Ichigo shot up from his bed. The events of last night came crashing down on him as he reached for the aspirin...only to discover for the first time in a week, he didn't need them. He reached into his back pocket, and found the book still in wallet sized form...which meant that everything that happened last night was real. He never slept with the book in his pocket.

Gesshoku didn't like it. She would give him an annoyed look if she felt mistreated.

Thought he still found it odd that both Lost Logia Tomes ended up having female AI.

Placing his head in his hands, Ichigo felt himself falling into the world that Gesshoku created...at least he thinks she created. It was a bizarre world where everything was sideways. He had freaked out when he saw the buildings, because he had been standing on one at the time, but gradually he got used to it.

"Care to explain what the hell happened last night?"

Gesshoku grimaced at him, before speaking.

(That soul reaper woman undid what was left of the bindings when she shoved her powers into you. The vacuum created by the sudden release sucked almost all of her power into you by accident, which means...)

Ichigo paled.

"I'm not going to like the answer am I?"

Gesshoku pointed behind him...and he turned to find a woman in a white kimono with snow white hair and pale eyes glaring at him.

"Who the hell are you?"

"My name, brat, is Sode no Shirayuki. I am Lady Rukia's sword. You kidnapped me last night!" she growled.

(It appears that you accidentally absorbed her along with Rukia's power. I have been trying to find how to send her back, but something appears to be blocking that connection.)

"Things just got a lot more complicated than it needs to be, didn't it?" he asked tiredly.

Silence met his question, and Ichigo left.

"You have what inside you?" asked Lindy incredulous. Earth mages were the most bizarre people she had ever met!

"A soul reaper appeared at my house last night. Because of her interference, I had to take in some of her power to awaken my own soul reaper powers...the vacuum created by the bindings being forcibly removed caused her...sword...to be sucked in as well."

He winced when he heard the sword's shriek. She didn't appreciate being called a plain sword.

"Well I don't know what to tell you. You could always try sending her back..."

"Gesshoku tried, but something appears to be blocking that connection."

"You said Rukia somehow integrated herself into your class with no warning at all?"

"Yeah, no one seems to be questioning where she came from either," said Ichigo.

Lindy pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Can you come in tomorrow? Maybe we can place the sword spirit into a device she can use until the block is gone."

"Tomorrow is my free day, I'll try to come in," said Ichigo.

Sode no Shirayuki was not a happy zanpakuto. She didn't appreciate being shoved into a small pendant, even if it was shaped like a snow flake. Ichigo had narrowly avoided Rukia, who had apparently taken residence in his closet.

Ichigo waited until he got Rukia out of the city before handing her the pendant.

"Here. Until I can find a way to remove whatever is blocking your powers you can use this."

"What is it?"

"It's easier to show you instead of explaining. What was the activating command for your sword?"

Rukia stared at him. Who told him about the fact that zanpakuto had souls that changed with certain commands?

"Could you just do it already? I don't have all day," said Ichigo irritably.

All the hunting of hollows was seriously cutting into his training time with Signum and the others. His magic training was starting to fall behind because of this!

Rukia decided to humor him, and while she held the pendant in her right hand she took a stance familiar to her.

"Dance, Sode no Shirayuki!"

She was very shocked with a flurry of snowflakes emerged from the pendant, and her outfit changed to a standard soul reaper uniform. The pendant itself became her zanpakuto.

"What?"

"Somehow when you broke the bindings on my powers the spirit of your sword got suck into mine. I had someone place the spirit into a device until we could find what was blocking it from your soul," said Ichigo.

"Ichigo...who put Sode no Shirayuki into this pendant?"

"Some friends I made at the TSAB did it for me. It took a couple of hours to isolate her frequency, and after that it was simple enough to put her in there," Ichigo shrugged.

"Who?"

"...Ah, perhaps Lindy can explain it better than I can..." said Ichigo. He took out his cell and called someone. Rukia couldn't hear what he said, but a few minutes later she felt the world shift around her.

"Welcome to the Arthra. One of the best Time Space cruisers currently in active service. I'll take you to meet Lindy," said Ichigo.

