Chapter 3:- Fists of Potential
As the clock started going off, Ichigo woke up groggily with disheveled hair, ready for another busy day ahead. He heads to the store (Grand Fisher arc outfit) with a hint of excitement in his heart, wanting to learn what he will be taught next. As he arrives, he also sees Orihime (the first outfit in the Soul Society arc) arriving from the opposite side as well.
"Oh, hello, Inoue," he waves at her while smiling at her.
"Oh, hello, Kurosaki kun." She also responds back to him a bit cheerfully.
They enter the store and head underground, which looked like a giant mountain cave filled with rocks, and there he was, Kisuke Urahara, chilling on his deck chair, relaxing, and waving his fan at his face.
"Hi Urahara san," he yells to get his attention.
"Ahh~ so you guys are here; well, welcome back." He got up from his chair and stood in front of them after closing his fan.
"So where were we? Ah~ that's right, we were talking about the Shinigami combat techniques, weren't we? So let's get started then." He walks towards a 7-foot boulder.
"So the basic first thing about your powers is the source of those specific powers, which is called spiritual energy, and it's resent inside all living beings, including hollows, humans, soul reapers, as well as the quincies; however, humans have the weakest amount, which is why they are unable to see spiritual beings like we can. Now let me show you something." He stands in front of the boulder, facing it as they observe with curiosity.
He then clenches his fist and, with one punch, puts a crack as well as a dent in the boulder, which surprised them. He then takes out his hand only to reveal the impact of his punch, which is far more than any human could ever do.
"How did you do that?" Ichigo questions him, eager to learn.
"Pretty easy if you know how to do it; I just focused a little bit of my spiritual energy into my fist, which made the punch stronger than it needed to be, and so that's the first lesson you guys should try." He then gets closer to them.
"Now open your palms," he commands them, and as they do, he places a piece of paper on it.
"Ummm, Urahara san, what is this supposed to be?" She asks confusedly.
"Your goal is to make this piece of paper float, and you can do that by trying to focus your energy into your palm.".
"Oh, so all I have to do is focus my spiritual energy into this piece of paper to make it float?" She asks, to which Urahara nods with a smile on his face, and within a minute the paper starts to float already, which shocks them both.
"Wait? How did you do it so fast?" He asks with his eyes wide open.
"Oh, I mean, it's easy; all you have to do is focus it, and that's all." She answers, however, it was unusual for anybody to learn it so quick, but then a puzzle connected in Urahara's mind. The reason why she was able to do it so quickly was because she has been using that power to put up her shield, so she has basically been using it this whole time, not knowing that it was spiritual energy.
"Well, well, I am kind of surprised, but nonetheless, it makes sense since you have been using it for a long time; however, Ichigo here might take longer." He smirks at Ichigo, who feels a little bit envious and frustrated; however, he keeps focusing on it.
"Well, I guess you have to wait until then, Orihime Chan." She nods and sits on a nearby rock, looking at Ichigo until he is able to do it.
Meanwhile, at Uryu's house, Uryu walks over towards his father Ryuken's room with a hint of nervousness, but he had to it after what happened. He stands in front of the door and lets out a heavy sigh before knocking.
"Yes? Who is it?" The voice comes from behind.
"It's me, Uryu," he responds.
"Come in" As he heard it, he opened the door and stepped in to see his father looking out the window, wearing his white suit as usual.
"What is it?" He questions Uryu.
"I want to talk to you for a bit." He looks at him with curiosity, slightly raising both his eyes for a moment before he takes a seat on his leather chair aligned with his desk. Uryu enters the office and also sits across him facing him, and he slowly describes the past events that had happened, specifically their encounter with Grimmjow and how much powerlessness he really felt during such an eventful encounter with the Espada.
"*sigh* What did I tell you about having Shinigami company, Uryu?" He glares at him.
"I know you always kept saying me to be, but Ichigo is different," he responds.
"Different in what way? The only reason you got hurt was because of him in the first place; you must seek out new friends." He gives a stern statement.
"Look, I just came here to ask you for a favor." He speaks with a softer tone.
"A favor?" Ryuken looks puzzled.
"Yes, I want you to train me," he says in a determined posture.
"I might not agree with your reason, but I suppose I can train you in the Quincy arts." He spoke as he stood up.
"Now follow me." He speaks to Uryu as he takes him to a nearby forest.
"First we will test your skills with the bow." They both take aim with their bows and shoot.
"Are you done yet Ichigo?" Urahara walks back to them again to still see Ichigo struggling and drenched in sweat while Orihime was knocked out cold snoring.
"Well, no worries, take your time," he reassures him while waving his fan at himself until a black cat enters the training ground.
"Ohh, Yoruichi San looks like you are back." He skips towards the cat and holds it above with his two hands. Orihime suddenly wakes up due to the commotion and sees the adorable cat in his arms. She immediately rushes to him and snatches it from his hands.
"Awww~ you are such an adorable kitty." She hugs it tightly, and Urahara was slightly nervous for some reason and also tried to say something but couldn't.
"HEY, GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME LITTLE GIRL!" It yells in a manly voice, which shocks them, and she immediately backs away.
"*gasp* It's a talking cat!" She screams in disbelief.
"Woah, did it talk?" Ichigo's jaw drops.
