Chapter 31
Ichigo grumbled as he stretched out his muscles trying to get them to feel less pain. Over the last three to four days, he had probably been in more life-threatening fights than over the last month, mainly because that Tanya was a slave driver and had impossibly high standards for him.
She just kept throwing more and more variations of attacks and fighting styles at him at every meeting with her. Many times he either learned to stand up to her or got his ass handed to him, which had been a bit of a common thing the first few days though he was getting better at being able to take hits from her.
He wouldn't say he was great at understanding the gist of some of the spellcraft she was throwing at him left and right, but he was not terrible at math, despite what his current grades at school implied, and once she'd explained that it was an application of math he kind of got it. There is no way he would ever be a spell slinger like her but at the very least he could take the shots from some of the more powerful attacks she was willing to use against him.
Granted, while he was taking her warnings that what she was showing him was not her giving him her best attacks. She had warned him that she would do anything in order to keep the use of spiritual pressure to safe levels in the World of the Living, which insinuated to him that the Soul Society probably had no such limits like that and the people there might even be stronger than Tanya. Perhaps even Tanya's foot would be stronger than the Tanya he was currently fighting.
If he was not committed to his path by this point, he might have considered the fact that the opening that Tanya kept leaving for him implies that every few fights that he knew he would find it easier to just run away. If she was happening to do that out of some sort of half-hearted plot to scare him off or to see if he was willing to do what was necessary, he wasn't sure. But the fact of the matter was that he was never going to be scared off and he was willing to do what was necessary. He owed Rukia at least that much and perhaps even more.
Stretching out his legs, he looked across the classroom at Rukia who was currently taking notes on the lecture currently going on. At least she looked like she was. Since she joined the class he looked at her notes only a couple times and though the majority of the time she did seem to actually be taking classes seriously to keep her cover, once or twice it seemed that she was just drawing artistic renditions of people.
How much of the time was just her drawing pictures he really didn't know. Oh, everything else seemed rather normal. Chad and Keigo acting studiously for once, Orihime and Tatsuki were quietly working away on their own projects; everything was seemingly normal.
He was probably going to miss this once Tanya headed back to the Soul Society. She had been keeping hollow activities down to a minimum since stepping in the area. It really put things into perspective when he thought about it. She was taking care of hollows for her own assigned territory and this town at a rate that was making it feasible for him to actually complete an entire uninterrupted day of class.
And deep down he hoped that she'd do such a good job that he'd have at least a couple weeks afterwards of peace and quiet. At least a slow rebuild up to the levels that had been before would be an improvement.
Letting out a deep sigh he looked out the window and thought some more about the last few days. He poked a little bit more at subjects during their fight conversations that Tanya allowed. Allowed being the operative word, because sometimes she didn't, but when she did he poked and managed to find out that there were two forms to develop after you reach a certain level of training. Shikai was just a standard power up that most high-ranking soul reapers had access to. The way she'd said it he immediately asked if she had one, She said yes so he had tried to see if she would show off at her.
The flat no had been rather dull and the explanation was understandable. Shikai released a lot of spiritual energy into the world, and considering she was so worried about the levels being introduced to the world that she had Rukia get a bracelet from Hat and Clogs that was meant to keep his powers in check the chances of her showing off anything too major was unlikely.
Which was unfortunate. Ichigo figured if he got a demonstration, he might be able to figure out how to do it. Of course that might be one of the many reasons she was unwilling to show it off. After all, apparently his existence was illegal and she did not seem like the type to help continue the illegal part of his existence.
She also made mention of something called a Bankai. Tanya had been very cagey about that and moved the conversation on as soon as possible so his information on that was spotty, something about it being a massive power up. How massive she hadn't made it clear, again very cagey about that subject, and the only thing he'd gotten clear was that it took 10 years to train a person to be able to even try to master it and it was probably one of the rarest abilites in the Soul Society.
He also managed to ferret out a few other details that probably were important. Obviously she left things for him to ask about during the conversations: the number of Gotei 13 ranks above her, Lieutenant and Captain, and the best chance for him to actually be successful and prove he was worthy to work with Soul Society. He just needed to take on the lieutenant of divisions 10, 6, and 5. According to her, the lieutenants of 10 and 6 were friendly to Rukia and her and would give him a fair shake, as for five, apparently that was just Tanya's bias as the girl, in her opinion, was not the strongest lieutenant in the entire Gotei 13.
That was probably a sign that she thought he shouldn't go for anything too big, and her opinion, though she seemed to play it safe he would admit, meant he would probably go along with her suggestion on the matter if he could. He needed to get the situation handled in a safe way for Rukia and his family and if she thought that those three lieutenants were the ones he should fight then he should probably angle for those three lieutenants.
Though he wished he had more information and well more time to train. Thankfully he apparently had about 2 months which was a good start. And thanks to Tanya's constant switching of techniques and fighting styles he had some idea how to fight now, at least in sword combat. Sure he had a little kendo practice back in the day but that was a long time ago. Most of his martial arts training had been in karate anyways. So far when fighting the hollows it came down to hitting the big ugly thing with the sharp end of the blade to kill it. Fighting people was different. A lot more technique was required and he hoped to accomplish that within the next few months.
Though he should really find another teacher. Tanya would be gone within the next few days and it would just be him versus whatever hollows they found and maybe Rukia, though that would be kendo practice basically. At best he would have to get her a stick and they'd have to just wing it. Until her powers returned, which is not looking very likely according to the way Tanya was telling it, the best they could do was play fighting.
