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"Rukia" – Normal Speech

'Ichigo' – Thoughts

*Kaien-dono* - Zanpakutō speech/thoughts

"Bankai!" – Spiritual Technique

Chapter 20: Farewell, Departure and Arrival

Same Time

Newly Made Visored Hideout, Karakura Town

"So yer tellin' me that this slip of a girl managed ta survive over three years of bein' Aizen's guinea pig, with her sanity intact and not under the power of Kyōka Suigetsu? And ya actually believe that, Kisuke?"

The speaker was a man with neck-length blond hair and an almost permanent smirk. Hirako Shinji, the former Captain of Squad 5 of the Goteijūsantai and current unofficial leader of the Visored, currently wore a sceptical expression on his face as he regarded his fellow exile.

"Shinji-san, I've kept her within arm's reach, both literal and metaphorical, for over a decade. Do you honestly think that I wouldn't have performed every test I could imagine, and then some, to be sure that that was the case?" the owner of the Urahara Shōten replied, before letting out a sigh. "Paranoia is a necessity when you're dealing with a schemer like Aizen, but being incapable of trusting the people who are supposed to be your allies will only breed problems. Faith and trust are a necessity for any form of alliance, and Yoruichi has pointed out that my inability to do so with Kirika-chan has already started to bite me in the ass. That young lady no longer trusts me or my intentions. It is extremely likely that she will go rogue from my oversight when she makes it back from the Soul Society."

"And? She's a lieutenant at best from what you've said." Hirako said, not entirely without a point. Urahara, and quite a few of the Visored, were Captain-class Soul Reapers. Defeating a Lieutenant-level Soul Reaper wasn't exactly hard, even if you upped the difficulty to capturing the Lieutenant in question without overly harming them.

"She manifested her zanpakutō's spirit." Urahara said flatly. "You know what that means."

"Whaa-?" the leader of the Visored gaped at his friend for a moment in disbelief. "B-but she's only had her Shikai for a couplea months at most! She should be years off of getting her Bankai!"

"She's spent a decade in the current Jūreichi (Important Spiritual Ground), in close proximity to three spiritually powerful humans while working and training in close proximity with three Captain-Class Soul Reapers. All of this is in addition to whatever after-effects the numerous unethical and unknown experimental procedures Aizen performed on her have had on her soul's ability to grow and adapt. And let's not forget that she has just spent five and more days in the Seireitei, the most spiritually rich area of the Soul Society, while locked in combat with and against some of the most powerful spiritual beings in existence." Urahara stated flatly. "To be quite honest, I'd be more surprised if her development was anything close to normal."

Pulling a face at Urahara, Shinji sat back on his chair. "OK, so if th' little missy achieves Bankai...what then?"

"She'll do her damnedest to stop you and the other Visored from going anywhere near Ichigo." the scientist Soul Reaper replied instantly. "She...well, to say that she hates you Visored would be a bit of an overstatement, but not by much. She holds you all in contempt, certainly. She is dismissive of your abilities and would rather die than let you train her brother once his Inner Hollow starts acting up...or hers for that matter."

"Say what?! She has one too?!" Shinji was really getting tired of Urahara taking him off-guard, dammit!

"She had the Reiryoku of the Artificial Hollow Metastacia implanted within her at the age of five. I think we can safely assume that she has one." the usually comedic ex-Captain said grimly. "The zanpakutō that she inherited from Shiba Kaien seems to be acting as a stopper, keeping it and Kirika-chan's true zanpakutō dormant for the moment, but it's only a matter of time before Nejibana weakens enough that the Inner Hollow will stir into wakefulness."

"Wait, wait, wait...she's got that Kaien kid's zanpakutō? And you never told me before now?" Hirako demanded.

"In case it has escaped your notice Shinji-san, you and your group have been moving all over Japan to keep any chance of the Goteijūsantai from tracking you down. With Hachi helping you out with his Kidō prowess, it is the next best thing to impossible to get in contact with you because you like it that way." Urahara pointed out evenly. "And, even if I had managed to get ahold of you, you would have ignored anything about a 'slip of a girl' because that's what she was before now. The only reason you've taken an interest is because she and her brother are going to be Visored in the future."

