5 – Way of the Spirit
In the days that followed Ichigo's future dreams, he never had any more visions of the future.
Instead, he spent all his free time and part of his sleep time in his own inner world with Gesshokuro, training to master Quincy techniques.
Ichigo and Rukia still attended school as usual and their hollow hunting routine continued as before, but neither of them would enter their spirit forms.
For Ichigo, it was because he didn't need to enter spirit form to use any of his powers.
For Rukia, it was to keep up appearances. Aside from that first day when she rushed out recklessly, she'd never left her gigai. The gigai's drain on spirit pressure was no longer a concern now that she had her full power again, but Ichigo still recharged her with more spirit pressure every night just to be safe. On the other hand, the special gigai also had the property of suppressing and hiding spirit pressure. As long as she actively restrained her own spirit pressure, it couldn't be easily sensed that her power had returned.
They ended up frequently skipping classes together amidst increasing rumors about them at school.
To purify hollows, Rukia started teaching Ichigo Kido, which they could use in human form as well, albeit weakened.
Ichigo's talent with Kido was terrible, but he was not lacking in power by any means. Thankfully there were Hado spells that didn't require much control and were just big blasts of power.
At the same time, his Quincy training proved helpful for his work in Kido as well.
His Shinigami spirit pressure caused an effect of pushing away spirit particles. This made it more difficult to manipulate and gather spirit particles for Quincy techniques, but also forced Ichigo to train to control and separate his Shinigami spirit pressure from his Quincy spirit pressure.
The effect of his Shinigami spirit pressure was much stronger when he was in spirit form, because human life and Shinigami powers did not mix well, whereas Quincy powers were always at full strength, but suffered from the disadvantage of not having as many spirit particles around to use in the human world.
The result was that it was far easier for him to manage and suppress his Shinigami powers with Quincy spirit pressure while in a human body, and the more he trained with the Quincy arts, the easier it became to use it to 'corral' his Shinigami spirit pressure as if it was just another form of spirit particle, which in turn allowed him to use that Shinigami spirit pressure more effectively for Kido.
Because he spent all of his time in a human body, he could train his Quincy powers to manipulate spirit pressure and spirit particles almost 24/7, and his skill in Kido would improve without actually having to practice attention-grabbing spells like a normal Shinigami.
This was even more powerful for healing Kido after he learned the proper way to heal, because it wasn't flashy and he could train it on himself.
He would constantly exhaust his spirit energy to generate Quincy spirit pressure to gather spirit particles, then flow the newly gathered spirit particles into his body.
Using a Quincy technique it was possible to recover spirit energy by cannibalizing his spirit body's own existing spirit particles, filling the cannibalized gaps with the gathered spirit particles.
Next he would use the renewed spirit energy to generate Shinigami spirit pressure in order to use healing Kido on himself. Normally healing Kido would be used to restore the patient's spirit energy, which would then passively raise spirit pressure levels so that the healer could coax it with their own spirit pressure to slowly heal the body as they ate and digested food, similar to how humans healed over time.
But because Ichigo's Quincy powers already provided the spirit particles, all he had to do was integrate the particles, which cost almost nothing, leaving him with a net gain of spirit energy.
He could use his Quincy powers to convert gathered spirit particles directly into spirit energy too, but the point of this exercise wasn't to recover spirit energy, it was to provide unlimited practice for healing by repeatedly destroying small pieces of his body so that they could be healed.
As the days passed, Ichigo grew increasingly comfortable at using his Quincy powers, until he was able to create the spirit sword.
Gesshokuro had made him focus on the Heilig Bogen first, as the traditional weapon of the Quincy, and that was what he'd been using against Hollows, but he liked the sword more.
As a weapon that was expected to repeatedly clash with other things in melee without destabilizing, it was much more difficult to make compared to the bow or Heilig Pfeil—the generic arrows.
Once Gesshokuro judged his spirit sword creation adequate, Ichigo immediately asked Rukia for a spar.
Instead of finding a place out of the city, the two of them used Ichigo's inner world as the battleground.
The first time Rukia entered Jinzen after reclaiming her zanpaktou, she had found out from Sode no Shirayuki that she could still go into Ichigo's inner world at will, and if Rukia and Ichigo were touching in the real world, then Sode no Shirayuki could bring Rukia into Ichigo's inner world with her.
So they immediately took advantage of this to train together in secret.
"This is Heilig Klinge," Ichigo announced.
Rukia smiled and took up a stance facing Ichigo.
It had been a long time since Rukia had a chance to spar with anyone.
She was just as eager to fight as Ichigo seemed to be.
Ichigo shifted the sword to hold it in both hands, and the two's eyes met, while Gesshokuro and Sode no Shirayuki watched from a distance.
"On my mark. Begin!" Rukia took charge as the one with more experience.
Both of them rushed at each other and their swords met with a clang.
Rukia spared no time in following up with another strike from the side, then an uppercut, a stab and an overhead slash.
Each one was blocked, parried, or dodged, to her surprise.
Although his steps were cautious and his movements betrayed an unfamiliarity with the sword, he was doing better than she expected based on his skills in fighting hollows when he had her powers.
And against a Shinigami opponent like herself, it was exceptional considering he'd only been in one other fight against another Shinigami.
The difference between his brief scuffle with Saido Eikichiro and what Rukia was experiencing from him now was like night and day.
