"What you got there Chad?" asked Ichigo, seeing the odd bird.
"Someone...gave him...to me," rumbled Chad.
Ichigo did a quick structural analysis, something that was automatic whenever something or someone new was entering his area.
He winced. Someone had done a transferal of conscience, and whoever had did it was a complete novice. Why would anyone put a kid's soul into a bird...better yet, why hadn't he noticed magecraft in his city? The entire reason he had to go to Fuyuki in the first place was because there wasn't any competent Magi in Karakura! Well, at least none he could ask...Uryu and his dad had apparently made it clear to Isshin that they couldn't train him, since they specialized in clan magic.
Then Ichigo noticed an odd tag...one that was similar to the tag that had landed him with a known Soul Reaper in his territory. A hollow was hunting this kid.
"Chad, meet me after school with the kid," said Ichigo low enough that the giant was the only one to hear it. Seeing his eyes widen, Chad got the message that Ichigo had caught the truth about the bird and nodded.
"What happened?" asked Ichigo bluntly. Uryu, Arcuied and Rin (who came to visit Ichigo) were all waiting for an explanation.
"I was with some of the guys near a construction site and one of them had brought what they called a cursed bird. A few minutes after he explained about it, one of the I-beams fell down and it caught my back. I offered to take the kid, since I figured you might be able to help him. Ever since I've been having weird accidents. I was late because I had to take a guy riding a motorcycle to the hospital."
"What's the deal with the bird Ichigo?" asked Rin.
"I analyzed it as soon as I saw it...some poor kid who was placed under a transferal of conscience spell. Really sloppy though, so whoever did it had no idea what they were doing, and he has a hollow tag on his body."
"Um...what are you talking about?" asked the kid in the bird.
Uryu and Rin's eyebrows shot up in surprise.
"Definitely sloppy. The kid's soul is hidden by the bird...probably why the reapers never caught onto it. How long have you been in there?" asked Rin.
"I've been in here a few months. He said if I could evade him for a year he would bring my mom back..." said the boy.
Ichigo's spirit energy flared at that. Oh he was so killing whoever put the kid in the bird now.
"I hate to be the bearer of bad news kid, but there's no way outside of using the Grail to bring a dead person back to life. Who put you in the bird anyway?" asked Arc.
"I don't know his name, but he was the one who killed my mom. He looks weird now though...he has a hole in his chest and these animals that follow him who blow up when he makes a shrieking sound," said the boy.
"You have got to be joking. A hollow was able to pull off a complicated spell like that? With no prana?" said Rin in disbelief.
"I'm half tempted to kill him, and tempted to hand him over to Urahara. Which would hurt worse you wonder?" said Ichigo.
"Urahara," said Uryu.
Ichigo suddenly turned and tossed what looked like a ninja kunai at the corner of the wall near where the door was. A startled squeak was heard, revealing the reaper.
"Spying are we, little reaper?" said Ichigo in annoyance.
He did not like Rukia Kuchiki. He barely tolerated Urahara's eccentricities, and that was from prolonged exposure to Zelretch. Rukia was all stuck up and about doing her duty to the soul society, which Ichigo had no allegiance to. She was still trying to blackmail him into doing her job, since for some reason her injuries had yet to recover.
"How did you...you barely have enough spirit energy to sense hollows!"
Ichigo held up his loops, which he had replaced. In order to avoid a repeat, he had Urahara add a warning spell that would beep every five seconds if he got tagged again.
With him entering everyone's prospective radars lately, he needed that boost. Urahara had even given him a new set of loops, this time with an added feature.
He could remove them and slowly gain his spirit power boost, or he could take them all off at once and use his zanpakuto.
After the incident with the glove, Ichigo had used Kon (under strict orders to come straight back to the shop and to not do anything with the vampire princess) to keep up appearances while he gained soul reaper powers without dealing with the extra spirit.
Zangetsu was a good conversationalist, and Ichigo had no problems with adding a library in his inner world and a place for the spirit to sleep. In return Zangetsu would teach him about his powers.
He still wasn't allowed to use his spirit attack though.
Rukia glared at them all, particularly Uryu, Arcuied and Ichigo.
"I came here because I noticed that spirit earlier. You do realize I have to Konso him right?" she said irritated.
"Like hell you will. He's our only lead to this hollow! We aren't letting something that interesting slip through our fingers, and I' sure Hat and clogs will love us dropping off such a useful experiment," said Ichigo.
