WARNING: MANGA SPOILERS AHEAD! (kind of, as in elements freely borrowed from the last arc of the manga and sometimes warped to fit this story.) Also, big thanks to those of you who reviewed the last chapter!
Chapter 23: Revelations
Monday, December 29th. 6:45 a.m.
It was the first day of winter break. Uryuu lay in his bed, staring at the ceiling, wishing he was the kind of person who could sleep in. Things had been relatively dull for him without Ichigo around. A new, unremarkable shinigami had been stationed in Karakura and there were no extra hollows to deal with. Orihime had been mostly keeping to herself, with the exception of her occasional visits with a certain ex-Espada who he felt did not deserve to be named.
He tried not to think about those two together. It was infuriating when he did. He understood that Ulquiorra was supposedly purified by Ichigo's zanpakuto, but still… he wasn't sure if it was his Quincy pride or what, but he wasn't going to easily accept the so-called "facts" as Urahara had presented them relative to the guy who had once cut off his left hand and killed his friend. As far as Uryuu was concerned, Ulquiorra didn't deserve forgiveness.
Uryuu understood that Orihime was very forgiving – that she put up with Ichigo's recent failure as a boyfriend for so long was proof enough – but he thought that there had to be limits, even for her. But to his dismay, he had followed Orihime and Ulquiorra around the previous afternoon, and the whole time Orihime acted like they were two old friends. As Uryuu walked her home afterward, Orihime had told him animatedly about how they had had a nice time at lunch and when they went shopping they had even been teasing one another! She went on and on talking about how much he had changed and how they would be seeing each other a lot more often, she thought. It was unbelievable. Surely she didn't think of him as a friend, could she? Or worse, a stand-in for Kurosaki? She only seemed to be happy when she was talking about Ulquiorra these days, so it was a possibility, he worried.
Uryuu was starting to get a headache. He blindly fished around in his bedside table's drawer for a bottle of ibuprofen, when his phone rang. It was his father.
"Ryuuken," he mumbled as he pressed the phone to his ear.
"Uryuu," Ryuuken answered, with an uncharacteristic weariness. "We are ready for you."
"At the hospital?"
"Yes."
"I can be there in an hour."
"Make it 45 minutes. I have a hospital to run too, you know."
Uryuu hung up without another word, and then, groaning, hoisted himself out of bed and into the shower.
Uryuu arrived at the hospital with time to spare. He walked past the check-in station without acknowledging the scrawny middle-aged woman who sat there; everyone there knew who he was and no one dared ask the director's son any questions, except, perhaps, his father's secretary, who would not be in at this hour. Uryuu walked through his father's office straight to a hidden door located to the left of the desk, concealed at the seams by some decorative half-columns. Uryuu knew the dark path well; at the end of these stairs was the place where his father had trained him after he lost his Quincy powers.
Not sure what would be waiting for him on the other side of the door, he knocked first. His father opened the door and looked down at his watch. Seeing his son was on time, he simply looked away without comment. Uryuu glared at the back of his head, until he heard a familiar voice say, "Yo, Ishida!"
"You're looking much better than the last time I saw you, Kurosaki," Uryuu replied. He was glad to see Ichigo's skin had healed and there was no sign of his hollow.
"Yeah, it took a few days for my injuries to heal-"
"You two can chat after I leave," Ryuuken interrupted. Ichigo jumped to the side, and Uryuu eyed Ryuuken as he loosed an arrow toward the spot where Ichigo had stood a split-second before.
"Are you trying to kill him?" Uryuu complained, his father taking a moment to light the cigarette clenched in his teeth before drawing his bow again, squinting his eyes to shield them from the smoke curling toward his face. He missed again, tsking at himself, before answering.
"I'm trying to help him, although I'm not sure why," Ryuuken answered. "This is taking too long." Ryuuken put the bow down, rolling his stiff shoulders, and looking back at Uryuu. "I believe this will be easier," he muttered, before pulling out a Seele Schneider blade and thrusting it toward Uryuu.
