I live!! Now, I know you all missed me, and first things first I have an announcement:
I LOVE I love shiro-chan thankyou, because of you I am updating all seven pages! Sorry about the random ending.
The energetic shop owner met them at the door, "Sesshomaru, I assume Byakuya's told you about the commander general's orders?" At Sesshomaru's nod Urahara continued on, "I assume you are here about the tests you mentioned?" "Indeed, but first, I was wondering if you know about the consequences of your method for Ichigo to regain his powers?" Urahara stopped dead, and thought for a minute, "I'm assuming you mean besides the fact that Ichigo got his powers back?" Sesshomaru's glare screamed, 'No shit Sherlock' and Urahara moved on, "No not really, I have some ideas but," "Man this guy really is stupid" Hades said, appearing behind Ichigo. Urahara jumped three feet in the air, as Yorichi came around the corner, yelling about a hollow. "I would have to agree, though I'm sure we're just not catching him at his best" Sesshomaru replied to the hollow. Once Yorichi grasped that they were not in any danger, Urahara turned to Hades, "You must be Ichigo's hollow, I had an idea that that might have happened, but wasn't sure, as Kurosaki had never shown any signs of being a vizard." Hades and Ichigo rolled their eyes, "Well no duh," Sesshomaru told him, "Anyway Hades, Ichigo, Rukia and Renji, could ya'll go downstairs and spar?" The four nodded and walked off, leaving Sesshomaru alone with Urahara and Yorichi.
Urahara took the two into his lab, where they could talk without interruptions. "You do realize that attacking Hueco Mundo falls just short of suicide when we have Soul Society backing us up right?" Urahara asked, "Yep, however, I figured I'd get told off if I went in alone, so I'm dragging ya'll with me." Urahara and Yorichi shared a look, "Alone?" "Yes, alone, if I thought it was the best plan, I'd beat the hell outta Aizen alone, its how I was raised. Instead I have a plan that will get us all in and out of there alive, mostly." Urahara and Yorichi nodded. "What sorta tests do you want?"
Hades was currently sparring with Rukia, and Ichigo with Renji. The two young men were both in bankai, but Ichigo's mind kept going over what his hollow had mentioned the other night. 'Is Renji really falling for her? Damn him, if he hurts her I'll rip his heart out.' 'Getting a little possessive for someone you just met, eh king' Hades decided to put in, but Ichigo chose to ignore him, in favor of kicking Renji's ass.
Hades was trying to go easy on Rukia; she had her zanpakto released, but was still easy to beat. Hades was trying to restrain himself from going all out, and Ichigo was keeping an eye on him, just in case his control slipped.
Urahara and Yorichi looked at the young woman in front of them in mild shock. "You aren't serious, Hades will never agree to it" Urahara finally spoke, "Yes he will, and Soul Society won't squeal about it, so the only people left to convince are you two." Sesshomaru replied calmly. She knew that her idea was radical at best, but it was better than going into Hueco Mundo alone, or with the group as it was now. Yorichi was silent studying the girl in front of her, it had always been obvious that Sesshomaru was more or less Aizen's equal as far as planning dangerous schemes, and there had never been any doubt in Yorichi's head that she was not going to like the way things were going to happen, but this was completely unexpected. "You do realize that it is likely that I will get absolutely nothing worth using made by the time you head for Hueco Mundo?" Urahara pointed out to the girl in front of him. "This kind of research takes years, not a month." A cold smirk wormed its way onto Sesshomaru's face, "That's what Aizen thinks to, but what neither of you know is I have information that will speed the process up to a point, that if we stretch it, we can make this happen in one week, two at the most."
