Zrocker119: Well not really much that I need to say this time around. Only that I'm glad to see that people seem to like this new and improved version.

-Start-

Two weeks had passed since the night Ryu left. The siblings held true to their word and had thrown themselves into training. Everyday from 8am to 2pm, they would work on increasing their magical power and their Take-Over ability. Mirajane was forced by her siblings to sit on the sidelines, due to her arm still not being fully healed. She had objected to this of course but Lisanna and Elfman wouldn't budge on their stance.

So Mirajane watched with an utterly bored expression from the edge of the clearing while her younger siblings trained with Natsu. "Stupid arm," She grumbled, "Hurry up and heal already."

"You sure seem to be having fun," A voice said somewhat mockingly.

Mira felt her eye twitch, "Oh bite me Erza."

"I think I'll pass," Erza said as she took a seat next to her rival. "So how's the arm?" She asked with genuine concern. It came as a big shock to the guild when they found out what had transpired on the trio's last request. What shocked them even further though was that one of their guilds three S-class mages was saved by the mysterious Ryu person that, apparently, held back when he knocked out the out of control Elfman.

"Still broken, but Porlyusica said I should be good to start training next week." Mira's voice was full of excitement at the prospect of throwing away the cast that held her arm prisoner. "Then I'll be able to show that guy that I won't be needing saving the next time I see him!"

A small giggle escaped from the redhead, "Wow Mira, I've never seen you get so riled up before." Erza smirked, "If I didn't know any better, I'd say that you have something to prove to this Ryu character. Could it be that you've been smitten by him?"

The very air seemed to drop several degrees as Mirajane sent an icy glare toward her rival, the upper half of her face was covered in shadows and her right eye seemed to glow red. "Care to repeat that, you flat chested tincan?" She knew full well that Erza wasn't flat chested at all, but it was just so much fun to pick at her.

Now it was Erza's turn to get pissed, "What did you just call me? Don't think for a second that I won't hit you just because you have a broken arm!"

"Oh please, I can still kick your ass even with a handicap. Besides," Mirajane pushed her breasts up with her cast, making them seem even bigger than they already were. "I always have had you beaten when it comes to this area," She then ran a hand down her shapely rear, "And this area. In fact, I've been thinking about become a model for Sorcerer Weekly to make some extra cash. Something that I think you couldn't even try out for."

The sound of shattering glass is both heard and felt throughout the area.

"That's it! GET OVER HERE!" Erza shouted and took off after Mira, who cackled madly in response as the enraged requip mage tried and failed to catch her.

Not too far away Elfman, Lisanna and Natsu wisely decided to avoid that area of the training field for the remainder of their session.

Meanwhile in another part of the of the country a certain redheaded Arrancar sneezed. "Why do I get the feeling that somebody's talking about kicking my ass...and why does it strangely feel...sexy?"

Shaking the feeling away, Ryu resumed his pace through the town he was in, though he couldn't quite remember the name. For the past two weeks he had been traveling from town to town, doing the odd job here and there. It wasn't much of a living but it was enough to keep himself fed. He had also bought two journals. The first was to record his experiences in this new world.

Yep, he figured out on day one that he was in a completely different universe and not a very isolated country filled with spiritually aware people. To say that he was both confused and pissed would be an understatement.

The second journal was for him to write down his past life and try to get it published into a book. Heck, he experienced life, death, the afterlife and almost everything in between, not to mention the amount of violence he had experienced throughout it all. He'd be more surprised if no one bought a book with all of that.

Ryu's inner musings are cut short however as the doors to the weapons shop across the street slam open and a little girl walked out before the door was promptly slammed shut in her face.

The girl was pretty young, 13 or 14 if he had to wager a guess. She had hazel eyes and long, purple hair that fell to the middle of her back that was cut in the traditional Japanese princess style. Her clothes, if they could be called that, was a single large white T-shirt that was several sizes too large for her and went down to her knees. It was secured to her by a black band around her waist. The sleeves were torn and jagged and the whole thing was covered in smudges of dirt.

