Ichigo leaps from one rock to another as Urahara shatters them with bolts of crimson energy under him. He deflects the next blast with his sword, but not completely and it grazes his wrist. He winces and cradles it, watching the scorched skin heal.
His head snaps up as Urahara appears behind him, sword swinging down at his head. Ichigo raises a hand and catches it, the edge biting into his palm. His grip slackens and Urahara yanks it out of his hand, changing directions and swinging it at him faster than he can follow. Ichigo leaps back as the tip slices through the air an inch from his chest. Claws form on his free hand, and he swings it down at Urahara.
He's not sure what happens. He doesn't even see Urahara's blade move, just a flash of metal before it tears across the inside of his arm and his hand falls limp. Ichigo skids to a halt and freezes as he finds Urahara's sword pointing at his face.
"No, no," the man says with a half-smile curling on his lips. "I said with your sword. Or I'll kill you."
Ichigo finds his heart's racing and sweat is dripping down his back. How can only Urahara do this to him? The man steps back, sword leaning over his shoulder, watching him as his arm heals.
Ichigo pushes his regeneration to go faster and charges. He stops, ducks as Benihime's blade flies past his head, jabs with his broken sword. A clash of steel jolts his wrist as Urahara brings his blade back around with impossible speed to block. He turns Ichigo's sword aside with a deceptively easy motion and lashes out, blade liquid silver like a whip. It slices through Ichigo's mask.
"Gah!" A flash of pain seems to hit Ichigo's very core. He stumbles back over his feet, flailing at Urahara with his sword, and his back collides with a rock wall. His fingers touch his face and come away with blood on their tips. He feels for the injury, but whatever cut's there has probably already healed.
The cool edge of a blade brushes against his neck. "Don't let your guard down, Kurosaki-san."
Ichigo grabs Urahara's sword as he makes to pull away, yanking it toward him. His zanpakutou comes just within a millimeter of Urahara's hat.
"Oh my," Urahara says. "Not quite."
Benihime swings at Ichigo and he catches it on his blade. His hand trembles as he struggles to hold Urahara off.
"Good effort," says Urahara. "But that won't stop her. I'm sorry, but Benihime just woke up and she's a bit bloodthirsty."
A chill runs through Ichigo. Benihime clatters against the shaking blade of his sword, then its edge bites into the solid steel. Ichigo hisses through his teeth and tries to pull back. Her blade cuts through the metal before he can and shears off another inch of his sword.
Ichigo spares a second for standing there in disbelief, then turns and runs. Dashing around crags and over boulders, he doesn't manage to shake Urahara off his tail. He curses under his breath all the while. How is he supposed to fight with a broken sword? Especially fight this man, and without even using his other powers?
He's not blind to who Urahara is. He'll die if this goes on, it isn't a spar, it isn't a game—though you'd think it is by that never-changing smile on Urahara's face. Ichigo's way out of his league.
Goddamn. What is he doing, fleeing like this? Ichigo plants his feet and turns back to face Urahara, raises his sword—but what does he plan to do with it broken? It couldn't go up against that blade in Urahara's hands, singing for death and humming with bloodlust every time their swords cross.
Urahara's charging him and he hesitates fatally and misses his chance. He ducks the swinging blade, veers past Urahara, and then he's running, running just to survive with his heart hammering nonsensically in his chest and his hand clamped to the hilt of the only weapon he has. And this feeling, twisting in his gut and bitter on his tongue—fear.
'Stop running away!'
Ichigo stops dead in shock.
'If you run,' the hollow says, slowly, deliberately, 'I'll kill you.'
Ichigo stands stock-still. His breath flutters in an almost-whisper on his lips.
'I don't serve weaklings, King. C'mon, don't you have me? Didn't I swear to stand behind you? Don't you trust me?'
'Of course,' Ichigo says.
'Then why are you afraid of him? I entrusted my blade to you! With your power and mine as one, nothing on earth can hold us back!'
Silence falls across the battlefield until he can hear wind stirring dust along the ground. Even Urahara has stopped behind him, watching.
'Discard your fear,' the hollow says quietly. 'Look forward. Advance. Don't ever stop moving!' Its voice resonates in his mind. 'Turn back and you will age! Hesitate and you will die! Now! Call my name!'
Ichigo senses the power flowing through him, breathes it, feels it resonate deep inside him, a part of him and the blade he's wielding. His hand clenches around its hilt.
"ZANGETSU!"
Power flares from his blade and surrounds him, whips a cloud of dust from the ground around him, surges from him into the sky as a pillar of light. It fades and he stands, raising the sword in his hands. He finds a huge cleaver forged from metal black as a midnight sky, humming with power and purpose at his side. A white bandage flutters from its hilt.
'Zangetsu,' Ichigo whispers. A strangely familiar name on his tongue. 'You're really—'
The spirit smiles, but its mixed with a sadness that Ichigo can't figure out. 'Your zanpakutou.'
'I'm sorry I could never protect you properly. I'm sorry I hurt you. I want you to be strong. Seeing you on the days your parents were killed… I didn't want you to ever be hurt like that again.'
