4. The Ultimate Exam
The Hell Butterflies were immediately sent to all captains and lieutenants. Within ten minutes everyone arrived to the assembly hall of the First Division. All captains were standing neatly in two rows with their lieutenants behind their backs. General Yamamoto was already facing them all from his usual spot, Ryujin Jakka in his hands.
"I summoned you here, because I have received a rather unsettling report from the Twelfth Division." Yamamoto opened the meeting. "Kurotsuchi- taicho, would you please enlighten the rest of the captains and lieutenants here."
Kurotsuchi stepped forward. "One of my subordinates notified me of an abnormal Hollow activity in the Human realm. There seems to be a vast number of them appearing there. Based on the data we have gathered I would say that Shinigami stationed in the Real world could be having problems while dealing with them. The fascinating thing is that the appearing Hollows are of different levels, though none of them is Menos. Truly fascinating."
"Hmm... It seems like they have a civil war going on in Huenco Mundo. That would be a plausible reason for so many low-level Hollow to appear all of a sudden in the Real world, wouldn´t it? It seems like someone is trying to build a strong army out of nothing and real quick." Shunsui mused aloud.
"That would be a stupid move. They would have to know that we would come and kill them all." Soi Fong said.
"Not necessarily. Maybe they are trying to lure us out to attack with stronger ones later. Possibly to revenge those we have killed during the Winter war." Ukitake offered.
"I doubt that would be the case, Ukitake. Hollows do not create bonds among themselves. The relationships that come to existence among them are purely of dominance and hunger for power. If there was any emotion they might feel towards us, I´d say it would be gratitude for extinguishing their rivals. I would agree that this is an attempt on creating, rather quickly, a strong army." Byakuya opposed.
"I, myself, am also inclined towards this possibility. Unfortunately we cannot afford to completely rule out the other option, which Ukitake pointed out. Therefore I suggest each of you send me a list of people, which are skilled enough but might also need some additional experience of either Real world or fighting Hollows. Each squad is to send 5 Shinigami. The chosen ones from all the squads should be accompanied by at least one captain and one lieutenant. Any comments?" Yamamoto said.
"Sir," Byakuya bowed his head and stepped forward, "you mentioned that there should be at least one captain and one lieutenant to accompany the chosen Shinigami. May I suggest Kurosaki Ichigo. It might be a good opportunity for him to practice kido. I am confident that with his level of reiatsu he will be able to defeat even the strongest of the Hollows. I, myself, would accompany him to watch him and step in if necessary." He bowed again and returned to the line.
"Approved."
"Wait! Don't I get any say in it?" Ichigo blurted out.
"Kurosaki Ichigo, think of this as your final admission test. You are to leave with the group. You will be fighting using your kido skills only, thus your zanpakuto must stay here in Seireitei." The old man open one eye and looked to Ichigo as if to dare him to disagree.
The boy just hung his head. These psychological games will be the death of him one day.
Great. And I will have Byakuya behind my back all the time. He thought sourly.
"Is there anyone against this decision?" Voice of the general filled the hall again.
Silence engulfed the room for few seconds.
"All the assigned Shinigami shall gather at the Senkaimon gate within an hour, then. Dismissed."
Exactly one hour after the meeting, the gate of Senkaimon opened. Sixty-five Shinigamis, Byakuya and Ichigo left for the Real world.
Home, sweet home. Ichigo thought as he saw his hometown of Karakura. But he was on a mission now. He was being tested. The uneasiness of not having his zanpakuto with was radiating out of him.
"You should tame your reiatsu." Byakuya whispered from behind the young Shinigami and then addressed the rest. "As you are well aware we are here as mere reinforcements. The representants of each squad have been given coordinates for the parts of town they are responsible for. Kurosaki-taicho and I will form a separate group. In case of emergency only use the communicators you've been given by the Twelfth Squad. Understood?" There was a choral "hai". "Go." Byakuya added quietly. Within seconds he and Ichigo were the only ones there.
The raven-haired man shifted his attention on to Ichigo. "I am here only to watch." He handed Ichigo one of the phones, which could be used also as a Hollow detector and disappeared.
