Ichigo uses his claws to dig through the surface as he's "climbing" his way through the underground secret entrance while he's upside-down. The orange haired youth tries to be careful so as not to be heard by the people he's after. It's a good thing that Kisuke made the fabric he's wearing be elastic enough not to rip through the costume, otherwise it'd be a pain to fix it up every time, and he does not want a beating from Yoruichi while he's at it.
'Never would have thought they'd do it in a place like this,' Ichigo thinks, as he spots a dozen other gang members up ahead in front of the truck. Yet, crouching in front of him on a steel beam is Yor, dressing in her assassin uniform. 'Not sure if this is an actual place, or something that was built… just who is this Kingpin?'
Ichigo lets go of the wall, retracting his claws as he drops to the beam, landing next to Yor, "What did I miss?" Ichigo whispers as quietly as he can to the assassin woman.
"Nothing at all, they've just been talking nonsense before that truck arrived," The assassin replies as she pulls out her weapons. "But you're a little late."
"I'd say you're a little early," Ichigo wittingly replies in small annoyance. "If you haven't noticed, using claws is a bit harder to be sneaky with when you can't fit where the truck was going."
"Then maybe you shouldn't have been so hasty to follow." Yor rolls her eyes over her new partner's inexperience.
"Alright, what do we got here?" One of the Kingpin's thugs asks as he gets up from his seat. The truck stops as it gets shut off, before the doors open as two other henchmen step out of the vehicle.
"Good stuff that Mr. Fisk sent us." The thug driving the truck goes to the back and lifts the backdoor before pulling out craters, the other thug beside him picking a crowbar, shoving it into the wooden box and rams it open.
"Hohoho!" The other gang members are in glee at seeing the dozens of weapons that are stashed inside, "Now that's what I'm talking about!" He picks up a rifle, "ZPAP M70… heavy son of a bitch," He puts it in position to fire. "But pretty damn powerful. With this amount of firepower, we're gonna be running all over Japan in no time!"
"That's why America's stuff is just better!" The other member says.
A sudden burst of webbing seals the box shut, taking the gang members by surprise, and looking over where it came from. "Did America ever have weapons against this?" A young, cocky voice booms over, making the gang members pull their weapons, locked and loaded, at whatever source it is coming from.
"Who the hell?!"
"Ah no, it's that vigilante freak!"
"I thought you assholes said you weren't followed!"
"Boss is gonna have our heads for this!"
"Who gives a shit?! Just shoot him!" The reason they can't see Ichigo very well is due to all the darkness surrounding them, despite his red and blue colors being somewhat bright to see, making it somewhat easy for them to spot him, completely oblivious of the black laced assassin next to him.
They start shooting, and both partners leap out of the way, "No? Thought so." Ichigo spews out in annoyance as he lands in front of the group, before he flips over and kicks two of them in the face.
Yor dashes like a blur, weapons in her hands as she outspeeds the bullets being fired at her. She uses her powerful leg muscles to leap in the air and lands on one of the steel beams before leaping again, bending the steel right before she slashes both of their throats out. Blood spews out as they drop their weapons before they hit the pavement.
Ichigo webs one of the member's faces, yanking them to him before he performs a spin kick on his cheek, knocking him out as he hits the ground. The vigilante leaps out of the way when gunshots are fired at him, and whilst he is upside down, he fires two weblines at the pair of guns and yanks it out of their hands. The orange haired youth feels his feet touching the ceiling, before propelling himself down and bouncing around the walls before hitting one of the goons with his fist, though he makes sure to pull his punches.
The last gang member pulls out a knife from his pouch before charging at Ichigo, who has his back turned. Danger rings in his head, and Ichigo turns around to sidestep out of the way. The gang member thrust his knife to the side to slash Ichigo's throat, to which the vigilante ducks his body, thrusting his hand to grab the member's wrist, bending it enough so that it breaks his wrist, making the goon yell out in pain.
Ichigo kicks him in the chest, making the gang member stumble until he hits against the wall. The member whimpers in pain as he holds his now broken wrist. Ichigo doesn't give him time to recover as he grabs his shirt, curling it around so it gives a menacing look to make the goon be forced to look at the vigilante.
"Alright, start talking," Ichigo says as he clenches his grip on the gang member. "What's with these weapons you guys got? What did the Kingpin want with them?"
"Uuugh…" The thug groans as he looks at the vigilante, "Go fuck yourself…" He mutters.
"Wrong answer," Ichigo's left hand becomes clawed as he brings it towards the thug, "So unless you value your life, I suggest you start talking." He shoves his claws through the wall, right next to the thug's head, making a hole the size of his fist. "Let's try this again; What are you doing with these weapons?"
"Damn, freak, you're no better than those in America…" The thug starts to sweat, and begins to comply. "Didn't know we had to go up against you…"
"I said start talking!" Ichigo pushes him against the wall further. "Are you deaf?! Start giving the right answers or your head is gonna be full of holes!"
"Alright, alright! I was getting there!" The gang member yells. "Look… we were getting a shipment so that we could get more firepower by the Kingpin."
"What for?" Ichigo asks as he pulls his claws back, retracting them.
"It's so that Kingpin could give us serious firepower so we could take over Japan… but I'm sure you already knew that, considering the last guy who told you got killed, if that means anything to you…" The thug answers.
"Why do you want to take over Japan?" Ichigo wants to know as he glares at the thug. "What's the goal here?"
"I... I can't tell you that one," The thug shakily breathes out. "Boss would rip my insides if I told you this…"
"I'm gonna do a lot worse if you don't tell me," Ichigo lifts the man as high as he could, grinding his back against the wall. "Now talk. Why Japan of all places? Why this city?"
