At the Shattered Shaft, Urahara was getting a little worried about Moll's progress; three and a half hours of her allotted four had already ticked away. Apart from the early progress he had seen there had been no movements from her since then, no other sign that she had made any further steps towards her soul's ascension
He heard footsteps slowly making their way towards him, and turned his head to catch Yoruichi and Layne returning from the other side of the cave.
Layne was in the black shihakusho that characterised a Shinigami so Urahara hid a slight smile behind his fan as they got close and sat down next to him, observing Moll at the bottom of the Shattered Shaft
"How's she doing?" Layne asked lightly, peering down the shaft and catching a glimpse of Moll's unconscious form
"Not very well, I'm afraid" Urahara replied "To be honest I was afraid of this…" he trailed off, looking back down the shaft
"Of what?" Layne asked quizzically
"One of you failing" Urahara said grimly "It's those that lack resolve, not power, that will fail at this training"
"Well if anything Moll has at least five times my resolve, She's been getting my lazy ass out of bed for school in the morning for a couple of years now. If that's not a measure of extreme resolve then I don't know what is" Layne started grinning inanely as he finished the statement
"She won't lose to me simply because it's me, the fact that her soul is on the line should just make this easy for her"
Inside Moll's inner world, she was having a little trouble getting things sorted, It wasn't for lack of trying mind you, just that its nigh impossible to retrieve boxes that are flying around in a whirling tornado.
Not that she had any help from Sora, who introduced himself after he pulled her into her inner world and then gone and taken a nap after telling Moll about the boxes.
"That bastard" she muttered to herself "Isn't he meant to be based off my soul?"
She took another look at him lying there on the ground, seemingly unaffected by the heavy winds around him
"It looks like I got stuck with Layne's zanpakuto rather than my own, the way he's sleeping that deeply in the middle of a goddamn tornado"
As soon as she muttered the words however, Sora leapt up just in time to get Moll off the ground as a fissure opened up on the spot she had been standing a second ago.
"Good" he breathed, "It's almost time"
"What is it time for?" Moll asked, calming down slightly from the massive adrenaline rush she'd had when Sora had literally tackled her out of the fissure
"Ok now listen closely because I don't have much time to explain this, your world is breaking apart and you're becoming a hollow"
"Then hurry up!" Moll said hurriedly noticing more fissures opening up around them.
"Ok, try and remain calm, and extend your senses, hopefully you can hear it, it should feel like a lake"
"Cold and wet?" Moll asked incredulously
"We're running out of time" Sora gently reminded her
Moll cursed silently and sat down cast about, closing her eyes and trying to stay calm, there was a large body of water nearby, and it felt incredibly choppy, like someone was continually dropping boulders in the centre of a lake.
"I got the water" she shouted, for the ambient noise level in the centre of the tornado had increased about twenty decibels while Moll was searching for the water
"Ok, in about five seconds when the noise level drops down, imagine the water rising up and carrying us, the timing has to be precise… or we perish"
Mentally sighing at the weird command Moll waited a couple of seconds then focused all her will into an image of a lake draining, and a tube filling with water.
Layne suddenly choked in surprise, and Yoruichi and Urahara were at his side as he started gasping for air, unexpectedly finding himself unable to breathe
"It's like his reiatsu is just disappearing Kisuke" Yoruichi said alarmed, she'd never seen anything like this before in her long life
Neither had Urahara, but he could make an educated guess as to what was happening
"No it's not, it's being transferred" Urahara replied gravely as he indicated the two figures rising out of the Shattered Shaft.
The figures touched down next to the shaft and Layne stopped having breathing difficulties, slamming his fist against the ground as his reiatsu started returning while one of strange figures slumped forwards and lost consciousness.
The other one who was still standing lifted her head up and gave a wicked grin
"Who knew splitting from my shell would be that easy?"
The figure that had spoken looked like Moll in every way but the way it spoke, it felt to Layne that if Moll was a vindictive bitch who only cared about herself, she wouldn't sound a quarter as evil as that thing did.
