Chapter 12: Data hive

A few weeks passed after the attack on both Ichigo and Masaki and things were going rather smoothly for the family of three. While Isshin and Masaki were worried about what exactly Kisuke was going to do after his attack on the two, Ichigo was actually starting to become accustomed to the soul society and its strange ways. He enjoyed hanging around Toshiro and training alongside the young man, and even found Rukia to be pleasant to be around. Things were going smoothly, yet Ichigo was starting to feel something off about himself. He kept wanting to spar and train as much as he could and kept pushing his limits. It was strange to see a kid his age wanting to train so hard and some of the captains could see and feel the difference.

Byakuya did not like the fact that the boy was getting stronger with each passing day. He would see that the boy was sparring against either Toshiro, Rukia, his mother, on some rare occasions his father, and then just by himself. What was odd to the Kuchiki clan head was the fact that the boy lacked a zanpakuto and trained exclusively with his fists and feet. It made no sense to the man how this boy was so powerful and so dedicated. It brought back flashes of his own youth and how hard he would train from dawn till dusk every day. Byakuya could hold some respect for the boy, but not much.

Kyoraku and Ukitake would sometimes drop by the home of the Kurosaki's to simply talk, drink or reminisce with Isshin on the old days. They would occasionally catch a glimpse of Ichigo outside in the large backyard training, and to both of them, the boys progress was astonishing. He seemed more focused out there than he was whenever he would sit down for dinner. Something about the boy felt foreign to the two as they had never felt power like his before. Kyoraku decided to do his own research on this boy's unique energy. He spent hours within the library and other forbidden areas to find out anything he could only to come up with nothing. This puzzled the old man as he couldn't find anything remotely similar to Ichigo's power. It clearly was not reiatsu or reishi, yet it was clear that there was something similar to spirit energy within the boy. This was both frustrating and challenging for Kyoraku, and if there was one thing he loved was a challenge.

Unohana recognized that Ichigo was strong if his little spat with them over a month ago was any indication. The fact that he broke her seal with sheer brute strength was incredible as nobody breaks Unohana's seals like that. She wanted to keep him sedated at the time, but that didn't work as his strange energy just cancelled out her drug. She was interested in seeing just how strong he was as she could even feel the pull to her previous self surfacing every time she saw him. What no one knew, not even the head captain himself, was that Unohana was slipping back to older habits. She would have times when she would need to let her old self loose and had a special and secretive underground area just under her quarters and lined with Seki-Seki rock to do just that. It was manageable back then as she would only use that area once every few months, but ever since Ichigo had turned up and started doing the impossible, Unohana started visiting that space almost daily. Whenever she caught a glimpse of Ichigo sparring or training on his own, the urge to fight and fight harder started to become overwhelming at times. It was always worse when she had a stressful day healing others and doing mountains of paperwork. Unohana was struggling to maintain her demeanor in front of others, but she could tell that Isane was getting worried about her.

Toshiro felt the change and progress moreso than anyone else. Since he trained and sparred with Ichigo more than anyone else, he could feel the difference in Ichigo's power every time they clashed. It was starting to become evident that now the young former captain would have to fight for real every time now. While Ichigo never tried to hurt his friend intentionally, there were times that he would be so laser focused and forget that they were sparring. One of those times involved Ichigo firing some sort of energy blast out of his hand. Toshiro reacted faster than he has ever done in his life to dodge the attack only to feel the explosion behind him. That knocked Ichigo out of his focused state as he realized he just put a whole in the backyard. The scolding he got was immeasurable from Masaki and he just had to take it. Toshiro could feel something was slightly off with himself after that sparring session as he has never moved that fast before. It was almost like his instincts went on overdrive for that brief moment and he felt it later on when he found that he was exhausted later. Afterwards though, he could feel a difference in his own strength and speed now. Maybe whatever Ichigo was doing was rubbing off on him as well.

Aizen was starting to get suspicious of Ichigo's growth at first. He wanted to collect a sample of the boy's blood in order to properly evaluate him at first, but that was beginning to become even more difficult nowadays. Ichigo seemed to be a constant mountain of surprises recently. What with the explosion he caused in his backyard and his strange energy that seemed to be foreign even to one of the oldest captains in the Seireitei. Yes, Aizen knew of Kyoraku trying to find anything on Ichigo's energy, and even he was stumped with nothing. Ichigo's power was unlike anything he had ever seen in his life and that made it all the more apparent for the boy to either be used by him or removed entirely. While Aizen contemplated this, he could only imagine what Urahara found out with the boy's blood. If it was worth coming back to the soul society and risking capture or death, then it must be something truly extraordinary. Aizen decided to do more research on the boy. Apparently he was found by both Masaki and Isshin in the human world as a baby with no previous medical records in the world of the living. That was vague but useful as it lead Aizen to believe that Ichigo came from something else entirely. If not the spawn of a Quincy and a soul reaper, then what exactly?

