I'm back after a six month hiatus, so you all will probably need a summary to keep up with the proceedings thus far.
Ichigo gets sent to the past by a contraption he stumbles across in Urahara's basement, landing him thirty years in the past. He stumbles across Renji and Rukia, and he decides to enroll in the Shinigami Academy with them. Somewhere in the craziness of adjusting to his classes, visiting captains (Aizen and Ukitake - by extension, Kaien), nosy teachers (Hokkaido), and annoying inner hollows-turned-Arrancar (Shiro), he gains the animosity of Sentaro, who gets Kiyone to help him stalk Ichigo on his day off. In the present time, the Vizards are working on a device of some sort. Orihime was attacked by Arrancar and saved by Toshiro, Shinji, and Rosé; all three go back to the Vizards' warehouse, where Toshiro meets the Vizards and lends Shinji his Soul Pager. Shinji gives Ukitake and Kyoraku a detailed description of Aizen's experiment on them.
Chapter 29 – Crazy Life, Normal Life
Seeing a Shinigami patrolling in Rukongai was nothing out of the ordinary. In the higher districts, only Shinigami from the 11th squad dared to try and keep order, mostly because they enjoyed joining the frequent fights, the cheap sake, and the numerous prostitutes running around. In fact, a few of the thugs relished the Shinigami's company, since they always offered an excellent brawl.
On that particular day, one particularly bloodthirsty 11th squad member was trotting eagerly through the 76th district of North Rukongai, a hand held over the front of his shihakusho protectively. The man could easily feel a small lump through the fabric.
"If you go to one of the higher districts and crush that pill, you'll be in for the fight of your life," an unseated Shinigami had said as he dropped it into the hands of the 11th squad member.
Finally, the bloodthirsty Shinigami reached the outskirts of the district – it wouldn't do for the resident thugs to hog all the fun when the pill was crushed. Drawing it out of his shihakusho, the Shinigami crushed it between his fingers, never once wondering about the opponents the pill would provide him, nor about the consequences of his one tiny action.
"So, what should we be working on today?" Ichigo asked as his inner spirits materialized in the familiar Sekki-Sekki ringed training clearing. After a moments' pause, he mused, "Hmm… We could work on combining hollow and Shinigami techniques, like using kido while using the mask, or shooting Cero from one hand and kido from the other."
"Tsk. So all we get to do is watch ya blow stuff up? Bo-ring," Shiro complained, swinging his zanpakuto around idly. "And what did ya ask us for, anyway? You answered your own question!"
"Quiet," Ichigo halfheartedly rebuked, rolling his eyes. "I suppose we could do a free-for-all later…"
Shiro grinned excitedly. "Well, hurry up and finish your annoying kido stuff so we can fight and put the techniques we've learned to good use, instead of just practicing on dummies!"
"It would do you good to work on these things as well, Shiro," Zangetsu pointed out while creating his human-shaped zanpakuto dummies.
"Hy-po-crite," Ichigo enunciated, smirking. "What happened to your preaching of, 'you can't just train yourself; you have to train your sword, too'? And you do count as one, since I'm using a zanpakuto manifested from your power."
Shiro's response was an annoyed, close-range Cero shot in Ichigo's direction. "That doesn't count! Neither Zangetsu nor I are kido-type weapons!" The instant the words had left Shiro's mouth, he realized that he had dug himself into a hole.
"While that may be true, the Getsuga Tensho relies on the same kind of reiatsu control as kido to bring out its maximum potential. Why do you think that we were working on shooting off Getsuga Tensho at different strengths last week?" Zangetsu innocently pointed out using the opening that Shiro had created, eliciting an annoyed huff from the Arrancar and laughter from Ichigo.
"Kurosaki's reiatsu trail is this way…"
"Are you sure, Sentaro? All my senses are leading me that way!"
"Don't argue with me, Kiyone! The captain values my skills in reiatsu tracking much more than he values yours!"
"Oh, yeah? The captain told me that I'm ten times better at tracking than you!"
"Liar! The captain would never say something-"
A cold female voice cut through Kiyone's and Sentaro's bickering. "What are you two idiots doing here?" They looked up to see one of the members of the 8th squad looking at them coolly down the bridge of her nose.
Kiyone stared at the raven-haired woman blankly. "Who are you?"
"Fifth seat of the eighth squad, Nanao Ise," she said, adjusting her glasses. "I have been tracking freshman Ichigo Kurosaki as per the request of my captain. You two are getting in the way."
"Hey, we're looking for Kurosaki, too!" Sentaro exclaimed. "We could team up and find him together!"
"I don't 'team up' with fools," Nanao said coldly.
"Hey, you're just a fifth seat," Sentaro growled, a vein popping in his forehead. "We're both fourth seats, and we call rank! We are teaming up!"
Nanao's dark blue eyes flashed angrily. "If you insist," she said through gritted teeth.
"Is it just me, or is she channeling her inner Captain Soi Fon?" Kiyone whispered.
Nanao twitched, but pointed eastward. "The trail leads this way," she said simply before running off and leaving Sentaro and Kiyone with no choice but to follow her.
"Has our delivery boy dropped off his package yet?" a snake-like voice asked.
"We need to wait just a little longer. Be patient, Gin," and oily voice said. All of a sudden, alarms started blaring throughout the Seireitei.
"Perfect timing," Gin grinned, fingering his zanpakuto. "Shall we collect now, Captain Aizen?"
"You and I will be needed to 'guard' the Seireitei. Kaname is already on his way," the traitorous captain smirked.
The bloodthirsty member of the 11th squad grinned nastily as a dark tear appeared in the sky – a Garganta, leading to Hueco Mundo. Low-level hollows started streaming through the hole, which were dispatched with relative ease. Larger hollows then started appearing, intermingled with the weak ones, and the Shinigami began to sustain damage. In almost no time at all, the Garganta had become gigantic, and Gillian had started appearing as well.
The Shinigami's grin only grew wider. He had no doubt that he'd die, but, as promised, he'd have the fight of his life. "For the glory of Captain Zaraki!" he roared, zanpakuto at the ready, before jumping into the fray.