Of course apparently Rukia had 50 years on him of training so high style play fighting at best. Perhaps she also knew someone in the World of the Living that could help them out in training? Hat and Clogs seems to know something about all this. Maybe he could help, and Tanya seemed to have contacts in the World of the Living. Perhaps she knew a few sword fighters here as well that she could point him towards.
Just one of the many things he would have to add to the list of questions for today's training session that he would have to sneak in. Maybe he'd get some answers on why she's been asking some questions of her own recently. Last night there had been a few oddballs that he was still trying to figure out why she's been asking about.
Like why did she want to know about his dad and mom. The questions were very subtle at the time so he hadn't even really thought about it but he had pieced them all together and there's a general idea where she was asking where his dad had come from, where he learned his skills, and where his mom had come from.
Was she trying to figure out why he was a permanent substitute soul reaper instead of a temporary one? She had made it clear that there was a distinction in one of their conversations… Come to think of it, why was he a permanent soul reaper and not a temporary one? If that is a more common thing they just have to do with him seeing ghosts…
Hold on, yesterday Tanya had implied that seeing ghosts was a symptom of spiritual energy exposure and that's why he had to now wear a bracelet when performing his soul reaper duties. So when had he been exposed to spiritual pressure in such quantities that he gained the ability to see spirits?
Leaning back in his chair he started to think about this. Seeing ghosts all his life he never really thought much of it. It was just something he saw and some people didn't. His sisters didn't see ghosts, at least none that they made clear that they did, though he had a suspicion about Karin. Once or twice he thought he caught her looking at the same spirit he was before she immediately looked away and said nothing about the matter to him.
Assuming he hadn't been the cause of that contamination as he'd only recently gained the ability to produce spiritual energy and apparently levels that would cause contamination… Was he being a little bit paranoid? …Perhaps Tanya rubbed off on people. Rukia had said she's a bit on the paranoid side and she did always assume the worst possible outcome though… Hmm, early on Ichigo never had asked any questions of his dad about where his family was from. Sort of just took him at the word that he was an only child and his parents were no longer with us.
And besides a glimpse of a couple people at his mother's funeral Ichigo really didn't know much about her side of the family either; they've never really stayed in contact with his father. He just kind of assumed that his way of talking and dealing with others had rubbed them the wrong way and they just cut my mother out of the family because she'd fallen for him.
Should he poke around? It's not something he would usually do but now he was kind of curious where his ability to see ghosts came from.
He'd keep it in mind since it wasn't really necessary, probably. He didn't need to know it but maybe he'd ask why Tanya had been asking about that. At least to see if she could confirm his theory that she was somehow thinking that his family was responsible for his abilities. If she could confirm that maybe he would ask his dad about it. At the bare minimum he probably should know if this was somehow related to his family just so he can keep an eye on his sisters and make sure they don't somehow get wrapped up in this either.
If anyone in his family was going to have to deal with the hollows he would prefer it to be him. As they deserve to have normal lives.
His thoughts were interrupted as a paper football came flying from the side smacking him in the side of the head.
Looking over there confused Ichigo saw that Keigo and Chad had apparently gotten through most of their work and noted that he was staring off outside and they decided to screw with him. By the looks of it Chad was holding his fingers for a goal and Keigo had obviously been the one to flick the paper football through said goal and hit him in the head.
Smiling in annoyance he reached down to pick up the paper football that landed on his desk and unfolded it quickly, reading a note saying Miss Ochi had looked in his direction twice during the lecture since he started staring out the window which was a good warning.
Folding the ball back up he slipped it back into his pants pocket and paid attention to the lecture again. Guys just saved him from probably being yelled at which was something he'd have to thank them for later.
Thankfully the lecture didn't go on too much longer as a bell rang implying it was lunch time. Getting up from his seat he made ready to go up to the roof wholly expecting Tanya to show up again. But then something unusual happened. Well technically it was usual about a week ago but now it was unusual again as Rukia's beeper went off.
Rukia picked up her phone and quickly looked over it before nodding in his direction. Making it clear that yes, a hollow attack was inbound. Which meant that something had gotten past Tanya or she's been on break.
Either way he nodded his agreement and stepped up into the hallway quickly making his way to the roof before anyone else and pulling Kon out of his backpack. Before he even had a chance to complain Ichigo reached in and popped out his soul candy and popped it in his own mouth stepping out of his body.
Rukia came on the scene at that moment and said, "Looks like the attack is three blocks to the east of here. Should I give Tanya a call to find out how she missed this one?"
He shrugged and said, "No, it's fine. I'm sure it's nothing, probably just busy with something else." That being said, he turned to Kon. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do or the next training session with Tanya you'll need to participate."
That got an immediate salute out of him as he said, "Aye aye, captain, won't do anything too crazy."
"How about don't do anything crazy? I think that would be better," he said pointedly.
"Works for me boss man," Kon said, still holding that salute. Ichigo simply shook his head before turning to Rukia, "Keep an eye on him for me."
"Will do Ichigo." She said with a smile before he nodded and moved to the edge of the rooftop. First he jumped and kicked himself off the fencing then kicked himself off the stair access on the roof before getting momentum going, and headed off in the general direction of the attack.
Perhaps he should have waited for Tanya. Though, If she had let this one through then it must be something he can handle. He would go rusty if he didn't fight a few hollow every now and again. Taking care of a single hollow, he was sure he could do that.
