AN: It's been awhile people. Life's been busy, messy and bad in equal parts but I don't care to get into details. Here is the next chapter of Reaper of Gods. Expect updates from my other stories sometime in the near future as well. Enjoy.
The couple of weeks following Ichigo's spar with Erica had been interesting to say the least. Her payback had been as swift as it was ruthless, almost enough to make him regret his teasing… almost. The only regret he did have was her involvement of Shizuka in her revenge, and he still wasn't completely buying her claim that it was an accident. Erica swore that "his" dirty magazines were meant to be found by Yuri or Ichirou but the subtle guilty look she had made that claim dubious at best. It had taken him two whole days to convince his sister that he wasn't some kind of sexual deviant and the "lectures" she had given him during that time still haunted his dreams. He'd have his revenge though, no one introduces his little sister to concepts like S&M and bondage and gets away with it.
The semi-regular sparing sessions he had been having with her were good for letting off steam but they weren't suitable as a form of punishment or revenge. He had a few ideas but nothing concrete yet, he was still debating the benefits/demerits between a public and semi-private humiliation. Still, despite all his gripping the time following their first spar had been some of the liveliest the Godou family has had in a long time. It was almost like things were back to normal and Ichigo had almost felt truly happy for the first time since his fight with Tsukishima.
He was no-where close to being over the event and he was still deeply depressed but it was a start, which might have been Erica's plan from the beginning. That girl was frighteningly perceptive and he wouldn't put it past her to have noticed his mental state. Ichigo wasn't sure why she was trying to fix him, they had just met recently and despite her claims of being his fiancé (or first wife depending on her mood) he doubted she knew enough about him to have significant feelings for him. Maybe she was following orders, or simply didn't want to serve the "Emo Champione" for the rest of her life. Whatever her reason it left him conflicted, did he really deserve to be happy again? Ichigo didn't think he could even if he did. If he started feeling happy again he'd relax more around the people he interacted and if he did that he'd start to feel more attached. This world was just as dangerous, if not more so in some aspects, than his home world and a moments inattention could result in the death, injury or something even worse and he didn't think he could deal with such a blow again.
He was a Champione now, a Godslayer, and that made him a target. Hollows attacked Shinigamis whenever they could and more often than not they are less intelligent than humans, something that definitely wasn't true for Gods. If Hollows went out of their way to attack their natural enemy why wouldn't the Gods as well. What made an attack even more likely was the fact that there were only seven Championes including him and with him being the newest and thus "weakest" he was likely target number one. There were also his "colleagues" to worry about as well. The reports he was given on his fellow Championes painted them in a not very flattering light to his eyes. Simply put they were weird and generally unpredictable for the most part. Only two of his contemporaries, Madame Aisha and John Pluto Smith, were people he didn't think would attack him randomly. Luo Hao, the Black Prince Alec and Lord Salvatore Doni he could see coming to fight him for one reason or another, though Alec was who he was most warry of the three considering he might "take interest" in anything or anyone around him, such as his new family. The one that put him most on edge by far though, was Sasha Dejanstahl Voban, the reports on whom painted the picture of an unholy lovechild between Mayuri and Kenpachi. He was a man that Ichigo was almost 100% certain would come after him at some point, and he wouldn't hesitate to use his family as leverage to make his "prey" more lively.
Which was why he had been so focused on training/experimenting with his both his Fullbringer powers and his only working Authority. His results so far, while good were still not good enough for his tastes. The only reason that he had killed Prometheus was that he had gotten lucky and the last dregs of his Hollow's power had taken over again. If it hadn't been for that he would have died. Of course he was stronger now than before even if his Fullbring had gotten weaker thanks to the enhancements that came from being a Campione but he wasn't satisfied with just that. Which was why, as he stared out of the window of his classroom, ignoring his history teacher, he was thinking about yet another way to get stronger.
Fullbringers were people who had born been from mothers who had survived a Hollow attack while pregnant and the spiritual powers gained as a result had a distinct tint of their kind as well. Combined with his knowledge of the fact that Fullbringers were able to manipulate the souls of objects he was wondering if he could do something intrinsically Hollow. He was wondering if he could get his personal Fullbring to "eat" the souls of other objects to get stronger. In theory it seemed plausible, especially considering how his previous semi-unique status as a Vizard and how his power was closer to a Hollow's in flavor than the other members of Xcution. He had concerns of course which was why he hadn't tried it immediately after coming up with the idea a couple of days ago.