Ukitake jumped as the alarms went off in the Seireitei. "Emergency! Emergency! Gillian have broken into the Soul Society! Repeat, Gillian have broken into Soul Society!" Ukitake immediately rushed out and began mobilizing his squad. In a time like this, it was the job of the 13th squad captain to provide backup for the squads who went on the frontlines, which cycled regularly between multiple squads. This time, the 7th and 9th squads would go out to destroy the Menos.
"I hope Kaien, Kiyone, and Sentaro will be alright," he murmured as his squad moved into standby position, unaware that his best friend was thinking the same thing about his subordinate.
Computers whirred as the scientists of the 12th division worked frantically to coordinate the counterattack against the hollows. Some barked orders furiously into headsets, while others typed in a frenzy, reconfiguring the sensors set up all over the Soul Society to try to pinpoint the cause behind the breach and predict where any future breaches might occur.
"Status report! Exactly thirteen Gillian and numerous other hollows have besieged the 76th district of North Rukongai! Captains Komamura and Tousen will lead the offensive in three minutes, thirty-six seconds and counting!"
Akon fiddled with an oddly shaped contraption on the control panel of the sensors. "What are you doing, Akon?" one of the other scientists barked as statistics and graphs flashed across the screens that showed incoming data from the sensors, momentarily blocking precious data. The data soon returned to normal, but a long printout of numbers started emerging from a large, grotesquely shaped machine stored in the corner of the room. Akon snatched the paper, glancing over it quickly.
"A level seven hollow bait was used!" he announced over the din. After a quick checking of the data Akon had obtained, which proved that Akon's hypothesis was accurate enough, the scientists returned to their previous engagements.
"There's another breach forming in the forests outside of the 1st district of North Rukongai!" Hiyosu called out, typing swiftly to input the data Akon had obtained.
"How is that possible?" one of the new grunts cried while hastily delivering a large stack of data to the recently created lieutenant, Nemu Kurotsuchi.
"Level seven hollow bait is strong enough to disperse throughout the dimension between Hueco Mundo and the Soul Society. Menos were attracted to the large amounts of bait that had settled near the membrane that separates that dimension and the 1st district of North Rukongai!" Rin explained quickly before stuffing some candy in his mouth while sending a computerized message to the speakers located throughout the Seireitei for emergency, wide-scale transmissions.
"Dispatch a group of high-level Shinigami to the forests of the 1st district of North Rukongai immediately! Gillian have breached the Soul Society again!"
G r a a a a a a a a h h h h h h o o o o o o o h h h h h !
Ichigo, Shiro, and Zangetsu whirled toward the source of the faint hollow's roar and beheld multiple Gillian in the far distance.
"How did Gillian get into the Soul Society?" Ichigo gasped as one charged up a Cero and shot it at an unseen target. "We've got to go help those people!" Shiro and Zangetsu simultaneously disappeared into his inner world. Ichigo prepared himself to shunpo to the Menos, but froze as he heard the familiar sound of tearing. A Garganta appeared in the middle of the forest, revealing a few Menos. Ichigo grabbed Zangetsu's hilt and fired a Getsuga Tensh o, cleaving one of the Gillian's masks in half. The rest responded by wailing and firing Ceros in random directions. Someone's reiatsu spiked momentarily in defense before dying back down when the Gillian started advancing on the source, since all hollows were attracted to reiatsu.
What are people doing out here? Shiro gaped.
Never mind that; we just need to get to whoever that is! Ichigo shunpoed toward the source of the voice, ignoring the blast of reiatsu that hit him as he passed the Sekki-Sekki barrier.
Ukitake blurred through the forest, disturbing the tranquility that had been present moments before. Shunsui raced beside him, mirroring his urgency. Their subordinates were in the middle of a warzone in which they would most likely be killed. There was no way that a group of seated officers and a single lieutenant would be able to defeat a group of Gillian by themselves without sustaining serious injuries. While it was highly unorthodox for two captains to go in alone, a large group of weaker Shinigami traveling with them would likely only make the situation worse.
A spike of hollow reiatsu pulsed through the air, causing the captains to subtly change their course to get to its source quickly.
Damned hollows, the captain thought. Why choose now to attack the Soul Society?
"What are all these Gillian doing here?" Kiyone gaped, eyes wide as she stared at the behemoths that had suddenly appeared from the officers' hiding place: under a log. They'd taken cover as soon as the Gillian had appeared, knowing that they were no match for the group of powerful hollows.
"Quiet!" Nanao hissed shakily. "You'll only lead them this way!" As if on cue, one of the Gillian turned in their direction and started powering up a Cero. Out of the blue, a blast of white light cut through its mask and destroyed it, causing the other Menos to react in their typical manner: aimlessly shooting Ceros at whatever moved. Kiyone whimpered when one impacted with the ground only a few feet away, her reiatsu unconsciously spiking in response to the threat. The Gillian began moaning and advancing toward their position, attracted to the reiatsu they'd felt.
Kaien switched from running to shunpo as soon as the first Menos Grande appeared through the Garganta. Why had Kiyone and Sentaro decided to bail duty now, of all times? They wouldn't be able to fend off the group of Gillian by themselves!
In quick succession, a white blast of light destroyed one of the Menos, the rest of the group panicked and fired Ceros, and someone's reiatsu flared. Kaien spurred himself to go faster.
Ichigo leaped into the sky and let loose another Getsuga Tensho, destroying another Gillian.
I'm not fast enough! At this rate, I won't be able to destroy them all before they get to whoever's down there! An idea suddenly hitting him, Ichigo materialized the inversed Zangetsu and swung both of them in different directions at once, bellowing, "Getsuga Tensho!" Two crescents of energy sprang from the blades and, although weaker, did their job and destroyed two of the horde.
The Gillian moaned as one and destroyed more of the forest. Slight pinpricks of panicked reiatsu caught Ichigo's attention, and he shunpoed down to ground level from his perch in the air. He peeked under a fallen log and saw Kiyone, Sentaro, and a future lieutenant cowering under it.
"What are you doing here?" he asked in disbelief. Anyone with a reiatsu level below a lieutenant's would be grievously injured fighting even a single Gillian. Three seated officers fighting a group of them would leave all three Shinigami dead.
