Chapter 10
A New Start
I woke up but I found myself in an entirely different room I did not recognize. It was similar to some sort of throne room, and a man was sitting on the throne. I could not believe my eyes when I approached it. It was my father. After all those years in Hueco Mundo, I saw my father once more.
"My son." He began. "You have become much stronger than you once were the first time I came to you. You have made me proud." He said.
"Thank you father!" I say excitedly, I could not believe it. After all these years, he is speaking to me once more. But what does he wish to say to me other than telling me how proud he is?
"I have brought you to my palace for a reason my son. I want you to join us. Let's build a lasting peace together." My heart stops. Is my father asking me to join him?
"Isn't there something you're seeking as well? Revenge against the Soul Reapers perhaps?" Juha said.
Wait. He already knew what I was seeking?
"Yes my son. I know. I saw it, have you forgotten where your power The Almighty comes from my son? I can give you more power than you have ever dreamed of if you come with me." Juha said, already knowing what his son would decide.
"Father, what do you mean greater power? There is even more power that I can gain? What is it?" I ask. What could he be talking about?
"You must first join me my son. Will you join me in my crusade against the Soul Reapers?" He asks again.
Joining my father. Knowing him, he already knows that he'll win the war; I just need to seal the deal. He has already helped. He helped me uncover more of my power, joining him would be only natural. And after all, he is my father and he will help me get my revenge, and help me become a stronger Quincy.
I suddenly know my decision.
"Father. I will join you in your fight against the Soul Reapers!" It was clear to me, there was no doubt. I must join my father.
"Excellent my son. Soon I will have someone come to bring you to my palace, and you shall see me in the flesh, I promise. Be strong my son. We shall meet again." He says before my vision fades.
Blackness.
I awaken to find myself slumped over my desk. I saw him again. I remember everything. He said he would send someone to bring me to his Palace. Who is father going to send? And when? My mind felt as it were going in a million different directions all at once.
It's not important at the moment, I tell myself as I bring my random thoughts back into order. Right now I have to look for Uryu. I quickly change into my Quincy attire. I haven't changed it much since my awakening; I still wear my cape with my aiguillette on my right shoulder, and the usual uniform with the stipe in the middle that represents the Quincy. But I did give myself a new pair of gloves with a Quincy pentacle on the back of them.
I look at the time; 1:30pm. Damn it, I overslept. Oh wait, it's my day off. Phew. Uryu's still in school, but he'll be getting out soon. I'll watch what he does from the distance.
If I recall, the Soul Reapers have someone present in Karakura. Rukia Kuchiki and Ichigo. But Ichigo is part Quincy even if he doesn't know it, Akihiro smiles.
I know they were working together these days and that she was his boss or something. I suppose Uryu will challenge Ichigo after school, but where will Rukia be? She knows about Uryu and the Quincy. She'll want to learn more about us, so she'll go to the guy that knows everything…Kisuke. I could start by meeting her and introducing myself. Anything's better than waiting I suppose. I guess I'll go there then, I can still monitor Uryu's Spiritual Pressure while I'm talking to her.
I quickly get to my balcony and Hirenkyaku onto another roof top. I continue for Urahara's Shoten when I sensed a hollow nearby. Damn, they got to appear now? How irritating. I let my pentacle fall and form my long silver bow. "Pathetic Hollow" I quietly say to myself as I fire a single arrow and it disintegrates. I let my bow go and it disintegrates as well, leaving my pentacle dangling on my wrist. I quickly continue to Urahara's Shoten. When I arrive, I notice Ururu and Jinta sweeping. I jump off the second floor roof I was standing on and appear in front of them.
"Hey guys what's up, you both haven't aged a day since I last saw you!" I say in an excited tone. It had been nine years since I last spoke to them, not since I went to Hueco Mundo.
"The boss wanted to keep them young for a little while, so he made a potion that kept them this way for a few years, although he did stop giving it to them just recently." A voice that I recognized as Tessai.
"Ahh Tessai! Long time no see! You haven't aged a day yourself I see."
"Indeed? Well enough about me; something big must be happening if you're here. It's been nine years." Tessai replies.
I look at my watch, 2pm. Huh; I guess I live farther away from here than I thought.
"Yeah something like that. I am a bit early, I'll swing by later. Bye!" I say before I Hirenkyaku to the roof of another building.
I guess I'll wait until 2:45 then. That's when class ends anyway. As I sit on the roof I was on, I begin to think about last night. My father said that I can obtain more power. What does he mean by that? What power can I possibly get? And he mentioned sending someone to pick me up, but who would he trust to do that? Are there more Quincy? Or will it be a simple servant of father's? I ponder this for a long time before I look at my watch.
