The following morning, Ichigo is awoken by a gentle knock at the side of the rice paper door. A woman's voice, probably one of the Kuchiki maids, rings out, "Lieutenant Kurosaki, Lord Byakuya has requested you join everyone for breakfast." She says as the orange haired man stirs from his sleep. He stretches before yawning widely and rolling from the bed and onto his feet. His spiky hair slightly compressed due to the way he was sleeping, giving him an interesting hairstyle as he opens the door and shuffles out. The sun is just peaking above the horizon, the local time being 5:30am, his hatred of mornings stemming from the way his insane father would wake him up. The shorter woman offers him a glass of water before leading him from the guest rooms to the dining room. Upon entering the maid steps slightly to the side allowing him to enter, there he finds Rukia seated next to an empty spot on a kneeling table, Yoruichi, Isshin and his sisters.
"Ichinii you look like you slept well." Yuzu says seeing her brother's hair in a cowlick off the side of his head. Rukia puts a hand over her mouth and chuckles to herself seeing this from him. However Ichigo just yawns and rubs his eyes.
"I see you're less of a morning person than I was when I was your age." Yoruichi responds as Ichigo takes his seat next to Rukia. "How was last night?" She asks, a smirk present on her face.
"Ichigo was roped into drinking with Captain Shunsui, he started to feel unwell midway through the fireworks and went to bed." Rukia answers, Byakuya pouring a small glass of tea for the tired lieutenant.
"Yeah, I don't think it mixed all that well with the pickled vegetables." Ichigo responds, adding some credibility to the lie. "I ate some ginger and it settled my stomach afterwards, then I went to bed."
"I apologize if anything caused you any indigestion." Byakuya says.
"It's fine, I feel better than I did yesterday and thank you for sticking up for Rukia and I." Ichigo responds, Rukia having to resist the urge to tilt her head onto his shoulder after he says this.
"That mask was scary Ichinii." Karin says drawing Ichigo's attention to her. "Toshiro showed us the picture of it but seeing it up close and feeling the change in your powers was terrifying."
"Ichigo will never use those powers on you, and he won't use them around you unless absolutely necessary." Isshin says, rubbing his hand on Karin's shoulder. "We are going to use those powers to save everyone in Karakura town from Aizen."
"We?" Yuzu asks in a slightly apprehensive tone, her face showing slight fear at the idea. Something that he never wanted to see present on her face, especially when regarding him.
"Yes we, Captain Isshin and myself are also going to be gaining these abilities. Captains Hitsugaya, and Shunsui have also agreed to this." Byakuya explains.
"Karin, Yuzu, They might look and feel scary but even as a hollow I will always protect you. You should never be afraid of me, our dad, Rukia and even Byakuya. Everyone here in the seireitei, minus Kenpachi, is someone who has dedicated their lives to protect innocent souls like you two." Ichigo says, his tone calming and serious letting the two know that everything will be fine. "Even when I was almost completely hollowfied my body and hollow still protected Rukia from what it thought was a threat."
"Changing subjects, how has your training been going Ichigo?" Yoruichi asks, giving Ichigo a suggestive smirk. "I know Rukia and you have trained together, pretty vigorously." Luckily for him, the statement sails right over the twins' heads and Byakuya's.
"I've been training more with Tessai and Old man Yama. Shinji has helped here and there and so has Kensei. I've only managed to train with Rukia twice in the past month, let alone have a chance for us to go on a proper date." Ichigo responds, trying to keep his composure but internally he is glaring at Yoruichi.
"Last night counts as one, and most noble courting traditions involve the couple spending time at larger events rather than private ones. You two probably won't be able to have a private date until after you're married." Isshin responds.
"Ichigo, Tonight Urahara has set up the facility to be able to handle another hollowfication experiment. It is my turn to go through it as Kisuke's test on himself was a success as he is now a vizard as well. I'm sure that he is going to want to show you the powers he has now." Byakuya says. "Head Captain Yamamoto is going to be overseeing this experiment today and you will most likely be dueling me if my body goes berserk like yours did."
