After a long day of work, the miner from the rocky mountains eventually decided to take a break from his work and began to walk down to the village below. Then upon entering it, he was greeted warmly by the few people who still lived there, and he welcomed them back in turn before eventually walking up to a grand white stone mansion that acted as his home.

Then as he opened the front doors, he was greeted by a brown-haired maid who bowed before him and smiled.

'Welcome home, Lord Kyiv Jager,' the maid announced. Which made the young man blush.

'You don't have to address me as lord Jager Josephine' He said dismissively. 'I am still just the same old miner boy here.'

The maid then gave him a deadpanned expression. 'Well, if you just wanted to be a miner boy, you shouldn't have taken the title of lord then,' she quipped. Which then made Kyiv then let out a sarcastic laugh.

'Yeah, well, at least try tone it down a bit if you can. It sounds far too formal for my tastes, ' Jager complained, but the maid kept her smirk.

'No promises,' she responds with a singing note much to the other man's expiration. Only for her to quickly change subjects. 'Anyway, while you were gone. A sternritter is waiting for you in the dining room.'

Kyiv then looked at Josephine in curiosity.

'A sternritter?' he mused in thought as he walked to the dining room. 'I wonder what they want?'

Then when Kyiv arrived inside the room, he immediately recognized the beautiful curly pinked haired woman that sat in front of the table sipping some tea.

The sternritter of the Power Meninas McAllen.

'Nice to see you are doing well. Kyiv Jager' Meninas said pleasantly. At the same time, the other Quincy gave her a confused look.

A few minutes later...

'So you tell me that a massive grand march hollow invasion is coming to the Silberstadt? Which is led by all Espada, and you need my help?' Kyiv reiterated, and McAllen nodded.

'Pretty much,' the stenrritter said simply while drinking her tea while the latter lowered his head.

'You know...when I heard that the black prince was being replaced with another version of himself that was powerful enough to rival his majesty. I thought you wouldn't need me to win the war anymore.'

Meninas shrugged. 'A lot of us did. But ever since the Arrancar gain that Segunda Etapa of theirs. Only a handful of us Quincy can match them right now...' she then looked at Kyiv. 'And you are one of them.'

The young miner then stood quiet for a long moment as his body grew tense and began to shake. 'So it would seem...' he spoke with a shanked voice. 'And Bambietta...is she able to fight against them?'

The young woman slowly shook her head. 'She is one the first casualties who faced off against that horrible power...and it left her soul completely crippled.'

Kyiv felt his heart stop and his blood freeze over. Before, he began to hyperventilate as panic took over him; however, instead of allowing himself to lose his composer. The young man took a few moments to calm himself down and, after doing so, folded both of his hands over his head.

'Is that right...?' he said in a broken voice, and then his face and eyes hardened. 'Well...I guess I see no reason not to fight then, huh?' The miner said dejectedly and yet with resolve. He then got up from his seat and began to walk to his living quarters with Meninas steady following behind him. Before waiting for him outside his bedroom door.

Kyiv then sat on his king-sized bed and looked around his room. Though it still felt foreign to him. Lavish furnishings, carpets, walls, and a beautiful chandelier hung from the ceiling. The miner felt unwelcome in sleeping in a chamber meant to be filled with nobility. Yet, such feelings were tolerable if he could watch over his village, protect them, and stay away from the war between the soul society and Hueco Mundo. However, current matters have forced him to join the fray once again.

The young lord then took off his work shirt, unveiling his upper body underneath, ripped with hardened and refined muscles earned after decades of rigorous training, discipline, and a multiride of scars gained from hundreds of battles. That was fought within both the soul society and the world of the living.

Yet, despite his powerful form, the man never felt more vulnerable when he walked up to his closet, opened it up...and stared back at what haunted him the most.

A few minutes later, Kyiv exited his room and greeted Meninas in his official holy empire uniform, composed of a white button suit and pants. His arms were draped under a long white cape. On top of his head was a white cap with an encrusted silver symbol of the holy empire, and his face was hidden by a gas mask that covered all of his features but his eyes.

Meninas then smirked amusingly at the man. 'You know Kyiv; I can't help but believe even after you became a stenrritter and a lord. You still decide to keep using your old soldat uniform.

Ken then looked at Meninas and smiled back gently. 'What can I say? I rather keep myself to my humble origins.'

Meanwhile, within the Silver City.

'Ohh...okay,' Ichigo mused as he looked over the massive academy building. 'So...what exactly are we doing here?

Uryu then stared at the shinigami with an irritated glare as he pushed up his glasses. 'I thought we already discussed this, Kurosaki. We came to this institution to train.'

The orange-haired then huffed. 'Yeah, but I thought it would be in some remote location or a secret hiding place, not...' he looked over to some Quincy practicing bow shouting drills. 'This...'

The white prince then gave the shinigami a dubious expression. 'Ichigo, you honestly believe that this place is only meant for students? Then you have severally underestimated the Holy Kingdom's resources, ' Uryu said with pride as he sped up his walk and entered through the academy door with Ichigo following behind him.

Upon entering the building, Ichigo found himself in a white-pillared stone hallway with arcs and several lamps hanging from a tall ceiling and among the walls. He noticed several rows of balconies that led to other hallways and classrooms. While several students and instructors walked and or ran across the hall.

However, when Ichigo reached the intersection of the hallway. He saw an older man with tall gray hair that stood up, a simple chop mustache, and sporting a pair of circler glasses over his eyes. While smiling warmly at Uryu and the shingmai even though he never meant the man before. Kurosaki Immediately recognized him.

Uryu's grandfather Soken Ishida.

