Nine
Chapter Notes
Anyone else realize I write More when I am supposed to be studying or doing literally Anything else?
Aizen, Ichigo had to begrudgingly admit, was actually a good teacher.
For all the Urahara's methods had worked at the time, Ichigo could reason that having a more practical knowledge of what reiatsu was and how it worked seemed like something that was important. Before, when he had been invading Soul Society and then thrown into a war, he hadn't had the time to sit down learn it. Hell, he barely even understood the mechanics of controlling his reiatsu, just that if he could push it one way or another and if he focused it through his sword he would be able to create a wave of it.
Now, however, Aizen had him reading through so many scrolls about reiatsu manipulation and kidos that Ichigo's eyes hurt with the effort. Barely a week in and Ichigo didn't even think high school had this much work and readings. No to mention the training session that lasted from morning to noon as if the man had all the time in the world to simply sit there and watch Ichigo try and wrangle his reiatsu into submission. Aizen even started to bring paperwork with him, when he realized the progress was going so slowly.
Ichigo eyed the man from where he sat a few feet away, trying to figure out why the man insisted on spending so much time training him. Sure, Aizen found him interesting, but did that really warrant hours a day of time spent with him?
"Concentrate," Aizen's voice broke him from his thoughts.
"I am." He bit back, earning him a sideways glance.
"You are not." Aizen snapped the book in his hands shut, "It is curious, though. You are struggling with this more than I thought you would."
The comment made Ichigo bristle, his fists clenching as he glared daggers at the man. He had to bite back a string of words that a nine-year-old would most definitely not know.
The man stared at him for a long moment, "Raise your spiritual pressure, Ichigo."
Ichigo frowned, trying to find his angle but coming up with nothing. What could raising his spiritual pressure have to do with trying to suppress it?
"Sometime today, Ichigo."
With a huff he complied, letting his pressure raise until he saw the man's eyes widen slightly before holding the pressure steady – no use in letting the man realize exactly how much he had, after all. Aizen gained his composure as fast as ever, a calculating look on his face.
"You have no issue increasing it," he said, "but you struggle to suppress it."
"It's completely different." Ichigo huffed, letting the pressure disappear.
Aizen snorted, "Hardly." At Ichigo's blank look the man continued, "Raising and suppressing your reiatsu takes the same amount of control."
Ichigo blinked, "But then why-."
"Ichigo," Aizen cut him off, "describe to be what you are doing when you raise your spiritual pressure."
Ichigo shrugged, "I don't know… I just sort of push it out."
Aizen hummed, "And when you try to suppress it?"
"I pull at it."
"How?"
Ichigo tilted his head, "What do you mean how, I pull at the edges to make them smaller."
"And when you push it out," Aizen pressed, "do you push at the edges?"
"No, I-." Oh. Oh. Ichigo stared at him for a moment before looking back down at the blades across his lap. He pushed from his core when he increased his reiatsu, so that meant he just had to pull from his core too. Pull his powers in from the center rather than the edges.
He closed his eyes, focusing on his center and pulled at the rest of his spiritual energy from there.
It took a few tries, his reiatsu not wanting to comply, but eventually he got it. Pulling it in until he felt a click, like a puzzle piece falling into place, or a door closing. It wasn't even all his reiatsu, some of it still leaking out around him insistently, but that was okay, because as he peaked one eye open he found his two blades had become one. And while it didn't necessarily look like a normal blade – the metal black – it was at least short enough that he could carry it, even with his body.
"Very good," Aizen said, walking towards him. "Now we can-."
Whatever the man was about to say next was lost, because the door that had clicked so nicely in place before bursting open with a vengeance. Like a tsunami his spiritual pressure rose, black tinged with red, his blades separating into two. It made his breathe catch in his chest, a roar deafening his ears as he tried to gain control again, but every time he thought he had it, it slipped through his fingers again.