Clutched tightly in one of her hands though, was a katana with a white sheath.

'What's a little girl doing with a weapon like that?' Ryu thought. The girl must have felt his gaze on her. Why you may ask? Because as soon as she was done giving the door the glare of death she turned her attention right at him.

The two seemed to stare the other down, before Ryu gave a small wave and walked away with his hands in his pockets.

After walking a couple blocks, Ryu knew that the girl was following him. He took a left down a somewhat empty street and as expected the girl was hot on his heels. But the moment she rounded the corner, the man she had been following had disappeared.

"Wha-"

"You know, it's not polite to follow people." She jumped and turned around. The mask wearing man now stood behind her, looking down at her with his arms crossed. "Mind telling me why you chose to follow a complete stranger?"

"...I'm looking for someone to train me on how to use a sword," She curtly answered.

"And you followed me, because?" He asked once more, not satisfied with her response.

"You have one strapped to your waist." Cue Ryu's glance at his Zanpakuto. "So you must know how to wield it. Teach me."

"...Really?" Ryu asked, disbelief practically dripping from his voice. "You based your decision on the fact that I carry a sword. What if I'm just one of those people that carry one around for the aesthetics?"

The girl stared at him in surprise. Clearly she hadn't thought of that. "Are you?" She asked with such innocence that Ryu almost melted at the look.

Almost being the keyword.

In reality he just stared blankly at her. "Well no, I'm not...but that's besides the point! You can't just come to the conclusion that I'm a master swordsman just by my looks alone!"

"...Are you?"

.

.

.

'Soul King Damn it, why's she so fucking adorable when she asked that?!' Ryu internally screamed, but on the outside he said, "Again, yes I am, but...fuck it. Why do you need someone to train you anyway?"

"So I can find and kill the one that took my brother away from me."

.

.

.

Well...this conversation got dark rather quickly didn't it?

Ryu scratched his jaw in though. On a side note, his jawline was starting to get a little scruffy and he should really shave soon. Back to the matter at hand though, he glanced down at the girl before him, who in turn stared right back. "Girl, what's your name?"

"Kagura Mikazuchi," she stated immediately.

"Hm, good name," Ryu said. "Well Kagura, I'm Ryu Sato and I've decided that I'll train you as you remind me of myself a bit, but you've got to fulfil one condition." She looked at him curiously, but nodded nonetheless. "And that condition is…"

Two months later

Ryu sighed quietly to himself as he walked along a random, old dusty road. He wasn't alone though. Beside him walked his student, Kagura, only now she was in a new set of clothes instead of an old shirt.

Gone was the old sack that she used to wear, replaced by an elaborate blazer with gold lining, and a large collar, which was open to reveal a collared shirt and red tie underneath. The cuffs of the jacket were tucked into a pair of white wrist-high gloves. On her legs, she wore a pair of black tights, which were tucked into a pair of knee-high boots and sat under a short white frilled skirt. Lastly a white headband with a white ribbon sat on the top of her head, tied at the middle in a bow, pointing straight up.

Even though Ryu had bought her the clothes shortly after becoming his student, he still loved to tease her about how the bow vaguely resembles that of animal ears, and that it made her look cute.

When ever he said such a thing, Kagure always responded by pouting cutely and kicking him lightly in the shin. She kicked him hard the first time, but upon almost breaking a few toes, she found out that he had a naturally reinforced skin and so she settled on light kicks to avoid self injury. Didn't stop him from teasing her though.

The young girl was quickly growing on him, and was a very determined student when it came to learning the way of the sword. She took to wielding Archenemy like a fish to water, much faster than Ryu did when it came to learning how to fight with his Zanpakuto, but that was mostly due to the fact that he had always fought with his bare hands until he became an Arrancar.

Speaking of swordsmanship, Kagura was quickly mastering the style of the undrawn long sword. It was the one condition that Ryu said she had to agree to. It was only a temporary condition though, and once she fully mastered the style, he would move onto teaching her how to actually fight with a drawn blade. Think of it as training with a wooden sword and then moving on to the really thing, but replace wooden with sheathed.

