"What?" I ask curiously.
The pale one lifted a finger in a threatening manner, and suddenly a small orb of light began gathering around his finger, and then a huge boom rang, ripping the air and almost bursting my eardrums. But only right before I heard the pale one mutter, "Cero." The small orb flew at me, and every instinct in my body told me that this orb was not a good thing to get in the way of. So I ducked and jumped out of the way of this Cero, which means Death Blast so that was a big hint, and I looked behind me to see a big explosion as the Cero connected with a tree leaving hardly a stump behind.
I looked back at the pair, the fat one was smiling, a look of which resembled demonic joy on his face, and the pale one was still devoid of any emotion, it was starting to get a little creepy actually.
The fat one let out a booming yell, and judging by his facial expression it appeared that he was laughing. "Nice one Ulquiorra, now let me handle the runt." the fat one said.
"Yammy, you will be crushed." said the pale one, who must be Ulquiorra.
"Bah, how could a mere Soul Reaper crush me, besides, you've had your fun so now it's my turn." said the fat one, Yammy I believe, while shifting his menacing glare over to me.
I gripped Zangetsu in my hands as Yammy ambled over towards me on all fours in a gorilla-like manner, and so I seized the opportunity to take him by surprise by flash-stepping behind him and sending a Getsuga Tensho right at the back of his head. There was a large explosion, kicking up dust this way and that yet I stood as still as a statue, waiting for the outcome. As the dust cleared a figure emerged, Yammy, without even a scratch on the back of his head.
"But, I… I-" I mumbled to myself, trying to figure out what had happened.
"Yes," Yammy said, turning to look at me, "it seems that you cannot pierce my Hierro." He cracked his knuckles, "Now it's my turn."
Yammy raised his gigantic fists in the air and slammed them into the ground, causing what felt like a small earthquake to occur. I flash-stepped out of the way, luckily, and found that where I had been standing was now a big crater. Yammy swung around again, this time, however, he brought his hands together in a wide semi-circle, like someone might try to clap. Ichigo jumped into the air, this was the perfect opportunity to strike. So, Ichigo shifted all of his weight forward, and combined with the help of gravity, he plummeted towards Yammy. Ichigo brought Zangetsu over his head he swung Zangetsu and struck Yammy square in the head, making Yammy crumple to the ground, kicking up all sorts of dust.
As the dust cleared, Ichigo lifted Zangetsu up to find blood splattered on the blade and he looked at Yammy to find a surprising sight. As the dust settled he saw Yammy with a mere cut on his head, barely cutting deep at all. This Hierro is something to take seriously then, Ichigo thought to himself. Ichigo jumped off Yammy's stomach as he sat up and felt the cut on his head, and he looked at the blood and chuckled. "Well," he said, "looks like you managed to pierce my Hierro." He placed his hands to his sides and pushed himself up. "Now let me pierce you."
Yammy reached to his side and pulled out his sword, and although Ichigo still stood his ground, he gulped a little. He may be big and kind of slow, but in the case of strength that can come to his advantage, I must be cautious and have no restraints when fighting him, Ichigo thought to himself. "Get ready, Ichigo." Yammy said. Ichigo paused, how did he know his name? That was all Yammy needed to strike. Yammy steps forward and swings his sword, yet just in the nick of time did Ichigo raise Zangetsu to block. Ichigo flew backwards, his feet planted firmly in the ground creating marks as he flew. Yet it didn't stop there, Yammy kept on striking Ichigo, forcing him to go on the defensive side of the battle, until finally Yammy struck Zangetsu and he flung out of Ichigo's hands and planted into the ground way out of reach.
"What's the matter Ichigo." Yammy said, his sword resting across Ichigo's throat. "Scared?"
Yammy brought back his sword and swung, and right before it made contact with Ichigo, who was standing there, ready to face his fate, there was a flash of movement and a giant boom and Yammy was thrown to the side like a mere doll. Ichigo stood up, coughing to get all the dust and smoke out of his lungs and as the dust settled he saw something that brought a smile to his face.
"You kept me waiting Ichigo, I thought something was wrong, and when Kisuke said that a Garganta had been opened in the park I knew you'd be here." said Yoruichi, walking over to Ichigo's side.