What was more was the force of the explosion sent him flying, his swords gripped in his hands automatically. His vision swam as he flew through the air, black spots making him blink to try and clear them away. He hit something solid, solid and warm and decidedly not the ground, but Ichigo didn't have time to contemplate that as he was pulled into his inner world.
The landscape of sideways buildings came into view, only to be quickly blocked by Shiro's face hovering above Ichigo's prone form. The scowl on his hollows face was impressive, and the anger in his eyes boiling as he stared at Ichigo.
"What the hell, King?" His hollow demanded when he noticed his wielder had gained consciousness, "I thought ya said ya wouldn't put me in the box again?"
Ichigo blinked, long and slow as he pushed himself to his feet. "What are your talking about?"
"You accepted us, yeah? So why did you shut us out?" His hollow snapped, crossing his arms in front of him in equal parts defensive and irritation.
"I didn't-." He started but stopped, mind whirling as he tried to piece everything together. "All I did was try and seal my zanpakuto." He looked to Ossan for support, but the spirit said nothing.
"Don't do it again." Shiro demanded, clearly expecting Ichigo to just listen.
"I can't leave you unsealed all the time," he huffed, meeting Shiro's gaze with a glare.
"Why not?"
"Because carrying you around is impossible!"
"Who would'a thought kingy was this weak," Shiro sneered.
Ichigo opened his mouth to retort, but Ossan interrupted, finally breaking his own silence, "Perhaps, we can come to a compromise."
"Like what?" Ichigo tilted his head in interest even as Shiro scoffed at the idea.
"You may seal us," Ossan started, "until you are tall enough to carry both our blades without issue."
"Alright," Ichigo said easily enough. Having them unsealed when he got older was nothing he wasn't used to, after all. "So, in what, six years or so?"
"In six years," Ossan confirmed with a nod, before turning his gaze to Shiro in expectation.
The hollow scowled at them both for a long moment, and Ichigo thought that perhaps he would refuse and throw another fit about the entire situation, but surprisingly enough Shiro uncrossed his arms and said, "Fine. But I want to be unsealed when ya're not movin' much, 'kay?"
"Okay," Ichigo said; the request was reasonable enough, even if it would probably give much of Soul Society a heart attack every time Ichigo started to study whatever Aizen had him reading that day.
He expected to see a blue sky with clouds when he pulled himself from his inner world. Instead, he found himself in his room, the one Aizen had supplied when Ichigo first arrived. He stared at the ceiling and the ceiling stared back as he tried to piece together how he got there. Because surely Aizen wouldn't have carried him back, persona or no. Ichigo put his money on the man ordering one of the unseated Shinigami to do it. Except… they had been the only two in the training grounds.
The door to his room slid open, breaking him from his spiraling thoughts and staring contest with an inanimate object. "Oh, you're awake," Hinamori said, voice cheerful but soft as she smiled at him. "I'll go tell the Captains."
"Captains?" He asked because he could think better of it. Did she intend to make that plural?
"Well, your reiatsu spike worried some of them so they came to check on you." Hinamori explained, "Aizen-taichou said you'd be fine, but they insisted on staying until you woke up. They're having tea in his office." Hinamori's voice dropped to a whisper, as if sharing a secret, "If you ask me, they're just trying to avoid paperwork."
"Oh." He said, rather eloquently at that.
Hinamori's smile only grew, "They're all very worried, especially Aizen-taichou."
Ichigo had to hold in a snort at that, instead letting out a muttered, "I'm sure he is." Worried about getting his little pet project taken away that is. With that thought he pushed himself to his feet, reaching out for his two blades and making his way towards the door.
"Wait," Hinamori said, "you should be resting!"
He waved her off, "I'm fine, really. I might as well let them know in person."
"Aizen-taichou won't like this," Hinamori told him, trailing behind him as he headed to the man's office. The words made his lips twitch; all the more reason to do it, then.
