I'll be frank. this first segment was kind of put me on my wit's end for a bit. This has been in the backlog for at least a month and it has had that first section rejiggered a lot in the past few weeks. finding a satisfying way to have Zangetsu manifest Ichigo's chimeric nature in a way consistent with what we've seen was a pain in the ass, and I still don't know how well I did, so here goes nothing.

Ichigo once again found himself in the sideways skyline of his inner world, the sky overcast, but no rain was falling.

"So, King, you've finally come around to talk," Zangetsu wasn't standing far from where he came into his inner world.

"I guess that means you know why I'm here?" Ichigo's relationship with Zangetsu had improved, but he still had a ways to go. The negative connotation his zanpakuto had gained with him wasn't so easily overcome.

"Yes, though there are some other matters we need to attend to first," Zangetsu stuck his version of his shikai into the ground, taking a seat on a raised part of the building's facade. "First being that when I let the old man give you the name of my bankai, we skipped a few steps, steps the old man skipped intentionally."

"Like what?" Ichigo looked over at his zanpakuto.

"The Old Man sought to keep your full power away from you in order to protect you, probably from Mr. God Complex," Zangetsu was referring to Yhwach, as he spoke. "Because of that, when describing to you my nature and abilities he only told you half-truths, leaving you with an incomplete picture of my power, and thus, a false Bankai," Zangetsu readied his blade as he walked toward his wielder. "So I ask you this King, what is my form, ability, and power?"

"I guess you're going to beat the shit out of me until I figure it out?" Ichigo knew this song and dance. Zangetsu was a fan of 'live fire training.' Honestly it worked and it worked well.

"Look at that, you're learning already," Zangetsu grinned wildly and then flashed before Ichigo with a burst of sonido, blade raised high to bisect Ichigo.

Ichigo attempted to block the strike, it was then he noticed red flames of reverse colored bringer light coming off of the back of it, and when their blades clashed, the thunderous blow created a crater beneath Ichigo. Zangetsu used a combination of bringer light and blut arterie to enhance the power of the swing, turning a powerful strike into one capable of immense destruction, and this was just his shikai!

Ichigo flashed away from his foe to observe the damage, but Zangetsu didn't give him the opportunity as he threw his reverse-colored blade at him. Ichigo moved to dodge but as he did so he noticed red reiatsu coming off of the blade in jets, redirecting it as though it were a missile. This forced Ichigo to block the strike, which was exactly what Zangetsu wanted as he used Sonido to go to Ichigo's back with a charged white ball in his offhand.

"Cero," the white flash consumed Ichigo before he could dodge. Before the energy could dissipate Ichigo had pounced on Zangetsu with shunpo, blitzing through the cero, his skin now crisscrossed by the blue lines of blut vene.

Zangetsu blocked the strike with his recalled blade. His grin wide as ever. He disappeared in another flash. Whether it was shunpo, sonido, or hirenkyaku, Ichigo was beyond caring, allowing his instinct to guide him.

Which was helpful when he cut a large piece of rubble Zangetsu threw at him in twain, instinctually pushing his reiatsu through his blade, causing a blast of bringer light to spout from the back of the blade, as well as coat the cutting edge in rapidly oscillating reishi, splitting the large chunk of facing in half as it it were the air itself.

"There you go," Zangetsu spoke, Breaking the silence of the exchange once again. "You used it."

"Used what?" Ichigo was perplexed.

"My ability," Zangetsu appeared before Ichigo again, a bit away, but not too far. "You poured your reiatsu into your blade, allowing it to cut what I threw at you using both your quincy and fullbring abilities, enhancing the cutting power of my blade to the point where what you were cutting may as well not even have been there."

"So you're sharp, That's it?" Ichigo was slightly perplexed. He would have thought his zanpakuto was more… spectacular.

Zangetsu sighed.

"No, I am not simply sharp you idiot," Zangetsu then picked up a rock from the rubble of their fight. "As a quincy you can shape the reishi around you into whatever you want, the only limit being your willpower to rip the reishi away from whatever it is constituting at the time, and your own imagination," he then threw the rock into the air. "while your fulbring abilities allow you to cause the soul of an object to act based on your will," he then lightly slashed the air with the rock in the path. The rock fell to the ground, cleanly cut in half without so much as even a sound.