While Rukia talked to Lindy, Ichigo decided to catch up on his magic training. He was planning to work part time at the TSAB so he could move to Mid Childa once he graduated high school.

"Hey Ichigo," said Chrono.

"Yo."

"So how did that device work out?"

"Apparently it works perfectly, because according to Rukia that is her sword."

"That's good. How's Gesshoku?"

The device decided to manifest herself, and once again Ichigo wondered why she looked like that.

Gesshoku had a belly dancer outfit that was decked in red and had a long skirt at the bottom. Her hair was a bright red orange and her eyes were like flames. She rarely bothered with shoes...and every once in a while Ichigo caught a hint of a fox tail under the skirt. The first time she manifested herself at his house, Ichigo had nearly passed out from shock.

Karin had loved it and had added it to the choices she had picked for her barrier jacket.

"So has Karin chosen what she wants for her barrier jacket?" asked Chrono amused.

"She said she was getting close. Last time I checked she was looking through her old deck for ideas," said Ichigo.

Karin's search for the uniform she would have when she finally got her device was a bit of an ongoing joke with Ichigo and his friends. The only time Ichigo grew worried was when Karin conspired with Hayate to drag him into otaku conventions. He had spent ten hours walking with the two dressed as someone from a random anime he had liked and had sworn never again. At least not with them anyway.

"Tell her that when she finally picks her outfit we'll show her the device types available on sale," said Chrono amused.

Thanks to the fact that Ichigo had expressed an interest in joining the TSAB, Karin was allowed to buy a device after she got her license. Yuuno had never told Nanoha, but the fact was that only registered magic users were allowed to buy high end devices like Raising Heart.

Karin had been saving up for weeks to buy a device, helping Yuuno on weekends to sort the Infinity Library. She had started to express an interest in the ferret, to the amusement of his friends.

Ichigo barely noticed Rukia coming into the room. He was sparing with Signum at the time.

"Time!" yelled Chrono.

"Whew! I could barely block that last strike," said Ichigo.

"Contrary to what you think, your swordplay is almost at my level Ichigo. Soon you'll be able to beat me at full speed," said Signum.

Interesting fact was that Ichigo could beat any other swordsman whenever his barrier jacket was on, but when it was off he often got beaten. Which was why he asked Signum to help him learn real swordplay so he wouldn't have to rely on his device.

The fact that he was willing to learn how to use his sword without using the device as a crutch was all the reason Signum needed to agree.

"I didn't know you knew how to use a sword Ichigo."

"I do, but that bulky thing is damn near impossible to maneuver right," said Ichigo.

"Perhaps we should start training with that instead," said Signum.

Ichigo replaced the metal practice sword he normally had. It was as sharp as a real one, but it was reinforced to take serious damages.

Signum noticed the snowflake in Rukia's hand.

"Are you the soul reaper who broke the bindings?"

"I gave Ichigo his powers, but I have no idea what you mean by bindings..."

"My dad placed bindings on my spirit powers when I was little, roughly after my mother died. They kept the hollows and the soul society from detecting me until now. When you pushed your sword into my chest they were broken," explained Ichigo.

"What sort of bindings? Very few people would be able to handle something like that on their power without it breaking free," said Rukia.

"The bindings he used are primary designed for training purposes and increasing the density of spirit energy. Ichigo had unknowingly been pushing all his spirit energy out every moment of the day for almost ten years just to move around," said Signum.

(Think the spirit cuffs Genkai placed on Yusuke in Yu Yu Hakusho during the Dark Tournament.)

Rukia stared at him.

"You had spirit cuffs on you since you were six?"

"What's the big deal about them anyway?"

"Ichigo, having something like that on you at such a young age without periodically removing and replacing them... The amount of energy that it would release when they were taken off would be enormous. No wonder it was leaking so heavily all over the place..."

"So Rukia-san...can you use that sword of yours?" asked Signum.

"Fairly well...why?"

Signum launched an attack without warning, and Rukia quickly used the incantation for her sword. The swords clashed violently as Rukia was put through the paces.

When Chrono finally called time, Rukia was panting and almost to her knees in exhaustion. Signum was merciless!

