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"Rukia" – Normal Speech
'Ichigo' – Thoughts
*Kaien-dono* - Zanpakutō speech/thoughts
"Bankai!" – Spiritual Technique
Chapter 24: Mod Soul Ririn's Wrath
Later
Underground Space, Urahara Shōten, Karakura Town
"This looks just like that hidden training ground back in the Seireitei." Renji remarked as he landed lightly on the red rock that made up the secret underground area beneath the Exiled Captains' base of operations. The Mod Souls had disappeared away to somewhere via Noba's spatial movement ability.
"Yup. Kisuke copied it pretty well. He couldn't mimic the hot springs though; the amount of Reishi in the World of the Living is way too low for 'em." Yoruichi said with her usual smirk. "You lot wait here while I slip into something more...comfortable."
As she walked off, Renji and Rukia looked at Ichigo and Kirika in confusion. The Kurosaki siblings just facepalmed.
"She's going to do that again, isn't she?" Ichigo asked dully.
"Probably, Aniki." Kirika sighed back. "Better not spoil her fun; I don't wanna be forced into another round of Shunpo Tag again."
"Shunpo Tag?" Renji parroted.
"Otherwise known as Yoruichi-sensei chasing you around using Shunpo; if you can't at least stay out of arm's reach for a long enough time, you get a solid whack to the back of the head." the redheaded Kurosaki replied dryly. "Chad's going to be put through that soon in order to improve his Paso del Viento to a level where it can actually hold its own against Soul Reaper-class enemies. These Bounts have gone unnoticed for centuries, there's no telling what kinds of abilities and techniques they've managed to develop in that time. That mantis-shaped Doll, for example, could move at least as fast a Fourth Seat's Shunpo. If it had managed to catch Chad on his own, he wouldn't have been able to keep up."
Chad was silent for a moment before nodding stoically. "I need to get faster. I was barely able to keep track of that Doll's movements, let alone keep up with them."
"We've focused too much on honing your main strengths: power and resilience. You've got both of those in spades, but now we need to cover your weaknesses as well." Kirika stated, looking unhappy and a bit ashamed. "The same goes for Orihime, we need to develop a movement technique for her altogether. We should have seen to that before we even went to rescue Rukia, but there simply wasn't enough time so we instead focused on improving your base abilities. Sorry, Orihime."
"Not your fault, Kirika-chan." the bubbly orangette reassured her. "Like you said, we just didn't have the time."
"Our biggest concern at the moment, however, is why the Bount targeted Uryū first." Yoruichi's masculine-sounding voice came from beneath them, making everyone look down to see Yoruichi in her cat form looking up at them. Renji's jaw dropped as Yoruichi waved at him with a paw.
'She does so love to startle people like that.' Kirika thought in amusement.
"I thought it was rather obvious. I was the only one out patrolling on my own, making me the most obvious target." Ishida responded bluntly.
"That might be true, but I did a little digging while I was in the Seireitei. Apparently, the Quincies and the Bount fought one another some time ago." Yoruichi informed him, much to the Last Quincy's shock. "The observation teams couldn't make heads or tails about why that was, only that it happened. It's possible that you were targeted due to your heritage as a Quincy."
"Right, so no more doing your stupid 'Lone Quincy' routine." Kirika stated simply before whacking Ishida on the arm, making it go numb.
"OW! What was that for!?" the bespectacled boy scowled as he tried to rub some feeling back into his abused limb. "You gave me a dead arm!"
"That was for pulling that damned 'lone wolf' crap in the first place." the redhead replied haughtily.
That had Ichigo chuckling. While the initial animosity had left the relationship between the two boys, a bit of schadenfreude regarding something happening to the other was always something they were happy to indulge in.
"Shut up, Kurosaki." the Quincy grumbled.
"Right. Before we do anything else, I want to hear everything we can about the enemies you lot faced already. Hopefully that'll give us at least some idea of what we can expect to face." the werecat continued, before nodding at Kirika. "Apprentice, you start us off."
"Hai, sensei." Kirika nodded obediently. "Aside from the two Dolls which initially attacked Ishida, I mainly engaged the green mantis-like Doll that its Bount referred to as 'Waineton', with Noba acting to support me. It was, as I said, capable of moving as fast as a Fourth Seat using Shunpo, and it possessed scythe-like fingers on its hands that were both incredibly durable and appeared impressively sharp. The Doll itself seemed to be quite aggressive, while its Bount partner stayed back and acted as a strategic commander. Together, I'd put them at a threat-level roughly equal to a high Fourth Seat member, perhaps even a Third Seat.
Yoruichi nodded along. "Very good. Ichigo, you're next."
Ichigo grunted, but answered simply. "Ishida focused on handling the two slime-things." the Deathberry stated with a scowl. "I fought the female Bount, didn't catch her name. I think her Doll thing took the form of her weapons. She had a thin sword-"
"A jian, a Chinese sword known as the Gentleman of Weapons." Kirika butted in.
"-and a fan, both of which were connected by a thin-looking chain." her brother continued, ignoring his sister's info-dump. "The fan could shoot out a hail of needles and she used some kinda fancy martial art to dance around and attack from weird angles. She kinda acted a lot like Kenpachi, but she was a hell of a lot weaker."
"A battle maniac in the Bounts, just lovely." the werecat muttered. "Ishida?"
"The initial pair of Dolls that I encountered took the form of bottle-caps lids and could control any nearby water by infusing Reiryoku into it." the Quincy answered evenly. "They appeared to be able to regenerate their exterior shells from almost nothing, so as long as there was a water source nearby they were essentially indestructible. I suspect that the destruction of the 'cores' would result in the total destruction of the Dolls themselves, but their liquid bodies made actually targeting them somewhat more difficult than I expected. In terms of attacking power, they were actually quite sup-optimal, as were their movement speeds. I would guess that they are naturally ambush fighters; the instant I became able to avoid their initial surprise attack, they lost most of their offensive power."
"And then there's that mysterious Soul Reaper who saved their bacon..." Yoruichi murmured. "We lack a lot of knowledge about our enemy on this occasion. Why attack Ishida? Why wait until that particular moment to reinforce their initial forces? And who helped them retreat? I do not like all of these unknowns."
"All we can do is prepare and train for what we can." Kirika said with a shrug. "That's what you keep telling me, sensei."
This earned her a look from the werecat. "Laugh it up, Kirika-chan. You'll be going through one-on-one sparring with either me, Kisuke or Tessai most days."
