Bleach (c) Tite Kubo
Once More To See You Again
Back in Business
"Gez. Urahara's got you wolfing down those painkillers like tic-tacs."
Ichigo washes the last tablets down with a glass of water after breakfast. Like every other time, he can feel his wounds healing at accelerated speeds. Now they're no more than ignorable dull aches and pearly patches of scar tissue. "Used these before, have you?"
"A week ago I had a hole through my shoulder and a concussion. Now I don't. What do you think?"
"Could've just said yes, smartass." Ichigo grumbles, resumes stuffing some clothes into a small bag on his bed, "Which reminds me. Once we get this current catastrophe sorted, I'll have to find Ishida and kindly return the favour."
Kaien heaves an admonishing sigh, sitting cross-legged on his desk chair. "Don't be like that. There's nothing to be done about it now."
Ichigo pauses in his packing to spare Kaien a glance.
"What? You know I'm right. Petty grudges are a pointless waste of energy. I'm not angry about it. Why bother?"
"You nearly dying isn't what I'd call petty." Ichigo says frankly.
"I got better." Kaien waves it off.
Ichigo scowls and tosses through his drawers for more clothing.
"Besides, I'm not complaining about the new powers. Caveats aside, I think I'll like them. And the shihakushou suits me if I do say so myself. I look damn fine in black. Even better than you I'd say." Kaien casually boasts, making a play of puffing up his chest proudly.
A good half-minute stretched between them.
"You wish it was blue, don't you?"
"Yeah I really do." His twin brother sags, pouting for a couple seconds then follows up brightly, "But hey, at least my Zanpakutou's blue. You win some, you lose some. And get this: I've got water magic too. Yay~!" He tacks on a goofy grin, like a kid in a candy store.
"Of course you do." Ichigo rolls his eyes and ignoring his twin's giddy antics. Until he says something with a wicked smirk, "I'm curious. When I fought that bastard the other day, his sword turned into a serrated whip. So tell me; what does your sword turn into? A squid - Ah, better yet, I bet its an octopus."
"Don't go there." Kaien tells him sharply, shuddering in disgust.
Ichigo snickers meanly. "Oh, I went there."
Ichigo's twin is mildly chapodiphobic. Has been since they were toddlers. Used to have nightmares about the squishy eight legged freaks of the deep too (Ichigo recalls when they were six, a terrified Kaien swore every night for a week a particularly vivid nightmare thing would devour him alive. He convinced Ichigo to let him sleep in his bed until the dreams went away). These days its a downgraded from screaming nightmare-inducing horror to complete and utter repulsion whenever the subject is brought up, coupled with frequent hostile, admittedly hilarious, outbursts of 'why do they exist?!'. He refuses to go within a mile of any foods containing a speck of octopus or squid either if he could help it. The irony of being afraid of sea creatures while aspiring to become a marine biologist (and being runner up for the National Swimming Championships) is not lost on anyone. It's a cheap and easy source of amusement for Ichigo, serving as one of the few subjects that instantly tilts any brotherly bickering in his favour.
"You're a real buzz kill, you know that?" Kaien sulks again.
"Yeah, but what if it was though? What would you have done then, traded your sword in for the next model?" Ichigo goads.
"Its a trident, not a damn cephalopod, got it?"
"An oversized dinner fork? Lame."
A vein pops on his little brother's temple. Ichigo hides a slanted grin, thoroughly enjoying the rare reversal of fortune.
"At least I have one." Kaien grouses.
"Working on it. On that note, I'm off. Any advice for your dear big brother before I go?" Ichigo is only half-sarcastically, hoisting his carry bag over his shoulder.
Rather than rise to the obvious bait as Ichigo expected, Kaien falls curiously silent. That unnerves him. A lot. When Kaien isn't teasing, that's usually the first sign of the apocalypse. Ichigo spares him a glance and is surprised to find him seriously considering the question. He's pensively staring off into the distance, eyes glazing over and unfocused, almost like he's searching through distant memories.
"Don't trust your eyes." Kaien eventually settles on.
Ichigo tilts his head quizzical, "Huh?"
"Don't trust what you see." Kaien re-emphasizes.
"Helpful. Never mind, forget I asked." Ichigo shakes his head, grumbling.
