*1 and a half weeks after the last chapter*
During the past week, Ichigo had been training nearly constantly with Old Man Bach, as he had taken to calling him, much to the annoyance of the man himself.
Juha had trained Ichigo many things, thanks to the time delay that Inner Worlds have, Ichigo now had the Letters H, I, E and Y, as Juha thought that it would be best to have those abilities for infiltrating the Soul Society.
Ichigo was now on his way to Uraharas' shop, he was wearing a light blue shirt with the Quincy Sternritters Star symbol on the front, and a black hooded jacket on. He also had pale blue jeans and white and blue striped trainers.
Ichigo was having a debate with the Old Man, 'Who do you think will cause us the most problems when we get there?'
"You should be wary of 3 captain, a man with long white hair, Juushiro Ukitake, a man with a straw hat and Sakura blossom overcoat, Shunsui Kyōraku, and a woman with long hair in a braid, Retsu Unohana. These are very strong captain, do NOT take them onas anything less than at 100%, no matter what, understand? And if you see Yamamoto, I'll take control for the fight."'Fair enough then, I'll talk to you later Old Man, we're here.'
Ichigo was waiting outside for Urahara and the others to arrive, thankfully he didn't have to wait for very long for them.
The first to arrive was Chad, AKA Yasutora Sado, the next was Inoue Orihime and the last to arrive was Uryū Ishida, who was looking at Ichigo oddly, as he would usually make a snarky remark about his clothing, Ichigo didn't make any sort of remark and, to Uryūs' further confusion, Ichigo gave a nod in greeting, one which Uryū returned.
Urahara chose that moment to come out of the shop, giving his usual over the top greeting, "Hello~, how are we all doing tonight?" He said with a massive grin, behind his fan. Orihime was the only one to respond to him with a large smile and a thumbsup.
"Excellent. Now, if you'll all follow me to the basement, I'll show you all how I'm getting you all into the Soul Society." With that he turned, stumbling slightly because of the large wooden sandals that he was wearing, before he caught himself and they all went into the basement, to the Soul Society.
They went into the underground training area to find a giant stone rectangle like structure, which looked like something from Minecraft, Urahara gave a brief explanation of what's going on, during which Ichigo said it looked like it's from Minecraft causing laughter and a sad Urahara, there was a small moment of shock for Ichigo at the fact there was a talking cat, but he got over it quickly as they all left.
Everyone, minus Tensai, missed the small but evil smirk on Uraharas' face.
*Time Skip -Soul Society*
"Uryū..." Ichigo asked his fellow Quincy calmly, "yes?" was the response, "...remind me to beat the crap out of Urahara when we get back."
The reason why this conversation was happening was because when Urahara was talking about how he was getting them into the Soul Society, he failed to mention that they would be free-falling a dozen or so feet above the ground, causing nearly everyone to fall, until Ichigo regained his bearings and made a glowing blue platform below him and the others, letting them get to the ground at a slower, safer, slightly more boring pace.
Uryū filed this away to ask Ichigo about after the mission was done.
They all approached the gate, Yuroichi explaining why the place that looked like heaven, looked like shit, Ichigo wasn't paying attention, he knew enough from what the Old Man told him of the Gotei 13.
"It has been many years since the last time someone approached my gate, I am Jidanbō, and you are my enemy." A loud voice spoke as something massive fell to the ground, kicking up a huge amount of dust. When it cleared, it showed a man that looked like the humanised King Kong, he wore a fez hat and the usual Shinigami uniform, with some shoulder armour on him.
"Alright then, I'll fight you, but when I win, you have to open the gate for me and my friends here, if I lose you can arrest us, agreed?" Ichigo spoke with a tone showed how bored he was, though on the inside, he was screaming 'WHAT THE FUCK?! SOULS COME FROM HUMANS, HOW CAN HE BE THAT HUGE?!' Juha was
laughing at the situation that was unfolding before him and his heir.
"Very well, prepare yourself."
