Sorry for the really long wait for an update [haha that kinda rhymed] but any way.
This is going to be an extremely long chapter, though I still wish you enjoy it, and it somewhat makes up for being late.
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.

*~Graceful Melody~*

'Hello? Jūryoku?' I called out, materializing in my... inner world, for lack of a better term.

'Graciela! That was a fast rest.'

'Yea, I guess I've always been able to recover pretty quick. Was that because of you?' I posed, subtly trying to get answers that were absolutely threatening to burst out of my mouth.

'Now, now. You're getting ahead of yourself. We have to connect first,' my zanpakuto replied calmly.

'But aren't we already connected? Why else would I be here?' I asked, truly perplexed.

'That was just mental connection. Even though I live inside and am a part of you, I perceive things from a different perspective then you do. Once we can connect emotionally as well as mentally, the physical bond can come through if I would ever need to take over for you.'

'Okay, I think I get it now. So to start off, call me Gracie,' I offered her a warm smile, which she returned with a hug. I laughed at her antics but hugged back nonetheless.

'If we are going to go on a nickname basis, then call me Ry,' she said after we parted from the hug.

'So is this going to be like 20 questions or something?'

'It can be whatever you want, there isn't any limit to what you want to say.'

'Well, seeing as I don't really remember anything before kindergarten, how about I start with my first day of school?'

'Sounds good to me.'

So that's what I told her. From how scared I was on my first day, to the true experience of happiness when I won my first dance competition, to the hurt and pain of when my... friends, killed me. Ry sat there the whole time, laughing with me and comforted me the most when I broke down. After so many years alone it was nice to finally have some one to talk to, so I couldn't help the selfish urge of wanting to be comforted. Now even though I had a relatively short life; she made me go through every day, that I could remember, from each year. That was a lot of talking but she sat there listening and on multiple occasions when I wanted to stop, she urged me on; as if she was listening to a story from a book.. Seeing as time in my inner world doesn't exist, I could only estimate the hours it took to tell my whole story. However, Ry's is going to be on a whole different spectrum.

'Ry, now that you know about me and my, short, life. What was yours like?'

'Oh wow… this might take a while are you sure you want to listen?'

'Oh of course!' Oh.. did I sound too eager there? 'Don't get me wrong though, this isn't just so that you will tell me what the situation is,' I added defensively, 'I've been alone for so many years. Now that I have someone to talk to I want to be able to understand them. Ry, in a way you're becoming the big sister I never had.'

'Ahw, Gracie!' Ry said as she came to give me a hug.

'Okay, I'll tell you. But I can't guarantee that it will be interesting, but it will be long.'

'Well I'm here to listen.'

'It started maybe, 3,000 years ago. You see, I was never exactly human per se, but I was a spirit. There is a legend about me actually, I doubt that you have heard it seeing as you learned of seireitei mere days ago, but most there will recognize this. It is said that I am the spirit to visit you when you are sad or upset. You will recognize this feeling, as if the weight of the world is falling on you. Well in the legend I represent that weight.

When your world is turned all around,

And you feel as if you're upside down,

She will come to bask in this.

This goddess of sadness released on you,

The pain she will deliver you to.

Lethargic and slowly you will see,

That is is the way she wants you to be.

The gravity push you will receive,

Is nothing more than her retrieve.

To take the joy you once had known,

From each and every lovely bone.

Eventually the storm will clear,

and take with it every single fear.

When the weight lifts and you are now set free,

You can return to what you want to be.

'Yes my power does involve weight, but not sadness. Though my powers have been attributed to sadness through the delusion of generations past.'

By the time Ry finished her history I was staring at her, mouth agape and eyes in shock.

'What are you looking at me like that for?' She sheepishly asked while holding back a cringe.

'I-I have a legendary zanpakuto?'

'Yuppers~!' I just about fainted.

Ry began laughing as she managed out, 'Though I am not the only one. There are three others actually but Yamamoto has them locked up somewhere. Their power too great, but I can tell you this, your powers have theirs combined with more.'

I just about fainted again. Honestly, me a short 5'2" girl so inexperienced in everything, wielding powers stronger than 'the three.'

'Are the powers the same?'

'Not exactly, see the basics of them are, but you won't be able to destroy any dimensions when your 'parts of a whole' are all together.'

'That's comforting…' I said, as my face fell.

'Can you tell me how I will eventually unlock every aspect of my powers?' I threw out blindly once I realized that she would most likely answer my questions now that we talked for so long.

'Well you are already 1/10th's of the way there. You can connect with me and that leads to being able to use and control my powers. That will lead you to the black hole over there,' Ry said while pointing over her left shoulder, 'then that will lead you to Ms. Weeping Willow over here then to the five outsiders that unknowingly hold a part of you within them.'

'What do you mean by unknowingly hold a part of me?'

'I mean that they will be like keys that unlock different reactions from you, and the others, to cause your powers to develop. One of those keys though, unlocks more than just powers.'

'Ugh, more cryptic messages, I thought that was done and over with?' I complained.

'Nope, not yet!' Ry giggled.

