Author's response to the unknown reviews.
To unknown review known only as: 'Fan124'
To put simply. Ouch. That actually stung a bit, real confidence shooter. While I'm not entirely sure as to why I am writing this, since you've already stated ch. 26 was going to be the last chapter you read, I would still none the less like to express my gratitude that you took the time to read this story, and I hope in turn it entertained you. While, I don't necessarily agree with your reasoning since it's more preferential than concrete reasoning, I hope that perhaps someday you can come back and finish the story. It's (hopefully) not going anywhere. So, I bid you fair well. Good day.
To unknown reviewer known only as: 'Katsuragi'
Querido Katsuragi ,
En primer lugar , espero que no me equivoco lo que estoy diciendo , español no es mi lengua materna , por lo que estoy utilizando el traductor de Google . Ahora, a lo que me escribiste . Gracias por elogiar mi trabajo , significa mucho para mí . Ahora para la IchiSen , entiendo su ... decepción. Honestamente, cuando empecé a escribir este fic , tenía la intención de ser capaz de decir con orgullo que he creado la primera historia length ' épica ' que ofrece mi pareja favorita IchiSoi . Sin embargo , como escritor, a veces tenemos extraños impulsos creativos que nos empuja a hacer cosas que nunca pensamos hacer antes, todo en nombre de la creación de público digno material que podemos decir ' Sí, ese fic, lo escribí " .
Uno de los propósitos , la burla nave si usted desea , se llevó a cabo exclusivamente por el valor de la comedia al principio. Si recuerdan mi avatar del personaje Blackout2010 ' explicando a Senna en tono de broma que el metro el romance era bastante baja y que Senna , siendo la parcela sólo es importante femenina de la época, tuvo que tomar el relevo . Más tarde, si sabía o no, empecé a crecer más y más enamorado de la pareja , lo que alimenta en combates puros de impulso creativo que hizo un montón de otros escenarios , que por lo general ha mejorado la historia.
Esto llegó a un punto crítico , cuando Sinceramente, no sé qué hacer con Senna. Por un lado , me pregunté a mí mismo tendría razón de mí para llevar su felicidad, porque si lo hago , no habría una gran cantidad de problemas internos que afectarían a ella ( de ahí por qué me hice un punto de mostrar a la audiencia durante la escenario de la confesión general ) . Luché con una respuesta, así que llegué a la conclusión que a mí mismo , ¿por qué no convertirlo en un dilema moral? Este fic ha tenido varios problemas, donde no hubo respuesta correcta a la solución. La cuestión que quería plantear era la siguiente: ¿Cuál es la medida de la felicidad ? ¿Dónde se establece la línea en la arena de lo que está bien y lo que está mal con él? Quería transformar la cuestión de una simple respuesta de que no me gusta porque es raro, y quería hacer en una cuestión de causa del pensamiento .
Ahora que fue entonces, esto es ahora. No voy a pelos en la lengua , y aún estoy un poco inseguro , pero estoy muy inclinado hacia un maridaje de tres vías . Así que , si eso es un tema de oferta para usted, entonces lo siento. Yo aprecio su patrocinio , y me gustaría extender mis disculpas. Ciertamente espero que mi fic hasta este punto, usted ha entretenido y aliviado incluso un pequeño peso en su mente.
Deseando lo mejor,
Jeanluc Ocasio alias Blackout2010
Well, that was long, unto the next part which is!
A Challenge presented:
Firstly, as you can see by the title, just below is a story challenge for those willing to undertake it. I gave my word to fellow author Storylover213 that I'd post it up, so for those who wish to try please feel free to PM him/her if you want a go. Below are the detail.
Details: Well, the Challenge is for an Ichigo with a OC Zanpaktou, instead of Zangetsu, fic. The OC Zanpaktou can be something you make yourself or it can be based off another power from a different source, like Greed's abilities from FMA. It would start at the beginning of the Rescue Rukia Arc during the Shattered Shaft, and continue on till the end of the Arrancar Wars and go further if you wish, with whatever changes you wish to make to the Canon. Ichigo must at some point learn how to control his inner Hollow earlier than he did in the Manga, and also learn how to control both of his berserk Hollow Forms (Vasto Lorde Ichigo and rampaging half-mask Ichigo). The pairing for the story is a choice of Ichigo/Halibel, Ichigo/Yoruichi, or Ichigo/Four-Five girl harem (with either Tia or Yoruichi having a place in it.)
So that's it does this sound good enough to you.
-Sincerely
StoryLover213.
Recap requirements:
OC Zanpaktou (can't be Zangetsu)
Start at Shattered Shaft.
Ichigo masters his Hollow form (subset abilities are optional)
Pairing must be: Yoru/Ichi, Ichigo/Halibel, or Harem.
Minimum length from SS to Arrancar arc (afterwards, whatever you want).
Good luck with that Audience happy story forming, now unto!
Prefic banter:
Mayuri: HEY! This is Mayuri Kurotsuchi with an important announcement. It has recently come to my attention that all you brainless…valued customers have been going to that two-bit hack Urahara for supplies. (1)
Zaraki: THAT ENDS TODAY!
Mayuri: Why you ask? Simple. Because as of this moment the 'Kurotsuchi Scientific Emporium' is open for business! Here at our emporium we have scientist doing twenty-four-seven testing to ensure our product it the best. Scientist such as:
Zaraki: CAVE JOHNSON! (2)
Cave Johnson: Burn life's house down with combustible lemons!
Zaraki: OROCHIMARU!
Orochimaru: Everything I use is kid friendly.
Zaraki: LEX LUTHOR!
Luthor: I have enough money to cure cancer, but I chose not to.
Zaraki: AND THAT ONE GUY WHO TRIED TO DESTORY THE WORLD THAT ONE TIME!
Guy?: BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! IT'S ALIVE! ALIVE!
Mayuri: I know what you're thinking! You're thinking 'maybe these products aren't for me'. But hold on, allow me to introduce our first product: The very feisty scent of-
Zaraki: GENOCIDE!
Mayuri:…-cologne! That's right. While everyone else is coming into the office smelling like a coffee fiend, you can strut on in smelling like-
Zaraki: AN ASS KICKER!
Mayuri: And when your boss gets in your face you can-
Zaraki: KICK HIS ASS!
Mayuri: This will also increase your popularity by 500%-
Zaraki: WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT!
Mayuri: But hold up we've got more after this commercial message. Stay tuned!
Chapter 30: Facing the truth, facing yourself
A low chime echoed throughout the Kurosaki residence, filling all the empty space and piercing behind every door frame into each room. A small interval of silence passed by before the same low chime reverberated through the air again, this time successfully stirring one of the home's occupants.
The young woman's eyes flitted open for a moment, before closing back up, as she choose to return to her blissful rest; however, before she could enjoy the rewards of her choice, she was once again privy to the interrupting ring of her doorbell.
Cracking open her eyes again, she moved her head to the side to let her see her clock on her dresser. The red circular timekeeper read the time to be seven-thirty in the morning, much too early for a delivery man, which left the only other conclusion she could think of.
'I don't need truancy officers this early. Sides haven't missed a day yet…' The young proprietress mentally groaned, as she gently removed Shaolin's outstretched arm, that was resting against her shoulder and fell to her back, so she could get out of bed. Thankfully, as she was getting out, the tired captain let out a groan from the departure of warmth and retracted her arm back, as she shuffled her body to rest on her stomach.
Once Senna was on her feet, she stretched, straightened her back up, as much as she could, popping any joints that had seized up during the night prior, and waking up her muscles.
After the brief stretch, she looked back at her bedmate and concluded that it might be best to wake her for the new day to come. So, leaning down, she placed her hand against the snoozing Captain's shoulder and lightly shook her.
Shaolin, with much more room to move, rolled over to cocoon herself under the blanket and return to the peaceful embrace of deep sleep. Unfortunately, for her, the now awakened Senna wouldn't have it.
"Come on, Shaolin-chan, time to get up." She chided, as she turned the girl back over to face her.
"Rrgg…" the groggy Chinese woman groaned, barely raising the effort to open her eyes. "Five more minutes." She practically begged, before closing her eyes. "I'm exhausted…let me sleep, Gakusei."
Senna bit her lip, understanding of her tiredness due to yesterday's fighting, but she still had little choice in the situation. "The sun is already up Sensei." She replied quietly.
Shaolin's eyes flitted open again, momentarily regarding the ray of light filtering into the room from the nearby window. "I know…" she muttered, as she touched her shoulders. "But there was a time shift delay when Ichigo and I crossed over from the Soul Society. We've been up for nearly 36 hours yesterday."
The girl sighed and just when she was going to reply the doorbell rang again, her impatient guest catching her ire. "ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT! I HEARD YOU THE FIRST TIME! HOLD YOUR HORSES!" She shouted towards her door hoping her voice carried to the rude person outside.
Turning back to the semi-awake woman, she offered her a hand with a small sympathetic smile. "I know you don't want to, but please get up." She tilted her head slightly, smiled widening. "If you do, I'll make you and Ichigo the best breakfast ever."
The dull rumble of the woman's stomach echoed much to the Captain's chagrin. "V-very well." She faltered, as she slowly started to unravel herself from the blanket to get out of the bed.
As the girls left Senna's room, still wearing the clothing they left on their Gigais yesterday, they were surprised to see that Ichigo was turning at the T-shaped junction towards the front door. He was wearing pants, but his upper body was shirtless save for the towel over his shoulder. The telltale signs of a shower.
He bobbed his head slightly, in recognition to their presence, before continuing to the door to open it. As the door swung open, it revealed a tall buxom silver haired maiden in a black Hakama and lieutenants badge wrapped around her arm.
The giant woman bowed apologetically. "I'm sorry for disturbing you so early in the day, but medical relief has just arrived. I'm also here to inform you all on the situation."
His memory kicking in, Ichigo recognized Isane Kotetsu and back away from the doorway. "No, it's alright, Isane." He said as he extended his hand in the direction of the two girls. "Please come in."
Isane muttered her thanks as she ducked under the low hanging, before taking a seat at the dining room table along with the others.
"I'm glad Soul Society was able to send someone, especially a friendly face like you, Isane-chan." Senna started up.
While the gentle giant was appreciative of her kind words, Isane bit her lips at the reality of the situation. "I wish we could have come sooner, but with the collapse of the barrier yesterday, opening up a gateway full of Shinigami might have caused more harm than good." She lowered her head in apology "Again, I'm sorry we couldn't reach you until today."
"That's alright. Our part of the task force didn't suffer any damage that we couldn't heal on our own." The Captain replied, before she leaned forward with a solemn expression, placing her elbows on the table. "But you mentioned about informing us on the situation. Has something changed?"
"Unlike you three the rest of the defense team suffered major casualties." She pulled out a small list from her pocket and glanced over it before reading aloud. "Hitsugaya-Taichō suffered from several severed tendons in his arm and shoulder as well as other lacerations. Ikkakku Madarame was transported to the intensive care unit back at the fourth division, due to severe third degree burns, he had to be sedated. Renji Abarai suffered from laceration as well as a punctured stomach, I think the blood loss might have been more serious then what I heard, because he seemed to be suffering from delirium mention in detail a Quincy that helped him out…but everyone knows the Quincy were destroyed at the turn of the last century. Rukia Kuchiki suffered a moderate concussion from blunt force trauma, but reports she got off lightly. We also have seventeen confirmed KIA's including seventh seat of squads six and eight Canna Lachlan and Etzli Zolin."
"That bad…" A mutter of disbelief escaped Ichigo.
They suffered that many losses? To what? Five? Maybe, six Arrancars? If this trend was going to be the norm then this war was going to be a lot bleaker than initially expected.
"Yes, I'm afraid." She said quietly, as she reached into her pocket, pulling out another small report that she handed over to captain Soifon. "In addition to that, one of the towers designed to protect Karakura town was extensively damaged. So we're pulling double time to finish constructing the rest of the towers around the city, that way if another one breaks during the war, we won't suffer a forced reiatsu suppression on ourselves."
The Captain nodded her head as she finished reading the report. Handing it back to Isane, the blue haired woman turned to the Kurosaki siblings. "It seems Urahara-san had a feeling that this might happen, so he made sure that during the execution phase that upon a tower reaching seventy-five percent completion, the building team would focus on the next one, providing multiple back-ups." Her eyes darted back to Isane. "Thank-you for providing this report, Fukutaichō."
"Umm, I also have a set of orders from Captain Unohana, which is backed by several other Taichōs." That caught their attention. It was rare that several Taichōs agreed upon a decision made by someone other than the Sotaichō.
"What did she say?" asked Senna, her words laced with curiosity.
The shorthaired woman clasped her hands together. "Because we don't know the physiological nature of these new enemies, or the effects that either the Hogyoku or Hueco Mundo might have on us, all active human world Shinigami are being recalled back for mandatory debriefing and health evaluations."
"Health evaluations? Why?" Senna tilted her head in confusion, "Can Hollows carry diseases or something?"
Ichigo met Senna's eyes and answered her question, "Well, people's souls can still get sick, Senna, just ask Captain Ukitake," Ichigo pointed his thumb at Shaolin, "or better yet, ask 'Captain Winter'." He poked fun of the weather-prone captain.
"Something you wish to repeat, Fukutaichō Kurosaki?" the unamused captain snarled, her grey eyes flashing indignantly, while a nervous Isane scooted her chair a little further away from the short woman.
A bemused smirk flitted across Ichigo's lips, since he knew she wasn't really serious about her implied threat and would have instead given an amusing justification about her embarrassing secret, but with Isane here and unaware of their clandestine relationship, they wouldn't risk it possibly getting back to SWA, specifically the rumor mill Rangiku.
"Anyway, Senna." Ichigo continued, "You remember when Rukia and I told you that Hollow are twisted human souls?"
"Yeah, their pluses that weren't reached in time and feed on others to try and satiate the emptiness in their hearts." She repeated what they had told her long ago.
"Right, well, it's doubtful that Hollows have much in the way of hygiene and Hueco Mundo does have some differences from Soul Society, so it's possible for them to have a transmittable disease. Most times healing kido can neutralize foreign spiritual particles in the body, but," he extended his hand Isane's way. "like she said, the Arrancar are different from the average Hollow."
"That's correct, Kurosaki-Fukutaichō." Isane acknowledged, as she held her hand palm-faced up on the table. "We just want to make sure that none of us needs to be worried about getting some kind of Hollow infection. Creating a remedy now is better than trying to create it in the middle of battle."
You two have both Hollow and Shinigami parts.
The words of Urahara rang in the mind of Shaolin, who narrowed her eyes intently. If the blond pair they had met yesterday could teach them to use Hollow powers then that meant they had Hollow parts in them too, for better or worse.
However, if the doctors at Soul Society were actively looking for Hollow DNA, it would lead to one of two conclusions. They find it in the Kurosaki's and then they remove it, causing them to miss the chance to gain control of this Hollow power and affect the outcome of this war.
The other equally bad conclusion was, that upon discovery, a riot would ensue once word spread that the Kurosaki's were technically walking biohazards. The fear and paranoia would eventually reach boiling point that the two might have to be monitored, or put under some kind of control, which would only serve to re-solidify the Vizards' warning.
'Promise.' She corrected herself, as she closed her eyes. She knew what she had to do. "I'll go on behalf of all of us." She replied, her response calling all eyes to her.
Looking towards Isane, she lifted her hand in the direction of the siblings. "These two have a very special mission authorized by the Sotaichō, which is strictly need to know, Kotetsu-Fukutaichō. But luckily for us, I've been with them this entire trip as per my own orders, so if these two happened to catch some kind of infection, it will already be in my system, so if you can cure me, it'll cure them." She explained.
The gray haired woman's eyebrows rose, not expecting to hear about a classified mission. "Okay, Taichō." She nodded, as she got up from the table. "Then shall we head out Soifon-Taichō? Your group was the last one."
The Captain glanced warily at the two Kurosaki's, her worry evident on her face, but before she could turn away, she felt Ichigo's hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, Captain. We'll be fine." A smile grew on the man's face "By the time you get back, we'll be ready to take the fight to Aizen."
Senna smiled as well to ease her trepidation. "Yeah, just head on back and tell your leader to be ready."
The stoic Captain felt her lips curve upward into a small smile. "Alright. Be careful then." She got up from the table and exited her Gigai. "I trust you remember where to go?" she asked one more worry driven question.
"The docks, don't worry." Ichigo reassured, "We'll see you back here."
The woman nodded and turned to the lieutenant from four. "Very well. Kotetsu-Fukutaichō, ready to depart?"
"Of course."
With their debriefing finished, the pair departed Senna's apartment, using their Shinigami forms to cross through the air to the transition point.
As they strolled at a leisurely pace to avoid any unseen complication, Isane found herself in an odd position with the Second squad Captain. Even though they were both in SWA, the two of them weren't particularly close, so finding something to talk about to help get an idea of her mental state wasn't easy.
The tall woman nervously looked at the scowling Captain from her peripheral, her eyes traveling over her body to find a conversation starter. Once her eyes came to the woman's hand, her movement became a little more rigid, at what she saw.
Her sudden twitch in movement seemingly caught the Captain's eyes. When Soifon turned in her direction, Isane immediately focused her eyes directly in front of her to avoid the suspicion of her shorter travel companion.
When the intimidating gaze of her superior left her body again, she looked back to see the woman let out a quiet sigh, before considerably softening up her usual grim expression. Once again, the combat medic was beginning to wonder if she was in some weird daydream, since it was so…un-Soifon like. Her eyes went back to object she noted earlier 'I wonder if that-'
Her thought were interrupted by Soifon speaking aloud, "What are you staring at?" the Captain asked bluntly, causing her opposite to think she fell from a daydream straight into a nightmare.
When no response was given, no doubt to her clamming up, Shaolin held back the acquired edge in her voice. "Kotetsu-san," she said, her voice much softer, but still carrying it's professionalism. "You've been shooting looks at me for a little bit and your body language suggests nervousness." Her eyes shifted from the air in front of her to the woman beside her. "After last night, I find this to be more than a little unnerving; hence, why I am asking you if something is wrong." She explained her perception.
"O-oh, it umm…nothing, nothing serious." She started out, turning her body back towards her superior. "but…umm well…" she lifted her right arm slightly and pointed at the woman's hand closest to her. "You're wearing a ring, Soifon-Taichō."
A puzzled expression crossed the Captain's face as she glanced down, and to her horror, she saw that the marriage ring Ichigo had given to her, exposed to the natural air. 'How could I be so stupid as to forget my gloves!?' the panicked woman screamed on the inside.
Nearly two years of their successfully maintained clandestine relationship was now threatened exposure because of a single blunder. 'No.' she thought to herself, her eyes wandered over to the tall woman who was moving her lips. 'I need to convince her that it's not what it looks like. But how? I can't order her to forget what she saw that's basically admitting it. Maybe if I killed her? Dead people tell no tales. No, that would just be unethical; I could never, but then wha-'
"Captain, are you listening to me?" the oblivious woman asked,
"Huh?" she replied stupidly, her inner conspiracy bubble getting popped.
Swallowing the lump in her throat, the gentle woman repeated her prior question. "I asked: If you knew the social implications of wearing a ring on the ring finger of your left hand, Soifon-Taichō."
'Eureka!' the Captain thought, "Ummmmm…no." she replied, her voice sounding just a bit defensive. "Why?" scripting her eyes to look down, towards the hand at her side, she added. "I'm not insulting people am I?"
'Of course, she wouldn't know.' Isane thought to herself with a motherly smile, since romance and Captain Soifon did not equate. "No, nothing like that, Captain." She said, which seemed to ease the feigningly tense captain's posture. "A ring on your left hand ring finger means that you're married to someone or that you're getting engaged."
"O-oh really?" she answered back, as she lifted her hand up to face level. "I didn't know that. Senna loaned it to me while I was in my Gigai last night." She lied, as she pulled the silver ring off her hand and pocketed it. "She was regaling me about human world fashion and how best to blend in with other humans. I'll have to return it to her when I get back."
To the fukutaichō's surprise, she received a sincere smile. "Thank-you. You saved me a lot potential embarrassment."
"N-no problem." She accepted; eating down the white lie mixed with genuine positive emotion. "You know you've really undergone a positive psychological change, Captain."
"I've changed? Wait. You've been monitoring me?" she questioned, as she warily took a step away from the doctor.
"No, nothing like that." The girl fretted, since she didn't want to give her the wrong idea after successfully breaking the ice between them. "Umm…what I mean is, I specialize in medical psychology more than I do medical practice."
Soifon's scrunched up her features, "Soooo, what does that mean? You're not actually a doctor?"