"I'm not joking." Kaien defends earnestly. His brows furrow thoughtfully, as though he were tutor delivering a heavily summarized yet vitally important lesson. Ichigo would've scoffed at the tone but the utmost sincerity in his brother's words has Ichigo listening with piqued interest instead.
"It's complicated. Think about it for a second; to find your powers you'll have to go into your own soul. There's no roadmap, there's no straightforward path. Its a journey through emotion and concept, abstract symbolism and metaphor. A mesh of ideas that represent who you are as a person, as an individual, even if the connections aren't immediately apparent. You'll see stuff that seems to function one way on the surface which you'll take for granted, but are the total opposite in action. You can't take it all at face value."
Ichigo raises his eyebrows, both surprised and interested, "No kidding?"
Kaien glances down and continues, "It goes without saying that souls are unique but if you want to take my experience as an example; what I thought was hunting me down to devour me in the moment was actually my Zanpakutou spirit. I thought she was attacking me. In reality she was warding me away from even greater danger and pushing me back on the right track until I found what I was looking for. Bluntly, your zanpakutou spirit will play tricks and schemes to test you. If you can figure out its game, it'll receive you. If you can't, then... well..." Kaien trails off then gives a shrug, then finishes. "Be suspect."
"Be suspect..." Ichigo echoes, genuinely impressed by his brother's insight, "Seems like you learned a lot. And you've had your powers less than a day. Did you quiz Urahara on this stuff or did you figure this out by yourself?"
Kaien frowns for a second then shifts uncomfortably on his chair, as though he was surprised by his own words. His answer carries a curious lack of conviction. "Figured it out."
Ichigo studies the perplexed expression on his face.
Before Ichigo can probe further, Kaien abruptly pushes on with his explanation.
"I'm at my best when I have time to calm down, focus and really think things through. Once I had a minute to breath and reason it out, I figured out what I was supposed to do fairly quick. You, on the other hand, having the attention span of a toddler on a sugar high-"
"-Hey!"
"-you work best by leaping without looking and working your way out from there. So..." Kaien trails off again with another shrug. "All I can suggest is go with the flow and play to your strengths. And when in doubt, do what you do best."
"In laymen's terms; trust my gut. Got it." Ichigo nods once resolutely.
"I meant break shit, but sure, that works." And there's the spectacular return to form.
Ichigo shoots him a thoroughly unimpressed scowl. "Why are you like this?"
"Would you like me to answer alphabetically or categorically?" Kaien flashes a far-too-pleased smile.
Ichigo tosses a hand up, rolling his eyes. "Whatever. I'm out."
"Good luck." Kaien says, standing and offering a hand.
"See you on the other side." Ichigo grasps it, giving it a firm shake before the brothers mutually pull in and give each other a few emboldening slaps on the back.
In a sudden burst of possibly unfounded confidence, Ichigo parts with a challenging smirk, unable to resist indulging in the childish sibling rivalry that's the cornerstone of their brotherhood. "Betcha I'll pull this off faster than you did."
Kaien gives a slanted smile in response, crossing his arms with mirroring confidence. Unlike Ichigo, his is entirely genuine. "I'll take that bet. But if you don't, I reserve the right to rub it in your face. For ages. You'll never hear the end of it."
"Ditto on bragging rights. Watch and learn, baby brother." Ichigo can't see it but he knows Kaien's flipping him off on his way out.
Training is an esoteric hell.
First off, Urahara had Ichigo dodging Ururu's bullet fast punches (as a powerless soul). Punches powerful enough to knock his head clean off his shoulders. He wasn't so lucky to dodge the kick that sends him careening through a stalagmite. The force alone would've sent him through more if Tessai hadn't caught him.
Urahara, in his typically frustrating trickster fashion, elected not to inform Ichigo about the reason why his head almost ended up as a fine red mist until after the fact. The purpose of that one-hit-kill bout was to restore his spirit energies, which the enigmatic shopkeeper followed up with an explanation about how souls obtain a massive power surge as a survival instinct to escape destruction. Sounds like mumbo jumbo straight out of one of those weekly shonen battle manga Keigo kept cajoling Ichigo into reading, but the more Ichigo thought about it the more it made an abstract kind of sense. Conceptually similar to hysterical strength, a phenomenon which occurs when a human is in a life-and-death situation and they perform impossible miraculous feats of strength to escape.