When it became obvious Ichigo wasn't going to listen to her, Hinamori let out a huff, "Well, don't come crying to me when Aizen-taichou lectures you and makes your clean the barracks." And with that she turned in the opposite direction, no doubt to do whatever else Aizen had tasked her with.
The rest of the walk to the office was rather quiet, only a few other Shinigami passing him by with small greetings or nods of their heads. It wasn't exactly a long walk – Ichigo's room not far from Aizen's. There was no doubt that this was done on purpose, but Ichigo didn't really care, the man wouldn't be able to put enough of the pieces together to figure everything out just because he sleeps two minutes away instead of three.
With a scowl he slid the door to the office open, not even bothering to knock – he doubted the captains didn't know who was outside the door.
"Ah, Ichigo," Aizen greeted, as Ichigo slowly met the gaze of the other captains in the room. "It's good to see you're awake."
"Yeah," he muttered, shifting under the combined gaze of Juushiro, Kyoraku, and Kurotsuchi. He scanned the room for a second longer before deciding on the seat next to Aizen with a grudging resignation. Aizen seemed pleased with this move, perhaps not connecting the fact it was, also, the farthest from the idiot scientist who looked like he wanted to dissect him.
"You let out quite the spike in reiatsu," Kyoraku said, a cup that was most definitely not for tea in hand.
Ichigo frowned with a shrug, settling Shiro and Ossan next to him, "Shiro didn't like being sealed."
The occupants of the table stared at him for a moment, Aizen regaining himself the fastest, "Shiro?"
"My zanpakuto spirit."
"I thought your zanpakuto was named Zangetsu," Aizen pointed out, his face and tone mild but Ichigo could practically feel the way his eyes sharpened.
"They are," he huffed, rolling his eyes.
"And the other spirit?" Juushiro smiled, amused warmth in the curve of his lips. "What do you call them?"
"Ossan," he told them. He saw no real reason to keep this a secret, Soul Society had two captains with duel wielding blades. Ichigo didn't doubt that the fact they had two spirits wasn't commonly known, but not exactly a secret either.
"And why's that, Berry?" Kyoraku asked, his eyes shining with humor that Ichigo had a suspicion was aimed at him and not the situation.
"Because he's the older one," Ichigo said, even as his eye twitched at the nickname.
Aizen looked between the three of them with barely hidden interest – although Ichigo suspected it wasn't there at all in the eyes of Juushiro and Kyoraku, seeing as they were under Aizen's hypnosis. "Do all duel wielders have two spirits?"
"Most," Juushiro said easily.
"Even more reason to let me experiment on him!" Kurotsuchi exclaimed, eyeing Ichigo hungrily.
"Not a chance!" Ichigo snapped back, scowl deepening as he glared at the crazy captain.
"Are you going to let him talk to me like that?" The scientist looked at Aizen as he asked.
Aizen gave him a bland smile, "He is right, Kurotsuchi-taichou, you will not be experimenting on him." Ichigo felt the childish urge to stick his tongue out at the captain, but refrained, simply sending him a smirk instead. "However," Aizen continued, his gaze shifting to him, "Ichigo, that is no way to speak to a captain, you will apologize immediately."
"What?"
"Apologize," Aizen repeated, voice expectant.
"But he's the one who wants to cut me open and keeps staring at me like a pervert!" Ichigo shot back, arms crossed as he met Aizen's gaze.
"He's also a captain," Aizen told him, patient mask firmly in place.
"So what?" Ichigo raised an eyebrow.
There was a large satisfaction in watching Aizen try and find the words to dispute that, "It seems I'll need to add a book on proper etiquette to your readings. Now, apologize before Kurotsuchi- taichou requests a harsher punishment."
Ichigo's gaze flickered to the scientist, the bastard's looking more than excited at the prospect. "Fine." He finally grit out, "Sorry you're a crazy pervert."
Juushiro and Kyoraku snickered as Aizen let out a sigh. Kurotsuchi stared at him for a moment for seemingly working himself up to retort, but a knock on the door stopped him.
