POSTED: 6/10/14
Sorry for the slow update, but laziness and life gets the better of us sometimes. I was also waiting for the first episode of the new redone version of Fate/stay night: UBW. so I kinda think that got in the way a little.
Anyway here's the next chapter. The beginning of the chapter isn't quite what I'd hoped so I'll be going over it again and potentially putting an updated version up later, but for now here you go, chapter three! R&R
Chapter 3: Mishaps
Shrinking backwards into the green Haori that sat upon his shoulders three sizes too big, Urahara clutched the striped bucket hat he normally wore all the time close to his chest in fear of its imminent death.
"Now, now Ichigo," Urahara chuckled nervously, a few drops of sweat trickled down his face showing just how much he feared for his beloved hat, "no need to get so angry, or are you forgetting just who helped you recover from your little fight with the Nevermore in the first place."
Ichigo faltered in his steps slightly as he approached Urahara. That crazed man, the insane bastard, who sent him against a Nevermore without warning of the consequences or how powerful the creature would be. The guy probably wanted him to be bird food for all he cared.
Now here he was, recovered and no longer smelling like the bowels of a Nevermore's diet and digestive acids. Holding up the black daito, Ichigo motioned in for an overhead strike to the shopkeeper, eliciting a whimper of fear from the man. "Well maybe next time you'll remember that you don't have to have the goal of trying to get your students killed." Ichigo said with an eerily calm visage.
That was true to some extent. Urahara had tried to actually kill Ichigo for his first training session as a soul reaper with him ever, while restraining himself to the appropriate power and skill level of course. Nevertheless, he still tried to kill Ichigo, and now, he felt it was time it came and bit him back in the arse. Oh the shame of having a student kill his loveable hat was almost too sad to bear living on anymore…hehe, living, he hadn't done that in a few centuries.
During the short time span of being lost in his own little wonderland of bad puns and seriously lame jokes Ichigo had swiped the hat from Urahara's grasp and jumped down the hatch to the training ground all in good favour of destroying the abomination that was at the forefront of anyone's mind that had met him before. Too bad for him, it actually made his overall appearance look a little better when he wore it.
"No! My loveable, adorable hat!" Urahara scampered to his feet and dived headfirst down the manhole that lead to his training grounds like superman would, holding two fists out in front of himself and screaming, "I'm coming to save you Mr Hat!"
Jinta, having been the only other person present in the store at that point in time, stuck his head around the corner from the front of the poorly taken care of store front and grumbled, "What a loser." Before bringing his head back around to face the empty store front that was void of customers…again.
Ichigo while down below, within the depths of the desert below the candy store of misfits, merely contemplated the ways in which he could destroy the hat that sat on the chest level boulder before him. He scratched the back of his head for seemingly the thousandth time feeling slightly guilty for being the one that would destroy the 'loveable' hat of Urahara's. Then again, the man didn't take any conscious note of whose belongings he destroyed so it didn't really matter in the end. It only proved that while Ichigo had at least some emotions beside his nearly ever-present scowl Urahara did not.
"A spectacular explosion would do." Ichigo mumbled to himself in thought. To bad he wasn't a fireworks expert like the Shiba clan over in the Soul Society. He would have to make do with just destroying the wretched thing with all of his might as an act of revenge against the insane shop keeper.
Drawing the black blade, his 'Aura' flared considerably as he swept the black blade around to the side and brought it overhead for a strike before the crazed man came to save it.
Swinging down Ichigo released the wave of energy tearing up a small trail of earth by the tail of the projectile, considerably smaller than when he had his powers. When the crescent of power struck the energy exploded upon contact, causing a shock wave to rock the ground slightly where Ichigo was. Had the hat been a moving target there would have been no doubt that it would have been able to easily avoid the strike. It appeared that with the strikes he now sent, even though they were rather powerful for any normal hunter, they were slow enough to allow an easy escape from the main strike. It was as though the blade in his hands though a perfect physical replica of Tensa Zangetsu, was nowhere near the same.
"Nooo!" Urahara's voiced cried out from behind him, his thundering footsteps coming to a halt just behind Ichigo.
