- Chapter 7: Connections -
After Rukia had recovered her Gigai and Ichigo returned to his body, the two of them and Ishida went into a small cafe that Ichigo had never actually entered before, despite it only being a couple blocks from his school. It was surprisingly elegant, yet simple at the same time - almost austere, truly, which in a sense was to be expected of Ishida, he supposed.
As soon as they were sitting, with hot chocolate in front of themselves, Rukia asked, determination in her gaze:
"So, what do you know of these Execution people? Do you have the names, their hiding place?"
Ishida shook his head.
"No, not really. But I know of them, and have perceived them in action once, although they were gone when I got there."
"Alright, so what can you tell me?"
"Well, from what I heard, they bring Hollow to the material realm through the dimensional barrier, but only in order to kill them. That's where the name comes from; it's why we haven't gone after them."
Ichigo frowned then, and asked:
"By we, do you mean the Quincy?"
Ishida looked at Ichigo with a perplexed frown as he answered:
"Sure. Who else would I be speaking of?"
"I don't know, I just... sort of got the sense that you liked to work alone."
"I do."
Seeing Ichigo's confusion at the answer, Ishida elaborated:
"My master lives in a different section of the city, and I'm only one of the tree students he has; but he doesn't want us depending on each other, and teaches each of us individually."
Ishida turned a glare on Rukia and added:
"It's a precaution, so that if the Shinigami decided to attack one of us, they'd not be able to take us all down at once, and when we don't send the signal, the others will know we've been attacked and react accordingly. I'm telling you so that you know, should this all be a trap, you'll regret it."
Rukia shook her head.
"It's no trap, I'm really after these people; they've been messing with Hollows for a long time, and if they continue, they might just put the whole world in danger. I need to take them out."
She let out a long breath, then asked:
"So, do you think you could find out where their base of operation is, lead us there?"
Ishida nodded, then said:
"I will, but at three conditions. The first is that I get to be there when you strike, to ensure that this is really the threat you say it is. The second is that you give me one of those Zanpakuto you promised, so that we can try it out. And the last is that, once this is over, you and your Shinigami will stop interfering with Karakura and leave us Quincy alone."
Rukia grimaced at that last one, and answered:
"I can't promise you that - I don't have the authority to make that kind of decision; I could ask my Captain to intercede on your behalf, but I don't know that it'd work. Are you willing to accept that as my promise, instead?"
Ishida seemed very annoyed by the answer, but he didn't answer immediately; instead, he seemed to consider the matter for a long moment, and finally answered:
"I shall think about it; should I decide that's acceptable, I will let you know."
The two of them had to accept that, and after they left, Rukia commented, thoughtful:
"Well, that went way better than we expected - this thing might be a true lead."
"Only if Ishida can find these people. What should we do in the meantime?"
"We'll train; you pointed out earlier that you have holes in your skill set that I should fill, so we'll do that while we wait for Ishida to call us back."
*****
In the following days, Ichigo focused on his training, which went much more smoothly with Rukia's help. In particular, he began training in Hoho, which took place, as with most of their lessons, in the same corner of park where she'd given him his first lesson, that she had basically commandeered.
"So, you remember what I told you, about how reishi works?"
"Yes; the spiritual particles are charged with emotions, and similar emotions attract each other, keeping a soul together."
Rukia nodded.
"Exactly. This, of course, means that if there is a strong, overwhelming emotion running through your entire soul, it keeps it more tightly bound together, making you denser and heavier. Does that makes sense to you?"
"Yeah, it's logical. I suppose that means that if you're really determined and focused on a single goal with all of your emotions, that would also make you tougher, isn't it? Since the pieces of your soul stick closer to each other, so it'd be harder to break them apart?"
That gave Rukia pause, as if the idea was new to her, but she quickly went on:
"I suppose, but that wasn't what I was getting at; in fact, the opposite, really. See, I told you that a soul takes less damage than a body made of kishi, right? How it's more durable?"
"I remember."