"No, I am. I just specialize in one field more than another, I'm still fully qualified to practice medicine." She clarified, "Anyway back to what I meant: During the SWA meetings and in your conversations, I've noticed a pattern over the years."
"What is this pattern exactly?" the Chinese woman asked, her expression guarded.
"I've noticed that ever since Kurosaki-Fukutaichō joined your squad, you've become far less reserved and much more expressive. Before he joined, you rarely took an interest in the doings of the club, mostly keeping to yourself with a scowl on your face or conversing with your third seat, but after Ichigo joined as a replacement, you gradually started to chat more with the other members, even offering to listen to their problems and give advice. A year later and you surprise us all by actively initiating your first member, Senna-san, whom you had spoken quite fondly of, even though you only knew each other for the week after Aizen's treachery.
"Really?" the Captain muttered to herself, having not realized the little changes she had undergone when she wasn't thinking.
"I wasn't the only one who noticed. When I asked my Captain and Rangiku about it, they both agreed that Ichigo really grows on people. And their right." The woman looked into the blue sky, thinking back on her memory of the man.
"When I met him alone at the cemetery after Aizen departed, I saw him thinking about our mutual friend, Hanataro-kun. I spoke with him and I learned that he's very dedicated to doing what he thinks is for the best, but he still cares about people. I could see why people respected and looked up to him." The woman's eyes fell back on the quiet Captain. "That's why I think he had an impact on you too, Captain."
Shaolin was silent as she thought over her memories of the man. Finally, she let out a small chuckle. "I guess you're right. Maybe I have changed." She said wistfully, as they continued their stroll to the transfer point.
(Ichigo and Senna)
Stepping off the city bus, the Gigai clad pair walked through the large gates leading to the shipyard's warehouses. They walked past the motorized forklifts and busy hard-hat workers towards their destination.
Once they reached the plot on the far end, the pair spared a glance at each other; each sibling looked the other over to wash away any lingering doubts, before nodding simultaneously and knocking loudly against the galvanized metal door. The pair stood there for a moment, the sound of battered metal ringing in their ears, before the mechanism operating the warehouse door kicked on and began to remove the obstacle in their way.
As the large piece of galvanized metal lifted up, they saw the smirking form of Shinji with his hands in his pocket. "Well good mornin' to ya." He greeted amicably. "Gotta say you look a lot healthier than I expected."
"So you felt the fighting." Senna said more as statement than a question.
The man nodded "Yup."
"And you didn't interfere." Ichigo said next
Again another nod "Yup." He replied, popping the p at the end.
"Why?"
The man pursed his lips boredly. "Like I said, not our problem. The whole Aizen shtick is a problem born and raised by Soul Society. I washed my hands of that place, the moment they put a target on my back." He then looked over at Ichigo "Which speaking of, am I going to have to look over my shoulder while you're here, Mr. Shinigami?"
"Would you believe any answer I tell you?" he asked sardonically.
The man smiled cheekily. "Nope," He then turned around and started walking back into the depths of the warehouse. "walk this way." He gestured with two fingers.
Following closely in step, the two Shinigami walked into the dark empty warehouse, eyes scanning the area for the man's partner or the people he mentioned before.
When they reached the further most corner, Shinji knelt down and muttered something. Immediately a flickering silver light coated his index finger, placing it down in front of his feet, the patch of dirt morphed into a trapdoor with a circular metal ring and iron chain.
Glancing over his shoulder to pass the hint for them to back up, he pulled open the door that led to some underground stairwell.
Following down the stairwell, the two Kurosaki's were surprised to see the underground area was huge in comparison to the top floor; it might very well have encompassed most of the shipyard. The question as to how such a place came to exist was put on hold when the Shinigami saw an assortment of individuals sitting on a picnic blanket eating food.
"Hey-o!" Shinji called out to get everyone's attention.
The tall pink haired man wearing the cooking apron, looked up from his pot of stew, and quickly pointed to the man's right "Hirako look-"
The man didn't get a chance to finish when the blond girl from yesterday, Hiyori, drop kicked the man in the side of the face, forcing him to eat into the hard rocky ground.
The guests, while miraculously able to maintain their outward front, were reasonably shaken on the inside after seeing the 'greeting' the man got back from his own.
Perhaps, it was for the best they had come today instead of yesterday.
"Hey…you alright, slack jaw?" Hiyori asked, her voice holding a certain amount of concern, since she hit the wrong person with her kick.
Placing his arm against the ground to push himself up, Shinji looked back from his fallen position at the obvious perpetrator. "WHAT THE HELL!?" he yelled as got up to nurse his jaw, "What was that for!?"
The girl's concern fell back underneath the surface. "Shock and awe." She shot back. "We're supposed to be a group of badass warriors, and they come walking in while we're stuffing our faces with soup, rice balls and toast."
From the blanket, a green haired girl wearing a white jumpsuit, hoped to her feet with obvious indignation at something. "Heyyyy! You said you liked my cinnamon toast!" she shouted, as she pointed an accusing finger at shorter girl.
"I told you it WAS good, but we really-" she stopped and looked back up to the stairwell to see the still unnerved pair. "HEY! Stop eavesdropping jackasses, it's fuckin' rude! Learn some goddamn manners!" she yelled, as she pointed her finger at them accusingly.
Senna sighed, as she turned to her brother. "We're screwed…" she muttered dejectedly, her eyes dull and lifeless.
"Yup…that's a good way of putting it." He answered, as he watched the two bicker about how they needed to seem intimidating to newcomers.
The two bickered for a few more seconds, before a pierced silver haired man wearing a blue muscle shirt and beige shorts yelled at the pair. "Hey shut up the both ya! You're giving us all a bad rep!" his eyes then drifted over to the recovered Shinji.
"Hirako, what's the deal with them? I thought we agreed only to deal with Kisuke or Yoruichi, no outsiders." the man glanced back at the pair with hard glare. "Or are we getting double crossed? Again."
"Naw, it's legit." The man replied, as he walked over to the pair are extended towards them. "These two are the ones Urahara told me to tell you guys about." He then eyed over his friends annoyed, "Course, you would have known about it if you all hadn't up and bailed for a night on the town last night."
"We were out of food and needed to resupply, can't mooch off Urahara all the time." said the large pink haired man wearing a green business suit.
"I believe I already informed you of my desire to complete my collection of 'Nayamashi Quartet'." The sailor uniform wearing girl with glasses replied, unashamedly of her choice in genre.
"Hey, me and Love went to see the movie 'Summer wars'! It was the last showing!" the lime green haired girl shouted dutifully as she pointed to a man wearing a green tracksuit, who was shaking his head proudly.
"I was practicing my riveting violin serenade on the far side of our play ground."
"If by 'riveting' you mean 'smash your head against the wall until the noise stops', then yeah riveting." Hiyori snarked.
"I was pulling a double shift on the docks, since everyone else except Hachi want to be a freeloader." The silver haired man stung verbally. "What's your excuse?"
"All right, all right, damn. I'm just trying to say a little heads up would be nice." The man's face grew serious "You guys already know that Urahara has been doing his best to try and understand our condition. He's convinced the answer to reverse engineering it lies within these two."
"Really?" the glasses wearing woman muttered with a look of astonishment, a sentiment matched by her colleagues.
"When I was visiting him last time, he mentioned his trip to Soul Society and about the data regarding these two. He speculated that if they could naturally use Hollow power, then he could isolate the physiological reason as to why. When I asked him for the details, he mentioned the Aizen spiel. He said he managed to get Yamamoto to temporarily rescind the bounty on us in exchange for teaching them to use the power of Hollows. I'm still working on getting it permanently dropped but that's another story."
"Sounds like this has been going on for a while." Rose commented, obviously dissatisfied. "I wish you had mentioned something earlier."
Shinji rubbed the back of his neck, "I didn't know about it till recently and I didn't want to bring it up because I didn't want to get any ones hopes up, besides I said 'temporary rescinded'."
"Then Yamamoto must be very desperate or he's gone unusually soft." Kensei muttered ominously, "I don't like it."
"That's enough conspiracy talk, you're worrying them." He waved off, trying to redirect back on topic. "Let's start with introduction and then begin on finding out the level of these Hollows before we try forcing them out."
From the back, the pink haired man with the cooking apron stood up "My name is Hachi Ushoda. Pleased to meet you."
The green haired girl hopped up and saluted, "Mashiro Kuna! Totally cool to meetcha!"
From beside her, the silver haired man eyed them carefully before saying. "Kensei Muguruma."
His fierce gaze was abruptly ended when Mashiro yelled, "Stop trying to look cool Kensei!"
Kensei quickly wheeled around to the woman "I'm not. This just how I normally look!" he exclaimed, unknowingly earning sympathy points from Ichigo, who experienced similar problems in Shinigami school.
"Blah, blah, blah, no one cares!" she waved off dismissively
"What was that you little-"
The long blonde man sighed at them arguing, before he bowed gracefully. "Please do ignore them, I am Rojuro Otoribashi, but you may refer to me as Rose."
The guy in the green tracksuit stepped up next. "Name's Love Aikawa, and yes, Love is my first name. I am the symbol of the union between Passion Aono and Fury Aikawa."
Next Hiyori spoke, "I'm Hiyori Sarugaki, just in case you morons forgot."
"Lisa Yadomaru, a pleasure." She greeted as she adjusted her glasses.
"Shinji Hirako or Hirako Shinji, either one works."
"Wait…those names…" Ichigo's muttered as he thought about them. They seemed familiar, he knew he should know them, but from where?
"What? We've already been taking out of the textbooks at Shino? Man, they must really hate us to do something that petty." Shinji complained aloud as he scratched his chin annoyed.
Senna tilted her head confused, "Textbooks?" she repeated not getting the man's hint.
Snapping his fingers, now Ichigo was able to put his finger on them. "You guys are the Captains and Lieutenants that went missing shortly before Urahara vacated Soul Society."
"That we are."
The orange haired man felt his stomach drop. "No wonder you hate Soul Society, you barely escaped persecution."
"For a crime we didn't intentionally commit." Shinji cheerfully finished, "That about sums it up."
Ichigo leaned forward, "So what happens now? You don't seem eager to want to teach us."
"I ain't eager to teach anyone these techniques kid. As questionable as their decisions are, Central 46 got it right when they said it's forbidden to wield these powers." Shinji replied, as he scratched the side of his chin. "But a deal is a deal, you're helping us out, least we could do is return the favor."
"Judging by their reishi and spiritual potentials, it seem these two will have very troublesome Hollows." Hachi informed as he took off his apron, "I'd best get started on an appropriate barrier."
As the large man started to walk off, Senna turned to Lisa. "So how exactly does one train to use Hollow powers? Is it like practicing the four basic style of Shinigami combat?"
The woman shook her head, "No. What we must do is bring out your Hollows, so that you may subdue them in your inner world, while we keep your body under control in this world. After which we may begin your training proper."
"I see." The girl looked back at Ichigo quietly, as she thought something over. "Can I go first then?" she asked him.
"Senna…" the man muttered obviously objecting to it.
The girl smiled seeing his concern "Ichigo, you're the stronger of the two of us, and you have Bankai. If I go first, then you'll know what you're getting into, and if I succeed then I can help you keep your body in control." She smiled "It's a win-win, Ichigo."
"Only if you don't die." Ichigo countered knowingly.
A small grunt escaped her since what he said was true. "Ichigo," she said softly "I have to do it either way." A relaxed smile placed it's self on her face to convince her stalwart brother. "Just trust me. I won't let you down."
The man gritted his teeth, before relenting. "Alright, we'll do it your way, but be careful." He then looked at Rose. "About how long will it take for us to get started? The war isn't going to wait forever."
"I take it by you impulsiveness that you are as young as you look." The breezy man replied, "It shouldn't take more than two hours for us to set up the barrier. Please eat and relax." The man turned around and started to walk off. "It just might be your last chance."
(Soul Society)
"Thank-you for the escort, Kotetsu-Fukutaichō." Soifon thanked, as the pair reached the door leading to the Captain's hall, where each member of the advance team gave their debriefing, before dismissal.
"Not a problem. Good day."
The large woman bowed before disappearing in a flash step. The absence of the woman in front of her, gave Shaolin a clear view of the white city that stretched out before her, what it was they defended. The Captain's eyes lingered over Soul Society for a minute more, before she put back on her serious face to see the head captain.
Pushing open the doors she stepped into the hall, which was empty save for the Sotaichō standing ever firmly at the end.
The woman quickly crossed the distance before kneel in front of her commander. "I apologize for my lateness, Sotaichō. I overslept after last night's confrontation with Aizen's forces."
"Yes, these Arrancar I've heard so much about." The old man said knowingly, as he stroked his chin. "They are quite troublesome indeed. It seems Urahara was correct in his assumption that Aizen would try to test out his new force, but I never thought he'd strike Karakura. It seems I was too objective with the situation."
"You couldn't have known, sir." She tried to assuage, although the man looked no less swayed.
"No matter, what's done is done. I would like your status report on the mission I sent you on."
The woman nodded, "Ichigo and I rendezvoused with our target, Senna, and proceeded to Urahara's who debriefed us on a curious revelation." She then lifted her gaze, her eyes making contact with the old Shinigami. "How long have you known that Ichigo and Senna could tap into the power of Hollows?"
"I was made aware of it by Urahara himself after he made some careful observations regarding them. He informed me that such a power could play a pivotal role in our struggle against Aizen, especially since they aren't under the hypnosis of Aizen's Shikai."
Shaolin's stomach sank as she recalled Shinji's words. "Urahara also revealed a small group who could tap into the same power as Ichigo…were you aware of them as well?"
Yamamoto raised an eyebrow, perhaps he was mistaken of just how interactive the girl truly was with her ex-allies. "I would think you would be aware of them yourself. They were your predecessor's colleagues after all." He pointed out for the woman.
The woman's eyes lit up at what he said. "I see. I thought they were familiar, but I couldn't place it." She stated carefully, as her eyes drew away from the man. 'That explains how they know the judicial process so well.' She concluded darkly.
The old man coughed to get the woman's attention back to the debriefing. "Continue with your report, Soifon-Taicho."
"I assume you've already been well informed about the Arrancar, regarding their ranking system, abilities, and their possession of Zanpaktou, so I'll skip it and tell you that Ichigo and Senna are currently training with the ex-group of Taichōs and Fukutaichōs to gaining control of their Hollows."
"I understand." He was about to dismiss her when he saw the woman get up from her knees with a bit of defiance in her eyes. "Something on your mind, Taichō?" He asked, since it was rare time she had such a look.
"Yes. A…" she paused to consider her phrasing, she didn't want to reveal there to be more to her and Ichigo's relationship, especially now. "'concern' was raised to me, it's in regards to the subset of orders you instructed me to perform."
"Really?" he responded with veiled caution, "I was sure I explicitly said to proceed at your own discretion. What was is that concerns you?"
"I was wondering: Once this business with Aizen is finally settled, what it was you plan on doing with Kurosaki-Fukutaichō and the girl, Senna. You and the central forty-six forbade any individual with Shinigami powers to try and possess the powers of Hollow, so what will happen to them?"
The ancient Shinigami nodded his head, seeing what was going on. "Did Shinji put you up to this?" He asked.
When small woman kept her mouth closed in fear of a bad response, he continued, "I told you when I gave you those orders, I needed someone to carry them out without question. You were my primary selection because of your loyalty to Soul Society and your ability to approach them without raising their guard. That is why I came to you first, before all other prospective candidates."
He opened his eyes, pressing his spiritual energy against her, not enough to inhibit her, but to showcase his seriousness on the matter. "However, if you feel that you have become too close to them and cannot do what it is I require in maintaining the balance amongst the worlds, then tell me now, so that I can recluse you and find someone who can, before you make an irredeemable mistake."
Despite the pressure, the woman maintained her ground. "I'm just trying to ease suspicions…sir." she replied as professionally as possible.
"I understand. However, these suspicions only have grounds, if one does not believe in seeing the bigger picture. I was very careful in the orders I gave you, Captain."
The slightly tanned woman bowed her head, "Yes…you were." She acceded, her hairline obscuring her eyes, hiding her true thoughts.
The Sotaichō eased on his spiritual energy, "It is good to see you understand. Now go, get yourself checked in at Unohana's barracks; after which, if you are cleared, you'll return to your post in the human world."
"My orders?" she asked as she stood up, silently hoping it wasn't what she thought they would be.
The man didn't hesitate. "The same as last time. Protect Ichigo Kurosaki and the substitute Shinigami Senna, while overseeing their condition. Kill any high priority targets should a reasonable opportunity arise, and-"
Despite her crestfallen disposition, she concealed how she felt behind her usual ice queen front. "-and Kill Ichigo Kurosaki and Senna should they prove too dangerous to leave alive or become a threat to Soul Society. I know." Shaolin finished, already knowing what he was going to say.
"Good." He uttered callously, his merciless tone stoking the fire inside of her. "You are dismissed Captain."
The Captain drew in a breath and exhaled, bowing her head submissively to her commander again, before she got up and turned to leave. On the inside, she kept her anger in check as she walked back the way she came. She knew that he was just looking at the big picture from a realistic point of view; she had just survived a night against enemies that were in the same league as herself.
She knew that the power of Hollows was certainly not something to be trifled with, but that didn't mean she would agree with Yamamoto's assessment, that she wasn't angry that he practically proved Shinji's words right.
After initially receiving the mission, and the wave of embittered distrust left her mind, she considered the very idea that Senna or Ichigo would be a danger to anyone, with the obvious except of Aizen and company, to be ludicrous. Unfortunately, this Hollow business quickly derailed her initial outlook and at one point even made her seriously question whether she would have coldly carried out her orders as 'expected of a Taichō'.
But now…it was okay. She was in a state of clarity and firmly resolute on her personal resolve on keeping her promise to Ichigo, nay the Kurosaki family. 'I will never doubt your path, Aìrén.'
As she pushed past the doors, she took a moment to calm herself down, to ensure she truly buried her emotion on the matter. She had almost let her emotions get the best of her and brought down the masquerade back there, which would have put her loved ones in mortal danger. She'd need to be careful in the future.
"Captain." A voice called out as the double doors behind her closed.
Glancing to her left, she saw the boyish Captain, Toshiro Hitsugaya, leaning against the wall, arms crossed over his chest. "Can I help you Hitsugaya-Taichō?" she then pointed her thumb behind her. "Or are you on your way to speak with the Sotaichō?"
"No, I wanted to speak to you about something."
The curious woman turned to him, wondering what it is he wanted to speak about. "Go on."
The short man pushed himself off the wall, "I was wondering if you'd care to impart some friendly knowledge to me." When the woman raised her eyebrow showing she was interested, he continued, "I've heard in the Onimitsukido, there is a technique that utilizes speed to seemingly escape death. The User leaves behind an afterimage to provide a distraction for an attacker, while they move to a more advantageous positi-"
"You speak of the Cicada technique." She interrupted, as she brought a finger to her lips. "How do you know about such a skill?"
"I can be quite resourceful." He answered cryptically, which didn't amuse the woman.
"Be that as it may, you are not a part of the Onimitsukido; therefore, I am not allowed to teach you those techniques." She said in an open and shut manner.
Toshiro narrowed his eyes, "We're at war Captain Soifon. I would think sharing abilities and communicating between divisions would be prudent. You saw firsthand how dangerous those Arrancar are."
The Captain closed her eyes, since he was quite correct in his assertion. "I acknowledge your point; however, I am not allowed to share these skills precisely BECAUSE I am in Onimitsukido. By sharing such information, I am subject to the punishment of sharing privileged secrets, hefty crimes by both the Organization's standards as well as Seireitei. Even if that wasn't the case, if I were to just go around sharing these abilities frivolously to any asker, Sosuke Aizen would be nigh untouchable by now."
"Are you seriously suggesting that I'd use it against Soul Society?" He said more as a statement regarding her opinion rather than a question.
The woman met his gaze with equal intensity. "I am suggesting that if I did not follow protocol before, after, and during a state of war, I would be responsible for prepping the next Aizen with a powerful evasion technique."
The white haired boy nodded his head as he thought over his words. The woman was about to turn away when she caught sight of him speaking again. "I didn't think I'd have to resort to this low." He stated coldly, pausing just long enough to make sure she was hanging on to his words. "However, I am more than willing to bring to light your illicit affair with one Kurosaki Ichigo, Captain Soifon."
While she didn't show it, the man's words had an effect on her. 'How in the world does he know about that!?' She asked in a scrambled panic.
