"All right. I think I get the picture. Aw, what the hell. I'll take the job." Kana grinned at the busty woman's answer and Kukaku stood, moving to stand between Kana and Yoruichi and settling her prosthetic hand on Kana's head. Lifting her pipe to her lips she stared at the teenagers kneeling in a row behind Kana and Yoruichi.
"Although I may trust you, Yoruichi, I don't trust these brats behind you. So I'm going to be sending my own representative to keep an eye on them for me. By that, of course, I mean my kid brother. Not the best, but he'll have to do." The doors slid open and everyone looked behind them to see a broad built man settled in a kneeling bow.
"N-nice to meet you! My name is Ganju Shiba, and I'm pleased to be of service." He lifted his head to smile at everyone and both Kana and Ichigo leapt to their feet. Kana growled, and Ichigo and Ganju pointed at each other and yelled loudly, causing Kukaku to look between them.
"What is this? You already know each other?" Kana sighed, bringing her hand up to her face.
"Yeah. We met this boar-riding gorilla when we got to the Soul Society." Kana explained, while Ichigo and Ganju started throwing punches and kicks. At one point, Ichigo even through Ganju through the sliding screen door. Kukaku just watched with disinterest. Until her pipe was knocked from her hand and stepped on, snapping into pieces that is.
"OI!" She yelled, rearing her fists up. There was a circling orange light and Kana slid behind her. With a shout, Kukaku dropped to her knees and punched the floor. A wave of fire burst free and blew through the two rough housing boys. The other teens made a run for it with Yoruichi, and Kana just stood behind Kukaku clapping.
"That's so fucking cool! Can you teach me that?" Kukaku stormed over to Ganju, stomping on his head and grinding it into what was left of the floor. Kana followed suit and reached down, pulling Ichigo by the hair to collapse beside Ganju. Kukaku grinned at her before yelling at the two boys.
"What the hell is wrong with you!? Are you so stupid you don't know how to control yourselves? You've destroyed my entire house, how do you think you'll do not screwing up this mission!?" Kukaku turned to face Kana and Ichigo, and Kana hoisted him up by the hair to face the busty woman.
"Listen, you idiot, you're in my house now. If you don't like the way I do things here, then get the hell out. Any questions?" Kukaku raised his fist threateningly and Kana just grinned, yanking a little harder on Ichigo's poor scalp.
"N-no, I'm just fine with it. Sorry." Kana let Ichigo drop at that and the two women turned to head outside to talk to the others. Behind them, Kana heard Ichigo crawl towards Ganju.
"Your sister's a real piece of work." He mumbled, and Ganju grunted.
"I know. Your friend isn't much better." Kukaku set Ugly One and Ugly Two to work on something, and the others followed her down more stairs and down a long, brightly lit hall. They stopped at a large door, and Ganju jumped ahead to pull it open with a massive heave.
"Oh this is fucking cool! Is that a cannon!?" Kana yelled with excitement, turning sparkling eyes to Kukaku who laughed and ruffled her hair.
"It sure is! With this, you won't have to worry about getting through the wall. I'll get you right over!" Kukaku turned to grin at the group.
"After all, I'm Kukaku Siba! The fireworks expert of the West Rukon!" Kukaku shouted a few names that Kana couldn't bother to remember, and the ground started rumbling. Everyone looked on in awe as they started moving up, soon finding themselves rising to be on level with the outside.
"Kukaku...You're fucking awesome!"
"You haven't seen anything yet!" Kukaku answered, tossing a clear ball type thing at Ichigo.
"This is a reishukaku! You're going to place your palms on it and concentrate your reiatsu to create a barrier around yourselves." Ichigo blinked at her.
"Oh...How do you concentrate your reiatsu?" Kukaku looked borderline offended, and Yoruichi spoke up.
"He's actually the one I was talking to you about earlier. I taught Kana how to focus her reiatsu, however Kurosaki-kun can't control his reiatsu at all."
"Yeah, I can see that." Kukaku said with a groan, watching Ichigo struggle.
