Writing characters interacting is hard. I tried it but it turned out to be more 'showing' than 'doing' again. A bit more progress. The next chapter or so will tell you where we are canon wise, so look forward to it.
--(Ichigo's-POV)--
I learned another thing about myself. Apparently I liked soft things. The three days I had before going back again were heavily spent brushing Yasaka's tails. It was relaxing. At one point, when I was doing just that, Kunou showed up and started pouting that she wanted the same. So my few days in Kyoto ware spent brushing 13 tails for nearly three hours daily. During the last day, I also went to drink with Kurodo and was once again talked into sparring with the guards. Besides that, most of my time was spent with Yasaka, just... cuddling. We hadn't exactly gone further than kissing and weren't in any hurry either. Both of us were clear on how much time we had and that we could go at this at our own pace.
Kunou was indeed very happy to see me and had somehow gotten herself a few holidays from her usual teachers. This time I took her out to do something I had just started enjoying, skydiving. She was not a human child so her definition of fun was different from them. It was a lot of stupid fun just flying around and also throwing her around in the sky. It sound scary but we had fun, so... She also talked me into fighting her in a mock battle and I took this chance to tell her that there were a lot of people out there that could harm her, without even lifting a finger. So I got a bit heavy-handed and released some of my spiritual pressure. Just enough to immobilise her but not nearly enough to harm her. Seeing this, Yasaka thought that it could be an effective form of training for Kunou.
It was in the instinct of many to be terrified of an overwhelming enemy. Many were so terrified that they couldn't even breathe let alone move. If Kunou was ever faced with such an opponent alone, Yasaka wanted her to at least be able to run away. Though we only had two days, so the training didn't go that far. During the last day, I also told Yasaka about the one thing I was keeping from her. The Hell Gate and his connection with Hell. I was surprised she hadn't asked me about the tattoo because I had seen her looking at it with interest.
"Yasaka, do you have a place where no one can see or hear what I'm going to say?" I asked her on the fourth day, hours before leaving. She looked at me for a moment before telling me to follow her. I was led through a strange place of fog, trees, valleys and streams and a few other related things.
"It's an illusion barrier, Ichigo. They are not the strongest but they are the most isolating. They are best at confusing your senses. Everyone sees a different place and what they see can tell the caster a bit about their opponent." She let me digest that before asking.
"What are you seeing?"
"A strange yet beautiful place filled with fog, trees, valleys, streams and a few other related things." I answered while looking around. I tried to touch a tree but my hand passed right through it.
"Hmm. The fog and valleys tell me that you are lost about something. The trees and streams tell me that you are in some way connected to the natural order. The lost one is easy and the connection to natural order? Maybe because you are a Shinigami that deals with death, the natural end?" Yasaka mused out loud.
I kept quiet and followed her. After a few minutes, we were standing in a large open expanse. It was completely silent. There was not a single sound besides our clothes rustling and Yasaka's breathing. I couldn't see the ends, but that could be another illusion.
"Where is this?" I asked, seeing the strangely peaceful environment before me.
"Fufufu, I can't tell you that Ichigo. It's not just my secret to tell." She answered me playfully.
"Now. What did you want to tell me?" She asked me seriously after a while.
"Better just show you." I said with a shrug.
I slowly started to loosen the dam around me and letting in more spiritual energy. After I got that tattoo, I was able to call the gate if I wanted to, not just wait for it to appear. Slowly, the silhouette of a gate started appearing behind me and soon a four meters tall, sinister looking gate with embedded skeletons was floating behind me. Yasaka looked at me with raised eyebrows.
She could feel something ancient about that gate. She could also tell that it was connected to one of the hellish dimensions. Was Ichigo a lord of a dimension? Was it a completely uninhabitable place, that's why he didn't want to tell her?
I looked at Yasaka and saw no fear. I already understood that only those that knew that they had committed a true evil would have fear towards any sort of retribution. Seeing only confusion on her face made me understand even more how special she was in this fucked up world.
"What is that, Ichigo?" She asked pointing towards the gate.
"It's a Hell Gate." I told her directly.
"A Hell Gate?" She asked with some confusion.
"Hmm? Yes. A gate connected to the Hell dimension." Ichigo answered, equally confused now. She looked at me for a few seconds, before a slightly mischievous smile appeared on her face.
"Which one?" Yasaka asked, acting innocent.
"Which one? What do you mean which one? There are more than one?" I said with a frown, now even more confused.
"Oh Ichigo. You really don't know do you?" She said, shaking her head with a smile.
"Now you're just playing with me. Tell me what I'm missing." I said narrowing my eyes at her.
"I really have to explain it right from the beginning." She said with exasperated sigh.
From there she told me about the two original dimensions, their constant expansion leading to collision. The creation of different worlds and dimensions because of the remnants of the collision. The birth of the creation gods, their escapades, a lot of death and birth, the two originals taking notice, enforcing their rules and creating a unified cycle and finally the current times.
