Chapter 14: A New Student?

Ichigo was very pleased by yesterdays events. He not only showed both Yoruichi and Kisuke that they really had no choice but to join him in destroying the soul society, but he also was able to have a nice drink with his four students now turned captains. If that wasn't already good enough, Ichigo woke from his bed absolutely refreshed and ready to kick some ass in the process. He quickly got himself dressed in his usual captains outfit as he readied to meet Yoruichi and Kisuke to get an answer from them, but as he started walking down the street outside of some squad barracks, he rounded a corner and felt that someone accidentally ran into him. Thanks to his already intense strength, Ichigo didn't budge a centimeter, the one who ran into him though was down on the ground now. When Ichigo looked down, he to do a quick double take to make sure this was a certain young captain from his time. Sure enough, he was.

The young kid shook his white haired head and looked up to the tall captain from the ground, ready to shout at the man only to stop when he saw who he was talking to. The boy immediately tensed up when he saw the man he ran into and quickly stood up and bowed repeatedly to him.

"I'm sorry captain Kaiyo. Please forgive me." The boy said as he raised his head to the orange haired captain.

The kid didn't barely made it to his stomach yet in his time he was just a little taller than he is now. Ichigo looked at the boy up and down, taking in every aspect of him that he could. From his child like appearance to the familiar zanpakuto on his back, Ichigo knew beyond a shadow of any doubt, that this kid was indeed-

"Toshiro!" A familiar voice came from afar. Both Ichigo and Toshiro looked over to see Isshin waving over and making his way over to them. "Ichigo! So nice to see you my friend." Isshin started as he greeted his friend with a friendly smile and a hand shake.

"Isshin. Good to see you too. And who might this child be?" Ichigo started as he looked towards Toshiro with intrigue in his eyes. Toshiro was visibly uncomfortable in the presence of the most feared captain in all of Seireitei.

"Oh right." Isshin started as he introduced the boy now standing next to him. "This is Toshiro Hitsugaya, my third seat. He's the child prodigy everyone's been talking about."

Ichigo went a little wide eyed at hearing this information. He looked back to the child prodigy and could feel the immense energy off of him. It was no secret that the captain of squad eleven looked to young and prominent soul reapers to train, and right now Toshiro was getting a sinking feeling that he was in the captains sights now. Isshin noticed the look of intrigue from his friend directed towards his third seat and grinned.

"If you want, you can train him like you did with your previous four students. And who knows, maybe one day he'll become a captain and replace me." He said in his usual goofy way.

While he and Ichigo shared a laugh, Toshiro sweatdropped. He heard from Rangiku when she told him of Gin's training regiment sometimes, and in all honesty it really spooked the young third seat. He wanted no part in whatever strange and rigorous training the current Kenpachi had in store for him.

"Well only if Toshiro wants to." Ichigo finally said after a few more laughs. This caught the white haired boys attention and he looked up to Ichigo with confused look to his eyes. Ichigo, seeing that confusion, explained himself. "I trained Sosuke, Soi-Fon, Byakuya and Gin because I saw the true potential in those four, but nowhere along the line did I force them to train under me. Some asked me and others accepted an offer. I'm giving you that same choice, Toshiro Hitsugaya." He placed his massive hand on the boys head and ruffled up his hair a little, much to the boys annoyance and shock. "Either you want to, in which case I'll be pushing you to your absolute limit, or you don't. Your call."

Ichigo let go of Toshiro and waved goodbye to the two. Toshiro watched him and could feel something he really hadn't felt in such a long time really. Warmth. A warmth that came from the captain's words. A warmth that could finally let Toshiro truly see what he was really capable of.

Back with Ichigo, he was preparing to head back to Hueco Mundo to see if the two now former captains had accepted his offer or not. Ichigo knew that they weren't traitors to the soul society, even if they were labeled as such in his own time. They were loyal to the soul society no matter what, but in their current predicament, they didn't have all too many options really.

"Time to see if they made their choice." Ichigo said in his barracks before placing the usual seal around it and opening a garganta.

