hand and shaking Ichigo gently to wake him up.

"Ichigo," he said quietly. "Wake up Ichigo."

Ichigo began to stir, his head turning slightly in the direction of his brother's voice. His brown eyes opened slowly and he blinked, trying to clear the sleep from them. All of a sudden those brown eyes widened and Ichigo shot bolt upright in bed, breathing slightly heavier and glancing about the room in much the same manner as Akira.

"You okay?" he asked after calming himself down slightly althourh the worry was clear in his voice. There was slight confusion in his eyes, probably wondering the same thing AKira had wondered.

"Yeah, I'm okay," Akira replied.

"Did it really happen?" Ichigo asked. He wasn't sure if Akira knew what he was talking about, it could have all been a dream for all he knew. In response to his question however Akira raised his arm and showed Ichigo the new scar on his arm. Ichigo's eyes widened and he quickly grabbed Akira's wrist, studying the scar carefully.

"This is from last night?" he asked quietly. Akira nodded.

"Yeah," he replied quickly.

"When?" Ichigo asked him. "You didn't have it before did you?"

Akira thought it was probably best not to tell Ichigo that it was his spiritual pressure (hadn't Rukia called it Reiatsu?) that had blasted him back. Ichigo would feel really guilty about that and Akira didn't want to have to deal with a guilty Ichigo, it was never a pretty sight.

"I got it after the hollow knocked me over," Akira said finally. "I was holding Yuzu so you probably hadn't noticed. Besides, you were too busy kicking the hollow's ass!" Akira grinned at the last part. He had to hand it to his brother, when he went all out he really went all out. "You took it out in no time! My spell didn't even effect it!"

"Really?" Ichigo asked. Akira nodded before sitting on the side of Ichigo's bed. Ichigo shifted his body so he too was sitting on the edge of the bed beside his brother.

"So," Akira said. "What now?"

Ichigo sighed as he turned his head to look out the window. The early sunlight seemed watery as it filtered through the half closed curtains and from outside he could just hear the sounds of the day beginning, people walking to work, cars driving along the streets and the occasional bark of a neibour's dog. It all seemed so peaceful, so normal. All those people unaware of what was really out there, magical and spiritual.

"I don't know," he said finally.

-o0o-

They found out later that the rest of the family thought the damage done to their house was a result of a van smashing into it. How did that work? Yuzu was definitely awake when the hollow grabbged her adn Karin had seen the hollow enough to come run for them. It sounded a bit like a memory modifying spell. Did the Shinigami have that ability?

They met up with Tatsuki on their way to school, she was worried and kept throwing worried glances at Akira, or mors specifically at his arm where the school shrit didn't quite cover the scar. Finally Akira had had enough of it.

"Tatsuki!" he finally exclaimed. "I'm not a kid!"

"You are from up here though," she retorted, a teasing smile playing accross her lips. This was one of her favourite arguments. She just loved to tease Akira about his height. He glared at her for the coment but felt a smile pulling at the corners of his lips. You could always count on Tatsuki to lighten a mood.

"When I get a growth spurt I'll show you short!" He told her boldly. He knew that that probably wouldn't happen but he could always hope right?

"We'll see," she replied teasingly before turning to Ichigo and continuing to question him about the suposed rogue driver that had driven the truck into their house.

Pretty soon they reached thes chool building and the thowl thing started again, people coming up to them, asking about the incident, annoying them both. It was really getting old quickly. One of the worst was Inoue though. She kept stuttering when she was asking them and demanding to know if they were alright. Akira contained his slight annoyance at the girl. It wasn't her fault but she didn't need to keep asking them the same question over and over again. Thank Kami the bell rang, signaling the start of class.

They took their usual seats, Ichigo sitting at the window and Akira sitting just behind him, by the window.

"Settle down!" the teacher called. "We have a new student joining us today. Make her feel welcome."

The teacher gestured to the door and a girl came in. She was wearing the traditional school uniform for girls. This consisted of a grey pleated skirty that reached to about the knees along with a black T-shirt on top of which was a white blouse and a red tie-thinty. She was wearing white socks and black shoes to match and ther ewas a small white bracelet on her left wrist. She had black hair and blue eyes and Ichigo and Akira's jaws dropped. It was the Shinigami from last night. But, was that even possible? How were the others seeing her? Did Shinigami even go to school? Where'd she get the uniform from? She faced the class and smiled at them brightly.

"Hi," she said sweetly. "My name is Rukia Kuchiki. I look forward to getting to know you all!"

