Rukia, Ichigo and Nel went to a place where it seemed as though it was actually day. Nel walked to the edge and looked out. It was at least two hundred feet to the ground. She turned back around to see Ichigo and Rukia not to far away from her. "Ichigo." Nel spoke.
"Yes?" He looked at her, a little nervous.
"I want you to shoot an arrow." She turned around and pointed away from the building. "Over there." Ichigo nodded obediently and walked to the edge, letting the cross drop and slowly pulling back an arrow, then letting it go. The arrow flew and Nel watched it. She turned to him. "What did you think of that?"
Ichigo turned to her. "What do you mean?"
She looked back to where the arrow had gone. "Do you think you did a good job?"
"Well, I…where are you going with this, Nel? I don't understand." He let the bow disappear.
"Is it better than an average Quincy's arrow?" She looked like she was waiting for his answer.
"Well…" He thought back to his practice with Ishida. "I guess it's better than my friend's. And that's the only other Quincy I know."
Nel walked up to him and put her hands on his shoulders. "Ichigo. Have you noticed anything different about yourself?"
He looked down at his body bringing his hands up. "Um…no, not really?"
"I mean as far as your powers are. Has anything changed?" She looked him in the eyes.
"Well…I'm a Quincy. That's changed." He shrugged his shoulders.
"Other than that. I mean something new." She stood back.
Ichigo looked at Rukia like she'd have the answer. Rukia quickly brought her hands up. "Don't look at me. They're not my powers."
He thought for a moment. "Um…still not following you. Sorry."
Nel looked away for a moment, then brought her hand up to her chin. "I'll put it like this. There are Quincy, and there are Shinigami. They have there own powers, right?" She looked to them. "Right. However there is a phenomenon where the powers of a Quincy and a Shinigami overlap." She walked to the edge and looked down. Then she looked back at them. "You don't just think that you only have those two powers, do you? That you can have two huge powers and not have something come of them?" She walked up to him. "Something new has to arrive because of those powers overlapping. We just have to find it." She put her hand on his shoulder. "Do you see what I mean?"
He looked down. "So…I get something extra because I have both Quincy and Shinigami powers?" He looked up. "That'd…be nice."
"Holy Lord…" Rukia widened her eyes. "You really are a super being."
"Take out your katana." Nel walked a little ways away from him. He brought forward his katana. "Do you notice anything different?"
He looked down at it. "Not really."
Rukia walked up to it and tapped the side. "Seems normal to me. Guess you're not a super being after all."
Nel unsheathed her katana. "I want you to spar with me." She brought her katana up. "See if it feels any different."
"Alright…" He brought his katana up. They started fighting. "I…don't feel anything different." They kept fighting. "Yup…nothing." They stopped.
They all stood there and thought. Then Rukia's eyes lit up. "I've got it!" She put her hand out and tapped Ichigo's shoulder over and over. "I've got it, I've got it. It's brilliant, it's brilliant."
"So tell us!" Ichigo turned to her. "And stop tapping me!"
She turned to him and moved her hands across the air. "Your Bankai." She smiled. "It's changed your Bankai."
Nel looked at Ichigo. "I think that's a good idea. Change into Bankai. Now."
Ichigo sighed. "Fine." He put his sword out in front of him. They both looked at him. "It's…kind of weird when you're both looking at me like that." They were both staring at him, intently. "Can you please, like, go inside? I'll come and get you when I'm done."
"No! Just change." Rukia hit him on the shoulder.
He stared at her. "Fine." He quietly spoke. "Bankai."
"That was pathetic!" Rukia stepped forward. But before she could say anything else he was in Bankai. She looked at him. "What was that?" She stepped up to him. "That is an affront to Bankai."
"I can't help it. It's creeping me out that you guys are staring at me. You try changing into Bankai with people watching you like that." Something caught his eye. He looked down at his sword. "What the hell?" He lifted his sword up and pointed at it. "Does anyone else see what I am seeing?"
They stared at it. "Oooo."
Rukia put her hand out. "Pretty."
His sword was glowing blue with a small blue flame coming off the tip. It looked like it was made of spirit particles.
"What am I supposed to do with this?" He looked at it.