For the couple, that information was currently the highest expression of their trust in another. Nobody, who wasn't extreme close to both Ichigo and Soifon, would know this information, as for the ones who were told, they were also expressly made aware that sharing such information, before the couple thought the time was right, would cause some serious backlash for them.
So, for him to come up and admit that meant either: He really knew, learning from some third party method, since Ichigo would have told her immediately, or…
'…he's bluffing.'
Playing it cool, Shaolin brought about her usual indifferent scowl. "You're trying to blackmail, Hitsugaya-Taichō? With that kind of groundless conjecture?" a mirthless chuckle escaped her lips, "My advice to you: Get a refund from whatever source you paid to get such information." She was about to turn and walk away when her body stopped at his next words.
"Subaru Kujo was quite detailed on her assertions." He stated. When he saw the woman freeze stiff, he inwardly smirked. "Yes, I'm well aware that your relationship has been going on for quite some time. Though I kept it to myself since I didn't see it as cause for concern, even during the 'Kurosaki rebellion'."
The man received a smoldering look from the woman. "And how is our relationship 'cause for concern' now?" she asked, her grey eyes cursing the man to a violent death.
"I'm not proud of what I'm doing, Soifon." He admitted plainly, hoping it would ensure some civility in future endeavors. "However, Ichigo is my friend, if I can learn this technique, I can better protect him. I would think you'd hold the same belief."
The woman turned her eyes away from him as she thought over his words. She could tell he was being sincere and while she was all for taking liberties with rules, especially when they concerned Ichigo and Senna, breaking what was clearly outlined for her was another matter. Gazing back at the man with corners of her peripheral, for a brief moment, she was reminded of Shinjiro and Subaru.
If taking their word as gospel, then what they did was what they thought they needed to do to protect Ichigo, her and the rest of Soul Society from destruction. While she would never admit it as her opinion as a Taicho of the Gotei 13, she personally still held out in believing in her friend's good intentions and that if Aizen was defeated the pair would surrender immediately.
The woman closed her eyes, her thoughts drifting to her current situation with Hitsugaya. 'Is this really so different then?' she asked herself, since she was in the same boat. Protecting Ichigo, even if it ran counter to her position and the position of others, to the very mission the Sotaichō himself charged her with carrying out.
The white haired boy waited with baited breath. He had played his trump card on her and was having difficulty telling whether or not it had an effect. While he was initially surprised with the revelation, he could see how Ichigo could win someone over, but now it came down to fact versus myth.
He watched the woman carefully, before she turned back towards him. "I am forbidden to teach you it…" she then turned away from him and took a few steps before stopping again. "However…" her solemn voice called back to him, from across the gap between them. "If I used it and you saw me doing it, I would not be wrong. Perhaps, if you had a Zanpaktou..." She trailed off.
The young man did as she 'suggested' and waited for her. "Sometimes, looking at the person's hips, and direction their body is leaning, will give you some insight as to whether the person is going to try cicada on you. You may proceed when ready."
Toshiro gauged her body language and her stance, noting that while she appeared to be standing straight, one leg was being favored in the same direction as her very slight body slant. Once he was finished with his initial evaluation, he gripped his blade before thrusting into her body.
A split second later, all that was hanging on his blade was an empty Captain's Haori; a small grunt escaped his throat at the phenomena. When his ears picked up the sound of footsteps lightly tapping against tile, he turned to his left and saw, as expected, the impassive woman walking up the stairs.
"I thought this left an afterimage." The young man inquired, as the woman reached the final step.
"I said this an applicated use, not an instructional example." She said flatly, as she approached his sword, pausing just long enough to look into his eyes. "It's your own fault if you were too slow to see it."
She then turned away and carefully pulled her Haori off the sword to examine the damage. A frown formed when she saw that the steel went straight through the squad symbol. That would definitely earn her an earful from Yamamoto later, a sentiment she was willing to let be known to the young man. "Besides, I don't have enough Haoris in my wardrobe to teach you anyways. So, I trust you can figure the rest out on your own?"
The boy sheathed his Zanpaktou and bowed slightly "Thank-you, Captain."
The woman returned the bow and was about to flash step off before she stopped herself. "By the way Hitsugaya-Taichō." she said in her professional tone, though the young man could tell it was anything but cordial. "This is just a friendly heads up, but if you try to blackmail me or Ichigo again, I'll murder you in your sleep. That's a surety."
She then disappeared leaving a bemused Hitsugaya behind. "Hmm, it seems she cares quite deeply for you Ichigo. I hope you know what you got yourself into." He chuckled to himself as he went off towards his division to reverse engineer the technique.
(4th division)
Coming out of a flash step, the Captain looked to her side and was greeted by the entranceway into the fourth division's barracks. She was about to take a step towards it, when from the other side of the entranceway the smiling angel appeared.
Retsu looked moderately surprised to see her, before relaxing again. "I was just about to go looking for you Captain Soifon. I was worried Yamamoto might be doing more harm than good with these debriefing; especially, since you were the last one to arrive."
Shaolin bowed respectfully, "My apologies, I was delayed." She then straightened back up. "Isane Kotetsu informed me of the purpose behind these medical screenings. What do we need to do exactly?"
"Follow me inside." She instructed as she turned back in to the building, the young girl following behind quickly.
As they walked through the building, the veteran Captain noticed her junior's serious expression and sought to rectify it. "You don't need to worry." She spoke, getting the woman behind her to shift eyes to her. "It's just a few routine health procedures: A blood drawing, to make sure there isn't anything wrong with the way your body's natural processes are working, an X-ray examination, to ensure no bones were broke or weakened during the struggle, and a couple of statements of how you felt physically and mentally after the struggle."
"Sounds…complicated." The Captain replied warily.
A small chuckle escaped Unohana's lips "Mmhmm, it's just sounds dangerous. It's really just a boring sit down and rest process for you. The test won't take more than two or three hours; you'll be in and out before you know it." The serene doctor replied as she led her to a room with a curtain screen, two chairs and lots of small medical equipment. "Shall we begin?" she asked, hand gesturing for her step behind the curtain.
(Vizards base)
The Kurosaki pair looked off from the rocky plateau they were standing on, at the large golden cube that tapered off a large portion of the underground area. They could see Hachi in the middle of it, stabilizing the barrier with his kido abilities until they were prepared to go. While neither knew of the true complexity behind it, they could tell this was meant to hold something in.
From the corner of his eyes, Ichigo saw the glasses wearing girl, Lisa, approaching. "Preparations are complete. We can begin immediately." She informed the initiates.
"So what do we have to do now Yadomaru-san?"
"We'll give you a moment to decide who is going to go first. After which go speak to Shinji. The one who isn't selected will assist us in keep the chosen from going on a homicidal rampage, while you battle in your inner world." She then turned around "Please deliberate quickly."
When sailor suit Vizard disappeared from sight, the siblings looked at each. "So you still want to go first?" Ichigo asked wanting to be sure of her resolve.
The girl nodded her head, "Yeah." She quietly clasped Ichigo's hand in hers "I just gotta be brave." The young woman smiled, as she got close to Ichigo and gave him a hug. "I'll see you on the other side."
The man wrapped his arms around her shoulders and hips, "You're not alone. I'll be with you every step of the way." He smiled as they stepped back "Now let's do this."
"Right!"
The pair then walked over to where Shinji was having a team meeting with the Vizards. Once the two approached closer, he looked in their direction. "So, whose going first?" the blonde man asked, a seriousness in his voice that reflected the gravity of what they were about to undertake.
"I am." Senna stepped forward.
"Gotcha." He then lifted up hand in front of her face.
The girl stared at it momentarily, wondering what he was doing, until she felt a silent wave beginning to radiate from him palm. She felt her body rocking back and forth, as if the ground was shaking underneath her, to her eyes it very well could have, as the hand before her started to vibrate and split apart, almost as if it was shifting between two spots rapidly.
Blinking her eyes to try to keep her body from throwing up, she finally gave in and closed them to prevent sensory overload.
Ichigo quickly grabbed Senna's body when she finally went limp. He kneeled down and placed her against the ground, before looking up at Shinji. "Why the sleeping kido?"
"Precaution." He answered, as the Vizards started to get close to the prism, "If I simply asked you to enter your inner world through Jinzai, you might have registered the pain during the transitioning period, which would wake you up and pull you out of where the real battle is being fought, causing additional problems. But, if you're unconscious-"
"Then you can't be taken out from the inner world by outside factors." Ichigo finished, causing Shinji to smirk.
"Glad to see you understand." He then turned towards the shining kido barrier. "Pick her up so we can get started."
(Senna)
Falling to her knees, the young priestess brought a hand to her face, covering her eyes. She stayed like that for a few seconds until the ringing sensation left her body.
When her hand fell away, she found herself staring at a rocky dirt road. Chancing a glance, she confirmed she was where she had left off on the mountain of her soulscape. The woman looked to her right, over the edge of the spiraling mountain path, and saw that the sun was beginning to set in her world. The lush green trees, the majestic mountain with a breath taking view, the clear rivers reflecting the light. It was all so beautiful underneath the orange and purple skyline.
Turning her head up towards the nearing summit, she smiled.
She would protect this world.
The woman took in a breath as she gripped her Shakujo that she had used as a walking stick. "I'm ready, Mirokumaru." And then started the final length of her journey.
It couldn't have been five minutes later that she came around the final bend on the spiraling road, which ended in a large flat area about 30 feet in diameter, a fitting place for a duel. Sitting in the center of it all was Mirokumaru. Not too far away from the priestess, was a mysterious door standing with nothing holding it up or seemingly beyond it's eerie glow.
Once Senna had taken in her surrounding, she walked over to the unarmed priestess, who seemed to be in the middle of chanting.
The spirit kept praying until Senna was less than two feet from her. Bringing her hands down from their ritualistic praying gesture, the woman got up to her feet. "Greetings, milady." The good half greeted, with a respectful bow.
The woman's eyebrows raised, "Oh? I thought the other you would be here."
"No. You are correct. You will challenge her."
Senna let out a hum, as she looked away from the spirit to the ground beneath them, her eyes seeing the energy encased in the ground below. When she looked back up, she saw her spirit nodding her head in agreement. "Yes, the other you plans on using the same technique…that is if you get that far." The Miko affirmed, as she pulled the brim of her hat to further conceal her identical face.
"I understand." The girl said with a bit of unease. Her eyes then went over to the door standing not too far away. "Why is there a door there? Does it have a purpose?"
The Zanpaktou took a step back and looked in the direction of the object. "Yes." She turned back to the woman, "It will first take you to a very special room in your heart."
That got her attention. "What's this room exactly?"
"This is your inner world Senna. A world where all is right. However due to the gravity of the situation you are in…I thought that you may wish to see the events etched in your memory that made you the woman you are today. To understand the path you have walked now and find strength in it for the journey ahead."
Senna understood her meaning, "What's the second purpose?"
"Once you are ready, you will begin the fight for your soul." She then stepped aside, allowing the woman to pass.
The Kurosaki walked over to the door and turned the knob, a white light shined through the crack she created. Steadying herself for what lay ahead she opened the door, as a bright blinding light engulfed Senna's body. When the light died down allowing her to see, she found herself in a small hallway that seemed to lead into a roundabout room.
The hallway was devoid of decorations, but the wood that made it up was beautifully polished, it looked ready to stand the tests of time. Step by careful step, she slowly made her way down the hall until it opened up to a large circular room with portraits adorning the wall.
Stepping to her left, she saw the first portrait in the gallery. It showed her father, holding the hand of her six-year old self, smiling as the pair walked by the riverside with fishing rods and bug catching nets. The tranquil river reflecting the fading rays of the setting sun.
She remembered this. It was after first hearing about fireflies that she pestered her father to help her go find the 'glowey bugs' that way she wouldn't have be afraid of the dark. After an hour, they had finally caught some, but her father tried to convince her to let them go, so that they'd light up the night. While stubborn at first, she relented when he promised to take her to the ice cream parlor and sleep in the bed with her.
The woman smiled as she remembered how amazed she had been to see the glowing bugs fly out of her jar and light up the nearby trees, changing the dark river hillside into a beautiful concert of light. Looking at the inscription at the base of the painting, she felt her heartache.
[He who would hold up the world.]
"(Sniff)" the woman wiped her eyes as she felt them getting misty. She walked to the next one, knowing that while she missed her father, he'd want her to stay strong.
The next portrait had a dark background with little yellow pentagrams hanging far above the center. In the center, wearing a green turtle suit was her smiling six-year old self. Across from her was a much younger Don Kannoji. The two of them had their arms crossed and seemed to be doing his traditional 'spirit be with you' laugh.
Senna's eyes widened as the memory that was depicted came rushing back to her. This was from when she was first allowed to go out for Halloween. After hearing all of his fanciful supernatural tales, Don Kannoji, at the reluctant agreement of her dad, promised her that he'd take her to his latest shooting for his show, when they met up outside of her home, Kannoji praised her saying she was the cutest kappa he'd ever seen. He taught her how to do his laugh, saying that every spirit wander beginning their journey needed to know the power of joy, to find happiness in the work they do.
Glancing down the inscription read; a calming sigh escaped Senna.
[A curiosity nurtured.]
Judging by the memory, and it's corresponding inscription, it seemed to be the first brief but solid step in the direction of immersing herself into the spiritual world. A step that would one day lead her to proudly declare her ability to see ghosts as an adult.
Side stepping as the joyful smile settled on her lips, she came across the third picture in the room. Her eyes fell on the Senna in this picture who was much older in comparison to the last picture; she was wearing her Tamagi Honda middle school sailor-fuku and looking back over her shoulder.
Glancing to her portrait self's right, she saw her friend Makoto Yakumo, calling after her, as they ran out of a store with a few brightly colored bags.
This was from the afternoon after her and Makoto first met. The two of them had been paired off to go against one another at the tennis team's practice session. Once the fierce match had ended in the Kurosaki's favor, the two had started to chat before going to the nearby mall for a small shopping session. The pair ended up getting so side tracked at the sweets shop that they almost missed the bus back home.
Senna smiled sadly, even though she was amicable, the green haired girl had been her only real friend she ever had. The combining factors of: her father being an undertaker and mortician, her house one floor above a mortuary service-home, her claim to see and talk to ghosts, and people's paranoia that she might be suffering from a mental disease, left her with lots of acquaintances, but no one her age that didn't occasional whisper things about her.
At least not until her.
Chancing a glance down, she nodded resolutely with the inscription.
[A true friend.]
As she continued to the next portrait in the circular room, she saw that this one was from a very recent event in her life. The background was of Yoruichi and Kisuke's secret training area in the Seireitei, specifically the area where the hidden hot springs were located.
In the painting, the her of then was sitting in chest deep water, filled with uncertainty, as she was staring at a serenely smiling Shaolin, who was sitting on the rock outcrop with her legs dipped in the water and a towel draping down, covering her front, her fingertips lightly brushing under Senna's chin, holding her gaze.
The woman closed her eyes as she remembered this incident. While the picture romanticized what had actually happened, she knew that this was from when she and the Captain had sat down and talked about their respective feelings for Ichigo. She winced as she remembered how she had tried to deceive and misdirect the stern woman then tried to make deals with her before criticizing her.
It made her sick.
She had acted like such a child. She was almost amazed the Captain hadn't reverted back to the colder ruder version of herself she had shown Senna when they first met, or that she didn't just mercilessly back hand her across her cheek, before calling her out on her despicable underhandedness.
Instead of showing righteous indignation at the betrayal, she showed patience, calmly and carefully coaxing her, getting her to see why what she was doing was wrong. She fearlessly regaled the eighteen year old with her own personal tale of harsh unrequited love that ended in the moral: That not only was she inadvertently belittling the happiness of the couple, but of herself too and that she deserved to value herself worth someone's love.
The hurt in the woman's words, born out of her genuine concern for the love-struck girl's happiness, broke Senna's heart, it made her cry, it made her disgusted of her selfishness, it made her wish she could take back every action she believed she may have committed against the understanding woman.
But most importantly, it was a wake-up call. A wake-up call telling her what she needed to do. The one thing she should have done in the first place with the woman, her sensei, her friend, the only person she knew who understood the nature of her affliction on such an intimate level.
Surrender herself and ask for guidance.
And when she did, she was grateful.
Opening her amber eyes again, she spotted the inscription that so described the scene, and the bond between them.
[Two people that share the same heart.]
Kissing her fingers, she gently placed them against the title, before moving unto the second to last painting.
This picture was also from a recent event. The background was the training ground of the second division, the white tiles and walls gave it away. In the center of the portrait was a depiction of both her and Ichigo.
The younger sibling's head was pressed against her big brother's shoulder, one of his hands cradling the back of her head, her hands clinging tightly against the back portion of his clothes, while the young man wrapped his free arm around the small of her back protectively.
Senna's felt her hand grip the spot directly over her heart. While at first glance it might have seemed romantic, she saw the tiny detail in her depictions eyes, the detail that revealed the truth behind the picture.
The tears.
This memory was from after learning her father was gone, when she thought he was dead and that after the war was over, she would return back home, truly and utterly alone.
At first, her mind was utterly blank; she didn't know how to take it, how she was supposed to take it. It seemed so surreal to her. She had come to this world knowing that she or one of the others might not make it back, and while the prospect of facing and submitting to her own mortality terrified her, she knew that it was the only way to save Rukia, which eventually entailed all of humanity.
But…her father…
Kisuke and his friend had assured her, that her father was completely safe in Kukaku's home. The fiery noblewoman would be more than capable of babysitting him until they returned, even in the unlikely event he escaped from her roof, the Seireitei was nowhere near her home, so given his lack of flash step, Kukaku and her servants would catch him before the sun set.
It was foolproof…
It…wasn't supposed turn out like this.
Which was what made it hurt so much more.
When she stepped onto the training ground several days later, she felt so dead on the inside. Life just didn't hold the same shine to her. She didn't want to be around anyone, she didn't want to feel the hurt of someone she cared about being ripped away from her again.
For a very dark moment, she considered that maybe Soifon's life choices, rejecting the people around her, preventing them from getting too close, might actually be a smarter way to live.
Then Ichigo, the last person she expected, came to her. He forced her to see that she was running away from reality. That she wasn't alone and more importantly, the people who cared about her were getting hurt because she was pushing them away.
He helped her heart grow, by taking her out of her consuming gloom and seeing that she could keep going, that: Her father, Don Kannoji, Makoto Yakumo, Kukaku Shiba, Isane Kotetsu, Retsu Unohana, Shaolin Fon, Ichigo. EVERYONE, she ever cared about, was standing beside her; trying to will her back unto her feet. Their hope-filled hands outstretched just before her eyes, silently telling her to. Not. Give. Up.
She just needed to be willing to reach out and accept it.
She recalled the words Ichigo had spoken to her, when he pulled her into the hug.
'Senna, I beg of you, stop.' He cried out, his voice wracked with worry and terror. 'You're not training to stay alive, you're pushing yourself to die!' his terrified eyes, made contact with his baby sister's. 'This is how it starts: You neglect your feelings, you lie to yourself, then you neglect your conscious and start to push people away, and then you neglect your body and it's needs.'
'Ichigo…I…' she buried her face into his shoulder, ashamed of herself. '[sniff] wahh…'
At the truth of his words.
The man tightened his grip around her and whispered into her ears. 'Senna…Senna.' He cooed trying to coax to listen to his words. 'Senna, look at me.' When the wailing woman managed to calm down enough to do as she was told, the gentle man brought a hand against her soft cheek, his thumb rubbing away some of the tears that were still running down.
'Look. You see…these are your tears, you're crying.' He showed her his wet thumb, as he continued speaking in a loving yet concerned tone. 'You're crying for help, I can hear you. I…we care about you Senna. Shaolin, Me, your father, everyone. Your happiness is our happiness. Your sadness is our sadness. I know you're hurting, sister, but don't ever think you're alone.' The man leaned in and kissed her tenderly on her forehead. 'We love you, so don't lose sight of that when life brings you down. I'm with you every step of the way.'
Senna let out a calming exhalation. Despite the sad memory associated with it, it reminded her that life went on. That she could push on, so long as she kept the fire in her heart alive with the thoughts of everyone, who cared about her and wanted her to succeed with her life.
Kneeling down, she looked at the inscription of the picture and smiled gingerly.
[Manifestation of the Heart: Clarity and Salvation.]
Pushing herself off her knees, she approached the final picture in the room. This picture was by far the most distinct from the other paintings, in that it was completely black, no other colors or images were on the canvas.
Glancing down at the inscription, she saw that it was devoid of an epitaph.
