A/N: This story has brought me a few new experiences as a writer. One was writing without having the main character and focus of the story as the narrator. Now in this chapter I write a fight scene with an enemy the narrator cannot see and the main character kinda has a flashback that he doesn't narrate. It was interesting from my side of things.

Chapter 8: Acceptance

"A hollow? What the hell kind of timing is that? You just said something about it!"

Will sighed, "I just have really bad luck today I guess." Turning east he gestured down the road the opposite way, "It just appeared in this world, but I don't think it noticed us yet. Get going, I'll take care of it."

"With a broken shoulder?"

"I don't give off any aura, it can't detect me without directly looking at me or hearing me. I can get the jump on it. Once I get my hands on it there's a good chance it will be totally defenseless."

"Are you nuts? All it has to do is turn your direction before you get to it and then your helpless. I'll come with you."

He shook his head, "You won't even be able to see it."

At the time, I didn't know that he normally couldn't see them either. If I had, I would have called him out on it, "That doesn't mean I can't distract it. I'll play it smart and-"

"No."

"I'm helping whether you want me to or not. You'd think Mr. Empath would know that already."

Will grumbled, "That's not how empathy works, but fine. Just keep low and behind big things. Avoid easy to flip vehicles if there are any. These things are normally pretty large and strong. You wouldn't want to get compacted by a compact car."

"That was a terrible joke."

"I know, let's go. When we get closer to it we split up and flank it."

"Right. Just let me know when."

He jogged down the street and I followed, I could sense it vaguely, and knew we were going the right direction, but I might as well have been going in the fight completely blind. It was stupid, I know; but there was know way I was going to let one of my closest friends go into a fight with anything, especially a monster, alone.

"It sensed us," Will gritted his teeth and pointed to an alley, "and it's closing fast. Get to cover."

I listened, booking it into the alley and hiding. I made sure to stick very low and close to the wall. Even if it came through the wall I was at, something large would pass over me and the rubble wouldn't get me directly. I glanced over to the other side, and Will was already hidden. I didn't know where he was, and that meant neither would the hollow. Which I couldn't see... An invisible enemy wasn't going to stop me though, I'd just have to follow my instincts.

Six craters about the diameter of a saucer appeared in the ground right in the middle of the street and the ground shook. Something big and bug-like had landed and from the new craters forming after that and the rumbling, I could guess that it was looking around. I focused on the way the craters formed and tried to figure out which way it was facing. It only took a moment, but a moment later it became clear for another reason. I spotted Will, and he had a confused expression on his face. Then I could tell the thing turned to look right at him. For some reason it had sensed Will and not me.

Will shouted, "Why the hell can I already see it?"

I had no time to compute what he meant, because he was forced to dodge a strike that left a series of five gashes in the building next to him. The dodge was incredibly fast, Will was nearly twenty feet from where he started in the time it would take to make one step. I was amazed.

Will was too. "What the?"

Something seemed to occur to him, but I didn't have the chance to ask what it was. My friend hopped up and put up an defense to reduce the impact of the hollow's next attack, which still sent him flying. I felt a vibration in the air, and a feeling in my gut told me that for some reason the hollow had cried out in pain. Will meanwhile had rolled with the landing, grabbing his bad shoulder once he had his footing back.

He spoke though the pain, "It touched my arm. Touching me burns them." he doubled over slightly. The hollow started throwing a tantrum.

"What's wrong? Is it your shoulder?"

"No..." he had a small spasm as he tried to speak, "Ugh... it's another bad one. These are not fun at all. You need to run. You really need to run."

"I'm not leaving you. You're clearly not going to be able to do this alone."

"Then when I rush him count to one, then run forward, kick right at that parking meter and then evade back and right immediately."

"Okay."

"Right after the kick, move as fast as you can out of the way. No delay, Back and right."

"Got it. Kick meter, get the hell out of the way."

Will started taking off his shirt, it took me a second to figure out that he was trying to maximize the use of his power by exposing more skin to the thing. "And the next time I say run, I really really mean it. Okay?"

"I-"

"No arguing. When I tell you to run, you really should run. Really. Understood? No stubbornness or staying to help. The next run means run."

"Fine."

There was the feeling of another yell from the hollow and Will shouted right back, "Come at me then!"

The thing rumbled forward, leaving dents in the ground as it came. Will rushed it with another display of impossible quickness, I counted to one and followed, doing a jump kick aimed at the meter so that when I hit something, I was able to turn it into a back flip. Pretty much the instant I was clear, five long gashes appeared in the ground. My attack hadn't been enough though. There was no give at all from the impact. I looked around to see where Will was and saw him not far from the gashes, his arms and legs wrapped around something the width of a light post. The air vibrated again as the creature was in pain.

