Decided to publish this a little early. Part one of a two-part arc finale. Author's Note at bottom as always. I don't own Bleach. Tite Kubo does. Expect Chapter 8 early December. More info on that in the AN at the bottom. That is all.
Prelude to Destiny
Redux: Chasing Chad 2
September 9th
9:42 PM Orihime arrives at her apartment complex.
Orihime ran up the stairs to her apartment complex to the second floor and burst open the door, hastily running into her room. On her way there, she sensed Rangiku and Tōshirō were in the apartment as well so she wasn't surprised when she opened her door and saw them there. Rangiku sitting in a chair at her desk and Tōshirō on the window sill as if it were his assigned seat.
"Ah Orihime! Did you ever find Ichigo and tell him the news? Captain Commander told you to find him, but as I went and told everyone myself, I realized I couldn't sense him anywhere!" exclaimed Rangiku.
Orihime was nonplussed by the woman's genuine curiosity, looking around he room as if searching for something.
"Oh, yeah I found him Rangiku-san. He's off doing super secret training, so don't look for him," admitted Orihime rather bluntly. She figured telling them straight up would stop any curiosity from growing. Plus she knew a person like Tōshirō would understand the 'not wanting to be bothered while training'."
"Uh...It's not really a secret if you tell us, but it's okay. A guy like Kurosaki should be able to take care of himself," said Tōshirō.
Orihime was now looking up at the biopunk-steampunk screen which caught Rangiku's attention.
"Oh that's right, I forgot we had to move your bed to put in the screen. Pft, it's the captain's anyway fault for not listening to me on a better spot. He just got mad and said to put it in here because he has no sense of style," quipped Rangiku with a bored expression while opening up a magazine.
Tōshirō responded calmly without opening his eyes, "What was that Matsumoto? A vice-captain should learn to take more responsibility. That's not how things went at al-"
"Leave it there." stated Orihime simply.
This quick answer confused Rangiku, "Huh? What do you mean? We can move your bed back. It's right in the next roo-"
"No. Leave the screen up there, and the bed in the other room. I won't be needing it anymore for a while."
Rangiku noticed Orihime's strange demeanour as she put the magazine back down. Huh? What's the matter Orihime?" she questioned. Tōshirō had also opened his eyes after realizing he hadn't been hearing the jubilee that was usually present his host's voice.
"Nothing's the matter. I just won't be needing the bed since I'll be leaving for a while," she stated matter-of-factly, before walking to her dresser and quickly pulling out some clothes.
Before her guests could inquire more, she answered them, "I actually have some training of my own to do. If you can trust Kurosaki-kun by himself, then surely, you can trust me right?" she asked for the second time that night with a smile.
Rangiku being the type of person she was, accepted Orihime's answer as a endearing smile stretched across her lips.
"So, how long will you be gone?"
"Can't say for sure," she said putting various materials in a larger than average drawstring bag. Including a certain book she had recieved from Hachi earlier that night. She pulled the strings of the bag until it clenched shut.
"If you want more details, then you can ask Kuchiki-san. You should be able to sense her spiritual pressure rise any minute now..." she finished with a vague yet knowing smile, slipping into the strings of the bag as she imagined the Kuchiki girl's 'unannounced' arrival at the Urahara Shop.
"I'm sorry for rushing in and leaving so quick, but don't worry. Everything is fine. I promise," she said clapping her hands together as she said it.
"Inoue, this is your home. You don't need to apologize to us," said Tōshirō with the edges of his lips rising into a smirk.
"Hehe , I guess you're right Tōshirō-kun. Plus, this morning I woke up and made a ton of food, so it should last you guys a couple of weeks. I wasn't planning on leaving that long, but alot happened today and um...well it all works out now," chirped Orihme, as happy memories came back to her from her arduous culinary synthesizing.
Rangiku became flustered at this for two reasons; that she was surprised Orihime had cooked so much in the morning, and secondly that she would be able to eat said food on demand. There was however another reason that then flashed through her mind.
That Orihime might possibly be gone for weeks by the way she was talking.
"And Tōshirō-kun, I brought some 'normal' food for you since you didn't seem to like my cooking. It's okay though, since only a few people do anyway. I just think me and those who do have special alien-tastebuds or something. I brought some watermelon yesterday as well if you didn't already find it already. It's cube watermelon. Japanese grow it this way so it can save space in the refrigerator. They probably have the normal shaped ones in Soul Society, but it tastes the same anyway. I'm just telling you so you don't freak out at the shape or something," she finished in an amused tone as she swiftly walked toward the door to go out of her apartment, her guests following her slowly behind before she abruptly stopped.
"Oh and Rangiku-san?" asked Orihime without turning around.
"Yes Orihime?" answered Rangiku looking at the girl's back.
"Thanks again for everything, and tell Momone-san that I said thanks as well. She'll know what for," said Orihime opening the door and closing it.
"Hey, wait a second, how did she know I liked watermelon?" asked Tōshirō with a confused look.
"Oh? Asking me with that look as if I have all the answers," responded Rangiku with a deadpan expression.
"Tch, whatever...," responded Tōshirō, crossing his arms and closing his eyes again.
A very long pause was held.
"I told her yesterday of course when she went shopping. See? I look out for you captain," said an enthused Rangiku slapping her captain on the back.
He however quickly swiveled around to face her, while keeping his composure.
"If you really wanted to look out for me, you would do your share of the paperwork instead of putting it all on me. Anyway, now that the report is finished(the one you didn't help on), let's go to the rooftop for some training of our own."
Rangiku was unfazed by her captain's little side remark, but instead was only fixated on one thing.
"Wha-? You never normally let anybody train with you captain!" exclaimed Rangiku in intrigue.
"Huh? Stop acting so shocked Matsumoto and just go with it for once," said Tōshirō as he went to get their Soul Candies, King and Momone for the most interesting training session in a long time.
9:52 PM
Orihime ran down the street with thoughts racing through her mind.
"Ever since this morning, Sado-kun's reiatsu has gotten dimmer and dimmer. Not weaker, but dimmer as if he were getting farther away. I thought I'd lose my sense of it back when I said 'bye' to Kuchiki-san, but it stopped just now. It's weird, but I can sort of sense his pressure even from this far away, just like I can with Tatsuki-chan. Though, I could sense Tatsuki-chan's 'presence' even before I knew it was 'sensing' or even knew anything about Shinigami and Hollows. Even in Soul Society, I could still feel her, but it was as if she was behind a wall or something...
Maybe I can't feel Sado-kun at the same level, but I can definitely feel him as clear as day. I'm usually good at sensing reiatsu anyway, like how I was able to sense Kurosaki-kun behind Hachi-sensei's barrier. Plus Sado-kun's reiatsu is so familiar to me since I've been around him and actually healed him as well. It's kind of like how Hachi-sensei analyzed my reiatsu by healing Tsubaki-kun.. My powers really are similar to Kidō then after all...
Either, way he's definitely not in Karakura Town, and it doesn't feel like he's in Naruki City either, since I can sense Madarame-san and Ayasegawa-san over there where Asano-kun lives. So by the way things feel, that just leaves...!" she realized as she increased her pace.
Karakura Town is located in the south-east of Western Tokyo. Tokyo Prefecture itself, is split between Western Tokyo (which is made up of a number of cities, towns, and villages and basically self-governing municipalities), and the special 'ward' districts to the east. Karakura Town is one of the 'towns' in Western Tokyo, while Naruki City, to the northwest of Karakura where Keigo and Mizuiro live, is one of the 'cities'. Along with Naruki, Karakura is also bordered by two other municipalities. One directly to the slight north east, and one directly to the south. In the one directly to the south, there are two rivers called the Onose and the Karasu Rivers. They are formed as they split apart from one larger river when initially entering Karakura Town from Naruki. From Karakura, they flow into this southern municipality.
The Onose River in that southern town is where Orihime and Tatsuki met every Autum where they try to catch the red dragonflies and see the Autumn flowers and trees. This was also the place of the annual fireworks festival that everyone had attended that summer right before going to Soul Society.
Before flowing out of this town, the Karasu and Onose Rivers form a confluence as they re-merge together to form one larger river that flows all the way out of Tokyo Prefecture into Kangawa Prefecture before heading to Yokohama City itself. Orihime had once absentmindedly followed the river's path herself all the way to Yokohama, trying to chase the red dragonflies much to Tatsuki's dismay*. Though that's a whole other adventure.
Orihime reached the end of the Sakurabashi District where she lived, and entered into Minamikawase District passing by Chad's apartment. She felt where Chad was at, but still wanted to trace his reiatstu and the path he took from beginning to end. While the Onose flowed between the outskirts of the west border of Naruki and the complimentary east border of Karkura, the Karasu River flowed more within Karakura. Directly behind Chad's house's to be exact. His lingering reiatsu seemed to follow the river directly from his house which enabled Orihime to basically trace a straight path of his reiatsu trail towards the neighboring town where she felt him.
