"So, did you tell your parents of what Jin showed you or not?" Kazuya asked as the three of them walked out of the dining hall after finishing breakfast, Jin looking a bit alarmed before letting out a relieved sigh as Kūgo giggled and shook his head.
"No, Mr. Kazu. I wanted to, but then I remembered that they wouldn't be able to see what I mean. That and Jin asked me to keep it a secret so I did."
"Huh, didn't think you were actually listening."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Kūgo asked with a grumble as he looked at his friend, who gave an innocent whistle before they turned as Kazuya cleared his throat.
"Well, good work on not telling them. If you did, they would have thought you to be mad and made you talk to therapist after therapist."
"Yeah, that would cut into my manga reading time." Kūgo answered with a nod, Kazuya simply looking at Jin who sighed as he shook his head.
"It's something you won't understand."
"Ah, I see. Well, here we are." Kazuya spoke as he reached out and opened the door in front of them, Kūgo looking past the man before his eyes widened slightly at the large training ground in the room.
"Woah~"
"Woah, indeed. Welcome to the Kariya Family's Training Facility. It has been in our family ever since this manor was erected on this hill, but it has only been in usage since the time of my father, Heihachi Kariya."
"Grandfather Heihachi was the first to be able to do what I did at a very young age so he made this into his personal training ground where he taught Father and it is here where Father taught me all I know." Jin explained further on Kazuya's explanation, Kūgo looking shocked as he slowly turned and looked at the empty space.
Apart from a few weights, treadmills & benches scattered around, the entire training ground was nothing but a rough plain of dirt and Kūgo frowned as he turned to the waiting Kazuya.
"Uh, I don't see anything that would help me figure out just how you guys train."
"Oh, that's because this is all we need. The training we do is more mentally & spiritually challenging than physically."
"Wait, is that why all the people & stuff I've been seeing is invisible to other people?" Kūgo asked in shock, his eyes wide as Jin giggled while Kazuya smiled and nodded.
"Precisely, that. What you've been seeing is what the normal human would classify as spirits. The Pluses, which are the ones with chains, are normal humans that have passed on and are currently awaiting guidance to the next life. The Shinigami, which are the ones in black robes, are the ones who guide Pluses to the next life as you already guessed from the name. The final ones are the Hollows, which are the masked monsters Jin told me you drew on paper. Those are the bad souls, the ones clinging to this life out of resentment or unfinished business and in doing so, the combination of the world rejecting them and their hatred for the living forces them to transform into something inhuman."
"O-Oh. T-Then why don't they attack everyone?" Kūgo asked with a shaky smile and Kazuya chuckled as he gestured to Jin.
"Look into the abyss and the abyss will look back. Hollows do not attack regular humans because their souls don't have the needed amount of Reiryoku to help them transform back into something that resembles a human form. That's why they leave you alone because you don't look directly at them so they believe you're looking at something past them."
"…So, I've just been really lucky?"
"Lucky is an understatement. I can feel your Reiryoku leaking out of you and it's well above that of the average human, but it appears that the Hollows have not fully sensed it yet since you're still incapable of manipulating your Reiryoku."
"And if I do that, they'll sense me?"
"Worse than that. No matter where you go, they'll be able to taste your Reiryoku no matter how much you try to hide, which is why getting stronger is the first thing that you need to do."
"Maybe this wasn't such a good idea." Kūgo muttered while scratching the back of his head, looking at his best friend as Jin smirked and shrugged.
"You're the one who wanted to be a part of this."
"I know. Hargh! Okay! Mr. Kazu, let's get this training arc started. What do I need to do first? Carry milk boxes? Help out with construction? Swim across the ocean?"
"I'm guessing those are more manga things?" Kazuya asked while looking amusedly at his son, who grinned as he nodded before shaking his head as he turned back to the excited young boy in front of him.
"Well, you won't have to do any of that. You'll just have to do one very difficult thing. Honestly, I don't even believe you would be able to do it on the first try."
"Come on, give it to me. Let me show you how awesome I am." Kūgo spoke with a grin of anticipation, Kazuya simply raising an eyebrow before Kūgo's face fell flat at the man's response.
"You'll have to learn to sit still & meditate to focus on opening up your pores to let your Reiryoku flow."
"…Is it too late to just do some simple training or something?"
"How long has it been?" Jin whispered to his father as they sat on one of the benches scattered around the training ground, to which Kazuya simply looked at his watch before holding up three fingers on his right hand while making an o-shape with his left.
"Thirty minutes?" Jin asked with wide eyes, Kazuya smirking as he nodded while turning to look back at Kūgo, who was sitting cross-legged in the middle of a star shape that was drawn with some kind of dark chalk.
Kazuya was just as surprised at how long Kūgo was taking seeing as the longer one took to unlock their spiritual powers, the more powerful these powers would be.