Uryuu was pushed backward by an unseen force, and immediately thereafter his view of his father was blocked by Ichigo. Ryuuken leapt into the air and lunged again for his son. Ichigo again interfered. This continued for a few moments, allowing Uryuu the opportunity to make an unbelievable observation: Ichigo was not using Shunpo or Sonido to move as quickly as he did. He was using Quincy Hirenkyaku!
Uryuu's shoulders sunk as he watched his father and Ichigo continue their dance, until finally Ryuuken flicked his spent cigarette away and sheathed his Seele Schneider. Ichigo was bleeding from his forearm slightly, and had a scratch on his cheek. Ryuuken spoke. "Better. Still not good. I have to go to work. You," he looked to Ichigo, "tell him what he needs to know," he said as he indicated toward Uryuu. "When he's up to speed, start sparring."
With that, Ryuuken left the two boys alone.
Uryuu was still sitting on the floor, flabbergasted. Ichigo looked at him and half-grinned, grabbing for some bandaging tape on a nearby cart, before looked down to start wrapping his forearm. "Surprise," he said weakly, looking back at Uryuu with a somewhat contrite expression.
Monday, December 29th. 8:00 a.m .
Orihime had kept her schedule open for winter break. She had hoped that somehow she would have a chance to meet with Ichigo, and she didn't want to have some lesser plans getting in the way of an opportunity to see him. It had been a day and two weeks since his intervention, and she had yet to hear a word on his progress or when they could see each other again, apart from Urahara's assurances that Ichigo was safe.
After he was first taken away, she was mostly numb. A small part of her was relieved that he was gone and couldn't damage their relationship anymore. A larger part felt ashamed of herself for feeling that way. More than anything, though, she dreaded missing him. It took two days, and then she started to feel it: the expansive emptiness that followed her around in his absence. After the war, when he had lost his powers and drifted away from her, it was difficult and painful. Now, after all they had been through as a couple, it felt nearly impossible.
She was still Orihime though, and she knew she had to hold onto the positives. She was glad for school and her friends and the routine there. She was glad for the hope she held onto for Ichigo's recovery. And she was, surprisingly, mostly glad for Ulquiorra.
Ulquiorra had proven himself an excellent distraction. She justified her feelings to herself easily; reminding herself that Ichigo would want her to do her best to keep moving forward while she waited for him. Ulquiorra was the perfect project to keep her occupied to that end, plus it gave her renewed hope: if Ulquiorra could have a second chance, why couldn't she and Ichigo?
So, all things considered, she had been coping fairly well until today. It was dark and cloudy, and she sat on the floor of her living room with no plans and no distractions. She was starting to feel lonely. She let her spiritual awareness extend out, looking for a connection. She hadn't been able to feel Ichigo's presence since he had been taken away, though Urahara had explained he was being housed at a sealed location, so she didn't expect to find him. She sensed Chad almost immediately; he lived nearby and based on the peaceful hum of his reiatsu, he was still sound asleep on this first day of break. She smiled softly and pressed her awareness further afield, quickly finding the quiet tension of Tatsuki's familiar spirit. Tatsuki didn't have a lot of reiatsu, but if Orihime sought it out, she could almost always find it. It was no surprise that it came from to dojo; she had told Orihime she'd be at practice but would talk to her later in the day.
She didn't want to wait until later in the day. She needed someone to talk to now. She searched for Uryuu. He always seemed to have the right thing to say when she was down. He was usually easy for her to find; he had a very strong spiritual presence, though if he wanted to hide it, he could do it perfectly. Still, it would be an unusual thing for him to try to hide it on a Monday morning with no school and no hollow presence. She pushed her awareness farther still, searching for him. As she did, she began to worry. She picked up her phone as she kept searching for his spiritual energy and called him. There was no answer, so she left a voicemail to call her back. She shifted her spiritual focus toward the school, the hospital, the clinic, the station - there was no trace of him. She was more than worried now. She mentally called out to him, like a prayer, wishing for him to contact her. Unbeknownst to her, she simultaneously sent out a strong pulse of nearly panicked reiatsu with it.