"You've finally stopped. Now, stay right there and don't go anywhere Sado-kun!" chanted Orihime as she slowly closed in on her oblivious target, her drawstring bag banging against her back as she neared the border to go into the next town.
How the Tiger Got His Stripes
11:03 PM
Chad waded back into the sediment buildup in the middle of the river going against the strain of it's flow. Everything flowed against him. From the wind, to the flow of the river, to destiny, everything. He raised his arm back and thrusted forward with his armored arm, blasting against the current in a blast of explosive and refined spiritual pressure for the umpteenth time that night. Pushing back against the flow of destiny. After being utterly outclassed in every category and subset by the arrancars, Chad had fallen into his own slump. Losing against Yammy, then being bedridden for days. Even then, after he was healed by Orihime's Rikka, the arrancar this time came straight for him personally and he rose to meet the challenge only to be instantly knocked back down. The saw-toothed arrancar had nearly killed him off like fodder had it not been for Ichigo. Then, after Chad had gotten his guard back up, following that arrancar's initial surprise attack, he was deemed unnecessary to the battle by Ichigo himself as he ran off with his tail between his legs. Not out of fear, but out of shame of his own weakness.
Those bedridden days leading up to that very moment were all mental trials. He stared at his window thinking over what he did wrong. Thinking about what he would do the next battle. How he would bounce back and fight with Ichigo back-to-back like the old days. Aimlessly he walked around Karakura. Looking at it's citizens. How many of them had lost loved ones at the hands of the arrancar without even knowing it. How he almost became one of those lost loved ones had it not been for Orihime, Urahara, and Tessai. Then Orihime's Ayame and Shun'ō had come and cheered him up even more, going back home with him and healing him. Being healed that way, lifted his spirits. The lingering pain, and psychological attachment to his injury had been holding him back. With them gone he was physically, mentally and spiritually(in both senses of the word) renewed. His thoughts from earlier about rising back up to fight again cemented in his mind. As the arrancar came to engage in battle with him, to simply be instantly defeated after climbing to the top of that pinnacle of confidence was resolve-shattering.
Chad felt over the small hole in his chest with his armored right arm. Just the force of the arrancar's fingers that hadn't even touched him physically, had still poked a finger-tipped size hole right in the middle of his sternum. The dry blood that had been dripping from the wound was caked from over two days time up to the current. His fingers scraped off the caked blood as it fell within his hand. Clenching his fists around the dehydrated sanguinary material, he let out a roar into the night sky as he punched against the current again.
This time, the water completely for a moment, stopped rushing towards him. The blast created a momentary path up the river and the water flew up on each side of the blast finally reaching the height Chad's had been aiming for. However, the water quickly fell back in place and continued rushing past him. A serenading mist surrounded him, a vestigal artifact from the blast. Despite this seeming specticle, the river was extremely wide, and his blast had simply been like launching a boulder into a churning loch.
The increase in the speed of the current at that point in river was dramatically affected by the fusing of the Onose and Karasu rivers further back from Chad's location. However he had concluded that as opposed to air, water would function as a great medium for viewing the true energy of his blasts. It was this opposed to the biased sense of his own reiatsu level from firing blasts into the air all night instead. With attacking the water, he could view a form of physical imprint of his attacks, and liquids always regenerated unlike solids so this made the water of the river quintessential to measuring his attack strength since it couldn't be destroyed like a rock or boulder.
On top of this, firing his blasts against the opposing current acted as a great 'control group' for his little experimental training. The sediment buildup Chad was standing on once again began to give way as it had had hundreds of times before that night. He held his ground on what had long since stopped functioning as a viable support to stand on about two hundred sessions ago. This time it had only held out for two blasts. It couldn''t support the recoil of another attack, let alone Chad standing on it.
"Alright, I think I've pretty much mastered firing the blasts as many times as I need to, along with increasing the power with each attack so that I'm not just able to do hundreds of weak blasts, but blasts where I can make each one as strong as I want to, and keep doing that as long as I want. My attack itself is really explosive, yet naturally focused and concentrated at the same time so I guess if I work to improve the concentration of my blasts, then that's a last priority. So right now, the top priority is to work o-," thought Chad as he suddenly jerked his head to the side, barely dodging the incoming projectile as it flew past his head chopping off a few stray hairs off the back of his head.
Chad backed up as the sediment gave way, falling backwards into the river. The rapid movement of water could be heard from under the surface, and as he rose to meet the source his eyes saw a astonishing sight.
The surface of the river was literally being unzipped like a jacket as the projectile flew up opposite of it's flowing path. The water was literally split in half. Where Chad's blasts where extremely destructive with concentrated explosions covering large radiuses, this projectile was extremely clean and cut. It was so much more refined and precise, not exactly blasting the water up into the air as if great force where behind the attack; it was just that the force was so evenly distributed. It was as if it were using that potential explosive force to instead efficiently split this part of the river in two at practically the atomic level. Literal 'walls' of water formed on each side of the projectile's path as the 'sides' of these walls were spliced so cleanly, that for a second they seemed solid with angular edges before they fell back into each other, giving way to the fluid properties of water. There was no 'water flying up into the air', 'serenading mist' and water falling back to the river, or flashy explosions. Simply a perfect bifurcating of the section of the river. All of this happened in a couple seconds and Chad would have missed it if he hadn't gotten his head above the surface of the water in time.
All of a sudden he saw the projectile disappear about fifty meters from him in a bright light that illuminated the night, and saw it go back in a quick trail of light in the blink of an eye to the road on the side of the river. At this point he already knew, but his eyes followed the light anyway until he saw...
"Inoue? What are you doing here?" gasped Chad with his head above the water. He saw Orihme sitting on the railing of the bridge that went over the river. Her legs were kicking back and forth over its edge.
"That's my line," she said for the second time that day. Her face was unreadable in the night sky, though still visible because of the lights on the side of the road.
"You dissapeared, just when I was going to come and talk to you about something. Then something even bigger came up Sado-kun. So I came to find you and when I did it seemed like you were training. I was getting bored just waiting here so I brought out my Rkka, but then Tsubaki got mad and wanted to train too, so I decided to try whatever you were doing in the river, but then Tsubaki almost hit you when I shot him, so I returned everybody to the hairpins," explained Orihime in her signature an all-in-one breath ramble. Her voice kind of had a nervous yet amused innotation. Basically an embarrassed tone at having almost split Chad's head open.
Chad sweatdropped at this, "How long has she been here without me sensing her? She was bored being alone, so she took out her Rikka to talk to? Isn't that technically talking to herself anyway? And such a straightforward answer about what led up to her shooting Tsubaki, plus she made it seem like I was only about to get hit or something! If I hadn't dodged-..."
"Wait, what were the things you said you wanted to tell me Inoue?" asked Chad aloud breaking his thoughts as he began to swim towards shore where Orihime was sitting above on the bridge. However, she had other plans.
The girl stood up on top of the railings for a moment. The wind blew her hair as she looked down at Chad with a determined, yet hesitant look. She took what looked like a bag off her back and dropped it down on the walkable path of the bridge from ontop the railings. Her face finally viewable with her head closer to the bottom of the bridge lights from standing up.
Chad looked up confused, "Huh? What are you doing Inou-WAIT-" shouted Chad as Orihime abruptly jumped off the railing catching him completely off guard. The girl strangely landed with a light splash. Chad waited for her to resurface, and when she didn't it caused him to sweatdrop even more.
"Why did her diving form look like somebody pushed her off instead? More importantly, why isn't she coming back up?" he thought. His comical nervousness, took on a more worried characteristic. "Inoue wouldn't randomly jump into the water if she couldn't swim right?" he thought before becoming even more disturbed at his answer to that question.
"Inoue!" He called swimming over to where she had dove/fallen. His call was answered by a burst of pain and a flash of stars as Orihime resurfaced in front of Chad with great force, headbutting him straight in the face.
"Eh? Sado-kun?" asked Orihime at turning around and feeling Chad fall on her back right behind her. However, she then saw that he was unconscious.
"Sado-kun? Sado-kun what happened? was all Chad heard before blacking out from what Orihime thought was fatigue from training, but was completely because of her possibly bulletproof cranium.
11:14 PM
Chad woke up surprisingly, feeling extremely good, and not with the suspicious headache he should have had. Not even the normal groggy, lethargic feeling usually associated with waking up.
"Ah, Sado-kun, you're finally awake!" said Orihime who was most pleased with this development.
"Huh? Inoue,..." thought Chad lying on his back before remembering the previous events.
"I had alot to tell you, and yelling from where I was sitting at on the bridge would've be hard, so I tried coming to you instead of you coming to me since I figured you were still training. But after I jumped in and came back up, you were unconcious! I figured you must've been tired from training so hard, so you passed out in the water. That's dangerous! You could have drowned Sado-kun!"
"Who exactly was the one that was about to drown?" thought Chad, now thoroughly confused as he resumed his episodic sweatdropping.
"Yeah, I had to get you all the way back to shore and you weigh a ton, but it was easier than I thought it would be..." said Orihime trailing off with what Chad thought was a knowing smile.