"And fuck you too, Byakuya!" Ichigo yelled at the empty space where Byakuya stood before. This was wrong. He knew it was. His kido skills were far away from good for actual combat. But with Byakuya proposing him to go and saying that the level of his skills is sufficient in front of everyone, he couldn't simply yell at him that he is nuts. Well he could, but he would shatter his own pride in front of everyone, too. I bet that this was what the bastard counted on! And they call this the final admission test. Final admission test my ass! But as they say the best way to learn how to swim is to get dropped in the water. If he survived Aizen, he sure as hell won't go down for some stupid little Hollow. Calm and concentration. Ichigo took in a deep breath and relaxed a bit.
The phone started to vibrate in his hand, forcing him to look at it. There were five Hollows on the eastern perimeter of the town. He didn't have to worry about that, his area of attention was elsewhere. Another vibration. This one was his. You just watch, Byakuya! You are next!
He quickly followed the direction of a little pulsing dot on the display. It was not long until he could feel the power of the beast. It was resonating throughout his whole body. Weren't they supposed to be low-level Hollows? A quick alarming thought ran through his mind. But there was no time for thinking here. The Hollow was huge. Ichigo was thinking that it wasn't that far from reaching Menos. It noticed him immediately. Crap. There was no point in running. The beast was looking him up and down, clearly evaluating how big a threat he was. Calm and concentrate. The Hollow roared and started for Ichigo. Calm the fuck down and concentrate. The power of the Hollow was vast and untamed. This one has been apparently a frequent guest to the buffet called Earth for the past few days. Ichigo stood still. He felt the resolve running through his veins. This one was his.
"Come and get me, you little piece of shit!" He roared and ran to meet his opponent half-way. "Way of destruction, number four. BYAKURAI!" The adrenalin was pumping through his whole body as the thick rod of white lightning came bursting from his outstretched hand. His concentration did not waver this time. The Hollow was not all that stupid and shifted sideways, so that it would hit his shoulder, which was covered with a white bone-like hard skin. It was a good call, since it shattered upon the impact of Ichigo's attack. The boy wasted no time and fired another one. The Hollow roared and tried to hit the young Shinigami with one of his humongous hands. He barely dodged it. Crap, I need something stronger than Byakurai for this fellow. He shot a few more lightning at it, only adding to its rage and then he moved a great distance back, yelling so that he wouldn't lose the attention of his enemy. Good, the Hollow was running towards him. The young captain had just enough time to quickly say the incantation of a stronger spell and then roared: "SHAKKAHO!" A huge red ball of energy went flying with astonishing speed at his enemy. There was a loud sound of explosion and the Hollow disappeared, having his head practically blasted away. Ichigo was standing there, panting. Fighting with kido only, took a toll on him.
"Byakuya! You son of bitch! Come back here this is not a vacation!" He yelled in no particular direction.
The phone vibrated again. This time it kept vibrating. How many more are going to come?! Ichigo was running again. There were another three in his vicinity.
"Yo, idiots! No food here for you today!" The frenzy of battle already engulfed Ichigo´s rational mind.
These three weren't as big as his first. The one on the left looked like a giant armored worm. The other two had more or less a detectable human form, though one had a giant thick tale with six very sharp-looking spikes at the end and the other had a very nasty looking suckers coming from his chest. Ichigo sure as hell didn't feel like empirically testing just what those might be sucking out of a person. But he felt confident now after his last victory. The three of them roared in unison. Ichigo held his ground and started the incantation again. He miscalculated things this time. The worm-like one was way faster than the other two and bit Ichigo´s leg before he could even notice anything. It lifted him as quickly as it descended before and slammed the orange devil against one the buildings making a brand new window in the wall. The hold on Ichigo´s leg never disappeared though, pulling him back outside again and slamming him on the pavement this time. The other Hollows didn't want to be left out apparently. Ichigo had to be like a raw steak in front of lion for them. The more powerful reiatsu, the better the food. As the other two went rushing in for the easy kill, slamming into each other, he managed to get out of the way. There was blood running down his spine and dripping from his chin. His eyes were blazing. They are going to pay for that.
You. Will. Die.
The Hollows realized soon enough that their prey had escaped them. The rage hitting its peak, they came running at the young captain. Ichigo knew he didn't have time for the little poem to help him concentrate, but he felt like he improved enough to take them down even without it.
