Miyia has a minion!

Boo the Baby Ghost

CSS by Chen, images by Tite Kubo

The monster shattered, and the remaining fragments of its body turned to ash in the wind. Miyia's chest heaved with exertion, but he was not exhausted yet. Blood dripped from his fingertips - fingertips that were sliced through. His pride might, should things go well, but his skin did not hold up to the challenge he had made with the rogue Shinigami.

He ignored it. There was no time to worry, nor any need - so long as every Hollow died, neither he nor any innocent lives would be in jeopardy.

And he would make sure every single Hollow died.

A pair that resembled a mix between a frog and a bat roared. He gave them the full force of his leer, and pointed his shining bow - a challenge.

They paused, as though they had expected him to run, then charged.

In one swift movement, Miyia had taken aim between the monster's eyes, yanked the string of his bow as far back as it would reach, and fired off a single, shining arrow, a twin of which quickly followed. His quarries exploded. Another merely took their place. Behind it, many more.

Too many more. Miyia's face knitted, and the image of his grandfather filled his mind.

"I have not made a mistake, have I, sensei...?" he quietly asked the wind.

"I finally found you!"

Miyia turned. Behind him stood the grinning man with whom he had issued this challenge.

"Kurosaki Ichigo."

"Ishida. Heh... I finally found you!" he repeated.

Miyia wondered if he was proud of himself.

"This is a battle between you and me, so don't go telling me how many Hollows you've defeated! We're going to settle this just you and me, got it?!"

Miyia stood, frozen, eyes directed upward.

"Say something, would y-"

A strange noise cut him short. It sounded like a mix between tearing paper and cracking glass, and it came from directly above.

Ichigo, the Shinigami, was confused. They were outdoors. Hesitantly, he turned his gaze upward, toward the blue sky.

It was tearing. A giant, bone-white claw had poked through the sky, and it was tearing a massive hole.

"That's not all."

He turned to Miyia's voice, then to where his eyes were leading. The Hollows - the savage, animal-like Hollows - were gathering en masse, staring upward as though in prayer. Miyia charged at them head-on.

"Hey-!"

"Over here, Hollows! I, Miyia Ishida, the last Quincy, will be your opponent!"

Ichigo's face fell. This strange kid with abnormal spirit power, his incredibly dangerous challenge, the seemingly random hatred of him - it all made sense. A Quincy was a special kind of person that had been hunted to the very last breath... by the very Shinigami he now stood for.

Miyia, his high-school-age opponent, should not be alive.

It was a must, he had been told. When Shinigami killed, they purified the desecrated soul. When Quincies killed, the soul evaporated. This put an imbalance onto the world, and the highest ranks of Shinigami - Shinigami that felt a close comparison to a human being was an ant - felt pressured to eliminated them. It had been explained to Ichigo in many different ways, but he could not internalize any of them. Women, men, children - entire generations, entire families, culled. Just like that.

"Miyia!"

Miyia flinched as Ichigo appeared suddenly in front of him. The blood coating his hands made it impossible for him to retain his hold on his arrow, and he watched in horror as it sailed right for Ichigo's upper chest. The Shinigami responded by easily slashing the arrow in half, as though his power was nothing.

"What?" Miyia asked, thoroughly irritated.

"I know about the Quincies!" Ichigo cried. "I don't know who's right and who's wrong, but I do know one thing! This is - "

"Old news."

"What?"

"I said, old news," Miyia said, pushing his glasses back into place with a graceful, yet very bloody and torn, finger. "I only ever heard about that tale once from my sensei. To me, it's merely some legend. As for who's right - " a Hollow leapt at him from behind, and he split it in half with a swift arrow " - I felt that the Shinigami probably were. Imbalance is a serious thing." He turned, and Ichigo's brow knit. Spread across Miyia's face was a deadly glare. "That is, until my sensei - my grandfather - was killed before my very eyes."

"As the last surviving member of the Quincy, the Soul Society of Shinigami had him under tight watch. Sensei kept appealing to them - he wanted to work together. During peacetime, Shinigami are slow to act. Quincies, on the other hand, are never slow. We are here, in the human world, the battlefield itself, all of the time. He wanted nothing more than to help."

"The answer he got was always the same. 'Don't interfere with our work.'"

He paused, eyes closed. It was clear he was in pain, and Ichigo knew why - simply put, the Shinigami did not think of humans as beings. If their souls didn't keep the world from destruction, they would't even acknowledge them at all.

"His enemies that day were five massive Hollows. Without the Shinigami there to protect him, his fate was sealed. And, as usual, the Shinigami were very late."

"Had the Soul Society acknowledged the Quincy's utility, Sensei would not have died. He would have been helped in seconds. Do you understand, Ichigo?" Miyia asked, then walked toward the shinigami, whose face was a mix of sadness, shock, and confusion. Miyia paused before him, then seized his collar in his fist, yanking it upward. Ichigo grasped his bloodied wrist, startled. "Do you understand why I challenged you to see who was the best at fighting Hollows now, Ichigo?!" Miyia asked, eyes blazing. "In front of you, a Shinigami, I must prove the strength of the Quincy! No more lives," he said, dropping a disgruntled Ichigo to the ground, "will be lost to your arrogance."

"Your story is too damn long!"

Miyia flinched, shocked and insulted.

"W-What?"

"Your story," Ichigo growled, eliminated an entire row of Hollows with one swing of his blade, "is too long! I forgot the first half! But there's something I do remember, and it's this." He jabbed a finger in Miyia's face, earning a glare. "Your grandfather didn't give a crap about proving how strong Quincies were! He wanted them to work with the Shinigami!"

A horrible noise emanated from the sky, and a solid black behemoth peered through the opening. It was a Hollow, and with its size, it could certainly consume the entire town all by itself. The small Hollows rioted, squealing with what appeared to be a childish excitement. Miyia's jaw hit the floor, and Ichigo snapped it back in place.

"The best way to take on a large amount of enemies is back to back," Ichigo finished, grinning.

Miyia scowled. "What are you going on about? A Quincy and Shinigami, working toge - hey!" Ichigo had yanked him nearly off his feet to slice a Hollow that had gone to attack Miyia's unguarded back. Before Miyia could argue further, he was forced to shoot down another Hollow that had gone to eliminate them both.

"That's the ticket!"

"Don't be stupid! I did it to save myself!"

"I'll take it! You fight that half for you, and I'll fight this half for me."

Miyia, growling under his breath, put his back to Ichigo's. He did not like this at all, but the Shinigami was right. This challenge had gone way too far.

He could only pray that a single Shinigami was all the help he needed.