Shinigami of Pallimustus

by FallenDispair

This is an alternate universe where Ichigo and the Bleach characters, along with their powers are integrated into He Who Fights With Monsters. A unique twist, making essence magic work like soul reaper powers. Better summary inside. The fate of two worlds will rely on Ichigo to save them. Rated M to be safe. IchigoxOrihime -she'll be more equal to Ichigo instead of a damsel.

2. Chapter 2

Shinigami of Pallimustus

I don't own squat, all rights reserved for Tite Kubo and Shirtaloon

Chapter 2: A Horror, Rescue & Decision

Ichigo's blade had sunk all the way down to Cressida's neck, her head spreading apart, displaying her sliced brain on either side. The dead weight of her body dislodged his Zanpakuto from her flesh as it crashed to the floor in a heap.

"That was amazing!" Gary roared, coming up to slap Ichigo on the back, just as Ichigo managed to sheath his sword. "You were like a black blur of death that she never saw coming!"

The force from the monstrous strength of the slap sent Ichigo staggering forwards, having to support himself on the alter at the end of the platform.

Ichigo turned and scowled at the lion man, who had the courtesy to look embarrassed at accidently using too much strength.

"Sorry," Gary apologized with his growly voice.

"You did great," Rufus added. "You waited for the right moment and struck. It shows great judgement. An important skill to have as an adventurer. You have what it takes to be a great one."

"No, I don't" Ichigo argued. "Without Orihime we'd have all died."

Orihime had moved over to Ichigo, avoiding the sight of the two corpses on the platform, her wings extinguished, and corrected him, "If you hadn't escaped and drew the attention of all those cultists, I'd never have been able to free Gary. He was the one that took care of them, not me."

Ichigo became contemplative, weighing what Orihime had said. There was a truth to what she said, but he still made critical mistakes. Even so, it brought him some relief and he gave her a genuine, soft, smile.

"Thanks, Orihime," Ichigo replied.

Orihime returned his soft smile, that he rarely showed anyone with her own brilliant, full smile. That smile of his was her favorite of his expressions. She then asked, "Is everyone okay? I can heal any injures you might have."

"We're fine," Gary spoke up. "They weren't much of a challenge."

"How about someone get me out of this cage?" a female voice asked, impatiently. It wasn't the same voice that had been dismissing him back in the cellar. That person must have been the one whose place Ichigo took.

Ichigo moved over to the cage, giving a reassuring smile to Orihime to show that he was fine, swiping the cube -this one another feast essence- on top into his inventory as he took the keys out. The woman inside the cage was beautiful with strawberry blonde hair and a button nose. She was clearly unhappy, although startling cute when mad, as he opened up the cage and let her out.

"Thanks for the rescue," she said to Ichigo, tamping down her annoyance, before blasting it full force at Rufus and Gary.

"What the hell took you two so long?!" she fired at them.

"We had a lot of cultists to kill," Gary defended.

"And we had to wait until we were freed of our cages," Rufus pointed out.

"And apparently your collars," Farrah said, her eyes narrowing in suspicion. "Where'd you get the key from?"

"One of our new friends here removed it with their awesome dimension cutting power," Gary explained.

Farrah turned to look at the two iron rank outworlders with a raised eyebrow. One was a hairless young man in black garments and a sword as large as his body strapped to his back, having wandered over to the dead cult leaders' bodies. The other was a young woman with fiery orange hair, crystalline sapphire fire eyes in a blue robe and was bashfully raising her hand.

"Umm, that'd be me," Orihime admitted.

"Would you mind?" Farrah asked, pointing to her own collar.

Ichigo proceeded to loot Cressida Vane with a tap of his toe to her corpse.

2 [Recovery Potions (Silver)] have been added to your inventory.

1 [Suppression Collar Key (Bronze)] has been added to your inventory.

5 [Recovery Potions (Bronze)] have been added to your inventory.

12 [Gold Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.

152 [Silver Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.

526 [Bronze Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.

623 [Iron Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.

381 [Lesser Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.

Just like Landemere, Cressida had over a thousand coins on her person. As to where she had them stowed them away, was a mystery to Ichigo. Possibly an inventory system like his own.

"That's not necessary, Orihime," Ichigo informed, stopping her mid-step towards Farrah, about to activate her [Hougestu Jigen-Tou]. "I just looted the key to the collars from the cult leader." He then tossed the key to Farrah who gave him a simple thanks and proceed to remove her own collar.

"Rufus," Ichigo called out to him, "can I loot him?" pointing at the head priest Rufus beheaded.

"Of course," Rufus answered, "it's the least we can do for saving our lives."

Ichigo tapped the head priest's body, that he never got the name of.

Would you like to loot [Blood Cult Leader]?

Ichigo gave his mental assent.

[Recovery Potion (Bronze)] has been added to your inventory.

5 [Gold Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.

18 [Silver Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.

276 [Bronze Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.

341 [Iron Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.

471 [Lesser Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.

Farrah, in the meantime, held her hand out over the ground and chanted something quietly. It was a short chant, only a few words. When she was done, a large chest made of dark brown stone rose out of the ground. It didn't break through the floor, but instead rose up through it, like a ghost. Farrah pushed open the hinged, heavy lid and took out fresh clothes for herself, Gary and Rufus. They all started changing clothes, with no qualms about stripping down to their underwear in front of two strangers or each other.

Orihime glanced surreptitiously at the three of them before turning away with flushed cheeks upon seeing the men. Rufus and Farrah had bodies of Olympic athletes -lean muscle filled with power of coiled springs. Very similar to Ichigo's build, but more defined and perfected than what he currently had. Gary had a completely different build; he was so huge he made bodybuilders look like they were corn stocks. His mane and leonine features completed his majestic appearance. Orihime didn't know what passed for handsome in Gary's species, but she suspected Gary was it.

"Clothes are fine, but we need to get our gear back," Farrah complained.

"We'll get our stuff back and more once we raid the Vane Estate... taking a few valuables for all our troubles." Gary grinned out.

Ichigo had moved to the alter while the three adventurers changed. It was decorated with grotesque carvings that appeared to heavily feature teeth. On top of the alter was a thick book, left open halfway through. Glancing over the text, he could only understand fragments. Having used the ritual magic skill book, he took from Landemere, the knowledge it imbued him with offered some insights, but this new book was still above his head. The contents seemed to involve a more specific field of magic, operating at a higher level than the skill book allowed him to grasp.

"What have you got?" Farrah asked, walking up to the alter next to him.

"Not sure," Ichigo answered, pushing the book in front of her. "Looks like they were trying to make something, but it's well beyond my expertise. I only found out magic exists today. I'm Ichigo, by the way."

She gave him an odd look before she responded, "Farrah. Thanks again for the rescue."

"No problem. It was the right thing to do, and I had help. Without Orihime and your friends we wouldn't have defeated the cultists."

"Even so, thanks," Farrah then handed him a bottle of clear liquid with a glass stopper. "It's called crystal wash. Strip down and pour this over your head. I don't have a lot but the stench coming off you is worse than the blood pit below."

Ichigo wanted to argue but remembered the bile that came out of him went he reached iron rank and still caked his skin and clothes under his [Shihakushoo]. He dismissed his magic garments and stripped out of his ruined pants, his sandals long lost.

He was self-conscious about being naked in front of Farrah, but she didn't care as she had returned her attention to the book. Ichigo pulled out the stopper and tipped it over his head. A clear, viscous liquid poured out and rapidly started spreading itself over him, thinning as it worked its way down. It excised the blood, pus and vomit from his body, cleaning with an intimate thoroughness. An odd expression crossed his face as the liquid cleared out the hard-to-reach nooks and crannies. He could smell a fresh fragrance coming off his body as the liquid evaporated into nothingness, its job done. He felt cleaner than he had ever in his life.

"It's perfumed?" he asked.

"No, crystal wash is completely odorless and clears off everything," Farrah answered. "If there's any stink left behind that's just you."

Orihime, who'd been unabashedly watching the whole process, walked over and sniffed at Ichigo.

"You smell like flowers," Orihime stated happily. "You didn't use to."

"Uh, Orihime," Ichigo said. "I'm still naked."

"Humm," she nodded. "I know. I enjoy the show Ichigo-kun."

Ichigo blushed and conjured his shihakushoo to cover his naked form, getting a mock pout from his girlfriend.

"It's not like we haven't seen each other naked plenty of times before. Doing a lot more than staring," Orihime complained with a lascivious grin.

Ichigo cleared his throat and asked, "Can you make anything out from that book, Farrah?" ignoring how Orihime's face suddenly became innocent looking, though there was still a mischievous glint to her eyes.

She never turned her attention away from the pages in front of her. "You're right about them making something," she said, flipping through pages. "Something not very nice."

"I got that much from the context," he replied, waving his hand at the chamber around them, black stone reflecting blood-red light from below.

"Fair point," Farrah laughed.

While she continued examining the book, Ichigo looked around, noticing Gary and Rufus were gone.

"Where did the others go?" he asked.

"They went to check the tunnels to see if any of the cultists escaped and are coming back with reinforcements," Farrah answered.

"That is a good idea. The best time to strike is when your opponent thinks they have won, and their guard is down."

Farrah gave him a wry smile as she responded, "You've proven that to be true enough." She nodded her head to the two corpses on the platform for emphasis.

"Rufus killed the man and I only killed her because she was distracted," Ichigo admitted.

Looking around some more, he found Orihime had moved away from him, next to a small white sack leaning against the alter. She picked it up and looked inside; it held a white, crystalline powder. She pinched some between her fingers.

Item: [Salt] (normal, common)

Ordinary salt (crafting material)

Effect: Common ingredient for use in cooking or magic rituals.

"Salt?" she said curiously.

"It's good for making quick and easy magic circles," Farrah explained, not looking up from the book. "A lot of ritual magicians keep some around. Myself included."

Orihime tossed the sack into her inventory, never knowing when she would need it: Help add some flavor to a dish, perform a ritual, or just sell to a restaurant in need of some more salt. If there were any restaurants in this world.

As Farrah thanked Orihime for rescuing them, Ichigo looked over at the stairs leading down, thinking now would be a good time to ask something that's been bothering him.

"Can I ask you something about Gary?" he asked.

"What's that?"

"Are there a lot of lion people running around?"

"Was he cursed or something?" Orihime chimed in.

Farrah looked up from the book, again giving them a curious gaze, "You've never seen a Leonid before?"

"We're not from around here," Orihime informed.

"That's coming across," she responded. "Leonids are a normal race you'd see anywhere in the world."

"Good to know," Ichigo said simply.

"Wow," Orihime said in wonder. "A whole race of furry lion people. I bet their children are the cutest little things."

Farrah frowned curiously but turned back to the book while Ichigo continued to survey his surroundings. He peered over the edge, down at the crimson pit far below. It could have been his imagination, but the room seemed to be getting hotter. The sloshing noise of the blood pit below seemed louder as well.

"The others are coming back up," Orihime informed Farrah and Ichigo, having spotted Rufus and Gary making their way back up.

"That's not good," Farrah muttered.

"That seems mean," Orihime frowned. "They're your friends and I am sure they did their best to save you."

"No," Farrah explained, "I mean I figured out what the cultists were up to."

"Bad?" Ichigo asked.

"Very bad," Farrah gravely replied.

She waited for Gary and Rufus to arrive before explaining.

"No sign of any other cultists," Gary said, "and one of the wagons was gone. I'm guessing a few escaped and decided to make a run for it."

"Oh yeah," Orihime exclaimed, slapping her fist on her open palm as she remembered something. "One of them ran past me when I saw..."

Orihime grew quiet as she thought about killing a man to save Ichigo.

Quest: [The Blood Feast]

Objective complete: Avoid being sacrificed 1/1.

Reward: [Awakening Stone of Adventure]

Optional objective complete: Save the other designated sacrifices 3/3.

Reward: 3 [Awakening Stone of the Reaper]

Quest complete.
100 [Bronze Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.

1000 [Iron Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.

Ichigo's eyes lit up at the sight of an awakening stone that wasn't from the Reaper, with how that was all he was getting, he was starting to think that was the only kind there was. But it wasn't the time to start going over his loot and he closed the window. Ichigo noticed Orihime was staring at something he couldn't see and realized she was getting something from her own quest.

"I know what they were doing here," Farrah told Gary and Rufus.

"I'd assume some kind of summoning ritual," Rufus offered.

"More like trying to create something," Farrah corrected. "It's called a sanguine horror; an artificial creature made from alchemy, blood and things best left unmentioned."

"Sounds friendly," Gary commented.

"It's an apocalypse beast," Farrah explained. "A world ender. A hive mind made up of carrion leeches that rot your flesh as they drain you dry. It feeds on blood to multiply itself, growing in mass and power until there's nothing strong enough to stop it. Then it spreads and spreads until there's nothing left to consume."

"Why would anyone create something like that?" Orihime asked in horrified confusion.

"They presumably had some way to control it," Rufus theorized. "Use it as a weapon."

"That's a big gamble with an apocalypse beast," Farrah replied. "Maybe that's possible before it gets too powerful. Until it feeds enough to grow strong it remains vulnerable."

"Still seem like way too high a chance of going wrong. Not like that'd stop power hungry cultists," Ichigo commented.

"Speaking of which," Rufus cut in, "have you noticed it's getting hotter in here?"

"No," Farrah and Orihime responded.

"Yes," Ichigo replied at the same time.

"It's more noticeable closer to the pool," Rufus explained.

"The smell is stronger down there too," Gary added.

"They should probably be tossing us into the blood pit by now," Rufus supplied. "Is something going wrong because we interrupted them?"

"I think we're overlooking something," Ichigo gravely said.

"What's that?" Farrah asked.

"Are we sure we interrupted them? They were going to throw the four of us into the pit, right?"

"Right," Rufus answered.

"Well, counting the one I knocked over when escaping my cage, the one I threw over my shoulder when they swarmed me, plus the two Gary dropped in and the one I kicked over the edge... not even counting Cressida's daughter. That's five that may have fallen into the pit." Ichigo explained.

Farrah's brown eyes went wide, "Oh no," she let out in horrified shock. Turing back to the alter she started madly flipping through pages of the book.

As the others waited, a screen appeared in front of both Ichigo and Orihime.

New Quest: [Sanguine Horror]

Destroy the sanguine horror before it becomes too grave a threat.

Objective: Destroy the [Sanguine Horror] 0/1.
Reward: 1 Awakening Stone.

"Damn it," Ichigo cursed at the same time Orihime gasped out, "Oh no."

Farrah snapped the book shut. It was a hefty tome and she tucked it under one arm, "I'm pretty sure we just finished their job for them."

"I don't think they'll appreciate it," Rufus commented in a grave tone.

"Are we the blood cult now?" Gary asked jokingly.

"We have to get down there and stop it while it's still weak," Farrah ordered.

"Will the book help?" Gary asked.

"Not at all," Farrah simply answered.

"If we have to do it, we have to do it," Rufus spoke out with determination and resolve. "Failing that, we go find someone stronger to deal with it. A lot stronger."

"Do you think Emir has arrived yet?" Gary asked hopefully.

"No," Rufus solemnly answered. "He's weeks away at best."

"Then we need to handle this ourselves," Farrah declared resolutely. "I don't trust the competence of the locals."

"These two are alright," Garry stated, dropping a hand each on Ichigo and Orihime's shoulder that almost knocked them over.

"I'm not a local," Ichigo dryly commented.

"Ouch," Orihime groused.

"Sorry," Gary apologized, "I tend to forget how weak humans are."

Rufus stayed on point, "You sure there's nothing in the book about how to fight it? Having our abilities is all well and good, but I'd prefer to have every edge we can get."

"No, I'm not," Farrah snapped. "I've had it for about eight minutes, and it's written in a language that you haven't even heard of. So maybe there's something in there, but I'm not going to find it by randomly skimming through a few pages."

"Did you check for an index?" Gary asked.

Farrah's eyes landed on Gary like an attack dog that'd just spotted a rabbit.

"I guess there's no time for research," Gary muttered, heading for the stairs.

"Let's go," Rufus ordered, following after Gary.

Farrah watched them vanish down the steep staircase, then turned to the back of the book. Ichigo narrowed his eyes as he watched her.

"Are you checking for an index?" he accused.

Orihime covered her mouth to stifle a giggle.

---

The three former captives pounded down the stairs as Ichigo and Orihime followed behind. As they went down the steep staircase, the smothering heat rose up to engulf them. Orihime reconjured her sapphire wings and seemed to handle the heat with ease. The air becoming wetter and heavier until even breathing was a chore. The copper taste of blood felt like it was coating Ichigo's tongue. The pool was churning loudly, as if something was thrashing just below the surface. The sound echoed throughout the room, especially as they neared the base of the chamber. Ichigo took the time to grab the red cube in the bowl on top of Gary's cage, turning out to be another blood essence.

Rufus nodded, and they turned to the giant pool of churning red liquid, Orihime at the back. The space near the large doors leading out was the widest area around the pool, with most of the room having only a small lip between the edge of the red liquid and the wall. When they first entered the chamber, the pool had been churning in the middle. Now the whole thing was like a pot of water threatening to boil over, splashing red liquid over the sides.

"That can't all be blood, right?" Ichigo shouted over the noise.

"It isn't," Farrah called back. "Mostly it's an alchemic mixture, although there is a lot of blood in there. At least a dozen people's worth. Maybe twenty."

Ichigo's face became a hard, cold glare. That was a lot of innocent people killed for nothing more than some evil cultists' grab for power. He had been torn up inside about killing people but now, he had no qualms about killing these evil monsters. And that's what these cultists were, monsters. "There won't be anymore. We're stopping this thing here and now."

"Yes, we are," Orihime agreed just as resolved.

Gary laughed out joyfully, "Told you, instincts of a hero."

Rufus shared the sentiment with a pleased smile and a nod as Farrah commented, "Good. Because if we let this entity go, it will get out and start feeding on the local animals. The more it feeds, the stronger it will become. If it eats its way through a village or town, then it will get too strong for any local powers to stop it."