"So you manifest my powers in an ability to cut, you actually are a combat type?" Ichigo was surprised at that. He had thought that that was another thing that was hidden from Ichigo.

"Indeed, I said the Old Man only spoke half-truths, had he lied about my nature, you would be unable to attain even a false bankai," Zangetsu looked at Ichigo, waiting for him to realize the rest of his abilities.

"Then what about our Getsuga Tensho?" Ichigo looked at his zanpakuto.

"You know my nature, and your nature, how about you tell me for once," Zangetsu was testing him. Seeing if he truly understood his power.

"My guess is that it is a projection of my reiatsu in something similar to a cero, allowing you to cut things you aren't in direct contact with," Ichigo had guessed based on what his father told him about Getsuga Tensho and how a zanpakuto's abilities and nature changed it from user to user. "So what about my hollowfication that I used against Yhwach?"

"Shinigami of sufficient power and with a strong enough relationship with their zanpakuto can use weaker versions of their bankai's abilities while in shikai," a dark glint showed in zanketsu's eyes as Ichigo's own eyes widened in realization. Zangetsu's smile widened. "Good. I await for you to call upon me to savage your enemies."

And with that Zangetsu faded away.

Rukia had been defeated by Sode no Shirayuki again. She couldn't get why she couldn't use her bankai fully even here. She was supposed to be safe from the shattering, from the fragility It forced on her body.

"You did well," Shirayuki had returned her blade back to its sealed state before allowing it to vanish.

"Well? I practically shattered again," Rukia was frustrated. She was subjecting herself to immense pressure. If only she knew that she was one bad day away from completely shattering herself.

Side no Shirayuki shook her head. Her master had lost her focus, once again throwing herself on the pyre for the sake of others. This was a trait she hated about her master, she had all but screamed at her for accepting her execution for the sake of Ichigo's safety.

"You are putting yourself under too much stress, not allowing yourself to flow from one move to the next," Sode no Shirayuki looked upon her wielder with a concerned look. "Your brother was correct when he said our bankai would be difficult to perfect. It requires a natural grace that escapes you in your current state of mind."

"I'm fine," Rukia denied it, of course she did. She thought that everything she was doing was expected of her, required of her, not knowing the only person setting the bar that high was herself.

"You most certainly are not!" Shirayuki almost shouted at her wielder. Rukia's inner world had been stuck in a perpetual gloom since Ukitake's death, and she was rushing herself to fill the void left behind by him. "You have always put everything on yourself. Kaien's death was never your fault, and it took you decades and almost dying to realize that. When you manifested me in the Royal Palace to attain bankai, what did I tell you you had to do to attain Hakka no Togame?"

Rukia remembered the training she underwent to attain bankai. The realm she and Renji trained in was thick with reatsu to the point where they could barely breathe, but her zanpakuto's words were clear.

"That I need to stop lying to myself," Ever since she was adopted into the Kuchikis she had wanted to be accepted by them. In her mind, she finally had a family, but she was shocked at their refusal to accept her. She had thought there was something wrong with her, that she was blemished or broken, and so she sought to prove herself worthy to them.

The lie was that she could convince them. That if she did this or that she would be able to prove she was worthy. Shirayuki had literally forced her to strangle that notion to death as part of her test in order to attain bankai. To realize that they refused to accept her for reasons outside her control and things she could never change as the life faded from its eyes.

"Your bankai remains imperfect because while you may have stopped lying to yourself, you have not acted like it," Shirayuki spoke more calmly. "You are still trying to prove yourself when you have nothing left to prove. You are taking everything on yourself and refusing to take offered help. And that was all before you started running from your grief."

Rukia grimaced. She had learned long ago to listen when her zanpakuto spoke. Kaien had outright stated that a zanpakuto always wanted the best for its wielder, and that if they dress them down it was because they were doing something monumentally stupid. That didn't prepare her though for the biting cold of Shirayuki's words every time she did it. There were no niceties, no platitudes, and barely any empathy.

