Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. If I did, I'm not sure there's anything that I'd really change anyway.
AN: I'm kind of surprised with how fast this chapter got out. But hey, I was inspired. Anyway, "Training scenes" have never really been my favorite thing, but since it's a bit hard to avoid, I gave it my best shot. I hope you enjoy.
"Talking"
Thought
Time Passage
Ichigo Kurosaki screamed, and his fist shot up into Tessai's face in an act of pure instinct developed after years of random surprise attacks by one Isshin Kurosaki. Unlike his father, however, Tessai showed no signs of budging. Instead, he simply turned his head to the side and called out to someone that Ichigo couldn't see.
"Boss, the boy just woke up!"
"Get the hell off me you psycho!"
Ignoring it as Ichigo shoved his palm into his face and began trying to shove him off, Tessai turned to him with a serious expression. "The Boss, Mister Urahara, told me to inform him the moment you awoke."
"…Get the hell off me you psycho!" And, as one would expect, Ichigo didn't exactly care what his reasons were. As Ichigo was busy shoving and cursing the older man, he was a bit too distracted to hear the door sliding opening out of his view.
"Good to see you're awake, kid." Ichigo looked back over to the entrance, where a blond man wearing clogs and a hat that seemed to shade his eyes completely was grinning at the pair.
"Tessai, could you go get things ready?" The larger man nodded, and left the two alone.
"Where am I!? Who are you people!?" Ichigo shifted as the man named Tessai left, only to notice an unfamiliar feeling on his chest. He looked down and held up an odd chain, tugging at it, and letting out a yelp as he realized that it was attached to his chest.
"What the hell is this!?"
"Thanks, Tessai. I can handle the kid from here."
"Seriously, what is this thing!?" He pulled the chain a little more, until all twenty-six links were visible, and stared at the broken link on the end. "And why's it cut off at the end?"
"That's what we call a 'Chain of Fate.' Everybody has one when they die."
"When they die?" The memories of the previous day began flashing through his mind, and he shot up to his feet in a panic. "Oh shit! Karin, Yuzu, Dad! They're-"
"You're family is just fine, kid."
"If anything happened to th-wait, what?"
"Don't worry about 'em. Your little Shinigami friend made sure to make sure they were safe after everything was over."
"Little Shinigami friend?" Yeah, I guess she would be able to handle something like that. Better than I did, anyway. "You're sure, Mister Hat 'n Clogs? They're all safe?"
"Mister what? Ah, never mind. Trust me, they'll be fine. Shinigami always make sure that people are alright after Hollow attacks. They tend to tamper with their memories a bit too, but it can be a little random."
"Tampering with their memories?" That's a little immoral, isn't it? But I guess they can't let everyone running around knowing about Hollows and Shinigami… "How random could it really be?"
"You're dad and sisters think a truck drove through your house, and that you chased after him in a fit of rage."
Huh? They think a truck did what now? "Wait, how do you know what happened?"
"I know a lot of things, kid."
Well, that certainly clears things up. Jackass. "…Okay then. Wow, so I'm really dead, huh?"
"Afraid so, kiddo."
"Strange. I figured it'd be a bit different. Wait a sec, if I'm dead then shouldn't I be near the place I died or something?"
"Hey, the kid knows spirits. Well who'd of thought? Anyway, in most cases a spirit will leave the body within a couple minutes of dying, so they'd normally do just that. At the maximum, it usually doesn't take more than a few minutes. But every few years, usually because of a Hollow or some other special condition, there's an oddball like you that ends up being stuck in their corpse for a while. If that's the case, you need guys like us to come and pop you out. And since the stubborn ones like you tend to be a bit unconscious when that happens, we might have to hack at your Chain of Fate a little."
"Guys like you? What are you exactly? And what if you didn't get me out of there, Mister Hat 'n Clogs?"
"Then you'd probably be stuck in there for a few years. A few months, with a lot of luck. But there's no need to worry. If your spirit still hadn't shown up by the time your little Shinigami friend came back to take care of your family, she probably would have been able to fix the problem. As for what we are? That's not too important right now."
"Humph. That makes sense. I guess. Kinda. So what about my body? If you had to get me out then it should be around here somewhere, right?"
"Yeah, about that, your body was kind of trashed in the fight. So you see, we had to throw it out."
