I was always irritated by cliffhangers in the stories, but I've found that doing them myself is oddly pleasant.

So you can expect more of them in the future.

The reason I'm torn about the movies, is that despite me not liking the plot so much, (except the last one, which was rather enjoyable) they add very interesting worldbuilding elements. Elements I'd like to add into my story, but I don't have a proper justification to use them without touching their plot. So even if I add movies in some capacity, their plot would receive at most a single chapter or two.

Thank you for reading and enjoy.

"What do you think about our trip to the world of living Kamui-kun?"

"Your tone is a bit weird, Gin-chan."

"What do you mean?"

"You sound like a pervert, trying to lure a sweet innocent child into the back alley using candy."

"Such hurtful words! I need to speak with your teacher. For a child to use such a vocabulary! He really needs to pay attention to his duties!"

"Shut up. *sigh* Anyway it's just a training exercise in hunting artificial hollows. Nothing to worry about. Right?"

It was an innocent enough question. But Gin's answer really unsettled Kamui for some reason.

"Who knows..."

Creepy, mysterious bastard. He'd be more believable if not for this stupid chuckle of his at the end of the sentence.

Trading friendly insults along the way Kamui and Gin headed towards the assembly point where all first course students were expected to meet.

It seemed like they were the last ones there. All the rest of the thirty students were already there. And they were visibly brimming with excitement.

Well Kamui couldn't blame them. Even he himself was a little bit interested, despite having memories of another lifetime.

Bit he was more interested from another point of view than them. On a deep, primal and illogical level he felt an upcoming fight for life. Not against some stupid artificial hollows, but against real life threatening foe.

Up until now he never was in a situation that he felt that his life may be in danger. Of course if you don't include the monsoon that actually took his life.

But it was different. You can't compare a struggle against a force of nature, to a fight against another living being. Being put in a situation where it's your life or theirs.

He was both scared and interested how he'd react in such a situation.

Looking around he noticed Rangiku standing together with a few girls chatting animatedly, sometimes casting subtle (in her opinion) glances in direction of Gin and Kamui.

A little further away stood few academy students, whose markings on their robes signalled them to be sixth years.

"Ne, Gin-chan. Are those people supposed to take care of us? They seem rather…"

"Weak?"

"Yeah."

"Because they are. I'm afraid you got spoiled, little one. Both you and myself are on a level that we can probably give few lieutenants run for their money. You don't spend much time with our peers, instead sticking around captain level members of Kido Corps. Your perception of strength got all messed up."

"Wow… That was unusually deep and insightful for you Gin-chan."

"Fine. Be like that! No one treats me seriously anyway."

Ignoring his roommate's ramblings he focused on the sixth year's student that just stepped up ready to speak.

"Welcome. My name is Minato Yuuki. I will be leading this exercise."

"As you already know, the simulation is aimed at giving you the experience of a real time combat with hollows, without needlessly endangering your life. Even if I say so, I require you to give it your all, and treat it as a real life threatening situation."

"On the way here, you should have received badges with numbers written on it. They are indicators of your three man team that you'll be required to attend in, during the exercise. Now we'll give you some time to find your group."

Kamui's number was 4, and unsurprisingly it was the same number as Gin. Despite the random way these numbers were supposedly allocated, it was kind of a rule already for these two monsters of academy to be grouped together.

Looking around Kamui tried to figure out who will be their third partner. He subconsciously glanced towards the direction of Rangiku, but no. There were already two boys around her. And while she had a neutral face, those two almost drooled at the prospect of teaming up with her and trying to impress her.

Gin somehow looked relieved for a brief window of time seeing that.

Suddenly Kamui turned around startling, approaching them, a petite blonde girl. Although she was short for her age, she was still the same height as much younger Gin and Kamui. She started to frantically wave her badge around.

"I'm Nashida Miyuki! We're assigned to be in the same team together! I'm looking forward to working with you!"

She was pumped full of air, as if introducing herself to them was the hardest thing she ever did. Perhaps it was.

"Hello, Nashida-san. Believe it or, not but after seven months we're familiar with everyone in class. In fact you've introduced yourself to me, first week here."

"I did?"

"Yes. In fact I believe you said you were jealous of how smooth my hair is."