"That's because of the emotional bonds being looser. I guess you could imagine a spiritual body as being more fluid - when something impacts you, the reishi making up your soul spreads around, but if the emotions holding it together are less powerful ones, the bond between the particles stretches instead of breaking, and when you refocus your emotions, the bonds grows tighter and your souls reassemble itself more tightly. Of course, a strong enough blow can still leave a permanent wound, by separating or breaking to pieces some of the reishi, but it's harder than with kishi. Following me so far?"
"More or less; you're making it sound like this reishi is sort of elastic, isn't it? Stretching on a blow, then returning to its proper form afterwards, just you need to put a bit of effort into it."
Rukia chuckled.
"Yeah, let's put it that way. So, what Hoho is about is controlling your emotions to a greater extent, to loosen the bonds holding your soul together as much as possible while still being able to move and act freely. Originally, it was meant as a primarily defensive martial art, and in a sense it still is, since the looser the bonds of your soul, the strongest the impacts you can weather. But with time, masters of it realized that it also allowed for much greater speed of movement, because by loosening your bounds like that, you weight less, and when you get good enough to focus it on only a part of your body, such as just your arms or legs, you can get those to move faster."
"Is that how you do those dashes of speed you always use then?"
"Yes; if you do it just right, since your body is looser, your limbs can get just a smidgen longer, giving you more reach, or making your steps cover a bit more ground. That particular technique, applying Hoho only to your legs to lengthen your steps, we call it Shunpo. The better you are at it, which you get by learning to truly control your emotions, the longer steps and reach you gain, and the less and less you weight. And since, as I told you, kishi weights more than reishi already in the first place, if you just make yourself light enough, you can step onto even the thinnest of kishi particles, like those of air."
She demonstrated, taking two steps upwards, and once again standing on air like she had many times before; she then motioned to Ichigo for him to use his passive sense, and as he did, he could feel the way the reishi inside her spiritual body was much less loosely connected, almost letting the air pass through it and support it - especially so on her leg and feet.
Ichigo nodded, and commented:
"I imagine that makes for pretty good attacks too, doesn't it? Since speed is one of the most important aspects of combat, I imagine that making your arms capable of striking much faster is gonna help with it."
Rukia shook her head at that, surprising Ichigo.
"Sort of, but not in the way you think. See, with Kishi, what matters most is the emotional aspect of things; reishi is primarily made of compressed feelings, so the strongest the feelings, the strongest the impact they have when they hit somebody else. Of course, the speed matters too - a sudden surprise or scare will have a stronger impact when it hits you - but in general, strength is the most important factor, and to supply strength, either the emotions need to be at peak potency, or you need to invest your enemy with a ton of them at once. So, when fighting in a spiritual body, bringing more reishi and reiatsu to bear is much more effective to hurt your opponent than hitting with only a very small amount of it, no matter how fast. Shunpo makes you faster by spreading your mass and thus having to carry less of it around, but that actually translates to weaker physical attacks the faster you move."
"Then, why do you say that it only sort of reduces your effectiveness in combat? It seems to me like it reduces it by a lot."
"Well, because that only applies to physical strikes with your own body, but if you were using a weapon that hadn't been reduced in weight like the rest of you..."
Ichigo touched the Zanpakuto at his side, nodding in understanding.
"Of course. So Shunpo is good for dodging and escaping, but offensively its mostly a way to support your Zanjutsu... it sounds like it's a pretty essential skill for a Shinigami to have."
"It is, which is why we'll now start practicing."
She lifted a stick then, which caused Ichigo to frown as he asked:
"What's that for?"
Rukia offered an amused smirk as she said:
"Training. I'm gonna poke you with the stick until you learn to let it mostly pass through your body; once you have that down, we'll move to trying and having you apply it only to your legs and see how long it takes you to get air-walking down."
Ichigo wouldn't say that it was pleasant, and Rukia was having way too much fun continuously poking him with a stick, but he couldn't argue that it did bring results. In the span of about two days, he was good enough to shrug off most glancing blows, which Rukia deemed "passable" before starting him on the air walking training.