"You will never perfect our bankai as long as you operate as if that lie didn't die by your very own hands," Shirayuki turned to walk away. "Your charge seems to have finished."

Ichigo watched Rukia as she exited her meditative trance. The blade that changed his life rested in her lap.

"Yo," Ichigo was sitting on a nearby rock, holding on to a nodachi in a dark maroon saya.

"I see you were able to learn Zangetsu's release command," Rukia then reached out to sense if Ichigo's reiatsu had lowered, and it had, by a large margin. However, he was still clearly way too powerful to be allowed to return without improvements to his control.

"Yup, and finalized some things Zangetsu can do," Ichigo cocked a sly grin, as though he had found a new way to win at a game.

"Is there anything else?" Rukia knew that there were usually some in-between moments before learning the true power of a zanpakuto. Each a hint to the true power of their zanpakuto.

"Well, Zangetsu is also my bow now among other things," with his current shikai, the Old Man and his hollow inhabited one blade, he could do a lot of things.

Rukia sighed. This would make the report complicated, and probably very classified. "Does the head captain already know about your mother?"

Ichigo nodded. This prompted Rukia to expand her senses to see if Renji was still in the training area. When she noticed he wasn't there she stood up.

"Then let's see these new tricks of yours before I give you homework," she smirked before the walked off.

Ichigo was relaxing in the healing springs. His sparring match with Rukia was surprising. He had expected her to be stronger, but being able to suspend her own life, in effect killing herself for a duration, was not something he expected.

Something else he wasn't expecting was the sound of someone else joining him in the spring. When Ichigo opened his eyes wondering what was making the splashing noise he saw a fully nude Rukia entering the hot spring.

"RUKIA WHAT THE HELL?" Ichigo Imideately shielded his eyes as his face went beat red. He could not believe that this was happening to him for a second time, in the same place even.

"What, have you never seen a woman nude before?" Rukia took the opportunity to mess with Ichigo. She found his prudishness funny, it's not like she was going to try to have sex with him.

"That's not the point," Ichigo was still covering his eyes. Drawing a chuckle from Rukia.

"You can open your eyes now," Rukia had submerged herself up to her neck as she let the springs relax her body and begin healing her. She could feel her muscles relax and the stress of not just today, but entire months of overworking herself just melt away. She needed to come back here.

"Why did you do that?" Ichigo was staring daggers at Rukia.

"Because I wanted to get in," Rukia spoke matter-of-factly. Nudity wasn't really anything special to her. She had to use communal showers as an unseated, and before that, she had to bathe in rivers in the Rukon. The fact that there didn't seem to be any issues from other Shinigami in similar situations seemed to imply that this was just a cultural difference. One Rukia was going to exploit for her own amusement.

"Couldn't you have waited until I was done?" Ichigo was not exactly happy to be subjected to her shenanigans again, especially this particular way. Rukia however was greatly amused.

"Nope," Rukia then submerged herself temporarily, wetting her hair and allowing her face to momentarily benefit from the effects of the spring water.

Ichigo sighed. This was going to be a day.

Ichigo was waiting by the exit for Rukia. While he knew she could defend herself, he didn't exactly feel comfortable risking an encounter with Tokinada at the moment. Unless he was kicked out by Kukaku for antagonizing her, which considering who was involved, was likely. They should still be talking about inter-clan matters. He had learned that while the Kakaku Taiho was their main responsibility, the Shibas were a big player in Soul Society's manufacture of support equipment, equipment that only the Shiba clan was able to produce. That equipment wasn't ready to be produced yet, but the Tsunayashiros claimed to have connections that could help them get production going faster than if Kukaku tried to do it herself.

It checked out for Ichigo. The asshole was in charge of Soul Society's intelligence arm. It wouldn't be surprising if they also kept an eye on the home front as well. Though it was still uneasing that the head of the clan that used to be the biggest antagonist to the Shibas, and was responsible for killing one, would want to help them.

