Shadow Reapers

Stella-

Professor Hill wanted to drive but I flat refused.

"No offence, but I've seen you drive, and you drive like an old man," I said. He got into the back whiile Kestrel got in with me.

"What do you drive like?" he asked.

"A lunatic," I replied, starting the engine.

"Okay, Audra of Kai first?"

Kestrel thought for a moment. "He's pretty far away. Let's go get Audra."

"Right. What way?"

Kestrel gave me directions, and the professor regretted putting me at the wheel even more as I took a sharp turn.

"I always wanted to be in a car chase."

"Technically this isn't a chase. Left here," Kestrel said. I swerved.

"She's here?" I asked. "Right so. Shall we all go?"

"I guess so," Professor Hill said. "I'm driving now."

"Really? But I was having fun," I said sadly. "Okay, let's go have a look for her..."

I skirted round the school's outer bounds, until-

"Uh-oh."

"Oh dear," Kestrel agreed. "Looks like we're not the only ones here."

"Well, it's not like we can do anything," I said. Then I saw Kai flying through the air.

"Oh good," I said. "So do we stay, or do we track down that body? It's a lose-lose situation really."

(It was a little confusing to figure out what you wrote, Stella. Was it the real Kai that was flying through the air, or the mod-soul? Anyway, I'll fix it.)

They soon caught up to Audra who had just come out the school. When she came up to the car she said, "I brought the kids to the office, the principal sent them off to clean up around the schoolyard."

"I don't know if that's a good thing or not, if they're still outside," Stella said.

"What do you mean?" Stella pointed to the school's roof. Audra turned and saw the mod-soul facing off against a Hollow. She gasped when she noticed the red on his shoulder. Even from this distance she knew he was seriously injured. "What should we do?" she asked.

________________

Meanwhile on the roof the mod-soul waited for the creature to make the first move. The Hollow lifted and extended one of its legs to attack. The mod-soul jumped out of the way in time but the long leg curled up and around to slam into his back. He managed to land firmly on his feet, but when he looked up another snake-like leg was coming right for him, and this one he wouldn't dodge in time.

There was a black blur and the Hollow's leg was sliced off. Blood splattered all over the place as the Hollow howled in pain. In front of the mod-soul stood the true owner of the body he had stolen, Kai.

Kai swung his zanpakuto to get most of the blood of the blade before turning to face the impostor. The mod-soul was so surprised at Kai's sudden appearance that he stuttered as he said, "Y-You. Why? Helping me out-"

Kai grabbed the modified soul by the front of the shirt and jerked him forward. "Look at you, you're hurt! Whose body do you think that is!?" He turned his head to look at the Hollow that was starting to get back up. "If a weakling like this can beat you up, then don't even think about fighting it!"

The mod-soul's eyes narrowed when he said, "What are you talking about? I'm fighting it because you didn't come soon enough!"

"Shut up! You call yourself a battle specialized mod-soul!? Shame on you!"

"What did you say!?"

The Hollow let out its eerie howl as it lurched forward at the two arguing men. Kai and the mod-soul both looked at the creature and yelled, at the same time, "Shut up!" The modified soul lifted his leg and delivered a devastating kick to the Hollow's mask while Kai sliced its head in two with one powerful upper slash.

The Hollow screech as its head split into two, raining blood all over the roof. The force of both attacks at the same time sent the creature on an airborne trip toward the edge of the roof.

The mod-soul gasped and began to run to the other side of the roof as fast as he could. Kai called out to him, "Hey, what's wrong!?" but he ignored him. When the mod--soul got to the edge he jumped as high as he could, lifted his long legs and kicked the Hollow before it could fall into the schoolyard below. The creature desintigrated from the powerful blow.

The mod-soul began to descend off the three-story building but the real Kai got there in time to reach over the roof edge and grab him by the leg. As the mod-soul hung three stories high with only Kai's grip to keep him from falling Kai shouted, "What were you thinking!? Do you realize how reckless that was? Once you cut open a Hollow's head, it will be gone on its own! Why did you have to kick it up again?"

"I don't see anything."