He went through it and into the hallway outside of their room only to find that the door was open slightly. Ichigo also noticed that Aka wasn't standing guard like he was supposed to. Ichigo was taken aback by this and quickly stretched out his senses to find them. To his surprise, the three were not far off and in one of the training rooms. Ichigo opened his eyes and flashed to where the three were. Again to his surprise, he saw Kisuke and Yoruichi facing off against the second espada. They were in the arrancar uniform and looked exhausted a bit, while Aka looked barely scathed. From the damage that Ichigo could see, the two were trying to face Aka with just their basic soul reaper abilities. They weren't even trying to use their masks, unless they had no idea how to. If that was the case, Ichigo would have to teach them without revealing too much. Kisuke would pick up something if Ichigo gave away too much.

"Aka." Ichigo started as he walked over to the three. This got their attention as they saw him.

"Hey there boss." Aka casually called out as Ichigo stood in front of him. "They were getting a little restless, so I brought them out here to stretch out a little."

Ichigo looks to the two and can see that they were now standing right in front of them both. "So then." He started to them both. "How do you both feel now than before?"

Both Yoruichi and Kisuke could tell that he was only asking them this out of the assumption that they had made their choice by now. Looking to one another, they both sighed and turned back to Ichigo.

"Fine, but don't expect us to kill anyone for you." Kisuke said to the orange headed Kenpachi.

Ichigo smirked at the both of them and nodded. "Then I guess it's time the both of you learn to control your masks."

Both Yoruichi and Kisuke looked at Ichigo questioningly as if he had told them something completely foreign to them.

"Aka here will be teaching the both of you how to manage and maintain your masks." Ichigo continued as he motioned to Aka. "The whole point of wearing them is to grant you the power of your hollow. Its power is truly greater than most soul reapers and takes a bit of stress to sustain in stressful and intense situation. Spend too long in this state, and your hollow will overpower you and take control of your body. Good luck, and Aka." The second espada looked to his boss. "Make sure that they don't succumb to the hollow. I'm counting on you."

Aka nodded and smiled to him. In return, Ichigo did the same and made his leave. He didn't get far as he was stopped by one question.

"What did the soul society do to make you do this Ichigo?" Yoruichi asked, curious as to why he would do this.

Ichigo turned to the two and smirked at the question. "I have my reasons. All you two need to know for now is that they have wronged me in the worst way." With that, Ichigo left the training area. leaving both his newest additions and Aka to ponder just what he meant by the soul society wronging him.

Soul Society

Ichigo had made it back to the soul society like always and was more than a little parched for a drink. Deciding that now was a good time to, Ichigo went down to the bar him and Isshin go to to relax and ordered a bottle of sake. He sat in his usual spot in the back and took a few sips of the alcohol before noticing a few more familiar faces walk into the bar. There were four of some of the most familiar faces to Ichigo back in his own time, and seeing them made him smirk while sipping his sake.

The first was Shuhei Hisagi. He looked a lot younger than Ichigo's old time yet still had the 69 tattoo on the left side of his face. Ichigo guessed that he must've witnessed Kensei when he was a child.

The next was the still busty Rangiku Matsumoto. She looked the same really aside from her much shorter hair and the scarf wrapped around her neck. Gin had told Ichigo that she was the friend that he was fighting for and would do anything to protect. Knowing this, Ichigo put it into his mind to ensure she would be just fine in the future.

The third person was an old brother in arms to Ichigo that wound up betraying him as well in his time. Renji Abarai. He looked about the same as well, just inexperienced and without any stupid forehead protector or cloth around his forehead. Ichigo had to hold back his anger when seeing him.

The last was what made Ichigo's blood boil the most. The one person that Ichigo wanted to kill in the most horrendous of ways. The one friend that literally and figuratively stabbed him in the back. Rukia Kuchiki. She was a little shorter by maybe a few centimeters and also looked very inexperienced, same with Renji, but it was still the same person. Byakuya must've sent people out to find her at Hisana's request. That must be the only reason why she was even here in the first place then.

Ichigo watched them as they entered the bar and overheard Rangiku talk about a celebration of some sorts. After he reigned his anger in, Ichigo listened to the four as they ordered some drinks. Of course Rangiku ordered sake, Shuhei did the same, Renji as well, but Rukia just had water.

"Now we can celebrate some two of our guys for finally graduating!" Rangiku nearly shouted out. "Renji, even though your kido skills are absolute shit, still managed to get out of the academy nonetheless!"