That was not, however the only training he was doing; at the dojo, he asked to be switched to the kendo classes, which helped in getting a bit less rusty with his swordsmanship, but also led to Tastuki cornering him after the first lesson.
"So, you left me without my sparring partner. Why is that? Do you even realize how bad the other ones are?"
"It's nothing personal, I just felt like my kendo was getting rusty and wanted to get some practice in it to keep my skills sharp."
"You never saw the need for that before, though. What's changed to make you think this way?"
"Look, do I even need to have a reason? Can't I just simply want to practice something different for a bit of time, to have a small change of pace?"
"I don't think so. I think that your new employer wanted you to use swords rather than fists to protect her, is that it?"
Before Ichigo could answer that, Orihime, which was as usual tagging along with Tatsuki, interjected with a smile:
"I think that's why too! Why else would he be carrying around a sword all the time now?"
They both turned to look at Orihime surprised, although for different reasons, as Tatsuki asked:
"What are you talking about? He's not carrying a sword right now, let alone all the time."
Orihime frowned, and, to Ichigo's shock, reached for Sode no Shirayuki, tapping it with her fingers as she said:
"See? It's right here."
Tatsuki frown deepened, and she was clearly about to say Orihime that she wasn't making sense, when she stopped, narrowing her eyes a bit as she instead replied, more hesitantly:
"There's... nothing... there... I think?"
Orihime turned to look at Tatsuki with her general expression of displeasure, puffing out her cheeks to let off a annoyed huff as she said:
"Oh, come on! You're just being difficult now, aren't you? It's right there!"
"No, it's... not..."
Tatsuki was sounding more uncertain by the minute and, Ichigo realized, was getting closer and closer to actually seeing the zanpakuto... which Orihime, apparently, could see clearly; she obviously knew it was there because he'd told her, but he hadn't realized she could also see it before now.
He focused his sensory abilities for a moment, and sure enough, he realized that Orihime, whenever looked at him, was letting out a little bit of reiatsu which rebounded back to give her perception of the supernatural - and Tatsuki, whenever she focused, was almost doing the same, letting out reiatsu by focusing on it, and just having trouble in registering the rebound wave simply because, having not released enough reiatsu to begin with, there was not enough rebounding back for her to catch and interpret.
Also, for some reason, both Orihime and Tatsuki seemed to have an easier time releasing reiatsu rather than catching it back, with Orihime only being better at it, Ichigo realized, because her body was doing it on her own - likely having somehow learned how during her out-of-body experience. It felt strange, that they would naturally gravitate to the opposite sensing method from the one he'd picked up naturally, but in the end, that wasn't the problem right now; instead, he had to decide what to do about the situation, with Orihime knowing the truth and being able to see it while Tatsuki was neither, and whether he wanted to ask Orihime to stop mentioning it in front of her and keep her out of all of this, or just tell the truth to his older friend.
And when he put it like that, it really wasn't that hard of a choice at all.
"Orihime is right, I am carrying an invisible sword I use for slaying ghosts; that's why I've decided to train in kendo more."
"What?"
"I can show you."
Then, he drew the glow Rukia had given him to help drag himself out of his own body, and placed his hand on Tatsuki's head, pulling only the top half of her soul from her body; once he saw her eyes widening, he let her go and pushed her lightly back. Once she was back inside her body, Tatsuki's gaze focused on the zanpakuto on her own; to make it easier for her, Ichigo drew the sword, carefully, so as to show it to her. Tatsuki looked at it in silence for a long minute, then said:
"Back when we were eight, some kids were bullying you because you'd said you could see ghosts. I asked you if it was true, and you said it wasn't; then I kicked those bullies' ass. But you lied, didn't you? You've been able to see ghosts, and weird stuff like this invisible sword, all along."
Ichigo didn't know what to answer to that, so he simply nodded, and Tatsuki closed her eyes for a moment, then shook her head, her emotions a vortex he didn't knew how to interpret and her voice unreadable.
"I need to think this over. I'll be going now."
Then she left, and Orihime was about to follow her when Tatsuki raised a hand and shook her head, keeping her from following as she left on her own. Orihime watched her go with a sad expression as she commented:
"Maybe we should have explained things to her sooner."