Orihime got up and went to the kitchen to distract herself. She set to work putting away the dishes she had left out to air dry the night before. She didn't feel like eating, but made herself some tea. She opened her refrigerator and decided to go through it to throw away expired items. It took about twenty minutes, but the tasks were over all too quickly for her liking, and she felt her unease rise again. She took out her phone and sent a short text to Uryuu, hoping that maybe he was just somewhere without service. After another moment, she walked back to her living room window and pushed her reiatsu out again with all her concentration, searching for Uryuu with a growing sense of fear and loneliness.
She was so focused on finding Uryuu's reiatsu signature that she blocked out all others. As a result, when someone started banging frantically on her front door, she shrieked and pulled back her reiatsu in a poor attempt to hide from whoever was on the other side of the door. The knocking suddenly stopped, and after a moment, she heard a deep, apprehensive voice call through the door, "Woman?"
9:00 a.m. Karakura Hospital (Underground)
"So let me get this straight, your mother was a Quincy, and now you are too?"
"Yep."
"That's funny. That is really funny." Uryuu couldn't help but laugh.
"I get that you are surprised, but I don't get what's funny about it."
"You really don't see the irony? You have always tried to put down anything to do with Quincy culture, and all along, you've been one of us. That is hilarious." Uryuu was amused and somewhat vindicated, but his lingering hurt from Ichigo's past cruel words was still lingering around him. Ichigo noticed.
"Yeah, I was a bit of an ass about it, I guess. Sorry."
Uryuu shook his head, dismissing Ichigo's apology. "Anyway, what has your training program consisted of so far?"
Ichigo took deep breath before explaining that he had received a bit of history and theoretical knowledge from Ryuuken and Urahara, followed by basic reishi manipulation practice, with a focus on footholds. Once he was able to stand in the air, training with Yoruichi started to increase his speed to Hirenkyaku levels. Since then, he had been training with her for part of the day, and the rest of the time with Ryuuken.
"And what has he been teaching you?" Uryuu was curious. His early training had all come from his grandfather. The only training he ever received from his father basically took the form of predator and prey until he was shot through the heart with one of his father's arrows.
"He hasn't taught me any offensive tactics, although I've figured out how to use reishi to increase my hand-to-hand fighting effectiveness." Uryuu raised an appreciative brow at this, before Ichigo continued. "But um, basically I've just been trying not to get killed."
Uryuu laughed. "Sounds familiar."
"I just wish I knew what the goal of all this is. I mean, I'm glad to get this training and to have some kind of spiritual power back. I am really grateful for that. I just don't know how this is supposed to help me control my hollow," Ichigo explained, brows knitting in frustration.
"If I know my father at all, he won't tell you until you figure it out on your own, so don't worry. In the meantime, do you want to try something cool?" Uryuu asked, holding a Quincy cross toward Ichigo.
Ichigo raised his eyebrows as he took the item. "You think I can make a bow with this?"
"You won't know until you try."
Ichigo attempted to put the cross's chain around his wrist. "Um, Ishida, this is kinda small for me," he said as he looked over at Uryuu's wrist with a pitying expression.
A vein on Uryuu's forehead throbbed. "That's because it's meant for a child, dumbass," he seethed as he took the cross from Ichigo, and wrapped the bracelet chain into a double loop, slipping the loop over Ichigo's thumb. "That should be sufficient to keep it in place, just keep your thumb parallel to the ground. It'll help with proper hand position anyway. This cross was one of the first ones I trained on with my grandfather, so it should be easy for you to use." Ichigo nodded and Uryuu began coaching him on manipulating reishi to form simple bows and arrows.
9:00 a.m. Orihime's Apartment
Orihime threw her front door open to see Ulquiorra on the other side, hand pressed to his side and breathing heavily. "What are you doing here?" she asked, spooked.