"Oh haha!" Renji started with a bang of the table. "I may not be good in kido, but my zanjutsu skills are way above yours, Matsumoto!"

Rangiku smirked and winked at him playfully before continuing. "And Rukia, for not only acing most of everything, but also being accepted into the Kuchiki clan! Congrats girl! You deserve it!"

Rukia scratched the back of her head as she was told all of this. True, she loved graduating and even seeing her sister again, but she hated leaving those two kids back there. Luckily she was steadily working on convincing her new brother-to-be in bringing them into the Kuchiki house as well.

"Yeah." Shuhei started out. "I mean, who would've guessed that the Kuchiki head would actually do something like that? It's never been heard of before, at least to my knowledge."

"Well it did come as a shock to see not only the captain of squad six and Kuchiki clan head, but also my own sister getting me from the academy." Rukia started before she took a glance towards Renji. At that point, out of the corner of her eye, she saw the orange haired captain that saved her and the two kids all those years ago. "Isn't that captain Kaiyo?" She asked Rangiku when she pointed him out.

When Rangiku and Shuhei saw him, they slightly paled a bit, much to Rukia and Renji's surprise. "Yep." Rangiku whispered out to them. "That's the current Kenpachi."

"What's a Kenpachi?" Renji asked her.

Before either Rangiku or Shuhei could answer, they both paled completely as they saw just who was standing behind the two new graduates. The two may not be able to see him, but they could just feel his intense presence behind them. They sweatdropped as they slowly turned to see the captain of squad eleven and current Kenpachi standing right over them. He had his arms folded and was staring down at the two graduates who had no idea what a Kenpachi was. Rukia was a little less intimidated by his stature since she has seen him before.

"A Kenpachi is a titled passed down from on owner to another through combat." Ichigo started. "Whoever challenges a Kenpachi for his or her title proves of their worth of said title by killing the current Kenpachi. Not only that, but they also become captain of squad eleven, but nobody is beating me anytime soon."

"C-c-captain Kaiyo." Shuhei says quickly as he gets up bows, followed by both Rangiku and the two graduates.

"Don't know why you all are bowing to me." Ichigo starts, causing the four to look up to him. "I'm not on duty and in all honesty, I hate it when people do that. Hell, it took Byakuya a long ass time to stop doing that." Ichigo said as he scratched the back of his head and yawned.

Rukia perked up a bit when she heard that. "Oh that's right." She got his attention. "You were the one that trained Byakuya."

"I am." Ichigo had a feeling he knew where this was going.

Rukia stood up and found that she was still heavily towered over by the mountain of a man in front of her. Steeling her nerves, she decided to ask a special request of him.

"Could you train me, captain Kaiyo?"

Ichigo wasn't surprised in the slightest of said request, but the others, especially both lieutenants, were in complete and total shock. A graduate asking a request of a captain to train right out of the gate? It was completely unheard of. Rukia kept her resolve though and wasn't backing down from the one of the most intimidating captain's gaze, so to the three and the other patrons in the bar, she was at least fearless.

Ichigo looked down to her and could just feel the memories of her betrayal playing out to him. How he she had spent all that time befriending him, putting her trust in him as he did her, and even being something of a sister to him more than anything. He never saw Rukia as anything other than a sister to him in his own time, but that quickly disappeared when she stabbed him in the back. She became a bitter memory to him that day.

For some strange reason though, right now, this Rukia was different. He couldn't understand why, but maybe with him simply being here and changing things has something to do with it. Hell, he basically completely changed his four students, practically every espada, both Yoruichi and Kisuke, and even people who were captains in his own time. Maybe this Rukia being different than the previous one isn't so strange now.

Ichigo didn't bother giving her an answer as he made his way for the exit. Rukia kept her head up the entire time, not showing her emotions of sadness or disappointment. Renji was about to stand and comfort her as best as he could, but before Ichigo left though, he stopped and turned his head to her.

"I'll think about it."

Rukia looked over to him with a spark of hope in her eyes. While she had that look, the others had looks of surprise on their faces, and while they all had those looks, Ichigo only had one of intrigue.

"This could work to my advantage."

Done.

Also, I'm Doin A Spin-Off Of My Story Kenpachi Loves Strawberries With A new Story Called Strawberry Twins. I'll Eventually Post That Story As It Will Also Be A Three Shot.

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