For one would his Fullbring "evolve" like a Hollow would? Would it, after "consuming" enough object souls become akin to a Gillian? If so would he still be able to call upon it like normal or would the original soul get "buried" under the multitudes of others it would consume. Another concern was whether or not his Fullbring would take on characteristics of the souls it consumed or not. If it did would it would the change be drastic like his clothes become made out of yen coins or something? If it was subtler would be something like gaining a piece of paper's flimsiness and flammability if it fed enough of them to it? If it didn't gain anything beyond the "strength" of the soul itself was there a limit and if it was crossed would it damage it? Finally, what would happen to the objects whose souls were "eaten"? Ichigo assumed they would be destroyed but something else might happen that he couldn't begin to predict.
The best thing to do would be to test it with a random object that he wouldn't mind losing if things went poorly. The problem with that was that despite the progress he had made with his powers he didn't have as much control over miscellaneous junk as he did his personal Fullbring, for obvious reasons, and wasn't sure he could get it to work. Still you don't know until you try, so he would make an attempt this weekend. He would also try using his powers on "stronger" objects as well. Since he didn't have anything that was personally important enough to him for another true Fullbring he was wondering if he used his powers on an older object, one that had its own history like an ancient sword, that would work instead.
Ichigo was brought out of his musings by the sound of the bell ringing, signifying both the end of the class period and the end of school as well. He let out an almost inaudible sigh as he once more noticed the stares he was getting from his fellow classmates. He had been popular since the first day he showed up so it wasn't that he was unused to be stared at but it was how he was being stared at was the problem. Erica's introduction on her first day had made things bad enough but when people saw not only the "Hot new transfer student" walk home with him but the "Number 1 beauty Jounan Academy" as well thing had gotten downright terrible. That wasn't even taking into the consideration that there was a scarily accurate "rumor" that both of them were living with him. Hence his sigh as he braved the jealous/heartbroken/scandalized masses. Hopefully he wouldn't have to deal with the idiot trio today.
The idiot trio consisted of Nanami, the "leader", Sorimachi, the "imouto expert (/fetishist)" and Takagi, the "gullible muscle", and were both the source of the rumors and Ichigo's new found dependence on headache medicine. The three idiots were jealous of Ichigo for a lot of reasons but hated him for "hogging the hot girls" and have made several attempts to "coerce" him into "giving up his claim" on both Yuri and Erica. All attempts failed as, thanks to his years spent being friends to Keigo, he had a well-honed idiot detector and instinctively foiled any "attacks" before he consciously noticed them. Which was yet another reason why even more people stared at him differently, Jounan Academy wasn't used to casual displays of violence against idiots it seems.
Eventually, when he was about halfway towards his sister's classroom, he was intercepted by his servants/sort-of-acquaintances. Erica, as per usual, immediately tried to strike up a conversation of the more… risqué variety. Yuri, being the rather conservative and all together shy person she was, desperately tried to ignore her fellow servant's words while steadily becoming more and more red in the face. Ichigo, for his part, simply ignored her as was also the norm since he didn't feel like pretending to be more of a flirt than he actually was. He also knew that sooner rather than later Yuri wouldn't be able to take it anymore and would stop Erica herself, from which a different conversation/argument would start that didn't involve him and he'd be free to walk in relative peace.
Ichigo's thought touched on the topic of Yuri. Despite her being his classmate before he became a Campione and the fact that she had been his servant basically since the beginning of his change of status she never initiated any conversations with him. Even on the rare occasions he spoke to her first she never talked more than absolutely necessary. That coupled with her general demeanor and body language when around him made it seem like she was extremely wary, almost afraid of him despite her obvious crush on him. Ichigo thought it had something to do with his being a Campione and her status as his servant. Since she was part of the magical side of the world she had probably been told tales of Campiones before and, with members including Voban, it wouldn't be too surprising if those tales had made it a point to instill a since of fear in the listener/reader. Add to the fact that Yuri was a very traditional girl and thus likely took her role extremely seriously and her current attitude was the result.
