Author's Note: Wow, another one? That was quick. Don't expect anything big here, just a quick chapter I somehow managed to spit out betwixt all of my life's many roadblocks. Thanks for all the reviews!
Disclaimer and Warning still apply.
Chapter 3: The Protector's Teacher
Tatsuki was in a bit of a predicament.
As she stood outside the Kurosaki household, many thoughts raced through her young mind, chief of which was, What the hell is going on with him?
Her current problem, like most of her troubles these days, stemmed from the Strawberry. At first, she'd barely noticed it, just a few bouts out of every seven he'd win in their daily sparring matches. But then it became more than a few, until he had consecutively beaten her for two weeks straight. It wasn't because he was getting stronger, or more skilled . He was just getting a lot quicker in an absurdly short amount of time. It got to the point that she almost couldn't see his attacks, and it infuriated her to no end.
However, the reason she was in such deep thought beneath Ichigo's window was not his sudden winning streak or his sudden increase in agility.
The day before, Tatsuki had been out on a jog through the streets of Karakura, trying to blow off steam. Ichigo had cancelled their match again, and it'd been gnawing at her nerves. But all that was quickly forgotten when, as she waited for the crossing light to change, she spotted something so improbable she almost started looking for falling potted daisies.
There, perched on the street light across the road like some bizarrely large and ungainly pigeon, was none other than her best friend, clutching onto the steel pole as if his life depended on it. And with cars speeding by like they didn't notice the ten-year-old above them, it very likely did.
She glanced around her and found that nobody else seemed very interested in an idiot kid with orange hair hanging from a traffic light. Looking back up, she realized that there was a black cat lounging next to Ichigo, looking about as calm as a cat normally would. Ichigo's mouth moved, but Tatsuki couldn't even hear snatches of his voice over the traffic.
Suddenly, Ichigo hopped up to his feet, balancing precariously on the steel. The cat jumped up onto his shoulder, and then they blurred.
Blue eyes widened, as the pair's appearance seemed to simply dissolve into nothingness, and it took all of her will power not to faint. Instead, she forced herself to get back to her house and into her room before the stress of seeing her best friend disappear caused her body to shut down for a while.
Back in the present, Tatsuki drew in a bracing breath, then knocked on the door. It was still early in the morning, so it was Yuzu who answered, still a little bleary-eyed. After exchanging the usual pleasantries, the younger girl directed Tatsuki upstairs to Ichigo's room. She opened the door with the '15' plaque hanging from it...
...and found Ichigo sleeping soundly, one leg sticking out of the sheets awkwardly. The black cat she'd seen was staring at her with eerily intelligent yellow eyes from its position on Ichigo's pillow just above his head.
Steeling her resolve, Tatsuki moved forward, one step at a time, until she was standing at Ichigo's shoulder. Then she tried shaking him awake.
She realized that this was obviously the wrong thing to do almost immediately. Her first clue was when Ichigo grabbed her by the sleeve and caught her in a vice-grip. Her second clue was when he started snoring.
That jerk had beaten her in his sleep!
"Ichigo! What are you-hey! Stop that!"
Tatsuki thought she couldn't get any more embarrassed than when she'd found herself wrapped in Ichigo's arms. Then, Isshin opened the door, took in the sight before him, and promptly closed the door again, wailing to the poster of Masaki he'd recently put up to commemorate his beloved.
She heard someone snicker lightly, and glared fiercely at Ichigo...who was still asleep. Glancing around the rest of the room, Tatsuki found it still empty.
"Great, now I'm hearing things," she grumbled, trying valiantly to escape from Ichigo's 'embrace.'
"Hm, if you say so."
Tatsuki froze. That voice had been much too deep to be Ichigo's, or Isshin's for that matter. Turning her head slowly, her eyes found the only other occupant of the room, and its golden eyes stared right back at her.
"Did...did you just talk?" she asked, feeling very silly. Everyone knew that talking cats only lived in cartoons and movies.
There was silence, and Tatsuki almost heaved a sigh of relief. Until the cat replied.
"You must be hearing things," it said in that velvety baritone voice she'd heard earlier. Tatsuki blinked owlishly, opened her mouth, then closed it again, wondering what to say next. "What's the matter?" the feline continued. "Cat got your tongue?"
Tatsuki's mind almost shut down then and there. A cat had spoken to her. A cat had spoken to her, and then made a bad pun about it. Compared to this, Ichigo blurring out of sight yesterday was downright ordinary.
Then, Ichigo decided to put in his two cents. "Wha...hell?" he grumbled in his sleep. "Why's my pillow smell like Tatsuki?"
The cat snickered again, and this time, Tatsuki's brain did close up shop.
Honestly, it hadn't been Yoruichi's intention to teach the kid shunpo. After she'd revealed her ability to communicate, Ichigo had begun to follow her around in an odd mirror of their previous routine. It had gotten to the point where she'd finally just flash-stepped away from his constant questions. In hindsight, that had been her mistake.