Granted, it took his father nearly an hour to fully unlock his spiritual powers, with Kazuya himself having taken two hours and Jin an astonishing three hours to do so, but that was because all three of them had incredible spiritual powers that had awakened before any of them could even reach their teenage years.
The average spiritually-aware person took one to five minutes to awaken their spiritual powers, so for a young boy from a normal family who was the same age as his Jin to take over thirty minutes to awaken his powers…
'The boy is either blessed…or my assumption was correct.' Kazuya thought with a frown as he watched Kūgo's Reiryoku still slowly radiating from his body before a frown appeared on his face as he saw it beginning to waver.
Within moments, his eyes widened as the boy's Reiryoku finally began to flow from his body, but he was not as shocked at the sheer amount and pressure of it as he was by the taint that accompanied it.
'It appears my hunch was right. A pure & powerful Reiryoku intermixed with a tainted scent that makes the skin crawl. A Fullbringer.' Kazuya thought with a frown as Kūgo finally opened his eyes, the man catching the quick flash of gold in Kūgo's eyes before it quickly vanished to reveal a pair of dark brown eyes shimmering with power.
"Woah~ Is…is this it?" Kūgo asked as he looked down at his hands in awe, feeling the power brimming under his skin while Jin was in shock at the power radiating from his friend.
While it was nowhere near the amount that he or his father could emanate, Jin was still shocked to see that his friend had nearly enough Reiryoku to be on the same level as Koga, someone who had been trained by both his grandfather & father to be their second-in-command.
"That is it, Kūgo. That is your Reiryoku. The feeling of power is intoxicating and it feels as if you could crush everything with the slightest touch, doesn't it?" Kazuya asked with a smile as he stood and walked closer, deciding to put the shifting eyes to the back of his head as he watched Kūgo stand up while slowly nodding.
"Y-Yeah, it's kind of hard to pull it back to be honest."
"No one is able to fully pull back their Reiryoku seeing as suppressing it too much for too long could lead to it overflowing and imploding on itself."
"Uh, how bad would that be for me?"
"Let's just say very bad and leave it at that. However, what you can do is learn to control the emission of your Reiryoku. This way, you won't affect your surroundings and you'd still be able to hide somewhat from the Hollows. Just know that you will now be visible to the Shinigami around you so if you keep it suppressed as much as you can without hurting yourself, you should be seen as a non-threat by them."
"Okay, so uh…how do I control it? Because I think the benches aren't going to take much more." Kūgo said with a sheepish grin as his mint green Reiatsu flowed from his body, Kazuya shaking his head at the equipment & benches creaking and groaning under the pressure while Jin giggled from where he was seated.
"That is true. Well, pay close attention because I'm going to both explain it and show you how to."
"You act like a baby that found something new to play with." Jin spoke with a smirk as he and Kūgo sat in the backseats of one of the Kariya Family's limos, its driver simply paying attention to the road as his muscular body was barely kept hidden by the dark green tank-top & blue jeans he was wearing.
Kūgo looked up from where he was playing around with his Reiryoku by letting it flow from one hand to the other, giving a sheepish grin at Jin's amused laughter.
"Sorry, but it's still pretty cool to know that there's something only I and a few other people can do."
"It is, but like Father said, you should be resting & not play around with it when you're not in the Training Facility. Otherwise, the Shinigami might find out and then they'll try to ask you questions on who taught you all of this."
"Are these Shinigami like…the bad guys?" Kūgo asked with a frown and Jin frowned slightly as he glanced at the rear-view mirror to see Koga glancing back at him.
"You know that your father wants you to believe what you believe instead of following what you believe." The man answered and Jin sighed while Kūgo was confused at their interaction before turning to his friend as he spoke.
"I personally don't believe they're the bad guys seeing as they leave us alone and we leave them alone. However, they don't like it when someone else is either hunting Hollows or learning how to manipulate their Reiryoku seeing as they believe that only they are allowed to do so."
"So, if they found out I can do this, them catching me and locking me up won't happen?"
"If they don't, it's because they don't see you as a threat." Jin's response made Kūgo frown as he nodded while while looking down at his lap, a bit confused and now concerned at the book that Mr. Kazuya had given him.
He had no clue what a Fullbringer is and even Jin didn't know what it was, but Mr. Kazuya had said that it was probably what he was seeing as his Reiatsu had felt similar to what was described in the books.
Jin had tried to take a peek, but was quickly ordered not to by Mr. Kazuya since the book was supposed to be something special to Kūgo, but to be truthful, he didn't mind his friend finding out what he was alongside with him.
'Maybe I could explain to him what it is when I finished reading it.' Kūgo thought with a smirk as he looked out the car window, the sounds of Jin humming while reading a book & the vibrations of the car putting his mind at ease as he felt himself slowly falling asleep.
"Hey, Kūgo! How was your playdate with Jin?" Mr. Ginjō asked while cleaning the dishes as Kūgo rushed through the backdoor, Mrs. Ginjō giggling from where she was preparing dinner as her son groaned.
