Chapter 3: The Kidnapping, the First Awakening, and the Training's beginning
AN: All right everyone, here's Chapter 3, the timeskip, and the beginning of the first canon arc's major event. Hope you all enjoy the story, flamers will be ignored without correct reasons, and constructive/supportive criticism is appreciated.
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, Fate Stay/Night, any quotes, or any other Related Media and all that hype.
Technique/Zanpaktou speak/Hollow speak
Inner World Zanpaktou/wielder conversation
Timeskip to Rukia's kidnapping
Ichigo arrived to find Uryu Ishida, Karakura's resident teenage Quincy, on the ground unconscious in a puddle of blood while a red-haired man attacked his brother. Ichigo heard a cry of "Roar, Zabimaru!" as the red-haired man's sword changed shape before he swung, making his sword extend to preposterous length with spikes at equidistant points as it flew towards Shirou who reacted quickly and seemed to sway out of the way similar to a leaf.
Shirou was panicking at Renji's increased power after the cry and did what he did when in a battle where he had a low chance of winning, Cheat. Shirou swayed around the man's next two strikes and noted the sword had to completely retract every three strikes and swayed around another three before charging at him, running slightly faster than the sword retracted and slashed the red-haired man's chest, wounding him. Shirou's eyes widened in pain as the black-haired man struck him down and nearly blacked out but stayed conscious via pure will to watch his brother who promptly had his sword destroyed and was nearly killed by the same thing that took Shirou down.
The last thing Shirou saw before blacking out was the weird shop owner Kisuke Urahara knocking out Ichigo and himself while the last thing Ichigo saw was Rukia following her brother Byakuya into the weird portal.
Timeskip – the next day
Shirou was woken by a frightened scream from his brother and found himself face-to-face with a young black-haired girl who, oddly enough, appeared to be blushing and commented teasingly, "Would you mind backing away please? I tend to prefer at least two dates before a girl gets that close." The young girl flushed red, showing the pinks ovals on her cheeks to be something else, and backed away quickly introducing herself as Ururu, the red-haired boy as Jinta, and the man with the glasses as Issei. Ichigo looked over and found Ichigo back against the wall while Issei was on the futon Ichigo had once occupied, this scene and the obvious implication of their positions made him laugh madly to Ichigo's response of, "Shut Up! It's not funny!"
Shirou replied that it was, in fact, quite hilarious before Kisuke showed up and led them to his training ground where, upon entering, smacked Ichigo with his cane, broke the chain that appeared, and shoved him into a pit. Shirou questioned, "What's that going to do?" to which Kisuke replied, "Either wake his Shinigami powers or kill him."
Shirou nodded seriously and asked, "Two things: First do I have the potential to gain Shinigami powers through that process? Second, will you do the same for me?" Kisuke blinked, shrugged, and nodded before repeating what he did too Ichigo and yelled down to him, "Simple rules: Awaken your Shinigami powers in 72 hours, or become a Hollow and die – though if you get back out we'll have to force you back in."
Shirou nodded and asked, "Does all physical traits, training, and items get transferred to the soul body?"
Kisuke nodded in the affirmative to which Shirou grinned nastily, worrying Kisuke, and spoke the verbal release command for his weights, "All weights, engage release – Kyuukyokukai!" four weights dropped as Shirou jumped straight up and entirely out of the pit before he was smacked back in by Ururu with a massive cannon-like object. Shirou commented, "Just wanted to make sure you weren't lying and to see if I could make it out if I tried. Also, Ururu there packs quite a swing." Kisuke nodded in response and returned to watching Ichigo as Ururu blushed at the compliment.
48 hours later
A thump jarred Shirou from his eighth nap as Jinta landed with food making him quirk an eyebrow to which Jinta questioned, "Ya feelin' hungry yet?" Shirou shook his head in the negative to which Jinta replied, "Hunger indicates your beginning the process of becoming a hollow."
Shirou nodded idly and just fell back into his nap as he tried to enter his inner world.
71.99 hours after start of Shattered Shaft training – Ichigo is finished and trying to engage Shikai
Shirou woke with a jerk as he felt a pain and watched his chain eat itself and blacked out, falling into a weird world. The sky was occupied by multiple suns and moons, farthest to the right and left respectively were a perfect moon and sun, next ones in were a moon with three surrounding it and the same on the opposite end; followed by on the right an image of a day with no sun and on the left a night with no moon. In the center of it all, there was an image of both an eternal twilight with neither a moon nor a sun. Around him he was surrounded by three landscapes: to Shirou's back-left was a desert, to his right-back there was a massive tundra, and before him was a perfectly healthy forest with both snow and sand throughout it.
