Chapter Two: "Training Dummies" (cheap pun? XD)

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Bleach. Thanks to Kubo Tite and his awesomeness.

"Soul… Core?" Rukia whispered.

"Are you familiar with it?" Kira asked.

Rukia shook her head, "Not exactly, but I might have heard of it when I was in Soul Society."

"Anyways, Soul Core was a project designed by that mad 12th Division a couple of years ago. It was a liquid drug that enhanced reiatsu greatly by extracting mass energy from deep within your soul. Kurotsuchi had many experimental souls on hand to test out the new drug..."

"You mean humans, right?" Ichigo scowled.

Kira looked downward, "Yes."

"That bastard... I won't forgive him for this!" Ichigo clenched his fists.

"I understand your feelings, but he's not our current enemy. Back to what I was saying, Soul Society captains found out about it and they deemed it too dangerous. Soul Core basically drained your life energy, and if used enough, it could forcefully excrete your life energy until you were nothing but a corpse. Also, storing the drug was costly and complicated. It was set to be destroyed the following day, ridding the need to guard it heavily and eliminating the risk of death upon use."

Hirosaki continued where Kira left off, "But even after its destruction, the shinigami who came in contact with that drug when it was supposed to be demolished all caught the Soul Core. They shinigami didn't suspect a thing and continued their daily missions to and from the living world and Soul Society. All of the infected shinigami began dying off one by one by Hollow attacks when they entered the living world."

"Hollows attacked them because of the Soul Core?" Rukia pondered.

Yuki nodded, "Although it forces out reiatsu, the ones who were infected by it have reiatsu surges in addition to shortening their lifespan. The spirit power in themselves increases and decreases at such a severe level and short amount of time that Hollows find them vulnerable for consumption."

"So basically what we're trying to say is that Soul Core is like steroids, but every time you use it, a fourth of your lifespan will be consumed. The fluctuating energy level in your body is not in balance, which acts like Hollow bait. Even if you aren't using its power, the Hollows will still smell a powerful soul brimming with immense energy. It's only a matter of time before Hollows devour those infected humans who caught Soul Core from the original shinigami who came in contact with it." Saki said.

Yuki frowned, "Unfortunately, we can't destroy it in the living world. We can only contain it and send it back to 12th Division so they can permanently seal it."

"So how do we do that?" Orihime asked.

"With the help of a few 4th Division members, they can tap into a human's reiatsu flow and remove the traces of Soul Core causing this power surge. Unfortunately, 4th Division is stuck in Soul Society with a crisis going on over there. In their place, we'll be the ones doing the capturing and reiatsu removing." Yuki grinned.

"Wait, what?" Ichigo looked at her in disbelief.

"You'd better pay attention to this crash course we're about to give, everyone." Yuki grinned even wider.

"Yo, Kurosaki-san!" the Urahara Shop manager suddenly poked his head through the window, waving that fan of his.

"Sandal-Hat? What are you here for?"

"Insurance!" he said happily.

AN HOUR LATER, THE FLOOR IS ON FIRE

"ICHIGO! WHAT THE HECK DID YOU DO?" Rukia screamed, "Don't wave that fan, Urahara! You're making the fire grow, idiot!"

"Jeez…" Hirosaki froze the ground with his zanpakuto.

"Um… my bad...? At least we're lucky my family went on a camping trip at noon today..." Ichigo squeaked.

"Aiiya… This will take a while." Yuki groaned.

And indeed it did. Orihime accidentally tripped over the dummy used for reiatsu training, causing an ironic chain reaction. Rukia, surprised by the dummy falling on her, accidentally grabbed onto Ichigo and sucked up a chunk of his energy.

"Rukia… let go… of me…" Ichigo gasped, almost slumping to his knees.

"I'm sorry!" she let go of Ichigo, who now looked like he fought twelve Hollows at one time.

"Alright, forget the training dummies for now. Just watch me do it (again.)" Hirosaki sighed but did not actually say 'again.'

"Kira, can I use you for a second?" Kira nodded.

"Concentrate your reiatsu into the hands," his hands glowed a soft blue, "Gently ease into the other person's reiatsu," he slipped his hand above Kira's chest, which suddenly became see-through, almost like an x-ray photo.

"Now slip your hand inside and try to balance it out," the area around his hands started glowing bright blue, then dimmed to the light blue of Hirosaki's reiatsu, "And then, remove the foreign reiatsu, which should be dark violet." Hirosaki removed a millimeter ball of Kira's reiatsu as an example.

Kira still felt uncomfortable with someone entering their energy through him, even after the fourth time Hirosaki did it. It just felt weird, like someone was sifting through his insides.

"Kira doesn't seem to be enjoying having his reiatsu removed because of your lack of speed-learning. So this better be the last example we'll show you." Yuki frowned to the group.

"Everyone let's get back to work!" Urahara Kisuke chirped happily.

Half an hour later, everyone seemed to get the hang of it.

"Let's do this!" Hirosaki grinned, finally free of teaching and ready to be out in the field.

"Now we'll split up into two-person teams. Ichigo and Rukia, Orihime and Yuki, Kisuke-sama and Sado, and Kira and I will be in a team."

"Kisuke-sama, please show them the materials." Yuki said.

"First, you'll be receiving a specially formulated spray from the one and only, Urahara Shop!" Urahara pulled out a small, metal spray can, "When you first meet the person with severe reiatsu surges, and trust me, you'll know when you're near," Urahara added, "Spraying them with this canister will knock them out for a while and will also alter their memories of encountering you. Ingenious, isn't it?" the blond manager nodded to himself approvingly.

"Secondly," Hirosaki raised two fingers in emphasis, "We have provided you with a type of reiatsu radar so you don't start running around town blindly."

"Thirdly, you must eat these spirit pills every ten minutes for you to become invisible as if you were a shinigami and you can walk through walls undetected. Still, some humans have high reiatsu, so they may see you." Yuki continued.

"If there happens to be a problem, we will contact each other by radio. Lastly, be prepared to fight with Hollows on the way. When we are finished, we'll meet back at the rendezvous point, which will be Ichigo's house. If there are no more questions, we'll depart immediately," Kira looked around, "Good. Let's go!"

And so, the search for Soul Core victims has begun.

TBC

Heh… Some 'insurance' Urahara was… (-hence the fire scene-) It's just so fun writing his character. :D

Man, I used the word 'reiatsu' a LOT in this chapter.

OMAKE:

"CRAP!" Hirosaki suddenly yelled while running on the roofs with Kira.

"What's wrong, Saki-kun?" Kira faced him, not dropping his pace.

"I told the Mod Soul in my gigai, 'Stay back and don't get hurt.' I don't know where to find him now!" Hirosaki groaned.

"I'm sure he'll turn up… eventually…" Kira assured him meekly.

"I hope he's not going around picking up chicks like Kon would do in Ichigo's body…" Hirosaki shuddered, "I don't even want to know."

MOD SOULS:

"Guy's night out!" Sai, Hirosaki's Mod Soul, drunkenly slurred.

"And girls... Pyon!" the pill in Rukia's gigai added, motioning to Sen, Yuki's Mod Soul.

"Oh man… We should have been friends earlier. Ichigo and nee-san are so boring. Well, maybe nee-san's OK, but Ichigo would never do this…" Kon slammed his glass down, "Ossan! One more!"

"Same for the three of us!" Sai collapsed on the bar table.

With their newly refilled beer mugs, they clinked glasses in cheers.

Well, at least they were just underage drinking…

R & R please :)