Chapter 10: Soul-Healing, part 2 (Heart of the Moon/Black Sun)
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach.
"Normal speech"
'Inner speech/thoughts'
'Inner hollow/Zanpakuto speech'
xxx
It was Wednesday evening and a certain class was currently having practical Zanjutsu exercise like always. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. Students were sparing with each other at moderate pace and their wooden blades were clashing together in a rather dull sound. An occasional yell, which served as a mean of raising one's spirit, reverberated through the area in a sporadic manner. Almost everything was fine. Everything but one particular orange-haired young man, who swung his blade too fast using too much strength. Blowing his opponent's sword to the air, the wooden weapon smashed against the meaty forearm and brought the student he was sparing with to his knees.
"Gaah!" Crying in pain, the student cradled his arm, tears involuntarily flowing from his eyes.
"Kurosaki! That's a third one this week!" Gengorō hurried to the pair and kneeled to the injured student. With a sigh, he pointed at a random person.
"You, take him to the infirmary. Looks like a broken wrist to me but a real medic should have a look at it."
After watching them go, Gengorō grimaced and glanced at the other students, who began to whisper and back away from the young man with tightened jaws.
"Did I say you can stop practicing? Continue!" Gengorō blurted out, causing the whole class to flinch and return to their training. Licking his mouth, the instructor turned around and stared at the one who had caused the commotion.
"Kurosaki… what is wrong with you? Are you doing this on purpose or what? Take a hike and think about your actions. You are dismissed from the rest of the class." Hearing the words, Ichigo's nose twitched. Without offering a response, he took his things and left the area, throwing the wooden sword into the basket on his way out.
Gengorō watched him go with a thoughtful expression but then he shook his head. He had a whole class to look after, he couldn't babysit one student just because he found him interesting.
…
Walking through the empty corridor, Ichigo kicked a piece of trash that came into his way and growled quietly, his mood, already bad to begin with, getting even worse. He was irked, vexed at himself for not being able to keep his emotions in a tight check. It wasn't his intention, to vent his frustration and bad mood on the other students of the academy, on his classmates, but he just couldn't help it.
He wasn't gloomy, nor depressed. Instead, ever since he had found out about the unnecessariness of Kazumi's death, he was simply irritated. Her death had been a sort of a trigger, a cause for him to grow as a person. Because of it, he had discovered the purpose in living in the afterlife as a shinigami. He had found out the direction of his new life, the goal he wanted to achieve. Now, he just felt so…
He took a deep breath. There was no point in riling himself up even more. What had been done couldn't be undone and he just had to find a way to live with it. It was going to be difficult and painful but if there was one thing Kazumi had taught him perfectly, it was how to keep on living no matter what kind of obstacle his life threw at him. To take lemons from the life and make them into a tasty lemonade.
Not even looking where his steps took him to, he found himself standing in front of a small and abandoned training facility. Peeking inside, he found it to be dusty and out-of-date but the peaceful silence drew him inside. There, he walked into the center of it and sat down, crossing his legs to create a well-known pose, called Jinzen.
With a sigh, he closed his eyes, breathed out all of his worries and plunged into the depths of his consciousness.
…
Ichigo's mindscape
The teen landed on a cold surface and, anticipating a sucker punch or a similarly stealthy attack, he immediately spun around and tried to evade anything that could come his way. But there was nobody attacking him. Instead, he found his zanpakutō spirit sitting not very far from him with a thoughtful expression. The eerie copy of the teen just sat there and stared straight at Ichigo, who felt he needed some sort of explanation for this unnatural behavior he hadn't foreseen.
"Uhm… what are you doing?"
His zanpakutō spirit did not react and, for a moment, Ichigo thought he was actually asleep with his eyes opened. But soon enough, the spirit blinked and shook his head.
"Oh right, you're here."
A confused expression forming on his face, Ichigo moved a bit closer to him.
"What's going on? I've never seen you… well… thinking."
The zanpakutō grabbed his twitching arm before it could shoot towards the sword on his back and grimaced.
"Just because you haven't seen me doesn't mean I never do it. Just shut up and sit down. I've been thinking about this Aizen guy you have, despite my warnings mind you, gotten quite close to."
Ichigo sat down and scowled at the white spirit.
"Bite me. I am not close to him. I just… feel like he could be a good source of information I want to know."
"Yeah, nothing wrong with that, right?"
Ichigo tilted his head in confusion. The spirit shook his head.
"…dumbass."
"Oi. I think I deserve an explanation for that."
Staring at him with unreadable expression, the spirit nodded in acknowledgment a short while afterwards. Snapping his fingers, he released a small burst of reiatsu, causing the other spirit inhabiting the mindscape, the older man in a black overcoat and black glasses, to appear.
"You know what to do. I need a few minutes."
The spirit of the older man didn't even reply and simply raised his hands, only to put them on the shoulders of the zanpakutō spirit. Satisfied with this action, the white spirit turned back to Ichigo.
"Don't ask." He said when he noticed Ichigo's opened mouth. Immediately after that, he continued.
"The thing is, since you've been busy thinking about other stuff, me and this old man have been thinking about Aizen. Well, we have been doing this ever since you first came into contact with him. Like I told you, there is something off about that guy. Thus, we have been trying to figure out what exactly that is. At the beginning, we were at loss. However, everything has started to become clearer after you had a conversation with that playboy Captain of the 8th Division."
"Kyōraku-san?" Ichigo asked, still rather confused.
"Yes, him. Afterwards, we have been carefully watching and analyzing your every interaction with either him or Aizen. And I think we… may be onto something."
