Illusion – Chap. 10

A/N:

Spoiler Note: Some spoilers for manga chapter 432, but I am not going to follow canon for the process of Ichigo meeting the Fullbringers, so expect the new characters to behave differently and perhaps even turn out to have different allegiances than canon. This story is consistent with canon only up until chapter 420; beyond that it should be seen as an alternate storyline. So I think I can safely say that there will not be plot spoilers beyond 420 because what I post here will be quite different from the manga.

(Originally posted 8/28/11.)

XxXxXxX

Aizen's eyes took in the fallen racks of glassware, the burn marks on the walls, and Grimmjow and Szayel lying battered and unconscious on the floor amidst shattered glass. His gaze lit on Ichigo, standing defiantly over his fallen Espada, and he smirked. "I see you seem to be unable to follow the plan we both agreed on, Ichigo. Does this mean I am also released from our agreement?"

Ichigo's eyes narrowed and he glared at Aizen. —Does the fact that you're talking out loud mean that it's safe here?

Aizen's smile widened. "We have successfully completed our bug sweep, and indeed, Gin discovered and destroyed an enemy surveillance center scant minutes ago." He turned his hand palm upward in a dismissive gesture and his voice turned silky. "Las Noches security is under my control once again."

Ichigo snorted. Aizen was radiating smugness through the link. The young man looked down at Szayel and Grimmjow and frowned, nudging Szayel with his toe. "You're going to have problems keeping your soldiers from killing each other again." He looked up at Aizen. "Although I guess it's nothing different from what you were used to before."

Aizen raised an eyebrow. "I see you were quite successful at accomplishing it as well." He nodded at the unconscious Espada. "I was pleased to see you demonstrate your skills so effectively, Ichigo." There was something new in his voice, a note of… was it pride? Ichigo looked back at him, his belligerence suddenly evaporating.

Chad, Ishida and Orihime had come out into the main room.

"Aizen-sama," Orihime said in her soft voice, "Nel is still getting worse. I don't know what to do."

Aizen's eyes lowered to Szayel's unconscious form. "I'll have you revive Szayel so he can begin his work on her. I'll want you to stay in the room to keep an eye on him, Orihime." He fixed her with his gaze. "I have linked his powers to mine so that I am aware of any substantial outflow of spiritual energy that he conducts. But as I'm certain you're well aware, he is not completely trustworthy."

Ichigo's gaze darkened at Aizen's words, but he said nothing.

Orihime nodded. "I hope he can reverse whatever he did to her, because otherwise she's going to die."

Aizen returned the nod, his gaze lifting to Chad standing with arms folded and Ishida beside him, glaring. "Ichigo, I think it's time for you and your two friends to make your 'escape.' You must take advantage of this window of opportunity while the usurper's agents have been defeated, before he gets another team in place."

Ichigo hesitated. "Inoue, are you sure you want to stay here?" He didn't like the thought of leaving her alone and unprotected in the same place where she had been held captive for so long.

She met his eyes with a determined look. "I'll be fine, Kurosaki-kun. Nel needs me."

Aizen put in smoothly, "Don't worry, Ichigo, I will protect Orihime from any harm."

Ichigo glared at him. "Like you did before? What about those two Arrancar girls who attacked her?"

"Loly and Menoly are dead, and there are none left alive here who would dare defy me," Aizen said, his voice arrogant as always.

Orihime put her hand on Ichigo's arm. "Kurosaki-kun. I'll be fine." Her large grey eyes looked up at him, determination firing in them. "Nel needs me," she said again.

Ichigo could see that nothing would get in the way of her healing instincts, so he put his misgivings aside. "Fine," he said to Aizen. "We'll go."

Aizen lifted his hand and snapped his fingers. A loud crack echoed through the lab and the edges of the room rippled as a small garganta opened in the center of the open space between the fallen racks of glassware. The edges of the dimensional rift shimmered, and then solidified into a smooth tear in space. He could just barely feel Aizen directing the power to hold the gate open; it was clearly a tremendous amount of energy, yet there was hardly any leakage. Ichigo could see the central park in Karakura Town visible only steps away. He glanced at Aizen. "How come your gargantas are so much shorter than the ones Kurotsuchi created? We had to travel for what seemed like miles through that odd tunnel, balancing on top of all the energies. Why isn't that necessary here?"

