Someone asked in a PM how much of the plot Kamui is familiar with.
The answer is, he watched anime until the end of the arrancar arc including all the fillers in between. He also watched about three minutes of live-action movie before he turned it off.
So he's not familiar with anything that happens after Aizen is sealed and Ichigo loses his powers. Neither did he watch any Bleach movies. Although I'm torn whether to include those in the story.
The Kido Corps Commander and Great Kido Chief Tsukabishi Tessai took a personal disciple from among the academy students. Moreover, he accepted him as an honorary member of the kido corps without the need for actually joining the corps.
Such news swept the Seireitei, shocking everyone who heard it.
It is actually frowned upon for official disciples not to join the same division as their sensei. From some perspective it's even forbidden, although rules are muddled in this case. After all it's not only disrespectful for your master; but as apprenticeship is usually conducted for the sake of grooming successors for important positions, it's counterproductive to teach someone from another division.
From the point of view the arrangement Tessai had with Kamui symbolized Kido Chief Commander declaring potential successor for his prestigious position, but a common academy student spitting at this honor.
Official consensus was that this apprenticeship will last for only as long as Kamui stays in academy without graduating. After this, he will stop being Tessai's student. Or he will find his conscience and actually join the Kido corps.
As a result of this somewhat controversial announcement, Kamui's reputation both raised and fell.
Although it didn't bother him that much. From his perspective, as long as he performs enough meritorious service, all those judgemental voices will disappear. Public opinion is very fickle after all.
While Kamui expected his tutelage to be a little boring, just him getting some extra lessons one on one with Tessai, it was anything but.
Tessai apparently had a philosophy of learning in action. Not to say that he threw Kamui onto deep water but…
Kamui's lessons typically consisted of him following Tessai around and observing him at work. Since he had his dojutsu, he obviously gained more from this than any of his assistants.
Later Tessai would question him on the process of his work, and what Kamui understood from this. If he satisfied Tessai with his comprehension of the process, then he'd answer any doubts Kamui might have or any question that might interest him.
But in case Kamui failed to gain insights on his own into his master's work then he'd be sent to the library to brush up on the subject. And forbidden from asking Tessai any questions or following him around, until he'd gain sufficient understanding of his own.
When asked by anyone about his teaching style Tessai only answered:
"He considers himself as a prodigy. Therefore I'll treat him as such. If he indeed is one, then this way his gain would be enormous. But if he's mistaken about himself, then he'd fail, and subsequent self realization would perhaps benefit him even more."
Kamui, obviously took it as a challenge. And giving it his all, from week to week he spends less and less time in the library, instead spending almost all the time at Tessai's side.
Ranging from banal things like kido spell practice for newcomers; through more complex ones like setting of Senkaimon; and stuff usually reserved for attention of commander and vice-commander like maintenance of Sokyoku or Kido cannon.
Kamui was somewhat interested in how much power Sokyoku possessed so he asked Tessai that.
The answer actually scared him a bit.
Apparently it's not even quantifiable.
Tessai never saw the thing at full power, but he heard from someone who has seen both that it slightly surpasses the power of captain Yamamoto's bankai. It's supposedly strong enough to vaporize space itself.
However it has many limitations placed on it. Not only it takes a lot of time to warm up and access all this power; but the being that serves as its core, Kikoo, is semi sentient and it would never unnecessarily exercise said power.
So it seems that Ichigo got lucky when trying to block it. The strike he blocked was half hearted, only enough to execute Rukia who not only had her powers sealed, but never was that strong in the first place. If he tried to block a second or even third strike, there would not even be ashes of him remaining.
Similarly if they waited for even twenty more seconds, Ukitake and Kyorake would not be able to destroy it. The power it would emit would simply vaporize their spiritual pressure and an artifact they were using.
Insight Kamui had gained by observing all those with his Tenseigan was enormous. Although he'd never attempt to say it out loud, he was sure that in some areas it surpassed even that of his sensei.
During all that time he met Tessai' second in command Ushoda Hachigen, nicknamed Hachi. He hasn't developed any of his space-time powers yet, but he is still undoubtedly a kido master of a highest calibre.
Although he's a nice demure man, it was still a bit freakily how huge the guy was. Two and a half meters was waaay too much. Kamui was tall for his age at 142 centimeters, but he still felt like a midget around the man.
But if you overlooked that one detail, Kamui found it very comfortable to be around him.
Unlike the rest of the Kido Corps members, who with a very few exceptions, treated him as an outsider, or in extreme cases outright despised him.
All this work allowed him even to understand Tenseigan a bit deeper and combining its powers with his kido unlocked a new ability: telekinesis.
Although while it was a pretty powerful ability, it required an almost complete focus from Kamui, including shutting off any extra perception abilities, meaning it's not battle ready ability. He was sure that with time he'd be able to overcome this problem. So it's a work in progress.
One of many, many things that he's currently labelling as such. Being a versatile prodigy had its drawbacks. Thankfully by now he's capable of six hours to one ratio, while in Innovate Clear. But now, everyday he was practically losing consciousness, instead of falling asleep, he was that exhausted.
Officially that telekinetic ability of his was an application of kido, unique to himself. Which only further cemented his status as the biggest genius of the art since establishment of Gotei 13.
However all that only further estranged him from his peers. In the academy even proud sixth year students were giving him a wide berth.
Seeing no point in attending classes there anymore, Kamui applied for exemptions from Zanjutsu and Hoho classes. In zanjutsu he won his spar against the thirteenth seat of squad nine comfortably without pushing himself trying to dominate his opponent. After all, Gin was long gone from this class.