"Sounds like fun." Ichigo responds sarcastically, "If that's the case I'm gonna need to learn some more Bakudo." Rukia arches an eye at this statement, turning to look at him.
"You know Bakudo now?"
"Did you use it last ni-"
"Bakudo number 2 Chinmoku." Ichigo says, causing a kido bound muzzle to materialize from his hand and clasp his father's mouth shut. "Bakdo number one; Sai." He says causing clear brown like chains to clasp Isshin's hands behind his back leaving him bound and gagged.
"Thanks Ichinii, I was getting a headache from him." Karin jokes prompting the rest of them to chuckle at Isshin's expense.
After leaving the Kuchiki estate, Ichigo felt a bit of relief that Byakuya was none the wiser that he had sex with the noble's sister in his own house. Once he was outside he immediately made his way to the first division barracks where old man Yama would be waiting for him. He made especially sure to avoid going near the 11th squad's barracks not wanting to get chased and attacked by Kenpachi. Shinji had an appointment with Momo in the 4th division psychiatric ward so it's likely that the two won't have to do any paperwork today. Arriving into Yamamoto's office he finds it vacant but the doors behind his desk are open for a change, peering through them he sees the head captain sitting in a meditative position in front of a personal zen garden. "You're late, Kurosaki." His voice rings out from the small garden, the older man turning his head to the side to address the younger lieutenant.
"My apologies Sensei," Ichigo responds, the discipline and respect that Yama had literally burned into him rising to the surface. He is a lot more casual with the other captains and lieutenants but the head captain didn't put up with it. "Byakuya had me stay for breakfast this morning at his estate."
"I hope you ate well then, you'll need the energy for today." Yama says as Ichigo walks up to where the captain is sitting. "What do you see before you?" He asks motioning for his apprentice to take a seat next to him in front of a small pool in the garden.
"Philosophically or literally?" Ichigo asks.
"Your choice." Yamamoto responds.
"Literally, I see the stream, pond and small pools of water that are around your zen garden. The few fruiting trees, rock garden and tilled sand soil." He responds, "Philosophically I see calmness but an underlying stirring beneath it."
"Correct, now how does it pertain to you?" The head captain asks.
"Do I need to calm down?" Ichigo asks, the old man chuckles at the innocent response from the lieutenant.
"You're only looking at the surface with that observation Kurosaki. Further out just past the end of the barracks, the large lake of water. What does that represent compared to you?" He asks, the hint he gave drawing Ichigo's attention to the lake itself.
"My spiritual pressure." He answers.
"You're catching on, so tell me, how does a lake with so much water not flood the tiny streams and inlets that stream off from it?" Ichigo stays quiet for a few moments in deep thought.
"The lake isn't chaotic and churning, it's mostly calm. There's a slight chop on the water but it's for the most part calm. The streams that come off of the lake are small, only letting a small amount of all that water out at a time. So, I have to learn to do the same, limiting the output on my reishi reserve instead of allowing it to flood out."
"Good." Yama says as he stands from his spot. His cane being pressed into the floor as he gets up. "Follow me." He instructs, then he vanishes using shunpo far faster than anyone aside from Yoruichi has used it. He appears again at the edge of the massive lake and waits for Ichigo to follow him and he does so. "With the amount of Reishi you have, only three captains aside from myself are stronger than you. Them being Kenpachi Zaraki, Kyoraku Shunsui and Retsu Unohana. Kenpachi refuses to learn how to contain his spiritual pressure so he limits himself with physical seals. For someone starting out with the amount of spiritual pressure that you do, this is an exercise that will force you to grasp all of it so that you understand what is available to you and from there how to grab small amounts of it to utilize."
