Chapter 41, Urahara training…
House arrest was probably the most boring place Tanya could have ended up. Every day, she would come down from her room to read the newspaper, enjoy some food, and look out the window, wondering when the house arrest would end. And every day, it did not end.
So far, her efforts to secure Rukia's freedom had gone nowhere. She had no idea if the note had arrived in Central 46 or if it had been lost in transit. It was very well possible that, because it was from the captain of the Eleventh Division, they had simply dropped it off somewhere to be forgotten.
But the fact of the matter was that no progress was not a good sign. Every day that nothing was heard was another day closer to Rukia's death, which would do wonders for Soul Society, she imagined.
Taking the accident that had been each of those creations and spinning it off to this level of punishment would not go over well in the long term. She could see it now. This could be the start of the process she had theorized all those years ago, by which Soul Society would learn to reject the nobles and Central 46.
Which, in one way, was good. Central 46 was not an organization deserving of the trust and power it was given. And it was probably about time for a little bit of a shake-up. But she'd rather not be involved in that situation.
Preferably, she'd like that to be a long process, one that was slow but able to slowly change the government for the better, not a short and violent one.
Plus, the death of Rukia would probably not do wonders for her career.
Not for the second time did she consider the possibility of just abandoning Rukia, separating herself as much as possible to do well for her career. But she came back to the conclusion that that would do no such thing. No matter the time, Soul Society was as much a place of honor as it was a place of following the rules.
One does not honor their friends, commitments, or otherwise. Well, that would probably be worse than whatever she faced not doing the job.
The fact of the matter was that at this point, she was in this fight, and she could not pull out. She had to stand by her friend till the end. Otherwise, she would be seen as worse than a commoner in the outer districts.
Her career prospects would not only be lowered, but there was a good chance that they would be reversed. The third seat could be lost permanently, perhaps even being expelled from the Soul Society.
As far as she could see, sticking up for Rukia would not have that outcome. She was sure there was a potential for a loss of the third seat, but there was also a potential that there wouldn't be any loss at all. Showing loyalty to her comrades could guarantee her a lieutenant seat in the future, not something she had initially planned to pursue but something she was willing to entertain.
Sighing, she wondered if she would even be allowed to help Rukia. Being under house arrest meant she couldn't exactly go outside and meet people. She had to arrange meetings and hope that the people she arranged the meetings with were willing to come to her place to discuss matters.
So far, not many had come. In fact, only the captain of the Eleventh had stopped by once or twice since she had written the letter for him, just to inform her that it had been delivered.
The captain of the Thirteenth was still apparently very ill and not coming out of seclusion.
And the captain of the Tenth hadn't come by either. Although this one might be her fault. It would seem that her efforts to handle the paperwork at the Tenth had led to her being the cornerstone of keeping the division out of paperwork problems.
If she wasn't there and her team wasn't there, the paperwork built up, meaning the captain of the Tenth as well as the lieutenant were stuck doing all the paperwork and not free enough to come visit her.
Which left her with very few other captains to contact.
Going down the list, she wasn't exactly sure of many other captains she could contact. There was the captain of the Ninth Division, Kaname Tōsen, though she wasn't sure how he would be able to help in this situation. It really only left the captain of the Fifth Division, Sōsuke Aizen. She hoped he would come by soon, but so far he hadn't come by yet. He seemed to be too busy with whatever he got up to in the Fifth Division.
Meaning there weren't many ways to deal with the current issues. At least, not many that she saw.
Sighing, she took a large cup of coffee and drank most of it down before looking out the window. Again, there were not too many ways to deal with this current problem, but she needed some way to get out of house arrest.
If she could get out of house arrest, she could go visit Rukia and try to build the case necessary to get her off.
The question was how she would do that. How could she get herself out of the locked situation she was currently in?
Sighing, she picked up some mail that had arrived today and started to look through it. Maybe there was something in here that would give her an idea.
Unfortunately, it seemed more unlikely as the letters were from Tanya Lerghen and Hidenao, who were out on the team-building expedition. Still, a quick reading informed her that they were finally on their way back, which was good. All hands on deck would be necessary if things kept going the way they were going. They should be back by the end of the month, August 1st to be more exact.
That should be helpful, at least in garnering more help from the captain of the Tenth.
However, that was still roughly 9 days away.
What was she going to do for the next 9 days?
Thankfully, beating herself up thinking on this path would not be the only thing she did today as the door opened and Vooren Glanz entered.
"Tanya, good to see you. I just heard about everything."
"Vooren, welcome back," she said with a smile before adding, "I believe you were out on some sort of expedition the last time I heard from you."
He nodded as he moved through the cafe, taking a seat across from her before saying, "Yeah, I was sent out on one of those inter-unit work-together jobs. It was rather quick. If I had the time, I would have talked to you, but unfortunately, I didn't get any chance to do so."
"That's right. I heard you had something you wanted to talk to me about. What was that, anyways?"
"Seems like a silly thing now, but, well, I wanted to talk to you about possibly looking into a transfer out of the Sixth Division."
Tanya blinked before saying, "Why would you want to transfer out of the Sixth Division?"
Grantz shrugged before finally saying, "The captain of the Sixth is, well, not an easy man to serve under. And from what I've been hearing, rumors going around since his sister was brought in are not exactly helping his reputation."
Tanya nodded. It made some sense after all. If a captain wasn't willing to stick his neck out for his sister, what was he going to be willing to do for his own men? However, at this time, Tanya could not allow him to leave the Sixth Division.