The woman furrowed her brow, despite not seeing anything in the image, she could feel, deep down, that something was calling to her. Stepping closer, she carefully lifted her hand up and touched the blackened portrait.
A ripple soon emanated from her fingertip and began to slowly fill the painting with colors. Senna took a step back as the image was constructed before her eyes. Some peach. Some gold. Some purple. Some white. Some dark gray. And some black remained. All the different colors arched and straightened through the painting in it's own concerto until visible outlines began to form and be filled in with their respective colors revealing what had laid beneath the black shroud: Herself. A portrait of herself with her eyes closed in meditation as she held a weapon in each hand, sword in her left and Shakujo in her right, a variation of the Shinigami Jinzai.
The girl looked on in confusion, since while she knew of Jinzai; she had never actually performed the act. Her expression grew even more interested, when from the shoulders of the painting Senna, two wings extended outward. On her left shoulder with a red outline was a black feathery wing, which seemed to be held together by a malicious force. Across from it, surrounded by a small halo, was a white feathery wing, reminiscent to an angel or bird, an aura of relaxation seemed to pulse between the feathers.
"What is this?" She asked herself. The picture admittedly was beautiful, but she didn't see how this held some kind of meaning to her. All the other portrays were about events that helped shape her, her beliefs and mindset. This however…
A small flash of light caught the girl's attention. Kneeling back down, she saw that the once empty inscription now held words and with it an answer.
"Between right and wrong. Between light and darkness. Between life and death. I walk the path I choose." She repeated aloud.
"Ya get it now?"
Eyes snapping back up, she saw the Senna in the picture slowly opening her eyes, revealing golden irises. The woman glanced down to her hands and spun them so the sword would re-interlock with the top sheath, as she slid the metal back in, her form started to drain of color, quickly changing from the vibrant version of her into the pale Hollow self within.
As the Hollow got to her feet, the wings in the painting faded to black along with the room around her, leaving the two of them less than three feet apart in a void of nothingness.
"How long have you been there?" Senna asked, as the creature took a few more steps around her.
"How long? I've been here the whole time." The woman stopped and looked at her with a smirk "Or rather...you never left."
The spirit snapped her fingers and below Senna's feet, a smooth rock surface formed under her. It expanded outward as far as her eyes could see. Looking skyward she saw the darkness of space, lit only by the tiny stars that dotted it's expansiveness.
Turning her eyes back at her surroundings, she noted that she had never seen such a desolate wasteland before. "You said I never left. So why don't I recognize the area?"
"Oh, that." The creature stopped her gait and kneeled down. "This will explain."
Touching the ground with her hand, an intricate line illuminated as spiritual energy surged through it. The line ran from where Mirokumaru stood all the way between Senna's legs and past them before splitting apart and illuminating more areas along the ground.
That was all she needed to see to piece together what she meant. "We're still on the mountain summit." She then looked back at the Hollow. "We've shrunk."
"Astute of you, my servant." The monster mocked as she stood up, "I can't very well go tearing up my domain over senseless violence. It's just unethical." The creature then stabbed her Shakujo into the ground and leaned against it. "Before we begin, I would like to congratulate you on making it here and for fulfilling your end of the wager."
Senna nodded, "I know enough about myself and what I am, but there are still some things I don't understand."
"I know. One of my purposes is to help fill in those blanks when you are ready. So let's begin with the basics."
"My father Ein is actually Isshin. He's the father of Ichigo and husband to Masaki, an ex-Captain of the Gotei 13."
"Correct."
"Isshin…he has powers similar to a Shinigami, and was supposedly a nobleman, yet no one ever heard of him. Then I met an Arrancar, a Hollow that has taken human form. Which means if he was an Arrancar and had a child with a Shinigami, then I would have access to both Hollow powers and Shinigami."
"Really?" the creature said with feigned confusion. "What draws you to this conclusion?"
"It's what Urahara said: He said that you had to have been inside of me for a long time, several years even. If I were born with you, then you would always be inside me. When we first met I think you mentioned me never hearing your voice until after I gained Shinigami powers."
The Hollow smirked darkly as the girl continued, "Then when Ichigo was training to learn Bankai, I saw that other him. If all inner Hollows look like the person, then that solidifies that Isshin was a Hollow and that I was born in the Soul Society and came to earth as Don Kannoji told me."
"Beautiful, Senna, simply beautiful. You understand who you are and where you come from." The creature closed her eyes contentedly. "What do you want to know?"
"Why are you able to lend me your powers?"
"As I said, Senna, I am you and you are me. Yes, I am a 'part' of you, but I am also a path of what you can become." The Hollow brought a hand to her lips "Recall what the other half of me informed you of? I –we- know what we are aiming to become in life and have reached that end. She seeks to give mercy and relief to those around even at the cost of herself, where as I sought no more than my own satisfaction even if brought misery to others. You on the other hand, you were still unshaped: Uncertain to what you wanted to become yet having the courage and naivety to remain malleable in either direction. You were capable of shaping yourself into anything your heart desired."
A small chuckle escaped her. "It's odd, seeing you now. You had some much opportunity and potential to fashion yourself after one of us, yet you have followed neither's path. Instead, you share traits of both extremes, but still you reveal yourself as a beautiful product of summation and choices. You take my advice, yet rebuttal my actions. You train under the other one, yet you lack her grace. It's perplexing yet mesmerizing."
Senna's expression grew more serious "I don't see why you should be so surprised. I'm not complete yet and I still have a lot of questions." She then kneeled down and touched the earth, which illuminated the giant seal beneath them "Like how you can use this attack."
Mirokumaru's eyes drifted downward, staring quietly at the in line before her that spread in an intricate seal "That attack is what kept me at bay for so many years. Your mother, Masaki, possessed an attack so devastatingly powerful that, if used improperly, would destroy worlds. So to prevent this power from falling into the hands of either Soul Society or any other, she sealed it away in one of her children, you."
"This seal is one of her abilities?"
"As I said, it is incomplete. She would never purposely endanger you, so she split the technique and chant into it's respective halves: Destruction and Restraint. The Restraint portion, sealed inside of you, would activate the seal and purge all malicious reiatsu and seal it within you, keeping such evil trapped helplessly inside of you with no way to escape, even in the event of your death."
"And the other half?"
"She kept destruction within herself, to at least have a trump card ability to protect her children from powerful threats…if she had enough time to prepare."
The young priestess paused as she thought it over. "Why did she seal it inside of me though?" she asked
"This instructions for the technique can be passed down from person to person; however, it seems only women have the capacity to use it. Masaki was a very cautious woman; she didn't want this power falling into the wrong hands."
"The wrong hands?"
The spirit nodded "Yes, on more than one occasion she was tempted to split this power between herself and her disciple: Retsu Unohana. However, being alive as long as she has gave her insight on the swaying of the human heart and with Retsu's involvement with Soul Society, she was hesitant to bestow it to her, for fear that someone might trick her into teaching it for evil." The spirit smiled darkly. "That's why she put it on you, shortly after your birth. She could watch over your growth, and if necessary let the true technique die with her."
Senna paused trying to think of any holes in the story before asking, "How do you know so much about it? I thought you said it affected you."
"Me and your brother's inner Hollow have been fully grown and sentient from the moment you opened your eyes to the world. The restraint portion fell upon me and severely weakened my connection with you, which was further hampered by your prevention of gaining Shinigami power and that Gigai with the Seki Seki rock. However, from the time of your first breath, I have been studying the seal to better understand it's fundamentals; that is where I learned only half of the chant that usher it's full power was inscribed in you."
The woman tilted her head a bit, as if considering something. "A part of me is your Zanpaktou spirit, therefore I am under obligation to try and protect you. That is why I tried to learn it as best as I could, so that one day I could reach you and if necessary take over your body." The spirit shrugged nonchalantly. "After all, what better way to guarantee your life then by slaughter and maiming anyone who gets in you and Lord Ichigo's way."
"So, you wouldn't hurt Ichigo?"
The Hollow looked at her as if she was stupid for asking. "Of course not. He would always protect you. Any other questions?"
"Just one." Senna said as she raised her weapon, "Is it possible to learn the other half of the chant? In the fight against Aizen, we need any ability we can get."
The creature shook her head, "No, not without seeking the source of the other half of the chant," the woman closed her eyes as a small sigh escaped her, a mix of melancholy and anxiety. "but you already know she's dead. Besides, it might be for the best that the ability will never be complete."
That statement got the girl's attention. It almost sounded like she was relieved that such destruction couldn't be harnessed. "You said if it was used improperly it could destroy worlds." Senna stood up a little straighter, as she even her stare. "Weren't you just trying to make a point of how destructive it could get."
"I wasn't. I was being serious." The dark Miko crossed her arms and frowned. "The technique requires ample time to be constructed, each ward chanted to full power and then executed, but, when all is done correctly, it is more than capable of killing from several thousand kilometers away indiscriminately, the only ones who would be safe are those closest to Masaki's position, who would be caught in the small safe zone around the user, those in a different dimensional plane entirely, or those of such distance that Masaki seals away the attack before they are affected by it's influences."
"How?"
"Once the safety zone has encompassed the wielder, the circular seal opens up from the bottom creating a gateway for the effects of the technique to take hold. As I said, if used successfully, only the serenity of death await your victim, if used unwisely, you will be the only thing left alive, assuming you don't burn yourself and die from exhaustion afterwards."
"And the attack itself?"
"'Purgatory' and the 'Lightless World', restraint and destruction, the two halves that make up the whole: The Magatsu Mandala. An apt description for what the seal takes the form of."
"Magatsu Mandala?" she repeated the word, "Magatsu means 'corrupted' and Mandala is a spiritual way of signifying the universe." The girl's eyebrows drew close. "So the seal corrupts the universe?"
"Not quite. It does not corrupt the universe, rather it is a corrupted manifestation of the universe. A portend to the end." Mirokumaru pulled her Shakujo out of the ground and readied in a battle stance. "The Magatsu Mandala: An all-consuming Black Hole that will lead the world to the Apocalypse."
The woman's widened at what she heard. "What!?" a shriek of disbelief escaped her. "The end of the world!?"
"Yes. However, as I've stated, such an attack requires ample time to prepare and more importantly significant amounts of reiatsu, which you don't have access to yet. That is why the seal compensates by eating directly from your life force and cutting down the length of your life." She explained calmly before letting out a chuckle. "But that doesn't matter now, since it's time for you to go beddy-bye and for me to step into the light."
"Just try it!" Senna yelled, defiant in her desire to stay in control.
The Hollow quickly surged forward, kicking up dust behind her.
The resonating ring of the Shakujo clashing against each other echoed through the air, as the respective halves of the same being pushed hard trying to overcome the other.
Twisting her Zanpaktou, Senna thrusted it down hitting the doppelganger in the knee. When Mirokumaru jerked, the girl jutted her shoulder forward, causing the ringed end to bash into the face of the Hollow.
Using the space created, Senna spun low sweeping her enemy's feet, as she rotated around she channeled some of her energy into her staff. A ripping gust crashed into the sternum of Mirokumaru, shooting her with cannon like velocity into the hard rocky mountain surface.
The young soul reaper kept her guard up as the resulting dirt cloud created cleared away for her to see her enemy. Unsurprisingly, the white cloaked monster returned to her feet though she had black blood coming from the side of her head and her lips, likely the spots where she suffered the most impact.
The white figure glanced at her servant girl, before relaxing her guard. Lazily bringing a hand to her head she wiped her bloody wound before staring longingly into lather of blood. "Ahhha…" a deep pant escaped her lips, as the dark Miko dragged the blood down the bridge of her nose and over lips, her tongue licking up the dark substance.
"Beautiful..." the woman moaned out as Senna started to become more unnerved by the spirit's unhinged behavior "Delectable…Exquisite even!"
Acting on instinct, Senna flashed stepped forward and using her burst of speed, slammed the hilt of her staff into the woman's stomach. Her eyes flaring with panic, at seeing the aroused expression of Mirokumaru, Senna flipped her Shakujo upward striking her chin before clocking her on the other side of her head.
Senna's eyes watched as Mirokumaru's body was tossed over sideways, but before she hit the ground, she threw her hand down and hand sprung back a step, her eyes still in a mesmeric trance.
The bruised figure fells to her knees and shuddered, thought it was most definitely not from pain, as the smile on the monster's lips continued to grow. "Ohhh…Senna, such fervor! You've become a most excellent servant, capable of understanding her mistress's needs!"
"What…!?"
"Ahahahahhahaha! Oh, I felt it radiating throughout my very being. Your passion." The Miko's malicious golden eyes fell on her "Your love."
"You're…you're getting off on this!?" Senna uttered disgustedly.
"Oh, you don't get it? How odd. I was sure you would. I'm more than willing to corrupt you further with knowledge, so lets me start with the basic question then. Senna, do you know what pain is?" The Senna look alike asked, as the blood on her face started to seep through the surface of her skin back into her body.
"Pain?" The real one re-stated in confusion, not seeing how her masochist tendencies of her warped enemy had a deeper meaning.
"For living things: Pain is your body telling your mind that you are in danger; however, for those who truly understand it, it holds a much deeper meaning." The Hollow pressed her hand against her chest and then extended towards Senna, her smile growing wider by the second "Pain is merely an honest discharge of energy released from within the core of a being's body. It is distinctly our own, no other person can ever mimic it with such acuity. What makes it unique, amongst our internal energy discharges, is that it is the only such discharge that can be both externalized and transferred to another; in short, it is a small yet powerful connection between hearts."
The Taoist witch sauntered back to her feet as she drew her sword from it's hidden sheath. "Pain is a beautiful thing Senna. It is pure and innocent. The rawest of feelings. Your feelings for me that I find ~oohhh~ so pleasurable."
In the blink of an eye, Mirokumaru disappeared in front of Senna. She didn't have a warning when the powerful back hand took her off her feet. "So allow me to express my 'love' for you, SENNA!"
As the pain of her skid ended, Senna let out a loud scream as she felt a hand puncture into her stomach. Her muscles locked up, when she felt the other miko's hand grab hold of a muscle. "Yes, that's right! Feel it! Bleed for me, scream for me, DIE FOR ME!" the hysterical woman yelled, as she straddled the other woman's body.
Leaning in close to her, Mirokumaru's slimy tongue lapped at the Shinigami's cheek before travelling the distance to her ear lobe. "I'll rip you apart limb from limb and fuck your body till your soul crumbles to dust." She whispered lustfully into her servants.
Defiant of her defiler, Senna turned her head and spat the blood in her mouth into the face of Mirokumaru, temporarily blinding her. "Fuck! You!" head-butting the woman, the young Kurosaki gained the leverage to raise her foot push her off her body, gritting her teeth as the intruding hand was forced out of her body.
"Mugen dai: Kyofu ken!" Senna yelled, releasing her own hidden sword from it's golden scabbard. Hopping to her feet despite the pain, Senna quickly swung her sword at the stunned Hollow and cut her across the torso, a large line of red forced off to the side.
Seeing a need to regroup, the Hollow rolled out of the way, as her forceful servant brought her blade down trying to impale her. Rolling back to her feet, she swung her blade forward, creating a crescent gale wave that crashed into the other gale saber.
Being forced back by the intensity behind the wind strike, Senna re-sheathed her weapon into Shakujo state. She knew the both of them were hurt and she might not get the opportunity to create the set-up again.
It was now or never.
Sweeping her leg back in tandem with her backpedal, Senna twirled her Shakujo around herself, gathering up large amounts of her reiatsu and creating a large gale around her form. As she brought the weapon to her side, she then brought it overhead and twirled it above her.
The large circle of air, tightened before surging upward as a unified tornado. From the outside, Mirokumaru was having a hard time maintain her balance as the wind speed of the vortex rapidly kept increasing, forcing her closer and closer to the cutting winds of death.
Slipping another inch, the Hollow desperately dug her sword into the earth, trying to anchor herself and weather the giant tornado.
From inside the vortex, Senna smirked when she saw the Hollow try to hold her ground. She had wanted that for her plan to work. Stopping her twirling of her Shakujo, she momentarily stabilized the storm around her before bring her Shakujo behind her frame like a ball player ready to hit one out of the park. "Go!" she cried as she swept the golden staff forward, hurling the storm towards her hapless foe.
The Hollow's eyes widened at the oncoming attack, before snarling as she braced for the worse.
As her flesh made contact with the raging storm, the dark half felt her body being cut into, as she was lifted off the ground towards the tower of wind's zenith, the blistering winds bit and ripped into her flesh the same way as her hidden blade did.
That was how this storm worked and why it was imperative to never get sucked into the vacuum.
If it had been an ordinary tornado, she would have been content in letting it suck her in and spitting her out. With her Shakujo, she could just ride it like a surfboard to safety, but this wind was the equivalent of a massive spinning buzz saw going into her at the speed of an F-3 tornado.
Prying open an eye, the bloody damaged Hollow was moderately pleased to see she was nearing the end of her ride, having huddled her body close to minimize the damage of the splicing winds.
However, something unexpected happened, just as she was sure to be spat right out and have the opportunity to re-orient herself, the biting winds died out, leaving her curled helpless in a ball high in the air; but what really surprised her was the sudden swelling of Senna's spiritual energy.
From her skyward box, the Hollow saw the rock surface that acted as their battlefield, light up with a blue light, as lines ran to and fro in an intricate pattern. She knew what was going to happen next, as she looked over her shoulder.
"Preparations complete." The bloodied teen stated, as the guard of her Zanpaktou was lit by four glowing gem, one red, one blue, one black, and one green, with a fifth white one shining from back of her blade's hilt.
Dropping to one knee, she placed her hand unto the glowing runes "Harken the angel summons; the true path shall guide you. Find peace in annihilation." The chanting mystic then stabbed the seal with her Zanpaktou as she glared up at the dark creature, who merely smiled contentedly. "Great seal of restraint: Purgatory!"
Receiving the final command, the lines of the seal glowed a pure white as they activated and spread outward. The flash of energy was so bright that not only did it blind both fighters, but it lit up all of the dark skyline in Senna's inner world.
(Real world)
As Shinji raised his blade to defend himself against the Hollow possessed woman's strike. He saw the golden iris of the monster flicker for a second, before losing all malicious intent.
Despite years of experience telling him to be wary of feints, he saw to his surprise that the monster's arms drop to their side, as if it were in a trance. "(Sigh) Damn that was close." Shinji muttered as he looked over her shoulder "Come on in guys, we got ourselves a winner."
The other Vizards nodded their head and approached when Hachi dropped the barrier, Ichigo smiled contentedly. "Way to go, Sen."
(Inner world)
Darkness.
That was what surrounded Senna. She couldn't see anything around her and she couldn't feel anything around her. It scared her.
Was this death?
Was this what dying felt like?
She tried to move her hand, but didn't know if it moved or not. The only thing that she did know was that she was lying flat. 'So this is the end? When we die…nothing happens. We just wait here for eternity?'
Well…maybe it wasn't so bad, at least she could think instead of just lying there motionless till the end of days.
However, her saving grace was broken, when she felt a searing pain through her non-existent body. Closing her eyes, she felt her body being thrusted forward into some other place.
When she felt the pain leave her, the girl opened her eyes to see herself standing on an intersection. But at this intersection, a tragedy had obviously occurred as a large red semi-truck was halfway pushed into the intersection, a white van was radiating steam from it's broken front end, and a small red car was crushed on both the back end and left hand side, glass was everywhere on the road. A small crowd had gathered with a news crew covering the action.
Already knowing what this was, she felt her stomach sink as she morbidly walked over to the talking newscaster to hear his 'report'.
"…In case, you missed it, let me tell it to you again. We have a fatal car accident on the intersection of Omiyuki and Tsubaki," the man turned to his left and directed his hand to the red semi "apparently the driver of the semi fell asleep at the wheel which caused his car to rear end, the red passenger car over there, which got T-boned by the white van over there."
Senna closed her eyes sadly as she walked away from the man over to the upturned red car, though she could still hear his words as if he sadistically telling the story in her ear. "This intersection has had a lot of controversy, since Omiyuki has the highway exit ramp right next to it where people are known to be speed demons. It's been speculated that even if the driver in the red car had just gotten rear ended, she would have been A-okay since it was the second blow to the driver's side that killed her."
As Senna stepped through the glass-covered street to go around the car, she saw a large pool of blood. Swallowing the lump in her stomach, she kept going around until she saw it.