"We do it then," Rufus said sternly. "Farrah will blast it with everything she's got once it emerges from the pool. Gary will join me at her flanks and hit anything that get past her barrage. Ichigo, I've seen that you can maneuver through the air and have a movement ability that gives you a burst of high speed. I want you behind me and Gary, killing anything that gets past us. Orihime, what kind of combat abilities do you have?"

"I'm proficient in hand-to-hand," Orihime shouted, "and with my dimension knife-hand I can cut down anything that gets near me. But it takes a lot out of me, and my other abilities include a large shield and light healing bolts."

"Then I want you to stay in the rear," Rufus shouted back, "and focus on healing us when needed and throw out that shield if it looks like we're going to get swarmed."

Orihime nodded her consent to Rufus' command.

Farrah's body sudden became shrouded in thick obsidian stone armor, having tossed the book into her inventory chest. Gary still had his armor made of thick and heavy dark steel plates with engravings dug into the dark metal, red forge light shining from within, still on.

Rufus conjured his elegant scimitar that seemed as much a work of art as a weapon and made of yellow-gold light.

Ichigo drew his Zanpakutoo and took up a position behind Gary and Rufus.

Suddenly the blood, which had been roiling like a stormy sea, went as still and serene as a sheltered pond. The roaring noise they had been shouting over immediately fell silent.

"Here we go," Rufus stated, his voice an intrusion to the sudden quiet.

Ripples disturbed the edge of the pool, and something emerged from the blood, smaller than they had expected.

"Is that a leech?" Ichigo asked. It was the right size and shape for a leech but had a gaping tooth-ringed maw of a lamprey.

"I don't want that thing crawling up my leg," Gary shuttered out with disgust.

"I think that's an opinion we all share," Orihime agreed with her own shutter.

A second leech crawled out, then a third. They came two at a time, then five, ten until they were spraying out like runoff from a storm drain. They piled on top of one another, forming a squirming, writing mass of blood sucking leeches.

Suddenly an explosion of light and noise erupted from Farrah's now glowing red hand. A bright stream of lava cut through the air like it was coming from a firehose, crashing into the mass of leeches. Ichigo and Orihime's gazes were fixed on Farrah, goggle-eyed to her hands.

"Was that LAVA?" Orihime asked in astoundment.

No one answered, though they all took several steps back as Farrah mumbled something and a second stream of lava blasted at the continued spewing mass of leeches. Strips of what looked like bloodied wrap tried reaching towards her, but simply dissolved into ash with the leeches.

Ichigo could still feel the heat on him as he staggered back some more for good measure. He heard chanting from Farrah and saw that there were several orbs of fire floating around her. Another of the cloth strips burst from the pool to grab her, but was intercepted by an orb, burning up on contact.

She stopped chanting and Ichigo heard a rumbling from the direction of what was left of the leech pile. It started to scatter, but a cascade of lava shot out of the ground like a geyser underneath it. Gary, Ichigo, and Rufus backed off even further as lava splattered around the geyser, Orihime throwing up her [Santen Kesshun] in front of the trio to protect them from stray splatter of lava before it dwindled and came to a stop.

"Shields, healing and dimensional blade," Gary exclaimed to Rufus. "We should sweep her up into our team before another one comes along and takes her."

Rufus nodded his head in agreement as he added, "Well, she's only iron rank but we can always train her up and Ichigo has some potential too, but that can wait until later. We need to focus on killing this apocalypse beast and rescuing Anisa."

"Fine," Gary grumbled.

Ichigo and Orihime's attention were locked on to the glowing hole left behind, their jaws hanging slack, to notice Gary and Rufus' byplay. The red light from the blood pool faded and died, plunging the chamber into darkness. Only the remnant glow of lava provided any illumination.

Ichigo commented in awe, "I don't think we were needed. Like, at all."

Rufus responded, "True, but it's always wise to assume otherwise. There are countless ways it could have gone bad." Seeing Ichigo's disbelieving look, added, "Farrah is very destructive, but it really drains her mana. We've had to step in many a time when she's emptied herself before finishing off the enemy."

Gary commented, "Yeah, but this time it was too weak to survive her onslaught. I was kind of expecting more from an apocalypse beast. What a disappointment that turned out to be."

"We need to get every leech!" Farrah called out while stomping down on a few stragglers with her stone boots. "It can reconstitute itself, even from one!"

Orihime looked around the floor. The main mass of leeches had been incinerated, but many leeches had spilled onto the floor from its spewing out earlier. Remembering how salt can kill leeches in her world, she pulled out the sack of salt from her inventory and started flinging handfuls at them while Rufus, Gary and Ichigo stomped them underfoot. The individual leeches that were hit by salt vomited blood from their tooth-ringed mouths as they dried up and died.

Eventually there was nothing left of the leeches but blood stains and ash.

You have defeated [Sanguine Horror]

Quest: [Sanguine Horror]

Objective: Destroy sanguine horror 1/1.

Reward: [Awakening Stone of the Reaper]

Quest complete.

100 [Bronze Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.

1000 [Iron Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.

Ichigo edged forwards warily as Orihime read a similar prompt, but she received an awakening stone of the world-phoenix. He noticed a leech that had managed to get far enough away that it was burnt to a crisp instead of being completely annihilated. He poked it with his toe.

Would you like to loot [Sanguine Horror]?

Ichigo gave his mental assent.

[Awakening Stone of the Apocalypse] has been added to your inventory.

10 [Bronze Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.

100 [Iron Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.

Ichigo looked at the listed awakening stone. Apocalypse. That didn't sound particularly good.

Seeing that Farrah and Gary released their magic armor into thin air and Rufus relax his deadly stance, Ichigo couldn't help but wonder.

"I probably should have asked earlier with how easily Rufus killed the male cult leader but, if you can do that," Ichigo gestured at the sections of wall and floor melted by lava, "then how did they catch you in the first place?"

"Ambush," Rufus supplied with shame mixed with rage. "We were meant to resupply and get information from a local contact. Instead, he set us up for capture."

"That's terrible," Orihime gasped.

"We're going to go find him," Gary growled out.

"And have a sizzling conversation," Farrah added with a cold type of fury lacing her voice.

"But first," Rufus stated, "we have to get back to the Vane Estate. They still have Anisa with plans on eating her and our mission is to destroy the Blood Cult. We may have killed all the members here, but there are more at the estate."

"At least that should be more exciting than just sitting back and letting Farrah melt a bunch of leeches. And I guess we should hurry before they decide to make Anisa into breakfast." Gary replied.

"Ideally, yes," Rufus responded. "The contract did come through her church, and they might see her death as a failure on our part."

With the threat over and no longer in immediate danger, Ichigo remembered that he had completed the quest to get a shirt. That was two cages and a shovel to the head ago. He pulled the shirt from his inventory, discovering it was a plain, white T-shirt, complete with what looked like machine stitching. Holding it out in front of him, he looked at the number stitched onto it.

15

Ichigo shook his head, "Is that because my name is homonym?"

Orihime laughed but quickly cut it off and innocently whistled once Ichigo scowled at her.

Looking at himself, seeing the black garment that kind of made him look like a samurai out of their armor, and remembered that he was naked underneath. So, he just returned the shirt to his inventory.

Farrah passed around stamina potions from her magic chest to help them recover. Orihime being much more grateful than Ichigo seeing as her stamina had been repeatedly falling into the low zone with her repeated use of her dimension ability. After drinking his, Rufus made a sour face, "Oh, that was sickly. What happened to the other potions?"

"Gary chose the flavor," Farrah explained.

"I think it's nice," Gary said defensively.

"Tastes fine to me," Ichigo stated.

"I like the taste," Orihime added, "it's sweet with a sour kick to it."

"Me too," Farrah agreed. "Rufus only likes things when they're bitter."

They left the chamber through the huge stone doors of grotesque imagery. Orihime glanced back behind one of them at the space where she had peered out at the chamber. The tunnel was surprisingly long, carved directly out of the stone.

"Who made this tunnel?" Orihime asked aloud. "It must have been a tough job."

"Wouldn't be that hard," Farrah answered. "Construction magic would make it a straightforward process."

She looked up and down the extensive length of the tunnel as she acknowledged, "Might have taken a while though."

They emerged from a gap that, at a distance, would have looked like a natural crevice. They were on the gentle slope of the lower portion of a mountain that tapered up to a towering height. The upper reaches were black and lifeless, while the lower portions turned to yellow stone and red earth, with patchy coverage of dry yellow grass. There was a wagon outside the tunnel, wheels chocked to stop them from rolling down the slope. It had a yoke for animals, but the harness had been cut and the animals were gone.

"Did they scatter the horses so we couldn't use the wagon?" Ichigo asked.

"What are horses?" Gary asked

"You've never heard of horses?"

The three adventurers shook their heads.

"Then what was pulling the wagon?" Ichigo asked.

"Heidels," Gary answered.

"What's a heidel?"

"It's a work animal, the kind you see everywhere," Gary explained. "They pull wagons, carry packs. You can ride them. I can too, but you can tell they don't like it."

"Maybe the name is just different," Ichigo guessed. "Four legs, hooves?"

"Sounds right," Farrah confirmed.

"Long body," Ichigo continued, "long head."

"Heads," Gary corrected.

"Heads?" Ichigo replied in confusion, not sure he had heard right. "As in more than one?"

"Yeah, two heads, scales, horns..."

"That sounds creepy," Ichigo commented. "We are definitely not talking about the same animal."

"No, they're not," Orihime protested. "They are adorable, gentle creatures. I hope they are okay on their own."

"The animal doesn't matter if there aren't any here," Rufus remarked. "Which means we start walking."

Orihime sagged as she replied, "But I had just got done walking through the desert for hours before getting here."

Ichigo looked down the slope, getting a panoramic view of the land below. It was flat, dry landscape of sandy yellow and sober reds, punctuated by withering grass or spiky scrub. Every so often, a low tree with sparse foliage would jut reluctantly up from the barren earth. The sun hammered relentlessly down over all of it, but the arid air was almost pleasant after the cloying humidity of the sacrifice chamber.

The climate bore no resemblance to the moderate warmth and lush greenery Ichigo had experienced in the hedge maze. Even the heat had felt different there, more pleasantly warm than this unforgiving desert air. He remembered looking at the world map, a warped, but not entirely different globe to the one with which he was familiar. It marked his position as being in the Kalahari Desert, which matched the terrain now before him.

"Wait," Ichigo spoke up, "you woke up out there?"

"Yeah," Orihime confirmed sadly. "With no hair or clothes, I got some really bad sunburns and nearly died of heat stroke."

"What?!" Ichigo exclaimed in worry. "How'd you... I mean, you have hair and clothes now. What happened to you."

"I'll tell you along the way and you can explain how you got captured and collared," Orihime said, following the other three out towards the desert.

They started down the slope, Gary in the lead. He was wearing loose clothing to let air flow through, along with a hood to shield him from the sun. The others were wearing more fitted clothes but didn't appear discomforted.

"They brought us here while I was unconscious, right?" Ichigo asked.

"That's right," Rufus answered.

"How long was I knocked out for? This is very different from the place we were before."

They all turned to look at him with curiosity.

"The Vane Estate uses climate magic," Farrah replied. "Didn't you notice when you went there in the first place?"

"Actually, how did the two of you get involved with all this?" Rufus asked. "Now that we have some time talk."

"Um, I think I might have been summoned," Ichigo answered. "Not on purpose, obviously. I went to bed last night, as far as I know, and woke up in the middle of the Vane family hedge maze. I sort of stumbled around for a bit until I found Landemere. He seemed pissed to have found out that I'm what he summoned, apparently trying for something else. He called me something that sounded specific. I don't remember what, exactly. 'Other-worlder,' maybe?"

"Outworlder," Orihime corrected, she'd long gotten used to her boyfriend's habit of forgetting names. "You can check your character sheet when you forget, Ichigo-kun."

"I could," Ichigo shrugged. "Is that what the name suggests? Is this really a whole different world?" he directed his question at the adventurers.

"We've always been in this one," Rufus responded. "You'd have to tell us if it's different enough from where you came from."

Ichigo thought about the flying eels and leech monsters, people throwing around magic chains and streams of lava. Healing potions, reading languages he'd never seen before. The magic powers he'd used himself. All of it should be impossible.

"It's definitely different enough," Ichigo replied firmly. "My world has its share of strangeness, but this is a whole different kind of strange. Some things are weirdly the same, though. Like hedge mazes and deserts."

"Hold on," Orihime cut in. "I know this is important, but you woke up in a nice green hedge maze while I had to trudge though the desert naked! How is that fair?" Her face had an adorably cute angry pout on it, angry not working on her gentle face, "I'm going to have some words with this Landemere character."

Ichigo became somber as he answered, "No you won't."

Orihime looked to see the guilt appear on Ichigo's face and she could guess why.

"He'd suffered somehow from the summoning going wrong and decided to recover by eating me," Ichigo continued. "There was a struggle over a knife, and I ended up killing him. The first person I ever..."

Orihime understood, still having to fight down the storm of emotions trying to war themselves up to the surface from her own first kill. Her face became sympathetic as she grasped his hand in hers and squeezed, trying to silently pass along all the love and support she could.

Ichigo turned and gave her a pained, but grateful look. A look she had returned.

"If he was trying to eat you," Gary barged into the moment, "then he deserved to die. You have no reason to feel guilty. He wouldn't have while he ate you."

"That's not helping, Gary," Rufus chided.

"I'm not well versed in astral magic," Farrah added, forcefully moving the topic along. "I've heard of outworlders, but it isn't my field of expertise."

"Alternate realities maybe," Ichigo offered. "If that's what this is, then this world diverged from mine a very long time ago. The continents are different, but not completely. The fundamental physical laws here have some interesting addenda. My world doesn't have magic, not real magic. Or a second moon. I did see a second moon, right?"

"Your world only has one moon? That's weird," Gary commented.

"Normal is overrated," Orihime replied, "Weird is more fun."

Gary pondered what she said for several seconds before nodding his head, "That's fair."

---

They continued walking through the stony desert. There was a rough trail to follow back towards the manner, and Ichigo's map ability had apparently been plotting locations, even when he was unconscious. The hard ground was uneven but not too difficult to walk on.

Ichigo was grateful they were walking over dry, hard earth instead of roving through endless sand dunes. His knowledge of African geography was limited but he'd seen a documentary about Namibia's Skeleton Coast once. From what he could remember, things got very sandy there. Of course, it could be completely different in another world.

Orihime had shared exactly what had happened to her and Ichigo shared his story in response. They were both surprised about having the same blue World-Phoenix token that they couldn't read, showing each other and each one trying to read the other's tablet. It didn't work and they traded back and returned them to their respective inventories.

The others helped introduce the two outworlders to their world as they marched on.

"What I don't understand," Ichigo wondered aloud, "is why I have abilities that I never had before. Is it because my world doesn't have magic, but this one does?"

"I'm not sure," Farrah replied. "I don't know much about outworlders, having only heard the term before in passing."

"I'd never heard of them before this," Gary commented, "so don't look at me."

"I've met some before," Rufus added, prompting groans from Gary and Farrah.

"What?" Rufus asked.

"Of course you have." Gary complained.

"What's wrong with that?" Rufus asked incredulously.

"Your childhood friend is the Crown Princess of Vitesse," Farrah answered pointedly.

"This again?" Rufus asked in exasperation. "It's not my fault who my parents chose to socialize with."

"So, Rufus is an important person?" Orihime asked.

"Yes," Gary and Farrah answered at the same time as Rufus' "No."

Rufus glared at the other two before changing the subject, "I do know a little bit about outworlders. They've been pulled into our world from another one through some magical accident. Usually a summoning spell that's gone awry."

"The evil cult lady's son, Landemere," Ichigo supplied. "He blamed me for ruining his magic thing."

"That's how it usually works," Rufus responded. "As far as I'm aware. I'm no expert."

"Though it happens enough that there's a name for it," Ichigo pointed out.

"My understanding is that it's something that happens in high-magic worlds like ours," Rufus offered up. "I really don't know any more than that."

"Is there a way to get back home?" Ichigo asked.

"I'm not sure," Rufus admitted. "If there is, it probably involves magic well above our level, let alone yours."

Ichigo's head dropped and shoulders slumped in disappointment.

"Ichigo, Orihime, tell me if this sounds familiar," Rufus responded. "Do you have some kind of guide that helps you interact with our world? Something that doesn't fit in our world but does in yours. Maybe something you've heard of from a legend, or a part of your world's mythic traditions. Something that exists in your world as a story, but here has become real."

The couple thought about the video game interface they had been experiencing. The quests, inventory system, and the map Ichigo had open at that moment, even if the others couldn't see it.

"I think I know what you're talking about," Ichigo replied.

"That's something all outworlders have," Rufus explained. "It works differently for every outworlder, but whatever magic that brought them here changes them. It gives them abilities to help them adapt and survive."

"Is that why I can read languages I've never seen before?"

"And speak languages you've never spoken," Rufus added.

Ichigo frowned out, "Someone say something."

"You didn't even realize it, did you?" Rufus asked.

Ichigo focused on the sounds, rather than the words. It wasn't any language he knew, and he was studying several different ones at university. He didn't know if it was more disturbing that he could speak some unknown language or that he didn't notice he was doing it.

Orihime on the other hand was ecstatic at the prospect.

"I have an ability," he informed, listening to the sounds he was making. "One of the effects is called language adaptation. Is that how I can speak any language and not even notice?"

"Most likely," Rufus nodded.

"I have that one too," Orihime said cheerily.

"That's why you two sound like you learned the language from a skill book," Gary commented.

"We do?" the two asked at the same time.

"You do," Farrah answered with a chuckle. "There's a recognizable neutral accent and things sometimes come across as odd because of the difference in language structure. It's a giveaway, if you've seen it enough. Colloquialisms can translate very strangely."

"You're telling me that slang doesn't come across properly?" Orihime asked, not exactly understanding Farrah's clinical explanation. Ichigo just nodded, familiar with the terms while studying foreign language.

"Yes, that's what I said," Farrah answered with a raised eyebrow.

"You might want to stick to plain language," Rufus suggested.

"Yeah, that makes sense. A lot of slang doesn't translate properly through the languages of my world. It's most likely worse between different worlds." Ichigo commented.

