A few days later, in Hueco Mundo, Pesche said, "Alright, Karichi."

Karin frowned and said, "How many times am I going to have to tell you? Don't call me that!"

Pesche said, "As many times as I have told you that I will do it until you are able to defeat me." He paused and said, "If you can't even do that much, you'll never stand a chance against the enemies that you'd be facing when we try to send you back to the world of the living."

Karin sighed and said, "Alright then, how about you teach me about this reiatsu thing then?"

Pesche sighed and said, "Alright, I'll go over it again before we begin. Reiatsu, is the force that is generated when you gather up your reiryoku and release it. Since you can move about here under the influence of our reiryoku, you must have a great deal of it yourself. Further evidence of that is your manifesting a zanpakutō of your own."

"You've been saying that word for a while now. What exactly is this zanpak-whatsit that you're talking about?"

"Zanpakutō. It's the dagger that you found. It is the base weapon that all Shinigami and Arrancar have access too. When hollow consume each other, they absorb the reiryoku and some of the aspect of the powers of the hollow that they consumed. This is just me theorising here, but it seems to me that the zanpakutō manifested the way that it did, because, for whatever reason, your body could not handle the reiryoku that you absorbed when you consumed that hollow, and sealed them in the form of a zanpakutō."

"You said that only Shinigami and Arrancar have the ability to manifest a zanpakutō, right?"

"That's right."

"Then I don't understand how I manifested one. I'm a human!"

Pesche sighed and said, "That…I don't know. I don't want to assume, or cause you any distress, but it's possible that one of your ancestors possessed the powers of an Arrancar or Shinigami and over time that power was used less and less, to the point that the innate ability to use it, was degraded to the point that it became dormant and needed an outside source to jumpstart it."

Karin said, "Like consuming a hollow."

"Exactly."

"Then…could the same thing happen if a Shinigami shared their power with someone else within my family?"

"I suppose that it is certainly possible. Why? Did you see this happen?"

"Honestly? I'm not sure. I saw a girl wearing all black stab my brother through his stomach and all of a sudden, he was wearing the strange traditional clothes that the girl had been, but he had what must have been a giant zanpakutō on his back that was about as tall as he is."

Karin couldn't see it, but Pesche frowned, as he thought, 'If she's telling the truth, then it would mean that that ancestor, would have to have been quite the recent addition to their bloodline for both of them to awaken to their power so quickly. At the same time, it eliminates the possibility of them possessing an Arrancar forebear, since it's only recently that there has been an increase in the number of Arrancar here in Hueco Mundo. It would also go a fair way to explaining why it is that she sealed the powers of the hollow that she absorbed into the form of a zanpakutō that functions similarly to that of an Arrancar. However, it also poses a problem going forward. If her body sealed the hollow reiatsu into a sword because it couldn't handle it, then if she takes those powers into herself, what will happen to her? Hmmm…' He said, "You know what, I think that you're probably right. For now it would be best that we focus more on getting you ready to use your reiryoku. You need to focus solely on trying to feel out your reiryoku, so sit down and get comfortable." Karin sat down and crossed her legs with Pesche mimicking her. He held his hands together in his lap and closed his visible eye. He said, "Now, look deep inside yourself. Then, go even deeper. Only there will you find the source of your power.

Karin closed her eyes and frowned, thinking, 'Okay, look within myself…within myself…within myself…! How the hell am I supposed to do something like that, huh? You damned purple cyclops!'

Pesche opened his eyes and saw that his student was frowning. He said, "If you're thinking about something, then you're not trying to tap into your power."

Karin opened her eyes and sighed. She said, "Well it's not exactly hard to figure out why! Your explanations need work! A lot of work!"

Pesche sighed and said, "Alright. I'd thought that I'd explained it well enough, but apparently not. What do you want to know?"

"Where exactly this power is supposed to reside would be a good first step."

"Hmm…well…it's linked to your soul, but where exactly it resides is a bit difficult to say."

"Why's that?"

"Well, I've been told that for Shinigami, it's somewhere above the sternum. As a general rule of thumb, most hollows have their hole there, so it gets stored lower down. An Arrancar's body has a similar structure to it as a Shinigami though, so their power is stored in much the same location although, again, some Arrancar have their hollow hole there so theirs is somewhere else. I'm not entirely sure where it is on a human, let alone someone such as yourself."

Karin pointedly asked, "What do you mean by that?" unsure if she should be annoyed or not.

Pesche said, You have Shinigami reiatsu, but are still yet human, and a live one as well. So the structure of your soul is completely unknown to me."

