Chapter 19: Progress Report
"So Kurosaki-san did not succeed, then?" Hacchi asked calmly, his large form held aloft on a floating orange platform created with Kido. He and Orihime were currently in the basement of the Visored warehouse, progressing rather nicely in their training session.
Orihime took a moment to answer, focused as she was on directing Tsubaki to destroy all the moving targets Hacchi had created. She felt a twinge of satisfaction when every single one of the spherical Kido constructs fell apart in two identical halves once Tsubaki was through with them.
"No. He didn't," she confirmed sadly as she watched the now-hemispheres break down into Reishi. "He did all he could though... maybe he even did too much."
Hacchi nodded. He moved his massive hands in surprisingly delicate gestures that soon resulted in solid orange pyramids popping up all around them to replace the destroyed orbs. "It was only to be expected. Learning to use so delicate a tool as the Longinus in so short a time would have been difficult even for experienced Kido users. For a novice like Kurosaki-san, who would have an even more difficult learning process due to his immense reserves of Spirit Energy, it was nigh-impossible from the start."
With a casual wave, the newly-created pyramids began roaming around the basement, sharp tips pointed forward, like birds of prey searching for food. "If anything, he should be commended for coming as far as he has."
"It does however mean that we will all have trying times ahead of us," he added somberly. For a moment he seemed lost in thought, but it wasn't long before he focused on Orihime once more. "Now then. You have become quite adept at using Tsubaki. You have him executing complex yet highly efficient maneuvers, ones any future opponents you face will have a very difficult time evading."
More sternly, which for Hacchi basically meant drawing his eyebrows about two millimeters closer together than usual, he added: "The only thing that worries me is your lack of killing intent. Although you may have no qualms about attacking my lifeless constructs, I fear that due to the way your powers work, any attack you perform without sufficient resolve backing it will fail, and may even cause Tsubaki to be damaged or destroyed again."
Orihime glanced at the ill-mannered fairy, who was still lazily circling the two of them, then directed her gaze to the floor. Tsubaki being crushed by Yammy because of her own weak-willed attack was still a large source of shame for her.
"You must remember that in a battle, not only is your own life at stake, but those of your allies as well. If you cannot muster the will to kill, then everything we have done here over the last two weeks has been pointless."
Finished with his lecture, Hacchi's eyebrows un-furrowed themselves, and he resumed speaking in a softer tone. "With that said, will you try attacking me once more, or shall we move on to practicing your new Souten Kisshun variant?"
Orihime looked up at the man. Every time she had tried attacking Hacchi, even if she knew his multiple barriers would be sufficient to protect him, Tsubaki had simply bounced off the very first shield without inflicting so much as a scratch. Her offensive powers required a desire to kill, or at the very least injure her target, but how could she possibly make herself feel that way toward someone as nice and gentle as Hacchi?
On the other hand, if she couldn't even attack someone during a sparring session, whilst knowing he wouldn't really be hurt, how on earth was she going to hold her own in a real life-or-death situation? Was her resolve truly that weak?
No. It was not.
She was not going to stand on the sidelines again. She was not going to become a liability. She would rather die than endanger the people she loved through her own shortcomings.
She straightened her back and tried to ignore the wave of nausea that threatened to come on at the thought of hurting her teacher. "I want to try attacking you again... if that's alright."
Hacchi's eyes widened marginally, but he was quick to recover from his surprise. "Very well." With a snap of his fingers, seven glowing, square blocks materialized in between him and Orihime. "Remember: even if you do not want to cause me actual harm, you will nonetheless require the intent to do so in order for your attack to have any effect. Simply have faith that my barriers will be sufficient to protect me, and give it your all."
Orihime nodded. "Tsubaki," she called the fairy to her side. He took on the form of an arrow made of light, and aimed himself squarely at the center of Hacchi's barrier.
She needed this to work. If she couldn't prove to herself here and now that she wasn't just a weak-willed little girl that had to rely on others to do the fighting for her, then she would have wasted her and Hacchi's time and would once again be stuck on medic duty in the battles to come.
Orihime was getting really sick of being on medic duty.