Ichigo found himself thinking of this for the following days, and maybe that was why he eventually went to have a chat with his friend Chad which he opened in, perhaps, not the best way.
"Say, Chad, do you believe in ghosts?"
As was his habit, Chad took a moment to answer, and as Ichigo was checking his feelings with his passive sensing, he could feel that Chad wasn't surprised, excited or worried, merely thoughtful. And when he did answer, he did it with few words, also as usual.
"Yes. Why?"
"I just... there isn't a way to say this that won't make me sound crazy, even Tatsuki didn't took it well, so I'll just come out and say it: I can see ghosts."
Chad looked at Ichigo at that, then he said, thoughtfully:
"I cannot. But my abuelo could."
That left Ichigo stumped for a moment, then he asked:
"He... could? And... didn't teach you how?"
Chad nodded, and explained:
"He said I'd be better off not seeing them. Feel less guilty."
"Guilty?"
"For being unable to help them."
Ichigo couldn't understand that. He'd been seeing them for his entire life, and had never once felt guilty about it; he did try to cheer them up when he could, but that was pretty much it. But then again, that was before he learned about hollow; the image of the white mask with red lines on its left side and the hateful golden eyes of the first hollow he'd met was quick to jump in Ichigo's mind, and how it'd been about to eat the little girl's soul. He had to wonder then, how many times had those ghosts which disappeared had been eaten by hollows rather than being sent to Soul Society.
Ichigo let out a long breath and said:
"I can see why he'd think that; there are dangerous ghosts around, called Hollows. Getting involved with them isn't good... although not being able to defend yourself is not a good idea either."
"I can defend myself."
Ichigo frowned, and Chad explained, playing with the golden medallion that Ichigo knew was all he had left from his grandfather:
"My abuelo had me practice self-defense so I would not get hurt."
He then demonstrated, closing his eyes for a moment, and Ichigo could feel how he was pushing his own emotions outside of himself, releasing reiatsu and wrapping it around himself like an armor; he also noticed that, to his spiritual sight, he also looked like he was glowing softly. Curious, he sent a pulse of reiatsu outside to see if you could understand the mechanics of it by scanning deeper, and realized that, in a sense, Chad was using a reversed version of Hoho, of sort. It felt like he was inflating his soul, but due to it being inside his body, the soul itself couldn't grow, instead pushing out the reiatsu within all at once; and it seemed an effective enough defense, since Ichigo could tell that the pulse he'd sent out had only barely gone past the surface, instead of going through his whole soul as it normally would have.
Ichigo couldn't help but smile at that and comment:
"That's impressive."
"Thank you."
Chad seemed to think things over for a moment, then asked:
"Why did you want to know?"
Ichigo frowned. He himself wasn't sure what the reason was, although it'd be silly to deny that Rukia's words and Tatsuki's reaction hadn't played a role in his decision. In the end, however, all he answered was, in a neutral tone:
"I just didn't want you to be caught by surprise if all of this ended up spilling over and putting you all at risk, is all."
Chad smiled at that, offering a raised thumb in approval as he commented:
"Protecting each other, right?"
"Right."
Ichigo left it at that, although he did make sure to mention to Rukia on their next training session that Chad couldn't see ghosts and thus wouldn't be helping them with the mission.
Rukia looked sad at that as she commented:
"That's a shame - we really do need all the help we can get."
That was when Orihime suddenly said, surprising them both:
"Does that mean I could help?"
Ichigo and Rukia both turned to watch Orihime, who was waiting right outside the park area where they normally trained together; while both were surprised, Rukia was the first to recover and ask:
"How did you find us?"
"Was it supposed to be a secret? I went the same direction Ichigo always goes when leaving school with you, checking both sides of the road until I found you. It's not that hidden."
Ichigo couldn't help but smile at that - Orihime wasn't wrong - and then he asked, curious:
"But why did you come searching for me, Orihime?"