Plus Ichigo knew full well that if he brought such an interesting experiment to Urahara alive, then the crazed scientist would let him join in on the fun. Magi were scientists at heart after all, and unlike most they knew what they were doing was in the heart of expanding knowledge.
Urahara had no issues with training Ichigo or his sisters in the fine art of experimentation and dissection, though Yuzu was a better healer than a scientist, unlike Karin.
Ichigo ignored Rukia completely as he turned to the others.
"So kid, what's your name anyway?"
"Yuichi Shibata," responded the soul.
"Right. Yuichi, you and Chad here will be the bait. We'll capture this hollow and any friends he had and I'll call Hat and Clogs. Knowing him he won't mind sharing his laboratory as long as we respect the house rules. And yes Rin, I'm sure he'll let you join in if you want."
Rin smirked. Ichigo knew better than to exclude her from something this interesting.
"Let's get to work folks! Arc, you keep an eye on Chad and Yuichi until I set off the trap. I'll be the one to grab the hollow while the rest of you collect his little friends. Chad, your job is to keep an eye on the kid," said Ichigo.
Chad nodded.
Ichigo knew he was a good fighter, but until he could make some decent Mystic Codes for his friend, Chad would be delegated to bodyguard duty.
As it was, Ichigo had a hard enough time getting the materials for the one Magus willing to help him in the first place.
Sirius McGinty was a royal pain in the ass to bargain with, and that was before he found out why Ichigo needed such odd weapons in the first place. The only reason he agreed to it was because Ichigo told him flat out why he wanted Mystic Codes that people with high spirit energy could operate.
Apparently Sirius liked the fact Ichigo looked out for his family and friends first.
Urahara looked up from his book on magecraft that Ichigo lent him to see Ichigo leaving with several medium sized cages.
"What do you need those for?"
Ichigo grinned.
"There's a hollow that apparently has found a way to mimic the transferal of conscience spell. It's tagged some poor kid that it stuck in the body of a bird, so we're going to catch it."
Urahara put down his book.
"Oh?"
"If we get there before the reaper, I'll call you so we can transport the hollow to the lab."
Urahara smirked and a glint entered his eyes. This wasn't the friendly shopkeeper or the annoying reaper...this was the creator and first head of the Shinigami Research Institute and Ichigo's teacher in dissection and live experimentation.
"Tell me more," said Urahara grinning evilly.
So Ichigo explained about the kid and the hollow that tagged him. He knew that Urahara would be more interested in the bigger hollow than the smaller ones the kid had seen blow people up. Undoubtedly Rin, Uryu and Karin would have fun with those.
Urahara went to get his lab cleared from the last experiment they had.
Chad walked down a deserted alley with Yuichi, who they would free once they had the hollow captured. After learning why he had agreed to be placed into the bird, Ichigo had become even angrier than usual. It was why he immediately decided to hand the hollow over to Urahara before sending him to hell.
Mayuri got his sadistic scientist personality from somewhere after all, and Urahara had trained him centuries ago.
The only reason Urahara had agreed to train Ichigo was because he had actual morals. Ichigo wouldn't experiment on anyone who wasn't a criminal or didn't deserve the horror.
Chad sensed the density of the air change, a trick Ichigo had learned from Urahara and taught to his two friends as a precaution, and felt the back hairs on his neck stand up.
Seeing Arcuied walk past the other end, he held the cage tightly as he ran. Once he cleared the telephone pole, he heard the thud as the hollow ran after him...before it slammed head first into an invisible barrier.
Urahara had shown Ichigo how to make them just to see if he could, and Ichigo had added prana to the mix to insure that the hollows couldn't escape.
"Bet you think you're something special don't you brat?" sneered the hollow.
Ichigo noted the odd formation under his tongue.
When the hollow saw the cages stuffed full of his little 'minions' for lack of a better term, he seemed even more smug. The second he went to explode a few, Ichigo reached forward with his black key and cut off a long portion of the tongue on instinct.
He ignored the screaming of the hollow as he dialed Urahara.
"You got him?"
"Yup. He tried to pull a fast one though... We even have his little 'friends' to play with," said Ichigo.
"I'll be there with Tessai in a bit!" said Urahara very cheerful.
Seeing the look on Rin's face, Ichigo smirked.
"You do realize that there are enough of them there that we can all experiment on them right? As long as you know what you're doing, Urahara doesn't mind lending his equipment," he said.
She smirked in return.
Uryu pushed up his glasses.