"Hmm…you said that I had shinigami in me somewhere, right?"

Pesche said, "That's right, why?" as Karin closed her eyes. Karin imagined a point to the right of her heart in her mind's eye and focused on that point. She felt herself falling into that point. Dondochakka rushed into the room as Pesche's eyes widened, the room suddenly getting heavier and starting to shake under the force of Karin's reiatsu.

Both of them gasped as Karin opened her eyes and they saw a red aura appear around her that was reflected in her eyes. She smirked and said, "How's that, Pesche?"

"That's good. Now, let go of it." Karin closed her eyes and imagined the power receding from her control and the shaking of the room died down. Alright, now that you've done it once, it should come easier to you over time, but, any techniques that you would need to know will only be able to be used once you've gotten that experience. So, for now, I'm afraid that you're just going to have to knuckle down and practice accessing and releasing it."

Karin sighed and said, "Yeah, I kinda figured."

XXXXX

In Hueco Mundo, Starrk looked off into the distance, prompting an arrancar with dark green hair to look at him and ask, "What is it, Starrk-sama?"

Stark sighed and said, "How many times to I need to tell you, Lucia. You don't need to stand on ceremony with me."

Lucia sighed and said, "As always, one more time than last."

"Well, whatever. It's probably nothing…or is it something?" Lucia's eyes narrowed. Starrk sighed. He said, "I just felt a reiatsu coming from that direction," flicking his thumb towards the east. It felt faint, so, like I said, it's probably nothing to be concerned about."

Lucia thought, 'I didn't feel a thing. I still can't, even though I'm searching for it, so it's probably too far out for me to sense. But if that's the case, then…' She bit her lip. she said, "Starrk-sama. Please give me permission to search it out?"

Starrk sighed and said, "Alright. Fine. But if there is any sign of something being afoot, come back here as quickly as you can."

"Why? Wouldn't it be more beneficial for Las Noches if I were to determine the source of the disturbance, if that were the case?"

"No. It'd be too much of a hassle to deal with, considering Aizen-sama's more recent behaviour."

Lucia said, "Very well, Starrk-sama," and nodded before leaving without another word. When she was outside of Las Noches, she frowned as she thought, 'Hmm…I suppose that I should probably use sonido if I want to do this as quickly as possible, but, given how far out that reiatsu signature must have been, I could be running low by the time I get there, in which case, if there is a threat, I would have no way of combating it." She sighed and said, "This is going to be a pain," and started walking in the direction that Starrk had indicated.

XXXXX

Two weeks later, Lucia blinked as she saw a structure start to appear in the distance and thought, 'Did I get turned around? No. then what the heck's that supposed to be? Hueco Mundo itself has only been restored recently. Is there some other hollow civilisation? If so, should I return and get Starrk-sama? No. It's clearly still some distance away, so I can't see the condition that it's in. I should probably at least wait until I can verify the threat.'

It took her another two weeks to reach the building. She frowned as she looked at the gate and said, "Hmm…" as she studied the handprint on the left side of the gate. She thought, 'So, it's a left hand print on this one and a right hand on the other. I suppose that I probably have to press down on them at the same time, don't I?' She back to the one on the right. 'Too far for me to reach by myself, so it's probably intended for use by two people.' She grinned and said, "Well, too bad for them then." She stepped back a few steps before bending her knee forward and placing a hand on it and moving one hand back before cracking her neck and saying, "Well, I'm not as good at this as Zommari is, but here goes. Gemelos Sonído," and her image blurred. Two identical versions of Lucia appeared in front of the panels, causing it to swing open. The one on the left sonídoed through the door as soon as she was able, her clone fading from existence as the gate closed.

As soon as she appeared inside the large courtyard, she had to use her sonído again to avoid the purple cero that had been shot directly at her. She looked up at her assailant and frowned. She said, "It's you!"

Pesche said, "So, you've become an Arrancar as well, Lucia?"

"That's right. But what happened to you though? I had thought that once reaching the state of an Arrancar, the possibility of regressing to a previous state was eliminated."

"It is, however taking up the mask of another hollow will allow you to gain more power."

"Hn. Nee-san would disagree with making use of such a method." She cocked her head, sensing something that shouldn't have been possible. She demanded, "What are you doing with a human here if you haven't regressed?"

"I'm not sure how she ended up here, but she has a powerful reiatsu lying within her. So powerful that any attempt to leave would be noticed by the Espada and they, or their Fracción, will be sent to investigate. She currently has little to no control over it, so it usually registers at negligible at best and Dondochakka and my reiatsu is enough to cover it for now. Currently though, we are training her to be able to protect herself against that possibility."

