I don't own Bleach
Chapter 22: Ability to fight
"Well then… Shall we finish this whole thing up?" Kisuke said to the Shinigami while pointing to a seemingly glowing mass of Reiatsu. "Feed your Reiatsu into here… and the process will be complete!"
"… yeah." The Shinigami answered and then steps forward.
"In that case… shall we begin?"
...
"E-erm… It's nice to meet you! I, ah, my name is Inoue Orihime-" Inoue greeted politely but was cut rather short by Ginjou.
"No need for pleasantries. You arrived at the perfect time. Go heal him up, would you?" Ginjou pointed to an injured Ichigo.
"Kurosaki-kun!" Inoue quickly headed towards him and knelt down to his level.
"Inoue?" Ichigo looked at her as Nozomi approached him too. "That's right, Chad must have brought you here."
"Can you stand up?" Nozomi extended her hand out to him.
"Yeah, thanks." Ichigo took her hand and stood up.
"That's right." Chad said after he was transported inside the game too. "You may not have wanted to get Inoue involved… But from this point onwards, we'll need her power."
Ichigo looks at him for a while, before returning his gaze to Inoue.
"Oi, Chad." Ginjou called him out.
"I know. I'm not here to lend Ichigo any assistance." Chad said as a door materialized behind him. "I asked Yukio to prepare a different room for me, configured to a higher difficulty level. I'll be training on my own. If we're going to fight Tsukishima, then I'd rather not just be sitting around."
"I see your point. Do as you like." Ginjou replied as Chad opened the door.
"I will." He entered the door and closed it afterwards.
Chad stood in place for a while and put his hand on his chest. Where Tsukishima stabbed him before he escaped.
"He stabbed me. No doubt about it. But it seemed as though nobody even noticed that it happened. No wound, no pain. Even I find myself doubting that it really happened. It's just… like Inoue said. I don't know what he did to me, but I can't think of anything to do about it besides becoming stronger as quickly as possible."
…
"You're slow, is he still not healed yet?" Ginjou complained as he waits for Inoue to finish healing Ichigo.
"J-just wait a little longer please…!" Inoue attempted to reason, but was paid no heed.
"Sorry, can't do that." Ginjou said before turning to Ichigo and Nozomi. "You guys feeling ready?"
"Y-yeah." Ichigo answered as he and Nozomi entered their fighting stances.
"Wait, you two!" She attempted to stop them but fails when Ginjou charges towards them.
Ichigo and Nozomi prepares to block the attack, but to their surprise, Inoue intervenes and shields them.
"Oi, Inoue! Stop that!" Ichigo demands, but Inoue ignores him.
"Three Sacred Links Shield, eh? Like that can stop my Cross of Scaffold!" Ginjou gloats and forces his sword's weight onto Inoue's shield.
"You're wrong." Inoue tells him, but was answered with a smirk.
"Am I?" Ginjou answered and pierces her shield but instead causes it to explode, sending him reeling back a few meters.
"… Four Sacred Resistors Shield." Inoue calls out the name of her ability before dispelling it. " In the instant it's attacked, it explodes outwards and dissipates the force of the blow and automatically counters it."
"An exploding shield? Hardly subtle." Ginjou remarked as he recovers.
"I don't care about subtle. If you don't want to get hurt… then don't attack until I say it's alright." Inoue demanded and continued to heal Ichigo.
"Inoue… what was that?" Nozomi asked her, who simply smiled at her.
"… It's been seventeen months since Kurosaki-kun lost his powers. Sado-kun and I haven't been just standing still for all that time." She replied and then turned to Ichigo. "We believed all along, that one day, you would be able to regain the power to fight."
"So I'm the only one who did nothing?" Nozomi said to herself, slightly irritated.
"That's why we swore to ourselves, both me and Sado-kun…" Inoue continued. "That when that time came, we'd be strong enough to not be a burden to you."
Ichigo stares at her for a while, before smiling.
"You don't have to worry about me… I just want you to concentrate on getting your powers back. That's all that matters now." Inoue said as she finishes healing Ichigo.
"I see… thank you, Inoue." Ichigo said before walking towards Ichigo and forming a blade of Reiatsu on his right arm. "Shall we continue, Ginjou?"
