Chapter 11: Cold as ice

It took some time, but the group finally managed to reach an area separated from the main entrance of the Seireitei. On their walk, Yoruichi had explained a few things to the group of teens. Like how they should not engage any captains or get separated from each other. He also explained that soul reapers were far stronger here than in the world of the living due to restrictions placed on them once they entered the human world. This caused both Ichigo and Uryu to grit their teeth at this information. While Ichigo had it in his mind, it still irked him that he was beaten so easily. For Uryu, it made him believe that he lost to an opponent when they were at their weakest, causing him to want a rematch with the red-haired soul reaper. He had gotten stronger since then, but now had a sliver of doubt in his mind with the power difference despite the training from his father.

They made it to the gate and were greeted by a large man that had a large axe out. He began saying something along the lines of none of them passing and how no one has ever defeated him in battle before, but the group of teens were just uninterested in his words. Ichigo stepped in and was about to simply ask the man to let them pass, but he raised his large axe in the air in response. Yoruichi was close to shifting his form to save the teen, but before he could do that, Ichigo pulled out her zanpakuto and blocked the strike with almost no effort. There was a small shockwave of ice from the blocked attack, but it really didn't amount to much other than freezing his axe. Uryu took this chance to shoot an arrow at the frozen axe, shattering it easily. The force of the arrow also pushed the man on his rear as looked to the teens in alarm.

"Guess we're the ones to beat you." Ichigo started while shouldering his blade. "Now then, open the gate or else." To get her point across, her blade began to leak dark energy, instantly frightening the man to do what she said.

While he was getting ready to lift the gate, Yoruichi was fascinated by Ichigo's strength. Not only was she able to block that attack from a large opponent with ease, but she could also intimidate the man easily as well. The feline had no idea where for the soul imprint did this come from. This intimidation and an almost welcoming of violence. From what he heard from Kisuke, Ichigo seemed to enjoy fighting more so than before. The shop owner summed it up to Ichigo's nature dominating over Rukia's, but something about that statement didn't sit right with the black cat. If it was Ichigo's nature dominating Rukia's with the soul imprint, then why did Ichigo still look the way she did? Why does her human body reject her soul form now? Why does his power mainly ice now? These were questions that he couldn't wrap his tail around as the teen was indeed an enigma.

While Yoruichi was thinking, he felt a strong spiritual pressure and knew this was bad.

"My, my." A somewhat cheery voice spoke once the gate was up. "Don't you know that the job of a gatekeeper is to keep people out, not open it when you lose." The large man shivered in fear at seeing the captain of squad 3 standing in front of him. "And do you know what happens when you lose?" He grabbed his zanpakuto and suddenly the large man's left arm was cut off from just above the elbow. "You die."

"Good to know." Ichigo said from behind the man, causing him to open his eyes in shock and turn around only to see no one there.

His instincts then flared as he turned back around to block a downward strike from someone who looked oddly enough like Rukia Kuchiki. While he wanted to question just who this was, he felt the true force of the blow and could feel the very ground under him begin to cave in from the force of the blow. He gritted his teeth as the attack not only had strength behind it, but also power as he could feel the very air around him getting colder and colder. He pushed her away only for her to jump high into the air. He raised a brow before he felt incoming fire from the gate. Both Uryu and Chad had launched their own attacks at the captain, causing him to dodge the energy wave and deflect the arrows away.

"Got you." He once again heard from behind him, only this time Ichigo was really behind the man. He turned just in time for Ichigo to grab his left arm. "Since you sliced the arm of your comrade off, I think it only fair you suffer the same punishment."

Too quick for the captain to react, his arm started to freeze rather quickly. Panicking, the captain quickly went for an attack with his blade only for Ichigo to use her impressive flexibility to dodge it. What he was really going for is her killer grip to loosen, which it did, and he kicked her away, causing her to let go of him. He skidded to the ground and took a knee as he could no longer feel his left arm anymore. Upon closer inspection, it was completely frozen solid.

Ichigo landed next to her friends and the gatekeeper who was losing consciousness from blood loss. More soul reapers were approaching to aid the captain, so Ichigo decided that retreat was the smarter idea for now. She leapt back and kicked the large man away so the gate would fall and separate them from the soul reapers.

"Captain!" A blond man quickly rushed over towards his captain and saw his frozen left arm. "C-captain Ichimaru, we need to get you to squad four." He said in a panicked tone.

"Y-Yeah." Captain Ichimaru answered as he made to stand up only to feel his strength waning. "Kira, help me up."

The blond, now named Kira, was at his captain's side in a flash and helped him to his feet. He looked to the others with him. "Secure this area! Nobody lower than a third seat is allowed access here until we know what happened!" He ordered. The men nodded and did a sweep of the area.

"That was her." Ichimaru spoke softly.

"Who?" Kira asked as he could see his captain slowly fading into unconsciousness.

"The soul imprint."

Gonna end this one here. Yes, Ichigo and company did defeat Gin here mainly to show just how dangerous this new Ichigo is and to give a sense of paranoia to the soul imprint entering the Seireitei. I really enjoyed writing this chapter and will say that the next one will be longer.

Stay awesome, and as always...

PEACE!