The Lost Guardians

"Even with my powers...I just don't think I'm cut out for this." Julie said. "Even so, Leon shouldn't fear us, right? We wouldn't try to hurt him since he's in the same situation we are. " she let out a heavy sigh before hearing the tapping, followed by the yelling. "Speak of the devil....Coming!" she shouted as she rushed to the door, opening it. "You know you don't have to yell, you je-WHat the crap?!" she shouted as she saw Zoe. rushing out the door, shoving leon out of the way, she pratically glomped Zoe. "Zoeeeee!!!! I can't believe it! I didn't expect you to be here too!" she said.

While Zoe was gaping at Leon, she heard the door slide open, and an annoyed female voice came from the doorway. The next thing she knew, however, she was being tackled to the ground while the same voice shouted her name.

"Oof!" she huffed as the air was squeezed out of her lungs. Looking down, she caught sight of a familiar Asian face and gasped. "Juliana? What the hell are you doing here?!"

"I don't know~~~" She said as she got off of Zoe. "I fell asleep in front of my computer role playing again and I woke up in the middle of the street with my stuff. Next thing I know, I meet Leon and Bryan, then we found urahara's shop. Afterwarsd, I ate this pill and turned into a shinigami!" she said. "Oh that's right...Yoruichi! come on out!"

"Mah, mah, mah. What's got you all in a tut'?" asked the male-morphed voice of the cat as she trotted out and looked at the three. Her golden eyes trailed over Leon and Julie before falling on Zoe, instantly clicking onto what the Brit-turned Hollow had said moments before. After a few seconds the cat seemed to smirk

"Another one eh?"

Leon couldn't help but blink at the chatter between the two before he just sighed and thought nothing of it, trying to ignore the slight whack of familiarity at the name and tone. He silently brushed a lock of his long white hair out of his face before glancing behind Yoruichi, and skirting around her and into the building. A few seconds later and his voice could be heard shouting from the inside

"Heeey! Bucket-hat wants to chat with the newcomer!"

Zoe's eyes widened when the slender black cat appeared, and everything Juliana was saying faded into the background.

Oh my God! It's...

"Yoruichi-san!!!" she squealed, scooping the cat up into her arms and rubbing her cheek on the top of her head.

"....Why does everyone do that?" commented the cat before it jumped from her arms and span around, flowing into a full grown human woman within an instant. The curvy tanned form of Yoruichi grinned at them, while naked, before becoming a blur of light. Within a flash she was gone, and there were faint sounds of shouts in the house

Finally she walked out to meet Julie and Zoe, grinning madly. Following her was a certain red cheeked Hollow-teen, his eyes twitching. Trotting behind him was a certain bucket-hat wearing sandy haired blonde, his eyes landing on Zoe in an instant before he smiled and walked forward to meet her, a fan popping out and waving

"O'yoh! Leon told me the news, and safe to say, I understand more than you know. Now, you ready to step into the next great adventure? I presume he told you what you must decide between..."

His eye winked and he smiled widely

"Hopefully you don't make the wrong choice. Julie-chaaan here was certainly mad when Hollow-boy here became what he is!"

Leon just frowned at that, crossing his arms and staring at Urahara

"...You're a bloody prick, you know that?"

Kisuke just grinned.

Zoe sat on the ground, looking up at the cheeky pervert with a furrowed brow.

"So..." she started as she tried to collect her thoughts. "You're saying I get to choose whether or not I want to be a human, shinigami, or hollow? Is that right?"

"You're just too god dam happy, you know?!" Julie groaned, glaring at Urahara. "You even went crazy when he chose the Hollow! That's not right!" She elt out a small sigh. "Hey....tell us one thing before you change Zoe, too. When exactly are we?"

"Yup." nodded the fan wielding shop-keeper "Each has their own advantages, and disadvantages. Not to mention the slight risks..."