3:00
Well, school should be out, I'll head back to Urahara's Shoten. I land exactly where I did the last time only this time I head for the door. I hear a conversation taking place inside.
"Well if it isn't my favorite customer! What can I do for you? Ugh!" I hear Kisuke say, before I hear someone throw something at him.
"Don't play innocent with me Urahara! I had to come in person cus I've been calling for days with a major problem and you don't respond!" An angry woman cried out.
I didn't bother to listen to the rest of their small talk. I decide to wait until they started talking about Quincy. I make the decision to let Urahara go on and on about us to Rukia Kuchiki. Knowing him, he probably already knows I'm here. It's about 10 minutes before I realize that he's finished talking.
"But then, it was the same belief that led to their destruction." Yep, he's finished talking. So I open the shop door and lean on the door frame, intentionally letting my Quincy pentacle dangle from my wrist.
"Urahara, you know we're not all gone, so stop lying to the poor girl." I say in a very sarcastic tone.
"Akihiro, my apologies, but it's been so long I wasn't sure what happened to you." He replies in his usual lazy tone.
"Wait! You're a Quincy too? Then you must know this Uryu Ishida don't you?" Rukia says wide eyed.
"Yes and yes. I am a Quincy and I know Uryu. I consider him to be my little brother; I've known him for a long time."
"You're his brother?" she says, clearly surprised.
"In a sense yes, his family has looked after me for a long time." I say evasively, trying not to act too suspicious.
"Is this true Kisuke?" She asked.
"Yes it's true. Akihiro is a very important Quincy; he's the heir to the Quincy throne. Though the title is meaningless now, he would be the man in charge of all the Quincy." Kisuke says.
"The Quincy had a king? Why would he be the king?" Rukia asks, interested by this.
"To put it simply, my father created the Quincy." I say, hoping to avoid mentioning my father's name. I don't want to risk having the Soul Reapers put a hit on me. That would be rather annoying.
"He created them! Wait a minute, how old are you!" She asks wide eyed with shock and disbelief.
"Let's see here…hmmm…well I've been locked into a sleep state for over a millennium. But I've lived roughly 24 years of my life. So in total I've been around for 1024 years. Is that a good enough answer?" I say sarcastically.
She is stilled wide eyed and, and now totally speechless. I smile until I feel a rise in spiritual pressure.
"Well I can't stick around forever you know. I'll get going now. Until next time!" I say before I Hirenkyaku toward were I felt a rise in spiritual pressure. It didn't take long for me to find the cause. There were thousands of Hollows everywhere in the sky, on the ground, on buildings, everywhere. "You've got to be kidding me! This is pathetic! Are the Hollows really this starved? Pleeeaasse." I say sarcastically as I let my pentacle fall and form my Silver bow. I draw my reishi string back. "Pathetic Hollows. Time to sleep." I say with a sadistic smile and release my string and my barrage of arrows finds their targets, quickly destroying the Hollows for good.
"What could have drawn that many Hollows here? There can't possibly…wait…did he use…oh my god. So that's the type of challenge he intended all along." I say, realizing very quickly how this happened. A while ago, Uryu showed me a pill that can be used as bait to attract Hollows. I never thought he would actually use it though. I need to find him.
As I make my way toward where I feel his spiritual pressure, I am slowed by the many hollows that get in my way. "They never learn do they? Oh well, if its death they want, its death they'll get." I say with a wide grin.
Suddenly I notice that something just isn't right, then I look up and I noticed it. A crack appearing in the sky and thousands more hollows appearing. "Hmmmm, too boring, but…" He hesitates with a grin, "… something even bigger will be coming." I'll incorporate this into Uryu's training, as well as Ichigo's. I have to assume that's what Urahara is thinking for him. That's when I noticed that Uryu was with Ichigo fighting off some hollows.
No sooner do I this in my mind's eye, when Urahara starts heading in the same direction I was… towards them. It wasn't long before my prediction came true and I notice the crack in the sky open into a Garganta with a Gillian coming though. 'Aww, just one? I was hoping a few would come.' I think to myself. I then focus my attention back to Uryu and Ichigo just as Urahara arrives. When I noticed them run toward the Gillian, I Hirenkyaku behind them to see what Urahara is up to. It isn't long before I noticed Rukia run to him as well. She was angry that he told Ichigo to fight the Gillian, but he tapped her and put a binding spell on her. I slowly approach them.
