READ FIRST: I POSTED TWO CHAPTERS TODAY, GO BACK TO THE ONE BEFORE THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T READ IT ALREADY.

Disclaimer: Hurp-de-dur-de-durp. I don't own Bleach. Kubo Tite does and the only way I'll get him to hand it over is by giving him immortality or something equally ridiculous. I wouldn't need Bleach if I had that.

EDIT: Chapter edited and fixed as of the 12/16/12 update. Pretty sure I missed stuff, should get a beta reader.

The following chapter is brought to you by insomnia and a can of monster energy drink!

The First Guardian

Chapter five – Rocky and The Karate Kid would be proud.

Today was going to be a good day, Ichigo felt. It was one of those days when he and his Zanpakutō went to find someplace to try out new things. His mood was soaring and he had a big smile as he sat up from his bed, Rukia was already changed and out of her closet. He wasn't fooled, she wasn't a morning person by any standards, and the way she yawned (and looked horribly cute while doing it) was proof enough.

"What is it you plan to do today, Ichi-?"

Someone knocked on Ichigo's door. That wasn't the problem; the problem was that it was too early for anyone in his house to be awake. The problem, as well as Ichigo's day, only got worse when they heard the voice behind the door.

"Ichigo, come downstairs, I need talk to you about something."

It was his father; he was never awake so early. Ichigo had made sure to wake up earlier than anyone else in his home since Rukia moved in. That way they wouldn't be caught by surprise by Isshin jumping into his room in one of his daily fits of crazy and discovering Rukia.

The extra food he brought up to his room was explained as Ichigo being a growing boy.

Neither of those things were the main problem, either.

He had knocked on his door.

Isshin Kurosaki had knocked Ichigo's door.

"I just felt as if someone stepped on our graves."

"Probably took a dump on them, too."

He looked at Rukia, who was as confused as he was. Then got up from his bed and left the room a little too slowly to his liking.

He went downstairs, once again, slowly and on the lookout. His father could jump at him from anywhere, and he had to be on guard.

"Ichigo, I think this is how those poor bastards felt in Friday the 13Th."

Except now Ichigo was the poor bastard, and he didn't like that one bit.

He walked into the living room, were he saw his father sitting, there were two teacups set on the table in front of him.

"Come sit with me, Ichigo."

Isshin motioned Ichigo to take the seat in front of him, and Ichigo did. He gulped, his father rarely ever acted this way.

Isshin took a sip of his tea, and Ichigo did the same "Ichigo, there are some questions I need answered."

Ichigo couldn't believe it. Had his father figured out what he had been doing? Did he find out he fought Hollows? Of course he had, he was an idiot for not realizing it. His father was a Shinigami captain, and the idiot thing was a façade he used for his family. He had to tread very carefully.

"Y-yeah? Like what?"

Isshin took another sip of his tea, and set the cup down before crossing his fingers before his face, his face completely serious.

"How long have you been doing this, Ichigo?"

"Damn it."

"The cat's out of the bag, might as well be honest, Ichigo."

"… Four years."

Isshin's eyes widened, but then he calmly nodded and looked Ichigo straight in the eyes.

"Ichigo, why did you hide this from me?"

"I- I didn't know it was proper to tell, I mean-"

"Proper, Ichigo? This was something you should have told me, all of us, the moment it started. Don't you feel we deserved to know, son?"

Now he was starting to feel bad, his father was really laying the guilt trip.

"Ichigo, yesterday, I saw her go with you into your room, and didn't leave. In fact, she's still in there. You should have told me your girlfriend would stay over. If I had known you'd be bringing girls here, I'd have soundproofed your room."

"Wait, what?" His Zanpakutō could offer no response; he had apparently fallen off a rooftop while laughing like a maniac.

"Wait, no, she's- I mean, nothing happened and she-"

"Ichigo, I heard her talking with you inside of your room, don't deny it anymore!" Now his father had stood up and looked as a proud as a man could.

"You have become a man! I am so proud of you my son! Masaki! Our son has become a real man and now I have another beautiful daughter!"

"Son of a-"

"Umm, excuse me?"

"Oh dear mother of-"

"Oh look, it's my beautiful, newest daughter! How are you my dear? I'm Isshin, Ichigo's father. I don't have enough words to express how proud I am of my son for getting such a beautiful girlfriend!"