Ichigo had never seen his zanpakutō spirit so… calm and serious, which meant whatever point he was trying to get across to him must have been very important.
"…and that is?" He asked with a frown. The spirit crossed his arms and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"This Captain Kyōraku… he asked you this interesting and particular question during your first meeting. It was a question about flowers and their gardeners. Do you still remember it?"
Now, Ichigo felt his spirit just completely lost him.
"Y-yeah, I mean I think I remember parts of it about some infected flowers and good flowers but what of it?"
The spirit growled, appearing a bit impatient.
"You really are a dumbass. Ichigo, forget flowers and forget gardeners, the true meaning of the question was to determine what kind of person you are and, at the same time, warn you against somebody that appears to be perfect but also feels really suspicious. Please tell me now you get it."
Once the spirit finished talking, the whole mindscape became engulfed in a deafening silence. Ichigo, completely still, just stared at his zanpakutō spirit in disbelief. His mind, overloaded with all kinds of different information felt like it just exploded and rebuilt itself, slowly enabling him to realize just what his zanpakutō meant.
"Are you suggesting… are you telling me he was talking about Aizen? That he was trying to warn me? But… how would he know I would ever meet the guy? And why would he warn me against a… oh fuck."
The zanpakutō spirit nodded.
"Yeah, I thought the same. It's like he knew you were going to meet him. Like it was inevitable."
"But… what does it mean?" Ichigo asked, trying to recover from the numbness he felt in his body. His spirit sighed, his usual maniacal grin now replaced with a layer of seriousness.
"We… think there is something going on within Seiretei, some… game, manipulation, plan, grand scheme, whatever, and, for some reason, we are caught right in the middle of it. I think we should be careful around both Captains. More so around Aizen as I have a feeling if there is a Captain, truly responsible for Kazumi's death, here in Seiretei, it must be him. Even if we don't really know the other Captains."
Ichigo swallowed the lump in his throat and pressed his clenched fists into the surface below him, cracking it slightly.
"…yeah, I didn't think about it for weeks but now that you say that, I think… I think I feel the same way."
"Moreover, if you think about it, it makes sense that Aizen was the one who told you the truth about that cat and the other guy. That's if those two are yet another side of this… game. If, somehow, everything really revolves around you for some reason, Aizen could have used this revelation to tilt the scales to his side."
"…now you're just shooting into the dark. That is too much of a crack theory." Ichigo finally managed to somehow get most of his emotions under control and he shook his head, unable to accept anything further.
"Maybe."
Looking around, the teen rubbed his scalp. Great. Now he had more things to worry about.
"What now? I was thinking about a spar because I could sure as hell use one."
The spirit glanced at the older man, who understood and pulled his hands away from him.
"A short one won't hurt. Oh, yea, I almost forgot. Prepare yourself, Ichigo, for the time for your second round draws closer. The second part of you getting to know my name. I think you are ready for it. Use the time until I pull you here again to train because you'll need to balance yet more power after that." The zanpakutō spirit added with a grin, his regular expression slowly returning.
…
At the same time, while Ichigo was busy communicating with his zanpakutō, the Captain of the 8th Division was pondering whether he should return the next day, since it looked like nobody was going to open the door for him.
'But if I try to return so quickly, Jūshirō may think I've never even tried to get here because I don't like this one.' He sighed and looked around himself.
'Well, who could blame him for thinking that? Barely anybody likes this man.'
Kyōraku was standing in the area of the 12th Division barracks, right in front of the doors leading to the office of the division's head, Captain Mayuri Kurotsuchi. Hesitating a little, he knocked again. This time, after a short pause, the doors moved and revealed an emotionless face of 12th Division's Vice-Captain, Nemu Kurotsuchi. Kyōraku kind of liked her and it wasn't because he liked most women. He simply liked her eyes. Despite the rest of her face and her expression, they were warm.
"How may I help you, Captain Kyōraku, sir?" She asked calmly. Tilting his hat, Kyōraku shot her a modest smile.
"I'd like to speak with Mayuri-kun."
"Captain Kurotsuchi is busy at the moment."
"It won't take long, I promise. I just want to ask Mayuri-kun one question."
"Yes, I understand. However, Captain Kurotsuchi isn't accepting any guests." Nemu replied, putting emphasis on calling her Captain formally.
"Maybe if you told him it's me, Mayuri-kun would change his mind."
Kyōraku unflinchingly returned her blank stare with a friendly gaze, not backing up in the slightest. He noticed an almost invisible twitch in her left eye.
"Who is that? Nemu, you incompetent nitwit, I told you to throw out anyone who tries to disturb me!" A loud yell came from within the depths of the office. Kyōraku grinned. There was the scientist.
"Ah, Captain Kurotsuchi, I'd really appreciate if you could give me a minute or two of your time." He called out to the other Captain, causing the twitch in Nemu's eye to return. There was a moment of silence and something fell on the ground with a thud before the voice from the office returned.
"…fine, fine. Just come inside, I don't have all day."
Congratulating to himself, Kyōraku walked around the Vice-Captain and entered the office. It was only thanks to the years of having to experience all kinds of things that he didn't recoil from the stench that smacked his right in the face.
'…right. I always forget how it stinks in here. It'll take a bath in rose petals to wash it off of me.' He thought grimly. His reserves of bathing material were getting alarmingly thin this year.
"What is it you want to ask, Captain?" Mayuri appeared from the shadows with a displeased expression. It was clear to Kyōraku he really wasn't welcomed there that day. He curtly glanced at Nemu, causing the other Captain to roll his eyes.
"…fine. Nemu, leave us alone."
The Vice-Captain made a shallow nod and then hurriedly left the room.