"We should be asking you that question," the future lieutenant said shakily, nonplussed by the situation she'd landed herself in.
"Look out! It's gonna fire another Cero!" Sentaro warned urgently. Ichigo whirled around. Sure enough, a Gillian was charging an energy beam aimed in their direction.
"Blast it!" Ichigo hissed.
"Look out! It's gonna fire another Cero!" Sentaro's familiar voice cut through the forest.
I'm almost there! Kaien thought. He emerged from the forest and just in time to behold Kiyone, Sentaro, a member of the 8th squad, and Kurosaki right before the Gillian fired the Cero.
Like hell I'm gonna let them die! Ichigo mentally snarled as he planted Shiro's zanpakuto in the ground and held Zangetsu in an overhead block. The fired Cero impacted with Zangetsu not a moment later. Ichigo poured energy into the blade to hold it firm and prevent any of the attack from reaching those behind him. Snarling fiercely, Ichigo raised his reiatsu high enough to overpower the Cero and retaliate with a Getsuga Tensho. Zangetsu cut through the Cero like a hot knife through butter, and the released Getsuga Tensho cleaved the Gillian's mask in two.
Four Shinigami, three of the 13th squad and one of the 8th squad, stared at what should have been just a very talented freshman at the Academy with jaws dropped to the ground. Various exclamations filled the air simultaneously.
"W-what the hell?"
"I can't believe my own eyes."
"Th-that shouldn't be possible!"
"Lieutenant! You're here! Did you see that?"
All four of them jumped when Kurosaki took to the air and destroyed the remaining two Gillian with far more ease than a supposed freshman should have displayed. Kiyone and Sentaro crawled out from under the log as Kurosaki landed on the ground.
"Kurosaki, you…"
Ukitake and Kyoraku watched in surprise as a single figure decimated the whole group of Gillian, a feat only possible of a captain-level Shinigami. After a few more shunpo, they silently landed in the branches of a tree to watch the proceedings of the group of lower-ranking Shinigami in front of them. Apparently, it had been Kurosaki who had destroyed all the Menos. Ignoring the question concerning his power levels, what had he been doing out in the forest?
"Well, isn't he impressive?" Kyoraku murmured, eyes fixated on the Academy student. After examining the freshman for a few moments, he commented, "The kid's really stiff and nervous; almost looks he wants to run. I wonder what made him so flighty…" Ukitake couldn't help but agree. Honestly, it was as if Kurosaki expected to be punished for defeating the Menos that could have taken the lives of his subordinates…
Ichigo stiffened under the questioning gazes of the four Shinigami in front of him. Shoulda just left em, King. Now things are even more screwed up...
I couldn't have just left them to die!
Shiro sighed. You idiot! They'll never let this go! What happened to training at the Academy to round out and polish our skills, skills that we desperately need? At this rate, you'll be locked up or killed, and then we'll never defeat Aizen!
"Bakudo 63: Sajo Sabaku!"
"Hey! What-" Ichigo spluttered, straining against the golden ropes holding him in place and glaring at Kaien, who had released the kido.
Shiro groaned, Told ya.
"Stay here. Won't you just listen? Or at least talk to us?" Kaien beseeched.
Ichigo glared at the lieutenant as he tried to break the kido by raising his reiatsu. It had certainly worked on Rukia's kido, even though he hadn't realized what he had been doing at the time. The seated officers flinched as his reiatsu pressed down upon them.
"Kurosaki." Ichigo's head snapped up and he made eye contact with the female future lieutenant, but he began to feel drowsy the instant his eyes met hers. The world darkened, and he could have sworn he saw flower petals falling around her head.
She's trying to knock you out!
Ichigo let his reiatsu rage, wiping away the effects of the narcotic kido and breaking some of the golden chains holding him captive. The other Shinigami, even Kaien, struggled to catch their breath as Ichigo released reiatsu comparable to a mid-level captain's. Abruptly, something crashed down on his head from behind, which normally wouldn't have been too much of a problem, considering the cloak of reiatsu protecting him, but whatever had assaulted him had been reinforced with a lot of reiatsu, immediately causing his vision to fade to black.
Kyoraku caught Kurosaki before he could hit the ground, careful to keep Katen Kyokotsu's blade from accidentally cutting the unconscious student. Jushiro breezed past him, fussing over his lieutenant and fourth seats that, while admittedly pale, seemed to be just fine. Hefting Kurosaki onto his shoulder and sheathing the larger of Katen Kyokotsu's blades, he sauntered over to his fifth-seat and checked Nanao-chan over for injuries. She seemed to be in the same state as the others – shaken, but otherwise just fine.
"I'm alright, captain," she said unnecessarily, shying away from him.
"But I have to make sure that my Nanao-chan wasn't hurt," he pouted. "The Gillian and Kurosaki looked pretty scary to me…"
"I'm not your 'Nanao-chan'!" she snapped before falling back to a more professional tone. "Kurosaki killed all of the Gillian, and he did little more than intimidate us after Lieutenant Shiba bound him in a bakudo. I'm sure you're aware of this, captain."
"Mmhm," he confirmed, having witnessed the incident. Content that Nanao-chan was safe for the moment, he turned and lazily called, "Jushiro! Other Shinigami will be by soon! We should leave."
Jushiro gave a nod of approval and motioned for his subordinates to go on ahead. Kyoraku signaled that Nanao-chan should follow. Jushiro patiently waited while Kyoraku picked up Kurosaki's large blade from where it had stuck in the ground when he'd dropped it. Seemingly without any outside stimulus, the ribbon hanging from the end of the hilt lengthened and wrapped itself around blade. Figuring that the zanpakuto was sheathed, Kyoraku tossed it to Jushiro and jumped over to its inversely colored counterpart a few feet away. Before he could pick it up, though, it abruptly vanished. Kyoraku stared at the place it had been for a few seconds, eyebrows raised in surprise.
"Interesting…" He and Jushiro shunpoed away minutes before the other Shinigami arrived to complete the cleanup of the area.