"How did she swim with me all the way back to shore against the current with our ratio of strength and weight differences? Is this what a normal human should be capable of? Even I probably couldn't do that with the same rules applied to me..." thought Chad sitting up.
"Speaking of the river Sado-kun, that was incredible how you made the water explode into the air like that! You made so much water fly up, that I was sure that I almost saw the river bed! That's crazy," said the girl with her animated expressions.
"That's some kind of superhuman strength or something! No normal human should be able to do that...but then he's not normal" thought Orihime unknowingly mirroring Chad's thoughts before her expression transformed into a interrogation-like one. Not an accusational one, just a curious and confused look.
"I know you're training, but what exactly was the point of coming all the way out here, besides not wanting to be bothered?" she inquired.
"'What was the point of coming out here?' That's my line Inoue, if you know I came out here to not be bothered yet still came," said Chad looking away towards the river.
"Hey, now you just stole my line Sado-kun, and I already told you my reason that I came here to tell you some things, so listen up. I'll tell you the bigger thing that came up first so I can get it out the way and get to my original reason for coming," she said wringing the water out her clothes.
She told Chad everything about Aizen's plan and the danger that Karakura faced, thus resulting in inevitable war that winter. How she wanted to help, but that Urahara had cut her out. Chad got visibly affected at that point, but per his silent demeanour, continued listening. Orihime got to the point where Rukia had encouraged her and reinforced her resolve, while she conveniently left out anything about Ichigo or the Visored. Only mentioning that Ichigo was training off away from everyone else and that she went to tell him about Aizen's plan as well. She managed to fit that somewhere within her explanations to Chad before finishing her initial answer of why she had come to find him.
Chad stood up when he saw Orihime was done.
"If all that is true Inoue, then there's not a moment to waste. I have to get back to my training. I came out here to train alone. It's no different than what you said Ichigo is doing. Trust me, I know what I'm doing. I've already gotten stronger so I can only improve, and thank you for updating me on what I missed," said Chad, echoing the words of Ichigo that had been said previously that day.
He turned back around facing the river as Orihime's face was hidden by her hair, before he suddenly was bludgeoned from the back and right side of his head.
"You dummy!" screamed a feminine voice.
"Hey woman, shoot me at this guy again so I can actually chop off more than his hair this time!
Chad recoiled across the board at this, regaining his footing to see what had attacked him, but he realized it right after he heard the voices.
"When did she let her Rikka out? I didn't hear her call them out," thought Chad. His back facing the river after he turned back around to face Orihime with her two Rikka floating in front of her face.
"Hey you! Don't just stand there, mouth agape like a monkey! The woman said she had two things to tell you and shes only told you one. You'll stay right here and listen to the rest of it!" shouted Tsubaki.
"'Mouth agape like a monkey'? Ag-ape as in 'ape', as in monkey? I see what you did there Tsubaki. Looks like you have a shred of comedy in you after all. Also, Chad, I didn't expect you to be so brash and have a short attention span. Not evenly listening to the rest of what she had to say? Orihime, are you sure we can use him if he's like that? He's just like Ichigo," said Lily, arms crossed with a slight look of disdain and disappointment.
"Hey Four Eyes, stop looking too far into people's words. I wasn't telling another one of your stupid jokes. I haven't heard you tell one joke yet besides that stupid 'wither' one. That was so cliché and lame," chided Tsubaki. Orihime looked up at them with a strange, nervous type of annoyance. Similar to how she had when Hachi couldn't understand her story about how she was taken out of battle after five diffferent explanations, but different.
"Uh-guys, not now please, and yes of course we can Lily. Everything should go as planned as soon a-"
"Um, hey? Inoue? What you guys talking about. 'Use me' for what?" aked Chad, slightly annoyed he was being talked about right in front of while being out of the loop.
Orihime closed her eyes and returned her Rikka, and loosened her posture a little.
"That's the main reason I was talking about Sado-kun. I came specifically to train with you," she said opening up her eyes.
Her bluntness surprised Chad.
"...Inoue...I don't think that's a good idea. I came here to train alone. I even have created my own training 'program' for lack of a better term.," he said looking over at the river.
"Before I train the way you are wanting to train, I must master my basic powers first. I already explained that you should trust me that I know what I'm doing, plus I'm just not good at training with others."
"What are you talking about? Since when have you ever trained one-on-one with somebody since you got your powers? Even when we trained with Yoruichi-san, it wasn't sparring. You should know that yourself. So why would you even say something like that?
Chad however wanted the conversation to end quickly, not being much of a talker himself. He also didn't want to get into a argument. "Inoue, if you really want to get stronger, you should train against somebody stronger than you so that by fighting them, you can gain experience. You should have stayed and trained with Rukia like she wanted you to. She's a much better match for you than I would be.
At this Orihime smirked.
"I'm flattered that you consider me your equal Sado-kun, but as for Kuchiki-san being a 'better match', that's exactly my point. It sounds weird, but I don't need to train with my 'perfect match' or anything like that. That defeats the point of training doesn't it?" she questioned rather innocently.
"Not necessarily. Especially considering Rukia would help you improve the most since that's what I meant by 'better match'.
"But, that's not what I meant though, but I'll get to that later. Right now I just want to say you are going about this the wrong way, by trying to improve your basic skills Sado-kun. It may sound strange, but just hear me out for a second," she said walking up closer to Chad.
"Training and honing your basic skills. That type of thing is for people who have time. Right now, both of us need to improve as fast as possible. Honing my skills? I tried doing the exact same thing after we got back from Soul Society. It's why I asked you back on the first day of the new trimester if you had trained any more over summer. Then those two arrancar came and you know what happened then. It's like Urahara-san said. Even though the final battle isn't till winter, there will be more skirmishes until then, and I am proof that traditional honing of skills won't work. You say you feel yourself getting stronger just from this short training, but that's a obvious thing that will come from training, but it doesn't matter right now. Right now we have a short term time scale so we need to do the type of training that is best for 'short term'".
"Now I'm confused Inoue. You say train for 'short term', yet acknowledge we both quickly got stronger from our own short, personal training. Just what are you trying to say here?"
"Yes, our first training with Yoruichi-san, and our experience in Soul Society, along with our most recent training has made us much stronger. I'm saying that right now, we already developed our basic abilities far enough to where we can do the training method that works best for people like us which is sparring. It's um...kind like how Tatsuki-chan taught me martial arts!" she said, happiness in her voice from remembering those nostalgic memories.
"Arisawa taught her Karate?"thought Chad.
"Tatsuki-chan taught me that you have to learn the fundamentals before you can do any sparring! Now that we've got our own fundamentals down, all we have to do is fight to get stronger through experience. That method fits Kurosaki-kun perfectly as a good example. Then we can go back and train and refine what we developed from all the fighting and experience, just like Ishida-kun did before coming to Soul Society. Now Kurosaki-kun is doing that refining too, except he is sparring with Hirako-kun's group. Fighting and sparring is always his way to get stronger and I think it is ours as well, so that even after we fight in order to get stronger, he shows that we don't have to even necessarily do any kind of formal or structured training after that...Wow that was confusing, I'm not that good at explaining it really...sorry," she apologized, sweatdropping.
"Hmm. No I think I understood what you said, even though you managed to confuse yourself," stated Chad while making a mental note about 'Hirako's group'.
"You did?" asked a relieved Orihime.
"Yeah. Since we have a small amount of time till this 'winter war' where probably even more powerful enemies than what we've seen will appear, we should spar instead of traditional training since that produces the most results in the short term. Then refine what powers we gain from that in the long term with actual formal type training or the type of training I was doing in the river or whatever Ishida did. I guess you think since our powers were awakened by Ichigo, that we can develop as fast as him or something? But, you did say 'people like us', so I guess you meant all of us instead, including Ishida, but we don't know what kind of training he did, except that he did it alone like both of us have done now," said Chad referring to Uryuu's pre-Soul Society training.
Little did they know, even though Uryuu had been trained traditionally by his grandfather Sōken Ishida, he had 'refined' his skills before Soul Society, and had just recently undergone his own version of 'sparring' with his father.
"Though, even if all of that is true, I truthfully don't think I'm the type for sparring with you Inoue. There's still the fact that I made so much progress in one night, and we have until winter for the actual decisive battle, despite anything that happens before then. You compared us both to Ichigo, and Ishida, but I am neither of them. Everyone has their own method, but the method you are suggesting wouldn't work out. There's lots of reasons I said Rukia would work better, but the main one being that my powers are very destructive. They aren't really for sparring or helping people gain power as much as they are for completely destroying whatever I hit."
"Wheres the logic in that? And a shinigami like Kuchiki-san's zanpakutō or kidō isn't the same? With the ability to cut and slice anything normally, then there's whatever her zanpakutō's ability is. Even then, who knows whatever other destructive kidō there is. Above all of that, you're telling this 'my powers are too destructive' argument to the person who has defensive and healing powers."
At this, Chad got finally got visibly enthused in the discussion.