"The victim pronounced dead at the scene is: Thirty-one year old Senna Kurosaki. Kurosaki-san was born and raised in Karakura and works at Shiranui shrine as a shrine maiden, grounds keeper and spiritual healer. It's been confirmed that fifty-seven year old Don Kannoji, ex-star and host of Don Kannoji's wandering spirit's channel; who later directed big budget movies such as: 'bad shield 3' and his 'Soul Society trilogy', which has been compared to George Lucas's 'Star Wars trilogy' in terms of popularity and innovation, will preside and perform last rites on the young Miko."
Her eyes fell upon the broken form of her older self. Her upper body was sticking partially out of the window with the buckle that held the seat belt dangling just off the ground.
Her much longer purple hair was coated with blood and glass and flayed across the floor while her expression seemed to have been forcefully knocked unconscious. The girl fell to her knees, mouth covered with her hand as she tears formed in her eyes.
How long?
How long had she been like that?
Barely tethered to life, waiting for someone to save her as she slowly bled out from presumably crushed ribs, shattered arms and broken legs.
"Hopefully in light of this tragedy, new policies will be brought about to prevent future deaths like from occurring. This is Tanaka Mori from new channel 36, back to you."
A suddenly a powerful nauseating feeling washed over her body. The scene before her started to slowly spin and fade in color until it finally gray scaled. Covering her eyes as she felt the world spin around her, she started to take deep breathes in to try to stabilize herself, but it was all in vain, as she fell backwards.
Back into the formless, dark, nothingness, she started in.
'Ughhh…I don't want to think about dying for eternity…'
w…
Senna thought she heard something.
Wa
There it went again, but this time it was accompanied by a ball of light forming far above her eyes. Was it…the sun?
Wake
The bright light above her grew brighter and brighter until she closed her eyes. Wait, Close her eyes? She didn't have any form in this darkness.
"Wake up, Senna." The voice called again, this time much more identifiable, as the light blinded her.
Flitting open her eyes lids a bit more, the young woman found her head laying in the palms of Mirokumaru, who looked at her contented yet sad. Slowly tearing her eyes away from her adversary, Senna saw that the sky above her was dark and filled with beautiful stars.
"I'm…alive…?" her voice came out dry and raspy from disuse. Had she been lying there longer than she expected? She tried to move only to feel absolute exhaustion in her bones, it actual kind of hurt to breathe.
The inner Hollow stroked Senna's hair as she readjusted so that the woman rested against her knees rather than her hands. "Good to see you're up, sleepyhead. I…feared the toll of the seal was worse than I expected."
The girl tilted her head back to look at colorless face of herself "Did I win?"
"I let you win." The spirit answered indignantly, "I would never kill my favorite slave girl."
"Liar. Didn't…you tell me…to die for you?"
The spirit blushed, "It was…an expression of love."
"Sure…" the woman muttered to herself "What happens now?"
"You won and you sealed me away, so now, I will disappear into the recesses of your soul and leave my power to you as you see fit."
"You're going to disappear? I'll never see you again." Senna asked sadly, since while Mirokumaru was a lot of things she hated, she was still her.
"You won't see me, The Hollow, inhabiting your Zanpaktou's spirit's form anymore. From the moment of your birth, you could have been either a Hollow or Shinigami, whichever path was decided the other's power and personality would be absorbed into the other."
With that tidbit of information, now Senna understood why she said they were one and the same. "So if I was a Hollow…"
"I would be in control and you would be the one getting absorbed into me." The Hollow woman looked away disgustedly. "Of course, that also means I wouldn't be the perfect, masochistic, Ichigo-worshiping, killing machine that I am now, since I'd have not one, but two goody-two shoes in my head."
"Well…" Senna's lips curved up "at least fading from existence that way…guarantees me a spot in heaven."
Instead of a chuckle, the girl received a hard glare. "Don't talk like that. I don't want you to die."
"Why so caring? I thought I was beneath you. I thought…" her voice fell away as her eyes closed tiredly, fatigue finally taking her.
The priestess chuckled softly, "Why so caring?" she repeated, as she stroked the sleeping girl's cheek. "It's because Senna-koi: I'm a narcissist." She whispered softly. "We are enemies, we are friends. One is the servant, the other the mistress. I am your lover and your guardian, same as you. Even if you can't see me, always shall I walk beside you and watch you grow."
As she felt her body begin to break into reishi particles that slowly began to seep into her master's form, the Hollow leaned forward, taking one last chance to kiss her on the lips. Slowly inch by inch she crossed the distance until she stopped, hovering barely a centimeter from the sleeping woman.
"Damn you, Senna. You lay there so innocent…so invitingly, but you changed me. I shouldn't have a problem taking what I want…but it is as you said. I want to do it on my own terms…your terms. If you don't remember, what's the point?" she leaned back, looking skyward as her presence disintegrated. As a tear escaped her eye, she utter her final words before going to her final resting place. "I'll capture your lips…someday."
(Real world)
Feeling her body shake, a strange echoing groan escaped Senna, as if she were speaking through a school's PA system. Her eyes were focused on the ground in front of her, which had some kind of feathery substance that was quickly dissolving away and her blade on the right side of her vision. Lifting her line of sight, she was greeted with the Vizards and Ichigo looking back at her expectantly.
"Uhh...hey." she said, but quickly stopped when her voice sounded all weird. Bringing her hand to her throat, she felt a soft thin substance pressed against her throat and around her hand at the same time.
Pulling her hand in front of her face, she saw that it was coated in a pure white substance that resembled a glove, though it extended just past her wrist. Looking down her torso, she saw that her entire Shinigami outfit was gone, instead her skin was exposed save for the other white pieces of garments covering her.
Her torso and part of her throat was covered by a smooth one-piece leotard, which seemed extremely flexible, yet upon closer inspection were thinly plated in a pattern that resembled the feathered chest of a bird. Her legs were completely exposed to the open air with the exception of her feet, which had metal grieves which kept with the seemingly bird theme of her clothing, having two talons on the front end and the top where her covered ankle was, a pair of wings extending backwards.
She was about to see what this stuff could do, but stopped when she heard a faint rustling behind her. Turning, she practically squealed with delight when she saw a pair of grey wings extending from the back of her armor, feathers gradually falling from extension.
"Oh, this is so cool!" Senna yelled as she pumped her fists, ignorant to the Vizards who were talking amongst themselves.
"The hell is that?" Hiyori muttered
"I'm feeling Hollow energy off it but…" Shinji pointed out
Kensei was equally stumped "No mask. Just a mouth covering at best."
"Well, those two are supposed to be different." Hachi offered, "Perhaps, Urahara was unto something when he mentioned being to reverse engineer."
"You think it was supposed to happen?" Lisa questioned
"Possibly. Ours was forced, theirs was much more natural." The big man looked over his shoulder "What do you think, Mashiro."
The green haired woman face was puffed up and her body was shaking "I think…I THINK…!" the fell on her back and started kicking around childishly. "I don't think it's fair! Why does she get a cool super hero outfit with her powers!?"
Everyone sweat dropped except for Kensei. "Hey, either you stop flopping around crying or I'm going to give you a reason to cry!"
"Waah! Kensei hits women because he smells like seaweed!" she cried which earned a tick mark on Kensei's head
"You little-!"
An amused Ichigo watched as Love and Lisa forcibly restrained the man, while Hachi gave a small chop to the wailing girl's head. Turning his attention back to Senna, he immediately covered his nose as blood threatened to erupt. "S-senna!" he yelled, getting the attention of the girl.
Senna's scrunched her face up, when she saw her brother turn bright red and cover most of his face. She tilted her head to the side, confused "What?" she asked, her eyebrows momentarily raised after she spoke. "Hey, I sound normal again." She commented as she brought her hand against her throat.
Looking over his shoulder to see what was going on, Shinji's eyebrows rose in surprise, before he let out a long whistle at what he was seeing, much to Ichigo annoyance. "Looking good there, Hollow girl." The smirking man complimented "Reeeal good."
Soon everyone turned in Senna's direction and had very interesting reactions. Some blushed, a few even smiled, the others with more dignity darted their attention away, an ominous sign for to be sure.
The young Kurosaki closed her eyes, praying that the reason for their reaction was not for what she thought it was. Despite her pinning wish, when she opened her eyes and glanced, she saw the white armor she been wearing, the symbol of the Hollow powers she had fought to obtain, whittled down to it's last scraps. The tiny remains around her belly button dissolving into the ether and exposing her to all who would spare a glance.
Obviously, a cruel parting gift from her inner demon.
"KYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH! NOOOOOOOOOO!" The woman screamed as she curled up, trying to cover herself up from the prying eyes of the crowd she'd been unintentionally flashing for who knows how long. "You! YOU!" the shaking red-faced woman roared.
"YOU PERVERTS!" she screamed before she turned around and sprinted off into the distance, a huge trail of kicked up dirt providing a smoke screen from those who tried to stare at her butt as she left.
Once Ichigo got over his shock, he let out a sigh as he rubbed the back of his neck. He was willing to wager that since his kid sister wasn't properly taught in using Hollow powers yet and her mind set had gone from a 'battle-ready' mindset back to a 'peaceful' one, her battle armor must have deemed itself unnecessary and willed itself away to save her energy.
Unfortunately, since her clothing had been destroyed when she went into that beastly Hollow state, it was the only thing still covering her body. "I'll go get her. You guys get ready for me next."
"I draw the line if I have to see you naked." Shinji commented dully, as the other Kurosaki, hoisted the girl's Gigai over his shoulder.
"Shut up and get the stupid barrier up." Ichigo shot back dryly, before flash stepping off after Senna.
(Ichigo)
Coming out of the flash step, Ichigo was quite surprised at the distance Senna managed to run. Walking over to the large boulder that Senna's spiritual energy was coming from, he leaned his back against it and looked up at the ceiling "You okay?"
"I flashed everyone." Came the depressingly meek response.
Ichigo cringed, "Yeah, I…I saw."
"And the worst part…" Senna pouted from her side of the rock. "I…I…" the volume of her voice dropped considerably, "I k-kinda liked it." She whispered
"What…?" Ichigo asked as he pushed his back off the rock, hoping he didn't just hear what he thought he did.
"NOTHING!" she screamed, though Ichigo did hear the whole 'oh god I'm horrible' added afterward. As Ichigo leaned back against the rock, Senna called back out to him. "Err…what brings you out here? I doubt there's Hollows down here, so I'll be fine…alone. Without you. Haha…" she laughed nervously.
Ichigo rolled his eyes. "You're right. There probably isn't." he acknowledged, before going on to point out the obvious. "But I can't just leave you running around naked in the meantime."
Though he couldn't see it, he could tell that she was hanging her head in shame. "Oh…y-yeah." Her voice practically rang 'thanks for the reminder'.
The man scoffed amusedly "…and I was worried about you." He added, much more serious. "I don't know what it was like in there, but it must have been rough. I just wanted to make sure you were really okay."
Silence passed between them as Senna ceased to respond to Ichigo. The man drew in a breath and looked straight ahead over the battle worn landscape. It hadn't been the prettiest site, but after seeing how Senna's Hollow responded to the outside world, he was deeply concerned about how she was doing. There was even a couple of time; the creature shot him a glance in his direction behind the kido barrier, it was almost longing.
The man was taken from his thoughts when he felt a hand gently squeeze his wrist. Following it back, he saw Senna's peach colored arm traced around the rock's surface edging. "Thanks. And I'm sorry for worrying you."
Ichigo smiled as he relaxed. "No prob." He then looked beside him, where the Gigai he brought was. "Your Shinigami clothing got totaled in the fight, so I brought your Gigai. If you stay in there for about an hour your clothing should reform when you exit again."
The girl's thin arm went back around the rock and Senna stuck her head out from her end. "I-is anyone else there?"
Ichigo scanned the horizon quickly, "No. Just you and me." He answered
"Okay." Senna muttered to herself, nodding slightly more confident. "Then can you turn around."
The man quirked an eyebrow. "I've already seen you naked. Twice." The girl turned bright red and hung her head, also recalling that indeed he had seen her naked, by her own willingness.
Ichigo, spying the embarrassed woman's face, decided to tease her. "WELL actually now that I thiiink about it. This makes the third time." A grin split across his face, as he continued in his sarcastic tone. "So nudity is a hat trick when it comes to you, in that case no need for modesty around me! Just walk on by like nobody's business!"
As another layer of crimson covered Senna's face, her expression morphed from complete embarrassment to wanting to stab him in the face. Ichigo chuckled at the death glare he was receiving; it was right up there with Shaolin and Retsu's.
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry." The smiling man tried to appease. "I was just teasing you, I couldn't help it. I'll give you your privacy." He said as he covered his eyes and faced the rock.
Although, still slightly irate at being made fun of, Senna slipped from her hiding spot and after taking a moment to make sure he wasn't peeking, slipped into her Gigai. Pushing herself off the floor, she felt really strange being inside of it now, perhaps an effect of awakening to her other bestial half.
Sparing a glance to make sure nothing was amiss with her uniform, she was about to tell Ichigo she was done until she saw a beautiful opportunity for sweet, sweet, revenge.
"You almost done?" the unawares man asked,
"Alllllmmoooost." She swooned, as she silently tip-tied behind Ichigo. Once she was within her mark, she took half step back to give proper form, and with precise follow through, slapped the man on his butt with her hand.
"Dah!" the man jumped up, as the blow collided into his rear. Looking behind him, he saw Senna doubled over in laughter. "Why you little-!"
"Ahaha, that's what you get for making fun of me, Ichigo." She chirped underneath his smoldering gaze. The man growled at her before letting his anger subside.
This was far from over.
Coming down from her laughing fit, Senna looked back in the direction of the Vizards. "So I guess it's your turn next." She stated calm but concerned.
The man let out a breath as he walked next to her. "Looks like it." He then placed his hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, I'll make it too." He was about to walk off with her when he felt her clasp his hand. When he looked back at her, he saw the concern that she wasn't trying to show, in case it threw off his concentration.
"I-Ichigo." She said steadily, "I…" she looked down at their connected hands. "Can we hold hands?" she looked back up with a tender hopeful smile. "At least till we get back for your turn."
To her surprise, Ichigo returned her smile with his own. "Senna." He lifted their hand up to eye level. "You don't have to ask me if you want to hold my hand. If you want to grab them, then grab them. I'll never turn you away." He then nudged his body towards their destination "Alright, that's enough pep talk. Let's get my turn done with so that when we see Aizen's sorry face, he'll regret messing with us!"
A vibrant smile emerged on her face; equally sure that they'd be okay. "You got it!"
(Soifon)
After what felt like hours, the second squad captain sank into the chair in Unohana's office. The doctor had prodded her with needles, asked her to strip naked in front of an X-ray machine, took her blood, and a subset of other tests that she didn't care to remember.
From across the desk, Unohana lightly placed the manila folder that contained all her gathered data in front of her and offered a sympathetic smile. "Well Captain Soifon, you can relax, the testing period is finished." The elated doctor informed her weary patient.
"Finally, I was beginning to feel like a pin cushion." Shaolin wheezed as she rubbed her sore punctured arm. "Were all of those tests necessary?"
Unohana bowed slightly. "Again, I apologize for the inconvenience, but I could not leave any stone unturned, especially in your case."
"I see, well, I trust you. You're the best doctor in Soul Society." Soifon said, softening up her tone, since she was just doing her job.
"Aha, I appreciate the vote of confidence. Now-"
"How long before I can return to the world of the living?" the young woman interrupted. "I have a high priority mission to provide over watch on Ichigo and Senna."
The older woman looked at the clock. "Well, it's about noon now, if I put all my effort into properly getting this documentation through channels and get a rush order through for clearance, I can have you out of here by about nine or ten am tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?" the dissatisfied woman repeated "Aizen's forces can be in Karakura town right now." She stressed
"I thought ahead on the situation when I proposed the recall. While we hold you and the others for the rest of today to make sure there isn't any lasting problem, we sent another team to serve as the vanguards." Seeing the woman still held her reservation she continued, "Don't worry. Captain Komamura is overseeing things and the rest of the towers are fully powered and fully alerted."
The frowning Shaolin spared her senior a glance, before she nodded her head, albeit somewhat forced. She'd rather be the one making sure that they were okay, a sentiment her body betrayed to the older woman.
"I understand you are worried, but you can place your trust in Ichigo. I'm sure he's quite alright." Retsu replied amused at the woman's dependency-anxiety, something her old self would have scoffed at seeing.
Seeking to further break her of her concerns, she playfully decided to tease her. "My, my, are you really so interested to returning to your husband's side?"
"Yes-" the woman said automatically, before clamping up immediately, eyes widening by the second. How had she known that? No one knew that yet, not even that snoop Toshiro. "H-husband…" Shaolin muttered fearfully, her face losing all color.
Knowing of the implication, the doctor quickly intervened. "You can relax. The Sotaichō does not know."
The breath-held girl sighed as she eased her posture "Then how did-?"
"Isane told me." When the other woman's eyes spoke of death to the lieutenant, the doctor playfully bobbed her head to the side. "Accidentally, of course." She amended.
The Chinese woman's furrowed her eyebrows, "Isane accidentally told you?" she asked. That psychologist certainly didn't strike her as a rumor spewing chatterbox.
Retsu nodded, "Yes. When she came to inform me that she had returned, we had a small chat about how the first team was. She mentioned that you seemed to have undergone a psychological change," she leaned in "which we both know why," then leaned back "unlike Isane."
The smiling doctor then pointed at Soifon's ring less hand, "She then mentioned a ring you were wearing and how Senna was teaching you human fashion. While she might have bought the story, I'm a little harder to fool."
The newlywed clenched her teeth to fight off her embarrassment and regret. "I'm sorry we didn't tell you. It was just so sudden and I couldn't risk the information getting out because of the way things are." The girl shook her head sadly. "I can't even wear the ring outside of the safety of my office and even then…"
The older woman nodded understanding of her predicament, but there was the obvious problem. "Well, you are going to have to come clean eventually, especially with your condition. By the way allow me to be the first to congratulate you for your and Ichigo-kun's accomplishment."
Soifon, thoroughly confused, tilted her head to the side. "While I thank-you for a clean bill of health, it's hardly an accomplishment; certainly not one Ichigo did much in. But, about that first part, 'coming clean' you said, why does that particularly matter?"
Now it was Retsu's turn to look at the girl with puzzlement. The woman looked at her junior's midsection before looking back at her face "Because of your condition…" she reiterated, hoping she'd get the hint of what she was talking about.
"You just said I was healthy." The puzzled woman restated what she was just told again.
The ladies sat in silent confusion for a few minutes until the epiphany hit Retsu. "Ahh…I see." She muttered with a hand over her mouth, apparently figuring out the miscommunication. Her eyes then went back to expectant Shaolin "I was congratulating you on what's inside of you." She clarified, figuring out that she didn't actually know.
To her surprise, instead of a look of joy from what she was now hinting at, the girl went rigid as she mechanically straighten her back as she lean back into the chair "Inside of me…" she repeated "As in" her eyes shifted downward "…a parasite…"
The doctor sweat dropped at her jump in conclusion. While from a certain perspective it could be considered a parasite, this was most definitely not the case. "Well, yes, it's growing inside of you, b-"
The woman didn't get to finish as the other woman leaped out of her chair and drew her Zanpaktou from her sheath, twirling it in her hands till it pointed downwards. Acting on pure instinct, Unohana jumped over her desk and knocked the sword out of the girl's hand, before she could plunge it into her stomach for an emergency C-section. "What are you doing!?" the panicked woman all but yelled at the doctor.
"That's my line!" she yelled right back "What are you thinking Soifon-Taichō!?"
"You just told me: There is a damn HOLLOW PARASITE GROWING INSIDE MY STOMACH with a damn smile on your face!" the freaked out woman reiterated with emphasis, as if the doctor didn't comprehend her own words.
"Para...wha..?" The incredulous doctor muttered in disbelief.
For the first time in a long time, Retsu Unohana felt her brain shut down. Never before had she been so dumbfounded by someone else.
Until now.
She knew in her heart of hearts, that the young Chinese girl was simply misreading the situation, which probably hadn't been helped by her responses.
However, right now, she felt the remnants of her old-self stir within her. The self she had been before Masaki intervened and transformed her from a 'Rukongai Yankee' into a 'Proper Lady'.
And, right now, she chose to embrace it.
"IT'S NOT A FREAKIN' PARASITE! YOU'RE PREGNANT, YOU CLUELESS MORON!" the fanatical doctor yelled at the angry and confused girl.
Instantly the play-doctor cooled her jets as the doctor's word sank into her. "I'm…" she glanced down at her slim stomach, cradling it with one of her hands. "Pregnant?" She looked back at the doctor, her expression asking for answers. "How long?"
