CHAPTER 7 - COLD WHITE CALCULATING

An ambulance slowed to a stop in front of the emergency room of Karakura General Hospital. Shortly after, a pair of paramedics poured out of the vehicle with a stretcher in tow. Kasumi tried not to think about the body on the stretcher as she tore away her gaze and proceeded through the hospital's main entrance and walked up to the receptionist. The woman behind the desk directed her to one of the rooms on the second floor, where her 'appointment' was supposedly taking place. Once she arrived at the door to room 201, her hand froze on the doorknob when she heard the muffled sounds of voices coming from the other side. Though she couldn't pick out what they were saying, one of the voices definitely belonged to Urahara.

"—good in the long run. After this, I won't bother you anymore. Oh! Look who's here!" Urahara said when he saw Kasumi step through the door. He was speaking to a tall silver haired man, dressed in a white suit so immaculate that it almost seemed luminescent. His white tie was emblazoned with a repeating pattern of blue crosses. The office they stood had an antique, anachronistic air to it. Ceiling-height windows opposite the door Kasumi had entered from allowed the orange afternoon sunlight to bathe the mahogany shelves on either side of the room, imbuing them and their leather-bound contents with sunset colors. An imposing desk stood a few meters directly in front of the door, and behind it, a high-backed swivel chair upholstered in dark leather.

"This is Kasumi," the shopkeeper began, hurrying to Kasumi's side and placing a hand on her shoulder. "She's the person of interest I was telling you about."

Shrugging off Urahara's hand, she stepped forward and tried to introduce herself to the silver haired man, but her words caught in her throat. She felt her body tense up as the man's discerning eyes looked her up and down, as if he was silently picking apart everything wrong with her. Kasumi felt like she was back in school, delivering a speech to an auditorium full of students, except the intensity of a hundred spectators' gazes had been condensed into one, cold stare, partly concealed behind a pair of gleaming spectacles.

The silver haired man extended a pale hand. "Ryuken Ishida," he said, his voice like the deepest notes of a droning horn. Kasumi accepted Ryuken's hand and gave it a firm shake. "Don't get used to the courtesy, because from here on out, it's all you're getting," he said. The words left an unpleasant feeling in Kasumi's chest.

"Don't worry about him," Urahara commented reassuringly. "He's nicer than he looks." Ryuken gave him an intense stare, which Urahara just laughed off. "Not much nicer, though," he added.

"Uh huh," Kasumi said, unsure. "So are you going to have me committed, after all?" she said jokingly. Urahara smiled. "Nope, worse. Ryuken here will be in charge of your training."

Kasumi frowned. "I thought you were going to help me," she said, to which Urahara cocked his head. "Yeah, but I never said that I was gonna be the one to train you. I don't know anything about Quincy magic!" he answered, giving her an exaggerated shrug.

Reassuring, she thought to herself. Just as she was about to press Urahara for being so lax, he interrupted her. "Oh, would you look at the time!" he exclaimed, raising his wrist to look at an imaginary watch. "I've got to get going. The shop isn't going to run itself! Have fun, you two. And Ryuken, don't be too hard on her."

Before Kasumi could protest, Urahara was gone, disappearing through the doorway she entered from. The room fell eerily quiet as she was left alone with Ryuken. As odd as Urahara was, his presence was sorely missed in the midst of the stone-faced doctor. Was he even a doctor? If she was wheeled into an operating room and this man was the one standing ready to cut her open, she'd stand up and walk right out of there and contend with the tumor in her gut or whatever by herself. Kasumi already didn't like hospitals - she didn't think that anybody did - but Ryuken somehow made the place feel more sterile, more cold. The last thing you'd want by your side as the life was fading from your eyes.

"Are you going to just stand there?" Ryuken asked, dragging Kasumi out of her racing thoughts. What was he expecting from her? The only thing she could do was reveal her weakness, her ignorance. And something told her that would only make things worse.

"What do you want?" she blurted out, unintentionally raising her voice. When she saw Ryuken's expression ever so slightly darken in frustration, she immediately wanted to take the words back.

