Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or anyone or anything from Bleach. Nor do I own the city of Nagasaki. It's as simple as that. Everything else, however, is mine. :D

Chapter 10: The Next Step

"I feel stupid doing this."

"Quit complaining! Jinzen has been developed over thousands of years and it works!"

"I still feel stupid," Sachi grumbled.

Renji pinched the bridge of his nose in irritation. "You enjoy pissing me off don't you…"

"Well, you do make it pretty easy," Sachi replied with a shrug and a grin.

"Just concentrate," Renji sighed, trying and failing to resist the urge to roll his eyes.

Sachi and Renji were deep in a wooded area of a park near Sachi's home. With the return of Renji's powers he had introduced sparring into Sachi's training and after the first session they both had decided that sparring was too energetic to do on the roof of the apartment building. The park offered more seclusion and no one would really notice if a few trees were felled, unlike having large chunks of concrete from the roof go missing.

The previous day Sachi, alarmed, had shown the guard of her zanpakuto to Renji again. The design on it had changed completely from the night that Renji had given her his powers. No longer like lighting bolts, the cutouts on the guard now resembled the jaws of some kind of animal. Sharp teeth lined the either side of the hilt with wicked canines interlocked on either end.

Renji had finally realized what the changes to Sachi's zanpakuto meant. Instead of losing her powers like she should have as Renji slowly gained his back, her own spiritual powers were awakening. As Renji's reiatsu returned to him Sachi's reiatsu began to fill her zanpakuto to replace his and its appearance had changed accordingly.

Renji had explained all this to Sachi, but had left out that this wasn't supposed to happen. And that the more her power awakened the more danger she would be in from Soul Society.

Worrying wouldn't do either of them any good, however, so Renji had decided it was time for Sachi to take the next step and attempt shikai. While it was ridiculous for a Soul Reaper to try and release shikai after just a month of training, Sachi was Ichigo's daughter and Renji was certain that if anyone could do it she could.

Unfortunately Sachi had inherited other things from Ichigo besides his innate fighting ability. Like his stubbornness. She had spent fifteen minutes groaning and griping about having to mediate to talk to her zanpakuto. Her father hadn't learned his shikai that way so why did she have too, she had whined. Finally though Sachi had relented and she was now sitting cross-legged in the middle of a clearing with her enormous sword laid across her lap.

Sachi was completely still and silent as a breeze stirred the air inside the clearing. Sachi had entered into the trance that would allow her to go into her inner world as Renji knew she would. All he had to do now was wait.

…

When Sachi next opened her eyes the first thing she saw was blue. Bright blue, extending in all directions, all around her, for as far as the eye could see. Like the sky. In fact it was the sky and she was standing on a…cloud?

Once her mind had processed these facts Sachi let out a terrified scream. She was in the sky? On a cloud? Shouldn't she be falling to her death? Or was she already dead? Or-!

Sachi's terrified train of thought was interrupted by a playful voice. "What're you freaking out about?"

Sachi turned once in a hasty circle before she spotted the speaker. It was a young girl, who couldn't be older than ten or so. She had long wild black hair and dark eyes and was dressed in a rather tattered kimono colored in shades of black.

The little girl giggled at Sachi's terrified expression and spoke again. "You really shouldn't be afraid you know. This is your inner world after all."

"My…my inner world?" Sachi managed to ask.

"Yep!"

Fear slowly draining out of her, Sachi took another chance to look around. She was indeed standing on a cloud in a sky of bright cerulean blue. The sun shone brilliantly to Sachi's left, leaving no room for shadows. Other clouds just as white and fluffy as the one Sachi was standing on drifted slowly by. Sachi edged as close as she dared to end of her cloud and looked down. Far, far below them she could make out the shapes of skyscrapers in a seemingly endless city.

"So this is my inner world?" Sachi asked the girl, finally regaining some of her confidence.

"Obviously," girl said, teasingly making a face. "I just said that."

"So you must be…." Sachi said slowly, making sure that she really was absorbing everything. "My zanpakuto."

The girl broke out in a wide grin. There was something in that smile though, a nasty light in her eyes perhaps, that made Sachi uneasy. "That's right! My name is -."

"Huh?" Confusion caused Sachi's brow to furrow.

"I said my name is -."

"I'm sorry," Sachi said carefully, worried she might offend the girl. "But I couldn't hear it."

