For the first time in Monica's high school career, she has arrived early to class, Zenith noted. Zee was awake when Monica wrote the letters, so while he hadn't contributed to their cheesiness (if anything, he stopped Monica from writing anything explicit), he was well aware of everything written on them.
Which is why, he thinks, Monica was so early, seated proudly and with great posture, in her assigned seat. Since she doesn't look like she's going to do anything questionable at any given moment, Zee stopped focusing on her and went back to the book he found. It was kind of a joke, it's main theme being alchemy and other miscellaneous magic type subjects. It was good enough, it provided stories about the demons and spirits behind each spell so it kept him busy.
His attention was removed from a spell concerning teleportation and brought to the loud conversation being held between two friends that had just arrived, one of them, he recognized as Kurosaki or Ichigo or whatever his first name was and the other must've been one of his friends. Actually, now that he's looking, he can tell the conversation was fairly one-sided.
When Ichigo told the guy to shut up, he heard the name Keigo. Oh yeah, he sits next to me, he suddenly remembered, his face was relatively forgettable.
Keigo evidently wasn't affected by Ichigo's harsh words and continued with his whining, "How can you of all people get a love letter?" He wiped invisible tears from his eyes and continued, "My little Ichigo is growing up, some girl is in love with you!" Wow, that was a quick change. That guy acts like Monica at the very peak of some obsession, on meth.
Speaking of Monica, Zee looked back to his friend. She wasn't paying attention to the conversation, too busy with whatever she was doing. It wasn't too obvious from Zee's position behind her, but could make an educated guess and say she's drawing.
The bell rung rather suddenly and there was a rush of students entering the class and settling into their seats. A few minutes later, when everyone was calm, Ishida walked in with a faint blush on his cheeks.
The teacher entered and apologized for being a few seconds late, he set his things down and began the lesson. Zee let his focus drift, after a conversation with Monica, he realized that doing his work here was kind of pointless, but it was still hard to break the habit.
It was weird how they were in Japan but everyone spoke English, just adding to the unsettling feeling from being there. It was for the best, of course, it would've been a disaster if all they could do was sit and wait and hope that they could return. At least now they can do that, as well as entertain themselves while they wait.
Going between his book and thinking about random things passed the time fast enough and eventually the bell rang for break. It was kind of a surprise when Ichigo walked up to Alicia's desk and put all the candies he'd received from Monica on her books.
"Look," He said calmly, "I don't want to hurt you but I really can't have any sort of relationship right now," And everything in Zee's brain stopped, even he could feel the embarrassment radiating off Alicia. Monica's ridiculous giggle definitely wasn't helping.
Alicia standing up was enough to kick-start Zee's brain back up. A punch to the orange-haired kid's abdomen seemed to release all of her anger. Zee knew the guy was some sort of fighter and it probably didn't hurt too much but the element of surprise was on his friend's side and therefore, she got him good.
Monica's laughter just got worse with the turn of events, and it looked like all that did was motivate Alicia, "I am in no way interested in you, and I'm not so unoriginal as to put a love letter into your locker, even if I was. Which I'm not. So maybe look around and realize that maybe, just maybe, whoever left that note was someone you actually know. You're so dense," She took a deep breath and walked towards Monica.
Monica waved sloppily, steadying her breath from the laughing, "So? How was class?" She asked, a seemingly innocent smile on her face.
Alicia just grunted, she was seriously considering just telling Ichigo straight forward that Ishida wrote the letter, but Ishida was still in the room and that would crumble this already terrible plan to nothing. "I hate everything," She spoke in a harsh whisper.
Monica looked next to her, the blue eyed boy she talks about so much was packing up his things and preparing for next period, "I would say 'me too', but how can I?" She got up, "Looks like neither of them have any idea, time to pull out the big guns," Again, the ominous feeling returned.
Alicia placed a hand on Monica's shoulder, not allowing her to leave, "What are the 'big guns'? I hope they're not stupid and are just an actual plan," She can hope all she wants, but knowing Monica, a plan is the last thing on her mind
Alicia probably should've known the second Monica mentioned anything concerning the candy she bought from Urahara's shop. She should've known even more after recognizing the infamous hollow bait Monica had pulled out.
Too bad, so sad, it was too late. Monica threw the pill shaped death sentence to the ground and stomped on it with her foot. Only seconds passed when they heard the first few roars from a pack that evidently wasn't too far away. Monica yelled some sound of achievement and ran towards the noise.
Her two friends followed, trusting her at least enough to doubt she'd lead them to an early death. Alicia really wished Monica could tell her what the hell was going through her brain, though.
When Alicia and Jazmine arrived, only a minute or so after Monica, Monica's body had doubled, obviously she's gone into soul form. Zee followed soon after, pulling out a soul candy Monica had forced onto him and popped it into his mouth. His shock wasn't as severe as the first time, he had been expecting it this time, but Zee was sure he'd never get used to the feeling of his soul leaving his body.
Alicia stared at her two friends and groaned. She reluctantly dragged herself to Monica's body and went through her bag to find a soul candy for herself, "I still think this is stupid," She muttered more to herself than to Monica and ate the candy.
Now, our three protagonists stand confidently (ok, well Monica was confident, Alicia and Zee stood a little hesitantly beside her), facing the challenge that is a pack of hollows who had just sensed their spirit energy.