"You did what!"
"Hey, hey, calm down. It's not like you could've used it again anyway. Even if you did somehow get back in, you'd probably just die again anyway. If it was as simple as stepping back into your body, there'd be a lot more people on this planet."
"Oh man, this sucks! What the hell am I supposed to do now!?"
"Well, I imagine you should probably cross over to the Soul Society. That's where most souls go after it's all said and done."
"Cross over to the-No way, I'm not ready to go anywhere yet! And I can't leave Yuzu and Karin, and that idiot dad of mine all alone! There's gotta be something I can do!"
"It's too bad you feel that way. Souls that don't enter the Soul Society have this bad little habit of becoming Hollows, like the one you ran into last night."
"W-what?" No, no way! He couldn't just leave his family, but there was no way in hell that he was going to let himself turn into one of the monsters that had nearly killed them all. That would have killed them all if the Shinigami hadn't been there.
"Yeah, it's real sad. And the first thing they usually do is go after their families, if they have 'em. A real shame."
"B-but I wouldn't! I mean…" He never wanted to hurt his family, but he had to admit that he really didn't know much about these 'Hollow" things. All he really had was the crash course that the Shinigami had given him just before the attack. What if he really did turn into a Hollow? Was that something that someone could control? Because based on how feral the thing that had killed him was acting, he'd have to hazard a guess and say no.
"Hmm. You know, there is one other option."
"What is it? I'll do anything!" Just don't let me become one of those things! He knew that the man in front of him was probably playing him from the start. It was obvious that this Urahara had been coaxing him towards this "one other option," but he didn't know nearly enough about the world of spirits to say whether or not he was bluffing. And if this "other option" really would let him stay near his family without putting them in danger…
"You could try to become a Shinigami."
A Shinigami? Like that girl from before? "I can do that?" Being a Shinigami didn't exactly sound like something that you could just sign up for.
"Not normally, no. If you go to the Soul Society, it's a long and tedious process. And even then you don't exactly get to go wherever you want, whenever you want. Buuuut, I happen to know a little trick that speeds the process up a bit. It's a lot more risky, but you could be a Shinigami in a matter of days, and since it might be a little bit…Oh, let's say 'unofficial'" Unofficial, illegal. Same difference. "You wouldn't have to worry about trying to get assigned somewhere else."
"Seriously!? You'd do that for me, Mister Hat 'n Clogs?" He paused, knowing that there had to be more to it than that. If this guy wanted him to become a Shinigami, there must have been a reason. He didn't seem like a bad guy, but he didn't seem like he'd just do something like this for no good reason. "Wait, what's the catch? There's gotta be a catch here."
Urahara simply grinned, mumbling to himself. "Hey, he is smart enough to ask first."
"What was that?" Urahara simply waved the question off.
"Nothing, nothing. Well, I could always use a little extra help around the shop. Plus, I don't have the time to deal with all of the Hollows that have been appearing here in Karakura lately. So do a few chores and promise to deal with 'em once you've got your powers, and I think we can call it even."
"That's it? Just help around here and do a little monster hunting? No more strings attached?" It still sounded a bit iffy, but he honestly couldn't say that he believed the man was lying.
"No more strings attached."
He didn't want to spend the rest of his life, or afterlife anyway, hunting down monsters. But if it meant that he'd get to see his family again, even if they couldn't see him back, and protect them when any more of those things came around…
"Okay. You've got a deal, Mister Hat 'n Clogs."
"Well then, I think it's time for you to start your lessons. The others should be ready by now, so come on."
Ichigo stood, and followed Urahara to a darker room where what seemed to be a large, open trap door was placed in the center of the room. Urahara made his way to the hole, lowering himself down onto the ladder before waving Ichigo over.
"Hm, let's see what's down here, shall we?" Ichigo raised an eyebrow, but followed the odd man anyway. And he honestly found himself amazed when it was bright enough to see again after crawling down for a few feet. The space below this "shop" of his was a massive, desert-like room, looking almost as though they'd driven far out of the city instead of simply going into the basement.
"No way! This place is amazing! Who would've guessed that all this time there was a huge subterranean training ground under my little shop?"
"Oh give it a rest, Mister Hat 'n Clogs. You'd have to be an idiot to not know this was down here after all this time." Still…Ichigo looked around the massive chamber, and gave it an approving nod. "I've gotta admit, it's pretty impressive."