"Take a seat by...Kurosaki," The teacher told her. Rukia nodded before walking to the chair just beside Ichigo. He was about to say something, probably something stupid, so Akira kicked the back of his chair quickly to tell him to shut up. Luckily it wasn't noticed by the teacher. Ichigo gave him a look but quickly turned back to the front of the class to listen as the teacher started her lecture.

Akira looked over at Rukia. She was facing forwards, appearing to be completely focused on the teacher as she discussed the finer points of synthetic division and differentiation but occasionally he would see her looking over at Ichigo, giving him a look and then turning back to face the front. If he hadn't been watching her so closely he wouldn't have noticed her qikcly pass a note onto Ichigo's table. Ichigo opened it, carefully angling it so that Akira could see what was written on it.

Meet me after school. Don't make a scene. -Rukia Kuchiki

Ichigo nodded towards her before turning back to the teacher. Akira sighed. Something told him this wouldn't be an easy day.

-o0o-

After school had ended for the day Ichigo and Akira made their way behind the school to a secluded area they sometimes visited when they wanted to be alone. It wasn't one of the most comfortable places but it was private and it would allow them to talk freely when Rukia arrived.

"Mind explaining?" Ichigo said immediately after Rukia arrived. "Why are you at our school? How can the others see you? Shouldn't you be out slaying hollows or whatever."

"Ichigo!" Akira admoished him. He wanted to know the same thing but his brother could at least use a little more tact when asking.

Rukia glanced at him, a slightly confused look in her eyes before turning back to Ichigo.

"Right now I am in a Gigai," she expained. "A Gigai is an artifial body used by Shinigami when they need to interact with the living world. It is quite useful although it is a little confining. As to your second question..." She trained off, appearing to considder something. Finally she sighed and looked at them seriously.

"To fight Hollows I would need to actually be a shinigami," she told them. Her eyes were hard as she stared at Ichigo. "Unfortunately thanks to last night's incident that is no longer the case."

"What do you mean?" Akira asked.

"I only intended to release half of my power," she told them. Then she turned completely to Ichigo and looked him in the eye, her dark blue ones completely serious. "Something went wrong. Instead of transferring half of my reiyoku (spiritual power) I transfered all of it. I am unable to do my duties as a Shinigami until they return. Thus you must do it."

"What?" Ichigo and Akira exclaimed as they looked at her. She couldn't be serious could she?

"Are you sure?" Akira asked her.

"I am positive," she replied, a frown crossing her face. "He must fight the hollows in my place until I am able to regain my powers as a Shinigami."

"No way!" Ichigo told her firmly. "I'm not doing it!"

She glared at him, her eyes hard as ice.

"You have to," she told him firmly. Her voice, which before had been annoyed, had turned to anger. "I cannot protect the souls and send them on. How are they suposed to pass on if no one helps them?"

"Not my problem," Ichigo told her bluntly. Akira looked from Ichigo to Rukia, his eyes darting between the two as if watching a tennis match. This was not good. He was caught in the middle of this. He could see Ichigo's point, it wasn't his fault he had the powers and it wasn't his problem but on the other hand...All those spirits, who would help them? They'd been helping the ghosts before. Was this really any different.

"Come on," Rukia told Ichigo before hitting him over the head with something. Immediately his body fell backwards, leaving him in his Shinigami outfit (Giant kickass sword included) and gaping at her.

"Don't just stand there!" She told him irritably before grabbing his arm and beginning to run towards the school gates. Ichigo had no choice but to be dragged after her, protesting all the way. Akira followed, finding it funny that such a tall guy like Ichigo was being dragged around by a girl shorter than him. He wasn't about to let Ichigo live this one down any time soon, that was for sure. He made sure he had a good grip on his backpack before folliwing them. He didn't have any intention of being left behind after all.

He managed to catch up with Rukia. Despite his short legs hers were still a little shorter. He noticed quickly that the three of them were headed towards the park.

"Why are we headed this way?" he asked between pants. Ichigo was still protesting and cursing at being dragged along by Rukia. It was quite amusing really but Akira ignored his big brother in favour of focusing on the short ex-shinigami.

"You'll see," she answered before facing forwards and concentrating on dragging the reluctant Ichigo after her.

Pretty soon they reached the park and Rukia stopped, letting go of Ichigo so he overbalanced and fell flat on the ground, face first. Akira stifled his laughter as Ichigo got to his feet, glaring hard at Rukia.

"What the hell was that for?" he demanded immediately.

"I told you earlier," she said, her voice clearly annoyed. "I am unable to fight the hollows and as a substitute it falls to you."