"Ah…Well that is too bad," the girl replied. Her playful demeanor was gone as she watched Sachi with half-lidded eyes. "I'm afraid you're business here is done then."

The girl turned away. "Wait!" Sachi cried.

"Bye!" The girl's demeanor had done another one-eighty and she turned halfway back towards Sachi to give her a cheery wave. She then turned and with a massive running leap jumped to another cloud.

Sachi watched, dumbfounded, for a moment as the little girl moved away by jumping from cloud to cloud. "Come back, please!" Sachi called as the girl began to disappear into the distance.

Sachi couldn't let the girl get away. Not when she had just met her. She had to learn her name so that she could use shikai. With this thought spurring her on Sachi didn't take the time to think and ran forward, leaping of the end of the cloud towards the next one.

Unlike the girl's leap, however, it didn't carry her to next cloud. Sachi's jump was far too short and as she reached its apex she began to fall. As her body slowly turned Sachi was horrified to see the skyscrapers spread far out below her. She would fall to her death among them. Sachi opened her mouth to scream.

…

Renji had fallen asleep as he waited for Sachi to return. Time in a Soul Reaper's inner world rarely went at the same pace as the world outside so there was no telling when she'd be back. The sun had just set when Renji was awakened by Sachi's scream. He jumped up, Zabimaru already in his hand, when he realized that Sachi was back.

Sachi stood, panting hard, as she willed herself to calm down. She wasn't dead. She wasn't even sure if she had really fallen. She was in the clearing in the park- safe- with Renji. Suddenly exhausted she collapsed backwards into a sitting position.

Renji sheathed his sword and ran over to Sachi. "Are you alright?" he asked, concern coloring his voice. It was never a good sign when someone came out of their inner world screaming.

"Yea…I'm fine." Sachi sighed.

"What happened?"

Sachi wasn't sure what to say for a minute. "I met my zanpakuto's spirit."

There was a long moment of silence before Renji prompted her. "And?"

"I couldn't hear her name," Sachi admitted, sounding defeated.

Renji let out a sigh of relief as he stood straight again. Nothing horrible had happened then. "Well that's no big deal. It normally takes a while for a Soul Reaper to even enter their inner world, let alone actually hearing their zanpakuto's name."

"Really?" Sachi asked, looking hopefully up at Renji. She had been kind of worried that she had failed and he would be disappointed in her.

"Yep," Renji replied, giving her a grin.

Renji then offered Sachi a hand up which she gladly took. A strange little jolt of electricity- though Sachi wouldn't have said it was unpleasant- ran through Sachi's fingertips and up her arm as her skin made contact with Renji's. Once she was standing she let go of his hand more quickly than was strictly necessary, feeling slightly alarmed.

Renji, for his part, tried to ignore the wounded feeling that threatened to bubble up in his chest when Sachi dropped his hand so quickly. If he were being honest with himself he would have liked to feel her warmth against his hand a moment longer. Renji squashed this thought was well.

Sachi and Renji stood awkwardly in the twilight for a moment, neither quite willing to make eye contact. Finally Sachi turned smartly back towards the entrance to the park. "Let's go. Dinner should be ready by the time we get back."

The uncomfortable spell was broken and Sachi and Renji walked back through the park together as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. "Great I'm starved. Do you think you could sneak me some extra rice tonight?" Renji asked, looking at her with pleading eyes.

Sachi had to smother her smile. She swore the man could eat enough for an army. "I'll see what I can do."

…

The next day found Sachi and Renji bounding across rooftops in pursuit of a Hollow. Sachi didn't think she'd ever grow accustomed to running around as a Soul Reaper. She loved the athleticism of her spiritual body and the feeling of flying as they traveled in massive leaps.

Sachi's pleasant musings were interrupted by the sound of the soul pager going off. They both paused on the rooftop of a grocery store as Renji pulled the beeping device from his pocket.

Renji frowned. "It says another Hollow has appeared."

Sachi peered over his shoulder. "I'll handle it," she said a little too quickly.

Renji glanced at her suspiciously. She tried her best to give him a confident smile. "Alright," Renji agreed, but he didn't sound convinced. "You take the soul pager. And be careful."

Sachi gave him a cheery wave and a smile as he turned and leapt away. Sachi quickly dropped the act, however, as she turned away and bounded off towards the location of the new Hollow. Anxiety flooded through her, spurring her on faster. The Hollow had appeared at her little brother's school.