Urahara collapsed to his knees a moment later and began sobbing profusely, "Why?!" Urahara turned his sad and frankly, to Ichigo, ugly face towards his student, "Why Ichigo?!"
"'Cause you're a dumbass, that's why ya idiot." Ichigo turned to leave only to have a twitching eye a moment later when he saw Urahara pull an identical hat out from within his green Haori.
"Good thing to plan ahead, don't you think Kurosaki-san?" Urahara calmly replied before he began whistling and spinning his cane around on his wrist all while leaving the underground training area at a sedate pace.
He would never cease to irritate Ichigo.
Time to go to beacon
Now, duffel bag over shoulder and boarding the aircraft on one of the many landing pads before him in Tokyo city, Ichigo looked back one last time…and regrettably saw the face of a certain shopkeeper. A look of annoyance adorning his face Ichigo turned back around sharply and walked onto the airship.
The airship itself was quite large and had two aisles and three columns of seats going down the middle of the airship. There were four engines attached to the wings of the airship, two near the front of the airship, placed about six rows from the front and thirty rows from the back, the second set placed twenty-nine rows from the front and six rows from the back.
Due to travelling expenses it was left to Urahara to get Ichigo to the travel centre in Tokyo to get him overseas to Beacon. Due to this fact it had left Yuzu crying over his departure…as well as his father Isshin. Karin took care of the fuss by belting Isshin over the head with her soccer ball however, solving that matter quickly enough though, diverting Yuzu's attention elsewhere while he left home.
Heading towards his designated seat on the aircraft Ichigo put his duffel bag in the overhead compartment and sat down quickly deciding to sleep for the whole flight if possible, with no one to talk to or rather have an interesting conversation and nothing but the roar of engines in his ears as he just so happened to have gotten the window seat right beside the engines of the craft at the back of the craft. Life sucked sometimes.
Some time later in an unknown location
Sitting in the bronze throne like chair, a man with blue eyes and white hair sat in what seemed to be a rather contented position. Resting his head on the palm of his hand and his elbow on the armrest he looked out the front of the small airship that he and his crew ran.
Today they were bringing in a rather large haul. The thought of this brought a pleased grin to the man's face. Unlike those unsuccessful relatives of his that tried to call themselves guardians of the realm, he actually made a living using his powers, given there were many people that could retaliate with a power of their own or dust powered weapons.
The 'people' are the haul that he would bring in today as well as any other items that were procured in this raid, to be sold off for a high price on the black market for some disgusting man or woman's own desires. This thought caused the man to shiver imperceptibly in an involuntary manner. To be honest, he wasn't actually proud of working with those people or what his line of work led to sometimes, bringing an almost imperceptible frown to his face. It was just the way it was and to do the necessary to keep oneself from drowning in the world they themselves lived in. The only way to do that though and keep more than just your head above the water was to be strong. He thanked his natural predisposition for this. It meant that dealing with security, should it come to it, would be rather easy given the nature of his power.
He could only hope though, he supposed. The new 'dust weave' clothing that his crew now wore, stolen directly from a 'Schnee materials transport terminal', were quite impressive even if they were only the prototypes. That would help the few that couldn't exactly use their aura proficiently yet and further enhance those among his crew that could. Constructed to be a single piece of clothing or body suit as some would say, it had dust fibres woven in concentration over major areas of movement in the body to further enhance strength and durability, only re-enforced by the plated armour that went over the top, which unfortunately negated any speed and mobility bonuses the suit would grant.
For such a great thing there had to be some kind of price he thought. So far however there hadn't been one, leading him to believe that the creators of the piece of clothing were merely being precautious. He too, he thought, should be cautious, and as such limited the use of such items to when training or in combat scenarios that did not necessarily require one.
Rising out of his throne like seat he walked around the hard working crew of his ship whom were busily tracking the movements of the airship that the 'prize' was aboard, to the front of the airship he commanded to peer out of the window at the tiny speck he now saw in the distance.