The brown-haired shinigami smirked. "Come now, Ichigo. Surely you're aware that I'm significantly more skilled than Mayuri. The fact that he was the best Soul Society had to offer does not speak volumes as to his ability level." Aizen sobered and eyed Ichigo sidelong. "For many decades, Soul Society has punished those who sought knowledge. As a result, most of those who could have had success as scientists were shunted into other careers. Those few who did attempt experiments were imprisoned or their work was hobbled by excessively restrictive laws. It is another sign of Soul Society's corruption. You should know this from your human history: governments which placed ideological restrictions on science ended up damaging their own futures."

He gestured to the garganta. "But you should go now. There is not much time." He smiled once more, but this time there was what looked like warmth in his eyes as he gazed at Ichigo. "When you come back, I'll look forward to resuming our lessons. You too can learn to open such a gate."

Ichigo nodded briefly, and then turned to go. But on the threshold of the garganta, he hesitated and looked over his shoulder at Aizen, wondering why he felt this reluctance to leave what he had long known as the enemy stronghold. He glanced at the white-robed shinigami and felt an odd twinge again as the man gazed back at him out of those dark, enigmatic eyes. Then he took a deep breath, nodded his goodbyes, and plunged into the dimensional rift. Chad and Ishida followed at his heels.

They came out into a forested area in the park, in a grove of oaks. Immediately, the moist scent of the Karakura air hit them after the dry sterility of Hueco Mundo. It was cool and pleasant under the trees, and their feet crunched on acorns underfoot. It was close to dusk, and the park was sparsely populated.

Looking back at the odd rip in space as it sealed itself up again, none of the three friends noticed the man standing hidden in the shadows, watching from behind the bole of a large oak tree. The man's eyes had narrowed at the sight of the three friends stepping out from nothingness. His eyes returned to the place where the dimensional rift had been, and he extended a hand slightly as if trying to detect any residual energy.

In the meantime, Chad had moved forward. "Come," he said to the others. "I'll take you to Xcution's headquarters."

"Wait," said Ishida. He came to a stop on the path, frowning. "I should go home, talk to my dad." He glanced at Ichigo. "You don't need me for now." His glance turned supercilious. "And Quincies have no need of outside training. You know where to reach me if you need me."

Ichigo shrugged. "Whatever you want." Ishida turned to go as Chad placidly continued down the path.

As they walked away, the man in the shadows hesitated, looking after the three as they split up, making as if to follow Ichigo and Chad. Then he appeared to change his mind. He slipped away in the other direction, following Ishida and pulling out a cell phone.

XxXxXxX

Ichigo sat with Chad and the strange dark-haired man he had been introduced to, his frustration mounting. Chad had said that he had known and trusted the man for years, and that he could train Ichigo in the human power they all shared. They were sitting at a kitchen table in an odd room buried deep within a decrepit old apartment building in a poor area of Karakura Town. The room was richly furnished, almost elegant; quite a surprise after their entrance through a couple of graffiti-covered passages that had been stripped of everything, even light fixtures. Then they had passed through a double-locked set of doors and into this room.

Ichigo was suspicious of the elaborate security precautions as well as of their host, a tall, heavily-built man with combed-back black hair. A couple of strands of hair had come loose, dangling into his face in a way that reminded Ichigo vaguely of Aizen but in a crude, distorted way that only served to annoy him. It did not help that the man was an irritating son-of-a-bitch.

The man, who had introduced himself as Kuugo Ginjou, was grinning at them. "Are you sure you guys don't want some ramen? It's my specialty, you know."

Ichigo scowled. "We're here to talk, not to eat. Besides," he added, "that stuff's bad for you with all that MSG. Doesn't it give you a headache every time you eat it?"

"Yeah," the man proclaimed enthusiastically, "that's how you know it's the real thing." He put his hand to his forehead. "Whenever I don't feel any pain right here, I know it's time for more ramen!"

Ichigo just shook his head. This man was supposed to be the powerful human who could train him so that he could reach the transcendental level? He just didn't see it. With the shinigami who had trained him previously, even if he didn't always agree with their methods, at least he could take them seriously.

"Well, how about something to drink then?" asked Ginjou, still with that annoying enthusiasm.

"Fine," said Ichigo with a scowl.

The man got up, went to a refrigerator, and poured the three of them glasses of orange juice. As he set them on the kitchen table, he grinned at Chad. "Shall we show this young man what Fullbring is all about?"

Chad shrugged, his hair falling over his eyes.