Nodding her head, she said, "I can understand your worries, and maybe in the future, you should definitely consider it. Although perhaps there's something we don't realize playing at the moment, and I'm afraid I would prefer you not to leave, not until we know what's going to happen with Rukia."
He raised an eyebrow as Tanya explained, "I'm under house arrest. Getting information from Rukia or getting to Rukia is nearly impossible. I don't have any reason to go to the Sixth Division, so there's no way I would be allowed to go there. However, you have plenty of reason to come between my home and the Sixth Division, don't you?"
Grantz nodded before saying, "Of course, I understand. So we'll table this conversation until after this current crisis."
"Yeah, that's what I would prefer," Tanya said with a nod of her head before adding, "Besides, I would imagine that it will be a lot easier to leave the Sixth Division after this event. Then, not a lot of people will look at what has gone down over the last few weeks and not think that leaving is the proper choice. If a commander appears so weak that they won't even defend their sister from an overreach of the government, what kind of protection would they give their own people? I imagine it won't just be you wanting to leave the Sixth Division at that point."
He nodded, seeming to understand her meaning, before adding, "Well, now that that's settled, is there anything I can do right now to help you with the situation? I know Rukia is a friend of yours."
"As I said, I need someone to go speak to Rukia and let her know I'm still fighting for her, as well as get more information on exactly what happened with the fight between the captain of the Sixth and the temporary reaper."
Grantz nodded, saying, "I'll see if I can swing that. Though I think officially they're only allowing seated members and captains to speak to her."
"Do what you can. That's all I ask," Tanya said with a nod, which received an agreeing nod from him.
"Anything else I can do to help you out?" he asked. Tanya shrugged her shoulders.
"Unless you can think of something that I've overlooked as a way to possibly get out of this house arrest, no, not particularly."
He leaned back for a moment before saying, "What about the Fourth Division? Why not offer to volunteer as a medical aid? I'm sure the captain of the Fourth would vouch for you and allow you to do that."
"Hmm," Tanya thought for a moment before saying, "There might be something to that, Grantz. Thank you. I'll have to send someone over there and see if I can't pull that off."
Nodding in understanding, Grantz got up and brushed himself off before saying, "Well, I've got to get back to the Sixth Division. I'll see if I can't talk to Rukia and let her know that you're still fighting for her. Bye, Tanya."
"Goodbye, Grantz. Good luck," she said with a nod before he exited the restaurant, leaving Tanya alone with her thoughts.
Well, now she simply needed to wait again until something interesting happened. Hopefully, something interesting in a good manner. It wouldn't take many more bad happenings before things went terribly, terribly wrong.
Sighing, she lifted her drink to her mouth and took another sip, thinking about where she could have done something to prevent the current situation. How had things gone so badly? By all rights, Ichigo should be safe in the World of the Living, and Rukia should be in jail but not under threat of being executed. But somehow, they had arrived at the worst possible outcome, and someone had interfered in the course of events that she had tried to engineer. Was X on the move, or was she just being paranoid?
Paranoid was most likely the answer, an unfortunate truth that years of having a creature pretending to be a spiritual being with almighty power had screwed with her head a bit.
She needed to stop thinking that there was someone out to get her. Sometimes, things just went a bad way, and it seemed like this was one of those times. So all she could do was fight for a better outcome than what was currently in the cards. How she was going to do that, though, with one hand tied behind her back, she had to figure out. But she would give it her best.
The Hollow Wilibald Koenig had just driven his sword through screamed as he sliced through to the other side, killing it.
It fell to its knees before toppling over and dissolving into a black mess.
Letting out a deep breath, he came to a knee and looked around, confirming there were no more.
He had been out here in the wilds for nearly 6 months, hunting these creatures. Normally, he didn't go on such long excursions, but this was one of those few times where he hadn't really planned on going on a long excursion.
He had been hunting a Hollow, killed it, and then got another job, and it just sort of kept snowballing. Before he knew it, he had been out here for 6 months.
Usually, he hunted with Naitara Kyuhiko and Tosagi Rokichi, members of the Eleventh Division, but they had already gotten tired of being out here in the wild and gone back. Which is fine by him. He didn't mind hunting alone, but it's not exactly the safest way to hunt.
There seemed to be something going on, really, for the last 3 months. The number of Hollows in the outer districts felt like it had increased from occasional to just below commonplace. Chaos was a bit higher, and more units of Soul Reapers were being sent out to deal with them.
If the Hollows were an organized bunch, he theorized someone was trying to draw Reapers out of the Central District, so it would be less defended. But that seemed unlikely.
More likely, it was just some sort of phase. Perhaps there was a war going on in the World of the Living. He'd heard tales from some of the Reapers who were around during World War I and World War II that there had been a large uptick in Hollows during that period. Perhaps something horrible was going on like that now? Maybe that rumored nuclear war that a few Reapers had heard about had finally occurred.
Either way, his job was simple: hunt the Hollows, kill the Hollows, and return home. Sooner or later. The problem being, he hadn't returned home.
Shaking his head, he carefully slid his sword back into its sheath before checking the area and confirming his general location.
There should be a town over a nearby hill where he could rest for the night and get a good meal. With his objective set, he turned and started walking towards that hill. There was a path on one side that would make it easier to cross.
He had to admit, being out here in the wilds was probably one of the worst jobs for the Reapers. There were a lot of monsters, and if you're killed, no one really knows what happens to you. But that being said, he still enjoyed his time out here.