"That will be hard," Orihime mused, a finger pressed to her lip. "It's so ingrained in how we speak that some will just slip through, but I'll try and explain when that happens."

They continued on, answering more of the outworlders' questions as they trudged through the desert. At least, Ichigo trudged. The others looked as comfortable as they would strolling through a park. The adventurers felt stronger than him and Orihime, while his girlfriend's wings helped her handle the heat.

All while he was wearing mostly black.

"Outworlders like you two might have their advantages," Farrah explained, "but we natives have advantages of our own. Take Gary, here. Members of his leonid race are stronger and faster than us, and that's only the beginning of what leonids can do. Elves are powerful spell casters and their skill with healing magic is unparalleled."

"I forgot there are elves," Ichigo replied. "Some guy said he wanted to eat one."

"That's not good," Garry grimly responded.

"They're cannibals, Gary," Farrah stated dryly. "Of course it's not good."

"What about dwarves?" Orihime asked, excited to hear that elves were real. "Gnomes? Small people who live inside hillocks?"

"I don't know what any of those things are," Gary replied in confusion. "Except for hillocks."

Rufus cut in, "We have elves, leonids like Gary, obviously, and several other races. We'll eventually be heading for a port city, so while this region is human dominated, the two of you will see all kinds of people."

"Each of which have their own special gifts," Farrah took over the explanation. "Some are there from birth, while others only show themselves once they get essences. Humans like Rufus and I are kind of like you, in a way. Our abilities differ from person to person, based on our essences. Most start out dormant, only awakening as we absorb essences."

"That's not the only things humans get, though," Gary chimed in. "Humans have their essence abilities increase faster than other races. They're kind of annoying about it."

"Do we get that? We're human right?" Orihime asked hopefully.

"Um... I have some bad news," Rufus replied hesitantly. "You're outworlders now. Not humans."

"I'm not human?" Orihime asked in confusion, her head tilted to the side.

"Not strictly, no," Rufus answered. "You might be kind of human."

"How can we be, 'kind of human'?" Ichigo demanded.

Rufus explained, "I met an elf outworlder before. She retained some of her race's abilities, while others were replaced by her outworlder gifts. It's possible you might still have some human abilities."

"Every race gets exactly six gifts," Farrah added. "There are ways of examining them with magic."

"I can do that myself," Ichigo informed.

"You can?" Farrah asked and looked at Orihime. "Can you as well?"

"Yup," Orihime replied, pulling up her list of abilities.

Racial Abilities (Outworlder)

[Interface]
[Quest System]
[Inventory]
[Map]
[Nirvanic Transfiguration]
[Curious Stranger]

"I have all six racial abilities already," she said. "I think these might all be outworlder abilities. Do humans normally get nirvanic transfiguration?"

"Nirvanic transfiguration? I've never heard of that one before," Farrah exclaimed with excitement. "What does it do?"

Orihime explained her ability's many effects, bringing shocked and confused expressions on the adventurers' faces. Which grew even wider when Ichigo stated that he had similar effects with his soul transfiguration ability.

"That's how I got my hair back, my eyes changed, and I got my essences and abilities," Orihime finished. "I broke out of an egg as a majestic phoenix before turning back into myself."

"I vomited out the worse bile imaginable as pus flowed out of my every pour while you got reborn in fire, clean and with hair," Ichigo scowled in annoyance. "I think the Reaper was messing with me when it gave me my powers."

"Or the World-Phoenix is just nicer," Orihime suggested.

The three adventurers shared a knowing, suspicious look amongst themselves.

"Did you say the Reaper?" Rufus asked.

"Yes," Ichigo answered with a raised eyebrow but without eyebrows didn't really come across. "I activated a transcendent tablet that summoned a spirit of the Reaper. I bonded my soul with it and then got my essences and abilities. Followed by the violent expunging of bodily fluids."

"That's normal with every rank up," Gary chortled. "It's always worse the first time. The weird one is Orihime's advancement to iron rank."

"Considering how disgusting the normal way sounds and most likely smelled," Orihime responded, "being weird is better."

"On that point, I can agree," Farrah replied.

"Can we focus, please," Rufus rubbed his temples. "The Reaper. Your essences, all of them, are divine essences from the Reaper?"

"I guess so," Ichigo answered.

"Mine are from the World-Phoenix," Orihime added.

"What are they?" Gary asked.

"Mine are dark, swift (hohoo), magic (Kidoo) and Shinigami," Ichigo answered. "Is it normal that essences have two names?"

"No, it isn't," Farrah confirmed. "But nothing about how you got your essences is normal. And you, Orihime? What are yours?"

"Well, they don't have two names like Ichigo's, but they are renewal, shield, dimension and restoration."

"And they all came from that Phoenix spirit?" Farrah asked.

"Yes," she answered.

"That's a bit unusual," Farrah commented. "Usually, gods only grant one or two essences with responding awakening stones. I've never heard of anyone getting all their essences from a god."

"Hold up; you guys have gods here?" Ichigo asked in disbelief. "I can believe that anything can happen here, but real-life Gods?"

"Of course," Gary stated. "You don't have gods in your world?"

"We have religions," Orihime said.

"Isn't that the same thing?" Gary asked.

"No," Ichigo answered. "No, it is not. Do your gods turn up and do things? Where people can see them?"

"Of course they do," Farrah replied like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Anisa's a priestess. We've seen her god show up in person. Spend some time in the worship square of any good-sized city. You'll see one sooner or later."

"That must forestall a lot of theological debate," Ichigo commented.

"You might not want to tell Anisa about your essences," Gary warned.

"Why not?" Ichigo asked.

"She's the priestess of the God of Purity," Farrah explained.

"That's not good," Ichigo stated.

"You have a problem with purity?" Gary asked.

"In my world, you have to keep an eye on the ones who talk about purity all the time. Leave them be and they start rounding people up into camps, getting all enthusiastic about purging the unclean." Ichigo explained.

"That does sound like something Anisa would get behind," Farrah agreed. "Her church has this idea that the essences we use change who we are, so they only like the ones they see as holy or pure. They claim other essences taint the soul."

"You say that like you think she's wrong," Orihime pointed out.

"She is," Rufus agreed. "Essence abilities aren't inherently good or bad. Like a sword, they can be used to oppress or protect. The accountability isn't with the tool, but the one wielding it. The only people who advocate that essences guide our actions, instead of the other way around, are religious zealots and people looking to abdicate the responsibility for their actions."

It was clear Rufus was speaking from experience, and not a good one.

"I'm just glad neither of you got the death essence," Rufus said in relief, the others nodding in agreement.

"Death essence?" Ichigo asked.

"The death essence has some powerful abilities," Gary admitted, "but they come with big drawbacks. Very few essences have side-effects, but death can produce some nasty ones."

"Do you know about confluence essences?" Rufus asked.

Ichigo put his chin in his hand and thought, trying to remember something that happened after boding with the Asauchi. Remembering how three transparent cubes merged to create the shinigami essence. "Is that when the first three essences make the fourth?"

"That's right," Rufus responded. "More or less. Some confluence essences are produced by a wide variety of combinations. The death essence had a nasty habit of producing the confluence essence undeath. There are many combinations that produce it, almost all of which involve the death essence."

"Take the blood essence, for example," Farrah elaborated. "Add in a death essence and pretty much anything else and the undeath essence will pop right out."

"Blood essence?" Ichigo proceeded to pull out a crimson cube 15cm to a side and asked, "Do you mean this?"

"Yes," Farrah confirmed. "Where'd you get that?"

"They were using two of these blood essences and two feast essences as part of the sacrifice ritual. Is that normal?" Ichigo asked.

"Sometimes essences or awakening stones get used as part of very powerful rituals," Farrah explained.

"They did make an apocalypse monster," Rufus pointed out.

"Could that thing have really wiped out the world?" Orihime wondered. "Not to say it wasn't dangerous, but it didn't seem up to the task of global annihilation."

"They would have had to feed it for a long time before it became a genuine threat," Farrah clarified. "They probably intended to keep it somewhere isolated and supply it with a steady stream of victims. Killing it as soon as it emerged was like smashing an egg before it could hatch into a dangerous animal."

"Even if we hadn't," Rufus chimed in, "there are people far stronger than us that could deal with it. Even if it became truly powerful, there are diamond rank adventurers out there."

"Diamond rank? What's that" Ichigo asked in confusion.

"You don't know what a diamond ranker is?" Rufus asked.

"That and adventurers," Orihime replied. "Is that where you guys hang around in a tavern until someone hires you to kill forty monsters in a dungeon?"

"Kind of," Gary confirmed.

"Why would there be forty of them in a dungeon?" Farrah added. "That's a lot for just a dungeon. Was it during a surge?"

"There's an organization," Rufus cut in, getting to the point. "It's called the Adventure Society. They give out jobs to people like us, mostly to deal with monsters that are threatening towns, villages or whatever."

"But sometimes to investigate a cult full of bloodthirsty cannibals," Garry added with a grin.

"It is," Rufus answered, "but you don't see diamond rankers very often."

"Or at all, if you're most people," Farrah added. "I've only met one because of Mr. Fancy Britches, here."

"I don't wear britches," Rufus stated.

"Rufus' grandfather is diamond rank," Farrah informed. "He's chancellor of the academy his family operates."

"Diamond rank essence users are the peak of mortal power," Rufus explained. "The Adventure Society likes to keep two or three in the biggest cities, in case a diamond rank monster shows up. That rarely happens, though, so they largely go unseen. When you're that powerful, the idea of a higher authority is laughable. Mostly, diamond rank adventurers are mysterious figures pursuing goals known only to them."

"And there aren't that many diamond rankers," Farrah continued. "The only reason they exist in the numbers they do is because they live so long."

"They live longer?" Orihime asked.

"All essence users age slower," Rufus informed. "At iron rank you wouldn't notice the difference, but bronze rankers can live well past a hundred. Silver rankers can double that; reach silver rank young enough and you'll look young for a good century. Gold rankers live for centuries, and I'm not even sure diamond rankers can die of old age."

"They're immortal?" Ichigo asked.

"It's a rumor," Rufus clarified, "but a persistent one. There's kind of an unwritten rule that diamond rankers don't tell the rest of us the limits of their abilities."

"So, are we going to live a really long time now?" Orihime asked, gesturing at Ichigo and herself.

"Keep raising your rank, and yes," Rufus replied.

"Wow, that's quite the bombshell," Orihime exclaimed.

"What's a bombshell?" Farrah asked.

"It's a weapon that causes a great big explosion. Imagine shooting Farrah at people." Ichigo explained.

"We kind of do that already," Rufus pointed out.

"So how do we raise our rank?" Ichigo asked. "I wouldn't mind if we became immortal."

"How about we walk before we run." Rufus suggested. "You can't even properly progress towards bronze rank until you awaken every essence ability you have. That's all twenty. But we're getting off topic again. The undeath confluence."

"Undeath is bad," Gary said grimly.

"The abilities in the undeath essence have a nasty habit of turning you into some kind of unliving monstrosity," Rufus informed.

"If it came along with the blood essence," Farrah continued, "you'd almost certainly get an ability that turns you into a vampire."

"Vampires are real?" Orihime asked excitedly.

"They are," Rufus answered, "and they're bad. For one thing, they can't sustain themselves with spirit coins or even regular food anymore."

"They drink blood," Ichigo supplied.

"They do," Rufus confirmed. "Imagine having vast magical powers and an unquenchable thirst for blood."

"A combination that creates bloodthirsty monsters," Orihime pointed out.

Rufus nodded. "People with the undeath essence almost always awaken a power that changes them like that. Such powers are very strong, but they all bring with them unnatural appetites."

"If that wasn't bad enough," Farrah added, "they can often turn normal people into monsters like them. Not with the essence powers of the original, but dangerous enough."

"Vampires turning other people into vampires," Ichigo mused. "It's weird how my world has myths about them while they're real in this one."

"That is weird," Gary agreed.

"Even if the undeath essence doesn't turn you into a monster," Farrah continued unbothered by Ichigo and Gary's byplay, "it tends to give out less than palatable abilities."

"Like abilities that let people raid the local cemetery. No one wants their dead family members shambling into town as part of an undead army." Gary growled.

"And that's one of the lesser evils," Farrah pointed out. "We actually all met fighting a zombie plague."

"A real zombie plague?" Orihime asked in surprise. "Zombies turning other people into zombies, the whole deal?"

"The whole deal," Gary confirmed gravely. "Entire towns were burned out just to contain it. Bad business."

"None of us want to see something like that again," Farrah said with an ice-cold resolve. "If either of you had the undeath essence we'd have killed you ourselves."

Ichigo and Orihime looked at the expression on the faces of the others and saw they weren't joking, and they didn't blame them. Natural plagues were bad enough and if a zombie plague was anything like the movies, they'd kill themselves if need be.

"On top of everything else," Rufus mentioned, "the Adventure Society has a list of restricted essences that pose an inherent threat to ordinary people."

"The death essence sitting at the top of that list," Gary added.

"Mostly it's combinations of essences," Rufus explained, "since the confluence essence is usually the bad one. The death essence is on the list by itself, though, because it always seems to go wrong. You need to pay attention to the restricted essences. It's impossible to get membership in the Adventure Society if you have one of them."

"And we want to be a member of this Adventure Society?" Ichigo asked.

"You do," Rufus confirmed emphatically.

"Okay, luckily we don't have the death or undeath essence. But I have the Shinigami confluence essence, which in one of my world's languages means soul reaper. Is it restricted?" Ichigo asked.

Rufus was the one to answer, "It's not recorded so we can't be entirely sure, but we have some inside knowledge that suggests it was used in opposition of undead entities."

"My sword does do exponentially greater damage to undead creatures," Ichigo confirmed.

"That's good," Gary replied. "Despite its ominous name, if it has abilities that counter undeath abilities it shouldn't be put on the restricted list."

"Um, what about my combination?" Orihime asked.

"It's a divine essence combination set so it will be hard to know," Farrah elaborated, coming toa stop, "but I'm going to check the list to see if it is restricted."

"Good idea," Rufus agreed, bringing the group to a halt.

Farrah caused her stone storage chest to rise out of the ground. It rose up through the sand without disturbing a single grain of sand, like it wasn't truly substantial until it had completely emerged.

She took out a stone tablet from inside the chest. It looked to be made of swirling blue and white marble, with script written across it in what looked like actual gold. Farrah touched a finger to the script, and it started shifting about, the text changing in front of their eye.

"What is that?" Orihime asked.

"This is called a living document," Farrah answered. "It stores large amounts of information and is connected to a central record. When the central record is updated, the information in the tablet changes. This one has the full list of every essence and essence combination known to the Magic Society."

"Is that different to the Adventure Society you mentioned?" Orihime asked.

"Yes, but we can explain all that once we get back to civilization," Rufus insisted.

"The tablet is a lot more expensive than a paper copy of the list," Farrah explained, "but it's smaller and doesn't have to be replaced when the list is updated."

"Does it get updated a lot?" Ichigo asked.

"There are all kinds of essences," Farrah explained as she kept her eyes on the shifting text of the tablet. "Many of them are extremely rare. Most people go for tried and tested combinations, but there's always someone trying new things. Ah, here we are."

She found what she was looking for in the tablet and the text stopped changing about.

"Let's see, you have the renewal, shield, dimension and restoration essences. Hmm... this will take a moment."

After a few minutes passed, Farrah started informing the others, "The combination has been recorded only a handful of times and it's not on the restricted list. It is actually highly sought after by those looking to produce healing abilities, with little success."

"Well," Gary chimed in, "the renewal essence is highly sought after, the shield essence is popular, and the dimension essence is so rare that even Rufus' family would have a hard time getting their hands on it. Getting all three would be next to impossible."

"That's all true," Farrah conceded, "but several have only to get the fortress confluence and almost no healing abilities."

"Seeing as the combination came from some sort of divine tablet it makes sense very few have copied it successfully," Rufus pointed out.

"That makes sense," Farrah agreed. "That might also explain their strange transfiguration abilities. Most likely a divine triggered racial evolution."

"Oh yeah!" Orihime exclaimed. "It did say something like that when I got it."

"Same for me," Ichigo confirmed. "It was ...uh? Astral something."

"Astral affinity," Orihime supplied. "Is that a normal ability for humans?"

"Definitely not," Farrah answered firmly. "That's something celestines get."

"Celestines?" Ichigo uttered in confusion. "That's not something we have in our world."

"They're similar to elves and humans," Farrah explained. "One of the many new kinds of people you'll get to meet."

"As long as none of them try to eat me," Ichigo deadpanned.

"I'm more concerned with the fact that neither of you can be revived by magical effects," Rufus pointed out. "They are rare at our levels of power but that also means you can't be saved by high ranker's abilities like most people."

Ichigo shrugged, unconcerned, "Seeing as those that could actually revive us from the dead are rare, it doesn't change much for us."

"We also don't have that option in our world, so we're used to it," Orihime added. "Though, I can revive myself once per each rank."

"That's pretty good," Gary commented. "Most don't have that option. Sounds like a great trade off to me."

"I don't have that ability," Ichigo pointed out.

"Well, that sucks for you," Gary said simply, getting Ichigo to scowl at him.

As they walked on across rocky desert landscape, the dry heat started to overwhelm Ichigo. His head started to throb. They found a rocky outcropping to rest in the shadow of, different from the one Orihime had rested at before.

The others pulled out bronze spirit coins while Ichigo and Orihime pulled out iron rank coins to replenish themselves.

"Can I ask you guys something?" Orihime asked the others.

"Sure," Rufus answered. "What is it?"

"I'm not sure," Orihime admitted. "I'm getting a weird vibe from the three of you. I can feel it from Ichigo too but weaker. It feels... I'm not sure how to describe it. Not entirely dangerous. Your power, maybe?"

"I get that vibe too," Ichigo confirmed. "What is it?"

Rufus laughed.

"That feeling is our auras," Rufus explained. "You're iron rank, so you can sense them. The three of us are bronze rank, and not that far from silver, so we're a lot more powerful than the two of you. That's the danger you're sensing. You'll both soon learn to differentiate strength and tell a monster from an essence user from a regular person."