"Sorry to keep you waiting, kitten." Ichigo said, it was his new nickname for her.
Yoruichi was dressed in a sleeveless black shirt and black pants as well, yet the strangest sight was that her arms were covered with gray gauntlet looking things.
"This is what you decided to wear to our 'romantic' dinner?" Ichigo asked, an eyebrow raised.
"No," Yoruichi said, rolling her eyes, "it's some technology that Kisuke developed to boost my Shunpo and the clothing is supposed to help protect me from myself."
"Speaking of which, where is hat and clogs?" Ichigo asked.
"Over there." Yoruichi said pointing to Yoruichi.
Ichigo looked at the direction of where Yoruichi was pointing and a surprising sight met him. Kisuke was floating in midair, yet that wasn't the surprising part, Yammy had just struck him with a sword. Ichigo gasped, it had gone right through his heart, and even more surprising was when he looked over at Yoruichi and saw a smirk on her face.
Ichigo raised his hand to point at Kisuke and to protest against Yoruichi's reaction, but Yoruichi raised her hand. "Just hold on." she said, the smirk still planted on his face. I put my hand down and nodded, I trusted Yoruichi. I looked back over and saw yet another surprising sight. There were two Kisuke's, one was limp and lifeless while another was holding one. "You see, the Kisuke that was stabbed was a gigai with a mod soul inside it." Yoruichi said.
I nodded and sighed, relief spreading through my body, and watched as Yammy and Kisuke battled it out. Ichigo always enjoyed watching him battle, he striked with power and yet moved in a graceful manner, and it was always fun to see what tricks he had up his sleeve. Like just now he had used the gigai as a distraction. This battle was particularly fun to watch though, it went back and forth, Yammy would strike and Kisuke would parry and strike back. Finally however, Kisuke flash stepped behind Yammy, Benihime against his throat.
"Come on, let's get closer." Yoruichi said, flash stepping away. I followed as quickly as I could to see that Ulquiorra and Yammy were leaving through, what did Yoruichi call it, a garganta I believe.
I approach Yoruichi and ask, "What happened?"
"Well, Kisuke left Yammy alive yet wounded and so the arrancars left to go back to the Hueco Mundo." Yoruichi said, staring at the spot where they had left.
"I only understood about half of the words you said there."
"Well, arrancars are Hollows who have removed parts of their masks' in order to gain Soul Reaper like abilities, and the Hueco Mundo is where Hollows live. The garganta is how they get here and back, like the Seireitei. And don't you worry yourself on why I know that."
Ichigo nodded. "Well, now that that's over, I don't know if you're still in the mood, but I still wouldn't mind a romantic dinner for two."
Yoruichi smiled. "A relaxing dinner after a huge fight that we have no idea as to why it happened or their objectives at all, doing nothing but eating and talking. Sure, why not." she said.
We both flash-stepped there, arriving in seconds. It was just as I had left it. A small dinner table seated for two with candlelight and food set out on plates, still steaming. "Our dinner awaits." I said, gesturing towards the table and bowing a little, smiling up at her. She shook her head and sighed, the good kind though, like one would sigh of an old joke. We took our seats and stared at our food for a little while, contemplating what had just happened, until we began our dinners and conversation really started.
"So, who set all of this up?" Yoruichi asked, taking a small bite of the food in front of her. "And who cooked this delicious food? It's amazing!"
"You can thank my sisters for this, Yuzu did all the cooking and Karin helped me set up this table and the meal. They said if you were making me happy for once, then they wanted to make you happy too." Ichigo said, the last part in a sort of a joking tone.
Yoruichi laughed. "Well, make sure to tell your sisters that I'm plenty happy all right and that they have my thanks." she said. "So, any idea what that whole attack was about?"
Ichigo shook his head. "No idea, however when I met Ulquiorra, the pale skinny one, when he saw me he said, 'Well, so the test subject arrives.'" Ichigo said, a thoughtful look on his face.
Yoruichi nodded and they ate in silence for the rest of the dinner, until they stood up and started walking to the shop.
"That certainly was a pleasant evening." Yoruichi said, slipping her hand in mine.
"Why yes, it was." Ichigo said, stopping to turn to face Yoruichi as they arrived in front of the shop. "See you tomorrow kitten."
"Later strawberry." Yoruichi said, leaning in for a kiss.
