Chapter 5
The next day Tatsuki woke up early in the morning and Ichigo led her down to a secret basement in Kisuke Urahara's house. As she reached the base of the latter and overlooked this seemingly infinite room Tatsuki gasped at the unbelievable sigh
It was as if Kisuke had his own underground desert in his home. The sky was bright blue, as if it was the sunniest of days. There were even clouds that moved slowly. Tatsuki found it hard to believe she was still indoors. Ichigo led Tatsuki deeper into the room for a bit as he spoke.
"This is where Urahara took me to awaken my soul reaper powers back when I had first lost them after Rukia was taken back to the soul society." Ichigo said as turned to face his new pupil. "it will be a little rough, and I'm not quite sure the results…but I believe we can awaken your powers the same way. Of course if I'm wrong…."
"I want to do this, Ichigo." Tatsuki declared as she looked at her friend with caring eyes. "I know the risks. I know I could die from whatever we are doing down here. I want you to know, that if that were to happen…It would not be your fault, but my own. This is what I want to do."
"You know me well enough to know I will never see it that way." Ichigo responded with a frown on his face.
"Well, then I'll just have to live then!" Tatsuki spoke with a witty smile.
Ichigo laughed to himself at Tatsuki's resolve. It was much like his own, and the substitute soul reaper counted as one of his greatest strengths. The will to win and accomplish whatever you needed to do no matter what. That sheer willpower had been enough to get Ichigo through all the trials he had been through up to this point. He hoped it would also be enough for Tatsuki.
The teacher led his new student to a spot in the pseudo desert where they sighted a massive hole in the ground. Ichigo smiled and stopped, as he had finally found what he was looking for. The orange haired boy reached in his backpack and pulled out a fingerless glove with a skull on the back of it.
"What is that?" Tatsuki asked?"
"Right now you're in your human form." Ichigo replied, "We need to be dealing with your spirit form. This is Rukia's glove, and it should help with that. Are you ready?"
"Ready for wha…" Tatsuki couldn't finish her sentence before Ichigo lunged towards her and smacked her head with the palm of his skull glove wielding hand. Tatsuki was surprised, but not at all hurt by the hit. The experience she felt in this moment was unlike anything else she had ever felt.
Tatsuki literally fell out of her own body. She fell backwards, then she watched her body fall forward onto the ground lifeless. Tatsuki let out a yelp of horror, until she realized that she seemed unharmed. She looked down to examine her body, which still seemed to be perfectly normal. Well, almost perfect. Tatsuki noticed a chain that was connected from her chest to the chest of her lifeless body that currently laid on the ground.
What…what the hell, Ichigo?" Tatsuki demanded, as she had no words to describe what just happened.
"You're in your spirit form now. That chain that links you to your body, it's your soul chain."
This chain…" Tatsuki pondered, "Is connected to my soul? Ths part of my chest, it's the same spot as where that man ripped that red stone from Orihime's body after he killed her…so did he rip away part of her soul after killing her?"
"I don't know…" Ichigo replied sadly, as he considered that tragic night. "It seems to be something like that though, that's not the first time I've seen someone get something ripped from their soul."
"Ok, what next?" Tatsuki asked, determine to master whatever it is her friend was willing to teach her.
"How do you feel, Tatsuki?"
"I feel…" Tatsuki suddenly dropped to the ground and breathed harder, "Heavier…and like it's harder to breathe!"
"Perfect, then you're ready!" Ichigo spoke as he begun walking away. "Of course we can't leave your body there, why don't you drag it over here back to the ladder leading upstairs. I'm going to get something to eat!"
Tatsuki groaned as she struggled to budge her own body. Ordinarily her own weight would have been exceptionally simple for anyone to move, but in her current condition it felt five times heavier. She cursed at Ichigo as he left her to this hard and seemingly useless task. "Why didn't we just do this body removal thing back at the ladder before coming all the way out here?"
Tatsuki begun by holding the lifeless arm of her body and dragging it across the sand, breathing heavily with each step. Then it occurred to the young lady that this was her body she was treating like a heavy bag of garbage. It may be more work, but she assumed she had to get back into it eventually, so Tatsuki decided to get under her own body and lift it up, as if she was carrying an injured friend.
In about thirty minutes, Tatsuki had reached the ladder and leaned her body against the room's wall which looked like the horizon of the desert. After setting her physical form on the wall, Tatsuki took a step back, and prevented herself from falling forward by holding her two knees with her hands. She felt much winded after not moving very far. For the girl who was very competent in martial arts and very physically fit, this was very disappointing.
