Here's another chapter of Savage. I hope you all enjoy it, and let me know.
One thing; should I include any of the Filler Arcs? Or just make a 'training arc' before Ichigo goes to Hueco Mundo?
I own nothing.
-()-()-()-
As Ichigo and Jushiro began their journey, at a slow pace to accommodate the latter's illness, two women were sat at a table, arguing heatedly. Kukaku Shiba's bad mood was best shown by her younger brother's current state; slumped against the far wall with canaries flapping madly around his head.
"What the hell was that about, Yoruichi?!" Her main punching bag out of commission, Kukaku turned her ire on the were-cat sat across from her. This was, in fact, more appropriate since Ganju had done nothing to deserve such a beating. "Why would you drag me away from Kaien like that?!" The dark skinned woman she was berating stayed calm in the face of her friend's anger, and responded as such.
"He needed time to recover, Kukaku. And we both know that you 'conversing' with him would have led to you punching Ichigo in the face for not visiting earlier in his trip." The black haired girl growled slightly at the use of the orange haired Soul Reaper's name. "That is his name, Kukaku. I already told you, he's not Kaien."
"I didn't think he was Kaien! But he's the reincarnation or something! Look at his sword!" She rememebred the sight of Nejibana from the days Kaien would happily regale his siblings with stories of his Shinigami adventures. That blade was Nejibana, and Yoruichi couldn't convince her otherwise.
"I've said this a hundred times now, Kukaku; Ichigo has more than one Zanpakuto. We don't know what his having Nejibana means." As her friend tried to interrupt once again, Yoruichi quickly continued. "I've met two of his other spirits; I know what I'm talking about."
"But you think he's connected to us somehow, right?" Ah, and there was the problem. Yoruichi was well aware of how the two were connected, but would it be a breach of trust to tell her? It certainly would be if Ichigo ended up finding out; who knows what her... pupil's reaction would be to the secrecy. The purple haired woman sighed, before responding.
"Kukaku, I have something to tell you, but you have to promise me you won't tell Ichigo, since it's not exactly my secret to tell..."
-()-()-()-
"Will you stop glaring at me, midget?!" Ichigo exclaimed, as he lost patience with the expression Rukia had turned on him. She was unhappy with Ichigo and his 'secrecy'. Never mind that Ichigo hadn't been aware of Nejibana for the time he and Rukia had been companions, nor had she told him about Kaien.
"Why would I, Strawberry-Baka?!" Rukia retorted. "You lied to me!" The girl had thought she and the substitute were closer than that.
"How did I lie?! I didn't know about any of my Zanpakuto before your brother stabbed me; they blocked my memory of them!" Ichigo wasn't thrilled that he'd lacked that communication, either, since it felt so weird, in retrospect, to be without his spirits. "Besides, I've told you now, haven't I?!"
"Too late! Besides, I'm certain that you only came to pick me up because Ukitake-Taicho suggested it." Finally feeling, at least vaguely, that he was part of this conversation, the white haired captain attempted to defend Ichigo.
"Actually, Rukia-"
"I suggested it, midget!" Ichigo's manners suffered when his temper was frayed and, so , he didn't take the fact he had interrupted the Captain in to consideration. Rukia did.
"Baka! Don't interrupt Ukitake-Taicho! It's rude!" She berated her friend, who scowled and opened his mouth to yell back, before catching himself. In this, at least, Rukia was right.
"Apologies, Ukitake-Taicho, I forgot myself in the heat of the moment."
"It's no problem, Kurosaki-san. I completely understand." The man's tone was truthful, and held a hint of relief, as he noted that, between the angered silence and the two younger Soul-Reapers' argument, they had now reached their destination; through the trees of this particular forest, Jushiro could see the hint of a building. "Oh, and I believe we have arrived, Kurosaki-san."
"Ah. yes we have. And please call me Ichigo, Ukitake-Taicho." He disliked formailty.
"Okay, and please feel free to address me in the same way."
"Nah. You're still a captain." Ichigo pointed out, just before he froze, and a hand came up to his forehead.