"Is that offer open to everyone?" he asked.
"Of course. Hell, I'll be bringing Karin later, since she's a fan of explosions herself. Her first live dissection!" said Ichigo proudly.
Ichigo walked up to Yuichi, who was safely on the ground.
"Thanks mister," said Yuichi.
"Not a problem Yuichi-kun. Now, wouldn't you like the chance to see your mom for real?"
Yuichi bobbed his head. He was happy knowing that the mean man who killed his mother and tricked him into this bird was getting exactly what was coming to him. Ichigo channeled a bit of his spirit energy and gently traced the kanji for Konso on the cage. It wouldn't effect the bird, but it would free the soul that was trapped in it.
It was a nice, discrete way to free trapped spirits without alerting the reapers to what he really was. Plus it was less awkward for the souls than pulling a sword on them. It had taken him weeks to be able to pull this off.
"Ichigo, hand me that scalpel will you?" asked Urahara cheerily.
Ichigo handed him the blade, face mask firmly in place. A few feet behind and around him were several smaller tables each with their own equipment and pinned hollows...the little ones that the big one had used to blindside people with.
Rin, Uryu and Karin all had one of the smaller hollows and were in surgical outfits Uryu had brought along with the face masks. Surprisingly, Uryu's father had no issue with his son dissecting hollows purely for experimental reasons. He just didn't want Uryu to dedicate his entire life to the Quincy arts. It was the first time since his grandfather's death that the two had been able to see eye-to-eye.
Ichigo would help with the initial opening and hand tools to Urahara, but he had his own little hollow to play with once Urahara dismissed him.
He couldn't help but feel proud, however, as he watched his baby sister cut open the small hollow with practiced ease. Her first live experiment!
Rin looked rather happy to have something to play with, as it was hard to capture hollows alive when you didn't have spiritual powers. Thanks to continued exposure to Ichigo when his loops were still a work in progress, she could now see the spirits around town, though there were definitely more in Karakura then in Fuyuki.
This would be the first time Ichigo used his newly acquired soul reaper powers (Urahara had put his spiritual body through hell for a full week while Kon acted as his replacement) to kill a hollow. He usually just shot at them with his prana, or used a black key to slice through any lines in the mask. It was safer than using the odd knife Arcuied gave him for his birthday last year.
The hollow that had pulled off a known magus spell had been put through hell. Urahara was very thorough, and the smaller ones had already been destroyed.
They were great target practice for Rin though, even if she wasn't as good at Ether-based spells since it wasn't in her Element. At least she could warn off weaker hollows now.
Seeing the Gates of Hell was truly a terrifying sight. If Urahara hadn't warned him before hand, then he might have been shocked.
As it was, it was deeply impressive to him and the others. Even Chad was shocked when he saw it.
(Ichigo hadn't been the only one training...Urahara had sparred with him for over a week just so the boy could unlock his spiritual ability.)
"So that's hell..." said Ichigo.
Urahara handed him a book.
"What's this?"
"All known information about hell in the Soul Society. They haven't investigated that place for over a century, since it pretty much runs itself. Most soul reapers don't even go beyond the first level."
Urahara knew Ichigo far too well. He and Uryu had finished the book in a few days before they returned it.
"What do you mean Inoue-san had an encounter with a hollow?" said Ichigo.
"A couple days ago she broke through whatever cheap memory thing the reaper chick had going and the first thing she did was come to me. From what I can tell her brother was attacked and became a hollow before he went after her."
"And you want me to do what?"
"Help her awaken that ability so she can defend herself," said Tatsuki.
"I can't help Orihime...I'm still trying to gain my sword's trust so he can let me use his attacks. But... I might know someone who can help," said Ichigo.
"Who?"
"You know her better than I do, Tatsuki," said Ichigo cryptically.
"Yoruichi-sensei?!" said Tatsuki.
Yoruichi was a friend of Urahara's, and when she heard that Tatsuki had a higher than normal amount of spirit energy, she went to see what the girl's power was.
As it turned out, Tatsuki had a rather high affinity for Yoruichi's brand of spirit power...flash step. So she started training the girl in the art and even working out a few kinks in her martial art forms.
Ichigo had a high affinity too, but he was waiting until he was ready to learn his soul reaper powers before he started the training.
Yoruichi still sparred with him every time she visited though.
"Orihime can train with Yoruichi while Chad practices with his new ability against Uryu."
"When is sensei coming back?"
"Urahara said she was about due in a week or so," said Ichigo.