Successful though it may have been, that doesn't mean Ichigo's not going to thump Urahara for it when he gets the first chance.
Of course, without so much as a how do you do, Urahara's assistant Tessai capped off the insanity by destroying Ichigo's chain of fate.
Before Ichigo knew what was what, his arms were bound with thick black kido straps held in place by long silver nails, and his sorry backside was dumped in a deep dark pit called the Shattered Shaft.
The ultimatum is simple; emerge as a Shinigami or die as a Hollow.
The Shattered Shaft hurt.
No one told him it would hurt. Although frankly, Ichigo didn't know why he expected it not to. His soul is quite literally consuming itself, rotting away at an artificially accelerated rate. Those ironbound mouths which emerged from his chain of fate managed to take a chunk out of his side when Ichigo made a clumsy attempt to stop them the first time. When they're active, his body feels like it burns, freezes and electrifies with pain all at once. Its a paralyzing agony that leaves Ichigo in a heap and robs him of breath every cycle.
Then there's those brats, Jinta and his demure friend (adopted sister?) Ururu who plays along with his antics.
For the past however many hours, Urahara, Ururu and Jinta crowd around the lip of the pit, peering down at him as though he's an interesting specimen; a fascinating little lab rat trapped in a maze, and a spectator sport. Occasionally tossing out jeers and a while Ichigo charged headlong to climb the wall with just his legs. That is, running up the wall like a madman. Not the smartest move ever but it beats pacing back and forth like a caged rat.
Jinta, brat that he is, enjoyed taunting him. Then one innocuous remark really gets under his skin, "You know that black haired guy was already out of this pit in 18 hours. And you're at the end of day two. Guess you're slow... or just a talentless hack." His face splits with a leering grin to really rub it in.
"Bite me." Ichigo snaps back, pushing the impulsive wave of frustration and anger.
Ichigo doesn't waste time engaging with the snot-nosed punk. Instead using the insults and derisive remarks to invigorate his desire to break out. When the next two attempts to climb up the wall failed, leaving him flat on his back and aching all over, Ichigo scowls and curses in frustration.
He's no closer to figuring it out when the chain of fate erodes completely over the next day and white ichor spills from his mouth, nose and eyes.
If Ichigo thought he knew pain before, this was a whole new level he couldn't begin to fathom. He's being smothered as horrifying hunger eats away at his psyche, while his body wants to fly apart at the seams.
Ichigo resists. Even as excruciating wordless howls rent the air, he resists. He can't allow it to end, not like this! He has to fight! He can't die here. He needs to save Rukia, damn it!
Then silence and darkness fell. Ichigo is suddenly detached from the pain, the smothering of his mind and shattering of his soul. His eyes flutter open to find a world tilted at a 90 degree angle, filled from ground to sky with skyscrapers. White fluffy clouds dot the blue skies, gently floating by without a care in the world. He blinks, sitting upright to scan his newfound surroundings.
"Where am I?" He asks no one.
"Ichigo. Can you hear me?" A deep baritone asks, cutting through the silence like a knife.
Ichigo locates the source and finds a man. Tall in stature, middle aged with a billowing black cape and dark hair, both of which flutter like banners in an unseen wind. Impulse would've had Ichigo accost him, demanding to know who he is but he stops himself.
"Does my voice still not reach you?" The man prompts again, attempting to engage Ichigo in conversation with a single eyebrow arched.
Ichigo frowns, then after a moment pointedly looks away, electing to ignore the old man as though Ichigo doesn't understand what the guy is saying. If he acted on the manners he'd been raised with (which he doesn't employ much), he probably should have acknowledge the old man.
After all, Ichigo is looking for a Zanpakutou spirit. The old man did appear before him trying to communicate, but his gut tells him something was off.
Ichigo has to admit that his brother could give decent advice when he wanted to. And listening his instincts told Ichigo this was too easy. Too inviting. The man in black seems stoic, but there's a strange sense of... eagerness, of need to coax Ichigo's attention. It's not overzealous by any means, but it makes him edgy.