"Do I have to spell it out? Your bow. Summon it," he demanded, his voice stern. It's clear that Ryuken didn't have much patience. Or if he did, he didn't want to expend an ounce of it on the nuisance that was standing before him.

"I... I don't know what you're talking about. I'm starting from nothing here. Didn't Urahara tell you that I only found out that I'm a Quincy a few days ago?"

"He did not," he responded, his frustration with the sly shopkeeper practically spelled out on his face. Without saying anything, he strode past Kasumi, towards the door leading out of his office. "Follow me," he ordered, before twisting the knob and stepping through. Kasumi did as she was told, falling into step behind Ryuken as he led her through the hospital's sterile corridors. Kasumi couldn't help but notice the number of panicked nurses they passed, all pushing along gurneys which held people who seemed to be in a deep, breathless sleep. Only Kasumi, and probably Ryuken, knew the truth behind their condition. She tried not to look at them for too long, especially at the ones who looked young enough to be in the same class as her.

"It's just one thing after the other," Ryuken said as he walked past a doctor jotting down the time of death of yet another unfortunate person whose soul was devoured by Hollows, fated to never see the sunrise ever again. Kasumi could definitely agree.

Eventually, they arrived before a staff-only elevator tucked into a narrow hallway far from the more well-traveled parts of the hospital. There was an out of order sign stuck on the doors. Ryuken's fingers nimbly pushed in a combination of call buttons on the panel beside the elevator, after which the steel doors slid open. Inside was another panel with only one button, which looked like it led to a basement. Without waiting for Kasumi, he pushed it, and Kasumi had to rush inside before the doors shut.

"What the- Why'd you do that? Did you forget that I was following you?" she demanded, but Ryuken ignored her. Despite her annoyance, she stayed silent as the elevator descended for what seemed like minutes. Weren't we just on the second floor? She thought. Where the hell is this thing taking me?

Her question was answered when the elevator finally came to a halt and opened its doors, revealing that it had brought them to a massive subterranean chamber. Every surface was wrought from some kind of silvery metal, tinted blue by the moody light that washed over every inch of the place. The ground rose and fell in blocks, creating an irregular landscape with an abundance of both high and low ground. Some of the blocks were so high that Kasumi was sure that she'd die if she fell off of them. With no visible way to scale their flat surfaces, she wasn't even sure of their purpose.

"What is this place?" she asked, her mouth agape with awe. Ryuken began walking ahead of her, deeper into the chamber. Somehow, he looked right at home among the spotless metal surroundings, as foreign as it appeared. As she followed him, Kasumi noticed what seemed like scuff marks on the walls. Remnants of a battle long past, maybe?

"This is a Study Chamber," Ryuken explained. "So far below the ground that you could set off a bomb in here and no one would notice. It's where we will be conducting your training."

Kasumi gulped. Nobody knew she was here. Not even Yasuhiro. And if he came looking, she doubted that he'd be able to find her. She was at Ryuken's mercy, whom she had only met less than an hour ago. Practically a stranger. Her instincts told her to turn tail and make a break for the elevator, but she stood firm.

"I know what you're thinking," Ryuken said, his tone of voice colder than ever. "If any harm comes to you while we're down here, it'll be your own fault."

Doesn't make it any better, damned weirdo, she thought to herself. She was wise enough not to say that out loud. Instead, she just nodded in acknowledgement, and waited for Ryuken to continue.

After a long, tense pause, Ryuken held out his hand. A silver pentacle hung from his wrist, gleaming in the cerulean light. "Watch closely," he said. Kasumi's eyes widened as the pressure in the air began to build. It looked like he was pulling some kind of glowing blue energy from his surroundings, channeling it into a singular focal point - the pentacle hanging from his wrist. Kasumi had to avert her gaze as the energy gathered, burning with the intensity of a miniature azure sun. Then, after reaching critical mass, the energy catalyzed and formed into a sleek bow that looked like it was molded from a singular piece of silver. Such was its smoothness, its exactness, that it almost appeared alien. The light then died down, leaving only faint wisps of smoke.

