Chapter 19
Day 40
When I woke up, the first thing I noticed was Orihime standing right beside me; all of my wounds were completely healed.
"Thank you Orihime, sorry for the trouble of bringing you here on such short notice." Kagine- err, Kisuke said, as he stood by her side.
"Oh! Its no big deal! Really."
She chuckled a little, but then turned serious.
"Aiko told me... about Ichigo. Did he-?"
"That was not the same Ichigo we all know and loved. The thing I saw was nothing but a monster."
"Are... are you going to kill him?"
He closed his eyes.
"Yes. I have no choice. Its what the whole Ichigo would have wanted. However, it won't be easy. Yoruichi knew that better than anyone."
Orihime placed her hand on him, comforting him.
"I know how much it hurts; we all do."
Kisuke chuckled a bit.
"Hey, that's my line."
He kindly brushed her hand off.
"Anyway, it happened years ago."
With that, Orihime said goodbye to Kisuke. After she left, Kisuke looked over me.
"You awake Saidō?"
"Yeah.. why did Aiko hit me?"
"Who wouldn't? You just lead the enemy right to our doorstep. I think she might have even held back a little; she didn't want to kill you."
I didn't blame her; I would have done the same. Thinking back, I wished I died in that desert instead of bringing death down on the rest of humanity.
I had a question in mind.
"Kisuke, how did you know about my power?"
He looked down on me and turned his back.
"I've known from the very beginning; it explained a lot of things."
"When we first found you, you were nearly dead and your zanpakutō was dying."
Wait? Jikan was dying?
"It took me a couple of moments to ponder this, but considering the newness of your shihacho and bizarre traces of strange spirit energy, there was no
doubt in my mind that it had to do with time traveling."
Before I could raise a finger, he continued.
"As you know, there has never been a zanpakutō, in all of recorded history, with the power to influence time. That's what makes you special. Your zanpakutō, Jikan, initially worked by revealing the future in the form of visions. This I gathered from our first encounter. I take it time travel is a secondary power. You probably can't control any of these techniques, this being the reason why you're still here."
Amazing! He must have done a lot of research.
"Which finally begs the question: are you attempting to learn Bankai in a attempt to augment your powers?"
"Well, there isn't any reason to lie anymore; he pretty much figured everything out," I thought to myself.
"Uh.." I took a deep breathe. "You're right. All I wanted to do was to get back to my own time."
He smiled. "That's the answer I was hoping for. Maybe there is still hope after all. Quickly! We don't have the time to waste."
"Wait? What are you talking about? You haven't told me why!"
He was gone.
I sat up in the bed, good as new. I followed Kisuke and he lead me to the Memorial Cavern. He went over to the gigantic crystal and pressed the crystal with his bare hand. The whole structure then opened up. It shocked me! I wondered what was inside.
He reached in the center and pulled out a tiny orb.
The orb began to shine with a faint but beautiful light as Kisuke wielded it.
"What is that Kisuke?"
He held it up for me to see.
"This, my friend, is the Shitsubō no ōbu."