"I need to thank you Kisuke Urahara" the Moll spirit hissed "You did quite nicely getting me out of there"
Layne leapt to his feet and unsheathed his zanpakuto, identifying the figure on the ground as Moll as well, and failing to come up with a logical reason as to why that could be.
"What exactly is that Urahara?" Layne growled
"If I had to guess I'd say it was a hollow"
"That's right" The Moll Hollow said maliciously as it started leaking reiatsu in an attempt to intimidate Layne, Urahara and Yoruichi
Urahara shot a glance at Layne, who shouldn't have actually been able to stand under the current level of reiatsu filling the room but he was still upright and in a relaxed position
Urahara sighed, this could get quite messy, "Trell-san"
Layne grunted his recognition
"Unless you want to get killed here I suggest you release your zanpakuto when I do"
Layne grinned and Urahara could have sworn the Delta on his hollowfied wrist flashed
"Don't worry Urahara-san; this…thing is going to pay for whatever she did to Moll"
Layne tossed his zanpakuto aside and called "Drift, Roxas!
Oathkeeper appeared in his hand and his look changed from one of patient good humour, to a look of fiery determination
"Let's get this done Urahara-san" he said as he pointed Oathkeeper at the hollow
Urahara had a slight smile playing across his face as Layne calmly stood there, keyblade pointed and reiatsu blazing
"Of course Trell-san; Sing, Benihime!"
Urahara's little sword transformed into a larger, straight scimitar like sword that got bigger as it extended outwards and the hilt extended and curved inwards at the last couple of inches.
"Here I come!" Layne shouted as he charged the hollow
"Come boy! You won't stop me from my freedom" The hollow replied scathingly as it dodged Layne's first swing, jumping backwards and pulling out a katana from nowhere.
It flipped backwards until its feet came in contact with one of the rock cairns that dotted the underground training room and bounced off so it could gain some speed to counter Layne's incoming charge
"You're far too young to take on something the likes of me boy!" the hollow shouted with glee
"Don't underestimate me" Layne replied coolly, "Riptide Strike"
Just before Layne passed the hollow he twisted his body around and swung Oathkeeper in a wide arc that completely missed the Hollow
The Hollow laughed maniacally
"You can't even hit me with your pitiful power" it gloated.
Layne stopped in mid-air, falling to the ground and landing gracefully as he muttered "Rain"
A solid blast of dark green reiatsu in the shape of a crescent moved up from the area where Layne had swung his sword before and collided with the hollow and continued on, carrying the hollow up and out through a hole that the reiatsu crescent created in the roof.
Layne lifted Oathkeeper up and rested it on his shoulder, looking out at the hole that he'd created in the roof of the underground training area and called down to Urahara "Sorry Urahara-san, that was my first time using that attack, I might have overdone it a little"
Urahara just smiled that mysterious little smile and turned around to treat Moll when he suddenly felt a hollow presence appear from where Layne shot the Moll-hollow.
Urahara flashstepped straight there and Yoruichi being faster, flashstepped to Layne, grabbed him and then flashstepped there.
The three of them watched a golden beam rip a hole in the sky and surround the fallen Moll-hollow
"Negacion" Urahara muttered as he turned around to head back into the shop, He raised his voice so Layne could hear "Once that golden beam is around the hollow it's over, we can't break it and they can't break out of it"
Layne who was currently over Yoruichi's shoulder just watched the beam as it carried the Moll-Hollow up into the sky "I'll get it next time then" he said dejectedly as Yoruichi turned to take him back inside.
Back inside, Urahara ordered Tessai, Jinta and Ururu to fix up the mess that Layne had made while he looked at Moll's condition.
Layne had expended a considerable amount of reiatsu so Yoruichi made him eat something then forced him into bed despite his protests of not going until he'd seen Moll was alright.
"Teenagers" Yoruichi muttered as she walked over to Urahara who was at Moll's bedside
"How is she Kisuke?"
"She'll be fine, and she succeeded in the Shattered Shaft too" Urahara replied, pointing at the zanpakuto lying beside her bed.