Blinking away the impression that was burned into her retinas by the supernatural phenomenon that just unfolded before her, Kasumi could only gawk at the weapon that was now in Ryuken's hand. Compared to the Garganta Eterna and the Hollows, this should've been relatively mild, but it still gave her pause, compounded by the fact that he was probably expecting her to do the same in time.

"Holy shit..." was all that Kasumi could manage as Ryuken held the weapon out to Kasumi. She cautiosuly inspected it from an arm's length away, noting its mirror finish polish. A warped reflection of her face appeared on its lustrous surface.

"This is a Spirit Weapon," Ryuken began. "The foremost component of any Quincy's arsenal. Once you learn how to conjure it, your Spirit Weapon will become your most trusted companion. You can't call yourself a Quincy without one."

"To conjure it, you'll need a Cross," he explained further. He glared at Kasumi, who shifted nervously under his gaze.

"Can I borrow- Oh!" Kasumi was interrupted by a gleaming silver object flying through the air towards her, which she just barely caught before it hit the ground, nearly losing her balance while doing so. Ryuken had pulled it out of his pocket and unceremoniously threw it at Kasumi.

"Th-thanks..." Kasumi said, inspecting the object that Ryuken had tossed to her. Like his Spirit Weapon, it was fashioned from a single piece of spotless silver, molded into the shape of a five pointed star, each of its arms connected by a slim orbital. It was about the size of a pocket watch, and cold to the touch. Just by looking at it, one would assume that it was just a piece of eccentric jewelry, not too dissimilar from the gaudy pendant that Kasumi wore around her neck.

"That's yours," Ryuken stated dispassionately. "One of Urahara's, no doubt something he pilfered a few years back."

Kasumi cocked her head. "Where'd he get this?" she asked, to which Ryuken just shook his head. "You don't need to know."

"Before I teach you anything else, you must first learn how to conjure a Spirit Weapon. We're not leaving until you do," he stated. Kasumi groaned.

"I have a curfew. I have to be back by nine," she explained.

Ryuken narrowed his eyes at her. "Then you better hurry."


A bead of sweat rolled down Kasumi's forehead. Her eyebrows were furrowed, the expression on her face one of intense concentration. She shut her eyes as hard as she could, her head bowed towards the floor. In the darkness of her mind, she tried to reach out to them - the invisible particles of reishi that apparently permeated all of existence - but all she could manage to do was powerlessly behold them, distant in the void of her blindness. Kasumi had already been subconsciously aware of reishi since childhood, although it was only when Urahara explained it to her that she grasped its importance. Until recently, she had no name for the faint glimmers of light that were always lingering in her periphery. And now that she did, all she wanted to do was curse them for giving her such a hard time.

She remained in this pseudo-meditative state for another five minutes. A few times, it seemed that the energy that the Quincies relied on to empower their abilities was finally obeying her commands, only for it to fade away as soon as Kasumi reached for it.

Letting out an exasperated sigh, Kasumi opened her eyes and wiped her brow with her sleeves. It had been over three hours since she first entered the Study Chamber, and it felt like she was no closer to even beginning to summon her Spirit Weapon. She couldn't see outside, but she knew that the sun was already well below the horizon. Prior to departing, she had told Yasuhiro that she had extracurriculars to attend to, so he expected her to come late. Still, it'll be hard to explain herself if she turns up at her house past curfew, and something told her that her butler wouldn't approve of her secret training.

"There has to be some other way," Kasumi said, her voice coarse. Ryuken hadn't even allowed her to go upstairs for a drink. "It feels like I'm grasping at straws."

"There isn't," Ryuken responded, unmoved. "You must learn how to channel the wellspring of a Quincy's power. If you can't, then there's no hope for you."

Ryuken rubbed his temples. "I don't know why Urahara is wasting my time here. I don't even sense your reiatsu."

"He said that something was hiding it," Kasumi corrected, frustration coloring her words. After hours of fruitless training, she was feeling more than a little testy. It didn't help that Ryuken offered little advice, if any at all. It was like he was expecting her to come up with something out of absolutely nowhere.

"It's getting late," Ryuken said, checking his watch. "If you really were a Quincy, you would've accomplished this much by now, at the very least. In a couple of hours, I need to leave to attend to something, so I advise you to pick up the pace unless you want to be locked in here all night."