"I came (pant) as fast (pant) as I could (pant)." Ulquiorra paused, bending to put his hands on his knees and catch his breath. After a minute he stood back up and continued with a bit of confusion, "You appear unharmed."
Orihime hadn't wrapped her head around what she was seeing. "What are you doing here?" she repeated.
Ulquiorra ignored her question, peering over her shoulder to the interior of her apartment. "No other beings appear to be preset. What was the cause of your distress?"
"What?"
"Your reiatsu. It was erratic and distressed. What was the cause?" he demanded.
"Nothing, really."
Ulquiorra studied her expression, looking for a sign that she was hiding something. Unable to come to a conclusion, he decided to find out for himself. He threw Orihime a wary glance before carefully pushing her aside and barging right into the living room, looking around for an imperceptible foe.
"Ulquiorra! You can't just come into someone's house without being let in! And you still have your shoes on!" Orihime cried, looking down at the dirty, wet footprints tracked over the wood flooring and area rug.
Ulquiorra was impatient. He returned to where Orihime stood in the genkan, standing rather close and stared down hard into her eyes, before scolding, "Just what were you trying to do, flexing your reiatsu like you did earlier? You could have summoned a menos."
"I… I," Orihime stuttered, still not having come to grips with what was going on. She took a shuddering breath and looked down at her feet. "I'm sorry. I didn't know. I was looking for a friend's reiatsu, but I can't find it."
Ulquiorra shivered. The door was still open, and he hadn't bothered to put on a coat before he left home. He reached over Orihime's shoulder and shut it behind her, brushing her cheek with his sleeve as he did. His agitation subsiding, he sighed, asking softly, "Perhaps I can assist. May I come in?"
Orihime nodded and stepped inside. Ulquiorra took off his shoes this time and followed. She offered him a seat and she went to the kitchen. She came back with a towel and a bottle of water. She offered Ulquiorra the water and then started to clean his wet footprints off the floor.
"So, who was it you were seeking?" Ulquiorra asked relatively gently, feeling apologetic watching her clean his mess.
"Ishida-kun."
"Ishida… the Quincy?"
Orihime nodded as she began to reject the muddy stain on the area rug.
"There is a reason you cannot locate him. He is with Ichigo Kurosaki today. Urahara-san informed me last night that the Quincy will be assisting with his training. Urahara-san will join them this afternoon."
Orihime's face lit up. "Do you know where they are?"
"Yes."
"Well?" she asked expectantly.
Ulquiorra gave her a perplexed look.
"…where are they?" Orihime prodded.
"I cannot reveal their location."
"Why not?"
"I cannot risk your safety."
"Oh come on, why do you even care, Ulquiorra?" she whined.
"Your safety is paramount, woman! I am tasked to protect it." he scolded again.
Orihime began to laugh. "Um, earth to Ulquiorra, Aizen is dead. You don't have to listen to him anymore."
Ulquiorra looked toward the window. Orihime watched with astonishment as he made a very human, very pained expression, his eyes dropping and cheeks coloring. Her laughter stopped.
"I'm sorry, Ulquiorra, do you mourn him?" she asked in respectful disbelief.
Ulquiorra looked back to her. "No."
His answer sounded short, almost offended. Orihime didn't know what to say.
After a moment, Ulquiorra looked out the window again. "I just need you to be safe," he murmured.
12:00 p.m. Karakura Hospital (Underground)
Uryuu's practice with Ichigo was starting to pay off. Ichigo was able to form a small bow and arrow almost every time he tried, and he and Uryuu had been trying to shoot each other for the last half hour, although Uryuu was going easy on Ichigo. Ichigo had no archery experience, and did not appear to possess a natural talent for it. It was going to take work to turn Ichigo into a decent shot.
As Uryuu watched Ichigo drop the Quincy cross from his thumb for what must have been the 85th time that day, the door to the training room opened. "Ishida-san, Kurosaki-san, I've brought lunch!" Urahara's voice called out as he stepped into the room. He was followed by Yoruichi, and Ryuuken.