"You aren't getting it Inoue. I could fight hollows before I even had my powers. After I got them, I could basically destroy them in one hit. Sure, Kuchiki could slice and cut you, but at least you'll only be injured. At worse, even if you were really hurt, there would be somebody there to heal you since she wanted to take you to Soul Society or she could heal you herself. I doubt she would injure you that far anyway since she can control her cutting power and it would only be sparring. Now compare that to me," said Chad making a fist with his right hand.
Sure someone would survive if I punched them full force normally, even though they would have broken bones, but do you really think a normal, physical human body could survive one of my punches when I activate my arm? Even, though it is still a punch, it's still my offensive ability. It's like expecting another spiritually aware human to survive against your offensive ability, being Tsubaki. Now, let alone when I charge up my punch with my reiatsu blasts? There is no holding back on either of those attacks of mine. Both of those can easily kill hollows. Plus we aren't in Soul Society. There's nobody to heal you all the way out here. Even then, it's only one of the reasons I don't want to spar with you," said Chad with a retrospective look before sighing.
The irony wasn't lost on Orihime as she smiled on the inside. "Does he realize what he just said about expecting another spiritually aware human to survive against Tsubaki?"
Chad actually started up to talk again after his sigh.
"Fighting to get stronger huh? I know it's not the same so don't think I am making a comparison, but it reminds me of when I was younger. Before I lived here in Karakura, I lived in Mexico. Well, actually I was born in Okinawa, before moving to Mexico during early elementary school. That's how I knew some Japanese and even some English since my parents kept teaching me more even after we moved away. Believe it or not, back then I was a complete hothead. Cocky and rebellious. I was pretty troubled, mostly influenced by my both of my parents dying when I was only eight. It really upsets me that I don't have many memories of them as I would like to have. After that, my 'Abuelo', or grandfather adopted me, and I had to uproot and move completely across the country from this region called Costa Chica along the states of Oaxaca and Guerrero, all the way to another state called Baja California Sur, or South Baja California. I was really distressed during that time. Abuelo had to work so hard, that I didn't get to see him as much as I'd want to, and being in a new area, and everything that was going on, I didn't adjust good at all. I grew a lot during that time and I used my height and strength to bully kids I didn't like. Even ones older than me. I fought so much, and got so much stronger during that time. I fought to get stronger.
Abuelo always scolded me whenever he found out I was in trouble, meaning I got scolded a lot. But I always ignored him until one day the parents and older siblings of the boys who I fought, all confronted me. As they were about to finish me off, Abuelo came and took all the blows until they left. Then he gave me this coin," he said holding the necklace around his neck.
"He told me to keep it as a symbol, so that I would always remember that I had purpose for my fists that I had to decide myself. I learned and made my decision to not swing my fists for myself and selfish reasons. What he did that day had a great impact on me. It's because of him that a grew up to even be a half-decent person. Even after he died, I was and always will be eternally grateful. But when he did die I no longer had anyone to rely on. His wife, my abuela had long since passed.
At his small funeral, a man approached me claiming he was great friends with my parents from when they were living in Okinawa working as contractor and civilian workers at Kadena Air Base. The man was Japanese, yet spoke broken Castilian Spanish to me. Something he probably learned as a hobby at university. That threw me off at first, but after talking with him, he said how my parents had lived and owned property off base in Kadena Town itself. I don't understand or remember how he explained the whole legality of the issue, but somehow they had left it to my abuelo, and when I reached a certain age or he died, I would inherit it. It just so happened that he died before I even reached the required age, so there was a whole behind the scenes legal thing that I still don't understand. I'm not even sure if I am remembering how it went correctly, so don't take my word for it. However, he was granted custody of me.
Though, by that time, I was extremely independent, and he knew this. So since he was short on money, yet still cared about me because of my parents and his loyalty to them, he had the home in Kadena Town sold, to buy land at least near where he lived in Yokohama. Karakura was chosen, since living in Yokohama City is really expensive, and Karakura was cheap despite being so close to the main city of Tokyo. Plus, at the same time it was not in a rundown neighborhood or anything. That's when I went to Mashiba Middle with Ichigo in eighth grade. It was Ichigo who reinforced in me not just to not swing my fists for myself, but to swing them for a cause and to use my power to help others. Anyways, you could say I am legally emancipated, but Japan's age of majority isn't until you are twenty years old for some reason, so the friend of my parents is still technically my legal guardian and supplies me with money and other things, and sometimes visits..." said Chad trailing off.
Up to this point he had been doing some very uncharacteristic rambling, but now his tired and true custom of trailing off in the middle of an explanation was showing through.
Orihime had looked on with an about face. It seemed she was just learning everybody's life story today. Rukia's, Renji's, Hachi's, and now Chad's. Though Chad's specifically had touched a note with her even more so than the others as a warm smile crept across her lips. Her hair being stroked along by the wind of the moonlit night.
"That was an amazing story Sado-kun. I'm glad you felt comfortable enough to share that with me. We're really more alike than you think, although in different ways if that makes sense. I don't really remember either of my parents. My brother, Sora never told me himself, but after he died my grandmother told me that he ran away from home with me when I was just three and he eighteen because our parents were 'dysfunctional', but I never asked more than that. Our aunt and grandmother supported us with money and then me alone especially, since he died when I was about nine. My grandmother was about to make me move to Yokosuka with her, but Tatsuki-chan's mom agreed to help watch over me if I was to stay in Karakura. Even then, grandma always came to see me. Then earlier this year, Sora came back as a hollow attacking Tatsuki-chan and I in my apartment, but Kuchiki-san and Kurosaki-kun took care of it in the end with my help. Hmmm," she continued with her index finger on her lips as a smile broke out. "It may seem insignificant pointing this out, but we both live alone and have lost people important to us in our lives...We even both live in apartments!" she said as if just realized the latter detail, with shock on her face.
"Umm hehe, more importantly though, we both are in the same position. Actually, we always have been," she said smiling and rising up a finger as if making a point.
"Together we both got our powers awakened from Kurosaki-kun. We were first formally introduced together to the world of the afterlife together by Urahara-san since my encounter with Sora as a hollow didn't really count (my memory got erased back then, but I never really forgot. I was just in denial, and didn't want to remember until Urahara explained everything to us). Getting our basic skills down together with Yoruichi-san, means we've already trained with each other already. We said together that we'd help Kurosaki-kun no matter what, the day we both left class, following him to help him fight that hollow. We both wanted to get stronger to protect people close to us, and recently both of us were left feeling too weak to even do anything. Not being able to initially find out anything about Hirako-kun, and the two separate arrancar attacks made us realize that much.
Though now, both of us have recovered from those events, ready to come back stronger than ever. I can see it in your eyes that you want to get stronger Sado-kun and I know you can see that in mine as well. That unwavering resolve. I could tell since you got hurt in the last attack that your resolve had shattered as if it were made out of glass. It was inflexible, but now that I'm helping you put the pieces of it back together like how Kuchiki-san plugged up the holes in mine, I can see that right now, we're truly are in the same spot. Now that both our drives are so strong, nothing can shatter our resolves anymore. No matter what happens, no matter how many times we fall down, we will always be able to get back up. Our resolves aren't easily broken or shattered or pierced like before. Now, just like the water in the river over there, no matter how many times we are attacked, we'll just keep reforming and coming back. The mental block is gone. Nothing can hold us back anymore!..." said Orihime. It was now her soul that was quivering in her eyes.
"Inoue..." said Chad in genuine awe.
"Your abuelo sounds like a wonderful man Sado-kun. I know from your words that he was as important to you as Sora was to me. If that's the case, then you should know that you would be honoring your abuelo's wish by fighting in order to gain strength so that you can have enough strength to use your fists to protect others in the first place. You said yourself, that all the fighting you did when you were little, and simply sparring for training isn't the same at all. All of this is why I wanted to train with you above everyone else.
And, back to what I was trying to say before, unlike Kuchiki-san who you said would be great for me to train with instead of you, it is you yourself who can understand me the most. To understand my will to get stronger the most, since you feel exactly the same because of our exact same situations. Your worries about my not being able to handle your hand to hand close combat style of fighting also goes into my decision. Tell me, just how am I supposed to get stronger by fighting an opponent I actually am able to handle? I need to train against somebody specifically like you. You yourself said training against somebody who is stronger or had an advantage is the only way to improve," said Orihime, slightly ad-libbing Chad's statement, yet staying true to its meaning.
At this, Chad seemed to visibly give way to Orihime's convincing as he uncrossed his arms, although he had one last question. Not to criticize or knock her down, just to simply question her because of a certain detail.
"Alright, Inoue, you make a lot of good points. You seem to have really thought this over, but just tell me this. If it's beneficial for you to fight against somebody with a opposing fighting style to yours like my close combat-melee style, then what exactly is beneficial to me besides the 'mutual understanding' thing you were talking about," asked Chad as he looked up at Orihime only to be hit off guard with a wave a reiatsu.
Apparently, Orihime had taken Chad's final question as a 'yes' to her proposal. A vaguely visible wind seemed to pick up around Orihime, flowing around her like a silent tempest as her eyes shone bright blue with reiatsu, glowing into the night sky.