Somehow, some way, Ichigo had felt the way she'd used her energy to shunt herself forward. A day after she'd done it in front of him, as he was chasing after her, Yoruichi had received her biggest shock since she'd discovered pornography when she'd felt a few fingers snatch at her tail. She'd used the movement arts to escape, only to watch as Kurosaki freakin' Ichigo crudely shoved a bit of his building reiryoku into his leg and used a sloppy, primitive form of shunpo to follow.
It wasn't good, to put it kindly; he'd only moved a few feet forward, and the energy expenditure was wasteful in the extreme. But he'd moved. Alone, with no instruction other than watching her do it once, Ichigo had reverse-engineered the flash-step technique and made it work.
Of course, the idiot had collapsed almost immediately afterward. After all, this was the first time he'd consciously used any amount of his spirit energy for anything other than sensing out another's power.
Still, as Yoruichi changed into a human and hefted the exhausted boy over her shoulder, she couldn't help but be impressed by the kid. It had taken her days of practice after watching her father as a child, and even then she'd had the benefit of actually knowing the basics of reiatsu and its applications.
Maybe Kisuke's right, she thought. Maybe this kid really is something special. And there's only one way to find out for sure.
So she started dropping a hint here or there, maybe correcting his footing every once in a while, making sure he knew just how much reiryoku to use for a ten-foot step versus a twenty-foot step, until finally one day after she'd shown him how to dismount properly...
"Thanks, Yoruichi-sensei," Ichigo said offhandedly as he tried again to make sure he had it right. That had stopped the cat up short.
"What did you say?"
Ichigo paused, looking back at her weirdly. "I said thanks," he reiterated slowly. "You go deaf or something? I thought cats had superior hearing..."
Irritated, Yoruichi swatted him upside the head. "Fool, my hearing is far better than your will ever be! I was simply unnerved at the fact that you believe yourself good enough to call yourself my pupil."
"Oh." The kid seemed a bit downtrodden. "Sorry, I guess I overestimated myself again." He went back to practicing in the deserted clearing they'd found near a grave site, and Yoruichi watched on idly, pondering to herself.
Overestimating yourself? she thought in amusement as she caught a quick glimpse of his determined scowl. Silly boy, you're underestimating yourself by a long-shot. You've mastered the basics of the flash-step in two weeks with barely any help, and you call me sensei as though I did anything? Well, if you already want me to be your teacher...
"Ichigo." The boy tried to stop mid-step and ended up flinging himself into a nearby tree. Grumbling and cursing lightly, he turned to her questioningly. "Since you seem so eager to learn from me, perhaps it's time I showed you something."
Tsukabishi Tessai prided himself on projecting a cool, impervious demeanor to the world while keeping his every thought private until he felt the need to put in his two cents. As an expert Kido master, control (of mind, spirit, and body) came as naturally as breathing after so long training himself.
Therefore, he surprised himself by letting out a small noise of shock at sensing Yoruichi approaching at low shunpo speed with what his spirit-sense perceived at first as a roiling ball of energy about four and a half feet tall following behind. Then, as he picked apart the waves of reiatsu, he was able to discern the shape of a young, prepubescent child, most likely a boy.
By the time they'd arrived, his mask of complete and utter nonchalance had fallen back into place. Tsukabishi Tessai gives no fucks, he thought to himself. It had become a mantra of sorts when he needed to focus on the higher-level demon magicks, and it was useful for maintaining his street cred.
So when they arrived, Tessai didn't so much as twitch an eyebrow, not even at the boy's unnatural hair color.
"Tessai, say hello to Kurosaki Ichigo," Yoruichi introduced the kid, and it took all of Tessai's formidable non-fuck-giving attitude to simply nod and continue sweeping off the porch. The second they were inside the shop and down the hall a bit, however, the former Kido Corps captain stealthily followed after. It wasn't everyday that a pureblood shinigami child who was still alive visited their humble store.
His stoicism was further put to the test when, after a passing introduction to the shop's owner, who wasn't nearly as good as Tessai at hiding his surprise, Yoruichi took Ichigo down into the underground training chamber.
The boy would need lessons in not giving any fucks, Tessai concluded when he heard the amazed exclamation of "Is this place a TARDIS?" issue from the trap door.
After-Action Report: So, again, not much to speak of, just another set-up. This time, it's to show that Tatsuki's got enough spiritual awareness to be able to clearly see Yoruichi's feline form as well as the SEP that Ichigo's use of reiryoku projects. As well, Yoruichi's starting to warm up to the kid. That last bit from Tessai's POV came out of nowhere, even for me. In future battles, Ichigo will likely not give very many fucks, thanks to Tessai's training.
Whatever, it's not my best, but it's still mine. Review, por favor!
