They walk up to the Seireitei in the middle of the day. (why not? yoruichi had said, It's not like we depend on our eyes)
Right at the edge of the Rukongai Yoruichi grabs an ear, pulls him down right next to her mouth (ouch, ouch ouch) and says softly, intensely, "Don't die, brat."
There's something in her words. A measure of... give, of resignation. Ichigo doesn't have time to puzzle it out, and if it was important, he trusts Yoruichi to inform him. Instead, he flicks two fingers to his permanent scowl in a mocking salute, tenses, and flickers out of existence.
Yoruichi frowns thoughtfully after him, then turns on her heel, purple tail swirling behind her as she too vanishes.
Ten days walk from any one gate to the other, four gates around a circular city, something like 3 flash-steps per day's journey, and... Half a minute. Yoruichi lands as lightly a falling leaf, poised with a cat's grace on her feet. She looks around and realises she overshot a little, the gate has been left behind, but is still within sight. The exercise with the orange brat seems to have pushed her too.
One more flash, and she kneels in front of the gate. Her voice is confident as she speaks. "Raven's flight through encompassing darkness, eyes of all watching, wisdom lost, forgotten and returned!" Then lower, "Let me pass."
Though phrased like one of the demon arts, it's a password. The gate starts to slide open. The moment Yoruichi can see past it, she's gone.
Going through the barrier is a punch to her diaphragm, leaving her gasping, and her outer layer of reitasu shielding shredded.
The gate slams shut on a blurred after-image.
Her mouth twists bitterly, self mockingly. (her spirit signature is unwelcome here)
Even now, visualising his reiatsu in ribbons, in blankets, in wings seems to work best for Ichigo. He winces when the tendril-ribbon he'd left trailing after Yoruichi snaps. Time.
He gathers himself, then pulls his reaitsu up from where he'd sunk it into the ground, spreading it in a thin blanket over a large large area - he has no idea how far the edges of his power reach.
He layers it over himself, then again over it, wrapping himself in a cloak, then once more, and more, until it feels almost solid, almost visible to his senses.
He still has to wait now, so he settles in jin zen, and sinks...
... To sunless, yet somehow lit, skies and sandy dunes.
He looks around, notes that the storm he emerged from last time still hovers at the horizon, black and threatening clouds looming. There is a slight wind that blows sand into the air. The land is deserted, lonely.
Ichigo thinks for a moment, then whistles, shrill and piercing.
"Am I a dog?" a familiar and still so eerie voice says right behind him, "to be summoned like one?" Unable to help it, Ichigo squawks, turns on his heel, stumbles through the motion and falls.
Honed paranoia kicks in, his hands automatically push out to catch his fall, his head snaps up, and the moment his hand touches sand (gritty and real) he flashes to the furthest point he can see.
He lands in a crouch, hands buried in sand, breathing hard, adrenaline having kicked in.
"So we've learned something, have we?" says the hollow. He's still behind Ichigo.
This time Ichigo slowly lets out a slow breath. All the way. And turns around. His hollow isn't facing him, standing with his profile to Ichigo, looking out over the horizon. "Child." he says, almost in greeting, and offers him a causal hand up, not even looking down at him as he does. The flowing cloth around him makes for an intimidating picture against the lit sky.
Ichigo doesn't take it, pushing himself up on his own power. The hollow makes a big production about being insulted, taking his hand back, inspecting it as if for dirt, then sniffing disgustedly. Ichigo ignores him determinedly, and turns away, scanning the horizon for his zanpakuto.
The hollow stays by him, waiting for something. Eventually he asks, "Well? Why are you here?" Ichigo continues ignoring him, and this time he takes the rebuff with grace, humming under his breath companionably.
Eventually though, he sighs under his breath and turns towards Ichigo. "Here, then." he says. "I believe you were looking for this." Ichigo turns casually to look at the shrouded figure, only to suck in a shocked breath. Bright and silver-grey against the black is his zanpakuto, curled full length up the hollow's other arm, the one that has always been out of Ichigo's view. It's head rests comfortably on the hollow's shoulder and it's asleep.