"Dad~! It wasn't a playdate~!"
"Right, right. I forgot it was a conference of manly men talking about the latest manga that came out."
"That's right! Mom, I already ate at Mr. Kazu's house so I'm going up to read."
"Remember your homework!"
"Already finished it yesterday, remember?!" Kūgo exclaimed as he raced up the stairs while holding his new book tightly, rolling his eyes as he heard his mother sigh and his father's chuckling.
Quickly opening his door & closing it behind him, Kūgo grabbed the stuff on his desk and threw it onto his bed, pulling out his chair & placing the thick book in his arms down before grinning with anticipation as he rubbed the title printed on the front of the book.
"Fullbringers: Fractured Bonds of the Soul King. Man, that still sounds badass." Kugo whispered with a smile as he opened the cover and went to the first page, shaking his head to get rid of the excitement as he wanted to focus while reading it.
In the world of souls and spirits, there are three main powers that often stand in opposition of each other that are well known by its denizens.
The first are the Shinigami that reside in the Soul Society or Heaven as known by the normal person. With their Zanpakuto blades, swords in which they imbue their souls that act as their spiritual weapons, these beings are known as the Protectors seeing as it is their duty to not only slay Hollows but also guide Pluses to the afterlife.
Secondly are the monstrous spirits known as Hollows, who either appear and reside on Earth or roam in their own desert dimension known to all spirits as Hueco Mundo. With an intellect equal to a beast and a hunger for souls to match it, Hollows are seen as nothing more than cannibalistic spirits that try to restore their own humanity by consuming the souls of others.
Finally are the ones as Quincies, who are also humans that live on Earth. Unlike Shinigami however, who are the protectors of humanity, Quincies care only for their own and by manipulating the Reishi found in the atmosphere, these humans are able to completely erase the souls of those slain by their arrows.
However, what most don't know is that there is another group that belongs to the human race, another group other than the Quincy that can manipulate the Reishi found not only in the air but in every inanimate object around them.
This group are called the Fullbringers and what they are…will astound you.
See, these Fullbringers, they're not just humans that are capable of manipulating the reishi in inanimate objects.
No, a Fullbringer is a human born from a mother that was attacked by a Hollow before she became pregnant. The reiryoku of the Hollow clings to that of the mother's and at conception, this Hollow Reiryoku is transferred to the developing fetus.
Nine of ten cases, this will result in a miscarriage as the Hollow Reiryoku will begin to devour the fetus' soul, but in the really rare one case, a fetus is granted something I call a Soul Fragments(More of this on Chapter 5).
These fragments are actually the soul fragments of a being called the Soul King, but we'll go later into detail on that(More on this in Chapter 7).
Like I was saying, the fetus is imbued with the Hollow's reiryoku at the time of conception, but at the same time, the fetus is also given a Soul Fragment.
Some Soul Fragments are more powerful & more potent than others, which is also why one Fullbringer has more latent potential than the others.
These Soul Fragments act as a filter for the Hollow's Reiryoku, filtering out the impure & toxic properties while also empowering the fetus' developing Reiryoku at the same time.
This can also result in a Fullbringer's unique ability, which I have devised to be their equivalent of a Shikai or a Bankai that Shinigami like to use(For more on these, read Chapter 3).
Now then, strap in as I, Kira Urahara, take you on a journey to discovering what Fullbringers are and how they fit into our little world.
It was nearly midnight when Kūgo finally finished reading the book, a look of awe on his face as he slowly closed the book while sitting back in his chair to digest what he just read.
"Wow~ That…was probably the most awesome book I've ever read." Kūgo whispered as he looked at the book, his mind blown from the sheer amount of information that he had just learned in the span of just a few hours.
Whoever this Kira Urahara guy was, he knew a lot about this spiritual stuff and the way he explained made it so easy to understand even for a middle-school kid like Kūgo who didn't like reading big books that were not manga.
"So, Fullbringers are able to move stuff around by controlling the reishi that's inside the object." Kūgo muttered with a frown as he raised a hand to the lone pencil still on his desk, biting his lip in concentration as he strained himself to feel the Reiryoku inside it.
However, it appears that his efforts were naught as he couldn't feel anything even after a few minutes of silent concentration, leaving him a bit frustrated before he blinked as a wave of fatigue washed over his body.
"Wow, I guess that training made me more tired than I thought I was." Kūgo spoke out loud as he stood up, stumbling a bit before giving a deadpan stare at the books & pages scattered all over his bed.
"…I'll fix that tomorrow."
A/N: And we are on a journey for some Fullbringer World building.
Hehe~Next chapter, first fight and plot twist.
Like always, you can go to my Pat-reon-.-com-/-KingCrimsonNova to read ahead on this as well as many other stories & even some that haven't been released out to this site yet. If you want to, you are free to, but if you don't want, all's good as I will still be uploading here. This is just me trying to get some extra cash.
As always, read, enjoy, review and until next week...
Ba-Bye~!