Instinct, that's what was said as a joke, a version of reality that was taken seriously. The boy, a dark-skinned woman who had been watching for two days had uttered that word. To think that two souls can be drawn together by one simple word that keeps coming up in conversation and by the third time she had given up on fighting it and embraced it no matter what torment it brought. "Isshin is going to kill me." The woman vocalized, thinking of the friend whose son she had and would violate. Her attention was brought to reality as the collision of metal stopped in the cave that had become their roost and an orange-haired teenager argued with a metal construct, a mannequin created to aid with developing a Shinigami. In this case, both she and the metallic doll are here to train the boy in Bankai, the second release of a Shinigami's sword, their Zanpakutō.
The boy she thought was spouting nonsense about instinct was now picking a fight with the manifestation of his Zanpakutō. He had hit a wall with his training. If the one side of the argument was anything to go by, he did not like how he was addressed by the spirit of his Zanpakutō, and he did not like how the spirit was addressing their training. The dark-haired woman watched as the boy threw the sword he had and pointed at the one the spirit had in its hand twirling it by the fabric that was wrapped at the hilt of a jagged black katana. "If I have to find the real Zangetsu in this cave then what the hell is that?" The boy shouted at what she could only see as a mannequin with a smile on her face, it appeared that he had finally grasped the motives behind his training, the true purpose of it, or at least she hoped. "What do you mean come get it and find out?" He looked over at the blade before staring a hole in the mannequin. "I would but you are just going to fight me on this." Another response that she could not hear the reply to.
Before she could imagine the boy sprinted away from the mannequin, surprising her. He picked up whatever he could from the various distorted Zanpakutō that littered the cave floor. Once he was satisfied with what he had picked from the three he picked up, he suddenly threw the two that he did not want at the mannequin with blinding speed before dropping down to a stance that the woman had done almost every time that she had to fight, only to see him blink out of existence. When he had first picked up this technique from her she was confused about how he had done it so quickly, but now as she watched the mannequin dodge the first two swords with ease and she watched with pride when he appeared in front of it though the blade in his hands was parried. Another surprise came when he discarded the sword to head butt the metallic man, shattering the face, which was expected with him being a brawler before he became a Shinigami what did surprise however was when he moved his hand in front of him in a triangular motion before thrusting the trail of energy forward at the mannequin reciting something under his breath. "Bakudō number thirty… Shitotsu Sansen." Three beak-like energy blasts shot towards the mannequin from each point of the triangle, blasting it towards and pinning the mannequin to the wall of the cave dropping the Zanpakutō in its hands in the process.
'So you have learned from your fight with my little bee, interesting, maybe Keisuke was too easy on you.' She thought as she watched the young redhead pick up the mannequin's discarded blade and lift it over his head. She watched as the Reishi that surrounded the boy gathered around the hilt of the blade, curious at what was happening. 'This must be his Quincy side at work.'
Shock, shock was what took over when the boy slashed the air with the sword. "Getsuga… Tenshō." He muttered as the swing was accompanied by a wall of black flame that trailed the blade follow thru and slammed into the mannequin, said human-shaped hunk of metal cocked its head before being cut in half by the attack. The boy stood there with a pleased expression before dropping the sword to eye level, a reddish-black Reiryoku emanating from him, and for that split second his eyes were a golden brown, his Reiatsu giving her chills at how much it wasn't present despite what he just did. "Tenza Zangetsu... Right... I guess I am in your hands." The boy spoke, looking at the Zanpakutō in his hand fondly. Taking a long breath he dropped on his butt looking at his trainer thinking back at how tiring the last week was, but he was glad. He had his Zanpakutō back after one of his friend's brothers took away his Shinigami powers, and was smiling at the dark-skinned woman he had lost and gained that he would never forget nor want to. "So... what now, Yoruichi?"
"Honestly, I don't know. You weren't supposed to get this far already, Ichi... Captains even have trouble with this part of the training, learning Bankai in two days is something that is unheard of, even if I knew that you could. The rate that you have improved at, is something else. Get some rest and be prepared to fight another captain. After your fight with Squad Two's Soi Fon, don't believe they will take you on holding back like she has, remember that Rukia's life is on the line here." Yoruichi said moving towards the boy she had called Ichi with the Zanpakutō that were scattered about disappearing, all but the one in Ichi's hands.
The boy looked at her with a small frown, knowing all too well what was at stake as he was reminded of his friend's execution the following day, that's why he had gotten frustrated with Zangetsu in the first place as things where she wasn't helping his cause in the least, deciding in her infinite wisdom to try and antagonize him into another fight. Ichi had no reservations in entertaining the spirit but this wasn't the time or place. "I know, I know. You don't have to tell me twice." He said while taking the woman's outstretched hand pulling him up to his full height, looking down at her he asked his mentor a question. "What now?" The question had all of the curiosity of a cat when the words left the boy's mouth.
"Rest for the next couple of hours. I get that you haven't expended the same amount of energy as you did yesterday but mental exhaustion is something that you should worry about, Ichi." Yoruichi spoke entering the orange-haired boy's space. Normally this would be an invitation to continue what they did on the boy's breaks, but this time she was concerned with how much Ichi was pushing himself. It wasn't until an arm snaked its way around her waist that she pulled away to the boy's dismay. "Rest…" That was a word of warning as the boy let go.
"Alright…" The boy resigned himself to not pushing her, he had never seen her truly angry with him and he did not want to experience that any time soon. "Later?" He questioned.
"Are you serious?" Yoruichi questioned back.
Ichi sat down on the cool stone of the cave grinning. "Did you think that everything was going to return to normal after we were done here? I really like you, Yoruichi... Even Zangetsu likes you, calling you Queeny. So believe me when I say that whatever this is between us... I am going to do what it takes to continue it."