"Oi!" the blond man protested.

"How are the others likely to take this news?" Urahara continued, ignoring his compatriot's pro-forma protest.

"Hiyori'll blow her top for certain if she thinks this Kirika girl will look down on her." Shinji scowled, not actually happy some New Soul thought she had the right to look down on him either. "Mashiro won't give a damn, ditto for Hachi. Lisa...she's a toss-up. The others...yeah, this ain't gonna go down well."

"Challenging her would be a bad idea, Shinji-san." Urahara warned him. "She's been trained by Yoruichi and Tessai for the last ten years and is at least Keigun-level with her Hakuda and Hohō, and her skills with Kidō and Zanjutsu at least match those. She has a fully rounded education in the Zankensoki and can be quite imaginative when she uses them. If Sarugaki-kun decides to pull her usual 'hit first and ask questions never' routine, she's going to be in for a very rude and painful surprise."

"Hiyori has access to her Hollow mask and is an experienced combatant." the Visored leader countered, slightly irked that one of his group was being disparaged.

"Kirika-chan left a large scar on Aizen." Urahara's words caused a bucket of ice to cascade down Shinji's spine.

"What?!"

"According to the report Yoruichi sent me earlier on, she released Nejibana and loaded as much Reiryoku into her as possible before slashing Aizen across the chest." Urahara informed his friend, somewhat amused to see a gobsmacked expression on the usually unflappable man's face. "Even Retsu couldn't heal that scar away if she had the inclination. I doubt even the one who taught her the healing skills she knows from the Royal Guard would be able to do that."

Hirako Shinji had to take a moment to absorb the fact that a New Soul, a being only fifteen years old, had managed to do more damage to their mutual torturer and tormentor than Visored and Soul Reapers who collectively had thousands of years of experience and power on her. It left him feeling quite...inadequate.

"That's one scary girl you've trained, Kisuke." the man said after a stunned moment.

"While Kirika-chan may not have Ichigo-kun's raw power, her technical skills far exceed his. Her combat training has been more rounded and her control is far greater. Her potential might not match his, but it's nothing to sneeze at either and she's got a work ethic to match." Urahara replied with a grin as he pulled a plain green fan out and fanned himself with it. "She was actually able to knock my hat off, and that was with me using Benihime's Shikai. Granted, I was pulling my punches, as much as one can with such a bloodthirsty blade, but the point still stands."

"Scary girl." Shinji repeated. "It's a good thing you came by while the others were out grabbin' things from the old hideout to move over here. It woulda been one hell of a mess otherwise."

"I know, why do you think I waited until now to show up?" Urahara shot back with a snort of amusement. "Look, the upshot is that Kirika-chan is more than aware that you'll have an interest in trying to recruit Ichigo...and she's going to be on high alert after her recent battle with Aizen. If she sees or feels any hint of a Hollow/Soul Reaper hybrid around here, she's going to attack first and beat whoever it is into the ground. The special Gigai that I've given you all will keep your Reiryoku concealed so long as you don't use too much of it, and Hachi's Kekkai Kidō is pretty much untraceable so long as he wants it to be, but she's smart and will be on a hair-trigger, so just...tread carefully."

"Given what ya've said she can do, I'd be an idiot not to take ya seriously, Kisuke." the former Captain muttered. "She...Kirika-han? She's worried about Aizen, ain't she?"

"You've got it. She's terrified that Aizen's going to grab her to resume experimenting on her." Urahara said grimly, before a smirk appeared on his lips. "Yoruichi's going into mother-bear mode over it. She's been growing increasingly fond of Kirika-chan since she turned up ten years ago. Even took her as a formal apprentice, to boot. She's pretty much ordered me to get started on some anti-Hierro gauntlets and greaves for taking on Arrancar without resorting to using Shunkō (Flash Cry)."