"I kinda figured." the oldest female Kurosaki groaned. "And the Bount aren't the only thing I have to worry about either...Tatsu-chan needs help too."
"Tatsuki does?" Ichigo looked sharply at her. "What's wrong with her?"
Looking around, Kirika saw she wasn't going to get out of this. So, she sighed and started explaining. "There's a reason why Captains and Lieutenants always have a Gentei Reīn placed on them before coming to the World of the Living, Aniki." she said in resignation. "The spiritual contamination can raise the natural levels of Reiryoku that people have. Chad, Orihime, even Ishida to a lesser extent...they were all made more spiritually powerful because they were in close proximity to us for a lot of the time. Tatsu-chan's spent more time with you and me, not to mention Yuzu and Karin, than anyone else here, so of course she was affected more."
"But Chad and Inoue are perfectly fine." the orange-haired boy argued.
"Because they developed their own unique powers to act as both a conduit and a method of control for the Reiryoku, Ichigo." Yoruichi informed him. "Ishida here had his Quincy Heritage to fall back on, while Kirika and you both naturally possessed Zanpakutō. All of those prevents the reason why the Goteijūsantai is so determined to restrict their powers in this world. Arisawa Tatsuki...isn't a Soul Reaper, she isn't a Quincy, and she hasn't developed any unique powers. This means that the Reiryoku is building up pressure inside of her. This leads to one of two outcomes...Soul Suicide or Hollowfication."
The stricken looks on Ichigo and Orihime's faces hurt to look at.
"Isn't there anything that can save Tatsuki-chan?!" Orihime asked desperately.
"Of course there is." Kirika nodded. "The Power Transference Rite."
"That's illegal! Do you want us to be imprisoned?!" Renji snapped.
"True, you, Rukia and Aniki can't carry out the Rite because the two of you graduated from the Shinōreijutsuin, and Anki carries the official Substitute Soul Reaper's Badge." the redheaded girl nodded, before spreading her arms with a slightly evil smirk on her face. "I, on the other hand, am neither a Substitute Soul Reaper, nor have I graduated from the Shinōreijutsuin. By the laws of the Soul Society, I am not a Soul Reaper, in spite of the fact that I carry the Zanpakutō and the memories of Shiba Kaien. Thus, I can carry out the Power Transference Rite without either the Central 46 or the Sōtaichō himself being able to punish me so long as they adhere to their own laws."
"That...can't be right..." Rukia blinked. "You have a Zanpakutō, you wear a Shihakushō...you use Kidō..."
"When making such laws as 'It is against the law for a Soul Reaper to give their spiritual power to Humans', one has to codify exactly who and what a Soul Reaper is, Rukia-chan." Urahara broke in, sauntering over with a smirk on his face. "A Soul Reaper, as defined in the very first law books set down when Yamamoto Shigekuni Genryūsai first founded the Goteijūsantai, is someone who has graduated from the Shinōreijutsuin and has formally enrolled in any branch or squad of the Goteijūsantai, the Kidō Corps, the Onmitsukidō or the Noble Bodyguard Corps. Anyone else is NOT a Soul Reaper by law. No law that legally binds a Soul Reaper does the same to Kirika. Of course, that also means that any law that might work in her favour is one that she cannot take advantage of."
"Better than letting Tatsu-chan either die or turn into a Hollow." Kirika scowled. "I'll be carrying out the Rite the day before she reaches a terminal amount of Reiryoku. Hopefully that'll help with the odds."
"I don't get it." Orihime admitted.
"By carrying out the Rite in a controlled setting, and while the recipient possesses a large, but not tremendous, amount or Reiryoku, the odds of Tatsuki surviving are slightly better." Yoruichi explained. "Ichigo survived the Rite because he had an overwhelmingly large amount of Reiryoku and naturally possessed his own Zanpakutō, so all Rukia-chan's power did was give it a template to base its form on. With Tatsuki, who naturally lacks a zanpakutō inside her Soul, there's a lot more risk involved and a lot more that can go wrong. So long as Kirika and Tatsuki have their purposes aligned though, I'm fairly confident that they'll both survive, especially considering Kisuke will be watching the procedure and helping out, right?"
"Hai, Hai." the blond ex-Captain replied, whipping out a paper fan and concealing the lower part of his face with it. "I will also be enhancing the Mod Souls to be more powerful. It's quite plain from everything that you've all described that I was somewhat mistaken in only emplacing a single skill in them as the original blueprint for Mod Souls dictated. A battle against powerful enemies requires more than that, and I should have thought of that."
Rukia frowned slightly. She had known of the existence of a single surviving Mod Soul, Kon, from her time in Karakura before her arrest, but the fact that three more had been created had still somewhat shocked her. The Central 46 had decreed that all of them were to be destroyed years and years ago, but, she supposed to herself, they hadn't actually forbidden the creation of further Mod Souls.
A loophole, but a useful one in this case.
Renji scowled slightly himself. He wasn't one who advocated breaking the law, not since he had left Inuzuri at least, but his faith in the law of the Soul Society had taken a serious hit when he'd discovered that Aizen had basically been manipulating the entirety of the Central 46 for the past century, at least. How many orders had been his doing? How many laws passed had been his brainchild? Could anything done by the Central 46 in the last hundred years be trusted?
Still, Project Spearhead, and its results, had been hundreds of years ago, so...?
'Ah whatever. The ethical reasons for the destruction of the damned things isn't relevant.' the redheaded man thought begrudgingly. 'That was back when Gigai were still a brand new and almost untested technology, so the plan was to use human corpses, which was what really crossed the ethical line. Now that we've advanced the Gigai to the point it can act as a stand-in, it doesn't actually make sense to destroy the Mod Souls.'
"Can you alter just Ririn, Noba and Kurōdo, or can you alter any Mod Soul?" Kirika asked the former Captain brusquely.
"A Mod Soul is a Mod Soul. Who made them is irrelevant." Urahara said with a pensive look at her. "And Kurōdo already possesses two abilities, shapeshifting and power mimicry, so all I'll be doing with him is raising his upper limits."
"Then give Kon an upgrade too. Something that matches his lower-leg enhancement." the female Kurosaki said bluntly. "A full-body enhancement, or even something like firing air projectiles when he kicks, would be better than what he has now."
"Do we have to give that perverted Mod Soul a power up?" Ichigo grumbled.