Yamamoto takes a deep breath and closes his eyes, standing still with his hands over his cane he begins to let his reishi flow out of him. The heat from just letting his reishi flow from him is enough to make Ichigo sweat even a few dozen meters away from the head captain. As the heat rises the water in the lake begins to churn becoming more active before suddenly lifting upwards in small droplets of water appearing that it is raining in reverse. Ichigo's attention turns from the head captain to the water as it floats upwards being pulled by what feels like a force of gravity focused over the center of the few kilometer wide lake. The water droplets begin to get progressively faster and larger until massive streams of water spray upwards collecting in a large ball over the center of the lake. In mere moments the lakebed is dry with every ounce of water being pulled from the once massive lake. Then the heat becomes pressure as the massive sphere of water condenses into a perfectly flat sphere with no warping of its shape. A few moments later it begins to change color as it begins to freeze due to the influence of the head captain's spiritual energy being applied to it. Once it's a completely solid light bluish white ball of ice floating above the once filled lake, Yamamoto relaxes causing the water to instantly melt and flood the lake once more. Ichigo stares wide eyed in awe of what had happened, his mouth hanging open slightly as he stares.
"For now, you need to collect every droplet of water from the lake and condense it into a single point. This is your exercise today. I will check in on you in a few hours, I have duties I have to attend to." Yamamoto says before slowly walking away leaving Ichigo with his thoughts.
For the next several hours Ichigo meditated by the lake, using his reishi to allow himself to levitate, it didn't take long for him to figure out how to lift droplets of water from the lake but it was droplets that could barely be considered an afternoon rain shower. The sheer scope of this task seemed impossible but Yama was an excellent teacher and had demonstrated that it was indeed possible to do. He wondered how the old man managed to freeze it despite his power that made him a walking sun. As the hours progressed he began to be able to draw more and more water at a time out of the lake. At first it was a few ounces worth but after he figured out how to draw ounces from the lake, it soon went to cups and then pints. Another hour passed and pints progressed to quarts and from quarts into gallons. There were still millions of gallons in the lake but he was managing to draw out thousands of gallons of water using his reishi to pull the large bubbles of water from the surface of the lake. He toyed with the idea of moving them together to create columns of water that drained in reverse into the massive sphere he was desperately concentrating to keep in shape but it proved to be too much for the moment. So he focused on drawing out dozens of gallons of water as each second passed, eventually managing to empty almost half of the water in the lake, that was until he got interrupted.
"Ah, good morning Kurosaki." The ever chipper voice of Urahara called out, the distraction broke Ichigo's concentration causing the water to plummet back into the lake. The plume of water that exploded outwards as the several hundred thousand gallon sphere impacted the lake creating a massive wave that drenched him.
"What do you want Kisuke?" Ichigo growls, soaking wet from the half exploded lake that is churning about in its rightful place trying to settle down. "I'm a little busy right now, old man yama wont let me stop until I get every ounce of water out of the damn lake."
"He sent me to come check in on you actually, it's almost three in the afternoon you know. I brought lunch." Kisuke responds, gesturing to a small bento box he was carrying. "Your bride to be made it for you, you should feel honored."
"I'll tell her thanks when I see her again." Ichigo says as he walks up and out of the water, he takes the small bento box from Kisuke before taking a seat on the ground and opening it. Rukia had made him a simple bowl of rice, some edamame and tempura shrimp. He grabs the pair of chopsticks from the side of the box before digging into his lunch. "She's a better cook than Orihime." He thinks to himself.
"While I'm here, once you're done with lunch I would like your help with something." Kisuke asks, patiently waiting as Ichigo chows down on his food.
"What do you need help with?" Ichigo responds between bites, part of him knows that when dealing with Urahara it'll probably be something that either attacks him, explodes, doesn't work or maybe some combination of the three.
"I wanna show you the surprise first." The scraggly blonde captain responds, his silly little green and white hat seated over his head. While he was offered to wear the typical white haori of a captain, Urahara still chose to wear his green haori, puffy pants and wooden clogs, though his haori now bears the symbol of the 12th squad on his back. "I take it you're aware of what I'm up to?"
"Hollowfication experiments. Byakuya said it was his turn this morning so I'm guessing that's what you need help with." Ichigo answers, now his interest has been sparked, he lets himself descend to the ground, the curiosity getting the better of him.
"Good, I won't have to bore you with the details, I don't think you'd understand half of them." Kisuke jokes, but the orange haired lieutenant doesn't think it's funny. "Would you like to see?"