He blinked as he heard two voices speaking, ""Hurry and find us Master, if you don't you are going to die."" Shirou panicked and focused on the trick Uryu had mentioned to him and Ichigo; he quickly set off towards the origin of the two red ribbons while ignoring the white ribbons and noted a black frayed ribbon forming.
Shirou finally found the two boxes but made sure to open and pull out what they contained at the same time in order to not lose either one. The world faded around him as he heard two voices comment ""Now Master, we'd suggest getting the hell out of this pit before that large block pancakes you.""
Shirou opened his eyes, looked up, saw the massive block his Zanpaktou mentioned, and put all his impressive speed to getting the hell out of the pit. Once out he noticed he was looking at the world through a mask which he shattered easily and noted he had two swords on him which, to his utter joy, appeared to both be Nodachi. Ichigo, resting after awakening Zangetsu, and Kisuke both blinked at this as Shirou shattered the mask and drew the two hilts with three to five inch blades on each and twitched violently.
Kisuke commented, just as Shirou focused on the world around him, "Stage three is to remove my hat from my head with your Zanpaktou and achieve Shikai." Shirou nodded and charge Kisuke, nearly removing his hat with a fast uppercut which Kisuke barely dodged and he commented, "Very close there Shirou, not going to work." Kisuke then drew his sword and charged Shirou who panicked and ran for it as he was cut, proving to him that this was Kisuke's Zanpaktou, as Kisuke cried out "Okiro, Benihime!" (AN: Translates to Awaken, Bloody Princess) engaging his Shikai.
Shirou continually used his destroyed blades to block Benihime but they kept getting cut as he furiously though, 'Damnit! My fighting style is made for spears, lances, tridents, scythes, claymores, nodachi, etc. not these broken things!' Shirou then heard the two voices he'd heard earlier bark out, as a Nake (AN: Scream) strike from Kisuke blew him through a small hill, ""Call our combined name Master, and show them the glory of the Sky!"" Shirou nodded and clasped the two hilts together and yelled, "Eclipse both the Moon and the Sun, revealing parts of both yet proclaiming neither as the Ruler of the Sky, Bunshoku!" (AN: This translates to Partial Release)as golden and black light exploded around him.
When the smoke from the explosion cleared Shirou was dressed in black leather with a golden tribal-marking design, with a silver chainmail overlay and a red half-sun crest fused to a blue half-moon crest in the center of his chest. Bunshoku had taken the form of a three-bladed scythe with the pole having black and gold intertwined all along it and the blades were, from top to bottom in order, blue, silver, and black all of them having their sharp edges colored red. Shirou grinned and thought, "So Bunshoku, what can you tell me about your powers?"
Bunshoku replied mildly saying "I can control fire and water, grant immunity to lightning, and grant a resistance to fire's other forms as well as provide an automatic defense of a dense blue lightning. Try using my attack, 'Raikou-Gai: Kousen-Nami.'" (AN: Translates to – Lightning Scythe: Beam Wave)
Kisuke blinked when Shirou commented, "You probably want to dodge this Kisuke, as I doubt I have much control over this attack yet. Raikou-Gai: Kousen-Nami!" and swung Bunshoku through the air towards Kisuke in a cleaving motion as a powerful beam of blue lightning, which trumped the size of Ichigo's raw power attack by far, shot off at Kisuke who paled and brought up the strongest shield he had.
When the smoke of the wave striking cleared Kisuke was pale, shaking, his clothing was scorched, he had several third-degree burns, his limbs were twitching randomly, and both his hat and fan had been turned to ash. Shirou smirked in victory before blacking out as Bunshoku dissipated into the twin Nodachi it was formed from.
The Next Day
Shirou woke up and saw Ichigo still training his ass off and heard the twin Zanpaktou voices comment, ""Master, can you tell what our names are?""
Shirou replied in the affirmative and stated, 'Your names are Zen-Taiyou and Mangetsu.'
Kisuke walked over and commented, "It's good to see you're awake and you did achieve Shikai."
Shirou replied quickly, "According to my Zanpaktou I've used one of three 'branches' of their releases."
Kisuke blinked, blanched, and questioned, "What do you mean by one Branch?!"
Shirou replied, "There are three Sealed-Shikai-Bankai release sets for my Zanpaktou."
Kisuke commented, "I'm guessing your Zanpaktou want you to use each of their Shikai and master their first ability before they let you try for a Bankai?"