Alicia tried to back up, she may not be able to sense people as well as Monica, but she could definitely sense that this was a life or death situation and it's starting to lean a little over to the death side. Her backing up didn't last too long though, as Monica grabbed her hand and pulled her forward again.
Monica looked over to her, flashing a goofy smile, "Don't worry, the plan still stands," She turned back. Alicia can see from her position that Monica also has a struggling Zee on lock down.
There was another hollow cry and Alicia really thought she was going to faint when said hollow darted towards them, only killing intent in its stance. "Monica, we have to run," Alicia's tone had nothing but worry threaded through it.
The hollow must've been centimetres away from them when an arrow was shot between its eyes, it wasn't enough to kill it, but it definitely sent the hollow spiraling backwards. Alicia span around, spotting the archer a few feet away, this was her plan?
Everything happened in a flash, Monica slipped back, saluting Uryu with a wink and ran past him, friends still in her grasp. When they were safely behind a tree a good distance away from the pack, the sounds of the fight still shot through the air, it was loud enough for it to feel like there was only a thin wall separating them.
Monica sat on the grass, knees pushed to her chest and she gave some sort of victory laugh, "Now all that's left is Ichigo-" She made a startled noise and quickly huddled her two friends closer, "Alright, he's here."
Zee tried pulling away with no such luck, "What the hell, Monica?" Already frustrated with their encounter with the hollows, he couldn't help but yell.
Monica shushed her, seemingly unaffected by the raised voice otherwise, "I'm canceling out our spirit energy, it won't work unless I'm near you and I don't wanna put us in danger," Why they would be in danger so far away from the fight was beyond both Zee and Alicia until it hit them that Monica wanted to move closer.
Alicia struggled away, "No, no, that's stupid," She said, leaning back against the tree, "We're not going back there," She said with a finality she hoped would work against Monica.
At a loss for words, less because she was surprised and more because she was well aware of how dumb this was, but needed to be there for her plan to work, "I know, I know," She got up from what she calls her 'delinquent stance' and stretched out her back, stumbling around when she lost her balance, "I'll be back in like 10 minutes," Another smile and she was gone before either Alicia or Zee could say anything.
Monica kept her spirit energy carefully concealed, racing back to the battle. She tried her best keeping rational thoughts out of her brain, and she was doing pretty well. There was a rush of adrenaline through her body and her heart was beating really fast, she knew that was her body's way of telling her to stop, but she was able to keep herself motivated enough to continue.
Her friends kept asking her what the plan was exactly and she could answer with vague and short responses as much as she wanted, that doesn't change the fact that she was coming up with this stuff as it was happening. She whispered the infamous 'oof' to herself, as she did when she really didn't have anything to say but wanted to talk anyway.
She arrived at the scene, ok, time for the plan, she'd been thinking about what she should do ever since she left the notes in the boys' lockers. Most of it relied on Uryu following them home, which of course he did. By homeroom, she realized she needed Ichigo to be there as well, so what she was working on was a note requesting Ichigo to meet her at around the place she crushed the hollow bait, written by the same person who wrote the love letter.
Although stupid, and although Monica hated herself for it, her plan was to make Uryu the damsel in distress Ichigo needed to save. She heard somewhere that fear can be mistaken for love, the same-ish thing that happens when the kidnappee falls in love with their kidnapper.
She can't just send them to fight the hollows and expect Uryu to need to be saved, though. No, it's not that simple, maybe with Orihime or Rukia but not with him. She hoped that if she could get close enough to Ichigo and hold him back somehow, then she could cancel out his spirit energy and force all the hollows to attack Uryu. That should work.
If you don't look too closely at it, then yeah, it could work. She was well aware of the holes in the plan, painfully aware of them, she was putting her life in danger, afterall.
There were still a serious amount of hollows around, but Monica hoped a Menos Grande wouldn't show up, and she doubted one would show, but if it happened once, then...
She shook her head, thinking this out would not make it any easier.
A deep breath set her into action, she darted forward, and with her presence still concealed, was able to take Ichigo by surprise. That surprise was what she needed. She pressed her fingers to Ichigo's neck, a pressure point, and froze him in place, he's not really frozen, she just sent a shock of her own energy into his, making him think he's frozen... or something. If Ichigo was able to control his spirit energy any better, it wouldn't have worked, good thing he can't.
He wouldn't be frozen for long, as soon as Ichigo catches on, then he'll be able to break free. She has to work quickly. She canceled out his spiritual pressure, the same thing she had done to herself and her friends.
The effect was nearly immediate, the hollows stopped going after Ichigo and all targeted Uryu. Uryu probably would've been able to at least dodge the onslaught of attacks if he had at all expected them, but luckily for Monica (unfortunately for Uryu), he hadn't.
Monica didn't really want Uryu to get hurt, but for her plan to work, he needed to. So she let him get a little beat up, wincing every time a hit looked like it would leave a mark, even with Orihime's healing.
She knew neither would know she was there, Uryu since he was preoccupied with other things and Ichigo since he was desperately trying to aid his friend (soon to be more, a thought to help her with the sad sight). Chancing a glance at Ichigo's face, she noticed his gritting teeth and harsh expression.
Looks like it's time to go, she released Ichigo, relieved he wasn't able to break free and took off. There wasn't any more work to be done on her part and although she'd like to see the fruits of her stupidity, she couldn't risk being seen. She took off as fast as she could, she didn't have the ability to use anything along the lines of flash step, but running at her top speed seemed to do the trick.