"Now, what is so damn important? I'm busy trying to recover my data on those blasted Bounts."
Kyōraku didn't beat around the bush like usual and went straight to the point.
"I have a question. Hypothetically, strictly hypothetically, speaking… is it possible for a hybrid soul with shinigami and Quincy powers at the same time, to exist?"
Mayuri raised both of his artificial eyebrows so high, they almost broke into pieces. Before he answered, there was a moment when he looked at Kyōraku with a calculating gaze.
"That is… an unusual question. For all these decades, I never took you as a man interested in science, Captain."
"That is why I'm asking you, the one with all the knowledge about science, Captain."
Staring at him for a moment, Mayuri's mouth slowly formed a wide grin. He turned around and walked to his computer. Entering some information, a picture appeared on its screen. He stepped to the side and allowed Kyōraku to look at a complicated diagram.
"What am I seeing?"
"This," Mayuri replied with a grin, "is a result of decades spent on analyzing any existing and also non-existing data about hybrid creation. I don't think I have to specify this is a strictly undisclosed information, right?"
"No, but frankly? I'm surprised you actually showed me this, even if I barely understand any of it."
Mayuri laughed cynically.
"I am aware of that. I'm showing you this because you can't do anything with this information. However, moving to the point. Theoretically speaking, it should be possible for such a hybrid to exist." He said. Kyōraku felt there was a 'but' coming up.
"Practically speaking? Still yes. But there is one important detail to know."
"What?"
Mayuri pointed at a small bar on the screen.
"I did a research on Quincy. Quite an extensive one, if I have to say. I used some of the living specimen I have received and bred them with some shinigami… volunteers."
Kyōraku mentally grimaced. He didn't like the tone with which the Captain said the word 'volunteers'.
"The results looked good. The fetuses survived the initial phase and evolved into normal beings. However, after further research, I encountered a one single problem. The hybrids' specifications weren't as I had expected them to be. Mixing shinigami and Quincy powers did not result in any power increase or any other advantage. On the contrary, the powers did not mix well and resulted in the hybrids' drastic decrease in power. In the end, they were weaker than either a pure shinigami or a pure Quincy." Mayuri explained, causing Kyōraku to blink at the screen in disbelief.
'But from what I heard, Ichigo-kun is anything but weak. He is already considered to be a prodigy at the academy… so I was wrong?' He didn't understand but Mayuri wasn't finished.
"I do think you still remember the incident from around century ago? Yes, despite the distaste I feel towards that man, I didn't completely erase all of his data. Using them and what happened during that incident I came to some conclusions." He pressed a button and the image on the screen changed, showing another diagram with four different parts. He turned to Kyōraku with an excited glint in his eyes.
"I now know that a shinigami-quincy hybrid is pointless. A shinigami-hollow hybrid is unstable. A Quincy-hollow hybrid is self-destructive. All these failures made me realize one thing. It is impossible to create a hybrid that consists of only two different powers. To achieve a perfect, stable hybrid, you have to have all four different types of soul mashed into one. A shinigami-quincy-hollow-human hybrid is what would be a truly spectacular research material, if it was possible to create one. It would be an existence that could dwarf anybody. A hybrid with the potential to reach anything it ever wanted. Almost like…" He trailed off and just smirked, leaving Kyōraku completely floored.
…
End of the week
Friday evening saw Ichigo return to his dorm room, tired and sweaty from the optional Kido class he still voluntarily attended. It had been a really hard slog but it seemed Ichigo was finally ready to harvest the fruits of this labor. After slightly more than two months since he had come to the academy, he was finally able to successfully use both basic Kido, Hadō #1: Shō and Bakudō #1: Sai without them malfunctioning in any way. It was a bit surprising, considering he was still a bit more than peeved about what he had discovered last week. However, communication with his zanpakutō spirit and rigorous training he had immersed himself into after that helped immensely.
Happy with himself for a change, he nearly ran over a short person who appeared in his way.
"Sorry about that… Rukia? What are you doing here? I'm not late, am I?" He asked and helped the petite shinigami back on her feet. One glance at her face later and Ichigo was sure he wasn't the only one who wasn't paying attention to where he was going.
"Oh, Ichigo. I'm glad I made it in time. I'm canceling our usual meeting. Instead, I'd like you to come to the Kuchiki manor with me." Rukia told him with a thoughtful expression.
"…is your brother going to be there?"
She lightly slapped him on the elbow.
"Don't be like that. Nii-sama likes you… he just doesn't know how to show it. But no, he's being held up in his office."
Not looking convinced about the first part, Ichigo rubbed his head and shrugged carelessly.
"Fine. Give me a few minutes. I need to take a shower."
Twenty minutes later, the two of them entered the Kuchiki Manor, Ichigo nodding to Gedō, one of the guards, in greetings. Rukia led the teen through short and heavily populated corridors until they ended up in the dining room.
"You could have just told me you were inviting me to dinner. I thought-"
"This isn't just about dinner. I need a full stomach before I can tell you what I want to, though." Rukia said with a small smile and gratefully took a plate from one of the servants.
'…why don't I feel excited when I hear that?' Ichigo mentally sighed but said nothing aloud.
In silence, occasionally broken with a short chit-chat, they ate the light dinner consisting of vegetable salad and fruity desert until it was finally time to leave the room. Once again, Rukia led him through many parts of the manor, causing Ichigo to think he must have seen the whole complex by then. When they stopped walking, the teen narrowed his eyes. The petite shinigami had taken him into her own bedroom. Not wanting to jump to the conclusions that honestly scared him, Ichigo entered the room with an apprehensive expression.