The doctor, after reining in her youthful verve, directed the young mother to sit back down, and when she did, she began to explain the situation. "By my analysis and supplementary data from the lab reports, about two months. Forgive me, Soifon, I wasn't aware you didn't know till I told you."
"How did you find this out?"
"During your blood drawing I noticed that your HCG levels were unusually high. So, out of a fit of curiosity, to determine whether it was negative side effect of females coming in contact with Arrancar, I decided to undergo a few more test."
Soifon wrinkled her nose, since she didn't understand doctor terminology. "What's 'HCG' exactly?"
"HCG stands for 'Human Chorionic Gonadotrophin' (3)." The doctor stopped when the look from Soifon basically amounted to 'you lost me'. "Err...just think of as something your body produces naturally, like blood."
The woman nodded mechanically "Okay, so if it's naturally produced, then why is it a bad thing if it's 'unusually high'?"
"The reason I was so alarmed and underwent further diagnostic is because some cancerous tumors can also produce this hormone, which if added unto your normal amount leads to-"
"A much higher amount than normal. I see."
Unohana clasped her hands together. "Yes, I was concerned. However, once I had determined that it was not the case, I looked into the other possibility, which is pregnancy." The woman tilted her head curiously, "While it is redundant at this point, allow me to ask, are you sexually active, presumably with Ichigo?"
The woman went red in the face at being asked the question, but still she complied. "…yes."
The captain nodded her head casually, "Was any protection involved?"
While a little confused by the phrasing, she answered as serious as ever. "We had our Zanpaktou with us at all times and it was done in the safety of Soul Society, specifically in my bedroom, located in the second division barracks." She reported, sparing no circumstantial details.
Retsu, while mildly amused at her naivety, brought her hand up over her face. "No, Captain Soifon. That is not what I mean by 'protection'." She informed dryly, "I meant contraceptives. Safe-sex practices to prevent pregnancy like: non-vagina ejaculation, avoiding sex during ovulation, birth control medication, condoms and the like; not physical protection from harm." The woman removed her hand, but still held a smile on her lips. "Although judging by your answer, and presumably lack of experience, I'm guessing the answer is 'No, Unohana-Taichō'."
Soifon had the decency to look ashamed. While she knew how and where babies came from, it seemed that alone was not enough information to make her not seem sheltered on the subject.
"Next question: How often have the two of you engaged in such activities?"
The girl remained silent as she thought it over. "Maybe four or five times. Total, I mean. It's not a regular thing; we're very busy, especially with the war going on."
The woman nodded her head, "That sounds like enough plausible background information to support your current pregnancy. There could also have been some symptoms that hinted to your condition that you missed along the way."
That surprised the woman "These symptoms, what are they?" she inquired
"Morning sickness and nausea is one. Have you experienced the urge to or have you vomited excessively within the last two months?" she asked
Soifon's breath hitched in her throat. She remembered a whole bunch of times where Ichigo held her hair back as she emptied her stomach into the toilet. At the time, she was sure that it was just her body going through it's usual seasonal changes, but now that she could look back on it. She wasn't bedridden, or had a 101 degree fever, it was just the occasional bout of nausea and infrequent urge to throw up.
"Yeah, I've done that." She replied as her fingers dug into her thighs. "What else?"
"Have you experienced a change in eating habits?"
Again, the woman lowered her head and thought really, really, hard on the question. She was then assailed with another confirming 'yes', as she had been eating more food in general. She had always portioned herself as eating too much would make her style of high speed fighting much more difficult to perform. To further cement her eating habit change she had noticed that she was more receptive to meaty foods, while fish had always been her staple for protein, she had found her typical aversion to beef, chicken, and pork to have lessen considerably, in fact she almost looked forward to eating it.
With a sigh, the captain nodded her head as she leaned forward in her chair, obviously distressed. "How could I have not noticed these changes until now?"
The disquieted woman was soon uplifted when she felt Retsu's hand gently squeeze her shoulder. "Don't beat yourself up. While there are many similarities between pregnant women, there are exceptions. There have been cases where women, who didn't show any signs of being pregnant during the whole nine months, found out that they were pregnant only when their water suddenly broke. (4)"
The captain kneeled down and pressed her hand against Soifon's stomach. "Your abdominal regional has neither expanded nor shown signs of discomfort, symptoms also associated with pregnancy. Why, if I hadn't caught it here, you very well could have been one of the outlier women."
The doctor got up and sat on her desk, directly in front of her junior. Her arms crossed over her chest. "Since you are going to be staying overnight. I suggest you use that time to think on how to tell Ichigo. While I'm sure he'll be ecstatic, the two of you are going to need to brace yourself for the fallout once it comes to light."
"Yes, you're right." The woman replied demurely, as she seemed to be thinking about things. "Tell me how long before I'm due exactly?"
Retsu's eyebrow raised wondering where she was going with this, but complied nonetheless. "Typically pregnancy last about 9 months. 10 months at the latest and if born prematurely about 7 or 8 months. Right now, you are two months in, so you're still in your first trimester. If everything proceeds at it's continued rate, you'll have about seven months to keep your relationship secret, before it's exposed, unless your belly decides to expand of course."
A determined look flashed across Soifon's eyes "Can I still fight?"
Unohana hummed to herself as she looked out her window, understanding what she planned to do. It was risky to be sure, but sidelining her would not only remove a very capable soldier from the battlefield, but might draw suspicion from the Sotaichō.
"Right now, your child is about the size of a raspberry. It shouldn't impair your movements or fighting abilities at this point; however, you will need to be very mindful of where you are struck. While you could take a few blows to your stomach area, I warn you, that the chance of you suffering a miscarriage will be far greater. Be careful."
The young captain expression softened into a grateful smile, she was happy that the woman was understanding of her request. "Thank-you, Unohana-sama." She thanked as she bowed humbly to her superior and friend.
The doctor chuckled amused by the young captain "You don't need to thank me. We are friends and comrades, working together to protect those around us." Her eyes darted towards the smaller girl's stomach. "Life will go on, Soifon; your child is proof of that." She then got up and walked over to the door and opened it "Go get some rest. I have your clearance order that I need to rush through after all."
The woman got from her chair and walked towards the door. When she hit the hallway, a thought occurred to her. If she was pregnant then what about…? Turning to her senior, she decided to ask. "Tell me. Do you have a testing tool I can use to show that I'm pregnant?"
"Yes, but why would you need that?"
Shaolin did her best to keep a straight face. "I would like to show Ichigo when I get back." She smiled, "Action speak louder than words, right?"
"Ah, that they do." The doctor replied amicably, accepting her lie. Walking back to her desk, she pulled out a small plastic syringe and handed it to the expectant mother. "This is a very basic type. Just put the needle in around the stomach, push the top part in and pull it back. Simple as one, two, three."
"And how accurate is it?" she asked as she put the seemingly harmless needle in her ring holding pocket.
"Around 98.3%." She replied happily "While we may lack in the technological diversity of the twelfth division, when it comes to our specialty we are the true masters."
"I'm happy to hear." Soifon bowed once again "Thanks for everything."
The other captain nodded as she watched the fledgling mother walk back to her division.
(Ichigo)
Not too far away from the Vizards, the siblings were chatting amicably, Ichigo curious as to whether Senna felt any different and Senna happily answering his question. The jovial atmosphere between them was interrupted when the silver haired man of the Vizards approached. "Okay, were ready for you. So it's time for Shinji to work his magic." Kensei's eyes then fell on the new Vizard, "What about you? Do you think you can step in if we need you?"
Pushing herself up off the ground, Senna shook her head "I still have about fifteen minutes for my clothing to reform, but I'm good after that."
"Alright. Then let's go."
Returning back to Shinji, the man once again extended his hand towards the Kurosaki. The experience was certainly interesting from Ichigo's perspective, he felt like he was riding the surface of a wave in the middle of the ocean, it was both disorienting and relaxing.
When his eyes finally flickered closed, Senna caught her brother as he lost consciousness, before laying him down and looking to Shinji and the other Vizards. "You guys looked pretty worse for wear when I was done, was your Hollow experience easier?"
"Significantly." The gold haired Vizard replied, "Our Hollows didn't use their Zanpaktou abilities to fight and in your case, fly high above our heads and dive bomb the shit out of us."
"S-sorry." The girl apologized as she stuck out her tongue playfully.
"Yeah, yeah." He waved off clearly not buying it. Glancing back at the unconscious man, he made a gesture for her to follow.
It was time for more bloodshed.
(Ichigo)
Letting out a groan, the orange haired man opened his eyes as the wave like sensation finally left his body. Lifting his head up, he seemed to be laying on the floor of some closed ceiling place. Walls surrounded him on either side, which led into a fork in the road just up ahead.
Pushing himself to his feet, he shook his head to get rid of any cobwebs that might have hung around, before checking to make sure Zangetsu was still on his back, after all if this was supposed to end in a fight it'd be best to be prepared.
With a prepared exhalation, he trudged forward until he came to the split in the road. He glanced down both ways and saw no discerning difference between either selections, just another innocent looking hallway that branched off into another intersection.
Turning to his side, he started to walk down the left corridor, but he barely took two step in that direction before he stopped himself. Even though he had never been in this part of his world before, for some unexplainable reason, he felt like he was going the wrong way. A deep solemn expression crossed his face as he forced himself to take another step.
His foot barely touched the ground when again, he just felt himself disagreeing more with the direction he had randomly chosen. Turning back in the direction he came, he paused to reevaluate his choice, before deciding to follow his gut and go down the other way.
He walked down the bland corridor and when he came to the next intersection, he didn't pause in his stride as he made his left. It was like being on autopilot, but instead of the unawareness of it, he instead was in complete control, it was like having the right answer to a question before it was finished being asked.
He continued making his decisions through the closed labyrinth until it finally came to a service door. Putting his hand on the handle, he pulled down and found himself looking at what seemed to be a set of emergency stairwell, one-half going up, the other spiraling down.
Taking a few cautious step, he placed his hand on the metal railing and looked down towards the bottom. All he saw was an impenetrable black veil married by an ever downward descending set of stairs, tearing his eyes away from the void, he looked upwards and saw a mirror image of what he just saw, this time from the opposite perspective.
'Who knows how long it goes.' He thought as he stepped away from the railing. As he glanced back, he wasn't very surprised to see the door he had entered from had disappeared, replaced by the same cold concrete wall that surrounded the rest of the stairs.
A confident smile graced his lips; he already knew what he was doing. How he was proceeding and more importantly why it was such.
He turned and rounded the corner towards the upper portion of the stairwell, he just kept walking never looking back.
It was test of how well he had paid attention to their words, a mix of both the Hollow and Zangetsu. A test to trust himself.
Despite looking endless from his previous point of view, he found himself at the end of the stairwell within a matter of minutes. Just in front of him was a push maintenance door.
Walking up to it, he felt a familiar sensation on the other side it was powerful and calming. Pushing up the door, a bright light seeped through the crack, giving just a little bit of light to the dark hallway.
Placing his hand over his eyes, he pushed through and stepped out of the service entrance.
When the light died down, Ichigo removed his hand and found himself on one of the many rooftops of his sideways city. Looking behind him, he saw that the door was a rooftop entrance, which meant he had previously been inside one of the buildings. 'Well, that's a first.' He thought to himself as he turned back around and saw his target laying nonchalantly at the rooftops edge, his middle three fingers impatiently rapping back and forth against his leg.
The orange haired hero took a few step towards the figure and only paused when the white specter removed his head from his propped up fist and adjusted his body to having his legs dangling over the side. "Hey king. Been a while." The Hollow greeted as he looked over his shoulder. Getting little rise from him, he continued. "How did you find me?"
"Instinct." Ichigo replied as he crossed the remaining distance and sat beside his Hollow "When I was inside that maze I thought about what you and the old man taught me."
The Hollow glanced back curious. "And what did we teach you?"
"To trust you and myself. The Old man always told me to move forward, you taught me to trust my instincts, my gut feelings."
A massive smile erupted on Hichigo's face "Haha! Damn, bet you never thought that I'd be a profound motherfucker."
Ichigo rolled his eyes, "Yeah, you should write fortune cookies."
"That's fucked up." An un-flattered Hichigo shot back, but when he saw the smile on Ichigo's face, he sighed defeatedly, before getting up. "You know king, we've know each other for a long damn time…"
"If this is going where I hope it isn't going, I'm gonna leave right this instant…" the man said as he pointed his thumb over his shoulder, back towards the roof access.
The Hollow laughed, "Nah, I didn't mean it like that. I'm just…" the Hollow glanced back and Ichigo for the first time in his life saw not sarcastic smile, but somber look in the Hollow's eyes.
Like a parting goodbye.
"We've kept in contact for a long time. I've been everything to you, from the 'boogeyman' that scared you when you were a little brat crying to your mom to the sword at your side when you actually grew up into a man." The Hollow shook his head, "I'm just sad that we part ways here."
Now Ichigo got up and his expression mirrored the Hollows "Why? You're my Hollow power. Even if I beat you, you'll still be inside of me won't you?"
The doppelganger shook his head, "No. You and I can't coexist at the same time. Our fate was decided once your body decided on a form."
"Decided on a form?" The confused young man repeated.
"Yeah. You could have ended up as either as a bestial Hollow who could gain access to the powers of a Shinigami or..."
"A Shinigami with access to the dark powers of Hollows." He finished which his opposite nodded his head in agreement.
"Whichever form was decided the other half would be absorbed into. That's the way this works. Why do you think I've only taken over your body when it meant saving you from an otherwise dangerous blow?" He asked rhetorically, "Because, I'm being absorbed into you. My power has been becoming yours since the day of your birth; however, if I were to take control I would still get absorbed by you, eventually leading us both into that cold embrace death's got."
Ichigo's eyes narrowed at his dark half's explanation. "If that's the case then you knew that I was half Hollow, half Shinigami this entire time, didn't you?"
A sly smile spread on the Hollow's face as he scratched the back of his head, "Yeah, I did, but you weren't ready to hear it or try and learn to harness it. The most you ever knew was that I could provide just slight boost when you needed that extra push."
The Hollow shrugged, "We both knew what would happen if anybody from Soul Society saw you with parts of my Hollow mask on your face, hell we're lucky Hanataro and Giant Devil didn't see it during that sparring session."
Ichigo closed his eyes as he thought about some things, before glancing back at the Hollow. "Mother always told me that my father, Isshin, was noblemen. I know she was a Shinigami, so does that mean she lied to me about him?"
The Hollow nodded solemnly "She did her absolute best to create the perfect lie for you, but she had your best intentions at heart.
"Mmhmm, so then tell me, Isshin, he's a Hollow, isn't he? That's how I have you, right?" Ichigo asked to which a nod was given in response. He thought for a few seconds before asking something else. "Tell me Isshin, my father, and Ein, Senna's 'human-world' father, are one and the same aren't they?"
Hichigo nodded, "Yeah."
"Then how did this happen? The separation?" a fleeting hurt flickered across his eyes, for having blamed his father for as long as he had. "Mother's lie."
"When you were a little brat a city-wide accident occurred that at the time me and your mother believed cost you: your father Isshin or Ein, whichever you prefer, and your sister, Senna. Course Masaki decide to do what she did, so you'd forget.
"And how did my Mother play in this?"
"Look, before you jump off the betrayal train of thought, let me tell ya, don't. Your mom was a seriously unequivocally good person that it was almost scary. Sure, she knew what killing was and could do it, but I really doubt she even understood, the freaking concept of unrepentantly evil, or just evil in general. All she ever had was your best intentions at heart. She was afraid that you'd grow up with that memory and believed that it would change you from the little boy she loved."
Hichigo took a few steps to the side before exhaling deeply. "So she decided to seal your memories of the incident. It was an easy lie to facilitate. Especially, since the only person at the time who knew of her earlier pregnancy was her successor, Retsu Unohana."
"Unohana-san was in on this too?" the man quickly asked, his shock that she actually knew evident in her voice.
Hichigo nodded as he placed his hands in his pocket. "When you and Senna were being carried inside her, your mom was living in Rukongai, far as I know, she seemed to have cut ties with Soul Society. However, even an ex-captain like your mother can't give birth on her own, so she entrusted her pupil with keeping her secret and helping her sneak in for delivery."
"So then how do you know all this? I thought you said mom sealed my memory."
"She didn't know about my existence inside you, king, she couldn't have. So the answer to your question is more a matter of perspective. From your end, you were too young to recollect these things, but for me, I've been capable of abstract thinking from the moment of your conception. I can see all the events in your life like a home movie, it's just that the incident that got sealed up is completely unviewable; however, she didn't think to cover up the sealing itself. So I can fill in the gaps, since I got memories of your life before and after the incident."
"Why?" an angry snarl escaped Ichigo's lips, as crossed the distance between them and grabbed the Hollow by the collar. "Why didn't you tell me this then?"
The unthreatened Hollow, slowly placed his hands against his king's and pulled them off him. "Because what could you do?" he asked rhetorically, "That event happened YEARS ago, nothing your present self could do about it." A somberness fell on his face as he shrugged. "Sides, I didn't know 'our' Senna was alive in the human word until you did. I was a bit skeptical and decided to not bring it up till I had something obvious to base a decision on. Gut feelings only go so far, no need to give false hope."
"I see." Ichigo looked away now understanding why the Hollow kept to himself on the matter. This wasn't something that could be sprang up out of the blue, especially if you were sure that person was better off not knowing.
"Zangetsu…" the orange haired Shinigami muttered, just loud enough to catch the Hollow attention, since he was rarely addressed by that name. Leveling his stare at him, Ichigo smiled gently. "Thanks for looking out for me."
The surprised Hollow smirked wildly at the sincere gesture. "Hey, hey, no prob." He tried to wave off. "I gotta say, being around you has been the ultimate non-stop party for me. You got chicks up the wazoo, power up the ass, and wannabe tough guys that need stomping! This is fucking paradise for me!"
The white Zangetsu busted into an uncontrollable fit of laughter as Ichigo stared. Soon though, Ichigo felt his own lips turn upwards and he joined him in his mirth. The two partners sharing a final peaceful memory with the other.
As the Shinigami came back down from his high, he let out a contented sigh, before hardening his features. "I don't suppose there's any other way to do this right?"
"Nah, king. Only one." The Hollow muttered as he brought his sword around. "Still I appreciate the concern."
Ichigo bobbed his head rhythmically as he gripped his blade. "Before we start I got one question."
"And what's that?"
"You said that when I was born I could have my current form or a Hollow form right?"
The white monster raised an eye brow "Yeah?"
"You've always taken my appearance," a confident grin appeared on his face. "So I was wondering if you'd show me your true form."
The Hollow confused expression slowly morphed into a maniacal grin. "Hahaha! You want it? You got it!" he brought his Zangetsu around and pointed it at Ichigo, mimicking his Bankai stance. "Don't complain when I kill ya king! Ressureccion! Abrir el camino, luna asesinato (Open the path, Slaying moon)."
In an opposite fashion to the energy shot out by the extra release, the white Zangetsu expelled a white cloud-covering, engulfing the inner Hollow's form. Ichigo had to strengthen his reiatsu to maintain his stance when he felt the monstrous energy surge outward.
When the Hollow's energy dissipated, Ichigo saw the original form of his Hollow standing tall. The monster was the same height as him and managed to keep the white pants of the original, but after that the similarities seemingly ended. The Hollow's smooth skin changed into a boney armor that covered his entire body. His face had morphed from his own into a mask with red lines extending down over the eye sockets, a pair of horns stuck out from the side of his skull, while smooth long white hair flowed from the back. In his hand was a white Tensa Zangetsu.
The monster slowly crossed his arms over his chest before throwing them to the side as he let out a loud wail. His power surging outwardly again and shattering the glass of the building the two were on. Ichigo, while quite unnerved at seeing what he could have been, kept his head in the game and was going to match him point for point.
Bringing his sword around, he pointed it at the monster and yelled "Bankai!"
The black reiatsu flared towards the white monster who simple cut the energy wave in half with his Zanpaktou, giving him clear view of the young man in black standing defiantly as his energy finished rematerializing his power. The man's harsh scowl was etched on his face as he slowly slanted his body while raising his sword towards the Hollow, silently taunting the creature to make its move.
And made it, it did.
The horned monster surged forward, its feet destroying the part of the building it was on as it pushed off. Ichigo gripped his blade with both hands and intercepted the wild swing of the white sword, though the overwhelming force behind it sent him skidding backwards.
As his heels continued to scrape against the shell of the building, Ichigo took his eyes off the charging monster and glanced back, before back flipping once he came the edge of the building. Crossing the gap, Ichigo landed upon the adjacent building and sprung forward with intense speed himself. The bull-horned Hollow let out an inviting primal roar as the black specter raced towards him blade drawn.