"Way of destruction number thirty-one, Shakkaho!"
Wrong move. He still needed that incantation. A huge red ball of energy did emerge but only to explode in his face by the time it fully formed. Ichigo was sent flying. The shockwave of the blast slowed the Hollows down a bit at least. He was to experience those suckers soon enough.
The over-confident examinee knocked himself unconscious. Byakuya was there the whole time watching him fight. Ichigo was doing great until that little idiot decided he was good enough to do the thirty-one without incantation.
Unbelievable.
He saw him lying on the ground unconscious, the Hollows quickly approaching, though not as quickly for Byakuya to have no time to jump in and move Ichigo somewhere safe. But he made no attempt to interfere. He simply watched. Ichigo has proved countless times that a little unconsciousness was nothing to him. He will for sure snap out of it any moment. Byakuya was calm; Ichigo will kill them any moment now. He knew it, he fought him himself several times and he trained him for couple of days, plus the battle frenzy seemed always as a good catalyst of his abilities in the past. But Ichigo was still, there was no movement and even his reiatsu seemed oddly calm. By the time Byakuya realized that he will not get up, it was too late. The three had reached the defenseless body and each took a different part of it and stretched it in the most unnatural angle in order to steal it from each other. When Byakuya finally arrived at the scene of the fight he could hear lots of cracking and some other weird noises coming from the direction of Ichigo´s body. The raven-haired Shinigami wasted no time and with three quick moves disposed of all three Hollows, then swiftly turned around to catch Ichigo´s body. Byakuya briefly looked him over to estimate the extent of his injuries. All of his limbs were dangling in the air, some of them were contorted in funny angles. At least all them were still attached to his body.
Byakuya set for the direction of Urahara shop. The boy needed medical attention immediately. He quickly checked his communicator, but everybody seemed fine. Good.
"Urahara!" Byakuya was standing in the doorway with a limp body in his hands. Oddly there was no one in the front part of the shop.
The characteristic clapping of sandals could be heard soon enough. "There is no need to yell, my friend." One of his hands was holding the fan and the other was waving at Byakuya in an appeasing gesture. Just then Kisuke noticed the body in Byakuya´s hands.
"What..." He did not get to say much more. Byakuya´s cold expression stopped him. He was breathing irregularly.
"Follow me." the former Shinigami said and started for the back room.
There was a mattress and Kisuke gestured Byakuya to lay Ichigo there. He did so very gently.
"What happened?" All the joking gone from his voice now, Urahara looked at the older captain.
"Three Hollows couldn't decide whom he belonged to." Byakuya´s blank expression was back.
Urahara shot a meaningful look at him. Then he noticed the slight trembling in Byakuya´s hands. "Are you ok?"
The other man nodded, then glared at Urahara. "Can you help him?" Kisuke nodded briefly. After that Byakuya, clearly relieved, left.
Aww. Why does it feel like every single bone in my body has been shattered to pieces? Crap. Ok, I am not breathing deeply from now on...
"Kurosaki-san? Are you awake?" called a familiar voice.
The eyelids had to weigh a ton. I guess I used too much of reiatsu then. When he finally managed to open his eyes, Ichigo saw a blond man in a hat hovering above his face. But the picture was too blurry for him to recognize anything.
"Oh, good! You are awake." the man smiled.
"Wh...What...happened?" Ichigo´s voice was hoarse. The man put a straw in his mouth to help him drink some water.
"Where...am I?"
The man waited patiently.
"Urahara? What the..? Fuck! Aw!" Ichigo regained full consciousness now.
"I am glad you are doing better, Kurosaki-san." Urahara answered in his typical singing manner.
"What the hell happened to me?" Ichigo was carefully looking himself over. "Fuck. It blew up, didn't it?" He put his head back on the pillow. "But I am here and alive, so I had to take out those three with me." he mused aloud. When there was no response to this, he asked more directly. "I did take them out with me, right?"
"I wouldn't know, Kurosaki-san."
"Huh? Then how did I wound up in here? I thought you found me and brought me here."
"No, he didn't." answered a velvet voice. "Urahara?" The addressed got the message clear and loud. He left the room immediately.
"And no, you did not take the three Hollows down with you, Kurosaki Ichigo." Byakuya finished answering.
