Chapter 6. Training results.
During her stay in the world of the Living, Rukia met a lot of people thanks to Ichigo. She had a good friendship with Orihime Inoue, who was very worried about her friend at the moment.
It's been two weeks since Rukia arrived in the world of the Living to gather information about the appearance of new Hollows. But after a week, Orihime and others began to notice her excessive exhaustion. For example, right now Rukia fell asleep in the middle of class. Before that, she tried not to show it, but apparently, having given up, her head hit the table with all her might and she fell asleep. Fortunately, at that moment someone's phone rang loudly and no one heard this blow.
~Later~
The break came and many students went to the buffet. Ichigo, along with Rukia and others, decided to go to the roof in order to have dinner there and talk at the same time.
- Rukia! The earth is calling Rukia! Reception! Don't sleep! Your lunch is going to be cold now! Wake up! - Ichigo was saying, walking up the sleepy girl.
- I'm sorry. I'm just really tired these two weeks. - Rukia said, half asleep. – He trains me to exhaustion. However, for the next two days, he gave me a rest.
- To the point of exhaustion? How does he train you that you can hardly stand on your feet now? - Ichigo asked indignantly.
- Who are you talking about? - Uryu Ishida asked with interest. – Who is this shinigami that decided to teach you?
- He's not a shinigami. He is a man with monstrous strength and a very experienced warrior. - Rukia said with confidence. – I was allowed to observe him for a month.
- And where did he come from? I don't remember noticing anyone with a strange reiatsu. - Orihime said thoughtfully.
- He wears limiters that hide his strength. And he's not from this world. Shinigami said calmly while eating her lunch.
- WHAT?! - Uryu and Orihime shouted out together.
Sado, who had been sitting next to him all this time, only calmly asked.
- Where exactly did he come from? Hueco Mundo? Hell?
- No. Completely from another world, having a different structure, rules, history, etc. He's stuck here against his will. And he wants to start from a clean state.
- That is, he is from a world where people can be on the same level as shinigami and the Hollows of our world? Don't you think he might not be who he claims to be? We all know here that this is easy to pull off. – said Isida.
Rukia remembered how Ragna kept a lot of things about himself, and although he talked about his past several times, he didn't look like a person, who trying to deceive.
- I don't think so. - Rukia said with confidence. - He may be silent about himself a lot, but he is not the one who will deceive.
- Can you introduce us, Kuchiki-san? - Inoue asked. - Just find out what kind of person he is.
- Then I'll meet you after school. - Rukia said, heading for the exit from the roof.
~ After school~
Ichigo, Rukia, Orihime, Uryu and Sado gathered together and went to Urahara's store. On the way, Rukia told briefly about the world where Ragna came from. After listening to the whole story and hearing about how the Dark War began, Uryu said to himself:
- Sometimes people are the cause of all evil.
When they get to it, they go inside. As it turned out, the owner isn't in place right now, but the one they needed right now was in place.
Descending into the basement, which was a training ground, they were presented with a picture of wrecked rocks and large cutouts on the floor and walls. In the midst of all the chaos, there was a huge sword on which a red jacket was hung.
- Tch, I told you not to come. What happened? - said the voice with irritation. - And who did you bring?
Ragna came out from behind one of the rocks. As always, he was wearing black hakama and a black shirt with a long white line, which was usually hidden under the jacket.
- These are my friends. They often help Rukia and me to destroy the Hollows. – said Ichigo.
- Friends? They don't look strong enough. - Ragna said doubtfully.
Uryu came forward to Ragna.
- I'm Uryu Isida. The last Quincy. My people could collect reiatsu from outside and use it as a weapon to exterminate the Hollows. - Isida introduced himself.
- Sado Yasutora. Nice to meet you. - Sado said calmly and laconically.
- I am Orihime Inoue. And I... I... well... - Inoue began to spin around from embarrassment, not knowing what to say.
- Um, I get it… Thanks. - Ragna said. - Okay, and why did you come here as a team?
- What kind of training do you do with Kuchiki-san and why? - Orihime said, encouraged.
- I conduct trainings with her, which I myself once passed. And I won't answer the second question. If I tell you, I'll die. - Ragna replied. - Thanks to these trainings, she will be able to become much stronger than she is, given her persistence.
- Why did you decide to help her? - asked Isida.
- She's wasting her potential. You can't look at this without tears. And anyway, why the hell should I answer your questions? I answer like some kind of criminal!
- She has been walking constantly tired lately and she was sleepy right in class today. - Ichigo said. – What kind of training is this? For endurance?