"This is why you shouldn't let Kukaku decorate," The Human-Shinigami groaned. While he did not, exactly, have the memories to support it, Ichigo knew well that Kukaku had a rather... unique sense of décor. The two arms that were, for some reason, holding a Shiba banner above the squat building showed this rather well.
Shaking off the surprise as the sight of such a different Shiba residence, Ichigo strode towards the door once more; the other two following slightly behind.
It's safe to say that Ichigo did not expect the greeting he would receive.
-()-()-()-
"Lady Kukaku! Soul Reapers approach!" The twin retainers of the Kukaku household announced from their place in the entranceway.
Kukaku, followed closely by her old friend, attempted to walked at a sedate pace to meet the Soul Reapers that, hopefully, included her reincarnated brother. A mantra was running through her mind as she did.
'He is not Kaien. Ichigo Kurosaki is not the same as Kaien Shiba. Kaien is dead; it dose not matter that Ichigo has Nejibana. He is not Kaien. Ichigo Kurosaki is not the same as Kaien Shiba. Kaien is dead...'
As the door swung open, her inner monologue's volume rose to shouting; she needed to remember that Ichigo was not her dead brother. Ichigo was not Kaien; Yoruichi was certain of that.
But that was before she was confronted with the carbon copy, if you ignore the orange hair and brown eyes, of her deceased brother. Remaining cold was far easier said than done...
"Oniichan!" The dark haired woman flung herself at a shocked Ichigo, and her arms locked around his neck. "I knew it!" The human-Shinigami's mind went blank at this turn of events, and he stumbled back a step or two; not expecting the sudden impact of the Shiba head's enthusiastic greeting.
"No! He's not your brother; he's Ichigo! Ichigo Kurosaki!" Yoruichi corrected her old friend, as she grabbed the prosthetic arm of Kukaku and began her attempt to pull the black-haired soul off Ichigo.
"Let go of me, Yoruichi!" Kukaku tightened her grip on the man she viewed as Kaien; not noticing the fact that, by doing this, she cut off his airflow. This brought Ichigo back to the present, however, and he raised a hand to Kukaku's left arm, briefly struggling to aid Yoruichi in pulling the woman off him before settling for tapping his submission.
"You're choking him, Kukaku!" Yoruichi exclaimed, as she gave a last, mighty yank. Noticing that this was true, Kukaku let go with a hasty apology, just as her friend pulled. The two, unsurprisingly, went crashing to the ground; rolling over each other for several metres.
Ichigo, meanwhile, attempted to steady himself, despite the lack of oxygen, by grabbing the nearest available handhold.
Unfortunately, Ukitake was not ideal for this purpose.
"Bahaha! Ha!" Rukia burst out laughing, as she watched all four of the others tumble to the ground. Quickly catching herself, the diminutive Soul-Reaper rushed to the side of the only person she was concerned for. "Are you okay, Ukitake-taicho?!"
"Yes, yes, I'm fine Rukia. Thank you for your concern; I was simply unprepared." The man said, with a smile, as he slowly stood.
"Ahh!" Ichigo exclaimed, as he took a deep breath. "I'm sorry about that, Taich-urg!" An angry Rukia Kuchiki slammed her foot down on Ichigo's upper back.
"Ichigo! What is wrong with you?!" She yelled. "You know Ukitake-taicho is ill!"
"Rukia, there's really no need to-" Ukitake tried to assure the Kuchiki girl.
"Apologise!" Rukia ordered, digging her foot further into the tissue. "Now!"
"I already did you brat!" Ichigo barked back in response, shaking the girl off and puching himself back to his feet. "What did you think "I'm sorry taicho" meant?!"