Tousen let his senses spiral outward, barely keeping the disgust and haughtiness he felt off his face. Numerous souls with little spiritual power cowered behind doorways or under debris in desperate attempts to remain safe. Tousen inwardly snorted. As if the flimsy structures they hid in would provide even a modicum of protection against a group of hollows or a Menos.
When Tousen felt the hollows seconds away, he signaled for the Shinigami running behind him to split up into the groups they'd been assigned to prior to the hollow infiltration. He kept running alone, citing that his shikai's attacks were widespread enough for his subordinates to come under friendly fire, but his true purpose was to capture some of the high-level hollows that had breached the Soul Society for experimentation. That was the reason behind Aizen's motivations for providing the lower-rank Shinigami with hollow bait, after all.
As he and his subordinates engaged the hollows in combat, Tousen could feel Komamura skirting the group to attack from behind, pinning the hollows between two groups of Shinigami and preventing the hollows from escaping to the sides, where Shinigami could easily target them with kido and other long-range attacks.
Tousen shunpoed through the ranks of the hollows, slicing through the ones he deemed too weak to be of any use and tagging the ones he felt had enough reiatsu with slips of paper that would transport them into holding cells in Aizen's personal labs. They would disappear in a way that gave the illusion that they'd been killed, thus keeping those fighting with Tousen ignorant of his true mission.
In short order, the hollows were driven off, killed, or captured, leaving Tousen with the task of organizing clean-up. There were many injured Shinigami and normal souls, and the surrounding area had been decimated. Ceros from panicking Gillian had a lot to do with the devastation, but Tousen honestly believed that Komamura unleashing his bankai had been a destructive overkill…
Ichigo shot up, panting. "What happened? I know that I was knocked out..." He looked around cautiously. He was lying on a traditional futon in a mid-sized room that smelled strongly of flowers. The wooden shutters on the numerous circular windows were closed, and little light shone through the cracks.
"Hey, you're awake!" Ichigo noticed a figure lounging in the gloom. He couldn't make out the face or any other revealing features, but the somewhat familiar voice was a deep, husky male's.
The door to the room opened, and light spilled in through the opening, though the rest of the room, including the figure, was still cast in shadow. "Welcome back," Ukitake said, stepping in and smiling. Ichigo watched the captain warily while surreptitiously looking around for Zangetsu. The zanpakuto spirit was sitting docilely in his inner world, but the materialized blade had vanished.
"Where am I? How long was I out?" Ichigo queried softly as he smoothly stood to his feet, tense and battle-ready.
"Now, now." Ukitake was still smiling, and his tone of voice was friendly. He waved his hands in a calm down gesture. "No need for hostility. You're at the Ugendo, my family's home. I rest here when I'm ill." A pause. "You've been out for a few hours."
"The Menos… What happened to the Gillian? Was anyone hurt?"
The shadowy figure seemed to pout. "C'mon, relax! There's no need to be so anxious…"
Ukitake, fortunately, provided Ichigo with an answer. "The 7th and 9th squads killed the ones that appeared in Rukongai. There were multiple deaths and injuries – there's one Academy student and multiple full-fledged Shinigami who were in the area at the time and are now in critical condition – but overall, there were fewer casualties than I would have expected from a breach this large."
"And then you took care of all of the other Gillian quite impressively," the other figure added. "Hey, Jushiro, can we open the shutters? There's no one around, and it's so dark and stuffy…"
"Sure."
Ichigo carefully watched the Shinigami's movements. His demeanor screamed, "unthreatening," but he knew that many Shinigami were masters at hiding their true intentions.
Ukitake caught Ichigo's distrustful demeanor. "You should relax," he asserted. "I would never intentionally try to harm someone who protects my subordinates, especially someone with motives like yours."
Light flooded the room as the figure threw open a pair of shutters. "I agree with Jushiro."
Ichigo gaped as the figure was illuminated for the first time. "You're… a captain…" Indeed, the bottom of a haori peeked out from underneath a trashy pink kimono.
"I don't think we've ever been properly introduced." The captain turned around, revealing his features to Ichigo. "I am Shunsui Kyoraku, captain of the 8th division."
After a few moments of gaping silently at him, Ichigo carefully examined the captain, comparing the man he saw before him to the fuzzy memory he had from his weeklong recovery in the Soul Society after Aizen's escape to Hueco Mundo.
Swallowing his initial reaction to blurt that Kyoraku had been the captain to capture Chad, Ichigo instead replied neutrally, "Well, it's nice to meet you." Pause. "Where's Zangetsu?" he asked, abruptly steering the conversation in a different direction.
"You mean this behemoth?" Kyoraku said lazily, a hand drifting over to rest on a shape that was shrouded in the shadows provided by the wall. Straining his eyes, Ichigo could barely make out Zangetsu's silhouette; a quick confirmation from the zanpakuto spirit in his head established that Kyoraku was indicating to Ichigo's blade.
Ichigo walked over and gripped the loop made by the ribbon connecting the handle to Zangetsu's "sheath". After noting that neither captain had made a move to stop him, he willed the blade to disappear, wondering where Shiro's zanpakuto went.
"Your other zanpakuto disappeared before we could get it," Ukitake explained, prompting Ichigo to raise an eyebrow.
/Shiro thought it best that they not have the chance to closely examine his blade./ Zangetsu rumbled. Ichigo saw the logic in the Arrancar's decision.
After removing Zangetsu's blade from the outer world (a decision that had both captains raising their eyebrows in confusion), he awkwardly rubbed the back of his head, wincing as he came across a painful bump. "Thanks for bringing me back here," he said, finally trusting the captains enough to relax. "Did you happen to catch whoever knocked me out?"
Kyoraku chuckled sheepishly. "Well…"
Ichigo caught the guilty expression. "It was you, wasn't it?" he glared.
"Well, you were scaring our subordinates, and you seemed partial to running… What made you so skittish, anyway? You don't strike me as the type to run when push comes to shove." Kyoraku smoothly redirected Ichigo's attention, though the Academy student didn't see fit to provide him with an answer immediately.
"…I suppose it's because of the situation I've landed myself in," the freshman said vaguely, though both Kyoraku and Ukitake had the feeling that there was so much more to his answer than just the reference to his identity as one of Urahara's experiments.