"Ganju! Show them how it's done." That was a massive mistake. The boys started fighting over the ball, eventually dropping it. Kukaku stormed over and hit them both on the head while Kana picked up the ball from where it had rolled to her feet. Looking over at Yoruichi with a smirk, the cat nodded.
"Oi, Kukaku! Like this?" Kana asked loudly, causing everyone to look at her. Hoping to god it was the same as concentrating her reiatsu before she learned to flash step, she held the ball in one hand, the other on a cocked hip. With just a little extra effort, the orb started glowing a soft blue light and a dome formed around Kana. It flickered for a second and she steadied a slow flow into the orb, grinning smugly at Ichigo and Ganju when it formed a perfect sphere.
Kukaku walked over and knocked on the sphere. It held steady and rang an echoing thunk and she grinned approvingly.
"Perfect! It's even better than Ganju's!" Ganju looked offended at that before Kukaku turned to the group and started to explain.
"This here will be your cannonball. The barrier isn't the only thing protecting the seireitei from intruders. That barrier is made from a stone known as Sekkiseki, which is rare, even for the Soul Society. Sekkiseki emits a wave that breaks down spiritual energy from all sides. Which means that the entirety of the Seireitei has a sphereical barrier surrounding them, making it near impossible to get in from both the sky and below ground." Kana glared at Ganju who kept sending Kana dirty looks as Kukaku explained, looking more upset by the minute.
"So that's why we use this." Kukaku knocked on Kana's sphere again, the knocking sound echoing pleasantly as it held steady.
"This cannonball is a special hard spiritual partition penetration device I created. All of you will stand together and pour your reiatsu into the Reishukaku to form a temporary cannonball that can break through the seireitei's barrier." Kukaku smirked and pointed to the top of the cannon.
"Between the cannonball and the force of my flower crane cannon, it'll punch a hole straight through that barrier!" Ganju seemed to finally snap, stomping over to Kana and beating on the barrier.
"What is with you!? How are you still holding this!? I've been trained to hold a cannonball and I wouldn't be able to hold it this long without being exhausted!" Kana smirked at him, giving him a mocking look.
"What do you mean? I was just a human until last week, just as Yoruichi. This is child's play so if you can't hold it for this long you must really be a gorilla."
This just caused Ganju to beat harder on the sphere, but no matter how hard he beat, Kana's cannonball held firm.
"Right, everyone! To the training room! If any of you lose concentration, you're likely to blow up on the spot!"
Hours later, they were still in the training room. Kana had just finished helping Orihime figure out a way to keep concentration, but other than that her orb was even better than Kana's. Ishida's was fairly narrow, but it held firm. Chad needed just a bit of practice on holding it steady, but it was the most powerful yet. Ichigo...was still struggling. He only got as far as a little flash of light, and Ugly One and Ugly Two were only making it harder by mocking how bad he was. Ganju who was supposed to be helping was laying by the door, picking his nose and complaining to himself.
"Oi, you guys want some food?" Ganju asked after a while, and everyone confirmed they could eat. Orihime tried to stay behind with Ichigo when he decided to stay behind and practice some more, and everyone left Ichigo alone with Ganju in the room to go eat. They tried to wait for Ichigo before eating, but Kana threatened to force feed them all if they didn't eat. She actually had to start feeding Orihime, but eventually everyone ate. Shortly after they finished there was a loud rumbling and the entire place shook. Orihime was the first to leap up.
"Kurosaki-kun!" They ran towards the training room, Yoruichi and Kukaku meeting them there to find Ganju on the floor in the hallway.
"I'm sorry, nee-sama...I only showed him once." He mumbled, and Kukaku looked panicked before throwing the door open wide.
"You idiot! Are you trying to kill us!? Concentrate your reiatsu!" Kukaku yelled and Kana ran up beside her.
"Holy shit..." Ichigo finally had a sphere, but it was massive and quaking. As everyone watched, he finally pulled it in. The second he lost focus though, it cracked and then blew up. Chad stood in front of them to shield them from the blow, and Kana shook her head.
"Will we really be able to break through the barrier with Ichigo like this?"
Nobody answered her.