"I... I don't know how to tell you," Kingpin's goon says, feeling helpless at the situation he's in. With how "hard" Ichigo's grip is on him, he feels as though his ribcage is about to pop right open. "We came here because we needed another place for us to take over after the disaster that happened in America… but it's Kingpin, for all you know that guy probably thinks 10 steps ahead of what he really wants to do. We don't know what he really wants… or if that's just what he needs, a base of operations."
"Is it true that he wants to take over all of it? Every single place?" Ichigo asks.
"Maybe… Kingpin is a very ambitious man," The thug replies weakly, "Who knows how much he wants. Could be just this city, maybe the country, hell, maybe even the whole for all I know. I'm barely an officer."
"Since that's the case, I guess you no longer have any use for us." Before Ichigo could look, Yor strikes the man Ichigo is holding with her knives, piercing it with swift accuracy through his throat. Ichigo widens his eyes in shock behind his mask. The man gurgles as blood spews out, landing on Ichigo's hands. The contact of blood makes the young Substitute accidentally let him go as he backs away.
"What did…?" Ichigo watches as he sees the man dying, with Yor making an indifferent expression, "What did you do?!" He reaches for his cellphone to call for an ambulance, but he feels an immense pressure on his wrist. He looks over to see Yor standing beside him, holding his wrist. "Let go!" Ichigo slowly lifts his arm to get away from the black assassin's grip.
"There's no point, he's already dead. Even if he were alive, he's already lost too much blood," Yor says. "Besides, I figured it's better this way."
"Better this…" Ichigo can't believe what he's hearing. "Have you lost it!? You have any idea what you're—!"
"Saying? Yes, exactly." Yor lets go of his hand, and Ichigo prompts to glare at her. "I'm an assassin, Ichigo—"
"Don't just say that!" Ichigo argues.
"Don't worry, there's no-one here alive to hear that anymore." Ichigo proceeds to look over, and the previous unconscious victims he put are now dead with some bits of blood coming out of them.
"What is your deal!?"
"The deal is, is that I wanna help you out," Ichigo gives an incredulous look. "You do your methods, and I do mine."
"And I had that under my control! So why the hell did you step in like that?!" Ichigo demands to know as he clenches his fists.
"It benefits both of us," Ichigo proceeds to grab her by her collar, giving a death glare that Yor isn't intimidated by. "What is your problem?"
"My problem is you're just going out killing people!" Ichigo exclaims. "I get that you're an assassin—"
"And what? It's wrong? Is that what you're going to say?" Yor says in an uninterested tone.
"No shit it's wrong!" Ichigo spouts, "I understand if there's no other choice, but these guys had one! That wasn't necessary!"
"You're naive," Yor puts her hand on Ichigo's wrist, forcing him to pull away. "If you really care about this city half as much as you claim, then you have to do what needs to be done here."
"How is killing these people gonna help with that?!" Ichigo demands to know.
"Let me finish before you spout more gibberish," Yor calmly says, "I'm not saying you should kill anyone you see, but we don't have much of a choice in this matter," Before Ichigo can speak, Yor speaks faster. "Now you listen here, going easy on them isn't gonna be solving things, at least not as quickly. Let me ask you: What are these people doing?"
"You mean besides selling weapons?" Ichigo sarcastically replies back.
"They're preparing for some kind of war," Yor folds her arms, "And trying to kill you for that matter," The assassin pokes her finger at Ichigo's chest. "And your response to all this is just incapacitating them, taking them to their cells, and what, hope for the best? There are going to be casualties involved if we don't stop them."
"I still put them away…" Ichigo tries to think of something to argue back, but for some reason very little is coming to his mind. "I can't just kill people…"
"But they just end up coming back. I heard about this Kingpin, and he's one of, if not the most dangerous person I hope I don't have to kill in my line of work. He pays fees to free his employees, and believe me, for someone like him, it doesn't cost very much," Yor sighs as she lets go of her folded arms. "But that's besides the point. Once this war breaks out, are you really going to be worried about looking good and just stop a senseless slaughter?"
"I…" Ichigo doesn't know what to say. He's not sure of what to say exactly. His mind feels blank, as he can't come up with anything for a comeback. He makes a sigh, "Let's just go…" His conscience says that it's still wrong in a sense to do this, but his deep, layered instincts say otherwise, recalling the words his Inner Hollow told him.
He wouldn't hesitate to kill the Arrancars anymore, that much is clear. But these are actual human beings that haven't died yet. It just feels wrong, but it's something Ichigo can't explain why.
Maybe because a part of him thinks that Yor might have given a good idea…
Night reigns over Karakura, and while many would be sleeping, there are those who are like night owls, who like to stay overnight and do something they like before heading to sleep. But there are those who tend to stay over more practical means, such as staying up all night to finish work for a deadline, or other business matters.
For The Kingpin, one could say he is doing precisely that. Standing in his office are several shadowy figures that make them difficult to distinguish due to the night, with only some light illuminating them thanks to the moon.
"Alright, Mr. Fisk, what is it that you called us here for?" The first man puts his hands on Kingpin's desk.
"I am glad you came as soon as I made myself clear," Kingpin puts his elbows against his Italian wooden table. "And please, do drop the Fisk name. The Kingpin is more appropriate for business like this."
"Let's not pretend we don't know who you are, Mr. Fisk. Either way, we're not interested in knowing who you are. Just tell us what you want, and we might consider giving it to you. This is simply a business transaction." The third man says.
