Chapter 36: Training
Olden eyes looked directly at the white haired captain of the thirteenth. "Are you positive that you do not recall coming into contact with anybody other than that of your squad member who is assisting Captain Kyoraku?" the ancient voice of the head captain, Genrysuai Yamamoto inquired. After hearing that his pupil had inexplicably been healed, he had it investigated to ensure that nobody else had been responsible. Both captains had been questioned repeatedly by second division and the head captain.
Jushiro sighed tiredly. After a full day of questions he was exhausted and ready to go home. "I am positive sir." he answered.
Yamamoto's eyes darted to the captain of the twelveth who held a few papers within his hands. The half-crazed, half-genius captain seemed to be excited about something, as the creepy grin that was spread across his face had yet to leave. "Captain Kurotsuchi, what have you found?" he asked, causing the scientist captain to step forward.
"I have found evidence of a reiatsu on both Captain Kyoraku and Ukitake that matches only one person," he said as his grin broadened. "Kisuke Urahara."
"What!?" Yamamoto looked at both captains who seemed confused.
"You mean Urahara was there?" Kyoraku asked, feeling quite confused about this as he tipped his hat back to look at the scientist. "Impossible! I would have remembered seeing him!"
"Agreed." Jushiro said with a nod.
"I did pick up two others which I'm guessing are the humans you are having the Kuchiki girl investigate." Kurotsuchi stated as one of his eyes darted towards Byakuya, who was remaining quiet in the head captains office.
"There were three humans present." Kyoraku interrupted the man.
"Tch." Mayuri seemed annoyed at being corrected by the captain of the eighth. "The reiatsu residue that was left upon both of you was quite large, but there was something different about two of the three reiatsu's. I'm still testing to see exactly what it is; however, I do have a theory."
"Which is what?" Shunsui asked, knowing the scientist was waiting for somebody to ask this.
"That these children are the product of some of Urahara's experiments." he stated, knowing if such a thing was possible then the children would be brought to Soul Society and placed in the twelveth for security reason and for Mayuri to find out exactly how they were created.
"Sounds more like what you'd do than Urahara." Shunsui said, he was beginning to get bored and his voice was showing this as Kurotsuki glared at the other him.
"What have your investigations found on the children?" Byakuya's voice echoed in the room, until now he had been quiet. It was his division's responsibility to do investigations, so he was slightly annoyed that Captain Kyoraku had taken it upon himself to do this type of investigation without telling him about it first.
"The eldest boy of the group is about fifteen, like his twin sister." Kyoaku stated trying to think about how much he was going to tell them. "They have a pair of twin sister's who I have yet to be told anything about. Both teens have exceptionally high reiatsu. The boy, has power that is likely that of a substitute. He has some training, though it is unknown who has taught him. The two girls that we met one was the boys twin as the second seemed to be a friend. The sister's power is still unknown, but being near her, I found myself reminded of a woman I was knew who was quite powerful but hid that power in order to deceive her enemies."
"The friend is the one who healed me." Jushiro said as he tried to get the attention off of the twins. "Her power of healing was amazing. It felt as if my disease was completely erased. Since then, I've been able to fully activate my bankai without having a fainting spell." Shunsui looked at his friend with shock on his face. "However, it felt as if her power was more than she was showing at that moment."
"Hmm..." Kyoraku hummed as he touched his chin. "I believe that while she was healing you that I saw these tiny beings floating around her."
"Tiny beings?" Mayuri inquired intently. "A manifestation of her power perhaps?" He grinned. He had to find this girl and do some tests upon her. The doors to the head captains office opened to reveal Lieutenants Sasakibe and Nemu.
"Pardon the interruption head captain." Lieutenant Sasakibe said as he bowed in respect to the older man. "Lieutenant Kurotsuchi has discovered something that may be of interest."
"Proceed." Yamamoto said, sounding slightly annoyed at the interruption.
"Tests done on the two reiatsu's has revealed something both unusual and interesting." Nemu stated as she handed the results to her captain.
Mayuri looked over the results once, his eyes widening. "What?" he asked, unsure if he was seeing correctly.
"Kurotsuchi..." Captain Yamamoto tapped his staff causing the scientist to look towards him. "The results?"