"Why did she come down?" Ichigo's mind and world were falling apart at how ridiculous this whole situation was, and the booming laughter coming from his sword really wasn't making things any better.

"Don't be mad at your son, sir. I- I suggested we keep it a secret, you see. I come from an old-school family, and the head of the family, my brother, wouldn't have approved of Ichigo being with me if he knew. So it's my entire fault sir, really." That was Rukia's school act, and it was flawless. She extended a hand towards Ichigo, apparently to hold one of his. She had something written on it. Play along and don't screw up, it said.

"There goes my good day." He took her hand and stood there awkwardly.

"Is this true, Ichigo?" Ichigo doubted for a second, then sighed in resignation and nodded.

Isshin started crying, it was disturbing to see a grown man crying like that "I didn't think I could be prouder of my son! Shouldering this all by himself during all these years! He's such a strong man, Masaki!"

Ichigo resisted the urge to slam his head against- well, everything in the room.

"What's your name, my dear?"

"And the Award to the Best Goddamn Actress in the Whole Damn World goes to…"

"Kuchiki Rukia, sir."

"What a lovely name! Tell me, my new daughter, how did Ichigo end up scoring such a pretty girlfriend?"

Then Rukia started telling the same story she told Ichigo's friends at school, the one about him saving her.

"Ichigo, you can't make yourself spontaneously combust. Stop trying it."

"Dad, we're going somewhere, you can talk again to Rukia later."

"Going on a date? Nice, Ichigo! Wait, wouldn't her brother wonder where she was all night?"

Rukia picked up the ball fast "He's going to be out of town for a couple of months, so I'm all alone until he comes back."

"Fuck." His sword just resumed laughing.

"What! No daughter of mine is going to be all by herself! You're free to come live with us in the Kurosaki household. You can stay in Ichigo's room."

"Wait, what? Then where the hell am I going to sleep?"

"With her, of course."

"Finally, someone who understands!"

"Shut the fuck up and die."

"Thanks for the offer, Isshin-san. I'll be happy to stay in this house."

"Please, call me dad."

"Okay. Thanks, dad."

That got Isshin to start another tirade about Masaki, so Ichigo took the chance and ran back upstairs with Rukia in tow.

"Get changed, quick. If we're fast we'll be out of the house before he stops."

Rukia gave him an amused smile, then shook her head and entered her closet and tossed out a few garments for Ichigo to pick from. They both got changed and left using Ichigo's window. He really wanted to avoid his father. For the rest of the year if he could.

They both arrived at a clearing – it was yet another abandoned area in Karakura town, this one could be found by walking up the river until reaching the edge of town.

"So what is it you want to do, exactly?" Rukia voiced her curiosity, she had been wondering how Ichigo trained for quite some time.

"For starters, I want to increase my sword's density to make it stronger. It having such a big area makes the spirit particles in it spread a bit too much, making it weaker than other smaller Zanpakutō."

Rukia nodded, that was an academy basic, and everyone had to learn to do that. Otherwise all those who had large amounts of Spiritual Energy would have big swords.

"Well, making your sword smaller is pretty easy, I could teach you-"

"What? No, I don't want to make my sword smaller."

"But you just said-"

"I know what I said, I want to increase my sword's density, but I want it to stay the same size."

"Why? And is that even possible?"

"Because I like it just the way it is. And I dunno, really. The obvious solution would be to increase the amount of particles forming my sword, so maybe I should just put a lot of Reiatsu into it?"

Rukia honestly didn't know, she had heard of such things, some swords became larger and retained their strength, or some got even stronger.

Thing was, those were Bankai.

Ichigo wasn't even going to use Shikai.

"I don't know Ichigo; such a method is unheard of."

Ichigo gave her a cocky grin and tilted his head to the side "Then I'm about to invent something new. Isn't that exciting?"

Rukia snorted, and then took out her glove while shaking her head. She didn't bring the Gikongan because she intended to save it for combat situations or for when Ichigo was going to be away for a long time.

"You're crazy, you know that?"

"Took you long enough to find out."

Once Ichigo was out of his body and into his Shinigami form, he told Rukia to get to a safe distance, he wasn't sure if this wasn't going to explode on him.

"You better not make me explode."

"You enjoyed it when I made things explode."

"That was different."

"How so?"