"He'll be better able to protect Yuzu and Karin." she reminded her brother. "Same as getting him a Gigai."
As she had used what she considered her trump card in conversations with her brother (i.e., playing on his protective instincts for his loved ones), Kirika smirked as he looked away with a manly pout.
"Now that we've settled all of that, I believe that we should decide on Kuchiki-san and Abarai-san's sleeping arrangements." Kisuke put in.
"Rukia's welcome in our house." Kirika put in firmly, Ichigo nodding along in agreement. "She stayed there before, and she is welcome to again if she wants to."
"Th-thank you." the petite ravenette blushed slightly at the rather open welcome.
"You saved my sisters." the redhead shrugged. "Even without Shiba Kaien's memories influencing me, that alone would have made you welcome in my opinion."
"As for Abarai-san, I believe we can work out an arrangement of work for boarding here at the Shōten." the ex-Captain offered.
"Sounds good." Renji nodded. "We'd better sit down at some point and go over what we all know about the Bount and everything."
"I still have to go on patrol for Hollows tonight." Rukia shook her head. "Karakura Town has more of the damned things popping up than anywhere else I've heard of. Even when people don't do something stupid like using Hollow Bait to draw more of them."
Ishida winced at the mild rebuke in her voice. "I'm not going to get away from that anytime soon, am I?"
"Considering you called a damned Menos Grande to the World of the Living, even if it was only a Gillian, no, you aren't." the petite Soul Reaper replied coolly.
"Aniki, go and patrol with Rukia. I'll get your body back home safe." Kirika nodded at him.
"Alright." Ichigo nodded, rolling his shoulders slightly. "Been a while since we've both been on Hollow patrol."
"And this time I'm not in a Gigai that saps my Reiryoku." Rukia glared at Kisuke as she spoke, making the blonde man wince. "So I'll be able to actually fight worth a damn this time. Let's go, Ichigo."
As the two left, and the rest of the group followed suit, Yoruichi leapt up and perched on Kirika's shoulders. "Matchmaking, are we?" she murmured into her apprentice's ear.
"If nothing else, it'll be enough to get Orihime to finally make a move." the redheaded girl replied sotto voce and nodded at the orangette, who was pouting slightly as she watched Ichigo leave. "Whichever one he chooses, I'll be happy with either of them as a sister-in-law."
"Looking ahead a bit, aren't you?" the werecat asked with a raised brow.
"Ichigo's the kind of stubborn idiot who, once he make a choice he won't let anything change it. Wolves would envy his loyalty." Kirika snorted as she went over to her brother's body and removed the Substitute Soul Reaper Badge from his hand before tossing it to a surprised Kisuke.
"Remove the damn monitoring and restriction portions of this damned thing." she hissed with a scowl. "I read up on these things after I got back from the Soul Society. I don't want to risk some sleeper agent or spy for Aizen managing to lock down my brother's Reiryoku at the worst possible moment."
"Hai, hai, I'll get right on that." Urahara conceded reluctantly. Even he could admit that the possibility of a sleeper agent or two wasn't exactly outside of the question when it came to Aizen's twisted plots.
"Right, well, I'm off home. See you all after school tomorrow." Kirika said, re-entering her Gigai, then throwing her brother's physical body over her shoulders like a sack of potatoes and heading out.
"You know, you should have done something about the Substitute Soul Reaper Badge right after we got back, Kisuke. Or did the beating she gave you manage to scramble that big brain of yours." Yoruichi admonished him.
"It was more panic after the number of shots that girl took at my family jewels!" her fellow exile shot back.
"She did warn you what she would do to you if her family got hurt as a result of your scheming." the werecat reminded him. "It won't be long before she becomes a Captain-class Soul Reaper, Kisuke. You're going to have to find some way to bury the hatchet with that girl or the next time she loses her patience with you, you'll be looking down the wrong end of Shiba Kaien's Bankai."
That made Urahara pause. Unlike Ichigo, who was at best indifferent towards (most of the time dismissive of) the traditional views of Shikai and Bankai held by the Soul Reapers, Kirika had known and respected them since Shiba Kaien's memories of them had been unlocked for her. She viewed the use of a Zanpakutō's Final Release as nothing more or less than a declaration to kill the opponent. If Yoruichi, who may as well have been Kirika's adoptive mother by this point, thought that her protégé could use Nejibana's Bankai against him once she acquired it...
"OK, so I may need to do some thinking on that..." he said with a sweatdrop.
"Better late than never, fool." Yoruichi snickered.
Same Time
Meeting Room, Bount Mansion, Yumisawa District, Karakura Town
"So four Bount, working in concert, were unable to defeat a Quincy, a couple of empowered humans and two unranked Soul Reapers?" Utagawa Ryō scoffed as he absently toyed with the sealed form of his Doll, his eyes falling onto the four Bount in question contemptuously.
"These weren't some normal rank-and-file Shikigami, Utagawa!" Yoshi snapped back with a glare. "The orange-haired one had the most ludicrous amount of Reiryoku I have ever encountered in my entire life, more than most of us all put together! And he was throwing it around like it was absolutely nothing; those blasts he was firing from that sword of his could have wiped any of us off the map if he got a clean hit!"
"The redhead wasn't anything to laugh about either." Cain put in, for once agreeing with battle maniac. "She was at least a Lieutenant-level in terms of raw Reiryoku; more than that, she was skilled in using it. Worse, she was at least as fast, if not even faster, than Waineton going all out."
"The Quincy was a lot better than we'd anticipated as well." Ban agreed. "He could use something similar to the Soul Reaper Shunpo technique and he was capable of predicting all of Guhl and Günther's attacks after our initial ambush failed."
"Yup, and the humans were really weird as well. One orange-haired girl could use this really weird ability to attack or create some weird shield, and the big one could punch out huge blasts of Reiryoku." Hō nodded along. "There were two others there as well, a blonde girl that used some kind of illusionary ability to block our view of the battlefield and another one that worked with the female Soul Reaper against Cain and Waineton."
"Yeah, that one was a redhead too, only a guy this time." Cain agreed with a grimace. "He could…warp space or teleport or something like that. He could open up these portals to absorb any attack fired at him and then send it right back. He also used it to warp himself and the Soul Reaper girl around in order to launch a surprise attack. That was the attack that managed to damage Waineton bad enough that he's still healing right now."
