One Foot - Another Multiverse SI

[Ars Poetica]

Everything is on fire, now. Let's roast marshmallows!

-x-

If anyone ever tells you that dodging a spiky cannonball is easy – and there's always that one guy who does – slap him. Slap him in the face. Because dodging Omaeda's Zanpakuto was the most challenging thing I had done up to that point. Dodging it when the thing swung back in my direction was worse.

My legs protested, but I burst into a run to take me away from the swinging ball of death. Even as I ran, I knew Omaeda was faster. Soon, very soon, he'd get me.

The ball smashed into the ground just behind me, knocking me forwards first onto my knees and then onto my front. I climbed back up, but felt a large hand push me down.

Well. Well, shit.

With his other hand, he lifted the wrecking ball that was his Zanpakuto high above his head. That thing was coming down, I thought, he'd bring that thing down to smash my head into a crater.

That was, for obvious reasons, unacceptable. With my left hand, I grasped dirt and sand and gravel scattered all over the ground and tossed it over my shoulder. From the sudden yelp of surprise and feeling of a hand drawing away from my back, I got the fat bastard right in the face.

I turned to Rukia, still in a daze from being man-handled, "Hey! Ichigo's arm is broken! Think you can fix it?"

She looked at me like I was insane, but to her credit she was quick to understand the situation. I was distracting Omaeda. His attention wasn't on Ichigo. And she was the only person in the area who might, feasibly, be able to help him. Of course her answer would probably be "On it!"

…Huh. Things might have actually been looking up for once.

Omaeda slammed into me; the force of the attack bashed me against a vertical I-beam. Everything, everything hurt. On the bright side, Omaeda hadn't picked up his Zanpakuto again. But now he was getting ready to throw an I-beam at me while I was catching my breath in aching lungs.

Wait.

Omaeda was going to throw an I-beam at me.

MOVE!

It's remarkable, I reflect now, how much hurt and pain a human being can go through if the alternative is death. I'd already been hit by a train – I'd been killed before. It was not fun. And I would be lying if I claimed temptation at the possibility of being smashed like a watermelon by Omaeda.

Death at the hands of this man was not on my list of priorities. That was why, instead of gaping at his action like a braindead fish, I moved to escape as fast as possible. If dodging left or right was out, all that was left was up. So I jumped. I jumped as high as I could. Was it stupid? Well, yes.

But going left or right would have killed me all the same. Ducking would have made a smaller target, but that wouldn't have let me survive.

For the briefest moment, there was this weightlessness. It felt like I was never going to fall. But when gravity reasserted itself, my feet touched the ground faster than should have been possible. I stood and shut my eyes only to hear the impact of Gogetsuburi striking through another I-beam.

I opened my eyes.

Either I had grown taller by several feet, or I was standing on air.

Bullshit. I was standing on air, now.

"Bullshit," I whispered to myself in a voice barely audible.

Omaeda took the sudden shift from a two-dimensional combat area to a three-dimensional one in stride as he leapt up to meet me, but even as he did I stepped back to avoid his attack and felt myself descend back into the breaking skeleton of a building.

I could make platforms. I could stand on spiritual particles. I…

How was this happening?

No time to think, Omaeda was still after me. He tore through the structure above my head and came down so fast to tear me apart. I drew my sword to block his spiked ball on a chain and barely withstood the force of it.

Someone shouted. Ichigo was attacking? Ichigo was attacking.

His Zanpakuto's immense size might normally have been a hindrance, but he wielded it with surprising proficiency. Well, he wielded it as proficiently as he was able. In either case, there was no way that Ichigo's sword could cut through the ball that was Gogetsuburi.

Which was why, instead of trying that, he aimed for the chain.

It was thinner, weaker, and the best possible place to land a strike. Just as Omaeda drew his arm back to slingshot the sphere towards me, Ichigo severed the chain and, thus, the control Omaeda could have exerted on it. This thing that was once a ridiculous flail had turned into an uncontrolled bullet.

I ducked before it hit me and heard an impact of the enhanced steel on flesh. Looking up, I expected our opponent to be unconscious. Instead, he stood there. Unmoving. Solid.

In one hand, he held the ball of his Zanpakuto. With his other, he drew up the handle. The chain attached slowly floated towards the ball and, with a 'clink', repaired itself. Half-blind, he still glared at us.

Ichigo heaved, "Oh come on…" Lifting his sword again, he charged. That wouldn't work, though. Not with how our fight had been going so far. Omaeda blocked the incoming strike with the ball, holding it with both hands. "Oi!" Ichigo shouted at me, "Do that thing again!"

Eyes wide, I looked at him. "Hah?"

"That thing with the bulldozer! Do it with something else!"

Oh. Well. Why hadn't I thought of that?

It was easier to run out of the breaking structure when I could make platforms beneath my feet to jump higher and faster. I darted left, then right, then… "Oh. That'll do."

-x-

When Ichigo was punched out of the building, the rest of the structure finally collapsed. Like before, it did nothing to impede Omaeda as he stepped forward. If anything, it emboldened him. With all the dust in the air and all the crashing metal, I was surprised at the lack of sparks and explosions.

My new plan would be fixing that.

The crane's arm swung around, and attached to it was a partially liquefied hunk of I-beam, blazing with hellfire. Omaeda was lifted off the ground and swung around the pseudo-flail of fire.

I pulled on the controls of the crane and swung him down.

Enhanced by the power of the Rider, the industrial crane had become the flail of a titan composed of molten ember. The steel at the end of its incredibly long chain spun upwards, drawing the trapped and burning Omaeda closer to its arm. I got a good look at him as he brought his arm up, plunging it out of liquid metal, and broke the arm in half.

Impossibly, instead of just falling, he stopped himself and pushed the burning metal off of his body. Though scorched, he was looking far too well for a man who went through the ordeals he had. He glared at me. That was my only warning before the engine exploded from the force of a spherical Zanpakuto puncturing it.

My arm was numb as my consciousness faded in and out. The world was turning into a grim, darkening blur. And Omaeda, impossible, unstoppable Omaeda, was walking towards me. He wasn't standing on air, anymore. He didn't need to be standing on air to approach me.

Ichigo's attack was an unexpected surprise, but the valor of it all was lost to me. If before I was crawling, now I was just attempting to spasm. My legs were just not working. I rolled onto my good side, the side where my other arm could still move, and grasped at dirt to try and get away.