"Enter," Aizen called out.
The door slid open to reveal a blank faced Nemu, whose gaze locked immediately onto Kurotsuchi, "Captain, you need to finish yesterday's paperwork by the end of today."
"Nemu, you useless piece of parts, you're interrupting my work in getting that little brat."
"You're really not," Ichigo snorted, the words quiet but from the way Nemu glanced at him she had heard.
"You also need to review the results on experiment three-four-eight-b-nine." Nemu continued as if neither had interrupted her. Kurotsuchi rose from his seat, not even bothering to give a proper goodbye as he swept out of the room after his lieutenant, rambling on about how useless everyone in his division must be to not do it themselves.
"Ah, it looks like that's our cue," Kyoraku said, placing his cup onto the table, "thank you for the sake and tea, Aizen-taichou."
"The pleasure was all mine," Aizen said as the two captains took their leave as well.
"It was good to see you, Ichigo," Juushiro called over his shoulder as they left the room, door sliding shut behind them.
Aizen remained silent for a long moment, before glancing down at him, a frown on his face, "Ichigo, do not disobey me in front of others again, do you understand?" The spiritual pressure in the room spiked slightly, but not nearly enough to even make him blink.
Ichigo opened his mouth to tell Aizen off, because when has he ever so easily obeyed anyone, but Ossan poked him in the back of his mind, as if chiding him for the thought. So with an annoyed curl of his lips, Ichigo gave a nod, "Yeah, okay."
"Good." The pressure in the room disappeared as Aizen rose to his feet, moving towards a shelf of books, "You said your zanpakuto didn't enjoy being sealed?"
It took him a moment to catch up with the sudden shift in topics, but when he did he simply nodded, "I talked with him, and we sorted it out. He's okay with being sealed so long as I unseal him when I'm not moving around a lot."
Aizen glanced over at him, "Ichigo you can't just unseal your zanpakuto like that."
"Why not?"
"Unsealing your zanpakuto is not something to take lightly," Aizen sighed, pulling out a book from the shelf, "the spike in reiatsu alone will draw other captains' attentions, and may cause them to worry that you're not safe."
"But Zangetsu doesn't like to be sealed." He frowned, besides, he already made the deal with Shiro. The book Aizen had taken from the shelf was placed in front of him. 'Proper Etiquette of the Gotei Thirteen: Volume One' was printed neatly on the front. Ichigo stared at the book for a moment, then up at Aizen.
"You will finish that before you return to your room," Aizen told him, moving towards a desk that was pushed into one corner. Ichigo felt his eyebrow twitch. Screw his younger body and its inability to wield Shiro properly. When he grew a bit, he was definitely going to beat Aizen's ass into the ground for this shit.
He finished half of it before falling asleep, not even bothering to try and keep his eyes open and on the expanse of tiny words printed across the page. Who even came up with half of these rules? Like only wearing the lieutenant band on the upper left arm, or having to sit up perfectly straight when eating, or any unseated Shinigami not being allowed to make modifications to their uniforms. He's pretty sure he read one about the proper was to prepare tea for a Captain too.
It was a waste of time, really. He'd rather be in high school math than reading this if he was being honest. At least then he would be able to catch the eyes of his friends and know he wasn't alone in suffering.
He wasn't sure how long he slept for, but he woke to the smell of food and tea. Blinking back the sleep still in his eyes he peeled his face off the pages of the book his head had fallen onto. A glance towards Aizen told him that the man also had a few dishes of food.
"Eat, Ichigo," Aizen told him, not even looking up from the paperwork he was reading. With limbs still waking up he reached for the chopsticks. "Tomorrow, you will start working on kido," Aizen said, finally looking up. "Since you are an honorary member of this division, I will not tolerate anything other than proficiency."