"I'm on the left hand. It's like a bug centaur." Will yelled, his voice labored. The creature lifted him into the air, at a certain point, "Head level was right there. Ugh... right at when I said head."

I checked to see where it's feet were, where the hand Will was on was, and put all the information together to imagine where every part of the creature was. I moved in to kick harder at where I thought the leg was, this time the strike sank in ever so slightly, so I went again. The second kick missed so I followed my gut and evaded backwards and to the side of the thing, getting out of the attack arc and getting some distance to aim again.

Will was slammed into a storefront window, then into the wall next to it as the creature kept screaming soundlessly in pain. I charged in again, "Let him go, you ugly bastard!"

I went with a spinning side kick, throwing every bit of force I could muster into where I assumed was the side of a knee. It buckled a little, then felt like I shattered something shell-like, and a cold, gooey feeling flowed over my leg. I backed off, but slipped on what must have been bug goo or something.

When I looked up, Will was rocketing down at me too fast for me to dodge. The hollow was going to hit me with my friend! I only had time to process my fate when suddenly Will's course changed and he feel beside me instead.

"Ugh, this is why I hate using gigai. They are so slow." I glanced over and spotted a man in a strange hat standing a few yards away looking annoyed. Had he done that? I hadn't even seen him get there, much less attack the thing. I blinked and he was on the other side of the street, standing as if he'd always been there. "I step away for a few hours and you hollows forget about me. That makes me sad."

Beside me, Will started having spasms again, like he was trying to throw up. His face was twisted into a nightmarish look of sheer terror and pain, but it was like his face was trying to forcibly change to a different expression.

"Will, what's wrong? What's happening?"

"Can't... can't get it out. Can't..." his face wrenched as if every muscle in it were fighting against the horrifying smile that came over it for a moment before tears started following out hie eyes and he fought it back to agony, "R-RUN!"

"Will, wh-"

The smile came again... it was a look of twisted delight that made no sense. His face strained against it, like he was fighting emotions that weren't his with every fiber of his being, "RUN!"

I couldn't move... that expression... the pain it was causing him... I couldn't move. I could only stare at it in horror.

Will lunged at me, grabbing me not by the throat but by the jaw. He might as well have been choking me though because somehow it still felt like he was killing me. His face, against his will, was relishing in it, "I can't stop... you smell so wonderful!"

"What the," I struggled to speak, "Will, stop! Y-you're hurting me!"

He was grabbing me so tightly that I thought my jaw was going to snap, so tight I could feel his muscles twitching as if fighting against the action they were taking.

"Fight it! Please! Please don't kill me. Please!"

With a primal bellow, Will dropped me. His arm started turning purple, bruising. Bruises were forming all over his body as he yelled in anger and agony. He was fighting whatever was trying to control him so hard... it was ripping him apart.

"WILL! MY GOD WILL!" I screamed.

With a final cry, my tortured friend fell over and started dry-heaving. He kept throwing up nothing until his lost consciousness. I just sat there, tears streaming from my face... I couldn't even make myself run over to him. The strange-looking man went over to his side and checked on him.

I barely managed to speak, "What... what just happened?"

"This must be Will." he turned to me, "That right there, little miss, was what happens when he tries to purify a hollow that was evil in life. That is the reason-"

Rukia's Perspective, the Day Before

"You have no business fighting hollows. You're powers are a liability." I stated point blank.

"Rukia!" Ichigo protested, "He-"

"Broke down in the middle of a fight? Nearly lost his mind?"

Ichigo had no reply for that. Billy didn't say anything. Honestly I was surprised he was in as good a mental shape as he was, but the teen was obviously still shaken. The three of us were sitting in his room like we had been not that many hours ago, but a lot of things had changed.

"Now that we know that is what will happen when he touches the large majority of hollows, we can't risk putting him in any more danger. Imagine if he had absorbed even more of that thing?"

Ichigo frowned, "I know that. Still, you don't have to put it like that."

"How do you want me to put it? There's no other way to say it."

"It's fine." Billy finally spoke up, "She's right. Right now I'm a liability."

"Billy-" Ichigo wanted to reassure his friend, but there was no words for the situation.

"I said it's fine. I'm worse than useless against ones like that. Even though I weakened it, if it had been any stronger you'd have had to protect me and Rukia for the rest of the battle. If I don't learn to control this, block out the hollow's evil or something, I could get us all killed."