-SMACK!-

Maybe if I got something else? Maybe another vehicle? If I could get anything, anything at all, maybe I'd be able to stop him? Ichigo cried out in pain as he was beaten into the ground. The sound of him being smashed into the earth echoed throughout the construction site even as chunks of it caught fire from the wreckages of once functional vehicles.

-SMACK!-

I licked my cracking lips and thought. I thought hard. Did the rider really need to be on his motorcycle for it to be any use? With fire all around me, I could try just burning Omaeda. But, as I was, I just wasn't strong enough.

-SMACK!-

Begging the Rider for help wouldn't be worth a damn. He was beyond me. Absolute darkness. Imminent death. I had one part, probably, but the other was missing. The smoke from the flames was rising higher into the air. As low to the ground as I was, it didn't bother me. Or, I morbidly considered, maybe I was just immune?

-SMACK!-

It was a morbid thought, you see, because that would mean my numbness wasn't because I was burned, but because I was pulverized from the sheer force of the battering I'd suffered at the hands of the Second Division Vice-Captain.

I coughed blood. Was this where I'd go? Was this what would do me in? No. Not yet. Fire swarmed the construction site in its entirety, aiming for every vehicle still there, sweeping into them. The Rider didn't need to be on his Ride to bring it forth. He just needed his fire to do the work.

Omaeda, finished battering Ichigo, was interrupted in his trek to my fallen body by a massive backhoe loader. Blazing, burning, and incandescent with flame, the construction vehicle bludgeoned Omaeda from behind. Having none of that, he spun to meet the thing only for a hook to wrap around his leg and drag him back.

A positively immense excavator was dragging him backwards, wrapped around its shovel was the chain from the destroyed industrial crane. Omaeda swore and reoriented himself to snap the chain only for a forklift to interrupt him from the side, striking him with dozens of burning planks of wood.

Unimpeded, only further enraged, he still snapped the chain. Gogetsuburi was swung around and, with immense force, decapitated the shovel of the excavator, swinging back around to destroy it and the forklift.

Even as the burning backhoe loader returned to run him down, Omaeda's only response was to jump above it and crush the thing from above, flattening it with so little effort. Or, apparent little effort, as for the first time since the fight had begun, I finally caught him sweating. If the heat wasn't getting to him, the exertion of it all was.

"No more!" he stopped stepping and just charged me. But by then, I'd already found a new weapon.

A nail gun. Even enhanced with the fire of the Ghost Rider, it would probably not be enough, but I still shot him with it. I screamed wordlessly as I kept firing the burning nails at his mass, hoping to make this son of a bitch bleed. If I was going out, I was going to make him hurt as much as I could.

With a click, the nail gun ran out. Omaeda just stood there and glared at me. I'd stopped his charge, but it wasn't because he was injured. Far from it. The nails had almost all missed. Except for one, I noticed, which stuck out of his shoulder. My aim, it appeared, was horrifically bad.

"This… is pathetic." His glare intensified. I managed a grin. "What're you so happy about? I broke all your toys; your weapons are useless…"

I gasped in pain even as I shuffled myself into a better sitting position. "You'd think that…" I looked him in the eye.

He rubbed the back of his head, "What a pain… You've made this day hell for me, you know?" he asked. "I didn't come here to kill a couple of kids; I came here to deal with a monster. You're a pretty crappy bad guy." He considered the battlefield around us for a moment, "Annoying, but crappy."

"A bad guy, huh…" I pondered, "Well, at least I have something you don't."

"Oh yeah? What."

"Presentation." My grin turned shark-like.

From out of almost nowhere, my burning van came to the rescue. Blaring from its speakers was… Highway to Hell by AC/DC. It was the wrong song, super-van – still appropriate, but not quite what I was going for.

It didn't matter much as right when it hit the song's highest point, that was when Omaeda got a face-full of blazing windshield. It pushed him back only a few more feet before he lifted the van up and slammed it down as hard as he could. Its wheels destroyed, it still championed after him, trying to run him down.

He bashed apart the driver's seat, tore into the deeper parts of the van and ripped its steel frame to pieces. The thing collapsed bit by bit until he was left standing in wreckage. He looked at me, "Presentation? Yeah, no." He walked towards me, "Now, I've got you."

And with so little fanfare, with so little effort, Yoruichi appeared behind him. Her clothes were cut and torn, she was bleeding from a small gash in her cheek and side, and her shirt was barely useable, anymore. The entire back of it was gone, evident enough even from where I was.

She just looked at Omaeda. It was a look between disdain and surprise. He had enough time to turn and see her before she struck the back of her neck. With one hand and less than five seconds – three seconds, really. I counted. With three seconds and one hand, she knocked out Omaeda.

That was it, I thought. It was anticlimactic, at best. Ten minutes of desperate fighting, after dropping a building on him twice, blinding him, shooting him, throwing up in his face, throwing half a dozen flaming construction vehicles at him, running him over with a bulldozer and a van… and this was the end of it.

I resisted the urge to gape and failed. "Hey," she addressed me, "Poe… Are you alright?" My mouth moved to reply, but I could only spit copious amounts of blood. "Okay, you're not alright. How's Ichigo?" I coughed, "That bad? Wow…" she breathed, "Well." Looking around at the blazing construction site, she said what I thought was probably the most wonderful thing I'd heard all night, "Let's go back to Urahara's. I'll call for Tessai to help."

A blissful sigh, and then I was unconscious.

-x-

One Foot on the Platform
OR: One Foot on the Train

End-11

 

[Vanargand]

Ya know that makes you realize why in later arcs some characters are useless. Their growth doesn't match to Ichigo's

Dude gains like 10 leves in one go where normally people would gain 1-5 if they push it really hard

 

[Ridiculously Average Guy]

Ya know that makes you realize why in later arcs some characters are useless. Their growth doesn't match to Ichigo's

Dude gains like 10 leves in one go where normally people would gain 1-5 if they push it really hard

Click to shrink...

That's because, while he's still a living soul which means he has an insane growth rate, the kid isn't human in any sense of the word.

 

[Vanargand]

That's because, while he's still a living soul which means he has an insane growth rate, the kid isn't human in any sense of the word.

Click to shrink...

Duh he is pratically a Chimera of all canon species in Bleach BY THE TIME OF HIS BIRTH.