"So the, you wanna get down to business?" Ichigo glanced over the small crowd that had gathered. There was Urahara, Tessai, a redheaded boy, and a dark-haired girl holding what looked like training equipment. After a moment of silence, the boy spoke up.
"Hey, I'm Jinta. Who're you, new guy?"
"Eh? I'm Ichigo. So let's get this over with already. What's the deal?" He sighed, but his next breath didn't come quite so easily. Come to think of it, breathing had been getting steadily more difficult each minute that he'd been awake. "Hey Mister Hat n' Clogs, what's up with the air? I can barely breathe over here."
"Ah, noticed that did you?" He chuckled again, leaning on his cane. "You're a spirit now. Unfortunately, you haven't really accessed your spiritual power yet. Not in any way you could control, at least. So getting you to use that is our first objective here. Let's start off with a little match, eh?"
"A match?"
"Yes, a match. Just let me get your opponent out here real quick." Urahara cupped one hand at the side of his mouth, calling for this "warrior" in an overly dramatic voice. "Warrior! Are you ready for battle?"
Ichigo's eyes began shifting around the desert-like arena, looking everywhere for his opponent. Let's see, we've got Mister Hat 'n Clogs, the redheaded kid, that crazy psycho that woke me up, and the little girl bringing us our gear. But where's this challenger? A meek, feminine voice greeted him.
"It's nice to meet you, Mister Ichigo. My name is Ururu." And much to his annoyance, Urahara's voice answered the question in a way that he wasn't quite expecting.
"Here's your first lesson. You're going up against Ururu one-on-one."
"Wha…?"
"The rules are simple. The match is over when one of you can't keep fighting. Here's a little tip: You'll probably wanna go for a knockout punch, Ichigo."
But she's as old as Karin and Yuzu! Probably even younger! "Hey, you've gotta be kidding me! I'm not gonna hit a little girl, man!"
"It's always dangerous to underestimate your opponent, Ichigo. You should really remember that." With that, a head protector and some gloves were tossed to his side, and Ichigo looked into the face of a girl less than half his size.
"Please put on this protective gear, Ichigo. I don't wanna kill you."
As the girl through a light practice strike, letting out a small grunt as she did so, Ichigo decided that he didn't care what Urahara had to say. There was no way he could seriously attack this kid.
"This is ridiculous. I'm not doing-" His eyes widened in surprise as the girl dashed forward, and his world began to spin as her fist connected with his jaw. The ground around him began to crumble, sending clouds of dust everywhere.
"Well, we tried to warn him, didn't we?" Urahara mumbled from behind a small fan held in front of his mouth. Tessai and Jinta could only nod. The dust began to clear, Ururu standing calmly in the center, and Jinta tilted his head to the side.
"Huh? Where'd he go? I don't see him anywhere."
"Do ya suppose he's dead?" Tessai added curiously.
"Hard to say." As soon as the words had left his mouth, Ichigo was tumbling out of the dust cloud, and began dashing towards Ururu with a terrified expression. Tessai nodded in admiration.
"Looks like he's going for it."
"Brave guy."
Urahara said nothing as Ichigo ran straight passed the girl, picking up the protective gear along the way. Shoving the gloves into his pocket, he began fumbling with the head protector, his anxious voice calling out a few seconds later.
"How the heck do you put this thing on?" Little Miss Muffet hits me with another one of those and I'm gonna be taking a long dirt nap.
"Strap the headgear onto your forehead, Ichigo!"
Ichigo mimicked the older man's motions with the gear. "You mean like this?"
"Yeah, now call out as loud as you can, 'Amazing Headband of Justice in place! Amazing Armor of Justice protect me now!' Go on, say it!"
No freaking way! "Ah come on, that's just stupid!" He barely managed to dodge another punch, the terrified expression returning to his face as he shoved the headgear to his forehead and yelled the words he'd just been told.
"Hey, whattya know, he actually said it."
What! "What! Man, I'm gonna kill you when this is over!"
"Look out behind you, kid."
"Huh? Whaaaa!" The headgear finally snapped into place as he began running yet again, the girl nearly managing to put him in the ground several times as he slipped on the gloves as well.