The strange things he had seen and the rather colorful population made it worth it, seeing how people from different generations interacted and worked together to survive against the monsters in the night.
For instance, the town he was approaching as he crested the hill, he could see that they had built up a large palisade to keep themselves protected. Even if it was a small town, it looked like they had been very thorough in their construction. He could see that the buildings were designed in such a way that would focus any monsters that attacked to go up the main street, reaching the most populated areas. Those streets could easily be blocked off by carts or whatever local military they had.
Letting out a sigh, he moved into the town without much issue. The local guards saw his uniform and immediately acted like they didn't see him, for the most part.
Out here, you usually encounter three kinds of people when dealing with Soul Reapers: those who hated them, those who didn't want anything to do with them, and those who enjoyed their presence.
Until Tanya started heavily deploying her forces to the outer districts, the first two were more common. Things had been looking up on the third one recently, but it would appear that this town had the second type as its main outlook for its guards.
Not really his concern. He just wanted to find a place to take a nap and not worry about monsters attacking him in the night, so he kept moving deeper into the town until he saw what looked like a hotel/bar.
Opening the door, he saw that his estimations were right. People were drinking, and there were hotel rooms on the second floor.
"Good evening, sir," said a man who apparently looked like the owner of the place. "Are you here for drinks or a night's rest?"
Pulling out some money, he put it on the counter in front of them and said, "Both."
"Oh, wonderful!" He reached into a cubby next to him and pulled out a key, tossing it to him and saying, "Room 27. Feel free to go up there at any time. As for drinks on tap, we have a little bit of everything, so I'm sure you'll find something you enjoy."
Nodding his head, Koenig started to leave before he noticed a stack of newspapers next to the guy.
"Oh yes, news from the Soul Society center," the man said, pulling up one of the papers and showing it to him. This caused his eyebrow to raise quite a bit at the title.
Noble Kuchiki arrested, third seat of the Tenth under house arrest.
"Quite amazing, these newspapers that keep coming out. This one just arrived today. Supposedly, it's two days old, but it could be three. Transporting the news from the Seireitei all the way out here is always a bit of a crapshoot."
He nodded and started to reach for one before the man said, "That would be a little bit more, sir."
Sighing, Koenig put some coins on the table, and the guy handed him the newspaper, giving him something to read. He folded it under his arm and marched into the drinking area, heading straight for a counter and putting a coin down to order a drink.
Looking over the paper, he quickly started to assess the situation. It would seem that Tanya's friend, Rukia, was under arrest and possibly going to be executed, at least if this account was correct. It seemed that this paper referenced another paper that was actually closer to the Seireitei, and this one was produced by someone out in one of the middle districts who apparently was not a fan of the local nobility. They were basically salivating at the notion that one of the nobles would be murdered.
If he didn't know any better, he would think it was a communist, but they weren't using key phrases that would set off that alarm.
Apparently, Tanya had also been involved, or at least the third seat of the Tenth Division had been involved. She wasn't actually named, oddly enough. Shrugging, he read it over again, trying to get any details on why they had been arrested. It seemed that was being kept under wraps, just that they had been arrested for breaking the law.
What law that was, was kept under wraps again. This was all a bit concerning.
Shaking his head, Koenig folded the newspaper, grabbed his drink, and drank it down in one gulp. He started doing the math. It could take months for most people to make it across the Soul Society, and he was quite a few months out.
How this newspaper got out here was not hard to figure. There were systems for transporting news, pigeons for one and other methods by flight. It could even be a Reaper doing it as a side hustle, transporting it to one place where the Reaper would transfer it to another before being distributed through local printing presses.
Either way, putting together his best math, it would take him fifteen days to make it back to the Seireitei.
Fifteen days wasn't great, but it was doable. And that's knowing the law usually takes 50 days or anything to make its way through Central 46, or at least that's what Tanya told him. So all he had to do was be there well before then to be on hand in case Tanya needed to pull a Tanya.
There wasn't even a second question in his thoughts about it. If Tanya needed to fight Central 46, he'd be there for her. Loyalty to her over this organization was simply that strong, and he knew most of the 203 would do the same.
Shaking his head, he grabbed a glass from someone who had just ordered and gave him a gold coin, then headed up the stairs, closing the door.
Drinking it down, he moved over to the bed and laid on it, looking up at the ceiling before closing his eyes. The next 15 days would be hectic trying to get back, and he needed to make sure he had enough sleep. He wasn't going to waste any time.
"Hmm, so you wish to work for me while you're under house arrest? That seems a bit odd considering you can't exactly get out of your house," Unohana joked at Tanya's expense, who simply took it in good humor from where she was sitting.
"Oh yes, but that's kind of the reason I wanted to work for you. I'm hoping that by volunteering with the Fourth for some time, I'll be allowed to at least leave the house. It's kind of, well, making me stir crazy to be in one place for too long. Even if I have all the resources and comforts available to me within this home, being in one place for too long is not good for a human's sanity."
Retsu nodded at that. She could understand the notion of being locked up in a room for too long driving a person insane. Seeing it done several times, though, why was she trying to get out of the house? It seemed less likely that she wanted to help the Fourth.
"Hmm, oh, we don't exactly need your help. Well, I guess letting you come to our facilities every day to chip in wouldn't be too bad. You have lots of medical skills under your hat, so it would only help, especially since most of the people we have to deal with on a daily basis are from the Eleventh Division, and you have their respect to some extent."
"Though I do have to wonder if you're not just trying to get out of house arrest in hopes of helping with the current criminal case that your friend Rukia is involved in."