"Oh! Ishida said that since I was your friend, I probably could tell you that he's decided to help and has the information you need. So, once we finished with the sewing club, I came to tell you."
Rukia and Ichigo exchanged a glance, then the former asked, in a more serious tone:
"Did he said when we could meet with him?"
"He said to speak with him tomorrow after school; he said you knew the place to meet."
"We do."
And so it was that, the following day, Rukia and Ichigo found themselves once more in the café they had first spoken with Ishida, meeting the Quincy again. Rukia took charge of the conversation immediately, by asking Ishida pointedly:
"So, you've decided to help us then?"
Ishida nodded.
"Yes. In the end, the possible threat of hollows invading the human world is too big to ignore, especially because I'm sure your leaders wouldn't hesitate to assign the blame to us even if we've nothing to do with it. I'll still take that promise of your to speak with your captain about stopping your people's interference with our affairs, even if I know it'll lead to nothing."
Rukia lowered her head at that and answered:
"Thank you. I'll really try my best to campaign for you, I promise - if it depended from me alone, I'd make the promise immediately, but I don't have the authority to do more."
Ishida seemed to consider that for a moment, then nodded and said:
"Alright - I'll guess I'll just have to content myself with the knowledge that, if nothing changes for us, at least one Shinigami will be feeling guilty about it."
Rukia seemed confused and surprised enough by that for Ichigo to cut in and ask Ishida:
"So, you know when these Execution people will be doing their next hollow summoning?"
"Yes, and also where. It's an old abandoned building on the edges of town, and it will be Friday night; we can meet here at sunset and I'll lead you to the place."
"That gives us two days to prepare, right?"
Ishida looked curious at that, as he asked:
"What sort of preparation are you doing?"
"Learning how to use the Zanpakuto, mostly."
Which was why, when the following day he went to his third training session with Urahara, Ichigo insisted that he wanted to enter his Zanpakuto's inner world again. Urahara was skeptical, however.
"Are you sure this is is a good idea? I thought we were making plenty of progress with meditation alone."
Which, Ichigo had to admit, was true. By now, the connection with Sode no Shirayuki was instinctive to the point that it felt like an extra limb, and while he hadn't yet been able to send his own reiatsu to the sword to empower it, or drain reiatsu from it to make himself stronger and faster to recover, they were pretty sure that he had the mechanics of it down, and it was only a matter to get Sode no Shirayuki's cooperation. Which was, really, the best reason to push going to talk with her right now.
"I know I am, but you yourself said that, for most things, I'll be needing Sode no Shirayuki's help anyway, right?"
"That might be true, but you've learned practically nothing of emotional shaping and sharpening, and while the fact that the Auswhal seems to have standardized itself without need for your active control to make it properly usable is handy, it still wouldn't hurt to learn the basics, just in case they help with it somehow."
"Yeah, but none of that would be as useful and as quick a way to gain power as persuading Sode no Shirayuki to help, isn't it?"
Urahara grinned at that, and said, drawing his sword:
"Alright then! If nothing else, it'll be an interesting experiment. Ready?"
Ichigo nodded, and Urahara sword started to glow purple. Even though he'd seen twice, it was still a bit creepy to watch as it fired strals of energy directly at him and, instead of avoiding them, he remained still, allowing them to wrap themselves around him, so that Urahara could slow-down his individual perception of time to make the three hours he would spend in his Zanpakuto's inner world feel much longer to him.
As he arrived, he found that Sode no Shirayuki was kneeling, checking what looked like a trapdoor which seemed to be locked by the same chains that held her; as she noticed his presence, she got up immediately, letting her long vest fall to the ground to hide the trapdoor completely... and he couldn't help himself but ask:
"Have you been hiding that from me for the beginning?"
She glared at him, but the chains immediately started to light up and she answered, disdainful:
"Yes, it was already there the first time you came bother me, and if you know what's good for you, you won't want to know what is holding back."
Ichigo frowned - he hadn't wanted to force an answer out of her, the question had been almost an instinctive one - and worded his next question carefully.
"I'm gonna guess that it is some sort of huge power that could hurt both of us, if it was released."
