Chapter 7
I own nothing
Ichigo stood in the door way to the 8th level of the underground prison. The name of this level was Muken or void space. It was nothing but an endless place that one could get lost in forever and yet be unable to die if you didn't know the way out. Thankfully since this is where the commander had trained him in sword work, he knew he could easily get out.
"Okay. I'm here what now?"
His hollow answered him quickly. They only had 45 minutes to work, so they had to move fast if he would master this.
"Picture me standing in front of you with Zangestu and you can manifest me in the real world. We can begin training then."
Ichigo did as his hollow asked and sure enough a white light shot out of his sword and manifested itself as his hollow holding his photonegative version of Zangestu.
"Now we can begin. We'll start with cero. Now it's simply in idea, but its executing it that's the problem. Now think of it like when you fire a Getsuga Tensho. Except focus the spirit energy in your finger and slowly increase it until I tell you to stop."
Ichigo did as his hollow asked. As he focused his spirit energy in his pointer finger and he held the other fingers in a fist while getting into a secure stance so the blow back wouldn't catch him off guard. As he focused his power in his finger tip, a small red ball formed in the air directly in front of the finger. He slowly increased the power flow into it and the ball began to grow from being marble size to the size of a golf ball, then baseball. Growing overconfident, he increased the power even more, but then he lost control of the flow. It began to grow too fast to handle. Soon it was the size of a basketball.
"DAMN IT! RELEASE IT!"
"HOW!?" He was scared as the power made it feel like his hand was about to explode.
"CUT THE FLOW OF POWER AND PUSH IT OUT, LIKE YOU DO WHEN YOU USE KIDO!"
Ichigo managed to cut the flow and pushed with all his might. "CEERROO!"
The ball of energy flew about a half mile away. Then it exploded in a pillar of red light as high as a skyscraper and 30 feet wide. The blast of air arrived in less than half a second and sent Ichigo and his hollow flying backwards. They hit the ground hard and stayed there as debris rained down and dust covered them in the next second. After a minute, the winds died down and both of them stood up coughing. They walked to the hole and looked down into it. It went down too far for them to see the bottom but the carter it left was easily a mile wide.
'Whoa' that was all Ichigo could think as he looked at what he had made. That hadn't even been a Gran Rey Cero. How much power would that have had if he executed that?
The next thing he knew was being hit in the back of the head by the hilt of his hollow's sword. And he didn't restrain his strength so that hurt like hell.
"OOWW! WHAT WAS THAT FOR!?" he yelled as he rubbed the spot he got hit.
His hollow looked livid.
"What the hell happened to 'slowly increase the power until I tell you to stop'? That blast could have killed us both if it was any stronger. This is dangerous stuff that will kill us if you don't listen to me and follow my directions. So take that pride of yours and throw it away until this is done."
Ichigo wanted to make a comeback but couldn't. His hollow was actually right. If he didn't get rid of his pride and listen they could both be killed. So he hung his head and swallowed his pride as he said "yes sir"
"Good to see I finally got through that thick head of yours. Now let's move on. It's obvious you have the cero down but the control needs work. Let's go."
Over the course of the entire training session he had mastered cero, Hierro, and Pesquisa but his hollow refused to let him even try a Gran Rey cero, saying that his cero was strong enough and he didn't need anything stronger than that. His Hierro was strong enough to take everything his hollow threw at him except his strongest cuts and a Bankai Getsuga Tensho, that was strong enough to blast through and leave him with a huge gash across his chest that he was forced to heal. As for his Pesquisa they used to see how far he could sense. So far the current range was 6-7 miles.
"I shouldn't say this since it'll boost your ego, but well done king. You're ready for anything that those bastards in the world of the living can throw at you. Just keep in mind that you can be injured by any explosives or weapons if you get too cocky."
Ichigo felt like he had been running without food for weeks but also felt good at what he had managed to do. And the grin on his face showed he was ready to finally go.
"Thanks for the help. And I'll keep my end of the bargain."
His hollow nodded, satisfied with what he had said. And with that, he turned into a white light and flew back into Ichigo.
With that Ichigo exited the lower levels of the prison and flash stepped to where he and his friends were waiting for him at the official Senkaimon where he and his friends would cross over into the world of the living and the NYZ.