"Yes, you have a problem with that ginger boy." It antagonizes him as they were both still trying to process all of this.
"And don't call me a cat ever again, understood? My name is Yoruichi, and if you say anything more than that, then your asses must be kicked thoroughly," it says with a frown.
"Oh~ Yoruichi san~ I brought your favorite milk." He says, putting the bowl of milk down beside him, to which it's eyes brighten with joy, and she dumps herself into the milk.
"Sorry well, when in hunger there is hell," he whispers to them.
"Woah, how did you get the talking cat though? I want one," she asks him with eagerness.
"Oh well, I guess it's kind of a long story," he says with a smirk.
"Always, I think you should focus back on that paper thing." He points back to the paper in his palm.
"Oh yeah, right..." He then gets back to it. After a while, Yoruichi notices his struggle and climbs up to his shoulders.
"Hey kid? Don't force it and let it flow naturally." It speaks.
"Huh? What do you mean?" He asks with an eyebrow arching up.
"You are forcing yourself to make it float; don't worry about doing it; just relax and focus no matter how long it takes," it responds back in a stern voice.
"Alright, I will try that." After that, he stops stressing himself and lets it go; however, it takes three days until it finally floats.
"Hey, I finally did it!" He yells, which catches other attention.
"Congratulations, Kurosaki kun, you finally did it." She claps for him while eating a baguette.
"Well~ well~ looks like the first step is done." Urahara speaks in a smug tone.
"Oh gosh, you finally did it, kid, not bad; at minimum it normally takes 3-5 days and at maximum 10 days," Yoruichi speaks, lying down on the ground.
"So now what?" Ichigo asks Urahara, awaiting his next step of the training.
"Now we can proceed onto the next step, which is spiritual regulation across your entire body." He speaks with one finger up.
"So what exactly is that Urahara san?" She asks with a finger on her chin.
"Well for that, I guess I need to give you guys a presentation, I suppose. Well, Yoruichi san, shall we?" He asks her, to which Yoruichi looks at him, narrowing its eyes.
"Well fine, I guess just wait a minute, I will be back." It walks up the stairs to the store through the hatch.
"Wait, so how can that cat fight?" Ichigo asks absolutely puzzled, What is that going to do? Use it's soft paws to smack someone? His thoughts run wild, to which Urahara chuckles a bit with an obvious smirk on his face.
"Just wait, and you will see, the 'cat' is more capable than you think." He responds, looking back at the hatch connected to the rocky ceiling by the flight of stairs. Quite some time passes by, and a dark-skinned woman with purple hair appears to be climbing down the stairs (Soul society arc outfit).
"Eh? Who is that woman?" He asks, pointing a finger at her.
"Hey, what the hell do you mean, who am I? You have been looking at me this whole time." They both get confused.
"*sigh* I am Yoruichi." Their jaw drops to the ground, and their brains fry over.
"Well, I did say that she was more than capable," he says while chuckling, seeing their reaction.
"Well then, Kisuke, let's get to it then." He smiles and takes his stance after she lets him know that she is ready. They both take their stance opposite to each other with wide grins on their faces; it has been long since their last spar. Yoruichi goes in first, dashing towards him, ready to deliver a punch right to his chest, only to be blocked by him crossing both his forearms, after which she quickly aims her kick towards his side, which he avoided by stepping back.
However, she didn't give him enough time and straight away went for an axe kick as he was trapped by a boulder behind him, so he immediately embraced himself for the attack, and as the strike came full force, it gave him a stinging pain, but he endured it and immediately went onto get a hold of her ankle. After which he went for a spin before she could deliver a kick with her other leg to release herself from his grasp.
Her body spun along with her leg in the direction that he was aiming at. He spun her into a boulder; however, she avoided getting hurt by stopping herself just a few inches away with her elbows striking behind her, putting a crack into it. He then stepped back, taking his stance again as well as hers, but they still had grins of amusement, clearly indicating that they were enjoying this.
She then kicks up the sand from the ground towards him to blind his vision; he predicts this and immediately flips away to get out of her range. After a moment, he opens his eyes again only to find her vanished until he glances up and barely dodges her axe kick again, which impacts the ground underneath them. He takes the opportunity to twist and give her a back kick, which she barely blocks and throws her back a bit.
She recovers herself and goes for a punch at his face, which he blocks, but instead of punching him, she sweeps him from below, which makes him fall as she pins him to the ground.
"Ahh~ caught me again, huh? Oh well," he chuckles while glancing at her.
"Yep, you won't better me any time soon, idiot," she says playfully while she pulls him back up as he dusts himself.
"Wow, that was so cool!" Orihime exclaimed, being excited.
"Good to know you both enjoyed it, so there you go; that was hakuda for you." He crosses his arms.
"So what are we going to do for now?" Ichigo asks while leaning against a boulder.
"Well, for now, why don't we take a break? So does anyone want ice cream?" They all raised their hands, with Inoue's being the most wavy.
Meanwhile, in the chambers of his room, a peculiar blue-haired Espada was seen punching a giant rock, with each punch causing a dent out of frustration.
"That damn Ulquiorra! Who does he think he is? I am the king! I am the one who decides what I will do, and others should obey ME!" After several punches, that rock falls apart, and he sits on the ground, resting, as he was surrounded by several sediments, which might have also been made by him.
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