While Ichigo watches, still in his shock, the hollow murmurs, low and entirely too... intimate, "It's surprisingly good company, you know, for all that it won't speak." a pause, then, "Like and unlike you, rude child." his voice is as unaffected as if he'd been commenting on weather.
He cocks his head, "And, by now, I'm pretty sure you're out of time. That wasn't very smart, was it?"
Ichigo finds himself pulling out. The last thing he sees before he opens his eyes to the real world is the hollow turning to brush a kiss on to his zanpakuto's head.
He's surrounded by black-clad figures when he opens his eyes. He does so slowly, lulling them into a false sense of complacency, into a belief that he's harmless right now. Through half open eyes he pinpoints several spots, there, on to the roof, in the nook, then down, before looking up at the shinigami clearing his throat.
"Yes?" he asks. His scowl pushes the tone past questioning to demanding.
The shinigami nervously clears his throat again and says as if by rote, "By the order of the thirteen court guard squads-"
"Recruitment?" Ichigo interrupts, his voice quiet but firm, expecting an answer.
The man jerks, "Uh, no si-" someone elbows him hard, "No, that is-"
"No." Ichigo cuts through his stammering with finality. "I'm not coming in."
Zanpakuto unsheathe around him, and the spokesman's stance firms, his eyes harden, "I'm afraid you'll have to."
And Ichigo lets go.
With one flash-step he's at his first stop, past the surrounding barrier of the shinigami (and it's actually pretty efficient, while still looking sloppy) watching them react like swarming ants, wildly swinging at the spot where he was last, getting entangled with one another, falling and trampling each other for a few seconds. Then he whistles, attracting their attention as effectively as anyone could.
"Here, doggy, doggy!" he calls mockingly, channeling all he can remember of his hollow's mannerisms for a brief instant, on a whim.
Then he whirls and runs.
As he runs, he swings his reiatsu at the seki-seki barrier, keeping it a minuscule distance away, just enough to prevent absorption, building a resonance that causes an unearthly, high pitched screech at the edge of everyone's reiatsu sensing abilities.
Yoruichi's trick. It sounds like nails on a blackboard.
Ichigo bares his teeth briefly in satisfaction, an expression entirely too savage to be called a smile.
"Wakey wakey," he murmurs, and jumps over a shinigami that flashes in front of him. A somersault in midair gives him the view, and a brief blue platform forms from reiatsu particles under his hand gives him the push, a base for momentum. Still upside down, he pushes off, and flickers out of existence.
Another shrill whistle, and the pursuers turn to find him lounging on a roof top, scowling down at them. He balances lightly on his toes, ready, poised to take off. "Is that all?" he asks, almost disappointed.
He raises his immense power again, a weight at the edges of the shinigami's senses that freezes them in their tracks, rears it high above their heads like a wave about to break, like lightning about to strike.
Then he crashes it against the Seireitei walls. There's a BOOM.
The bells start to ring.
Yoruichi allows herself the indulgence of a smirk, speeding across the rooftops of the Seireitei. Cliche'd as it is, she murmurs self-mockingly, 'Let the chase begin.'
Yeah, so what. I'm late. Thank me; there are no cars. I'm tired. I want reads of a certain sort that I. Can't. Find.
And for some reason I can't write my Hollow good enough any longer, when before he was simply dripping off my fingers. I don't like him in this chapter. If you guys find him jarring and can figure out why, tell me and I'll see if that fixes him enough for me to re-write that scene. Simple enough.
(Warning: AU mechanics ahead, which aren't even set in stone.)
So, I just decided. Vision, and a solid base to step out from are the requirements for a flash step. Also, vision is basically, you have to know where you're ending up. So a brief glance might not be enough. Hence Ichigo's move. He sets up a series of places he's looked at, and later a glance is enough. So he can slip from one place to another in rapid sucession. SO the demands of being a God of Flash is basically imagination (what's the most unexpected place you can appear), speed (more than the other guy), reaction timing, and chakra, or the equivalent there-of. Mana pools.
(1367 words. Short, but. Deal.)
Love you all, especially those that comment. Adore you guys.
Hija