His voice is solemn in a way Ichigo's never heard before. An apology? He didn't think…
'Do you trust me? Truly?'
'Of course,' Ichigo says. 'Why do you still think you have to ask?'
'Ha! You're annoying. I don't know why I bother talking to you.' He grins. 'C'mon. Let's take the bastard shopkeeper down.'
Ichigo looks up. "Urahara!"
"Hm?" The shopkeeper peers up from under his hat. He glances at Ichigo's sword with curiosity and a hint of satisfaction.
Ichigo smiles grimly. "Try to dodge. Try really hard."
He raises his sword. Urahara finds the seriousness in his eyes and his own widen in alarm.
Ichigo brings his sword down. "Getsuga Tenshou!"
The crescent of black energy cleaves the ground apart and surges to the ceiling, sending cracks through it and knocking loose dust and chunks of rubble. The whole cavern shakes. Ichigo takes a step back, breathless at the force of the attack. It couldn't even be considered the same thing as what he used to throw around. He searches for Urahara, but the darkness is too deep to see anything.
Slowly, it fades away. Ichigo finds himself standing at the edge of a ravine gouged deep into the ground, so much that the bottom's lost in darkness from where he's standing. Dust chokes the air around him. As it dissipates, he catches a glimpse of a blood-red shield shining in the middle of the blast. Urahara's behind it, clothes tattered around the edges and covered with dust, blood dripping from one arm, but none too worse for wear otherwise.
He flashes a grin at Ichigo. "Phew! Quite impressive, I must say! You've always had a tendency for overkill."
His hand reaches to his head and finds his hat missing. He looks to the ground, where it lies in the dust several feet away. He makes a disappointed noise, picking it up and inspecting it. "Oh dear. You could've just knocked it off, you know. That was a perfectly nice hat."
Ichigo points his sword at him, breathing hard. "I win… Urahara!"
"Why, yes," Urahara says. "I suppose congratulations are in order. You certainly outperformed all of my expectations. You deserve to rest, after all your efforts."
"I don't need…" Ichigo staggers and plants his sword in the ground to brace himself. He sinks to his knees next to it.
Woah. He's a lot more tired than he realized.
"Maybe a bit," he mutters. As his hands slip from his sword's hilt, Urahara's there to catch him.
On a shelf near Ichigo's bed, an alarm starts to chirp. Ichigo stirs in his sleep and buries his head in his pillow with an incoherent grumble. The insistent sound seems to only get louder as it goes on. Ichigo snaps awake and slaps a hand down on the alarm harder than really necessary. He tilts the clock's display toward him and blinks until the numbers focus. 1:00 AM.
He sits up with a groan, scrubbing a hand over his eyes. His gaze turns to his window and the pitch-black sky outside. So it's time, huh?
He pushes it open and leans on the windowsill, shutting his eyes as a cool breeze blows past. Just what kind of message does he need to leave his window open for anyway? Can't Urahara call like a normal person?
Stupid question. Forget he said anything.
His eyes snap open at the sound of something whistling through the air toward him. He ducks just in time. A white package hurtles through his window and hits with a large splat against his closet door.
Ichigo leaps out of bed. "Gah! What the hell!"
A dark red ooze is splashed against his closet. Ichigo cringes. It looks awfully like blood. Shit, that better wash.
The blood drips down, leaving patterns that he realizes are meant to be words.
"Gather in front of the shop immediately?" he reads. What the hell? It looks like a dying message written in someone's own blood or something!
The bloody goop keep dripping down, spelling out more words.
"P.S." Ichigo reads, feeling more and more irritated as he goes. "If you think this is some cliche like a dying message written in a victim's own blood, you… have no sense of humor?" He lobs a pillow at the message. "To hell with this guy! Zangetsu!"
'What's your problem?' the spirit grumbles. 'Cut it out with the freaking yelling, I'm trying to sleep.'
"I'm going to kill Urahara!"
Zangetsu considers for a second. 'Now that, I might wake up for.'
Ichigo leans over a table in the kitchen, scribbling down a note by the faint moonlight coming in through the windows.
Btw Yuzu. Sorry for that crazy mess in my bedroom, Urahara did it. I'm pretty sure it's not actual blood. But if you can't get it off, bug him until he feels guilty—actually, do that anyway.
His pencil hovers indecisively over the paper. What can he say? What sentence can convey how he feels, leaving his sisters alone like this? How can he fit everything he needs to tell them onto this small note?
Stay safe, you guys. I should be back in two weeks or so.
I will be back.
He holds the note against the refrigerator and a magnet clicks it into place. Someone'll find it in the morning. Yuzu'll probably be disconsolate. Karin might hate him.
Leaving the kitchen, he hesitates in the hallway leading to the door, looking back into the darkened house.
He'll just have to apologize properly to the two of them when he returns. With Rukia in tow. And all his friends unharmed.
"Goodbye, then." He turns away, puts a hand on the door. Behind him, footsteps creak across old boards in the house and patter quickly downstairs. Ichigo turns to see Yuzu at the foot of the stairs, rubbing sleep out of her eyes with one hand, but her expression tense with worry.
"Yuzu," Ichigo says. "My bad. Did I wake you?"