White (Hollow DNA carried inside of his mother's blood)
His old man and mother (Shinigami and Quincy)

Add that with the Human Lifespan means he grows days faster rather than years and add his bullheaded mentality in getting powerups and well it works WAY too well

Anyways I will find it hilarious if Poe gets to end up channeling shinigami/quincy/hollow powers as well cuz there are those 3 in Hell I am sure and apparently Poe might be channeling power from it directly

And well because I imagined THIS as Ars Soul Slayer Spirit



But more as the Gatekeeper of the Gates of Hell

 

[Ars Poetica]

The cooldown before the heat. Or after? Meh. Whichever.

-x-

"He's not ready." Urahara's voice is what woke me up before anything else.

I opened an eye and shut it with a groan. Sleep was more important than anything else, right now. I still felt hurt, I still felt tired, and I was not interested in having this conversation. Urahara would have none of that, though.

A shout broke out of me as he poked my side once, twice, three times, "Stop that!"

"Oh, good! You're up!" he exclaimed with false cheer.

I grumbled, "Goddamn sadist."

"I might be a sadist, but at least I didn't lose a fight last night."

"I've been asleep that long?"

"A little longer, actually. Ichigo's been up for a few hours." He pulled out his fan, "You should go say "hi" to him."

"…Is that wise?"

"Nope! But he needs the company, and he won't hurt you if you're injured. Maybe."

…so he'd punch me in the face, then? Spectacular. "Can I even walk?"

"Well, you should be able to walk." A thought occurred to him, "You know, if you hadn't sent that mod soul over here, I probably might not have responded as fast as I did?"

"What?" well that was a surprise. Something went right for a change… "Didn't Yoruichi call you?"

"It would have taken too much time. So I showed up and watched the whole fight."

"You… You watched the whole fight."

"Yup!"

"…Without helping? At all?"

"I helped after!" Urahara protested, "And if I didn't, you would be much worse off."

…Good god, what an asshole. He could have helped at any time and he just sat back and fucking watched. This son of a bitch might have let us die by complete accident for… for reasons unknown!

"Aaaaand I heard that." I blinked. "All of it. You talk a lot." He said to me.

"Yeah, well…" I would have shifted my feet if I was standing, but as I was lying on a futon I settled for looking at him with what was definitely not embarrassment, "It was the complete truth! The complete and total truth!"

"…Your ears are red." He smirked, "If you were a girl, I might call that cute."

"Okay, no. Tessai! Help! Urahara wants to do bad things to me!" The large man was standing in the corner, holding and adjusting a notepad. With a lead pencil, he scribbled something down. I glared at him, "HELP!"

He looked at me. Then he looked at Urahara. Then he looked back at me. He gave me a thumbs-up and left the room.

Urahara grinned at me, "Tessai approves…"

I screamed.

-x-

Urahara is a dick. Urahara is a bastard. Urahara is an asshole. Urahara needs a bitchslap. Urahara…

The mantra of terrible things Urahara was ran through my head over and over and over again even as I walked throughout the Urahara Shoten to find where Ichigo was staying. I found him in the bathing area. For a moment, I was conflicted. It was completely normal in Japan to bathe with others, wasn't it?

Undressing, I wrapped a towel around myself and walked in. I was covered in injuries. Scratches, stitched up gashes, deep yellowing bruises, scrapes all over – oddly, I wasn't burned. But that was a small fortune when compared to everything else I'd gone through. It hurt running a brush over my body to get clean before entering the bathing area.

Luckily, I didn't tear anything open.

Ichigo was sitting on the other side of the bath from me. His eyes were closed. He was inhaling and exhaling calmly. He looked at me when I stepped in. I lifted a hand and waved at him, "Yo."

"You look like shit." And Ichigo looked great for someone who Omaeda literally walked all over.

"I had a gay experience with Urahara. Tessai took notes." I glared at him, "How was your day?"

He did a very good impression of a fish. Ichigo looked away from me, "That… That sounds like it sucks."

"It did." Staring, I asked my question again, "Your day. How was it?"

"Fine, I guess." He shrugged then winced at the motion.

I thought that, considering how good he looked, he was doing better than me. It was refreshing to see that he got hurt just as badly, the injuries were probably just aftershocks to him. "Still hurting?"

"Yeah… that Captain from last night was no joke…"

Uncomprehending, I looked at him. "…Captain?"

"Yeah. That big guy? He was like a… like some kind of tank. Nothing hurt him. He just kept going. How'd you beat him, anyway?"

No. There was no way. There was no way he didn't – "Ichigo, we lost that fight. Yoruichi bailed us out."

"Oh… She probably had a hard time, huh?"

"…She did not." I took a breath, "Ichigo, Yoruichi is Captain-class. She might be higher than that. That man we fought last night? He called that other woman with him "Captain". Do you remember?"

"Yeah…?" He didn't get it, "So, what, that big guy was an even higher rank?"

"No, Ichigo. That woman was a Captain. He was her lieutenant. That man was a Vice-Captain."

Eyes wide as saucers, he stared at me. I think I blew his mind just by saying that. "But… After all we put him through… That's… He's just a Vice-Captain? That guy was…"

"We lost that fight, Ichigo. And Yoruichi beat that man with one hit." I mimed chopping someone in the back of the neck, "Bare-handed, she took him out with the flick of a wrist."

"…no way… There's no way…"

Ichigo looked at himself, stared at his hands. He was probably having one of those internal monologues. It must have been very dramatic and interesting. But as interesting and dramatic as it was, there was no way I could let him keep going like that. So, when he didn't stop staring aimlessly for about a minute, I splashed him.

Sputtering, he looked at me again, "What the hell was that?!"

"Oh. Good." I nodded, "You snapped out of your little funk. That's great."

"My little – We got our asses handed to us last night! How the hell are you so calm about this?!"

"Calm?" I asked him, "Is that what I look like to you? Do I look okay?"

He stopped, "Well…"

"Because I'm pretty fucking far from 'okay'. I threw everything I had at that fat bastard and it didn't even slow him down. I was going to die, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. Sheer coincidence is all that saved me." I took a breath, "If I hadn't kidnapped Rukia, those two would have gutted me and that would've been the end of it."

"…Why did you do that, anyway?"

Did I look wistful when I stared at the ceiling? "I did it… because I wasn't sure if you'd rescue Rukia."

"That's it?" When I glanced down, I saw him. Ichigo, livid, considering coming at me, "You kidnapped her… to see if I'd save her? That's why you did it?!" he shouted.