Kai stopped when he heard the sound of voices below. He looked down and saw the three kids from earlier talking to the principal in the empty schoolyard below.

"Are you three trying to tease me?" the principal asked.

"No!" one of the kids shouted. "It's true, please believe us!"

"Then where is he, the bleeding college student?"

"But we really did see him..." another one of the kids said.

"If you three have time to make up stories like this then I assume you also have time to clean. You'll be taking care of the schoolyard cleaning tomorrow as well."

The kids followed the principal inside the school trying to make him believe what they were saying. As Kai watch them go he realized the modified soul was trying to protect them by keeping the defeated Hollow from falling over the edge and landing on them.

Audra

I ran up to them as the real Kai helped the mod-soul onto the roof. Blood was everywhere! But...they had done it. They had worked together! Maybe, the mod-soul would be satisfied and give Kai his body back...

I slowed my pace and smiled at them. "Great job, guys! Now, you " - I looked directly at the mod-soul - "get down here so I can take care of that wound!"

(Sorry if it feels like I'm taking over the storybook. I just need this part of the story to be perfect to properly introduce the new character. After this we have two more "chapters" if you will before we get into the real plot. The first one is going to be Kai and Audra encountering a special Hollow and the second one is going to include the introduction of yet another character, plus discovering Audra and Stella's powers. I've got it all planned out.)

Kai and the modified soul came down and met up with the others. The mod-soul sat down so Audra could take a look at his wound. Stella helped Audra however she could with patching up the wound. Kestrel and Mr. Hill kinda stood off to the side.

"Where's Ichidan?" Audra asked as she helped the mod-soul take off his shirt so she could get a better look at the wound.

He explained how after Ichidan's phone died Kai felt the Hollow's presence back at the school. Knowing that the kids from before might have been in danger he ran as fast as he could, leaving Ichidan in the dust. The former Death God had yet to show up even after the battle, which showed just how far and how fast Kai had to run to get back in time.

When he was finished he looked down at the modified soul and said, "Didn't you hate those kids?"

The mod-soul looked down when he said, "Is that so wrong? If I didn't help them, they'd be dead, and I can't let anyone die." He let out a sigh before continuing, "Right after I was made, the Soul Society issued a purge order on all mod-souls. Which means, my day of death was decided right after the day I was created. I..." He closed his eyes, as if remembering a terrible memory. "While inside that pill I trembled everyday... as I watched my buddies disappear one-by-one. Although I somehow managed to escape from the warehouse by hiding among other pills, I was afraid that one day I would get caught and be destroyed."

He opened his eyes again and looked directly into Kai's eyes. "I gave it a lot of thinking while I was afraid. Why should my fate be decided by others? Why is it I can't decide my own fate?" His voice got louder when he said, "Isn't living and dying your own choice!?" He let out a hiss from the pain in his shoulder.

"Don't move so much," Audra told him, "you'll make the wound worse."

The mod-soul nodded, acknowledging Audra's words. He continued, "That's why I don't kill anyone, and I don't want anyone to die in front of my eyes."

(It's someone else's turn to post now, and it has been for about four days.)

Stella-

I patted him on the wrist. "I get it," I said softly. "Of course you have a choice."

Kai looked at me, as if about to protest. I didn't know much about this, but it wasn't right. Genocide never was. To create a race, then kill it off again so it wouldn't bother you? This thing was some sort of clone, parasite, but it still didn't deserve to die because of what it was.

I squeezed the sides of the wound together and pressed down on it. The mod-soul let out a quiet hiss of pain.

"We should really be cleaning this first," I observed, uselessly. "Elementary first aid. But it shouldn't be infected." The others were quiet, clearly all thinking.

"You alright Kai?" I asked. He nodded.

"That's sobered you all up a bit," I said. "Your shoulder should be okay, as long as you don't put too much strain on it over the next few days. I'm sure the Soul Society can do without this body for a couple of days, can't it?"

*sorry, that's all I got*

Kestrel

"Give me my body back!" Kai said, his tone still sharp but a little more reasonable. He seemed to have accepted that this mod soul had done the right thing and deserved to live. But he wanted his body back.