"She's really up in arms then." Shinji couldn't work out whether to be amused or taken aback at the former Captain of Squad Two becoming so fond of someone in the passing of a mere decade. Then again, given that Yoruichi had basically helped to raise the girl, so maybe it wasn't as big a surprise as it might otherwise be.

"Things're gonna get busy pretty soon, ain't they Kisuke?" he asked sombrely.

"Unfortunately so." Kisuke sighed. "But we must do what we must do, Shinji-san. Aizen has to be stopped."

"Damn right." Shinji agreed.

The Next Day

Squad 11 Barracks, Seireitei, Soul Society

Kirika paused as she entered the barracks and raised her eyes at the sight of her brother having a sword fight with Madarame Ikkaku, albeit with bokken. Ichigo's skill with a sword was actually quite good, but he had become far too used to wielding that oversized butcher knife of a zanpakutō of his, so his swings were a little too wide and sometimes too short, as if he expected to be wielding a longer blade.

It was to be expected, truth be told. A Soul Reaper only wielded their zanpakutō and knew the basics on how to wield them in their Shikai and Bankai forms, regardless of whether they were a sword, a scythe, a gun (not that any Soul Reapers had guns as zanpakutō) or even something bizarre like a hoe or a tambourine. Unfortunately for Ichigo, who had never wielded a regular-sized sword, that left him somewhat lacking in the sword skill department when wielding a regular sword, high school-level kendo lessons to one side.

That isn't to say he was bad though. His zanpakutō, Zangetsu, had a sword-shaped Shikai, so he knew well enough how to use one. Plus, he had gone through several days of brutal sword-to-sword combat training under Urahara. No one could walk away from that sort of hellish training without knowing how to fight.

'He's just far too damned used to using a massive blade and it's throwing him off enough to bring down his skill level.' the redheaded girl thought in minor exasperation. 'Seriously, why he focused so much on karate instead of kendo like I tried to get him to do is beyond me.'

"You would be Kirika, yes?" a voice asked her, and Kirika looked around to see Yumichika addressing her.

"That's me. Ayasegawa Yumichika, right?" she replied.

"I see that you have heard of me." the blue-haired man nodded. "Would you care for a spar? Those two have been at it for a while and I despair at the thought of ever getting a turn."

"Aniki doesn't like to admit it, but he's as much of a battle maniac as the rest of us. He just hides it better." the redhead chuckled. "Sure. Got a bokken?"

Yumichika tossed her one casually, which Kirika easily caught out of the air. It had a good balance and weight to it, not like those stupid shinai that modern kendo practitioners had to use.

After grabbing one for himself, Yumichika wasted no time in attacking with a quick diagonal slice, which Kirika dodged with ease. A swift thrust was her counterattack, and she followed it up by a three-cut combo that took the 5th Seat off guard, barely blocking them himself.

"Not bad...let's see how you like a serious attack." he said before moving in quickly to slicing at her with his bokken. The two carried on in this vein for a while, wooden swords meeting and clacking off of one another until Yumichika barely managed to disarm Kirika, his weapon hovering an inch from her throat.

"I concede." Kirika raised her hands with a smile. "A good fight, Ayasegawa-san."

"My thanks, and you are quite capable yourself. Your style...it is most unusual." Yumichika noted as he lowered his weapon. "I can detect a hodgepodge of differing styles mixed into one."

"I primarily use the Onmitsukidō Zanjutsu Style, the Intetsu Ryū (Shadow Iron Style), along with smatterings of a custom defensive style and a highly offence-oriented style used by the former Grand Chief of the Kidō Corps and former Squad 12 Captain respectively, along with the standard sword techniques of regular human kenjutsu." Kirika replied before nodding at the still fighting Ikkaku and Ichigo. "I understand that your friend also uses an unusual style involving the use of his sheath in addition to his zanpakutō."

"He does. It isn't exactly elegant." the older Soul Reaper confirmed.

"Hmm...it sounds like an ancient style of swordplay I've heard of in the World of the Living...the Saiki-Kanuma Ryū." the girl mused. "It was a style specifically designed for fighting indoors; I'm amazed that your friend Madarame there is able to fight so well with it outside."