Ichigo wasn't too upset about it, since he didn't particularly want people trying to get close to him, but it did feel slightly uncomfortable to be treated so formally. He never was and never really be one for proper etiquette, just ask Byakuya. Hopefully she would loosen up in the future.
He came back from his thoughts upon arriving at his sister's classroom. Shizuka didn't have club activities today so she was coming home with him today instead of Yuri, who was in the tea ceremony club with her surprisingly. At first Ichigo had simply come back to get her after club activities were finished but, despite his protests, had been persuaded to let Yuri be the one to do so instead. Yuri and Shizuka had formed a fairly decent friendship despite their age differences and Shizuka's belief that Yuri was trying to seduce Ichigo. With that being the case, and with Shizuka admitting she was starting to feel a little smothered by him, he had conceded defeat. Thankfully, for Ichigo's peace of mind, the club only met three times a week so he could still look after her himself some days.
The walk back to their shared home settled in the new, but already familiar, routine that had started since Erica's appearance in their lives. Ichigo would push his sister's wheelchair and simply walk quietly. Yuri, who tended to walk on his left, and Shizuka would start a fairly normal conversation about school or other daily-life type topics. Erica, who took her place on his right, would switch between occasionally trying to flirt with Ichigo to trying to get Yuri to light up like a neon sign before Shizuka had enough and berated Erica for being shameless. Erica would then retaliate and they would proceed to squabble until Yuri stopped them and the cycle would reset.
Today however, the routine was interrupted by the sound of a phone ringing. Specifically, Ichigo's phone. The break in normalcy was enough for him to pause for a split second before he had Yuri took over pushing his sister so he could answer the device. When he pulled his phone out it was clearly recognizable that it was one of the newest models. For those that new Ichigo well, or those who were perhaps more observant, that wasn't what caught their attention. Instead they paid attention to the slight tensing of the young man's body and the slight hardening of his eyes. Most would wonder why answering a phone would provoke such a response. What they don't know however, is that the phone was given to Ichigo by the History Compilation Committee and was only ever called by members of said group when they had information he had deemed important for him.
"Ichigo."
Following his rather blunt way of answering the phone was a brief period of time, no more than a minute, where Ichigo simply listened. During said period of time Ichigo's body language switched from simply tense to "battle ready". Finally, after weeks of waiting, there was a Heretic God for him to defeat. What's more it was in Japan and by rights no other Campiones could get to it before he could. Ichigo would have been almost happy at the news if it wasn't for the simple fact that a God descending to Earth from its legend usually ended in deaths, and a large number of them.
"Got it, I'll be heading there now."
Without waiting for any further words he ended the call and turned to face his apprehensive, but curious, companions.
"A Heretic God just descended in Yokohama, they don't know which one but it's apparently not too fond of humans. Luckily the casualties aren't too high yet and since it's relatively close things shouldn't get too bad before I get there. Yuri, Erica take Shizuka back home."
Done speaking Ichigo grabbed his ever present Combat Pass and willed his Fullbring into existence and, without waiting for any acknowledgments from his servants or sister, leapt into the sky and took and pushed his Bringer-light to its fullest, his expression shifting from the visage of raw determination he had shown to his companions to one of pure hatred and bloodlust once he was out of their view. If he had waited he would have seen the rather put off expressions on his servant's faces and the expression of naked fear on Shizuka's as she had flashbacks to the incident with Prometheus.
-Line Break-
A neighborhood block was burning, its denizens crying out in absolute agony as they were forced to remain conscious as their bodies slowly burned to ashes. A figure watched from above, relishing their pain and drinking in their despair. How it absolutely loved watching mortals suffer. How it simply delighted in watching them pay for their many crimes.
The figure was drawn from its revelry as it felt the reason for its appearance change, growing stronger and moving closer. It was the defiler, the one who had touched by what was his and not only had the gall to remain alive but to have been accepted as well. It was unforgivable. It was an insult and the defiler would suffer for their crimes for eternity. The figure snarled and flared its power, mocking the filth with its presence, goading the mongrel with its location. Soon…soon it will right this affront.