Ichigo simply nodded. His control was still pathetic at best, but if Aizen wanted him to try then there was nothing he could really do about it. With a resigned sigh he went back to reading – just because Aizen had let him sleep didn't mean he wasn't expected to finish the damned book, after all.
Nine
Chapter Notes
Fair warning, this is my first bleach fic actually in the bleach world… so like… I don't know if my characterization is on point for all the characters or not, so if you guys think I'm missing their personalities or whatever please please let me know!
The night air nipped against his sweaty skin, breathing labored, and back pressed against the rough ground. He never really thought about what night looked like in Soul Society. The stars in the sky were brighter than any he'd seen in Karakura town, which made a large amount of sense. There was less light here to interrupt the view. There were countless tonight, all of them taunting him as their lights so easily cut through space.
He wondered absently if they were the same stars as those in the living world, or if they were the ghosts of those that had burned out.
"King," Shiro poked him in the side from where he was materialized, "either get up and try again, or admit ya ain't strong enough and let me take over."
Ichigo held in a groan. He'd been trying to open a garganta for a few nights now. Shiro was not exactly the most patient teacher, nor the most descriptive, but he was all that he had to work with. It was hard to even begin to comprehend how much of a hollow's powers he could utilize, but Shiro assured him that this was something he should be able to achieve. Had mocked him relentlessly when he didn't manage it the first night.
But when he did… when he finally was able to open a passage, he would be able to visit his family. Not often, because he couldn't have Aizen finding out. But once or twice a year. Enough that he could see his sisters grow up, and see how their lives would have been should his mother have lived the first time around.
The world may have pushed back against his demands, but Ichigo wasn't about to sit back and take that. Just because he wasn't able to grow up in the human world didn't mean he wouldn't find a way to see those he cared about there. Even if he old friends from high school wouldn't know him, that didn't mean he wouldn't look after them. Wouldn't try and make their lives better too.
After another moment he dragged himself to his feet, taking in a breath he tried again. Pulling on his connection between himself and Shiro he felt his inner balance shift. Reaching out a hand he pushed at the world around him, trying to rip it open. When nothing happened, he pushed more reiatsu, hoping that this time it would help. It didn't.
"Ya can't force it, King," Shiro huffed, arms crossing, and the reiatsu dissipated with a quiet sigh.
"How do you know?" He raised a brow, but there was no heat in the words, only curiosity.
"Instinct."
"Well, can your instinct tell me what I'm doing wrong?"
Kido training goes about as well as Ichigo expected.
That was to say, exactly the opposite of what Aizen wanted. And that alone made having to clean up the training grounds from his rather destructive display of several kido spells more than worth it. Really, he shouldn't take so much pleasure out of making the man slip from his patient, nice- guy façade, but he couldn't help it. The small victories were all he had right then, after all.
"Have you even been practicing the exercises I taught you?" Aizen asked, as he watched Ichigo move the last of the burnt target dummies into the pile by the walkway.
"I have," he huffed, dusting the front of his clothes off to try and get rid of the bits of ash that clung there.
"What was that?"
"I have," he repeated, a little louder this time as he turned to reach for another target to set up – apparently, they weren't leaving until he got at least one spell right. Which, Ichigo had to say, was not exactly a tall order considering how fast he normally learned, but kido seemed to completely allude him.
"And you are picturing the outcome?"
"Yes."
Aizen hummed, eyes sharp as he took Ichigo in. "Place the target quickly, I want to see what your reiatsu is doing when your cast the spell."
Ichigo did as told, walking back towards the center of the field and preparing to try again, his usual scowl in place as he stared the target dummy down as if that alone would stop it from being destroyed under his spell. Really, he knew kido would be difficult for him with the level of control he had, but he hadn't thought it would be this difficult. A few days spent on only a handful of spells and he hadn't been able to perform even one of them correctly.
A hand fell onto his shoulder, and Ichigo had to refrain from flinching away – it wasn't the first time Aizen had done it to try and get a more in-depth read on what his spiritual energy was doing, but it didn't change the fact that Ichigo didn't particularly like the idea of this man touching him.