"So, it's an instinctual magic warning against beings more powerful than me," Ichigo thought out aloud.

"Yes," Farrah confirmed, "but it isn't completely reliable. Some monsters can hide their auras. People can too, if they have an aura power."

Rufus popped the spirit coin into his mouth before replying, "They're basic skills any adventurer worth anything has mastered long before reaching bronze rank."

"Bronze rank?" Orihime asked. "Is that before diamond?"

"Yes. It's related to your essence powers. Once you have all four essences, you become iron rank, and you can work your way up from there. Bronze is one rank above iron, but you can worry about that later. You need to awaken all twenty of your abilities before you can even work on reaching bronze rank."

You've already noticed, right?" Farrah asked. "Upon becoming iron rankers you've become partially resistance to attacks that don't have any magic behind them. And live on magic instead of food and water."

"But my world doesn't have any magic," Ichigo reminded them. "We're both iron rank so, if we go back home, we'll eventually run out of coins and starve?"

"You can get by on food and water," Farrah answered. "It just takes more of it, depending on how powerful you are. Some foods are better than others. Meat, sugar, anything with magical ingredients, obviously."

Ichigo and Orihime were relieved. They could handle living on protein bars and sweets. Would they be immune to getting fat?

"We owe you for getting us out of that mess," Rufus said. "We'll help you get more awakening stones and advance your abilities."

"Well, I do have a couple of awakening stones already," Ichigo stated nonchalantly.

"Where did you get those?" Gary asked. "I thought you only arrived in this world today."

"I did," Ichigo tried to explain. "I just kind of... came across them."

Rufus raised a skeptical eyebrow, "You just came across them?"

"Yeah," Ichigo answered simply.

"We have a quest system ability that gives us items," Orihime clarified. "I got a few awakening stone from it too."

"That's useful," Gary said. "I'm kind of jealous."

"I can do the awakening rituals for the both of you," Farrah offered. "Not before we find Anisa, of course."

Farrah's suggestion prompted some of the ritual magic knowledge in Ichigo's mind the skill book had put there. Remembering something he never learned in the first place was an odd sensation, like deja vu. The new knowledge in his head told him that rituals were required for a person to absorb essences and awakening stones.

"I don't actually need to use a ritual," Ichigo informed. "I can just kind of absorbed it. I think it's part of the same power that lets me speak all the languages."

"I do too," Orihime added. "It's called curious stranger. It gives me language adaption, ability to use skill books, absorb essences and awakening stones and learn magical theory at a faster rate."

"That sound very useful," Gary commented. "Just being able to absorb power and knowledge."

"Curious stranger?" Ichigo wondered aloud. "Mine says mysterious stranger. Does just about everything yours does just instead of learning magical theory quickly I'm immune to tracking and locating effects."

"That's odd," Orihime replied.

"It'd have been odd if all your racial abilities were exactly the same," Rufus pointed out.

"I guess you have point," Ichigo conceded.

"Can I watch when you absorb your awakening stone?" Farrah asked expectantly.

"It wouldn't hurt to have someone watching out for you," Rufus supplied. "We at least owe you that much."

"I don't see why not," Ichigo replied. "Orihime?"

"Sure."

"That's great, thanks," Farrah said.

"Hey look," Gary pointed out ahead of them. "I can see it."

As they crested a rise they could see, in the distance, a strange patch of green in the middle of the desert.

"Let's pick up the pace," Rufus commanded.

---

Rufus, Farrah, Ichigo and Gary raced across the desert, feet pounding into the dry earth. Rufus had told the two outworlders they would be running at a sustainable pace. Their unflagging momentum confirmed his words, but they were moving at a pace that, on Earth, would be the equal of world-class sprinters.

For the first few miles Orihime had barely kept pace but eventually she had flagged. She'd been using the full effect of her [Tubasa No Sekai-Fenikkusu] to leap and glide to just barely keep up with their strenuous pace. She eventually conceded that she couldn't keep up and Gary had let her ride piggyback, and speed on at the same pace as before, unimpeded by the extra weight.

Orihime watched with fascination as they stormed over the rough ground at ten meters a second. Ichigo had been only a meter or so behind Gary most of the time, using his [Shunpo] to close the distance when needed. Even though Ichigo lacked Orihime's self-revive power his attributes were significantly increased, allowing him to move like a peak iron ranker or low-level bronze ranker. At least that was what Rufus had stated upon seeing Ichigo move.

The edge of the estate grounds was startling apparent; a green line of grass and trees cut across the barren browns and yellow of the desert. Like stepping into a different world, a single step took them from scorched air and unyielding earth to cool grass and a welcoming breeze.

They slowed down and stopped just across the line. Rufus, Farrah and Ichigo crouched, hands on knees, panting heavily. Ichigo gasped in deep breaths as Orihime eased off Gary's back with only some weakness in her arms from holding on against the force of wind generated by the speed at which Gary ran.

Despite his fur, body mass and having carried Orihime, he wasn't even breathing heavily like Rufus and Farrah. He looked as comfortable as if he'd been lounging at a pool, rather than sprinting through the desert.

Farrah once again pulled her magic chest out of the ground. Retrieving a handful of potion vials, she handed one each to Rufus, Ichigo and Gary.

"Stamina potions," she informed.

"I'm fine," Gary said, waving her off. Rufus and Ichigo knocked theirs back without hesitation.

Being the least tired, besides the leonid, Orihime took a closer look at the startling border between desert and garden. It was a straight line, like a border between worlds. A single step went from scorched, desert earth to springtime in an English country garden. Looking along the border, Orihime spotted pillars placed periodically along the edge, white stone columns with magic symbols carved into the surface.

"Are those things making it like this in the middle of the desert?" Orihime asked.

Farrah was the one to explain, "They're only part of it. It takes a large and sophisticated system to make something like this work." She handed out spirit coins to Gary and Rufus. All three popped them into their mouths.

Ichigo took out two iron rank ones and gave one to Orihime and they join the others in popping them into their mouths.

"What now?" Gary asked.

"Now we get to the manor house," Rufus ordered. "We find Anisa and we kill everyone else."

"I like this plan," Gary said with a predatory grin. Grey light started sparkling around him, growing thicker until it formed his full set of metal armor.

"I hadn't noticed before due to the world ending blood leeches, but that's impressive," Orihime admired the smoldering, rune covered armor. "Isn't it hot in there?"

"Heat I can handle," Gary chuckled. After seeing him sprint through the desert like he was jogging on the beach, both outworlders believed it.

Rufus held out a hand and resummoned that beautiful red-gold sword. After Gary and Rufus called their impressive equipment, Orihime looked over at Farrah expecting her to armor up too.

She gave her a 'what are you looking at' look, "My armor is made of rock remember. I'm not carrying that heavy lot around."

Ichigo had never dropped his shihakushoo, having nothing underneath but he had dismissed his Zanpakutoo during the sprint to the Vane Estate. So, he resummoned the sword on his back while Orihime reignited her blazing sapphire wings.

Before sending way the stone chest, Farrah pulled out two belts with heavy pouches. One was grey, which she handed to Gary, the other red, which she kept for herself.

"What are those?" Ichigo asked. He watched Farrah loop her belt into her clothes, while Gary tied it around the outside of his armor. The heavy metal suit barely seemed to impede him.

"Summoning materials," Farrah answered.

"Summoning?" Ichigo asked.

"You'll see soon enough. Let's stay focused on the task at hand, shall we," Rufus interjected. "We shouldn't tarry more than we have."

They set off through the ground. The outer areas were manicured woodlands, shaded gravel trails making their way through artfully placed trees and shrubbery. Somewhere he could hear the babbling of a stream.

"This is nice," Orihime commented while appreciating the scenery. "Better than waking naked in the desert, huh, Ichigo?"

"Yeah, yeah," Ichigo replied. "You had it worse but there were small monsters here."

"Like what?" she asked.

"Uhh…" Ichigo thought and decided that even dealing with the spiky hedgehog was better than traversing that desert naked for hours. "Nothing worth mentioning. Sorry you had it so rough."

"Thank you," Orihime said simply. "Though, this place is beautiful."

"Indulgent," Rufus criticized. "They should be working with the surroundings instead of against them. The cost of building and maintaining all this in the middle of the desert is beyond extravagant."

"I know what you're talking about," Gary chimed in. "There's a desert city not too far from where I grew up. It has a subterranean river, and half the city is built underground around it. They use the natural landscape to their advantage. Hardly any core infrastructure requires magical upkeep."

"Is that Zartos you're talking about?" Rufus asked.

"Have you been to Zartos, Rufus?" Gary asked.

"No, my brother told me about it," Rufus explained. "He said it was definitely worth seeing."

"Knowing your brother," Farrah commented, "he probably meant the women."

"He's not that bad," Rufus defended, prompting looks from Gary and Farrah. "He's not."

"Zartos has a large celestine community," Gary stated pointedly. "But I suppose your brother didn't tell you about that."

"He may have mentioned it," Rufus said evasively. "In passing."

"Celestines," Ichigo wondered. "That's another one of the races in this world, right?"

"That's right," Rufus answered. "Like elves they're famous for being attractive to human sensibilities."

"We only have humans in our world," Orihime stated. "The idea of meeting whole new races is exciting."

She looked at the enormous leonid encased in metal.

"But you'll always be my first, Gary," Orihime added with a bright smile.

"I like your attitude," Gary responded. "Humans have something of a bad reputation when it comes to other races."

"I can believe it," Ichigo replied. "My world only has humans and we're still awful to one another. Even within our own ethnicities. You can't tell because of my absence of hair, but it's a vibrant orange which is unusual in my world."

"Really?" Farrah asked. "Humans here have a large variety of hair colors. There's even an entire royal family with rainbow colored hair."

"Huh," Ichigo said. "Yeah, well where I'm from almost everybody's hair color is either black, brown or blonde. I was bullied as a kid for my orange hair and attacked in my teen years. I still get a few thugs that try picking a fight with me because of my unwillingness to conform to societal norms."

"I was picked on by a few girls in middle school because of mine," Orihime added. "But once I was adopted by the Arisawa family, Tatsuki just beat up anyone that made fun of me."

"Over your hair?" Gary asked. "That's got to be the dumbest reason to hate someone I've heard of, and I've heard Anisa preach about the virtues of purity."

"She's a zealot alright," Farrah agreed.

"People can be cruel for little to no reason," Ichigo added. "Religion can just exasperate the issue."

The cultivated woodlands were small, soon giving way to gardens of colorful flowers. The pathway continued out from the woods weaving its way through the garden beds. Beyond lay the manor house, which Ichigo hadn't yet seen from the outside or Orihime at all. Like the grounds, it was in the vein of a sprawling English country house. Three stories of old stone and dozens of windows, in the old money style.

"I think that's the hedge maze over there," Ichigo pointed out as they made their way through the garden. "I woke up in there with no idea of where I was or what was going on."

"That's where they found you?" Gary asked.

"No. Got captured in an underground room while out cold in a pool of whatever comes out of a person when they hit iron rank. It was embarrassing." Ichigo answered.

"Quiet," Rufus ordered. "We could meet enemies at any point. We have no idea how many were left behind or if the others came back from the sacrifice chamber."

They moved out from among the flowerbeds and onto the lawn in front of the manor.

"Seems quiet," Rufus stated.

"Use our summons now?" Farrah asked.

"No, we go quiet as we can until we find Anisa," Rufus replied. "We don't want someone deciding to make her a hostage."

Suddenly glass shattered as a person crashed through a second story window. He landed hard on the ground, but immediately scrambled up and into a sprint. He was taken aback to find five people looking at him but didn't pause as he ran.

"You think you can run from me?" a woman's voice roared from the broken window, prompting a laugh from Gary.

"I don't think we have to worry about someone taking her hostage" he chuckled out.

Three spheres of bright light erupted from the broken window, spinning around each other as they pursued the fleeing man. He was bleeding from the broken glass and limping from the fall, but still moving as fast as Orihime could at full sprint. It still wasn't enough to escape the accelerating spheres of light, flashing white and gold as they unerringly pursued him.

When they caught up, the spheres started spinning around the man, firing beams of light into his body. He let out a painful cry with every beam that lanced his flesh, but he kept moving in the drive to escape. The orbs tenaciously followed his every movement, firing over and over until he dropped.

His screams eventually gave way to dead silence and the spheres vanished.

The group looked back to the broken window, in which a pretty blonde woman was now standing. She stepped out into the air, light glowing under her feet as she delicately drifted to the ground. She started walking across the lawn to meet them.

"Didn't you all say she was the healer?" Ichigo asked.

"That's right," Rufus answered.

"This lady here?" Ichigo reiterated with a deadpanned expression on his face. "The one with the death orbs."

"That's her," Farrah confirmed.

"Did she have to kill him?" Orihime asked. "Couldn't she have taken him prisoner?"

"No," Rufus answered coldly. "We were hired to wipe out the blood cult here. Not take prisoners."

Anisa was slender, almost frail-looking, with platinum-blonde hair and pale skin. She was wearing a practical outfit of fitted pants and top, all in spotless white. Sturdy-looking cloth covered her from neck to boots, with thicker panels over vital areas. There was a belt, also white, with many small pouches and a sword at her hip. Even her boots were white, without so much as a blemishing smear of dirt. Her hair was cinched severely back into a ponytail, revealing ears that gently tapered to a point. She walked with lithe grace and absolute confidence, nodding her head in greeting.

"You got free as well," she stated, as if expecting no less. "Who are they?"

Giving Ichigo a second glance, Anisa asked, "Aren't you the person that tried to get us out of the cages but got hit upside the head?"

"That's me," Ichigo answered simply, not insulted by the truth.

Ichigo recognized Anisa's voice from when they had all been locked up in cages. He recalled she hadn't thought much of him, even then. She looked him over, her expression suggesting her opinion hadn't improved.

"I'm Orihime and I ran across everyone when I was lost in the desert," she said too cheerily. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"They're lucky you were there," she commented to the others, ignoring Orihime's greeting. "I hope you didn't let them slow you down."

"Actually, they rescued us," Rufus corrected.

"I find that hard to believe," Anisa responded incredulously.

"It was something to see," Gary said. "He broke out again, fighting most of the cultists, tossing a few into the blood pit. Giving Orihime here," he gestured to her, "the opening to free me and cut away our collars."

"Once free, and with full access to our abilities, the cultists fell with ease," Rufus added.

"I'm sure it was impressive," Anisa mock praised.

"You found our gear, then," Farrah commented, looking at Anisa.

Rufus, Farrah and Gary had changed clothes, but were still varying degrees of sweaty and dirty, while Anisa wasn't just geared-up but also clean.

"They have a storeroom in the cellar complex under the manor," Anisa explained. "Most of our equipment was there, but they'd already taken some of it away. Including the dimensional bags, which is why I didn't bring it with me."

"Let's start there, then," Rufus ordered. "They didn't take my boots, did they?"

"Your boots are still there," Anisa answered, prompting relief on Rufus' face.

"Summoning time?" Gary asked.

"Go ahead," Rufus replied.

"No," Anisa countermanded. "Your summons are both too destructive. My church is seizing this estate, so I won't let you destroy it."

"Let the summons search the grounds," Rufus offered. "If that doesn't flush out any hiding cultists, nothing will."

"They'll ruin the grounds," Anisa argued.

"Priestess," Rufus level an unyielding gaze at Anisa, "you brought this contract to us, so I'm willing to accommodate you, but only to a degree. After what we've already gone through, I am not going to compromise the capabilities of this team to save your church from hiring a landscape gardener. Is that understood?"

Anisa's face was a picture of unwillingness, but she nodded acquiescence.

"Alright," Gary rejoiced. "We'll just whip out the old summons and then pillage the manor."

"You will not," Anisa commanded.

"Come on, Rufus," Gary haggled, not bothering to appeal to the elf. "What's the point of being an Adventurer if we can't do a little looting?"

Rufus frowned.

"Any personal possessions you find, you can take," Rufus relented. "Anything that is part of the manor stays where it is. That's furniture, decorations, art, whatever. And no unnecessary damage."

He waved a finger between Gary and Farrah. "This means you two," he clarified.

Anisa still looked like she had bitten into a lemon but didn't protest further.

"Fine," Gary yielded. "It'll be a conservative pillage."

"Not helping," Rufus grunted through clenched teeth. "Gary, Farrah, you're staying out here. Use your summons to flush out any loose cultists."

"But the loot," Gary whined.

"Maybe think about that next time you open your big mouth," Rufus chided.

"My mouth was closed," Farrah complained, drawing a scolding look from Rufus.

"Fine," she said in defeat.

"Just find any cultists still on the ground and pick up any who make a run for it," Rufus commanded. "Anisa and I will sweep the manor, so you might get some people running out."

"What about my gear?" Gary asked.

"You can collect it once the place is clear. Do you really need your hammer now that the collar is off?"

Gary held up a fist, now encased in metal by the gauntlet of his armor.

"No," he acknowledged reluctantly.

Gary's chagrin seemed to mollify Anisa somewhat. Gary stepped away from the group and untied from his belt the pouch Farrah had given him earlier. Opening a small flap that served as a nozzle, he started pouring a grey powder from the pouch onto the ground in a circle.

"Are those iron filings?" Ichigo asked.

"They are," Farrah confirmed. "Summons are a little more involved than most essence abilities and require something to act as a medium. Salt circles are the most common, but plenty use other things. For Gary's ability, it's iron filings."

She patted the pouch on her own waist. "For me it's obsidian powder. We keep a good supply of both in my magic chest."

Gary finished pouring out the iron filings into a circle and return the pouch to his belt. Then he crouched down and held his hand out, which startled Orihime and Ichigo by spontaneously bursting into flame. Unconcerned, Gary reached out and touched the circle. The iron where his finger touched almost immediately turned red and started to melt, smoke coming off the ground where the grass met the burning iron. The flame spread like a burning fuse, making its way around the circle.

Once it was a complete ring of glowing metal, complex magical patterns started appearing inside the circle. From those patterns something rose up as if emerging from the ground, but the ground remained unbroken. It was a humanoid figure, crudely hewn from ugly black iron. With it came a strong smell of ozone.