After a few minutes of silence from all parties, Ichigo ventured, "Will you let me leave to go back to the Academy?"
Ukitake shrugged. "Sure," he acquiesced, ignoring a startled look from Kyoraku. "Well," he revised, "one question. Are your power levels the results of Urahara's experiments?"
"No. He trained me to see what I could do after the experiments, but my reiatsu level was already like this when he used me as a lab rat." It was partially true, even though the only "experiment" Ichigo had gone through was the whole business of getting his Shinigami powers back after Byakuya destroyed his Soul Chain and Soul Sleeve, and he'd had enormous amounts of reiatsu even before that.
Ukitake nodded, internalizing his words. "Thanks for satisfying my curiosity," he smiled before opening the door and pointing in a seemingly random direction. "The Academy is that way. Try not to run into any other Shinigami between here and there, okay?"
Ichigo nodded and prepared to run in the direction that had been indicated when Kyoraku reached out and grabbed his arm. "And, Kurosaki," he said seriously, "Thank you for rescuing our subordinates. If you need a favor, just tell us. It's the least we can do."
Ichigo studied the pair for a moment before breaking into the first genuine grin that they'd seen. "Alright… thanks." Without another word, he vanished in a flicker of shunpo.
"He's an interesting kid," Kyoraku idly said, leaning against the wall of the Ugendo.
A few moments passed before the two moved, calmly beginning to walk back to their posts in the Seireitei. They both paused when they felt an approaching, familiar reiatsu signature. "Captain!" Kaien called as he flickered into view. "Is Kurosaki awake yet?"
"He already left, actually," Ukitake informed him. "Sorry you didn't get to speak with him," he added as his lieutenant's expression darkened.
Kaien sighed. "Eh, it's fine. I'll probably see him later, anyway." Pause. "By the way, captain, there's a stack of paperwork waiting for you back at the office, probably from the aftermath of the breach."
Kyoraku couldn't help but snicker as his best friend froze, his expression one of pure horror.
In the present…
"…And that's the whole story. Urahara's only miscalculation was that there were no miscalculations. Everything proceeded as he had predicted, right down to the worst possible outcome."
Only silence could be heard on the other side of the phone. There was a slight crackle over the line as Jushiro finally answered.
"You've… given us a lot to digest…"
A sudden rise in reiatsu informed Shinji that he had a rather pissed-off adversary, flying atop the building that Shinji had taken refuge on with her gleaming zanpakuto in hand.
"Hang on. I gotta deal with Hiyori." Still holding the phone to his ear, Shinji began dodging the former lieutenant's stabs, which, he noticed, were aimed mostly at the Soul Pager.
"I haven't seen you this distraught since our awakening from Aizen's experiments," Shinji idly commented, knowing that his words would inflame her even more. True to form, her reiatsu flared, and Shinji flipped off the roof and onto a platform in the air made of gathered reishi to avoid her lightning-fast strikes.
"Why don't you get it, Shinji?" she hissed venomously.
Shinji watched her expressionlessly. Though she may have put up the façade that she was hardened and resolved, she was truthfully very insecure.
-Flashback-
"I… hate humans," Hiyori said, ceasing to struggle in Shinji's arms as he flew back to their hideout after their confrontation with Chad and Orihime.
"I know."
"I hate Shinigami, too."
"I know…"
-End flashback-
"Hiyori," Shinji began in a placating tone. "We'll run into Shinigami when we confront Aizen. Best to confront their questions now, rather than in the middle of a battle, or some other inopportune moment. Am I right?"
Hiyori leveled one of her signature hellfire glares at him, but she stopped attacking, so Shinji supposed it was progress. "Just because they might work with us until Aizen's dead doesn't mean they'll accept us, for something we have no control over," she spat bitterly, her hollow mask forming over her head to prove a point. Giving him one final swing to dodge, she leaped off the building and sped off in the opposite direction.
Shinji was already moving to chase after her, since he'd usually have to be the one to snap her out of her brooding, but he stopped when he heard the sound of a strangled whimper reached his ears, carried by the wind. Hiyori never took kindly to anyone seeing her at her most vulnerable.
"…She still hasn't quite recovered from the betrayal and our exile, has she?" Shinji murmured to himself, knowing that, while more than a century old, Hiyori still had the mental age of a child.
The Soul Pager in his hand crackled to life. "Er, Hirako-san?"
Shinji put the phone to his ear again. "Yes?"
"Is everything alright over there?"
"Oh, yeah, everything's fine. Is there anything else you two want, or can I give Hitsugaya back his Soul Pager?" Shinji asked, recalling the name of the captain whose phone he was using.
"Well, stay close… we'll want to contact you again about possible plans to defeat Aizen." The phone line abruptly went dead, making Shinji believe that either the 12th squad had disconnected the call prematurely or the Soul Pager in his hand was dead, since it simply wasn't Ukitake's or Kyoraku's style to hang up so suddenly.
Shinji stared up at the sky for a few moments before sighing and flying back to the warehouse. Once there, he returned the Soul Pager to its proper owner, who by that time had been thoroughly scarred by Mashiro's antics and insistence that the captain's hair was a wonderful thing to mess with. After saving Hitsugaya from a fate filled with ribbons and hairbrushes, he shooed both his guests, human and Shinigami, away, confident that the captain would be able to ensure Orihime's safety for enough time for backup to arrive should there be another Arrancar attack.
Shinji was just grateful that the other Vizards didn't pry about the contents of the chat he'd had with his old friends or pester Hiyori when she finally returned to the warehouse.
In the past…
After successfully avoiding several Shinigami patrols, Ichigo jumped over the walls of the Academy and sped to his dorm room, planning on changing his uniform (which was almost disgustingly dirty) and generally preparing himself for interactions with the younger versions of his friends. He needed a certain mindset to deal with them, since they weren't exactly as he remembered and he needed to be careful to keep from blurting out some reference to an event that hadn't happened yet, and he didn't have that mindset at the moment.
The short shower he took when he was back in his dorm helped clear Ichigo's head. Noting that it was about time for the Academy's dinner, he jumped out the window and headed to the cafeteria. After getting his food, he headed outside and found his group of friends sitting outside in their usual spot. Oddly enough, Momo and Kaede were missing; they were usually the first to get their food.