She needed to get angry. She might not be able to get angry at Hacchi himself, who had done nothing to deserve her ire, but she certainly had enough to get angry about at herself.
She thought back to Yammy crushing Tsubaki with his bare fist. Thought back to Ulquiorra brutalizing the Soul Reapers assigned to guard her when he came to kidnap her. To the hurt look in Ichigo's eyes when she flinched away from the sight of his Hollow Mask while HE was putting everything on the line to save HER.
Oh yes, that last one did it. She ground her teeth as the self-pity she had always felt for her own powerlessness was replaced by something far more dangerous.
"Tsubaki!" The fairy shone with a light far brighter than ever before, shifting color from pale yellow to a dark orange bordering on red, like a tiny setting sun.
Orihime wasn't seeing Hacchi's barrier anymore. Instead, she saw herself, as a sad, scared little girl who bawled her eyes out yet did nothing to prevent the people around her from getting hurt.
Orihime's pupils narrowed to pinpricks as something inside of her snapped. "KOTEN ZANSHUN!" she roared, and Tsubaki shot forward like a comet. However, she wasn't finished just yet: "YARI!"
The miniature comet became a single, blinding streak of light that burned itself into her retinas. The deafening clap of a brutal impact had Orihime's ears ringing while the wind her attack kicked up ruffled her clothes and covered her in a fine layer of sand and dust.
Spiderweb cracks had spread throughout the barrier protecting Hacchi, originating from a fist-sized hole located precisely in its center.
The Kido construct shattered right before her eyes.
And so did the six others behind it.
Orihime's anger evaporated the exact second she saw Hacchi standing stock-still with a two meter-long spear of light hovering just inches away from his throat.
With another bright flash, the spear shrunk back down to Tsubaki's original size, after which the fairy shot straight back to Orihime's hairpin.
"I- I'm so sorry!" she stammered out, nearly tripping over herself in her rush to make sure Hacchi was unharmed.
The man swallowed, wiped some sweat from his brow, and smiled at her somewhat shakily. "That... That was- Well done. Very well done, Orihime." He took a deep breath to calm down. "Shall we move on to the next phase of your training, then?" The floating pyramids, which had been mostly ignored up until then, once again converged on their position, aiming their sharp tips at Orihime.
Orihime nodded awkwardly, feeling her cheeks heat up while she tried not to look too happy about almost killing her instructor.
"Are you alright?!" Chad asked in a mild panic as he stomped through the white sand to where Harribel had fallen to one knee. His Brache del Diablo reverted to a normal, human arm. It had done quite enough damage for today.
The blonde grit her teeth and let out a pained hiss. "Do not worry yourself. I'm alright." She removed her hand from the spot on her stomach where Chad had struck her moments earlier. Exposed abdominal muscle peeked out at them, skin stripped away completely.
Chad recoiled in horror. "I... I'm sorry! I never meant to..."
As calmly as she could manage considering the pain she was in, Harribel held up a hand to silence him. "I said not to worry yourself, Sado. I knew what I was getting into when I agreed to help you with your training."
Mila Rose was quick to come running with a healer, who applied liberal amounts of a thick, green paste that smelled vaguely of mint to the injury. Harribel let out a low hiss as the salve's restorative properties kicked in.
Chad continued staring at the ground while Harribel waited for the worst of the pain to subside. It did nothing to lessen the force of Mila Rose's Reiatsu pressing down on him as she glowered at Chad, nor did it dull the hot sting of shame.
"Looks like you finally did it," a more cheerful voice said. Chad hesitantly looked up at Nelliel.
"Yeah..." he mumbled guiltily. "I didn't mean for Harribel to be the one to suffer the effects, though."
She patted his shoulder and smiled reassuringly. "You needed a powerful Hollow to test your new technique on. With Grimmjow busy with his own training, that left just me and Tia. And both of us knew what your Fullbringer abilities could do to us."
"Quite so," Tia affirmed. While she still looked less than comfortable, at least her face wasn't drawn into a grimace anymore. "You should be proud that you succeeded. If Lilith tries to slither back into Haven, I look forward to seeing you utilize your new technique on her. Preferably without holding back," she added with one of her almost-smiles.