"Well, yeah. That. And I wanted to see if you could defend yourself." I pointed at him, "Pro Tip: You can't."

"Oh, and you can do so better…"

"Well, I can't." he blinked at that. "Oh, that surprised you? Look at me, Ichigo. We came in here suffering from about the same level of injuries, if I had to guess. You're almost recovered, but I'm a ways away from that. If I had that kind of healing factor, we wouldn't be talking this calmly right now."

"I'd probably be punching you in the face, right?"

"You'd probably be punching me in the face." I agreed. I shut my eyes and breathed, "Ichigo, I'm weaker than you. We've had powers for about the same length of time, give or take, and because of all the fights you've been in, your strength… it's been growing. Mine hasn't. I've been in two major fights, maybe, technically, three. You've been in dozens. But last night, if the Soul Society's best hadn't shown up, if we fought, I might have won."

"…But you just admitted I was stronger than you."

"In a straight fight, sure. But indirectly? Not so much. Would you have survived half a dozen construction vehicles and a van running you over? Getting shot by a nail gun? Being set on fire, dragged through molten steel, and having a building dropped on you?" I considered it, "Twice?"

He scowled. "No. I wouldn't have."

"See that? I'm weaker than you, I know I am, but I could still beat you. But Omaeda? Not so much. And those are the kinds of opponents you're going to have to face in the future."

If I could beat Ichigo right now with what I had available to me, then there was no way he'd be ready for a stronger opponent. There was no way he'd be prepared for a Captain or a Vice-Captain. Guys like those could plow through anything I had to hit them with, barring the Ghost Rider. And if Ichigo couldn't, what chance did he have against them?

"Why do I have to fight them? They're Shinigami too, aren't they?" he asked me.

"They want Rukia. And they will stop at nothing to get her. Last night? That was like a practice run. You've got maybe a week before the real thing. If you don't step up your game, they'll kill you. You will die, Ichigo."

"This…" he palmed his face, "This is fucked up. This is all just fucked up… Why do they want her? Why can't they leave her alone?"

"She broke their laws by helping you. Now they're coming to take her away. From their perspective, this is justified."

"You call that bullshit justified?!" he shouted at me, "She saved my life! She saved my sisters…"

I gave him a pointed look, "Your sisters…?"

"…" he looked downcast.

"Yuzu… She might be okay, in enough time," it was a terrible attempt at comforting him, "Maybe. Do you blame Rukia for her?"

"Of course not," he bit back, "How could I? It's my fault she was hurt."

"It was Grand Fisher."

"It was me! I wasn't strong enough! I couldn't beat him! So Yuzu was… she was…"

We were quiet for a little while after that.

This is what I saw. This is what I noticed. Ichigo Kurosaki was a Shinigami for all of a week and everything had gone to hell. His sister was hospitalized, the killer of his mother had gotten away, and he was bitter and angry and scared. He was a kid, a fifteen-year-old bottle of angst and struggling pain and he had no idea what to do.

"Let Urahara help."

He looked at me then. "What?"

"Urahara. He's strong. He can help you. You don't have much time, but if you ask him, he won't say no."

"I can do this myself."

"Clearly."

"You…!" he cut himself off. "You… You're right…" he sighed, "Goddamnit you're right… I need help."

"Glad you came to that conclusion." Now I just wanted to leave. Being in the same room with Ichigo was making me miserable, especially when I considered how what I'd done had affected him.

"Hey…" Ichigo looked at me, "You're going to help Rukia, right?"

"Hah?"

"Are you going to help save Rukia if she's kidnapped by those guys?"

I thought about it. I thought really hard about it. "No."

Surprised, he looked at me. "What? Why?"

"For one, I'm too weak."

"So am I. Just get stronger." That… that was a disquietingly decent point…

"You don't even know me."

"We fought together. We have the same enemy right now. You don't seem like a bad person." What an optimistic perspective on someone who might stab him in the back…

"I barely know Rukia – hell, she barely knows me."

"So?" Well! Now we were finally something that I could actually defend.

I looked at him, "So…? If you're going to save someone, or at least try, shouldn't you be invested in who they are? Shouldn't you have some idea of the person you're going to save?"

He shook his head, "That's not how it works. If you can save someone, if you're strong enough to help someone, why wouldn't you?"

"Why should I?"

"…That's a lonely way to live, isn't it?" It was an interesting way to say he disagreed entirely.

"It's living. Every day, tens of thousands of people die all over the world. Do I have the power to save them? If I did, would I? Should I? People shouldn't ask themselves if they should save people they don't even know. They should concern themselves with their friends and family. So far, helping you has helped me. Sort of. But helping Rukia? No way!"

"That's… a horrible life philosophy."

There were enough bodies on my conscience. Helping Rukia would only get her killed, wouldn't it? And we didn't know each other, anyway. Ichigo could help her without me. "Yeah, well, it works." I got ready to leave.

Ichigo considered something, "Well what if I asked you for help?"

"Why would you need to?" I called back to him as I dried myself off.

"…Because I might need your help? But if I did… if I asked for your help, would you?"

"You don't even know my name."

"I know that you're strong. And I know that you have an idea of what we're dealing with."

"I kidnapped your friend."

"And I'll hit you for that, later."

"…" I paused, "If, hypothetically speaking, you needed my help, and you asked for it… I guess I'd try."

Even from where I was standing, I could see Ichigo smirk. "Then will you help me?"

…Goddamnit.

-x-

One Foot on the Platform
OR: One Foot on the Train

End-12

 

[Vanargand]

Can't wait to rock this when a certain little ghost smells out the sins of Soul Society

Specially of two people: Unohana, who SPOILERS-still kinda a psycho, ya know an evil that retired and stuff,at least that was what I got- and Old Man Genocide

It will be oh so fun~.



Also Quincy King's shtick seems to be darkness..interesting huh?

 

[Culexus96]

Will you ever be able to control the rider?

 

[Golum936]

Will you ever be able to control the rider?

Click to shrink...

Not sure about controlling, but he should be able to at least learn to transform at will soon and maybe direct GR into the general direction of who he wants dead/punished.

 

[query]

I like the clash of philosophy's he has with Ichigo.
Is Poe going to tell him about the whole future thing, I mean it all revolves around him he sorta has the right to know.

 

[Simulium Novitius]

I want to see ichigo punch you.

That would be hilarious.

Sorry, I shouldn't be saying that.

 

[spencer1519]

Just found this after catching up in the SI idea thread.