"I'm sure you must be confused why I took you here, to my room, Ichigo. Simply said, I need to… no, I want to tell you something and this is one of the places where I feel safe." Rukia said and sat on her bed. Ichigo chose a seat in a fluffy looking armchair next to it.
"Okay." He retorted slowly, ignoring a collection of oddly shaped plushy bunnies staring at him from every corner of the room. Forming another small smile, Rukia took a deep breath and bravely looked him in the eyes.
"Ichigo, I know there has been a certain name mentioned whenever somebody new from the Gotei 13 met you for the first time. I know you have been avoiding asking question about it because you know it involves me. That is… sweet of you and I appreciate your patience very much. Yes, I'm talking about the name Kaien Shiba."
Not really knowing how to respond, the teen just silently nodded.
"It's been... decades since Kaien-dono died but I've been unable to face it, to face my past, my actions and my regrets. To face what I so desperately need to face…" She trailed off and bit her lip. Starting to feel slightly uncomfortable, Ichigo raised his hands.
"You don't really have to explain things to me, you know?"
She smiled again.
"I know but… I want to. I need to tell somebody and I feel you should be the one to hear it."
"…okay."
Taking another deep breath, Rukia leaned backwards and supported her back on the wall.
"Nearly fifty years ago, when I was attending the Shin'ō Academy, Byakuya-Nii-sama adopted me into the Kuchiki Clan, creating ripples in shinigami society which caused others to treat me like I was made from glass, faking kindness, politeness and talking behind my back wherever I went. Not long after that, I have been assigned to the 13th Division of the Gotei 13. I thought things would be different there but, at the beginning, I was wrong. Even the members of the division treated me the same. But then… then I was introduced to my Vice-Captain." She smiled fondly.
"Kaien-dono was different. From the first time we met, he treated me just like any other new recruit; crudely but normally, which was all I ever wanted. His introduction was normal. He scolded me every time my reply was too weak. It was a normal relationship between a superior and a subordinate… and because of that, I admired him greatly. He was the one person who cheered on me, who scolded me, who helped me, who trusted me and the one person who never went back on his word. When I was with Kaien-dono, everything just felt so right."
Unable to continue looking her in the eyes, Ichigo averted her gaze, feeling his throat getting dry. Rukia's words were sincere and, because of that, it was hard to keep listening.
"You…"
Rukia closed her eyes.
"…no. I don't think so, at least. Then again, Kaien-dono had a wife, which I also admired. I looked up to her, hoping that one day, I could be like her. She was my idol." Turning her head and opening her eyes wide, she looked out the window.
"However, one day, her dead body was the only thing that came back from a patrol. Her whole squad had been obliterated. Naturally, Kaien-dono did what he felt was only natural. He decided to find the one who did it and nobody could have stopped him, not even Captain Ukitake. That's why Captain Ukitake and I went together with him. We knew only one thing about the enemy and that was his location. It didn't take long before we found him. It was some sort of a hollow. The first thing we should have done was to scout his abilities. It is an unwritten rule, not to needlessly engage in a fight with enemy you know nothing about. But Kaien-dono ignored it. He asked for a permission to fight it alone and, before I could react, Captain Ukitake gave it to him." There were no tears on Rukia's face but the look in her eyes was almost alive. It was as if she was mentally screaming, tearing up herself from the depths of her soul. She was hurting but there was nothing Ichigo could do about it. He could only listen intently, hear the stream of pain radiating off her and ease it with his presence.
"Till this day I still regret it, I regret my weak self. I wasn't able to stand in his way and stop him. With the hollow unveiling his fearsome abilities, things went awry really fast. I tried to go down and help him, tried to do something… but Captain Ukitake held me back. I didn't understand. What could have been more important than to save Kaien-dono's life? Captain Ukitake then told me."
'If we help him, what will happen to his pride? Surely, if you jump in now, you can save his life. However, at the same time, you will also murder his pride.'
Remembering the words, she grimaced.
"I yelled at him, I tried to persuade him that pride is not important in comparison to life. Yet he still didn't let me go. Instead, he told me more."
'Rukia, remember this. There are two types of fights. Whenever we are in battle, we must be in of the two. The fight for life or the fight for pride! Right now, he is fighting for pride! His wife's pride, his men's pride but most importantly, his own personal pride. Dismiss this as his stubbornness and let him fight on alone like this…'
She closed her eyes.
"That was when I caught a glimpse of Captain's face and I realized it. I wasn't the one who wanted to help Kaien-dono more than my Captain. He had to literally hold himself back, else he would have gone down and slaughter the hollow with his bare hands. That's how much he cared about Kaien-dono. But at the same time, he also valued him more than anything else. Because of that, he couldn't do it. Damage his pride."
Ichigo stared at her, at the poor, tormented soul of the petite shinigami and felt his own fists clenching for her sake. It was coming, the greatest pain was still yet coming and he could feel it from the very air around them alone.
"Then, something happened and Kaien-dono became possessed by the hollow. It was horrifying. Until that day and, really, until now, I've never seen anything so vile before in my life. It was as if Kaien-dono, the man I had admired for years, turned into monster in a matter of a second. He taunted me and jumped straight at me. I was unable to move away, too horrorstruck from the sight. Only thanks to Captain Ukitake standing in his way I remained alive. After that, Captain told me to run away or else I'd die. And so I did. I ran."
She hid her face in the palms of her hands.
"I ran to save my ugly self and left Captain Ukitake to fight it alone. But in the end, I turned around just as Kaien-dono tried to kill Captain Ukitake. I didn't do it because I had a plan. I just felt that… I shouldn't run away by myself like that. I just had to turn around and help Kaien-dono… somehow…"
Taking several deep breaths, she steeled herself before the next part came.