She had always remained rather stoic, but after interacting with her and Nel so frequently over the past two weeks, Chad could easily pick up on the fondness in her eyes, even if the rest of her expression didn't quite show it, thanks to her large mask.
If he had a lighter skin tone, his face would probably have been dark red. He felt so ashamed. "Won't it scar though?"
"I am still a Hollow, Sado-kun," she reminded him good-naturedly. "Even if I can't regenerate instantly like Ulquiorra could, I still heal far faster and more thoroughly than a human would."
Her almost-smile became an almost-smirk. "If you're going to insist on worrying, you should worry about yourself first." A scraping sound sent shivers up Chad's spine as Harribel removed her sword from its scabbard. "You may have succeeded in unleashing your left arm's full potential, but progress with your right is still lacking, is it not?" For once, the fierce expression her Hollow mask was permanently stuck in matched the look in her eyes. "Hunt, Tiburon."
The Right Arm of the Giant manifested almost automatically in response to the minor tsunami that suddenly manifested in the middle of the desert.
Not wasting even a second to get out of the danger zone, Nel launched herself straight upward like a teal rocket, and remained hovering high above where she had a front row view of Chad getting swept away by the blue torrent.
Mila Rose, having joined her up in the air, squealed with delight.
A dull, heavy thud echoed throughout the cavernous training room underneath Urahara Shoten, like rumbling thunder. Two more followed as steel blue, twin streaks of light were fired from Uryu's bow, and a pair of oddly thick metal arrows embedded themselves in a vaguely humanoid figure. The teen let out a heavy breath as he lowered his weapon, and readjusted his glasses.
Urahara walked up to him, and standing side-by-side, they admired the results of their work. "I think we've got it this time, Ishida-kun," the man said with clear satisfaction coloring his voice. He hadn't had a full night's sleep in days, his migraine throbbed in tune with his heartbeat, and he was currently suffering from both a sugar- and a caffeine crash.
He looked damned happy about it, too.
A good thirty or so meters away from the two men, stood a shoddily reconstructed Adamantium-class Gigai. It had been christened Mini-Angra Mark 2.
'Reconstructed' may have in fact been too strong a word, honestly: the dummy was cracked in several places, had odd discolorations all over it in contrast to the flawless black it had originally been, and it didn't have any limbs, consisting of just a head and torso.
After Ichigo and the Longinus had gotten through with it, there just hadn't been enough salvageable material left to restore it to its original state. Still, it made a great test subject for the Armor Piercing Arrows, or Pantzerbrechers, that Urahara and Uryu had developed together.
"They're not quite the ultimate Hollow-slaying weapon my family's old texts described, but..." Uryu took another arrow from the sleek, compact quiver on his back – a new addition to his Quincy uniform - and studied it closely. "They're certainly impressive. How many do you think we'll be able to construct before the attack?"
That was the main downside to the Pantzerbrechers: powerful though they were, Uryu couldn't create them from Reishi alone like his regular arrows. These were more like Seele Schneider – physical objects that needed to be prepared beforehand, meaning his supply in battle would be limited.
Uryu handed the arrow to Urahara, who took it by its shaft between thumb and index finger. Holding it close, the man studied the engravings it carried, through which a steady trickle of blue Quincy Reiatsu was flowing.
"Well, it is a bit of a tight deadline," Urahara admitted. "I could do twenty if I did a rush job, but the quality would suffer, and that's not accounting for the time you would need to charge them with Quincy Reiatsu and prime them so... let's say ten?"
Uryu took a moment to consider the damage he could do with ten Armor Piercers. In the corner of his eye, he saw Mini-Angra Mk.2 crack and fall apart into a sad little heap of black rubble as the damage from the earlier shots it had incurred finally convinced it to give up on life.
"Yes, ten sounds good," Uryu decided.
On the other side of the basement, Grimmjow turned away from the newly formed pile of debris and refocused his attention on Ichigo.
After loading him up with enough pills to keep him asleep for a full and uninterrupted eight hours yesterday, followed by Grimmjow practically force-feeding the teen an entire day's worth of food at breakfast, his skin had regained a more healthy-looking color, and he'd recovered enough energy for them to pick up their training from where they left off.
