the first lesson
"Do you ever have that moment where you can just feel trouble looking over your shoulder?" Ichigo asked.
"Every time I hear the name Kurosaki." Yamamoto replied.
"Gee thanks, but I suppose it is kinda justified" he snarked.
"Do you intend on opening either of them within this rotation of the sun?" the sou-taicho asked flatly.
"Can't we just burn them, please?" Ichigo begged.
"Open the damn letters!" his companion ordered.
Sighing, Ichigo did as told, the first letters contents was a simple sentence:
Kurosaki, now that you have a little bit of reiatsu control under your belt (though I doubt its much) we should start working on your Quincy powers.
Ishida.
Ichigo put the letter down with a look of deep thought upon his face
"My plates pretty full at the moment but I will do the best I can." he said thinking back to his first lesson with Yamamoto.
"Kurosaki, I am sure I don't need to explain the soul society's stance on Quincy powers to you." Yamamoto started as they entered his office.
"Genocide if I remember correctly." the student answered.
"Quite, but what you must understand above anything else is that we are the military, not the government, we do not rule the soul society or make the decisions on policy or law."
"So what you're trying to say is it wasn't your fault?"
"Hardly, I would say it was almost entirely my fault but that is a conversation for another time. To be truthful I hope to never have to speak of it, let the stupid mistakes of a young man not burden this old one any more then they have to." Yamamoto answered with deep sadness in his voice.
'What the bloody hell happened?' Ichigo thought in bewilderment.
The old man's gaze focused back on the present as he continued, "It is often debated which form of government is best. Some believe in democracy, giving a voice to the masses, letting the majority rule, but this has flaws. It relies on the masses being able to understand a given situation and to be looking out for the best interests of the country, to put its well-being before their own.
"It also has benefits, it prevents a dictatorship, it allows for the change of government when people no longer agree with what the people in power are doing or if they believe they no longer have the good of the people and country in mind without violence."
"As you say, others believe in communism, a classless society where everyone is given the same share of duty and reward, where everything is owned and run by a trusted government, but what happens when this government has corruption within it, as is the case with all governments. Then you have a dictatorship, and what of motivation for people to work beyond what they normally do, to strive for greater heights?"
"But if the government was trustworthy, if people did things purely for the benefit of neighbour and state then it avoids a society where some have everything and others have nothing at all."
"Regardless of what you believe you're going to take the opposite side of me aren't you?" Yamamoto quipped.
"Yeah, something tells me you sit with your own thoughts too much and really need someone to take the other side." Ichigo replied with a smile.
"An interesting decision, but please bear with me on this. Soul society is a monarchy, the ones who rule are central chambers, the nobility, above them are the five great houses and reigning over all is the Reio, the king."
"A monarchy has as many flaws as every other form of government. If the king is corrupt everything falls apart, if the nobility want more power they may rebel or manipulate the king into a position of weakness and use him as a figurehead, as seems to be the case with soul society." Ichigo answered knowing they had reached the key point of both the conversation and his first lesson.
"Yes, so it would seem wouldn't it?" the elderly man said with a smile, "But as I said, the Reio does give the odd command, and when he does nothing can stop it. Some have been particularly detrimental to the wealth or standing of the nobility and they fought tooth and nail against it. Right up until they were threatened with treason by the
great clans and the full might of the military coming down on them. Now, I want you to let me finish this next bit before you respond." Yamamoto asked, continuing once he had Ichigo's acceptance "The difference between soul society and a regular monarchy is that the high nobility and the king are truly trustworthy, they are almost immune to corruption, and there in is its flaw. Each clan has its area of influence the Kuchiki are the officers of the military and rotate as instructors at the academy, this is best seen in its head, Kuchiki taicho, he has the calm calculation of a leader and the passion of a warrior. The Shihouin head the onmitsukido and are responsible for the security of the Seireitei and soul society as a whole, they hunt traitors and deserters as well as being the first response to hollow attacks. The Fujiwara are responsible for the management of the districts, they collect taxes, keep records of arrivals and departures as well as oversee trade and supply between the districts. the Ottori clan are the law makers, the politicians they judge all disputes, as they made the law they know how it was meant to be applied, there is no need to wonder how it was intended to be used and last is the Shiba, though they are not considered a great clan any more such a position can not be revoked by any other then the King. They are the peace keepers, they used to police the districts and manage the militia, regular citizens who worked in tandem with the shinigami, with the militia around we could deploy extra forces to the material realm. To be part of each of these clans requires more than just being born in one, it requires dedication to their cause. Every one of them are raised to uphold the honour and duty of their clan and if you do not you are removed from the main household and put in a family branch, but this has lead to a problem. The first thing each clan did was limit their power, the Ottori added an extra 34 members to the counsel. The Kuchiki may only have one taicho, who may never become soutaicho. The Fujiwara are forbidden from controlling every district. The Shihouin set up sub clans to regulate and watch their actions, the Fon clan is one such clan and the Shiba cannot choose their officers within the militia freely so they may not build a force to challenge the shinigami." Yamamoto finished.