"And I told you I'm not doing it!" Ichigo replied hotly.

"You don't have a choice!" Rukia shot back.

"Yes I do!" Ichigo retorted hotly. "It's my life we're talking about!"

"And the lives of all the souls that are potential victims of hollows!" Rukia replied angrily. "Who is going to watch over them?"

"Not my problem!" Ichigo told her firmly. Akira idly wondered how this looked to passers by, Rukia yelling at thin air like a mad man-um, sorry, woman. She was receiving some strange looks from passers by and since he was beside her he received some as well. They ranged from 'what's up with her' to 'why's he standing by the crazy person?' and other things like that. Rukia ignored them though, completely focused on the orange haired teen-turned-shinigami before her.

Just then there was a shrieking noise from the other side of the park. Akira, who until this point had been quiet, cursed and turned towards the sound. He recognised that sound, there was no way he was ever going to forget it. It was another hollow and it was heading straight for them.

Running in front of the hollow was a kid, he couldn't have been more than ten or eleven with short brown hair and eyes. Those brown eyes were wide and fearful as he continued to run from the monster. The hollow let out a howl before swiping at the kid. The kid tripped, missing the claws completely by accident and falling to the ground.

"Damn it!" Ichigo curesed before running towards the hollow. He drew his insanely big sword from his back and quickly cut the hollow's face in half. Like last night the hollow seemed ti implode upon itself. It let out a disgusting sounding shriek before the echos faded and it was as if the creature had never been there at all. The kid looked up at Ichigo with big, brown eyes. Akira and Rukia ran over to join Ichigo as he knelt down to crouch beside the kid.

"Are you alright?" he asked. The kid nodded, still clearly in shock.

"Now you must proform a Konsou," Rukia instructed. "Touch your blade to his forehead." Ichigo nodded before gently resting the tip of the hilt against the kid's forehead. The kid smiled at them as he was enveloped in a soft light before fading from the living world completely, reappearing somewhere in Rukongai.

"See," Rukia told him.

"See what?" Ichigo demanded.

"You must protect the spirits from the hollows," she replied as if it were obvious. "You just proved right here that you are capable of doing it."

"I told you the answer is no!" Ichigo said with finality. "It's my life and my choice and I choose not to do it. Now I'm outta here!" With that Ichigo turned and began to make his way back to the school to get back to his body. He only hoped that no one had seen it and taken it anywhere while he wasn't there.

"Sorry," Akira told Rukia apologetically. "He'll come around. Ichigo may have a hard head but his heart's in the right place, most of the time anyway. Don't worry about it. It'll all turn out fine, I'm sure of it." With a small smile at Rukia he turned and began to make his way after his brother, shaking his head slightly.

Rukia stood there for a minute or tow, looking after the two retreating figures.

"Why wasn't he effected?" she asked herself out loud, not all that bothered that anyone who passed by her would probably think her loony for talking to herself. "He should have been effected the same as the rest of the family but he was not. Why is that? Why does he still have his memories of last night? Who exactly is he? It can't be because he has reiatsu. The younger ones have some reiatsu but they were still affected so why wasn't he?"

-o0o-

After Ichigo re-entered his body the two of them began to make their way home, stopping off at the street where the girl lived to say hello before making their way back to the house. Ichigo was still complaining about Rukia when the pair ran into Orihime.

"Hi!" she said brightly when she spotted them.

"Hey Inoue," Ichigo replied without really thinking.

"Hi," Akira replied in the same manner.

Ichigo looked at her and his eyes widened as he took in a bruise on her leg.

"How'd you do that Inoue?" he asked. Akira looked to where Ichigo's eyes were focused and gasped slightly as he saw the dark bruise marring the skin of her leg. It was a deep purple and it seemed to wind around her leg like a thick ribbon. Something felt off about it, unnatural somehow.

"Oh, I got it when I was almost hit by a car!" she told them cheerfully, as if getting hit by a car was actually not a big deal.

"When you what?" Akira asked incredulously. How was this girl so cheery after something like that happened?

"Oh, it wasn't a big deal," she said, brushing the incident off. "It was kinda my fault actually. I wasn't looking where I was going and just before the car hit me someone pulled me back." she frowned then, her forehead wrinkling in concentration. "I didn't see who it was. I'd like to thank them though! I almost lost all my groceries when I was almost hit."

"What's in the bags?" Ichigo asked curiously.

"Food for tonight!" she replied brightly. "I'm makign spagetti with chocolate sauce and some mashed potatos with Wasabi and miso rice!"