"She's really serious about this?" thought Chad, thoroughly surprised.
He'd known Orihime had been serious from the start, but to see her brimming with confidence and resolve still shocked him. He thought how Rukia must have done a really good job encouraging the girl. He had been depressed until Orihime's Rikka had healed him from D-Roy's attack. Determined, yet still a little down while he was training until his talk with Orihime, but now he seemed more determined than ever as well. In a way Orihime was sort of 'paying it forward' from Rukia.
"Don't you worry about anything Sado-kun. I'll demonstrate why you don't have to worry about injuring my body with either your punches or blasts and I'll personally show you exactly how fighting me will benefit you, but if you fight back you better not hold back for both of our sakes. If you do you aren't just defeating the purpose of helping yourself, but actually hurting me by actually not trying to hurt me," said Orihime as her reiatsu crested in a burst.
Chad took that burst as the signal to augment his arm with his armor as his light blue-white reiatsu became visible as well to complement Orihime's in the darkness of midnight.
"You also don't need to worry about anything Inoue. I understand everything now. I can tell your reiatsu isn't at it's highest so you must've done some kind of other training yourself before your came out here that you somehow conveniently forgot to mention earlier. You've really planned everything out over the past few days. I'm impressed. Though since both of us aren't at our maximum right now because of training, it should be even, so no excuses. I'll admit, your choice of words and whatever training you did has made me curious as to what exactly you're going to do," said Chad getting into a battle stance.
"That was what I'd hoped for. So I know I won't disappoint you," said the girl with another knowing smile, raising her hands up to her hairpins as the moon reached its peak position in the now, morning sky.
Midnight Duel: The Princess vs The Tiger
September 10th
12:00 AM. A standoff, the quiet before the storm...
"Well disappointments are one of the few things I hate, so that's good to know Inoue. Ready when you are," said Chad fortifying his stance.
Four bright lights surrounded Orihime's head in response to Chad's statement as they flew out into the night sky in different directions, causing him to be on alert.
"She released her Rikka! I've got to attack before she gets them in any type of formation!" thought Chad as his eyes glowed out into the night sky with reiatsu.
Charging at Orihime, he punched at full power without charging an energy blast, as Orihime to his growing surprise did nothing to show any fear or wanting to dodge. Right before his punch made contact with the bridge of her nose, he hit a golden glowing wall of energy, sending shockwaves through the air.
"Wow, I'm glad you didn't even hesitate to punch me full force just now Sado-kun!" remarked a genuinely delighted Orihime from behind the whirring wall.
"Her Santen Kesshun! When did she summon it?" thought Chad, but before he could even comprehend, Orihime raised her hand towards the shield and it began pushing Chad back at great speed.
All Chad could do was quickly dig his foot into the ground as quickly as he caught up to what was going on. At first his foot simply skipped across the ground since he was being pushed back at great speed, but he gained adequate footing and actually slowed the shield's progression down. Quickly, he stopped it entirely with barely any help from his right arm until he was pushing back against the shield, stopping it from moving entirely. Chad and Santen Kesshun were in a stalemate power struggle.
"What! He stopped it!" thought Orihime in alarm.
Promptly, Chad actually began pushing against the shield, gaining ground of his own, before exploding into a full charge back towards the shield's creator. Abruptly he stopped as the shield's momentum kept it going. He stepped back, charged up a weak reiatsu blast and smashed directly through the center of it, creating a hole and cracks throughout it.
As quickly as the shield shattered, it reverberated with reiatsu from its three corners where the Rikka were located, reforming around Chad's arm before he could pull it back out. The shield surrounded him at his shoulder on his right arm.
"Her shield regenerated around me, now...URGH! I'm trapped!" thought Chad, as he tried pulling out, but couldn't get proper footing in the position he was it. He charged up another blast, causing the shield to begin cracking.
"Santen Kesshun," said Orihime reciting her partial Kotodama to strengthen the shield from afar as she began walking towards Chad with a quick pace.
The cracks dissolved once again as Santen Kesshun glimmered with renewed energy, rose into the air, and turned parallel to the ground with Chad still being held within it as it regenerated. It tightened even harder against his shoulder until it was squeezing around it like it was trying to pop his arm off.
"That's 'delayed incantation' Sado-kun. I can strengthen my attacks by calling their name if I didn't already do it initially. Even now it's not at full strength since I didn't say the full kotodama. You'd better hurry and use your full power to break out of it.
"You can thank Hachi-sensei for teaching me how the rules of kidō can be applied to my techniques Sado-kun,...along with this next one..," thought Orihime as she reached the area where Chad was being held and raised up her right hand pointing her index finger towards the sky where Santen Kesshun was floating above her head.
Chad saw this gesture and immediately still somehow managed to charge up a full power energy blast, but his positioning prevented him from reaching complete potential energy. The shield was floating under him, holding him seven feet above the ground with his entire right arm stuck in the shield making his lower body lean over the side of the shield. Shooting an energy blast would only shoot at an awkward angle oblique to the ground, not at Orihime.
"It's no use Sado-kun. Now that you've showed me what a full power energy charge of yours feels like, I already am used to the way your blasts feel so that I can make Santen Keshun the perfect type of density for your type of blasts, and every time you attack it, I adapt it. I'm only able to do it because, you're doing the same attack as far as reiatsu quality is concerned, but just making it stronger. I can easily prepare Santen Kesshun to match your blasts by feeling how strong your attacks will be each time so as not to not let Santen Kesshun get cracked by your attacks any longer. It's not perfect, but this is just one of the things I've trained for around the time school started," she thought referencing the training she did in the special spot she had found just eight days earlier to practice her abilities.
"But this here," continued Orihime raising her arm completely up, "...is something I learned just a little more recently,..." she said pressing her finger into Santen Kesshun above Chad's arm. Her finger fused into the shield just as her hands had diffused through Hacchi's Hachigyō Sōgai ( 八爻双崖, Eight Joined Twin Cliffs) barrier earlier that night. That experience had clearly influenced her, and she had already learned from it.
"Invisible, infinite void! Formation of the spatial curtain to parry ye defamers! The fabric ebbs 'tween to repel thee!" she shouted as spiritual energy flowed out of her fingertips into the shield causing it to glow brighter.
"A-A kidō spell? !" yelled Chad in his mind as his eyes widened in shock, charging up a final blast in vain.
"Hado # 1, Shō (衝, Thrust)!" she shouted launching Santen Kesshun into the air in a bright shockwave of force. The near sub-G force that the full incantation spell generated only served to augment the already powerful pushing force of Santen Kesshun.
Chad rode the shield, as for a few seconds, everything was a blur. When his motion abrupty stopped, he could see clearly above the canopy in the nearby forest. He had to be about nineteen meters up in the air, and his inertia caused his entire body to jerk up higher from the abrupt stop while his arm kept him secured in the shield. Though before he could even make of what exactly happened, the shield dissipated, and three bright lights, flowed back to what he now saw was Orihime on the ground. Having the shield dissipate with the effect of his inertia still in play, caused him to be slung even higher into the air before finally plummeting down to the earth like a rock.
Orihime watched as he fell from the sky, hitting their riverside battleground with a sickening crunch.
"Why didn't you break your fall with a reiatsu punch Sado-kun!" thought Orihime running over to Chad right next to the river's shore, readying to summon Shun'ō and Ayame.
Before Orihime cold fathom what happened next, Chad was up, and bolted at her from point blank range.
It all happened so fast that she didn't even know what she shouted in her mind out of reflex. Yet in that same second, she still raised her hands to her head to ready Santen Kesshun, her doe eyes forseeing the incoming doom.
"Too late!" shouted Chad, thrusting forward his right armored first sans reiatsu blast, impacting her right profile. It sent her careening in the air, landing in the nearby forest on the side of the bridge and river. The very same forest Chad had scouted out in the air. Drops of bright red liquid, lined her aerial path into its darkness, before they hit the ground being absorbed into it.
Chad de-materialized his arm and regained his posture.
"You may have analyzed my blasts Inoue, but I figured out your timing for summoning your shield. You can't even block since you have no guard when you raise your hands up to face to summon them, and that takes time by itself. I just had to be that much faster. And even if you can guess the power of my blasts, you won't always be right, I haven't even been able to properly attack Santen Kesshun at full power, and my training in the river earlier means I can always change both the power, and reiatsu quality behind my blasts now, unlike what you think. Even if you could block everything I throw at you, all it took was for me to be that much faster and only have to get in one punch to beat you. Where's that secret you said you had to be able to handle my 'melee punches' Inoue? For your sake right now, I hope it wasn't only all that manipulating of Santen Kesshun you did. But then what was up with that Kidō she did? That was a kidō right? When did she le-," thought Chad before his eyes widened, he turned around swinging a right backhand to a seemingly chipper Orihime who was prepared and dodged, swinging her head to the left.
"How did she get behind me? She's not even injured!" thought Chad in alarm noticing the striking lack of blood on her face.
