Ichigo awoke to the horrifying sight of Tessai on top of him.
"GET THE HELL OFF ME!" he roared.
Tessai was sent flying into the wall. Normally Ichigo would worry about someone he sent into such a hard surface, but Tessai happened to be his kido instructor. The day he learned of his ability to use the magic soul reapers had, he went to the best instructor in Karakura.
That person was Tessai, the former leader of the Kido corps. It had been Urahara who suggested that the man teach him. At the moment Ichigo could use up to level fifty spells, since Tessai was well aware that anything below level 34 was out of his reach. Any attempts to use the lower levels blew up in his face.
They knew, because they had tried repeatedly until Ichigo finally gave up on them.
"Morning Ichigo!" said Urahara cheerfully.
"Cut the crap Hat and clogs. What do we need to do?" asked Ichigo cutting to the chase. He wasn't in the mood for his antics.
"First you have to wait until summer vacation. Then I'll put you through the training from hell to bring back your reishi and awaken your real soul reapers powers," said Urahara bluntly.
"So you're making me go through a rougher training session than usual. Terrific," said Ichigo dryly.
"If you're good I'll see if Yoruichi can throw in some shun po training as well."
"Deal!" said Ichigo. Yoruichi had been promising to show him how to use shun po for months now, always telling him she would teach him once the bindings came off.
"And as a special bonus, you'll finally get to see what your sword spirit looks like!"
"About damn time! Ever since I got rid of that harpy he keeps dancing in and out of sight!"
Ichigo growled when Urahara knocked him out of his body. The guy was an ass, but at least Ichigo knew he could trust him to a point.
"Your first task is to...hit Ururu once!" said Urahara grandly.
"Just once?" asked Ichigo.
"Once."
"Fine by me," said Ichigo.
He had long since lost any reservations about hitting girls her age thanks to Fate. He knew Ururu was roughly at the same level as Yuuno, so a punch wouldn't really hurt her that much.
Ichigo started to duck and weave as Ururu went at him. His speed had improved in leaps since becoming a mage, and the fact that he wasn't willing to rely entirely on his device only made him a favorite in the training grounds on Mid Childa. Some of the older mages rather liked him, despite the fact that he was only 15.
Suddenly Ururu landed a solid punch, and Ichigo felt the air fly past him as he collided with the rocks.
Tessai had caught the brunt of the crash, but it still hurt like hell.
"Step one: complete!" said Urahara.
It took Ichigo that long to realize that he could breath a lot easier than when he started this crazy trick.
"So when do we start step two?"
Urahara grinned under his hat.
"Now!"
Ichigo felt the ground beneath him vanish, and the string of curses he let loose impressed Urahara greatly.
While Ichigo lay in the ground, he decided to spend his time constructively...by planning complete and utter humiliation on Urahara for the hole. That landing hurt worse than the rocks!
As the various scenarios came to mind, Ichigo finally settled on one that would amuse him greatly...and keep a certain someone from trying to turn him into the ultimate magical boy.
He just hoped Hayate enjoyed the new...victim...he was planning to send her way. It was too bad that he couldn't access Gesshoku from here, because Urahara had swiped it not long after they started training.
He was still connected to her, but he couldn't access her library to give him hell.
For nearly three long days Ichigo waited for whatever to happen...and finally his chain started to encroach all the way.
He could feel the beginnings of a mask trying to form, but the combined efforts of Gesshoku and his own stubbornness kept it from taking full hold.
Ichigo felt himself fall into his own inner world. It was about time he saw what it looked like.
Ichigo stared. It wasn't that hard for him to do. After all, something he had thought was true proved to be incorrect.
The sideways world that Gesshoku inhabited wasn't hers...it was his. The skyscrapers and everything.
"Ichigo."
"So...you must be my zanpakuto. Why didn't you show up sooner?"
"...She was still connected, and I didn't want to hear her complain about being unable to talk to her master the usual way,"the spirit admitted.
Ichigo winced. Sode no Shirayuki was as much of a harpy as her master was at times.
"Point. So what now?"
"Spirit ribbons. That would be your best bet,"said the sword.
"The one thing I'm horrible at...of course it would be that," said Ichigo.
Suddenly the world began to crumble around him. As he felt gravity reassert itself, Ichigo concentrated as hard as he could on his spirit ribbon trick that he learned after the time with Chad and his bird.