Must be visiting Toshiro, Ichigo mused. The two often visited the white-haired boy on their days off, despite his protests that he didn't want to see them.
"Hey, Ichigo! You're back early today!" Renji called, used to Ichigo's disappearances on Sundays.
"Idiot!" Rukia snapped. "Of course he'd be back early! Don't you know about the Gillian attack?"
"Oh… right…"
Ichigo kept quiet as the two began arguing, Izuru adding in the occasional comment. It felt surreal to be sitting there, talking as if he hadn't taken out a group of Gillian and talked with two captains only hours before.
A rapidly approaching figure caught Ichigo's eye. When the figure got close enough, he realized that it was Momo. She looked disheveled and absolutely miserable; tears streaked her normally happy face.
Izuru noticed her next. "What's wrong, Momo?" he asked worriedly, standing and hurrying to her side. She leaned against him and buried her face in his chest, sobbing. He froze, stiff as a board and blushing heavily, but then snapped out of his momentary daze and wrapped his arms around her in a comforting gesture. "What's wrong?" he repeated while Ichigo, Renji, and Rukia crowded around the pair.
"I-it's Kaede," she choked out. "We v-visited Shiro-chan for a l-little while a-and then she said she w-wanted to go see her f-friends back in the higher d-districts and then the G-gillian attacked and she was h-hurt—"
Ichigo felt as if a pit had dropped open from under his feet as he recalled Ukitake's words. "…there's one Academy student and multiple full-fledged Shinigami who were in the area at the time and are now in critical condition…" Judging from Momo's words, Kaede was the Academy student who had been caught in the Gillian attack.
Ichigo spent the remainder of the day comforting Momo, even though it was obvious to the rest of his friends that he was just as distraught as they were. As he clambered into his bed, numb, he berated himself for not being there, even though logically there was nothing he could have done.
Right before he fell asleep, he heard Zangetsu say, /It was a choice between Kaede and the other Shinigami. You did the right thing, given the situation. Don't let this weigh you down, Ichigo./
A few days later, Momo and her friends got permission to visit the comatose Kaede in the fourth squad's barracks, lamenting that it was their friend that had been so grievously injured. She'd suffered severe head trauma as well as some internal damage, never mind the minor cuts and scrapes she'd received from being buried under rubble.
Momo and her friends stood silently over Kaede's bed, solemnly praying that their friend would recover. She clenched her fists angrily. Kaede… I swear I'll get stronger to prevent anything like this from happening again…
Little did she know that the others at her side were thinking the exact same thing.
Time passed. Kaede showed no signs of waking up, but her friends recovered from the emotional damage of seeing a friend so close to death, clinging to the hope that she would eventually awaken from the coma she'd slipped into. Life was still the same, from the rigor of the training to the craziness that came with being one of the most ragtag groups of friends within the Academy. No one higher than a fifteenth seat visited the Academy in that time or bothered Ichigo, which he found to be a relief. Everything was back to normal, save for the hole that Kaede left.
"Are you sure that's a side kick, Izuru?" Renji asked skeptically.
"Of course! It's just like sensei showed us!" Izuru demonstrated the basic hakuda technique, twisting and powerfully thrusting his foot to the side.
"No, you're supposed to turn your hip more, like this!" Renji kicked high above his head. "Right, Ichigo?"
"It doesn't matter, as long as it works and you don't break any of your own bones when you impact with your opponent," Ichigo mumbled from his position on the ground. That Sunday's training session had been intense, and Ichigo was trying to recover from multiple Shiro-inflicted injuries. The Arrancar was purposefully keeping the wounds open to prolong the healing process—Shiro had said that it was a good test of endurance.
"He's still doing it wrong," Renji grumbled, kicking again. Abruptly, while he was off-balance, he was pushed from behind. "Yaah!" he screeched while crashing into Izuru. The two of them landed on Ichigo.
"That hurt!" Ichigo complained, the holes in his abdomen complaining loudly at the weight. "Get off! Izuru, stop kicking me! And Renji, GET YOUR SMELLY FEET OUT OF MY FACE!"
The three disentangled themselves to the sound of female laughter. "Rukia! What was that for?" Renji griped.
"Who knows? And who cares?" Ichigo growled dangerously, glaring at his raven-haired friend. "Dogpile!" Rukia's laughter turned to a shriek as she was tackled to the ground. Renji caught on and leapt on top of Ichigo, dragging Izuru behind him.
"Get... off... not... breathing..." Rukia gasped.
Ichigo heard the crunch of footsteps on the grass. "Do I even want to know?" Momo wondered, staring at the pile. Then she shrugged and sat on top of Izuru, who turned bright red. She flipped open one of her textbooks and began reading, heedless of the people under her.
She idly wondered if this was how Kaede would have reacted in this situation.
"Guys, I think we should get off. Rukia's turning blue," Renji wheezed. Momo jumped off the pile and hooked onto Izuru's arm, dragging him with her. Renji and Ichigo rolled off Rukia, and she weakly flopped onto her stomach, coughing and gasping for breath.
"Ichigo... you bastard..." she coughed, weakly smacking him.
"That's what you get for knocking Renji and Izuru into me," he panted, a hand over his stomach. Damn... wound's reopened...
Momo paled as her gaze fell onto Ichigo's crimson-stained uniform. "Ichigo, you're bleeding."
"What? Ichigo, what have you been doing?" Izuru wondered, peering at the steadily darkening stain.
"I just tripped and fell on some stones while training. That's all!" Ichigo insisted, even though he knew his excuse was utterly see-through.
"That's a lot of blood for just falling on some rocks," Renji commented, raising an eyebrow skeptically.
"If he's bleeding, shouldn't we bandage it and get him to the infirmary?"
"Oh, no. I am NOT going to the infirmary!"
"What can we bandage him with?"
"His clothes! Take off your top, Ichigo!"
"NO WAY! Get the hell away from me!"
Tsk. They're just worried about ya, King. Hold still!
"Let go of me, Renji!" Dammit, Shiro! Don't seize up my muscles so I can't move!