"By see do you mean just showing off the progress or do you mean hitting me with it?" He asks incredulously, Urahara chuckles again but Ichigo can sense something more sinister coming from the co-captain of squad 12. Ichigo puts the lid back on the bento box after finishing his meal and stands up, still giving the same look to Urahara.
Urahara picks up his purple cane, grabbing the sheath of the cane sword and removing it from the hidden zanpakuto within. "Awaken, Benihime." He says calmly, the nimble straight sword turning to a traditional mongolian straight blade with feathered swordtails coming from the pommel. This was the same blade that carved Ichigo's sealed zanpakuto down to just its handle, it was something he felt a bit of fear seeing it again. Kisuke holds out the blade in front of him before letting go of the weapon, causing Ichigo to wonder what was the captain up to. "Weep, Benihime." This was a different command than he had ever heard the captain use, though he had only ever heard Kisuke tell his blade to sing before. The sword floats in mid air, the feathery swordtails begin to float upwards fanning out into four strands. From the tip of each feathered strand a thin strand of greenish black reishi extends up and over Kisuke forming four dots above him. Two over his shoulders and two over his forearms. The strands extend again connecting to the parts of his arms that they hover over. Above him, a cross brace that controls a marionette manifests in the air glowing a sinister green border black. Kisuke raises a hand to his face, grinning at Ichigo as he draws a hand upwards across his face. As his hand moves, the same black green reishi collects under his hand and manifests over his face. Taking his hand away, Kisuke extends his arms out and bends them slightly, posing like a marionette suspended by its strings. The reishi solidifies and then shatters revealing a porcelain white comedy mask, the wide smile plastered on the mask's face is unsettling and down right creepy. Two long lines of green coloration leak down from the eye holes down it's cheeks and down the face. Appearing if the mask was laughing hysterically but weeping in the same moment. The reishi that he is putting out is astronomical, almost forcing Ichigo to strain against the pressure on him.
"Damn that's creepy." Ichigo says looking at the smiling comedy mask that Kisuke is wearing, the captain laughing at this statement.
"Care to spar against me, Ichigo? Same rules as last time, knock my hat from my head and you win." Kisuke's hollowfied voice is just as terrifying, the black mouth of the mask shows no movement as the echoing tone of the hollow escapes between its smile. "Yama asked that I train you a bit, this seemed like the best method to do so. Especially for what we have to do this evening."
"Alright, you're on Hat n' Clogs." Ichigo responds, drawing his blade from behind his back. The large cleaver-like blade unbinding itself from the wrap on its own. He can tell that Zangetsu was itching for a fight.
"Wonderful. I would recommend you using your Bankai Ichigo, I don't want to hurt you but I don't have a lot of control over my new abilities." Kisuke requests as he wraps his hand around the handle of his blade, holding it downwards at a slant angle.
"Yeah, right now you're far stronger than Byakuya was when we fought over on Sokyoku hill and he was going all out." Ichigo responds, extending his blade out in front of him he focuses, letting the repressed reishi burst forth. Even in just his Shikai, Ichigo's unhampered reishi is higher than each of the other lieutenants. "Ban-Kai!" He declares, his body glowing a bright white color as the spiritual pressure sky rockets. The spiritual pressure spins around him creating a whirlwind encompassing his entire body. Ichigo cuts the swirling wind with the black katana causing it to dissipate in an instant. "Tensa Zangetsu." He says as the remaining energy from the vortexes rope out into smaller tornadoes of reishi that become corrupted with his hollow energy turning reddish black as they disappear into the aether. "It might be a good idea to take this to the hill or your training ground. The amount of power we're going to be throwing around is gonna break something and I don't need Rukia or old man Yama mad at me." The lieutenant says.
"You read my mind, my apprentice, let's head up to the sokyoku hill. The scenery is better there and we might have an audience to entertain." Kisuke responds, though he refers to Ichigo as his apprentice, slightly irking him.
