A Test or Three

Author's Note: Yo people, here's another chapter. And I guess no new announcements so far. So bid you once again, my faithful readers; READ , REVIEW, ENJOY!

After cleaning and cooking, Fernando exited the small apartment. Not telling Orihime where he was headed, only "I'll be back later." This did not worry Orihime but did leave her a bit lonely. Having a guest living at her house, she thought, would get rid of her loneliness of not having any family around to talk to. Fernando might have notice had it not been for the fact all he wanted is a way to get back home and Urahara seemed to might know something about what had happened to him. Though, he was not looking forward to having to explain his absence on Friday.

Surprising to him, Urahara had been waiting for him himself. Usually Urahara was asleep most of the time he worked. He seemed to have something to say. But it was Jinta who greeted, "Well, look who decided to show. Just a day late."

"Oh, hello," Ururu said, in her usual sad sounding voice.

"Come on, there's some things I've been thinking about since you have told me about what had happened to your city," Urahara gestured him to enter the shop. Jinta fumed silently, having lost his only means of not having to do his work, and now argued with Ururu for her to start on his chores.

Entering the shop and into the back room, both sat. Immediately, Urahara had begun explaining what he had been contemplating, "I was thinking if you were telling the truth, and I trust that you are, wouldn't an attack on a whole city be reported throughout the world. And the portal you said your friend had made, could it have something more than just a teleportation between two locations?"

"Both are possible, like I said, that's all I know I don't know how I ended up here. I could've have wandered over here," Fernando offered an explanation.

"But then you would've have been spotted by someone wondering around, probably would have ended up in if you tried to kill someone like you tried to your friend. Why would what was controlling you want to end up here? No, it's more than just coincidence that you met me. I'm the only person around here that could sense the power and Zanpakutō hidden with in you," Urahara explained.

"You sound just like the voice inside my head, destiny and fate, and how now I'm just tied to a path I make for myself," Fernando said.

"Wait your hearing a voice in your head?" Urahara asked.

"I'm not crazy, alright. It comes and goes whenever it feels like," Fernando said.

"You didn't tell me that. Did it tell any information about what had happened after you blacked out?" Urahara asked.

"No, just that there is a reason I ended up here and that I have to find that reas…" he stopped midsentence, almost as if sensing something.

'Damn! Too soon, just a bit longer,' the voice whispered inside his head.

"There it is again," Fernando told Urahara. "It's gone now."

"Did it say anything?" Urahara asked.

"No, just something about it being too soon, it sounded worried, almost a little angry. I also felt something, like something dangerous coming my way. It does feel like anything I ever felt before," Fernando answered.

"Hmm… Do you think those men you fought are still following you?" the shop owner asked him.

"No, I doubt it's them. They would be killing off anyone and everyone, they would cause a lot of panic," Fernando said, dismissing the theory. "A Hollow maybe?"

"No, I would have sensed it as well," Urahara answered.

"Well, it doesn't matter right now. It feels pretty far away, but it's definitely there," Fernando said.

"Ok, well if it's coming after you, we'll having to start your training soon. But I can't teach anything until your Zanpakutō appears," Urahara said. "I'll just see what you can do right. Then I'll build a training regime around it." Fernando nodded in agreement.

Meanwhile, Orihime just realized she still had Fernando's wallet. Although wanting to respect her guest's privacy, she also was incredibly intrigued by the mysteriousness of her guest. "No, Orihime you can't look inside. It belongs to your guest," she spoke to herself.

"But, you know you want to look inside. Come one, you know want to," Orihime still spoke to only herself.

"You're good girl, Orihime. You shouldn't," the only listener still herself.

"But it'll only be a peek," she finally convinced the only person in the room to look inside. She then found the same things that Tatsuki had found yesterday, just her guest's U.S. I.D. and some old photos. One in particular caught her eye, a photo of three people including him, he still had the serious look he always wore all the time, an older woman, and another boy about his age but yet good amount shorter. It was obvious that none were related to each other. The woman was very beautiful and her eyes were filled with kindness yet she also looked very strong in her stance and look, not as delicate as Orihime.

Then another photo grabbed her attention, one of many children at an orphanage. Orihime inferred that this was the orphanage that he went to when he was a child but yet she could not find him among the many children. There was one that wore a serious look like she thought he would have if he was a child but this child was missing Fernando's obvious feature. His silvered eyes, but she was sure that that was him. Even with his serious look, she still thought he looked very adorable as a child. Even then his eyes were sad looking.

Another photo was of him, seemed to be taken a few years later, and a man. This man made her very uneasy, even though it was just a photo. Fernando during the time of the photo's seemed to be at an age of 8 years old at latest, he was still pretty short. But the man was the person that drew her attention, his eyes were so cold, his frown seemed to be out of anger not sadness and his whole self seemed to just menacing and put off all want to get to know more of him. She was scared of him even though he was just a two dimensional figure. In the back of the photo was some writing, it read "EXPERIMENT A-13" and underneath that was "NEVER FORGET."