Well done then. I remember when the original concept was posted, but I hadn't realized it had become a full story.

I have to say it's really very nice. You've got something very special here. I love the SI's handling of his powers. You've done a really good job portraying their strengths and weaknesses.

And I'm really looking forward to the first time the Rider gets to come out in the presence of evil here. That should be a glorious treat.

 

[Ars Poetica]

Beans.

-x-

Dinner at the Urahara Shoten was rarely a quiet affair. But the silence at the dinner table – or I guess it was a second dinner table, with how atrociously late at night it was – anyway, the silence at the table was positively stifling.

Tessai stood at the door and watched us vigilantly. I was sitting next to Ichigo. Across from us, Urahara sat next to Yoruichi. To their right and our left, Suì-Fēng and Omaeda sat next to each other.

The rice was good, at least. "Hey…" I badgered the Captain, "Are you gonna eat any of that?"

Her eyes glanced down quickly to a bowl next to her cup of tea. She took a sip of it. "I don't care for it…" her eyes narrowed as she looked at me, "Do you want it?"

Was that a challenge? It didn't matter. "Oh," I said to Suì-Fēng, "So you don't want any. Are you not a… soy fan?" I held my shit-eating grin for a moment. "…Eh? Get it? Soy fan. Because your name is-"

Ichigo looked at me, "Really?"

My eyes went down. I'd have shrugged, but it still hurt to move. "I thought it was funny." I said while most definitely not pouting as I shifted the remaining rice in my bowl back and forth.

Suì-Fēng put her tea down and glared at us, "I will not help you."

"Would it be too much to ask why?" Urahara inquired.

"You know why." Suì-Fēng looked at him, "What you're asking me to do is treason, even assuming Captain Sosuke is the man you say he is."

"And Tousen," I chimed, "And sort-of Gin."

"…sort-of?" Ichigo murmured.

I looked over my shoulder at him, "Oh, you don't know." Should I have told him? Urahara was shaking his head and Yoruichi was looking at me with exasperation, so I guess I should tell him. "Yeah. One of the Captains, Gin? He's a double agent. Sort of."

"That's…" Suì-Fēng spluttered, "That's critical information!"

"I forgot." I smiled, "It happens."

"You… You forgot? How does one even…" she exhaled and composed herself, "Alright. You forgot. Now you remember. Explain, precisely, how Captain Ichimaru is a 'double agent'."

"Well, I would, but it really does depend on if you believe that Aizen's the bad guy." I took a sip of my tea. I actually hated tea, you know. But green tea had this texture and flavor that was close enough to water it didn't bother me.

Now the assassin girl was glaring at me. She grit her teeth, "Alright," her patience wearing thing, "Assuming Aizen is evil, which I personally think is a load of horse shit, why would Gin be a double agent? How would he be one?"

"Matsumoto."

"…Ah." Suì-Fēng considered it, "They have a relationship?"

"He loves her. And Aizen did something really bad to her." I looked around at the table, "My theories range from tearing away a part of her soul to just outright raping her, but either would be a good enough motivation for Gin to try offing Aizen."

Complete, baffled surprise crossed her face. Was this a rare occasion, flat-footing the head of the Stealth Corp so frequently? "…If that happened, it would have been fairly recent…" Suì-Fēng theorized, "But how would he have gotten away with it?"

"Because it wasn't recent," I shook my head and winced, "Ow…" Rubbing the back of my neck, I spoke again. "Okay, basically, this was from the beginning. Before Gin even joined the academy, he saw this. And he vowed to take him down – to get close enough that Aizen would never question it, and then he'd kill the bastard."

"So this is in no way sanctioned by the Soul Society?"

"…No."

"Then why should I believe you?" she asked, "We're facing the same problem, now. Burden of proof. Aizen has a Zanpakuto that causes absolute hypnosis? Okay. That's interesting, but not only is there no proof of this ability; there is no way to prove its existence. If Aizen's Zanpakuto can do what you say it can, then there would never be proof of its true abilities. How would you, any of you, even figure out what his Zanpakuto was capable of?"

"Well, I'm from the future–"

"Bullshit!"

Yoruichi sighed, "He's telling the truth." She gave me a pointed look, "From a certain point of view."

Suì-Fēng looked at her, "It doesn't matter if he's telling the truth! Not if there's no proof! How can I trust his word, your word – I…" she glared at us, "Even assuming Aizen is the man you say he is, and even if you're right and I do this… the Maggot's Nest would be the best possible outcome for all of us."

"Maggot's Nest?" Ichigo asked.

"Shinigami Prison, but worse." I answered for him.

"Ah."

"Suì-Fēng," Urahara trailed, "As interesting as your conundrum is, we have the bigger issue of what Aizen will do if he succeeds. Consider for a moment that we know what will happen to us if we do this. We would not be preparing like we are now, getting ready for this, if we weren't sure."

She looked at them, "You would risk an eternity in the Maggot's Nest over this? Over uprooting someone who may well be completely innocent of everything you're accusing him of?"

Urahara blinked at that. And then he chuckled. Then he laughed. "Okay. I get it. You just don't understand. You keep thinking of Aizen as innocent, you don't have evidence of what he's done, I completely follow that." He motioned to Tessai and the man stepped away from the door, "So leave."

"…Hah?" I looked at him, "Urahara, if we can get Suì-Fēng on our side in this, we'll be making huge progress against Aizen. I mean–"

"Poe." He looked at me, "Shut up." And he looked back at Suì-Fēng, "We don't need you if you're going to be that hesitant about this. If you really don't believe us, if you really think we're lying, we won't stop you. Go ahead and leave."

What… What was transpiring here? Suì-Fēng stared at him. She opened her mouth to say something, but then she shut it again. She opened it… and no words came out. I could see her mental cogs spinning, winding as fast as they could and nothing seemed to be functioning. In a roundabout way, this was a total shutdown.

Thinking about it, what Urahara just did here was brilliant.

No, really. It was.

He was giving Suì-Fēng an out. She knew that she couldn't beat all of us – well, she couldn't beat Yoruichi, Urahara, and Tessai. She knew that if she tried to just run, they could stop her whenever. So now Urahara was giving her the ability to just walk away.

Every major plan, the biggest secret imaginable… and by openly explaining these things, he made her an accomplice. If she left, any information she gave on what happened here would either be discarded or leave her thrown to the wolves for failing to do anything.