After Chad's backhand missed, in the blink or an eye, Baigon, Hinagiku, and Lily formed Santen Kesshun around Chad's wrist.
As he belatedly materialized his arm the shield abrupty yanked Chad forward towards his opponent. Orihime then swung her own right arm back, before thrusting forward in a palm stike with her index finger pointing outward glowing with white energy.
"Shō! She yelled, transforming the palm strike thrust into a hammerfist, which smashed into Chad's head as he was pulled into it.
Chad's head snapped back from the force which then traveled through his entire body. But Santen Kesshun still held him in place from falling back, forcing his body to take all the recoil.
Suddenly, his head snapped forward in a motion to headbutt Orihime.
Orihime closed her eyes, waiting for the blow, but felt none.
She opened her eyes to see Chad stopped his headbutt midmotion, wide-eyed before returning to his normal standing position.
"Man, that was way too close," thought Chad, realizing how close he almost came to practically inducing permanent brain damage to himself.
"Huh? He stopped, but why? And, my Shō-hammerfist didn't even faze him! Even if it wasn't full incantation, what is he made of? It didn't even break any skin! Plus, he pushed back Santen Kesshun like it was nothing earlier and barely even needed his right arm to do it. And he easily took that crazy fall with no injuries at all without even using a reiatsu blast to cushion his fall. He's so tough!" thought Orihme in awe, as she stared at Chad for a couple of seconds before feeling a wave of reiatsu hit her like a Santen Kesshun shield itself. She backed up from sheer recoil, shielding herself with her arms.
A roar echoed into the morning sky, as Chad, charged up a complete blast that began cracking the shield. At just the slightest crack, Chad raised his foot to the shield to hold it in place as he yanked back, breaking free before Orihime could strengthen it with the rest of her kotodama.
"I don't know what exactly you did, but this time there's no holding back, Inoue!"
He raised his arm back in a broad motion, preparing to swing, but...for some reason his arm kept rising. As if the inertia from the backswing had made his arm continue to rise in the air, before it actually separated below the elbow. Energy from the reiatsu blast imploded causing this rougue forearm to spin up into the night sky from the force, before being consumed in an explosion of blood and uncontrolled reiatsu like a firework. It fell to the ground, a smoldering, distorted limb.
In the second that this happened, Chad managed to realize what exactly had happened. His arm has been completely spliced off below the elbow joint.
"GGAUH!" yelled Chad grasping at his limb, before a golden aura encompassed his being, and the pain just vanished. It wasn't a numbing feeling; the pain just no longer existed. It felt as if he were whole even with a piece of his arm missing. Strangely enough, despite his injury, his combat armor was still materialized from his shoulder down, and this was so for the severed limb on the ground was as well, as if showing a testament to Chad's durability.
"Phew! That was actually scary! If I hadn't stopped you, who knew what would've happened," said Orihime in exasperation, leaning over with hands on her knees.
Chad looked on in silence, no longer holding his shoulder, yet still in shock. Blood hadn't even managed to come out before Orihime stalled it with her technique.
Orihime locked eyes with Chad for a moment before saying, "Hold on a sec Sado-kun," turning to the right to look at the destroyed limb on the ground.
"Why hasn't it transformed back to normal? It's the same as before when the big arrancar smashed his arm and it didn't change back. Hmm, I guess it doesn't matter, since that just makes things easier," thought Orihime. She turned to face the still activated Santen Kesshun floating to Chad's right.
"Hmmm...Guys, move forward together towards the center to make the shield smaller, but we can make use of that hole," she said, making a clasp gesture to indicate what she meant, and referring to the damaged part of the shield in the center.
Baigon, Hinagiku, and Lily all moved together towards the center of the shield, making a sort of proportionally smaller Santen Kesshun while keeping the hole intact.
"Alright let's go," she said raising the shield over her head horizontally, and moving her arm forward, gesturing it to go forward before she lowered it down over Chad's severed forearm. She used the hole that Chad had created to surround the limb on the ground, before regenerating the shield just enough, until it closed around it, securing it in pace.
She raised the shield, bringing it back towards her and Chad by the river and turned it parallel to herself. Then, she pushed it into the barrier of Sōten Kisshun, allowing the top half of Chad's arm to in turn diffuse into Santen Kesshun, thus linking up with the severed forearm that was being held in place. Being cut so cleanly, everything lined up correctly despite all the damage the forearm had taken in the small implosion and explosion.
"Sōten Kisshun," recited Orihime to speed up the healing process. Before, it had just been purposely healing extremely slow so as to stop the initial pain and blood loss. The initial lack of kotodama had helped to accomplish that feat easier.
Chad's arm began reconnecting and he regained feeling in his forearm.
"This feels so strange," thought Chad. The healing felt different than when she had healed his arm before.
This was probably because there was no specific order to the healing of his arm in general and this was a different injury. The explosion had mashed all the muscle sinews of his forearm, so as he regained feeling in his lower arm, he felt the reconnecting and solidifying of tissues. Nerve endings were reborn, and the top epidermis layers of skin and black armor reappeared as if grafted from thin air. The radius and ulna regained their equilibrium with each other as they slightly shifted back together. The metacarpals, carpals, and phalanges, all re-set into their original positions. Inflamed tissue shrunk back as if never inflamed, and everything systematically went back all together; no one section regenerating too much faster than another section so that it was then possible to regenerate orderly on a microscale.
Within about under a minute, Chad's arm had been regenerated and good as new, bursting at the seams with reiatsu at his first and upper wrist as usual before he powered it down. To think she had actually returned it to the state of right when he was about to fire his energy blast was mind-numbing.
Dispersing Santen Kesshun and Sōten Kisshun, Orihime returned the Rikka into hairpins.
Wiping some sweat off her brow, she stood erect stretching her arms out.
"Phew! All done Sado-kun!"
Chad rose his hands up looking at them and clenched them together, forming a fist repeatedly.
"Hmm," he grunted, "Thanks Inoue...," and turned to look towards the river again.
However, Orihime wasn't going to let him just tune everything out like usual.
"Why did you forget about Tsubaki-kun, Sado-kun?"
At this, Chad turned his head around seeing Orihime with her arms crossed and paused for a moment before replying.
"Forget about Tsubaki? How could I even try to do that?" asked Chad with a smirk on his lips remembering the chaotic training sessions with Yoruichi.
"Not to mention he tried to slice my head off earlier," he thought, his amused smile turning into an comically anxious one.
"I just didn't sense him coming. I didn't see you launch him from your hands like you usually do or even do any kind of gesture. Though now that I think about it, wasn't he destroyed by the arrancar? So it seems you've restored him somehow. That's good...," said Chad trailing off.
"I'll explain all of that later. Right now, I'll answer the question I know you have about what I did after you punched me into the forest and how I got behind you. You were surprised right?" said Orihime smiling.
"How could I not be? I know I hit you point-blank, but..."
"Yeah, don't doubt yourself Sado-kun. I got hit alright, and it hurt even worse than getting backhanded by the arrancar. I saw the punch coming and when it hit, it uh...it's hard to describe, but let's say that basically my consciousness flickered like a lightbulb. I was vaguely aware of what had happened before I felt myself tumbling on the ground, and coming to a stop. I don't even know how much I was injured. Probably broken bones and all from the fall, but I know I couldn't even feel my face. While I was barely conscious, I wordlessly called out Ayame and Shun'ō. I had been planning to use them on you when you fell from the sky, but I guess you had other plans," said Orihime in a voice of playful accusation.
"Anyway, they came out and I used them to heal myself while I was still barely conscious. It was really weird. I mean, at first I was barely conscious so the healing must have been weak. Especially since I didn't even use the kotodama or call their names. But the more I healed the more conscious I became, and the more power I could put into Sōten Kisshun, until I was fully awake, and tunneled all my reiatsu into it. Once I was conscious enough to realize fully what had happened, I didn't know how much time had passed and I knew you would catch on soon. Even now, I'm not completely healed in that spot since that would have taken more time."
"She healed herself? It seems like that would be an obvious thing to do. So obvious that it never even crossed my mind!" thought Chad.
"With that in mind, I sensed you were still outside the forest, and since I was near the entrance to it, I couldn't just walk out now could I? I summoned Santen Kesshun and merged with it. Then I made it fly underwater since I was right next to the river. I used the current to help me speed up until I felt I'd gone far enough. So I came up, still merged with Santen Kesshun, and saw you. And that's when I ran to attack you after getting out of the shield.
I knew you'd be caught off guard, so I saw your backhand coming. You did it out of reflex, so it was easy to dodge. Then I used the Santen Kesshun to hold you in place again, so I could punch with the power of Shō. On a spur of the moment, I decided to turn the palm strike into a hammerfist, since punching you straight on with only my human fist combined the force of Shō would probably break my hand. It almost makes me wish I had powers like yours for times like that Sado-kun," said Orihime holding her hand as if she were thinking about it being broken.
"Trust me, the feeling is mutual sometimes Inoue," said Chad looking at his newly restored right arm again in a daze.