Shirou blinked and stated, "That's exactly what their condition was."
Kisuke beamed and nodded, stating "Then let's get to work! You'll be facing at least three or more of the Captains of the Gotei Thirteen in there." Shirou nodded in agreement.
Four Days Later
Shirou huffed and commented mentally 'Now will you guy's tell me the challenge for one of your Bankai's? I'd prefer Mangetsu's but either of the other two would work.'
Mangetsu replied, 'My test is simple, figure out which blade in a massive field of blades, is the one which is my Bankai state's appearance.'
Zen-Taiyou commented, 'My test is to figure out how to counter a tidal wave with nothing but the base fire manipulation I grant.'
They both commented then, 'Bunshoku's test is to stop a wave of lava with nothing but lightning.'
Shirou paled at Zen-Taiyou and Bunshoku's tests but sighed in relief at Mangetsu's. He turned to Kisuke and asked, "Do you have anything that could aid in completing the Bankai challenge? We only have three days before we have to go according to you Kisuke." Kisuke nodded and said, "My Tenshintai force the manifestation of the Zanpaktou's Spirit so they can complete the Bankai Challenge. Let me go grab it." Shirou nodded and threw Zen-Taiyou to the side upon which it dissolved and he then engaged Mangetsu's Shikai with a shout of, "Eclipse the Sun and proclaim the Moon as the Ruler of the Sky, Mangetsu!"
Shirou then stabbed Mangetsu, in the form of a trident, into the Tenshintai which Kisuke had dropped off and a pillar engulfed the doll fading away to reveal Mangetsu's physical form, which held the appearance of a black-haired man in black armor with silver designs and a blue cloak, as he commented, "Are you ready for the test Shirou?" Shirou nodded in reply to which Mangetsu replied by causing thousands of various polearms to rain down on the training ground area.
Shirou grabbed one and blocked an attack from Mangetsu who idly commented, "Did I forget to mention I was going to distract you with attacks while you tried to find my Bankai form?" Shirou nodded and kept grabbing polearms which always broke after one to three blocks and tried to focus on Mangetsu's Reiatsu signature.
Second Day of Training
Shirou finally figured it out and slammed a hand into his gut, pulling Mangetsu's Bankai state out from his soul and blocked Mangetsu's attack as he smiled, stating "So you found it, I hereby grant you the right to use my Bankai partner. But I do have to warn you, using any Bankai will cause your inner Hollow, formed by the way you woke your powers, to finish manifesting and begin to try and take control."
Shirou nodded in reply and ran off to Kisuke and commented, "I need a place to meditate and work on my Reiatsu control. Can you provide that? Oh and I just finished Mangetsu's challenge." Kisuke nodded and led Shirou to an area where he sat and just focused on controlling his Reiatsu doing every exercise for increasing his control he could think of.
Shirou questioned his Zanpaktou, 'Can you two manifest when I'm in my body? If so is there a compact form for your sealed states?'
Mangetsu replied easily, 'Yes and yes. It will take some control to revert us to our compact forms but it is possible and you have enough power to manifest us easily when you're in your body by stating our names without our release phrases.'
Shirou nodded and, before he went back to his control exercises, asked Mangetsu "What was with the black frayed ribbon that formed Mangetsu?"
Mangetsu, unnoticed by Shirou, gave Zen-Taiyou a look and replied, "That represented your Hollow Zanpaktou Shirou. Due to being part hollow you also have a Hollow Zanpaktou, but right now it is wielded by an Arrancar. You'll have to kill the Arrancar to gain the ability to draw and use the Hollow Zanpaktou." Shirou nodded and went back to his control exercises.
Day of Departure – One Week until Rukia's Execution
Shirou popped his back as he stretched after having laid/sat down for so long and took off running towards where he could sense Ichigo and Kisuke at along with Orihime, Chad, Ishida, and the weird talking cat. When he was a certain distance away he tested the Shundo (AN: Translates to Instant Movement) technique he had designed, which he named Takai Shundo or Death's Instant Movement, and traveled the distance in the span of a second and commented mentally, 'I need to work on the control in that movement or I'll end up going into a wall.'
His arrival, punctured by a boom as he cratered his landing point, shocked everyone there but Kisuke who had sensed him coming their way and questioned, "So when are we leaving guys? I have my trump cards set and I'm ready to go."
They all nodded their agreement while Ichigo walked over and questioned Shirou, as Kisuke opened the Senkaimon, "What're your trumps?"
