This week had to be the strangest of weeks Ichigo had had in seventeen months. First he is invited to join Xcution to become a fullbringer.
FLASH BACK
"Why do you want to give me the ability to fight hollows again?" Ichigo asked the man in front of him named Kugo Ginjou, whom was sitting across from him on a lounge a content look on his face after showing him the power of fullbring.
"I didn't say only hollows, but so you can protect again, is that not what you do? We, here at Xcution thought that since no one has actually tried to thank you for all you did to save the world of the living and dead," Ginjou said causing Ichigo's eyes to widen at knowing that the man in front of him knew about the winter war "that we would give you the power to fight again. Normally you can't just say to someone 'hey we're gonna teach you fullbring 'cause we want to'. No it doesn't work like that, you have to be thankful for the fact that the left over reiatsu has finished converging in your body and that you once had the powers of a hollow. The hollow reiatsu is a key part of fullbring, I'll explain why later, but so is being alive, only humans can gain this power, and if gained while alive it can greatly increase ones capability as a hollow or shinigami when they die."
"So you're saying that I can get a power like Inoue's or Chad's, and that it's possible for me to regain my shinigami powers through this power?" Ichigo said eyeing the man in front of him cautious, even if he was brought to the man by Chad, one of his best friends.
"Yes you can get a power like theirs, a fullbring, but it will be drastically different, just like almost no two zanpakuto are alike, you may find similarities but in conclusion they are different. You may or may not regain your shinigami powers while still alive, it is highly unlikely, as it is a power of the dead, but considering your heritage it's not impossible, the fullbring will just make sure that your damaged soul will be able to wield a zanpakuto again when you die by mending your soul chain and soul sleep. You see when you used that powerful move of yours to defeat the madman, you overloaded your reiatsu capacity and damaged both severely, it's a miracle you're still alive among the living or dead, you should have died moments after that. Fullbring is the key to building yourself up once more; it will also increase your lifespan as a human and slow down the aging process of your body due to the natural characteristics of hollows to simply not age at all. If you decide to join our Xcution, it is customary rules to state your fullbring abilities to the other members so that if needing to fight as a team in a time of need it will be a lot easier." Ginjou explained answering Ichigo's question as well as answering ones that were sure to pop up sooner or later, they always did.
Ichigo looked to be in deep thought for a moment with his head bowed down looking at his feet. Ichigo raised his head after a few minutes of thinking, weighing the odds. "Alright I'll join, when do we begin training?" Ichigo said, newfound confidence and determination showing in his eyes.
"Woah, woah, hold your horses" Ginjou said waving his hands in front of him while smiling at the fact of the possibility of gaining a new member for Xcution. "We haven't all introduced ourselves yet, if your going to join you should at least know everyone here," Ginjou said.
"He has a point" Ichigo thought looking around at the few faces that were in the room "I don't even know who the people are that are trying to help me." "Ah, sorry, hi I'm Ichigo Kurosaki" Ichigo said to the rest of the people in the room receiving several replies.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Giriko Kutsuzawa" a man looking to be in his forties said. He was dressed in a tailored suit behind the bar with an eye patch over his right eye.
"Yukio Hans Vorarlberna," a young looking boy said not looking up from the game console in his hand. He wore clothing that closely resembled that of someone who was wealthy although nearly all his clothing was black.
"Jackie Tristan" a dark skinned woman said sitting on another lounge in the large room. She wore simple civilian clothing except for her boots, which seemed to stand out a little against her clothing.
"Shūkurō Tsukishima" a pale skinned man said from the far corner of the room. He wore a white shirt and slacks. He seemed mildly interested in the book that he held closing it shut as he looked up to get a better view of the person he was introducing himself to.
"Well then," Ginjou said " the last member is Riruka Dokugamine, she should be here soon…oh here she is now" Ginjou said confusing Ichigo as he had yet to see the person enter the room until he heard the sound of the door at the front of the room open and a light skinned rather young woman entered through the door carrying a dollhouse.
"Well where is he?" Riruka spoke rudely "I can't see him, turn the lights up and get some more in…hey Ginjou is that your sword glowing over there, geez you're gonna have to pay for the tiles to get fixed" she said causing a look of turmoil and regret to show on Ginjou's face.