"Splendid," Kingpin presses his fingers together with a smile, "Now, to get straight to the point with you gentlemen, you have something that is of use to me. I want your weapon, Kwannon." He says.
This makes the men in the room stay silent, as they cast glances at one another before they look back at Fisk. "Pardon?" One of the men asks in a bewildered tone.
"I believe I made myself clear, did I not?" Kingpin leans back against his chair. "There is a certain enemy that's proving to be rather troublesome. So I want your greatest weapon to be rid of him."
"But why go through such extremes?" One of the men asks in confusion. "Surely you realize that sending Kwannon to deal with an insect is rather… overkill, is it not?"
"I understand your concerns, gentlemen," Kingpin replies, "But rest assured, this will only be temporary. I had sources before that told me how capable Kwannon is, and I know the secret behind her psychic powers as well. With her skills, this will surely bring that accursed arachnid down."
"But why her?" The other man in the room asks. "That still doesn't explain anything."
"Ever since that Spider showed up, he's been bringing down my business, and that is something I cannot tolerate. When someone crosses the Kingpin, they pay dearly for their insolence. Each time I send stronger mercenaries to deal with him, they fail me, and that is also something I do not accept," Kingpin begins to explain. "However, Kwannon is a different case. Her unique abilities will attack The Spider in a manner he will not be prepared for, leading him to his eventual demise."
"So… you want him dead then?" The second man in the room questions.
"Precisely," Kingpin smiles. "And in return, I will owe you a favor and offer the finest resources for whatever purposes you may need at any time. We may be enemies in a sense, but that doesn't mean that for business, we cannot be allies with one another. So… I assume we have a deal?"
The men in the room look at one another, as if having a psychic connection as they're not speaking. The other men then look at Kingpin and nod their head, "Alright, Mr. Fisk, if what you're saying is true, and presume you don't backstab us, this will be a good test for our weapon." One of them says.
"Splendid," Kingpin smiles in delight. "I am glad that I have cooperation, gentlemen. You will not regret this."
"And neither will you, Mr. Fisk." The men reply as they turn around to leave, leaving a single, lone woman by her lonesome. The sound of the door closing is heard.
"I assure you that you will not disappoint me, Kwannon?" Kingpin asks with a confident grin on his face, now being more than sure that everything is under his control.
The woman doesn't say anything, rather she silently glares at the Kingpin, who seems to be rather amused, "I assume that there will be no problems between us?" Kingpin says. "Otherwise, it would be detrimental to our business."
Kwannon begins to walk over to Kingpin, her fists clenched. Kingpin doesn't seem to be bothered by this, until he widens his eyes as he holds his head in pain, "Nnngh…" Kingpin feels as though his mind is being torn apart, getting up from his seat. "Aaaah!" Kingpin rolls over, feeling as though thousands of needles are poking into his mind.
"Let's make one thing clear here, Kingpin…" Kwannon says as she walks over to the man, "I belong to no-one, and that especially includes you," She kneels down next to the rolling man who is yielding in great pain. "The only reason I'm doing this is because I don't have much of a choice in the matter. I'll work with you, but never for you. Do we have an understanding?" She then releases the psychic hold she has over Kingpin.
Kingpin takes a moment to recover, as he feels as though he has run a marathon, and takes the opportunity to glare at his new employee. No-one does that to him and lives. But for now, he hasn't much of a choice in the matter.
"Now… tell me how to find this man, and everything you know about him."
In Karakura High, Ichigo is pressing his elbow against his desk, resting his chin against the palm of his hand. He isn't able to focus or pay attention to his class whatsoever, as his mind keeps ringing back to what Yor had told him.
'Why do I keep thinking of this?' Ichigo thinks to himself, his mind turbulent, as it is so deep that he can't hear a word as to what the teacher is saying. 'Why do I keep thinking back to what she said?'
"Once this war breaks out, are you really going to be worried about looking good and just stop a senseless slaughter?"
'Is that really what I'm worried about?' Ichigo lightly taps his fingers against the desk, 'I don't want anyone I know to die… but can I really just kill people?' He thinks back to his last fight with Kariya, and how he killed the man. 'Kariya was someone I had no choice in the manner. If I hadn't, everyone would have died, including my friends.'
"If you don't have the resolve to endure such an eternal struggle, then you will eventually succumb and die."
'The next time the Arrancars show up, I don't think I can have hesitation in killing them,' Ichigo thinks back to his last fight against Grimmjow, 'Especially that bastard,' He stops tapping his fingers against the table, 'But this isn't about them now. This is about those punks threatening my city. They aren't Hollows, nor do I have a point to prove against them. They're just human beings…' It's then he scoffs internally. 'Yeah, humans who won't have a problem killing innocent people to get what they want. Just how much can I stop?'
These questions are something that bother him greatly, and none of them have any answers to what he's looking for, 'I just don't know…' Ichigo cups his fingers together, feeling as though he's alone in the dark.
The school bell rings, and all the students get up from their seats as they finish their last class for today. As Ichigo is walking down the hallway, he gets called out by a familiar voice, "Ichigooooooo!" Keigo shouts as he runs maniacally towards the lad, jumping in the air to give a fierce hug, but Ichigo steps out of the way, "Owwwwww…" Keigo rubs his face from the pain. He then points an accusing finger at Ichigo, crying hysterically, "Hey, what's the big idea!? I say hi and you just ignore me!?"
"With how you act, Mr. Asano, I'd ignore you as well." Mizuiro says as he walks past where Keigo is lying.