"Seeing me there, Kaien-dono left Captain and ran at me. Captain screamed at me, telling me to kill 'it', that 'the thing' that was coming at me wasn't Kaien-dono anymore. Before I knew it, Kaien-dono was hugging me, with my sword piercing him through his chest. At the moment I reflexively stabbed him, my zanpakutō purified the hollow from him and he was able to spend the last few moments of his life as Kaien-dono again. He thanked Captain for letting him fight until the end. With his last words, he apologized to me and thanked me for stopping him as with it, he could leave his heart here, in Soul Society."
The fast pace with which she told it only further increased the burden on her and she began to break down.
"H-he thanked me but I only came back because I was afraid to face my cowardice in the future. I stabbed him only because I couldn't bear to see him in pain. In the end, the only one I had saved… was my ugly self."
The silence was the only thing that came after that. Even though she broke down, Rukia still didn't shed a single tear as if she had spent all of them during these past few decades. For a long time, her face was hidden behind her hands, making it impossible for the teen to see her expression. But after she let her arms fall down on the bed, she revealed a pained smile.
"I'm disgusting, aren't I?" She tried to laugh.
In that moment, Ichigo felt his blood slowly beginning to boil. His facial muscles twitched, his clenched fists shook and he gritted his teeth so hard, his jaw joint creaked. A salty water, tears, piled themselves in the corners of this eyes. Tears of anger.
There was no way he could just continue to look at her without feeling it. She looked so pitiful, so fragile and vulnerable that it physically hurt him. Unable to hold back any longer, he crushed the armpits of the chair he was sitting on and swiftly stood up.
"Don't fuck with me!" He shouted, causing the female shinigami to flinch. Grabbing her by her shoulders, Ichigo violently shook her.
"I don't know what the fuck is going on in that little stupid head of yours and frankly? I don't want to know. But I can tell you it is bullshit! I've never met this Kaien guy but if he really is that much similar to me, then he would probably do this." Letting go of her, Ichigo cocked back his arm and smacked Rukia on the back of her head, causing her to lean forward.
"I thought I would calmly listen to you and then try to help you somehow. But you know what? I think I will just beat you up because seeing that pathetic face of yours is making my blood boil at the moment! There was nothing, fucking nothing you could have done! That guy, Kaien, was right to fight the hollow alone and he would have never been the same if he hadn't do that. And you are not disgusting, Rukia. What you did, was the bravest thing you could have done. I don't think I would have been able to the same if it had been me. So don't you dare mock yourself. If I see you do this again, if I see this pathetic expression of yours again, I will kick you so hard, the next time you'd land would be in the farthest district of Rukongai. Do you understand?" He growled and grabbed a handful of her hair. Pulling it up, he forced her to raise her head and show her face to him.
"…yes."
"Good." He let go of her hair and sat back on the chair, not saying anything else for a while and trying to calm down. Rukia, too, remained silent for a long time. Her head stayed in the same position as Ichigo left it and so she just stared forwards without blinking. Slowly, life returned to her eyes.
"…Ichigo?" She finally called out to him.
"What?!" He retorted aggressively.
"…thank you."
Hearing the sincerity in her voice, Ichigo turned his head away from her.
"Like I did anything... idiot."
…
The fact Ichigo had learned from Kazumi; that every human being needs somebody to support them or somebody you could share your worries and regrets with, showed itself right in the morning, when he and Rukia ate breakfast together. Gone was every bit of pain in her eyes, gone was the anxiety that had been radiating from her for a long time and all of it was replaced with a cheerful and, in every aspect, improved Rukia. Starting that moment, she talked about Kaien and her past again but this time, it didn't feel like sharing a burden, it was more of a free reminiscing about her past adventures with Renji and others.
In the evening, she dragged him to a training grounds for a spar, promising to show him something he hadn't seen before. Ichigo just rolled his eyes but the prospect of a spar sounded too good. When they faced each other, Rukia grinned and raised her sword.
"I wanted to show you this."
She held her zanpakutō out in front of her and turned it in a circle counter-clockwise. While turning it, the blade, hilt and tsuba turned completely white.
"Dance, Sode no Shirayuki!" She exclaimed, a rush of cold air sprouting from her in all directions.
Ichigo stared at her with both eyebrows raised high. He didn't know much about zanpakutō and their different types but even he could tell that what Rukia was holding in her hands, looked exquisite. Coupled with the aura of cold beauty enveloping her for a split second, he had to admit it. She looked amazing. Moreover, the reiatsu she excluded at the moment of releasing her zanpakutō caught him off-guard.
He clearly remembered her saying she was only an unseated officer and he had felt her reiatsu before but the energy pressing on his shoulders was definitely a lot stronger now. It made him grin.
"So I'm not the only one who kept the truth about his real power a secret."
"Not really, I just… couldn't use it properly until yesterday. I had my Shikai for a few decades but ever since Kaien-dono's death, I've been unable to utilize it properly. Emotions are tied to shinigami's power, you know?." She replied with a shrug.
Ichigo got into a stance and waited for her to start.
"But now you can."
She nodded with a smile.
"Yes, I do. I realized what Kaien-dono said to me, that he was leaving his heart here in Soul Society, was true. He left it here, with me." She said softly but then she pointed her blade at him.
"Now, enough talking, Ichigo. Prepare yourself because I won't hold back."
With that, the spar between two friends began, continuing until the moon, reflected upon the white blade of Sode no Shirayuki, rose from behind the horizon to reveal their tired but grinning faces.