'But now I do believe it is time to start training. With the level of connection we have and the self control and fast healing rates you posses you should be able to achieve this even quicker than my seven month estimate. Now do you remember what you said when we first connected?'

'Bring upon the weight of the world, Jūryoku,' once again the sword materialized though this time some of the stars on the sword closest to the hilt had lit up a light blue. I gawked at my sword quizzically until Ry started laughing.

'What's so funny?'

'Your face is priceless.' She managed to spit out through her laughing fit.

'Okay…' I replied, 'But why are some of the diamonds light blue?'

'Oh that! Well like the blueshift in space, it stands for when two beings are drawn closer together. As you open more of the connections with your powers and myself, more of the stars on your sword will light up blue.'

'Sweet.' I said, my eyes wide with admiration as my gaze shifted from my sword to Ry.

'Now, let's begin with basic defense and offense.' She said as a copy of my sword materialized in her hand. 'You are dominant with what hand?'

'I can use both, but my left hand is best.'

'Hm… good, this should be interesting then. Okay, mimic my stance,' she placed her left hand over her right gripping on the hilt towards the end, feet a little more than shoulder's length apart, with her left arm crossing over her body to protect the front. The sword was angled slightly towards her left.

'See what I am doing? Feet apart for balance, although you should know about that Ms. Dancer. Arms crossed over to the right so that is someone were to attack from that side there would be a faster reaction time to block, and the sword angled left to gather more power as you swing it down. Now I want you to attack me. Seeing as you are new with this, I wont get hurt.'

My eyes widened as she asked me to attack her, 'But I can't! What if something happens?' she stared at me incredulously, 'I…I'm not good with a sword… um…' by then Ry was staring at me with one eyebrow raised.

'You finished making lame excuses?'

'Yea…'

'Alright then, let the games begin.'

I jogged over to her with my sword still held the way she told me, it felt slightly awkward and wrong in my hands as I attacked. She parried the attack while shouting different pointers, 'Adjust your hands, don't keep your arms so stiff, relax and let it feel natural!'

Each time she blocked I came at her again, strategizing where I should attack, observing her weaknesses and hesitations as well. This exercise was progressing smoothly, within what seemed to me as mere minutes, I felt more comfortable and natural handling my sword.

Eventually I managed to nick her right hip, 'stop,' she ordered.

'Are you sure you have never handled a sword before? You are excelling at this and the natural talent you have from us is coming through. Maybe this will take even shorter then I realized it would before. Whatever, now that you managed to cut me; offense training is over for now. I hope you were paying attention to the way I was defending because that is what is next. I'll start off slow but will get progressively faster until I manage to nick you. Don't worry though because after this you can rest and heal yourself.'

'Okay,' I replied rather hesitantly, but blocked anyway.

At first Ry began slowly, using the same pattern of striking until I managed to block them no problem. She upped the ante and put more power behind each attack, at first they pushed me back but again I began to get a hold of it. When she was able to cut me on the arm, I believe that she was going close to her full power.

'Very impressive Gracie. You can read people's actions very well and it was because of that and the natural abilities with swordsmanship you seem to posses that allowed me to attack you almost full strength. Though it would be different if we both were in shikai or bankai, or if you could flash step…'

I stared at her with a what-the-hell-are-you-talking-about look on my face, eventually she caught on.

'Oh! Sorry I'm rambling but that will all be things you will learn later. After you rest we will work on the control of your reiatsu and flash step. That's always fun!' She added, sounding more excited as she went along.

I giggled a little before I said, "see you soon Ry!"

*~Frozen Harmony~*

"The meeting is adjourned," head-captain Yamamoto called and all the captains stood out and began to file out of the room. I shunpo'd back to my office to complete the mountain of paperwork I found underneath Matsumoto's desk earlier this morning.

"Taicho~!" Matsumoto called, accenting each vowel.

"Unless you are here to help me do your paperwork, I suggest you go."

"Oh you're no fun. Lighten up for once! I just came here to ask if the meeting was about that girl? I hear she is in a coma now!"

I turned to her, shocked but not showing it more than in the form of one my eyebrows raised, "how did you know?"

"Just gossip, where do you think I've been?"

'Getting drunk,' Hyourinmaru added mentally.

"Any way I heard that whenever someone, even Captain Unohana, attempts to approach the girl a kind of barrier forms around her with very dense spiritual pressure. It makes you wonder…" with that Matsumoto left and I sighed.

'Is she purposely trying to make me think about the girl again?'

The weird gut feeling told me that is exactly her reasoning, but now knowing this; I made a point not to let the girl cross my mind.

'You know you think it's an interesting case,' Hyourinmaru added his input.

I merely brushed his comment off and started back up on the paperwork.

*~Graceful Melody~*

I honestly could not have guessed how long it took me to catch Ry in that game of tag we just played. Of course she responded with, 'wow that was so fast, you're a natural… bla bla bla.' I swear she is taking this whole training thing pretty lightly even though it sounded life or death to me.

'Now one thing I need to tell you before we start with training your reiatsu.'