"It wasn't me."

Ichigo settled into a stance, holding his sword with both hands in front of him, slightly angled so that the point was aiming at the sky and yet away from him.

He closed his eyes, and then tried to focus his Reiatsu into his sword. He felt it move, and the sword started glowing with it. But it felt the same, so he kept charging it with Reiatsu.

Rukia was mesmerized, Ichigo's sword was giving off an amazing glow, and the amounts of Reiatsu coming from him just kept increasing,

"Is he actually stronger than when I met him?" That was impossible, wasn't it? "Though he has an amazing learning curve, he's done things that Shinigami hundreds of years older than him could only dream of." She wasn't sure she'd want to fight him, even at full strength. "He has Shikai, too." She hadn't seen it, but she knew Ichigo wouldn't lie to her about that. Actually, he never lied to her.

She smiled at that thought.

Ichigo stopped, this wasn't working. If this was something no one had ever done before, then he doubted it would work like this. "Someone would have figured it out by now."

"Ichigo, instead of just filling me up with energy, try taking the Spirit Particles in the air into me. Karakura has a high amount of them."

"Can I do that? Isn't that, I dunno, a Quincy thing?"

"Couldn't hurt to try."

So he did, he got a feel for the energies around him. They were there, but getting a hold of them was tricky, as they seemingly slipped from his mind's fingers.

"Be gentle; think of them as water rather than tendrils and dust."

That actually made it easier, he could now feel them moving around as he willed them to, now he just needed to direct them into his sword.

"Ichigo, don't just put them all over me, direct them inside of the blade. Otherwise I'll just end up bigger."

"Easier said than done."

It was a two part process, first, he had to squeeze them into his sword, and then he had to make sure they didn't overflow. He had to pack them together and make sure they didn't leak.

"I don't leak."

"You know what I mean."

After a while, he felt he couldn't another particle inside of his sword, so he closed up the makeshift hole he had made into his sword's spiritual build.

He felt for his sword for a bit, it actually felt lighter, but now he felt it was far more solid, as if there was nothing it couldn't cut.

Unstoppable, even.

"Hey, are you okay?"

"Is this how potheads feel? Because I don't think I'll be able to hate them if they do."

Ichigo snorted, apparently his sword was high.

"Kisuke, what was that I just saw?" Shihōin Yoruichi could not hide her bewilderment from his partner as she looked through her binoculars.

"Interesting." Was all that came from Urahara Kisuke.

"Interesting? Kisuke, that should be impossible, no Shinigami should be capable of that!" She was now gesturing wildly, it seemed completely out of character for her, but the shop keeper couldn't really blame her.

"I know what Shinigami are capable of. But we're not sure what Kurosaki Ichigo is capable of." He answered cryptically. He really loved doing that.

"But he's a Shinigami, isn't he?"

"Indeed. But he's also Kurosaki Ichigo."

Yoruichi knew Kisuke would only get even more impossible if she kept fishing for a straight answer. He was always like that when he was focused on an idea.

"Are you back with us, man?"

"Yeah, I am. That felt real good. Like a sugar rush, without the crashing afterwards."

"How do you know what a sugar rush is?"

"Let's try something else, shall we?"

"Ichigo, did it work?" Rukia had walked over after Ichigo stopped focusing, and only asked because she didn't know what else to say. She could literally feel the sword exuding power; it had an inaudible, yet pleasant, hum that came from it. "It's almost beating, and it's not even a Shikai."

"Oh? Yeah, it worked. Not like I expected it to, but whatever works, I guess."

"So what are you planning to do now?"

"My sword just came up with something else, this time it has a real chance of exploding on us, so get farther than you did last time, please."

Rukia was about to smack him over the head. Or try to, anyways. She didn't like how blasé he was the whole thing. "Does he care about what happens to him?"

Ichigo entered the same stance he did before, and once again focused on the spirit particles, except this time he only focused on the ones inside of his sword.

"Alright, get a feel for them. And then move them as fast as you can."

He did just that, making them flow up and down it's sword in a never-ending current, but he didn't feel any change.

"Anything?"

"Not really, I don't think you're moving them fast enough."

"This is the fastest I can go."

"Hmm…"

Ichigo stopped, and sat down while still looking at his sword. It was time for a little bit of brainstorming.