"Stop calling me Mr. Asano!" Keigo barks. "I have a name you know!"
"Whatever you say, Mr. Asano."
"Raaaaarh!" Keigo then magically appears next to Ichigo, "So, Ichigo, how about we hang out at the arcade? Y'know, just us guys having fun like the crazy teenagers we are!"
"Sorry. I can't," Ichigo replies as he only stares at the direction in front of him, "Maybe some other time." He says, starting to walk faster.
"Oh, let me guess! You have to study!" Keigo then begins to cry comically yet again, "You're a traitor to your own people!"
"... That was weird." Mizuiro says, getting his eyes off his phone as he looks at Ichigo.
"Huh? What is?" Keigo asks, snapping out of his tremor.
"Ichigo. The way he's talking makes it seem like something is bothering him," Mizuiro says, scratching his hair. "But I'm not sure what…"
Ichigo fires one web after the other, traveling by his lonesome, as he makes a backflip when letting go of his webbing before firing another one from his wrist, turning around the block as he continues to swing in his costume.
'I needed this air…' Ichigo thinks as he starts performing acrobatics when he lets go of his web, running on a rooftop as he does parkour, 'I don't know how long I could handle being cooped up in there. Feels like I was about to blow it,' The teenager lands on an air vent before leaping into the air, 'I don't think that having thoughts like whether I should kill people or not is good for me to begin with. I just don't know what to do with all this,' He seemingly freedives to the ground, before he extends his arms and grabs a lamp post, making a flip whilst still holding on before letting go, making a large boost in his momentum as he leaps far and wide. 'So why then…'
The Spider spins a web as he twists and pearls in between an alley, rolling against the walls before he leaps and starts swinging, 'Why is it that a part of me thinks she might be right? I mean, am I really gonna pull my punches if everybody is in danger of dying?' He imagines the scenario briefly playing out in his head, where a gang member is holding innocent people hostage, and ones deranged enough to blow their brains out, and now he imagines if someone like his sisters were involved. 'And someone help me… because I don't think I could hold back if I wanted to.'
Unknown to him, he is being watched by Kwannon, observing him from the shadows, 'This is someone who the great Kingpin was worried about?' The woman thinks before she starts running among the rooftop, following her target with keen precision so that she doesn't get detected. 'Look at him. His moves are sluggish and amateurish. He makes his trace too obvious to follow.'
Kwannon leaps from one rooftop after the other, her moves being so silent that even a deer wouldn't be able to detect her. As she is approaching closer, it's then she closes her eyes and focuses on Ichigo. 'This is almost too easy. With my abilities, a simple attack of his mind would instantly kill a human. I almost pity him.'
It's then she sends out her psychic attack on Ichigo's mind. Once the boy feels this, his eyes widen as he feels as though a knife has been stabbed into his brain, forcibly letting go of his webbing, "Kgh!" Behind his mask, Ichigo grits his teeth as he falls to a nearby rooftop, clenching his head in excruciating pain. "Gaaaaaaaaagh!"
Imagine the worst pain you ever felt in your life, whether it be a stub on the toe, hitting a wall, or falling on the ground, or even getting stabbed, imagine all of this happening to you, but increased to a hundredfold. That's the pain young Ichigo is experiencing. His body crashes through a chimney, splitting it in two, but that's the least of Ichigo's concerns. "Aaaaaaaargh!" The teenager continues to clutch his head as he rolls over the pavement, arching his back.
'He… he's not dead!?' Kwannon widens her eyes, sensing the struggle that's happening within Ichigo's mind, 'How!?' Needing to have a closer range for her abilities to be more effective, Kwannon runs over to where she last saw Ichigo, before she suddenly feels her control slipping, as though a wall is breaching between them, 'What!? What just happened!?' She stops short of her destination, noting the mental link has somehow been blocked.
Ichigo lets go of his head, sweat profusely coming from inside his mask as he starts getting up, "What the hell was that…?" He asks particularly no-one, feeling a little wobbly as he shakes his head. He feels as though he suffered a migraine he's never felt before. "What just happened?"
Suddenly, his sense of danger starts tingling in his head, and it is out of pure instinct that Ichigo gets out of the way when Kwannon moves in for the kill with her sword and misses. Ichigo twists his body in mid-air before landing on the pavement.
The two stay silent for a moment as Kwannon gets up, looking at each other through eye contact, "Impressive… perhaps you're not such an amateur after all, if you could sense me attacking you from behind like that," The woman whirls her sword. "Even other professionals have a hard time dodging that…"
"And just who the hell are you?" Ichigo asks with a certain sense of edge in his tone. He is tense because of the mind tearing experience he just went through, not to mention this woman that tried to kill him just now. "Are you working with the Kingpin? Or someone else? Because right now, I'm really not in the mood for this…"
"Too bad for you, because I'm here to take your life," Kwannon gets into a stance with her katana, "But if it makes you feel any better, this isn't anything personal…"
"Trying to kill me? Yeah, I take that pretty personally," Ichigo slowly starts to move in circles around Kwannon. "Now who the hell are you?"
"You know that I can't tell you my name, especially for who I work for," Kwannon replies as she stands still. "Otherwise that goes against our job."
"So I guess I'll just have to beat it out of you," Ichigo stands at Kwannon's right side. "Fine with me, that's more my style anyways."
"Oh?" Kwannon makes a teasing smile. "You're not afraid to hit a woman?"