"Hmm…there might be a problem with tha-!" Lucia's eyes widened and she frowned angrily, her reiatsu rapidly rising as she drew her sword. She used Sonído and appeared in front of Pesche as she swung her sword down on him.

Pesche barely had time to get his own sword up to defend against her strike and was sent flying back into the wall of the fortress. He said, "Infinite Slick," spraying the liquid on the ground between them.

Lucia said, "Lucir, Luciérnaga!" causing four wings made from magenta reiatsu to appear on her back, which she used to fly over the liquid and sliced at Pesche, trying to cut his head off. she demanded, "Why did you do it?!" as her wings disappeared and she force her reiatsu into her hand and hardened it and fired her Bala at the purple traitor.

Pesche leapt to the side and rolled into a standing position and proceeded to deflect the barrage of Bala sent at him as he said, "Too much reiatsu escaped from the cut that Nnoitora made in her mask and she shrunk to the size of a child, losing all of her memories of her time in Hueco Mundo as a result," as he defended himself from two more strike, this time, having gained proper footing, without flying backwards. We thought that keeping her away from Hueco Mundo was the best thing for everyone, lest Nnoitora try to attack her again in her far weakened state. Also, she never liked fighting and Aizen Sousuke's plans for war with Soul Society weren't sitting well with her."

Lucia sighed and said, "Nee-san's pacifism was always a problem, as she stood down, returning her sword to its scabbard.

Pesche sighed and said, "I'm glad that's over," thinking, 'This isn't good. Dondochakka and I have been training in secret ourselve, to protect Nel-sama, but Lucia was almost overpowering me, and with such ease too. She could be approaching espada level herself. We'll have to redouble our own training too.' He sighed and said, "I'm sorry, but can I ask you to not see your sister."

Lucia threateningly asked, "Why would I do that?"

"It could prompt the return of her memories, and if she regains her memories, but not her body, who knows what it would do to her."

Lucia sighed and said, "Fine. But I'm going to warn you to be careful, about a month ago, Starrk-sama felt Shinigami reiatsu in this direction. He gave me permission to come out here and investigate, but you're going to need to be careful or the other espada will notice and they aren't going to go so easy on you, or this Shinigami that you're training, as I did."

"So, you're leaving then?"

"Yes."

"Can I ask you two things before you leave then?"

"Sure."

"How did you get in here?"

"A new Espada, Zommari, likes to claim that he's the fastest Espada and created a derivative technique to sonído that lets him make copies of himself. I'm nowhere near his level with it, but I did manage to recreate it myself…or…at least an imitation of it, whether or not it's the same method that he uses, I couldn't tell you for certain."

"I see," Pesche said, thinking, 'So, this place isn't as secure as we'd suspected. This could be a problem.'

"Now, the other question?"

"How strong have the espada become?"

"Nnoitora has become even more bestial since you've been gone and somehow managed to eke his way into being the Quinto Espada. As to how strong in comparison to where he was, I'd say, at the upper limit, one and a half times, but again, that's just a guess on my part since I've never actually fought him myself."

"I see," Pesche said, frowning, considering the ramifications of what he was being told and what adjustments that they'd need to make.

"So, am I going to be needing help to get out of here, or…"

"No. it's actually a lot easier to leave this place than it is to get back in. that's why we make sure to always leave at least one person in here when we go outside."

"Go outside? Why? If the point is to hide out somewhere and train, wouldn't it be safer if you just stayed in here."

"Yes, but the Shinigami reiatsu that Starrk felt, actually belongs to a human, though I'm uncertain how she came by her shinigami reiatsu."

Lucia frowned and said, "Could you tell me where in the real world she came from?

"I believe that she said that it was a place called Karakura Town. Why?"

"I think that it might be an idea for me to take a trip to the real world before arriving back at Las Noches."

"You're going back then?"

"Yes. it will be far too suspicious if I don't return."

"That makes sense. But please, don't tell anybody about us?"

"If Starrk-sama pushes me, I will tell him, but knowing him, nothing will come of it.

"Even so, please avoid it as much as you can. After all, the more people that know about this place."

"What is this place exactly, anyway?"

"We believed that it was Las Madrugada, but the armoury here has weapons belonging to shinigami as well as a number of bows, so, as ttof yet, we haven't quite figured that out."

Lucia said, "I see. Then I will be seeing you again, Pesche Guatiche," and sonidoed back to the main gate of the fortress.