…
"Did something happen, Kurosaki-san? You've been awfully quiet for the past week or so." Aizen commented off-handedly after he walked around the class and gave pointers to some of the students attending the seminar. Sitting next to him, Ichigo shrugged.
"Not really. I just don't have anything to say at the moment." He lied and heard his zanpakutō spirit mentally nodding to him.
"I see." Aizen said and shifted his attention to the paper in front of him. For a while, neither of them spoke and the only voices reverberating through the class belonged to other students. During that time, Ichigo finished drawing and frowned when he looked at the results. This time he drew two kanji, 黒 (kuro), which meant black and 白 (shiro), which meant white.
'Black and white, huh? Now that's new.' He thought gingerly.
"How is the case you've been working on?" Aizen suddenly asked, breaking the silence between them. Ichigo's eyes were still glued to the two kanji he had drawn so he missed the speculative look in Aizen's gaze.
"We are g… I mean, it's going pretty slow." The teen quickly corrected himself when he realized what the man was asking. Mentally, he cringed. He almost reflexively answered in all honesty which probably wouldn't have been a good idea, since the case was, thanks to the joint work of three Captains and Rukia, slowly getting into its final phase, the hearing in front of Central 46.
Unbeknownst to him, his attempt to hide the truth only fueled Aizen's gaze and the man's brow creased into a chilling frown with a tiny smirk hidden beneath it.
…
Calm and serene evening accompanied Ichigo on his way to the abandoned training facility he had discovered earlier that week and the teen entered it without hesitation. It was the perfect place for what he was planning to do next. It was remote enough from the dorms and the academy offices allowing him to easily release his reiatsu without anybody interfering. It would have been better if the walls of the room were made of Sekkiseki mineral but Ichigo just sighed. It would have been too convenient. After all, Sekkiseki mineral was an expensive commodity, despite being present in Soul Society in large quantities.
But all of that was soon forgotten when he simply sat on the floor and entered the Jinzen pose. Releasing a deep breath, he once again plunged into the endless sea of his mind.
…
Ichigo's mindscape
"I'm here." He announced his presence as soon as his feet touched the ground.
"Good, I hope you are ready, Ichigo." His zanpakutō spirit said from behind him. The teen rapidly spun around but it was pointless. The spirit was just calmly standing next to a…
"…what the hell is that?" Ichigo asked, feeling his senses getting overloaded with too much information.
Next to the white spirit, there was a large ball levitating in the air. There was no other way to describe it, other than a ball, but even that word wasn't truly fitting. It was a… ethereal blob of something, some kind of energy, which was hard to specify. Its surface appeared to be fluid, yet it kept changing its color all the time. There was something inside of it, something dark and light at the same time.
His zanpakutō spirit took a step away from it and shot Ichigo a serious gaze.
"This… is your second test."
As soon as he finished saying that, dozens, hundreds of all kinds of different swords rained down from the sky and embedded themselves into the ground all around them.
"Come closer, Ichigo." The spirit said. The second spirit, the older man, appeared behind the white one and put his hands on his shoulders again. Ichigo cautiously walked towards them, towards the blob of otherworldly energy, feeling his sight being pulled to it.
"Now, take a look inside and tell me what you see in there."
Confused, Ichigo leaned forward and directed his gaze to the blob, trying to see past the ever-changing surface. It took a while but eventually, his eyes got used to the fast movement of the energy contained within and he could make out three definite shapes. Two of them were white and giving off an aura of extreme purity while the last one was dark with a hint of red, like a darkness that wanted to drag him into an endless abyss of oblivion, giving off a tainted aura of something wicked. The teen felt mesmerized staring at their eternal struggle for the dominance of the blob's energy.
'…wow…' He thought in amazement, which soon turned into a horror when he noticed something familiar within the auras of the two white shapes. It was something he knew but forgot, something he felt his heart ache for. An innocent laugher echoed within his mindscape for all three of them to hear.
"…haha, you're being mean, Ichi-nii… oi, Ichi-nii, we're going to play football…"
Ichigo's eyebrows shot high in the shock and he felt his knees wobble.
"Y-Yuzu? Karin?" He whispered in disbelief. But there was no point in denying what he could hear so clearly. Those were the voices of his dead sisters. Feeling moisture in the corner of his eyes, he angrily turned to his zanpakutō spirit.
"What the fuck is going on?!"
The spirit closed his eyes, expecting such an outburst from Ichigo.
"Those are, just as you can feel and for the lack of a better word, remnants of your sisters' souls struggling to keep away the other energy at bay. I can't explain it further but this is your test. To find a right sword from all of these. To find the right sword that can unlock the seal on this blob of energy and release your sisters from this painful struggle." He explained calmly.
Growling loudly, Ichigo angrily flashed to the closest sword, yanked it from the ground and shot to the blob, swinging it down on it to try and break it apart.
*CRACK*
Ichigo looked at the sword in his hands in surprise as that was the only thing that cracked and, soon after that, broke apart like a stick made out of glass.
"Don't try to force it open. It is impossible to do so. Your only chance is to find the correct sword."
Staring at the hilt of the smashed sword, Ichigo gritted his teeth and threw it away, hurrying to the next one.
"There is no hurry, Ichigo. Calm down, take your time and think. This test isn't something you can power your way through. It'll take something different this time for you to win." His zanpakutō spirit told him from afar.
"I get it! I get it, damn it! But this is Yuzu and Karin! I can't let them suffer again! I have to hurry!" Ichigo yelled back.
"In that case, their suffering will continue forever."
Ichigo abruptly stopped in the middle of his Shunpo, causing his body to handle the momentum by flying through the air and crashing into a nearby wall. The cold tone of his spirit chilled him to his bones.
"What do you mean?" Ichigo asked after he stood back up.