Tanya never broke character as she nodded her head and said, "Well, how would I be able to do that? After all, I would only be able to transport myself between my home and the Fourth Division."
"Let's just say the Sixth Division happens to have their territory right in between there," She pointed out with a smile, to which Tanya smiled back.
"Really? I did not know that. I suppose I would have more than ample reason to visit Rukia then, now wouldn't I?"
"Yes, though I do wonder why you're putting your neck so far out for someone who broke the law. You don't seem like the type to do that without thinking it through."
Tanya smiled and simply said, "I believe one of the keystones of the Soul Society is a willingness to stand by your friends. If I don't do that, what kind of Soul Reaper would I be?"
"Good point," she said with a nod. "However, I would like to point out that just because that is a cornerstone of the Soul Society does not mean that rules should not be followed."
"True," Tanya said before posing another question. "But why is this rule being enforced so harshly? After all, the Soul Reaper in question that was created by Rukia was a mistake. They were killed, were they not? No harm, no foul. As far as I can see, the official statement from Central 46 is that this was not a conspiracy to create a Soul Reaper, so why go out of their way to do this?"
That was a point. It was odd that they were going to such extremes with the execution, but Central 46 was not known for taking any form of betrayal kindly.
"What I'm saying is, execution seems a bit much, especially through one of the worst methods in the entire Soul Society if they're really going to use that Soul Destroyer. Stripping her of her powers and sending her to live in the outer districts would be more fair in my opinion."
"Well, maybe more fair, but Central 46 seems to have made up their mind. They responded to a letter from the captain of the Eleventh yesterday, stating that our laws will be followed to the letter."
"Odd statement, considering there's officially no officially sanctioned punishment for the crime that Rukia committed. The exact laws indicate that it is simply a grave crime. Not a single thing indicates that they need to force an execution. I would say there seems to be some sort of bias against Rukia's nobility."
"That's a bold statement to be making," Unohana said with a tilt of her head before adding, "though I do see your point. If they do not have an official punishment, why are they going so hard with this one? Setting a standard like this is dangerous in the long term."
"Exactly," Tanya said with a nod, leaning back in the chair.
Unohana thought for a moment before finally making a decision. "I will accept your position in the Fourth and clear it with Central 46. You will be working as a member of my division for a temporary period. As long as you have been prevented from going out and doing your job, you should be able to do something for the Soul Society. I will also pen a letter inquiring why we are going straight to execution. It seems a bit harsh."
Tanya was still smiling as Unohana said that, though she assumed it would fade a bit as Unohana got into the next part of her statement.
"However, I will not allow you to meet with Rukia. While going to the Sixth's prison, you will have two guards watching you the whole time they escort you here and back. You are not officially her lawyer, and unless she's allowed to go to a full criminal trial, which at the moment has already been decided, it would simply taint any career prospects you have after this situation. It's better to lose one promising Reaper than two."
Just a twinge of something showed on Tanya's face before she nodded, saying, "If that is your decision, Captain of the Fourth."
"It is," Unohana said, leaning back and sipping her drink again before adding, "Leave the defense of your friend to those who are higher-ups. The Captain General will eventually hold some sort of meeting to discuss Central 46's decision on the matter, and it requires his command to even unleash the Soul Destroyer. So, if he decides that Central 46 has overstepped its bounds, he can simply decide not to unleash it."
Tanya's eyebrow raised, and Unohana wondered what she was thinking, though she had a pretty good idea. She was seeing exactly what Unohana was seeing. Yes, Central 46 could send someone to death, but if the tools they wanted to use were prevented from being used, they would have to revoke and decide on something else. Speaking with the Captain General, she could try to get him to show some leeway on this matter. He was devoted to the laws of the land, so he would probably be a bit against subverting those laws. But if they could show that the laws were being subverted for this action, he might be willing to force a debate with Central 46. If he put his staff down, they would come around to his opinions. Nowadays, they tended to let Central 46 make the decisions and he simply enforced them.
Finishing sipping her drink, Unohana said, "Don't worry about your friend, Tanya. The Soul Society will get this situation sorted out. All you need to do is make sure that enough captains are looking at the situation your way, and you should have your friend protected."
Tanya smiled and nodded before saying, "Well, I better meet a few more captains then."
Unohana chuckled at that and replied, "Well, the Tenth will probably come around once you have a chance to talk to your Captain. The Eleventh is already on your side, and I'm sure the Thirteenth is not a fan of executing their Soul Reapers. But in my own opinion, that's for sure. So all you need to do is find two more division captains who would be interested in helping in the situation."
Tanya nodded and said, "It should not be that hard. I have connections with two other division captains who could see things my way. If I talk to them long enough, I might not have a hard time convincing them. I might even be able to swing both, even with my house arrest. I'm supposed to meet with the Captain of the Ninth Division soon for one of my Soul Society magazine updates."
Unohana nodded at that and said, "There you go. Just pursue your course as you've been pursuing it, and I'm sure your friend will be alright."
Kisuke Urahara looked down into the hole at Ichigo. He had shown up last night, all fire and brimstone, ready to train. And train he did, for a couple of hours, just to confirm that he could gain spiritual power in his condition.
It was a possibility that his methods of healing would not have worked and he could not regain spiritual power. Thankfully, it would seem that his particular birth had provided him with enough backups, so that would not be a problem, and he could gain spiritual power. This meant they were able to proceed to the second part of his training, which was the slightly harmful part.