The hill itself overlooks the first division barracks, and it didn't take much effort to shunpo up to the top of the hill. Once there the two swordsmen take several paces away from each other, Ichigo still staring into the smiling mask the captain wore. He brings his blade out in front of him in a defensive stance, wrapping both hands around the handle for a tighter grip on his blade. As soon as he tightens his grip Kisuke vanishes, most duels and even sparring matches usually start with someone using shunpo to attack from behind. However, Kisuke isn't like most opponents, he is an interesting fellow and probably the smartest person Ichigo knows. While he expected an attack to come from behind him, Kisuke instead attacks head on, bringing his blade hard onto Ichigo's obsidian black sword. The force of the hit almost dislodges the blade from Ichigo's grip causing the young substitute lieutenant to widen his eyes slightly in surprise. Even behind the smiling mask Ichigo can tell that Kisuke is smirking at him. The orange haired man returns the smirk as he slides his hand along the back side of his sword. Kisuke immediately feels the blade hum with energy as Ichigo says the name of his signature attack. "Getsuga Tensho." The two of them are immediately consumed by a massive black dome of energy unleashed by the bankai blade.
In The Squad 2 barracks...
Of all things that Grimmjow hated, it was being looked down upon that he despised the most. The higher ranking espada like Nnoitra and Ulquiorra were among those at the top of his shit list. However the shinigami were different, despite him technically being a POW, the soul reapers had been respectful. Though he probably knew that his rank as the sixth espada and the fact he was touching on the door of becoming a Vasto Lorde before he became an arrancar, had something to do with how well they treated him. Sure he wasn't allowed to leave the 2nd division barracks without guards but at the very least they gave good food, good sake and aside from the occasional questions he had to answer they left him alone. The captain of the second squad could go pound sand for all he cared, Soi Fon always held an air of superiority about her and it really pissed him off when he had to deal with her. However, the fifth squad and ninth squad captains had earned his respect. Today though he can feel Kurosaki and the insane doctor sparring across the seireitei. He recognised the hollowfied reiatsu of Kurosaki and the captivity is making him complacent. He was bored and wanted to at the very least stretch his legs with a half decent sparring match.
"Oi, you." Grimmjow declares pointing at Soi Fon's fat lieutenant as the man walks by gawking at him again. The lieutenant points at himself questioningly. "Yes you dumbass, come here." Grimmjow demands prompting the other man to approach the holding cell that Grimmjow has been inside of. "Where's your captain, I'm going stir crazy in here with nothing to do and I want to go fight Kurosaki."
"I-I'll go get her." The cowardly lieutenant says before rushing down the hallway to go and locate Soi fon. Grimmjow grumbled under his breath for a brief moment before Soi Fon flash stepped in front of the door to his cell.
"What do you want, Grimmjow?" She says, her tone abrasive still holding that air of superiority that he hated.
"I'm bored, Kurosaki and one of the vizards are sparring and I want in. Carrot top said that in return for my assistance I'd be taken care of." Grimmjow says, causing the petite black braided haired woman to arch an eyebrow. "You've given me food and drink but you haven't given me the last thing I need."
"And what is that?" She asks.
"Battle. I'm a hollow, a hunter, a predator. I live for battle and you've denied me that basic requirement for life as a hollow." Grimmjow responds. "I want to fight Kurosaki, then I'll tell you and anyone else what they want to know about Aizen, Arrancars and even the Espada. Might be able to teach the hollow soul reapers how to get a resurrection as well but who knows."
"Very well." Soi Fon responds before lifting her finger into the air gently. Grimmjow arches his eyebrow as she does this but shortly after a black butterfly flutters into existence from the void. "Head captain, the espada wishes to indulge his need for battle against Lieutenant Kurosaki. In exchange he has stated that he will reveal everything he knows. Do I have permission to release him temporarily, I will of course be monitoring the battle to make sure he doesn't try to escape." She speaks to the small butterfly as it gently opens and closes its wings. She allows the small creature to fly from her finger disappearing into the aether.
"The hell was that thing?" Grimmjow asks.
"A hell butterfly, we use them for communication." Soi Fon explains, knowing full well that Aizen is already aware of the hell butterflies. Shortly after her explanation another one flutters into existence before landing on her shoulder.
