Chapter Ten: The stupid bastard

I'm going to kill him, Ichigo swore to himself. I'm going to kill that stupid bastard. I'm going to take his arms off, gut him and-

Ya know, as much as we both want to kill him, it might be better if we GET THIS FUCKING ARMOR OFF FIRST!!!!

Ichigo winced. Ow…no need to scream-

Screw you! Just seal all yer energy and we can get out of this!

How? Ichigo demanded. He could hear the hollow smack himself across the face.

Yer killin' me, partner. Are ya too dense to feel your reiatsu flowing through your body?

Now that he mentioned it…Ichigo took stock of himself and his senses, and he could feel a sort of current flowing through himself. Okay, now what?

Now, the hollow continued not-so-patiently, find the source and push your energy into it to seal it.

While it may have sounded simple, Ichigo was finding out just why it was so hard to control his energy. There was simply so much of it that wherever he thought he had it contained, it still managed to seep out like high pressure water around a blockage near an outlet. Gritting his teeth, he determinedly cornered his energy and herded it toward the core of his being, ironically his heart. This task took him four long and agonizing hours, and it took all his concentration to keep the energy from exploding back out. Once he was sure that it was all contained, he began to move, and immediately regretted it as his muscles protested from lying in the same position for a total of nine hours. The surprise pain broke his concentration and his reiatsu exploded out again, nailing his body back to the ground. Ichigo saw red, and in record time, he quashed his energy and forced it back to his heart before springing up onto his feet and stripping off every last part of the armored suit with more force than absolutely necessary. He had lost count of the number of joints that he heard cracking by the time Enishi sensed his success and came over.

"Ah, you did it. How do you feel?"

"…can I say that I hate your guts for doing that to me?"

Enishi laughed. "Funny. Those are the exact words that I used after the first time that my captain made me do this exercise, and I only did it in one hour."

"…showoff…"

"Well, you only did it once. You'll be doing it again until you can suppress your energy in the time it takes me to do a one-eighty."

"Ah crap!"

"But before we do that, I'll let you loosen up a bit in a therapeutic hot spring."

Ichigo's head spun. "A hot spring? Down here?"

"Blame Raiden. He set it up. He dumped a pool's worth of ice cold water over me while he made a hot spring. Something about "some like it hot, some like it cold." "

Ichigo grinned. "And what did you do?"

"I froze the hot spring while he was in it, and I'll be doing it again soon if you don't want to use it."

Ichigo fairly dived into it and came up with a sigh of relief as the soothing heat loosened up his overly stiff joints. After five minutes however, Enishi showed up and stabbed the tip of his spear into the hot spring. The loud crackling noise of ice forming jolted Ichigo out of his stupor, and he leapt out of the pool before he would have found himself encased in ice.

"Why the hell did you do that?" he demanded as the last bit of the spring froze.

"Because I didn't feel like yanking you out. Break's over. Back to training. You know what to do."

Grumbling, Ichigo complied, and then seconds after Enishi had placed the seal, he was already stripping off the armor. Enishi whistled appreciatively. "Heh, you really do learn fast under pressure. Very well, now there is the next phase."

"What's that?"

In answer, Enishi grabbed the chestplate, locked it over Ichigo's chest, and then placed a different seal on it. "WhoaAAAOOF! Ow…" Once again, Ichigo found himself pinned to the ground.

"This time, seal your energy into the area covered by the armor," Enishi explained as he watched Ichigo suppress his energy and yank it off. Then he clasped the helmet, put it on, and placed the seal once more. KLANG! "OW! Jeez!"

"The purpose of this exercise," Enishi said, ignoring Ichigo's cries of protest. "is to start you down the road of manipulating your energy instead of merely sealing it. You will find that this exercise is more difficult, because you need to not only seal your existing energy, but also move it to the proper area and stop the outbound flow. Good luck." And then he disappeared leaving Ichigo wondering now whether vindictiveness was connected to an affinity for ice.

***

"Hmm, and that is all?"

"Hai, Aizen-sama. That is exactly what she said."

"…very well, you are dismissed." Halibel bowed, and led her Fraccion out of the great hall. Aizen inclined his head and pressed his fingertips together, deep in thought.

"Well, captain, it looks like they came back."

Aizen smiled slightly. "So it would seem, Gin."

"D'ya think that they've forgiven Soul Society for it?"

"…I do not believe so, but they might perhaps work with them if they view us as the greater evil."

"…and so the paths become soaked with blood once more…"

"Well, yer melancholy today, Tosen. What's up?"

"It never seems to end, no matter how much we strive for justice…blood is always shed."

Aizen smiled benignly. "And yet all paths inevitably have strife and struggle, Kaname. It is the way of all things."

"Hai, Aizen-sama."

"Heh, ya know what captain?" Aizen eyed Gin inquiringly, who had lost his customary smirk. "We thought that no one could come here, and yet lil' Halibel said that Hanabusa-taicho came from a garganta. That shows that it is possible for Soul Society to travel here-"

"But only if they can survive the chaotic energies. It would be foolish to expect that those four couldn't survive such a trip if they truly escaped the depths of Hell and regained their powers."

"Well, what about Soul Society sending others to the Real World?"

"Then they would have to survive negotiating a path through the Dangai that is subject to random twisting and warping with the likely threat of becoming permanently lost and trapped. Again, only those with truly transcendent power can create their own pathway through the Koryu, and they would likely have to travel alone."