Petite girl covered her face with her hands. Meanwhile Kamui and Gin exchanged knowing looks. They could tell that the youthful and energetic girl is weak. So weak that she'd actually be a burden if she stuck around with them. Kamui had a faint feeling that Gin would not accept a burden around.

So Kamui decided to ask her.

"Nashida-san. Gin-chan and myself probably won't stay as a team and split up once we're in the world of the living. You can choose to go with one of us, or you can also try to act on your own."

Miyuki was visibly terrified at the prospect of going on her own, but looking between a wide chilling grin on Ichimaru Gin's face, and otherworldly but stone cold face of Shirato Kamui, she was even more terrified of asking one of them.

But eventually she gathered her courage and bowed before Kamui.

"I'm sorry but I don't think I'm capable enough to go on my own. So Shirato-san, I hope I can accompany you. I promise that I'll do everything I can do to be of help to you."

Although his face didn't change, as he responded his tone was a bit indulgent. After all the girl didn't know how close to potential death she was.

"That's fine with me. I'm sure it will be a very memorable experience for us."

Kamui was walking leisurely around the street of a small mountain town in northern Japan that was used as a premise for their exercise. It was a fairly big location, but not many people there were around, since it's an abandoned mining settlement.

While he seemed like he didn't have a care in the world, the petite girl following him was increasingly tense with every passing second. She distracted herself by talking to Kamui.

"You know, Shirato-san, I was always very intimidated when thinking about you, but you're not so bad once I got to know you."

"Is that so? That only shows that you should have been bolder. Nothing will happen in life if you're not courageous enough to take the first step."

"You never approached anyone either!"

"Point taken. But why would I approach anyone in our class in the first place?"

Although he sounded incredibly arrogant, Miyuki didn't point that out. After all there was really nothing wrong with that statement.

While they chatted like that, Kamui was scouting around with his Tenseigan. Initially he wanted to look as far as he could, in search of real hollows that he felt were somewhere around but he quickly gave up. Although it was true that he could extend his vision as far as three kilometers, the further away from him he tried to look, the narrower his field of vision got. Using Tenseigan at his maximum range was very similar to looking through small binoculars. Meaning it's very tough finding something if you didn't already have an idea where to look.

So he settled for finding artificial hollows that were scattered around the settlement.

Quickly finding one, looking like a bizarre crossbreed between frog and a horse, Kamui pointed his left hand and him, and condensing a big amount of spiritual energy at the tip of his finger, chanted:

"Hado # 4. Byakurai."

Thin, pale lightning jumped off his finger and rammed into the creature, that until now didn't suspect it was in danger. Now despite it being such a low levelled kido, in his hands and against such a weak foe, it was enough to obliterate the entire half of its body and a huge chunk of wall behind it. And three other consecutive walls.

Ignoring the awestruck expression of the girl beside him, Kamui glanced with displeasure at the body of a mock hollow dispersing in the air.

It was weaker than expected! How is he supposed to get any experience against things like that?!

Additionally he felt a faint throbbing at the back of his mind. He realized that it's his last reincarnation ability reacting to him taking a life. But once again this fake hollow was too weak to awaken it.

"You know Nashida-san, from now on I'll leave dispatching those dummy hollows to you."

"What? But I'm…"

"Don't worry. I of course will assist you with my Kido. But for now since I don't even have to draw my sword this exercise is a bit pointless for me."

"Okay, if you say so…"

And they did so. Kamui would completely immobilize the targets with Bakudo #1 Sai, while Miyuki would cut them with her zanpakuto. Originally he started with Bakudo #9 Geki which was supposed to paralyze his targets, but it turned out that no matter how much he held back, this spell was simply too strong for these foes, since when cast by him they were outright crushed under the power of the spell.

They continued like this for a while, Kamui getting increasingly bored, while Miyuki grew exponentially confident.

It didn't last long however, before Kamui noticed something at the edge of his vision.

A corpse.

Wearing the uniform of Shio'n academy, mutilated body with unrecognizable face. And blood. A lot of blood staining the ground and walls around.

Even Kamui felt a bit nauseous seeing the gruesome scene, not to mention Miyuki who looked like she was about to faint.

He was about to say something to her, before he jumped to his left, spinned in place while drawing his sword and slashing it at the place he just left.