"So basically, there are different types of hells and heavens? No one knows how many there actually are and each of the pantheon makes use of this 'system', to have their own heaven and hell?" I asked back, my eyes twitching constantly. Back home, I was worried about how Yhwach was going to kill all of creation, than I landed on this world and my worldview was shattered. Now I was being told that there were uncountable number of such worlds like my own out there. Ones with their own heaven and hell. My worldview was completely obliterated, blown to smithereens. But it also explained the existence of places like the Soul Society and Hueco Mundo. I sighed when I thought about how utterly insignificant my efforts were back in my own world, if all of creation was indeed near infinite.
"Yes, basically." She said back with a slight frown, most likely knowing where my thoughts were going.
"Ichigo, I won't say I understand the feeling of losing everything I've loved, because I don't, but I do remember how insignificant I felt when I first learned of all this. It felt like whatever I did or whatever happened to me, in the end, it wouldn't really matter. I'm not even a speck of dust in the grand scheme of things." She said shaking her head with a sigh.
"How did you get over it?" I asked back, somewhat forlornly.
"It's called an existential crisis Ichigo, everyone goes through it at least once. One way to get over it is to connect with those that matter to you. You fought because of the people that mattered to you right?" She asked pulling me in for a hug. I nodded.
"Not because the world forced you or anything like that but because of the people you loved, right?" She asked again.
"Right." I said, slowly regaining my wits.
"Then, would you consider that a wasted effort?" She asked me, almost chiding in her tone. I hugged her back, tightly.
"No. I fought for them because I loved them." I said back.
"Exactly! So stop being stupid. It doesn't suit you." She told me with a huff. I couldn't help but chuckle at her rebuke, because I knew myself.
"Now! Where were we?... Ah, yes, the Hell Gate. Tell me more about how you got it." She said, pulling away from the hug after a few minutes.
Now it was my turn to explain about the fiasco with the sinners, Yuzu being kidnapped to hell, the fucking asshole Kokuto, me being my stupid charging self, being beaten, the chains, the escape, again rushing back, being beaten again, the help from the Kushanada, me controlling the chains and our final escape. Then it came to the point where I was about to die in the dimensional gap, the sudden rush of energy that helped me survive, the gate appearing in my inner world and finally what happened with the lich.
"So, not only is it filled with sinners but also the guardians called the Kushanada that punish these sinners as well as having an ego of some sort?" Yasaka asked after I was finished. I nodded.
"Then it can't be one of the lower or the middle ones. They only have extreme conditions and no such thing as local guardians, let alone an ego, no matter how rudimentary. Hmm, I'll have to ask Amaterasu-sama about it. Maybe she knows something." She said with a frown.
I really thought that this hell situation would shock her or something but in the end, I was the who got shocked. As I was thinking about it, Yasaka suddenly came right up to me and said.
"Ichigo! Let's fight!" She said excitedly.
"What?" How the hell did all of that talk about this and that lead to her asking for a fight?
"We are in a highly secure and isolated place. If I raise the output of the barrier to the maximum, we will, rather, I will be able to fight with my full power and it should be enough to contain your powers as well, for some time that is. I want to see the distance between us." She said, already doing something to the barrier as a visible film started to form around them. The barrier was at least a few kilometres wide from what I could see. But before that.
"Why?" I asked the busy Yasaka.
"Because I want to!" She replied still just as excited. Before I could say anything else, she was already turning towards me.
"Done! Let's do it." She said as her body was covered by a bright expanding light.
"You really want to do this?" I asked again, holding back a grimace.
She had already transformed into a huge golden nine tailed fox. She was at least a dozen meters tall and nearly thirty meters long due to her tails.
"Yes Ichigo, we are doing this." Her voice reverberated around the clearing as blue fire started to materialize around her tails. I let her do her thing as I slowly broke the dam on my powers. The rush was just as exciting as when I first felt it. I decided to not hold back at all and released all of my spiritual pressure. I raised Zangetsu and powered a Getsuga, all the while Yasaka was trying to get up from being forced to the ground. I kept powering it until there was bright bluish spiritual energy covering Zangetsu. While looking at Yasaka trying her best to get up from the ground, I thought whether I should use my hollow mask or not. I decided that I should and did just that.
The pressure on Yasaka suddenly increased even further. Before she was being forced to the ground, now she was leaving a crater as her massive body was crushed to the ground. The bluish spiritual energy coalescing on Zangetsu turned a sinister black and red as a vicious looking mask appeared on my face, complete with sharp teeth and two long horns. It was the mask I had when I turned full hollow. The markings were still the same, two thick red lines going from the forehead, through the eyes and down to the chin. I noticed the tattoo on my right hand also glowing slightly.
Before I could think or do anything else, a weak voice reached my ears.
"...ichigo.." I snapped back into attention and quickly let the mask and the gathered spiritual energy on Zangetsu dissipate. Yasaka started taking in large gulps of air as her body was enveloped with light once again, though it was weaker this time. She turned back into her human form and laid in the crater, I also started to build the dams again.
"That's why I asked." I said getting closer to her while shaking my head.
"I-I knew you were strong but, for there to be such a large gap..." She looked down dejected.
