Bleach: A Grand Adventure

True to Baiken's earlier promise they returned Ichigo to his body and allowed him to deal with his classes, while Rukia kept up with him even though she was adjusting to being a student, at least until she got her powers back and could head home when her mission was complete. With that in mind they kept an eye on Karakura Town while Ichigo was in school, as in she and Pinkie focused on eliminating the Hollows, though for the most part it looked like that one Hollow might be the only one for the day, which Ichigo would no doubt appreciate. Other than that there wasn't a lot for them to worry about and that meant the pair just relaxed on the school's roof, where they would be out of sight and out of mind, and once the day was over they found that everyone went about their afternoons. Ichigo went home today, where he planned on doing whatever his homework was before relaxing for a time, while Rukia followed for the time being as she stared at him, even though she did stop outside his house and headed elsewhere for a time.

When night fell, however, Ichigo opened his window and allowed Rukia to remove his soul once more, so his body could rest on his bed in case anyone came to check on him, Baiken doubted that given what time it was, and once they were on a roof the older girl got to work.

The first thing they did was have Ichigo pull out his Zanpakuto as Baiken did the same and demonstrated how to properly swing his blade, the proper movements while accounting for the size of his weapon, because he didn't have training on how to use it and getting him used to the weight would be a good thing. Her reasoning also included the fact that his instincts were fairly good, because when she thought about how he attacked the two Hollows he had faced she knew that both of his opening moves had been to wound his foes, then took out their mask to purify them. She was showing him movements and specific sword motions he could use to bring down his foes that much faster, while at the same time making him aware of his surroundings so he didn't damage anything or get his sword stuck somewhere. Despite his initial resistance towards his newfound duties, especially since Rukia could have just asked Baiken and Pinkie to take up her duties, Ichigo followed her lessons as best as he could, showing that he could swing his Zanpakuto like it was nothing.

After some time Baiken had Pinkie engage Ichigo in a mock battle, where she summoned her Zanpakuto, surprising Ichigo in the process since her weapon was unique, and rushed at him, using her superior speed and reflexes to avoid his attacks as she literally danced around the roof they were on. After a few moments she leapt down to the ground and found that Ichigo followed her, swinging his blade down towards her, something that caused Pinkie to smile a little as she spun her weapon around and parried the incoming attack before it could hit her. Such a thing allowed her to push her opponent backwards, but, just as Baiken expected, Ichigo seemed to take his training seriously and did his best to follow the instructions he was being given, meaning that in a few weeks he might be on their level, at least when it came to sword techniques. Of course there were still openings in his movements, this was only the first day of his training, and she exploited those that she could see, thus allowing Ichigo to learn from his mistakes, or at least make an attempt to since his was still a novice.

Eventually they brought the training to a stop and allowed Ichigo to return to his bedroom so he could rest up for the next day's events, though as Baiken and Pinkie returned to Kisuke's shop they felt the sudden arrival of a Hollow in the city and turned to move, only for the sensation to quickly vanish.

"Must have been a freshly turned soul... kind of sad, if you ask me." Pinkie commented, as they had been told that a number of souls, when they finally turned into Hollows, had a chance to retreat to Hueco Mundo before a Shinigami could purify it, which was yet another reason to track down the lost souls before such a thing happened to them.

"Yes... it is." Baiken said, staring out at the city for a moment as she wondered where the soul had been located, mostly to see if there were more lost souls in that area for them to send to the Soul Society, to prevent this from happening again, but, for the time being, she guessed there wasn't much for them to do but turn in for the night.

As such they regrouped with Kisuke and used the room he was letting them use for the night, though when morning arrived they ate breakfast and returned to shadowing Ichigo like normal, finding him grouping up with Rukia in an area to train some more, hitting a bunch of balls with crudely drawn Hollows on some of their surfaces. It appeared that she had acquired one of Kisuke's devices to use for Ichigo's training, a device that loosed pepper-filled balls into the air, so those that were marked with a Hollow's head were to be hit and the others were to be ignored. Thanks to Rukia's poor penmanship, however, there was no way for him to figure out which ones he was supposed to hit and which ones he had to ignore, so he focused on just hitting each of them while imagining that they were the masks of the Hollows he had fought so far. It was a good idea, as this would allow him to get used to paying attention to whatever was around him while training his focus to be sure he could hit his target, and yet, once he was done hitting the required number of balls, Rukia chewed him out for not paying attention to the balls that bared the mark of the Hollow.

She even chewed him out for thinking that sneak attacks were cowardly, telling him that it was the best way for officers of her level to deal with Hollows, like she was cutting into his naive nature and was trying to sharpen him into being a better replacement, so they could deal with the Hollows much faster.

It was around that time that Orihime, the busty orange haired girl from Ichigo's class, interrupted their conversation and told Ichigo that she was doing some shopping, as this wasn't a school day, though she seemed to be buying a bit of things, such as garlic, onion, bread, gelatin, and other things. Apparently she was a bit of a scatterbrain, she even pulled out a leek from her bag and spun it around a bit for some reason, which made Ichigo wonder about her mental health despite not saying a single word, it was written on his face and Baiken noticed, causing him to ease up to prevent Orihime from noticing. Both of the girls found that the orange haired girl couldn't see her, meaning she didn't have the power to see into the Spirit World, while at the same time they found that Rukia continued to present her class persona in the face of someone that was in their class. Baiken, Pinkie, and Rukia noticed that Orihimie was wounded, even though Ichigo was focused on her arm wound that had been bandaged, only to be surprised by the fact that she had been hit by a car last night, where the boy told her that she should be angrier and should have gotten herself checked out, but the three girls were focused on the large black mark that was on Orihime's left leg.

