Chapter 7: Shinigami and Quincy

Ichigo glared at the glasses wearing self-proclaimed true Quincy boy, Uryu Ishida. He did not like the other boy. His mother stood off to the side with a sad look that he was really starting to hate seeing on her face. He really missed goatface himself and since that day he'd been forced to train with the old man, Soken Ishida; who wasn't that bad of a person to train with. Next to the old man was Getabushi who he and Verena trained with on weekends. He just had a sneaking suspicion that the pervert just liked beating kids up, because he swore that's all anybody had been doing to him lately.

Focus King!

Outside his own head, Ichigo cringed at the loud noise that weird echoing voice always seemed to make whenever he wasn't paying attention. Next to him Uryu once again glared at him. Today they were learning how to created their Quincy bow's, which seemed dumb to him, but he wanted to see his mom smile at least once today. Focus. he thought to himself only to hear snickering in his head that echoed. Maybe he was going crazy and that's why he heard voices in his head, though lately his dreams were filled with a white haired boy chasing him around a world with huge skyscrapers on their sides or upside down. It was really weird.

Upon hearing his name called, Ichigo stepped forward and stood next to old man Ishida. Listening to the instructions once more, Ichigo took a deep breath and focused on the energy around him. He could barely sense it, by he did feel something around him. Pulling it close and gathering the energy to himself, a bow slowly formed. It was small, but the color was not the blue-ish white color that Uryu's had been, but black with red around it and finally a blue color around that. He was proud to have even created a bow, but suddenly the energy flared and he lost his focus.

Soken Ishida created a barrier in a blink of an eye around Ichigo and stoped the energy from doing harm to anyone, Ichigo included. "Well...that was a good try." he said with a shaky voice, obviously not having been sure what would happen.

"Can I try now?" Verena asked excitedly.

"Of course." Soken answered his eyes shining as he smiled at the small girl.

Ichigo went back to standing next to Uryu, who pushed his glasses up his nose as he spoke with a condescending voice. "You lost focus, that's why it flared."

Ichigo rolled his eyes at him. "No kidding." he mumbled, sounding annoyed.

"You should quit." Uryu said as they watched Verena create a true Quincy bow without any problem. Ichigo gawked at her bow with wide eyes as his jaw dropped at her ability to create one with ease. "You may have Quincy blood, but you have a red spirit ribbon." A Ichigo's confused look he continued. "Only Shinigami have those."

"Shuddup." Ichigo growled at him with annoyance in his tone.

Verena suddenly turned her eyes away from her target and looked at her brother, his face contorting into anger. Creating an arrow, she shot it. The arrow struck a boulder and went right through it, causing it to split in half. Calling away the bow she went up to the two boys and pointed a finger at them. "Stop arguing with each other or I'll bang your heads together!" she yelled at them.

Both boys felt sweat drip down their necks as Verena went back to stand next to Soken who chuckled at her threat to the two boys before going on to the next part of the lesson. "Kurosaki." Uryu began causing Ichigo to look at him. "Your sister is a bit scary."

Ichigo sighed. "Try living with her." Ichigo countered. "As much as I love having a twin, she can get too serious sometimes."

Uryu looked at him. "I'll cut you some slack as long as you keep her from killing me." he said looking completely serious.

"Say you'll help me understand this stuff too and you've got a deal." Ichigo countered with a grin. In other words if Uryu didn't agree to this amendment, he was on his own against Verena.

Uryu sighed but conceded to the terms. "Agreed."

The two boys stiffened when she eyed them with a glance behind her before returning her attention to whatever the older Quincy was saying. Sometimes Verena could be very frightening, even to Ichigo and when it came to her learning something new, it was best to never get in between her and that.

Ichigo charged right at Urahara. It was Saturday; which meant underground training! Like every weekend since their Dad's death two months ago, both Verena and Ichigo had been coming to learn how to fight, to protect themselves and those around them. With a fake wooden sword in their hands they really couldn't cause too much damage to the shopkeeper.

Tessai sat on one of the boulders with an apron on and a cup of tea in his hand as he sipped it. The black cat that followed the children around, Yoruichi, sat next to him watching both children chase after Kisuke with wooden swords. "They're getting faster." she said as she noticed the increased speed in both of the children. Not saying anything, Tessai looked down at her. "He's having fun." she said noticing the slight smile on Kisuke's face.