Regaining his composure, Mayuri revealed what was in his hands. "Tests have revealed that the two reiatsu's of the twins have Shiba traits within them. The blood sample from Ukitake's haori reveals that the male, the female as well, are both of the Shiba lines; but that's not all!" he exclaimed, excitement filling him unlike anything else had in years. "They also have an ancient Quincy bloodline in their blood. They are Quincy/Shinigami hybrids!"
Silence filled the room as everyone stood in shock at this information. "They are of the noble bloodline though." Byakuya's voice broke the silence. "Even if they are hybrids, as a noble son, I cannot allow harm to come upon another noble. Whether they take after the Shiba bloodline or of the Quincy line, that is something I alone must discover."
"WHAT!?" Kurotsuki seemed unhappy with this turn of events. He had expected the head captain to give him permission in capturing them.
Yamamoto eyed Captain Mayuri suspiciously. The thirteenth division's captain had always gone a bit overboard on certain things. Upon hearing that these children held two different lines within themselves, added to the fact that they had siblings, it meant that the Quincy's weren't as dead as most believed. "Captain Kuchiki, you and your Lieutenant are to shadow your sister in watching these humans. Do not approach at this time." He then looked back at Kurotsuki. "Which of the Shiba's sired these children?"
Kurotsuki looked at the paper once more before answering. "Former deceased captain of the tenth and former leader of the Shiba clan; Isshin Shiba."
A bright orange shield appeared in front of Orihime as she blocked Yoruichi's kicks from harming Tatsuki who had fallen when she'd been kicked by the Shihoin woman. Coming from the side, Chad punched at the purple haired woman only for her to duck and dodge it easily, however she hadn't expected the second fist to come in on her at a greater speed than what the first had come at her with.
Kisuke watched with amused eyes as Yoruichi went flying across the training field. She caught herself on one of the rock boulders and used the momentum to throw herself back at the giant teen, only for Tatsuki to rush past Chad and land a punch right in the cat woman's face. "Tsubaki! Santen Kesshun! I repel thee!"
Yoruichi barely dodged the attack, ending up only getting grazed by the tiny creature that had shot out to kill her. They're getting better at group attacks. she thought as Tatsuki rushed forward with a barrage of lightning fast kicks and punches that were well aimed. It was as she dodged these attacks that Yoruichi noticed the lightning bolts forming in Tatsuki's hands. Lightning daggers? she questioned. Raising her hand she gave the signal that she as surrendering.
Across the training field Ichigo stood next to Ishida as his sister was standing next to Rukia. Karin was further away with Tessai sho was teaching her some explosive kido as Kisuke daughter her how to use the asauchi zanpakuto that was on her hip. "Ichigo, you are to use your bow in this training exercise." Uryu stated as his bow formed. "There may come a time in which you will need it more than your sword."
"Tch." Ichigo snorted. "You're only saying that because you know I suck at using the bow."
"Then prove me wrong." Uryu said as he pulled his bow back readying an attack. "If I hit you, I win."
"What! Wait a minute!" Ichigo yelled put just as a dozen arrows were fired at him. Shit!
Rukia came at Verena with an asauchi sword, as her own couldn't form in the condition she was in. Verena felt her own sword vibrate and pulse each time the two swords came into contact. Rukia then called upon a small kido attack that was quickly absorbed by Verena's sword.
From the corner of his eye, Kisuke saw this action take place. He'd never seen her sword absorb an attack like that before. The flames from the kido attack were swallowed up, as if eaten by the sword. Interesting. he thought as he returned his attention towards Karin who starred in awe at the massive hole that Tessai had created by using a lightning based kido attack.
Getting tired of dodging Uryu's attacks, Ichigo concentrated on forming a bow in his hand. He'd never been very good at this sort of thing, but with the help of old man zangetsu he was able to form a bow by visualizing it first. The bow was black and looked to have a red outlining around it. The first arrow shot from it headline a flaming arrow with black fire. Uryu was about to dodge the single arrow when in mid-flight the arrow exploded and turned into a dozen arrows.
Taking shelter behind a boulder, Uryu let the attack pass before jumping out and yelling. "What the hell was that Kurosaki!?"
"My bad." Ichigo grinned.
