Exposed!

Exposed

Chapter II

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Have you ever noticed how the school day just drags on when you really need time to go by faster? Kurosaki Ichigo was experiencing this. He wanted to get away from Tatsuki and Keigo and Mizuiro so they wouldn’t be able to corner him at school, but it wasn’t like he could skip class without someone finding out and getting him in trouble.

The orange-haired teen groaned silently, feeling déjà-vu creeping up on him as he stared at the clock, silently wishing to skip ahead in time. He and the other Shinigami, plus Ishida, Inoue and Chad knew that their three powerless friends had an inkling that something was going on and no one particularly wanted to deal with it. None of them wanted their friends involved in the mess that was the Winter War.

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While Ichigo was thinking about his three problematic and curious friends, said friends were sitting on the roof, currently skipping gym class to talk. The three were sitting in a triangle, each facing each other and looking rather serious. None of them really knew where to begin, but earlier that day they had each admitted that they felt a strange sort of confusion about what had happened Friday at Tatsuki’s and that they kept getting weird flashes of some sort of dream or memory they didn’t know they had.

“I think we should follow Ichigo,” Keigo said straight up. He was never one to beat around the bush during a serious matter anyway, contrary to his normal self.

“Keigo I don’t think that’s such a good idea. I don’t really know why I feel like that, but maybe we should try and think of another way to obtain information,” Mizuiro supplied slowly, almost cautiously. Across from him, Tatsuki nodded in agreement.

“I think we should see if we can get some information first. If we can’t, then we’ll follow him tonight. We’ll meet after school to see if we have any information between us and if we don’t we can quickly leave to follow Ichigo, “ Tatsuki compromised, and both boys sat back and thought.

“Yeah, okay,” they agreed.

The meeting adjourned, the three stood up from their spots and stretched, just in time for the next class. Their gazes met and they each nodded at each other before slipping through the door that lead to the roof and into their classrooms. The three would go their separate ways and subtly interrogate their friends individually to see if they could get any information out of them. Tatsuki really didn’t know, but she had an inkling that it wasn’t just Rukia and Ichigo. Perhaps others were in on the conspiracy too, like Ishida and Chad and maybe even Orihime. It would make sense since they seemed to be spending all their time together, especially that year when they were gone the whole summer together.

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A couple hours later the last bell rang, signaling freedom. Mizuiro and Keigo stood just outside the large double doors of Karakura High, waiting for the third member of their little conspiracy group. Neither of them had gotten anything out of their friends and were slightly disappointed, hoping that their spiky-haired companion had something they could run with.

Their hopes were short-lived, however, as they watched Tatsuki slump down the steps of the high school with a dejected look on her face. Before either boy could ask her the question, she shook her head and scanned the crowd of students for messy orange hair. The other two began to search with her and at last they found him, standing tall and straight with Rukia at his side. Behind them were Chad, Inoue and Ishida, chatting happily as they headed off in the direction of Ichigo’s house.

Tatsuki and Mizuiro glanced at each other and began to follow through the maze of students who were waiting for rides or just chatting with friends before heading home. Keigo scampered after them, glad the milling students could give them cover as they followed Ichigo and company. The brown-haired boy sighed softly as he followed Tatsuki and Mizuiro and wondered what he was getting himself into.

After all, curiosity killed the cat.

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Ichigo noticed right away that the group was being followed by three nosy friends, but he didn’t bother to say anything. He didn’t have to; he knew that most everyone else knew they were being followed too. He tugged Rukia closer to him by wrapping an arm around her shoulders, seeing her grin from the corner of his eye. He orange-haired teen didn’t mind being touchy-feely with Rukia, and for awhile, he had thought about entering into a relationship with her. He 

had felt comfortable around her, enough so that he could let his guard down and actually be himself around her. However, the more he thought about this, the more he began to realize that the relationship he already had with her was good enough. He didn’t need anything more, and he thought that she was content with the way things were, too. And then he had met Grimmjow.

He cut off his train of thought with a growl and contented himself to listening happily as the others around him chatted and forgot about the three nosy ‘detectives’ who were following them. He was instead looking forward to the meeting he was going to have with Renji and the others. It had been far too long since they had met with the other group of Shinigami and he knew Rukia especially would be glad to see her friends again. He caught Ishida’s eye and smirked at the Quincy as his gaze slowly and purposefully lowered to where the raven-haired boy’s hand was twined with Inoue’s. Ishida blushed slightly but recovered quickly, arching a delicate eyebrow at Ichigo’s own situation with Rukia. Ichigo shook his head almost imperceptivity and ignored Ishida’s confused expression.

He let out a sigh as they approached his home. His friends had long since learned to let Ichigo go in first to make sure the coast was clear and Isshin-free. Which, surprisingly, it was. Ichigo immediately became suspicious and walked a little further into the house before flashing the ‘ok’ sign at his friends and leading them upstairs. The meeting was scheduled to begin in a few minutes, so he decided to open the window and the door to prevent his Shinigami friends from destroying his ceiling, like they had last time.