…

Renji went down on one knee for a moment to catch his breath. It had taken him longer than he would have liked to defeat the Hollow and he was certain now that he hadn't been imagining it- the Hollows they were fighting were definitely getting stronger. Renji didn't know what it meant, but he did know that it was bad. It was like these Hollows were being sent to them rather than appearing naturally.

Renji stood and sheathed Zabimaru as he searched for Sachi's reiatsu. She hadn't been acting exactly normal when they had spilt up and his concern for her had been distracting him for his entire fight.

Locating Sachi's reiatsu only increased his worry as it was laced with desperation. Renji headed for Sachi as fast as he could, apprehension hurrying his steps.

…

Sachi landed on the wall surrounding her little brother's school on the verge of a panic attack. However, after observing the schoolyard and building for a moment and everything seemed normal she relaxed a little bit. It looked like it was recess at the moment. She smiled fondly as she spotted her brother playing soccer with his friends.

A strange rumbling sound suddenly filled the air and the wall beneath Sachi's feet began to vibrate. Before she could react the ground in the middle of the schoolyard began to break apart, two massive, shovel-like claws appearing among the cracks quickly followed by the rest of the Hollow. "Oh goody!" it cackled, its voice like gravel. "Kiddies!"

Sachi was frozen in shock for a moment. Since when did Hollow's talk? She sprang into action when the Hollow shot a long tongue out of its narrow jaws towards a group of fleeing children.

Sachi cut the end of the Hollow's tongue off before it could grab a child and it screamed. "OWWW! That hurt!" The Hollow emerged fully from the ground and looked around. "A Soul Reaper?" It had spotted Sachi. "It's my lucky day."

Sachi stood ready, but she was still uneasy. The school was in chaos as the teachers tried to evacuate the children. Many of them crouched crying where they were too terrified to move. Sachi found herself unconsciously searching for her brother out of the corners of her eyes.

The Hollow in front of her sat back on its haunches, tapping the tip of its claw to what Sachi supposed was its chin. "It's been a while since I ran into a Soul Reaper…" it mused. "What to do, what to do…"

If Sachi had been in any other situation she would have stared, slack-jawed at the Hollow for a while. Not only could this one talk, but it was also intelligent? Sachi hadn't known that there were Hollows like this. It was like it had regained some of its humanity or something. Or maybe not, Sachi thought gripping her zanpakuto tighter. It still wanted to eat the souls of humans.

"Isn't it obvious!" Sachi shouted at the creature. "You have to fight me."

"Yes, I suppose I could do that…" the Hollow continued to ponder. "But I've got such a taste for children." Sachi's grip was so tight on the hilt of her sword that her knuckles had turned white. Hot fury coursed through her. "Yes. That's what I'll do." The Hollow had apparently come to a decision and sounded definite now. It pointed one massive clawed hand at Sachi. "I'll save you for later!"

Before Sachi could react the claws shot off the Hollow's hand straight at her. Sachi managed to block two but a third embedded itself in her left shoulder. The force of the claw hitting her sent her flying back into a wall. She collapsed against it slightly dazed. Screaming children brought her back to herself and she was sickened to see the Hollow bearing down on them laughing manically.

Sachi gritted her teeth and wrenched the claw from her shoulder allowing the wound to bleed freely. Sachi tentatively raised her arm. She could still use it. Barely. She didn't really have time to think about it though and sprang forward again.

Sachi jumped towards the Hollow, sword raised high when it turned to glance at her. "Too slow Soul Reaper." The Hollow swiped at her with the back of its clawed hand and sent her flying again.

Again and again Sachi tried to attack and every time the Hollow allow deflected her easily, as if she was nothing more than and annoying fly. She had managed to successfully distract it, however, and by the time the Hollow got serious the schoolyard was nearly empty.

"I've had enough of this!" The Hollow roared angrily, its patience apparently spent.

Its tongue wrapped around Sachi's ankle as she charged it and she suddenly found herself whirling in a circle in the air. The Hollow let her ankle go and she soared away, connecting hard with a wall before collapsing to the ground. Sachi was dizzy and woozy from the repeated beatings and the world seemed to spin as she watched the Hollow.