His lecture was met with silence, for some time for some time both sat listening to the ticking of the clock lost in their own thoughts, before Ichigo broke it.
"So, assuming they are absolutely trustworthy, the first thing they did was cripple themselves in the biggest way possible, have I got that right?"
"You do."
"No wonders it's all falling apart."
"It's not as bad as it may look, the biggest issue you and I face is the lesser clans, the extra 34 members, the ones who would manipulate our intelligence agency to suit themselves and the corruption in the districts not overseen by the Fujiwara or policed by what is left of the Shiba forces."
"Is there much left?"
"No, none of the militia is left; in truth we haven't had them since shortly after the Quincy war. As for the police, most have degraded into gangs and such, though some still remember their original purpose."
"How did it get so bad? I get they can't chose who's in the force but weren't they being monitored?"
"Your clan tried, but they simply didn't have the resources or the expertise to root out the bad apples" Yamamoto sighed, "and it is the same all around, the Ottori devise a law and the lesser clans out vote them more often than not. One such time was the breakdown in talks between us and the Quincy all twelve of the Ottori at the time voted against the war but where shouted down, however they and I did manage to prevent quincy powers being outlawed."
"So that explains why Ishida hasn't had a kill team sent after him."
"Yes and your use hollow powers alongside the Vizard have softened their stance on them too. To the point that whilst it is still forbidden, none of you, or people who come after you as long as they did not actively seek to acquire them and pose no threat to the people around them, will not be killed as hollows."
"Well that's nice of them isn't it?" Ichigo snarked.
"Now that you have a basic understanding of the political situation let us return to your Quincy potential. I am all too aware of the help they provided use in protecting people from the hollow, though I doubt it was entirely intentional. At the height of their power the Quincy response time was better than anything we could hope to match, a hollow heading to the world of the living in that time went because they were stupid, desperate, or in search of a battle. With a Quincy's innate detection abilities surpassing a Shinigami's every hollow was met with a drawn bow. Though you never told us, we are aware that Yasatora, Ishida and yourself would rotate through a schedule so each of you had time for life as a human, and we were aware of each shift that young man took. The sensors the Seireitei uses to detect hollows are designed around mimicking a Quincy's senses, they are a second rate accomplishment at best. Skilful hollow can elude them and the time we take to detect a hollow is subpar. You cannot argue with this truth after working beside a Quincy for so long." Yamamoto explained.
"Well, it's definitely true Ishida's detection skills are off the charts. I remember when I first met him, he blew through a hollow before you guys had even sent the alert to Rukia's phone." Ichigo mused.
"And it goes further; have you heard of the technique called Ransotengai? I vividly remember the first time I saw it. The man I was fighting was something of a master at it; I cut his arm off and severed his spine. I believed the battle was over till he stood up, reconnected his arm to his body, sealing his veins with reishi and continued to fight using his body like a puppet. At the time I was horrified, just what sort of monster was I up against? Yet in hindsight it was truly an incredible feat. We have only acquired the medical skill to do such a thing in recent years through the dedicated research of Unohana and Kurotsuchi taichos, and we could never do it on the battlefield. Fukutaicho Hinamori and fomor fukutaicho Sarugaki would have died if the winter war had been fought but six months before, as it was it took everything our medical unit had to save them, and the Quincy managed greater then this two hundred years ago."
"For a group you guys managed to massacre you almost make it sound like they were more powerful."