"Oh crap…I didn't think about that" Ginjou said retracting his sword, leaving a cross like pendant dangling on his necklace and a gaping hole in the tiles where his sword once stood. "Well then now that's over with lets get on with the beginning of your training, although fair warning, this training is not like your old training where you can continuously push yourself to your limits, you will be able to eventually but not for this first training session, maybe the next. We need to kick start the healing process and your body won't be ready to be wielding this power again quiet so soon, initiating the first stage of fullbring should be enough for today"
Soon after that Ichigo was given a quick rundown of Riruka's abilities with her fullbring she named dollhouse. Ichigo soon understood what she meant after she permitted him to enter and he was sucked into the dollhouse to be faced with a giant possessed pig plushy toy. It was so goddamn annoying and Ichigo had to fight that thing, it was at least three times his own size.
For the next twenty minutes Ichigo continued to run away from the thing trying to figure out how to initiate his own fullbring. Although when he hit the fifteen-minute mark that thing that was chasing him got even uglier if it was possible in Ichigo's opinion, it was already ugly. However this caused Ichigo to get the push he needed as well as some help thanks to Chad telling him that he needed to remember his pride as a shinigami. This caused a massive burst of black and red reiryoku from the substitute badge Ichigo was holding forming a tsuba like cross, similar to the one that was on Tensa Zangetsu.
Ichigo jumped out of the area he was hiding in and threw his badge at the mutated pig monster plushy hoping that this was the way that his fullbring worked only to be surprised when the badge stopped emitting reiastu and tapped the pig on the face, harmlessly falling to the ground.
"Crap, that's not the way to use it, and it can't cut I already tried that" Ichigo said to himself remembering when he touched the cardboard walls with it and that rather than cutting it was slightly dented instead.
Ichigo ran through the legs of the pig and picked up his badge causing it to once again emit the black and red tsuba. The pig turned around and charged at Ichigo who held up his tsuba hoping that it would act like a real guard should and protect him as the pigs fist came down upon him. Ichigo was confident once again when the tsuba had in fact actually blocked the attack and lightened the load of the force the pig put behind it so rather instead of crushing him it only sent him skidding back a few feet.
"The reiatsu…it's like the reiatsu in my bankai and a getsuga, maybe if I can release it…" Ichigo thought to himself prepping his right arm backwards and swinging forwards willing an attack to fly out of the tsuba and was gifted with a spinning tsuba that flew off right into the pigs face defeating it in one shot.
"Well Ichigo," Ginjou said once Ichigo had been released from the dollhouse "we'll call you when your soul has adjusted to using this power, it should only be about three or four days a week maximum, until then just continue on about life as usual," Ginjou said. "I don't expect you to trust us straight away, and you've been hearing those voices in the substitute badge haven't you, the soul society will start to monitor you again if they catch wind of all the changes that are happening to the badge, pas it here I'll remove the kidou, all it requires is pulling it off with bringer light. It only works with weak kidou so don't expect it to work for everything" Ginjou said receiving the badge from Ichigo and proceeding in removing the remaining kidou spells that were on the badge weakened by time.
Ichigo had had enough of the soul society monitoring him. He had known about it from the very beginning, from the instant Ukitake had handed him the badge, the way he worded himself to Ichigo gave that very fact away. He was all right with it at that point in time but now that he had no shinigami powers to speak of, he was annoyed that they thought they needed to know about his every detail in life, he wanted to get rid of it.
Receiving the badge back from Ginjou Ichigo went about his business and left the apartment block but not after receiving an official Xcution card from Ginjou who pulled one out of his jacket and handed it to Ichigo.
(A few days later)
Next he found a red calling card by a payphone a couple of days later and played twenty questions with a woman on the other end who seemed adamant in playing the phone machine voice that asked the questions to him while he answered by pressing one or two as the answer for the yes or no question. What the hell kind of question is have you ever bled blue blood? Well anyway, by the time Ichigo hit question sixty it started spouting knowledge about his life. Something was wrong, very wrong.
"Who are you?" Ichigo asked "That kind of info you were just spouting is under lock and key, no one knows about my life and death fights but me, a few of my friends and a shopkeeper"
"Does it really matter?" the woman answered back "I'm giving you a chance for another adventure and to give you power to replace the power you lost"
"So she doesn't know about my fullbring training then huh" Ichigo thought. "It does matter to me, because I'd rather live a private life that no one interferes in any longer, example spying on me, have you been following or watching me?" Ichigo said looking around for anyone nearby but could find none.
"No" the woman replied, "you merely interest me Ichigo Kurosaki, question sixty-three, do you want to go to psyren? Yes or no"
"I might find some answers if I say yes and I'm pretty sure I can handle whatever is thrown at me, although…I haven't come anywhere near my fullbring completion" Ichigo thought finally coming up with an answer.
"Well, what is it? It's a simple yes or no question" the woman said after waiting for a moment getting tired of waiting.
Ichigo pushed a button, "Yes"