Hmm...Suddenly felt like writing a whole crap load. Anyway, this is chapter 16! (Somehow book 7, chapter 53.
I do *cough*not*cough* own Bleach! And I don't own Photoshop.
Same key as always, if you're unsure, go a chapter back.
(V) (;,,;) (V)
Urahara stood on the sidelines, with Ageha and I beside him. Earlier, he had draped one of his spare overcoats around Ageha's shoulders, and placed one of his spare hats on my head. They actually do an insanely good job at hiding/masking one's Reitsu. It took about all I had not to either yell out or run to help somebody when Rukia showed up, or when one of the other two did. in fact, Ageha actually had to hold me back at one point. But, for the most part, I managed to bite my tongue and stay in the shadows, until the Senkaimon opened and closed. At this point, Urahara, Ageha and I spread out. First, standing over Ichigo, like in the manga, until he passed out, Kisuke walked over to help Uryu who lay with lesser wounds. Ageha and I hoisted Ichigo between us, and began out journey home. Urahara was to pick up Ichigo's body from Kon and come back, but before he had managed to do that, Tessai had already healed Ichigo, and we had a mat on the floor ready for him. We lay Ichigo on the mat, and trudged up the stairs.
(V) (;,,;) (V)
We heard a loud yell a decent way into the night. Decent enough that Ageha was half asleep.
"Uop, Ichi's awake."
"Uh, huh," came Ageha's half-asleep answer. "We 'n't 'eed 'o 'o 'ny'ng 'ght 'ow, 'ght?" (We don't need to do anything right now, right?)
"Yeah, although I don't think that you could really do anything right now anyway. You're half asleep and can't even piece together a single word!"
"Mmm..." Ageha hummed before trailing off to her weird dreamland. I sighed and went to bed too.
(V) (;,,;) (V)
I found myself trapped in Keigo's line of asking for the beach trip, and respectfully turned him down. Kenichi, on the other hand, obliterated his offer. I stood, feeling slightly sorry for the guy, until Kenichi pulled me along. We were to wait for Ichigo in the shop, knowing that Orihime would want to talk and slow him down slightly.
(V) (;,,;) (V)
Urahara started yelling his mock amazement at the "huge, Cavernous chamber" right under his store.
"Stop yelling, Kisuke! We all know you obviously built this on purpose!" I yelled, Ichigo looking unimpressed a yard away from me, and Ageha acting a lot like Orihime, trying to prevent a fight.
"Fine!" Kisuke yelled, and, Ichigo, who was not ready, was thrown to the ground by Urahara's cane. "You two, too!" he yelled, and Ageha and I shed our human bodies, and Kisuke gawked at us, apparently not knowing that we had Zanpakutous. He shook his head and said, "Alright! You two practice using your releases and attacks on each other!"
"Fine!" We yelled together, mimicking Kisuke's tone.
Ageha and I pulled our sealed swords out from their sheaths, and stared at each other's for a second. Hers was a typical Japanese fighting sword, with a light blue guard, and I immediately thought that her Zanpakutou's sealed form looked a lot like Toshiro's. She inspected mine, and frowned at it. And her expression finally made something click in my head. Our sealed swords were identical in size and style, however, mine looked like somebody had taken a picture of hers and inverted it on Photoshop. Not to mention that the blade was on the wrong side of the sword. It was indeed a reverse-blade sword.
"Swim, Mizuiki!" Ageha yelled, and her typical katana seemed so become a wave for a split second, then it glowed blue. When the glow faded, she was holding a giant peeling knife in which the blade was blue, and the rest of the sword shimmered slightly, like an undisturbed pool. I made an impressed face, and she shrugged slightly and smiled. She gestured at me, and I nodded.
"Sing, Ongaku!" I yelled, and my katana began to resonate. It continued, until the vibrations it produced masked it's transformation, and when it stopped, it was about three times bigger, and resembled a breadknife. Strategically placed knicks in the shaft somehow played music softly, so that I could hear it, and no one else could. Ageha frowned at my release, it looked plain, other than the fact that it was a giant breadknife, as the knicks where so small, anyone who didn't know they were there couldn't see them. She shrugged simply and suddenly dove at me. I had just enough reaction time to parry her attack, and I lunged at her. The music Ongaku played was fast and upbeat, causing my feet to step in time to the beat. It didn't surprise me when Ageha threw what seemed to be a wave at me, she called it "Hakai no nami" Wave of destruction, because I had always known that she had a strong attachment to water. Then again, I guess it didn't surprise her when Ongaku shot his rietsu-charged "Chimei-tekina uta" fatal song at her. This exchanging blows went on long, until we both lost track of time, and long after that, we both collapsed. Kisuke scoffed at us because we "only lasted until the second day of Ichigo's Shattered Shaft". I simply glared at him, and he left us alone. A day later, during one of our training sessions, I caught Ageha constantly glancing over toward the Shattered Shaft, so we paused the spar, agreeing to resume it after Ichigo was out. We began walking over, when there was a loud explosion, that, instead of causing us to run away like normal human beings, we sprinted toward it, wanting to get a good, close-up look at Ichigo's hollow mask. I guess we'll never be quite normal, then.
"You got that right!" Ageha laughed, reading my mind. I smiled at her, and turned my attention to the hollowfied Ichigo. "Wow," Ageha muttered. "His mask is about six times cooler up close."
"Yeah," I smiled, knowing it would be.
We spent the remainder of our five days switching opponents, in what seemed like a large circle. First it was Ageha and I, and Ichigo and Kisuke, then, when Kisuke got bored of Ichigo, he switched us around, so that I was fighting him, and Ichigo was against Ageha. Then Kisuke got bored once again, and switched us off, again, so that Ageha got Kisuke and I was with Ichigo. This switch occurred randomly, and Kisuke said that it was "to keep you on your toes", but Ageha and I both knew that he switched us whenever the Hell he felt like it, and usually, just because he was bored. Ichigo shared this assumption, and Ageha and I could tell that the three bystanders agreed.