It connected.

His zanpakuto cleaved a lizard-like beast in half.

"This reiatsu… Is that… a hollow?"

This shaky voice belonged to Miyuki who looked terrified out of her mind seeing two parts of a beast turning into dust and disappeared from this world.

"*sigh* It would appear so."

"But our proctors… The barrier… There shouldn't be any hollows around!?"

"So? Tell me Nashida-san, how would focusing on how things should be, help us? It's meaningless right now."

"But… What if there are more hollows around?"

"Can't you sense this reiatsu in the air?"

"Reiatsu…" She focused briefly on the sensations permeating the air. "I can't…"

Kamui sighed hearing that. He probably should have expected that, after all she's only a first year student. First course or not.

"The barrier around the town appears to be intact." She exhaled with relief, only to pale with fright hearing Kamui continuing to speak. "However there are more than a hundred hollows within the barrier."

"A hundred… but how?"

"I don't know yet. But we should move. It appears that among sixth year students there was someone mildly competent. He realized the situation fairly quickly and started to gather all the students in one place at the city square. Let's go and join them."

Miyuki gained a visibly hopeful as she followed him there, so Kamui chose not to tell her the truth. Out of the forty eight academy students that should be here, including sixth years, only thirty four remained. And the students gathered at the city square, were nowhere near strong enough to survive on their own against the flood of hollows.

Rushing towards the center of the town, Kamui almost absentmindedly dispatched hollows along the way, with a swing of his sword or well placed kido. Despite a great number of them they were still low level hollows. Thus not a threat to him, or Miyuki who followed him tightly from behind.

While doing so he focused his attention on two things.

Firstly, In the secluded part of his consciousness a room opened. It was previously empty, but now with each dispatched hollow a tiny white orb appeared. If you looked closely, there was an image of hollows previously killed by him, locked within. It was his last reincarnation ability that just awakened. Plunder.

Secondly. He was using his Tenseigan to seriously scour the town searching for the source of hollow infestation. Although it was difficult to check the town inch by inch like that he still managed. And once he found out a reason why such a large number of hollows were inside the barrier, he started cursing his stupidity at overlooking such an obvious thing.

When they reached the barricade at the town's square, Kamui dispatched thirty two low level hollows by himself. But despite that the number of hollows within the barrier didn't lessen, exponentially growing instead.

Noticing that the barricade is overrun by a large number of hollows, Kamui raised his left hand and while quickly drawing a specific symbol in the air, chanted:

"Hado #41. Manba no Suzume."

Around him formed eighteen small sparrows, their bodies made of condensed lightning. Once he lowered his arm, all of them shooted forward, two per each hollow. Once they hit a moderately big explosion of electricity occurred, tearing all the hollows to pieces.

Kamui was aware what sight would await him once he passed the barricade, Miyuki was not. Almost all of the remaining thirty three students were injured with despair written all over their faces.

Kamui was a bit surprised that since they started moving only one person has died. But glancing at the side where Gin was standing covered in blood that is not his own, with creepy smirk, all over his face. Hollows, especially low level ones will almost always go for the person with the highest reiatsu.

Plus, even if no one beside Kamui realized that, Gin was positioned in such a way that any hollow that passes the barricade, must pass through him, if they wanted to get to the place where Rangiku is standing, trying to administer some first aid to the most severely damaged students.

Kamui, who clearly had not a scratch on him, was quickly approached by Minato Yuuki, the sixth year student who was responsible for this exercise.

"How good that you're both here unharmed. I was worried, but as you just proved, your reputation is well deserved."

"Thanks. Have you sent a notice of the situation to Gotei 13?"

"I have. But we don't know when anyone will arrive. Thankfully, it looks like we're thinning the horde, so we still have a good chance of making it through."

"Everything we've encountered so far are low level hollows. But the problem is that already two middle-level hollows entered the town, and there's no way of telling if there are more after them."

"What? But how is this possible? The barrier hasn't collapsed…"

"The mining shaft. The entrance is within the vicinity of the town, and the hollows are using it as a way inside."

"But the second division checked the town including the mine before we were sent here."

They did? Strange.

No matter the circumstances, dozens or maybe even hundreds of hollows are impossible to overlook.