"And that guess would be correct. If you were to let it loose, it'd most certainly destroy you, at the very least."
Ichigo looked at Sode no Shirayuki with curiosity at that, then said:
"Don't you think it strange, that you could just let this power loose to destroy somebody you hate, and yet you choose not to? I mean, one would expect that if I was so detestable, you would have wanted me destroyed."
The sword spirit glared at him, then answered:
"Not in this manner; what would be left afterwards would still have control over me, and would be far worse than any thief."
Ichigo was surprised, and he was about to ask a question before he stopped and instead said, picking his words with care:
"So, it would not just destroy me, it would take me over. I would ask how you know this, but I suspect that would be the same as asking what that power is, wouldn't it?"
"It would. What are you here for, thief? I lose my patience talking with you."
"Because I need us to learn to work together. Tomorrow, I'll be going up against people who have been releasing Hollows in the human world and have means to control them, so I'm gonna need all the help I can get."
"And how does this concerns me?"
"From what I've been told, part of the way a Zanpakuto helps the wielder is by acting as a second mind for them, spotting things they don't, giving them a second opinion, even guiding their movements in battle. And exchanging reiatsu back and forth between wielder and Zanpakuto can also be useful. I want us to be able to work together like that, and that's why I'm here."
"I still fail to see the point of this discussion."
She raised the glowing red chains wrapped around herself, glaring at Ichigo as she continued:
"After all, you can get me to do anything you want, can't you?"
Ichigo shook his head.
"That'd be pointless; I want you to help me, and that only works if you do it of your own free will. I need us to work together... so, I've come here to ask you how."
"You want us to work together, after you enslaved me here? I have no interest in working with you - you might have stolen my powers, but that doesn't mean I need to accept your theft, much less help you benefit from it."
"What if I told you that it was never my intention to trap you here, and apologized for it?"
"Yes, you implied as much the last time you were here. If that's true, then I tell you: let me go. That's the only way you can apologize to me so that I would believe you: to return my power to Rukia, the only one who should benefit from it."
Ichigo lowered his head and let out a tired breath, then answered:
"I don't know how. If I knew, I'd have helped you go back to Rukia already, but I have no idea how the Auswhal works, nor how to free you from it."
Sode no Shirayuki narrowed her eyes, and Ichigo felt a sudden pulse of reiatsu running through his own body; then the spirit of the sword said, in a dubious tone:
"It feels as if you are being honest, but you could just be good enough at faking your emotions to trick me. But even if you were being honest, you're still the one at fault - you're the one who stole me in the first place, after all."
"I've told you it was an accident, haven't I?"
"You have."
Even as she granted him that much, it was clear she didn't consider it an acceptable excuse. Ichigo paused, unsure what to say more, then remembered Rukia's words, how she said Sode no Shirayuki wanted her to prove herself twice over for any scrap of power she'd been granted, and an idea came to him.
"What if you put me to the test, somehow?"
"A test? Of what sort?"
"Whichever you think appropriate. I face your test, and if I pass it, you'll grant me your help in battle if I ask you for it. I think that's a fair deal, right?"
"Perhaps..."
She seemed to think it over for a few minutes, and eventually she said, in a serious tone:
"Why not? There is a version of a test I administered to Rukia once that might just do. If you can pass it, I'll agree to lend you a bit of help in battle, when you ask for it, instead of simply ignoring you as I have thus far. But in exchange for that, you will make me a promise."
"What promise?"
"If you fail the test, you will never again come back here to bother, unless it is to free me from this prisony. Are you willing to take that risk, in exchange for the possibility of gaining my help?"
Ichigo didn't even need to think about it; if he couldn't get Sode no Shirayuki's willing help, coming back to talk with her would be useless anyway, outside of trying to force the help out of her, which he had no intention of ever doing.
"I promise."
Sode no Sirayuki offered a smug smile at that, as she said:
"Then, you will need to let me free of using my powers, otherwise I won't be able to test you properly."
Ichigo frowned at that.
"You can't just do it right now?"