Currently, the teen looked like something one might see in a particularly freaky LSD-fueled nightmare.
Steam poured out of Ichigo's demonic maw as his shoulders heaved with the effort of maintaining his Hollow form while simultaneously clamping down on the near-mindless destructive instincts that came with it.
His hair was incredibly shaggy- clearly longer than was customary for Ichigo, and oddly uneven to boot. Some hairs were much longer than others, as if select groups of hair follicles had been more active than others.
A large Hollow Hole adorned the center of his chest, its edge uneven and encrusted with spikes of the hardened white fluid Grimmjow had come to associate with High-Speed Regeneration after seeing Takahashi and Ichigo, to a lesser extent, using the ability.
The white goop had covered his entire torso, front and back, and hardened into something resembling armor. For the first time, Ichigo had successfully covered his arms with it as well, and large, wicked-looking claws now adorned his hands.
Right around the base of his neck however, the white carapace abruptly lost all definition, ending in an oddly shapeless collar, above which a thin strip of bone white flesh peeked out that quickly transitioned back to regular tanned skin. There was a similar transition zone around his hips, leaving only his legs completely free of any Hollow-based alterations.
And if the large, weird-looking bulge poking at the back of his Hakama was any indication, Ichigo was also attempting – and failing – to grow a tail.
It probably would have been comical if the claws, spikes, jagged teeth and glowing yellow eyes weren't so utterly terrifying.
Ordinarily, Grimmjow likely would have found it amusing in spite of all that – and properly made fun of Ichigo for it – however unfortunately for him he was currently fighting a partially-Hollowfied, Shikai-wielding Substitute Soul Reaper, while he had purposefully handicapped himself by preventing his own Mask Fragment from manifesting, effectively halving his own power.
Oh, he had good reason for doing it: his second Zanpakuto Spirit – his Shinigami aspect – was on the cusp of manifesting itself, and exerting himself to his limits while his Hollow powers were sealed would likely prove to be the final push he needed to set free that latent power.
That didn't make it any less painful when Ichigo's claws, sword or Cero blasts inflicted further punishment upon his already battered body.
Now that the distraction caused by the Quincy and the shopkeeper was over, the pair got ready to resume their spar. They didn't announce this verbally in any way; Ichigo was unable to speak since that would break his concentration and potentially cause him to lose control, while Grimmjow was a lot calmer and more calculating while actively suppressing his Hollow instincts, and thus felt less inclined to start talking trash or begin laughing maniacally in the middle of a fight.
That wasn't to say the urge was completely gone, but it was definitely of lower priority.
Progress.
As such, the pair launched themselves at each other without so much as a 'by your leave', with Grimmjow just barely managing to duck under a wide swing of Ichigo's oversized cleaver. He responded to the attempted bisection by quickly slicing open Ichigo's unprotected right thigh with his sword.
Grimmjow didn't waste any time gloating when he heard the distorted, pained screech, and instead got the hell out of the way before the retaliatory Cero blast could reapply the burn scar on his chest Orihime had removed weeks ago.
In the few seconds it had taken him to dodge, the wound on Ichigo's leg closed up, and a renewed flood of white goop began trickling down the young Visored's leg, visible through the new rip in his pant leg.
Right before Grimmjow's eyes, the liquid hardened into a protective layer, and yet another weak point was taken away, just like that.
He bit back a curse. On one hand, he should probably be happy that Ichigo was making such rapid strides in mastering his Resurreccion. On the other, the wider the gap between their current power levels got, the more annoyed Grimmjow was becoming with the whole situation.
He knew that he had no other option but to bite the bullet however. Pantera had made it abundantly clear that in order to access the full potential of his Shinigami half, patience and discipline were absolute requirements, no short-cuts allowed.
As such, rather than bitch about the unfairness of it all, Grimmjow decided to man the fuck up and hit Kurosaki with everything he had. He charged forward, his sword a constant blur as Grimmjow took advantage of every tiny little opening Ichigo gave him – and there were a lot, due to the mental strain Ichigo was under, coupled with the fact that a much larger sword like Ichigo's obviously wasn't made for speed or precision.