There was silence in the room for a while. The two men were just watching each other. Then Ichigo finally broke it. Unable to look into Byakuya´s eyes he shifted his gaze on the other side of the room and uttered quietly: "I am sorry, Byakuya."
When he turned back there was no one in the room anymore. He sighed.
He failed. Again. It is the responsibility of a teacher to protect and help their students if necessary. He failed at that. He was overconfident again. That kid seems to bring out all the bad parts of him.
Byakuya was launching against a tree in some random park. It fulfilled all of his desires at the present time. It had trees and it was vacant. He needed to be alone. There was one thing that was puzzling him. Why did boy apologize. It didn't make any sense. The only plausible explanation would be that Kurosaki would be concerned for Byakuya´s pride. Pride of the teacher. He would be sorry for failing his trust that he can successfully fight only with kido. He would be sorry for making him look bad in front of the others in Gotei. But that just didn't fit in the picture of the young man as Byakuya created it in his mind. It was most definitely true that he hardly knew Ichigo. The only thing he was certain about was the way Kurosaki Ichigo fights.
When he tried to get to know him, he was shut down. The young man clearly did not like being the centre of attention. It seemed that he hardly ever noticed how often that happened. He had been centre of everyone´s attention since he has first set foot in Rukongai. Everything that Byakuya has been able to gather about the orange-haired devil screamed of contradiction. Byakuya always thought of himself as good in judging others in their character and actions. It never took him long to know exactly what to say or do to make someone do whatever was needed. But this one puzzled him. Every single time he thought he finally had him figured out, Ichigo did something that would prove Byakuya wrong.
Byakuya hated not knowing. He was able not to care about anything, because he would know the outcome the second two people started talking. He was forced to stay alert with Ichigo. He was forced to get to know him actively.
But the question still remained, why would he apologize. He was the one who almost died.
Luckily, the phone vibrated, thus interrupting his looped thoughts.
Ichigo was still lying on the mattress. Tessai and Urahara were at his sides healing him.
"How are you feeling, Kurosaki-san?" Kisuke asked. He has been trying to make a small talk for a while now.
"Better. Thank you for helping me." The answer was monotone.
Tessai and Urahara exchanged worried looks, but both of them remained silent.
"Where is Jinta and Ururu?" Ichigo asked. He noticed just now the odd calm and peace that resided within the shop.
"They are out helping with the Hollow intrusion." The blonde answered smiling. "Could you please try to sit up now, Kurosaki-san?"
His body was still sore, but Ichigo did as he was asked. The broken bones were already healed it seemed. Though the bruising was only emerging. I will look like an Easter egg in a few days.
"How does it feel?" Urahara asked as soon as Ichigo was sitting.
"I am still a little sore, but I feel like my bones are intact again." As if he was trying to prove his point he stretched one of his arms and twisted it a few times. "I could even stand, I think."
"Oh, I am sure you could, Kurosaki-san. But you should stay in bed until tomorrow morning at least. You sustained lot of internal injuries. You should rest." Urahara was on his feet already, fan in his hand.
When Ichigo didn't look like he was going to listen to the advice, Tessai leaned in front of his face and simply said: "Stay put." That did the trick. Ichigo did not make any other attempts on standing up.
"Would you like something to eat, Kurosaki-san?"
"Sure. Thank you."
Ichigo felt really tired all of a sudden. And depressed. Even though he did not want to admit it to himself yet, he regretted letting Byakuya down. The man clearly trusted in him. Otherwise he would have never left him there on the battlefield alone and he, Kurosaki Ichigo, failed him. He didn't even want to think about when they go back to Seireitei.
Since Jinta and Ururu were not back yet, it meant that the battle was still raging on. And his second opponent, well opponents, rendered him useless. No, he had to be honest with himself. It was he, himself, who rendered him useless. And now will come the consequences of that. Consequences of his failure.
With thoughts like these Ichigo slowly drifted to sleep. He didn't even hear Urahara coming in and then leaving again, when he saw that Ichigo was already sleeping. Ichigo seeked shelter in the oblivion of deep sleep.
Urahara smiled in the doorway. "Yes. You are a very interesting man indeed, Kurosaki Ichigo."