"Permission granted Captain Soi Fon, Keep an eye on him and make sure he holds up his end of the agreement." The head captain's voice comes from the butterfly and Soi Fon motions for the two guards at Grimmjow's door to unlock it.
"I'll need my Zanpakuto." Grimmjow says, Soi Fon motions for one of the onmitsukido ninjas to retrieve the weapon. With a nod the man vanishes and hardly a second later he returns with the blade still in its sheath. Grimmjow grabs his blade and snatches it away from the ninja in front of him. He ties the blade to his waist and purrs slightly feeling the familiar hum of his Pantera on his hip. "Bout time I get to stretch my legs. Alright, let's blow this popsicle stand." He grins before breaking the sound barrier as he uses sonido to get out of the second squad barracks making a B-line for Ichigo.
The red headed soul reaper himself is locked in another blade lock against Urahara who had managed to keep his mask on for over 20 minutes already. Ichigo himself had put his mask on shortly after using the getsuga tensho on Kisuke at point blank range. The mad scientist had been scorched slightly by the massive blast but had immediately used a high level kido against him as the smoke cleared. It was evident that the two of them were going all out and Ichigo is eager to show off the fruits of his training with Tessai and Yamamoto. The kido master had come upon a new method to train the boy, to work backwards from the highest level kido which took the most power and work backwards since he had an issue with drawing small amounts of it to channel into the lower level kido. While it still took an insane amount of control to do, Ichigo has proven capable enough to learn Kido up to level 70, though his spell list isn't as extensive as Kisuke or anyone like that.
"Color me impressed, Ichigo, not many people could deflect a 70 level hado with just a swipe of their sword." Kisuke says as he takes a few labored breaths from the extent of their battle. His chest is covered in bleeding cuts as parts of his shihakusho and green haori were shredded.
"Be ready to be amazed then." Ichigo says as he raises a hand upwards towards the sky channeling his reishi to where Kisuke is standing. "Ye lord, mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, He who bears the name of man, on the blue wall of flame, inscribe the name of the dragon that bit heaven, cast out into fear and greed and strike down to earth. Hado number 88 Dragon Strike Heaven Shaking Lightning Cannon!" Ichigo roars as he flattens his hand towards Kisuke
"Oh shit." Kisuke says before having to flash step out of the way milliseconds before he's struck by a lightning bolt that suddenly expands to over a dozen meters wide as a massive energy blast escapes Ichigo's hand. The massive tube of lightning and spirit energy screams across the heavens, arcing lightning off the body of the energy blast into the air.,
"Holy shit. Who the hell did that?!" Grimmjow yells before spotting Kurosaki on the other side of the massive energy blast. "KUROSAKI!" Grimmjow yells seeing the masked shinigami holding his hand pointed towards Kisuke. "Fight me you bastard!" The panther shouts before drawing his sword and clawing his hand over the flat of the blade. "Grind! Pantera!" He shouts causing his sword to glow a deep cyan blue. He scratches his fingers down the side of the blade before throwing his hand to the side. Immediately his body is enveloped by a whitish blue reiatsu swirling around him in a similar chaotic cyclone that envelops Ichigo when he releases his bankai.
"My my, this certainly has gotten interesting." Kisuke says as he appears out of shunpo a dozen meters away from Ichigo as the vizard stares up at Grimmjow. "This must be the resurrection form that the others used against the vizards."
"Think he's out for blood?" Ichigo asks just before a hell butterfly flutters up to him.
"Kurosaki, Grimmjow has requested a fight with you. Humor him and he'll spill what he knows on Aizen." The hell butterfly says through Soi Fon's voice.
"Well that answers that question." Ichigo thinks to himself watching as the tornado around Grimmjow dissipates. "I didn't take you for a cat person Grimmjow." Ichigo says seeing the resurrection form. The blue haired man now taking the form of a half man half tiger hybrid, his body covered by a white exoskeleton that tapers off into a tail twice as long as his body. His hair has grown down to his knees in length, his arms and legs all have a blade on the back of his forearms and calves. A visor covers the top of his face leading into blue green panther ears on the sides of his head. "You want what I know? Earn it Kurosaki! Fight me!"