Not sure whether that was the correct airship, he didn't turn to speak but asked the question anyway to the person at the control panel behind him. "In which direction is the Airship that our treasure awaits?"
Directly behind the captain a young lass craned her neck upwards and away from the control panel that showed the airships relative position to transmission towers on the boarders of the continents and ocean buoys. Brushing the rust red hair out of her only visible eye, she seemingly glared at the man's back with her golden eye before looking down at the panel before her and checking the radar.
"Twelve O'clock, three kilometres." The girl responded in a monotonous voice as to not give away her state of emotions.
"Hmm…" The man responded in a thoughtful tone, seemingly not noticing or rather not caring for the way the girl responded to him.
Folding his arms behind his back only made the girl behind him seem to gain a murderous glint behind her eyes only to be quickly steeled when she over heard footsteps of one of the captains strongest men approaching from behind her, seemingly to talk to the captain. That notion however was proven false when she received a slap to the back of her head, or rather it would have been treated as a slap to those on the same level as the man that was now walking past her. To her it was more of a quick punch to the back of the head that would have broken her nose on the Perspex screen protector had here arm not been in the way to break the momentum.
Growling slightly the girl resumed her work of staring at the radar and keeping track of position.
"You mustn't let her speak to you like that captain. She'll just show you more disrespect every time." The man said in a tone that conveyed utmost loyalty.
At first appearance the man just seemed to be a pile of muscle and well…that's what he was really, he just happened to have a few more brain cells than average for a muscle head like himself. His pale skin was nearly white, which in all didn't go well with his dark brown hair in a bowl cut that supped just above his hears or the thin layer of sweat and dark bags under his eyes. It gave the man a rather gaunt overall appearance.
If one didn't know the man personally they'd say he was perpetually sick since he looked like this all the time, save the few wrinkles or gray hairs that had appeared over the years. It was just the way he was in all actuality.
"Perhaps it's time she learnt a lesson?" The man seemed to question his captain as he turned on his heel and walked pack over to the front of the bench that the panels rested upon and placed his right hand on the top edge in a threatening manner. It worked incredibly well on the other crewmembers given his height and large muscular structure.
It seemed that, to the girl, it wasn't limited to just them, as she swallowed some saliva in fear of this man who'd been known to be a widely known criminal before he'd been recruited by the captain, accused of rape and murder as well as theft of several artifacts which had yet to be identified, probably due to the fact that they were worthless.
Sighing to himself the captain turned around to face the two before him. "I'll decide if and when that happens some other time Jirobo." He said in a tone that seemed to be a tad darker than usual drawing a few sideways glances from other people in the cabin curious as to what was about to happen. "However," his tone lightened up back to its usual harsh and condescending manner, the tone he used whenever he was on duty as a captain to show that he was serious.
Sometimes this tone made some seem a little depressed, other times however, it pushed the lost senseless workers looking for praise to work harder to achieve some kind of praise. He obliged in some cases of course, if only to keep the crew working efficiently.
"we are near our goal, so the thought of such things will have to wait for now." The captain said as he turned back around to face the ocean. "Brian!" The captain raised his voice to get the attention of the pilot of the vessel they were all aboard.
"Y-yes sir," Brian stuttered, his head snapping to the captain so fast one would say he got whiplash in the process. He suddenly realized his mistake when he saw the glare of Jirobo facing his way, "ah, Captain!"
Pausing for some added affect to try and imply anger in his stance when he couldn't really care less the captain turned his head to Brian and narrowed his eyes, "Pick up the pace, I don't want to miss lunch."
"Yes Captain!" Brian scrambled with the controls and almost immediately the engines constant roaring loudened as more fuel was injected into the jet stream and the Airship picked up speed.
As the speck in the distance began to gain size the Captain walked back to his throne like seat and sat back down to rest his head in the palm of his hand again as his elbow supported his arm on the armrest.
Some seemingly few hours into the flight due to Ichigo's bad time management, he yawned, stretched his arms and looked out the window beside himself.