The pair stared at her. Was she serious? Then again, knowing her she probably was. Orihime Inoue was well known within the school for having the strangest taste in food. Akira shuddered at the memory of some of her creations. There was the time she'd made squid with raspberry sauce and sweet curry. That would probably be considdered one of her more normal recepes. He really didn't want to think what she came up with when she got creative.

"Good luck with that," Akira said dully. He never wanted to taste her food. No offense to her but he'd rather keep his taste buds in tact thank you very much.

"Thanks!" she told him, smiling. She glanced over at Ichigo who was still staring at her leg with a concerned expression on his face.

"Do you want us to help you take those back to your place?" he asked her.

She seemed flustered for a moment, her face turning as bright as her hair as she looked at Ichigo. Akira mentally sighed.

'Great,' he thought. 'Here we go again.'

To his surprise, and secret relief, Inoue refused their help, saying that her house wasn't too far away and that she'd manage perfectly fine on her own. When she left Akira turned to Ichigo, a strange look on his face.

"Did you feel that?" he asked his big brother.

"You mean her leg?" Ichigo asked.

"Yeah," Akira replied. "It felt...wrong. I don't know why but it didn't feel right to me, ya know?"

"Yeah," Ichigo replied. "There was something about it, almost like..." He trailed off, trying to think of what the feeling reminded him of.

"Like a hollow," Akira put in. He stared after Inoue, watching her retreating back. Something told him that this wasn't over yet.

-o0o-

Later that day the brothers were back in their room. Akira was sitting at the desk while Ichigo was lying on the bed. Akira was doing his homework. No, not his school homework, his magic homework. The Japanese tended to take a more practical approach to learning and so appart from a few selected classes most were all practical with the option to take the theory side of the coriculum if the student wished to go into developing his/her own spells and things like that. Akira had opted to take the theory side of transfiguration, figuring that it would probably help him with his animagus training. He was doing quite well. According to his transfiguration teacher, Yumi Zukora, he was ahead of many students his age. He had almost completed the transfiguration course, the only thing he had to do now was to practice doing the spells wandlessly and complete his animagus transformation but that part of the coriculum wasn't scheduled to start until after the summer. That didnt' stop him researching it though. According to many of the books he had read the first step in becoming an animagus was to brew the animagus potion.

This potion was a very tricky one and often it required the help of the teacher to ensure that the student didn't screw up. The teacher often held back though, choosing to let the student atempt the potion and only interfering if it was absolutely necessary. The students wouldn't learn if they were hand fed all the information after all. Where was I? Oh yes, the potion. Once injested the potion causes the drinker to enter a medative like state. The person is then sent into a dream like world (their inner world he would find out later) where they would 'meet' their animal. Once the form of the student was found the student would be awoken from the dream and would immediately start training. First it was important to master wandless transfiguration so that the student cound transform individual parts of their body, arms, hands, feet and that sort of thing. Only when the person had fully mastered turning separate parts of their body into the different parts of their animagus form could they fully transform. It usually took up to three months to complete the training but with complete dedication some were known to complete the transformation within a month. Akira wasn't that bothered about how long it took him to transform. He was just so excited to find out what his own form would be. Right now he was studying the background to the animagus transformation and the theory behind guiding the magic around your body to cause the change.

According to the book the magical core of a person was located directly where their heart resides in the body. From there the magic branches out, like little pathways like the veins and arteries in a body. From there the magic circulates throughout the body like blood flow and if not used up then the magic returns to the core or difuses out. Some magic is lost through this process but not too much and it is only really noticable after a long period of time when the person wielding the magic is completing many spells. They will notice a drain on their magic and the fact that some of the magic is lost does not help much. In order to complete the animagus transformation the student needed to guide their magic to the part of their body they wished to change and from there will the magic to do what they wanted. In order to complete wandless spells the same procedure was needed but the magic was often only directed at the hands and no where else. This is why the transformation was so hard to some to learn, especially the western wizards and witches who relied so much on their wands. They were unused to guiding their magic, relying on their wand so much. It created a direct pathway to their core and thus did not force them to make the magic travel where they wished it to go.

Akira idly wondered if Spirutual pressure worked the same way as magic, going around the body. It was an interesting theory. He wouldn't mind asking Rukia to find out if she knew. He also wondered if it would be possible to combine the two. It was definitely something to think about. According to her he had spiritual pressure as well. He thought back to last night, when the hollow had attacked. His magic had had absolutely no effect whatsoever on the hollow. Why was that? Well, reiatsu was completely spiritual right? And magic was a physical force. So, did the two cancel each other out? It seemed possible. After all, 'For every action there is an equal and oposite reaction'. Could that be what had happened?