When Pesche was back inside he sonidoed to Dondochakka, who was studying the statues, trying to figure out the mechanism by which the one that Karin had identify to look like her unknown brother, changed appearance to see if there was anything more that they could learn about where they were, or what the Arrancars had done to earn the right to have their images carved as they were. He didn't look up from his work as he asked, "So, who was that?"

"It was Nel-sama's sister."

"Lucia?"

Pesche nodded before realising that Dondochakka hadn't turned to face him and, if he had had a pupil, he would have been seen to roll his visible eye. He said, "Yes."

"So, how was she?"

"Apparently she's become one of the Primera Espada's Fracción, though back when we were still fracción, she would have been in the running to take over the position of the Décimo Espada, Vilasco Vilazquez."

"Then why is she remaining as a fracción?"

"I didn't ask her, but there are two reasons that I can see. One is that she doesn't want to, given what happened with Nel-sama, it's not hard to see why. That, or that the level of the Espada has increased more dramatically than we had expected."

Dondochakka exclaimed, "That's not good, don'tcha know?"

"Yes! I'm quite aware of that! That's not the only problem though."

"Huh?" Dondochakka asked, both not understanding what else could be a problem, but also not wanting to know."

"Nnoitora has increased his strength by at least 1.5 times more than what it already was, and has reached the rank of Quinto Espada."

"Has there been any more changes with the Espada?"

"I didn't get the chance to ask her before she left."

"If that's so, then our Cero Sincretico…"

"May not be enough to protect Nel-sama, no."

"So what do we do then?"

"Lucia showed me a technique that didn't exist when we were Nel-sama's Fracción, but it seemed as though it could be performed by any regular spiritually aware being."

"Really? How did she do it?"

"She seemed to gather her reiatsu in her hand before launching it at me. It seemed to be significantly less powerful than a cero, but at least twenty times the speed of just about any Arrancar other than maybe Starrk."

"Even if that's so, it might be a good way to teach Karin-chan how to control her reiatsu without alerting Hueco Mundo, don't'cha know."

"That's a good idea, though I think that I'd like her to still focus on her swordsmanship for now while we figure out the mechanism ourselves."

"I suppose. But I still think that it would be more beneficial for her to get a better grasp on her reiatsu before she tries to contact her zanpakutō."

"Contact it? What do you mean? An arrancar zanpakutō just stores their hollow power in the form of a sword."

"Maybe so. But even if the Zanpakutō is, Karin-chan is still human, and has the power of a Shinigami, don'tcha know?"

"So what?"

"According to some of the texts here, a Shinigami's zanpakutō contains a spirit that they need to interact with somehow in order to make full use of its powers, which are sourced from the individual to compensate for what they themselves are lacking in."

"So you think that, because Karin-chan has the power of a Shinigami, she may need to interact with her zanpakutō the same way that regular Shinigami do?"

"It's worth considering anyway, don'cha think?"

"I will think on this. which book did you find that in?"

"I…" Dondochakka sighed regretfully before finishing, "…can't remember." Pesche rushed over and kicked Dondochakka in the side of his head, knocking him down before starting to stomp on him. Dondochakka started pleading, "I'm sorry, don'tcha know!?"

Pesche sighed and said, "Anyway, I'm going to go and see how Karin-chan is going.

Dondochakka said, "Alright, I'll keep trying to figure this statue out."

Pesche nodded before leaving Dondochakka to the mystery of the statues. When he'd reached Karin, he saw her swinging the asauchi faster and transitioning smoother than he'd seen her yet and frowned, thinking, 'She's a lot better than she was yesterday. She must be developing the correct muscular structure and it's only been what, three weeks since I started her on those drills? Although she's still got a long way to go before I can start sparring with her.'

Karin stopped, feeling him return and looked at him. she asked, "So, who was that that you were fighting?"

"Fighting? What do you mean?" Pesche asked, trying to avoid answering.

Karin wasn't going to let him hide the truth. She said, "I could feel your clashing reiatsu's from here. Were they strong? They must have been from what I was feeling."

"Yes. Very much so."

"So, is that the calibre of opponent that you're training me to fight."

"It was, yes."

"Was?"

"She informed me that the strength of opponent that you'll be contending with, are at least three to four times as powerful as she is, or even more."

"Three to…" Karin's eyes widened before narrowing, thinking, 'Then I've got no time to waste standing around gawking,' and started at the beginning of the drill that Pesche had shown her.