"If you choose the path of a Human, then you won't feel much of a change, except the structure within you will be released and you will gain the ability to wield spirit energy in the form of a power your body chooses through creation. Other than this you will still be Human to the very core." explained Urahara as he tipped his head.

"A Shinigami on the other hand is a lot different. Their power comes from self spawned spirit energy, and the power of soul. A Zanpakuto. They also have access to the Demon Arts and many other advanced techniques. Still, there is a price. If you become a Shinigami, you will be split from your soul, and will be, quite literally, half dead." trilled off the sandy-haired man

"Finally we come to the last one of the choices, and not one I recommend, as Julie here shows. A Hollow. A being that is corrupted in essence. I have no doubt you would gain the physical strength and speed demonstrated by Leon over here, but there are many unknown side effects. Thus far Leon has shown a slight increase in aggression, and high increase of cockiness." muttered Urahara as he turned to the boy in question

Leon just blinked.

Twice.

"Meh."

Urahara just chucked at that and looked at Zoe after a moment

"Well, have you decided?"

At the side Leon scattered over to Julie and bent down, whispering into her ear after making sure Urahara wasn't spying

"By 'when' I believe you mean 'when in the Anime' are we? I worked out before that we're one single day before Ichigo gets his powers. Hell, I think I saw Rukia dashing around last night, I'm sure of it." he muttered to her, making sure to give her a sign to keep it quiet around Urahara and Yoruichi

Zoe sat cross-legged on the floor with her head propped up on her hand. It wasn't really that hard of a decision to make (in her opinion), but she still wanted to make sure she wouldn't regret anything.

Alright. No turning back from here on out. I think I'll be...

"Shinigami," she said clearly, flicking her brown eyes back up to the perverted shop owner. "I want to be a shinigami."

"Idiot! What if Rukia saw you?" Julie whisered. "were you going to kill her or have her kill you? You're just as bad as my online friend!" She puffed her cheeks as she went back to Zoe. "Anyways, what exactly are we suppose to do? Be the heroes of Seireitei rather than whats his face?"

"Okay!"

Without another word he took out a small metal box the size of a candy container and then opened it, to reveal a single strange pill, the same pill Bryan and Julie had eaten to become a Shinigami. It was unknown where Urahara had gotten these from, but safe to say it seemed they would only work for certain people, and Zoe was one of these

"Simply eat this, and you will be a Shinigami almost instantly. Your mind should follow instinct in how to go back and forth with your spirit form, not to mention summon your sword!" grinned the shop keeper as he held out the box

Leon just scratched his head

"Question, why was mine..painful?"

Urahara blinked before he stared at him like he was an idiot

"You had your soul chain ripped out, your body and mind corrupted, and your form reshaped. You're not really going to get out well and fine with that in mind."

"Well sorry for being idiots, perverted creep." Julie said sarcastically as she put her hands on her hip. "You're more creepier than Mayuri at the moment..." At that moment, she shuddered.

"I can't believe I'm doing this," Zoe muttered as she slowly reached her hand out for the candy. Holding it between her fingers for a moment, she studied it while also preparing herself. "Here goes nothing."

She popped the candy into her mouth, and not two seconds later, she felt a strange pressure pushing on her. The next thing she knew, she was stumbling forward as her body fell limply to the floor behind her. She turned her eyes down on herself and gasped in surprise when she saw that she was clad in the black and white shihakusho of a shinigami, and a thin katana was tucked into the bright blue obi that was wrapped around her waist.

"Sweet Leprechauns dipped in fudge!!!" she shouted, jumping up an down. "I'm a freaking shinigami!!!"


(sorry that was kinda lame. I'm sneaking the computer, and I really need to get off)

"Yes, yes you are." Urahara smiled before turning on his foot and walking back into the shack-like store without a word. Yoruichi gave them a wink before turning around to follow the sandy-haired blonde, only to pause at the main door into the building, glancing over her shoulder at the trio and letting out a call

"You guys should come in and get some rest! Its getting late after all."