It was ok though right? Most of the kids had gotten away. And Renji would get there soon to help her. That was good, Sachi decided, as she didn't think she could stand up again anyways.

That was until she saw who the Hollow's first victim would be. It was Tarou who was hiding, crying, under some of the playground equipment. Panic raced through Sachi as the Hollow's tongue wrapped around her brother and lifted him high into the air. His crying took on a hysterical edge as he screamed for help.

Tarou's screams spurred Sachi on as she struggled stand. The world wouldn't stop spinning though and Sachi finally plunged her zanpakuto into the ground and used it to drag herself to her feet. She was so unsteady that she couldn't pull her sword back out of the ground without falling.

"Tarou! Tarou!" Sachi screamed.

Tarou screamed and kicked and cried as the Hollow lifted him higher and higher into the air. Finally the Hollow held Tarou aloft directly above him. There was a horrible cracking sound and the Hollow's narrow mouth spilt open into a gaping maw lined with jagged teeth.

Sachi screamed, desperate to do something, anything, to save her brother. But the world continued to spin and her knees refused to stop shaking. Damn it! She had to do something!

Suddenly the world slowed to a stop, the colors draining away until everything was black and white. Sachi blinked, confused, as a form slowly materialized in front of her. "You!" Sachi gasped as she realized it was her zanpakuto spirit.

"Yep it's me!" the girl piped, giving Sachi a cheeky smile.

"Please! You have to help me! It's going to eat my brother!"

Sachi's zanpakuto turned back to look at the frozen scene before her. "Yes, it does look rather serious," she said cheerfully.

"Please," Sachi begged. "You can do something right?"

"Yes, I can," the zanpakuto spirit said softly. Then, louder, "I take you want to save your brother then?"

"Of course I do!" Sachi shouted angrily in reply.

"So much so that you would willingly give up your life to save his?" she asked coolly, eyes half lidded.

"Yes!" Sachi shouted without hesitating, her voice full of conviction.

The edges of the zanpakuto's mouth curled up into a mysterious smile. "Good. Very well. Call my name then, Sachi Kurosaki!"

…

As soon as Renji landed on the schoolyard wall he knew he was too late. The Hollow stood in the middle of the schoolyard, a child dangling from its tongue over its mouth. Renji wasn't sure, but he thought he recognized the kid as Sachi's little brother. Sachi was some distance away, supporting herself with her zanpakuto buried in the ground. It was clear that she was barely able to stand.

A variety of emotions coursed through Renji in those fleeting seconds. Remorse was the one he settled on. If only he had gotten there sooner, he thought angrily. If only it hadn't taken him so long to kill that damn Hollow.

The next moment everything changed.

Reiatsu began to build quickly around Sachi. It suddenly exploded outwards, creating a rotating wind around her and kicking up dust. The Hollow paused, just about to devour Sachi's brother, to watch. The hairs on the back of Renji's neck stood on end as Sachi's reiatsu continued to build. The amount of power she was producing was ridiculous.

The wind picked up and Renji found he couldn't keep his eyes open as the rotation turned into a powerful blast. Somehow, within the whistling of the wind, Sachi's voice found Renji's ears. "Rend! Tengetsu!"

The wind abruptly died, but Sachi's powered up reiatsu didn't diminish. Renji blinked several times to clear his eyes, not entirely believing what he was seeing. Sachi now stood tall and proud, her face determined. She no longer held her massive sword shaped zanapakuto, however. She had called her zanpakuto's name and released her shikai.

No longer buried in the ground, the weapon was held comfortably at her side. The blade had taken on the characteristic black and white coloring of shikai. It was also half as long as it had been though it had maintained its width. The end of the blade was wickedly curved and it narrowed a bit as it approached the hilt. Or handle would be more accurate. The hilt was gone and had been replaced by a two foot black pole extending from the guard.

As Renji stared, flabbergasted, Sachi suddenly disappeared. There was a horrible screaming from the Hollow and Renji refocused his attention on it. Its tongue had been cut off at the base, blood spraying from its mouth as it writhed about. Sachi stood a hundred feet away, Tarou under one arm, the blade of her zanpakuto dripping blood.

The Hollow turned towards Sachi, rage in every line of its body. "I'm going to kill you!" it screeched, its speech mangled with the majority of its tongue gone.