Unless…

There indeed were no hollows there before.

Is this some kind of weird test that Aizen came up with? Checking the power of Gin and himself? But the scale is a little big if that's the case…

Anyway first thing first.

"That's not important at the moment. What's important is to seal the entrance to the mine."

Exactly. There is no telling how long until reinforcements arrive. If big hitters start to exit the mine there's a possibility that even Gin and Kamui will be overrun, not to mention others. The most tactically sound solution is to cut off the enemy's entrance route, now, as long as there are only small fries on the battlefield.

Besides Kamui was always a man of action.

Thus ignoring inconsequential protests of Minato, Kamui turned to bloodied Gin and asked cheerfully (in his opinion):

"You feel like going on a stroll?"

Gin tilted his head, and grinned even wider, sending chills through everyone who was watching.

"Why not? I was getting bored anyway."

In everyone's sight both of them disappeared in a burst of Shunpo, reappearing amidst the midst of hollows, blood flying around.

Kamui was rushing forward, in his right hand a Zanpakuto which periodically slashed at surrounding hollows reaping life whenever it moved. His left hand danced in the air, drawing symbols used to fire off Kido spells. Both Hado and Bakudo used alternately. Even spells ranked in the forties were flying like from a machine gun whenever stronger hollows appeared. At this point even some high level hollows showed up. No Menos Grande yet, but already it was stressful with such big numbers.

If they don't seal the entrance, then they won't last for long.

His sword swung, but for the first time today it was stopped.

In front of him was a huge and bulky hollow, with shield-like protrusions on his wrists. One of said shields was put in front of Kamui's Zanpakuto. A faint magnetic force surrounded the shield, not allowing Kamui to back off.

At the edge of his vision, Gin who until now was agilitely swaggering around the battlefield dispatching enemies with his wakizashi, was stopped. In front of him a snake like hollow, constantly taking advantage of Gin's shorter reach to stall him.

Kamui considered using rest of his spirit energy for a high level kido to clear his opponent, and rest of the horde at once. But then he heard Gin calling:

"Shoot to kill! Shinso!"

Activating his shikai, he immediately dispatched his opponent, and started pushing through the horde with an even greater momentum than before.

"Don't fall behind Kamui-kun!"

Glancing at him briefly, Kamui chuckled.

"I guess I must get serious as well. Bakudo # 8. Seki."

With use of his kido he pushed the hollow away, freeing his sword. Raising his sword to the air, as if praising the heavens he called:

"Exercise your authority. Adonai!"

All the decorations from the blade disappeared, the blade turned into a crystal like, milky white material. It looked brittle, but it was deceptively hard and sharp.

On the top of both of his hands, two symbols condensed. On his right a brilliant golden-white image of a sun. On his left an image of the silvery-blue moon, forever ethereal and gentle.

After a moment of holding his sword in his right hand, the crystal blade erupted with golden light, absorbing some of a brilliance of the sun from his hand.

He swung his sword down, golden arc of light erupting, cutting through the shield and the hollow behind it at once. It encountered no opposition in its wake.

"You're too slow Gin-chan! You're embarrassing yourself!"

He erupted with speed overtaking Gin in his rush. Everytime Adonai swung, a brilliant arc of light erupted. Any hollow in its wake was cut in two, any bit of spiritual pressure dissolving in contact with it.

When both of them finally got to the mine shaft, they witnessed a huge gillian pushing its way out of there. Bright red cero charged in front of its maw.

Kamui quickly switched grip on his sword to his left hand; golden light extinguished and replaced with ethereal blue hue. He pointed his Zanpakuto at the incoming cero, and made a circular motion in its direction. In front of him a huge oval mirror appeared.

On contact with it Cero got absorbed within disappearing. Kamui felt as his exhausted Reiatsu slowly replenished. He raised his right hand with a sun on it and chanted.

"Hado # 63. Raikoho!"

A powerful golden lightning erupted. Not only it contained an entire energy of the previous cero, but it was boosted by the sun of his hand, which acts as an amplifier for offensive spells.

It instantly consumed a hostile gillian not leaving a piece of it left.

Both Kamui and Gin stopped their rampage seeing their last foe disintegrating.