Unfortunately for him, there was still ocean for miles around and no clear land in sight. It was a strange feeling, to be out in the middle of nowhere and nothing for two hundred kilometres in any direction. Almost like Heuco Mundo in that respect, nothing but sand dunes stretching as far as the eye could see. The only major difference being that it was eternal night in Heuco Mundo and daylight now where he was.
Turning his head away from the window Ichigo only now noticed the face of a beautiful girl sitting next to him, wide awake and reading a romance novel by the looks of things. She had straight blonde hair the flowed down over her shoulders and chest stopping just above her waist, covering the grey unbuttoned cardigan and black shirt, along with the slight glint of a silver chain which Ichigo could only presume to be a necklace, the pendant if there was one, hidden from view. Her blue eyes glinted with the light produced by the overhead lights, complementing on her near flawless face, the only mark marring it being along the upper left jawline.
Now Ichigo hadn't paid much attention when it came to the four kingdoms in class, all he really knew that there were four, each one ruled over by the royal families as well as the selected number of noble families that held some form of power over the military. Over all Ichigo would have said that she looked much alike the princess of Vale, the kingdom of which Japan was a part, given their incredible similarity. In fact if it weren't for the fact that the royal guard wasn't constantly guarding her or he fact that there was the scar on her face, clearly not shown when his sister Yuzu turned on the TV for the small events that happened from time to time, he would say she was the princess of Vale.
Groaning as he readjusted in his seat and turned back away from the girl Ichigo sighed and peered out the window again watching the roaring engines twist and distort the air with the heat being produced by the ignition of the fuel stores in the wings.
It was only then that the orange light of the burning light no longer disguised the flames coming from above as the wings of the outboard engines quickly gained a red hue and further distortion of the air was apparent as another set of engines was clearly seen over the top of the airship he was currently in.
"What the…?" Ichigo trailed off in a confused voice, trying to peer further outside the window of the airship, only to be restricted by the window pain as his face pressed up against it, clearly able to feel the heat from the engines above the airship as he felt his cheeks heat up instantly upon contact with the Perspex window.
The view Ichigo was granted was a bright blue jet searing through the outboard wing, cutting the engine off of the airship.
Ichigo only adopted a face of confusion for a moment before his eyes widened and realized the result of such a thing happening. They would inevitably drop from the air and crash into the green sea below, the home to some of the fiercest creatures in the four kingdoms, the stretch between Japan and the mainland of Vale having been called the 'Proteus Channel' referring to a god of an ancient culture in which Proteus was the god of rivers or oceanic bodies of water. (1)
As the name suggests 'Proteus' referring to the words first or primordial, meaning first born lead many to suspect that this stretch of ocean was where the first of the Grim were to come from, and as naturally as any creature would, having become adapted to it's environment over many millennia, only the strongest of the Grim lay within the depths of the ocean here, however rarely spotted due to their seemingly shy behavior to flying vessels. It was common for ocean-based forms of transport to go missing.
Now looking up at the searing flames roaring from the overhead engine, Ichigo wasn't so sure about that.
It was barely noticeable before but the engines of the airship he was within began to peter out due to air restriction, the main fuel pumps and electronic systems still far enough away from the second engine overhead to not yet cut out, insulation getting the better of the cutting method being used to sever the wings that held the craft in the sky as well.
Standing up rapidly, and apologizing to the girl beside him as he used her head rest and the headrest of the passenger in front of her to leap over her legs rather than squeezing between her and the seats. Landing in the aisle, Ichigo ran to the front of the airship and opened the door with enough force to nearly tear it off of its hinges.
"Oy, there's something cutting off the engi…nes…" Ichigo broke off yet again, eyes widening, stunned by the fact that there were no pilots, well, at least pilots that were alive by any stretch. Despite the fact that they appeared to be riddled with bullets, the two in front of him had their necks cut, flesh shredded out during a clear struggle if the lunches that the pilots had been delivered strewn all over the cabin was any indication. This made him feel uneasy, it wasn't his first time having seen someone die or rather someone's dead body, however the fact that they were dead was still a fact that he was getting use to. It only took a moment for him to recover and notice the further damage to the compartment.