"Well, well, looks like you're going to let Ichigo fight that thing, huh." I continue, "Oh, hi Rukia." I say sarcastically as an after-thought.
"There's a method to my madness, but I imagine you heard me tell that to Rukia. In fact, you've been watching the whole thing from afar haven't you?" He says in response to my question. Yup, he's still the same Urahara I've known.
"You haven't changed I see. Yeah, you've caught me. I wanted to make sure Uryu didn't get himself killed. I did swear I would protect the last of the Quincy after all." I say.
"Makes sense. Can I ask you something Akihiro? How much do you know about Ichigo Kurosaki?" He says. But he and I both know about his power so I was a little unsure of how he expected me to respond.
"I know more than you may think. After all, I know about a power he won't discover for a quite a while most likely. But his sis…" I choke, I thought of something. His sisters. They all have the same mother, but would that make them like Ichigo? Do they have both Soul Reaper and Quincy powers? Could they be trained to learn how to use their powers? I just may have to check that out.
Urahara glances at me when I hesitate. He didn't let on that he knew what I was going to say. At least I don't think so. I look down at the still binded Rukia.
"He'll be fine, no need to worry. If he can't take care of it I can fire one arrow and kill the damn thing." I say looking her in the eye before shifting my focus back on the Gillian. When I notice that it was loading up a doom blast. "Hmm this should be interesting." I say quietly. Should I activate my Blut Vene Anhaben? Just so were all protected? Ahh can't hurt I suppose. Not even Urahara will know what I'm doing.
I quickly bring my Blut Vene beyond my body, bringing it over Urahara, Rukia, and myself. Rukia gawks at the sight, even Urahara's eyes widen. There are patterns on the dome that now surrounds us that resembled the intricate pattern of my veins.
"Wha…what is this! Urahara do you know what he's doing?!" Rukia asked in speechless tone.
"Akihiro…what is this new technique?" Urahara asks, avoiding Rukia's question.
"Sorry, I can't tell you. But I will tell you this; I learned it not so long ago, a few years actually. This is the first time I trying it out in combat…or I guess observing combat would be a better way to say it." I reply.
It wasn't long before Ichigo ran up to the Gillian. The Gillian fired its doom blast at Ichigo. He quickly raises his Zanpakuto to block it successfully. He holds it off, I sense his power increasing, and judging by the look on Uryu's face, he senses it as well. Ichigo continues to block the cero blast before what appeared to be Ichigo shooting it back at the Gillian. The Gillian slowly retreats after taking that hit. I never knew they had a sense to retreat, although, that's because I kill all the ones I come into contact with. I grin at that thought.
"IIIIIIIIII WIN!" Ichigo shouts as he holds his arm up and sticks up his fingers, making the peace sign with his hand. He says something to Uryu but I didn't catch it. Suddenly Ichigo falls to the ground; his Zanpakuto begins to light up to the point where one could barely look at it. It was breaking down.
"Ichigo released all his spirit energy at one time! It looks like it put too much strain on his body!" Rukia cries out.
Uryu realized this; he quickly ran to Ichigo and put his foot over the blade and a wave of blue light shot out of his body. He forms his Kojaku and started firing arrows into the sky. I knew what he was doing; he was trying to release Ichigo's out of control spirit energy bit by bit until it was under control. This was incredibly dangerous. I quickly run down to them, but by the time I got there, Ichigo's spirit energy was stabilized.
Uryu collapsed to his knees. "Grandfather…" He says in a voice filled with anguish, and Akihiro could hear the regret in his voice. Ever since Soken died, he always blamed himself for his death. He never forgave himself for not trying to save him. But it was never his fault, if it was anyone's fault it was mine for not being there, and being in Hueco Mundo training.
I put my hand on his shoulder. "Uryu, you know it wasn't your fault. You were too young; you were still learning how to be a Quincy." I say in a gentle voice.
"No, it was my fault. I was too… wea…"
I cut him off before he could say more.
"No, you can't blame yourself, he wouldn't have wanted that. You know that." I say.
"…I know you're right...but…" He said in a sad tone.
"Go home and get some rest Uryu, I have to talk to your new friend." I tell him, knowing from experience that he was very exhausted.
"Ok Akihiro." He replies without arguing. He gets up, and begins to walk home without looking back.
"Your name is Ichigo Kurosaki right?" I say with my back to Uryu's friend as I watch my brother walk off.
"Yeah it is. Who are you and how do you know Ishida?" He says in a curious tone.