"What you did for Sora was-"

"I don't even remember doing that, but you're right." Billy turned to me, "Can I at least help you track them down? If it's a good one I could still help and it would be good practice."

"We don't need help tracking them normally, and Ichigo can purify them using his sword. Your power doesn't serve enough purpose to risk your safety."

I could tell I should have worded that differently, calling something that caused him so much suffering useless wasn't the most sensitive thing I've ever done. "Fine. I see your point. I'll help keep an eye out and tell you if I sense anything. An extra set of eyes never hurt." he stood up, "I'll see you guys at school."

Ichigo called out to him, "Billy... I..."

"I said it's fine." Billy put on a weak smile, "I'll be okay. The simple life suits me a lot better anyway."

With that, he left the room and shut the door behind him. Ichigo wasn't at all happy, "Rukia, that last bit was out of line."

"I know. I regret saying it."

"I don't really think you get it." Ichigo pressed, "I understand how much that must've hurt. Every day of his life he's dealt with everyone else's emotions. The entire time living in fear that his powers would be discovered and people would start treating him like a freak. You can't have any idea what living like that is like! Then you go and call his ability useless?"

"I... didn't think of it like that." I replied, honestly kicking myself mentally for how inconsiderate I'd been. "I'll go apologize."

"Good. He probably took 8th Street, you can catch him there."

Hopping out of the window into the light of early morning, I made my way down the street. It was a Sunday so most of the streets were empty. Either people were downtown, sleeping in, or at church. Finding the right road was simple, but Billy was as hard to find as ever.

"Rukia?"

I jumped a little and turned around. I'd somehow managed to go right by him, "You have to stop doing that."

"I was standing out in the open! You walked right by me!"

I sighed, "I'm too used to sensing people spiritual presence before I see them."

Billy laughed half-heartedly, "So, what's up? You forget to mention something?"

"I came to apologize, I didn't mean to call your ability useless. I should have considered your feelings."

He genuinely smiled. It was as jarring as it normally was too. His face was normally so neutral, and his eyes so expressive, that every facial expression came across as much more intense. "Thanks. I appreciate it. Normally I wouldn't be bothered at all honestly, but after having that hollow in my head... I mean, he enjoyed killing people so much. How can someone like that even exist?"

"Would you like to talk about it?"

"Not really."

"I'd like to talk with you about whatever is on your mind. If I'm going to give Soul Society a report that will keep them from thinking your some kind of threat, I need to get to know you better."

He suddenly seemed down, but I wasn't sure why, "Not today. Some other time. If they show up and want to think I'm a monster, then so be it. I just want to sleep this whole incident off and move on to the next bit of nonsense."

"I see. Just let me know if you change your mind."

Billy nodded and walked away.

Yoruichi's Perspective, the Present Time

An hour after the hollow attack I came out of the back room and handed the medical kit to Kisuke, "Here you go. I got done treating his wounds and took the blood samples you wanted. They're in the bag."
Kisuke gave the bag a peculiar look, "This bag?"

"Yeah... what other bag did I just hand you?" I pointed at it, "That liquid stuff works wonders. I thought it was antiseptic and the healing was from my spirit energy, but it turns out all absorbing my energy does is make him appeal to hollows."

Kisuke took a vial out of the bag with the fluid in it, "You used this on the wounds?"

"Yeah. It's labeled 'For cuts'. Is something the matter?"

My friend shook his head, "No. I'm just surprised it worked on him. Give him the rest in case his gets hurt again. I only have that vial though until I get more delivered so use it sparingly. Also it reacts to the spirit energy of reapers, so if he doesn't have any he'll need a reaper to apply it."

"Alright. I'll give it to him and let him know." I looked around, "Where's the girl?"

"I had Tessai escort her home." he got a depressed look on his face thinking about it. "She was so shaken up after seeing him like that."

"I don't blame her."

He sighed, "Yoruichi..."

I knew him well enough to know what he was going to say. Glancing into the room where Will was sleeping, I had no idea how I was going to break it to him. It was going to destroy the poor guy. "She used the memory modifier didn't she?"

Kisuke nodded, "She couldn't handle it."

"Dammit..."

Next Chapter: Redemption

A/N: I know I said Uryu was going to appear this chapter, but it ended up not working out that way. Anyway, next chapter Will keeps trying to deal with the crap going on, gets to know Rukia a little better, and Uryu will likely make his entrance. Also, Kisuke seems to have discovered something about Will, but hasn't said what. What will his tests uncover? More on that later. ON a final note, I'm going to unify what people call the main character, as having different people calling him different things is troublesome. Orihime will still call him Markun, but which name (Will or Billy) do you guys prefer?