"Even if I tapped into the leylines, I would barely have survived the attack that you had gathered on your sword." She said while pouting. As she had said before, personal power mattered a lot in this world but so did your connections to different powers. I could feel some of that mentality as I travelled. While she was clearly sad that she lost without even putting up a fight, I felt no resentment. In fact, she was already starting to smile.
"Fufufu. You are even stronger than Amaterasu-sama, the strongest in Japan. Ooh, I can't wait to brag!" I went ahead to pull her up and saw her giggling slightly while swaying on her feet.
"Carry me Ichigo! I'm tired." She seemed to be high, she had this stupid yet cute looking grin on her face. Her eyes were also barely open, like she was on some drugs.
I was amused by that reaction. Usually the other party would be resentful by such a complete defeat, but she seemed even happier. I could only shake my head at that. Deciding not to ask about it and just putting it as another strange logic in this strange world. When we went outside, I realised that it was very late. I had to leave before afternoon and it was already night. I just sighed and decided to leave tomorrow. For now though, what I did to Yasaka was still on my mind and making me feel a bit uncomfortable. I felt like I should at least apologize for that.
As we made our way back to the castle, many people saw us and our position. I was still carrying Yasaka because she had fainted just after leading us out of the barrier. All in all, a very shocking and eventful day.
--(Break)--
The next day I left early in the morning and made my way to Europe. Where was I even supposed to go? I had no idea. The old man had said that he would be the one to find me. Apparently, quite a few powers had established their bases around Europe. I was supposed to meet the leaders of these powers to either form alliances or friendships of my own, or if that was not possible, 'curb their arrogance' as old Gen had put it. Why I had to do such an annoying thing? To establish his presence and show that I was not a pushover.
The old man was sure that sooner or later I would be forced to show my powers to the world and he wanted an already established image of the person known as Ichigo Kurosaki in the world. It would be helpful later on as less people would do stupid shit and piss me off, so I agreed to it. I already had some idea of what happened to those with extreme power but no prior image or presence, they would be annoyed by different flies. I knew his own temper, I might accidentally kill someone if they started bugging me or Yasaka too much. As annoying as it was, it would still be less irritating than the idiots that would show up in the future.
Ugh, I could already imagine some sort of battle junkies, like Kenpachi or Ikkaku coming at me with their weapons drawn. I enjoyed a good fight and all but constant fighting was a pain in the ass. For now, where the hell was I supposed to go? I only knew some of the more famous places in Europe like the Eiffel Tower in Paris, or the Coliseum in Rome, Stonehenge somewhere in the UK, the leaning tower of Pisa, Big Ben in London and... that's it. That's all I knew about Europe. Rather, these places existed in my world, were they the same here as well? I decided to just land somewhere and start moving around.
The old man said that he would find me somehow, so I thought I would travel to the most conspicuous places I could. Other than that, this was a chance to move around in a completely different country. My English was passable at best, but I didn't need to talk to anyone. Just like that, I landed somewhere in between buildings and started to roam around. I had enough confidence in my new method of controlling my powers to move close to humans. Though I still waited for a few minutes to see if any of the humans moving around me would faint but thankfully no one did. An hour or so later, I realised that he was in London. How did I know without talking to anyone? I saw the London Eye and from there the Big Ben.
I was moving around the plaza when someone stopped me.
"Hey you!" A blond man shouted, pointing towards my direction.
At first I ignored the man. No one came to me even with my flashy hair and me still wearing a Yukata. No one had even looked at me and I knew exactly how I looked, it was clear that no one could see me. So, when the man shouted at me again, I ignored it once more. I kept ignoring him until the man came right at me and grabbed my shoulder, to which I replied by punching his face. He staggered backwards holding his nose. The people around him looked at him like he was performing an act, some even applauded. I had to hold back a snort at that. The man looked angry but said while gritting his teeth and glaring at me.
"Follow me." Saying that, he turned around and started walking away.
I shrugged my shoulders and followed. While I doubted this was someone old Gen had sent, he was too stupid for that, it should still be more interesting than just looking around aimlessly. I was led to an alleyway like in some cliche movie. The man looked at me and frowned. He opened his mouth but before any words could leave it, I interrupted.
"I don't speak English well." I said with a heavy accent. The man's frown got even deeper and he nodded, motioning me to follow his again. This time I was led to a quiet bar. It was bigger on the inside than it looked from the outside. The moment I entered, I could feel it. No one inside was normal and everyone could see me. The blond man took me to a shifty looking middle aged man with black and blond hair with a goatee. For some reason, looking at this one reminded me of Urahara. His voice, his posture and his expressions as he talked to the blond man were eerily similar to Urahara. Their talk finished and the middle aged man turned towards me with a smile and started speaking to me in Japanese.
"Hello, young man. My name is Azazel and my friend here just told me that you were strolling around blatantly using your powers with no precautions. Isn't that a bit too risky?"
I wonder if I introduced Azazel a bit too early? He is after all, one of the more important characters in DxD world, so I thought to create a working relationship between him and Ichigo before canon. Tell me if it was too sudden or out of place. As always, constructive criticism is appreciated.