Finally something snapped inside him, and the ribbons came out. He looked among them...and spotted two with odd colorings.
He grabbed both and yanked hard.
One box opened to reveal the hilt of a sword while the other...was Gesshoku.
He grabbed both at the same time and felt the power come rushing back without stopping.
He used the overload to escape the hole, unaware of the damage he caused the bottom. He didn't know he was wearing a mask until after he landed.
Urahara cheerfully appeared, and Ichigo grinned evilly.
He elbowed the man in the eye with glee as he prepared to send Urahara to Hayate. The girl could always sense whenever Ichigo used his short range teleport to her house for some reason, and as a result the victims of his spell often fell under the attack of Hayate.
"Now, now Ichigo. If you continue trying to beat me you'll never learn the name of your sword," said Urahara, dodging the blue and black ball of pain.
(Ichigo had Nanoha show him the spell to increase her accuracy, and as a result he used the attack quite frequently to make people trip. However if he pushed more magic into it, the small balls became very painful, almost like getting hit by a punch.)
Ichigo glared at the man, disappointed that he couldn't keep attacking him.
Then it hit him.
"How about you try to hit me while I attack you with the ball of pain?" he asked with a smirk.
Urahara agreed to it, though later he would smack himself repeatedly. Ichigo was one of the best multi-taskers around, second only to Nanoha.
As Urahara chased the boy, trying to attack him, he had to constantly dodge the little balls. Ichigo hit him more often than not, to his dismay.
Ichigo could see the old man running with him, grinning. He enjoyed this game as much as Ichigo did.
It wasn't until Ichigo stopped to listen that the sword told him his name.
"Urahara, you might want to dodge. I don't think I will be able to control this yet," said Ichigo suddenly.
Urahara's eyes widened, as he used his sword's blood shield to keep the attack from nearly killing him.
Ichigo spent the rest of the time talking to his sword, learning more about him. He had learned his lesson with Gesshoku. Don't assume that just because you can use their powers and know their name that you know everything you need to know.
That was the only reason Zangetsu taught him the one attack he had, which was called Getsuga Tensho.
Thought Ichigo did wonder who that person in white was that he kept seeing out of the edge of his eyes. Zangetsu refused to tell him, though Gesshoku had a good idea who it was.
Slowly, the week dwindled until Ichigo was told to rest for the night so he would be able to get to the soul society with enough energy to help Rukia.
He didn't like the fact that he had pretty much been forced to rest, but he relented.
"I FRICKEN HATE URAHARA!" yelled Ichigo.
"Save it for when we return! I'll help you skin him!" yelled the black cat leading them. Yoruichi was just as annoyed about being sent straight into the cleaner as he was.
When they finally landed, hard, Ichigo bit back a curse. He had learned from the best when it came to swearing, mostly because of the hellish training he often did.
By the time he got a good look around him, he noted that their party had grown by one.
"Wait a minute. I thought you said that was your only outfit?!" said Ichigo angrily.
Gesshoku smirked.
"No, I said that was my preferred outfit. I can change it to look however I please."
Ichigo wasn't going to complain...but he was going to send her to Hayate when this was over.
"Let me guess. You're going to infiltrate and start adding to the book?"
"You better believe it! This is my best chance at doing so! I seriously doubt you'll need the barrier jacket for a few days, so why not?"
"If you get caught, don't lead them back to me," he said bluntly.
"Will do boss!" said Gesshoku, and she vanished. Invisibility spells were in her ability to do, and it made copying a hell of a lot easier.
Gesshoku grinned. Finally she was going to get some action! The minute she stepped into the Seireitei, her power went into overdrive. Maps, names, and locations came flooding into her. She was literally a GPS of the place.
She went to each division separately and recorded anyone who had learned the name of their zanpakuto. Unlike her sister Reinforce, her pages were damn near infinite when it came to recording. The only difference was that she came with an index, which meant most of her pages could be filled under rank, division and type. It made storage much easier.
Though a few soul reapers did get their own pages, instead of being lumped into the division category. Like Kenpachi Zaraki. He was a class all his own.
She couldn't wait to try out her new library!
Ichigo couldn't believe how bad his luck was. After Gesshoku left to catalog soul reapers, everything went down hill in a hurry. He only hoped that allowing her free reign paid off later.
In the meantime, Hanataro freaked out when he saw the hollow mask that had spared Ichigo some serious damage.