"So what now Kamui-kun? You're not planning on entering, are you? If so, go ahead. I just remembered that I have places to be."

"Very funny. I should have just about energy to seal that entrance. But I won't be able to do much afterwards, so I'll depend on you."

"Hmm, whatever you say."

Kamui ignored his noncommitted response, and switched his sword back to his right hand, freeing up his left hand, and a moon symbol on top of it.

He started writing in air, the barrier he was creating getting strengthened by the power of the moon on his palm.

While he was doing that and Gin was fending off all of the small hollows around, Kamui started thinking..

Adonai. A sword carrying a hebrew name for a god. It possesses two modes depending on which hand is dominant on the handle.

If the blade is releasing golden light it enters the mode of extreme offence. Its brilliance dissolves any foreign spiritual pressure it encounters. While this mode has a number of offensive techniques, it holds no defensive capability besides a body of the blade.

When zanpakuto is bathed in a blue hue, it enters the mode of extreme defence. Any of foreign spiritual pressure in contact with its light is absorbed and used to restock the spiritual energy of its user. It has plenty of defensive abilities, but no purely offensive ones.

Additionally, both symbols can act as amplifiers for Kido spells and any related powers. Sun symbol enhances all offensive spells, while the moon symbol strengthens every defensive and supportive spell

Feeling his spirit energy slowly dwindling, Kamui turned his attention to the newest ability he gained from his reincarnation. Plunder.

Whenever he killed an enemy, all its powers, experiences and energy would be condensed and appear in a form of a small orb available for Kamui to perfectly absorb and take as his own, in a special space in the back of his mind.

However this ability had a number of limitations. Not only absorbed memories can affect his own personality, but a sudden rush of power like that has a number of repercussions. Thus absorbing even one orb required a lot of time to meticulously go through it, and gain only benefits instead of drawbacks. Luckily as an owner of Innovate Clear, time wasn't exactly a problem.

Biggest problem is actually in Bleach setting itself. While Plunder would allow him to perfectly hollowify and gain hollow powers without many problems; first hollow that he absorbs will become a main one, upon which his future abilities will be built. Thus absorbing, for example the Gillian who he killed previously, would result in ruining his future foundations.

When he was at the end stages of setting a barrier, a strange realization hit him.

Tenseigan gives him an ability to manipulate souls directly, and affect the circle of reincarnation. Such powers are forbidden by the laws of soul society and punishable by death.

Innovate Clear is a direct manipulation of time and space. Any abilities related to time and space are forbidden by the laws of soul society and their usage punishable by death.

Plunder allowed him to perfectly fuse with a hollow. Which of course is forbidden by soul society and punishable by death.

I'm a model soul reaper ain't I…

Finishing with the barrier, Kamui quickly backed off, switching his blade back to his left hand, trying to absorb as much residue reiatsu in the air as possible. While he was fond of Gin, he didn't trust him enough to remain defenseless around him. Not that he'd tell him that.

Previously open entrance to the mine was now locked with several black prison bars emitting an ominous looking black mist.

"*Whistle* That's impressive Kamui-kun. But it looks like it took a lot out of you."

"Yeah. I'm totally spent. It seems like you have to be my bodyguard from now on."

Although Kamui stood in such a way that Gin had no way to see his face and seemed like he was open for attack from behind; he was confident that with his Tenseigan, reflexes and the small amount of reiatsu he recovered, he'd be able to react and defend himself.

Thankfully nothing happened, until twenty minutes later, when reinforcements from soul society arrived. It was the 9th division and its captain Muguruma Kensei.

After reporting and taking down a barrier for them, Kamui and Gin received some gratulations and a promise for rich annotations for their graduation papers, and they left.

Kamui also managed to get from him an extra recommendation for joining his desired division when attempting to join Gotei 13. It probably wasn't necessary but it couldn't hurt.

Afterwards Kamui and Gin along with the rest of the surviving students headed towards the senkaimon.

Although they received some thanks from the students, neither Kamui or Gin were interested.They were too tired.

What do you think about his Zanpakuto - Adonai? Is it too complicated? I want for him to get a new teacher to help him master it, but I'm not sure who.

About Plunder, it's a pretty common ability in fiction; you'd find similar even in Bleach itself. That also marks all of his reincarnation boons.