- These are the usual trainings that my teacher conducted with me. Are you so worried about…
- Dodging logs flying at me and a sword fight between them without using shunpo. Is this a regular training?! - Rukia couldn't stand it. - Who was your teacher?!
- I was trained by a Jubei of Six Heroes. If it wasn't him, I probably would have died thoughtlessly, without even starting my journey. Maybe his training was exhausting, but they made you stronger. - Ragna said. - Do you feel that you have become stronger?
- Yes, I do. I was able to cut your cheek for the last time. - Rukia said happily.
They didn't have time to finish the conversation, when suddenly, everyone felt a huge spiritual pressure. Using substitute shinigami's pass, Ichigo and Rukia switched into shinigami form and quickly headed towards the exit. Uryu, Orihime and Sado followed them, leaving Ragna alone.
- Eh, well, what are you going to do ... - with these words, the Grim Reaper, grabbing his Aramasa and jacket and went to the exit.
Jumping out of the store, Rukia and Ichigo found floating figures in the sky. They already figured out who it was.
- It's the arrancars! In terms of reiatsu, they are not inferior to Espada! Not enough problems for us, so this one has also been added. - Ichigo said worriedly.
Quickly flying up, they were on a level with the arriving arrancars.
- Are you Substitute Shinigami Ichigo Kurosaki? - arrancar said with a calm tone.
Three arrancars stood in front of the shinigami. The arrancar standing in front was wearing a short white jacket and a white hakama. His face was half covered by a mask. His hair was dark blue, and both eyes had a different color: the right eye, covered with a mask, had a black iris, and the left one had a red one. The other two Arrancars, standing on either side of the main one, were twins. They were dressed the same as the head, their hair was blonde, but they had different masks: the arrancar on the right had a mask covering his upper face, and the other one hid his lower one.
- Yes, it's me. - Ichigo boldly answered the question. - What do you need? And why did you invade here?!
- I Ceniza Oskura. We have come to take revenge. - arrancar replied just as calmly.
- Revenge? For whom?
- For the capture of Sosuke Aizen and the death of Ulquiorra Cifer.
Ichigo was shocked and confused. «Who the hell is he?! And... He's damn strong! As strong as Ulquiorra! We need to get everyone out of here!»
- If you want to save your friends, it's too late. - and at that moment, the arrancars on both sides disappear.
At the same time, Sado felt the approach and transform his right hand into a shield, reflected a powerful attack aimed at the trio. Uryu jumped out from behind Chad and shot several times at arrancar. He dodged and headed for Quincy, but was stopped by a blow from Chad's El Directo and slammed into the wall.
- Orihime! Find a safe place and keep your head down! - Isida shouted to the girl.
Obeying the advice, Inoue hid in an alley, and Uryu and Sado took arrancar on themselves.
The second arrancar attacked Rukia from behind, trying to take her by surprise. But shinigami easily parried the attack and dodged a new one, hit a quick vertical blow. Ichigo also had to reflect the attacks of the main enemy.
- Why is your strength the same as Espada's? - Ichigo asked, parrying several quick attacks with his Zangetsu.
- I am Espada. - Ceniza replied coldly.
- Why did Espada suddenly decide to destroy me? Aizen betrayed his own Espada, which he created!
- They were an experiment. If Aizen could win, he would select the best of them and create a new, true Espada. I was one of the best from the very beginning. Ulquiorra was one of the few arrancars I respected and who had to get into a new group. Now, I will create a new Espada myself. And I'll start with your death. - arrancar said, releasing cero in the direction of shinigami.
Ichigo continued to fight off one attack after another, trying not to miss any of the blows. Finally seeing the space, Ichigo cuts from the shoulder of his enemy, inflicting a huge wound along his entire body. But despite the injury, Oskura aims a blow at the shinigami's face. At the last moment, Ichigo manages to substitute his left hand and takes a blow with it.
Jumping back, Ichigo puts Zangetsu in front of him and grabs the hilt of his sword with his other hand.
- Ban... kai! - with this phrase, he is enveloped by a blue reiatsu, which gradually changes its tones to black-and-red, and waving his sword, Ichigo dispels this tornado. From the tornado, Ichigo appears in a new form: the upper part of the hakama, becomes a long black cloak, with divided stripes. His huge sword becomes a black katana with notches on the blade and guard and a long chain at the end of the hilt. - Tensa Zangetsu.
Having disappeared from the spot, Ichigo appears in front of his opponent and begins to deliver lightning attacks, repelling and striking his enemy.
Meanwhile, Rukia is doing well: her opponent is already using Ressurection in the form of a wolf, but even so, he couldn't inflict serious injuries on her. Every now and then, dodging and outwitting the enemy, she struck blow after blow.