Urahara was having issues with believing his ears, Sesshomaru wanted to have him create a stone with properties that would negate the hogyuku. It had taken him ten years to create the hogyuku in the first place, and she says she can help him create the opposite in one week? "How? It took me ten years to create the hogyuku, how on earth do you propose to create the opposite in one week, even using your and Ichigo's powers?" "Its simple, I have the other jewel melded into Shiane, which gave me insight into its make-up, insight which even you, its creator don't have. I can use that insight, and other information, which I will mostly keep the history of to myself, to meld Ichigo's Hades' and my powers into a jewel that should reverse the affects of the hogyuku." Urahara and Yorichi looked at each other, then at the girl in whose hands they were about to put there lives. "Alright, we're right behind you" Sesshomaru nodded, and mentally sighed, 'Thank god, I don't ever want to do that again.' What else did you expect? Sesshomaru sat bolt upright in her chair at the sound of that voice, and quietly excused herself.
Sesshomaru quickly made it to the front of the shop, where she leaned against the wall. 'What the hell are you doing back, weren't you sealed?" she demanded, Yes, but the seal is weakening. And you should get used to doing stuff like that; you were after all born to it. 'Maybe I once was, but unless you haven't noticed, my entire destiny's been changed" You cannot change what you are, and no matter how much you seal me, I'll always be here, you can no more get rid of me than you can change the way you were raised. If there was one thing she did not want to be reminded of, it was her past, so Sesshomaru growled, "Shut Up" to the air and went back to the training grounds, only adding, "Regardless, I need to stay here and now, and not have the past intrude.' Silence was her only answer.
When she entered the training grounds, Rukia, Hades, Renji and Ichigo were taking a quick brake. "Yo," Ichigo called upon seeing her. "What's up?" Sesshomaru asked as she came up to the group. "Nothing much, you convince Urahara yet?" Sesshomaru nodded, "Yep, any body have any idea were I can find a sparring partner?" 'You could always fight me' Kelly put in, but Sesshomaru ignored her. "Byakuya should be back soon, and we can rotate around so that you can spar with Hades." Ichigo stated, and Sesshomaru nodded. Again Renji noted the difference in the way Ichigo said Byakuya's name. "So were did fluffy go?" He asked, and as usual Rukia choked. "He went to report to Soul Society with Toshiro" "That's Hitsiguya- taicho to you" Ichigo looked up as Hitsiguya's voice floated over to the group. Sure enough both captains were walking over to them. "Whatever, so what did the commander have to say?" "Not much, just a reminder to keep him posted on our moves against Hueco Mundo, Soul Society really doesn't want to suddenly find out that we already took Hueco Mundo without telling them." Byakuya replied to Ichigo's question. Ichigo nodded, and met the captain's eyes. The two stood up and moved about a mile away from the rest of the group in one step.
They both settled into a fighting stance, this was their ritual. Beat the hell out of each other, then comment on each others moves. The two tensed, then lunged and met with a crash. A mile away, the rest of the group shrugged it off, and separated into sparring groups. Hades against Sesshomaru, Renji against Rukia, and Hitsiguya waiting his turn; for several hours the only sounds to disturb the training area were blades clashing and swearing.
During one of the breaks during which they reviewed the fight, Ichigo and Byakuya got to talking over Sesshomaru's strategy. "It's a brilliant plan, if we can all pull it off, it will completely unbalance Aizen" Ichigo commented, "Yes, but the key words are if we can pull it off. Meaning if the rest of us are strong enough to survive" "Yeah, but I have faith, its weird, we've known Sesshomaru for a little over a month, and we're already trusting her to lead the war against Aizen." Byakuya nodded, "There is something about her, her faith in her side, and her ability to always seem to be in control of the situation draws people to follow her." Ichigo agreed to that, "It was sorta weird the first couple of days, realizing that I had another sister, one I'd never even known about, and finding myself as or more protective of her than my other two that I've known all their lives." Byakuya nodded, "That's another thing about her, despite your absolute faith in her, you just can't help be protective of her." Ichigo nodded and looked over where he could just see Sesshomaru sparring with Hitsiguya, in her eyes was a fierce joy. "Its always interesting to watch her fight, it's the way she takes pride in fighting, without the ugly joy at killing that people like Kenpachi have." "Yes, it really is amazing, how fast she trained, now she is one of the most powerful shinigami's out there" Byakuya commented and Ichigo smirked, "Despite the fact that she will argue that point to hell and back." Byakuya laughed, and the two got back to fighting.