It was huge, around three meters tall. It looked ungainly and menacing, like something hammered together from leftover slabs of pig iron. In between the joints, the glow of molten metal could be seen shining from within. The head was flat and blank. The center of the torso looked to be two separate pieces of metal pushed together, the edges ridged like interlocking teeth. As he watched, its torso opened like a hideous mouth, revealing a pool of molten metal inside, radiating heat over the group before closing shut again.

"Impressed?" Gary asked the two iron rankers, having already cheered up.

"Very," Orihime answered in awe. "What is it?"

"It's a foundry golem," Gary said proudly. A droplet of molten metal dripped from it, sizzling when it hit the ground.

"I understand why Anisa doesn't want it in the house," Ichigo muttered.

"You too?" Gary asked sadly.

Anisa gave Ichigo an unhappy glare. "You," she sneered, making it sound like a swear word, "may address me as Priestess."

Ichigo didn't care for being talked to like he was something scraped off the bottom of a boot.

"Well, you," he replied with an angry scowl, "should learn not to address people like their scum beneath your feet. Otherwise, someone might be inclined to shut your mouth for you."

"Excuse me?" Anisa choked out, barely believing what she just heard.

Ichigo leveled her with a glare. "If you don't want a fist to the mouth, you shouldn't talk down to people."

Anisa's eyes went wide. Rufus stepped into her path as she took an angry step forward.

"Ichigo, you should probably stick with Gary and Farrah," Rufus suggested strongly. "What about you Orihime? Want to come with us to investigate the manor or stay out here?"

"I'll stay with Ichigo-kun and the others, if you don't mind," she answered.

Rufus nodded his head, "That's fine."

Farrah took her turn to summon a creature. She poured out her own circle next to the ring of scorched earth that had been Gary's. Farrah's process was the same, right down to the powder melting into a red-hot ring. Instead of a golem like Gary, Farrah's summon was a pile of black and red magma with arms.

"Lava that can punch you with a fist bigger than my head," Ichigo mused.

"How'd she get that?" Orihime asked curiously.

"Her lava powers come from the volcano essence," Gary answered.

"There's a volcano essence? That definitely sounds better than mine," Orihime said.

"That depends," Gary responded. "Farrah's not great when it comes to sneaking."

"That's because she has volcano powers," Ichigo pointed out. "Everyone else has to do the sneaking."

Gary considered that for a moment.

"That's a pretty good point," he acknowledged.

Rufus and Anisa made for the house as Gary and Farrah set out through the grounds.

"I can't believe they made us wait outside," Gary complained. As they walked, the two monstrous figures ranged ahead. Both emanated searing heat, so Gary and Farrah didn't keep them close.

"I can believe they made you wait outside," Farrah told Gary.

"Maybe we'll catch some cultists," Orihime offered in the hopes to soothe Gary's feelings.

"That'd be nice," Gary said wistfully.

"How long do these summons last?" Ichigo asked out of curiosity.

"Depends on your power level," Farrah explained. "A few hours for me and Gary."

It was around an hour later when Rufus came out to find them. He looked down the row of scorched archways cutting a straight line through the hedge maze.

"You said flush them out," Gary said defensively.

"You were unspecific as to how," Farrah added.

"Well," Ichigo pointed out, "he did point at you and say, 'no unnecessary damage, this means you,'"

"Whose side are you on?" Gary asked.

"Justice."

Farrah snorted a laugh as Orihime stifled a giggled.

"Did you actually find anyone?" Farrah asked.

"There was one guy in some kind of storeroom," Gary answered.

"Did you get anything out of him?" Rufus asked.

"The storeroom kind of burned down with him in it," Gary lamely explained.

Rufus shook his head.

"We found a carriage shed missing a carriage," Ichigo spoke up helpfully. "It looked like they left in a hurry. Seems like someone raided the valuables and made a run for it, not even stopping to pick up the stuff they dropped."

"Cowards," Gary stated.

"I don't know," Ichigo chimed in with his opinion. "Is it really cowardice to flee from an opponent you know you can't beat. There very best were killed at the sacrifice chamber by people they had collared and caged. Who then made their way here. I'd have been shocked to find that they stayed."

"That's a good point," Rufus conceded.

Gary just grunted out, "Still seems cowardly to me."

"You just wanted to kill a few more cultists," Farrah replied.

"And you didn't?" Gary asked.

Farrah nodded her head in acknowledgement, "I was hoping to burn off some more steam by melting the pricks that captured us, but no point wasting our frustrations when no one is here to take them."

"You'll get the chance for that once we catch the man that sold us out," Rufus mollified her. "But after I get some answers."

"On that front, did you find anything?" Gary asked Rufus.

"We found a few people squirreled away. After the cultist came back alone, the lord of the manor cleared out the vault and they all took off, leaving the staff behind."

"Wasn't the lord that high priest guy?" Gary asked.

"Apparently not," Farrah assumed.

"What did you do with the cultists you caught?" Ichigo asked.

"We questioned them and then we killed them," Rufus explained, matter-of-factly.

"You just executed prisoners?" Orihime gasped in horror.

"What's wrong with that?" Farrah asked.

Ichigo ran a hand over his face, letting out a sigh. "Did you at least confirm they were cannibals too and not just a bunch of servants?"

"Of course we did," Rufus clarified. "We don't just kill people without cause. Every member of the Blood Cult is initiated by capturing and consuming someone. They all deserved what they got."

Ichigo's face showed relief as he wiped his forehead. "That's a load off my mind. If they have been eating people, death is the least they deserve."

Orihime didn't look as relieved as Ichigo as she wasn't okay with killing people.

---

With their sweep through the manor house, the group completed their mission. The cultists were dead or fleeing and they found plenty of documentation pointing to the main cult.

"So, these people were only a local branch?" Ichigo asked as he rifled through a closet.

"That's right," Rufus answered, opening a chest of drawers. "It's called the Red Table. They're only weak in remote areas like this. Core membership takes higher-ranked adventures than us to deal with."

They decided to remain at the manor overnight before leaving. Ichigo and Orihime were able to explore -leaving Rufus, Farrah and Gary to talk alone- and was surprised at what they found. Rather than the medieval technology they were expecting, magic had been used to replicate amenities from indoor plumbing to lighting to refrigerators. The horrors found in the cannibals' kitchen were the stuff of nightmares.

Ichigo was looking for clothes as he was still using his garment ability to cover his nakedness. The local fashion was big on loose fits, letting airflow combat the desert heat. That made it easy to find something in his size.

You have equipped [Cultist's Robes] outfit. Outfit tab has been added to your inventory.

"Outfit tab?"

Ichigo checked his inventory, which now had a second screen he could access with a tab at the top labelled 'outfits.' He was now used to navigating the screens with a thought and opened the new section. It showed a silhouette with various slots for equipment, most of which were empty. There was also a column to the left, empty aside from one entry labeled as 'new outfit.'

"How does that work?" he muttered to himself.

Help: Outfits

You can designate sets of gear as outfits, allowing you to quickly switch between them. Outfits can be modified by adding or removing items from item slots. An outfit can only be equipped so long as all items in that outfit are in the inventory or already equipped.

He put together something suitable and took a hot shower, the water flow and temperature controlled by a pair of crystals. After he stepped out feeling refreshed, he put on some of the new clothes. The top was lightweight and breathable, fully covering the arms and with a wrap-around hood to shield the head and face from the sun. Gary had worn something similar for their previous trek across the desert. The rest of the outfit was loose pants and practical desert boots. Underneath were the silkiest pair of boxer shorts he had ever encountered.

He hesitated before using purloined underwear, but he decided not to go commando when they headed back into the desert. He wondered if he had killed the person whose clothes he now wore. Seeing the freshly showered Orihime uncomfortable in similar attire as his own told him that she had similar thoughts.

Remembering the outfit tab, Ichigo played around with it, creating several outfits from the clothes he had collected. His snake-tooth dagger joined the default ensemble, along with the snakeskin belt and sheath. He put together a few extra outfits, creating more sets for them. Conveniently, items in the outfit tab didn't take up space in his main inventory slots.

The most interesting part was when he changed outfits. Switching gear-sets shrouded his body in dark mist for a brief moment, during which the old gear was returned to the inventory and the new gear appeared on his person. He switched rapidly back and forth between outfits to try it out. The dark smoke lightly tingled his skin.

Orihime had become fascinated by the effect, helping her to get past wearing the clothes taken from the dead. Though her mist was a dark sapphire color matching her eyes and wings. She was also absorbed into reading some basic magical theory texts Farrah let her barrow to test her curious stranger ability to learn magical theory faster. She ended up blowing through the basic ritual magic text and was moving on to enchantments.

Night-time found Ichigo laying in a bed, holding a half-naked Orihime. They were exhausted after the strangest day of their entire lives, but their minds refused to retreat into sleep. With the quiet and peace came the thoughts of the lives they took. Neither had killed before today and it was eating at them.

"Ichigo," Orihime started, her voice shaky. "Did today really happen? Did we..." She couldn't finish the sentence.

"Yeah," he answered somberly. "It all happened. We killed people today to save ourselves... to save each other."

Orihime sniffled, tightening her grip on Ichigo, "I... I couldn't lose you. When I saw that, that man about to kill you I just acted. I-" she sobbed slightly.

Ichigo rubbed his hand against her moistening cheek, tilting her face up to look at him as he spoke, "You saved me. And I would have done the same thing for you. Hell, I've killed so many people today that I had to stop and count to remember exactly how many. All just to stay alive."

Her new eyes of crystalline sapphire flames seem to swirl and glow as they peered into his own that shined with a blue tint of energy.

"You took a life to save mine," he continued. "I took six lives to save myself. I'm the one that should feel guilty not you." Ichigo had closed his eyes in shame.

Orihime moved up his body, gently pacing her forehead to his, closing her own eyes and spoke gently, "I'm glad you killed them."

Ichigo's eye snapped open in shock, their heads still touched so he couldn't see much of her face.

"If you hadn't killed them, they'd have killed you," Orihime continued in a soft but resolved voice. "And I couldn't bare living in world that you don't exist in. If killing the monsters that created that kitchen is the cost of staying with you, then I'll pay it over and over again without hesitation."

Tears streamed down her face. "What frightened me wasn't killing that man but how close I'd gotten to losing you today." She leaned back, gazing into his eyes, "I'm not going to become some cold-hearted killer, or even be okay with taking peoples' lives but I won't feel bad for saving the life of someone I love."

"Orihime," Ichigo whispered out.

"Yes?" she replied, her breath brushing against his lips as she moved back towards him.

Ichigo had been mostly concerned with how Orihime would look at him now that he was a killer. Seeing, hearing and feeling how it didn't change her love for him had removed the weight that had threatened to crush him just seconds before.

Tears had started pouring down his own face in relief as he choked back a sob.

"I was afraid you would look at me like a monster," he forced out, eyes held shut.

"Ichigo," she softly chided. "You could never be a monster. From the moment I first met you I knew what you are."

"What I am?" he opened his eyes to see her own, reflecting genuine warmth and love.

"You're a protector. A guardian that fights to protect others from the horrible things out there," she explained, placing her hand on his heart. "A kind, sweet hearted man that doesn't want others to hurt like you did when your mother died."

"I-I killed her," he argued.

"No," Orihime firmly stated, wiping away his tears. "She protected her son that she loved so much, that she give up her life for him."

He'd squeezed his eyes shut again at the memory.

"But I-"

"You were a powerless child who tried to do good," she cut him off. "Just like you did today. You killed the monsters that have been eating innocent people for kami only knows how long, and were going to kill you, me, Gary, Farrah and Rufus. If anyone dares to call you a murderer or a monster they'll have to answer to me."

Ichigo was entranced by the resolve, strength and beauty of Orihime at that moment.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

They kissed, passion wiping away fear, pain and sorrow as they embraced the entirety of each other. Letting events of the day, the near death and killing fade away as they let pleasure take them away in a familiar embrace.

---

Ichigo woke hours later, late into the night with a satisfied Orihime tucked into his side, deep asleep. He smiled down at her, appreciating how strong and loving she was. He had been on the edge the whole time, only the crazy life and death situation of the day keeping him a float. Yet, she'd seen right through him and lifted his head back above the waters of despair.

Carefully he dislodged himself from her, careful not to wake her and slipped out of the covers. He opened his inventory and threw on one of his new outfits.

The group had claimed bedrooms in a row on the top floor. A shared balcony connected all the rooms, each accessible through French doors. Ichigo opened his set of doors and wandered out. He rested his hands on the balustrade and looked up at the sky. In a massive field of stars, a pair of moons shone bright, one half moon and one crescent.

"I really am in a different world."

"You're just figuring that out?" Rufus' voice came from behind.

Ichigo turned to see Rufus emerging from his own room. He walked over and joined Ichigo in leaning on the balustrade.

"Couldn't sleep either?" Ichigo asked.

"I'm on watch," Rufus responded. "We don't think the cultists will come back, but they've surprised us before. We're rotating turns through the night."

"Didn't want me to take a turn?" Ichigo inquired.

"Honestly? No."

Ichigo shrugged in indifference.

"Fine by me."

He turned his gaze back to the sky.

"So why aren't you sleeping?" Rufus asked. "I would have thought you'd be out the moment you hit the sheets."

"Everything that happened today just keeps running through my head," Ichigo explained. "I was concussed for most of it, so it felt like one big blur of chaotic moments."

"You were impressive today. We'd be dead if it wasn't for you."

"It didn't feel impressive. It felt like a perpetual state of desperation and dumb luck. I was taken out by a guy with a shovel, twice. I couldn't protect anyone. If it wasn't for Orihime, we'd have been sacrificed."

"I don't believe that," Rufus replied. "I've seen a lot of adventurers. Most you can teach, but some will never have what it takes. Others..."

He patted Ichigo on the shoulder.

"...others take to it like it's what they were born for. You've got the stuff, Ichigo."

Ichigo sighed. "It doesn't feel like I've got the stuff your talking about. When I first woke up here, I had no idea of what was happening or where I was. I didn't think any of this was real. The best explanation was that I'd gone crazy and it was all in my head."

"You thought I was imaginary?" Rufus asked.

"By the time I met you," Ichigo informed, "I was past stopping to contemplate. I was too busy scrambling to survive one deadly situation after the next."

"You certainly arrived in rough circumstances."

"Impossible circumstances, from my perspective," Ichigo clarified. "Everything in this place is impossible. Where I come from, there's no magic, no elves. Definitely no lion-men named Gary. Monsters are just myths and metaphors. Stories we tell ourselves about the dark corners of our own nature."

"But now you believe it? That all this is real?"

Ichigo nodded, "It's all real. This experience has been too long and too coherent, even with the concussion. Any explanation that makes sense in my world doesn't fit. At least, none that I know of. Hallucinations, madness, dreams. The ability to muster even a little bit of logical detachment implies that they aren't the answer."

Ichigo sighed again.

"If nothing else," he continued, "there's just too much going on for me to have come up with all of it. I don't have the imagination to have thought up all this. I mean, broad strokes, maybe, but not all the little details."

"Well," Rufus replied, "now that you've accepted it, what comes next?"

"I guess I start looking for a way home."

"You don't seem too enthusiastic about that," Rufus commented.

"Don't get me wrong," Ichigo explained, "I love my family and friends, but here, I can have the power to protect them that doesn't exist in my world. So, I plan on going back one day but I want to get stronger first."

"You can get that power, become strong by becoming an adventurer, like us," Rufus encouraged.

Ichigo looked at Rufus.

"I'm not sure that's what I want," Ichigo replied. "This, today, is what you do, right?"

"It normally goes more smoothly," Rufus clarified. "Not so dangerous. Although it's a dangerous life; I won't lie."

"It's not the danger that I'm afraid of," Ichigo replied. "It seems like a reasonable price for getting that power, that isn't what's keeping me awake."

"It was the first time you've killed someone?" Rufus asked softly.

Ichigo nodded his head in acknowledgement.

"I'm used to fighting, violence even but today I killed people. They were evil and I was defending myself so, I have no regrets about killing them. Especially after seeing their kitchen. But my family, my mother dedicated their lives to healing people. Saving lives, not taking them. I'm afraid my family will be disgusted with what I've done today. That they won't recognize me when I make it back to them."

Ichigo fell quiet and they stood in silence, looking out into the dark for some time.

"I'm guessing your world is a safe one," Rufus said after contemplating Ichigo's words.

"Not all of it," Ichigo clarified. "But where I live is, like most of the world."

"That's good," Rufus stated. "But you have to accept that you're not there anymore. This world can be hard, and life can be cheap. You saw what was in that kitchen. There's a larder downstairs with a cell to keep people in, and it wasn't a new cell, either. If we hadn't stopped them, they'd have killed us too, and plenty more after. I don't know what justice is like in your world, but in this one, it sometimes comes down to people like us dealing with people like them."

Rufus sighed before he continued, "Your family saves lives by healing the sick and injured. That's an honorable and good way to live but it's not the only way to save lives. By killing these human monsters, and that's what they were, monsters, we've saved the lives of all those they would have killed if allowed to live. You might second guess yourself, thinking that maybe you could have captured them instead of killing them, but the situation you, we found ourselves in didn't allow for that. Any hesitation and it could have been us that died."

Rufus looked over at Ichigo, then back out at the night sky.

"I'm an adventurer," Rufus stated. "Being an adventurer can open every door, give you everything you ever wanted. Power, money, respect. Travel the world, see amazing things. Nine days out of ten, being an adventurer is the best thing you could possibly be. But on that tenth day, that's the one when you earn all the others. When you make the hard choices, when you walk through fire so no one else has to."

Rufus turned to Ichigo, giving him a weary smile.

"Has it made me callous?" Rufus asked. "Yes, it has. Has it cost me sleep? Absolutely. But there's a whole lot of people sleeping safe and happy tonight because of me and people like me. I wouldn't begrudge you for choosing not to make those hard choices to live a safe and happily life like them. But think about what you did today. How, even when you didn't have to, you chose to make those hard choices and took control of a horrifying situation. The safe and happy people don't get to do that. When fate comes for them, they need people like me to stand in its way. That's fine; it's what I'm here for. But I can tell you're the type of man that wants to control your own fate instead of people like me doing it for you."