Either way he was only a couple blocks away and it only took him about 5 minutes to reach the location where the hollow had peaked the scanner.
It was midday and this was a shopping area with a lot of people moving about but no real sign of the hollow as he looked around.
Usually when there's a hollow attack even if most people couldn't see it there'd be a lot of people running around screaming just because it looked like there was an explosion going off. Right now everyone looked normal as if it was just an average day. 'Could the scanner have been wrong?' he pondered and really it had never been wrong before though.
"No you're not the one I wanted to draw out…" came a voice from behind Ichigo. It was old, very old. The best way to describe the voice it's as a venerable elder, and was extremely calm.
Confused, he turned around expecting to see, well, a person just based on the voice, not the massive wolf hollow that was sitting right there. Its head was tilted as it looked down on him, having a good three or four feet of height on him.
"What the-" was the most he could get out as he drew his blade from his back expecting the wolf to come at him.
It did not though. It looked at the blade, smiled, and took a few steps back. "Quite an impressive sword you have there. Overly long though. I say that probably would chop all the way through my neck and one swing if I let it." the hollow said, making no move to assault Ichigo.
He was still reeling from the fact that such a massive hollow had just appeared behind him let alone was actually talking, though that had become more common with some of them, but why was it not attacking him was probably the biggest outlier. Every hollow he'd ever run into attacked him. The fact this one wasn't was odd.
Frankly this was beyond odd. He'd been told quite a bit that the hollows attack like a beast and this one may look like a beast but it was acting quite the gentleman.
"Well if I'm not the one you were here to see I'm afraid whatever poor soul you're after will have to wait for the next life as I'm not allowing you to hunt in the World of the Living."
The wolf chuckled before saying, "Why would I hunt the World of the Living? So little spiritual energy in the humans, it's not even worth it. My prey is that of my kind."
"Wait, what?" was the most Ichigo could say, lowering his sword a bit but still keeping it in a defensive posture, "You're hunting hollows… but I thought you guys were all on the same team."
That got a straight up laugh from the wolf which was disconcerting considering the amount of teeth that were on display.
"Oh poor little raw recruit the world is so much more complex than that. And even I don't understand all the ins and outs of it but besides to say I'm not hunting humans for food. I'm hunting hollows."
Ichigo simply blinked before saying, "Well congratulations. I guess we're not fighting each other though I'm very confused at this moment." Still keeping his blade in a somewhat defensive posture in case this beast was lying he asked, "So who were you trying to draw out if it wasn't a human or myself?"
"Bad move. Confusion is something your enemies could use against you. As for who I was trying to draw out… well the devil of course. They've been seen in this area."
"The devil… well is that a title or the actual being itself?" he asked, remembering his experience with the portal to hell from a few months back.
The beast simply gave him a smile before saying, "Now that is a question that I have asked many a time and I'm still not sure of."
The beast shrugged. "Hard to say. They do bear the title of the devil and the mad dog most notably. The rusted silver was also totted by quite a large amount of them in fact. You can only do so much murdering before you gain a title and they gained quite a bit of titles in their life."
Ichigo shrugged before saying, "Well unless you have a proper name I don't actually know who this person is. I've never run into anyone called the devil, the mad dog, or the rusted silver. Does silver even rust?"
The wolf chuckled before saying, "For them everything rusts. Well that's unfortunate that you don't know. I hoped to see them and fill a few holes in my memories." The beast shook its head before saying, "As for a name that has been lost to me for now, maybe a few more hollow kills will bring it back."
Ichigo was just left there a bit confused but nodded his head saying, "Well you better be on your way. I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt that you're telling the truth and you really are here just to hunt hollows but there is another soul reaper in the city who I don't think will do that."
"Really now?" the wolf said, raising what he'd guess was an eyebrow on its mask. "Well that would explain what happened to Grand Fisher and his cohort."
Ichigo blinked before asking, "You know about Grand Fisher?"
"Of course I know about Grand Fisher, I was hunting him. Slippery little bastard managed to stay out of my jaw's biting range unfortunately, and he had a tendency to push any hanger-on hollows that he moved with in front of me. And though I admit that I have some control when I get a taste of hollow meat… well my bestial instincts will make sure I'm safe and then eat. Which usually gives the bastard enough time to get away. I hoped that if I kept at him though he would run out of bastards to throw in front of me."
"Huh, okay," Ichigo just nodded his head, taking this in as reasonably as he could. He probably needed to have a conversation about this with Tanya when he got the chance as well as Rukia because this was really off the beaten path of stuff he'd been told about.
"So, you were after Grand Fisher, but they were killed so then you started looking for the devil. How did this jump happen?" he asked, trying to get a better understanding of whatever the hell this was.
The wolf simply smiled and said, "I don't know. Memories are a bit spotty as I said. All I can say for sure is I knew that the devil is in this area. They'll show themselves eventually and I will finally have some answers. That's all that matters."
"Okay then and how do you know that the devil will show themselves?" he asked, trying to gather more intel. He really was going to have to tell everything he got from this to the others to see what they could make sense of.
"Oh it's quite simple. Something directed a powerful hollow into this area. No doubt the activity in this region will spike quite a bit over the next month or two. It's probably already spiking and said hollow will probably reach the barrier in that time. It'll bring chaos to the World of the Living and I have a feeling the devil will be quite interested in seeing this chaos to its conclusion."