Renji was fighting Rukia as Hades rested, watching Sesshomaru spar, just like his living half. And also like his living half, he saw the joy in her eyes and smirked softly; she had gone from sparring him to sparring Hitsiguya without a break and was still kicking the captain's ass. Just then he felt a weird pulse come from the girl, and she stumbled, Hoyinmaru slicing through her arm. Hades frowned, but before anything else could happen, Sesshomaru regained her footing, Shiane nipping up to slice across Hitsiguya's chest. The short captain fell back panting, "Well, that was fun, but your tired, Hades you ready for another go?" Sesshomaru commented, "You, are, not, normal" Hitsiguya said, panting between words. Sesshomaru smiled blandly at him and replied, "Neither is any one else her Toshiro, if you ain't noticed, your dead, the majority of the people here are" Hitsiguya growled "Its Hitsiguya-taicho" before moving away to rest and heal as Sesshomaru and Hades tore each other up.
As Sesshomaru prepared to block the short captains slice towards her arm, she felt the voice more than heard, Look who's back from the dead princess, soon you will be mine she stumbled, and felt Hoyinmaruslice her arm, she quickly regained her footing and put the captain out of the fight. Fighting Hades mostly on instinct, momentarily forgetting that her blade was reversed, she tried to reorder her thoughts, "First she comes back, now he's found out about me still being alive, what the hell is going on, I so don't need this shit right now" she thought, seconds later she became aware of the voice calling her name.
Ichigo looked over at Sesshomaru when he felt his hollow's worry, in time to see her start to fight Hades. Unfortunately, she was fighting on instinct, and Ichigo's jaw dropped, along with everyone else's jaws. If her sword wasn't reversed, Hades would be dead, "Where the hell did she learn that?" Byakuya muttered. Sesshomaru's eyes were glazed over as she thought, and her swordsmanship was up by several thousand times, she was pulling moves that even Byakuya wasn't sure he could pull off if he had started learning them when he first enrolled at the academy, meaning with centuries of practice. "I don't know, but we need to snap her back to reality before Hades killed." Ichigo muttered. Apparently Hitsiguya had also thought of that as he was yelling Sesshomaru's name. The girl stopped and shook her head softly then looked around.
Sesshomaru realized that she had been using moves she'd been taught as a child, not what Renji and Byakuya had taught her, consequently, Hades was pretty badly torn up, 'Shit, note to self pay attention during fights' she screamed to herself in her mind, and promptly heard the laughter she hated most, Told you, you can't change the way you were raised, why don't you just accept yourself, and me? 'Not a snowballs chance in hell' "Sorry about that, guess I wasn't thinking" Sesshomaru replied to the shocked looks of her companions while scratching the back of her head. Hades eye twitched, "Hitsiguya was right, you are not normal, even for one of us" opinion made known, he promptly lost consciousness. Worried, Sesshomaru knelt down beside Hades as Ichigo came up, seeing the worry on the younger girl's face he tried to reassure her, "Its not to bad, he's mostly just exhausted, it will be fine, and that was awesome swordsmanship." Sesshomaru realized what he was trying to do, so in turn she tried to muster up a convincing smile, but it came out like a grimace. "Yeah, I learned that when I was young" Ichigo nodded, and called Hades back to his inner world where the hollow could heal. Sesshomaru stood up, "I'm going to go for a walk" she announced, and everyone nodded. As she passed Renji and Rukia, Renji reached out and touched her shoulder, "Don't feel bad, we all knew you had more training, besides, it just means you can take care of yourself' Sesshomaru nodded, and walked out of the Urahara shop.