"No, they were not, they were every inch our equal and at the end it was a massacre but before that it was a war, a bloody, slow, brutal war. In the end it was a relatively new invention at the time that set us on the road to victory. We had always used swords that cleansed hollows but then we invented something new, the zanpukto. Shikai gave five times the power to everyone who used it and changed our fighting styles. Fighting one shinigami officer was no longer similar to another. Combined with the invention of our first advanced medicines we could heal more severe wounds, we developed reiryoku pills, tablets that the lower powered shinigami could fill to be fed to exhausted ones of a higher power, by the end we simply had the ability to field stronger, more experienced troops at a faster rate than them. Even with that they fought on, coming up with the aforementioned Ransotengai, the seele schneider, because of the way they draw their power from the environment a Quincy can naturally fight longer then a Shinigami but they don't pack the same punch. With this weapon it turned any battle of endurance with them into a sure defeat, they could eventually use our power against us and we no longer had such a massive advantage in close quarters. When combined with their ginto tubes it got worse, they now had an answer to our kido"
"Bloody hell this sounds like a nightmare." Ichigo whispered.
The elderly man nodded in agreement before continuing, having started his story he seemed unable to stop "and it got worse, we both started mixing spiritual and material methods to produce even greater weapons. They developed the Sanrei glove, a tool that pushed the ones powerful enough to use it to be able to rival a Shinigamis shikai. We developed the bakkoto, weapons with fixed abilities designed to counter their specialist bows, which we could pass from one to another with the added benefit of extra power if you were willing to take the risk. At the wars height they added a function to the sanrei glove that allowed them a onetime access to unrivaled power, we lost three taicho in the first encounter with it, we learnt to run from that point on."
"The Letzt Stil."
"Yes but it came with a horrendous cost, the Quincy able to use the glove would lose their power and have have to go through an exceedingly dangerous process to regain them, most died. Again we responded, this time with the technique that would win us the war."
"Bankai."
"Yes, bankai, the surviving ten taicho descended on them and destroyed their strongest warriors, their leadership and any force they could find. Then we hit them with everything we had, even still we lost another three taicho to the lezt stil before the end." the old soldier finally finished. Once again both occupants of the room sat in silence.
"Do you know what scares me to this day? We both forgot what we were fighting for. The Shinigami for the sake of the dead, the Quincy for the sake the living and I cannot help but wonder where we would be today if it had not stopped." Yamamoto said, truly looking his age "Mankind has invented horrific weapons in the last one hundred years and both sides had access to spiritual tools as well, the things we could have brought into this world give me nightmares."
"Are you sure you want me to work on this? That box dad gave me may hold a way to bring them back, that's what mum and Ishida's dad were working on."
"I have nightmares about what could have happened, but I also have dreams. If we had been able to convince them to cleanse, if we had put aside our arrogance, what could we have accomplished together?"
Sensing the lesson was at an end Ichigo climbed to his feet and silently left the old man to his memories.
Returning from his thoughts Ichigo opened the second letter:
Ichigo, I know I shouldn't be handing this off to you. I'm sorry to put more on your plate but the duties of our clan can no longer be ignored, it should be me doing this but the only way to do that would be to move the family to Seireitei and rob your sisters of the normal life you and I have worked so hard to try and give them. So I have no choice, Ichigo I'm making you the head of the Shiba clan. I am sure by now you know what that means and I wish you the best fortune possible, it was a mess when I left I can only begin to imagine what it's like now. We can talk about it when you come back for a visit, I will help as much as I can.
Dad
"Well, shall I get you another plate boy?" Yamamoto commented.
Unlike the last letter Ichigo's eyes lit up "I've been thinking on this since our lesson and I think I've got an idea." he answered.
"Do tell."
"I've noticed that in some ways soul society is more advanced then the physical world and in other ways its behind. Tell me old man, have you heard of combined arms?" Ichigo said with a smile.
'And just maybe, I can give an old man his dream.'
A/N hey guys three things
1. I feel I can do better but don't know HOW. so im asking you all for some constructive criticism, to point out where I go wrong and where I get it right
struggling with how i'm going to work in ichigo's quincy powers so if any of you have ideas or know of a story that pulls it off let me know. im not really after a simple power boost (I have reasons for that), more something that will work in with the shinigami powers. the way I see it is this is what ichigo inherited from his mother and his mentor regrets destroying so he's not going to let it sit and rot by any means. I've got it covered after the twin blades are introduced but that's not for a bit so...help
3. I really need to thank my beta reader publicly but I cant remember their fanfiction account name. we communicate by email and im not willing to put that out without direct permission, so just so you all know im getting help and am very thankful for it