"I meant exactly that, Ichigo. You are the only one who can release them. Not me, not this old man, you. That's why… do it properly. You've come a long way since the day you died. Show me that progress and win this struggle with something different than your raw power."
The teen gulped but it took only one glance at the blob to make his resolve return.
"Right."
He said and, for the first time, took his time to find the sword he thought was right.
"This one."
…
"That was the thirteenth sword, Ichigo. You are still rushing things."
Ichigo glared at the shattered blade and angrily threw it against the ground, smashing it completely. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath. He needed to calm down. When his eyes opened again, he was staring at a large sword in a distance.
"That one."
…
"Fuck!" The teen cursed and flung yet another remnant of his failed attempt away. He didn't know how long he had been doing the same thing again and again but he was starting to feel a bead of sweat forming on his forehead.
"I'm sure this one is the right one."
…
'What am I doing wrong?' Ichigo thought as he stared into the blob, its surface still not even scratched. The white shapes, his sisters, were wildly dancing around the dark energy, the thin strings which looked like their arms softly patting it all the time.
All around him were pieces of demolished swords, creating a small pile of metal every once in a while and making him feel just a bit depressed.
"You are trying, that's undeniable, Ichigo. But you're trying to do what you did in the previous test. You're using logic to understand something you can't comprehend. If logic fails, there is still a way to figure things out. One can help you in danger while the other one in peace. And right now, you are not in danger." The spirit of the older man said quietly, still keeping his hands on the shoulders of the zanpakutō spirit.
Shifting his focus from what was happening within the blob to his own reflection on the its surface, Ichigo stared at it for a long while. He was trying to figure out what to do next but the older man's words caused him to frown.
'…is he right? Maybe he is. He gave me a good advice the last time. He was the one who steered me towards the right answer. But what is he talking about this time? How can I figure things out if not with logic? Sure, that's an easy one. With my gut. That's one I use when in danger. But what else is there?'
The zanpakutō spirit, seeing that Ichigo couldn't come up with anything, growled.
"For fuck's sake just think about your ice queen." He snapped and closed his eyes when the older man pressed onto his shoulders.
Ichigo blinked.
'About Rukia? What…?' He glanced back into the blob and thought about the petite shinigami. What about her was helpful? There was nothing coming to his mind. The only thing Rukia had done in a past few days was to sort out her emotions and feeling and helped to the same thing to him. Because of her, his anger about Yoruichi's true identity faded away a bit…
His mouth formed an O letter.
"…feelings?" He glanced at both of his spirits but only the silence was their answer. Which was good.
"I see… so I should feel the right sword?" Ichigo muttered to himself and looked for another sword.
…
Watching the teen destroy yet another sword, Ichigo's zanpakutō spirit sighed and scratched his forehead in an irritated manner.
"This is taking forever."
"Yet it seems he is slowly getting there." The older man objected and then called out to Ichigo.
"That was your regret you just used, Ichigo. Keep looking."
The teen briefly turned his head to look at him and then he gave him a thumbs up. Right after that, he returned to his task.
"He understood that each of those swords represents a part of his personality, his feelings. It's only a matter of time now, I believe."
The zanpakutō spirit snorted and, observing its wielder for another minute, sighed again.
"There's no point in prolonging this anymore. He's ready." He muttered and stood up.
"Ichigo! I have one final piece of advice for you but I'm afraid it will seem I'm just repeating myself to you, so you'll have to think about it. It's like this." He called out to Ichigo and took a deep breath.
"FOR FUCK'S SAKE JUST THINK ABOU YOUR ICE QUEEN!"
Ichigo almost jumped in the air, the shout of his spirit being too loud even from the distance. Turning around, he stared at him in confusion. The spirit was right, he just repeated the same thing he had said a while before.
"What he means is to recall one specific thing Kuchiki Rukia had told you the last time you saw her. Something about Kaien Shiba." The older man added.
Ichigo stopped moving and thought about those words.
'Now that's a bit more helpful. What Rukia had told me… and it should be somehow linked to this test.'
"So far, you've been picking all those swords, one by one, because of a single emotion you felt it was coming from them. Happiness, guilt, joy, anger, sadness, anxiety, regret and many more. However, to release your sisters, there is something you need to realize. There is one thing, one single thing that ties all of these emotions together. And only using that particular thing you can do everything. Beat your enemies but also understand them, love your friends but also hate them. It's what makes you a killer in the eyes of your foes yet also a friend in the eyes of your comrades. Tell me, Ichigo! What is it that makes you who you are?!" The spirit of the older man shouted, shaking Ichigo's soul to the very core. Feeling a warm feeling in his body, Ichigo felt the corners of his mouth twitching.
He finally understood.
He realized the answer.
He now knew what the key to victory over power was.
He grabbed a sword embedded in the ground next to him and, with a single leap, crossed the distance between him and the blob. Gently, but firmly, he plunged the blade into the blob.
It exploded.
But he felt no pain. Only warmth washed over him when the two white shapes shot from the center of the destroyed blob and enveloped him in a soft light. He felt their touch on the skin of his face, reminding him of the time when he had been still alive. It was a wonderful feeling, a joyous sensation and it brought tears to his eyes. Then the power within the blob short trough his chest, mixing white and black and separating red.
He was brought down to knees and panted heavily but Ichigo felt his reserves of reiryoku increasing incredibly, the power surging through his veins unlike anything he had felt before.
"Now, Ichigo, tell me what the answer to this test was."
Supporting himself on the ground with his hands, Ichigo just raised his head to grin at both of his spirits that meanwhile walked to him.
"Heart. It was my heart."