"Hmm...interesting." Yumichika mused in return. "Well, Ikkaku has never had much of an issue with defeating an enemy with his style of Zanjutsu...aside from your brother and Captain Zaraki that is."

"Yeah...sounds like my brother." Kirika chuckled. "Anyway, I just came to check in on him. Let him know that we'll be returning to the World of the Living at the end of today. I'll be at the Shiba Home if he needs to know where I am."

As she left, she knew that Ichigo had been keeping an eye on her as she had fought Yumichika. Part of the reason she had tracked him down was to demonstrate her fighting skills to him, to show him that she could protect herself very well, thank you very much. He'd seen her fight before, but mostly as 'Kokken Asa', the mysterious masked Soul Reaper who was drastically different in personality and persona from Kurosaki Kirika.

Yes, he had to know intellectually that Kokken and Kirika were one and the same person, and thus could kick ass and take names quite easily, but she knew her brother pretty well; unless you hit him in the face with an obvious fact, he tended to cling to a preconceived notion without changing his mind about it. His overprotective urges towards her as a sibling, while flattering and something that she loved about him, had to be, if not shattered completely, then reduced in scope by a large percentage.

'I have to fight against Arrancar and Hollows, so I can't have Aniki rushing in to do something stupid at the wrong moment against an enemy I could easily fight alone.' She may have been an experimental guinea pig for Aizen, she may have been the subject of multiple experiments of such callous disregard to her health and well-being that they made Kurotsuchi Mayuri's tender mercies look better by comparison and she may well have almost died against Aizen a few days previously, but she was Kurosaki Kirika, dammit, and she was a strong, independent woman who did NOT need a knight in shining armour to come and save her bacon at every little enemy to pop up.

She had realized that she needed to make that point well known to Ichigo shortly after she had finished her little crying session the previous day. While it had been…therapeutic to get all that off her chest; she also knew that it was also going to drive her lovable moron of an elder brother into an overprotective fervour.

It was best to drive it through her point through his thick skull early on, repeatedly, so he didn't act like a moron later on.

Making her way through the Seireitei and out of the Hakutōmon (saying hello to Jidanbō as she went), Kirika then used the Shunpo to flash across the Junrinan District to where the home of the Shiba Clan currently was. Some of the memories that she'd inherited from Kaien told Kirika that he would have been irked by his sister's bad taste in architecture.

Even although she'd seen them before, Kirika couldn't help but deadpan at the two large arms that held the banner above the Shiba mansion. Seriously, what in the name of all things holy and unholy had Kūkaku been thinking when she'd designed this monstrosity?

"Halt!" a familiar pair of voices called out and Kirika sighed as the two family servants of the Shiba clan made their usual dramatic entrance before her. Koganehiko and Shiroganehiko were just as muscled and as obnoxiously loud as they had been last time.

"Look, I've been here before. I wore a black mask last time?" she interrupted their spiel impatiently. "I need to see Kūkaku and Kuchiki Rukia. Show the way please."

"OH!" Shiroganehiko exclaimed. "Are you by chance Kurosaki Kirika?!"

"Yup." the redhead sighed and waited for whatever the hell Koganehiko had to say. Really, these two were good household guards and tutors, but did they have to be so loud?

"In which case, follow us!" Koganehiko boomed. "You have been afforded Clan Rights by Kūkaku-sama!"

Both of Kirika's eyebrows shot up and she was speechless. Clan Rights basically allowed her to come and go from the Shiba mansion as she pleased! It was almost unheard of to adopt an outsider into an old and established Clan like the Shiba, even in its current disgraced status, so granting someone Clan Rights was usually the highest point an outsider could reach with a clan, which is why Byakuya's adoption of Rukia had caused such a stir in the Kuchiki Clan. Save for a few areas, she could basically go anywhere that was a Shiba Clan property. It was as close to being a Shiba as she could get without a formal adoption ceremony.

"Lead on then." she said faintly, shaking her shock off. She could talk this over with Kūkaku herself when she got to speak to her.