Urahara got up and motioned for Yoruichi to follow him "I think I can explain what happened earlier too"
They made their way to the table next to the ladder and sat down
"So what happened?" Yoruichi questioned
"The Shattered Shaft is supposed to bring spirits to the brink of becoming a hollow so they can unlock their own Shinigami powers, but Rone-san wasn't able to unlock her Shinigami powers on her own"
"So how did she succeed then?"
"Reiatsu leeching; she sucked a considerable amount of Trell-san's reiatsu to fuel her transformation"
"But that's…how could that even happen?"
Urahara put a hand to his head "The reiatsu pump and portal was an experiment that I scrapped long, long ago… truth be told I had no idea what was going to happen when I activated it the other day… everything Trell-san and Rayner-san do from here on is news to me, but I am a scientist, so I will do my best to come up with explanations"
He was silent for a few seconds before he continued
"You felt it didn't you? Trell-san's reiatsu all but disappeared and he nearly lost the ability to breathe until Rayner-san fainted upon reaching the top of the shaft. I was extremely surprised that he had enough reiatsu left to stand, let alone release his zanpakuto and use that Rainability. It seems that Trell-san's complete reiatsu capacity increased when it was nearly drained, I would say he has the capability to match Kurosaki-san's fighting capability in the future"
"But this is dangerous; if she can leech her allies' reiatsu in the middle of a fight then they could die"
Urahara held up a hand to silence Yoruichi
"I believe it's a conscious ability, and the reiatsu leeched to turn a normal soul into a Shinigami is much greater than any reiatsu she could leech in the middle of combat, even if she was on the verge of death. Another theory that I believe is that it's limited to Trell-san… and won't work over a certain distance, or she would have drained me, or drained Trell-san before he'd finished"
"But why was the hollow created?
"You remember our friends? The Vizards? Well Trell-san is also a Vizard with an inner hollow that hasn't surfaced yet, luckily and it's only a theory, but I believe that when Rayner-san leeched Trell-san's reiatsu that it forced the Inner hollow inside her to split from her zanpakuto spirit and escape her body due to the dormant inner hollow inside Trell-san"
"So she won't end up Vizard?"
"Neither will Kurosaki-san if we are lucky, but he didn't leech reiatsu from Trell-san and didn't eject the hollow"
Yoruichi was silent for a few seconds as she absorbed the implications of that statement
"So what do we do now?" she asked lightly "Your gambit appears to have paid off"
"We train these two, and we send them into Soul Society to help rescue Kuchiki-san, Aizen has more on his side than just the Gotei 13 at this point in time that was the whole reason I activated the portal… Allies are something we are in short supply of these days"
"Are you going to tell Ichigo and Layne?"
"About what? Impending hollowfication? Aizen? No, it's much better if they only think they are going to rescue Kuchiki-san."
They sat in more silence until Yoruichi got up and stalked off to bed and Urahara just stared at the table
After close to a week and a half cooped up in Urahara's store doing nothing but train and learn, Layne had uncharacteristically jumped at the chance to go run around Karakura town when Yoruichi offered it to him; he imagined Moll would have also been excited to join him but she brushed him off, saying something about her kido training being too interesting to leave now, even if they were supposed to leave for the Soul Society at a moment's notice
Layne shook his head, truthfully he almost felt like he should be training up until they actually had to go, but Yoruichi had compared it to a rest day for a work out, If you don't take the time to recuperate your body will just let you down, and with his complaints silenced, he'd been chased out of the store, with a small amount of money and dressed in blue jeans, and nondescript grey runners and shirt.
He took in the sights that Karakura town had to offer; today there was apparently a festival later tonight, which was suspiciously good timing on Yoruichi's part
Rounding the corner he was greeted with an unfortunate, yet sadly familiar sight, that of four thugs surrounding a guy with bright orange hair and a girl with bright auburn hair, no doubt just minding their own business and then these idiots had to go ruin their day
Layne swore under his breath as he quickened his pace towards the confrontation, he hated bullies and thugs with a rare passion
Layne noticed that the roof they were standing nearby was lower than the rest, giving him an idea.