As the two super charged blades collided with each other the resulting shockwave echoed throughout the inner world and shattering the windows of every building, releasing them into the air around the combatants only to be blown away when both opponents flared their energy trying to gain the upper hand.
The battle tested Shinigami was pouring all of his strength behind his weapon, which continued to grind sickeningly against the devil-masked monster's sword. Digging in deep against this power house, Ichigo let out a roar as he pushed the parrying sword to the side, allowing him to strike.
Swiftly reversing his sword without changing stance, he cut into the monsters' left arm, trying to take out one of the tendons to weaken the brute's strength.
The Hollow's finger's contracted back into a fist, giving a sign that he was at least hurting it. Glancing into the Hollow's golden eyes, he saw the surge of anger flaring, which gave way to the muscle movement in his sword bearing shoulder.
Releasing his grip on his blade to allow for more flexibility, Ichigo narrowly ducked under the reprising horizontal slash. Quickly reversing his edge, the man shot upward again, taking advantage of the opening and dragging his sword across the armor-like chest of the Hollow. Ichigo's eyes widened, while his attack did seem to be hurting it, it seemed to be very minute. As his blade left the chest and continued to swing upward, he took notice when the monster pulled its head back to avoid the sword collision with its horn. 'What the?' Ichigo thought to himself since that was much quicker than a reflex.
However he wouldn't have time to think as he was forced to brace his shoulder as the monster's right arm, which was fully cocked back was now rushing towards his prone-aerial form.
A penetrating crack resonated throughout the air accompanied by Ichigo's scream of pain as the bones were knocked out of place. But it was just the beginning, as the flinch provided the opening for the monster to grab Ichigo by his leg and swing him around in a tight circle. The momentum was jarring as he felt his leg losing blood circulation from the rest of his body.
After three revolution, the Hollow let him go flinging him off into another direction of the city, helplessly. A low growl escaped the masked demon's invisible lips as it pointed its arm straight at Ichigo and a red malevolent light began to form and expand at its finger tips.
Despite being slightly dizzy from the toss, Ichigo could clearly see what the monster was doing 'A doom blast huh?' he then jutted out his hand in front of his body. "Sprinkled on the bones of a beast! Pointy tower, red crystal, steel cartwheels. Move and make wind. Stop and make calm. The sound of warring spears fills the empty castle!" he chanted as he quickly pumped reiatsu into the golden glow in his hands.
"Hado #63: Raikouhou!" he yelled, as the monster's death beam finished charging.
Both spell and doom blast shot out of the hands of their respective casters and collided with each other. Each blast trying to overpower the other and annihilate the weaker attacker. Soon, the energy display of both strikes gave out, revealing a draw to both Shinigami and Hollow.
Using the breather he created, Ichigo corrected his body from its lopsided position into one where he could place his hand against the air to slow his backpedalling. Breathing heavily, Ichigo wiped the sweat off his brow as he kept his eyes firmly on the predatorial glare of the Hollow that re-stiffened his hand.
Already knowing what he was going to do, Ichigo raised his free hand in return but unlike before. He froze when he saw what the Hollow did next. The long white hair that fell behind the Hollow's mask rose up in thick strands and pointed directly at him, he could practically hear the smugness in his dark half's growl when every strand of hair and his arm, all started charging up ceros.
Each pointed at him.
The Bull-horned Juggernaut let out another loud roar as he unleashed his unending barrage of death. All across the sky-line red was the only color that could be seen, as the energy beam destroyed everything in its path. Nothing would be spared, not the sky, not the buildings, and certainly not Ichigo.
The crimson wave soon started to shrink after two minutes of concentrated fire. Allowing the indomitable beast to view the damage it had created. Gone were all the building in the general direction it had been facing, the sky-line was a dark mutated black, as if the atmosphere had been punctured, and floating downward was a scrap of black, which to the Hollow's delight was the dark cloth of Tensa Zangetsu's gi.
The monster raised its head and let out another triumphant roar, unknowing that just a few building behind it Ichigo was pressed against its steel trying to catch his breath. 'Un…(pant)…unreal.' the man thought to himself as he placed his hand over his heart to calm it down.
Right now, more than ever, he was glad that his Bankai specialized in speed as opposed to the overall power like others, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to dodge that blast. Sure, running around to circumvent it, while hiding behind the remaining buildings, in the shadow of the blast, might have been a rather tiring endeavor. But better a little tired than a little dead.
Slowing his gasps, Ichigo sidled to the side and peered around the corner, staring into the back of unaware creature. 'Shit, he looks like he's got energy to spare.' The carrot top thought to himself as he examined the practically unfazed creature. He closed his eyes as he recalled all his attacks thus far. 'It's like he the opposite of me, kinda slow, but he can take beating and keep going. If I keep fighting him head-on like this, I'm gonna have a hard time winning this thing.'
Seeing the creature move its head, Ichigo ducked back behind the building. 'I guess he noticed that since nothing's changed, I must still be alive. Damn.' Taking another second, he poked his head back out and saw the monster scanning the horizon vigilantly for movement.
As Ichigo continued to observe, he saw the horns on the side of the monster's head crackle with electricity as if further aiding the monster. Soon a thought occurred to him, as he remembered the strange evasion the monster performed to avoid his slash. 'Maybe those horns are amplifying his abilities.' He thought to himself 'The mask of a Hollow has always been its weak point and their attached to them so maybe…'
His thoughts were put on hold, as the devilish Hollow flared out its spiritual energy and raised a hand above its head. Bringing his eye brows together, Ichigo looked on as he observed the creature. His eyes then widened when he saw a purple ribbon manifest in its grip. 'A spirit ribbon!' the panicked man thought, since that was a Shinigami technique that did the one thing he really didn't want.
The monster quickly wheeled around Ichigo's direction, the ribbon pointing to his hiding spot. "Shit!" Ichigo yelled as the monster charged it's devastating beam barrage again.
Using his speed again, Ichigo jumped to the third building away as the beam punched through the building he had been behind just a second ago. He knew that he couldn't keep playing this Russian roulette forever.
Taking a second to concentrate, he quickly took in a sharp inhalation, before launching himself out of cover. "Getsuga Tenshō!" he yelled, as he quickly launched the moon fang at his distracted opponent.
The Hollow quickly cut off the energy to its Cero to at least protect itself from the homing slash. The black wave crashed over the white monsters form, the Hollow slid its leg back behind it to give better stability, but found the strength behind the attack to be lacking to do any true damage. Seeing the end, the monster threw the rest of heaven piercer to the side with its arm.
The yellow eyes of the masked creature widened when it saw that that speedy nuisance of a Shinigami had disappeared again. Raising its hand up it was about to summon another spirit ribbon, when it felt the surging of Ichigo's spiritual pressure behind him.
Turning around it could do nothing against the oncoming blade. "GRAAAAHHH!" the monster shrieked as the black sword cut through one its horns, while dark black blood shot out from the wound. The Hollow clutched its head wound trying to stifle the pain, but the young swordsman would have not of it.
Quickly pivoting around, Ichigo threw his weight forward to continue the attack. "GETSUGA" he yelled as another coating of black energy flared around his blade "TENSHO!"
The moon fang drilled the war beast directly into its mask, while the creature roared in pain. The young Shinigami smirked when it saw the monster's white legs stagger backwards under the force of the technique. Closing his eyes, Ichigo let out his held breath and took a moment to breathe. He took his hand off his sword and wiped his sweaty forehead, as the energy wave dissipated.
For once, he got a good sign.
The unflinching beast that his inner Hollow was, finally looked as if it was hurting. The other horn he had been aiming for with the moon fang was destroyed and in response, the mask and the creatures entire upper torso, was riddled with crack as if ready to shatter from the light touch.
The one horned monster continued in its stagger as it fell backward unto its knees, also trying to catch its breath. The devil's body was wracked with unimaginable pain. The monster lifted its head as it stared at the swordsman who was getting back up to its feet.
Was it going to lose? Was this…defeat? Was it going to be consumed?
The monster lowered its head as the image of the charging man fell from its sight.
Consumed…by this man?
The Hollow's golden eyes flared as the grip of his hand against its kneecap increased exponentially. The Hollow locked its head back up. It wouldn't let itself be consumed, not while it still had life in it.
With a beautiful mix of agility and proximity, the brittle monster threw itself forward, its bulky white arm grabbing Ichigo by his face and sweeping him well out of his coup-de-grace. Wheeling its head around, the monster turned and threw Ichigo into one of the building behind him.
The black swordsman didn't even get a chance to bounce from the recoil when he felt the enraged creature sink its fist into the side of his face.
The frenzied Hollow just kept striking over and over as the man's body recoil with each hit, denting the steel inward further still with each earth shattering strike.
After a good minute of wailing on the creature with one hand, it slammed its Tensa Zangetsu to the side of thoroughly beaten man and raised both arms high above its head, before slamming down and punching Ichigo all the way through the building, down into the building behind it.
Another roar escaped the creatures lips, as the man's form grew smaller and smaller in the hole it had created. Grabbing its entrenched blade, the monster held it in front of its body for a few seconds before pouring the last of its energy into it.
Slowly a white aura encased the blade, while the creature kept its eye on its target. "GETSUGA! TENSHO!" It screamed out a guttural roar.
The white beam split the building in half as it ran to meet its target. Ichigo seeing the unavoidable strike, closed his eyes and curled his body up, as the attack screamed forward.
The Hollow watched in delight as the attack struck home and left a size able cut in the building behind the one it had shot through. However its joy was short lived as placed its hand against some floating debris, a lizard-ish hiss escaping. Shinigami techniques seemed to be much more taxing than Hollow ones.
The Hollow turned its head upward, expectant of change. If something happened that meant the fight was over and it had won, otherwise that meant Ichigo was still alive and this battle had not concluded. It stayed perfectly still for a few more moments, until it felt a spiritual energy below it.
Diverting its gaze back down, it saw a bloody, near nude Ichigo pulling himself out of the crater he had been put through. A growl escaped it as it wonder what it had to do to kill this son of a bitch.
Escaping from his metallic tomb, the youth closed his eyes as he popped his shoulder back into place, followed quickly by a slight twist of his trunk to dull the throbbing pain he felt there just a second ago. He'd really seen better days. All along his chest, dirt, burns marks and bloody cut marks ran down him. His Hakama and gi were destroyed beyond salvage along with his sandals, barely a loin cloth of black remained around his hips to his knee caps.
Taking in a breath, he quickly spat out some blood from his mouth as he raised his skyward and saw the monster still standing, albeit with support. "Maybe…(pant) maybe I should have been a fucking Hollow." The man wheezed, "Least fighting Aizen would be easier."
The Shinigami took a few more breathes as he assessed his situation 'I'm almost out of juice. I could use a few more Getsuga, but it doesn't seem to be getting a lot of return, sides he'll avoid it at this distance. Can't use healing, it'll make that bastard come at me harder.' He then raised his sword, gripping it with both hands. 'I need to catch him off-guard but how?'
Suddenly he recalled the Cicada technique and the times he had used his Bankai speed to outmaneuver the monster. The Cicada had only been used once, so he doubted the creature could counter it just yet and his blinding speed could allow for easier evasion against attack as he closed the distance. The man gritted his teeth, as he pondered the predicament.
'Shingetsu!' It occurred to him the technique the Hollow had taught him. It would get its attention and if he played his cards right. 'Gotta make it count.' He thought to himself as he breathed in and out, steadying his spiritual pressure. "Here goes!" he roared trying to psyche himself up.
Releasing his left hand from the hilt of his sword, he raised the blade in front of his face, his fist shaking violently, as the black spiritual energy started to coat around his sword and begin to envelope his body. After a few seconds of charging his energy, he let out a primal roar, as slashed the blade in front of him and held it at his side. The spiritual energy that had been trapped around him, exploding into a swirling sphere around his frame.
Slowly the desperate man brought his free hand in front him, extended mockingly at the white Hollow and upon closing his fist, the surrounding area of spiritual energy swirled around him menacingly, while the winds of the atmosphere sucked like a vacuum.
The masked beast eyed its prey carefully, silently wondering what it was doing encompassing his body in the little spiritual energy he had left. He then tilted his head curiously when he saw the metal surrounding the gaping crater begin to twist inwardly towards the swirling dark energy. That's when it felt it, the slight tugging of its body, lurching it half a step forward.
A myriad of thought flew through the creatures mind, how had he done that from that distance. Was it the closed fist that the man was holding out? Yet again, the white creature felt its body slowly sliding forward accompanied by the vast debris surrounding the both of them.
As a twisted piece of metal came in contact, with dark energy it twisted up as if under intense pressure before breaking apart into reishi that just fed the swirling energy around the Shinigami.
Upon seeing what the Shinigami had done, the word 'Shingetsu' flared into the mind of the creature, who now understood what he was doing. Digging its sword into the air behind it, The Hollow expelled its own reiatsu to anchor against the attack. It knew how the Shingetsu worked since its humanoid form taught him it. It pulled in the target close using the shot out energy to swirl and create a vacuum that would suck in nearby reiatsu, crushing anything weak caught in the death field, while impairing the movement of the strong with its thick pull.
Then it would transfer all the energy created into the blade itself. Unlike its cousin, the 'Getsuga Tenshō', 'Shingetsu' could not be fired out and would dissipate quickly, wasting all the gathered spiritual energy, hence the need to draw the target it, however despite the drawback it more than made for it with sheer destructive cutting power. Still, while this would work on any other opponent, it would not work on it.
Holding its free hand in front of it, another cero began to form in its hand. It knew that while approaching it was dangerous, the user couldn't move lest he relinquish any untapped energy, which left the Hollow's doom blast an easy target to attack and shatter the Shinigami's technique.
As the monster eyed in delight that its rapidly charging cero was almost ready to fire, an ominous shudder ran down its spine, when the battered and bruised Shinigami smirked, as the energy around him rumbled some more. Then, before its very eyes, the image of the man in black along with the swirling energy around him, began to dematerialize, slowly fading apart into the ether until all that remained was blank, expansive gap between it and the world before it.
The monster depowered its cero as it looked frantically in front of it. There was nowhere for him to hide, all he could do was charge him, yet he disappeared as if becoming one with the air itself. But how? Had he burned himself out of existence trying to kill him?
A horrified thought occurred to it. Had he…had he denied him? Faced with defeat and the knowledge that he couldn't do anymore, had he opted to kill himself and drag the Hollow along for the ride? The monster white brittle skin shook in rage until finally an outcry of fury escaped its lip.
"HYYYAAAHH!" the familiar battle cry rang in its ears.
Turning behind it, was the image of Ichigo leaping towards him with his sword gripped in both hands. The usual onyx hued blade was now coated in a blood-thirsty red aura. The monster's golden eyes briefly locked with hardened brown ones and for the first time, the creature closed its eyes contently.
The Shingetsu infused sword didn't even stop as it cut right through the anchoring arm of the monster before slashing into the upper rib of the Hollow as the man passed by the creature. The crimson energy dispersing any resistance, breaking whatever skin it flayed into reishi particles.
Once the swordsman was finished passing by, the remaining upper half of the monster consisting of only its head, left arm and just a piece of its left upper pec, fell down towards the nothingness below it, while its bottom half burned up into nothing.
As it fell, the cracked mask of the creature finally gave way, revealing the contented look of the doppelganger's face. His eyes were squinting as he tried to keep them steady on the form of the death god, as he fell to the void that would embrace him. His lips parted as he saw the near-naked man vanish from his spot.
Then he felt the remains of his body halt. It was no longer falling instead, he found himself cradled in the arms of the wounded swordsman, who gazed at him sadly. It was regretful. The eyes not belonging to a killer, to an animal, but to a man.
A slow yet beaming smile graced the Hollow's lips, proud that his king was strong and compassionate. Raising up his only good hand, he grasped the man's shoulder. "Thanks for the save." Hichigo winced as a pained cough escaped him "Though, I'd have preferred it, if you saved me from being cut in half (hack) instead of the fall, King."
Ichigo took in a startled breath, before exhaling amicably "Smart-ass." He replied with a sardonic smile.
"What I do." He answered with a pained grunt "How did ya get me?"
"When we were fighting you used spiritual ribbons, a Shinigami technique, to locate me. So I thought to myself, you might have some memories about techniques and how they were used. I used Shingetsu (tran: New moon), the technique you taught me, to get your attention." He paused to let his words sink in before continuing,
"We both knew it was a powerful short range technique that could draw you in. That was part one of my plan. I wanted you to hold your ground and focus you attention on keeping yourself alive. Then I fooled you, using my Cicada and speed increase with my Bankai, I left a long standing afterimage that gave me plenty of time to full charge my sword and get behind you."
Hichigo leaned his head back in a semi-understood nod. "That's why you looked like you broke into nothing. The afterimage was fading, along with the energy that had long dissipated." A scowl crossed his tired face. "Lost to a fucking distraction. Damn, not the way I thought I'd go out."
Ichigo's lips pressed into a frown as he diverted his eyes shamefully "I'm sorry it came to this, Zangetsu." He whispered, as his hand rested against the remains of Hichigo's chest.
The white demon closed his eyes and shook his head in disagreement. "Don't be. I went all out, you got the best of me, way it goes," the devilish smile returned to his lips "Just thought I'd be good enough for a mutual kill, King." His smile was cut short by a surge pain thorough his body, "I-ichigo." He gasped out, starting to feel himself fade. "This…was always gonna happen. Don't worry about it. Just use my power…your power." The white Hollow's body began to shake as tears started to fall from his eyes. "Don't…ever stop walking forward, King. If you freeze up…if you hesitate, you'll die. Protect…" the Hollow closed his eyes as he began to fade into Reishi. "pro..tect…your…happin…ess."
Before his eyes, the dying white creature, slowly stopped breathing as his body surrendered itself to the flux of energy that tore his physical form apart. Ichigo's arm shook as grief filled his body, when the Hollow that had walked with him throughout his life, finally disappeared in his arms, not trace of his body remained.
Slowly standing up, Ichigo looked into the dim colored skies as tears fell from his eyes. "I will." He muttered to himself, as he felt a drop of rain fall down and hit him on the forehead, the sun barely visible behind the clouds, like a summer rain. "I promise my friend."
(Vizard training ground)
Senna's form stumbled under the culminating exhaustion in her body. Having fought her Hollow not too long ago, occasionally fighting the lizard-Hollow form Ichigo had taken, and making emergency evacuation of severely wounded fighters, left her more than a little winded.
Glancing behind her, she saw Shinji struggling to get Kensei back to his feet, one of his eyes was forcibly closed as he spat out blood from his mouth. Turning her attention back to the foe in front of her, she braced herself in case it tried to attack again.
This was another of her tasks.
It was discovered relatively early on, that this Hollowfied form of Ichigo, held back considerably when attacking her. Oh sure, she received her fair share of broken bones, cut marks or slams through rocky protrusions like the others, all of which Hachi was kind enough to heal, but it seemed to be rather hesitant to go full force like it had with the others. Although, nobody was really sure if that meant some part of Ichigo was still in control or if the Hollow itself felt a sense of kinship with her, since her spiritual energy was so close to its own.
Of course, the theory that it was just a sadistic monster, who enjoyed fighting and seem to understand that as long as she was out here the others could rest, thus prolonging the fight, still stood.
The swishing white tail of the Hollow slammed against the ground behind it, as its golden eyes widened in surprise. The young woman carefully eyed the creature until it dropped its arms to its side, lowering its head submissively.
Chancing a glance, she looked back at Shinji, who let out a relieved sigh as crashed to his butt, Kensei still leaning on his shoulder "Holy hell that was close."
With a twitch at her lips, Senna looked back towards the monster and sure enough, she heard the sound of something hardening up. All across the body of the creature, lines started to form, before slowly chipping off, revealing flakes of peachy skin underneath.
The layer of white fell away until all that remained was the white mask with a red lines going down the side. Sheathing her hidden blade back into her Shakujo state, Senna called out to her brother. "Ichigo? Can you hear me?"
The man's shoulder twitched at her words, indicating awareness. Slowly, he bent one of arms and brought it up to his face. Clasping the side of the mask, he put some pressure against it, and watched it crack before their eyes, revealing the very drained face of Ichigo Kurosaki. "Loud and clear." He replied tiredly, before his body started to fall forward.
Using her flash step, she caught him before he hit the ground, wrapping her arms around his body, to give him a tight hug that told volumes of how worried she was and glad he was back. Turning his head up to meet Senna's face, he nodded as he wrapped his sore arm around her back, returning it as best he could.