"Yeah." Ginjou answered and immediately dashed towards Ichigo.
They immediately clashed and exchanged slashes, with mostly Ichigo on the defensive.
"Alright, Nozomi-san! Your turn!" Inoue said as she started to heal Nozomi.
"Uh, yeah." Nozomi replied.
"Say, Nozomi-san… why did you decide to participate in this training?"
Nozomi thinks for a while, before answering Inoue's question. "Well, I… was completely defeated by Tsukishima earlier. I don't want that to happen again, so that's why I'm going to get stronger. To-"
"Protect Kurosaki-kun?" Inoue smiles at her after finishing her sentence.
Nozomi stares at her, before smiling and slightly blushing. "… yeah."
"Okay! That should be enough!" Inoue exclaimed right after finishing healing Nozomi.
Nozomi stands up and instantly runs towards Ichigo and Ginjou, but not before stopping for a while and giving her a quick "thank you".
"2 minutes before midnight…" Yukio said after checking the time. Seemingly pondering to himself for a while, he presses the fast forward button on his console after a few seconds of thinking.
Ichigo launches another attack on Ginjou, but he easily blocks it.
"Adjusting movements to keep out of my reach?" Ginjou thought as Ichigo dodges his counter attack. "Too easy!"
Ginjou grips his sword's second handle on the blade itself with his left hand and uses it perform a follow-up slash, which Ichigo barely evades.
"Why do you think swords have handles put on them? It's to get rid of the handicap of reach!" Ginjou said as he spins around to block a slash from Nozomi. "Oh? Healed already?"
Nozomi immediately backs away, fully aware how dangerous Ginjou is at close range. Ichigo and Nozomi dash at Ginjou from two opposite directions, forcing him on the defensive.
"They seem to be fighting completely different from before. It seems bringing them here was the right decision." Ginjou thought as he continuously deflected slashes from Ichigo and Nozomi. "Just as I thought… when they draw close to something they want to protect, they get stronger. But even still?"
Inoue watches on as the battle keeps on getting more intense. Until Riruka enters the game and immediately approaches her.
"Riruka-chan…"
"What are you doing crouched over there?" Riruka asked her.
"Err, there's no pillars or walls to lean on so I really had no choice…" Inoue answered sheepishly while standing up.
"Hah?" Riruka looks at her with an amused face, almost like she knows something Inoue doesn't. "Yukio! Give us a table and a chair! I'm going to eat my snack here! Hurry up!"
"Eh? You can do that too?" Inoue asked surprised.
"No way." Yukio immediately rejects Riruka's request. But before she can complain, Inoue speaks up.
"Um! I have a favor to ask! I want out of here!"
Yukio stares at her for a few moments, and then immediately gives them a table and a pair of chairs.
"Yukio! What are you doing!?" Riruka protests but Yukio only gives her a nonchalant smirk.
"Riruka, you should learn to take advantage of situations like that too. It was a good opportunity after all." Yukio lectures her, still grinning.
"Oooohhh when I get out of here, I'll remember that." Riruka stated before pulling a doughnut out of the box she was holding. Before she can take a bite however, she spots Inoue looking at the doughnuts. She could've sworn she saw her drooling.
"What are you looking at? Just cause you're looking doesn't mean I'll give you some." Riruka firmly declares, but her façade slowly fades away after looking at Inoue's eyes. They were sparkling.
"Ahhhh it's so good!" Inoue said as she took a bite out of the doughnut Riruka begrudgingly gave her.
"Yeah? Get over it and eat up." Said Riruka.
"Okay!" Inoue instantly complied and reached for another doughnut, the previous one stuffed in her mouth in record time.
"Wait! Aren't you eating too fast!? There's only one for you!" Riruka stops her, but upon seeing Inoue comically tear up…
"F-fine! Have another one!"
Inoue childishly grabbed another doughnut and nibbled on it.
"Geez… who does she think I am…? I wonder how your parents would have put up with you!" Riruka complained as she continued to eat her own doughnut.
"Ehehe… yeah… I wonder too…" Inoue cheerfully replied.
Riruka got confused for a while, before realizing what she meant. "… what are you talking about? You don't have any parents?"
"Nope. I heard they were really violent people. My brother thought they were going to kill me so he grabbed me and ran off with me when I was a baby." Inoue revealed her early life story to Riruka.