"Letter I - The Iron - I invoke." Ichigo spoke calmly, as iron coloured reiatsu surrounded him, when he said he was ready, Jidanbō swung his axe at the Quincy Prince and a large amount of dust was kicked up.
When the dust cleared, everyone stood with their eyes wide andmouths safely implanted in the floor. Ichigo had almost not moved, besides raising his arm which was now covered in what looked like iron and the axe had dozens of fractures in it, before shattering completely, leaving the giant holdinga large stick instead of the intimidating axe it once was.
Jidanbō staggered back slightly at what happened to his axe. It wasat that moment Jidanbō knew he couldn't win, his opponent was able to shatter his axe completely with no visible effort, he only blocked the attack and his axe completely shattered.
"I would prefer to get through this with minimal bloodshed Jidanbō-san, so please open the gate." Ichigo gave the giant a chance to gather himself before the giant reluctantly turned, his head hungin defeat, and opened the gate, only for a large amount of Spirit Energy to hit them all, the only ones not being affected were Yuroichi and Ichigo, who had experienced worse then this, though the former was worried for the children given who the energy was coming from.
"My, my Jidanbō, why are you opening the gate, and for Ryoka no less, that's not a Gatekeepers duty, ya know?" The man who had a large grin on his face and closed eyes spoke in a strangely happy voice, he wore a sleeveless captains haoriand the traditional Shinigami uniform, he had an odd shade of silver for his hair. His Zanpakuto looked like a Wakizashi with a blue handle on it, his hand was resting on his Zanpakuto that was at his hip.
"B-but Captain Ichimaru, he defeated me, I am Honor bound to open the gate for the man who defeatedme, and his associates." Jidanbō stuttered ananswer, his voice was trembling as he looked at the fox-faced captain that was in front ofthem.
"So, your a captain? What's your name?" A voice interrupted the captain and the guardian, they both turned to the only one of the Ryoka that was currently in the Soul Society, the orange haired Quincy was currently glaring at the captain that was blocking the entry for him and his group.
"So rude, interrupting a conversation and not giving your name first? Quite rude, though I will answer you," the man gave an over exaggerated bow before speaking again, "I am Gin Ichimaru, and yes, I am the captain of Squad 3, now who are you?"
"Names Ichigo Kurosaki, now get out of the way... please." The captains smile dropped slightly, "ohh, I see. In that case, I really can't let you in." The captain was walking away, confusing the others, especially when Yuroichi was yelling at Ichigo to run, the captain turned and drew his blade and got into and odd stance, he then spoke released his Zanpakutos Shikai, "Shoot to kill, Shinso." Then the Wakizashi quickly extended and would have pierced through Ichigo had he not used The Iron to block the attack.
"... my turn." Ichigo then jumped out of the way and charged at Gin, deactivating The Iron, and glowing as he used a different letter, "Letter E - The Explode - I Invoke." Ichigo wore an evil smirk as Gin spoke two words that summed up his situationperfectly as Ichigo glowed and grabbed his arm, "... Oh Shit." Then...BOOM!
After the dust cleared, Gin was a safe distance away, his clothes were burnt and smoking slightly but otherwise he was fine. Ichigo was slowly getting out of the crater he'd made as they both heard a loud Crash from the Gate, they turned to see the gate had fallen, leaving both Jidanbō and the others that Ichigo had brought,on the other side.
"And you now have no back up, what do you intend to do Kurosaki-kun?" The response that Gin got was a smirk and a ball of light appearing in Ichigos hands, he threw them both at Gin, which were dodged but caused a large explosion. The dust prevented Gin from seeing his opponent and when it cleared Ichigo was gone, Shinigami had begun to flood the area and Gin could only say this, "Yamas' gunna be so pissed at me."
Ichigo was hiding in an alley way, waiting till the Shingami stopped running around so much before moving again, when he found a place to rest for now he hid and entered his Inner World until morning, to talk to the old man about what they should do next.