They severed his chain of fate and threw him down a giant pit with his arms tied behind his back. The objective was to climb out of there. Without his arms, the only way he could do it theoretically was by obtaining Soul Reaper powers. He said this again, although if he failed, he would become a Hollow and could do it that way too.
One of those outcomes was not great, he admitted, but he had some faith that the kid would be able to do it. Otherwise, he wouldn't have even bothered. Although, to be fair, he would have assumed the kid would have obtained it by now. He had already been a Soul Reaper, so why was it taking so long?
Oh well, he still had 48 hours before that chain disintegrated enough for him to cease being recoverable. He would have to think about possibly getting him out of there before that point. As much as he was willing to risk the kid's life for this, he was not willing to risk his own or their father's life. Sure, his dear old dad was depowered, but that didn't mean he couldn't strangle him.
Turning away from the hole on the ground, Kisuke Urahara started to head back towards the ladder that led up to his shop. There was no reason for him to keep an eye on the things going on down there. Tessai and the kids could handle it easily enough and alert him if something went wrong. And if not, well, he was sure he would hear if something went wrong and be on his way down the moment it did.
Nodding to Tessai , he started his way up the ladder and opened the hatch into the shop. Whistling, he pulled himself out, closed the hatch, and turned on the nearby TV. He might as well watch some of his shows while he waited for something to happen. Just as he was about to get comfortable, he realized he was not alone.
Stopping what he was doing, he turned his head and noticed someone standing by the entrance to the shop. That someone was the girl who had come in with Orihime a few days ago. She had been relatively beaten up from fighting a Hollow, but now she was perfectly fine, thanks to a lot of medical care that she probably didn't remember. Though there was a chance that she did, considering she had a rather large amount of spiritual energy.
As he had theorized, she could someday awaken a power, though she'd yet to do it. This probably meant she was not eligible for something like Fullbringer or Quincy abilities. And if she wasn't eligible for one of those two, the only other option would be a much harder road for her to take if she wanted to even get near that.
Smiling, he said, "Well, hello there, Miss Tatsuki, right?"
She nodded before saying, "Does this place have a basement? It doesn't look structurally sound enough to have a basement."
He smiled, realizing she had seen him come up through the hatch, before saying, "Well, let's just say there's something under here, but I wouldn't call it a basement per se. Anyways, Tatsuki, what brings you to my little establishment today?"
"Well, I'm here because I want to help."
The smile stiffened before he said, "Help? Help with what?"
"You know, Rukia has been captured and is going to be put to death. You've gathered all of my friends to go save her, and I want to help."
"Well, that answers that," he said, fanning himself with his fan as he continued, "I would have expected most of the kids at the school to have forgotten about her, but I knew that a few with higher spiritual energy would be able to remember Rukia even after she left."
"Hold on, how exactly does that work? How did you make everyone's memories fade away? I mean, there's no way you kept track of everyone she met and tracked every single one of them down."
"Well," he smiled, knowing the girl was asking the right questions. "Correct," he said with a smile before continuing, "Oh no, it's not a destruction protocol just by seeing her. There's a little bit of a thing now in your mind that, if you don't have spiritual energy to overcome, will destroy the memories of the person. It's much easier to install that in a body than it is to track down every single person, though if I wanted to, I probably could."
"That's a bit creepy," she said with a glare.
"It's what's necessary for the job to be done. It was also a standard feature. I had hoped it would not come in handy, but hey, the universe has a way of throwing curveballs at my plans, so better to have a curveball ready to throw back."
Continuing to smile, he asked, "So, what brings you to my shop, Miss Tatsuki?"
"I already said I'm here to help."
"Yes, you said that, but how exactly are you going to help? As far as I can tell, you don't have any abilities, none whatsoever. So if I were to send you to the Soul Society, you'd probably be killed in the first 24 hours, and we don't need more bodies on the mission. I'm pretty sure that would put Ichigo in a bad state of mind to begin with."
"Well, he turned into a Soul Reaper, right? If a numbskull like him can do it, I'm sure I can do it as well."
Still fanning himself, he looked her over again, considering her statement before saying, "Well, that's an interesting premise. Technically, you're right, but there are only two ways to become a Soul Reaper. One is for a Soul Reaper to give their power to you, literally shoving their sword into your heart and letting their power manifest within you. There's a good chance you'll die, but theoretically, you could gain powers that way. However, the fact of the matter is, you would probably just have temporary powers that would return to the Soul Reaper who gave them to you. And let's make this quite clear, if there were a Soul Reaper in the area willing to give you powers, there would also be a Soul Reaper in the area willing to join the mission to save Rukia. And, well, I think a trained Soul Reaper would be better than a newbie any day, don't you?"
"Yes, but didn't you just say there are two methods?"
He continued to fan himself, thinking about it for a moment more dramatically than necessary before saying, "Yes, there's a second method, but I really doubt you would be willing to go through with that. After all, it's ten times riskier than having a sword driven through your heart, in my opinion. At least if the sword gets driven through your heart and fails, you die and get sent on to the next world. This method... Well, death is a preferable option than the outcome of this method, in my opinion."
"But it could work, correct?" Tatsuki said, folding her arms across her chest.
He closed the fan at that moment and gave her a good look-over. Was she really willing to go through this? Ichigo... he had to lie a bit about what was necessary simply to get him to do what he wanted. Her, he didn't want technically, but if she was willing...
"Let me make this quite clear, Miss Tatsuki, just so you understand what you're asking." He grabbed his cane and poked her just enough that her body fell to the ground, and she was standing there outside her body, the chain of fate linking her to the said body now crumpled on the ground. She looked rather dumbfounded at the scene in front of her.