"Your swordplay is passable, but very weak. I get the feeling you rely far too much on her powers to get the fighting done," said Signum.

Ichigo carried the exhausted girl to his room where she collapsed in his closet. It was a very good thing she didn't see the evil grin on his face.

It was about time he got revenge on her for annoying him so much!

Three months had passed, and Ichigo was finally getting the hang of being a regular soul reaper. As long as he focused on learning how to control his new powers, Rukia's assignment got done.

But now he faced an entirely new issue.

The soul society had finally taken notice of the fact that Rukia wasn't the one to get rid of the hollows in Karakura, and they had sent someone to collect her.

Ichigo ran towards where Rukia's device was. She didn't know he could track her through the snowflake using Gesshoku.

He found her standing in shock with the annoying pest known as Uryu on the ground bleeding. Ichigo looked at Rukia.

"He didn't try that hollow bait thing again did he?"

"No," said Rukia, nodding towards the redhead.

"Ah, so he picked a fight and got his ass kicked. Got it. I thought I would have to take him to see the Borg again," said Ichigo.

Even half conscious, Uryu shuddered.

The Borg, as Ichigo so aptly put it, was in fact Hayate and his younger sister Karin. The two often tried to 'assimilate' any unwary magus who caught their interest. After Uryu had annoyed him by accidentally summoning a Menos, Ichigo had actually knocked him out and forced him to be Hayate's newest victim for a month.

Poor Uryu was now one of Hayate's newest converts. He really shouldn't have bet Ichigo a month of doing his bidding in order to get him to agree to the hollow hunting contest...

I fear for the worlds if Hayate ever gets her domination through cosplay off the ground... thought Ichigo.

"So, who are these two."

"You don't need to know!" said the red head using his oddly shaped sword to attack. He didn't need any prompting from Rukia to figure out that this kid had taken her powers.

Ichigo dodged, and tried to grab the sword. Gesshoku was fully active at the moment and currently awaiting to 'download' the new swords into her databank.

After accidentally absorbing Sode no Shirayuki, Ichigo had finally figured out what his device was supposed to be recording.

Gesshoku recorded spirit powers of humans, hollows and soul reapers. All she needed was to be in direct contact long enough to download the information, and Ichigo could use their powers against them.

At the moment all he had were Rukia, Orihime, Chad and Urahara, which he got on accident.

(Downloading... Information complete. Registration: Renji Abarai. Classification: Soul Reaper. Power levels: 3,000. Spirit power: zanpakuto. Sword Name: Zabimaru. Sword Ability: extension up to three times. Can also attack if sword is split into pieces, but spirit takes heavy damage.)

Ichigo watched the sword carefully. After Renji extended it two more times, it went back to solid state. And that was when he struck.

"What the...?!"

Renji tried to attack, but Ichigo ducked under the sword and nearly cut him in half.

"Who are you?" asked Renji in shock. Ichigo was not only evading his sword, he was actually doing damage.

"Me? I'm Ichigo Kurosaki. You just chose the worst possible person to piss off," said Ichigo.

Right as he was about to strike Renji again. He felt his sword become lighter without warning. He looked and found the blade had suddenly vanished.

It didn't take a genius to figure out where. The other soul reaper had it in his hand.

"How...?"

He felt two sharp thrusts in his chest and abdomen.

(Downloading... Information complete. Name: Byakuya Kuchiki. Class: Soul Reaper. Power level: 12,000. Spirit power: zanpakuto, kido and shun po. Sword Name: Senbonzakura. Sword ability: Can turn into a thousand razor sharp Sakura petals. Bankai levels: 20,000.)

Crap... I pissed off a captain.

Ichigo lay on the ground bleeding. He was aware that his soul reaper powers that were awakened by Rukia were gone. His own powers had hidden themselves in Gesshoku at the last second, and it was likely that neither of the soul reapers were aware of his book.

Good thing too, otherwise they might have destroyed it the moment they knew what it could do.

By the time his consciousness faded, Urahara had appeared and Rukia had been arrested by her own brother.

This...was going to be hell.