"I see..." Kariya frowned slightly in thought. "Ichinose, do you concur with them?"
"Hai, Kariya-sama." the renegade Soul Reaper said from his place by the door. "There was also another one who didn't act other than to bring the girl with the shielding technique to the battle, so we don't know anything about his powers at this point. It was a wise decision to effect an escape at that point, otherwise all four would likely be dead or captured by now."
"Oh?" Sawatari drawled sceptically. "And pray tell what makes you think that, Soul Reaper?"
"One of the three reinforcements to arrive was a Captain-class Soul Reaper." Ichinose replied, indifferent to the lack of respect from the elderly-appearing Bount. "Shihōin Yoruichi, formerly the Captain of Squad 2 and the former Commander of the Onmitsukidō. Known widely as the Flash Goddess for her nigh-unparalleled mastery of the Hohō aspect of Soul Reaper combat arts. She went into exile after defying the Central 46 a hundred years ago, but as she arrived with two more Soul Reapers, we can presume that there has been some form of reconciliation between them, or at least a cessation of hostilities."
The Bount exchanged looks at that. Ichinose rarely said anything good about the Goteijūsantai, or their Captains, so this was a rarity.
"This was never intended to be the main thrust of the plan, not yet." Kariya broke the silence with a reassuring tone to his voice. "Discovering information about the current skill-level of the Quincy and his companions was the primary objective, and we have succeeded for the most part in that. Discovering that they are a greater threat than we were anticipating, and seem to at least have some support from the Soul Reapers, is concerning, but merely means we will need to be more cautious in future. Going forward, we shall be focussing on acquiring Sōma Yoshino in order to carry out our plans. Ichinose, you shall be assigned to keep an eye on the Soul Reapers whenever search teams are out. Otherwise, you are to be the first line of defence against anyone who would attack the mansion."
"Hai." the Soul Reaper bowed.
"Ban, Hō, you two are to rest and recharge yourselves." the leader of the Bount continued. "I also want you both to plan out an attack on these humans that makes use of your preferred tactics."
The twins grinned evilly. "Got it." they chorused.
"Utagawa, you are to search for Sōma Yoshino. Keep a low profile, as the humans and Soul Reapers likely remember you from when you affected her release from their clutches." Kariya said coolly. "Koga, Cain, you two are to do the same but work together. The rest of us are on standby until our Quarry is located."
The white-haired man's smile turned sinister. "Then she'll regret rejecting the will of the rest of her race."
The Next Day, After School
Underground Training Room, Urahara Shōten
"What the...?" Renji muttered as his eyes looked at what was being called a 'spar' by the hugely muscled man called Tsukabishi Tessai.
Kirika, wielding Nejibana's Shikai, was currently fighting two-on-one against both Urahara Kisuke and Shihōin Yoruichi, both of them wielding their Shikai as well.
And his fellow redhead wasn't being pummelled into the ground.
Oh, the two former Captains had dialled themselves down to Kirika's level and were limiting themselves to only their Zanpakutō, but the skill that the girl seemed to possess with Nejibana was incredible, especially considering she'd only had access to her for only a few months.
Beside him, Rukia was just as stunned. She had seen the oldest Kurosaki daughter wield Nejibana against Aizen, but clearly her injuries and mental state had degraded Kirika's skill at that point. At this moment, it was almost like she was watching Shiba Kaien performing at his best before his final fight with the Hollow that killed him.
'The inherited memories from Kaien-dono must be augmenting her own learning abilities when it comes to wielding Nejibana...' the ravenette considered. 'That, plus the instinctive knowledge granted to the owner of a Zanpakutō on how to wield their Shikai, must be letting her adjust to it far faster than normal. Still, that can't account for such a rapid growth in ability...'
"She is training hard, Kuchiki-san." Tessai informed her. The heavily-muscled man was watching from her other side impassively. "Kirika-kun is a talented fighter, and has access to Kaien-shi's memories, but she is also one of the most stubbornly dedicated students I have ever encountered. Whether it is Kidō practice, zanjutsu practice or training against the manager and Yoruichi-dono, she is a truly tenacious and apt student that seeks to master and improve on everything she obtains. She will possibly be ready to attempt to create her own Kidō spells soon, once she finishes absorbing Kaien-shi's knowledge of the Demon Way."
"But even the Kidō Corps doesn't let people invent their own spells until they're fairly high-ranking, don't they?" Renji asked.
"That is to prevent them from causing damage to themselves and their surroundings due to a lack of experience." Tessai replied. "Kirika-kun has the memories of the Head of a Great Noble Family of the Seireitei and a Lieutenant in the Goteijūsantai, the genius prodigy Shiba Kaien. His unrivalled talent in all forms of the Zankensoki was what allowed him to catch the eye of Ukitake-taichō in the first place. Those memories, combined with her own natural talents, means that Kirika-kun is going to be more than ready for my tutelage."
"Does she really have a Kidō Affinity for fire?" Rukia asked, wincing as the redheaded girl was thrown through a boulder by Urahara.
"Yes, something that is fairly rare." the former Grand Chief of the Kidō Corps stated. "Few naturally develop any form of Affinity for particular type of Kidō spells, but they do occur. In all my years, I've only personally met three; my former Vice Chief in the Kidō Corps, Ushōda Hachigen, who had an affinity for Barrier spells, Kuchiki Byakuya, who has an affinity for Lightning, and Kirika-kun, who has a natural talent for Fire."
"Nii-sama has a Kidō Affinity?" the former Inuzuri brat asked in surprise.
Tessai nodded. "Yes, he's always had a particularly strong reaction to any form of Kidō that uses lightning, particularly the Byakurai spell. Combined with his own arduous training regiment and he managed to develop quite the dangerous combat style relying so heavily on one of the lowest-ranked attack spells." the large man, suddenly turned to face the fighting area again. "And it looks like it's over."
Indeed Kirika was on the ground, with Benihime and Manekineko at her throat. Even though the girl looked like she'd been run through a ringer, she was still clutching the haft of her Shikai with a dead man's grip.
"Dearie me, that took a lot more effort than when we first fought, Kirika-chan." Urahara said breezily as Benihime reverted back to the Shikomizue that he disguised her as.
"Yeah, like the difference between you using a thousandth and two-thousandths of your abilities." the redheaded girl scoffed in disgust at her performance. "You could have buried me in Kidō before I could even reach you and there wouldn't have been a damn thing I could have done about it."