The thought left his mind as Rukia had come out of the training area. Her skin was glowing compared to when they had come in.

"You feel better?" Ichigo looked as she walked into view. The faint dark circles she had under her eyes were gone.

"Yes, I'm definitely coming back here," She stretched her arms again, she didn't like that Renji kept this from her, and her mind was running through various ideas for retribution.

"I think lord asshole is still speaking with Kukaku, would you like to hang out until we know he's gone?" Ichigo had hit the nail on the head with that nickname, and Rukia agreed with Ichigo's wish to avoid him. Even if it would spin up the rumor mill faster than she could if she tried.

"Yeah, there's an ice cream place by the thirteenth I used to go to. I heard they reopened recently," it was an old favorite of hers, she hadn't been able to go to the reopening because of her pulling double duty for the thirteenth, but if the head captain is willing to cover for her paperwork, she may as well take advantage occasionally.

"Alright, let's go," Ichigo opened the door leading into the fake cave that hid the entrance to the training grounds. Ichigo covered his eyes as he adjusted to the light outside of Sogyoku Hill. He might be fine with staying here for a while.

Kyoraku was done with the paperwork that he had gotten from the thirteenth. Most of it was inane things that still required someone with a captain's clearance due to it pertaining to classified information or equipment, and because the thirteenth was a 'workhorse' division as his late friend once put it, there was a lot of that. Rukia still did the majority of the paperwork that required someone with a close eye on the division itself, but anything that was not really worthy of her direct attention was passed on to him by his own orders.

Now that he was done, however, he had other matters to attend to. Mainly how the resurgent Xcution was able to avoid detection by Soul Society's Visuals Department. He had a few theories, ranging from clever planning and concealment to treachery. He couldn't rule out ideas anymore based on practical feasibility, so now he actually had to deploy assets, get eyes on this now religious cult that was intent on breaking the carefully maintained masquerade Soul Society kept. The leader of the best people for that job had just now entered his office.

"Captain Sui-Feng, please, have a seat," he motioned to the chair in front of his desk. His office was still the one the old man used, and the garden was still well-maintained in honor of Kyoraku's old mentor. Sui-Feng ignored the offer, preferring to stand up in the presence of the head captain.

"The concerns you bring are not to be taken lightly," Sui-Feng was right. Deploying the Onmitsukido for ground-level recon had… implications. Chief among them being that what they were looking for had evaded the detection of the Visuals Department.

"I am not. Xcution has reformed without us detecting them. I'm hoping that this is just them being clever at avoiding detection, but I fear that someone may be running interference for them," Kyoraku's tone darkened, his hat shading his face as he let the assassin take in his information.

"You believe someone within the Visuals Department is keeping us blind to them," her brain immediately started running suspects through her mind. Many believe the Onmitsukido, and by extension, the second division at large, to be Soul Society's scouts. This is a mistake, in reality, they are a secret police organization, rarely acting in the world of the living save for their limited patrol responsibilities.

"I fear so," the Visuals Department completely refuted that Xcution could have reformed without them knowing, and he believed it. He believed that the information pointing to that simply wasn't where it was supposed to be.

Sui-Feng hated when someone decided to get cute with intel like this. Some of her best were killed because of poor intel, or by people within the Visuals Department who thought that mission-critical information wasn't as important as it actually was. The thought that an entire organization that knew about Soul Society could be allowed to reform without any notice from the Visuals Department was infuriating.

"I'll dispatch members of the Executive Militia to assess the situation," If what Kyoraku was saying was true, it is likely that either Xcution, or the Visuals Department themselves, had people patrolling for potential reconnaissance assets. She needed people who weren't simply the best, she also needed people who were unquestionably loyal to her, and only her own core bodyguard would suffice.

"I hope that this is simply us chasing ghosts," The irony of the idiom wasn't lost on the head captain, but he simply didn't have the energy to find it funny. If this was treachery, he likely knew the exact person orchestrating the whole thing, Tokinada Tsunayashiro.

alright, that's out of the way. let me know what you think. I just hope this was to everyone's satisfaction.