Sachi didn't budge or even blink as the Hollow charged her. Instead she raised her zanpakuto straight up in the air. Renji held his breath as he felt her reiatsu concentrating around the blade. The Hollow was feet from her when she brought her arm down, releasing all of the built up reiatsu at once. The concentrated energy easily cut the Hollow in half and made a massive gouge that went halfway across the schoolyard.

Relief and amazement coursed through Renji as he released the breath he had been holding, allowing it to whistle between his lips. He really shouldn't have expected anything less, but Sachi continued to surprise him with her progress. She had released her zanpakuto to shikai a day after she had first started training for it. And she had used what was undeniably an early form of Ichigo's Getsuga Tensho, similar to what Ichigo had used on Renji when he had defeated him in Soul Society.

Renji wondered if Sachi would ever stop surprising him, but quickly decided that the answer was probably 'no'.

Sachi lowered Tengetsu, amazed at what she had just done. 'Well done,' Tengetsu whispered in her mind as the zanpakuto resealed itself back into its normal sword form.

A moan from Tarou brought Sachi back to the present. As she gently laid him on the ground Sachi realized she was trembling all over. "Tarou?" she whispered, gently shaking him. He didn't stir again. Panic flooded through Sachi. He didn't look hurt, but she couldn't tell if he was ok or not. What if he…? "Tarou! Tarou!"

"Sachi!" Sachi's head snapped up and she saw Renji approaching her, a big smile of relief and pride on his face.

"Renji! I can't tell if he's ok or not!" Sachi yelled, on the verge of hysteria. Why wasn't he waking up!

Renji frowned, but squatted down next to Sachi. She waited on pins and needles as he carefully examined Tarou. Finally Renji looked up at Sachi, his smile now comforting. "Don't worry. He's totally fine, just unconscious."

Relief came crashing down over Sachi like a wave as the anxiety that she had been feeling since the second Hollow had appeared was released. Tears pricked in the corners of her eyes and Sachi suddenly found she was too exhausted to fight them.

Renji blinked, alarmed, as Sachi started to cry. "I'm…so glad!" she said between sobs.

Renji sighed. He supposed he really couldn't blame her for losing her composure. Still, he found he really wasn't comfortable with her crying. She shouldn't cry. Ever. She should always be smiling.

Somewhat hesitantly Renji reached out and wrapped a reassuring on arm around Sachi's shoulders. She leaned into him, seeking comfort in his warmth. "It's ok," Renji told Sachi softly. "You saved him. He's going to be fine."

"I know…" Sachi replied, the tears starting to slow though her voice was still shaky. "But for a minute there I thought…I really thought he was going to…"

Before Sachi could get going again Renji gave her a little shake. Sachi looked up at him, her face only inches from his, startled. "You did it Sachi. You really did it. Tarou's fine because you saved him. Everyday you get stronger and you released your shikai today and it's only been a day since you started trying to achieve it. I know for a fact that as long as you put your mind to it you can protect everything that's important to you."

Sachi stared at him for a moment, surprise in her eyes. Then her face split into a brilliant smile, her cheeks flushed with happiness. "Thank you, Renji."

Renji's breath caught in his throat for a moment. Their faces were so close. And even with her cheeks still wet with tears she was beautiful. So beautiful that it made his heart ache a bit.

It was then, as butterflies ricocheted around inside Renji's stomach, that he realized that he was in trouble.

Author's Note:

Long chapter is long. Anyways here's Chapter 10! I told you it would be exciting didn't I? You got a little bit of everything in this chapter- romance, fighting, enigmatic zanpakuto spirits. I have to say that writing this was interesting. For some parts it was like pulling teeth and for others it just sort of flowed.

Anyways I feel like I should explain my thinking on a couple of things. Ichigo and Isshin both can perform Getsuga Tensho and both their zanpakuto's names end with 'getsu'. So, I figured, these were things that were passed down within the family and that's why Sachi can (sort of- for now) use Getsuga Tensho and why her zanpakuto's name ends in 'getsu'. Also to the best of my knowledge Tengetsu doesn't actually mean anything. I just thought it sounded cool.

Four reviews for Chapter 9! I absolutely love that this story has developed a fan base where people like Luafua, Red6, and bored411 review every chapter. THANK YOU! And I also want to thank Inspired Kid for reviewing my story for the first time. I'm honored that it was my story that got your first review on this site!

Thanks for reading!

imagination junkie