About damn time

'What is it?' I whisper, feeling sick as I look at the flame flickering vibrantly up my palm. Maybe I am getting a fever, because now I'm not feeling hot, but the exact opposite The fire is sending icy trickles up my arm and making me shiver, although I can still feel it radiating heat. Maybe it's just the fact that I'm finding it seriously creepy.

'A fire Legacy,' Zangetsu replies, watching me carefully to see how I'll react.

I swallow. 'So... what, exactly? Will I be able to shoot fireballs from my hands or something?'

'Yes, eventually,' he answers.

I feel a smile beginning to break across my face despite the panic I was going through. 'Hey... that's kind of cool.'

Zangetsu smiles as well. 'Well, I'm afraid that the control of fire won't come immediately. Have you heard of Lumen?'

'Lumen... as in like, lights?'

'Yes. Lumen is regarded as one of the weaker Legacies to begin with, because the most it can enable you to do for the first few months is allow the user to light their palms up like flash lights. The fact that your hands actually caught fire instead of glowing suggests that you have a particularly powerful Legacy, far more developed than the ordinary Lumen. I would imagine that it shouldn't take you as long to master the fire technique.'

'Sweet,' I say. 'Is Lumen and the elemental fire thing always linked?'

'Not always. Some Garde only ever receive the simple Lumen, where their palms light up, but I can guarantee you'll have the fire powers too,' he says.

'Well, that's definitely made me feel better!' I exclaim, picturing in my mind a slightly older me running through a battle field shooting fire balls at silhouettes of the enemy.

Not yet, says the pale me.

But soon, I reply, smiling inside.

.

We eventually have to place my hands in a bowl of water to extinguish the fire, and once they're dry again the fire doesn't come back, although I still feel slightly sick. But I don't mind. I have my first Legacy, and it's a powerful one.

'Not your most powerful,' Zangetsu tells me. 'Your most powerful Legacy will be your last one. The others are all building up in strength until you get to that final one.'

'So is this my weakest?'

'Yes. This is your first one, Lumen, and the flame is a notice that you'll develop an elemental, fire, one day.'

'How exactly can I make the fire come back?' I ask.

'You won't be able to yet. As I said, that's just a preview of what is to come. You can practice making your palms glow like flash lights, however. That is Lumen.'

I'm growing impatient, however. 'But what good is having flash light palms? That's completely useless next to the fire one!'

He smiles. 'Don't underestimate Lumen, Ichigo. Blinding an opponent during a fight can mean the difference between life and death. Be patient- the fire will come one day.'

We're now sitting on the sofa of our new living room, and Kon is lying on my lap, purring. He didn't even find the fire disturbing. Strange animal.

'So... what are you going to tell the school?' I ask after a moment's thought.

'Ah, don't worry. I always think of an excuse,' he answers, smiling. 'It was your second day. How does nervous breakdown sound?'

'Terrible,' I grumble in response. 'I've told you before, I don't want to be a bully magnet.'

He pulls his laptop off the table next to him and begins typing away. I take a deep breath as I'm watching him, and decide to ask the thing I've been dreading about.

'So does this mean we're not moving away?' I murmur hesitantly.

He examines me behind his glasses. 'I've certainly considered it, but it would look a little suspicious leaving having only just arrived in Karakura.'

Relief courses through me. I'm so damn tired of moving all the time, so the idea of staying here sounds great.

I tense when I hear a knock at the door. It's not a slamming sound like the one Kon made last night when he arrived, but Hollows are good at disguising themselves. Even so, I get up to answer it, leaving Zangetsu typing away as if he hasn't heard anything.

It's Rukia Kuchiki.

She must have been walking back from school. She holds out a sheet of paper with distinguishable maths questions printed out on it.

'You left before the teacher gave out the homework,' she says.

'Uh... thanks...'

She flashes me a small smile and then she's off, walking down the garden path and out of sight behind the wall.

'Who was that at the door?' Zangetsu asks as I come back through the door.

I grin and reply, 'Just a classmate. Giving me homework.'

'Did you act all shaky and scared?'

'No. Why?'

'Oh, shit. Already you're failing at my nervous breakdown cover up story!'

I laugh. 'There's no way I'm going back to school with everyone thinking I had a nervous breakdown.'

'Too late,' he says, grinning evilly. 'I've already sent the email.'

.