"Figure out what all it can do." Nel walked up to the sword. "Try it out."
They all stood there in silence. Ichigo kept looking at the katana. Rukia put a finger up. "I know!" She walked up to Ichigo. "Getsuga Tenshu!" She held an invisible katana and made a swinging motion. "See how it is with this katana!"
"Okay." He walked to the edge of the building. "Getsuga…Tenshu!" He swung his katana. A huge crescent of spirit particles flew out of the sword. He looked back at Rukia and Nel.
Rukia clapped. "Nice."
He walked back. "What else?"
They all thought. Ichigo brought the sword closer to him. "The Bounto."
Rukia looked at him. "What about them?"
"They used the high level of spirit particles in the Soul Society to heal themselves. What if I used the spirit particles in my sword to heal myself?" He looked at both of them. "Rukia, can you cut the top of my hand?" She walked up and cut the top of his hand. "Thank you." He looked down at his sword. "This is an experiment." He concentrated on the spirit particles and his wound. After about thirty seconds the particles from his sword started to slowly move toward the wound. Soon, it had healed. He looked up. "I did it."
"Good job, Ichigo." Nel smiled.
"What else?" Ichigo looked back and forth from both of them.
"Isn't that enough?" Rukia looked a little disgusted. "For goodness sakes, you're invincible."
"I know, I know. But it seems like there should be more." He looked at his katana. "And what if I don't want it to be like this. What if I want it to be normal?"
Nel and Rukia looked at each other. "Why would you want that?"
"I'm just sayin…" He looked down.
"Just concentrate, Ichigo." Nel walked up and put her hand on his shoulder. "And you could probably make it happen."
"Concentrate, right." He closed his eyes. "Concentrate." After about a minute the flame slowly started to dissipate and the katana looked as it always had. He stared at it. "See, I could do it." He looked to Rukia.
"I didn't say it couldn't be done, I just asked why you would want it to be done." Rukia shrugged her shoulders.
Nel turned to Rukia. "Rukia."
Rukia looked at her. "Yes?"
"I want to see your Bankai." She smiled, waiting.
Rukia smiled a little and looked to the ground, then to Ichigo, then to the ground. "Funny thing, that." She gestured to the side. "I…don't have one. Yeah. I don't have a Bankai."
Nel looked sad. "Well…you should. You definitely should." She nodded. "Get one."
Rukia laughed a little. "It's a little more difficult than it might seem. It's…mostly only Captains who have it. Ichigo's an exception, really." She pointed to him. "That and my friend Renji."
"How did they get it, then?" Nel looked to Ichigo.
Ichigo set the tip of his sword on the ground. "Special training. Took a little over three days to do."
Nel turned to Rukia. "So do that. Why not? Then you'd have Bankai."
Rukia took in a long breath. "Well…………"
Ichigo looked at Nel. "It might be difficult to get my teacher to train her. It was a pretty grueling process for both the teacher and the student."
Nel looked away. "Well, it doesn't hurt to ask." She put her hands on Rukia's shoulders. "Ichigo is growing as a fighter, Rukia. You should, too." She nodded. "Now, go to his teacher and ask."
Rukia looked worried. "Al-alright."
"Go with her, Ichigo." Nel turned to Ichigo. "It's your former teacher." She stepped back and looked at them. "And once you've mastered it, come back and show me." She smiled. "Good luck."
----
Ichigo and Rukia were running down the bridge that connected Hueco Mundo with the real world. Rukia turned to him. "Do I really have to do this!" She looked frightened. "Do I really?"
"I think it's a good idea." Ichigo kept looking in front of him. "You should. I just hope Yoruichi says 'yes.'"
---
Rukia and Ichigo jumped through the gate. They were in the underground room. "It would be nice if she was here." They started climbing up the ladder.
When they got upstairs they saw Urahara petting Yoruichi who was laying on the table. They both turned to Rukia and Ichigo. Urahara smiled. "You lived!"
Yoruichi stretched out a bit. "I can't believe you just went there alone."
Ichigo sighed. "Anyways. Rukia has a question for you, Yoruichi."
Yoruichi looked at Rukia. "Oh." She paused. "What is it?"