"Amazing Armor of Justice my ass, Hat 'n Clogs! More like Amazing Armor of Crap!" Oh man, I'm not gonna be able to keep running like this forever. Wait, running? If she can't catch me, then…Right, I should be able to dodge her attacks.
Urahara smiled as the look of understanding came over Ichigo's face. Looks like he's starting to get it. Impressive. I thought he'd be running a little longer.
Ichigo quickly swerved around, surprising Ururu as she jumped for another punch. He barely managed to dodge it, but he was pleased to see that he did in fact dodge it. Right. Now I can go on the offensive!
Decision made, he charged the small girl, letting loose with a flurry of punches aimed towards her headgear. For all the freakish strength she'd displayed, he still couldn't bring himself to honestly go for a painful shot. It would just feel too much like hitting one of his sisters or something. But as his fingers grazed her cheek, drawing a small trickle of blood and causing her eyes to widen, he knew that he probably should have taken Urahara's advice and gone for a knockout punch. Before he knew it, the girl was standing on his arm, her leg hoisted in the air for a kick straight to his head.
He sailed back as her foot made contact, a trail of dust leading to his position by a large wall of stone. Shaking his head to get through the haze that had formed in his mind, he felt something big holding him up. Glancing back, he found Tessai against the back of a large hole in the rock, clearly having taken the brunt of the impact. Looking back towards Ururu, his eyes somehow managed to widen even more when he realized that Urahara had grabbed her leg and most likely withheld a lot of the strike's power in the process.
Forget "freakish." That strength just isn't human!
"Safe!" Urahara called out with a cheery voice.
"Alright, that's it! Give me another shot at her!" There's no way I'm failing this lesson, even if this kid is that strong!
"If you want to, kid. But the lesson's over so it'd be kinda pointless."
"Huh? What do you mean it's over? I lost."
"Man, you rookies are all the same. It's not always about winning or losing. Listen Ichigo, Ururu here is strong enough to take on full-fledged Shinigami and Hollows. You couldn't beat her at your level, and I wouldn't expect you to. Tell me, you still having a hard time breathing?"
"I-" He paused, realizing that his breathing had actually gotten much easier. "Well, not that you mention it, I'm not."
"And that was the point. You didn't need to win the fight. You just needed to access your Reiryoku, your spiritual power."
"Okay, and what if it didn't work?"
"You'd probably be dead."
"Why didn't you say that in the first place!?"
"Hey, calm down kid. I had faith that you'd pull it off, and you didn't disappoint me. Anyway, so far so good. Tessai, you're up."
Oh man, don't tell me I've gotta fight this guy too! If that kid was so strong, he's probably gonna maul me! Ichigo winced as Tessai lifted a large axe, and brought it down towards him, only to blink in surprise as he saw a good portion of the chain on his chest fly off to the side. As he was staring at the broken chain in shock, Tessai suddenly shoved him to the ground, sitting down on his back.
"…What the hell!"
"Time for your second lesson. The moment that we severed your Chain of Fate to get you away from your body earlier this morning, the encroachment began. That chain will start destroying itself, and when it reaches your chest, well, you become a Hollow." There was no chance that Ichigo was going to let that happen.
"N-no way. What do I have to do?"
Urahara folded the fan he'd been using, pointing it down at Ichigo. "If you don't want to become a Hollow, you must become a Shinigami. If you manage to clear lesson two, you should find that you've managed to become one of the Shinigami. Of course, the choice is up to you. Well then, let's get this party started."
"Bring it on." Urahara just grinned, pointing his fan to the sky.
"Go!"
And Ichigo let out a surprised cry as a huge hole seemed to appear below them, and they began to fall.
"Well whattya think of that? We really suckered him that time, didn't we?"
"Heh. Yeah, good one."
"Man, that's one deep hole Ururu. Good job."
"I do my best."
As they heard the crash indicating that Ichigo and Tessai had reached the bottom, and the two kids rushed towards the edge of the hole to look, Kisuke Urahara let the confident and relaxed façade drop slightly.
And now begins the real test. Good luck, Ichigo.
AN: Well, there ya go. Most updates probably won't come quite so fast, but even with how much I dislike training scenes, this one just kind of came to me. As per usual, I hope you enjoyed it, and I'd love to hear your opinions, tips, etc, etc. That's kind of the point in posting these things on FFN, after all.