'It is good to see you, Uryu,' the old man said pleasantly to his grandson. 'It has been such a long time since the last time I saw you at the academy. Are you doing well?'

Ishida then smiled kindly. 'Very well, grandfather; however, I am on urgent business. So please, can we use one of the training rooms here?'

The elderly then perked his eyes up and nodded. 'Of course, please right this way.

Ichigo, Uryu, then followed Soken down the front hallway of the academy. Where they passed by multiple classrooms and students until they reached downstairs to a basement containing hundreds of different room-sized metal cubes that glowed lightly blue with power. In contrast, several other students and instructors went in and out of the cubes, along with several operators monitoring them on nearby computers.

'You know I could never get used to all the high advance technology that the holy kingdom has offered,' Soken said as he walked to one of the nearby cubes. 'Always going beyond the limits instead of being grounded to earth' he places his on the structure. 'Still...given these troubling times, it is only natural that the Quincy evolve themselves when necessary.'

The elder Ishida then turns to Uryu. 'Anyway, the two students in there should be out soon enough.'

The white prince hummed in approval. 'Thank you, grandfather,' as if noticing his friend behind him readjusted himself. 'Oh yes, and I should also introduce Kurosaki Ichigo, whom I will be sparring with.'

Soken then eyed the young orange-haired man in awe.

'I see...' the grandfather commented as he rubbed his chin. 'Despite being the spitting image of the black prince himself. Your presence and aura feel like the complete opposite...' he then turns to the cube. 'I wonder how my student would react if she saw you here now.'

Ichigo then looked at Soken in confusion. 'She?'

Then as if to answer his question. The door of the nearby cube opens up, and the person who arrived out of it shocked the soul reaper down to his very core.

She was his sister Yuzu Kurosaki dressed in a Quincy skirt uniform of the holy kingdom, and as she swept sweet across her brow. A young brown-haired teenage boy followed up behind her.

'Man, you sure worked me today, 'Shinji Iijima,' she said cheekily, making the boy grin delightfully.

'So did you, Yuzu,' he replied playfully.

Then the younger Kurosaki turns to look at Ichigo.

'Oh, hello,' Yuzu politely to the stunning shinigami. Who was unable to respond.

'You must be the alternate version of my brother' she then raises her left hand at Ichigo. 'Please to meant you.'

The shingmai took a deep breath, regained composure, and shook his sister's hand. 'Likewise'

Yuzu then nodded her head happily. 'Thank you; I always wanted to thank the person who saved Bambietta and my hometown. Given how busy everyone is lately has been lately. I never found the time, especially with me inheriting her 'schrift.'

Ichigo then furrowed his face in confusion. 'Her schrift...?' He wondered in thought before Yuzu began to walk away.

'Anyway, I can't stay and chat. I still have a lot of other drills to go through today. So see you soon! Come on, Shinji! 'shouted out before using hirenkyaku to move out of sight.

'Hey, wait up!' The boy cried out and then used hirenkyaku himself to disappear as well and followed her.

Soken then smiled in pride. 'Yuzu Kurosaki and Shinji Ijimaj. Are among the top students in the academy and one of the few ritterlehrlings chosen to be a stenrritter successor.'

The shinigami then eyed Sokun. 'What do you mean by the successor?'

The elder then widens his eyes and then turns towards Uryu. 'You never told him about that?' He lightly criticized. 'He should very well know what his sisters are up to. Alternate versions of them or not.'

Uryu then looked embarrassed. 'I was, but it slipped my mind after everything that has happened this past week.'

Soken frowned at his grandson for a bit. But then lighten up his face. 'I suppose that is understandable, but still,' he then turns to face the shingmai.'

'Now, Ichigo, as you should know. Each sternriter assigns themselves to a ritterlehrling, a knight apprentice, so to speak. To act as their successor so they can inherit their schrift if they were to fall in battle or are no longer able to fight' his eyes then went soft. 'And since Bambietta made Yuzu her successor. The young Kurosaki has now inherited the schrift of E.'

Ichigo's eyes then flew open, shocked at the information he had received. 'So what you're telling me that a sternrriter has the power to do that. I thought that was something only Yhwach could do?'

Soken then chucked. 'Oh no, my dear child. That is a power bestowed upon all knights by the first Quincy king over a million years ago. Only when a stenrriter dies without choosing a successor, do the kings themselves find and personally create another.'

The shingmai then paused and slowly nodded in understanding before looking back up to the elder Ishida. 'So Bambietta's injuries...'

'The ones inflicted by the Grimijow had rendered her soul so infected by hollow spiritual pressure that it nearly eroded the barriers that separated it from the outside world—leaving her on the verge of soul suicide and while her life was thankfully saved in time. It came at the cost of their powers being greatly diminished' Sokun then took a deep regretful breath. 'She will never be able to become a sternritter ever again...'

Ichigo's heart then dropped in guilt as he bailed his hands in rage. 'Stupid...' he thought to himself. 'If I wasn't so busy trying to hide with that poor ass excuse of a disguised. Bambietta would still be in the field, and my alternate sister wouldn't be put in...' he began to blame himself but quickly shook his head. 'No...I can't afford to be sorry for myself all the time.'

The shingmai then looked at the cube and placed his right hand on it. 'After all, this version of my sister is willing to continue fighting. Even when her mentor could no longer do so, I have no excuse not to do the same.'

The resolved young man then turns to face Sokun. 'Thanks for the personal history lesson. But I think it is time for Uryu and me to use the training room here.'

The old teacher then stared at Ichigo with a pause and then smiled approval. 'Very well' the elder then placed his hand on the door of the cube, and then it slid open.

'The room is now ready for you.'