If I didn't know any better I'd think he did that on purpose. Pushing his glasses up his nose, Uryu detailed his thoughts from that track. "You really do suck at this."
"Shut up!" Ichigo yelled at him as he felt his energy flare in anger which caused the flames on the bow to flare.
That's interesting. Uryu thought as he noticed the bow was reacting. He then began firing multiple arrows at the same time.
Ichigo's eyes widened at the several dozen arrows that were headed his way. Fuck! he thought as he drew back his bow, the flames around the edges seemed to burn brighter before he shot off his single arrow that exploded at the halfway point just before Uryu's arrows crossed the same point. When the smoke vanished from the explosion, all arrows were gone.
"It would seem you have a unique attack." Uryu stated as he thought about what exactly this meant. "Can you fire more than that single arrow?"
"I'm not sure." Ichigo admitted. "I'll try."
Uryu watched as once again the single arrow was shot out by the bow. The arrow exploded just before hitting a large boulder. When the smoke settled, the boulder was nowhere to be seen. "Your attacks obliterated everything in its path." Uryu noted. "Try again, but focus more energy into the attack." Uryu would later regret saying that one sentence. As Ichigo did just that, focus everything he could in that one arrow and as it flew across the training field at lightning speed, the explosion it generated was enough to throw everyone in the underground training grounds on their backs.
Kisuke was the first to stand, next being Tessai who held an unconscious Karin in his arms. Yoruichi and her group were next to stand, followed by Verena and Rukia, both of whom had the mouths agape at what they saw. Uryu, who was closest to the blast stood up at the same time Ichigo did, both shocked at what they saw. A huge hole that was the size of three football fields in the length and even deeper was the end result of Ichigo's very focused attack.
Uryu now felt a bit sick and realized that had Ichigo been an inch or two off that he would have undoubtedly fallen into the crater and been killed. Thankfully Ichigo's aim as better than his ability to regulate his attacks. "Were you trying to kill us!" he yelled at the orange haired youth.
Ichigo was still in shock at how big the blast zone had been. That came from one arrow? he thought in horror. I could've killed Uryu.
What'd you expect King? his hollow asked a bit smugly. We ain't the best at regulating our energy outputs.
Ichigo swallowed hard as he suddenly felt real nervous about his power. Yeah. Obviously. he thought back at the hollow zanpakuto spirit. "You said focus more energy." he countered. "I usually only use about ten percent."
"What was that?" Uryu asked with anger in his voice. "A hundred?"
"Fifteen." Ichigo answered as he sensed Kisuke come up behind him. "Sorry about destroying this place, again."
"It's okay." Kisuke said softly. "I know you didn't mean to." He then looked at Uryu. "If he uses more than ten percent of his power things get pretty destructive very quickly. Try to remember that." Turning back to the others he brought out his paper fan. "Looks like training time is over for now. We'll hold another training session in a couple of days after Tessai fixes Ichigo and Ishida's mess here."
Back in soul society, Mayuri Kurotsuchi was back in his lab sulking at not having the chance to capture and experiment on the hybrids. It was absurd. Those two were now being considered noble due to their relation with the Shiba clan. Each noble clan had been created by the Soul King for purposes that only each clan knew of. He did know that the Kuchiki clan was known to be the ones with the largest library that covered the history of both Soul Society itself and the Seiretei's creation onward to present day. The Shiba's were protectors. Of what, he was unsure.
"Tch." He looked angrily at the computer screen that held the data about the Quincy/Shinigami hybrids. "Once the Shiba's find out about these two, they'll undoubtedly want to bring them into the clan. Hybrids or not. Power is power to those clans." Suddenly an idea began to form in his mind causing him to grin broadly. He was unaware of the puppet master who was pulling the strings that would inevitably bring these promising youngsters to Soul Society or the dangers that was about to be unleashed into their world.
M-Angel: As promised, a longer chapter. Everybody is getting some training in but something big is about to happen!
Guest - He will eventually. Both the hollow and quincy spirit are still holding some information back.
Antex- The Legendary Zoroark - Those two are getting close, but no romance yet. It's a slow build up, sorry. I'm glad you liked this dream. Wait until you see his reaction to meeting Aizen face to face. ^_^
Megapanda34 - Thanks, I'm glad I'm not going to slow.