"Lady, I could give less of a shit who you are. You started this fight, so I sure as hell am gonna finish it," Ichigo stops where he is, thinking of what his next move is going to be. After pondering for a bit, he thinks it's better to attack from a mid range distance for now. With that said and done, Ichigo fires both of his webs from his wrists, but to his surprise, Kwannon reacts instantaneously as she seemingly cuts his webs with just her bare hands. "The hell!?"
"Why do you look so surprised?" The female assassin smiles in amusement as she strides towards the young teenager, only for him to leap away backwards. "Did you think it'd be that easy to handle me? You're a bit on the naive side, aren't you?"
'How did she do that just now?!' Ichigo thinks back to when Kwannon cut his webbing just now, 'She couldn't have done that with her bare hands just now, could she?' He stays still, being unsure if he should move or not. 'No… if anything, it looked as though she cut the webs before they made contact with her… but that can't be.'
Ichigo widens his eyes when Kwannon leaps straight towards him, her hands clenching as she seems to be holding onto something. Out of pure instinct, Ichigo bends backwards, digging his claws on the object he's holding onto before kicking Kwannon by her stomach, sending her flying.
"What the…?" Ichigo is briefly stunned at what he did, before he shakes his head and goes after his assassin. He leaps from the pavement and fires yet another strand of webbing at the assassin's leg, to which she responds by twisting her body to unnatural degrees for a human and cuts the strand of webbing with some kind of an energy blade.
'The hell is that?!' Ichigo grits his teeth, seeing Kwannon make a backflip and lands on another building, making a stance, 'At least she can't cut it with her hands! I know that much now! So what is she doing!?' The vigilante makes a flip of his own as he lands behind Kwannon, before the boy immediately makes a backflip and hurls his leg to hit Kwannon with it, only for her to leap away, causing Ichigo to form a hole by the force of his attack.
Kwannon briefly lands on a pipe before she hurls herself at Ichigo, to which he avoids her deadly attack. Now that they're on even ground, Ichigo responds first by leaping at his assassin and launching a spin kick in mid-air. He misses, and Ichigo hisses as he can feel blood drawing from his leg from Kwannon's mysterious weapon.
She runs towards him, and Ichigo fires a web ball at her eye sockets, to which Kwannon deflects with her invisible weapon, 'How is she doing that!?' Ichigo thinks, leaping out of his position so that he lands behind the assassin, 'They can't be some kind of Spirit weapons, I don't sense anything like that! So what are they!?' He thinks in frustration, "Hey! Time out for a second! How the hell are you doing that!?"
"Doing what?" Kwannon asks in correspondence.
"Those… things on your hands! What are they?!" Ichigo slowly starts moving in circles, and so too does Kwannon.
"These things?" Kwannon looks at her energy blades. "They're just my weapons."
"Not like any weapons I've ever seen," Ichigo gets ready to lunge at her. "Those wouldn't happen to be made of Spirit Energy, would they?"
"Spirit Energy…?" Kwannon mutters with a confused look on her face. "Never heard of it. What is that supposed to be?"
"... Forget I said anything." Ichigo replies as he stops moving, getting into a stance.
"No, really, what is that? I'm quite curious to know where you got that form…" Kwannon also stops, lowering her knives. "You seem to know more than you let on… you're more than just some punk in a costume, aren't you?"
"Like I said, forget I said anything." Ichigo replies, feeling dumb for saying this without thinking. With his experience from Yulan, he isn't sure if this assassin knows anything about the spiritual side of the world. And now that he thinks about it, it's dumb to think of a human who can wield spiritual powers without being dead.
"Secretive, aren't we?" Kwannon grins in amusement. "But fine by me. My orders are to capture you dead anyway."
"By whose orders?" Ichigo glares behind his mask. "Kingpin's? Or somebody else?"
"Why don't you take a guess?" Kwannon rhetorically responds before she lunges forward with her blades. She swings the one in her right hand in a downward diagonal position, to which Ichigo twists his body to dodge the lethal blow.
'She's fast!' Ichigo thinks, 'Faster than Yor!' He dodges another slash coming for his head. He leaps backwards, putting his hands on the ground before jumping forward, kicking Kwannon on her stomach, the impact of the force sending her flying as she falls down from the roof.
Ichigo waits for Kwannon to emerge from her fall, but as he keeps waiting, nothing comes out, "What the…?" The teenager slowly walks over, wondering if he hit her too hard, which makes him somewhat worried. But as he stands over the edge of the roof, he doesn't see a body anywhere from his enhanced vision, 'Where did she go?' Ichigo thinks in confusion, slowly tilting his head as he keeps looking. 'I don't see her anywhere.'
He then hops down from the roof he is standing on and goes to ground zero, making a small crater sized hole in doing so before getting out of it. The young man treads carefully as he tilts his head, relying on his danger sense to spot where she could be, 'Did she go back where she came from?' Ichigo thinks, looking behind to see if he'd be attacked from his blind spot just in case.
No such luck. So, Ichigo continues to walk, 'I don't get it,' He leaps to the wall, sticking his claws to the wall as he looks down below, not finding a single spot for her, 'Where could she have disappeared to? Man, these assassins really are something else…' He hops back down on the ground, putting his hands on his hips. 'I didn't even get her name. Guess it's time for me to head on home and—'
Suddenly, tingles of danger ring loudly in his head as the back of his hairs stand up. Kwannon is seen standing behind Ichigo, blades in her hands as she slowly brings them to Ichigo's throat. The vigilante reacts by leaping his body through the air and landing on the other side of the wall, acting out of flight-or-fight instinct.
'That was too close!' Ichigo thinks as he hears his heart beating in his ears, 'Another second and I'd have been a goner!' He looks at his would-be-killer, 'How did she sneak up on me like that?! I never heard anything!' He glares behind his mask, "How did you do that just now!?" He demands to know.