"I know that look in your eyes; you're planning something, aren't you?"

"Whatever do you mean? When have I ever had an ingenious plan, Yoruichi?"

"Stop being an asshole and tell me."

"Let's go talk to him, shall we?" Urahara had a huge grin hidden behind his fan.

Ichigo stood up, there two presences approaching, and he could only recognize one of them.

"Urahara." He nodded towards the geta-wearing man. Then looked towards the woman that had arrived with him. She was a beautiful woman, if a little strange, with purple hair and dark skin, and yellow eye-

"Hold on."

"I know you; you were at my mother's funeral as well." Rukia was now standing beside him, looking as puzzled as Ichigo felt.

"I was. I'm Shihōin Yoruichi. At your service." She gave him a saucy grin, but then blinked when he completely ignored her in favor of Urahara.

"So, bucket man, what brings you here?" Urahara wasn't sure if he had to feel offended, and then remembered he didn't really care anyways.

"Well, I was just taking a walk by with my beautiful companion here, when we spotted you apparently training. I couldn't help but watch a bit of it." Urahara said in a cheery tone.

Ichigo still wasn't fooled. "At least one your stalkers is a female."

"And?" He rose an eyebrow at that, Urahara really took pride on his disarming charisma.

"Well, I was wondering if you'd want some advice. I think I got the gist of what you want to do."

"I already owe him. I'm not sure I want to add to that."

"Think about it, Ichigo. If we keep going we could really hurt ourselves. This way if we do at least we can shift the blame on him and then he'd have to help us further."

Ichigo could see some wisdom in that. Some.

"Alright, but Rukia and Yoruichi-san will have to watch from afar. I can't be sure this won't blow up on my face." "You can stay though. I want to see how you react to third-degree burns."

His sword couldn't help but giggle.

"Great! Let's get started then, do what you were doing a moment ago."

As soon as both ladies were a safe distance away, Ichigo got back into his stance and focused again by closing his eyes. As soon as he got the flow going, he opened them and saw Kisuke touching his sword as if it was a pair of breasts.

"Ichigo, help! I'm being molested!"

"What are you doing?" He lost focus, and the flow stopped. Kisuke just got yet another grin on his face which he covered with his fan.

"Well, I was getting a feel for your Zanpakutō, as well as for its spirit particles. I like how they move around without changing its shape at all."

"I feel so violated."

"And what's your conclusion, doc?" Ichigo couldn't help but feel amused by his sword's plight.

"You have a gorgeous sword."

"Argh."

Ichigo snorted, he didn't really trust this guy, but he was real funny.

"We're both aware of that, thank you."

"Oh, so you can talk to it as well? Do you know its name?"

"Yes I do. No, I won't tell you, he doesn't want anyone knowing."

Urahara didn't seem affected by that at all, and any surprise that came from knowing Ichigo was this advanced was expertly hidden.

"You need to move them fast, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, think of your sword as a fine woman's behind."

"Don't you fucking dare."

"Right now, it's swaying to the sides, real sexy, but you need it to move faster. So have her shake that booty, instead. Like a Brazilian dancer's."

"KILL HIM. KILL HIM DEAD."

"He's making sense though; shaking is a lot faster than just moving."

"I DON'T CARE."

"Alright, I guess you make sense. Bonus points for bruising his ego like that."

"I exist to serve." Urahara gave a mock-bow, and then started observing once more.

Ichigo focused again, but this time forgot all about the flow. It was a lot harder, he could see his sword's form flickering a little bit, and he had to make sure it maintained its form while all the particles in it shook like a vibrator.

"I fucking hate you."

Then he felt it more than saw it, his sword lit up in flames. No, his sword became flames. It was incredibly hot, he could see it in the air around it, but he could feel no heat coming from it. Urahara didn't have the same privilege, it seemed, he was fanning himself really hard.

"Success!" Urahara yelled, but then his eyes widened a bit and jumped far back.

Ichigo felt it, his sword's form was becoming unstable, and all the particles in it were about to become loose in what he was sure would be an impressive explosion. So he immediately focused on slowing them down.

It was really close to blowing up in his face, and he wasn't sure he could survive that, regeneration or not.

"That was too close."

"No shit."

"Ah, it's a shame; it seems there's a time limit to it. Isn't it? Then again, I figured it would be that way." Urahara explained while nodding as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Then why the hell didn't you warn me?" Ichigo no longer felt amused.