XXXXX

Meanwhile, in the world of the living only four days had passed since Karin was taken away, and Ichigo was glowering at Rukia, who had only just explained to him what she'd done to his father and younger sister. He said, "So let me get this straight. You Shinigami can just come along and rewrite people's memories whenever you want?"

"The effectiveness depends largely on the strength of their reiatsu, but yes, that is the gist of it."

"There's one more thing that we need to take care of."

"Oh yeah, and what's that supposed to be, huh?"

"You…seem to still be hung up over the fact that I came up with a cover story to explain the reason that your sister was all of a sudden, just gone."

Ichigo sighed and said, "Well, I suppose that I'll have to thank you for that at least. But even so, isn't there some kind of ethical rules that you Shinigami need to abide by?"

"There is."

"And rewriting memories as you see fit doesn't violate any of them?"

"No. as a matter of fact, they actually necessitate it."

"What? Why?!"

"A Shinigami's duty is to protect the world of the living by protecting the humans that live there from both Hollow and Togabito. At the same time, we also need to reduce our imprint upon this world. You tell me, what do you think would happen if knowledge that there existed beings like Shinigami that can make use of what you would consider magic?"

Ichigo sighed and said, "Alright, I guess I can see your point. But wait. If that's a consideration, wouldn't that mean that that's something that has already happened in the past?"

"Hmm…" Rukia said, "Maybe, but if it has, I certainly haven't heard of it. When my powers return and I can go back I'll make sure to look into the matter."

"You can do that? I would have thought that information like that would have been restricted."

"It would be, but the Noble Kuchiki clan is in charge of the defence of the Daireishokairō, so I am one of the few people that actually can."

"I see. I suppose that it must be good to be born with a silver spoon in your mouth."

Rukia grunted and looked down with a sad look on her face. She said, "I wish that that were true. If it was, then…" she sighed.

"What? Then you mean that you…"

"I actually grew up in district 50 of the Rukongai area, and the higher the number, the rougher it gets. I was adopted into the clan during my time in the Shinōreijutsuin. Even now I don't know why it happened."

"I see. Well, I for one am glad that you weren't born into the clan."

"What? Why?"

"Because, if that were the case, then I find it difficult to believe that you would have taken that blow from the hollow and loaned me your powers."

"Well, I don't know about that, ultimately, we'll never know since that's not how it happened."

"True enough. Wait a sec. You just said Togabito, didn't you?"

"That's right. What about them?"

"You've never mentioned them before. Are they another type of hollow?"

"I suppose that you could look at them that way. They are beings that turned into Hollow and slain with a shinigami's sword that have committed sins during their life and find a way back to this world."

What? I thought that you said that the Zanpakutō cleanses the soul of sins and sends them to soul society."

"I did, and they do. But that's only for sins committed that they'd committed after death. The zanpakutō holds no sway over what they've done during their life. That is why we are Shinigami, not Jinseigami."

"I see. I guess that that makes sense. Wait. Wouldn't that mean that Hollow should be responsible for the oversight of the living?"

"What? No! Don't be absurd! Hollow are mindless beasts that only seek to satiate their hunger. That is all."

"Well, if you say so," Ichigo said, though he felt something within him telling him that that wasn't the case. Ichigo thought, 'Well, even if that isn't the case, it's not like I can just plug 'responsibility of hollow in maintaining the balance between the real world and the afterlife' into google and get the answers that I need. The best place that I can think of that would have the answers to those questions, would be this Daireishokairō that Rukia was going on about, but it's not like I know how to get there. Maybe it's got something to do with the zanpak-whatsit, but mine's just the product of the amalgamation of her power and mine, so it may not possess all of the functions that a regular zanpak-whatsit would have had. Even if it can activate whatever method that they use, it's not like I'd have the foggiest idea of how I would go about doing it. It's not like I can just ask it after all.' He sighed and shook his head, removing thoughts of the roles that the Shinigami and hollow play in the maintenance of the world. Ichigo took note of where they'd ended up and frowned. He asked, "What the heck are we supposed to be doing here at the batting cages?"

Rukia said, "We need to teach you how to use your Zanpakutō. This is hardly comparable, however it is a good starting point since you won't be fighting against humans that make use of the same method as you will be when we're done. Now, take the stance that I showed you before."

"Right!" Ichigo nodded and moved his right foot back as he gripped the baseball bat, holding it out in front of him.

XXXXXXX

A/N

Translations

Daireishokairō: Great Spirit Book Gallery.

Shinōreijutsuin: Spiritual Arts Academy or Shinigami Academy

Jinseigami: God of Life.