"Are you really that surprised? I hid my presence well enough, and thanks to my training, I can be as silent as a leaf…" Kwannon spins her blades as she prepares a stance for herself, "Meanwhile, the better question is: how did you know I was coming without even being aware?"
"As if you'd know, bitch." Ichigo spits.
"My, my, how very rude of you. I'm at least being honest," Kwannon seems to be amused, "Though thanks to you leaving yourself wide open, I have a good answer as to how you avoided your death just now," She grins. "Since I'm able to use my mind powers for less lethal methods, I was able to probe into your mind…"
"What the hell are you on about?" Ichigo asks in confusion.
"You have an extrasensory ability that allows you to detect danger from any angle, isn't that right?" Kwannon teases as she slowly starts approaching Ichigo, who slowly widens his eyes, "Before the danger happens, this ability allows you to briefly look into the future whenever you are in danger, acting as some kind of a sonar, though you don't seem to be aware of this…" She then stops her movements, and Ichigo slowly goes back.
"How did you—?!"
"I can play that game too… though this also tells me you're new at this," Kwannon then extends her hand forward, pointing at Ichigo, "This ability allows you to see a second, maybe two seconds into the future, and that's enough to give you an edge over many opponents, but you have poor usage of this. So, to level the playing field, I'll just probe into your mind and guess which movements you make."
Ichigo doesn't say anything, rather he jumps in the air, twisting his body as he lands on the other wall before he leaps towards Kwannon, his fist lunging at her, "Bad move on your part!" Kwannon exclaims as she turns around to strike at Ichigo's head in an attempt to decapitate him.
Only for Ichigo to grab her wrist, and twists his body to an unnatural degree in an attempt to kick her, but Kwannon dodges and twists her body to stab Ichigo, only to deflect it with his claws on instinct, "I had a feeling you'd try something like that, but good to see you're not hopeless." She says.
Ichigo holds his clawed fingers in pain from the sharp blows he dealt with the assassin's sword just now, still keeping his eyes on her, "Yet the way you fight, it tells me you have actual experience in fighting, as though you were trained. So that tells me that you had proper training before you became a hero. Were you in the military or something?"
Ichigo smirks behind his mask. "Lady, you wouldn't believe the kind of training I have…"
"Try me…" Kwannon then throws her blade, to which Ichigo leaps out of the way, but before he could fully stick to the walls, he falls down on the ground, holding his head as he yells out in pain.
"Aaaaaaargh!" Ichigo cries out in pain, rolling around the pavement as a rose-like beam is seen attached to his head. 'Not… again!'
"This oughta take care of you…" Kwannon says as she walks over to Ichigo, "You may have resisted my control before from afar… but at this range? You're under my control," Ichigo couldn't form any words from his mouth, besides just screaming. "Whatever training you did, they surely didn't teach you how to handle psychic attacks, did they? Don't worry, it'll be over soon…"
Ichigo clenches his teeth, feeling as though his head is on fire, "Kkkkgh!" The teenager tries to get up, so he could put a stop to Kwannon and whatever mind games she is releasing, but he just isn't able to, "Nnngh…!" Ichigo clenches his teeth, curling his knees together.
"It'll be a lot less painful if you stand down," Kwannon says.
"Go… to… hell!" Ichigo grits his teeth, trying to use every ounce of his strength to break through Kwannon's mind attack, 'How do I… break through?!' He pops his claws, tearing through the ground as if to release some of the pain he's feeling.
'Come on…' Kwannon begins to release more power from her attack, magnifying it, 'It's like there's a wall blocking me so I don't fully kill him… well in that case…' Kwannon walks over to Ichigo, putting her hand directly on his head, releasing her full power for a brief moment.
There is no flash of light, or anything as fancy as that, it is just her hand glowing in energy. Ichigo stops screaming, now his mind becomes shattered, "Ugg…" He falls down on the ground with a soft thud.
Kwannon wipes off the sweat on her head, taking a few moments to breathe, 'Finally,' She thinks, 'That wall is destroyed. I dunno what that was all about, but it's been a while since someone had such a strong resistance to my psychic attacks,' She then leans down and touches Ichigo's masked head, 'There's nothing there… I can't tell if he's dead or not. Is he in a coma?' Her fingers then touch the fabric of his mask, 'Well, since I can't tell what's going on in his head, guess I gotta check what happened to his body.' She proceeds to take off his mask, and she's surprised to see the orange haired young man.
'A kid!?' Kwannon is in shock, as Ichigo's brown eyes now stand lifeless before her, 'No way… this is what the Kingpin was worried about!?' After about a few seconds, she carefully places her fingers on his neck, checking for a pulse, 'He's alive… so he must be knocked out. So I guess in order to fully finish him off…' Kwannon places her hand on Ichigo's forehead, 'I have to tear him apart from the inside.'
It's as though entering another dimension, one where time and space operate on a different scale, and so too do the laws and logic of this world. Ichigo lies down inside his Inner World, where the tall buildings are covered by dark, gray clouds, and the buildings have suffered some damage as there are notable cracks indebted to it.
The young Substitute begins to stir before opening his eyes, groaning in pain as he holds his hand, "Man, is this what a hangover feels like?" Ichigo sarcastically rebuts before getting a clear look where he's at, and he's shocked to see his Inner World, "What the—?" He gets up fully, whirling his head in confusion. "What am I doing back in this place?"
"What… is this place?"