"I see… so the person that feeds you and acts as your parent is your brother, right? So I wonder how he puts up with you?"
"Nope. My brother's dead so I don't know either." Inoue said with a smile.
Riruka was puzzled. How Inoue was able to remain cheerful and optimistic with such a painful topic was beyond her comprehension.
"Right now, for a family I have a distant related aunt. She takes care of my living expenses and looks after my grades. So that's why I figured I should study hard." Inoue continued, scratching the back of her head.
Riruka looks away for a while but then slams her hand on the table and stands up, startling Inoue but finishing her doughnut nonetheless.
"I'm leaving! You're boring me!" Riruka starts to walk away, but suddenly stops and looks back to Inoue. "How can you talk so freely and openly about stuff like that anyway? Are you messed up in the head or something?"
"Well… since you already helped me… " Inoue pauses for a while, catching Riruka's full attention. "I can simile and talk openly with you like this… thanks to Kurosaki-kun."
"What are you, stupid!?" What's up with you anyway!? I didn't ask you about your past!"
"So-sorry…" Inoue apologized as she scratched the back of her head again.
"I'm leaving!" With that statement, Riruka continues to walk away.
"Are you really going!? Look! There're still some doughnuts left!"
"I don't want them! I'm sick of them already anyway! If you want to eat them, go ahead!"
Inoue stares at her for a while, before forming a smile. "Thank you, Riruka-chan! You really are nice!"
Riruka continues to walk away without replying to Inoue. "What are you, an idiot?" She murmurs to herself.
Ichigo dashes at Ginjou once more and slashes at him, but is once again blocked. He backs off for a while, with a look that seems to have just confirmed something.
"I don't feel anything from his sword… I thought that was because I wasn't used to fighting him at first… but as time goes on, no matter how much I clash with him, I don't feel a thing. It's different than that time with Ichimaru Gin, he just wasn't facing me with his heart." Ichigo thought as he dashed at Ginjou again.
"This guy's different, He's staring straight at me and coming straight at me with his heart, but I still don't feel a thing. Completely different from Tsukishima, when he looked at me, I felt like being stabbed by his killing intent."
Ichigo slashed at him to test his hypothesis. Once Ginjou blocked his sword, he made a look of realization again.
"It's a Fullbring sword… Is it because it's not a Zanpakutou that I can't feel his heart? Or is it because… I still don't… trust him, somehow?"
Just then, Nozomi dashes at Ginjou and slashes at him, but was easily dodged. Ginjou swings his sword at her and she blocks, but is sent flying by the attack's force.
"You all right, Nozomi?" Ichigo asked as Nozomi broke her fall and landed beside Ichigo.
"Y-yeah…" She answered as she attempted to stand up but fell down to her knees again, completely exhausted. Understandable, since they've been training for over an hour now and she's never had any form of training in over a year.
"Hey, maybe you should take a break." Ichigo suggested, obviously concerned.
"What are you talking about? I can still… uh." She lashes out at him but fails to stand up again.
"Look, you don't need to push yourself so hard. Rest for a while first okay?"
"Alright." She answers with a smile.
Ichigo turns to Ginjou again and they both raise their blades.
"Your thoughts are wandering, Ichigo. I thought you said you were going to fight." Ginjou taunts him but is paid no mind. "… looks like I'm going to have you pull you back into it."
"Eh?" was all Ichigo managed to muster before blood seemingly exploded from his eyes.
"Ichigo!" Nozomi cried out and attempted to get to him, but is stopped by Ginjou pointing his blade at her. "What are you doing!?"
Inoue attempted to help Ichigo, but was threatened by Ginjou to stop as well.
"You want to make Ichigo stronger, don't you? Then shut up and watch." Ginjou ordered them and turned to face Ichigo.
"When you lost your Shinigami powers, it seems you lost your readiness to fight. So I'm going to bring it back to you." Ginjou stated before raising his blade and pointing it at Ichigo, who is struggling with the pain inflicted at him. "Wait, Ichigo. Very soon, I'll bring back your ability to fight."
Chapter 22. Share your thoughts please. They're really helpful and I appreciate them a lot. Anyway, thanks for reading and hope you like it! Ja ne.