Breath in, breath out, he could feel his reiyoku moving within him. Breathing in, then out, he had to find that point of shift. A Quincy's powers weren't simply drawing in and controlling reishi, they were the complete opposite of a Shinigami's. One generated power from the soul and flooded it through the body. Hakuda, kido, hoho, zanjutsu, all four shifted reiyoku into different parts of the body or blade before shaping, sharpening or releasing it, while a Quincy gathered reishi or the reiyoku of another and drew it into their soul to make it their own, before piping it through the body or shaping it as required. It required a high level of control and a clear sensory view of the world and its inhabitants around you. It required an empty core to store the reishi before converting it to useable power... His was currently overflowing with Shinigami reiyoku.
"How the fuck am I meant to pull this off?"
"Focus Kurosaki," Ishida snapped back, "this is the major point we have been working towards, and if I can do it so can you, the principle is the same regardless of power. You aren't trying to get rid of your reiyoku; you are trying to shift how it moves within you and how you store it. At the moment your reiyoku is too dense, too hard, you need to loosen it up, let it flow out of you and fill the world around you"
Ichigo blinked, and started venting his power as hard and fast as he could.
"No you stupid idiot that's reiatsu, stop it before you kill someone!" Uryu shouted before pelting him in the head.
"Did you just punch me in the face?" Ichigo asked in shock.
"Please don't annihilate every living thing in a fifteen kilometre radius."
"Eh?" looking around Ichigo noticed Shinigami scraping themselves up off the ground, some guy was losing his breakfast in the bushes and if the whiff on the breeze was accurate, someone had wet themselves. The glares sent his way would have killed a horse.
"Um...sorry everyone!"
"Honestly Kurosaki. You're a Shinigami, you should know the difference between reiyoku and reiatsu better than me. A pure blood Quincy puts out no reiatsu at all, no matter the intensity of an attack or spell, they have no reiyoku, now try again."
"I still don't get what I'm supposed to be aiming for, we're basically fumbling around in the dark."
His cousin sighed "If your own reiatsu wasn't blocking your senses and shifting my reiatsu around so much this would be far easier"
"So what exactly am I aiming for here, can you describe it to me?"
Uryu sat in thought for a time before he spoke "It's actually really hard to explain. Perhaps, try thinking about it like a web, but that doesn't really cover it all, maybe dust in the air? We can start with the first part. You're aiming to loosen up your reiyoku and let it flow out of you, ideally there should be no reiatsu generated at all, but as it flows out you keep it connected to you in a web with each particle forming a "node" that branches out to the other. At the same time, that's not all, there is a second step. Each reiyoku node is to make use of your naturally high sklaverei, what a Quincy calls their ability to draw in and manipulate reishi, to form "feelers" or "threads" off of them and gather the reishi around them as needed. This way, when you need to fight, or gather reishi for anything really, you draw in the nodes around you. This mixes malleable reishi with a bit of your dense reiyoku to form something superior to pure reishi without the reiyoku getting in the way. I designed it as a counterpoint to how Shinigami use reiyoku for as their main power source but draw in ambient reishi for added reserves, recuperation and the airwalk technique, as an added bonus you can use the web as a highly effective sensory tool by feeling any souls that move in its range."
Ichigo sighed in exasperation "You make it sound like some sort of demented sea spider looking for a meal, but I think I get it."
The young Shinigami closed his eyes as he focused, feeling how his reiyoku steadily leaked from his body. How that reiyoku in the air created reiatsu, the pressure all spirits could feel and learn to identify, and with training, be weaponized. He gathered that reiyoku back to himself and began creating the clusters and web his friend had described, his progress slowed when the resident Quincy, struck up a conversation.
"So how do you think you will go about combat as a Quincy? I really can't see you using a bow"
"Haven't really thought about it, I was half thinking of using Zangetsu like normal, that way I don't need to start learning a whole new type of combat, I'm already working on kido and formal zanjutsu, I can't really spare extra time when I'm also leading a major operation in Rukongai, can I? And can we not talk about this now? This kind of needs some concentration."
"If you can't manage the web and talk at the same time, you have no hope of using it in a battle, split your focus Kurosaki, hard as that may be for someone as feeble minded as yourself. I would suggest you figure out something a little different from Zangetsu. We Quincy aren't as hardy as the Shinigami; hollow reiatsu is somewhat poisonous to us. We fight from a distance for a reason you know, it's not just for that awesome sniper feel."