Akira was broken from his thoughts when Yuzu came into the room.

"Have either of you seen my PJs?" she asked them. "I can't find them anywhere. I can't find my dress either, the white and blue one. Do you know where they are?"

"Sorry Yu," Akira replied. "I haven't seen them. "Have you Ichigo?"

"No," Ichigo replied. "Sorry Yuzu."

"That's okay," she answered, appearing only slightly dissappointed. "Well, if you see them will you tell me please?"

"Sure thing Imoto-chan, (Little Sister)" Akira replied as Yuzu turned and shut the door after leaving the room.

Akira turned, ready to go back to his homework when suddenly a ringing sound came from somewhere in the wardrobe. He and Ichigo looked at each other, confused.

"What the hell was that?" Ichigo asked. Akira stood up, ready to open up the wardrobe but something, or rather, someone beat him to it.

"What the hell Rukia!" Ichigo exclaimed as he saw Rukia jump out of he and Akira's shared wardrobe. "What were you doing in there?"

"Getting ready to go to sleep," she replied nonchalauntly. "Anyway, we've got a new one."

"New one?" Ichigo asked, confused.

"A new Hollow has just appeared in Karakura," Rukia replied. She walked over to the window and pointed out of it. "According to my soul pager it's coming from over there."

"Soul pager?" Akira asked.

"This," Rukia replied, holding up a cell phone like device. It was white in colour. The screen was a dark grey and looked like some kind of map right now. A red beep was moving on the screen. Akira asumed that it was the hollow she was talking about.

"How many times do I have to tell you that I'm not doing your job!" Ichigo said in an exasperated voice. "How many times do I have to say it before it sinks into that thick skull of yours?"

"As long as it takes for you to get off yoru ass and take care of the hollows!" Rukia shot back hotly. She raised her other hand, the one not holding the soul pager, and pointed at the red blip on the screen. "This hollow right now is in the residential district of Karakura town. How many innocent souls do you think it will devour tonight? And the night after that and the night after that! As a Shinigami, substitute or not, it is your duty to protect them!"

"Wait a sec," Akira said as he looked at the map on the soul pager again. "I know tha tarea. Isn't that where Inoue lives?"

Immediately Ichigo's demenour changed. He leapt up from where he'd been sitting on the bed and rushed over to Rukia, peering more closely at the screen.

"It is," he said grimly. He faced Rukia, giving her his full attention. "Fine then, turn me into a Shinigami."

"You can't have it both ways Ichigo," she told him seriously, her eyes narrowed as she looked at the teenager before her. "Either you accept your responsibilities as a Substitute Shinigami or you do not. You do not get to pick and choose who you help and do not help. All souls, living or dead, are equal and should be treated as such. Just because you know this person does not give them priority over everyone else."

She finished her speech, looking deep into his eyes, trying to convey the seriousness of what she was saying. Her dark blue-violet eyes stared into his chocolate honey ones.

"You must choose Ichigo Kurosaki," she told him gravely, her voice soft and completely serious. her eyes were as hard as granite and bright as diamonds "This is your final chance. Either you refuse and this person, Inoue, suffers because of it or you accept your responsibility as a Substitute Shinigami and help her and all the other souls. You brought this burden upon yourself when you agreed to let me pass on my powers to you. Now, what is your decision Ichigo Kurosaki? Think carefully and choose wisely for there is no going back after this. If you choose not to accept it then it is over, I will not ask you again. Well? What will it be?"

Ichigo looked to Akira who stared back at him. His emerald green eyes locked with Ichigos.

"I can't make this choice for you Nii-chan (big brother)," Akira told him. "It's your choice, not mine. Whatever you choose though," he smiled at Ichigo. "I'll support you all the way. After all, what are brothers for?" He smiled softly at Ichigo. Ichigo returned the smile before closing his eyes and going through everything slowly, calmly (shock-horror! Ichigo being calm!) He took in a deep breath, allowing his lungs to fill before releasing it slowly.

He opened his eyes and stared resolutely at Rukia, a hard, determined look on his face. His brown eyes were blazing and looked like molton gold as he stared at her.

"Very well," he said somberly. "I'll do it, I'll take your place 'til your powers come back."

"Is that your final answer?" Rukia asked him. "Once you agree to this there is no turning back. You could be called at any time, during school, during the middle of the night, any time there is a hollow you must go to it and clense it. Do you understand Ichigo?"

"Yeah," the orange haired teen replied. "I've made my choice."

-o0o-

Tell me what ya think please!!!!!!!!