Five minutes later, the group had recovered from their fall, and made it in to the, for lack of a better word, sitting room. Apparently. Sofas were not very popular in the Soul Society; instead each of them had a comfortable cushion to sit upon. It was amusing, to Ichigo, to observe the differences in each person's posture. Rukia, for example, was far more formal in the presence of her captain than Ichigo had ever seen her be in the Living world; Yoruichi was obviously relaxed, but not so much as Kukaku, who had her legs spread in a very unladylike manner; demonstrated by the slight reddening of both Ichigo and Ukitake. Even more bothersome, to Ichigo, than the provocative position and dress of someone who, at the very least, perceived him as a brother, were the comments Hollow Zangetsu was making. Evidently, he did not care about the 'moral implications' of incest. In fact, he had his own description.
'Kinky!' He happily shared with his wielder.
Thankfully, Nejibana quickly grew tired of the Hollow's crude comments.
'Quiet!' The female spirit ordered. Based on the squeal that followed, Ichigo could safely say that a her weapon found its mark.
Growing slightly uncomfortable in the silence; which nobody seemed willing to break, Ichigo decided to break the tension.
"So... I can't help but notice you didn't give me as... enthusiastic a greeting as Kukaku, Taicho. Why is that?" He asked with a smirk. Ukitake's following chuckle showed it was well received.
"And you believe that would be well received by Yamamoto-sama? Interrupting a captains meeting to have a reunion?"
"Hmm... maybe not." Ichigo grinned.
"Besides, I was aware that you and Kaien are not one and the same." Ichigo nodded slowly in return, and awaited the next question, since this was the perfect opportunity to broach the subject. "About that... how do you have Nejibana?" Everyone in the room visibly perked up at this; even Yoruichi wishing to hear the explanation. Ichigo cleared his throat, and began; he had organised his explanation, with the help of the female spirit, and was glad he did as it was a subject he himself had some trouble getting his head around.
"You all seem to have deduced that I must be the reincarnation of Kaien Shiba, right?" The four listening nodded the affirmative; that was the most logical conclusion, after all. "I am, according to Nejibana, and I can't think of anything else that'd make sense. As Kaien, I died; then, as Ichigo, I was born. Not hard to understand that but for some reason, one that none of my Zanpakuto will tell me, though I feel like they know, I still had... dormant Shinigami abilities. At the same time, Nejibana did not properly die when I did. It was that bastard Hollow's powers, I can't remember its name at the minute, that saved her, in fact. They... seperated her from the rest of my, or should I say Kaien's, soul, somehow, but she survived. Eventually she found me again, and managed to bond to my soul as Ichigo. I have no explanation as to why that was possible, other than the fact that, apparently, my soul is more... porous?" That was true, though Ichigo couldn't remember the term for it in Spiritual terms, even if it was not the whole truth. "And my Reitsu called out for help after something... traumatic happened to me. She, and Tabigarasu, found me then. Well, Tabigarasu did, Nejibana had always been... with me. That just woke her up, I guess, and now she's one of my partners." Ichigo nodded to himself, before continuing.
"To answer what I guess will be your next question; I have some memories from my time as Kaien, but those are mostly either vague, or the ones that stood out to Nejibana, as she was a part of my soul back then and so I... have memories from her?" His scowl, which had faded away earlier in the conversation, came back in full force at the difficulty Ichigo was having explaining this. "Something is holding back the rest of my memories, and I'm sure that I could regain them, though I haven't any idea what that is." He shrugged; that was the best he could explain the situation, without going into more detail that would just confuse him, and everyone else, unnecessarily. "Any questions that I can answer?"
"Yeah, I have one," Kukaku said, with a very visible frown. "Does that mean... you're not staying?"
"No, I'm sorry. I have a family back in the Living world... But I'm going to come back to the Soul Society often, if only to train, if that helps."
"Well that depends." The dark haired woman commented. "Do I have to drag you here to make sure you stay with family, or will you come willingly?" She growled at him.
"Uh... I'd love to stay here." Ichigo nervously chuckled; not wanting to test his mettle against his 'sister'.
"Good." The current head of the Shiba family nodded, finishing her queries.
"On that topic, can I assume you aren't going to retake your place as Lieutenant?" Jushiro was fairly sure of the answer, but wanted to check.