"There's a what?" Ichigo asked as he lowered his sword completely at this point.
"A massive hollow the size of a skyscraper will most likely appear within a month or two and cause complete and utter mayhem for these living people and when that happens the devil will come, probably with many other soul reapers to deal with it."
Ichigo did not like the sound of this. He did not like the sound of this at all but the main interesting thing that he caught on was, "Okay back to that first part who ordered this thing into the area?" If someone had ordered it in, which again this was weird but okay hollows had some sort of society he guessed, perhaps he could find the one responsible and force them to order it out.
"The king of Hueco Mundo of course, he's the only one with such powers. And with his puppet Grand Fisher removed from whatever game he's playing he needed to do something drastic."
"So there is some crazed king in Hueco Mundo who's directed an army of hollows to this town to commence an attack in 2 months. Is that what I'm getting?" Ichigo asked, completely not liking the way this was going. Why is this world getting crazier was the only question in the back of his mind that made sense to even ask at this point.
"Could be sooner," the wolf simply said with a shrug, "and I know that there'll be several new hollows entering this area as well. After all, with Grand Fisher gone these hunting grounds which had been given to him are now open to anyone."
"Oh wonderful," Ichigo said. "Any other good news you're going to drop on me?"
"Well if it makes you feel better, I'll be in the area eating quite a bit of these hollows."
Ichigo blinked before saying, "In a way that does make me feel better though I guess I should probably ask if you would prefer that I cleanse you. Send you on to the next life instead of being stuck as a beast hunting monsters."
The hollow tilted its head before saying, "Maybe another time. I have many questions I need answered and I don't feel like unexisting into whatever I would become if I was cleansed."
At that the wolf got up and shook itself before saying, "Take care raw recruit. The monsters are coming, and hope that the devil takes pity on you otherwise they could well be as much a monster as the hollows you will be facing."
With that the beast turned and walked right away into a black void leaving Ichigo standing there, wondering what the hell had just happened. It was only after the creature had exited this world did it really register how much spiritual pressure it had been putting off. It was on a level he had not felt before. It was quite above anything any hollow he'd run across in the World of the Living had managed.
Shaking his head he put his blade away and then turned to face the direction of school. With a jump he was on his way running across the rooftops back to where he started and with maybe a few answers though even then he wasn't really sure what the answers would tell him other than there were monsters on the loose and they were coming.
What the hell was a hollow that's several stories high? How would that even work? Personally, that sounded like a recipe for a disaster. And more importantly who was this devil and why were they someone that wolf hoped would take pity on him.
Were they a soul reaper? They had mentioned them coming with them but the implications of them hunting other hollows as well as having more of a menacing tone whenever they mention this devil could imply that they were another hollow that was going to be showing up as well.
Probably should have asked the name of the big wolf but then again he'd been a little bit starstruck by the fact that there was a talking hollow not trying to eat him or kill him so it was something to add to his list the next time he ran into whatever that thing was.
And who knew when that would be? Shrugging his head he simply landed on the rooftop of his school and spotted his body talking to Rukia.
He quickly walked over to them and said, "We're going to have to have a talk with Tanya tonight I think."
"Why is that Ichigo?" Rukia asked as she stopped leaning against the fence. "How'd the fight go?"
"It didn't," he simply said before adding "the hollow didn't want to fight, he wanted to talk."
"So he wanted to, what, say he's coming to attack your family or something like that?" Rukia asked?
"No no apparently they wanted to warn me that more hollows are on the way and that there's a really big hollow coming."
She blinked before saying, "A really big hollow? Wanting to warn you… I know I'm not the most experienced soul reaper on this but I think that hollow was trying to screw with you."
He heard before saying, "I don't know, but I really don't want to take this warning as nothing. If we've been warned that there's a hollow coming that's pretty big then we should probably tell Tanya and see what she thinks."
"How big was this hollow described as?" asked.
"Skyscraper size," Ichigo said with a shrug.
"Well that's impossible. That would be a Menos Grande and those don't come to the World of the Living. They sometimes attack the Soul Society but even that's rare."
He struggled before saying, "well I hope you're right because otherwise in about 2 months we're going to have a bit of a problem."
Rukia shrugged before saying, "all right we'll bring it up with Tanya, though I find it weird that a hollow would betray another hollow like that."
"I found it weird that a hollow was willing to talk to me without trying to kill me so that's an indication something weird is going on in my opinion."
"Good point, good point. At bare minimum it might mean that some hollow out there is trying to screw with you and we should be prepared for whatever this is about." With that she slapped the back of his body forcing Kon out and Ichigo quickly stepped in before it fully collapsed.
Grabbing the still flying marble of soul candy he quickly pocketed it in his backpack and shoved it back in the doll hearing a bit of moaning about surprise attacks but for the most part ignoring it.
Tanya blinked as she listened to the story that the pair were telling her. There wasn't much she could do except nod her head as she listened to them trying to figure out if they had a few screws loose. They were standing in the open park that didn't get much foot traffic they've been using for training for the last few days. The sun was slowly setting but they probably would be wrapping up training a bit early today. She had plans after all.
Then again this whole situation was quite the odd tale and she was willing to listen to him. After they finally stopped talking about what they heard she simply nodded her head before saying, "Well that's unusual. I'll have to add that to my report."
At that, she pulled out a notebook and quickly jotted it down the important bits.