A gust of wind blew over his face as he looked up from the dead bodies of the pilots and saw the smashed wind screens that protected the pilots from the weather that happened every so often over the seas, and ropes that dangled through them leading up past the top of the window.
Dashing past the dead pilots, shoes squelching in the blood stained carpet floor of the cabin and stuck his head out of the window and looked directly upwards where he saw two men climbing back up the rope with rifles attached to their backs by custom made slings that held a little more than just the rifles to their backs.
Looking out to the side, the deep roar of an engine of the offending aircraft came from one of the now four identifiable engines on the airship overhead.
Suddenly the airship which Ichigo was on lurched forwards causing Ichigo's unsteady stance over the dashboard of dials and switches to give way and slam the side of his jaw into it, causing him to bite down hard on his tongue and cause it to start bleeding lightly. Slightly glad for the fact that despite his entire body was flowing with power constantly, his teeth hadn't been sharpened to the point where he'd bite his own tongue off Ichigo cursed and look back out the window now noticing the taught cables that were holding onto the craft and a smoking airship engine sailing towards the ocean surface.
Finally deciding that this was in fact no point in time in which he should be watching the airship being taken apart from what appeared to be pirates Ichigo went straight to the radio receiver to find that no surprise, it had bee thoroughly broken.
Forgoing the broken communication device Ichigo rushed back to the overhead compartment noticing the stunned faces of most of the passengers of the airship. Slowing down significantly on his return ignoring the cries of the people that saw him burst out of the pilots cockpit, Ichigo's eyes narrowed on several passengers that seemed to be casually folding up their newspapers and tucking them into the pockets in the backs of the seats in front of them before pulling what looked to be small O2 masks. Placing these over their faces Ichigo doubled his speed to the overhead compartment where he had in fact smuggled the black blade of his onto the carry on luggage.
Reaching the overhead locker Ichigo undid the clasps and opened the lid as fast as he could. Reaching into the compartment Ichigo barely heard the cry below him as the girl he had been sitting next to him shrieked when she saw someone approaching.
Not having enough time Ichigo twisted out of the way, avoiding the blow that would have otherwise struck his head, and apparently obliterated his head had it come in contact when he heard the smashing noise when the assailants fist struck the overhead compartment and caused it to crumple inwards like tissue paper. The ease of this punch unnerved Ichigo as he made a mental note to avoid any consecutive strike that the man might aim for.
"Stand still, ya little bastard." The man roared through the mask he wore.
The purpose of the mask? Ichigo didn't know. What he did know was that either very soon he'd be very dead, or he wouldn't be conscious enough to make any decisions or move at all for that matter.
"Gnh!" The man grunted slightly when a sapphire aura coated foot struck out in the mans abdomen causing a light of dull red to flair up from within the moss green trench coat he wore.
Turning his head to the side the man noticed the girl that had earlier seemed like a girl way out of her depth strike out with a concentrated aura kick to him. She now, rather than the fierce glare she had directed at him a moment before the strike now wore a face of confusion and worry.
"Haha. Nice try little bitch…say," The man paused for a moment noticing Ichigo's apprehension in striking him after seeing the spark of light beneath his trench coat, "ya look awfully familiar don'tcha."
The girl narrowed her eyes at him as though the man were thinking of doing something obscene to her. Her confused expression was replaced by one of determination as she readjusted her stance in the seat she was in, preparing to defend herself if necessary.
Forgoing any further waiting for the point of the glow beneath the mans clothing Ichigo struck during the time of the man's distraction, striking him heavily in the chest with a straight kick from his solid stance on the aisle of the airship.
The man was sent back seven rows of seats from Ichigo's kick, having struck the roof of the fuselage of the airship before he could go much further. The only thing during this time that worried Ichigo was the far more intense shine that came from within the man's trench coat and seemed to shred it from the inside out.
As the man stood again he rolled his shoulders and discarded the trench coat to reveal a full bodysuit that was entirely black with grey lined metallic plates going over his core muscle groups and bones including major blood vessels except for those around the neck. The gaps between the plates let out a few red sparks as the man adjusted himself some more preparing himself to strike, only to let out a small grunt when some of the less challenging passengers began to pass out and relaxed his stance.