In Hoho since he accomplished all requirements for graduating long ago, meaning that after receiving instructions on shunpo he was out of there.
By now the only class in the academy that Kamui was attending was general knowledge, since it wasn't a class that one could be exempted for.
Gin also had still to attend Kido classes, since while he graduated all other classes, he was still a bit short of reaching requirements for that particular class.
Huh, moron.
By now if Kamui wasn't attending general knowledge class he was with Tessai; in the library pursuing his own interest; or messing around and training in Innovate Clear.
He even visited Reina's shop outside of Seireitei once as a form of rest. They flirted a bit together but nothing else happened.
Currently, it was two days away from a widely anticipated trip to the world of the living for the first course class, marking the seventh month they were in the academy.
Kamui had a bit of a weird feeling seeing the creepy smirk of Gin when he talked about said trip, so he decided to accomplish one very important thing beforehand.
In the Innovate Clear.
It changed a lot during all this time. Not only the Tree in the center grew to a whopping five meters in height, the space of the garden itself now held a radius of eighty five meters. Instead of the earlier empty expanse of land, now several apple trees dotted the landscape. Their fruit was capable of healing all signs of physical fatigue. Sadly they couldn't do anything about mental fatigue. Beside the trees there was a small hut, and a few hills and a pretty big pond.
In the middle of said pond, at the giant boulder sat cross legged Kamui. In front of him his Zanpakuto was floating in the air, supported by his telekinesis.
He felt a very specific pull from the blade. Or rather... from deep within himself. The sword was only a medium through which this pull was executed.
Somewhat familiar with this sensation from entering and leaving Innovate Clear, Kamui concentrated his entire being, and responding to the pull he split his consciousness, sending it within.
Towards the inner world of his Zanpakuto.
It was weird. Such transit from an Innovate Clear, a perfect manifestation of a physical world to the Zanpakuto Inner World, an ideal form of a mental world.
Two completely different concepts, yet they had so much in common…
Kamui wondered briefly, whether it is possible to merge those two together, but came to the conclusion that it is not possible to do so, before managing to perfectly materialize the spirit of his zanpakuto in the outside world. So not before achieving bankai.
Pulling out of his musings Kamui looked around.
He was standing near a peak of a tall mountain. Sea of clouds around. On one horizon a bright overbearing sun and the clear blue sky; on the opposite side a starry sky and an ethereal looking moon. Both these opposite forces clashed in the boundary in between, a clear silver border between them.
The peak itself, despite being covered in snow, also had a lot of colors in the form of a variety of flowers scattered around.
The biggest impression that this world gave him was: contradiction.
This world was full of them.
And the biggest contradiction of all was standing on the very peak of the mountain, exactly beneath the border between day and night, between life and death, between beginning and the end.
It was a teenage girl.
A beautiful girl wearing a flower patterned kimono.
Shapely and lean silhouette full of inherent grace and charm.
Long flowing blond hair with blood red streaks mixed within.
Delicate and beautiful face forever frozen in an impassive state, as if a statue of a skilled artist.
Blue eyes with a pattern of intersecting white flowers.
She was a mirror image of Kamui. Completely opposite, yet exactly the same.
No words were exchanged between them. The beautiful girl suddenly was holding an extremely ornamental katana and pointed it at Kamui.
He responded in kind, by raising an identical blade, which suddenly appeared within his palm.
His stance sharp and violent, full of wild beauty as if predator eyeing his prey.
Her stance is gentle and harmless, full of noble and pure grace.
They both disappeared from where they stood only to appear high above the peak, blades crossed, an extremely powerful shockwave spread from the point of contact. Yet despite all the power it carried it wasn't capable of stirring any change in this otherwise peaceful world.
The point at which their blades intersected was the silver border up in the air. Kamui with an all powerful sun behind his shoulder, the mysterious woman with an unyielding moon and stars illuminating her from behind.
They separated, gained some distance, before they clashed again fully intending on killing each other.
This repeated. One clash after another. One time, two times, ten times, one hundred times, eventually ten thousand times.
Each clash was different. Yet each clash was the same.
Both of them danced. Both of them expressed themselves fully through this. Their emotions, desires, their entire beings.
Each time two exact blades, carried by two beings so similar yet so different beings clashed it was at the exact same point. Beneath the middle of a silver border.
Him, the sun. Her, the moon and the stars.
They were the exact opposite of each other. They both contradicted the existence of the other, and yet at the same time they were only complete together.
Moon couldn't show it's brilliance without the sun; the sun couldn't be praised for its power without the moon.
So they danced. The most beautiful spectacle in existence, that no one however could see and appreciate. For eternity it would be the one moment that will remain solely theirs.
But the beauty of the moment is that it's fleeing. It must eventually come to pass.
After an unknown amount of time, that both felt like an eternity and an instant they ended.
Their positions exchanged.
Her, the sun; him, moon and the stars.
She was wild, unrestrained, and violent. He was graceful, free and pure.
The last clash. Number 77777. The time, space and the universe itself froze. His sword rammed through her heart. Her sword pierced through his.
At the same time two voices spoke. One loud and brimming with life; the other barely a whisper, holding all beauty within the world.
"My name is Kamui."
"My name is…"
The end!
I hope I didn't overdo this chapter. I was planning for something completely different, yet when I started writing the scene in the inner world, the words flowed out of me by themselves. So despite having some misgivings about it I decided to leave it as is.
Originally I didn't want to make any bigger timeskip yet, but I really want Kamui already in the proper squad so I hurried him a bit. I hope it's not a problem.
Next chapter I finally get to introduce his Shikai. I hope it doesn't disappoint.