"And for my sake, I'm glad you didn't have powers like mine for moments like that. Imagine if she combined the power of my punches with Shō and used it on me. A better question would be what if I did that myself..."
"Hmm what happened next? Oh yeah, my hammerfist had no effect at all, I guess because it wasn't a punch , but after that you were about to headbutt me or something and then you stopped? I still don't get that," said Orihime with a puzzled look.
"It's because I didn't want put myself in a coma!," thought Chad sweatdropping at his near death experience with Orihime's hard head.
"Then you actually broke out of Santen Kesshun before I could strengthen it! Nothing I had used on you up till then had even scratched you so I was scared for a second or two, simply out of shock. But everything was under control since luckily I had Tsubaki on cue for that. I released him at the beginning of our fight if you didn't notice."
Chad's mind flashed back to the scene of the four bright lights moving away from Orihime's head at the start of the fight which had made him apprehensive at the time.
"All the way back then? !"
"I'm not sure if you realize this, but during the time in Soul Society, while I was with Ishida-kun, I trained till I was able to do all my techniques without my kotodama which I need to do any of my techniques. However, when I don't use the kotodama as you probably figured out, the attacks are weaker. But even saying only part of the kotodama strengthens them. It is sort of like how kidō spells and zanpakutō attacks work. Well...not so much the last one since for zanpakutō's you either say the full attack name or no attack name, but you get what I'm saying.
In Tsubaki-kun's case, I just used Koten Zanshun as you were about to punch me. Even, though it was weaker, he was able to slice right through you since you were as unguarded as I was when you punched me into the forest. Hmmm...If you think about it, we were both defenseless right when we were about to use a technique.
Anyway, I had Tsubaki-kun always hover above me in the air in case I wasn't able to summon him out in time or something, then I could just shoot him. How come I didn't have to shoot him out of my hand 'like usual'? I don't need to unless I want him at complete full speed and power. Since he is a offensive type, I guess there is more required for him to be at his strongest, so along with his kotodama, there's firing him completely from my hands. But it makes sense that it's not mandatory for me to do that every time I want to fire him. I mean, it's not like I have to do anything like that with any of the other Rikka. Plus, using him this way is actually pretty new to me..."
Chad observed the girl for a moment. "This is a completely different Inoue. The old Inoue would never cut my arm off like that, let alone practically beg for a fight, even if it was for training. What happened? It definitely has to do with whatever else happened earlier today or technically yesterday since it's probably past midnight now. What is this training she said that she did recently? Looks like I'm going to have to go along with her plan after all and keep sparring with her to bring everything out. Either way, her being this way is probably for the best...plus I can probably still get some more answers without having to fight yet..."
Chad finally spoke up, "So it all makes sense now after you explained it. I don't think I've ever heard of you actually healing yourself at all."
"Well, I never thought of it either until the arrancar attacks. Up to then I'd never been seriously injured or really injured at all. I mean, I didn't get so much as a scratch in Soul Society, so the situation never came for me to even consider something like healing myself.. So when I finally did, it was about two nights ago at the same moment when I first started planning to train with you. I healed the injuries I got from the first arrancar attack. So right now, I'm basically good as new."
Chad walked up closer to Orihime and crossed his arms, pleased at getting more information.
"It's good that you're finding new ways to use your powers, but don't make it seem like your healing doesn't have a flaw. Already, I've noticed something. Your 'healing yourself' is simply aesthetic. What I mean is that when you heal others, you use your reiatsu to do so. You act as the outside source of energy to restore their energy and stop them from losing more energy by healing their wounds. However, with healing yourself, you are just using your own reiatsu, meaning there is no other outside source of energy. You may heal the wound, but you still loose alot more reiatsu in the end. Even so, it is much better than any other healing techniques that I know of. Though the other downside I've noticed is that you have to stay still while you heal yourself or heal anything for that matter. But, healing your wound in the first place has its own advantages, like being able to fight more efficiently without being held back by injury. Anyways, I guess you can say I was kind of worried about your extra reiatsu loss since you seem kind of drained Inoue. This 'spar' and whatever training you did right before getting here...Can you really keep up if we keep fighting?" asked Chad with a taunting smirk.
Orihime took the taunt in stride, managing to not be caught off guard, before smirking back.
"You didn't look too good yourself earlier Sado-kun. Even after I took the time to heal you after your training when you fell unconscious in the river. I had to carry you to shore with Santen Kesshun and then heal you, hoping you'd wake up. But now you already look pretty tired. Even now I only restored your arm, not all your reiatsu. And, 'can I keep up?' Using the Rikka for long periods of time is what my initial 'traditional' training after Soul Society and before the arrancar attacks was all about," said Orihime beginning some static, and dynamic stretching.
"So she really doesn't realize the actual reason why I passed out...and that's how she got me out the river so easily?...And why I felt so good when I woke up!" thought Chad before quickly responding.
"I'll admit that I was careless letting you attack me like that, but now I know more what I'm up against. Plus, this time I'm coming at you with everything I've got from the start. You still won't have time to shield yourself from my attacks just like before, and then after that I won't allow you to even heal yourself. You may think you know all there is to know since you watched my training, but you haven't seen anything yet."
"'I watched his training?' At least he's not using that as an excuse, saying something like 'he didn't get to watch my training'," thought Orihime.
"Wow Sado-kun, I didn't realize you were such the big talker. Maybe Lily was on to something after all. You 'know what you're up against'? I don't think you do. As for your punches, who said you'll manage to hit me again at all?" she said doing a stretch for her right quadricep.
"Ahh~," she said finishing her stretch. "You're right Sado-kun. This was a pretty good warm-up, but now let's fight seriously. You better pull out whatever you're talking about that you have up your sleeve, because I'm rolling up mine," she said turning her idiomatic expression into a literal action by actually rolling up her sleeves.
"Ha. Even when she acts all serious like this, she's still the same Inoue," thought Chad with an amused expression before it turned serious itself.
"But, I know she's not bluffing. She still has plenty of fight left in her. If anything it's me who should be questioned," thought Chad looking again at his restored right arm with a pause before powering it up.
"Alright, this fight will be the beginning of everything so I've got to make it count for something!,'" thought Orihime seeing Chad's action before taking on a stance that had the vestigial influences of a Hachiji-dachi karate kata(stance, form)(courtesy of Tatsuki), but was mixed in with some other form. She took the hybrid form as if trying to remember the correct footing, but then adapted to it as if it were second nature.
Chad reciprocated the action with his own battle-ready stance, forming a fist with his pre-charged reiatsu.
Eerie.
Like a unnoticeable creeping shadow, an uneasy feeling beset the prevailing area. The constant current of the river went off a wavelength. The cardiac pumping of the wind skipped a beat as the breeze gradually, yet in abrupt intervals, changed direction. The unviewable clouds in the dark night sky seemed to convolute together as gargantuan fractures formed. That part of the sky itself seemed to clench together before ostensibly being pried open by what seemed to be nails, revealing blackness that contrasted even the night sky as three striking creatures appeared out of that void.
As briskly as it was opened, the holed nails pinched the seams of the rift, bringing it together and closing it. The portal slammed shut, revealing the full forms of the creatures. To the complete left, was one that was a little demure in size, yet also relatively tall in stature. It's tall, slim and toned form complimented it's feminine-esque, proportional shape. The creature was only visible from behind, yet one could clearly see blades shimmering off its body from the moonlight, lining the underside of its elbows and wrists. Acuminate blades could also be seen coming off its ankles after observing it's body down past it's apparent backward facing knees. It had a erect tail, budding off with two separate spikes at the end. A sort of snake-like neck could be seen on top of its shoulders with a head sporting forward facing blades of its own, but it was impossible to tell how many from the ground position.
To the complete right was a creature a little shorter in height yet just as fearsome looking as the bladed one to the left with only it's rigid body structure alone. From the ground-view from behind, two peculiar separate horns could be spotted sprouting from its head. They were formed by successively rising rings (larger to smaller, ending in a sharp point) that made the horns looks like exaggerated forms of antelopes or impala's horns. Lean muscle enveloped its entire frame to the point that, the contrasting of the muscles could be seen reflecting off the bridge lights. It didn't have a tail which sort of made it the odd one out among the three.
The middle beast was the smallest of the group, with not as intimidating of a figure. It's body a mix between and ectomorph, and mesomorph. But even by only viewing it from behind, it was obvious that this one was the most imposing of all. Its entire body was midnight black; ironically darker than the midnight sky itself which made it stand out. Pure undiluted obsidian. The contrast of its muscle tone was even more apparent than the horned creature, thanks to its nebulous shade. However, its muscles also appeared more lean thanks to it's small bone density and skeletal structure. Its tail was elongated, surpassing the length of its own body multiple times over with ease. The tail was atypical to say the least. It looked extremely vascular with multiple small tube-like structures compounded together side by side which made up the entire length of the tail. But, those very tubes together formed even larger tubes. All together, what looked like eight to nine 'greater tubes' combined to form a singular whole tail. The 'tubes' all had an edged top and bottom, that when all combined, made the tail into an elongated flexible blade.