Ichigo took a long look at it...and the suspicion of who the white person was in his mind grew. If he was right, he was going to have to deal with him sooner rather than later.
Ichigo sat in the spot after Yoruichi collected him. He had gone after Byakuya when he sensed him far too close to where Ganju and Hanataro had gone.
Now she was planning to teach him Bankai, which was the next stage of training. Ichigo decided that now was the perfect time to chat with his hollow side.
He found his inner world easily enough. Gesshoku was still organizing the data she had downloaded without him, so she was sleeping it off. Her programs could sort it faster than she could awake.
"Alright, where are you? I know you're in here," yelled Ichigo.
Zangetsu appeared, and Ichigo leveled a look at him.
"Where is he?"
"Who?"
"My Hollow side. I want to set thing straight now before he becomes an issue later."
He sensed more than saw the spirit appear.
"Hey King. What do you want?"asked the Hollow.
"Well for starters how about your name?"
The hollow sneered at him.
"I don't have a name. If I did, then I don't know it."
"How about I give you one then?"
The hollow looked at him startled, but his face quickly went back to the sneer from before.
"Since my book is called Eclipsed Moon, and my sword already had a name...how about I call you...Eclipsed Sun?"
"Why Eclipsed Sun?"asked Zangetsu.
"You three are parts of my power. If I didn't have you I would just be an ordinary human. And since she reminds me of a lunar eclipse, why not name the other third of my power after her opposite?"
"Eclipsed Sun...I like it. But it sounds too long," said the hollow with a smirk.
"Then your nickname is Shirosaki. Since I mostly wear blacks in my barrier jacket and you seem to prefer white, you can be called Shiro."
"Fair enough. Just don't expect me to take it easy on you when we fight for dominance King."
"First off, I don't like being called King. How about you call me Boss instead?"
"Whatever you want...Boss."
"Secondly, in exchange for letting me borrow your power...how about I give you access to the guardian program in the book?"
"What good would that do?" asked Shirosaki, honestly interested.
"If you had access to the guardian program, you would be able to move around without going through me. Which means you get your own body," said Ichigo.
The two spirits had clearly forgotten about that perk, which was why Ichigo brought it up. Since he hadn't set any permanent guardians in the book, they were essentially free spots for any spirit that had been downloaded into it's program to use.
Which meant Shiro and Zangetsu could walk outside without having to watch through him, though their power levels would be cut in half.
The smirk on Shiro's face nearly split his face in half.
"Boss, you have a deal! Use my power whenever you like, as long as I get free reign outside!"
"Good. But if you do anything that gets the cops or someone else in authority after my ass, consider that privilege revoked."
Shiro got the message. You can do whatever the hell you want so long as it can't be traced back to me.
Ichigo came back outside feeling like he had accomplished a lot.
"So are you finally ready to begin training Ichigo?"
"Why not?" he said.
Yoruichi pulled out a strange doll.
"Stick Zangetsu into this. It'll bring him out. Then you'll have to dominate him in order to achieve Bankai," she said.
"Can you watch Gesshoku for me? She's been pretty out of it since she finished downloading all that information," asked Ichigo.
"What did she download?" asked Yoruichi. She knew Ichigo's book was odd, but Urahara had never explained to her what it did.
She turned when she felt the presence behind her. A girl in a middle eastern belly dancer outfit appeared with a yawn.
"I downloaded swords," said Gesshoku.
Seeing that Yoruichi still didn't get it, Gesshoku threw her hand out like she was drawing something. To the shock of the shapeshifter, Byakuya's sword appeared in it's full glory.
"How...?"
"My previous designation was the Tome of Fallen Souls. My primary ability... is to record and document spiritual powers. I grant my owner the ability to copy and use the powers of any soul reaper, hollow or spiritually aware human with abilities. The more I 'download' from other souls, the more powerful I get, and by extension my owner. It will still take a few days before the indexing and sorting is complete enough for the barrier jacket to be usable again," said Gesshoku.
Ichigo snickered, turning Yoruichi's attention back to him.
"There's a reason why I call my barrier jacket God Mode. The moment I wear it I can counter any spiritual attack made against me and my spirit pressure completely obliterates the roof. But I don't like winning my battles with such a cheat, so I don't use it very often," said Ichigo.
"Suddenly I feel very sorry for Byakuya...and whoever set him on Rukia..." said Yoruichi, as Ichigo finally started his training.