The journey through the Shiba Clan mansion was a lot more unsettling than before, mostly due to more of Kaien's memories having been unsealed. Kirika could almost see places where Kaien had scolded Ganju for being reckless or played with Kūkaku as a kid.

'There are only a few seals left on Kaien's memories...and Metastacia's too.' Kirika mused as she followed the two hulking guards. 'I am not looking forward to Metastacia's memories, I can only imagine how…disturbing those will be. That bastard was a sadistic one, make no mistake about it.'

She was jarred out of her memories as Koganehiko ushered her into a room looking out on a garden, where Kūkaku and Rukia were. The current head of the Shiba Clan was sitting and sipping some sake, while the adopted girl of the Kuchiki Clan was standing in the garden, looking a bit more relaxed than she had been since Kaien was alive.

"Yo, Kirika." Kūkaku waved lazily to her.

"Kūkaku. Rukia-san." Kirika nodded back politely. "I was wondering if you needed me to tell you anything further regarding Kaien before I head back to the World of the Living later on today."

"Already? Well, I suppose you kids do have lives back there." the one-armed woman mused. "It ain't about my brother, but why are you being so distant with Kuchiki here?"

That made both Rukia and Kirika blink. "The one she was familiar with was Kaien. I only hold his memories and his zanpakutō, I am not Kaien himself. I have no right to be familiar with her, especially since I played a part in manipulating her, my brother and my friends while she was disempowered." the redhead replied, casting her gaze down guiltily.

Kūkaku rolled her eyes. "Please, spare me the martyr routine. You still feel guilty because that bastard Aizen implanted my brother's Reiryoku inside of you, right?"

"It has given me memories of personal issues that Rukia-san confided to Kaien in confidence." Kirika noted tiredly, she really didn't want to get into this. "I am intimately familiar with her zanpakutō, her Zanjutsu style and Inner World because of those talks."

The wince from Kūkaku and flush from Rukia showed how well her point was taken. A point of politeness among Soul Reapers was generally not to discuss their Shikai or zanpakutō spirit without being close to one another. This applied even more so to one's Inner World; only someone you trusted fully could be permitted to know the form of half of your Soul. It gave someone an insight into the kind of person you really were, which could be potentially embarrassing for a person.

"Well, return the favour. Tell her about your Inner World. It's the usual thing to do in this situation, or so I remember Kaien telling me." the Shiba Clan Head said after a moment of thought.

"Kūkaku-dono!" Rukia exclaimed, bright red. "I couldn't!"

"Either you two start talking properly to one another and stop acting like blushing brides or I'll lock you both in a room until you start talking!" Kūkaku snapped, eyes narrowed.

"She'd do it too." Kirika sighed. "She takes the scolding Kaien gave her and Ganju as kids and pushes it to new limits. Even the royal tongue-lashing she got after her first attempt at making fireworks is mild by comparison."

"Hey, no spilling that kinda stuff!" the older woman yelped.

Snickering at her expression, Kirika led Rukia over to a corner of the room and began to tell her about her Inner World. She was hesitant at first, but grew more comfortable as Rukia listened and asked quiet pertinent and insightful questions. By the time Kirika bid the other two women farewell, she was feeling much better about things and had started to address Rukia without honorifics once more.

Later

Dangai Precipice World

Kirika was feeling a lot less sanguine about things right now!

"WHY are we still being chased by this thing!?" Orihime shouted as she and the rest of the former Ryoka legged it along the path back to the World of the Living, the giant train-like form of the Kōtotsu following behind them.

"Because Yoruichi-sensei was too busy kissing her girlfriend goodbye to grab a Hell Butterfly!" Kirika shouted. "Dammit, I knew I should have grabbed one!"

"The why didn't you?!" Ishida hissed out. He was once more being carried on Chad's back, along with a large satchel.

"Because she told me she'd handle it and like an idiot I forgot who I was dealing with!"

"Oi! I'm right here, you know!" Yoruichi huffed. She was back in her cat form and Kirika was carrying her clothing and zanpakutō again.

"Look, there's the way back to the World of the Living!" Ichigo shouted, pointing ahead, where a bright white light illuminated portal was visible.