An unknown female voice is heard, and Ichigo jolts his head, turning around to see a shocked looking Kwannon standing not far from where he's at. Both look at each other, and simultaneously widen their eyes.
"You!?" Ichigo's first instinct acts up. He runs over to Kwannon, leaping high in the air, "What the hell are you doing here?!" He curls his hand into a fist, launching his full strength to smash Kwannon's face in, only for her backflip away, leaving Ichigo to smash a window instead.
"That's what I wanna know," Kwannon answers, "I only got to whatever this place is because I entered your mind, and from the looks of things, pretty lonely up in here," She puts her hands on her hips. "And why are the buildings sideways?"
"Lady, I'm only going to say this once…" Ichigo clenches his fist, along with his teeth. "Get the hell out of my world, or you're really going to regret it. I am not in a good mood right now."
"And what can a kid like you do to me?" Kwannon asks, being unimpressed with his threat. "We just had our little skirmish. And we know how that went."
"Who the hell are you calling a kid?" Ichigo asks, being aware that he's still in his costume, along with still having his mask on.
"Don't bother, I already took off your mask before I got here." Kwannon says, making Ichigo widen his eyes in shock.
"You're lying…" Ichigo replies, trying to keep his cool.
"Does having orange spiky hair leave a hint?" The female assassin bluntly says, leaving her hand out of her hip, forming an energy dagger. Ichigo doesn't say anything. "How old even are you?"
"I'm telling you to get out—!"
"Not until I kill you," Kwannon prepares a stance, "And besides, at the moment you seem to be more so unconscious. I was thinking of taking you back the way you are now… but that wouldn't suffice to my superiors. Orders are orders," She then manifests about dozens of energy blades from behind, floating in the air. "Even if I don't like them."
Kwannon launches the blades at Ichigo, to which he avoids each and every single one of them by twisting his body. He rolls over the ground and fires a strand of webbing at his enemy, only for her to cut it apart with a katana.
'Damn it!' Ichigo thinks. 'No matter how much I fire my webs, I can't take any damage without getting closer!'
Kwannon fires more of her weapons, and Ichigo leaps away from the building he is standing on and fires a web to get away, needing to think, 'Need to find the heart of the weakness… but which one?!' Kwannon then starts coming after him as she starts boosting herself with her psychic energy as a form of flight. 'I couldn't find anything! She's too good!' It's as though he's fighting Yoruichi all over, and in his human form he's limited to—
Wait.
Human?
Thunder strikes in Ichigo's head, coming up with an idea, 'Hold on a minute…' He looks back at Kwannon, who's getting closer to him, 'This is supposed to be my mental world, isn't it? Doesn't that mean I can do whatever I want?' He stops swinging and lands on one of the buildings, his back turned. "She knows who I am…'
'What is he doing?' Kwannon thinks in confusion as she sees Ichigo suddenly stopping. 'Has he given up or something?'
'Maybe the problem isn't really finding her own weaknesses, but my own...' Ichigo slowly raises his arm, confusing Kwannon even more, 'She knows who I am… which means I gotta take care of her, quickly.' His body begins to glow in blue energy. 'Why do I have to fight like I'm human? She's already known this about me so far… so why not beat her at her own game?'
Suddenly, his body explodes with vibrant energy that shoots up at the sky, wind hollering as it forms a tornado, pushing Kwannon back with its sheer force, "Zangetsu!" Ichigo turns around and fires a beam of pure energy at Kwannon before the blade could be fully formed.
Kwannon gasps, as with years of training and assassinations, her body moves on its own as she dodges the beam that slices a building in half. The energy dissipates, as Ichigo stands proudly with his Zanpakuto at hand.
"What the…" Kwannon gets on her knees, being in shock of what happened, seeing the boy before her turning into something completely different, and radiating pure power, 'A black… kimono? A huge sword?' Kwannon thinks as she gets up, taking a few steps back. "What… what are you?"
"Surprised?" Ichigo asks in a tone of cockiness. "This is my real power."
"Your real… power?" Kwannon doesn't understand this. "What happened? What did you just do?!"
"Like I said, you wouldn't believe the kind of training I had to go through," Ichigo lowers his sword, "Now… let's try this again." He uses Flash Step to get behind her.
Kwannon silently gasps as she senses Ichigo's presence, 'When did he—?!' Ichigo backhands her face, sending her flying back as she bounces against the building several times before using her powers to stop herself, 'How… how did he get this strong!?' Kwannon glares at the young man who holds his sword over his shoulder.
"I'm going to tell you this one more time," Ichigo points his sword to her. "Get the hell out of my world… or else you're gonna regret it."
"Don't pull that crap on me," Kwannon glares at Ichigo, "You're just a kid, you don't even know how to deal with torture or where to start for that matter. My superiors know otherwise. I'm not getting out of this place until I have to kill you."
"And just how do you plan on doing that?" Ichigo begins to walk towards her. "You're outmatched here. You can't beat me."
"You think just because you have strength now, you can do whatever you want?" Kwannon forms her blades, "Well you're wrong. It takes more than just power to beat someone."
"So what do you propose then?" Ichigo asks, "Stay here? Because once I beat you, I might as well get information out of where you come from. I might not be able to get you to spill… but I know some people who'll be willing to do so," He then stops his footsteps. "But I know one thing for certain."
"What would that be?"
"I'm getting you out of my world," Ichigo says, "There's some things I need to figure out, and I don't need some bitch in a ninja suit to give me more problems than I already have. I can't have you tell anyone about who I am, so I'm gonna have to stop you…" His body glows with blue aura before he charges at Kwannon. "No matter what!"