"No!" Ichigo exclaimed, before catching himself. "I mean, no, Taicho. If I was going to become a part of the Gotei 13 again, I'd end up being forced to be a captain." He shivered at the thought of trying to manage the paperwork on top of everything else.
"Captain?" Rukia interjected. "You have a Bankai? I didn't see you use it, unless that strange staff was it..."
"I didn't use any of them." Ichigo answered. He would have elaborated, had Rukia not responded so quickly.
"What?! Why not?!" Rukia glared at her ex room-mate. "You didn't think it was necessary, Baka?!"
"Well yeah, but-"
"But what?! You didn't want to try to stop Aizen?!"
"Of course I wanted to stop him! I couldn't use it b-"
"So you're lying then?! Here in front of Ukitake Taicho?!"
"RUKIA!" Ichigo yelled, shutting the girl up, as she glared at him. "The technique I did use, was the strongest one I could. All of the Shikais together are stronger than any one of my Bankais against an enemy like Aizen. You saw what happened to Kommamura with his Bankai. No guarantee from using one that you'll beat a Captain; 'specially not one like Aizen. He was strong, obviously."
"If you could use all of them in Shikai, I'd ask why you didn't use all of them in Bankai." Ukitake spoke, though he was fairly certain of the reason again; the captain was intelligent enough to know the strain that would be put on Ichigo's spirit with more than one Bankai. Ichigo grinned at the query, and answered.
"Chances are, it'd kill me." Ichigo answered, with a chuckle, as he laid a hand on Nejibana, on his left hip. "And I'd take a good number of people with me when I went; my reserves are pretty deep, after all. When, not if, my power became... unstable, I would take a good portion of the Soul Society out along for the ride. My Zanpakuto assure me of that. Even two Bankai would potentially kill me and anyone in the vicinity." He smirked over at Rukia. "That would've included you, Midget." The small girl grumbled, and may have muttered an apology, though Ichigo could not say for sure.
-()-()-()-
Ichigo was wandering through the Sereitei; having just left the Shiba residence. If he was staying here for the time being; until there was time for the bureaucracy needed to send him home, specifically, he might as well begin training. Currently, he wanted to get started on the Hakuda techniques; since he lacked even a fraction of the technique he'd seen from most of the specialist squad, and hopefully he'd be able to effectively train that even while keeping his Reitsu suppressed. He'd use Urahara's training ground when he could, and the man had no choice about that after the stunts he'd pulled, but there was only so much time he could spend away from his family before his sisters got upset with him. Not to mention Yoruichi's weird recommendations about him speaking to Soi Fon before they returned to the Human World. Goat-chin would probably get annoyed if he left for too long, as well, but Ichigo wasn't particularly concerned about his dad's feelings.
While he was making his way to Second Division; at a slow pace as he was lost in his thoughts of home, and the reactions he was going to receive, Ichigo did not register the fact that a captain was making his way towards him. A captain and his Lieutenant.
"Ichigo!"
"Ichi-Kun!"
The orange-haired man turned at the enthusiastic, if unnerving, yell followed by a childlike call. Seeing who had found him, Ichigo paled, before ignoring his more vocal spirit and taking off at a run.
"I'm not fighting you, Kenpachi!"
"That sounds like you've got a choice!" Kenpachi leapt forward, his battered Zanpakuto swinging at his would-be opponent. "Dammit!" The human-turned-Shinigami had vanished in a blur of Shunpo, and Zaraki was left without anybody to fight.
"Did we lose the game of tag, Ken-chan?" Yachiru asked, disappointed. "Ichigo is fast..."
-()-()()-()-
"You fool!" Crack. "How dare you-" Crunch. "Shame me in front of-" Thwack. "Lady Yoruichi?!"
Marechiyo Omaeda, Lieutenant of the Second Division, groaned; lying on the ground in a heap after his captain had decided to take her revenge. Captain Soi Fon was muttering about her pathetic Lieutenant even as she felt a large and familiar, as of her fight with Yoruichi, presence approaching. How she felt about the man nearing, she was not sure. On the one hand, he was obviously an asset to the Gotei 13. On the other; he was too close to Yoruichi for her to be happy to meet Ichigo.