Not too long after Tatsuki reached the ladder, Ichigo jumped down the ladder, holding a three meat and cheese sub, half eaten. Tatsuki glared at him, as she was clearly annoyed at the seemingly dumb task he had asked her to do.
"Tatsuki you made it back already with your body?" Ichigo asked, shocked that it had taken her so little time. "I was thinking I still had enough time to run down to the market and get a couple drinks…"
"Really, are you even taking this seriously?" Tatsuki demanded, her voice showing signs of her anger management class limits appearing.
"Of course I am!" Ichigo casually responded as he began walking forward once more into the "desert". He motioned Tatsuki to follow.
"Where are we going now?" Tatsuki fussed.
"Back to the hole." Ichigo responded
"But I was just there! Why didn't you ask me to leave my body at the ladder before we went to the hole!?" Tatsuki spoke as she was growing very tired of the substitute soul reaper's games.
"Oh by the way," Ichigo asked, as he paused and turned and looked back at his new pupil. His voice now was serious and intentional, "how are you handling moving in your spirit form? How's the breathing and weight of everything?
"I feel…" Tatsuki considered the question, "Just fine! It's not heavy at all, and I'm breathing perfectly normal!"
"That's why I had you move your own body." Ichigo responded, "I figured a little physical labor would help restore your strength and endurance. It should be strong enough for us to move on with the rest of the exercises to awaken your…well, we'll get to that."
"Get to what?" Tatsuki now was curious as to what she would be doing. As she was about to ask for more details, she felt her chest pull the rest of her body back. Tatsuki stopped abruptly and remembered that she had a chain attached to her human body that kept her from going to far. She looked back up to her tutor and spoke out, "Hey Ichigo, I think I've gotten to as far as I can since I have this whole soul chain thing. I can't go forward anymore."
"Oh yeah…" Ichigo turned around completely and faced Tatsuki. He looked at her chain and sighed. This was the hard part, he thought. Putting on a confident face, the orange haired man spoke, "I guess we need to take care of that don't we?"
"What do you mean?" Tatsuki asked. Without any kind of warning, Ichigo withdrew his gigantic Zanpakuto and slashed the soul chain, breaking it so Tatsuki was no longer bound to her physical body. She gasped in shock, as there was a sharp and intense pain that quickly faded away. Tatsuki jumped backwards and yelled at Ichigo. "What the hell are you doing, Ichigo?"
"I'm afraid it's going to get a lot worse…" Ichigo spoke as he jumped high in the air and over Tatsuki. He then landed behind her and kicked her hard in the back. The kick was so powerful that Tatsuki fell down and slid through the sand for a mile or so, and into the giant hole that she had once visited. Tatsuki screamed as she fell into the dark hole and crashed on the hard ground at the bottom. While still sitting, slightly dazed and confused, Tatsuki looked up to see Ichigo at the top of the hole. He yelled down to the lady he just sent flying down a 50 feet drop, "Hey Tatsuki! Can you hear me? Listen carefully, this is the life threatening part I was telling you about…you need to know a few things that are about to happen…"
Meanwhile, outside Urahara's house deep in the night from the sky over Karakura Town a large black tear in space appeared and ripped open. Several disgusting beasts from Hueco Mundo known as Hollows began clawing their way through the rip and within moments were levitating in the sky.
"Fresh souls!" One monster's deep demon voice bellowed, as he jumped onto a build and began rushing towards a residential neighborhood.
"Urrgha!" Several less intelligent hollows growled in agreement as they followed the beast.
Each monster looked very difficult and had some type of skull head. Some had wings, others multiple legs. One had several eyes in its skull mask, and another had six tails that ignited on fire. By the time the portal closed, there were a dozen unique and terrifying monsters in Karakura Town, all of which were rushing to the strongest signs of spiritual pressure to feast on souls.
But they weren't the only ones that had recently appeared in Karakura Town. The Hollows cringed as they heard two voices speak in unison.
From one, "Dance Sode no Shirayuki!"
From the other, "Roar Zabimaru!"
A/N: I have had several folks follow or favorite me and my story...Thank you, it's a real honor to have your attention! I hope you keep enjoying this fanfiction and please let me know what you think! Get pumped for the next chapter, friends...we finally get to meet Tatsuki's Zanpakuto!