"That's it?" Ichigo asked as he folded his arms across his chest, appearing rather annoyed that that was all she was doing.
"Yes that's it. By your own implications there is a hollow that apparently hunts other hollows. Still need to kill it but I can leave it for last as it is apparently not a friend of other hollows and has spilled information about a possible Menos that's going to rip its way into the World of the Living. Is that realistically something that could happen? Unlikely but I could see one of those creatures sleeping on the other side of the divide between this world and Hueco Mundo, after all it probably sensed the amount of spiritual pressure near here and it would simply bring around other hollows that would come through and eat humans. They'd come back into the world and he would just reach out and grab them for a snack once in a while."
"That's dark," Rukia said as she leaned against a nearby tree.
"Very but that's why they're beasts that need to be dealt with."
"Okay but what about the devil?" Ichigo asked, getting Tanya to shrug again.
"Not enough intel to make a decision on that. As you may note yourself it could have been a hollow, could have been a soul reaper, for all we know this devil could be a Quincy that's been rather active of late. On the other hand it could be a soul reaper that's gone rogue that we're unaware of. Without more details I don't really know who this devil could be and I doubt it will matter in the long term."
"Okay but still if there's some sort of monster waiting to come through to the World of the Living or at least causing problems where it shouldn't. We should try and figure out what to do about that."
"No," Tanya said rather clearly, "no you will not think about that. What's probably going to happen is I'm going to report that this incident with the wolf hollow happened to me. I will simply leave it as a very strange incident and leave the intel for the higher ups to figure out. Most likely they will send someone through to the World of the Living to check on this and when that happens you do need to be scarce. Hell I'm half considering not reporting it for a month just to give you two more time to get yourself set and ready for whatever will need to be done to make sure Rukia doesn't end up fired and banned from being a soul reaper and you aren't hunted down for whatever punishment they figure out to do with a temporary reaper."
Tanya shook her head before continuing. "I don't know what the future will hold. All I know is what happened in the past and the past implies that people who have powers to fight hollows are not looked kindly upon if they're not under the control of the Soul Society and at the moment you're not under their control."
"That said," she drew out her sword and continued with, "now how about some basic self-defense tactics training?"
Ichigo let out a deep sigh as he drew the blade from his back and took a defensive posture, holding his blade while waiting for her attack. It came rather quickly as Tanya flash stepped to his left bringing her blade in a swipe to his side.
Of course he had learned how to block that just barely. He wasn't that fast yet but he was getting up to snuff and dealing with someone who's flash-stepping.
For a moment their blades met making the hollow sounds of metal on metal before being stuck in a bit of a contest to see which of them would break and which wouldn't. Neither did of course so she stepped back. "Not bad," she said. She tended not to want to say too much of her approval considering he seems like the type who would take that too much to his head.
The simple fact he was smiling said enough that he needed to be tampered with occasional reminders that he could be better otherwise he'd become complacent.
"I have a question that's been bothering me since our last meeting but why were you asking about my family?" Ichigo asked, still holding his defensive posture.
Tilting her head Tanya tried to figure out what was the best way to approach this. Finally she decided the best way was to lie. "Just curious. Trying to figure out why you ended up a permanent reaper and not a temporary one that's all." The real reason of course was trying to figure out if his old man was who she thought he was as he looked too similar not to be somehow related.
"Okay and how does knowing information about my family help you figure that out?" Ichigo asked.
'Well in for a penny in for a pound though giving him some information probably wouldn't hurt.' Tanya thought as she unfastened her sword sheath so she was now wielding both. "There are several ways for humans to gain enough spiritual power that it becomes permanent. The first is through just natural exposure to some sort of continuous spiritual pressure vent. Second is the mother being attacked by a hollow while pregnant but surviving. The third is that they are a Quincy. Those are the three most likely avenues for someone to have enough spiritual pressure that something like this could be permanent. Now the fact you aren't shooting arrows now and again tells me you're probably not a Quincy. So that leaves either your mother surviving a hollow attack while you were still inside her or this area's natural vent had a more lasting effect on you than most. Personally I'm leaning towards the vent. Perhaps your mother and father were both exposed to the large spiritual pressure of this vent for a long time as well and you just have a triple dose of the natural radiation from it resulting in you being more susceptible to a permanency in soul reaper status."
Out of the corner of Tanya's eye she spotted Rukia looking at her stance now that she was wielding two weapons instead of one and immediately backing away.
"Ichigo, you might want to be a bit careful," she called, giving a warning to what was about to happen.
Ichigo seemed not to take that as seriously as Rukia was implying before asking why.
A moment later Tanya was in front of him, her blade coming for him. He managed to block it but left an opening for the metal sheath; it just smacking the side of his leg. He attempted to jump back but Tanya kept attacking, slashing with her blade repeatedly and attempting to break his guard while bringing her sword sheath down on areas he left exposed.
This continued assault went on for 30 paces from the northern part of the park to the southern part, and though Tanya gave it her best she wasn't able to break through with her swordplay. Finally she had to stop as they were getting a little bit too close to areas that were more public.
"Hmm,'' she said, stepping a few feet back. Ichigo took this moment to take a knee and get some breath back. He was definitely going to be bruised but by the looks of it though he'd avoided any cuts.
Finally he breathed out and said, "the hell? You went at me like a pinwheel of death."