"You love that sniper feel, don't you?"
"Yes, yes I do."
"But, why am I even doing this then? You could have told me it had such a huge drawback. I know it's my mother's heritage and all that other stuff, but I'm sure she would rather I stayed alive over being a Quincy. Hang on, how does that work? I've seen you absorb hollow reiatsu"
"Once again your ignorance knows no bounds; you're doing good on that web by the way, you've almost covered the town. Hollow reiatsu is poisonous to all life, not just Quincy. If you can remember when Inoue's brother saved her from a car as a hollow, it left a rather nasty bruise on her"
"You're stalking her now? I know we try to keep her safe but come on man, settle down."
"Will you shut up and let me finish! Besides that was almost two years ago, and I was trailing you." the white clad man hissed back
"...I'm real sorry man, but I don't swing that way" the laughter in Ichigo's voice was palpable
"I will nail you to the ground Kurosaki!" his friend snarled
"Bit harsh for a rejection don't you think?"
"Shut up, I'm the last Quincy that isn't a stupid celibate. As far as anyone knows our powers are only passed on by blood, I couldn't afford that even if I was. Whether we like it or not we both need to be fathers at some point in our lives, it goes double for you Mr 'great noble clan leader'"
The borderline new Quincy shifted in his seat 'this conversation is getting a little too serious for me, I was making a joke"
"A joke that shows your ignorance on the subject. That part of our lives is already decided, not by choice but by necessity. Be grateful the pure bloods aren't around anymore; we at least get to pick who we marry. Now get back to work, your web almost collapsed"
Ichigo worked silently, patching up his web, but the question ate at him
"Man, I gotta know..."
"No Kurosaki I'm not"
"That's not what I meant, why the harsh reaction? It was just a joke"
Ishida sighed, clearly unhappy with the question but answered "it's something you're familiar with, I'm no more gay than you're a Yakuza boss"
"Yakuza boss? Haven't heard that one before."
"It's recent, most likely started by the comings and goings of Shinigami but your dealings with the sports clubs and others in the past year haven't helped. Think how I must look to an outsider, I'm an antisocial whose main hobbies are sewing, reading and studying. Most people over the years have been rather intimidated by my analytical skill and my ability to fight; I have also walked in with occasional injuries from a hollow even before meeting you."
"It doesn't matter if what they're calling you is an insult or not. It hurts because it's not true, if it was true you could still find a little pride in it. Damn I hate the rumour mill, it causes so much pain and you know what makes it worse? They don't even mean to do it most of the time; they just don't bother to check the facts. I mean, we're right there."
"You and I both know it's not worth the bother Kurosaki"
"Gotta ask though, sewing?"
"Orange hair, Kurosaki?"
"Ah"
"Yes, but as I was saying: Hollow reiatsu is poison, even Shinigami are affected, but they have reiatsu flowing out from within to push the poison out of their wounds and keep it from entering their bodies"
"So how do you absorb hollow reiatsu?"
"I scrub it clean with my own reiyoku, yet another advantage of being a gemischt over a pure blood echt"
"You keep bringing that up, I've seen it mentioned in mums stuff but what's it really all about?"
"You finally got around to that did you? In short, it was about keeping a Quincy line as clean of reiyoku as possible. A singularly stupid idea, the Shinigami adopted basic reishi manipulation long ago as a way to increase their battle power, why didn't anyone look at a similar idea for the Quincy? As far as I can figure out it was to avoid our current issue, reiyoku in the core whilst maximising the sklaverei but we already have a way around it. Of all the Quincy to come before us, we two can't be more intelligent and innovative than the whole lot of them combined. Whatever echt are meant to fight it's not hollow."
"Shinigami?"
"Maybe, but I can't see why. Shinigami aren't all good and they make their fair share of mistakes but it's literally like a group getting together and saying 'we're going to topple the only major power protecting us from the monsters', its completely incompatible with the recorded origins and ideals of our order. The Quincy/Shinigami war was a series of diplomatic collapses over the destruction of souls, it makes no sense. It's almost like we have two completely different records of our history."
"Ok, well you keep debating that and I'll keep going on this air plankton eating web thingy."
...