"Why? Too much power would kill the others?"

"Correct."

There was a moment of silence, and then "…Aizen-sama?"

"Yes, Tosen?"

"Do you have any theories as to why the seal failed?"

"The seal master was one of those who spoke out against imprisoning them, so perhaps he merely sabotaged the process. Unfortunately, there is no way to confirm it since he left Soul Society three years later. Pity, their escape does not bode well for our plans…"

"Well it's too late to turn back now eh, captain?"

Aizen smiled again. "Indeed, we will simply have to make do."

***

Raiden emerged inside the Seireitei dragging the battered Soten Kishun behind him, and right in the office of a stunned Sentaro and Kiyone.

"Express delivery," he literally growled as the garganta sealed. "Now either get whitey up and out here, or I'll do it myself."

Sentaro got it first, and ignoring Kiyone's protests, he practically dragged Ukitake out. Both promptly hid behind their captain, away from the armored looming figure. Orihime recalled her shield, and then Rukia came out and explained everything.

"Well, the training field isn't being used anymore, so I guess it would be alright for you two to train on it, but the captain-general won't be happy that a potential enemy was brought here-"

"Ya got it wrong, Jushiro," Raiden corrected. "I brought them here, along with Shihouin because "short 'n silver" wanted someone to ensure that they got here all right. And unless you all have a problem with it, I'm leaving because I don't have time to have a fight with the captain-general now. I'm not that much of a battle-crazed idiot-hey! Speaking of which, baldy said that his captain is Kenpachi Zaraki, you know where he is?"

Kiyone's hand emerged comically from behind Ukitake and pointed while she squeaked "Um, that way?"

Raiden was gone before she finished. Yoruichi groaned and Ukitake palmed his face with one hand while he started searching for a hell butterfly to notify the other captains that no they were not under attack. It was just the usual meeting of deranged powerhouses, no big deal.

***

Kenpachi Zaraki loved fighting. He also loved to pick fights. Those loves came together when Raiden dropped from the sky and smashed into the ground directly in front of him, Byakuya and Soifon. They had been discussing the events of late, with Kenpachi being more interested in the battles of late. Go figure. The dust cleared and Raiden rose to his feet while Soifon gasped. Kenpachi grinned.

"What? Ya scared?" he asked as he stepped forward. "Ninja bitch," he muttered.

"Ya know," Raiden called as he walked from the crater. "it isn't nice to insult your allies."

Soifon was petrified. "T-that's Raiden!"

Kenpachi's ears perked up. "Raiden? The other fight-lover that you told me about? Heh, what a great day! I'm going to enjoy this fight!"

"Zaraki-taicho," Byakuya warned. "he is well beyond any of us here-"

"Tch! Weakling!" Kenpachi snorted. Raiden angled his head.

"I like your attitude. Shall we get started?"

"W-wait! Zaraki!" Soifon protested. "He far outmatches you, and you two would end up destroying everything here!"

"Fighting is all about strength! I won't enjoy it unless I fight strong people!" Kenpachi retorted as he unsheathed his massively long zanpaku-to. And without further ado, both launched their opening attacks, stunning even Byakuya with the enormity of the destruction. From far away, Yoruichi palmed her face and groaned while a massive mushroom-shaped pillar of smoke and flame rose up. Those two stupid idiotic bastards…

***

Later, after Raiden's departure and a roundabout collective thrashing of Kenpachi, which included Unohana giving him death threats if he ever decided to pull a stunt like that again, Rukia stood in the captain's hall with Yoruichi and Orihime, reading out loud Hitsugaya's report.

"Hmm, so Kuromaru is responsible for the disturbance in the Dangai?"

"Hai. Namikawa-taicho said that himself."

"…there must have been other ways to disrupt Aizen's operations without having to completely destabilize the dimensions."

"Possible, but not feasible," Kurotsuchi interjected. "To sabotage Aizen's plan in its entirety, one would have to eradicate everything that he has affected in every area that he has been. One might just as easily annihilate Hueco Mundo, Soul Society and the Real World."

That brought a chill to everyone in the room. Destroy entire dimensions? Would it really come to that?

"However, that is a possibility that we cannot completely discount. We were established to safeguard the Royal Family, who we know that Aizen is after. Our main priority as we were established is to ensure their survival. The survival of anything else is of secondary concern."

"Kurotsuchi-taicho!" Ukitake exclaimed. "We cannot just write off the lives of all the innocents like that!"

"I am merely stating fact. The fact remains firmly established that our duty, first and foremost, is to safeguard the Royal Family."

"Quiet!" And there was. "While it is true that is what we exist to protect, we should not speculate on what we may be forced to do, but rather concentrate on what we can do as of right now. We cannot afford to sacrifice the innocents of the Real World, but neither can we afford to let Aizen win. However, until the Dangai destabilizes, there is little else we can do but prepare ourselves for when confrontations resume…"

***

Ichigo didn't even touch the ground with his shoulder before he had already stripped off the sealed gauntlet. Enishi eyed him appraisingly.

"Very well, I pronounce you ready to truly learn. From now on, I will be teaching you myself rather than forcing you to learn on your own like this."

Ichigo was elated. After three long days of reiatsu control exercises, he was eager to move on. "Alright!" he exclaimed, forgetting just how tired he was. "When do we start?"

Enishi smirked behind his helmet. "Tomorrow, since you are about to fall asleep."

"Wha-?" Ichigo didn't even touch the ground before his eyes closed.