'And that is?' I replied a little bored.

'Well, I'm not entirely sure how to put it but I can try... Well you see, every living thing gives of a type of pressure no matter how small. But in your case, you give off none at all. The only time other soul reapers or humans that are sensitive to this pressure can sense you is when you actively allow yourself to crate the pressure. Other wise, it will always be hidden, unless of course if you're in bankai or shikai; because then it starts swirling around you and with your powers-'

'Ry!' How does she even say that much on one breath?

'Ak! Sorry, I guess I started to ramble again.'

She guesses? I dropped it when a new question entered my mind.

'Then how do you expect me to control it?'

'You already trained it to!' Ry replied merrily, 'when learning flash step you concentrate it into one region of your body. The only difference is that when you practice with a sword, you channel it into the attacks. But like I said before, I'm no good with explaining things, to truly get it we need to train so that you learn from experience.'

I shot Ry a look of utter disbelief.

'Alright, I give up! I'll start training you to learn the other releases. You know one of them, bring upon the weight of the world… well that isn't the only one. There is one other, your shikai. To be honest, I never thought that you would learn as fast as this, but that just means you'll have more time to legitimately master your bankai~!'

'So what do I need to say?'

'I can't tell you. Figure it out for yourself!' With that, Ry disappeared.

Okay, so I have two options, rest again, or figure this shikai thing out. After all of two seconds I had my answer; figure this thing out. Ry said that it is the second release for the sword, so might as well call the first.

'Bring upon the weight of the world Jūryoku!' Part of a third diamond/ star was lighting up, so I must be getting somewhere with this.

I looked around for a while and decided to sit down under the weeping willow on the random patch of floating land. I sat indian style and laid my sword across my lap. I began thinking back to everything Ry has told me over the course of however long we have been training for. Every single word, every conversation and every move she made I analyzed and re-analyzed, but still no connection.

I was becoming impatient as well as sick and tired of waiting for this new release to dawn upon me. Everything else happened at such a fast pace so why not this? Wait, maybe that has something to do with it? Finally my train of thought was getting me somewhere.

I changed my position, for my legs were starting to fall asleep. Now I was laying on my back with my word on my stomach and parallel to my body.

I thought back to the poem that is her legend, 'lethargic and slowly you will see, that is is the way she wants you to be,' I said out loud.

Maybe that's it, slowly I am seeing she wants me to figure this out on my own, what came next again? 'The gravity push you will receive, is nothing more than her retrieve.'

Gravity push? Could that be her push in the right direction in this case?

I continued, 'to take the joy you once had known, from each and every lovely bone.'

Taking joy... well I was happy before when thing were going relatively fast; perhaps it relates to that.

'Eventually the storm will clear, and take with it every single fear.'

Well when this is over it's taking away my worry, could worry and fear be the same thing?

'When the weight lifts and you are now set free, you can return to what you want to be.'

Wait a second… 'RY!'

She materialized in front of me, 'what I called before was my shikai, wasn't it? I just didn't know what to do with it then, right? It didn't work then, right? When you tell me to 'release' it, I never really needed to say the whole line, didn't I? Having me say the line, bring upon the weight of the world Jūryoku, was just you making sure I wasn't capable of using it yet, correct? 'You're doing so well, you learn so fast!',' I used air quotes to emphasize my anger, 'was just a distraction so that you could make me wait longer, no? So could you just answer this for me, why do you not want me learning to use my powers as fast as you say I can?'

'Eh…heh, to be honest I never thought you would make that connection that fast…'

By then I was completely pissed and the third diamond on my sword lit up fully.

'You what?' but my anger was soon dissipated, for Ry was clapping and laughing. Did I ever mention that Ry's laugh is contagious? Well, it is.

When our little laughing fit was over I realized what happened when the third star lit up. My normal skirt and short sleeved shirt turned into this robe like thing, that I believe is called a kimono; that was a light blue. It appeared to have designs on it but I assumed that like the rest of the stars on my sword, those had to light up before being revealed as well.

'If this was anywhere other than this inner world, you would have seen the true display of your power. You pretty much just gained the ability to release your reiatsu. Go ahead, concentrate on it; and let it go. But be sure to keep control over it.'

Ry's suggestion seemed innocent enough, so I tried it. I concentrated on the thought of reiatsu; since I couldn't see it. Eventually it felt like small grains of sand flew around me, I also felt like something was exploding from my body, but the control was still there so once it got a little trippy; I put my iron grip back on it.

'Now that you have that connection, my time training you is over. I'll still be here though if you ever wanna chat. Ms. Dank, dark and miserable. Your turn!'

'Finally,' I heard a voice call.

I got this feeling in my gut that this was not going to go as smoothly as it was when working with Ry. Speaking of which, where did she materialize off to? I turned around and there, in the middle of the black hole was a person who could have been my twin. Even though she has black eyes with purple flecks instead of my normal light brown with gold flecks; I was basically looking at myself.

'You ready to get down to business?' She asked.

I could only nod sheepishly while I thought one thing, ah…crap.