Just before they stepped in, Shirou replied with "I won't tell you all of them but I've achieved one of the Bankai for my Zanpaktou." Mid-way through the Dangai Precipice World the being known as 'The Cleaner' showed up inspiring multiple cusses by the group but before anyone could do something stupid Chad, Ichigo, and Shirou all grabbed someone and took off running towards the exit.
After meeting the pig-riders
Shirou and Ichigo stared at the open pathway into the Shinigami HQ and Shirou commented, "I bet ten bucks that a wall with a gate and a gatekeeper falls from the sky when someone unauthorized steps forward."
Ichigo turned towards Shirou and stated, "I'll take that bet." Before walking up as a gated wall and a gatekeeper fell from the sky, stopping him and making him cuss.
Jidanbo, the gatekeeper, stared at Ichigo who was cussing about a bet and asked, "What are you talking about Ryoka?" Ichigo replied easily, "My brother over there," he motioned to Shirou who waved back cheerfully, "bet that a gated wall and a gatekeeper would fall from the sky or at least appear to so I now owe him money."
After Entering Seireitei (AN: Follows Canon for it)
Ganju Shiba, Shirou, and Ichigo all landed in the same area and decided to travel together as they tried to find the others. When they encountered Ikkaku Madarame and Yumichika Ayasegawa Ganju ran off, followed by Yumichika, while Shirou sat back and watched the fight between Ichigo and Ikkaku which ended rather quickly with Ichigo only getting nicked. (AN: It Follows Canon - I'll be breezing over a few canon-following fights.) When Ikkaku questioned Ichigo on who their strongest was, after asking about their group's composition, Ichigo replied, "That would be my Brother over there," he motioned to Shirou who waved back idly. Ikkaku warned Shirou of his captain coming after him to which Shirou replied, "Meh. Let'em, I've needed a good fight for a while now."
At the steps up to the Sokyoku stand
Shirou and Ichigo found the Captain of Squad Eleven, Zaraki Kenpachi, and Renji Abarai at the steps, Zaraki immediately charged Shirou while Renji charged Ichigo. Shirou snapped his wrists out forming his Zanpaktou, having achieved sealing them into their compact forms, and barely blocked Zaraki's attack who grinned with anticipation and bloodlust. Shirou snapped his left wrist inwards re-compacting the Zanpaktou held there and fought Zaraki with Mangetsu alone grinning with joy at a good fight and a slight tingle of bloodlust and commented/roared, "This is Damn Fun! Been a while since I could let loose without worrying over destroying something! Eclipse the Sun and proclaim the Moon as the Ruler of the Sky, Mangetsu!" As he engaged his Shikai he slammed into Zaraki again with a Trident instead of the previous Nodachi and snapped it forward into Zaraki's shoulder as Zaraki slashed at Shirou's. An explosion of dust formed and when it cleared both of them were unharmed making the other grin with bloodlust as they continued to clash as Ichigo and Renji shook themselves from their shock at the power of the strikes and got back to their own fight.
Zaraki jumped back and commented, grinning madly, "With you kid, I think I can go all out!" as he ripped off the eye patch causing his power to skyrocket.
Shirou, apologizing to Mangetsu mentally, replied, "I agree! Time to show my first trump card! Ban-Kai!" As an explosion of blue, black, and silver erupted from Shirou, Ichigo found himself staring in utter shock as Zaraki just grinned when the smoke cleared revealing Shirou covered in blue armor with black and silver designs on top of the chainmail and leather holding a two-blade scythe with a Silver pole, connected to his wrist by a black chain, and an upper blade of blue and a lower blade of black as he stated, "Nisshoku." (AN: Translates to "Solar Eclipse")
Shirou swung at Zaraki causing an Air pressure wave as Nisshoku commented, 'I won't be able to hold the Hollow down for long if you get heavily wounded.' After several more clashes, Shirou roared out, "Aisu-Gai: Biribiri Aisu-Nami" (AN: Translates to "Ice-Scythe: Ripping Ice Wave") as he swung Nisshoku at Zaraki, causing a massive twin wave of ice to roar at Zaraki, each moving in opposite directions. Zaraki's eyes widened before the wave engulfed him and eventually cleared to show him on the ground with his left arm and right leg nearly detached and a massive rip across his chest as both Ichigo, from the strain of standing wounded under the massive Reiatsu being exerted, and Shirou collapsed just before Yoruichi showed up.
AN: This next chapter will be Shirou meeting Kurou Shirosaki, his inner hollow, and the response Shirou will take while Ichigo gets Bankai and Shirou trains.