"In order for you to become a Soul Reaper, I would need to have this thing," he carefully poked the chain with his cane again. "Cut. Do you understand what that represents here?"
She shook her head and said, "No, but I have a feeling it's not good though."
"Not good is exactly right. This is your chain of fate. When this thing is cut, you are no longer bound to the human world, and your body... well, unless someone steps in, it's dead. Technically, it's not dead dead, it's comatose for a bit, but unless something is put in there to allow it to move on its own again so it can feed, it will die eventually or be put on a respirator and other life-preserving methods. I guess the human world does have some rather ingenious medical technology nowadays."
She was now looking rather afraid as his cane neared her chain, and she backed away for a moment. "After a certain amount of time, this chain of fate dissolves, and you cease to be a human soul, becoming a Hollow—a monster that hungers to eat human and Hollow souls for the rest of eternity. You'll either be vanquished by a Soul Reaper and sent on to the next life, or—and this is the important and interesting bit—you'll be eaten by another Hollow and lose your sense of self."
"That is, of course, unless you manage to attain Soul Reaper abilities. In that case, you might survive for a bit. However, the main problem is, where are you going to get your Zanpakuto? You see, just because we can give you Soul Reaper powers through this method does not mean you get a Zanpakuto. Ichigo is a special case, and he's had access to one for months now thanks to his interactions with Rukia and basically stealing hers. You would not have that ability. You would not have a sword at all. You would have nothing to train with, which means you would have to rely on hand-to-hand combat. As a Soul Reaper, that's not exactly a very guaranteed way to success. At best, you would need to somehow survive long enough to steal a nameless sword from one of the many raw recruits in the Soul Society and hope that you could imprint yourself upon that blade fast enough for it to become your own Zanpakuto. And we just don't have the time."
"Without a Zanpakuto, you can't receive training to use the Zanpakuto, and without the training, you can't unleash the second form of your Zanpakuto. That means you would be nothing but a grunt and still likely to die, but maybe in 48 hours instead of 24."
He thought he had spelled it out quite clearly. After all, saying all that, she should back down now. There was no way she'd be able to survive the process, get a sword, and somehow train herself over there.
"So what you're saying is there's a chance?" she said, narrowing her eyes, getting him to look at her again while starting to fan himself in thought.
He listed quite a few reasons why this was a bad, bad idea, enough for him to say no to her and just ignore her. However...
"There's nothing I can say that'll make you not be willing to go through with this, is there?"
"My friends are going to be in danger. I either do what is necessary to help them, or I'm no good as a friend. If I don't get a sword, fine. I'm a national contender for martial arts. I can fight with my hands and feet well enough."
Hmm, he smiled at that. There's something to say about people's stubbornness and their willingness to stick up for each other. This girl is going to get herself killed. Maybe... well, he did have to wonder how far she's willing to go.
"How long have you felt like this? Indulge my curiosity?" he asked, an idea starting to form in the back of my mind, something curious.
"About a month, I guess. Ever since I learned about this craziness and felt like I'm not being able to help."
Oh, yes. She had thoughts about being powerless and wanting to help for a month, powerless and wanting to help around Rukia, who had a certain object buried in her chest that entire time and was probably one of the reasons why Ichigo's friends awakened with powers as easily as they did. The chances that she may have made a wish were quite big, so why not play the odds then?
Folding the fan up again, he said, "All right, here's the plan. We're going to get you downstairs, and we're going to engage in a little bit of light sparring. If I can determine that you are able to grow in spiritual power, I'll throw you in the pit, cut off your chain and everything, and we'll see what happens. If you somehow survive that and come out as a Soul Reaper, I will give you as much training as possible for hand-to-hand combat. And if I don't feel you're up to snuff and able to fight, you're not going. But if I do, I'll allow you to go. Sound reasonable?"
"Sounds like a plan. Should I get back in my body to go down there, or..." she pointed down to her body, a bit confused.
He shrugged before saying, "You can just step right back into it, but yeah, it's better to get inside to go down there. It's a long drop, and your body would not be able to survive said drop. So, better to have control than not."
She nodded and found her way back into her body, and he opened the hatch. "I'll be down in a moment. I've got to make some calls." She nodded and started to climb down carefully. He waited until he was sure she was in the light dome, so she could see where she was going, before closing the hatch and cracking his neck.
"Well, that was unexpected," he heard a voice say from over his shoulder, causing him to look and see a certain cat sitting there. "You think that was a terrible idea, don't you?"
"Maybe. Maybe. It might be interesting to see what happens."
"Not worried about the fact that you're breaking the law by making a Soul Reaper?"
He smiled at that before saying, "Already banished. What could they do to me now? Besides, they have to find me first. How goes the training of the kids, by the way?"
"Oh, it's going fine. Chad has a good fist. Something tells me he'll do fine during the conflicts. Orihime has some offensive capabilities but mostly defense and minor healing. It should help in the mission. As for the two archers, they confirmed they're coming and confirmed that they're training. They're saying they're not coming to help out with Rukia, but let's be honest here, the leader of the two is a bit of a teenage angst machine."
He chuckled at that before saying, "Not bad numbers, not bad numbers at all. The only real concern is running down the Dangai, but it should be possible."
"Anything's possible," the cat said. "Though it's also possible that things will go badly. Adding an extra hand in this case won't backfire. I'm not sure Ichigo will be happy if the first Hollow he has to kill when he pulls himself out of that hole is one of his oldest friends turned Hollow."