"You were a bit of trouble, but you were less than we expected." The man stated as he turned around leaving his shredded trench coat behind, strewn over the seat and occupant he was beside a moment ago.
"Damn it." Ichigo wheezed out, his vision beginning to twist. Shaking his head and growling slightly, Ichigo willed away the oncoming nausea and swimming vision if only temporarily and approached the man in a blur unintentionally causing the floor to buckle slightly under the sudden pressure.
Unfortuantely the problem with not moving at the speed of sound or beyond was that this noise reached the turned man before Ichigo could and he turned rapidly, the gaps between the plates on his body suit flaring up slightly at the rapid turn that was required to counter Ichigo's fast movements.
The man brought up his left arm to block Ichigo's clumsy right swing with his forearm and went to return a punch with his other free arm when Ichigo's closed fist opened up into a palm as he caught the slight twitch in the mans movements to show the preemptive strike. He caught the forearm of the enemy and tugged on his arm bringing the man past his left side, wide open with an arm over Ichigo's shoulder, and left fist up for a direct strike to the solar plexus of the man.
Ichigo's fist struck with a resounding thud and crunch against the mans armoured chest rather than do any real damage due to Ichigo's waning concentration and control over his 'Aura'. Ichigo's hand flared in pain, dull red sparks coming out from between the plates and lighting up like circuits along the sections of plate.
The man only growled at Ichigo's resistance and grabbed the extended arm of Ichigo's with the hand that was originally going to punch Ichigo with due to his other arm still stuck in the grip of the teen before him.
Pulling on the orange haired teens arm he used an impressive amount of strength considering the 'Aura' in Ichigo's fingers and ripped his arm from the teen's grip and elbowed the teen in the face, following up with a kick to the chest from a spinning heel kick through tucking his leg close to his body until the strike to avoid the chairs in the narrow aisle.
Red sparks leapt off of the man's heel as Ichigo was sent careening backwards with the unprecedented strength of the strike to his chest effectively winding him and possibly breaking a few ribs in the process. Barely worth the man's time in the end, not having had to really take the teen seriously despite his impressive strength even under the influence of the sleeping gas being poured into the cabin.
Ichigo groaned finally unable to hold onto any conscious thought any longer and passed out on the floor of the airship.
The man turned on his heel and walked straight past the trench coat he was wearing before, giving it a quick glance as he passed it before deciding how pointless it was to pick it up and carried on past it and towards the front of the airship.
As one of the few assailants currently on the airship he reached up to the earpiece he had and made his report confirming the restraining of any resistance in the moments that any lucky few remained conscious long enough to show any form of resistance.
Vale city police station
"So," a male voice began, resting his mug of coffee on the steel table before him, and apparently favourite cane in his left hand.
Retracting his chair from the table he sat down careful not to sit directly underneath the unnecessarily bright light in the unnecessarily darkly bordered room.
"you're Ruby Rose."
So, a disappointment to some, as I read their reviews stating that they hoped Ichigo would be getting to Beacon academy this chapter. Unfortunately not, Ichigo just attracts too much trouble and I really need to expand on what was happening at the end of last chapter in my opinion. It expands somewhat on his powers and abilities this way while trying to show that he is not totally overpowered, something I'm not overly fond of reading in other fics.
By now I'm pretty sure you've also figured out that this little arc that I'm going to throw in for all intents and purposes coincides with the time Ruby was in the dust store reading a magazine when Roman Torchwick decides to steal everything. Figured it could kinda slot into here somehow. I'm going to give a week between Ruby's "Interrogation" and the time all the students board the Airship for Beacon.
Expect maybe three to four chapters, possibly more in this arc (six or seven being the limit, can't go off track forever considering I have other plans for this), considering that it is a week's timespan I'm doing this over.
(1) Proteus is supposedly Poseidon's first born son and was granted limited control over the ocean and rivers. Also considered to be origin of some if not all sea monsters...I think