The high-paced exchange continued for several minutes, and soon enough Ichigo's entire body was littered with nicks and cuts, while Grimmjow himself had earned two new burns from Ceros and a particularly nasty gash on his left bicep.
The teen's pale carapace had spread out even further, and now even the nails of his feet were long, pointy and dangerous. There weren't many areas left that Grimmjow could target. If he hadn't handicapped himself so severely, he likely would have been able to break through the armor with a strong enough attack, but that would defeat the entire point of doing this in the first place.
The sound of fabric ripping briefly interrupted Grimmjow's frantic strategizing. Ichigo also froze up, and slowly turned his head to look at his backside, where a massive, lizard-like tail was rapidly extending from his rear end and further tearing apart what little remained of his Soul Reaper uniform.
Grimmjow hadn't thought it possible to look embarrassed and bashful when you were a nearly six foot tall, hulking monstrosity, but Ichigo nonetheless managed to pull it off.
A teasing grin was the only reaction Grimmjow allowed himself however. He had to remain focused, otherwise Ichigo's next attack could easily be the one to take Grimmjow down.
And he was so close. He could feel the power just waiting to be unleashed, straining against whatever confines were still holding it back even now.
His sword felt hot and tingly in his hand, like he was holding onto a live wire. Grimmjow was also pretty sure that he wasn't imagining the faint, silver glow the blade had begun to emit as their fight dragged on.
Ichigo eventually snapped out of his stupor and took one menacing step forward, his newly-sprouted tail lashing out absently and reducing a nearby rock to pebbles.
An image of the mercurial cocoon in Grimmjow's Inner World flashed before his minds eye.
"Grimmjow"
The voice came from within himself. It was a low, heavy rumbling sound that made even Pantera's voice sound almost high-pitched by comparison.
"The time has come, my king."
This time Grimmjow was positive he hadn't imagined the voice; the heavy bass tone had his very bones vibrating in resonance.
"My name is ▅▅▅▅▅▅"
"Wait, what?" Grimmjow's head swiveled around to stare wide-eyed at the sword in his hand. After all that build-up, the most important part came out as incomprehensible garble? Grimmjow called bullshit.
He didn't get much time to be outraged and dwell on the unfairness of it all however, as Ichigo just then managed to close the distance between them and nearly bashed Grimmjow's skull in when he slammed the flat of that massive cleaver right into the right side of his head.
For a few moments Grimmjow knew nothing but darkness. Then he regained some sensation in his body as well as the ability to see and think, and made several realizations in short order.
One: he was lying sprawled out on the sandy ground with a steady flow of blood leaking out of his head, while a hollowfied Ichigo just stood there and watched.
Two: His head felt like an elephant had accidentally stood on it.
Three: The fact that he still even had a head suggested that Ichigo was at least somewhat in control of himself and hadn't surrendered to his Hollow Instincts.
And four: He was going to fucking KILL that brat.
With a furious, pained groan Grimmjow got back on his feet, snapping up his sword from where it had gotten lodged in the ground as he stomped over to Ichigo's position. His Reiatsu manifested as a visible blue haze around his body, biting and snapping at the very air around him and creating a decently-sized cyclone with Grimmjow at its center. Grimmjow didn't see how the teal pigmentation around his eyes returned, but he did feel a wispy haze of dark Reiatsu brush against his cheek, itching to solidify into a Mask Fragment.
The silver glow around his sword faded away, unnoticed.
Meanwhile, Ichigo just stood there and impassively watched the murderous Arrancar approach.
Grimmjow took several determined strides forward, but slowed down with every step he took. Eventually he stood completely still, just out of striking range of Ichigo. The teen simply continued to stare at him with those glowing, yellow eyes, infuriatingly calm.
Grimmjow's heavy breathing slowed down, even as the steady drip-drip of his blood leaking onto the ground carried on unabated. The cyclone powered by Grimmjow's roiling Reiatsu had Ichigo's long, shaggy hair wildly whipping about in the strong winds, even as he was pretty much being sandblasted by whatever particles had gotten caught up in the flow.