Within two month of training, Kagura was already more than capable enough to cut through the base of trees as thick as 6 feet in diameter. He couldn't stop a smile from forming at the memory of her jumping up and down out of happiness. To celebrate her accomplishment, Ryu was taking her to the next town where he had heard of a really good restaurant would be located.

Kagura had an extra skip in her step as she moved ahead of her teacher. She hopped a few more steps until she realized that she couldn't hear Ryu's steps and turned around to see that he had stopped and was staring into the forest. "Master?"

"Why don't you move on ahead Kagura," she went to question him, but was stopped as he smiled and said, "Don't worry. I just need to take a quick look at something." He waved his hand in a shooing motion. "Get going now, I'll be right behind you." Kagura hesitated for a moment before following his command.

Ryu waited for her be out of sight before dropping his smile into a frown. "You can come out now," he said to seemingly nobody, but it became clear that he wasn't alone as someone stepped out from the treeline.

It was a woman with long black hair and purple eyes. She had a very curvaceous body, with very large breasts, slim waist and wide hips. Upon her head was a white band which separated her hair, framing her bangs from her hair below the band. Worn upon her forehead was a small circular symbol with a small dot on the inside and surrounded by several dots around the top. Tied around her neck was a small white-colored strap. Meanwhile, her attire consisted of a very revealing beige-colored leopard-printed kimono, bearing the decorative marks on her shoulders. The kimono was wrapped around her torso with a thick, decorative yellow ribbon that tied behind her back, and her outfit was complemented by thigh-high socks that revealed her heels and toes. Her most eye catching feature that Ryu noticed though, was the two large gold-looking horns protruding from the sides of her head and pointing upwards.

Despite the fact that Ryu could tell that this woman clearly wasn't human from her appearance, he couldn't help but find her to be stunningly beautiful. So far this world was two for two when it came to sexy women.

"How long have you know that I was there?" The mystery woman asked.

"Since the last town a few miles back," Ryu responded with a wave of his hand while the other remained in his pocket, seemingly unbothered by the fact that he and his student were being followed. "May I know the name of my stalker and the reason why you decided to observe me and my student."

The woman didn't seem bothered by his small insult, "My name is Seilah, one of the nine demon gates of Tartaros." Seilah said with closed eyes and a small bow, "I was sent by my guildmaster to make contact with you and extend an invitation into our guild."

Ryu stared at her for a moment before turning away. "Well Seilah, I'm Ryu Sato. I'm sorry to inform you, but I already have plans to join a different guild, so please return to you master and inform him or her that I decline."As he began to walk away, Ryu felt his body freeze up. It lasted for little more than a fraction of a second, but it was just enough for him to be concerned.

Shaking it off Ryu resumed his pace so that he could catch up with Kagura, but then the feeling came back with a vengeance.

Seilah approached her now frozen target. "An opportunity to join Tartarus is not an offer given likely especially to those that aren't demons.. You will accompany me back to-," Whatever she was going to say next was halted by the hand that was suddenly outstretched right in her face.

Ryu stared at her coldly before he lowered his hand so that it hovered just above her heart and started charging a Cero. "Either you stop whatever it was you were trying to do to me, or your master will be sending someone else to search for your corpse. Are we clear?"

When she only stared wide-eyed at him, Ryu took her lack of response as a yes and turned away once more. "You will cease all observation of me and my student, or I'll show you just how powerful I truly am." With his two cents spoken he disappeared from the demonesses sight.

Any energy that Seilah had, left along with him as she immediately crumbled to her knees. "H-He broke free of my curse... I couldn't even see him move," she said in disbelief.

"Not even master Mard Geer can perform that with such ease." Feeling something strange, she glanced down to see that it was her hands shaking. "What is this feeling? I-Is this what others call fear?" Placing one shaky hand in the other, she slowly rose to her feet and looked in the direction that her quarry had gone in and smiled ever so slightly. "Your story will be a very interesting one, Ryu Sato."