"Ichigo... You know that I am not a teenager right, both me and Keisuke are over a hundred years older than you. You should find a girl closer to your age..." Yoruichi looked away with a sad smile. "This is not healthy, you know." She finished with a rosy tint.
Ichigo cocked his head as if in mid-thought, then a laugh came. 'That sounds stupid but what do I have to lose... Whatever Zangetsu.' He thought, having a quick conversation with his Zanpakutō spirit. "If I was concerned about that I wouldn't be here right now, trying to save someone that could be a hundred years older than me... My sibling students beating me up... And whatever that Unohana woman was, it felt like she would kill me if given the chance. It's like she healed me out of curiosity, I think she is interested in why I was on guard around her. Plus I don't care about the age difference, and you should know that from how I treat Rukia. Honestly, I think that you would agree with me on this." Ichigo looked seriously at her. "That's the best part." He finished chuckling. "I'm sorry, Zangetsu, she wanted me to say that, I don't really care about that stuff."
Yoruichi frowned, it would have been easier for her if Ichigo wasn't such a creature of instinct, trusting them so highly. She thought it was best that they dropped the topic for now with how they were, in enemy territory, she never thought she would call the soul society that. "We can talk about that once we are home. But for now..."
"Rest and get ready to save Rukia. I got it."
(...)
Hours later Yoruichi came back to Ichigo in a meditative state, he sat cross-legged in the middle of the large cave with his eyes closed. "I thought I told you to rest." She spoke with a worried expression as she checked on him with a hand on his cheek. His Shihakushō looked like it had been put through a blender and he had several cuts throughout his torso, more appearing with every wince of pain. "You see why I brought you here." She looked behind her at a squad four chair, an afraid boy named Yamada Hanatarō.
"Is that normal?" The boy asked with a nervous energy about him.
Yoruichi shrugged, Ichigo should be resting and for sure should not be taking physical damage as he was in his inner world, but Yoruichi had thrown out the Shinigami rule book when it came to Kurosaki Ichigo. "Honestly, it should be worse." She replied comically. "But as things stand he might not make it for the execution. So if you don't mind."
Hanatarō did not know why his captain had 'asked' him to help this Ryoka but he was not going to disobey a direct command. "Right..." The boy nervously looked over his wounds, stripping Ichigo of his top. He was surprised to see that most of the visible ones were not too deep, and a couple of them were even healing on their own. "Uhhh... What?" He had never heard of such a thing, and not from a new Shinigami at that. 'What even was this Ryoka?' the medic asked himself.
(...)
Meanwhile, in Ichigo's inner world, Ichigo was having a clash of swords with a redheaded woman in a military uniform that's both regal and implements elements of gold-accented samurai armor and a Shinigami's Shihakushō, her red eyes trained on Ichigo as he dodged under a jagged katana. "You know, my King, if you are just going to dodge, it would defeat the purpose of coming here. I can take over if you want... It would be simple for me. Although if it wasn't for him severing your soul chain I would have been stuck with you not knowing I existed, maybe when I am cutting him up I can thank him for bringing us together."
"Okay, no... That's not happening, not over my dead body." Ichigo said as Zangetsu parried an overhead sword strike. He pivoted and aimed his blade at her lower back from behind. "I know that you want to protect me but... Trust is a two-way street, and if I can't trust you." He groaned as Zangetsu blocked his jagged blade by switching to southpaw, dropping her Zanpakutō into her left hand behind her back without looking.
She twisted her body to face him while they continued to trade sword strikes in what appeared to be a courtyard of a palace inside Ichigo's inner world. "Do you blame me, King, you only just started to listen to your instincts and me for that matter? Before then I only had to watch you as you fumble around like a headless chick waiting for the slaughter." She spoke, getting a clean cut on Ichigo's chest, causing him to retreat as the diagonal wound started to bleed. "Do you know how hard it was for me, how hard it was knowing that I could help but you were powerless to do so? How even if I could heal every cut and bruise of yours my King was still suffering." She pointed her katana at Ichigo. "When you are in pain, when you feel sadness, I feel it. Do you know why it rains in this world? This is your world, Ichigo. The rain falls because you're sad. But I'm here to help you. When you're happy, the rain will stop. So if I can get rid of what causes you pain and sadness, why shouldn't I?"
Zangetsu had said this to him, he had came here when he had gotten his powers back and it was raining and she was upset without him knowing why. It all made sense now, she felt what he felt when he heard that Rukia had been imprisoned, and that's why he had started to manifest a hollow mask at that time. She did it all for him. He moved closer, moving her katana out of the way with a strong grip as she placed her right hand over his chest. "This is why I say that trust is a two-way street, how was I supposed to know that was what you were trying to do?" A white bony substance started to form inside Ichigo's wound, stitching it together as he spoke, feeling the warmth of her hand. "If you want to help, someone once said to me, if there is someone you want to protect then trust in our combined strength... Zangetsu."
The Zanpakutō spirit smiled, forcibly removing her blade from Ichigo's hand, laughing as the jagged side tore through the flesh of his palm. "You are a hundred years too early for me to ever trust you by your word, my King." She pointed her blade at Ichigo's chest, her brilliant red eyes turning a pale blue color. "Show me your true form..." a reddish-black Reiryoku emanated from her in contrast to her white uniform. "Show me the strength that I should trust in Kurosaki Ichigo," and with a deep breath, she smirked as she said the name of the form he had just learned. "Ban...kai."
Ichigo feeling empowered followed suit. "Have it your way." He mimicked her actions only to have the fabric from the hilt of his blade wrap itself around his arm as he stabilized his arm with his free hand. "Ban..."