"I figured it would be a learning experience."

"I don't like him."

"Welcome to the club."

"But it wasn't all completely fruitless. Now you have a move that you can use, even if for short amounts of time. I don't there's anyone who wouldn't get caught off-guard by that, especially since your sword isn't a fire-elemental one."

Ichigo nodded, that's what he was thinking about.

"Oh well! It seems like my job here is done. Don't forget to step by my store if you need anything." With that, he put away his fan and walked back to Yoruichi, who looked ticked off for some reason.

"That was incredible, Ichigo." Rukia was once again standing next to him.

"It wasn't a big deal. I'm surprised it didn't explode, though it was a pretty close call."

"So, are you done?" Rukia wasn't sure she'd be able to take more surprises.

"What? No, well, perhaps with this. But I wanted to ask you to teach me Zanjutsu." At Rukia's curious expression, he elaborated "I can't really swing this sword right to save my life. Sure, I can kill hollows with it, but that's just a combination of brute strength and great speed-" He paused for a second and then rolled his eyes "And my sword's awesomeness."

Rukia smiled, his sword had a really big ego.

"Alright, but I'm not going to take any slacking from you. I take it you know at least some initial stances, yes?"

"I do, but I'm gonna have to do one-handed variations of them, as my sword is actually a one-hander." He gestured to where his right sleeve should be, and she understood.

"Very well, let's see what we can work out."

It was now almost evening, and they were both walking back home. Rukia was actually a lot more exhausted than Ichigo was.

"He has great stamina. That's a good thing, isn't it?" She blushed at the thought, and then shook her head.

"Onii-chan!" They heard Yuzu's voice coming from further down the road they were walking. She was running towards them with Karin behind her, it looked like they were being chased by someone.

"Karin-sama, Yuzu-sama! Please slow down, I can't run like this yet!"

"Stay away from us you mummy freak!" That was Karin.

Ichigo blinked; there was something that looked an awful lot like a mummy with pants chasing his sisters.

"Who are you?" Ichigo asked after both his sisters got behind hi holding either of his arms.

"Ichigo-sama! It's me, Yokohama Oda!" The mummy-like figure gestured, only his eyes, nostrils and mouth were visible.

…

"Who?"

"Ah! So cruel, Ichigo-sama! You saved me yesterday, remember? I had a horrible accident while riding my bike and you took me to your clinic to be saved!"

Oh.

Oh.

"Are you trying to kidnap my sisters? And what's with the sama crap?"

The man actually stood up straight and gave a salute "I owe you a lot, Ichigo-sama! You saved my life even after-" He glanced at Ichigo's sisters "Even after I asked you not to! So I decided that from now on, I'd be of some use to you by looking after your sisters when you can't, Ichigo-sama."

Ichigo blinked.

Rukia snickered.

His sword snickered, too.

Ichigo blinked again.

"I'm not sure that's a good-"

"Oh, but Ichigo-sama! Me and all of my underlings- err, classmates, have agreed to watch over Karin-sama and Yuzu-sama!" Sure enough, all of those guys that Rukia had thrown a huge wall at started coming out from behind trees, lamp posts, trash cans, even from bushes.

"They won't even notice we're there most of the time, Ichigo-sama!" The guy saluted again, but winced in obvious pain, he was far from healed.

"So, Ichigo, what're you gonna do now?"

Ichigo had no idea.

First off, I wanna say that Oda will not be a recurrent character, he might make one or two other appearances, and maybe be mentioned a couple of times, too. But that's it, I'm not really into OC's. I dislike them most of the time.

Alright so that's a wrap, two chapters in the same night. I can't help but wonder if I'm spoiling you guys, hmmm…

I don't know an iota about spirit particle physics. Hell, I don't know crap about normal physics, either! So I pulled a lot of the things you saw Ichigo training on straight out of my ass. Any complaints or ideas: leave them in a review.

Ichigo won't be god-like. Or well, at least not too soon and certainly not too much. Though I can't promise you the latter. It depends on how awesome I can make it.

As for why Ichigo can do what he does, well… that's a tale for another chapter.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter, I'm not sure I'll post next one this Sunday or Monday, mostly because I have college stuff to do that I've been putting off since Wednesday.

- Flameal out.