"What? But I have to be back by nine!" Kasumi protested, standing up. She was sitting cross-legged on the floor so long that her legs had gone numb, causing her to stumble and nearly fall face-first onto the ground. After regaining her balance, she stormed over to Ryuken and stared him down.

"They're gonna look for me, you know. And I could just text someone," she said. Ryuken returned her gaze. His cold, indifferent eyes sent chills down her spine, forcing her to look away.

"Then you'll be throwing away this chance," he rebutted. "I don't care either way, so the loss will be yours alone."

As much as Kasumi hated to admit it, Ryuken was right. She was practically at his mercy. Her plan of going to Hueco Mundo hinged on her being able to become at least somewhat adept at Quincy magic, and her window of accomplishing that without getting Yasuhiro on her tail was shrinking rapidly. The worst part of it was the feeling of hopelessness. She didn't feel like she was on the cusp of victory. Rather, it felt like she was still floundering at the starting line without the slightest clue of what to do or where to go.

"Mr. Ishida, please..." Kasumi pleaded, sounding dejected. She couldn't muster anything further to say, so her voice trailed off into silence. The air was heavy between the two, and for a painfully long moment, nothing was said. Kasumi's ears started to ring.

"Fine," Ryuken relented. "I'll give you a little push."

Kasumi perked up. But before she could ask him what he meant, she was interrupted by a high-pitched, almost mechanical whine, accompanied by a sudden flash of cerulean light. She was so disoriented that she almost couldn't react to the reishi arrow that was currently speeding towards her. Kasumi was just barely able to jump out of the way, the arrow clipping her side and leaving a jagged tear in her uniform. Then, the arrow collided with the wall behind her, detonating in a blinding explosion of blue energy that nearly knocked Kasumi off her feet. Turning around, she saw that the arrow had left a sizable crater in metal wall, the edges glowing red hot. If Kasumi's reflexes hadn't been sharpened by her time in the judo club, she would've died.

"What the hell are you doing?" Kasumi yelled, still recovering from her hasty maneuver. Instead of answering, Ryuken loosed yet another arrow at her, which she avoided by ducking into cover behind a wall.

"Giving you motivation," responded Ryuken, raising his voice so Kasumi could hear him from a distance. "To give you a chance, I'll limit myself to one arrow per second. I'll stop when you can return fire."

"That's still way too fast!" Kasumi shouted, before sprinting away moments before the wall she was hiding behind was obliterated by another arrow, erupting in a cloud of dust and flying rubble. As Ryuken had promised, he unleashed arrow after arrow with a robotic rhythm, each one getting closer and closer to meeting its mark. Ryuken's unrelenting barrage barely left her any time to think, let alone focus on gathering enough reishi to form her own Spirit Weapon to retaliate. "Fuck, I just made this worse for myself, huh?" she said to herself.

Kasumi ran as fast as she could, weaving between walls and jumping over pits in an effort to put some distance between herself and her homicidal mentor. The arrows kept coming, each impact resulting in an explosion that rattled her teeth. But eventually, the storm of arrows ceased. Ryuken had lost her.

Crouching behind a waist-height wall, Kasumi's mind raced. Alright, focus, focus, she repeated to herself, summoning every ounce of willpower she had to clear her head and conjure her Spirit Weapon. Closing her eyes, the distant reishi particles came into view once more. She was practically screaming inside her head, demanding them to come to her and gather in her Quincy Cross, but again, they ignored her calls. Then suddenly, they started to move. A glimmer of hope shone in Kasumi's heart.

But they weren't moving towards her.

With dizzying speed, the reishi particles coalesced into a single point and assumed the form of a spectral arrow. Opening her eyes, she saw that Ryuken was standing just a few meters away, his bow drawn and aimed at her. His next attack very nearly killed her, missing her head by mere centimeters. The resulting explosion left her ears ringing and her vision blurred.

"Your lack of reiatsu is making it a pain to track you down," Ryuken said as he prepared another arrow. "But that won't matter if you're sloppy."