I'm upset at first to think that I'm not allowed to go to school tomorrow (Zangetsu's orders), but when I discover why, I find it completely acceptable.

I'm going to be starting training.

Finally.

I lie in bed, unable to sleep, staring up at the cracked paint on the ceiling, absent-mindedly stroking Kon with one hand, as he is lying on my chest, fast asleep. It's completely dark aside from the glow of the small lamp on my bedside table. I've waited so long for my Legacies, and now the first one has come...

Wait, hang on. You said you were going to tell me you are when my first Legacy comes, I think directly at the pale me, wondering whether I'll get an answer. Well, it's here, so tell me.

It's complicated, Four. Maybe in the morning, he replies, sounding sleepy, which I know is just an act.

No. Now.

He sighs. It would better tomorrow, during your training.

You promise? I say, trying to sound threatening.

Yeah, yeah. Whatever.

.

'Hang on- is that the Chest?!' I say incredulously, staring at the large box under Zangetsu's arm.

'Yes. We're going to be using it.'

'You mean we're... actually going to open it?!'

'That's the general idea, yes,' he says, smiling at my bewilderment.

We've always had the Chest. It was brought with us from Lorien, and each member of the Garde was given one, as they have our Inheritance inside. Except I've never been allowed to look inside. Over the years Zangetsu has kept it hidden, and in all that time I have often attempted to find and open it. I stopped about two years ago, when I actually did manage to locate it in the cupboard of his room, only to find him standing behind me with his eyebrows raised. I sheepishly admitted that I was extremely curious, and all he said was, 'Go on then. Open it.' I wasn't sure whether he was serious or not, but I attempted to open it anyway. There was a lock on it but no slot for a key, which I couldn't understand. I tried pushing it open but nothing worked. Eventually, I gave up and he told me that I wasn't ready yet.

'How are we going to open it?' I ask.

He smiles. 'It's not easy. You and I are the only ones who will ever be able to open it, and we cannot do it alone. We need each other to open it. Unless I'm dead, in which case you'll be able to do it by yourself.'

'Then... how exactly...?'

'Place your hand on one side of the lock,' he instructs, holding it out for me. I do as I'm told, and he places one of his hands on the other side of the lock. There's a moment of silence where nothing happens and then a small whirring noise.

And then a click, as the Chest opens.

'Whoa!' I whisper. 'How come we never did this earlier?!'

'We can only open the chest after you've developed your first Legacy. Congratulations, Ichigo Kurosaki, Number Four.'

'Thanks!' I say with a grin.

I lean forward eagerly, but Zangetsu's already pulling it away from me and walking away.

'Hey!'

'Wait here,' he commands. 'There are some things inside here that you are not ready to see.'

I am so utterly disappointed but he doesn't seem to care. He leaves the room and I sit on the sofa, pouting for a second before asking, Now?

Wait, answers the pale me.

Zangetsu returns, carrying a strange looking stone, about six inches long, two inches thick. It is perfectly smooth and oblong, clear on the inside but cloudy in the centre. He sets it down in front of me, and I glance at it curiously.

'What is it?'

'A Loric crystal.'

'What's it for?'

'Hold it,' he instructs, and I do as he says, reaching down to grab it. The moment my skin comes into contact with the smooth, polished rock my hands begin to glow like torches, tremendously bright. The rock begins to feel warm. The cloudy mass in the centre is swirling, turning in on itself like a wave. The pendant hanging around my neck, marking me as one of the nine Loric children, begins to get hot as well.

'If you weren't developing Lumen, the crystal would light your hands up. Instead, it's the other way around. You're the one making the crystal do that. It's reacting to your new Legacy.'

I watch my palms and the crystal glowing together.

'Shall we start?' Zangetsu asks.

'Of course!'

.

I'm in the side-ways world once again, and I wonder why. Zangetsu has told me that I'm supposed to let my mind drift to whatever I need to see while he places the crystal on my arm, moving it up and down. At some point he's supposed to light a fire under my arms, which are dangling over the side of the wooden coffee table I'm lying on.

'Aren't I supposed to be having visions of Lorien?' I say aloud, hearing my voice echoing off the sides of the blue skyscrapers.

'This is the vision, genius,' comes the pale me's voice. I turn to my right to see him standing there wearing that usual grin of his. He points over in the distance with his pale hand towards the jungles of Lorien, his black and yellow glowing in anticipation.

'Well? You coming or what?'