Kaien said that his Zanpakutou put him through his paces before it finally gave him what he wanted, plus a warning not to trust everything he sees. If what's going on in the real world was any indication, it seems like Ichigo's Zanpakutou is going to be a pain in the ass to find too. Joy.
Before Ichigo can figure out what to do next, tremors rock the landscape world. The seemingly indominable skyscrapers start to sway dangerously before oddly geometric 'cracks' grew on their peaks, which spread downwards like a virulent infection. Those geometric shapes then start to crumble, collapsing like a house of cards. The world is collapsing, Ichigo abruptly realises. White boxes that used to make up the skyscrapers fall like square hailstones. Each of them has a tiny black latch attached to one ledge, keeping them locked shut but beyond that, they are visually identical.
A split second later, gravity seemingly reasserts itself, flinging Ichigo from his sideways perch. The last thing Ichigo sees of the old man before he plummets into the yawning abyss is a black smoky specter.
Ichigo wants to scream in panic as he falls, but he holds it back. He clings to his brother's advice. That his Zanpakutou would want to test him. Then this has to be that test.
In these thousands upon thousand of boxes, one of them must be the key to obtaining a shinigami's powers. But time is a precious currency and Ichigo is fast running out. Especially when he breaches through the floor and finds himself sinking into total darkness. He can feel himself dying, feel the gnawing in his heart growing. It fuels his desperation as he searches frantically, scanning his surroundings and fighting down the panic of his impending doom.
There are so many! How could he possibly find which one he needed to? He had no skills with sensing reiatsu and all of these boxes were identical. There's no possible way he could make it in time.
But no sooner had he finished that thought, Ichigo spots one box in particular. Far away and tumbling further into the dark than the rest. When he laid eyes upon it, some vital piece suddenly clicks into place in his head. The others are chaff, he realizes. Distractions. He knows that with absolute certainty, even if he doesn't know how he knows.
"Its you!" Ichigo pushes through the other boxes that buffet and bruise his limbs, straining to the distant container as the world sinks into the darkness around them.
"Come on! Come on!" As Ichigo's fingers barely brush the surface, he feels an electric current run through his finger tips. A manic cackle reverberates throughout the world and inside his own head. The lid snaps open, revealing an even deeper darkness. For a fraction of a second, Ichigo feels his heart sink until an alabaster white hand tipped by razor sharp claws reaches out of the pitch black, snatching around his wrist in a vice grip and pulls Ichigo in.
Lesson three isn't much better!
Sure, Ichigo managed to get out of the pit intact with his Shinigami powers (and a weird Hollow mask as a bonus) but now Urahara's trying to shank him with that damn cane. That's not even the worst of it: Urahara's cane is a damn Zanpakutou! Seriously, what the hell did he sign up for? What kind of cosmic joke is this? Its ridiculous. Its like someone took that bullshit meter and cranked it right up to eleven!
And all Ichigo has left to face Urahara, who is dead set on trying to kill him, is a stub of a hilt. The broken blade and tsuba were hacked off by an offhanded slash of Urahara's Benihime. His only option has been to run.
To run, and run and keep on running.
If nothing changes, he's going to die at this rate.
Oh god, he's going to die! What's it all be for if he dies here?! What's the point of everything he's been through until now?! How could he be so worthless? It's-!
"Oh c'mon! Ya killin' me here man." A voice like his own, but harsher and filled with static, tears through his mind and Ichigo grinds to a halt. "Sheesh. This is so pathetic I could puke. Yer really suck at this, partner, ya know that?"
Ichigo doesn't notice Kisuke Urahara halting behind him, studying him intently. Doubtlessly sensing something is about to happen.
"Now yer payin' attention, what the hell's the fuss about? There's one of him and one of you; ya dealt with worse odds than this, King. Its shameful. Get a damn hold of yerself, won't ya?" The static voice admonishes caustically.
In a blink, Ichigo finds himself standing before... himself? His mirror image, but in negative. White hair, white skin, and an inverted shihakushou with a torn black binding on his right shoulder pinned by white bolts, matching the one Ichigo still had pinned to his. His eyes are gleam gold on black and he wears a crooked feral grin.