"Yes because most people in the Soul Society will be a pinwheel of death. Some may have only one weapon but there are quite a few that have strange techniques. There's this one man who has a blade that's a massive set of garden scissors. You be on the lookout for him. His blade will cut through any defense if he gets it snapping on you."
Ichigo thought on it before standing up and taking another defensive posture.
"I will say you did pretty well keeping yourself from being cut. Cuts are more dangerous after all, though you need to be more careful about preventing yourself from being injured at all. Every little injury will slow you down and sooner or later it'll get through." she said tilting her head.
"Got it, it's not the size of your sword it's your initiative and speed to be able to accomplish your attack… let me guess that's why you did so well as to get a third seat."
Tanya tilted her head and then chuckled. "Blitzkrieg joke, I got that."
"How?" Rukia called from behind a tree where she's been hiding. "I thought you were from World War I."
Tanya blinked in annoyance at that slip up but she had an easy way out of this and simply turned and said, "I've had time to read the recent history books thank you very much. Curiosity did get to me about whatever happened to the country I fought for."
Turning back to Ichigo though she said, "but yes you're right. Initiative and speed can be a very decisive factor in a fight. Having a good defense can counter that but the best defense is often the best offense. There are some people in the Soul Society with abilities that won't make any sense to try and use defense. Those abilities that either can go around defenses or have no care for defenses as they're just so overpowered and in those cases you want to fight them first before they can get their powers up so that you can get yourself out of a terrible situation."
Ichigo nodded his head before saying, "and I assume that it's your proposed lieutenants that I would need to fight which are the best candidates for avoiding such abilities."
Tanya chuckled and said, "oh God no. Two of them sure, but the lieutenant of the 10th has one in such ability and will probably be one of your tougher fights. That is of course if you can swing it to those three."
"Right," Ichigo said as he prepared for another assault. Unfortunately at that exact moment Tanya's beeper on her side went off. Sheathing her sword, she then moved her weapon to her other hand. She then picked up the beeper and looked at it and said, "it looks like we're going to have to cut today's session a little short. There's a little hollow attack near here that's going to go down in the next few minutes by the looks of it and I have a pre-disposed meeting I need to make so I'm afraid that this session is over."
"Well damn," Ichigo said as he finally ended his defensive stance. "Do you need help with this hollow attack?"
Tanya shook her head before saying, "no no I'll be fine though don't let my leaving end your training." She looked to Rukia and said, "you still have the ability to throw spells. Go ahead and throw some at him. Learning to dodge is an important skill just as much as learning to fight."
"Okay Tanya," Rukia said before adding, "but I don't have that much power to be throwing spells around willy-nilly."
"Then find some wrenches," Tanya said matter of factly vaguely remembering some old movies she'd seen a long time ago as she quoted, "If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a spell."
With that Tanya walked off leaving the two to deal with the training for today. As soon as she was out of sight she started to move a little bit faster, jumping and running on the roofs and moving in the direction the beep had indicated to go.
She had to make up for that one she'd missed earlier. Perhaps this was the same creature and she would get the answers of why that Wolf hollow had been hunting other hollows, or maybe she wouldn't. As for why she missed the earlier one that was kind of simple. She had been on the other side of town close to Naruki City dealing with other hollows.
There were definitely less hollows now than when she started hunting them but the more hollows she killed the more it drew out the complex and intelligent ones. Kind of felt like she was carving a void in territory for hollows and they were simply taking advantage of it. Either way she believed that she cleared out the territory of most of its minor hollows for now and had to hope that Ichigo and Rukia will be able to keep the territory clear until everything was dealt with and they could get this whole mess settled in a way that did not result in legal action by Central 46.
Crossing the rooftops as fast as she could she quickly arrived at the point of interest and immediately saw absolutely nothing. There was an empty street and several people walking on the nearly empty streets but nothing too major. Well that's not exactly true she later thought that she reevaluated she was seen.
Down below there were three students from Ichigo's school. She didn't recognize the brown haired girl nor the black haired girl, however the third girl was Akira. Now why would she be here, not in a sense that she shouldn't be here as this was after all her town and she lived here so being in the town made sense, but why would she be here at a hollow attack when there doesn't appear to be a hollow attack unless… Tanya quickly jumped from the roof aiming to land right behind them which was good because right as she was coming down a portal to Hueco Mundo was starting to open up and some creature's grasping hand reaching for the group. Drawing her sword she slashed down, cutting it off and got a rather satisfying scream from whatever was behind the portal.
Standing up Tanya turned to face the portal only to see it close. Turning Tanya saw Akira already starting to turn, her hand grabbing a cross, probably to get into a combat stance. Instead, as soon as she saw her savior she said with surprise, "Tanya?"
Annoyed, Tanya noticed that the other two girls seemed to be looking around confused as well, possibly implying they had heard the beast which was not good. That meant they had already been exposed to a bit of spiritual pressure and she would need to be careful or could start giving them ghost sight as well. But there wasn't much time to do anything about that as a portal was opening in front of them and a big hollow was crawling through. One of its arms was missing but that didn't seem to stop it since it had three sets in total.
"Damn soul reaper! Die!" The beast called punching at where Tanya had been standing with three of his arms on its left side. Thankfully Tanya was able to dodge out of the way and avoid the hits but, well things always get complicated. The hollow's remaining two right arms started reaching for the girls who couldn't tell what was coming for them.