Thousands of miles away, in Arizona, two young men were getting out of a car in front of the local high school. "Kevin," the younger of the two looked up as a group of people came up to him. "Yo, what's going on?" he replied, "Nothing, the perv here has been trying to suck up to the principle" a girl replied. "Still haven't learned Tanner?" the elder boy asked. The younger male this was addressed to tried to go for dignity, "I'll have you know that introducing yourself and trying to make a good first impression is not bad" Another of the girls poked him, ruining the image, "Yeah, but flirting with the principle is" "Come on Cat," Tanner wined. As Cat and Tanner went off into an argument, the two original boys suddenly looked up, as a wave of hurt brushed against their consciousness. The elder stiffened, and Kevin's eyes widened, "She's alive?" he whispered, just barely loud enough for Cat to pick up. "Who is, hello, earth to Kevin and Jo?" Jo turned his level gaze on the girl, "It is none of your concern.' Cat pouted, but Jo had already turned to Kevin, "I'll go tell father, you stay" and for the first time that anyone in that school had known him, Kevin simply took his older brother's directions.
"Dude, you two are acting weird, even for a demon and half-demon" Cat remarked to Kevin, cool as if she was remarking on the weather. "Yeah, well you should be used to it by now" Kevin replied, "Still," "Just shut up about it" Kevin interrupted Tanner who muttered to the one girl who had been silent throughout the exchange, "My dearest, Sam, any ideas on our friend's weird behavior?" Sam just shook her head, and the group of friends moved toward the high school. Cat shot a worried look toward Kevin as they walked into the school. When their first period teacher checked roll to find Jo missing, everyone received the second shock of the day as Kevin stood, "He's taking care of a family issue, and he should be back soon"
Jo stopped outside of his father's study. Leaning against the wall, he closed his eyes, "Kelly, how the hell are you still alive? Please be okay, I can't bear to lose you again." Sighing in a rare display of emotion, Jo knocked, "Come on in Jo." Inside the study, Jo studied his father, "What is it son?" "She's alive" the affect on the old man was immediate, "Are you sure" Jo nodded, "Oh my god, what the hell are we going to do, if you found out about her she won't be able to stay hidden much longer, and the seal, it will be old by now, and with her power, could slip" Jo shook his head, "We are going to have to try and find her, Kevin and I just felt her, she could be anywhere" The old man nodded, "So I will get to see her again before I die."
Sesshomaru once again found herself wandering by the river. 'Why now, why, I can't go back to the life I once lived.' Sesshomaru's thought swum round and round. Eventually she noticed that the light had gone. 'Night, time to hunt' At that thought, Sesshomaru shook her head vigorously and headed back to the clinic. Renji was waiting, "Hey" Sesshomaru nodded, "Well aren't you the talkative one" Sesshomaru shrugged. "Hey, about what happened earlier, every one of us in there has a past, and its obvious you don't want to bring up yours, and that's cool, but remember no one in there will blame you or judge you if you have survival tricks that ain't the norm, we all do probably." Sesshomaru nodded, digesting that, "Yeah, okay, but still, I should have paid attention" thus ending the conversation. Renji sighed, Sesshomaru was obviously blaming herself for something, though he couldn't imagine what, it wasn't like tearing people up in training was new to her, so what made that fight different? Sitting in her closet, Renji realized that Sesshomaru hadn't been sleeping either and sighed again, she was just a kid, but in one day, her entire world had been changed, irreversibly.
Sesshomaru looked out the window of her room, "What will I do if he attacks?" she asked herself. "Yo, king its rainin' in here" Kelly shouted in Sesshomaru's mind. "Sorry" Sesshomaru replied, and Kelly huffed, but it stopped raining. Sesshomaru continued looking out the window, staring at the half moon.
The next day, Ichigo and Sesshomaru walked over to Urahara to begin the creation of the jewel. "Okay, so how does this work?' Ichigo asked. "You, me and Hades take turns putting our power into the containers that Urahara has prepared, we'll end up with quite a bit of spirit power in the end, but for now, we won't put to much in, I don't want to weaken one of our best fighters, and we have time." Ichigo nodded and Sesshomaru went back to what she was doing, which was drawing a circle in the sand. After she'd finished Hades appeared, and Sesshomaru turned to Urahara, "Okay, put the container in the middle of the circle, then get about five feet away" Urahara did as he was told, and Hades and Ichigo joined Sesshomaru in standing around the circle.