Rukia looked very nervous. She wasn't sure how to put it and was expecting disaster once she asked. So she just stood there. Then, eventually, she brought her hands up and held them together in front of her stomach. She then looked up at the ceiling and pointed at it with her right hand. She looked to the left and let out a breath. Then she bit her lower lip and nodded slowly. She cleared her throat.
"Rukia wants to master Bankai." Ichigo turned to Yoruichi.
Yoruichi looked at Ichigo and then to Rukia. "Congratulations, Rukia. You have years of training ahead of you." She turned to Urahara and put her head out, asking to be petted.
"She was hoping you could train her so that she could skip all that time." Ichigo took a small step forward. "If that's…possible."
Yoruichi looked back at them. She looked to Rukia. She sighed. She jumped down from the table and slowly turned into her human form. "Oh, Yoruichi!" Ichigo turned around. "Can't you go into a different room when you do that, you're completely naked!"
"So?" She walked over and patted Urahara on the shoulder. He nodded. She walked to the next room and spoke. "Why do you want to master Bankai, Rukia?"
"Well, I've just been watching Ichigo and he's growing so much as a fighter. And I thought that I should move forward with him." She liked the way Nel had put it. "And the logical step forward would be Bankai." She moved her fingers around each other. "So…yeah."
Yoruichi came out from the next room wearing clothes. "You want to grow as a fighter." She brought her hand up to her chin. "I see." She closed her eyes. "I had hoped to do nothing for a few days." She looked disappointed. "But since it's you." She let her hand drop. "I'll train you."
"Really?" Rukia looked around. "Really? That would be amazing." She turned to Ichigo. "I'm going to have a Bankai."
He smiled a little and nodded. "Yeah."
Yoruichi turned to Urahara. "I'll need your underground training room."
Urahara took a drink of his tea. "Why not."
"Thank you, Urahara." Rukia smiled. "And I'm sorry for…you know…being rude to you earlier." She laughed, weakly.
"That's fine." He smiled. "It's all in the past, as they say!" He lifted his fan.
They all made their way to the underground training room. After standing there for a moment Yoruichi looked to Urahara and Ichigo. "I'll need to be alone with her. It's best when there aren't people watching."
"Oh, of course." Ichigo put his hands up. "Yeah, I'll just go and come back in three days."
Yoruichi took a step up so she was standing on a rock. "Make it four. Just in case."
"Right." Ichigo started walking toward the ladder with Urahara. "I'll see you in four days, Rukia!"
"Okay!" She waved to him. Then she turned to Yoruichi. "I just want to thank you for this, again. It's really nice of you."
"Definitely." She jumped down. "One of the most important parts of this training is understanding your katana. The spirit of your katana and you have to be in complete harmony." She walked away from her. "This is very important." She looked back at her. "Is this true of you and your katana?"
Rukia took out her katana and looked at it. "I think so."
"You'll be conversing with it periodically so it has to be true." Yoruichi walked up to her and put her hands on Rukia's shoulders. "This is going to be difficult. And you'll have nearly no breaks. There will be times when you want to give up. But you can't. Do you understand?"
Rukia nodded. "Yes."
Yoruichi looked into her eyes, intently. "You have to want this, Rukia."
Rukia gulped. "I want this."
"Okay." Yoruichi stepped back. "Then let's begin."
---
Ichigo was waking back to his house, kicking small rocks on the way. He sighed. "I hope Rukia's Bankai isn't better than mine." He paused. "Did I just say that out loud?" He put his hand over his mouth and looked around.
p.s. I meant to put this at the end of my last chapter but oh well. I wanted to explain my reasoning behind making Nel the new ruler of Los Noches. I thought it would be awkward explaining it in conversation or something. "Oh, remember when you were made the ruler of Los Noches?" "Yeah! It was 'cause this happened, right?" "Yeah, wasn't that great?" You know. So I thought I'd explain it here. The reason was that after Aizen's war ended Los Noches was left empty. So, Yamamoto decided that he wanted to pick someone new to rule. But there were pretty much no good Arrancar around save Nel. And she was an Espada so she was also strong. Plus, Ichigo could vouge for the fact that she was a good person. So, Yamamoto picked her. End of explanation.