The petite captain let out a sigh; half of exasperation at her squad's ineptitude, and half something else. Everything was changing, and Shaolin was not sure how she felt about it; she just knew that the human coming to her division was the catalyst for the change that was to come and that she should be wary of him for that. In her mind, that meant she could also be suspicious of his intentions towards her ex-mentor. This was the perfect chance for her to interrogate Ichigo on this matter.
Ichigo, on the other hand, had nothing at all against the assassin-captain. Even though she briefly broke his nose, it was completely justified; he'd been holding Tabigarasu to her throat, after all.
Omaeda was just staggering to his feet, as a black and orange blur rushed through the grounds, and came to a stop across from him; revealing itself to be the human-Shinigami that had, so far, defeated the overweight Lieutenant twice in battle.
"You!" True to form, Marechiyo charged at Ichigo, ignoring the fact that he had blood running down his chin from his Captain's assault. "Come back for more have you?!" He drew his blade, and roared his incantation. "Crush, Gegetsuburi!" The katana morphed in to the large flail that was his Shikai, as he grew near to his would-be-target. "Take this!" The fat man swung his Zanpakuto, and the spiked mace-head was flung at Ichigo, who snorted.
"Again? Really, do you never learn?" Ichigo vanished in a flash of Shunpo, and appeared inside Omaeda's reach with Nejibana already half drawn. Stepping past the balding Lieutenant, the blade flashed out and, by the time Ichigo had re-sheathed the katana, the man was back on the ground, weeping, with blood flowing from a gash in his large gut.
Taking the initiative, an unnamed member of the Second Division appeared in a burst of Shunpo, grabbed the Lieutenant, and vanished once more; most likely heading to the Squad 4 to get Omaeda help.
"Captain Soi Fon!" Ichigo called in greeting, spotting the woman he had come looking for. He walked over to the petite Soul Reaper, as she turned to face him with a slightly sinister look of amusement in her eyes. He'd forgotten the pleasure she took from her arrogant subordinate's pain.
"Ryoka." The black-haired Captain acknowledged him.
"Ex-Ryoka." Ichigo corrected, with a smirk. "How are you on this fine day?" He asked, with a bow. One that was more than slightly mocking; drawing a small growl from the girl in front of him.
"I am fine, thank you." She returned curtly. "And yourself?"
"Better since I've stopped having to fight for my life." Ichigo nodded, before correcting himself. "Well... mostly, but I doubt anyone's really safe with Captain Zaraki around."
"That's true, though he eventually loses interest in most opponents." She informed the ex-Ryoka. "Why are you here?" She did away with the pleasantries, and she raised an eyebrow at the orange-haired hybrid.
"Ah. Down to business, eh? I wanted to ask if it was possible for me to train with your squad in the techniques of Hakuda and Hoho."
"Why would you need to do that? Don't you have Yoruichi-sama to teach you?" Soi Fon asked, with a bitter tone of voice.
"Um... I suppose I do. Yoruichi suggested that I should see you about learning, though. She said something about you needing to ask me a question. I trusted her judgement, as weird as the statement was, so... here I am." Ichigo shrugged, not knowing anything more. Certainly not that they had an audience, in the form of a black cat, watching from the rooftops. "What d'you want to ask me?"
"Um..." Now, how should she ask this? Soi Fon decided to just do it. "What is Yoruichi to you?!" She blurted out, before realising that this phrasing was... awkward. Yet she couldn't think of a better way to say it.
"A... teacher? I guess. If you're asking what I assume you are, bear in mind I thought she was a cat until I came here." Ichigo answered, without going in to any actual detail. Yoruichi was one of his mentors, and until he came here she hadn't told him about her human form until recently. There was no way in hell he was going to tell the, frankly, obsessive captain in front of him that he'd bathed naked with the subject of her obsession. That would end... badly.
How was he to know that Yoruichi would tell her ex-protege?