"Why are you here Shihouin Yoruichi?" Byakuya inquired as the former clan leader and the Onmitsukido head sat at the table
"Little Yushi doesn't feel he has the maturity to deal with the situation so he called big sis in to back him up. I'm sure I don't need to ask, but you all realize the seriousness of this situation don't you?"
"We do Shihouin-sama" spoke Fujiwara Yuta, current chief of his families council
"Really? Because it's destroyed the Seireitei's reputation throughout Rukongai and alienated potential allies."
"Let me expand on the situation from my clan's point of view," Byakuya continued, "we are effectively recruiting from only a third of our population base. In short, the Gotei thirteen is at one third of its potential strength. I also have reason to believe that it was a factor leading up to our war with the Quincy and the fall of the Shiba."
"I assure you we do understand the situation, our current investigation has also revealed that the affected populous has also largely been pushed to the outer districts, it's no wonder things have ended up like they have out there with this situation. Let us hope young lord Kurosaki can make a difference. Though I must ask, how did this come about under the gaze of the Kuchiki? The soul society cannot afford to segregate its citizens based on something as meaningless as skin colour or location of one's birth" Yuta continued
"Unknown, but while this has affected recruitment and the academy, it is not simply a Kuchiki matter. The disaffected people rebelled and the Shiba took the brunt of it, the disorder left in the wake of their fall has made it impossible for the Fujiwara to manage, grow and collect resources from the outer districts. This lack of resources was a key point in our conflict with the Quincy, perhaps their western origins also played into it. That indicates that the central chambers was also involved."
"We all seem to be missing two very important facts," Ryuta Ottori said, "firstly, the full extent of the situation was not discovered in any census or other data we have before the current investigation, that heavily implies a deliberate effort to hide it, a deliberate break in communications. Secondly, the one currently doing the heavy lifting to fix this is Kurosaki Ichigo whether he knows it or not."
"He is a Shiba, it is his duty" Byakuya remarked
"And what of our duty? We are all responsible for the wellbeing of his majesties kingdom and the souls within it. For centuries we have seen the symptoms of this disease but never sought out the underlying problem, we were all happy to say that solving it was beyond our ability; we sat and watched as one of the five great pillars of our society crumbled. We have all failed in our duty; we will not leave fixing this to a person who is still a child by the standards of the living, who by our standards should not even be allowed out of their parent's sight. I formally request that all of us mobilize everything we can to help lord Kurosaki."
Yoruichi gave a large Cheshire cat grin "I think that's one thing we can all agree on."
...
Ichigo focused, testing the limits of his new reishi web, stretching it out in different directions, finding his sensory reach. On a whim he pushed it to the limit trying to find his other friends in the soul society out in the south districts. It was a hell of a distance but if he strung it along like a thread he felt should be able to make it. Past the glow of his own forward forces, past the faint glow of the newly formed militia and policing squads, through the blazing light of the Seireitei and out the other side. He hit an unexpected darkness on the other side, faint lights wavering and flashing in the night. He pushed on, there they were he realized with a small smile, the fire coming off them was impressive for such an untrained group, enough for a trained Shinigami, then two of them all but winked out. Ichigos eyes shot open, something was very wrong in the south Rukongai, his nakama was in danger.
"Ishida, we gotta move!"
He didn't even notice that once again Zangetsu had changed to fit his shifting power.
...
The man was woken from the 'clack, clack, clack' of wood on stone "Was wondering when you would come and see me Hara-chan. I take it your here to see the original design?"
A/N first off a shout out to my beta joker169. I send this after six months of nothing and they don't even break a sweat. now the long wait...part of its been the release of some VERY good games over the time leading up to and after Christmas (this years actually really good for video gaming, after the dead year I had in 2015 its really nice) the other part is some major reworking of the future story to fit with changing ideas I've had and working out how they fit in with what I had foreshadowed. on that note, I whent back to try and reread my own story to check for ideas and things ive missed...and I was so utterly ashamed of the early chapters it was demoralizing, but that wont stop me forever and I will just take it as a learning experience, so if ive got a few things wrong like someone being in east rukon instead of south/west let me know so I can fix it.
only other thing is a question. ive got two major ideas for ichigos quincy weapon but what do you all feel would fit him best? first idea is a gun, I got the idea from kubo's very early idea for bleach and I can see a way to make it work. second is a sword, its what he already knows amd it fits with the new shikai a bit better. let me know with a comment or if you don't want to add to the review count send me a PM