She saw there were no photos that looked newer than that one until the photo of him, the woman and the other boy. But after that one, all the rest seemed to show an improvement in him. Still very few of them contained him smiling, yet his smile seemed to make him look so much more amiable.

"No," Fernando said after Urahara had asked him to perform the first test.

"We have to test your strength, this is the best way to do it," Urahara reasoned with him.

"My ass! Don't you have something that can actually measure my punch" Fernando still refused his request.

"Come on, you won't feel it at all," Urahara urged him on.

"No," his employee still refused.

"Hey, if you don't this I'm not the one who's being chased by people with unknown strength," Urahara still urged him to fulfill his request.

"Fine, I'll do it," Fernando finally caved into his order, not wanting to argue anymore. The request was simple, yet obviously painful, punch a boulder in front of him and see whether it breaks or how far moves. Punching the boulder with all he had, it did not even budge. "Son of... Oh yeah, that didn't hurt a bit."

Urahara was mystified, absolutely confused as in why he wasn't able to even move it. While Fernando's hand was being treated by Ururu, Urahara thought about the situation. He knew that Fernando had much more strength in him than any regular human but was it possible that he could not tap into it? So instead of continuing on this test, they moved on to a speed test.

The test was to be against Ururu, as a comparison. At first it seemed that he had regained the same power he had when back in his own city but as both jumped from boulder to boulder, his jumped shortened to one of any ordinary human. But before hitting that point, he managed to easily keep up with her. Not much to take into consideration when making his assessment of his new student, but that seemed to be all he had to go on as once again Fernando found himself being given medical attention by Ururu.

The last test, it seemed that Fernando was going to be able to take before having to be sent to an actual hospital, was a test of skill in battle. This one was going to be against Jinta, who looked anxious to get into action after such a long period of nothing to do. As both took their positions, Fernando caught look at Jinta's weapon, the giant metal bat-looking thing.

"That's not even fair, why does he get to use a weapon when I don't even have one?" Fernando complained.

"Not all fights are fair," Urahara answered.

"Yeah but this is just one sided," Fernando said under his breath. And so the fight commenced, trying to get a feel of his attacks, Fernando first tries to go at it unarmed but soon realizes that Jinta's attack are to powerful to afford to screw up a dodge. Trying to reach for his hidden knife in his coat, realized he was still wearing Orihime gift coat and it had none of the hidden places that he usually kept his weapon.

'Looks like I have no other choice,' he thought as he gave himself some distance from Jinta. When he thought that he was far enough, he reached down under his boot and reveal a small shiny plastic that was incredibly smooth. Then taking one side of the plastic off, it was revealed to be a sheath and the small blade shone. Even with such a small blade, not much longer than half a foot long, he was able to deflect most of Jinta's attacks.

"You can stop holding back Jinta," Urahara said, trying to up the difficulty of the fight.

"Yes!" Jinta exclaimed. Right after that exchange of words, he gave hit strong enough to make Fernando lose grip of the blade. Then he gave a successive that sent him flying into the boulder behind him and as he hit it, a huge puff of dust spread across the surrounding area around the rock. The pain was so agonizing that he could not find the strength to pick himself up.

"Agh," Fernando whined.

"Giving up after the first hard hit? Is that really all you have?" Urahara asked, a little disappointed.

"No," Fernando said to himself. The shadow of the boulder began draining into him and flowed onto his hand, he felt the power flowing and it reenergized him. Looking back up, one eye had turned to black. The claw from before had formed on his left hand but this one was smaller in size.

Suddenly he leaped towards Jinta with almost blinding speed, but at this point Urahara stepped in and rescued Jinta from the attack. Although he missed his target, his attack still showed its power as he collapsed and gasped for air.

"Maybe I pushed him a little too hard," Urahara said, staring towards the dust cloud that puffed up in front of Fernando do to his attack. As it cleared, it revealed huge claw markings that cleared straight through a first boulder and left its mark on a second behind it. "But this helps to show me what he can do."

"How did you manage to form that claw again?" Urahara asked the now fully rested Fernando.

"I don't know," he answered.

"You have to know. This isn't the first time that you've done this," Urahara said.

"I don't know!" Fernando said a little irritated.

"What were you thinking or feeling at that time?" Urahara asked.

"I just didn't want to lose the fight, but then it felt like something else was trying to take control like before. This time, though, I didn't let it," he responded.

"So you were desperate? But last time, you said, you were angry and then you blacked out," Urahara said, trying to piece together what was it that triggered his loss of control and the formation of the claw. "It's obvious that you lost control because you were angry."

"But this time, whatever that was trying to take control did feel like the other time. The other just wanted to kill, it was really evil and didn't care who he was going to kill next. This one felt more like, it didn't want to..." Fernando thought about it but could not pinpoint what it was.

"Die," Urahara finished his sentence.

"Exactly," Fernando responded.