"Stop struggling! You're losing a lot of blood! Izuru, hold his arm!"
"I'll get the other one!"
"Dammit, Rukia! Let go!"
"Vengeance is mine!"
Finally, the four managed to expose the stolen bandages underneath Ichigo's clothes. Ichigo panted heavily. His arms were pinned by Izuru and Rukia, and Renji had a firm grip on his legs. Momo was sitting beside him and deftly undoing the soiled cloth.
"Ichigo... what happened to you? There are holes in your stomach – you shouldn't be able to move!"
"Just rocks, huh?" Renji raised an eyebrow.
"I've had worse." The four tending to him looked at each other worriedly. "I'll be fine, guys! Really!"
"Shouldn't you at least go to the infirmary?"
"NO. I told you, I'm fine!"
"Can you at least tell us what happened?"
No one noticed the mischievous gleam that suddenly entered Ichigo's eyes. "I ran into something the size of a bear with terrible reiatsu and a spiky head..."
Elsewhere, a certain bloodthirsty captain sneezed and looked around in annoyance before coming to the conclusion that someone powerful and worthy of his challenge was talking about him. He ran off to find this foe… in the opposite direction of the Academy.
"Are those two fighting again?" Momo groaned as she sat down at a cafeteria table, a tray of food in hand.
"Yeah," Izuru sighed, glancing at Renji and Ichigo. "I don't even know what they're arguing about anymore..."
"It'll burn itself out eventually. It always does," Rukia said dismissively while chomping on a piece of beef.
Splat!
"Sorry. My finger slipped," Renji grinned. The sauce from the boiled dumpling dripped down Ichigo's neck, while the dumpling itself peeled from his forehead and fell to the table with a wet slap.
"Is that so?" He deftly picked up a bowl of rice and smashed it into Renji's face, who retaliated by grabbing a fistful of vegetables and stuffing them down Ichigo's uniform.
"It's degenerated into a food fight. Shouldn't we stop them?" Momo asked dryly.
A stray onigiri landed in Rukia's hair. "Cut it out!" she snapped, and then upended her plate onto Ichigo.
"And now it's spreading..." Momo sighed as Izuru entered the fray. She yelped when she realized that Izuru had a fist in her uniform and was dragging her with him.
More stray food flew through the air and landed on some upperclassmen. "Food fight!" one of them cried gleefully and smashed a Western hamburger into his friend's face. Despite the teachers' best efforts, the conflict spread throughout the cafeteria.
"This is not the proper way for Shinigami-in-training to be acting," one of the seniors grumbled from his shelter under the table as he watched food, drink, and condiment fly through the air.
After a few minutes, the teachers finally managed to quell the disturbance. Food covered the cafeteria from floor to ceiling. Several disgruntled people left the cafeteria, wiping various vittles from themselves. Renji, Rukia, Izuru, Momo, and Ichigo staggered out of the cafeteria, covered in food and laughing hysterically.
"Ye lord! Mask of flesh and blood, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south! Hado 31, Shakkaho Red Flame Cannon!"
A small red ball sped from Rukia's outstretched hands and impacted with a dull thump with a tree trunk. Once the smoke cleared from the burned wood, she saw that the spell had barely left any mark.
"Rukia, you're supposed to be better than me at kido!" Ichigo complained, approaching her from behind.
"Gah! Ichigo, don't sneak up on me like that!" Rukia exclaimed, whirling around. "And what you do mean, that I'm supposed to be better at kido than you? You're in the advanced class!"
"Nothing," he replied, wincing at his slip-up.
In the present…
Hachi wiped sweat from his brow, marveling at the small, innocuous-looking stone sitting in the palm of his massive hand. "It's complete," he said in awe. "Shinji?"
"Mm?"
"Tell everyone that it's complete. We'll be able to retrieve Ichigo!"
Shinji walked over from the couch he'd been lounging on and peered at the stone. "That's it? It's smaller than I expected…"
"Well, according to Urahara's plans, it activates when a complex array of kido spells is drawn around it and reiatsu is poured in at various points in the array. It works best at certain times of the month."
Shinji blinked at him a couple of times. "…So you're saying that we have to wait until this certain time occurs?"
"Precisely. We'll be able to activate it in five days."
Shinji was silent for a moment, searching his memory for anything significant occurring in the specified amount of time. "…That's the night of the full moon…" Hachi nodded. After a few moments' pause, the blonde Vizard continued, "I'll go tell everyone else. It'll certainly cheer Hiyori up, since she's still pissed from when that captain accidentally visited…"
In the past…
Six months had passed since Ichigo and his friends had started training at the Academy. It was chilly; orange-brown leaves fell from the trees in flurries every time a gust of arctic wind blew past. Despite the frigid weather, it was very dry; no snow had yet fallen due to the lack of humidity. Most students sought to study or work out indoors, though some preferred to do vigorous endurance training outside.
On one such day, when the sun was shining brightly but it was especially cold, prompting a greater number of students to stay inside than usual, Rukia was staring out of one of the windows, her gaze distant. Footsteps echoed behind her, approaching, but she ignored them – until someone planted a foot in her behind.
"Waaah!" she screamed, whirling around and glaring at her assailant, Renji, while holding her hands protectively over her abused rear. "Hey! What was that for?"
"What the hell are you spacing out for? You've been here for six months, and you still haven't started taking your training seriously," he said, deadpan.
"Oh, yeah? Well, who are you to – hm?" She broke off, noting the presence of bento and an asauchi wrapped in cloth – a requirement of the Academy so that naked swords would not be carelessly used in the hallways – on his person. Rukia then noticed a small group of other freshmen behind Renji, carrying the same things as him, and including Izuru and Ichigo, who were watching the confrontation quietly.
"You look like you're going someplace," she noted hesitantly. "Are you guys having field training or something today?"
"Yeah. We're going to the world of the living for a practice fight against dummy hollows," he answered proudly.
Rukia's eyes widened with shock, which quickly turned to jealousy. "That's not fair! Why is it only your class? Not to mention that you shouldn't be in the advanced class in the first place!" she screamed, stomping up and down and wildly waving her finger in Renji's direction.
"What can I say? They recognize talent when they see it," he rebuked.