Leon nodded at that and turned away, not bothering to let her know that he had crushed his body-clock that much he could stay up for two days before feeling the full weight of the lacking sleep. Besides, there was something he wanted to try, and he couldn't do that in the building. Either way, he wasn't going to sleep just yet

"and jst WHERE do you think you're going?" Julie said, grabbing his hair. "There could be a possibility you would run into a shinigami...like rukia. What would you do? you wouldn't kill, now would you?" she said matter-of-factly. "It's getting late, we should rest."

"W-what-HEY! You think I'm stupid enough to take on Rukia?"

Leon rubbed his head as he managed to get his hair out of her grip. He looked at Julie and crossed his arms, his amber eyes falling onto her and Zoe as a frown licked his Hollow-pale face without a word. Finally he sighed and spoke

"You just don't get it..."

He held up his palm and clenched it, as if pushing out his low uttered words, whispering

"You've seen what happens in the Manga and Anime. I, we, need to get stronger before everything goes to hell...."

"I know, I know!" Julie said, crossing her arms ."But you haven't sleep ever since we got here! It's gonna be bad for you if we do end up in a fight!" Sje turned her back and smirked. "Ya know...I could just tattle tale a lie to yoruichi..."

"Aah...fine."

Leon sighed before giving a brief nod, putting his hands in his pockets before turning on his foot and trotting inside, to go relax in one of the free rooms available. First thing he did when he reached one of the said rooms was simply kick back, his hand going in his pocket to draw an certain item, the only thing he had brought to the current world.

His old Ipod.

It was low on power, and there wasn't a charger wire in the world (from what he knew), but he just needed to check something within his images. After a few seconds of scrolling through folders of Bleach Manga and the alike, he came to a single image, a single page. Seconds ticked by, followed by minutes.

He stared at the image before switching the machine off and looking at the floor, leaning against the wall as he slipped down, his eyes closing.

Julie headed inside and turned around, waving her arm. "Zoeeeee! Come on!" She said as she continued inside. She got into a room and practically collapse on the bed layed out on the floor. "stupid....timezones....so tired...."She muttered as sne adjusted herself into sleeping position. "I just wish my Ipod was alive....same for my DS..." she muttered before closing her eyes and falling asleep. ~I wonder if we could be in the Gotei 13...~

Zoe followed Julie into the room and watched with a sweatdrop as the girl flopped down onto a bed and fell asleep, muttering to herself. With a sigh, she peeked back into the hall and saw her body still laying on the floor. She let out a tiny yelp and scooted back over to the shell and, after five minutes of staring at it blankly, finally found herself back in her own skin (quite literally).

Uttering another sigh, she returned to the room, set her bag down, and curled up, using her arms as a pillow. Within minutes, she too was asleep.

The next morning the house was awoken to a rather large bang. It had came from the eating section of the house, with a trail of cursing following it. Leon rubbed his eyes as he yawned/growled, standing within said "kitchen" as he tried to search around for something to make breakfast with. Pity that Urahara had more cuboards and hiding places than the UK bank.

Safe to say, the blonde-now-white-haired Hollow teen was not a morning person.

"This sucks so muuuch.."

Through the haze of sleep, Zoe heard a muffled bang from somewhere outside of the room she was currently sleeping in. Confused and tired, she decided to stay where she was until Julie awoke, then she would get up and explore.

"What the freak was that?" Julie muttered, yawning and rubbing her eyes. "Can't we sleep a bit longer? It's too early~~~~" She ignored the fact that the alarm clock neraby said 10am.

Zoe, having heard Julie's complaint, sat up with a yawn, rubbing her eyes blearily. Keeping them closed, she reached her arms above her head and arched her back like a cat, stretching out the stiffness of sleep.

"What are we supposed to do here anyways?" she asked her Asian friend sleepily as she staggered upright.