"Look at yerself, dumbass. Yer running around like a complete moron when all ya gotta do is knock that crusty old fossil's hat off. Why are ya making it so hard on yourself?" It sounds challenging with a hint of mockery.
The mimic raises a white zanpakutou hilt. "Ya want power to save yer precious snow lady, ain't that right? Ya really think screaming like a baby's gonna cut it? Ya think this will?" That feral grin grows a little wilder, casually flicking the hilt away, "Me? See, I can think o' somethin' way better. But'cha gotta prove to me ya got the guts ta use it first!"
Zangetsu.
His zanpakutou is Zangetsu.
Ichigo isn't conscious long enough to celebrate that fact. He doesn't really remember what happened after hearing his sword's name either. He knows he managed a pretty hefty strike, that's about it.
When Ichigo regains consciousness, he's still in Urahara's training grounds propped up against a stalagmite. His awakened zanpakutou is on the ground beside him, wrapped in its own cloth as an impromptu scabbard, tied to a red rosary.
Zangetsu is a completely different shape to Rukia's loaned zanpakutou. More crudely shaped. It has no proper hilt or tsuba, and resembles an oversized kybher knife. When unwrapped, its a long black blade with a thick silver edge. And the spirit itself is one snarky sarcastic little bastard. Ichigo's probably going to have to get used to the maniac cackling away in his head. What he can't quite square away is where the old man slotted into the picture. But that's a mystery he'll have to solve later.
Ichigo groans, rubbing sleep out of his eyes.
The sound draws someone's attention, he can vaguely make out that someone asking for a break and hears them jog over to check on him.
"Sup, lazy guts." His twin brother greets brightly, slightly breathless.
Ichigo blinks, blearily looking up at his brother. He's wearing a shihakushou and has a maroon scabbard tied to his waist. Instead of a sword in his hand, Kaien has a crystalline blue trident in his grasp dotted with beads of water that shine like miniature jewels in the light. A few of his bangs are stuck to his skin with sweat and residual water. Ichigo has to concede the shinigami look does suit him.
Ichigo doesn't immediately respond. Instead he eyes the trident, slender and twice as tall as his brother.
Ichigo arches an eyebrow, "... compensating?"
Kaien snorts derisively, pointing towards Zangetsu at Ichigo's side. "Like you're one to talk with that oversize butcher's knife."
"Rather a knife than a fork." Ichigo shoots back groggily, curling his fingers around his sword's tang. He can feel the power pulsing like a heartbeat; it practically vibrates with glee. With eagerness. It - he wants to fight, he's hungry for battle. "How long have I been out?"
"Bout four hours." Kaien leans down to offer a hand that Ichigo takes, allowing his younger brother to hoist him up.
"And how long have you been here?"
"About three and a half."
"Ah, Ichigo. I'm glad to see you're finally awake." The steady clack of wooden sandals against stone alerts the twins to Urahara's approach. His sword Benihime is unsealed.
Evidently, Urahara had been training with Kaien while waiting Ichigo to regain consciousness. When Ichigo peers around the corner, he can see craters and fissures across the training field, scattered by patches of water. Though they're nothing compared to the giant chasm Ichigo cut into the training field.
"How do you feel?" The shopkeeper prompts, peering at Ichigo from under his stripped hat.
"Like I could sleep for another four days." Ichigo admits, using the red rosary to haul his zanpakutou over his shoulder, "But we've got better things to do. I see you've been busy."
"I have a lot of catching up to do." Kaien shrugs, folding his arms with his trident across his chest, "Only reason I wasn't with you sooner is because Urahara said you were still in the pit. And it took ya three days... funny that. I seem to recall you said you wanted to show me how its done?"
Ichigo groans in dismay. "Yeah, yeah. You won the bet. Ya happy?"
"Ecstatic." Kaien grins. "But, we both made it to the other side in one piece more or less. That's all I care about. Everything after that's a bonus."
"Indeed." Urhara politely interjects himself. "I wanted to focus all of my attention on one student at a time. Truthfully, I had asked Kaien to stay away in anticipation of something going catastrophically wrong while we attempted to reawaken your powers."
"Like me almost turning into a damn hollow?" Ichigo grouses.