"Not the point, Apprentice." Yoruichi reverted her gauntlet back to its sword form. "Even if we were deliberately lowering our Reiryoku and Reiatsu to your level, and restricting our skills to what you already know, you still held off two vastly more experienced fighters for over five minutes. That is something to be proud of."
"Especially since I was freely using both Kamisori and Nake on you without restricting their output." Urahara noted. "Your Shunpo and Utsusemi are both well over Keigun-level; it wouldn't surprise me if you could start giving Soi Fon a run for her money in the speed department soon."
Kirika looked away in embarrassment.
"Ah, Kuchiki-san and Abarai-san!" the former Captain greeted their small audience. "Where is Kurosaki-san?"
"Knowing Aniki, he's escorting Yuzu and Karin home from school before coming here. Last night's encounter has gotten his protective instinct running in overdrive again." Kirika said as she reverted Nejibana back to her Sealed Form and smoothly sheathed the Zanpakutō in one motion.
"That's correct." Rukia nodded, not surprised that Kirika had easily predicted her overprotective brother's actions. "He's planning on doing so until the Bount issue isn't a problem anymore."
"Yup, that's Aniki for you." the oldest Kurosaki daughter sighed. "Well, we might as well get started while Aniki's putting the fear of him into anyone who looks crosswise at our little sisters."
"Don't you mean the fear of god?" Renji asked, having finally picked his jaw up from the floor.
"Nope, fear of him. Aniki, even before he got his powers awakened, was the undisputed strongest normal person in all of Karakura." Kirika's grin had a slightly wicked edge to it. "Tatsu-chan was number two and could probably still lay a claim to it if you don't take spiritual abilities into account. Me and Chad were stuck arm-wrestling for the bronze medal. Between the four of us, any gang of street punks got creamed if they stirred up trouble around the school or the Kurosaki Clinic. The delinquents are kinda pissed at Aniki, Chad, Tatsu-chan and I, because although we're the strongest 'delinquents' in town, we aren't actually delinquents."
"Isn't Arisawa a karate champion?" Rukia mused.
"She came second in our age-group in the entire country." the redheaded girl said with pride in her friend. "I'm a kendo champion, but I'll have to give it up from here-on out. I'm too fast and strong with my strikes for regular humans now, so it's not even a decent workout anymore. I don't dare have my Gigai installed with strength or speed limiters to reduce me to the level of an ordinary human girl in case I have to fight in it, so that's that, I suppose."
After that, things got busy. Renji was taken away by Tessai to practice using his Bankai, while Yoruichi went up to wait for Orihime and Chad to arrive so she could start with their Hohō training. Urahara wandered off to do...something (Kirika really didn't want to, or care to, know), leaving her and Rukia to practice together.
As Kaien's memories told Kirika, Rukia was a Kidō expert, preferring to use the Demon Way spells rather than use Hakuda and Zanjutsu. Although she was an expert swordswoman as well, make no mistake about that, and her skill at Hohō was also pretty impressive.
Her weakest skill out of the Zankensoki by far was Hakuda. She was able to use the standard Hakuda forms perfectly fine, but she wasn't nearly as practised in them as she was with Hohō, Zanjutsu or Kidō, which was perfectly acceptable. Most Soul Reapers, even Seated Officers, only specialized in one, perhaps two, of the Zankensoki, so Rukia was actually ahead of the curve, especially considering she was only around about 150 years old.
Kirika herself had been forced to improve all four of the Zankensoki fairly evenly by the spartan-level training she had endured at the hands of the three ex-Captains, although her Zanjutsu remained her most prominent skill out of the four by a good margin.
Training with Rukia seemed to bring a lot of Kaien's better memories to the surface, which in turn brightened Kirika's own mood considerably. Experiencing the happier time of the man who had been, in some ways, almost as much of a father to her as Isshin was, made her training with the petite Shikigami all the more enjoyable. Kaien had honestly loved Rukia like a younger sister, and the influence of his memories and feelings had tended to make Kirika view the (far) older girl in a similar light.
It was one of the reasons she'd despised bullies, the memories of Kuchiki Byakuya's cold treatment toward Rukia and how it had affected the poor girl had made that point particularly sharp.
Once Ichigo and Ishida showed up and joined in, the time passed until Urahara came back out from the lab that he had somewhere on this floor...somewhere...swiftly followed by his three Mod Souls creations.
"Hello there everyone~" the man said with a smirk. "I thought you'd all like to see what I did with my three capable assistants before we actually set out on patrol. To start with the simplest, all I was capable of doing with Kurōdo was increase the upper limit of his Reiryoku and Reiatsu. Due to the nature of his existing abilities, anything else could risk overloading his Gigai."
"That much was more than enough, Urahara-dono." the grey-suited man stated. "My relative lack of Reiryoku was my main detriment in combat."
"Noba here, on the other hand, got the ability to directly harness dimensional energies to augment his physical attacks." Urahara gestured at the silent man, who raised his arms and they were instantly shrouded in purple energies. "He has yet to refine them into a solid Hakuda style, but even now, they can increase the strength of his blows by a not-inconsiderable margin."
"Does that ability draw from that dimensional space he has?" Kirika asked, a bit fascinated by this addition.
"Indeed it does." Urahara nodded approvingly at her. "It also has a reinforcing synergistic effect; the more he uses his new ability, the more powerful and precise his teleporting ability becomes and the larger his pocket dimension becomes, and vice versa."
"That's pretty damn good." Renji nodded in approval.
"You did some research on the Dangai for that, right?" Kirika guessed.
"Clever girl as always, my dear. You hit the nail on the head." the Shōten owner beamed at her. "Now Ririn has had the most...extensive...improvements. Considering she's the 'oldest' of the troop, I'll admit her initial abilities weren't my finest work. Going through them last night, I was able to find several flaws in her illusion generation ability and correct them, increasing their effectiveness several fold. Now her illusions can affect not only sight, but sound and smell as well. As for adding a new secondary ability, well I took inspiration from Kurōdo's ability to develop something I think will work quite well with her illusions. Ririn, would you care to demonstrate?"
"Sure thing!" the petite girl said, almost bouncing as she grinned slightly dementedly. "Metamorphose: Teen!"
In a flash of light, Ririn's body changed. No longer a pre-teen, but a teenaged girl around about Kirika's own age stood there. Her body-shape was also similar to Kirika's own, especially in the bust and hips department.