This forced Tanya to jump in the way and block the attack, already moving to grab her sword sheath so she had both hands stopped. Unfortunately that resulted in Tanya being trapped in a bad position. She couldn't exactly back off now as the girls were right behind her and this hollow was intelligent which resulted in the most unfortunate situation of three left fists smacking her from the left side and sending her across the street.
She impacted a low cement wall meant to keep dirt from a nearby hill from washing down into the road and collapsed there for a second.
Looking up she saw one good thing though. The damn beast appeared to have lost interest in the girls and was now crossing the street towards her at a steady pace; its overly muscled frame quickly blocking out the little bit of sunlight that was coming through the nearby buildings.
Pulling herself up she immediately realized she had broken something as she could barely put weight on one side but there was not much he could do in this situation. It was quite clear she was going to need to use her spells so she started the chant, trying to go through it as quickly as possible to get up her defenses. Entfessel die Gewalt des Krieges, Shirubātitania
She wasn't getting it done fast enough as the beast immediately realized what she was doing and started running at her and at that moment she thought she was going to lose out on this little race.
Then one of the beast's kneecaps exploded in a flash of white light and it tumbled into the ground just in front of her. 'That was unfortunate,' she immediately thought, looking past the beast towards the obvious answer to why said beast was now on the ground.
There was that girl there with a white bow in her hands. There was the presence of Quincy energy and at least she didn't kill the damn thing that would have been a bad thing to put on the report, terrible thing.
And she was definitely leaving out of the report the fact the two girls were now staring at Akira as if they could see the white bow because that would imply they could now see spiritual energy which, mmm, just was icing on the fruit cake.
Finishing the chant her sword morphed into its shikai and she hoped to just shove the polearm right into the monster's head and finish the damn thing.
Unfortunately even though it had lost its left leg it was apparently rather fast on five hands and a knee asit quickly moved out of the way.
Now that it was not looming over her she got a better look at it and its eight eyes. She was looking at an overly muscled spider. How hollows evolved into these things was a question that she would always ask and never get an answer to.
That being said she was not really interested in this fight going longer than it already had been. So she brought out her sword sheath and smacked it against the haft breaking it into silver petals quickly forming the cape. And with that she aimed her polearm at the creature and spoke a series of spells. First was Bakudo number 1: Sai causing its arms to fold up behind its back leaving it vulnerable. This was quickly followed by Hado number 31: Shakkaho She only charged it a bit but that was enough as she didn't have time and didn't want that thing to escape in the few moments it had before the blast hit it.
The beast tanked the blast to its head before tumbling down, laying there in somewhat of a dazed state. She didn't give it much more time. Using the healing abilities of the cloak to quickly get her leg in functioning order, even if it wasn't unbroken, and waddled over to the hollow, shoved the blade end of her polearm through its brain, killing it for good and cleansing it.
With that taken care of she took a moment to catch her breath using her polearm as a walking stick to hold herself up. That had been an utter mess and she'd be a fool not to admit that she'd messed up in that fight. Granted it was not a major screw up, as she had done her duty and protected the living from the evil dead, but in doing so she'd let herself get flanked by a creature that was obviously not so mentally proficient. For most hollows she should have opened up with her shikai, but then again she had not known what kind of beast she was dealing with when the fight started.
'Ah. That was an excuse. You need to be better,' she ultimately decided. Taking a breath she stood up hopeful that this was the end of the mess and there wasn't another hollow coming to attack her from behind.
"Hey are you okay Miss?" called an unknown female voice as a hand rested on her shoulder. She blinked and turned wondering who this was and then realized this mess was more complex than just hollow attacks.
The short black haired girl had her hand on Tanya's shoulder and looked a bit concerned for her as she held onto her polearm. Said girl a moment ago could only hear noises and now could see a soul reaper which meant exposure to either the hollow attack, the Quincy energy, or Tanya's flash of spiritual pressure when she unleashed a series of spells and shikai, or maybe all of the above had contributed to not only allowing her to see the spirit world but to have some ability to interact with it since she was clearly gripping Tanya's shoulder.
This would not play well in the report and she would be omitting this information from it as there was a very good likelihood that this would upset Central 46.
"Wow that's some strange clothes," the black haired girl said looking at what Tanya was wearing.
Annoyed by this comment Tanya looked past the black haired girl and saw Akira and the other brown haired girl jogging over.
"It's a uniform," she simply said before straightening up and getting ready to try and get away as fast as possible.
"Tanya, are you okay?" came the voice of Akira stopping her attempts to flee as now there were questions.
The other brown haired girl said, "Wow she's wearing the same uniform Ichigo was wearing in my dream, just with a funny hat."
"Dream?" Akira stated before asking, "What dream Orihime?" giving Tanya a name to work with for the other brown hair girl- oh, guess it was a little bit more red now that they were closer and she could see.
"You mean that time we passed out at your place?" the black haired girl said, still gripping Tanya's shoulder and preventing her from leaving easily, not without causing damage to a living person possibly, which was something she wanted to avoid.
"Yes, exactly that time Tatsuki!" Orihime said excitedly.
The now named black haired girl turned to look at me, "You're right. That is the same uniform."
Tanya could physically feel her blood pressure rising as her fist got white knuckled around the haft of her polearm. These three gossiping girls were asking more questions than Tanya had time, need, or want to answer. She was at her limit and was about ready to do something drastic.
Thankfully something intruded on her behalf as a grenade-like object landed between all three of them and immediately started disgorging black smoke.