"Well looks like you two are gonna have fun," Kisuke says before dismissing his hollow mask. "Thanks for the sparring match, try not to trash the place while fighting Grimmjow. I'm gonna go check up on Captain Kuchiki." The candy shop keeper gives a brief wave before disappearing in a burst of speed.
"This isn't a fight to the death right? Just a sparring match?" Ichigo asks, tightening his single hand grip on his sword.
"I ain't gonna kill you if you prove you're strong enough." Grimmjow responds, he flexes his hands and exposes the sharpened claws of his resurrected state. "Now quit talking damnit!"
Ichigo tilts his head down slightly and furrows his eyebrows before disappearing; however this high speed movement technique isn't that of a soul reaper. The espada smirks seeing him do this, immediately swiping his hand behind him to counter the sword strike that was coming down at his back. The technique he used shattered the sound barrier, and while shunpo created noise, it was nothing like that of a Sonido. The technique that high level hollows use to close distances and ambush their prey conceals their reishi entirely for the briefest of moments when they execute the technique. It's only indicator being the sound created when it's used, seeing Ichigo use this technique causes Grimmjow to smile wickedly. This is going to be fun.
The tips of Grimmjow's claws make contact with the sharpened edge of Zangetsu, the collision creates enough force to disturb most of the dust and small rocks around the plateau below them. Grimmjow's face is split with an excited and wicked grin, finally getting a fight worth his time. With his opponent at such close range, Ichigo grips the blade with his other hand and opens his mouth. Sensing the slight vibration of reishi run through the blade, Grimmjow immediately backs off, opting to punch the sword with his opposite hand and then try to spin kick Ichigo in the stomach. However the soul reaper manages to get the blade in the way to block the strike from Grimmjow using the flat of the blade to create more surface area. "That trick won't work on me again Kurosaki!" Grimmjow yells as he draws up his other leg and hammers it down on Ichigo's shoulder. The strike slams Ichigo into the rocky mountain below, cracking the stoneface with his body. "Come on, I've been bored for a month bumming around that fucking cell. Give me something worth my time!"
The black blade at his side explodes in black flames as Ichigo glares up at Grimmjow who is gloating over him. He drags the blade across the stone of the rock face before up at a wide angle across him. The blade releases a massive black crescent moon shaped wall of energy towards Grimmjow before it's quickly followed by a second one creating a massive X shape in the air. Grimmjow raises his hand to combat the attack with a cero, charging the red energy from the points on his claws. He smiles wider as the attack from Ichigo gets closer but he feels someone touch his shoulder. Turning his head slightly he sees the skeletal mask of Ichigo over his shoulder, the length of the blade pressed firmly into his spine. "Getsuga Tensho." Ichigo whispers causing his sword to once again explode in black flames. He thrusts the weapon downwards releasing the reishi attack at point blank range. Instead of exploding like last time however, this one acts as a bulldozer forcing Grimmjow towards the two blasts in front of him.
"Ah… Crapbaskets." Grimmjow says as he careens face first into the cross beam getsugas in front of him. When the three getsugas make contact they explode immediately with poor Grimmjow in the middle of it all. The resulting explosion and expansion of black reishi blots out the sun and turns the afternoon sky almost as black as night as it bathes the seireitei in hollowfied Reishi. The shockwave shattered windows, shoji doors and half of the plateau beneath them. Some of the soul reapers that had gathered to watch the fight are sent flying as the shockwave radiates through the seireitei shaking places as far away as the Kuchiki manor. Yamamoto grumbles to himself as he sees the sky turn black from the resulting explosion, it had blocked out the sunlight he was using to read. As the energy dissipates into the atmosphere Grimmjow is laying flat on his back in a crater staring up at Ichigo, blood pours from multiple wounds all over his body.
"You should be careful what you ask for Grimmjow." Ichigo says as he appears next to the nearly flattened espada. His mask had parted from his face after launching the three massive blasts.
"Damn that hurt." Grimmjow responds, turning to look at Ichigo, "This mean I lose?"
"Ichigo 2, Grimmjow 0." Ichigo responds.