"Is this just an illusory transformation or is it an actual shifting of your body, Ririn-chan?" Kirika asked curiously as she eyed her assigned Mod Soul's new form.
"It's one-hundred-percent real!" the Mod Soul declared happily. "I can change my body into a bunch of different forms. Unlike Kurōdo's shapeshifting ability though, I can't change a lot of the little details, instead I've got transformations with various 'buffs.'. This is my 'teen disguise' form, but I've also got forms that enhance my physical strength, speed, durability, agility...it does consume a fair bit of Reiryoku to transform though."
"Which is why I also upped her reserves of Reiryoku by a considerable margin." Urahara put in. "Ririn was technically the weakest of the Mod Soul aside from Kon. Again, she was the first Mod Soul I created, and I've since realized that I'd been rather drastically underestimating the strength of the enemies yet to come."
"Grrr...!" Ririn growled, glaring at the man.
"Well, he's fixed you up, so let's put his idiocy aside for the moment." Kirika said soothingly, throwing an 'are you serious?!' look at Urahara, who at least had the self-awareness to look abashed. "Anyway, we should probably patrol tonight. I doubt the Bout are going to hunker down just because we managed to scare a few of them off last night and I don't them doing whatever they want in our hometown."
"I'm with you." Ichigo nodded before turning to Ishida. "And you have to partner up, Uryū. We don't want to have to come and save your ass again if you get jumped."
"Humph."
The burgeoning argument was broken up by Yoruichi blurring into place with Orihime cradled in her arms, the poor girl looking as if she'd just run a marathon. Chad appeared behind the werecat, looking winded, but still able to move under his own power.
"Dammit, sensei, did you have to go full spartan on them like you do with me?" Kirika groused as she flashed over to Orihime and used Kaidō on the clearly exhausted girl. "Even though she's good at karate, Orihime's got the smallest amount of Reiryoku out of the lot of us, so she can't recover nearly as fast as I do!"
"We can't let her be ground-bound, Kirika-chan." Yoruichi stated firmly. "I'll tell you, she has some gumption this one. She kept going on sheer willpower alone, although I had to wonder why she didn't just use the Shun-Shun Rikka to Reject her exhaustion."
"...that would work?" Orihime asked as she no longer felt like she'd been running a non-stop marathon all day.
"Worth a try, girlie." the werecat snorted, as Kirika helped Chad recover as well.
"Something to keep in mind for later." the werecat's apprentice added. "For now, let's divide duties and get out there, hm?"
With that, the conversation on how the team should be divided started. Kurōdo, Orihime and Rukia made up one team, while Chad, Noba and Renji made up the next group. Amusingly, Ichigo was paired with Uryū with Kirika and Yoruichi telling the two squabbling teens to 'grow up.' Kirika was teamed up with Ririn.
Ichigo was not happy about this arrangement.
"Aniki, Ririn and I can handle ourselves." Kirika sighed as she was disapprovingly glowered at by Ichigo in Overprotective Big Brother Mode. "And looking at me like I'm a combination of Chizuru and Keigo isn't gonna do much, y'know."
Yoruichi whacked Ichigo over the head lightly (for her). "My apprentice is more than able to look after herself, kid. She could easily beat you in a fight if your stupidly large amount of uncontrolled Reiryoku and Reiatsu didn't mean she'd injure herself by attacking you. Once she attains Bankai, we'll have you two fight to prove that. For the moment though, move out!"
"Let's go, Ririn-chan." Kirika slung one arm around the still-metamorphosed girl's shoulders in a hug. "We have Bount to find!"
"Got it!" Ririn grinned before the two blurred into motion with a Shunpo.
Later
Mashiba District, Karakura Town
"What's with your brother and his over-protectiveness, anyway?" Ririn huffed as the two girls stood on a roof while the Mod Soul strained her detection senses to try and locate a Bount. "He can get so high-handed and pushy about things!"
"Yeah, I can see why you'd see it like that." Kirika said with a short laugh. "Aniki does come across as a bit overly controlling at time, but he's...losing our mother at such a young age hurt him deeply, Ririn-chan. He's done his best to live up to the meaning of his name, 'First Guardian', ever since, especially when it comes to his family and friends. His sisters, myself included, are obviously a part of that. To him, the worst possible thing is to be powerless to help those he cares for."
"Oh..." the girl said quietly, her eyes wide. "So you going off alone with me...?"
"Disempowers him." the Kurosaki girl replied with a soft shake of her head. "It takes away his ability to protect me as a first line of defence, which is maddening for him. It has to happen though, for good or for ill. He can't protect me now that I have the power to fight. If he tries, I'll never get stronger."
"He really cares about you." the Mod Soul said wistfully.
"Hey, once he gets to know you, he'll be the same for you, Ririn-chan." Kirika assured her. "To Aniki, it doesn't matter if you're Human, Soul Reaper, Quincy or Mod Soul. If you're his friend, he'll have your back."
"Do you think so?" the blond girl asked uncertainly. "He doesn't really like us from the way he speaks..."
"That's mostly down to two things. Kon being Kon, and my brother being his usual introverted self. It takes him a while to warm up to people." the redhead said, putting a reassuring hand on the Mod Soul's shoulder. "Once he gets to know you as a person, rather than an abstract Mod Soul, he'll change his tune. Just give it time."
Ririn smiled shyly at Kirika before she stiffened up. "A Bount! A Bount's just used their powers! No, two of them!"
"Where? How close?!" Kirika asked sharply.
"There!" Ririn pointed towards the boundary between Mashiba and Kitakawase, just as an explosion roared into existence almost exactly where she pointed.
"Let's go!" Kirika drew her sword. "I think I know at least one of those Bount!"
Minutes Earlier
Mashiba/Kitakawase, Karakura Town
Sōma Yoshino cursed as she ran. Ever since she'd been discovered trying to devour the soul of a human woman by that Yoruichi woman, the rogue Bount hadn't dared to devour a living soul, forced to subsist on dead souls which, while allowing her to stay alive, did not increase her overall power whatsoever.
And now, when she had finally mustered the resolve to empower herself again, she had been discovered by one of Kariya's subordinates! What bad luck!
"Sōma-san, please cease running." the voice of Koga Gō said as he came around the corner ahead of her. Dressed in blue cargo trousers with a tan belt, an olive-green vest and a pair of headphones sitting on his neck, the heavily muscled Bount had his usual stoic expression on his face.