Right now, Ichigo was once again sparring with Toshiro a few days after the explosion incident. This time they had a bit of an audience as both Kyoraku and Ukitake were there to watch with Masaki. Rukia, Momo, Rangiku and Nanao were watching from afar too. Nanao was only there because she wanted to scold her captain for shirking off his duties once again, but then she ran into Rangiku and things just escalated from there. They were very interested in seeing Ichigo fight as it seemed that both young guys were taking this particular spar seriously.

Both stood far away from each other at first. Toshiro was in a standard kendo stance with Hyorinmaru while Ichigo was in a hybrid stance. His left arm was held in front of him while his right was close to the chest. He was crouched down and held a stern look to Toshiro. The young soul reaper held the same look as well. They were still for a second before a breeze caused a few, dead leaves to move. That was when the two moved faster than anyone thought they could.

Toshiro knew Ichigo had incredibly dense skin when he fought, making cutting into him difficult, but through their spars, he knew what to do this time.

Ichigo struck hard and fast with a flurry of strikes that Toshiro was able to dodge, parry and counterattack. The two moved all throughout the backyard and clashed a multitude of times in mere seconds. The crowd was in awe as the ones who knew Toshiro had never seen him move this fast in his sealed state before. What was strange to them was that the longer the fight went, the stronger and faster the two became.

For a moment, the two clashed and a flurry of ice and that green and black/red energy flared out from them both. They both gritted their teeth as neither was giving an inch. The ice and energy continued to flare each time they tried to push the other. It was such a spectacle to the spectators that they nearly forgot to stop the two once Ichigo's hair started to spike and become that golden color once again.

"OKAY! THAT"S ENOUGH YOU TWO!" Masaki yelled out as she could see this was getting out of hand with all this spiritual pressure and Ichigo's energy flaring wildly.

Both Ichigo and Toshiro heard her and leapt away. The ice and Ichigo's energy faded away and Ichigo's hair went back to normal. The two stood there for a second before Ichigo grinned to Toshiro and the young soul reaper returned it with a smirk.

"Looks like this one is a draw, eh, Ichigo?" Toshiro asked as he sheathed his blade and walked towards his friend.

"I guess so." Ichigo responded as he approached Toshiro.

Once they were together, they gave each other a fist bump before turning to head back inside for dinner. If the two were paying any attention, they would have seen several gobsmacked faces that watched the whole thing. Only Masaki was fine with the whole thing and even impressed by their fight.

"That was incredible." Rukia said to the others as they watched the two boys head inside.

"I know, right." Momo started in an excited tone. "I've never seen Shiro do anything like that before, even when he was captain."

"Same here." Rangiku remarked as she was still in awe of what she saw. She heard a sigh to her left and turned to Nanao. "What was that for?" She asked in a playful tone.

"I won't lie, that was one of the most spectacular spars I've ever witnessed." Nanao answered before standing up and turning away to leave. "I'm glad you talked me into watching it Rangiku."

"See. I told you it would be fun to watch this." Rangiku gave another cheerful response only to see Nanao with a thoughtful look on her retreating form. "You okay, Nanao?" She asked with genuine concern that caused both Rukia and Momo to look to the lieutenant.

"This has given me much to think about." Nanao left the roof top and left the trio in confusion.

Aizen had been watching the fight in his monitoring room and was once more intrigued by Ichigo's energy, but he was even more interested in Toshiro's odd progress throughout the fight. It was not unknown that Toshiro sparred and trained with Ichigo, but to see this and how he fought was interesting to say the least. Whatever Ichigo was doing effecting Toshiro in a way and it was very perplexing to the rogue as so far he knew Ichigo had no reiatsu or reishi to affect anyone.

"It seems that I'll have to do something drastic." Aizen said to himself as he repeated the clash the two had saw that energy Ichigo was releasing. What he was really looking at was Ichigo's hair beginning to change color just like before. "Something very drastic."

Once more this story lives on. This was so much fun to write since I can change so much from this point on like both Toshiro and Nanao. That will be for later though. Really wanted to have Ichigo's presence to affect many people in the Seireitei. It'll all make sense later on.

The next chapter will have Aizen's drastic plan in action.

Anyway, stay awesome, and as always...

PEACE!