- Try this! - arrancar releases a large number of energy balls.
Rukia, using shunpo, begins to dodge them, gradually approaching her opponent.
«Come on, get closer! When you try to attack, I'll chop you to pieces!» grinned arrancar.
Rukia moves behind arrancar's back and he turns around with speed, waving his claws. But instead of the desired result, he sees only the void.
- What the... Arrghh! - and at this moment, he gets several powerful sword strikes.
Turning around, he saw how the little shinigami jumped back with incredible speed.
- You'll die already, bitch! - arrancar growled and attacked the girl.
At that moment, Rukia released her zampakto's Shikai, then returned the awakened sword to its sheath without releasing the sword hilt.
- Completely stupid?! Well, I'll kill you quickly. Moreover, such as you will be ... - he didn't have time to finish, as with an incredibly fast wave, Rukia pulls the sword out of its scabbard and striking arrancar, shackling him in an ice block. Then, holding the sword in front of her in a horizontal position, she began to direct the reiatsu at Soda no Shirayuki. The ribbon on the handle began to freeze and, taking a semicircular shape, formed a thin ice thread from the tip of the blade to the frozen ribbon. The sword began to resemble a bow.
«Thank you for advice, Ragna.»
~A few days ago~
During the break, Rukia started listening to Ragna's advice on physical training, and she decided to ask about the ice "zampakto" from Ragna's world. After hearing the question, he still decided to answer it.
- This sword was called Yukianesa. This is one of the most powerful Ars Magus. When I fought with its owner, he used it in different ways: he created swords out of ice, froze a huge space, etc. Most of all I hate the technique when he makes a sword look like a bow. A real pain in the ass…
Rukia wondered at the words of the Grim Reaper.
After his story, she began to train from time to time, trying to recreate the technique that Ragna had told her about. As it turned out, after a long practice, the technique spends a lot of reiatsu, but when used correctly, it causes huge damage.
~Now~
Pulling a kind of bowstring, an ice arrow formed in her left hand. At that moment, arrancar was finally able to get out of the block of ice, but before he could do anything, he was immediately pierced by an ice arrow. Hitting the target, the arrow pierced the body with a multitude of ice blades formed and freezing arrancar again, broke his frozen body into thousands of fragments.
After returning the sword to its previous state, Rukia hurried to help Uryu and Sado, seeing that Ichigo was doing quite well.
Meanwhile, Isida and Chad dealt many fatal blows to the monster, which was also in wolf-like form, but despite this it was difficult to defeat.
«Why can't we beat him? He is similar to Frassion in terms of reiatsu, but doesn't use his full potential. And there's something familiar about him.» mused Isida, dodging another blow.
- Do you need help? - Rukia asked when she arrived.
- No, you can rest. - said an unknown voice.
A red spot jumps out from around the corner and punctures arrancar with an accurate blow, nailing him to the wall. Pulling the huge blade out of his body, he puts it in the sheath on his hip.
- Ragna? What are you doing here? - Rukia asked in surprise.
- What, can't you see? Covering your asses. - Bloodedge said, approaching the group.
- If you want to help, help Ichigo! His opponent is too strong!
- Isn't he using all his strength? - Ragna asked in surprise.
- He fights with everything he has! Stop arguing with me and if you want to help, help him!
Seeing in her eyes the fear for the Substitute Shinigami, Ragna put his hand on her head.
- Don't be afraid, I'm on my way.
And with these words, he jumped high up and feeling the hard surface, looked down.
- Thank you for teaching me a couple of tricks of your world! - Ragna said and flew higher.
Meanwhile, Ichigo continued to fight his opponent. Arrancar has already managed to switch to his Ressurection form. Arrancar's mask had completely disappeared from his face, and two horns were sticking out of his head. The claws on his hands became longer, and his sword transformed into smaller blades with which he delivered lightning attacks.
Ichigo in Bankai could only reflect his attacks, which didn't stop for a second.
«Damn. What should I do? I can't attack or even dodge. If there was at least one space in his attacks...»
Suddenly, a dark-bloody head flew past Ichigo, which threw arrancar aside.
- Looks like you have a problem here, huh? - said Ragna, who came up. - How strong is he?
- Enough, to call Zaraki Kenpachi to fight him. - said Ichigo.
- Tch, I've seen stronger ones. Let me guess: isn't that all his power?
- Yes, maybe he's even a Vasto Lorde.
- I've already heard. Well, it's not the first time I've fought strong opponents. Well, shall we begin? - Ragna stood in a fighting stance and drew his sword back, preparing for battle.
- Always ready! - Ichigo said, getting into a fighting stance too.