Their moment was cut short when the hobbling frame of Hirako Shinji came up behind Senna "We are never gonna do back-to-back awakening training again. Ever." He stated, as he wiped the sweat off his forehead. Kneeling down, he stared into the face of Ichigo and sighed. "You were a pain in the ass."
It took a little effort, but Ichigo managed to work a smirk unto his face "If I'm not…I'm not doing my job." He then placed his hand on to his knee and with a little help from Senna, got to his feet. "So what now?"
"Well…" Shinji took a step back to let Ichigo see the damage he had inflicted.
The first thing he noticed was the golden barrier that had encased them was long gone, either destroyed or let down he wasn't sure, but from the gasping form of Hachi, he was willing to wager violently. Not far from Hachi was a healthy looking Mashiro who was slapping Hiyori in the face in order to bring her back to the world of the living. Hiyori's red tracksuit was missing its sleeves and the sandals she had been wearing were gone, leaving her barefoot.
On the far side of the stairwell, Lisa was leaning against the wall with her hair down and a broken pair of glasses in her hand. She silently folded them up and placed them on the ground before reaching down and grabbing another hair band. Less than two feet away from her was Rose, who had his arm in a sling as he rotated his body trying to pop his rotator cusp and relieve the tension.
Love came next as he was on his knees trying to catch his breath as he leaned against his spiked mace for support, his green track suit was covered in dust, dirt and dried blood. Finally, Kensei who looked like he'd been through a street brawl, busted lip, swollen eye and clothing partial torn, was trying to stand up on his own two feet, but his form was shaky.
"Well, rest first." Shinji continued having fully surveyed the damage. "We'll take two or three hours to rest and eat, recover our strength, then we can train the rest of the night."
Senna felt worry in heart at pushing so soon. "Are the rest of the Vizards going to be okay doing that?"
Shinji nodded the he did appreciate the concern. "Yeah, we already finished the hard part. What we'll be doing next is just teaching you how to call up the power." He then looked back at the pair "Since you two can naturally use Hollow powers, I have a hunch this'll be way easier for you guys to learn to control and use it at will, then we did."
"If you say so then after you." Ichigo muttered,
The blond man nodded his head before walking away "Yeah, but first rest. Hope you know how to cook, cause we're tired and hungry."
The calm expression Ichigo had on his face turned into disappointment "Let me get this straight: Not only did I have to risk my life, but now I have to cater to him?" Ichigo groaned, "Man these powers better be worth it."
Senna giggled at his sarcasm, "It's okay, I'll help you cook, Ichigo."
Amused by her breeze offer, Ichigo scratched her on the top of her head playful "No, it's okay. You were working hard too. Sides, you cooked for me and Shaolin yesterday, time to return the favor."
The woman's eyes lit up and then embraced her brother once again. "Thanks." She said, as she slowly tightened the hug, but not hard enough to hurt him. "And welcome back."
The carrot top chuckled as he stared ahead, "Already told you. I'm not going anywhere, Senna."
(Squad 2 barrack: Soifon)
"Made it." The captain breathed a sigh of relief, as she entered into her office, after having snuck through the entire barracks undetected, something she wasn't accustomed to doing.
On a normal day, she would proudly stroll through the halls of her barracks making sure that everything and everyone was functioning at expected capacity.
Her expected capacity that is.
Therefore, she broke-up physical and verbal disputes between Shinigami, she worked everyone to their limits in the training field, she stomped on the slackers who loafed around, she administered both punishments and rewards, and she consolidated any paper work that needed reported and submitted, before it was buried under more files.
However today, she wanted nothing to do with it. It wasn't only because of the quick to build backlog of paper work: Which wasn't helped by the HUGE gap in ranks stemming from: Her absence on the Sotaichō's mission. Her Fukutaichō doing his Vizard training. Her third seat currently MIA/Defection. Her fourth seat left vacant do to the original's status as KIA. Lastly, her fifth seat having less than half a decades' experience being forced to accommodate the rapid pile-up.
No, the real reason why was because she had a lot on her mind. Granted, most of it personal reasons, but it was about, what concerned not only the present, but the future of, herself and her relationship with Ichigo.
This was something that was rather unexpected, so she needed all the time she could muster to consider, since she needed to tell Ichigo soon.
Another sigh escaped her, as she locked the door behind her. The woman decided to at least unwind first, before she short-circuited herself from stress build up.
Turning away from the door she was about to enter her room, when she saw a letter on her desk. The blue haired woman quirked an eyebrow as she walked over to it, she didn't remember leaving anything on her desk. Picking up the small yellow envelope, she glanced back at the door. "I better lock up when I leave next time."
Flipping the yellow paper over, she ran her finger across the back to break the seal. Pulling out the paper within, she unraveled it to see what it contained.
As soon as her eyes hit the first Hanzi (5), her quiet confusion morphed into utter contempt. She didn't waste a second more on the letter, as she quietly folded it back in half, and began to tear it down the center pausing just long enough to flip it on it's side and repeat her tearing.
This was not the first time her clan had sent her a letter trying to get her to comeback. She had received several letters since her 'self-imposed exile' -as the first letter called it- so she understood why the family was trying to reach her.
The reason being: She was the last 'living' relative of her father, the previous clan head. Because she had no offspring before she left, effectively preventing an heir for the process of direct line succession, the family fell into a succession crisis, where smaller families within the clan would try to provide legitimacy for their right to rule over all of the Fon family.
Now, while the contention was tense, but civil, only the ones who threw in their lot for a chance to rule ran the risk of being killed, either by assassination from a competitor or the trials set by the elders to determine who could succeed, typically, one-on-one combat matches; it was still a very violent affair to be sure.
Hence, where she fit in to their little plan. If she were to return to reclaim her place as head of the family, all of the other usurper's rights would be null and voided, as the rightful heir had returned, which the elders would gladly back. Furthermore, her right wouldn't really be challenged.
Due to the families Darwinist philosophy, all challenges would one at a time -with ample time for recuperation for the winner- be settled on the training field, something few Fon assassins could say they matched her, a captain's strength, in a fair fight.
However, the problem that once again the members of her clan failed to realize was, she wasn't coming back. Reason being, she was still quite furious with them. Not only because they tried to force her to marry Omaeda. That was just more of an annoyance, but was easily solvable, once her and Ichigo's relationship was in the clear and the war ended, and if she got a chance to actually explain the situation to them, as well as explain why Ichigo was the better choice in the matter.
No. She was pissed because they tried to manipulate both her and her father. When she constantly shot down marriage proposal after marriage proposal with acknowledged agreement of her father, they sought to slowly poison him behind her back, while she was busy with her duties to Seireitei.
When that plan ran it's course and she was at her weakest, unsuspecting of treachery and no longer protected by her bi-law, they struck, trying to elevate the clan during the time of reconstruction and unrest.
She still burned when she recalled seeing the pitiable weakened 'undesirable' form of her father dying on his bed, wishing her well as she plunged her Zanpaktou into his body, in an effort to end his suffering.
That was the reason why she never responded to their letters. That was why whenever a Fon messenger or trainee came to her office to convince her to return, she turned them away with polite but cold professionalism.
So, while she freely acknowledged that she bore some responsibility for the misfortune that befell her erstwhile clan, she chose to live by her father's words and make her own choices and accept the consequences. That was why she wanted no part of her former clan further after breaking ties.
She made her peace with her older brothers, received the blessing of her father, and chose to believe her deceased mother and grandmother would understand.
The day she left that compound -with Ichigo and Senna at her side- was the day she stopped being a code-designated Fon assassin and became Shaolin Kurosaki.
Taking a few steps around her desk, the annoyed woman opened her hand and dropped her letter-turned-confetti into the waste bin. "Figure it out, yourselves." She coldly spoke, not letting the latest attempt rile her mood in the slightest.
Dusting her hands, she walked away from the trash and decided to head to her bedroom to return to her original task.
Pushing open the door located to the side of her office, the martial artist rotated her joints as walked through the door to her room. Removing the jacket with the hole off her shoulder, she closed the door with her shoes, so she could place the soon to be tossed overcoat unto her dresser.
As the door loudly closed behind her, her eyes briefly locked on the half balled-up jacket in her hands.
Thoughts that she had long buried in her mind began to stir again, disturbed by both the letters from her family and now the news of her pregnancy.
Eyeing the perforating hole through the center, an introspective groan escaped her throat. In a strange way this Haori symbolized the life –the dream- she had wanted.
Slowly, she closed her eyes and allowed herself to think back on the days long past. The days where she spent every waking moment: Studying the interlocking history of the Shihoin clan and hers, to protect the twenty-second heiress: Yoruichi Shihoin. Being out in the training fields trying to prove herself the best Shinigami warrior, princess or not.
Back then, she had trained herself to be the ultimate bodyguard the Fon family had ever seen. She did it for honor, family, respect, for every right and every wrong reason.
But, that alone wouldn't be enough, it wouldn't be nearly enough for what fate had in store for her. Nothing could have prepared her for when her world was flipped upside-down by Sosuke Aizen.
He pushed her towards her breaking point, allowing her to manifest her Bankai in righteous indignation against the woman she had lived her life trying to protect. Later, with the Haori and pressure from Soul Society resting on her shoulders, she came face-to-face and blow-to-blow against Ichigo when everything in her world seemed to be falling apart.
Every action in her life, both the good and the bad, was tailored into this jacket.
She slowly placed the cloak back down, her eyes flittering down to her core.
With what was soon going to be introduced into her life, she supposed this was the sign that this tumultuous yet important chapter in her life was slowly and definitively coming to a close.
Shifting her body, the woman was surprised to see yet another relic of her past sitting on the far side of the dresser.
Still feeling reminiscent, she walked over to it and swept it up in her hands, smiling all the while.
Her thumb ran over the surface of the black memorial stone, the kanji of the name lodged between her fingers. "Masaki." The woman whispered to herself lovingly, as she gazed at the Ihai that remained in her room.
Unlike the jacket, which had shown her the path of the warrior, exploits brought on by fate, and the tragedies that shaped her outward persona to most the world, this memorial tomb held quite a bit of significance to what lay deep within her heart.
On the forefront of it all, she had gotten this as both a token of respect for her deceased mother-in-law as well as a gift to Ichigo, since that event heralded the change between them forever.
After that when the false aspersion ploy succeeded in driving her to a rage, it had been Suzumebachi reminding her of memories of both Ichigo and Masaki, that made her realize that despite what had happened, how they betrayed and used her, she was glad that she got to feel -to experience- them in her life. That revelation would go on to later serve in solidify her allegiance to Ichigo above all others.
The third time it played in her life was when she tried to present it to Ichigo, shortly after breaking ties with her family. She smiled as she remembered how she acted. At first, she had been all set what she was going to say, having called him to her office to give him something, but she made tactical error of giving it to him first, before properly setting the mood or reason for the gift, leading him to ask her if he unknowingly pissed her off.
When she realized the implication all too late, it completely shot all her confidence, reducing her to a sputtering, stumbling, mess, as she tried, and failed, to explain why in all the seven hells she had given such a grim gift to the person she supposedly held so dear.
However, after several awkward minutes, the bright red woman finally managed to return to a semblance of coherent reasoning. She told him that she loved his mother for raising a son as wonderful as him, telling him that even though they only knew each for a brief while, she was glad to be her friend.
Ichigo nodded in understanding of the gratitude she held to her. He pulled the smaller older woman into his embrace and thanked her for such a wonderful gift. He then placed it on her dresser and told, they'll keep it in her room. When she asked why, he cheekily replied that his mother would probably want to keep looking after her daughter-in-law.
Although her reaction was delayed, she soon laughed alongside Ichigo, getting the joke about Masaki's prediction that the two of them would get together, back when she accused him of lying about their relationship to his mother.
The final time the Ihai had helped her was when she got the chance to ease the burden on Senna. Shortly after the girl returned to her more cheerful self, she brought the girl into her office and showed her the statue. Shaolin calmly told her the story about how and why she got it as well as who it was dedicated to.
The young woman was taken aback, but bowed her head, giving her heartfelt thanks that her sensei was kind enough to share more on the mother she never knew. Soifon merely pulled her into a hug and softly told her that she may or may not meet her reincarnation, but she knew the lively woman was extremely proud of her daughter.
Of course, once the tender moment had passed, she also decided to playfully tease her, offhandedly saying that she wasn't sure if Masaki would be pleased with her choice in suitor.
This caused the girl to go flush, before promising to get her back for that, which she had, by falsely spreading rumor at the next SWA meeting by saying captain Soifon never slept with undergarments on and that she also had an entire closet devoted to S&M gear.
For her part, Soifon decided to be the metaphorical bigger person in the argument and chose to ignore the false rumor about how she slept nude; however, her curiosity was piqued by the second part of her claim, since she had never heard the terminology that apparently the two letters and the word 'and' made when combined.
Once the good captain's initial confusion on the meaning of 'S&M' was cleared by resident databank Nemu Kurotsuchi, she decided to stop being the bigger person and responded by violently 'Izuna dropping' (6) the rumor spreading Vizard through a table. The raging woman would have gone two for two had she not been physically restrained by all the other members except Unohana and Isane, who were busy healing the swirly eyed teenager.
When faced with trial by the SWA court for one count assault on a fellow member during meet, her plea of 'temporary insanity' was found lacking by the judge Nanao; although, because it was found that Senna had lied, another crime by SWA standard, the both of them ended up serving a small punishment.
Both girls left with a funny personal memory that brought them closer.
The smiling girl continued playfully stroking the mortuary monument. A pleased sigh escaped her lips as she set it back down on the dresser, still holding her low angled gaze, she placed her hand over her stomach. "You're going to be a grandmother, mother." She muttered wistfully, somewhat hoping her words would reach the woman's soul.
The girl continued to stare lovingly at the Ihai, until she felt a sudden lurch in her stomach. Slowly her eyebrows furrowed and her eyelids flickered, as she felt a returning sense of nausea wash over her. "Auugh…" she groaned, trying to grit her teeth and keep the bile from rising any further.
Her effort proved to be useless however as another gag forced her to close her mouth, as she forcibly put down the Ihai and sprinted past her bed into the bathroom. Not a second after kneeling over the bowl, did a mouthful of digested paste spew out of her mouth into the pristine waters below. Only after about three seconds of continuous streaming did the woman receive a chance to catch her breath, her right hand braced against the lid, while her left arm was clutching her stomach.
Shaolin let out a groan, "Ughhh…mmmph!" the woman closed her eyes, and leaned her head back over the bowl another time, as an unexpected second helping of half-digested gunk violently blew past her lips.
As the much smaller helping of liquid food settled into the toilet, Shaolin took a few extra breaths, before spitting out the bitter acidy taste that clung to the back of her mouth into the soupy mixture, that vaguely reminded her of yesterday's dinner.
"Damn (huff) (huff)," a token smile emerged across her lips, as she wiped away whatever food particles had stuck to her lips. "I'd take my seasonal sickness any day over this." She joked airily
Pushing herself from her toilet, she glanced weakly back at the black tablet. "I guess that settles it, huh?" she said sardonically as she flushed the toilet and it's putrid contents away. 'Me…a mother.'
Walking to the sink, she turned on the water and began to wash her hands with soap and water to get the gunk off her hands. Her head was in the clouds the entire time. 'Unohana says I should think about what to say, but…what do I say? Do I just go "Ichigo, I'm pregnant"?' she considered as she absentmindedly, lathered a second layer of soap between her fingers. 'Should I try to ease him into it with casual conversation?'
The woman shook her head as she cut the water off and dried her hands. Her eyes fleetingly looking into her large mirror. Her eyes drifted to her reflection's stomach and imagined herself with a giant bulge. A playful smirk adorned her lips. "He'd probably think I got fat, if I didn't tell him." She considered, as she touched her sides with her hand.
As she was musing to herself, she could have sworn that she heard a voice. Looking back into her room, she saw no one there. She stayed perfectly still until she heard the distant echoing noise a second time. "Who's there?" she barked in her authoritative tone. She really didn't want to deal with anyone's stupidity. "Are you deaf or stupid!? Show yourself!"
Again, the silence was what greeted her, but she knew something was off. Clenching her fists, she scanned the room until…
Look…
This time the voice came from her right. Quickly pirouetting, she came face to face with her battle ready reflection. The two stared unflinchingly at the copycat, before the original eased her stance. "I must be losing it." She muttered, as she brought hand to her forehead, a sentiment her image seemed to mimic. The woman was going to exit the bathroom to get some much needed rest, when she saw that her reflection was slowly fading away until it was replaced entirely by Sosuke Aizen, bowing his head as he held Kyoka Suigetsu in his hand.
Ninchi Shinjitsu The reflection muttered
Acting on instinct, the woman threw her fist at the mirror. The strike connected with the glass sending cracks all throughout the mirror, but that was only the beginning, as the cracks gave way revealing a swirling void beneath it, pulling her in.
Shaolin couldn't do anything as was sucked into the void and falling further and further away from the location of her bathroom. Her body kept tumbling and spinning further and further out of control, until her world went black.
Post fic banter:
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Yoruichi: SMELL LIKE A SEX GOD!
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Yoruichi: BLOWING MEN'S MIND INTO A CATATONIC STATE!
Mayuri: Back to you rage-a-holic out there who find appeal in-
Grimmjow: BEATING THINGS UP WITH YOUR FISTS!
Mayuri: We've got concentrated-
Zaraki: ZARAKI SWEAT!
Mayuri: This concentrated dose of testosterone poisoning is good enough to make a manly man out of you!
Yachiru: EVEN MIDGETS LIKE TOSHIRO!
Mayuri: We scientifically proved it by putting a drop on a goldfish and watched it turn into a-
Zaraki: GODDAMN BULL SHARK!
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Zaraki: IT'S AWESOME!
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Yoruichi: FEMALE RAGE!
Mayuri: That's right. If you down this drink, Not only will you have the strength of twenty men-
Yoruichi: YOU'LL MAKE THEM YOUR BITCH!
Mayuri: Exactly. So now that you've seen just a taste of our magnificent wares, don't buy from that ass-hat at the shoten. Buy from us: at 1-735-569-7685, that's also 1 looks like the letter I-Sell-my-soul on your phone pad for you textie people out there. But wait there's more! But now and we'll double your order, all for the low, low cost of one spleen and an arm! Buy now or-
Zaraki: YOU SUCK DONKEY BALLS LIKE URAHARA! BUY IT NOW! (1)
(Commercial ends)
Ichigo:…(curious) Is SS really hurting for money?
Shaolin:…(troubled) I feel conflicted of supporting that advertisement…
Urahara (crosses arms): Well Mayuri…I hope you realize this means war.
Senna:….{pulls out cellphone} one-seven-three…
Urahara: TRAITOR!
Uryu: Until next we meet.
Guide post of the soul:
1. For those of you who have watched either 'Brawndo the thirst mutilator' or 'Powerthirst', this was created in homage to it. I only hope it brought as much of chuckle as the original. For those who haven't seen it, go you tube it. You'll know when you see it.
2. Portal 2 character and reference. Enjoy your chuckle. For those who don't know, just search cave Johnson, lemon rant.
3. Yes, that is what it's called, and the scientific explaination given further on is also true…to the extent of my knowledge. I do try to research these kinds of topics, but when it comes to science we learn new things everyday.
4. As BS as this sounds, it's actually true. Yeah, I know, I was really shocked myself. Also, the 'cravings' that women get, 9 times out of 10 it's nothing to anime extremes. It's usually small changes, however there are outliers whom could consume bleach, glue and paint-thinners, so men, watch your wives, women, be careful during this time period.
5. Hanzi: Literally translates into Han character. Which is a form of writing in china. In the context of reading Chinese, the various strokes make different words and meaning. Hence in what was said, Soifon just had to read the first word. Thank-you Leon Tasume!
5. Zhōngwén: Literally meaning written Chinese. In the context of what is put on paper, Zhōngwén is what Chinese writing is called. So the style of writing that Soifon is reading. Thank-you Leon Tasume!
6. The Izuna Drop's origin began in the 1969 manga called Ninpu Kamui Gaiden OP (The Legend of Kamui). Kamui learned this move from watching birds attack each other. An Izuna Drop is a move used in many videogames mostly used by Ninjas. This move consists of both fighters being in the air after one fighter knocks the other up into the air. After launching the target, the attacking fighter grabs onto the other and continue to drop head first (Both fighters are going down head first) while spinning. The move ends with the fighter on the receiving end getting major head and back injuries and the giver to get away unharmed (even though he/she was also going down head first).