"This time Kurosaki, we're going to settle things nicely… and then maybe we'll have some fun with your friend here"
Ichigo was also annoyed, he and Orihime had taken a wrong turn and gotten separated from the rest of their group and then these guys apparently remembered him beating up one of their mates and surrounded them
The biggest and ugliest of them grinned as he pulled out a switchblade, and flicked it up threateningly
"So what do you say, Kurosaki?" Ugly said, leaning in closer to Orihime, exposing the lack of a few teeth
"Kurosaki-kun…" Orihime said worriedly, though she'd trained with Tatsuki she was nervous about potentially having to put those skills into action, though she didn't want to let Ichigo down either
Luckily she was saved the dilemma by the appearance of Layne, who jumped down from a nearby roof onto Ugly, who crumpled beneath his weight
The other three were shocked, sputtering their indignation and demanding to know who he was
Ichigo moved forwards to help but Layne held up a hand
"I've got this, these idiots pissed me off"
Thug number two was the fastest to recover from his shock and threw a jab at Layne who caught the guy's fist and pulled, stepping out of the way so the thug ran into a wall
Layne thought back to his week and a half from hell, as he was terming the training he did with Yoruichi, which consisted of sparring, Layne getting beaten up, flashstep training, Layne getting beaten up and then games of tag…which ended up with Layne getting beaten up
Moll on the other hand just studied with Urahara, who seemed like the more forgiving teacher… as she didn't get beaten up at all.
The upside was, Layne reflected as he sidestepped Thug number three, tripping him up and sending him crashing next to number two, That if they weren't coming at him as fast as Yoruichi… then they were probably not worth his time
Thug Number four looked at his fallen buddies and then at Layne, Ichigo and Orihime, painfully aware that the tables had turned
"You can run if you want" Layne said calmly with a shrug "I'm not going to chase you down"
Thug Number four didn't hesitate and sprinted out of there, running past Chad and Tatsuki, who'd come to find Ichigo and Orihime and had witnessed the whole thing
"Where did you learn to fight like that?" Tatsuki asked excitedly, the competitive fighter in her taking over as she rushed up to Layne, Orihime and Ichigo as he turned towards her
The question evoked more traumatic memories of getting the shit kicked out of him by Yoruichi, causing him to flinch as he answered
"I got the crap beaten out of me, over and over again"
Tatsuki accepted that without hesitation
Layne turned towards Ichigo, apology on his face
"Sorry for cutting in like that… but people like that really irritate me"
After that, the awkwardness became so palpable that you could cut it with a knife, so Layne turned as if to walk away before Orihime stopped him
"Um… you're new in town aren't you?" she asked timidly, shooting Layne's confidence through the heart, he thought he was doing an excellent job of blending in "There's a festival on later… would you like to go with us?"
Layne glanced at them before shrugging
"Sure… I'm Layne"
Later, when Layne arrived back at the store he was greeted by Yoruichi
"Find anything exciting out there Layne?"
"Just made some friends"
It had been certainly been an interesting few weeks, Joel reflected, brushing a stray blond curl out of his eyes as he sat down on the ground, his back against one of the trees in the 13th division's training compound, currently taking a break from sparring with Renji and reflecting on his past week in crash course for Shinigami Lieutenants
Unusually, most of the captains had come to observe him and in some cases, offered him advice and regards, there had been Captain Unohana with some zanjutsu tips, Aizen, Komamura, Kyoraku, Hitsugaya and Ukitake, some like Byakuya and Kurotsuchi had come to see what was monopolizing so much of their lieutenants time, and then some scary occurrences, Captain Ichimaru, who Joel had disliked on sight, and Kenpachi, who'd scared Joel shitless, even Captain Soifon had come to take a look.
Renji had commented on how unusual it was for most of the captains to take time from their regular schedules and come observe a single Shinigami, and when he'd asked Nemu about it, she'd given the following explanation
"It is likely that each of them came to measure you with their own eyes, they are all formidable and seasoned warriors, and you are an enigma that defies explanation"
"What, so they want to see if I'm any good?"