"Ugh," Rukia growled, her eyebrow was twitching angrily.
"And just you wait," Renji taunted, turning and beginning to walk away with the rest of the group. "I'm better than you already! And when I come back, there won't even be any comparison between us!" He waved without slowing his pace or turning back to look at her.
Ichigo glanced backward when Rukia yelled defiantly, "Yeah? Well, when you come back, I'm gonna be –" Her voice abruptly dropped several decibels. "Oh, I don't know…" She looked so lost by the time she fell silent.
Ichigo quickly assessed the differences between the two Rukias he knew. This Rukia was brash, bold, and completely unafraid to shout her feelings to the world, even to the point where she was extremely whiny. The future Rukia, on the other hand, was more reserved, especially around those she was not intimately familiar with and the Kuchiki family. Though she was very forthcoming around her friends, she lacked the audacity that the past Rukia had. The two also differed in resolve; this Rukia only sought to better herself when the situation demanded it, such as necessary training for her future career, while the future Rukia sought to gain strength to protect something precious to her, not just training at the absolute minimum for the sake of satisfying her needs.
Shaking himself from his thoughts, Ichigo approached Rukia, nostalgically reminiscing of his first days as a Shinigami. I can never repay her enough for what she's done for me, even though I almost died rescuing her from the Sougyoku…
"Hey, Rukia?" She looked up, still looking somewhat disheartened. "Do you want training?"
A fire relit in her eyes. "I'm not so low that I'd have to accept help from you to improve!"
Ichigo grinned before turning and walking away, hand held up in a wave. "Well, the offer's open. Tell me if you need help."
As he turned the corner and out of sight, Rukia reflected, You know, getting some zanjutsu tips from him might not be a bad idea…
The freshman advanced students stood in a large, clustered group atop the roof of the main Academy building in front of three upperclassmen, fidgeting and chattering restlessly. A closed Senkaimon stood behind the upperclassmen.
The instant one of the upperclassmen began speaking, the large group of freshmen fell silent. "First, allow us to introduce ourselves. I'm Shuhei Hisagi, senior." Ichigo studied him closely; he looked somewhat familiar… Ichigo became somewhat annoyed; he'd been struck with multiple feelings of déjà-vu lately because of all the younger counterparts of people he knew roaming around, and it drove him nuts trying to figure out who they were and where he'd seen them.
"I'm Kanisawa," a short, brown-haired upperclassman said, the strict look on her face quelling any thought of weakness stemming from her petite stature.
"I'm Aoga." The male student on Hisagi's other side, in contrast, was burly in stature and would have fit in perfectly with the 11th squad judging from looks alone.
"The three of us will be your guides for this exercise," Hisagi concluded. Amazed murmurs broke out amongst the students.
"What's up? Why are they all gawking? Are they famous or something?" Renji observed, bending to whisper in Izuru's ear.
The other boy whipped around. "How do you not know? The one in the middle – everybody knows who he is." Renji turned his gaze to the indicated upperclassman, observing his stern expression and the tattoo on his cheek. "Shuhei Hisagi. He's the first in years to be assigned a post in the Gotei 13 before graduation, and they say that he's a really promising candidate for a ranked seat in the future."
"Huh. No kidding."
A sly look of haughtiness appeared on Izuru's face. "Strangely enough, he also failed the Academy's entrance exam two times. And, given that my exam score was the highest in our class, I might do better than him," he said, sounding pleased.
Renji looked skeptical. "Oh?"
Ichigo, who had only been somewhat paying attention to the conversation since he'd been trying to remember where he'd seen Hisagi in the future, and wondering when he'd get the three scars on the side of his face, elbowed Izuru. "Don't get a big head. Exam scores have nothing to do with reiatsu level, battle prowess, or improvement, which are what the Gotei 13 value the most."
The two friends at his side looked at him, one in surprise and the other in annoyance, but any rebuttal he may have received was cut off by Kanisawa. "Now, listen up! Split up into groups of three and get ready to go. Everyone, take out the lots you drew when we first assembled, and then find the two students who have the same mark as you have."
The freshmen began shifting around, trying to find the others they were grouped with. Ichigo glanced at his, a sakura blossom, and quickly looked around to see that no one near him had the same mark. Vaguely, he heard his friends – who had skulls on their lots – conversing behind him.
"Ah, so that's what these little pieces of paper were for."
"You and I are together, but... who's our third?"
"Hey, guys!" Momo called, running up to her friends. "I'm your third," she said, flashing a slip of paper with a skull to the other two.
"Hello, Momo. Where've you been?" Izuru greeted.
"I was caught at the back of the crowd. I couldn't move forward to get to you. In fact, I could barely hear our orders."
"Well, that's all well and good, but I can't find my group," Ichigo frowned, scanning the crowd for freshmen who weren't in groups of three yet.
"Kurosaki," someone said stiffly, tapping him from behind on the shoulder. "You're with us."
"Oh, it's you. Hello, Asukai," Renji said sullenly, saving Ichigo the trouble of identifying his teammate.
Ichigo glanced back and saw the stuck-up noble and a black-haired boy staring at him with equal amounts of disdain. He sighed, "See you at the end of the exercise," and shifted to stand with his other two teammates.
When the freshmen stopped moving around, Hisagi took this as his cue to say, "Alright. Now that everyone's found their groups, we'll brief you on today's exercise."
"Sixth-year students have already entered the world of the living and constructed a temporary barrier," Kanisawa explained.
"Once inside that perimeter, each group will engage in practice combat with dummy hollows," Aoga continued.
"The sixth-year students are here only to create a combat-ready environment for you. They will not assist in the combat itself. Are we clear?" Hisagi finished. Hearing no complaints, he ordered, "Then let's go."
"Yes, sir!" came a chorus a voices.
Hisagi turned to the Senkaimon, commanding, "Open!"
...Was the really long chapter enough to make up for the six month hiatus?
Okay, it probably wasn't, and I apologize for leaving you all dangling for so long. I won't give you any excuses, since I doubt you all want to hear me all ramble about my life, but I am extremely sorry for letting TT get so neglected.
Happy New Years' to you all. Hope you enjoyed the chapter.
-HM