With care he gathered the tiniest amount of reiatsu he could into the tip of two of his fingers, pointing the appendages at the intended target. He thought of Rukia, the first time they met, the feeling of the rope that bound him. Thought of doing the same to the target dummy. "Bakudo one, Sai," he muttered, releasing the stored reiatsu, brows furrowing in concentration to keep it controlled. A stream of electric rope shot out, wrapping itself firmly around the dummy, and for a second Ichigo thought that he finally succeeded. But just like all the other times the rope seemed to spark, stutter and then explode out in a storm of reiatsu.
Ichigo watched in interest as the target dummy teetered, from the right to the left before finally deciding to stay upright.
"You are using too much reiatsu," Aizen said, his hand falling off Ichigo's shoulder. The man continuing before Ichigo can say anything, "The amount you gather before the kido is correct, but you add more when releasing. You must control your spiritual energy at all stages of performing
kido."
"So I just have to cut off the rest of my reiatsu?" Like the small bursts of energy used during a flash-step, he thought, as he looked from his hand to Aizen.
"Essentially," Aizen confirmed, stepping back once again with an expectant look on his face.
"I can do that." He muttered the words more to himself than anything, facing the dummy once more with a determined look. It still took concentration to gather only a pinprick of his reiatsu into his fingers, more than what he would have liked after over a week of training, but he got it. He thought of Rukia again, of breaking the bindings, of Urahara's shop when he was being restrained to regain his powers the first time. "Bakudo one, Sai." He released his reiatsu, concentrating on keeping it to only a burst, shoving it from his fingers all at once instead of releasing it into a steady stream. It looked stranger, this way. Forming slightly in front of him rather than directly from his hand.
Still, it struck the already charred practice dummy head on.
Ichigo held his breath, watching as the rope sparked, wrapping itself firmly around the target. One second passed, and then another, and Ichigo felt his face split into a smile.
He did it.
"It worked!" Finally.
"Congratulations, Ichigo," Aizen said from behind him.
"Yea, congrats, Ichi-berry." The new voice had him spinning, coming face to face with Ichimaru Gin.
"Don't call me that," he said automatically, not that it had exactly worked the last time he saw the jerk, "and what you are doing here?"
"I came ta talk with Aizen-taichou," Gin said, reaching out to try and ruffle his hair, but Ichigo ducked around the hand, making sure to put a few extra steps between them. The man may betray Aizen in the end, but that didn't mean Ichigo had to enjoy his presence.
"Why don't we call it a day," Aizen said, the question not a question at all. "You can go find Hinamori and see if she needs help with anything."
Ichigo looked between the two, wanting nothing more than to stay so he could listen in on whatever conversation they were about to have. He had no doubt that it was to do with Aizen's plans, but he had no excuse to stay, no excuse to want to stay, let alone need to. So with an internal sigh he left the training ground, making his way towards Hinamori's office – Ichigo wasn't surprised at all to find out that Hinamori and Aizen had separate offices. The entire fifth division didn't seem to think it was strange at all. Even those that had transferred from other divisions where captains and their lieutenants shared a room to make it easier to deal with paperwork.
Ichigo hesitated for only a moment before knocking, a fleeting thought of going off to practice opening a sekaimon or garganta some more being quickly pushed aside; Aizen would no doubt ask Hinamori if Ichigo came by. Besides, from what he had gathered in the past week or so, Hinamori was normally swamped with paperwork, the girl becoming responsible for much of what Aizen himself didn't complete due to planning his eventual ascension to Soul King or training Ichigo. So if Ichigo could help take some of the burden off of her then he would.
"Enter!" Hinamori's voice called from behind the door.
He slid the door open, stepping in and closing it behind him before speaking, "Uh, Aizen sent me to see if you needed help."