All the information that she got was useless, effectively speaking, because nobody would believe her. And if they did she'd be on the cutting board, too. The only solution would be for her to keep completely quiet. All the while, she would be watching her back for forces from the Soul Society or from Aizen seeking to silence her before she could say a single word.

She could try attacking him, but she wouldn't win. She was still injured from her fight with Yoruichi that she lost. And Urahara was stronger. Tessai was an unknown that she probably wasn't feeling confident against. But if she started anything here, she'd lose. Brute force was completely out.

Subtlety? Forget about it! She could keep this meeting a secret, but there were only so many lies she could pile on top of each other before she was finally caught. And when that happened, well…

With this one action, he had her. And they both knew it.

She stood and glared daggers at him, "…You complete bastard." she hissed.

Urahara smiled behind his fan, "Is that any way to treat your host, Suì-Fēng? How impolite…!"

"Captain…" Omaeda looked at her, "What are we going to do?"

She looked at him. It was like she aged from that one question. "We…" a sigh, "We're staying."

Reluctantly, he nodded. "Alright."

Ichigo spoke up, "Wait, what just happened? I thought you said you–"

"I know what I said." It was the first time she even acknowledged Ichigo that night, "And things have changed."

"Great!" Urahara chirped, "So, instead of waiting for another Captain and their Vice, we're sending Rukia with you."

Ichigo's eyes were like saucers, "What?!"

Yoruichi addressed him, "It makes sense, when you think about it. If Suì-Fēng brings back Rukia, then at least it will be happening on our terms. At the same time, we will have someone in the Soul Society who can help us break her out if things go badly." She looked at Suì-Fēng, "You're the Commander in Chief of the Stealth Unit. There are hundreds of well-trained specialists who follow your every order. If anyone could help us when we get to the Soul Society, if anyone could ensure that this goes smoothly… it would be you." She smirked, "No pressure, right?"

Suì-Fēng shook her head and palmed her face, "You're unbelievable, Lady Yoruichi…"

"I'll take that as a compliment." Her grin became radiant.

"This… This is nuts…" Ichigo trailed off, "I almost get what Poe was doing before," he gestured towards me, "But what's happening here is… everything could go wrong. What if this Aizen guy captures and hypnotizes her? What if she's killed?"

"Then we lose a ninja army tasked to help us turn the afterlife upside-down." I yawned, "Big whoop."

"How can you be so flippant about all of this?" Ichigo snapped at me.

There were several answers for that. First, I really didn't think Aizen would expect Suì-Fēng to so easily turn to our side. Second, I really did not believe that Aizen had a plan for a ninja army specifically tasked with usurping his every plan.

Third, we knew who each of our enemies were going in and could cause immense amounts of damage. Fourth, the kidnapping was happening on our terms and not the Soul Society's. We knew when it was happening, we could prepare for everything in advance, and in the meanwhile we had one of the best assassination experts in the afterlife here to assist us.

Most of all…

"I'm flippant because we can win." I said, "I'm flippant because, even when Aizen knew for a fact that you and your friends were coming for Rukia, he was confident that you could overcome the Soul Society. Think about that." I pointed at him, "The biggest, meanest motherfucker in the afterlife made a plan that could only work if you saved Rukia. He assumed, correctly, that you and your friends could accomplish what almost nobody had ever done before. I can't believe I'm saying this, but if you don't believe in yourself or your friends for this fight, then believe in the Aizen who believes in you."

He stared at me, "That's… You're just basing that on stuff that won't even happen, anymore."

"Better men have done the same and succeeded spectacularly." I smiled, "Why fix what's clearly not broken?"

"This is still a bad idea. I mean, Suì-Fēng could be…"

"Killed? Raped? Hypnotized? Tortured? Executed? Imprisoned?" Suì-Fēng listed off, "As head of the Stealth Corp, do you really believe that I haven't trained for eventualities like those? I am well aware of what may happen to a person in my position and am prepared for the absolute worst. Assuming I am caught, there is nothing Captain Sosuke could throw at me that would make me compromise anyone at this table."

"Well, that's great, then!" Urahara exclaimed, "I suppose that leaves only one thing."

One thing? Hm… Let's see: Suì-Fēng is on our side, now. We're doing another fake kidnapping, but this one will be real. There's probably going to be training for me to defend myself, obviously, and Ichigo will be improving… his… Shinigami powers… Oh. Right. That.

"What's left?" Ichigo asked aloud.

"You."

Suì-Fēng was not simply fast, she was a flickering wizard of light and nothing. One moment, she was standing still. The next, she was behind Ichigo. Whether it was with a knife or her Zanpakuto, she struck Ichigo and knocked him out, leaving him bleeding on the floor.

"One of these days…" I trailed, "We should really let Ichigo in on some of the shit we plan."

"Probably," Yoruichi conceded, "But not today. I don't think he'd have liked losing Rukia's powers this way."

I nodded, "Yeah…"

Telling him that we were going to make him stronger by making him weak and forcing him to start from scratch? That would have gone about as swimmingly as a rock in the ocean… or something like that. Goddamn water metaphors, I just don't understand them.

Not to mention, it wouldn't have helped anyone to let Ichigo keep Rukia's powers. At best, they were an unnecessary crutch. He didn't need them, he had his own.

Suì-Fēng looked at us, "The alternative was killing him or letting Captain Kuchiki do it. And since he wasn't available and killing the boy wasn't acceptable…" she shrugged.

Tessai moved out of the way of the door. Urahara was the first to exit, "Training begins as soon as Ichigo is finished recovering," he said to us, "Poe, you'll be gathering Ichigo's friends from around town. Suì-Fēng, Omaeda, I have a spare bedroom already prepared for you."

Say what you will about Urahara, but the man knew his priorities. Speaking of priorities, "Hey, Suì-Fēng…"

"…Yes?"

I smiled widely, "Are you sure you're not a soy fan?"

Even today, I still marvel at Suì-Fēng's throwing arm and the terminal velocity of a bowl of soy beans. On an unrelated note: Ouch. Ouch.

-x-

One Foot on the Platform
OR: One Foot on the Train

End-13

 

[Fallenblades643]

Theres dedication.

Then there stupidity.

Its a fine line. But I think you know what I'll call those quips.

 

[spencer1519]

Your plans are insane.

I approve.

 

[query]

I hope Poe didn't forget to mention that one of the biggest/only flaws with Aizen's power is that your able to sense the reiatsu of his blade.