After a minute or so of further running, the group ran out of the Dangai...and found themselves in the sky above Karakura Town. Dropping with a chorus of shrieks and yells, they were just as suddenly rescued by Urahara and Tessai on a flying carpet, of all things.

"Welcome back, Kurosaki-san and company!" the storekeeper greeted them cheerfully. "I take it that your time spent in the Soul Society was a fruitful one?"

"U-ra-ha-ra!" Kirika stood up, looming over the shopkeeper menacingly as she started to crack her knuckles threateningly. "What did I say I'd do if your machinations ended up hurting my brother...?!"

"Yipes!" the former Captain squeaked, diving off the carpet and disappearing into a Shunpo as he ran for his life.

"Get back here!" Kirika roared and, after dumping Yoruichi into Tessai's arms, she vanished in a burst of Shunpo of her own, leaving her brother, teachers and friends in her dust.

"...let us get you back to your body while Kirika-kun is busy chastising the manager, Kurosaki-kun." Tessai said neutrally, ignoring the blasts of fire and lightning springing up all over town as Kirika pursued Urahara with a surprising amount of success.

"I-Is Urahara-san going to be OK...?" Orihime asked in concern.

"Meh, Kisuke needs to learn that Kirika-chan has strict limits to what she can tolerate him doing." Yoruichi yawned unconcernedly. "She won't hurt him...too badly anyway."

"WHAT HAVE I SAID ABOUT TARGETING ME THERE?! I NEED THOSE, YOU VICIOUS LITTLE TOMBOY!"

"NOT BY THE TIME I'M THROUGH WITH YOU! GET BACK HERE AND TAKE YOUR BEATING LIKE A MAN!"

"...probably." the black werecat added, making the younger people present sweatdrop at her.

Same Time

Mansion, Yumisawa District, Karakura Town

"My, my, such a display." an elderly voice mused as its owner peered out of a window. The man speaking was an elderly-looking gentleman wearing a black suit, white shirt and a tasteful light-purple ascot. His grey hair was smoothed back in a rough manner, displaying a large forehead. He was seated on a stone-like seat and leaned on a jewel-tipped cane. "I wonder who is causing that?"

"Likely one of the Soul Reapers assigned to this town, Sawatari." a brown-haired man replied disdainfully. The man wore elegant clothing reminiscent of a gambler, black dress-trousers, a white shirt and a brown light vest. One hand stroked a golden pocket watch peeking out of a pocket in the vest, while the other rested on his chin, which had a neatly-trimmed goatee.

"Such things are irrelevant right now, Utagawa-san." a third man spoke up. This man was the picture of a Japanese salaryman, with a white shirt, red tie, white gloves on his hands and black trousers. He also wore a plain pair of round glasses and had his hair gelled back into a professional hairdo. "Kariya-san should be arriving any moment now. I wonder what has kept him?"

"I wonder as well, Ugaki." Sawatari grumbled. "Had he not been so damned insistent about it, I would not be here at present, and now he has the nerve to be late to a meeting he called for? Temerity can only be taken so far."

"I do apologise for that, Sawatari-san." a smooth voice interrupted any responses that the others could make. The door of the room was open and a white-haired man stood there. He wore brown trousers, a red and black shirt, orange tie and a navy and brown trench-coat. The left side of his chin bore a vertical scar.

"Kariya-san, I trust your outing was profitable?" Ugaki bowed to him.

"Yes, yes it was." the man smirked. "Koga is going to come later on...with five more of our brethren."

"That's...almost every remaining Bount in existence!" Sawatari exclaimed.

"Yes, sadly though, Sōma Yoshino refuses to join with us." Kariya said, apparently unaffected by this fact. "Still, we have 99% of the entire Bount Race assembled here now, or will do shortly. The time has come to reclaim what is ours and alleviate our suffering. For that, we need a...special person to aid us."

"A person? Who?" Utagawa asked with narrowed eyes.

"A boy called Ishida Uryū...the Last Quincy." Kariya said with a glint in his blue eyes.

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Next Chapter: Zeige Dich, Bount!

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