"You shouldn't refer to Aizen-taichou so informally," she told him, almost automatically now with how many times she'd said it. "And you have perfect timing, I need to send these files to Hitsugaya-taichou in the tenth division." She held out the stack of files to him, and Ichigo wasted no time taking them.
"Sure, I'll come back when I'm done," he told her, slipping back out of the room when she gave him a short but sweet thanks.
It was only after he'd been walking for a good ten minutes that he realized he had no idea where he was going. He had been in Soul Society just over a week and the first time around he hadn't really bothered trying to figure out where all the divisions were located. But it couldn't be that hard to figure it out, right? He knew where the fourth, fifth, and eleventh divisions where, so it shouldn't be that hard to find the tenth…
Nearly twenty minutes later he felt like he'd jinxed himself with those thoughts. He was pretty sure he was in the eleventh division, but that didn't make sense because he swore he had flash-stepped right through the ninth not even a minute earlier. Had he missed a turn somewhere?
He looked at the buildings around him with a frown; why the hell was it this hard?
"Uh, are you lost?"
At first Ichigo thought he had heard wrong. That he was just imagining the voice that had asked that question, but as he turned his ears were proven right.
Rukia.
He almost sad her name, almost smiled at her with all the familiarity of friends who had gone through so much together – through an invasion, and a war, and Ichigo had missed her the most when he lost his powers. Had missed her snark and snapping and short temper that would match him blow for blow.
Instead he scowled down at the paperwork in his hands because he wasn't sure he'd have the will to not hug her if he looked directly at her. "I'm trying to find the tenth division."
"Oh, I can take you there, follow me," Rukia said, pointing over her shoulder as she did so.
"Thanks…" He muttered, trying to ignore the way his heart clenched at her easy smile, and followed behind as she started back in the direction he had just come from.
"I'm Kuchiki Rukia," she told him. 'I know,' he thought, biting down on his tongue to stop himself from saying it, "And you're Ichigo, right?"
"I… yeah?" He said, the words coming out as a question in his confusion. How did she know him?
"You've been the talk of the Shinigami Women's Association since you arrived," she told him. "Hinamori-fukutaichou was supposed to bring you to a meeting but she said Aizen-taichou has been keeping you busy."
"He's teaching me kido," Ichigo snorted, "but I suck at reiatsu control."
"Unohana-taichou knows a lot of control exercises," Rukia told him, a spark in her eyes that said she was planning something Ichigo would definitely not like. "If you come to a meeting I'm sure she'd teach you."
"Hard pass." He shook his head, the image of Unohana's too-sweet smile flashing through his mind. A flick on his forehead brought him back to reality. With a scowl he rubbed at the spot, glaring daggers at the culprit standing before him, her hands on her hips and a glare of her own meeting his. "What the hell was that for?"
"You shouldn't turn down training with a Captain so easily, most Shinigami would kill for the chance!" She told him, turning on her heel with a huff and continuing on her way in silence.
Ichigo followed, if only because there was nothing else he could do. Normally… normally he would have snapped back, fought and bantered with her – but this wasn't his Rukia. This Rukia wasn't his best friend, and it left him unbalanced, not sure what he could and couldn't say, not sure how he could and couldn't react to her.
The tenth, as it turned out, wasn't that far off from where he had been standing. He really had simply missed a turn. A turn that looked exactly the same as every other turn. Seriously, how did everyone else seem to know where to go?
They'd barely made it into the main area before being stopped.
He really wasn't even surprised, if he was being honest.
"Rukia!" Matsumoto cried out, files in one hand as she waved, "Are you ready for tonight's meeting?"
"Almost," Rukia said, pointedly stepping aside so that Ichigo was more visible, the traitor.
"Oh, who's this little guy?" Matsumoto smiled down at him, entirely too sweet in the face of Ichigo's growing scowl.
"This is Ichigo," Rukia said, as if he couldn't answer that for himself.
"As in Aizen-taichou's Ichigo?" Matsumoto's eyes gleamed as what she said caught up with him, making him want to gag.