"Koga..." Yoshino growled. Of all of the Bount, Koga was the worst match-up for her. "Get out of my way! I will not be captured by you here!"
"Your Doll is powerful and you are strong, Sōma-san, but you cannot defeat Dalk and I." the man said flatly, his blue-grey eyes showing some sympathy.
"Don't you know what Kariya plans on doing?! He's going to lead our race into extinction!" the only fertile Bount snapped. "He's going to commit genocide!"
"And if he tries to do so, I shall stop him." Koga stated bluntly. "Until I see that he is indeed crossing the line, I shall stay the course."
"You...stubborn idiot!" Yoshino shouted and brought her hands up, tapping her bracelet with her metal finger ornament. "Zeige Dich, Goethe!"
Looking unsurprised by the female Bount's reaction, Koga held up a ball of dark metal akin to steel in his hand. "Zeige Dich, Dalk!"
Levitating from his hand, several spheres appearing out of the air and slamming into place on the initial orb, growing into limbs, and a head. In an instant, a very obviously female figure hovered in front of her master. Her face was a lighter colour of grey compared to the rest of her body, and had dark green eyes, with perpetually red eyebrows, set into it. The metal of her hair was in the shape of a puffy haircut.
"My my, this ought to be fun!" Dalk declared as Goethe glared at her. "A hot and passionate encounter! Oh-la-la, I'm looking forward to this!"
"As always, your Doll is disturbing." Sōma grimaced. It was such a bizarre pairing; Koga was, behind his gruff visage, a very kind and honourable man. Yes, in combat he was a ruthless pragmatist, but that was nothing compared to the vicious, sadistic and depraved creature that Dalk was.
"And as always, your Doll is a silent, obedient servant to your will." Koga returned evenly.
"Goethe! Blow them to pieces!" Yoshino ordered sharply. Even if Dalk was all-but-immune to fire, she wasn't immune to the air-pressure blast of an explosion. It was one reason why she and Goethe had developed explosive fireballs as an attack.
Letting out a small roar, the fiery Doll raised his arms and started blasting out with multiple fireball projectiles, all aimed, not at the metallic Doll, but in the area around her and her Master.
"Nice try~!" Dalk sang as she dissolved one of her arms into multiple small metal spheres and shot them towards each fireball with incredible accuracy; she pierced through each and every one at almost the same time, making them prematurely detonate with a massive roar and created a wall of fire between the two Bount and Dolls.
Likely a purposeful decision on Yoshino's part, Koga mused a moment later. The roar of the explosion had covered the sound of any attacks movement on Goethe's part, at least using the traditional five senses. Koga was a fairly powerful Bount and he could sense Sōma Yoshino's Reiatsu drawing farther away.
"So she cut and ran on us, huh?" he muttered.
"Aww, that's not fair!" Dalk whined as the spheres flew back and reformed into her missing arm. "What happened to my confession?!"
"If you want one, I must confess that this is quite interesting to watch, two Bount at each other's throats." a voice spoke up from above, making Koga and Dalk look up, to see a Soul Reaper with red hair and a drawn Zanpakutō, as well as a blonde teenaged girl wearing a pink dress and black cape standing on top of the buildings to their left and looking down at them. The redhead, the one who spoke, wore a pair of white bandoliers slung over her shoulders so that they overlapped in the middle like a cross.
"And you are?" he asked with a rumble.
"It's common courtesy to introduce yourself before asking the name of others, Bount." the blonde said as she crossed her arms.
The man shrugged slightly at that. "Koga Gō, of the Bount, then." he offered absently. "And my Doll, Dalk."
"Huh...wasn't really expecting an answer to that." the redhead remarked. "Your friend with the snake Doll was a rather rude fellow. I'm Kurosaki Kirika, and this is Ririn. We're here to stop whatever it is that you Bount are trying to do. I would guess this is going to end with a 'no', but can you please surrender?"
"Not on your life, girly!" Dalk whipped her arms out and suddenly extended them, shifting and shooting the appendages like a pair of liquid-metal whips...that passed through the pair like they weren't there.
"Illusions?!" the metallic Doll yelped.
"Sanzai suru, kemono no hone! Sentō, kōshō, kōtetsu no sharin. Ugokeba kaze, tomareba sora. Yari utsu neiro ga kyōjō ni michiru! (Sprinkled on the bones of the beast! Sharp tower, red crystal, steel ring. Move and become the wind, stop and become the calm. The sound of warring spears fills the empty castle!)" the redhead's voice spoke from behind them. "Hadō #63: Raikōhō! (Way of Destruction Number Sixty-Three: Fiery Lightning Blow!)"
Almost before he could think, Dalk had interposed herself between him and the incoming Kidō attack, sprouting metal spikes across her entire body just as the lightning Kidō struck her.
"Gaaaahhh!" Dalk shrieked as a full-on Reiryoku lightning bolt struck her, energy crackling off of her and running between the spikes. None of it struck Koga though.
"Dalk, are you alright?" he asked. He was somewhat impressed by the deceptive tactic used by the Soul Reaper girl and her companion; he prided himself on his pragmatic view of combat and there was very little, up to and including taking hostages, that he wouldn't do in order to win.
"Someone just decided to try and smite me, how do you think I am?" his lifelong partner hissed back.
"Indiscriminate attack, all around." he told her.
"Hehehehe...now you're talking my language!" his Doll said with a sadistic smile. Instantly, both of her arms bulged briefly before bursting into numerous spheres of condensed metal that quickly shot outward on completely random trajectories throughout the street, embedding into walls and road alike. A yelp made Koga nod to himself. One of those had come close.
Instincts honed over hundreds of years made Koga look up sharply to see the redheaded Soul Reaper appearing above him with her sword drawn back.
"Dalk!" he yelled.
"Take this!" the Doll shrieked, instantly recalling all of her spheres to aim right at Kirika's descending form, completely englobing her from almost all angles.
It was rare that someone could avoid metallic spheres the size of jawbreakers fired from three-hundred and sixty degrees around them, much less fired off with the same velocity as a rifle bullet, but Kirika just barely managed to pull off an Utsusemi to avoid them all, reappearing behind Koga, even as her copy was perforated on all sides by Dalk's attack before vanishing.
'That was too close...' Kirika thought with a bead of sweat falling down the side of her face. One of those balls had skimmed her side just as she used the extreme movement ability of the Hohō technique to move.