His illusions apparently can't disguise it.
Though that little tinbit only came up when it was half buried in Yamamoto's gut.

 

[Vanargand]

I hope Poe didn't forget to mention that one of the biggest/only flaws with Aizen's power is that your able to sense the reiatsu of his blade.

His illusions apparently can't disguise it.
Though that little tinbit only came up when it was half buried in Yamamoto's gut.

Click to shrink...

I am waiting for something like this

Aizen: How...
Rider!Ars: I SEE YOUR SINS! I SMELL YOUR GUILTY!

 

[query]

I am waiting for something like this

Aizen: How...
Rider!Ars: I SEE YOUR SINS! I SMELL YOUR GUILTY!

Click to shrink...

Aizen blinks before looking at Yamamoto.
"Well I should be perfectly fine then." one of his hollows subordinates opens a Garganta behind him "-Have fun Captain-Commander."

 

[Ars Poetica]

I like little girls, they make me feel so good~!

-x-

I stared at the driveway next to the main building of the Urahara Shoten.

"I was just as surprised as you, really…" Urahara trailed, "But you know what they say about gift horses, right?"

My slacking jaw clacked shut, "…How?" I finally asked.

"I have no idea."

Well. That was unhelpful. It wasn't surprising that it was unhelpful, but I wish it was actually something workable and… helpful. Because sitting right there, in front of us, was the most awesome van in the world. It was undamaged, untouched, and whole – completely at odds with the smashed pile of scrap it was last time I looked.

"You didn't fix it?" I asked him.

"Nope."

This was strange. This was… this was very strange. How the hell was that van sitting there? How was it in one piece? How was it – wait. Stop. First rule of Urahara Shoten? What was the first rule of Urahara Shoten?

"Okay then." I smiled, nodded, then got into the driver's seat.

Ask no questions. No matter how unusual, no matter how bizarre, if it is happening then it is happening. And you don't ask what you're looking at in the Urahara Shoten. You don't question the strange or unusual things. There's no time for that. So just go with it.

I left the driveway, Kon the hula girl was on my dashboard. "I… I thought this was blown up…!" Oh, poor, unfortunate Kon. Was he going to ask how this thing was around? Would he make the same mistake I did? "How?! Why?!" he cried.

Survey says: Yes.

My smile widened, "I don't know, and I don't care. Let's drive."

Kon screamed when I pushed the gas pedal as hard as I could.

-x-

While Ichigo recovered to be trained by Urahara, I had been tasked to find each of his friends who had accessed their respective powers to varying degrees. This was easier said than done. For one, I had no idea which of Ichigo's friends had developed their powers or if their powers would be the same as they were in canon.

Things had been altered so much at this point; it would not surprise me to find that someone's power was completely different. Entire strategies that relied on that power remaining the same could be tossed out the window.

In a way, the failed Rukia 'kidnapping' was telling. Things were not turning out the same way as canon and, in fact, were probably going to be very, significantly different. The question was where things would differ.

Urahara, in his infinite wisdom, decided only to give me a list of who I'd be looking for. Though the list was written in plain English, it left the issue of finding where each of these people lived.

First on the list of Ichigo's friends was Orihime Inoue. Since I did not know where she lived, I found myself in a slight predicament. It wasn't much of a problem, though.

My van of victory, parked on the opposite side of the street, cast a shadow on the phone booth as I flipped through the yellow pages. Occasionally, the street light above me would flicker.

The moment I hit the Romanji section, I smiled. Finally, I thought, something in alphabetical order that I could read. A grin on my lips, I turned to the "I" section and…

"…Hey, Kon!" I called back to the van. The window was down.

A plastic hula girl leaned slightly towards the open window, "Yeah?"

"How common a name is 'Orihime Inoue'?"

"Pretty freaking common, Poe!"

"…Huh." I looked at the yellowpages and contemplated my navel. And my wallet. And my spare change. "Hey, Kon!"

"What?!"

"Where's the nearest Laundromat?!"

"The nearest what?!"

"Laundromat! I need to make more change!"

"Oh! That!" a pause, "…How the hell would I know?!"

"…Huh." Well.

Shit.

-x-

"Okay, Kon," I explained to him as I dodged a drunk with my party van of fire and fun, "New plan. We're going to high school."

"At night?"

"At night." I felt the tires burn rubber as we rounded a corner and violated sixteen traffic laws. They were annoying traffic laws, anyway. Nobody would complain about it. Not. A. Soul.

With how late it was, I could count on one hand the number of people who were around and at risk of scary drivers. I was not one of them, of course. But in the event of scary drivers, there wasn't anyone around at risk.

It was a freeing sensation, just leaning into the gas pedal and shifting gears a little higher.

"Why?!" Kon gripped the seat next to me so hard I thought it might tear. Was I going too fast? I checked.

Oh my.

"Hey, Kon, how fast is, uh…" I looked again taking my eyes off the wimpy road in front of us, "How fast is a hundred forty-four kilometers per hour?"

"We're going how fast?!" he looked, "Good god, man! That's about eighty-eight miles an hour!"

As we made a turn towards the high school, I considered this revelation. "…We're not going to suddenly appear in the Old West, are we?" I screeched us to a halt in front of a red light so I could look at Kon. This was important.

"…No?"

"Great!"

Kon shifted, "You, uh, you never answered why we're going to a high school."

I shook my head, "Not a high school, the high school. We're going to break into Orihime's high school to find her picture, her home address, and her phone number! The casual stuff that friends know… those sorts of things…" I trailed off.

"That's… that is incredibly creepy." He stared at me.

It still hurt to shrug, but I did it anyway. The light turned green. I travelled through time.

-x-

Orihime Inoue, who lived in Karakura Town, went to Karakura High School. Surprise, surprise. Breaking in was easy. We didn't bother with climbing the locked fence. I just knocked it down with my van. I walked out, went up to the front doors, and cut off the chain keeping them locked.

Kon, perched on my shoulder, looked around the darkened school. "Aren't you worried that we'll be seen?!" he hissed in my ear, "You're not even bothering with hiding or anything!"

"The afterlife is run by the Men in Black, Kon." I gently explained to him, "I could run my van through a supermarket and Urahara would make people talk about that freak weather pattern. This?" I waved my hand around, "This is nothing."