"And what do I do?" Mod Kai demanded as Stella and Audra began to bind the wound with a sleeve torn from proffessor Hill's shirt. "You don't know what it's like to have no body of your own. It's awful!"

There was silence for a moment as everyone considered this. Kestrel shivered slightly, wishing she had worn a jacket: it was growing colder and the breeze was picking up.

"Isn't there something we can do, Ichidan? It doesn't seem fair that he should no longer have a body, that he..." she paused, thoughtfully. "He should at least have a name."

"A name?" Mod Kai asked. "And what good would that do me?"

"It would give us something to call you if nothing else," Kestrel replied.

___________________
Sorry it's so short!

Audra

I nodded. "Besides, right now, we can't keep calling you Kai. We might get confused before too long!" Which wouldn't be good, considering this is my boyfriend! I bit my lip at the thought...Other than their behavior, there was no way to tell who was the real Kai and who was the clone.

The mod-soul seemed to consider that, watching us all nervously. He had a right, though; he was afraid of being destroyed, like a game file that was useless...



**All I've got. I'm hyped about my trip, starting tomorrow!**

Stella-

The mod-soul looked around at us all nervously.

"Don't worry, we won't hurt you," I said, tying off the shirt sleeve. It would do as a temporary bandage until I could get him somewhere clean with facilities. Once again at my words, I thought I received dark looks.

"Well, if no one's going to name you, I will. What names do you like?"

"Naming is a sign of attachment," Kai said. "You can't do that."

"I can't let him die either!" I said. "I don't know if he can survive without a body, but he certainly doesn't want to! Kai, can't the two of you compromise?"

"How? It's my body!" he said, bluntly.

"I know," I sighed. "I know," I repeated more quietly.

"So what, Stella," Kai said sarcastically. "Are you just going to keep a pet mod-soul?"

"He seems pretty harmless, and the others agree with me. Even you Kai. It isn't right just to kill him or leave him for somebody else to kill, is it?"

kestrel

"Don't say that word!" Kestrel ordered as Mod Kai's aura flickered slightly. "Don't say it," she repeated. "You're upsetting him."

"Upsetting him?" Proffessor Hill raised an eyebrow and Kestrel nodded.

"Yeah... his aura flickered," Kestrel explained. "Let's not discuss this here. We'll drive back and on the way, he can choose a name and we can all take some time to cool down and recover. Okay?"

"Who put you in charge?" Kai grumbled but he agreed grudgingly and Ichidan seemed eager to be moving on. In fact, only Mod Kai seemed reluctant to go but after a few moments, they all climbed into the car - with Mod Kai in the passenger seat as was his demand - and Ichidan driving.

They all filed out of the car one-by-one when they got back to the college. Kai and the mod-soul had been arguing the whole time about how they would share the body. Kai was, of course, against it. They would obviously have to compromise on something.

As they walked through the parking lot they saw a man standing in front of the school entrance. As they got closer they found out it was Urahara, the man who had given the soul candy to Ichidan in the first place. "Well, well, just when I've finally found you..."

"Urahara?" Kestrel asked, "What are you doing here?"

He came forward and stopped in front of the mod-soul. He had with him a cane that he pointed at the modified soul's head. The tip of the cane had the same fire skull picture that was on Ichidan's glove. "I came to collect the defective goods I sold to Ichidan, I've got to look after my customers after all." He tapped the mod-soul in the forehead with his cane. The piece of wood went straight through his head like it was water and out the other side came the little green candy that had started all this trouble.

Kai's body fell to the ground, motionless. Even though the cane went through his head there wasn't even a mark. The soul candy bounced a few times on the pavement before rolling to a stop, at which point Urahara picked it up. With a cheerful voice he said, "Collection complete. I'll see you all later."

"Hey, wait a minute!" Kai grabbed Urahara's shoulder. "What are you going to do with that?"

"Going to do?" Urahara asked. "Destroy it, of course."

Audra gasped. "But... but, you can't do that!"

Before anyone could say anything else Ichidan snatched the little green pill from Urahara's hand. "I never knew you were such a greedy merchant," he said.

"Y-You can't take that," Urahara protested.