Despite all these physical accolades, the thing that actually stood out most about all three of them was the gaping hole in each of their chests.
"Hollows? !" shouted Orihime running over to Chad's side. The hollows were standing up in the air behind where Chad had been facing Orihime just seconds earlier.
"Why did they appear here? Did our fighting draw them out?" asked Chad turning around raising his guard.
The hollows stood in the air further up above the entrance of the forest with their backs to Orihime and Chad. Eventually, they lowered down to the ground. Mumbles of a conversation could be heard before the smallest, middle hollow began turning its head all the way around without shifting it's body at all with its flexible neck at apparently sensing the two humans.
This action was only the first that unnerved Chad and Orihime even more. The chilling sweat on their bodies flowed between the valleys of their goose bump adorned skins.
It finished turning its head, allowing Orihime and Chad to see its intricate mask design sporting stokes of pure calligraphy where a mouth or at least mouth opening should be. A voice clearly came from it somehow despite a shocking lack of a mouth. The voice sounded like a hum of concentrated low frequency vibrations that reverberated through the air in the form of a deep voice. It echoed through the twilight of the oncoming dawn as it asked a simple question in that ethereal voice.
"What do we have here?"
Sorry to ruin the mood, but it's time for a:
Omake/Side Story: "Training with Hachi-sensei, part 1"
A couple hours ago, yesterday night;
"Alright Orihime-san, let's begin," said Hachi clapping his hands together.
"Hey woman, if this man really all that?" said Tsubaki out loud, yet acting as if he were saying it so only Orihime could hear.
"You ungrateful brat! This is the guy who brought you back!"
"'Brat'? Really? And if even if he brought me back, he should've made you disappear in return through some freakish sacrificial kidō or some crap like that. It is 'demon arts' after all. So far I'm not impressed," said an unfazed Tsubaki.
"There actually is sacrificial kidō-" began Hachi before he was swiftly cut off.
"Shut up, you two, we don't have time for that! Hachi-san is trying to teach us!"
"You're one to talk for once Lily," quipped Hinagiku realizing the irony.
"I just know when, and when not to joke around," said Lily turning her nose upright at not wanting to be associated with the two.
"So 'Miss Holier-than-thou', remind me again when you've ever actually made a 'joke'? I'd like to hear one," said Tsubaki referencing his disapproval of Lily's comedy in the makeshift contest they had before.
A dark aura surrounded Hachi, "Are we quite finished?" he asked with a smile that ensured death right in front of where Tsubaki was floating.
Apparently Hachi was a zero tolerance type of teacher.
"Eh? When did he get so close! Listen, I know basically being shaped like an oversized bubble yourself that you might not understand, but you're in my personal bubbl-!" he said before being grabbed by Orihime.
"Um…hehe…continue please…Hachi-sensei..," said Orihime sheepishly.
"Why of course! Hohohoho. Well..hmm, how should I start? Basically the creation of kidō is an ability shinigami use to focus their reiryoku or spiritual energy into a variety of what humans would call 'magic spells'. They can serve many purposes such as healing defense, or combat. I've already told you a lot about kidō already, so I won't bore you with redundant explanation, but you should know it is one of the four fundamental shinigami combat abilities. There's kidō or demon arts, along with hohō or agility, hakuda which is hand-to-hand combat and last but not least, zanjutsu which I've already talked about,"
Hachi then went on to further explain kidō, showing and performing examples for each one. He explained to her about hado, and bakudo, and all the different possible uses for those two types of spells (barriers, seals, restriction, blocking, repeling, and freezing in place all for bakudo, with various offensive attacks for hado). Then he went on to explain what he hadn't talked about before; the sub-types of hado and bakudo which were 'Forbidden Kidō', and the aforementioned 'Sacrificial Kidō'. Then he went to the classes of incantation; Eishōhaki (詠唱破棄) or 'Incantation Abandonment' which allows a user to use the spell without saying the incantation at the cost of a weaker spell. Though, a weaker user who tries this might have the spell utterly fail.
"That's like how I can do my techniques without my kotodama!" exclaimed Orihime, "but I never had any problems like how you said with kidō exploding in my face or anything, it just took a while to master…" said Orihime.
Hachi affirmed her connection as he continued explaining and demonstrating the next classes of incantation.
Kōjutsu Eishō (後述詠唱) or 'Spoken-After incantation', which was basically a 'delayed incantation,' with saying the incantation after initiating the spell to power it up.
"You can use this; since you say you can use your techniques without kotodama, to power them up catching enemies by surprise," explained Hachi.
The last class he explained was Nijū Eishō (二重詠唱), or 'Twofold Incantaion'. Basically mixing two completely separate incantations together to save time and confuse the opponents.
"Besides these three, there are tons of different classes, and some people even create their own custom incantation styles, but these are the standardized ones taught at the academy," explained Hachi.
"Though like I said, I would like to teach you to develop your own kidō, instead of the monotonous way the academy teaches it, but for now let's get started on the fundamentals of kidō itself. First, bringing out your reiryoku. You say you've had experience with an object known as a 'Reishūkaku' correct?"
Orihime nodded her head.
"So the Shiba are still around after all? I'd heard so much about their misfortune from Yoruichi-san," thought Hachi.
"That object helps one channel their reiryoku, so it can produce a physical manifestation of it, being reiatsu by definition, in the form of a sort of ball. Consider that like 'training wheels' for kidō. After all, did you see all the spells I just demonstrated? One must learn to manipulate their reiryoku into the various shapes and forms of all the kidō spells. Doing that without some sort of object is the true challenge.
Your three techniques automatically do this feat by themselves, as a zanpakutō's technique does, but now you must learn to do this yourself. This is what both shinigami and now you must learn. Are you ready?"
At this Tsubaki got loose.
"You're way too chatty. Worse than the woman! We were ready when you said 'Let's begin'!"
Continued in part 2
Author's Note:
Chapter Started: Sep 23, 9:51 AM est
Chapter Finished: Oct 23, 7:17 PM est
Revisions: Nov 6, 6:55 PM-Nov 19, 8:59 AM est
*Yes I use every little detail. Or do you all not remember the chapter and episode where Orihime and Tatsuki said how they always went to that place by the Onose River to see the Autumn trees and the red dragonflies that Orihime's brother Sora always used to catch for her? And then they reminisce how Orihime in her absentmindedness once got comically washed away in the river all the way to Yokohama City(a city I've actually been to in real life), which freaked Tatsuki out. Did you also forget Orihime learned karate from Tatsuki? I feel it's nice to to still use actual canon elements and details of the story even though this chapter is the first of the AU chapters. It all fit it perfectly, so I added it in.
I decided to publish this a little early. This is the first technically full AU chapter. I know this chapter might be wordy, but I think around the end of this chapter I got the hang of writing full AU, as the pace picked up. You can tell by the dates above that I had trouble writing this. The perspective writing was hard this chapter. Before I was writing one character's perspective at a time, or third-person limited perspective. Now, I'm having to do a mixture of third-person omniscient/limited with a touch of first-person. Third-person omniscient should be easy by itself, but it's hard to transition into that along with all the other factors I just mentioned, so the wording in this chapter might be strange because of this. I think I have it under control for chapter eight though.
I hope you liked my references to canon chapters in the subtitles of this chapter. Remember the actual manga chapter called 'Chasing Chad'? Ring a bell?
Pay attention to everything. Things are picking up plot-wise. This and chapter eight function as the two-part prologue to the main arc(thus the 'prelude' in the chapter title). The main arc starts in chapter nine.
Chaps 1-8: Expository Arc: 'Acquisition of Unwavering Resolve'
Chaps 9-?: Main Arc made out of multiple mini-arcs: (Name of the arc and mini-arcs to be revealed when the time comes)
I bet none of you expected any kind of fighting this chapter. Has Orihime's attitude caught you off guard any? If so, then I blame myself.
Also, everything Orihime learned from Hachi will be further explained and developed, as well as whatever it was that Chad hinted he had up his sleeves. But, if you really have any questions, feel free to message me, but preferably leave it in a review.
The Reishūkaku ball that Orihime and co. used back at the Shiba's in Soul Society, along with the thing Yoruichi used to help Ichigo materialize Zangetsu, are both examples of objects that can be used and augmented with spiritual power or reiryoku. These types of objects will hopefully be touched on later in the story...
I hope Hachi gave a good example of how using those objects are like 'training wheels' as far as mastering the manipulation of one's reiryoku is concerned.
Other examples include the the Shiba's firework canon that works in conjunction with kidō itself, then the device Yoruichi gave Ichigo, allowing him to fly to the hill of Rukia's impending execution.
Kidō, and the spiritual technology of Bleach really has lots of unexplored applications. Applications I hope to explore.
Next time, coming around the end of December or earlier to a computer screen near you, a true test of strength! Stay tuned for next chapter and the CONCLUSION of this arc!: Prelude to Destiny 2: Ascension to Hell
Check my profile for updates to the story's status, chapter release dates, etc.