Tatsuki let go of Tanya's shoulder in the surprise and in that moment she was off not even bothering to say goodbye simply running and jumping on to a nearby roof and moving on to the next only stopping when she was sure that they couldn't follow her.
Still in rather large amounts of physical pain she took a seat underneath the lip of one of the rooftop buildings to catch her breath wondering who had just interceded on her behalf though that answer came rather quickly as she heard a sound of something landing on the lip of the building just above her.
"Well that was a rather big shitshow if I'd ever seen one," came a male voice.
Tilting her head forward Tanya looked up at the lip of the wall. Inside of it there was a cat sitting there licking their paw as they seemed too nonchalant about it.
Looking left and right she saw that there was no person there and well she didn't need the inevitable voice in the back of her mind to know exactly what the inevitable answer would be.
'It's the cat, isn't it?' came Tasha's voice from over her shoulder and all Tanya could do was nod as she got up, brushed herself off, and sealed her weapon and stashed it away at her side before turning to the cat and saying, "May I presume that you were the one speaking just a moment ago?"
The cat turned to look at her then smiled and said, "I was expecting some more surprise and wondering. Normally cats don't talk."
"Normally cats don't mysteriously find themselves up here after someone just helped me out of a sticky situation," Tanya pointed out. "May I also assume that you're also not exactly telling me the whole truth."
"Oh? What do you mean?'' the cat said, sounding very amused at Tanya's question.
"Someone throwing smoke grenades has to have opposable thumbs to do that. You do not have opposable thumbs."
"I have a tail," said the cat, showing some prehensile ability with the tail though not really enough to have done the work.
Shaking Tanya's head she simply said, "Also don't see any pants pockets for you to be carrying a pocket of grenades so either you have another form and you are unwilling to show your true self or you had help and you are actually an agent of someone who actually threw their grenade."
The cat chuckled before smiling and saying, "You are quite good at this job. Much better than most soul reapers who've come across this area. Going to have to keep an eye on you."
"Congratulations, you can keep as many eyes as you want on me. Now are you going to answer any of my questions or are you going to act mysterious and try to imply that I've gone insane?"
"Oh I would never do that, the insane part I mean. I'm quite happy doing the mystery part; it adds to the allure of the situation."
"Right, okay, how about we ask a simple question then," Tanya said, folding her arms under her chest. "Why did you help me?"
"A friend of mine wants to talk to you again. I believe the kids call him Mr. Hat-and-Clogs but you probably know him best as Kisuke Urahara."
"Yes I'm aware of him, in fact I know that he wants to talk to me about something."
"Oh he's made something for you? Had to have a long conversation with him but you'll find it quite useful when you get over to his shop as it will help you get around the city a little bit better."
Tanya raised an eyebrow and agreed before asking, "And you were simply here because he sent you out here to find me?" She was already implying that she didn't believe that and the amused look on the cat pretty much confirmed that before she even said anything else.
"Why no, no I was following you because I like to keep an eye on soul reapers who happen to come into this area."
"Uh huh… why do I get the feeling you are spying on me for your master like some sort of evil Hollywood movie villain?"
The cat laughed again and said, "Very amusing that is, but Kisuke is not my master."
'She didn't deny it,' came the voice of Tasha quietly, resulting in a twinge of Tanya's eyebrow as she thought about this.
'Finally,' she thought and spoke, "Well I assume since you were able to find me easily enough you have a general good idea of how to walk about this area and you could easily lead me to the shop from where we are so do you mind helping a girl out?"
The cat simply smiled and said sure and started walking along the lip of the building heading in a generally eastward direction. Sighing, Tanya cracked her neck before following behind the cat.
She wondered what she should even say in this moment before finally settling on, "So did you get a job as an agent in the World of the Living? I thought the Soul Society was against letting anyone stay here too long."
"Oh you can be amazed by what they allow to happen when you ask them in the right way."
"The right way? That's rather cryptic," Tanya pointed out.
"Yes, exactly, cryptic. How else do you think we pulled this off?"
"Ah huh… so in other words I should probably drop any mention of you and Urahara from my report because you've actually not asked and are breaking the law in some way."
"Little old me, break a law? No no, I wouldn't ever break a law, but bending? That ain't such a high ask, is it? Though I would say it would probably be for the best if you did as you suggested. You never know when you might stir up a nest of hornets that are looking for a new target."
Tanya nodded as Tasha mentally said, 'Yeah by the sounds of this this is something we don't need to be involved in. We already have enough of a mess on our hands with the whole Rukia situation and we don't need to be involved in whatever Hat-and-Clogs is either that the cat said he's involved in.'
'Keep our nose out of other people's messes,' Tanya muttered in agreement as the cat led them towards the obvious cover of a candy shop.
Writers note: huh 3 months about time i edited, which neat because my supports have been voting for bleach to point i have chapter 38 witten… so if you want see this come out faster hit me up in PM or joind the discord i created for fans /NKn7Kv2be6. There area for people to vueltear to help edit projects so just leave note and will work from there!
As for this chapter, well look like tanya made fuck up, and look like some traning progresses, though i wonder who the wolf is… probamly leman russ. Any way also look like tanya will have meating next time. I wonder how that will go.
Edited by: Coltsguy, Guardsman Pius, aske Helsted, ScarletFox, TheBattle Sage
Community edited by: BeanBag. TimEd. Inertial.
Community editable doc (Chapter) No story suggestions in the community editing document, Keep all story suggestions and comments in the thread
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Reviews:
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