The stare-off continued. Ichigo tilted his head, as if asking a silent question.
Grimmjow glared at him in response, then let out a long, irritated sigh. "Tch. Fine." The wind died down. "We'll do this properly then," Grimmjow grumbled petulantly. The black haze clinging to his cheek dissipated while the teal markings around his eyes faded.
"But I am done with this crap, Kurosaki," he warned even as he raised his blade and prepared to strike. "No more pussyfooting around. If we're doing this, we're doing it right the fuck now. So give me all you've got."
Those eerie, expressionless eyes locked on to him as Ichigo considered his words. Then, very slowly, the massive white beast nodded. Much faster, he crouched, launched himself backwards to create some distance, and began emitting positively obscene amounts of Reiatsu.
Grimmjow felt the flood of energy wash over him, almost overwhelming him now that the Hollow half of his powers was once again firmly suppressed. His mouth curled into a cocky smirk. "Now that's more like it," he muttered.
"Hey, Spirit." Grimmjow addressed his sword, which was steadily regaining its silver luster, "If you're planning on making yourself useful, now's the time." Grimmjow's eyes landed on Ichigo again.
Enveloped by a thick red haze of Reiatsu, Ichigo let out a thunderous roar that had the massive training room shaking on its very foundations. The uneven ridge of solidified Hollow goop around his neck became liquid once more, contracted, and layered itself firmly over his skin, covering up the final weak spot Ichigo had. The lizard-like tail whipped around madly, leaving large gouges in the ground with every strike.
Spikes emerged from the top of his shoulders, contrasting sharply with how the uneven edge of his Hollow Hole smoothed out and became perfectly round. He looked about as Hollow-like as he was ever gonna get.
"'Cause if not," Grimmjow continued, feeling with every fiber of his being the sheer power Ichigo now held, "We might not be getting a second chance."
It remained silent in his head for some tense moments, but the Spirit did not make Grimmjow wait long for a reply.
"You did not give in to rage." The heavy voice echoed. "Even after such a provocation, you managed to reign in your fury, and keep the base instincts of a Hollow at bay."
The spirit paused to let his words sink in.
"You are ready."
The silver glow intensified. That sealed power source Grimmjow had come to feel so clearly over the course of their spar spilled free of its confines.
"Raise your blade, my King."
Grimmjow did so, and a flood of energy that felt distinctly not Hollow-like poured forth from the very core of his being.
"Nothing shall ever halt it again. There is naught we cannot cut."
A tidal wave of black erupted from Ichigo's sword, converging into a swirling mass of darkness that blotted out the artificial sky. A distorted whisper reached Grimmjow ears over the roar of two massive powers clashing. "GetSuGa..."
"Now call upon me."
Ichigo charged forward, cracking the ground under his feet and leaving a trail of inky blackness behind him as he approached.
"My name is..."
Zangetsu's edge came right at him, and if it didn't shred him to pieces, the black torrent that followed it surely would. "-TEnsHOu!"
Grimmjow laughed like a madman staring death in the face.
"Tear, BYAKKO!" he roared at the top of his lungs, seeing his sword shift like mercury in the final moments before impact.
Then their blades clashed, and the world exploded into blue, red and black.
"Kurosaki-san?" Urahara asked hesitantly as he and Uryu cautiously approached the scene of the battle. Urahara was gripping his cane a little tighter than usual, while Uryu had his bow materialized and seemed to be having trouble keeping himself from pointing it at Ichigo's back.
After the teen's last encounter with Ichigo in his Hollow form, who could blame him?
Ichigo didn't respond. Instead, the Hollowfied Shinigami slowly lumbered over to where Grimmjow had fallen.
The man lay on the ground, spread-eagle, half-naked and bleeding from several wounds with his entire torso plus arms looking like they had been held against a cheese grater. Black Reiatsu still oozed out from several of said wounds.
Ichigo's front side was in a similar state, from when his own Getsuga had been partially deflected back at him, but since he was covered from head to toe in armor, his actual injuries were far less severe, and already healing thanks to his regenerative abilities.