Rufus took a deep breath, letting it out slowly.

"I won't lie," he continued. "In this world, the only way to do that is to become an adventurer like we are, this won't be the last night of sleep you lose."

"Is it worth it?" Ichigo asked.

"Only you can answer that. You saved lives today, mine included, but you had to stain your hands doing it. If you got to remake those choices, would you do it all again?"

"Yes," Ichigo answered after thinking it over for a long minute. "Well, there were plenty of mistakes I would have avoided the second time around, but killing those people? Yes. I would do that again. They were an evil that needed to die so other, innocent people could be safe."

Rufus pushed off the balustrade.

"Then you should become an adventurer," he suggested. "Give it some thought. I'm going to patrol around a little. You've got a lot to think about."

He walked off, but Ichigo called out to him before he disappeared back into the manor.

"Rufus."

"Yeah?"

"I want to become an adventurer, to become strong enough to protect others," Ichigo declared with unflinching resolve as the image of his mother's dead body rushed through his mind. "What do I need to do?"

"We can teach you," he answered, "but you start by absorbing more awakening stones. Before everything else, adventurers are strong."

When Ichigo returned to his room after Rufus left, he found Orihime leaning against the wall by the doors leading to the balcony. She had the blanket wrapped around her, and had turned her head to look at him.

There was a knowing smile on her face as she stated, "So, we're going to become adventurers. That sounds like fun. I always wondered what it'd be like to be a warrior wizard traveling the world, righting wrongs."

"You don't have to, Orihime."

She moved and grasped his arm, "I had chosen to stay by your side years ago, no matter where that takes me."

"You shouldn't make such an important decision just because I did," Ichigo sternly chided.

"You said you love me."

"I do."

"Then let me love you."

"This isn't the same. You have healing powers now. You can still be a doctor here. You don't have put yourself in danger just because I am."

She had that hard, resolved look again, "You keep saying that you would have died if not for me and now you want me to stay away when you plan on putting yourself in danger on a regular basis." Orihime's frown became stern and unyielding. "I am going to be there for you, whether you want me to or not."

Ichigo sighed in defeat. She was right, he'd been repeatedly bringing up how they'd only survived because of her intervention. But Orihime was one of the people he wanted to protect the most.

"Besides," Orihime continued, "you're not the only one that wants to become stronger. The only one who has people they want to protect."

That stopped Ichigo cold.

"I want to protect you, Tatsuki, my adoptive parents, your sisters, our friends and so many other people that need someone to save them." She became somber as she kept going, "I lost the person most dear to me too, Ichigo. If had this power I could have saved Sora."

The grip on his arm had become tighter, almost painful as she hung her head.

"I'm sorry, Orihime. I was being selfish. I just don't want to see you get hurt."

"And I don't want to see you get hurt either!" she insisted.

Ichigo placed his hand on top of hers that still gripped his arm and stated, "Then we'll do this together. Protecting one another and growing strong, together."

Orihime smiled, "That's what I was saying the whole time, Ichigo-kun. You're a little slow on the uptake sometimes."

Ichigo scowled, getting Orihime to laugh full heartedly, which made him scowl all the more, increasing her laughter. She was hugging her stomach and gasping as air became scarce.

"You done," he deadpanned.

She eventually stopped laughing and caught her breath, whipping a tear form her eye.

"Sorry," she breathed out. "But don't worry, I'll be there to help you keep up."

Ichigo just hauled her over his shoulder and carried her to bed as she giggled up a storm.

---

"I'm not sure I'm comfortable doing it with everyone watching," Ichigo said.

It was a clear-skied morning, but the magic affecting the manor's climate dulled the scathing desert heat to a pleasant warmth. Ichigo, Orihime, Rufus, Gary and Farrah had gathered on a terrace, sitting on some patio furniture. Most of them gathered around a picnic table in chairs, but Gary was too big for the chairs and went to find another seat.

"But you said I could watch," Farrah argued.

"Yeah," Ichigo admitted, "but it's different when everyone is staring at me like I'm an attraction at a zoo."

"What's a zoo?" Rufus asked.

"A special park people can visit to see various wild animals in enclosures from all over the world," Orihime answered.

"That sounds stifling for the animals," Rufus pointed out.

"Exactly," Ichigo replied.

"I want to watch too," Gary cut in. He picked up a low bench, which turned out to have been affixed to the tiled terrace. Some of the tiles came loose along with the bench. Gary looked at the damage and shrugged.

"Can you please stop destroying the place?" Rufus pleaded. "Anisa is prickly enough at the best of times."

"Compared to what we did to the hedge maze, this is nothing," Gary reasoned.

Orihime laughed.

"And you somehow think that makes it better?" Rufus asked incredulously.

Gary walked back to the group and dropped the bench loudly. The legs were uneven after having been torn from the ground, but Gary was happy enough and plonked himself down. The bench loudly scraped the terrace under his weight as Rufus wearily shook his head.

"I'm part of the Magic Society," Farrah said to Gary. "My interest in seeing them use awakening stones is academic. What would you get out of it?"

"What else am I going to do?" Gary asked. "Help Anisa organize documents? No thanks."

"That probably wouldn't go well for anyone," Farrah acknowledged.

The missing member of the group, Anisa, was in the manor's main study. They had managed to dig out various letters and other records linking the occupants to the blood cult in other regions. Before they left the manor behind, she was gathering it together for use as evidence.

"You might as well stick around," Ichigo yielded. "I don't want anything happening to me if I pass out again. It was how I got captured by a guy with a shovel."

"I'm still a little surprised you two got your hands on so many awakening stones," Rufus commented in wonder. "You did say you only arrived in our world yesterday, right?"

"It was a busy day," Orihime replied.

"You're not wrong there," Gary chuckled out.

"I'm kind of hungry," Orihime mused. "Coins help but I really wish I had something to eat. I like to cook but I don't trust any of the food here. All the kitchen had was every nightmare I'm ever going to have again."

"I have some tyrannical pheasant meat. Maybe you can make something with that?" Ichigo offered.

Orihime had always had a weird sense of taste and strange food combinations that sometimes were surprisingly delicious. It'd actually caught the attention of his cousin Erika Asano, from his father's side of the family. She was a famous tv chief and had taken Orihime under her wing and taught her how to cook while incorporating her weird cooking sense. Orihime had even appeared on a few episodes on Erika's show. Now he loved her meals and was looking forward to an actually meal instead of popping down another spirit coin.

"I love tyrannical pheasant," Gary enthused. "How did you stop it from dissolving with the rest of the monster? Oh, right. You guys have monster harvesting magic."

"There's a magic for that?" Ichigo asked.

"We have an ability that does it," Orihime clarified.

"Makes sense," Rufus stated. "Outworlders all have different abilities, but they're usually all focused around giving them the tools to survive."

Farrah nodded. "Looting abilities are rare, and valuable, but far from unique."

"Is that where essences come from?" Orihime asked.

"Sometimes, but not that often," Farrah informed. "I keep forgetting that you really don't know anything. Your world may not have any magic, but this one has it in abundance. To the point where it just starts manifesting all over the place. This includes essences."

"They just appear randomly?" Ichigo asked.

"Yes, but most magic manifestations are monsters," Rufus explained. "They just appear, hopefully in the wilderness, but the magic they're made of isn't stable. Eventually they break down and dissolve back into magic. Killing them just makes it faster."

"Say you killed something that wasn't a monster but an animal," Ichigo mused. "A giant snake, for example. That wouldn't dissolve into a stinky cloud?"

"Exactly. Monsters frequently aren't a problem when they first manifest, but as they get closer to breaking down hey become highly aggressive. The bulk of our job as adventures is hunting them down before they reach that stage." Rufus explained.

"I've yet to see a monster," Orihime said. "They breakdown into rainbow smoke?"

"Yes," Ichigo answered, "and it's the worst stench you'll ever smell."

"Seeing as you plan on becoming an adventurer, you'll be seeing a lot of them," Gary told Orihime.

"How long do monsters last before they go berserk?" Ichigo asked.

"Depends on the rank of the monster," Farrah lectured. "Lesser monsters only last a week or two. They start so close to breaking down that they're aggressive from the moment they appear, but they aren't really a threat. An old woman with a broom can handle them. Iron rank monsters last about a month, getting aggressive in the final week or so. It goes up from there, but this is a low magic region so mostly you'll see iron rank with a smattering of bronze."

"Monsters have ranks, then?" Ichigo asked. "Do they use essences too?"

"No," Rufus answered. "It just means they exist within a certain power threshold. Whether an essence user or a monster, each rank has a suppressive effect on lower ranks. We're all bronze rank. If you were to fight any of us, your iron-rank abilities would have much less effect."

"You can overcome that briefly by boosting your attributes with spirit coins," Farrah added. "That only works to a degree, though, and not for very long. You have to pick your moment, because it will leave you weaker once the strength fades."

"I know all about that," Ichigo muttered.

"There are other manifestations of magic," Rufus continued. "They're not alive, which makes them more stable, and they stick around until you use them."

"Essences," Orihime supplied.

"That's the most powerful manifestation," Rufus clarified. "Also, the rarest. Then there's quintessence, which is kind of like chunks of essence."

"Could you get a pile of it and use that as an essence?" Ichigo asked.

"Afraid not," Rufus answered.

"People have been trying to make that work for years," Farrah expanded upon. "There's always some crackpot who claims to have figured it out, but it isn't possible."

"Quintessence is still useful though," Rufus pointed out.

"It may not be as powerful as an essence," Farrah explained, "but it gets used a lot more. Ritual magic, alchemy, weapon forging."

"I make weapons and armor," Gary chimed in. "I go through quintessence by the pile. Literally, piles of it."

"We found a magic supply storeroom yesterday," Farrah said. "They took most of the good stuff when they left, but there was quite a lot of iron-rank quintessence left behind."

"Nice," Gary replied.

"The last manifestation of magic is awakening stones," Rufus returned to the previous topic. "Mostly they're used to awaken essence abilities, but they can be used in various kinds of magic as well."

"Like the thing they were trying to sacrifice you all to," Orihime suggested.

"Yes," Farrah confirmed.

Ichigo took out six black crystals from his inventory, laying them on the table in a row. "Most of the awakening stones I have are these."

Rufus picked one up. "I wonder what kind of stone they are."

"Awakening stones of the Reaper," Ichigo informed. "All six are the same."

"I've never heard of that one before," Farrah stated.

"Sounds like it might be connected to the Order of-" Gary was cut off by Rufus.

"Quiet, the contract requires us to keep our mouths shut."

"Oh, yeah, I forgot," Gary said bashfully. "Sorry."

"They can be useful with the right essences," Rufus moved the conversation away from whatever secret they were keeping. "They're extremely rare but unregistered, so there's no telling what kind of ability it can give you. They could be related to the concept of death, but that can manifest in any hundreds of powers."

"Thousands," Farrah corrected. "The rarer an awakening stone is, the more specific the powers."

"So rare stones are better?" Ichigo asked.

"Not necessarily," Rufus clarified. "A common as muck awakening stone can give you any ability the rarest could. It just has a much higher pool of potential powers. Rare stones don't give out better abilities, just more specific ones. So, if you want a specific kind of ability, that's when you need to find yourself the right flavor of rare stone."

"There aren't any guarantees though," Farrah added. "Even the rarest stone might not give you what you want. You should always remember that the biggest determinate of what ability you get is the essence it comes from."

"No lava cannon?" Orihime asked.

"Sadly no," Farrah chuckled out.

"You probably want your essence abilities to be more well-rounded than Farrah's," Gary said.

"Hey," Farrah complained.

"In terms of raw power, Farrah is easily the strongest of us," Rufus explained. "But that focus comes at the cost of versatility."

"She's great at blowing things up," Gary commented.

"It's true," Farrah agreed. "I am good at blowing things up."

"Which, admittedly, solves the bulk of our problems," Rufus stated. "But when overwhelming, barely contained annihilation isn't the answer, it leaves her somewhat at a loss."

"Power is always the answer," Farrah responded with absolute conviction.

"Mass destruction sounds pretty good to me," Ichigo agreed.

"That can depend on the essences you have," Rufus pointed out.

"It doesn't seem like I'll get anything that destructive with the essences I have," Orihime said.

"No, but you'll get plenty of healing abilities, which is really good," Gary enthused.

"It is. Your power set will make you highly sought after," Rufus agreed, "given how hard it can be to get a healer on your team. We've struggled with that ourselves."

"What about Anisa?" Ichigo asked.

"Anisa is a temporary addition," Rufus clarified. "It's usually just the three of us."

"You could still get plenty of offensive abilities with that dimension essence," Farrah pointed out. "You already got a blade that cuts everything."

"It isn't the essence that dictates the strength of an essence user. I've been beaten by an individual with the duck essence." Rufus explained. "What it comes down to is how you use those abilities."

"Besides, it's random," Farrah reminded them. "You have an equal chance to get anything from support, defensive shields, healing or even combat oriented ones. There's always a randomness to essence magic."

Rufus pointed out. "You'll need to use all your abilities to become a real adventurer. All of which will require skills neither of you have right now. But I can teach you both."

"Now there's an offer not to refuse," Gary commented.

"Agreed," Farrah added. "Rufus' family runs one of the most exclusive prep academies for adventurers in the world. Kings and queens go to that school. If he's willing to teach you, let him."

"We all owe you two," Rufus said. "If it weren't for both of your efforts, we'd be dead right now, and we aren't going to forget that. So, we'll do our best to help you both find your feet as adventurers. Maybe you can eventually discover a way home."

"Thanks. I guess we should do this before Anisa comes out," Ichigo moved things along.

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that," Farrah informed. "I left her buried in documents in the study. I think she's going to read every piece of paper in the whole manor to make sure she doesn't miss anything."

"That's good," Ichigo responded, "because I have an awakening stone that seems a little questionable as well."

"Ichigo alone has a lot of awakening stones to use," Rufus stated, "and then we'll need to get through Orihime's next. I want us out of here and on the trail by noon."

Ichigo frowned as Rufus took out a pocket watch.

"You have noon in this world?"

They explained timekeeping in their world to Ichigo and Orihime. To his surprise, it seemed exactly the same as in his own. He couldn't be sure how close their hours, minutes and seconds hewed to his own world, but they were at least close.

"It's weird they're the same," Gary commented.

"Suspiciously weird," Ichigo agreed.

"What about the calendar?" Orihime asked. "Is that the same too?"

The local calendar, as it turned out, was similar, but not the same. Although not as close as the time. There were twelve months of thirty days, divided up into early, mid and late stages of each season. There were five additional days that didn't count as days of the month for the solstices, the equinoxes and the new year, which was at the beginning of spring.

"It still seems strange that we keep time the exact same way across two worlds," Orihime mused.

"Well, maybe someone from your world came here," Gary theorized, "saw how we do it and took it back to yours."

"Or someone brought our system here," Ichigo countered.

"Nah, that doesn't sound right," Gary replied.

"Are you saying your world's better than ours?" Orihime asked.

"We have magic," Gary argued.

"We have the internet," Orihime fired back good naturedly.

"Will you two please stop?" Rufus pleaded. "Gary, go check on Anisa. Tell her she needs to finish up in the next couple of hours. How many stones do you have between you two?"

"I have eight, total," Ichigo answered.

"Seven for me," Orihime added.

"Good thing both of you can just use them, then," Rufus commented. "Going through over a dozen rituals would take hours."

"Wouldn't be that bad," Farrah disagreed. "I've done a bunch of them, so I can knock them out fast."

"Hold on," Gary groused. "Why didn't you tell Anisa before we started?"

"Because I didn't," Rufus answered simply.

Gary narrowed his eyes at his friend before he accused, "You forgot."

"Yes," Rufus admitted, unbothered by that fact.

Ichigo took out his remaining awakening stones, laying them out in a row on the table. Orihime doing likewise as Gary grumbled off to inform Anisa of their departure time.

"Should we wait for Gary to get back before starting?" Orihime asked.

"No, there's fifteen awakening stones between the two of you," Rufus answered, "he'll be back before you finish."

Ichigo nodded, picked up the first stone and took a deep breath.

"Here we go."

The stone melted in his hand, forming a shadow of absolute darkness that proceeded to sink into his skin. A chill followed the dark shadow up his arm, causing him to shiver and bite down a yelp.

You have awakened the kidoo essence ability [Hadoo].
You have awakened 2 of 5 Hadoo essence abilities.

Ability: [Hadoo] (Kidoo)

Spell.
Cost: Varies.
Cooldown: Varies.

Current rank: Iron 0 (00%).

Effect (iron): Offensive spells which inflict direct damage to the enemy. Their effectiveness differs depending on the user's knowledge, training and skill.

"That's it?" Farrah asked with an underwhelmed tone. "It appears similar to most ritual based awakening stone absorptions."

"Sorry," Ichigo apologized, "but I had no idea how it goes as it was my first time absorbing an awakening stone. It was a bit uncomfortable, like dunking my arm in ice water."

"Minor discomfort to subject one. Described as cold sensation running up limb that was used to absorb the awakening stone," Farrah said, like she was taking mental notes. "I'm glad there are two of you so we can do a comparison test. You're next Orihime."

"The subject has a name," Ichigo groused, but Farrah just ignored him as she watched Orihime pick up one of her awakening stones of the world-phoenix.

The stone turned into sapphire flames that crawled up Orihime's arm, causing her wince in pain. The flames diminished as they sunk into her flesh.

You have awakened the shield essence ability [Sooten Kisshun].
You have awakened 2 of 5 shield essence abilities.

Ability: [Sooten Kisshun] (shield)

Special ability Cost: Varies upon degree of damage rejected.
Cooldown: 2-24 hours.

Current Rank: 00%

Effect (iron): Form a half-oval barrier around whatever or whomever you wish and repel the damage within, returning a subject covered by the shield to the state that they were in before taking damage. This does not restore stamina or mana. This ability cannot be used on those that have died.

Orihime was staring as her unblemished arm, the fire not even singeing her clothes.