"Well, sure, but isn't there a kind of spirit to this? I mean, shouldn't you be pretending to be sneaky?" I stopped, turned my head, and I just looked at him. I did not move. For a solid minute, I just kept looking at him.

"Dum-Dum… dum-dum dum-dum…"

Then I hummed a few bars. Kon was confused at first, but soon he joined in. My feet moved where my legs would take me as I started walking again.

It's amazing how fun breaking into a high school can be when you have a friend. It's more amazing when you just don't give any fucks about being caught.

I made a left, I made a right, and so it was that I kicked down the door to the school records room while we sang the Mission Impossible theme as loud as we were able. Well, Kon stopped when we went into the office.

But me? Well, still singing I proceeded to pull out all the student folders and shift through them, casually tossing manila folders over my shoulder and scattering papers all over the floor.

"Hey…" I breathed, "Hey, Kon."

"Yeah?"

"I can't read any of these."

Kon looked at me, "So?"

"None of them have pictures."

"…Again, so?"

I coughed, "I seem to have scattered them all over the floor, Kon. The files… they're out of order."

He glared at me. "No."

"Think you could just… dig around through them, and…"

"Oh my god, no."

"It shouldn't take long!"

"Goddamnit, Poe!"

-x-

Orihime Inoue's home was a small apartment in a relatively small, average complex. I already knew this, but it took breaking into her high school to find out where this apartment complex was. Finding her room was easy.

I could have knocked on her door. But, at this hour, she might not have answered. Thus, I climbed around and tried to break in through her window. "Kon!" I called down, "Hey! Hey, Kon!"

"Oh my god, what." The hula girl glared at me from the roof of the van.

"She locked the window."

He looked at me. "Are you… Are you serious?"

"Yeah, help me down."

"…No! Fuck that!" he snapped, "If you're going to break into a teenage girl's apartment, fucking break into a teenage girl's apartment."

"But… it's locked."

"Why would that matter?!" he shouted, "Why… How does that even factor into your decision?! You blew your way into her high school! Punch the fucking glass! I don't care! But I am not helping you down!"

"…Hm." I looked at the window. I looked at the lock. I looked back at the window. "It looks pretty solid!"

Kon threw a brick. I don't know how Kon threw a brick at the window, but he threw a brick at the window with his puny, plastic hula girl body. Fortunately or unfortunately, the brick bounced and hit me in the face. My balance lost, I fell backwards and hit the van of yo mama, denting the roof.

I tumbled off and hit the road.

Kon, wedged between my shoulder blades, got up and sat next to my head. "Okay. That didn't work."

"Ow."

"I mean… I was not expecting her window to be stormproofed like that."

"We're in Japan, Kon! Why wouldn't her window be stormproofed?!"

Kon shrugged. "I don't know. Why didn't you just wait until morning to do this?"

"…okay. Sure." I sighed, "Fine. Let's go with that plan." I got in the van, "I'm fine with that plan."

Kon looked at me as I started the van and pulled it around to the opposite side of the street, parking it. "Uh… Poe…? What are you up to?"

"I'm going to take a nap. As soon as Orihime leaves her apartment, wake me up."

"…Okay?"

I fell asleep in the back of the extreme van.

-x-

Orihime was walking out of her apartment, ready for school. She had a school bag, cute little hairpins, and holy crap I didn't think it was possible but her chest really was that large. I hit myself. No. Bad thoughts.

I got my van ready and pulled up alongside her. It was a straight road and traffic at this hour was low, so…

The side door slid open and I pulled out my sword. "Get in the fucking van!" I shouted at her, "In! Now!"

In retrospect, I really should have expected her to object.

"[[Santen Kesshun! I reject!!]]"​

…Well. Huh. This… was probably going to end poorly. "Kon!" I called as I stepped out of the van, "Take the wheel."

"My legs can't reach the pedals!"

"Wheel." I said again, "Take it." And I looked at Orihime, past her shield. She was staring at me. Watching my every move. She looked like she was ready to–

"[[Koten Zanshun! I reject!!]]"​

Shit. Just… just shit.

I rolled out of the way of the incoming fairy missile and watched with morbid fascination as it tore through the pavement. I smiled. He might be powerful, but he really was just a one hit wonder, wasn't he?

That's about when Tsubaki burst out of the pavement directly under me to deliver punishment to my spleen.

-x-

One Foot on the Platform
OR: One Foot on the Train

End-14

 

[trebor964]

So much for a first impression. But otherwise I'm loving the SI and Kon interaction.

 

[Clandistine1]

You appear to be the master of horrible plans, you know?

I love it!

 

[TheOtherSandman]

You have got to be the dumbest fucking SI that I've ever seen.

Like a wrecking ball that Urahara has to point in a general direction and then clean up the mess afterwards. While you do nothing but break things, and that's it.

 

[Vanargand]

Aizen blinks before looking at Yamamoto.
"Well I should be perfectly fine then." one of his hollows subordinates opens a Garganta behind him "-Have fun Captain-Commander."

Click to shrink...

Yeah but guess who the Rider goes after Yamamoto? Yup that desert will be set on fire

You have got to be the dumbest fucking SI that I've ever seen.

Like a wrecking ball that Urahara has to point in a general direction and then clean up the mess afterwards. While you do nothing but break things, and that's it.

Click to shrink...

So like Canon Ichigo then?

 

[Clandistine1]

You have got to be the dumbest fucking SI that I've ever seen.

Like a wrecking ball that Urahara has to point in a general direction and then clean up the mess afterwards. While you do nothing but break things, and that's it.

Click to shrink...

I suppose it's a result of being in a world where you don't care for anybody in particular, and a willingness to be an arse.

 

[TheOtherSandman]

I suppose it's a result of being in a world where you don't care for anybody in particular, and a willingness to be an arse.

Click to shrink...

It's amusing to be sure.

But it also reads like every chapter should open with, "Hi! My name is Poe and this is Jackass."

 

[Ars Poetica]

But it also reads like every chapter should open with, "Hi! My name is Poe and this is Jackass."

Click to shrink...

You just nailed it on the head, and you don't even know it.

Poe is, and I've wanted to explain this for a while, the anti-Magnificent Bastard. Everything you'd expect a Magnificent Bastard to do he will either do the exact fucking opposite or he'll try it and fail miserably. He is, in simplest terms, a Spectacular Jackass.

It's not that he tries to be stupid. It's just that he's bad at playing smart.

He's not dumb. He's just better at being an idiot. And, well, he's still alive isn't he? For now.