As he sat on his bed, waiting, his thoughts drifted away to another world, a world where Grimmjow Jaegerjaques was. The Sexta Espada. His enemy. How he wanted to meet the Espada just once more…how he wanted to sink Zangetsu into his flesh and pay him back for all the pain the Espada had caused him…

A poke to his leg rose him from his thoughts and he blinked when he realized that all his friends were there, staring at him. Renji, Matsumoto, Hitsugaya, Ikkaku, Yumichika… Even Zaraki, Hisagi and Isane were there! Ichigo suddenly flushed with embarrassment at the thought of being caught day dreaming by everyone and cleared his throat, averting his eyes away from any one gaze. To keep up pretenses, he shifted his brown eyes to glare at Rukia and rubbed his leg as if 

to say ‘that hurt, you freaking midget.’ He’d be damned if anyone found out he’d been thinking about Grimmjow, even if it was just about payback and nothing else. He would never allow himself to think of anything but payback when Grimmjow was the subject, even if, and when, he wanted to.

“So, any news on Aizen’s plans yet?” Ichigo asked, trying to distract the others. “It’s been two years, and all we’ve done has been little squabbles and random fighting, nothing serious. I’m beginning to wonder if he’s even going to attack at all.”

“You’re right, he could be waiting for us to attack. If that’s the case, then we must be careful. However, we cannot keep this up,” Hitsugaya answered.

“Right, the longer that bastard has the Hyogyouku and the longer we do nothing about it, the more he is going to think we’ll let him get away with it,” Ikkaku muttered.

“No, I doubt he’ll ever think for one second that we’ll let him just get away with this. However, the longer he has it, the more time he has to develop it. He’s in no rush to develop the Hyogyouku’s powers because he knows he has all the time in the world,” Hitsugaya replied, sounding bored of the conversation already.

Ichigo leaned forward, his elbow resting on his knee. “So what are we going to do about it? Surely if Kenpachi is here, that means we’re doing something about it, at least.”

This evoked a laugh from the small gathering of Shinigami and Zaraki said, “Damn straight, kid.”

“We’re planning a large scale attack. A big group of Shinigami will go in and basically raise as much hell as possible in order to distract their attentions from the smaller group who will enter after. The way will be cleared for them by the bigger group, and the smaller group will infiltrate Las Noches and attempt to retrieve the Hyogyouku from behind enemy lines. Meanwhile, the larger group will catch up and join in the fight, because surely Aizen will have some sort of guard waiting for something like this,” Renji explained.

Ichigo seemed to think this over for a few minutes before nodding carefully. He opened his mouth to say something but Renji held up his hand and grinned in gesture to stop.

“You will, of course, be a part of the smaller group who infiltrates Las Noches.” Seeing Ichigo’s confused look, as he was expecting to be put in the frontlines, Renji continued, “We would usually just send in the sneaky for this mission, but we have a feeling we’ll need someone with some muscle. After all, the first group will probably not get everyone. One or two of the smarter Espada will be waiting for someone else to come along, like that Ulquiorra freak. The smaller group will have you to wipe out the ones that are still in your way. Got it?”

Ichigo grinned and nodded, silently hoping that Grimmjow would be one of the Espada he would meet in Las Noches. He had to pay the asshole back for nearly killing him among other things, after all. Not to mention Ulquiorra.

Renji nodded to himself and folded his arms across his chest. “Good. We’ll let you know more information as the time comes closer. Don’t get antsy, though, Ichigo, because I have been told it will be soon.” The two shared a feral grin before another voice picked up where Renji left off.

“Speaking of information, we weren’t just sent here to inform you about Aizen’s plans. We heard that there was a disturbance on Friday that involved your three powerless human friends.”

Ichigo gulped.

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“…three powerless human friends.”

Upon hearing those words, Tatsuki, Keigo, and Mizuiro’s ears perked up. They had been sitting in Ichigo’s tree just outside his open bedroom window for about an hour now, and were generally confused. Who was Aizen, and for that matter, who was Ulquiorra? What the heck are Espada and where was this Las Noches thing? One thing they did understand was that the small group inside Ichigo’s room was now talking about them, so they strained their ears as they listened to the conversation.

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“Well… You see, we were at my friend Tatsuki’s house watching a movie…” Ichigo trailed off, seeing the blank looks on their faces. “Never mind. We were watching the box with the moving pictures in it and Rukia’s phone went off, so we excused ourselves and went after the Hollow. We didn’t find out until we got back that we had been followed and that Tatsuki, Keigo and Mizuiro had seen us getting out of our gigais.”

“I had to give them substitute memories. We told them that they had passed out after eating bad pizza, but they figured out the hole in that; we all ate the pizza too and didn’t get sick,” Rukia finished for Ichigo, who nodded in agreement.

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Tatsuki growled at hearing what was as good of a confession as she could have hoped for. She leapt semi-gracefully from the tree and landed heavily on his windowsill. All eyes in the room turned to see the spiky-haired girl struggling to hang onto Ichigo’s windowsill. Ichigo leapt up immediately to help out his childhood friend through the window.

“Tatsuki! What the hell are you doing here?” Ichigo growled, voice low. Behind her, Mizuiro and Keigo peeked their heads out of the leaves of the tree and the orange-haired teen hissed angrily. Tatsuki’s eyes widened slightly at Ichigo’s anger but narrowed soon enough as she remembered why she was here.

‘That damned bastard!’

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