Kasumi yelped as the ground beside her foot suddenly erupted. It was a warning shot to get Kasumi running, probably the last one that Ryuken would afford her. She took the cue and sprinted off, banking right into a tight alley just as an arrow was about to sever her spine.

Damn, I really thought I had it, Kasumi thought to herself. What is Ryuken doing that I'm not?

Again, Ryuken halted his attack, but Kasumi knew that it wouldn't be long before he found her again. She could tell that the doctor was getting used to her patterns. The longer this went on, the worse her odds would become. If she wanted to get out of this, she had to conjure her Spirit Weapon now.

She thought back to how the reishi behaved when Ryuken was channeling it. The movement was violent, forceful, like Ryuken was yanking the reishi from the air and bending it to his will. Kasumi gasped as the realization hit her. Ryuken wasn't gently coaxing the reishi to come to him, nor was he demanding obedience from it. No, he was projecting his will onto it, like invisible tendrils reaching out through space to tear free the reishi that lay dormant in the atmosphere and hammering it into the shape of an instrument of bloodshed. A Quincy did not merely wield reishi, they enslaved it, shaping it with such dominance and certainty that it had no choice but to surrender to the Quincy's will. Such was the power of their ancient blood.

Thus, she closed her eyes again, and the reishi was there, as before. But to reach for it was insufficient. This, Kasumi now knew. So instead, she lunged at it with all her might, seizing it and forcing it to submit. The unstable energy fought back, threatening to disperse at every micro instant, but Kasumi's grip didn't waver. Now ripped free from the air, the reishi gathered in her Cross, building and building until it began to assume a tangible shape. Kasumi was barely able to tame the wild energy, and more than once the reishi nearly exploded in her grasp. With one final command, the reishi reached critical mass and blossomed. A stave of coruscating azure energy bloomed from Kasumi's cross, curving backwards on both ends until it resembled a bow. Finally, Kasumi had called forth her Spirit Weapon.

Turning on her heel, Kasumi raised her bow and pulled back the spectral drawstring. A barbed arrow materialized in the nocking point, emitting the same high-pitched whine that had been tormenting Kasumi for what felt like hours. Once Ryuken stepped into the alley, Kasumi loosed the arrow, which sped towards its target with ferocity matching that of the woman who unleashed it. Then, it exploded in a flash of brilliant blue light, kicking up a thick cloud of dust and debris that blinded Kasumi and sent her into a coughing fit.

Once the dust settled, Kasumi was able to behold the aftermath in its entirety. The angle at which she held the bow was skewed slightly downward, so the arrow had collided with the ground and detonated, leaving a shallow crater about two meters wide. Ryuken was nowhere to be found. Just as she was about to call out his name, she felt a hand on her shoulder. Yelping, she whipped her head around to see who it was. To her surprise, it was Ryuken.

"What? How did you-"

"Another technique that you'll have to learn in time," he said. He had dispelled his bow, and somehow, his suit was as spotless as ever. This was in stark contrast to Kasumi, whose school uniform was caked in soot and riddled with tears from countless close calls. All of that, and I still couldn't touch him, she thought to herself.

Turning his gaze downwards, Ryuken took a closer look at Kasumi's Spirit Weapon. Unlike his, it was made of raw, unrefined reishi, still rippling and fluctuating like the surface of the sun. Kasumi noticed this too, raising her bow to eye level to inspect it.

"Why's mine different?" she asked, evidently confused.

"You're a novice, so your control over reishi isn't as precise, hence the appearance of your Spirit Weapon. Given enough time, you'll be able to create something more stable," he explained. Makes sense, Kasumi thought. As with anything, it'd be strange if she did it perfectly on the first try. Regardless, she was immensely relieved to have finally summoned her Spirit Weapon. Not only did that mean she could finally go home, but it also showed her that Hueco Mundo was within reach, and with it, the truth. Looking down at her bow, she couldn't help but smile.

I can do this.

"As promised, I'm concluding our training for today. You may go home. Just dispel your weapon and I'll escort you outside."

Kasumi gave him a clueless look.

"Uh, how do I do that?"

A Message From The Author:

Sorry for the very inconsistent updates. College getting in the way, you know how it is. Anyway, please review. Your feedback would mean a lot.