"They would like to know if you are going to pose a problem"
"So when are they getting here?" Layne asked Moll and Yoruichi as they relaxed next to Urahara's senkai gate a full fortnight after the night they unlocked their Shinigami powers, they had been training hard and today was finally the day that they went to Soul Society
Privately Layne felt that going to Soul Society was his best chance of finding out what happened to Joel and if he could have some more people helping him along the way then all the better
Moll just wanted everyone to get home safely and so she was going along to make sure Layne didn't die because he was too lazy to use his all
Yoruichi was in cat form as it would be easier to remain unnoticed in Soul Society
"Here they come" she said "I'll go over to greet them, you two just stay here"
Yoruichi pounced onto Layne's head and used it as a springboard for a flashstep over to where Urahara was leading four people down that gigantic ladder from his store.
They talked for a bit around the ladder and then made their way to where Layne and Moll were currently sitting.
Ichigo was immediately on guard at the sight of two strange people sitting on the ground
"Who the hell are these people Hat n clogs" he questioned pointing at Layne who had stood up and stuck his hands in his pockets, bursting into laughter as he saw just who was accompanying Yoruichi and Urahara
"Yo, Ichigo, Chad, Inoue" He said, attempting to calm down "This is a funny set of circumstances"
"You're… Layne" Ichigo said with recognition "What's going on?"
"Allies" Urahara replied calmly, pushing Layne and Moll out of their bodies and into Shinigami form "They will aid you in Soul Society to rescue Kuchiki-san"
"How do you know these guys Layne?" Moll asked him
"These were the friends I made the other day when I went out, pretty funny coincidence that they're the guys we're going to Soul Society with"
"Who said we were okay with it?" Ichigo asked with arms crossed
Layne glanced at him, surprised; he'd seemed fine on the night of the festival, if not very talkative, much like Layne himself
"Well, you know I can fight, so that's not the reason… what's the problem with us going? Because if I'm alive, I'm going"
"IDIOTS!" Moll screeched as she punched both Ichigo and Layne into a nearby cairn.
Ishida and Chad sweat-dropped and Orihime cried out "Kurosaki-kun!" in worry
"Layne you jackass, you only said that in one of your fail attempts to look cool" Moll continued accusingly
"So what if I did?" Layne replied, picking himself up from the rubble and turning around to help Ichigo up
"And you" Moll said turning her attention to Ichigo as the pointed at him "You should be grateful that two powerful people like us are coming to help you rescue this Kuchiki person"
"Your friend is scary" Ichigo whispered to Layne as he got picked up
"This is nothing, just wait until we find our friend Joel, he's going to get it for making her cry like she has been doing" Layne replied grimly
Ichigo handed Layne back Roxas and got pushed out of his body by Urahara.
"Now that the pleasantries have been exchanged let's get down to business" Urahara began
He tapped the Senkai gate with his cane "This is a special Senkai gate, I made it by overlaying it with a layer of Reishihenkanki"
"Reishihenkanki?" asked Ishida
"The only people who could normally move around as souls would be Trell-san, Kurosaki-san and Rone-san for they are Shinigami. For the others if we separated you from your physical forms, you'd have to contend with the Chain of Fate. The Reishihenkanki converts your physical forms, into soul forms so you can just travel through the gate without having to exit your bodies" Urahara replied
"Ok then" Ichigo said "Let's do it"
He made a move for the door but was brought crashing to the floor as Moll tripped him
"Idiot, there's more to this" she said calmly
"That's correct Rone-san" Urahara said in a jovial tone "The Problem we have here is Time" and his tone became serious
"You only have Four minutes from which to travel through this gate into Soul Society, or you will get trapped forever in the Dangai. In addition to that the Dangai is filled with Kouryuu which can stop a spirit from moving"
"Then…what should we do?" asked Orihime
"Just walk forward" Yoruichi replied "The heart and soul are connected, and only those that can follow their hearts and move forward may follow me"
"What are you talking about" Ichigo growled "We four who have chosen to gather here have made the decision and will stand by it"
"You should know then, if you lose you will never return"
"Then all we have to do is win" Layne said with an easy grin
"Humph, well said"
"If you're all ready, once I open the gate we you should all dash in" Urahara cut in
"Let's do it" said Ichigo