The zanpakutō spirit returned the grin.
"Very good. Now you're only one step away from knowing my name."
…
Only a few days later, during another spar, Ichigo revealed this news to Rukia.
"Strange, I can't feel any increase in your reiatsu and I'm pretty good at that." She said after giving him a congratulatory slap on his back.
Ichigo smirked and pulled at his robe to revel two different tattoos on his chest.
"Oh, it did increase but I lied my instructor and told him I broke my seal and can't reapply it myself. So I asked him to do it instead and it seems having two seals on you causes the older one to change its shape. Now, I have two seals on me. Without them, I am unable to keep my reiatsu under proper control and it leaks out too much."
"Seems impractical." Rukia replied, not looking impressed.
"It is, that's why I was wondering if you could teach me how to control my reiryoku. It's just stupid, having my power suppressed like this only because I can't control it properly. You said you were good at controlling your own so, you know." He admitted.
"I could do that, strawberry."
"…I told you it doesn't meant that, goddammit!" Ichigo growled and decided to shock her with his new reiatsu. Wordlessly, he broke both seals and released all of the spiritual pressure on his surroundings, causing Rukia to stop chuckling in a heartbeat.
Her mouth opened wide, she simply stared at the teen, overwhelmed.
"N-No way…" She muttered weakly. Ichigo's grin slowly faded when he realized she actually looked a bit afraid.
"…you okay?"
She blinked and nodded.
"Y-yeah, I'm just… are you sure you're okay, Ichigo? Your eyes are still normal but…"
Now that didn't sound very pleasant and Ichigo frowned.
"What do you mean? Of course I'm okay, I actually never felt better. Why?"
Rukia gazed at him and, with a sigh, she sat down.
"It's just… you've been progressing really fast, Ichigo and it is honestly really shocking. I know people in the academy are already saying you are a prodigy but this is too much. I've never seen anybody to go from a soul with shinigami potential to a shinigami with a reiatsu easily as powerful as a Captain this fast. It's been only a few months at best! It takes decades, even centuries, for a shinigami to reach this level of power even if they have potential to do it. You did it in what? Four months? That's insane." She explained with a frown.
That made Ichigo blink. Again, he was being considered to be something unreal, an anomaly and this time, hearing it from Rukia's mouth, it actually made him feel a bit apprehensive about his own power.
'And what's this about the eyes… I remember she told me something similar when I found out about Yoruichi Shihōin. Do you know what's going on?' He asked his zanpakutō spirit. For a long while, he received no answer.
'…don't worry about that. It's not a problem for now.'
Ichigo narrowed his eyes.
'For now? Oi, that doesn't make me feel secure at all!'
'I know. When the time comes, I'll explain everything.'
…
Further discussions had been pointless and, instead, Ichigo concentrated on learning how to control his energy, because as soon as the next week had come Rukia had been called to work for another trip to the World of the Living. But Ichigo didn't dwell on it much. During the short amount of time she had tried to teach him how to control his reiryoku, Ichigo had been able to progress quite far. He still had both seals on him, but if the pace with which he was progressing was any indication, he wasn't that far from being able to remove one of them.
With that in mind, Ichigo listened to the lecture on Kido theory he was currently attending. It was a quiet Monday morning and nothing suggested it could become anything other than that.
But in a secluded part of Rukongai, a small group of mysterious people appeared to walk out of light only for one of them to grin widely at the sight of the Soul Society.
"We did it, my fellow Bounts."
End of chapter 10.
Another chapter behind us. As its name suggests, it was about Ichigo undertaking another test from his zanpakuto and gaining more of his power. Not only that, but we saw Kyoraku really is a sly bastard. Those two scenes are connected. I leave it to you to try and understand my point. Also, Rukia finally talks about her past to Ichigo in an attempt to ease her suffering and it worked. Despite Ichigo's complete lack of delicacy. (but maybe that was what she needed in first place, huh?)
Moreover, Bounts have finally landed in Soul Society. This small, background arc about them will end in chapter 12 (this is chapter 10, btw), where things will really go down. Before that, we will have chapter 11 in which Ichigo will get to fight and show some of his skills.
*Mr_Crimson_Fucker - that's because his zanpakuto consists of his shinigami powers merged with his hollow. Where I go with this in this story will be revealed in time so don't worry about it yet. Yes, he will be more rounded fighter (look forward to next chapter) and he won't go bankai that often because...well, he won't be getting Bankai for quite a long time. And the nech character is actually a boy... funny, right? :D
*Kyo_no_Kitsune - I think so too.
*NieveDrop - rage can be all-consuming sometimes... but, aside from Rukia, he has one more ally, his spirits. Yup, moon can be useful word sometimes.
*blarg7865 - not sure at the moment. I think I definitely won't use the first movie. I'm thinking about using the second one to introduce parts of Royal Realm, third one for strengthening the bond between Rukia and Ichigo and final one to introduce Hell but it's still in phase of planning. About0 anime filler... some of them. About Muramasa meeting Aizen... maybe?
*Harbinger_of_Kaos - Shunsui has a plan. There will be bits and pieces about it in many chapters but I'm thinking of revealing it fully only in the final part os the story. Aizen? He wants Ichigo on his side, but it doesn't really matter to him if it works out or not. He simply wants Ichigo to become stronger so he... well, that would be a huge spoiler, wouldn't it?
*starstorm_10 - I didn't think about pairing yet. So far, they are not important for the story.
*Bishop_Bone - zero. Sorry, but I have different plans in this story.
That's all for reviews. I AM really thankful for all of them, never doubt that. Things are moving slowly but inexorably towards chapter 12, where shit will hit the fan.
Until next time!