Ginjou grinned again. Then he sat down in front of one of the glasses of juice. As Ichigo watched, the air around the glass and its contents began to glow. The liquid writhed like a live thing, and then suddenly departed the glass in a thick stream, aiming straight for Ginjou's open mouth. He slurped down the liquid with satisfaction, then let out a long sigh and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. The light faded as Ichigo continued to stare. The glass was now empty. Ichigo's wide eyes turned back to Ginjou's face.

"Did you know," began Ginjou, taking on the tone of a lecturer, "that every single thing in this world has a soul? Not just living things, but even telephone poles, chairs, or drinking glasses. The Fullbring power is to understand and connect with the soul of an inanimate object, draw it out and utilize it like I just did with the orange juice in the glass. I connected with the soul of the liquid, then made it assist me in drinking it." He leaned back in his chair and gave his customary grin. "Of course, this is just a trivial example of our power." He toyed with the cross-shaped pendant he was wearing on a chain around his neck. "We can also change the shapes of objects." Suddenly he was brandishing a huge, gleaming sword, the point turned toward Ichigo across the table.

Ichigo jumped up, knocking over his chair, and dropped into a battle-ready stance, ready to call out his zanpakutou. But Ginjou only relaxed his grip and let the sword drop point down. The weapon bore a hilt shaped like his pendant, which Ichigo noticed was now gone from the chain around his neck.

Ichigo blinked, and the sword disappeared again, turning back into the tiny pendant. He hadn't seen Ginjou make any gestures or felt him manipulate spirit energy any way. This was a power that was completely undetectable to Ichigo with his current arsenal of abilities. He began to see why Aizen had sent him here, although at first he had been skeptical of the benefits of learning a new power rather than continuing to train his shinigami powers. He narrowed his eyes and looked at Ginjou.

"All right," he said. "You've impressed me. I'd like you to teach me. Will you?"

Ginjou didn't reply right away. He scrutinized Ichigo's face for a long moment. "If I share our secrets with you, how will you repay me?"

Ichigo grimaced. This was what he had been wondering to himself during their whole journey from Hueco Mundo. Aizen and even Chad had seemed to assume that he would just be able to get people to do whatever he wanted.

He countered Ginjou's question with one of his own. "What is it you need the most right now?"

Ginjou smirked. "Well, as it happens, Soul Society is constantly sending agents after us, trying to infiltrate our headquarters, attacking our people." He raised his eyebrows. "Despite Chad vouching for you, I'm still not sure that you're not working for them. Aren't you the substitute shinigami, working under Yamamoto's command?"

Ichigo frowned. "I'm not going to lie. I did work for them for a time. But now—" he hesitated, wondering exactly how much he should reveal to this man his instincts told him he should distrust. "Now, I'm on my own."

The black-haired man leaned back in his chair, his eyes never leaving Ichigo's face. "Really? So what do you have to offer me then?"

"I can't tell you details of my goals," Ichigo began, "but I can promise that if I'm successful, I'll be able to keep Soul Society from attacking you."

The man's eyebrows climbed almost to the top of his head. "My. Whatever you're trying must be quite ambitious." He hesitated, and then turned his eyes toward Chad. "Do you vouch for this kid?"

Chad said, his sincerity evident in every word, "I trust Ichigo with my life, and I always have."

Ginjou frowned, considering. Then he pushed his chair back. "Very well. Chad and I go back a ways, so I'll take his word for it." He met Ichigo's eyes. "I'll train you." He stood up as Ichigo let out his breath. "Get yourself ready. I've got a few things I've got to take care of, and then I'll meet you back here."

He walked to a door at the far end of the large room and it clicked shut behind him. Ichigo turned to Chad, scowling. "Is this joker for real?" he asked him.

The larger youth shrugged. "You've seen my powers. I didn't develop them naturally; I was trained right here."

"Humph." Ichigo subsided in his chair. "And you trust him?"

Chad said, "He saved my life once."

Ichigo sighed and slumped in his chair. He might as well go along with it then. He had been becoming too suspicious lately. Maybe there were people around him who didn't have ulterior motives.

XxXxXxX

Ginjou walked into another room in the house that was outfitted as a communications center. He locked the door behind him carefully, then moved to a bank of equipment and turned it on. After a few moments, a light glowed on a screen in front of him. "Encryption activated," it said.

The black-haired man placed a pair of headphones over his ears and lowered the boom microphone to his lips, then flicked a switch and waited for a few seconds. "He's here," he said, then listened for a few moments. "Yes. I'm going to go ahead with the plan as we discussed." There was silence for a moment. Then he said, "Yes, sir. I'll make sure to do that as well." His lips spread in a grin. "Naw. It'll be easy."