"I'm not Aizen's anything," he snapped instead, twitching with the need to cross his arms but unable to because of the files Hinamori gave him. What did she even mean by 'Aizen's'? Just because the bastard was training him didn't mean shit.
"Oh, he's just adorable," Matsumoto said, eyes shining and hand reaching out deceptively innocent. He stepped back and to the side, making sure to narrow his eyes at the offending appendage as it retracted back to the, now pouting, woman. "What brings you to the tenth?" Before he could even answer the woman gasped, "Are you here to tell us you'll be joining the SWA?"
Ichigo held in a shutter, pressing the files in his hands towards her, "No. Hinamori asked me to deliver these."
"Oh." Matsumoto seemed to deflate, "I'll take these to Hitsugaya-taichou, then." She turned to Rukia, walking backwards as she waved, "I bought some new sake to try tonight, so don't be late!" And then she was gone, pushing her way through a group of unseated Shinigami and into a building.
With a sigh of relief he turned back the way they had come, Rukia following behind as he went down one road and then another only to realize he had took the wrong turn the first time. With a huff of frustration he traced his steps back the way they had come before taking the right turn.
"You need help?" Rukia asked, a poorly covered laugh making Ichigo bristle in indignation.
"No, I can get back myself!" He snapped, crossing his arms and scowling up at her. Up! Of all the things he thought about since coming back, being shorter than Rukia was decidedly not one of them.
"Whatever you say, shrimp."
"At least I'm short because I'm a kid, you're just a midget."
He dodged the hand that made to grab him, ducking back and leaping into a flash-step that brought him up onto a roof and then onto another.
"Get back here!" Rukia's shout followed after him, soon joined by Rukia herself.
Ichigo laughed, speeding up a little bit more as Rukia seemed to gain ground on him – damn his shorter legs, for all that he was sure he could still reach his blinding speeds it took far more effort and looked far less smooth now than it did in his older body. Besides, he didn't actually want to lose Rukia, where would the fun in that be?
With a smirk he dropped down into the streets once more, cutting around other Shinigami who looked on with equal parts amusement and confusion. He just barely dodged around one with a broom, looking over his shoulder with shouted apology even as he stepped into his next flash-step.
Not even half-way through the motion of turning his head back around he slammed into something. Said something didn't even budge and for a brief moment he thought he'd run into a wall, but then there were arms steadying him as he staggered back, and the brush of fabric against his skin. With a blink he cleared his vision enough to catch sight of a captain's haori.
Aizen was going to kill him.
Not literally. But with how boring the etiquette book had been Ichigo would rather the bastard try and put a sword through his chest. Even if he didn't think his younger body could handle a fight with the captain right then, it would at least be better than what he's sure Aizen would plan once he got back.
"Don't you have paperwork or something?" Ichigo asked.
"Teaching the younger generation rules and awareness of their surroundings is more important," Byakuya replied steadily.
Of course it was.
Ichigo let out a sigh, flopping backwards onto the floor. Aizen wasn't even back yet, and they'd already waited a good hour. Byakuya insisting on waiting until Aizen returned to 'deal with this
situation personally'. Hinamori had even brought them tea, three cups set out and waiting.
The door slid open sometime later. Ichigo wasn't sure how long had passed, but he'd counted the books on Aizen's many shelves twice already.
"When I asked you to help Hinamori-fukutaichou I didn't expect you'd cause trouble," Aizen said, coming to sit down in the spot next to him, facing Byakuya. "I apologize for any trouble Ichigo caused, Kuchiki-taichou."
"No need," Byakuya told him, as Ichigo pulled himself into a sitting position, "Ichigo already apologized for the disturbance."
Aizen blinked at that, his gaze falling on Ichigo for a moment before returning to his fellow captain, "Then is there something you need?"
"I will speak plainly, Aizen-taichou," the man hummed. "I wish to train Ichigo in flash-step."