"Just concentrate on drawing your energy; I'll put the amount needed in the vessel." Sesshomaru told the other two, who nodded and began to draw on their power. Sesshomaru nodded to herself and began to push the energy into the container. Five minutes later she called a halt. "Hey, we can spare more energy" Ichigo told Sesshomaru, "I know that, but the containers almost full, and all three of our energy's need to be in each one." Ichigo nodded, and Sesshomaru smiled reassuringly, then closed her eyes, "Hey, Kelly, you know the drill" she called silently, as Kelly gathered her power, Sesshomaru went deeper, "if you say one word I will make your life miserable" she threatened, a soft laugh was her answer, as she pulled on her power. Ichigo's eyes widened as immense power shot out of Sesshomaru in controlled waves, he watched in surprise as they settled into the jar like thing in the center of the circle. A few minutes later, the power stopped coming and Sesshomaru opened her eyes.
"That's enough for now, later today we can collect more, Urahara, please store the container for now and prep the next one, we'll need it in one and a half hours." Urahara nodded to Sesshomaru and took the container away as Sesshomaru turned to Ichigo and Hades, "You two don't spar, you may not realize it, but you gave a lot of energy, and if I'm going to take more in an hour, you can't waste any energy on a senseless spar." The two nodded, and Hades slipped into Ichigo's mind.
"Yo" the two turned to see Renji coming towards them. "Hey" Sesshomaru called, "you get done with the experiments?' Renji asked and Ichigo snorted, "For now" Sesshomaru replied, with a frown toward Ichigo. "So what now?" "We wait for time to pass Renji you should probably find the rest of the gang and get then here training, they won't disturb the experiments, and we'll need them in top shape." Renji nodded and Sesshomaru smiled at Ichigo, "I know you and Hades want to fight, but how about you help by giving your friends tips, that way you'll be doing something that doesn't involve you losing power." Ichigo nodded and walked toward the ladder to help Renji round up the gang.
Sesshomaru watched the gang practice, and sighed, Ichigo was obviously just barely containing himself from jumping in and sparing, but on the good side, it was time to start again. "Yo Ichigo, time" she called and Ichigo was next to her immediately. "Same deal?" Hades asked, reappearing beside Ichigo. Sesshomaru nodded, but this time, she joined her energy with Ichigo's and Hades'. In five minutes the container was filled. "That's all for today, wait an hour before you spar 'kay" Ichigo and Hades nodded, and went to rejoin the others. Sesshomaru watched them go, "Why do you bother, you are strong you could easily take care of this on your own" Sesshomaru let out a raged breath at the sound of that hated voice. Suddenly two hands were on her shoulders, "You okay?" Renji's voice whispered in her ear, and Sesshomaru nodded, "Yeah, just having issues with the voices in my head." Renji laughed softly, "You want to spar?" "No, I'll just watch, you should go, I don't need a babysitter, if anything happens you guys'll one step away from me, and I think I can hold out for at least that long." Renji shot Sesshomaru a smile and went to join the others, Sesshomaru watched, thinking of past times that she could never recreate.
Renji went over to where the rest of the group was waiting, but he watched Sesshomaru from the corner of his eye. Ichigo caught him at it. "Am I the only one who thinks some things wrong?" He asked, and Renji shook his head, "I don't know what's wrong with her, but she ain't been sleeping." Everyone shook their heads, "She's only 13, she shouldn't be in this mess, much less have everyone's hopes riding on her." Rukia stated softly. "I think she's trying to repress something in her past." Ichigo murmured and every one looked at him in shock. "Um, Ichigo, when did you get smart?' Byakuya asked. Ichigo huffed and crossed his arms, "Always have been, you guys just didn't listen"