"Oh, it could backfire, but it's probably not going to. Besides, I'm not really going to let her get 'hollowfied'. We know how long it'll take, roughly 70 hours. I'm only going to give her 50. If she can't manage it in 50, I'm pulling her back up, putting her back in her body, and calling it a day."
"How very kind of you, only risking her life for only just over two days."
The cat sighed before saying, "Well, I'm going to trust you on this one. Not sure why you see it possibly working."
"I'm just experimenting a little bit, no worries. Besides, I'm sure it'll work out. Now, where is my cell phone?" he said, reaching into a pocket, looking for it.
"Why do you need your cell phone?" the cat said.
"Well, we need a Soul Candy to put in Tatsuki's body while she's off on this adventure. I figure the best Soul Candy for the job is already in existence."
"Nooo."
"Afraid I don't have the resources to make a new one."
"Tatsuki and Orihime are going to kill you."
"It'll be fine. Besides, they'll only be gone a week at best. What's the worst that that Soul Candy could get up to?"
"According to the Quincy, the Hollow storm from a couple of days ago is that Soul Candy's fault."
"A fair point. Maybe I'll bring that Soul Candy in for a bit of modification to lessen her aggression."
"Ha, good luck with that," the cat said before shaking its head. "I'll go train some more with Orihime and Chad. Just try not to get those kids killed."
"I'll do my best," he said, waving as the cat wandered off. He finally found his phone and was about to make another call when the door to the candy shop opened, revealing not the best thing to see.
"Isshin, what are you doing here?" he said with a smile as he entered the room, looking a bit tired.
"Checking on my son, obviously. We had a talk last night. I know what he's up to. I know you're trying to fix whatever was done to him so he can probably take back his Soul Reaper powers. So, of course, I'm going to come by."
"Oh, well, that was unforeseen," he thought out loud before shaking his head, saying, "He's doing alright. If you want, you can go down and see him."
"No," Isshin said, shaking his head. "As long as I know he's alright, I don't need to actually see him. Besides, knowing that I'm up there worried about him could be distracting to his objective. It's better to let him focus on getting his powers back. I don't know what method you're using, but I don't want anything to go wrong."
I nodded at that before saying, "Well, it's a simple method, and if it doesn't work out, I'm planning to scrub the thing before it gets too bad."
"You better," Isshin said, sighing, pulling a book out of his satchel that he was carrying on his side and laying it on the table.
"Ichigo gave me this book to read, which apparently is from Tanya. It apparently keeps quite a bit of information on spellcraft in there and her opinions on what makes a good reaper, among other good stuff in my opinion. But the important part here is that I figured I should deliver this here so Ichigo can read it between training sessions. You never know, some of these tricks the girl goes over might be useful."
"Really? Well, I'll make sure to make it part of the curriculum then," he said, picking up the book and flipping through it quickly, seeing a lot of mentions of spells as a primary attack method, as well as some comments on how to grow one's powers.
Oh, he was going to have to give this a thorough study. Seeing how that girl's mind worked could benefit not only Ichigo but also Tatsuki if she managed to pull it off. He smiled, closed the book, and said, "I'll make sure it gets to them."
"Do I have to check my house to make sure none of my daughters are missing?" Isshin said, looking extremely scary all of a sudden as he seemed to loom over his seated position.
"A slip of the tongue, and no, no, no, I wouldn't risk any more of your family on this. I'm only allowing Ichigo to risk it because he wants to do it."
Isshin gave him a look that said he would be back to ask questions if he found one of his daughters out of place, and Urahara simply shook his head before saying, "There is no need to worry, Isshin."
He finally sighed before saying, "I will be back later today to ask more questions. Plenty of people are getting injured due to their own stupidity, and I need to look after them. Just remember, though, I can injure people for their stupidity as well, so make sure that nothing happens to Ichigo, got it?"
Kisuke gave a nod and said, "You have my word that Ichigo will come through this process and retain his powers. And I will do my utmost to make him able to survive whatever comes after that."
Isshin sighed before turning and leaving, walking out of the shop and leaving him to let out a breath of air, wondering if he had dodged a larger bullet than he was expecting on that one.
Once he was sure Isshin was on his way out of the shop, he gave a brief look over the book again, wondering exactly what he could learn from it.
Theoretically, he didn't need to look at this book; however, it would give him a good insight into Tanya's mind. It would tell him if she would be willing to go along with whatever Ichigo manages to pull once he gets in there, and how far down the rabbit hole she might have fallen.
A lot of people were not aware of the true threats in the Soul Society. Was she one of them, or was she aware of some of them?
A quick perusal seemed to show a slight disinterest or distrust towards the nobles. There was a word here, a comment there that seemed to indicate that one should trust their brother-in-arms more than their commanders. Although there was no particular thing here that said one should not follow the orders of their commanders, there was a lot of "trust your gut." Not to mention, some of the stories near the back about military campaigns seemed to have a few mentions of the failures of command.
There was no guarantee she would go with Ichigo, but there was no guarantee she wouldn't either. Perhaps there would be a few more allies inside the Soul Society than he was currently suspecting. Only time would tell.
'Well, that was probably the worst experience of my entire life,' Ichigo thought as he took a moment to gather himself. He had just spent nearly 72 hours in peril, worrying about turning into a hollow, only to figure out how to do the job at the last minute and see the strange sunglass-wearing man again, this time inside what he guessed was his inner world.