"The boss enjoys teaching." Tessai said in agreement. "Any news about what happened?"

Cat eyes looked up at him. "Yes." her deep voice answered. "It seems that the Noble Council of Elders felt the explosion of reiatsu and matched it to deceased Isshin Shiba." she watched as Ichigo suddenly tripped on his own two feet before standing up and running full throttle at Kisuke who seemed shocked at the boy's sudden speed and strength. "They're launching an investigation due to the fact that Aizen reported his death nearly fourteen years ago. Five years before those two were even born."

"So keep an eye out?" he inquired just as Ichigo sprung at Kisuke and snagged a leg causing the shopkeeper to hop on one leg to try and dislodge the boy only for Verena to grab onto the other.

Yoruichi chuckled at the sudden look her old friend had upon his face. Total and utter defeat at having two adorable children grasping onto him. "Definitely." she said as she stood up, stretched out and then quickly ran off before the children noticed her.

Kisuke may have looked busy, but he had seen Yoruichi with Tessai as he trained the children. When Ichigo had tripped, he had purposely slowed his speed down to allow the boy to catch up. Kisuke hadn't expected Ichigo to jump at him, neither had he expected the boy to have a crushing tight grip on his leg. Distraction seemed to be his downfall, as Verena had followed her twin's actions by grasping his other moments later and he soon found his balance thrown off by both children refusing to move off of his legs and instantly fell onto his back.

"Oof." he gasped as he sound both children laughing. Duel grins on their faces. Both gave each other a look before he found them pouncing on him like a predator on its prey and it seem his game of catch me if you can had suddenly turned into a tickle fest. Well this was a game he could definitely get down with as he snuck both arms around the twins tickled their sides relentlessly. Their laughter echoing throughout the training room.

An hour later both children were upstairs eating a late lunch snack that Tessai had prepared as Urahara spoke to Masaki. "How are they doing?" she asked wondering if they were gaining in strength or not.

"Ichigo is a very fast learner." he told her as he sat down. "He makes a mistake once and learns quickly how to overcome it." he took his cup of tea and sipped it before continuing. "This is something that most don't learn so quickly, it takes years of overcoming mistakes; but Ichigo overcomes obstacles so much faster. Speaking of speed, he is very fast on his feet. Next week I'd like to test his endurance a bit more, to see how quickly he can move."

"Verena?" she inquired as she heard sudden laughter as the twins did something in her absence.

Urahara smiled. "Like Ichigo, she is fast; but she seems to follow her brothers lead." he then paused in thought before continuing. "Both have a ridiculous amount of spiritual power that's emanating from them." he pointed to his wrist. "I've given them both bracelets that will help hide away their power until it grows again; which it shouldn't for another year or two."

"How much power are we talking about?" she asked, remembering how strong Isshin had first been when she'd met him.

"Hmm..." he thought for a moment. How to put it in perspective? He sat his cup of tea in front of her. "This is an example." he told her. "This cup represents the normal amount of power in a spirituality active child." he picked up the tea pot and sat it next to the cup. "This represents you children's powers." Her eyes widen at this. "Grand Fisher was more than likely attracted because of this power that's flowing from them." he place both the pot and cup back. "I'm hoping to prevent that tragedy from happening again by placing these bracelets on them that will create a barrier around the children, stopping their spiritual energy from leaking around them. Hopefully this will stop both hollow and Shinigami from sensing the children."

Masaki suddenly thought of her other children. Would this happen to them too? "What about Karin and Yuzu? Will this eventually happen to them as well?" she asked him, fear in her eyes and worry in her voice.

Truthfully, he wasn't sure. Shaking his head he answered. "I don't know." he told her. "Both girls show no signs of sensing spirits and until they do, I have no idea of whether they'll need the training or the protections that their older siblings do need." Both adults sat in silence as they tried to figure out what would be best for the children and their future.

M-Angel: So this week has been absolutely hell for me. Been very stressed but thankfully I pre-wrote this chapter last Sunday. So I currently do not have the next chapter written but I do have a rough draft of it. So that is good. I'll try to have chapter 8 out by next Sunday, but that all depends on how busy I get. Tell me what you guys think of this chapter in the comments!