"Same process as when Ichigo absorbed an awakened stone," Farrah examined, "but with different appearance based on differing stones. Not unusual. Did you feel any strain, Orihime."

"Yes," she answered. "Felt like searing heat was burning through my flesh, straight down to my bones."

"What's wrong with her?" Gary asked. He had left the manor through the terrace doors and approached to retake his seat on the bench he'd torn up.

"She just absorbed her first awakening stone," Rufus informed.

"Could have waited till I made it back," Gary grumbled. "I wasn't gone long."

Rufus picked up another awakening stone and handed it to Ichigo, who nodded and took it.

"They have thirteen more to go, you'll have plenty opportunity to see it happen," Rufus replied.

"That's not the same," Gary argued. "The first time always produces the most shock and awe to a person's face."

"That' true," Farrah agreed. "It becomes easier as the body adjust to the influx of power so it's never as strenuous as the first influx."

Ichigo and Orihime proceeded to go through the remaining awakening stones of the Reaper and World-Phoenix in quick succession.

You have awakened the kidoo essence ability [Kaidoo].
You have awakened 3 of 5 kidoo essence abilities.

Ability: [Kiadoo] (Kidoo)

Ability Type: special (heal, restore).
Cost: Varies.
Cooldown: None.

Current rank: Iron 0 (00%)

Effect (iron): Enables you to use healing spiritual arts. Hold your hands above the patient's wounds as your palm releases green spiritual energy to facilitate healing. This restores mana and health. The effectiveness differs depending on the users training, knowledge and skill.

You have awakened the shield essence ability [Koten Zanshun].
You have awakened 3 of 5 shield essence abilities.

Ability: [Koten Zanshun] (shield)

Ability Type: Special attack (dimension)
Base cost: Moderate mana and stamina.
Cooldown: 2 minutes.

Current rank: Iron 0 (00%).

Effect (iron): A bolt of energy breaks through the target, forming a shield that rejects the fusion of matter on both sides, splitting it in two.

You have awakened the shinigami essence ability [Reikaku].
You have awakened 3 of 5 shinigami essence abilities.

Ability: [Reikaku].

Aura (Holy, unholy)
Cost: None

Cooldown: None.

Current rank: Iron 0 (00%).

Effect (iron): This aura releases a spiritual pressure on targets within its area of effect. All allies within the aura have the strength of their attributes increased. Enemies within the aura have their attributes decreased.

You have awakened the shield essence ability [Shiten Koshun].
You have awakened 4 of 5 shield essence abilities.

Ability: [Shiten Koshun]

Special (shield, retributive)
Cost: High mana.
Cooldown: 30 minutes.

Current Rank: 00%

Effect (iron): Create a triangular shield which, at the very instant of receiving an attack, disperses the resulting force as a concentrated explosion which is automatically returned along the attack's opposing trajectory.

You have awakened the shinigami essence ability [Jigokuchoo]
You have awakened 3 of 5 shinigami essence abilities.

Ability: [Jigokuchoo] (shinigami)

Familiar (ritual, summon)
Cost: Extreme mana, extreme stamina.
Cooldown: None.

Current Rank: 00%

Effect (iron): Summon [Jigokuchoo] to serve as a familiar.

[Jigokuchoo] (iron): Incorporeal butterflies that can deliver and receive messages to individuals whose aura that has been imprinted by it. There is no limit to the distance these butterflies can travel but the greater the distance the longer it can take to deliver messages. They can freely traverse astral space apertures and proto-astral spaces. They merge with your aura to increase its power and aid obscuring your aura, making it harder to detect.

You have awakened the restoration essence ability [Authority of Restoration].
You have awakened 2 of 5 restoration essence abilities.

Ability: [Authority of Restoration] (restoration)

Spell (recover, heal)
Cost: Extreme mana and extreme stamina.
Cooldown: 24 hours.

Chant: Be whole.

Current Rank: 00%

Effect (iron): Completely restore a single target to a perfect state of wellbeing. Instantly removing all afflictions, fully restoring health, stamina and mana, removing mental fatigue, resetting all cooldowns on abilities and items and repairing all equipment of said target. This effect cannot be prevented by anything less than transcendent abilities. This ability can't affect those that have died.

You have awakened the hohoo essence ability [Senka].
You have awakened 2 of 5 hohoo essence abilities.

Ability: [Senka] (hohoo)

Special (movement)
Cost: Extreme stamina.
Cooldown: 2 minutes.

Current Rank: 00%

Effect (iron): Using an extreme speed shunpo the user moves behind their opponent, landing two rapid attacks; one from the front and one from the back so quickly the target can't tell where or how many times they were struck. The effectiveness is dependent on the user's speed and skill in using shunpo.

You have awakened the dimension ability [Dimensional Deliverance].
You have awakened 2 of 5 dimension abilities.

Ability: [Dimensional Deliverance] (dimension)

Spell (dimension, recovery, cleanse, escape)
Cost: Extreme mana.
Cooldown: 24 hours.

Chant: Pocket space be the crucible of deliverance, bringing the deserving into the dimension of peace and rebirth.

Current Rank: 00%

Effect (iron): Take yourself and your allies -max of ten- into a separate dimensional space that cannot be penetrated. While within all individuals will be fully restored to a pristine state before being returned to their original positions in the physical world they were taken from. This ability circumvents effects that prevent cleansing.

You have awakened the dark essence ability [Veil-Piercer Eyes].
You have awakened 2 of 5 dark essence abilities.

Ability: [Veil-Piercer Eyes] (dark)

Special ability (perception)
Cost: None.
Cooldown: None.

Current Rank: 00%

Effect (iron): See through all obscurities of sight and into the immaterial spectrums.

You have awakened the renewal essence ability [Cleansing Fire of Restoration].
You have awakened 2 of 5 renewal essence abilities.

Ability: [Cleansing Fire of Restoration]

Spell (recovery, cleanse, holy, unholy)
Cost: Low mana.
Cooldown: 20 seconds.

Chant: Let my restorative flame burn away impurities, the ashes bringing renewal.

Effect (iron): Cleanse all curses, diseases, poisons, holy and unholy afflictions from a single target. Recover stamina and mana for each affliction cleansed. This ability circumvents all effects that prevent cleansing. This ability can't be used on self.

Ichigo and Orihime could feel their abilities within themselves clearly. They were like hunting dogs, waiting to be unleashed at their command. Even without the descriptions they could clearly understand the abilities they had just awoken.

"My abilities feel incomplete," Ichigo commented. "Like a puzzle where I don't have all the pieces."

"I don't feel that," Orihime replied.

"There's a scale," Farrah explained. "At one end of the scale is people whose abilities are individually strong. Those people don't tend to feel what you're feeling, Ichigo, because their powers might work together, but aren't reliant on one another."

"Those kinds of abilities are strong, but simple," Rufus added. "Farrah's abilities are like that and Orihime's might be trending in that direction but with a more supportive ability set."

"Of course, simple doesn't mean bad," Farrah defended. "Straight-forwards powers are usually the most effective solution to a problem. It's when you try to get complicated that things go wrong."

"According to people with simple powers," Gary chimed in.

Farrah stuck her tongue out at Gary while Orihime pouted cutely.

"At the other end of the scale," Rufus continued, "are abilities that underwhelm in isolation, but used together become very dangerous. Affliction and spellcaster specialists tend to fall at the end of the scale. Your abilities don't appear to be that specialized, so it won't feel that awkward, but won't feel right until you get the full set."

"From what you've told us about your powers," Gary commented, "you seem more like a direct combat type that chips away at your opponent until they fall. An endurance type that accumulates damage over time."

"It's not as directly overpowering as Farrah's abilities," Rufus added, "but it also gives you more flexibility than her. It also means your ability set will require more skill to fully utilize."

"Yeah," Ichigo agreed," I can feel something like that from them, but I'm concerned that a large chunk of my powers require specific knowledge and training that differ from one another yet are connected to each other at the same time."

Rufus, Farrah and Gary shared a look that spoke about them knowing more about his abilities than they were letting on. Ichigo narrowed his eyes at them in suspicion.

"Do you know something about it?"

"We do," Rufus answered. "We came to this region for a specific contract to find something, that we can't share any details about. Confidentiality is a part of the contract's stipulations. But we found a unique skill book that imparts iron rank skills and knowledge that match perfectly with your abilities."

"That's very suspicious," Orihime commented. "You three just happened to have a skill book that just so happens to coincide with Ichigo-kuns need for those specific skills."

"It is odd," Gary agreed.

Farrah nodded her agreement. "His essences and awakening stones came from the Reaper and the skill book came from the-"

"We're not supposed to talk about that with anyone else but Emir and his people," Rufus cut her off in a chiding tone.

"I know," Farrah conceded, "but it is quite the coincidence."

Rufus could only nod his head at her point.

Ichigo cut in, "I don't really care about some deity or another making plans or orchestrating my powers. What concerns me, is if you'll give me that skill book that will help me use my abilities."

"You don't care if some god is manipulating events to give you specific abilities and skills?" Gary asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Nope," Ichigo answered dully. "It's not as if I could do anything about it and if it gives me the power to protect people then I don't care what plans they have. So long as it doesn't go against my principles and my sense of honor I won't care if I'm forced into a holy war that lasts a thousand years."

"That's a very reasonable approach," Farrah agreed.

"Though, if who or whatever they are tries to make me kill innocent people or brings harm to my friends and family," Ichigo continued, "then I'll turn my blade on them. God or not."

Gary burst into laughter.

Orihime sighed in exasperation and acceptance of her love's personality.

Rufus nodded emphatically in agreement.

While Farrah pointed out, "A god could have the likes of anyone, besides a diamond ranker, killed with relative ease."

"Wouldn't stop me from trying if they hurt someone precious to me," Ichigo replied nonplused.

"Bring out the book," Rufus ordered Farrah snapping her out of her disbelieving look.

Farrah got up from her seat around the table and her stone chest erupted out of the ground. She opened the lid, reached in and came out with an absurdly large book. It seemed like she should be staggering about under the weight, but her small body contained a powerful strength. She slammed the lid of her storage chest down and dropped the book onto it with a resonating thud. It was almost as large and thick as the stone chest on which it was resting. Bound in thick leather, embossed into the front of the book was the image of a pitch-black scythe.

"That's a hefty tome," Ichigo commented, moving to look closer.

"We each agreed to give both of you a gift," Rufus told them. "As thanks for saving us. I talked it over with the others last night and we agreed to let this be our gift to you Ichigo."

"Did you get a gift for me?" Orihime asked expectantly.

"Sorry," Farrah dashed her hopes, "but we just happened to have this book that also happens to coincide with Ichigo's exact needs. You'll have to wait until we get back to a major city to get you an appropriate gift."

"Oh, okay," she replied dejectedly.

"Sorry," Gary added. "But we'll each get you a separate gift. So, you'll get three while Ichigo only gets the skill book."

That cheered her up a bit.

"Well, it's obviously special," Ichigo pointed out. "Where did it come from?"

"We can't tell you that yet," Rufus answered.

"You're giving him the book but saying where it's from is where you draw the line?" Farrah asked Rufus.

"The book wasn't in the contract," Rufus explained his reasoning. "Keeping our mouths shut was."

"So, can I use this?" Ichigo asked, reaching towards the book.

"Not so fast," Rufus said. "Before you use that book you have to understand what it is. By which, I mean, you have to understand what it isn't."

"Okay," Ichigo replied.

"The thing you need to understand about the skill book is that it isn't going to teach you how to fight," Rufus explained.

"Of course," Ichigo responded. "I know. It'll just give me the techniques, not how to use them. Even in my world, a guy who just practices karate techniques for a decade, having never actually been in fight, will get his assed kicked by a common street thug who's fought with no technique for years. No amount of training and talent can make up for experience."

Farrah was trying to hold back her laughter at the dejected look that appeared on Rufus' face.

Gary added fuel to the fire by chiming in, "He's not like the spoiled rich kids you're used to training Rufus. I have seen him fight and it's well developed from actual experience not just study."

"He'll need to adjust the martial techniques to his physical attributes and essence abilities," Rufus added defensively, trying to get back into instructor mode. "Only using these techniques against actively resisting opponents will let you make them your own, instead of something a book gave you."

"By beating it into me," Ichigo added nonplused.

"That's right," Gary confirmed with a grin. "We're going to beat you like a drum."

"That can wait until we get back to civilization," Rufus stated.

"Fine," Gary grumbled.

"Can't say that I look forward to the beatings but I'm looking forward to the power it'll give me," Ichigo sighed. "Can I just use the book, now, please?"

"Go ahead," Rufus said.

Taking a deep breath, Ichigo reached out and placed a hand on the book.

Item: [Soul Reaper Disciplines: Zankensoki I] (iron rank, legendary)

A magical book detailing the foundational techniques for all four Soul Reaper disciplines (consumable, skill book).

Requirements: Ability to use skill books. Hohoo and Kidoo essences. Soul bound Zanpakutoo.

Effect: Imparts iron-rank techniques of the Soul Reaper Disciplines' Zankensoki.

You are able to use skill book [Soul Reaper Disciplines: Zankensoki I].
Use Y/N?

Ichigo stood still, hand on the book, eyes closed. He took another deep breath.

"Something wrong?" Rufus asked.

"I'm just not rushing this," Ichigo explained. "The last time I used a skill book it nearly overwhelmed my mind and I almost passed out."

"That was most likely due to you still being normal rank," Farrah supplied. "Full essence users have larger amounts of stamina."

"Oh, that makes sense," Ichigo muttered out.

"Please be quiet," Rufus cut in. "Ichigo, focus on taking the book in, it will take better the calmer your mind is."

"That's true," Farrah agreed. "Sorry, Ichigo. Try clearing your mind, like you're going to meditate. It might help."

"Thanks," Ichigo replied. He closed his eyes and did as Farrah suggested, emptying his mind and calming his emotions.

"Do you think he's going to take long?"

"Shut up, Gary," Farrah demanded.

"I'm just wondering if I should get that tyrannical pheasant meat from him first so we can make a snack."

There was a sizzling sound, followed quickly by a yelp of pain.

"Will you two please stop destroying the property," Rufus chastised/pleaded.

Ichigo let the sounds drift away, letting only the rhythm of his breathing occupy his mind. He felt his body drift away from the world, floating through nothingness. All sensation left him, except for the leather of the book under his hand.

You are able to use skill book [Soul Reaper Disciplines: Zankensoki I].
Use Y/N?

He mentally assented and the huge book floated up off the chest to hover over Ichigo's head. The ponderous cover flipped open, and text started rising from the page, disembodied runes turning from black to glowing gold. There was a sizzling sound, like meat on a grill as the text transmuted. The first page of the book turned itself over as the last of the text floated off and the second page began disgorging its contents into the air. With each page, the process grew faster and faster, the glowing jumble of text in the air forming a thick cloud. Even with the increasing pace at which the pages were beginning to turn, it was taking a long time to make it through the massive tome.

"Do skill books normally take this long?" Orihime whispered to Farrah.

"No, they don't," Farrah whispered back, "although I've never seen a skill book that big before."

The cloud of text kept growing, spreading down until Ichigo was completely obscured. Finally, the sizzling stopped. They couldn't see the heavy book anymore, but they heard it hit the ground with a thud. The cloud of golden text started darting about like a swarm of angry bees. Within it, they could hear Ichigo grunting in pain.

"Hold on," Rufus called out. "Try and last out the whole thing."

"Is he alright?" Orihime asked in concern.

"Using a skill book is strenuous," Farrah explained. "The more it's trying to teach you, the greater the strain."

"People often pass out while using them," Rufus added, "but the information isn't passed on as well once they're unconscious. It takes them longer to consolidate what they've learned afterwards."

The cloud shrank over time until they could once again see Ichigo. He was staggering in place, arms out to keep balance. They watched the golden text diving into his body.

"You're doing good!" Gary cheered him on.

"Hold on as best you can," Rufus encouraged.

"You can do it Ichigo-kun!" Orihime shouted.

Finally, the last of the text sank into Ichigo, leaving him standing unsteadily, but still upright. He took in a sharp breath, pinching the bridge of his nose and squeezing his eyes shut.

"Whoa," he croaked.

"Still standing," Rufus complimented. "You've done well."

"How do you feel?" Orihime asked with a little worry in her tone.

Ichigo slowly got down on his rear end, one hand rubbing his temple before he responded, "Uhh… like I just had my head bashed in repeatedly with a shovel... again."

Orihime raised her hand, prepared to use her healing abilities.

Rufus halted her and explained, "His symptoms may resemble an injury but it's just a side effect from taking in an exorbitant amount of information. Healing magic won't help. He just needs some time for it to settle."

Orihime had moved to kneel by Ichigo's side and rubbed his back with one hand soothingly as Farrah informed him, "Don't worry, it'll pass shortly. It's just a momentary discomfort as the information settles in your mind. Deep breaths. Calm your mind and let it ebb."

Ichigo did as she told him, feeling the information storm raging in his skull start to smooth out. The more it calmed the deeper he started to fall into a meditation trace. Orihime helped him back into his chair at the table to rest.

"Let him rest a bit more," Rufus said, "in the meantime you can use your last awakening stone, Orihime."

She gave Ichigo one last soothing pat on his back before she picked up her last awakening stone. Unlike the awakening stones of the world-phoenix, Orihime's next awakening stone was lower rated.

Item: [Awakening Stone of Adventure] (unranked, rare)

An awakening stone filled with the spirit of adventure. (consumable, awakening stone)

Requirements: Unawakened essence ability.

Effect: Awakens an essence ability.

"With awakening stones, you said rarity doesn't make stones better, right?" Orihime asked.

"No, just more specialized," Farrah specified. "And harder to find, obviously. All stones have some amount of focus, but there's no telling exactly what they'll give you. For example, common stones of the feast could have produced anything from mana-draining special attacks to conjure food to summoning flesh-eating fish. People like to have some control, so stones with desirable specialties tend to be the most expensive."

She patted Rufus on the knee. "Although when you come from a big family like Rufus here, they ship you high-rarity stones by the crate."

"There are no guarantees when it comes to awakening powers, though," Rufus clarified. "Not even with the rarest of stones. What kind of awakening stone is that one?"