'He's fast!' Putting her energy katana to use, she brings it horizontally before Ichigo swings his sword vertically, their blades clashing, 'His sword… it's so heavy!' She buckles down on her knee, with Ichigo yelling. Suddenly, she feels her body beginning to dematerialize, glowing in pink. Kwannon widens her eyes in shock, feeling her connection in this world ceasing to disappear, 'No way… my body is actually disappearing!?' Particles flow out of her body. 'Through sheer force of will!? Just who or… what is this boy?!'
"Hraaaaaaaugh!" Ichigo continues to push down, noticing that particles are coming out of Kwannon, but he doesn't care. He needs her out.
"Well I'll give you this…" Kwannon says, "You sure are an interesting one…" It's then her whole body disappears from this realm, making Ichigo accidentally slash through the Reishi of the building.
"Huh?" Ichigo widens his eyes a bit, his adrenaline beginning to calm down.
Back in the real world, Kwannon groans in great pain as she holds her head, and Ichigo begins to stir, also groaning. He uses his body to support himself, despite the constant shaking he's upholding.
"Now then…" Ichigo says, using a wall to support himself, despite mental strain he's sustained. "Where were we?"
"I recommend you give yourself some time to adjust after what we just experienced. Our link is all sorts of messed up…" Kwannon says, struggling to get up.
"Link?" Ichigo asks.
"Like you just experienced, when I enter inside someone's mind, we form a bond together…" Kwannon uses her body for support in an attempt to get up. "You completely shattered it, you didn't get out of this naturally. Now we're both suffering from the feedback because of you."
"Heh, I guess that puts us on even ground now," Ichigo smirks. "Now it's just a question of who can last longer."
"You're crazy, kid."
Suddenly, before Kwannon could get up, she feels a mighty blow penetrate her body, sending Kwannon flying as she crashes against a dumpster, landing a hard blow. The oncomer is none other than Yor, as she stands on the pavement, making a fighting stance.
Ichigo widens his eyes as he holds his hip, "Yor!?" He exclaims, showing his surprise. "What are you—!?"
"You didn't show up for a while…" Yor replies quickly, eyeing the assailant. "I was searching for you, since you usually patrol at this time from what I understood. It looks like it's a good thing that I showed up, you seemed to be in trouble."
"Uh…" Ichigo blinks. "Yeah... I guess I was. Thanks for that."
'I…' Kwannon can barely think through the pain, but she now understands she needs to get out of here, 'I have to run. I can't take this anymore. I can't fight both of them at once. Not in the condition I'm in.' Reaching for her pouch, she forcefully moves her body as she reaches for a smoke bomb and throws it on the ground.
Yor widens her eyes before she immediately starts running for the assailant, who is running as fast as she possibly can, her speed still being remarkable. Yor then hears something collapse, turning her head to see Ichigo down on the ground. Having no time to check on him, she continues her pursuit for the other assassin, only to find that she disappeared.
Confused, Yor goes to turn around the corner, looking at her left, right, and upwards. Seeing that she can't find the assailant, she turns around and runs over to Ichigo, "Are you okay?" Yor shakes his shoulder, trying to keep him awake.
She gets no response.
She turns him over, and puts her head on his chest in an attempt to hear his heartbeat. She hears it, but it's not as strong as it should be, 'He's unconscious,' She thinks before she puts her hand on his forehead, and she feels it burning. 'A fever?' Yor gets concerned, 'I don't know what happened, but whatever it is, it's nothing good.' The assassin then picks up Ichigo's unconscious body, carrying him bridal style. 'I have to take him to a hospital.'
Hello everyone, chapter 14 of this rewrite is now complete. Hope you guys enjoy it, and hopefully it doesn't really take so long to do Chapter 15, but other than that I'll be doing an update on the newer chapters.
Kwannon for the less involved comic fans that don't read the comics and more so watch the cartoons and movies, this is a character from the 616 Marvel Comics where she belongs to a group called The Hand. Long story short, this is not truly her original body. What I mean by that is she was originally in a different body from the more well known Betsy Braddock, but from what I was informed she basically got body snatched and is kind of back in her original body? I'm not too sure on the history, but I used her Japanese counterpart just so it'd be able to fit in, because again, standard Spider-Man villains cannot be involved in this so far since the situation in the story just wouldn't add up, even though it would be easier to come up with their situations and just fight Ichigo.
Now this version of Kwannon, aka Psylocke, has a bit of a different story than her 616 counterpart. There is kind of going to be body snatching involved, but not to the same degree.
Now as for Ichigo, I figured during the last chapter I would explore more on his killing side of things. We know that in his fight with Hollow Ichigo he had to be taught to be willing to kill his enemies in war coming up, and in Canon his first real kill is with Ginjo that is pretty important for Ichigo's character. In this he's already killed Kariya, a human, but the goal behind this is whether or not he should kill normal humans who are basically threatening the safety of his loved ones where he has no choice: Would it be better to incapacitate them or just kill them outright? Ichigo doesn't really have an answer to this quite yet, and the question also arises: Will he actually kill this much earlier before his final battle with Ginjo? The answer: Stick around and find out.
Now for the little fight in Ichigo's Inner World, I remember in the Bleach Anime that Ichigo was able to enter his Inner World in his human form in the first episode of the Zanpakuto Rebellion arc, so I thought of using this against a telepath like Kwannon, where he's pushed back into a corner and win this. I figured if Zangetsu does ask him about the forest and stuff, then in theory he should be able to do anything he can since the Inner World is one's own mental mind.
That's about it for now. Until then, see you next time