"Hey! What you guys up too?" said a familiar voice.
Ichigo and Yoruichi turned, merely centimeters away from kissing, to see Kisuke at the front door waving at us.
"Oh nothing Kisuke." Ichigo said, as he and Yoruichi released hands.
"Goodbye and goodnight Ichigo, pleasant dreams." Yoruichi said, with her head over her shoulder as she walked away.
Ichigo turned to walk home when Kisuke's voice rang out, "Ichigo, could I have a word?"
Ichigo stopped and turned around, Kisuke and him haven't talked in awhile, perhaps he wanted to talk about the day's events with the whole arrancar thing and all. "Sure, what's up hat and clogs?" Ichigo said, approaching Kisuke.
Kisuke approached him. "Well, how do I put this lightly." Kisuke said, his tone of voice both friendly and… Dangerous? "Listen, Ichigo, you're my friend and I would never, ever cause any harm to you intentionally. However, if you don't lay off my woman then something might accidentally happen to you. You get the picture?"
"Huh?" I said, I mean that was all I could say.
I had never seen this side of him, I mean, he had done this sort of thing before where he was friendly and serious at the same time, but never for these purposes. And he was threatening me, he had never done the likes of which before.
"Just, stay away from her, after all, wouldn't want something to accidentally happen to you the next day. By the way, tell her about this and you're in big trouble." Kisuke said, casually walking back into the shop as if nothing had happened.
"Huh?" I said once again, my brain still processing what had just happened. Sounded like Kisuke has just threatened him and told him to stay away from Yoruichi, Ichigo had actually thought that the two were dating when he first laid eyes on the two together, they just look so perfect together, you know? So it is true that Kisuke has a thing for Yoruichi, but hey, Yoruichi was his now, and he'd do anything to keep her.
Ichigo took the long way home that night, it always helped him to just take a nice stroll around town, it cleared his head, and after such a long day he could really use it. There were the arrancars, Sajin, and to top it all off Kisuke, his master, the guy he respected and looked up too, was being childish and was threatening to harm him if he didn't back off of Yoruichi. When Ichigo made it home, way late into the night, to his surprise did he find his dad in the kitchen with a mug of coffee in a black robe.
"Hey Ichigo, how's it going?" Isshin asked. "Looks like something's on your mind."
"Just… Girl trouble, that's all." Ichigo responded.
"Ah… The 'Big G' huh? If you want to talk about it I'm always here for you, remember that son." Isshin said.
Ichigo nodded and started walking towards the stairs, but then paused for a moment and turned back around and sat with his dad at the dinner table. "Well, you see, at school I'm dating this girl and this other dude likes her and he's threatening to beat me up and he's a lot bigger than me and stronger than me, but I really like this girl you see and I just don't know what to do." Ichigo said, speaking quite fast and resting his head on the table after he was finished.
"Well," Isshin said, standing up. "You've gotta listen to your heart and do what it says, cause your heart will never lead you onto a path you'll regret or disapprove of."
"Sometimes you say just the right thing dad. Thank you." Ichigo said, and then he walked up the stairs to his bed and he fell asleep faster than you could say "goodnight." To bad, for if he were still awake then he would've seen Isshin walk outside and pull a sword from his "robe" and kill the Grand Fisher.
Ichigo woke up the next morning to the sun shining in the sky and the birds singing their glorious tunes, it was that sort of morning that made you want to spring out of bed and do a little happy dance. However for Ichigo it was terrible, no, terrible is too strong a word, more like, foreboding. He had training with Yoruichi again today, he was going to see his beautiful girlfriend again and get to be stronger also, but he just couldn't get his mind off of Kisuke's warning. He said not even to go near her, and he was going to spend several hours in very close proximity to her. In his shop, in a room he designed, he could have totally booby-trapped the place last night or something. Alright, so maybe Ichigo was being a little paranoid, but instinct is what has been keeping Ichigo alive.
Ichigo arrived at the shop and went down the steps to find Yoruichi waiting patiently at the bottom, just standing there. "So what are we doing today?" I asked.
"You know that there are two releases of a Zanpakuto, right Ichigo?" she responded, still looking off in the distance.
"Yes, bankai. Why?"
"For today we begin training, training to unlock your bankai."