They knew what it was, it was the mark of a Hollow, where Baiken instantly reassessed Orihime's Reiryoku, because all souls had it and those like Ichigo could see souls, Shinigami, and Hollows, and while the girl definitely had more than some of the other students in their class she was definitely far weaker than Ichigo.

"A Hollow attacked her." Baiken commented, speaking as Rukia investigated the wound on Orihime's leg, though after that the girl, instead of going to see a doctor since she was definitely feeling the pain right now, allowing them to stand there as Orihime headed into the city without wasting time.

"Ichigo... does Orihime have any family?" Rukia asked, because she agreed with Baiken, that was a Hollow wound, which was a bad thing since it meant the girl might be attacked again, in fact both she and the girls knew that such a beast wouldn't stop until they either claimed their target or were purified by a Shinigami.

"Yeah, she had a brother who died three years ago... I remember the day, since I was the one who opened the door." Ichigo replied, where he thought about the incident for a few moments, as it had been some time since he had thought about it, while at the same time putting away all of the materials that Rukia had brought with her so he could train, before he let out a sigh as he faced Rukia, "I was on my way to school when she arrived, carrying her brother on her back... it was a car accident, mind you, and he was covered in blood, but there wasn't much my father's clinic could do since we weren't equipped for such an accident and he died before the ambulance could arrive."

With that in mind Baiken thought about who the Hollow might have been, as Kisuke had told them about all of that and how usually the first victims of a newly born Hollow was their family members, so it sounded like Orihime's brother's soul had been turned into one recently and attacked his sister, which was what they felt last night. It was only after devouring the last of their family that a Hollow either stayed intelligent and became one of the ones that the Soul Society had a difficult time dealing with, or became more like a beast that followed their instincts. Other than that there wasn't much else for them to worry about right now, not with Baiken and Pinkie on patrol, so Rukia headed off to wherever she was staying while Ichigo headed home, allowing him to take a bath while one of his sisters looked around for some of her missing stuff. It was in that moment that Baiken found out that Rukia, for some odd reason, was living in Ichigo's closet, sneaking into his room when he wasn't inside it and no doubt leaving early in the morning to avoid being seen by her replacement, and she had stolen the bits of missing clothing that Ichigo's sister was looking for.

What surprised them was that they felt the presence of the Hollow mere moments before Rukia got the order, and once she got it she revealed her hiding place to Ichigo as she pulled his soul out of his body, mere moments before a naga Hollow, a dark brown body with a snake lower body, emerged to attack him. Ichigo attacked without delay, slicing through the mask and butting into the area that was above the Hollow's left eye, enough to damage the creature since it was smart enough to pull back without letting it's mask be fully destroyed. This allowed him a glimpse of his foe's true nature, because once the Hollow fled into the hole it came out of, likely a temporary passage between Hueco Mundo and the World of the Living, he stopped and informed them that it was none other than Orihime's older brother, Sora. Such a thing caused Rukia to tell him the reason for that, as in that Hollows were souls that had been turned into Hollows, and got a piggy back ride as he leapt out of his room, following Baiken and Pinkie as they zeroed in on where Orihime lived.

As they zeroed in on Orihime's place, however, Baiken noticed that a few more Hollows appeared down the street, which Rukia's phone identified as additional orders for her to take care of, while Pinkie found a black robed figure lingering in the air above their current destination.

The two nodded to each other as Ichigo and Rukia focused on the naga Hollow and Orihime's place, where Baiken rushed off and drew her Zanpakuto as she slashed into the trio of Hollows that ended up entering Karakura Town while the naga was busy distracting Ichigo, like that was their plan or something. Pinkie, on the other hand, zeroed in on the black robed figure, finding that it was as tall as a human male, an adult to be exact, who realized that she was coming right for him and he just flashed out of the way, almost like he was a Shinigami, as she was sure it was a male. Pinkie chased the figure around for a bit, finding that he moved this way and that way to avoid her getting close, but she kept pace with him and forced the figure to vanish entirely, in fact she was sure he went back to the Soul Society after realizing that he wasn't going to be able to just watch whatever happened next. Baiken, as she discovered, was still smiling as she slashed through the Hollows that were her enemies, cutting through their arms and legs like it was nothing before delivering the final blow to their masks, purifying them in the process, allowing her to turn towards Orihime's place.

Apparently this Hollow had acid that it could spit out, something Ichigo dodged as he slashed through the Hollow's hand and even diced up his tail, but the surprising thing was that it still went after Orihime, who willingly allowed her transformed brother to bite her shoulder, something that stopped him in his tracks.

"Well, he was recently turned. Makes sense that his sister could do something to knock some sense into him." Baiken said, as Kisuke had told them that there were instances where newly born Hollows, while in the middle of attacking the remaining living members of their family, would stop and create openings for Shinigami to purify them, like they knew that this was for the best, and, sure enough, Sora was the same way as Orihime collapsed and he tore off his mask.

"Plus it looks like Ichigo might have talked some sense into him." Pinkie remarked, as it looked like Ichigo had decided to talk to this Hollow before purifying it, and while Rukia healed Orihime's body, so her soul could return to it, they found that the substitute Shinigami quickly purified Sora, allowing him to head to the Soul Society with a smile on his face, only for Rukia to use the memory device on Orihime once she was fully healed, "Also, someone was watching Karakura Town... I have no idea who he was, but he's bound to cause trouble again."

Baiken nodded as they left Ichigo and Rukia to finish up their task of dealing with Orihime, even though they had no idea what sort of random memory she might gain to explain the hole in the wall, but it did make Baiken even more interested in what the coming days had to offer them, as things were getting interesting and she was eager to see whatever might happen next.