And it was truly last minute because, well, the fact that he was holding a hollow mask in his hand that he had just ripped from his face did kind of imply that he had just skirted the worst possible outcome.
Taking a moment to gather himself, he looked around and tried to figure out what had happened while he'd been fighting for survival. Everyone was looking at him fearfully, which meant he had very closely nearly lost that too. There also appeared to be a second hole in the ground not too far away from his original, but he dismissed it immediately.
"Looks like you survived, and you even got your sword back, though not exactly in good shape now, is it?" he said, causing Ichigo to look down and see that, yeah, his sword was looking pretty rough, but it still had most of the blade. Anyway, he was sure he could probably figure out how to fight with just that.
"Yeah, I think I did survive. Now what's next?"
"What's next? Well, what's next is usually figuring out what your sword's name is."
"Right, sword name. Tanya mentioned that once or twice. Shikai, allowing a person to wield even more power than just wielding the blade."
"Exactly," Kisuke Urahara said with a nod as he stepped closer. "Look at the blade. The best way, of course, to figure out how to contact your blade is through long hours of meditation and talking to your blade. Sooner or later, you'll break through into your inner world and you can learn its name. We don't have that time, of course, so we're going to have to go with the other option."
"Other option?" Ichigo asked, before Urahara wielded the cane-like blade and smacked the still somewhat formed hollow mask in his hand, cutting it in half.
No, not smack, because it had just been cut. Ichigo had to blink twice before he realized that said cane was not, in fact, a cane, but actually a sword. A sword that was emitting a spiritual pressure that definitely meant it was a zanpakuto.
He jumped back in surprise and dodged another slice aimed at him, giving him a moment to ask, "Hold on, how do you have a zanpakuto? I thought you weren't a Soul Reaper?"
"Well, whoever gave you that idea?" Kisuke Urahara asked with a rather smirkyl look before he slashed at him again.
"As I was saying, though, in order to get your zanpakuto's name as quickly as possible, well, I'm going to have to fight you full on," raising the sword, he said, "Awaken, Benihime!" releasing it to its shikai and making this situation a ton more dangerous.
He came at him again, and Ichigo just barely blocked the blade.
"Not bad. Bennhime here doesn't exactly take well to being blocked." As he said that, he sliced through the end of his blade, cutting it shorter. Since he had less blade to block the next attack, and then the next, every time he blocked, he lost a little bit more blade. This caused him to back up more and more, trying to figure out a way to talk to his blade because at this rate, the man was going to kill him with the amount of strikes he was making.
Running low on options, he decided to do one of the tricks he had done before. He channeled his energy into the blade, creating a sort of shield around it, hoping that would block the attack.
It was successful, and the shield seemed to hold for a moment, causing Kisuke Urahara to pause his attack and back up, obviously trying to figure out his next assault. But before that happened, a voice whispered in his ear, "Zangetsu."
Confused, he looked to his right where he heard the name, but he didn't see anyone. "Don't take your eyes off me, boyo!" came the call of Kisuke Urahara as he came at him again, and Ichigo was forced to block.
"Ichigo, call my name," came that voice again. He just barely was able to hold off that attack, channeling a lot of energy into the shield that was keeping the majority of his blade intact.
Well, he may be a bit thick-headed, but he wasn't stupid. Taking a step back, he hoped that what he was hearing was right, and aiming for a counterattack, he said out loud, "Zangetsu." Immediately, his blade responded to him, shifting and fixing itself up a bit, going from what it had been before and transforming into a giant kitchen knife by the looks of it, with a wicked slice to it.
"Huh, you did it, kid. Now that I didn't see. Well, that thing's a little bit too big to be useful in a fight, in my opinion."
And that was the point where he was just done with Kisuke Urahara. The attitude, the amount of things he put him through... well, it was enough that he was going to unleash this blade's ability. The guy was basically playing with him already; he might as well see how he stacked up by going full out.
Taking a breath, he called the sword's name as he slashed down in his direction, unleashing a wave of energy that caused a bit of confusion.
When it was finally over, though, Kisuke Urahara was still standing there, though his hat was a bit tattered, lying on the ground to his side where the cut was made.
"Okay, that makes sense. I went too hard on you to start," he said, shaking his head as he looked down at the hat, picking it up and putting it back on his head. "But now we know that your special ability is probably more related to releasing your spiritual energy in an attack. That will be useful for your training."
"Good. Can I have a moment's rest now?" he said, taking a moment to catch his breath.
"You can have a moment to breathe. I need to check on the other one anyway. It's almost time for her to be kicked out if she hasn't managed to pull off turning herself into a Soul Reaper," Kisuke Urahara said, turning to look at the other hole.
"Other one?" he asked, looking confused at the other hole, wondering what he was talking about, before he saw a hand reach the edge of the hole, followed by another hand holding a sword as it buried itself into the ground with a pull and a shove. Over the edge came Tatsuki, wearing the black robes of a Soul Reaper, looking even more worn out than him.
"What..." Ichigo said in confusion as Tatsuki took a moment to catch her breath.
Turning, he looked at Kisuke Urahara, about to give him a piece of his mind, when he noticed there was a hint of surprise on Kisuke Urahara's face. Not only surprised, but extreme interest.
He didn't know where that came from, but he did know he was going to have to protect Tatsuki now from whatever crazy plans Kisuke Urahara had cooking in the back of his brain.
Writers note: WOOO! New chapter out! A good sunday! To all! Enjoy story!
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Edited by: L, Guardsman Pius, Coltsguy
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