"What? Urahara, does your store just take back what a customer bought without refunding them?" Ichidan tossed the pill up and down in his hand.

"Then I guess I'll pay you back," he said.

"There's no need, I'm satisfied with this product." Ichidan narrowed his gaze when he said the next part. "Plus, as a man working outside the laws of Soul Society you don't have the obligation to go out of your way to collect these things."

Urahara stared at Ichidan for a moment before sighing, "Then it won't be my problem. If trouble occurs, I'll just be hiding myself."

Ichidan chuckled. "Don't worry, I'm used to trouble nowadays." He walked over to Kai and held the green pill toward him. "Here." After a moment's hesitation Kai held out his hand and let Ichidan drop the pill in his palm. "Let's go."

Urahara was about to leave, too, but stopped and turned to Kestrel. "If you've finished your classes for today we can pick up where we left off yesterday, Kestrel."

Kestrel

Kestrel looked across at Urahara's aura, considering for a moment. Had he really been going to destroy Mod Kai? Had he? And if so, was this the sort of man Kestrel wanted to be training with? She realised then that it might be the only man and that didn't make it right but she needed a teacher, she wanted to be able to help. She glanced back at the others, noting the shimmering aura of the pill in Kai's hand and was surprised to find that it was not only the exact same shade as Mod Kai but it also seemed to flicker and to throb, as if with awareness and emotion. How strange, but what did that mean? Kes wanted to know.

"Okay," Kestrel said. "Bye everyone, see you all later," Kestrel moved forward to hug Stella goodbye, embracing the girl gently but with a fierceness that surprised her. How close events had brought them, she'd never thought to find a friend like Stella.

"Meet in my room tonight to exchange stories?" Stella whispered.

"If I don't end up staying out for the night again," Kes agreed before following Urahara away from the school and down the road. She turned briefly to wave but already they were all walking the other way and she felt an emptiness, watching them walk on without her. She turned again and began to walk alongside Urahara. They didn't speak at first and Kestrel, who depended on sound and smell, found the silence particularly uncomfortable and tried to start a conversation:

"What's the lesson today?" Kestrel asked.

"You will know soon enough, or perhaps you won't," Urahara answered.

The sun was already setting when Kai, Audra, Ichidan and Stella made their way back to the dorm. Mr. Hill had left to drive back to his own home. Kai had gone back into his own body but found the pain in his shoulder to be annoying. When he stopped and placed an arm on his bandaged shoulder Ichidan asked, "What's wrong, Kai?"

Kai made a sound the closely resembled a growl when he said, "Damn it, using my body the way he wants." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the small green pill. "I'm talking to you! Are you listening!?"

Both Audra and Stella shook their heads. "What do you think people are going to think if they see you yelling at a piece of candy?" Audra asked.

Kai sighed and turned to Ichidan. "Ichidan, what should I do if I want to complain to him directly?"

"You'd need to insert it into a body without a soul, which means a dead body."

"As if," Audra said, "like we're actually going to go looking for a dead body." But even as she said the words she caught her boyfriend searching the surrounding area with his eyes. "Kai!"

"What? It doesn't hurt to look, does it?"

Stella noticed a group of garbage cans leaning against the side of the building. On top of one of them sat a old stuffed lion. She went over to the cans and picked up the toy. "Ichidan, basically all you need is a container, right?" she asked.

"But that's going too far..." Ichidan stopped when a thought occurred. Wait, the body I'm in isn't a real body either.

"Ichidan?"

"Hmm... Well, I guess we won't know for sure unless we try."

"Eh, seriously? So what do I do?" Kai asked.

"Well, it's a pill so maybe you should put it in its mouth?" Audra suggested.

Kai handed the pill to Stella so she could slip it into the stuffed animal's mouth. They waited a few moments for something to happen, but nothing did. "It didn't work after all..." Stella said.

Kai took the stuffed animal from Stella so he could get a better look at it. He suddenly started shaking it up and down, holding it by the arm. "That hurts, you idiot!"