"Impressive. Not many can avoid Dalk's attacks once she launches them." the Bount said honestly as he turned slightly to look at her. "I wonder if your friend is as quick? Dalk!"
Eyes wide, Kirika saw, as if in slow motion, Ririn scrambling back from the encroaching Doll, who looked positively sadistic. The image of a raven-haired Soul Reaper imposed itself over Ririn's figure for a moment and Kirika moved.
Ririn was panicking. She had been confident about fighting, but this Doll had been forcing Kirika to pull out all the stops aside from her Shikai in order to hold her off. The newly upgraded Mod Soul lacked combat experience, and was mildly freaked out by the strength and adaptability of this 'Dalk' Doll, not to mention the sadistic look that the metal monster had on its face!
"Die!" Dalk snarled. She had recalled the spheres which made up her arms, and they were now shaped into the form of razor-sharp blades, which she swung down at Ririn...only for Kirika to appear between them and tackle the blonde girl out of the way.
"K-Kirika?!" Ririn yelped as she instinctively wrapped her arms around her saviour's back...and felt something hot and wet with her hands. Shakily raising them to eye level, she gasped in horror as she saw the red blood on them.
"Hooooh? So she saved you at the cost of being injured herself? How touching!" Dalk sneered.
Despite having a pair of moderately deep cuts across her back, Kirika gritted her teeth and forced herself to her feet, turning to face Dalk, her blade shakily coming up into a one-handed guard position.
The Mod Soul behind her covered her mouth in self-recrimation and disbelief at the sight of the pair of wounds that the other girl had suffered because of her.
"Valiant, but pointless." Koga said sternly. "With those wounds, you will not be able to fight against Dalk with your previous speed and grace."
"I'm not the type who gives up just because of a little pain, Bount." Kirika said, pain and determination in her voice before her free hand blurred, drawing a symbol in the air before her. "Jikai seyo, rondaniini no kuro inu! Ichidoku shi, yaki harai, mizukara nodo o kaki kiru ga ii! Bakudō #9, Geki! (Disintegrate, you black dog of Rondanini! Look upon yourself with horror and then claw out your own throat! Way of Binding Number Nine, Strike!)"
A red glow surrounded her body, before a similar one sprung up around Dalk, making the Doll yelp.
"I can't move!"
"And while that's in place, eliminate the master!" Kirika leapt forwards, aiming to cut down Koga while his Doll was paralysed by her Binding Spell. In the next instant, a spike of metal slammed into her shoulder from behind, sending her crashing down to the ground with a gasp of pain.
"How unfortunate for you that I don't need to move to control the metal I've already fired off, dearie." the metallic Doll cackled sadistically as the binding Kidō faded, turning around and dismissing Ririn to focus on playing with Kirika, who was still forcing herself to her feet in spite of the foot long spike in her shoulder.
Ririn felt shame and anger mix inside of her. Shame because, in her second outing as a combatant, she had panicked and gotten Kirika, the girl who hadn't judged her for being an illegal Mod Soul, the girl who had trusted her to watch her back, hurt, badly. And anger...oh, there was anger. At the Bount for standing there stoically as his Doll inflicted injury after injury on Kirika, at Dalk, for doing the attacking...and at herself, for being such a coward! And, just to put the cherry on top, she was being ignored as if she were just a spiritually unaware human!
All of Ririn's bottled up emotions burst forth and so did her Reiatsu. Dalk, Koga and Kirika felt the rise of the Mod Soul's Reiatsu, and saw it as a faint blue shimmering corona around her body.
"Ri...rin...?" Kirika said weakly. 'This Reiatsu...it's at least Fifth Seat level...and growing!'
"GET AWAY FROM HER!" Ririn shouted. "Metamorphose: Martial Form!"
In a flash, her body became more muscular and toned, while her overall height dropped slightly. Not a stunning transformation, but a useful one. Without further ado, Ririn vanished in a Shunpo and reappeared to land a solid and powerful kick to Dalk's face, sending her flying over Kirika to crash in a tangle of limbs at her master's feet.
"Dalk!" Koga growled. "You let your guard down!"
"The little bitch was cowering until a moment ago!" the Doll bit back. "Who'd expect her to grow a spine right now!?"
Then the scenery shimmered around them, the concrete buildings becoming a rainforest, complete with sounds and smells. The sounds of monkeys howling and tigers snarling filled the area around the Bount and his Doll. Even Kirika and Ririn had vanished from sight, smell and sound.
"The illusion user from the twins' battle must be that blonde girl." Koga mused. "Dalk, can you track the spike you have in that Soul Reaper's body?"
"It's sitting right there." Dalk gestured at what looked like a small boulder. Then she was hit and knocked into a tree (which was actually a building).
"Recall your spike after you lodge-" the Bount started to order before he was struck by an invisible uppercut, which sent him flying upwards.
"Koga!" Dalk shouted in worry.
The large Bount was hit several more times before being kicked (Koga could tell because of the long area of impact) into the same tree/building that his Doll had been smashed into.
"Tojikome no hashira! Tonde iru yari! Kakome! Dōfū se! Saku no yō ni nari nasai! (Pillars of entrapment! Flying spear! Encircle! Enclose! Be as a fence!)" Kirika's voice chanted weakly. "Bakudō #62, Hyapporankan! (Way of Binding Number Sixty-Two: Hundred-Steps Fence!)"
From seemingly out of nowhere, a veritable fusillade of meter-long purple staves made from Reiryoku flew at the Bount and Doll pair, slamming into and around them, those striking them causing no harm aside from pinning them in place against the building.
"Gah! What the hell is this shit?!" Dalk cursed.
"Soul Reaper Kidō...specifically binding magic." Koga grunted as he fought against the binding effect. He observed as the scenery shifted around him, returning to how it was. There was no sign of the blonde girl, or of her injured compatriot. The bloody spike of metal lying in the middle of the street was all the evidence aside from his own witnessing of the events that anything had happened here.
"Dammit! They got away!" his Doll cursed as the pair finally broke through the Hyapporankan.
"That they have." the Bount nodded solemnly. "I have a feeling that we will be seeing them again at some point..."
Looking around, the centuries-old being sighed. "For the moment, however, we had better collect Cain and report to Kariya about running into Sōma Yoshino here, as well as the information we gathered on this Soul Reaper and her subordinate."
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Next Chapter: Kariya's Plot and Yoshino's Will
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