Urahara set up a makeshift picnic for the group on the floor of the training room. He had brought some rice balls and tea, which he passed around before he started to speak.
"We are having this little lunch meeting today to evaluate the training so far and make any necessary modifications to the plan. How has it been going, Kurosaki-san?"
"Not bad, I think. I am able to do Hirenkyaku alright, and today Ishida was showing my how to manipulate reishi into weapons, although I need work to improve my aim."
Ryuuken shook his head in disappointment. "I thought I told you two to spar, not play Robin Hood."
Uryuu threw his father an indignant look. "Hey! I was just trying to give him something to level the playing field, a bit. What did you want me to do, just kill him?"
Ryuuken shot his son a look that gave the impression he would be ambivalent about Ichigo's death, then sighed and continued. "I suppose it doesn't matter anyway. Only a pure-blooded Quincy can trigger a mixed Quincy's Blut."
Both Ichigo and Uryuu looked at the Ryuuken in confusion, their mouths too full to ask the questions written on their faces. Ryuuken groaned and got up, walking toward the door and lighting a cigarette. "I don't have time for this, Urahara. You can play teacher today. I'll be back after business hours," he called out before leaving.
Urahara looked back at the boys. "Well, I guess I have some things to explain to you." Urahara took out a whiteboard and some markers. Both boys groaned internally; they knew this was going to take a while.
"As you know, Ishida-san, your mother was not a pure-blooded Quincy, and as a result, neither are you. Kurosaki-san is similar; although his mother was a pureblood, his father is a Shinigami/human. The reason Ishida Ryuuken appears to be trying to murder Kurosaki-san is because he is trying to awaken an ability which is dormant in mixed-blood Quincies, called Blut. The Blut ability is natural in pure-blooded Quincies, but the only way to awaken Blut in a mixed-blood Quincy is through training with a pureblood, triggering it through combat." Both boys nodded their vague understanding as Urahara finished up his whiteboard notes and continued.
"Blut has two main functions, Blut Vene and Blut Arterie, which are defense and offensive functions, respectively. For Kurosaki-kun's purposes, we will focus only on Blut Vene. It is an extremely powerful defensive technique that allows its practitioner extraordinary durability, to the extent that it can protect a Quincy's human body from damage from attacks equivalent to a high-level captain's bankai. It is our expectation that once Kurosaki-san has mastered Blut Vene, he will be able to survive his hollow's attempt to manifest without taking any damage to his human body. That is the first goal in our training. Hopefully you will be able to master this technique as well, Ishida-san."
"Thanks a lot for teaching me yourself, Ryuuken", Ishida thought to himself sarcastically.
"Well that's great, Hat-n-clogs, but what about me being able to stop my hollow from taking over my body in the first place?"
"One step at a time, Kurosaki-san. Without mastering Blut Vene, you would probably not survive the next step."
"Can you at least tell me what that is?" Ichigo semi-begged.
Isshin walked in to hear what was being discussed. He remained quiet as Urahara continued. "Your progress in the World of the Living is limited due to its relatively low levels of reishi. In order to properly use your Quincy abilities to their fullest you will need access to a much richer source of reishi. Sending you somewhere with high reishi density will be to your great advantage. It will reduce your training time by at least 75%."
"And where would that be?" Ichigo asked.
Isshin answered. "Ichigo, within your soul are the powers of a Quincy, yes, but also a human, a hollow, and a Shinigami. The only reason you have been able to survive using these conflicting powers is that they have been with you since birth. Your shinigami power is not really lost, just dormant. In order to truly master all three non-human aspects of your soul, they need to be in balance. The only way to achieve balance is through training in Soul Society. When you reach a high enough level training here, you will go to Soul Society to further improve your Blut, and eventually, revive your shinigami ability."
Thank you so much for reading! What do you think about the progress of Ichigo's powers coming back? How about Ulquiorra's mysterious behavior? Let me know what you think please!