Urahara puts on his goofy personal, flicking open his trademark fan to air himself. "But I'm happy to report neither of you have become Hollows. I had every faith you would succeed in the end, which you both have. With your zanpakutou spirits awakened as a bonus. Now that we're cleared your lessons, lets move onto the advanced combat training, shall we?"
"Real fan of 'sink or swim' ain't ya?" Ichigo grumbles.
"Now now, no need to fret over the minutiae. The results speak for themselves. Besides, I didn't hear complaining from our first test subject." Urahara says cheerfully.
"You did, actually." Kaien corrects sharply, "Unfortunately, it was overshadowed by the Shinigami turning Ichigo into a new brand of swiss cheese."
"Can you not describe it that way?" Ichigo asks, then refocuses his attention on the subject matter at hand. He hesitates.
"Wait." Ichigo frowns. He's been in a fight, a proper fight, before and has experience fighting monsters. His brother doesn't. He counts off on his fingers. "We have, what, five days left? Six? Do you really think you'll be able to make... us strong enough to take those guys down and rescue Rukia?"
Urahara fixes him with a steely gaze, wearing a knowing smile. "I understand your implication, Ichigo. And there's no need to worry about that. Both of you have the will to achieve the heights you require for the task. All that's left is for your two to take those necessary steps."
Ichigo is about to interject but Urahara raises a hand, "However, I understand your concern is for your brother."
"I can take care of myself too, you know. I didn't get these powers just to look pretty." Kaien protests mildly, elbowing Ichigo in the ribs.
"Yeah, you can handle yourself in a fist fight, when its just some asshole you need to knock down a peg. Not against other swordsman actively trying to kill us."
"I agree with Kaien, Ichigo. I have no doubts whatsoever he can take care of himself. An additional point in his favour is his Zanpakutou. Nejibana has appeared before in Soul Society's history and has been widely recorded as the most powerful water-type zanpakutou in history."
"Oh great. That's exactly what this brat needs. Can't wait to see this go straight to your head." Ichigo grumbles, rolling his eyes.
"Don't be jealous." Kaien admonishes teasingly.
"It is. Precisely." Urahara interrupts, completely serious. "Inheriting a zanpakutou such as Nejibana is a rarified occurrence, which presents an equally unique opportunity to make up for certain shortcomings. As you pointed out Ichigo, Kaien is lagging behind you in terms of sheer combat experience. However, in along side Nejibana's native power, I have been observing his combat technique these past three hours. It's become increasingly apparent that he will also inherit the muscle memory and martial techniques of the previous user. Naturally, it won't be the same as practical experience, but it is enough of a foundation to allow him to match you, and eventually the Shinigami officers of the Gotei 13."
Ichigo raises an eyebrow. "... What, like that Bleeding Effect thing in Assassin's Creed?"
Kaien shoots his brother a mildly terrified look, "Can we please use another comparison? Preferably one that doesn't imply I'll go insane and start daubing our bedroom walls in blood."
"Don't make that face at me. It was the first thing that popped into my head. I didn't mean it literally!"
"That's irrelevant. Can we not?"
"Oh, get over it, you big whiner." Ichigo dismisses, "Besides, what you do mean 'go insane'? As far as I'm concerned, you've been insane since the day we were born!"
Kaien growls, vein popping on his temple while mimicking a strangle gesture behind Ichigo's back.
Urahara arches a curious eyebrow. "Entertaining as this is; I wonder if I should be concerned about the forms of media you two consume." Then quietly to himself, "But that does give me an idea..."
"Excuse you?" They chorused.
"Oh, nothing~!" Urahara trills, waving his fan.
"But, as cool as it is to have that kind of power at my disposal, and the slightly creepy implications aside, if Nejibana's the most widely recognized of her type, won't that be a problem if we're breaking into the Soul Society?" Kaien asks. "What if I need to use her and people recognize it? Are they gonna accuse me of stealing it?"
"Given what we're trying to do, wouldn't that be the least of our concerns?" Ichigo counters.
"One issue at a time, my young friends." Urahara dismisses. His fan clacks shut. "For now, our training begins in earnest."
Author's note:
Ichigo got Shiro first (long story, to be explained). The twins start training in earnest. This chapter sucked to write but hey! Soul Society soon~! :D
Regards,
Aurora313