"I'm Akihiro Bach, Uryu's family helped raise me and get me on my feet, Uryu is like a little brother to me, we consider each other brothers. As you can probably tell, I am a Quincy as well. I helped him train after his grandfather, who also happened to be his master, died. I trained under him also for a short while. I ended up fighting the-" I cut myself off, not quite understanding what made me share so much information with Ichigo so soon. I never spoke of what happened there that day. Neither did Uryu. I decided to hold that information back.
"Fought the what?" He said curiously, and I swore under my breath.
"Never mind, it's not important."
"Why did you let him do this whole thing then?" Ichigo said, dropping the subject like a smart little youngster. Akihiro smiled. "You're his older brother you should know how dangerous it is to expose the whole town to hollows." Ichigo continues.
"It was good trainings...for both of you. If anything got out of hand I would have taken care of it. With my strength and experience something like this would be child's play." I say in a voice dripping with sarcasm. I like this kid.
"Bu-" I cut him off.
"Child's…Play. Ichigo. I'm stronger than any captain of the 13 Court Guard. I have limits. Very few mind you, but I'm getting stronger by the day. So don't worry, I know when Uryu gets too ambitious, I can handle it. And if my eyes did not deceive me, you needed a little help yourself. Just make sure you don't get too ambitious. That'll make Rukia's job easier." I say as Rukia and Urahara's group rushes to Ichigo.
"Ichigo!" Rukia cry's out.
"Hey, I think she likes you." I say with a wide grin.
"What!" He yells blushing.
"HaHa! What's wrong she's cute, you'd make a good couple." I say laughing.
"What? No we wouldn't!" He yells louder, his blush getting brighter. He totally likes her.
"She was real concerned for you Ichigo. Isn't that right Rukia?" I say as I noticed Rukia coming up on us.
"Of course I was! That thing could have killed you!" She says in a very concerned tone. "Why wouldn't I be concerned? Enough of this… what were you two talking …" She starts to say loudly, before it dawns on her what I was insinuating and blushed.
"Who'd make a good couple?" Urahara says as he finally walks over.
"Rukia and Ichigo." I say ginning.
"Yeah, you guys are a perfect match." Urahara says smiling behind his fan.
"Uggg shut up both of you!" Ichigo yells his face now the color of a stop light. A bright stop light.
"Well I have to go pick up my glasses, I forgot about them with all of today's excitement. I'll see you guys later!" I say waving to them as I walk away.
As I walk, my mind drifts off to what happened today. Uryu challenging Ichigo, me talking to Kisuke for the first time in nine years, and my dream. What will working for my father be like? How does he plan on getting his revenge, through an all-out war? A war would be very difficult. Does he know of more Quincy? Most of us are dead in the world of the living as far as I know.
I see my eye doctor's building. I walk in and notice the girl at the front desk.
"Name please." She says in an emotionless voice without even looking up.
"Akihiro Bach."
"Pick up correct?" She replies.
"Yes." I say, liking her attitude. She hasn't looked at me yet.
"Here you go. Do they fit ok?" She asked as I put them on. Her eyes are an ugly, undecipherable color. Disappointing.
They fit perfectly. Rectangular in shape, the color of midnight, yep, suits me just fine. The frame holds the lenses in on three sides; top and sides. The bottom of the lens is held in with an almost invisible wire, and the stems on the sides are thick and black.
"They fit fine, thank you." I say to the ugly girl as she reaches around to feel how they fit on my head.
"Good." She says in that monotone voice. "You paid ahead of time. You're good." She says with a smile and I almost groan out loud. The smile didn't help her appearance. Poor girl.
"Thank you." I say as I walk out.
The difference in my vision was immediate, I am able to see much farther and clearer. I know they will help my performance in battle and I couldn't be more pleased. I hustle my way home, there's work to do.
When I open the door, I notice everything is as I left it. I prepare my tea and sit on the couch. 'When will father send that person to bring me to him?' I think to myself. No sooner had the thought entered my head did I feel a rise in spiritual pressure on the balcony. I look over and see a shadow in the shape of a man. He enters through the open door uninvited.
He was a tall young man, roughly my age from what I could tell. He was thin with long blonde hair that went past his shoulders, and he wore a similar uniform to that of my father when I saw him. He had white trousers and boots with a hooded cloak and a thigh length trench coat.
"It's been too long brother." I hear the man says.
Here is my newest chapter(Plot twist was nice at the end eh?), it is also my longest. I hope you enjoy it, I gave a bit more insight on how Akihiro changed, becoming a lot more arrogant, like how most Quincy have been described as. I don't think I'll post for awhile, since I have finals this week and next week, sorry about that. But I'll still write when I have the time and my scheduled gets back to normal.