"Well shit," the espada says as Ichigo offers a hand for the wounded man to grab. "I don't need your charity." Grimmjow responds by swiping Ichigo's hand away before sitting up. His resurrected form dissipated from him in the process. "Alright, you win. What do you wanna know?" He asks as Ichigo takes a seat on the dirt beside the espada.
"How do I learn how to use a resurrection?" Ichigo asks.
"No beating around the bush huh? I can respect that." Grimmjow responds, wiping away some blood that dripped into his eye. "You need to become one with your hollow self. After Aizen changed me into an arrancar he explained that I was a hollow with the powers of a soul reaper. Hollows I kill with my blade will fuel my power like when I used to eat them. He said to talk with my sword, and when I spoke to it I entered a new world."
"We call that Jinsen." Ichigo explains, "Communing with your zanpakuto and entering your inner world."
"So that's what that was? Weird." Grimmjow responds. "Mine was like a vast jungle, where I was the king, my old self hunted and prowled the landscape. The version of myself I saw and battled said his name, Pantera. I defeated and devoured him, becoming one with my old hollow self."
"I don't think I'll be able to do that." Ichigo responds. "Zangetsu is fickle, he is both my inner hollow and my soul reaper powers."
"So your sword's spirit is already an arrancar?" The blue haired man asks.
"I think so, though when I asked him if he thought we could have a resurrection he thinks that its a matter of him strengthening himself as a hollow." Ichigo responds, "I'll have to communicate with him, but Rukia might have better luck than me since her swords are two different people and she already has her hollow's zanpakuto."
"What are you two bozos doing?" The abrasive voice of Renji asks as he arrives to the top of the hill. "Having a little hollow powwow?"
"Fuck off Pineapple hair." Grimmjow responds.
"Kind of, I kicked his ass and he was explaining how to gain resurrection." Ichigo responds.
"Whatever, Captain Kuchiki and Rukia want to see you. Kisuke's got that thing happening in about an hour. I was asked to drag blue raspberry here back to the second division."
"Actually, send him to Shinji and the vizards might be able to figure out the resurrection stuff faster than me." Ichigo responds as he stands back up, he once again offers Grimmjow a hand up and finally the espada accepts the offer.
"Don't think this makes us friends Kurosaki, but you've earned my respect." Grimmjow says as he gets to his feet. "I want food first."
"We don't serve souls."
"Fuck off Renjo."
"Renji." Ichigo corrects.
"Whatever the fuck your name is." Grimmjow reiterated. "Hollows eat souls, I'm an arrancar, I can eat normal food. The fight worked up an appetite. I'll do whatever you need me to once I have a full stomach." He attempts to take a step forwards but falls face first into the dirt.
"And a trip to the hospital." Renji says as he bends down and grabs Grimmjow's arm before throwing the espada over his shoulder. "Word of advice, don't be rude to Unohana. You wont like her when she's angry."
"Ugghhh…" Grimmjow growls as the loss of blood has finally caught up to him.
"I might just take part in the masquerade party you and a few of the other captains are staring up with Urahara. If I ever wanna beat Captain Kuchiki, I'll need those powers as well after today. Head down to the hidden training grounds when you're ready." Renji instructs before hefting Grimmjow down the mountain he just climbed up.
"So, this complicates things." Hichigo says, "Think we'll come up with anything beating the tar out of each other?"
"Only thing that's worked so far." Ichigo responds. "Still need to talk to Dad about what gramps said."
"Tall, dark and moody hasn't left that flag pole since the last time we spoke. Though wanna know something interesting?" Hichigo asks.
"It better not be perverted."
"Only slightly." Hichigo responds, which earns a groan from Ichigo himself. "When you fucked the queen, it started to snow for the first time. Not only that but the city has changed. In the distance there's a massive forest out there now. Yours and Rukia's inner world have become one."
"That is interesting, but what's the part you're not telling me?"
"Thanks for the small harem Ichigo. Hoakita and Shirayuki say hello." Ichigo groans when his hollow says this, he cuts the connection to his inner world off when the spirit starts laughing. He sighs in frustration before making his way to the training facility.