Grimmjow on the other hand had no such protection, and had taken the full brunt of the attack. His injuries weren't fatal, but undoubtedly required urgent care. If it weren't for his chest steadily rising and falling, one might have thought he was dead. There was no doubt that Orihime's abilities would be needed later on to prevent any scars from forming. Still...
"Well... done... Grimm," Ichigo spoke with some effort. "You... did it."
The Arrancar managed to open one trembling eyelid just a crack, and the corner of his mouth turned upward. "Yeah," he croaked out, looking far too pleased with himself for a man so heavily injured. "I'd say I did."
One of Ichigo's clawed hands reached up toward his own face. The sharpened nails dug into his mask and, after applying a fair bit of pressure, shattered it into a dozen pieces, revealing Ichigo's smiling face.
Grimmjow squeezed his eye shut again when the armor covering Ichigo's body cracked in several places and came apart entirely with one last burst of heat, steam, and pure Reiatsu.
Uryu and Urahara visibly relaxed once Ichigo returned to human form.
Grimmjow on the other hand started snickering (which was painful but worth it) when he saw Ichigo's stretched and ripped Hakama sliding dangerously low down his hips. The teen was just fast enough to grab onto the hem of his pants and pull them back up before anything important saw the light of day.
"It seems you taking the day off was worth it, Kurosaki-san," Urahara piped up. The man wisely chose not to comment on Ichigo's wardrobe malfunction, for fear of a very likely – and likely painful – reprisal. "You mastering your Resurrección, and Grimmjow activating his Shikai... if we decide to move forward with the plan, those abilities will be a great help."
"I haven't mastered it," Ichigo was quick to correct the man, "This is just a first step." He looked at his open palm, which paled drastically when Ichigo reinforced it with Hierro with nothing more than a thought. "An important first step," he continued, meeting his mentor's eyes. "Even if it's not complete yet, I can use this. But enough about that, Grimm needs help first," the teen urgently reminded them. He dropped to one knee beside the injured Arrancar and assessed his injuries more closely. "I can't fix this with just a First Aid kit. Could one of you..?"
Uryu's eyebrows rose above the rim of his glasses in apparent indignation. "You want me to use the medical techniques my father taught me to treat a Hollow? Ryuuken would have a conniption if he ever found out."
Having said that, Uryu immediately lowered himself to the ground on Grimmjow's other side and got to work without any further prompting. He may have been smirking, but Ichigo wasn't about to go pointing it out.
Grimmjow hissed as Uryu went about closing up the worst of his wounds, in doing so proving that he was every bit as skilled with a suture needle as with the regular kind.
"Indulge my curiosity if you would, Kurosaki-san," Urahara mumbled as he squatted down next to Ichigo and similarly got to work on Grimmjow's injuries, hands enveloped by a haze of green light. "It all happened so fast, I hardly saw a thing. What exactly was Grimmjow's Shikai? I'm assuming it did that?" he inquired, looking over to five separate slabs of stone that had once been a single, sturdy rock the size of a garden shed. The cut surfaces were all perfectly smooth.
The corner of Ichigo's mouth curved upward. "No," he answered, voice laden with something close to pride and maybe a little awe, "that was just the air pressure." He lifted Zangetsu and willed the cloth around it to unwrap once more. Both Urahara and Uryu had to pick their jaws up from the ground at what they saw underneath.
"Grimm's Shikai did this."
Nothing had managed to so much as scratch Zangetsu ever since Ichigo's fight with Kenpachi. Now however, four identical grooves marred the near-indestructible blade, coming awfully close to cutting it to pieces entirely.
A/N: My apologies if there any remaining errors in this chapter. I still have nine hours of video to go through today for my upcoming exam, so I haven't the time to edit it as thoroughly as usual.
Well, this chapter basically ended up being one big preview of everyone's new abilities. It was originally supposed to cover everything leading up to the big battle that's coming up, but I ended it here since it's already 5k+ words. Even so, the skills they've displayed here are just the tip of the iceberg; Orihime especially has much more to show off. Her first taste of genuine combat is going to be... memorable, to say the least. Hehehe...
Just two more chapters to go before everything goes to hell in a handbasket. I am very much looking forward to it, and I hope you all are too. Next update will be in two weeks again, see you then!