Everyone gasped when the stuffed lion suddenly spoke. The toy used Kai's face for leverage as it jumped out of his grip. It pointed an adorable paw at Kai and said, "You, Kai Okami, duel me again!" It took it a few moments to realize how tall Kai was. "W-What!? Huge!" He looked at himself to compare. "Wait, I'm just short. What is this!? My hands became kind of pretty!? And why am I cuddly!?"

Kai smiled and said, "Hey, mod-soul." He kneeled down in front of the stuffed toy. "I believe our discussion hasn't ended yet, has it?" Kai grabbed the mod-soul by the head and lifted it up off the ground.

"Let me go!"

Kai gave him evil eyes as he said, "I'll pet you with love, so be prepared!"

"Then I guess I will take you on in this body!" the mod-soul declared, but before it could do anything Kai squeezed its head tighter. "Ack! It hurts! It hurts!"

(Just so you know, this new character is going to be named Kon.)

Kon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kon_%28Bleach%29

Stella-

I grabbed the lion off Kai.

"There will be no fighting toy animals," I said, holding up the thrashing thing. "And for goodness sake, act more like a toy," I hissed.

Kai couldn't help but smirk at me. "And you don't look weird holding a toy animal."

"Oh of course I do," I said, waving him away. "Not like I care though. Look, if you want to have this discussion, have it somewhere private okay? Come on."

I began to walk. Kon began to struggle."You don't need to carry me!" he complained.

"Because I'm so totally going to let you walk of your own accord," I answered. "Or would you prefer if Kai would carry you?"

"Is he going to hurt me again?"

"Oh most probably," I said cheerfully, turning round to the others. "Are we going, or staying or what?"

They all came back to Kai's room to think about what to do with their new companion. Audra sat on the bed with Kai, Ichidan leaned against the desk and Stella leaned against the door. She was still holding the stuffed toy.

"So, what are we going to call it?" Audra asked.

"It better be something cool!" the toy exclaimed. He hopped out of Stella's grip and landed on the floor with a cute squeak. He pointed at Kai when he said, "I won't forgive you if it's not!"

"How about Kon?" Kai suggested.

"What kind of name is that!?" the toy yelled, "I said nothing cute!"

Kai smirked when he said, "You're the cute little sidekick, sidekicks are supposed to have cute names."

"What!? Since when did I become a sidekick?"

"Ever since you were downgraded to a stuffed animal," Kai answered.

"I like it," Audra said. "It's short and easy to remember."

Ichidan nodded. "I agree."

"Me, too," Stella added.

The toy, now known as Kon, slumped and mumbled, "This is so humiliating..."

"So, who's going to look after him?" Stella asked.

Kon pointed at Audra. "I can stay with Audra, she won't treat me as badly as Kai."

"Try again, little guy," she said. "After what you pulled in the cafeteria I'm not sleeping in the same room as you."

"Uh, okay..." He kept his arm outstretched as he turned to face Stella.

"My roommate doesn't like regular stuffed animals, let alone a talking one. Frankly, neither do I."

With his arm still outstretched he turned to Ichidan next. "Guess again. The last thing I need with my work is another distraction."

Kai reached down and grabbed Kon by the head, lifting him up so they were at eye level. "Looks like we're going to be buddies from now on. Won't that be fun?"

Kon shuddered in his grip and mumbled, "Help me..."

__________________________

Later that night Kestrel was in the training room with Urahara under his store. He hadn't told her anything about the training they would do today on the walk over.

"What am I going to be doing today?" Kestrel asked.

"Now that you know how to use your gift to sense spirit particles it's time for you to learn how to manipulate them." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the pearl they had used for the last exercise and handed it to Kestrel. "As you know this pearl has reiatsu inside of it. Spirit energy is always moving, to humans it is like a second blood stream. If at anytime a spirit particle stops moving it's only because it has died out. Can you feel the pearl's reiatsu flowing inside it?"

Kestrel concentrate for a moment and felt the pearl's spirit energy moving around like a tiny whirlpool. "Yes, I can feel it."

Urahara nodded. "The reiatsu in the pearl is moving clockwise. Your job tonight is to manipulate it to flow counter-clockwise."

"How do I do that?" she asked.

"It's not something I can explain with words. If you focus hard enough you will find the key."