Yuzu shakes her head. "Where are you going, onii-chan?"
Ichigo tries to answer but her words run over him. "Why were you gone for so long last week? And now you've just come home, but you're leaving again? Why do you never tell us? Why aren't you ever around? How come lately, you've been acting so sad?"
"Yuzu, I—" His voice sounds hoarse. He swallows and tries to speak again, but before he gets a word out, Yuzu rushes across the room and throws her arms around him. Her voice is buried in his shirt. "Please don't go."
Ichigo kneels, letting a hand rest on her head. She looks up to him, blinking away tears.
He sighs. "I gotta. Soul Society took Rukia. It's my fault they did, so I'm going to bring her back."
Yuzu's fingers clench in his shirt and her bottom lip trembles.
"Come back real soon, okay?" she whispers. "And don't you get hurt, okay?"
Ichigo smiles slightly. "Got it."
He straightens up, carefully disentangles her fingers from his clothes, and turns to the door.
"I know you'll get her back," Yuzu says behind him. "You're stronger than anyone."
"Oh," Ichigo says. "I don't know." His thoughts turn back to his fight with Byakuya and he's glad she can't see his face at the moment. A fight that one-sided can only be called an execution.
"Bye," he says. He closes his eyes. When the thought comes to him that this might be his last goodbye, he can't find the words for anything else.
He takes off in a flash step.
Partway to Urahara's shop, he finds Orihime running and drops out of the sky next to her, slowing to keep her pace.
She looks up. "Oh! Ichigo-kun! You got the summons too?"
"Don't tell me," Ichigo says. "He lobbed one of those things at you? I thought he did these things specifically to piss me off."
Orihime blinks. "Why would he do that?"
"Forget it," Ichigo says. He looks at Orihime. "I guess you're really coming, huh."
"Sado-kun is too. I asked him and he said he wasn't going to let you fight alone. Yoruichi-san trained us together."
"Chad…" Ichigo stares at his feet as his steps cross the ground. Instead of feeling assured, there's a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. He imagines his friends, powers barely awakened, facing down Byakuya. He imagines them looking to him for guidance in a place where one wrong decision means death.
"Ichigo-kun?" Orihime says, watching his face carefully. "I'm sorry…"
"No." Ichigo shakes his head. "Don't apologize."
They round a corner and find the Urahara Shoten within sight. Chad, sitting on a box outside, stands up as they approach.
"Hey," Ichigo says, nodding to him. He pulls to a stop, breathing hard.
They study each other's eyes. Chad nods back. Ichigo can see the determination in his gaze. Asking him to go home, or even if he's sure about his choice, would be an insult.
"Is Ishida-kun coming?" Orihime says, doubled over and gasping next to him.
"Ishida's coming?" Ichigo says.
"I don't know," Chad says. "I don't think so. He said he had no obligation toward shinigami."
Ichigo sighs. "I suppose he still hates my guts too."
"I can speak for myself," says a voice behind him.
Ichigo turns around and sees the Quincy, clad in white robes. "Ishida! So you actually came! Knew you couldn't stay away."
"Let me make this clear," Uryuu says. "I have trained, and I am coming along on this mission, for the purpose of a rematch against the shinigami. Kuchiki Rukia is of no concern to me. You can deal with her, if she matters so much to you."
Ichigo grins. "Whatever you say." He turns to the door and kicks it open. "Oi! We're all here, Urahara!"
The shopkeeper pops his head out of an adjoining room. "Ah, very good. Come on in."
Urahara snaps his fingers and a rectangular frame appears in the middle of the underground training room. "The senkaimon," he says with satisfaction. "Listen up please, everyone! It's time I explain something rather important—how to get through without dying."
Ichigo's friends stop chatting and admiring the huge room and turn to the shopkeeper.
"This gate connects to Soul Society via a realm called the dangai, a pocket dimension which acts as a buffer against intruders. This portal can only stay open for four seconds. If you don't make it in that time, you will be trapped in the dangai forever."
He taps the side of the portal with his fan. "Furthermore, a current called the kouryuu flows within the dangai. If even one part of your spiritual body touches it, it will entrap you and you will be unable to leave the dangai within the time frame."
Ichigo sees a hush fall over his friends.
"What do we do?" Orihime says.
"Go forward," says a deep voice.
"Yoruichi!" Ichigo looks down to see the cat padding toward them on silent paws.
She fixes her gaze on them. "If your heart is firm, the will to go forward will be your guide. Don't stop. Don't look back. Don't think of those you are leaving behind. Simply advance."
Ichigo looks at the faces around him. Chad, Uryuu, Orihime. No doubts.
He steps forward. "You don't have to tell it to us. We're ready."
Yoruichi nods. "Good." She turns to the portal. "On my command."
Urahara and Tessai charge reiatsu into its base and the space within the frame flares with white light, nearly blinding.
"Go!" Yoruichi cries.
Ichigo charges forward, his friends behind him. Yoruichi's small figure fades in the harsh glow ahead. Following, Ichigo lets the light surround him.
Wow, that was a pretty lame place to end off. I'm glad I continued this now.
Please review! Reviews are awesome! On we go, to the Soul Society arc!