A furious exchange of sword slashes followed.
With every step, every swing, Ichigo seemed to gain a surety and fluidity that he didn't have only moments ago, the kind of grace in battle that could only be gained through experience.
His biggest problem seemed to be that he wasn't anticipating his own strength and speed correctly, lashing out with strikes that would be effective if he had more strength or speed, but simply created new openings instead because his body failed keep up.
It was like a veteran returning to combat after a long absence and atrophied muscles, rather than a newbie just starting their training.
'When did he get this good?' Rukia thought as she felt the pressure from Ichigo's swordplay.
Each strike from Rukia was met evenly, though Rukia felt that she had a big advantage in the density of her spirit pressure, as Ichigo's was still largely wild and uncontrolled, even if he had more of it.
"Don't underestimate me, Rukia! It seems like my soul remembers the skills I learned in my dreams!"
A sudden feint almost caught Rukia off guard before she jumped back.
"That's ridiculous!" Rukia shouted back. He was getting too cocky for his own good. Even if he was improving with stunning rapidity, she was only showing him the bare minimum of her own skill to test him, limiting herself to only swordplay.
Right now, she was his mentor, and this was their very first spar. There was no way she could go all out. But maybe she could raise the level a bit.
"Hah! You're better than I thought too, Rukia. For some reason, I don't remember ever sparring with you. But I really should have! Why the hell are you an unseated officer, when you're also damn good at Kido, and your shikai is overpowered as hell?"
Rukia disappeared in a flash and came from behind Ichigo, who just barely blocked her strike with a curse. "Shit!"
"Don't get distracted in a fight, idiot!"
"Ora!" He pushed her sword back and disappeared in his own shunpo.
His shunpo was inaccurate and rough, but very fast.
Another furious clash followed, with both of them using flashing around on every strike and dodge.
When they got into a good rhythm, Rukia finally answered. "Do you really think I'm that strong?"
Ichigo answered in between large gasps. "Hell yeah! Your swordsmanship is better than Renji's, he can't even do Kido for shit and he's a vice-captain!"
"Like you can do better? And he wasn't a vice-captain yet before I came to Karakura. Nii-sama must have promoted him recently," her voice even and unruffled from a fight of only this intensity.
Another clang and Ichigo's sword slightly cracked. "Crap!"
Rukia pushed forward into the crack intending to break it, while moving one hand away from the handle of her own sword. "Hainawa!"
In a single smooth motion, the rope was thrown onto Ichigo's legs, preventing him from jumping back to relieve the pressure of the sword clash.
However, Ichigo suddenly smirked and flicked his sword toward himself into a horizontal hold, causing Rukia to lose her balance leaning forward from the sudden lack of opposing force.
"Okasen!"
Spirit pressure surged into the Heilig Klinge, then the whole blade cracked and burst into a flash of light.
Numerous explosions ensued, each broken piece of the Heilig Klinge had released their energy like a bomb with the deliberately unstable Hado spell acting as a catalyst.
But while Rukia was hit by the explosions, Ichigo instead appeared a short distance away with only barely singed clothes, even though half the Hainawa rope was still binding his legs.
He had used the flow created by the splintering Heilig Klinge particles, which were still under his control, to slide away—an application of the Quincy high speed movement technique of Wogenschritt, or Hirenkyaku as Ishida called it.
On the other side, Rukia reappeared after a Shunpo that was just a little too late in a fit of coughs. Her clothes were torn and her skin was bloodied all over.
Ichigo quickly formed another spirit sword, this time thinner and shorter, to cut the rope binding him, before notching the sword into a position for firing, and forming the necessary bow in the same step.
Rukia wove her hands in the motion of a circle as Ichigo fired.
"Bakudo #39: Enkosen!" A spinning disc blocked the powerful shot, then it was followed by a huge plume of smoke that covered the area around Rukia.
Ichigo fired several more regular Heilig Pfeil at high speed, trying to target Rukia by spirit pressure sensing alone, but none hit.
Soon he heard Rukia a low voice from the smoke. "…look upon yourself with horror and then claw out your own throat!"
She shot out from the smoke into the air through a long-range shunpo, weaving arcane symbols in the air and completed the incantation.
"Bakudo #9: Geki!"
Ichigo's body on the spot with a cover of red energy. He saw that her wounds had been healed already, and her sword was sheathed, but her hands were still moving. He struggled against the binding force with his spirit pressure, and almost succeeded when Rukia stacked a second Bakudo.
"Bakudo #9: Horin!"
An orange tendril whipped into him from her fingers even as she passed by overhead on her shunpo's momentum. He was flung into the air and dragged behind Rukia, swinging above her as she landed.
Despite apparently being cast without a chant, this was not actually Eishouhaki—instead, it was a double incantation using the fact that Geki and Horin had identical chants, resulting in the Horin being equally powerful as a fully incanted Kido.
"Hado #11: Tsuzuri Raiden!"
The heavily bound Ichigo spasmed in pain as electric current ran through the Horin tendril and right into his body.
Ichigo was in a free fall when the Bakudo spells dissipated, muscles paralyzed, and Rukia flashed back into the air right above Ichigo.
"Hado #33: Sokatsui!"
A ball of blue fire crashed into Ichigo and pummeled him into the ground.
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