"Awakening stone of adventure," Orihime informed.

"Really?" Farrah said in surprise.

"Those are highly sought-after," Rufus commented. "With a mid-rarity stone, it's hard to pin down what it will give out, but it's almost always a useful utility power."

"Just having a bunch of destructive combat powers makes you less useful to a team," Gary added. "Even Farrah knows that. A few good utility powers can really help you when it comes to getting jobs, since lots of teams will be happy to have you along."

"I got that one too," Ichigo chimed in, feeling better. "I got it from defeating the sanguine horror quest."

"That's where I got mine," Orihime happily confirmed.

"Really?" Gary asked. "You two didn't really do anything in that fight."

"Neither did you," Ichigo pointed out. "We were just clean up after Farrah annihilated the leech swarm."

"That's how it usually goes," Farrah added. "I do the heavy lifting and the other two just clean up afterwards."

"That's fair," Gary agreed.

"Here we go, then," Orihime said as the stone melted into her hand. Her whole forearm went numb, and for a moment she could see right through it before it returned to normal.

"That was interesting."

You have awakened the dimension essence ability [Torikku Ruumu].
You have awakened 3 of 5 dimension essence abilities.

Ability: [Torikku Ruumu] (Dimension)

Special ability (dimension, teleport)
Cost: Moderate mana.
Cooldown: 2 minutes.

Current rank: Iron 0 (00%).

Effect (iron): Create two boxes made of magical energy that are linked by an alternate dimension. Places one box over specific coordinates of the subject for transportation and then 'download' the contents into the other box. The larger the amount or greater the magical density of the contents the greater the cost and shorter the distance of the teleportation.

"Teleporting boxes," Orihime mused.

Looking across the yard, a transparent square box, three meters to a side formed near the edge of the hedge maze. Then a duplicate square box surround Orihime, her chair and Ichigo in his chair, and in a flash of light they both appeared in the first box, her chair still behind her and Ichigo still in his. They were both hit with a sense of vertigo, getting her to fall into her chair and Ichigo to fall out of his but it passed quickly.

After the two minutes cooldown she teleported them back.

As Ichigo grasped the table until the brief vertigo passed, Orihime noticed that the cost was twice what the description said it'd be. Then she realized that it was because she'd taken Ichigo-kun along for the ride.

"That's an impressive teleport power," Rufus commented.

"It's very rare for an iron rank teleport to allow for passengers," Farrah agreed. "Usually teleport powers don't gain that function until bronze rank."

"It also took their chairs," Gary pointed out. "She can teleport anything inside that box."

"I can," Orihime confirmed, "but it increases the cost while restricting the distance I can travel. I feel like if I tried to move all five of us here it'd drain all my mana and I'd only make it half as far."

"Restrictions are very common with teleport powers," Farrah informed. "They'll lessen as you rank up."

"I'm just surprised they didn't vomit," Gary chortled.

"Vomit?" Ichigo asked.

"Most tend to hurl on their first teleport," Rufus explained, "except for the celestine race. They handle dimensional effects better than others."

"You two used to have the astral affinity before it evolved, right?" Farrah asked.

Orihime and Ichigo nodded.

"Which means you will handle teleporting better than most other races," Rufus stated. "Now, Ichigo you still have two more awakening stones to get through. You up for that yet?"

Ichigo nodded his head and grabbed his own awakening stone of adventure and absorbed it. The effect was the same as Orihime's, his arm becoming transparent for a moment.

You have awakened the dark essence ability [Path of Shadows].
You have awakened 3 of 5 dark essence abilities.

Ability: [Path of Shadows] (Dark)

Special ability (dimension, teleport)
Cost: Low mana.
Cooldown: None.

Current rank: Iron 0 (00%).

Effect (iron): Teleport using shadows as a portal. You must be able to see the destination shadow.

"Teleport between shadows," Ichigo said with a raised eyebrow. "That sounds cool but limited."

"You got a teleport power too," Orihime happily cheered.

"The stones were the same and sourced from similar racial abilities," Farrah mused. "And you're both outworlders. This will make for a great thesis on magical theory on awakening stones used on outworlders."

Ichigo ignored Farrah's theoretical musings and looked around for a shadow to try it out on, then stopped. "Aside from this weird springtime estate here, we're in the middle of the desert, right?"

"That's right," Rufus replied.

"I don't recall seeing a lot of shadowy nooks in the barren desert wasteland," Ichigo muttered with a scowl and irritation in his voice.

"It is a lot of open country," Rufus acknowledged.

A little disheartened, Ichigo sighed and turned to his final awakening stone.

Item: [Awakening Stone of the Apocalypse] (unranked, legendary)

An awakening stone containing a seed of annihilation. (consumable, awakening stone).

Requirements: Unawakened essence ability.

Effect: Awakens an essence ability.

You have 9 unawakened essence abilities.

You are able to absorb [Awakening Stone of the Apocalypse]

Absorb Y/N?

"I'm a little wary of this one," Ichigo warned.

"What kind of stone is it?" Farrah asked.

"It's, ah... an awakening stone," Ichigo warily said, scratching the back of his still bald head.

"Of what?" Farrah asked once more.

"Of... well... the apocalypse."

Gary erupted into laughter, falling back on the grass. Orihime gave him a sideways look and Rufus raised an eyebrow while Farrah's eyes went wide.

"Really?" Rufus asked over the top of Gary's laughter.

"Should I actually use it?" Ichigo asked uncertainly.

"I'm not sure," Rufus replied. "I've never heard of that one before. It does sound like trouble."

"You should consider selling it," Farrah suggested. "An awakening stone like that would get you enough to buy all the awakening stones you're going to need."

"Don't you dare!" Gary yelled, sitting back up. "You're going to use that stone!"

"Gary," Rufus admonished. "He needs to be careful with his choices. We don't know what kind of ability that stone could produce."

"A powerful one," Gary stated. "Ichigo, you need to grab all the power you can."

"He's already using a confluence essence not known to the Magic Society." Rufus pointed out. "What if that stone unlocks some power that gets his confluence essence put on the restricted list?"

"You know they're lenient on people who discover new things," Gary argued. "They can't blame him if even they didn't know."

"It's an awakening stone of apocalypse," Rufus exclaimed. "That's a pretty big hint."

"I'm not going to use it," Ichigo declared, handing it over to Orihime. "I owe you a gift for saving my life too, Orihime."

Orihime looked shocked and uncertain. "I'm- I don't want a power of annihilation," she replied.

"You'll need more offensive powers if you want to be an adventurer," Ichigo pointed out.

"I have three that are already," she argued. "I'd rather protect others with my shields and heal. I'd prefer not to have to harm others if possible."

"Healer are targeted as a standard practice in combat," Rufus informed. "The monsters you'll mostly deal with at iron rank through silver might not be strategic enough to purposely target you like people will but when you start dealing with gold rank monsters, they will. Gold rank monsters aren't just dangerous because of their power but their intelligence. You'll need to be ready to fight when that happens."

"You can't train for when everything goes right," Gary added. "You have to be ready when things go wrong."

"And for a healer like you," Farrah continued, "that's when your protections fail, and you have to fight for your life. A power of annihilation could give you an ability that will let you survive when that happens."

"And the odds of the ability coming from your essences being restricted are much lower than Ichigo's," Rufus added.

"I'm not sure," she said morosely.

"We're going to be adventurers together, right?" Ichigo asked. "That means we both need to be more powerful. Strong enough to handle anything that comes our way. Having a destructive power might not be what you want but I'll be safer if you can better defend yourself. If you die, I'll die. Please, take this stone and help keep me alive."

Orihime was still a bit reluctant to use it but knew that Ichigo was right. If she wanted to stay by his side, protect him, she needed to be stronger. Thus, she absorbed the stone.

Orihime's arm was a mix of black and red from where the awakening stone had sunken into it, before returning to a normal color.

"What power did you get," Farrah asked.

"Uh, it seems to be a familiar power," Orihime said. "That's like a magic companion that follows you around, right?"

"That's right, Rufus said. "What kind of familiar do you get from an awakening stone of the apocalypse?"

"Well..." Orihime started to read her ability's description.

Ability: [Kikoooo] (restoration)

Familiar (ritual, summon)
Cost: Extreme mana, extreme stamina and extreme health.
Cooldown: None.

Effect (iron): Summon a [Kikoooo] to serve as a familiar.

[Kikoooo] (iron): An iridescent fire bird of the apocalypse known to consume targets in their transcendent flames, reducing them into ash. This familiar deals transcendent damage.

"Transcendent damage?" Orihime muttered.

Help: Transcendent Damage

Transcendent damage ignores all forms of physical and magical defense, damage reduction and resistances.

"Did you just say transcendent damage?" Rufus asked in disbelief.

"Yes," Orihime answered. "My familiar can release streams of fire that cause transcendent damage."

Gary laughed loudly, "I told you it'd be a good one."

"It's extremely rare for iron rank abilities to cause transcendent damage," Farrah stated. "You really lucked out on that one."

---

An hour later, Ichigo was drawing a complex magical diagram in chalk on the floor of one of the manor's many rooms. They had taken out the furniture and the rugs, leaving a smooth, polished floor. Ichigo had been working on the diagram for some time, guided by the ritual magic knowledge inserted into his head as well as Farrah's expertise. He stopped drawing for a moment to take some powder from a nearby pouch on the floor. He sprinkled a pinch over the part of the circle he had just drawn, most of which started glowing. He rubbed out the parts that didn't glow and redrew them.

The powder was ground-down monster cores from lesser monsters. Ichigo had several but they were all intact, so the powder had been provided by Farrah. She was guiding him through his first magical ritual.

"Putting together a magic circle isn't as simple as knowing the right design," Farrah explained. Any time she wasn't pointing out something specific she was lecturing. "If it were that easy, I could just carry around a bunch of boards with different magic circles on them. Every time you draw a magic diagram you need to adjust for the ambient magic conditions. A weak source of congealed magic like the core of a lesser monster is a perfect way to check your work."

"There's a ritual room under the manor with a permanent circle," Ichigo pointed out.

"That must have been expensive," Farrah commented. "You have to design the whole room around something like that to regulate the ambient magic. Did we loot that room?"

"Wasn't much in there," Gary responded. "The most valuable stuff was set behind the walls and into the floor, so Anisa wouldn't let us touch it. It was all pretty trashed, anyway."

Ichigo got to his feet. "I'm done. So, am I able to do a magic ritual like this because I already have essence magic?"

"You really don't know anything about magic," Farrah said in wonder.

"Was that not clear at any point?" Ichigo deadpanned.

"Alright," Farrah replied. "You understand essence magic already. Simple, instinctive, usually doesn't cost anything but your own internal reserves. External magic is the opposite. Complicated, requires extensive training-"

"Or a skill book," Ichigo interrupted.

"...or a skill book," Farrah acknowledged through gritted teeth. "If you're satisfied with quick and dirty knowledge."

"Don't knock quick and dirty," Gary chimed in. "All my favorite things are better quick and dirty. Or slow and dirty."

Farrah shot Gary a look as Rufus shook his while holding back a chuckle.

"Ritual magic," Farrah continued, "relies on external sources of magic. That's ambient magic, plus more concentrated sources, like quintessence or spirit coins."

Scattered all through the magic diagram Ichigo had drawn were small piles of dark, sword, magic and dimension quintessence, looking like uncut gems filled with absolute darkness, silvery light, rainbow swirls and shifting nothingness. There were also stacks of iron-rank spirit coins. There were a few other materials, but the largest requirement by far were the various quintessences.

Fortunately for Ichigo, the manor's magical supply room had more than enough materials for his and Orihime's familiar summons rituals. The lord of the manor had taken all of the bronze-rank materials when he fled, but all the iron-rank material were left behind. Thankfully so, some of the materials for his familiar were rare. The dimension quintessences being the most rare and expensive of the lot.

"External magic doesn't require you to have an essence," Farrah explained. "There are people who make careers out of learning a specialized slice of external magic."

"Like plumbers," Gary offered as an example. "They know the magic to set up running water in a building. That shower you like so much."

"Exactly," Farrah agreed. "They know just enough to do a specific job. Most of those people don't have essences and lack the proper grounding in theory. The fundamental theory is the same, whether you specialize in rituals like me, magical craftsmanship like Gary, or something like alchemy. Same basis, different applications."

"What about you?" Orihime asked Rufus.

"I'm good at stabbing."

"Rufus doesn't know external magic, Farrah clarified. "His obsession is swordsmanship."

"Your skill book gave you the minimum to be considered a proper ritual magician." Farrah told Ichigo. "The bare minimum. That's how you awakened familiar summoning powers."

"You can only awaken that kind of essence ability if you already understand ritual magic," Gary explained. "That's why me and Farrah have summoning powers and Rufus doesn't."

"What about me?" Orihime asked. "I didn't absorb any skill book."

"You read through the basic ritual magic book I gave you," Farrah pointed out. "With your racial ability to learn faster must have been enough to awaken a familiar power."

Orihime placed a finger to her chin in though, "I guess so. I do know all about setting up the ritual Ichigo-kun is making. Even the tidbits you've explained."

"You've seen Gary and I call up short-lived monsters," Farrah reminded the two Outworlders. "Rituals that are also essence powers tend to be-"

"Quick and dirty," Gary interrupted with a grin.

"Please stop," Farrah groaned.

"I remember when you summoned those things," Orihime said. "You just kind of knocked out a circle and out they came."

"Summoning a familiar is a more elaborate ritual," Farrah clarified. "Unlike a regular summoning, you should only need it each time you go up a rank. Unless our familiar gets killed, in which case you'll have to summon it back."

"Not everyone summons their familiar," Rufus pointed out.

"That's true," Farrah agreed. "Some familiar powers act like a call, and a creature that had an affinity to that call will come and form a bond with the person. Less costly than summoning, but if that kind of familiar dies, you can't just summon it again. You need to find a whole new creature to be your familiar, which may or may not be like the one you lost."

"Let's get this thing going," Rufus ordered. "You don't want Anisa to walk in on us."

"You definitely don't" Gary agreed.

Ichigo stood in front of the diagram. He could feel the power inside him aching to trigger the ritual. He knew the incantation; he had known it since the moment he used the stone. He held one hand over the magic diagram as he chanted.

From the depth of the realm of souls, I call upon the hellish energy of the dark to serve and guide me through all that resides beyond the veil.

The circle lit up with dark, black and red energy, starting from the center and spreading out to encompass the entire circle. A swirling vortex that sent out shivers of absolute cold, like that of the grave, into all present. Then, like with his Asauchi, the darkness peeled away to reveal a shoji screen door in the shape of the ritual circle.

When the doors opened, out flew a single black butterfly, glowing blue with red eyes and red outlining its lower wings. Ichigo instinctively held out his right hand, his pointer finger poised for it to land. To which it did immediately, its glow being matched by Ichigo, his spiritual pressure flaring as it imprinted to him and his aura before dissipating into it.

"Kind of a scrawny familiar," Gary commented, getting Ichigo's eye to twitch in response.

"I think it's cute," Orihime added, not really helping Ichigo's twitching brow.

"It's not meant for combat," Ichigo groused out. "It's for delivering messages at great distances, even between dimensional spaces."

"Ah, a utility familiar," Rufus said. "Not much help in combat but still very useful. If you find yourself dealing with something outside your rank and ability you can call for help, no matter where you are."

"We could have used that to call in reinforcements after being ambushed," Farrah added. "Then we wouldn't have had to rely on chance to be saved."

"Fine, fine," Gary conceded, "it's a useful familiar... still scrawny though."

Ichigo scowled at the large leonid, getting the furry giant to chuckle.

"How does it work?" Orihime asked. "Does it just know where to go or just places and people you've met before?"

"It imprints peoples' aura and can track them from there," Ichigo supplied.

With a thought, the Jigokichoo manifested in front of Ichigo, "Go ahead and imprint Orihime's aura," he ordered it.

"Who are you talking to?" Rufus asked.

Ichigo raised his brow in confusion, "My familiar," he pointed to the black and red butterfly. "Can't you see it?"

All four observers focused on the spot Ichigo pointed at, but there faces just crunched up in failure.

"I don't see it," Orihime admitted even as it flew towards her.

"I can't even sense it," Gary added.

"It must have the ability to become transparent to the point of invisibility," Farrah theorized. "Probably how it can pass through dimensional spaces."

"Very useful," Rufus commented. "Harder for someone to stop you from sending a message if they can't see or sense it."

"Well, at least for those that don't have abilities that can detect such beings," Farrah corrected. "I know of several wards and magic items that could feasibly detect Ichigo's familiar."

Once the Jigokichoo reached Orihime, landing on her head it glowed bright blue, becoming visible to everyone again as Orihime started glowing with a more azure blue that the butterfly matched for an instant before turning invisible again.

Ichigo had his familiar repeat the process three more time, getting the aura imprint of all three adventurers.

Shortly afterwards, Orihime set up her own ritual circle to summon her familiar, which went very similar to Ichigo's just with different quintessence and chant.

I call to the flames of annihilation that turn all things in creation to ashes. Rise from those ashes and incinerate the corruption that erodes reality.

Her ritual diagram exploded into a column of fire that was so hot that even the Bronze rank Farrah, who has great resistance to fire due to her Fire and Volcano Essences, had to step back from the overwhelming, transcendent flames. They gave off an impression that they could burn the fundamental aspects of reality, reducing existence into nothingness. The flames collapsed back into themselves, forming a magnificent avian of transcendent swirling rainbow-colored fire. Its hue constantly shifted from, white, yellow, orange, red and blue.

Its majestic trill sung with a note of pure cleansing annihilation that despite pressing down even on the Bronze-rankers, gave off a protective presence. Like it'd burn away all the corruption and evil of the world, bringing stability to all reality.

Orihime opened her mouth in awe, which proved unfortunate as the phoenix burst into flames and swarmed into her mouth. The roar of the multi-colored flames ate her screams as they crammed their way down her mouth, nose, and ears.

After the flames finished their journey into Orihime's body, fusing to her blood and flesh, steam wafting off her head, she fell unconscious.