"No; the chains would consider it an attempt to hurt you, and stop me. They only let me do what you want me to do."
"And let me guess, if I fail the test badly enough, there's a risk this might kill me, isn't there?"
The zanpakuto spirit's smile turned even more smug, and she answered:
"If you fail really badly, yeah, that's a possibility. Are you still willing to risk it?"
Ichigo offered his most confident grin back - he could see now what Rukia meant about her being a harsh taskmaster - but he wasn't afraid of taking a harsh test; she wouldn't be trying to scare him from taking the test if she didn't think he had a chance of winning it. So instead of answering, he simply said, in the strongest tone he could:
"Sode no Shirayuki, I want you to use all of the power you have to test me."
As soon as he finished saying it - and he saw a flesh of sudden surprise in the woman's face at his declaration - the chain holding her suddenly fell to the ground, except for a small necklace-like piece that remained around her neck. Sode no Shirayuki checked herself with surprise, moving her arms in large sweeping motions as if to make sure she really had back her full range of motion; then, once she felt satisfied with it, she turned toward him and said, tone regal:
"Alright then. It's a very simple test, really, just a game of tag. Touch me, even just with the tip of your finger, and I'll judge that you have passed."
Before Ichigo could reply, the hail that had been continuously falling throughout the room suddenly grew violent as cold, battering winds raised, throwing it around with unending fury; it also turned a hundred times more intense, with a multitude of actual snowflakes suddenly being added to what had previously being a precipitation of mere ice, and in a matter of second, the entire area was totally white, the soft powder almost reaching to Ichigo's knees, while Sode no Shirayuki was now sporting large wings made of ice, floating effortlessly atop the snow even as she said, her tone as harsh as the weather she'd just unleashed:
"But remember, the one you're asking for help from, it is the one who you must reach."
As she spoke, copies of her formed from their surroundings, some emerging from the bed of white powder as if they were snowmen gifted light and dressed in the illusion of a woman, while in the air more hovering, winged avatars coalesced out of compressed ice and snow. More and more disdainful gazes were leveled on Ichigo even as, trying to adapt to the winds attacking him, he looked around at the multitude of possible targets surrounding him, and then Sode no Shirayuki's voice rose from hundred of different mouths as it let out the final challenge:
"You know that I'm Sode no Shirayuki, but you never earned that name, so how could you ever know who I really am? Being given help you don't understand will help you not at all. Prove you know what you want, Ichigo Kurosaki, by finding it. Or perish."
Ichigo gathered himself, focusing for a moment, then refocused his gaze through the snowstorm in front of him; thanks to Urahara's power, he had all the time he needed, it was just a matter of lasting long enough to complete the challenge, so he said, in a quick bark:
"You're on."
Then he reached for the closest figure, ending up with nothing but a handful of snow in his grasp for the trouble even as the figure moved away, the hole in its side already refilling with more snow as all the avatars once again spoke, mocking:
"Guessing blindly will lead you nowhere. You need to know me, to understand who I am, or else you'll never understand anything I would help you with."
Ichigo didn't let that deter him, as he continued to trudge through the snow, reaching for multiple avatars and once again finding only snow; however, soon enough all of the avatars had moved away from him, and Sode no Shirayuki's voice once again echoed from countless mouths:
"Is that the best you can do? You can't even reach a mirage of me, let alone my true self."
Ichigo had to agree, and so, he decided to try out something; in a moment of focus, he used Hoho to lighten himself, and then jumped out of the snow; as he had expected, there was no material air for him to walk on top of, but he managed to stand atop the snow without sinking into it. Then, he dashed forward, charging at a number of avatar in sequence, and while they kept forming, he realized they formed more slowly than he could move. He grinned, considering how he was already making progress, when suddenly shard of ice started to fall from the sky, and only barely did he manage to dodge them.
As he looked up, he saw that the flying avatar were releasing sharp pieces of their own wings as projectiles, and even as they did, they all said to him, disdainful:
"Do you really think the real one would be so easy to reach? You're still searching blindly, and that will get you nowhere."
Ichigo frowned, then extended his range in the passive search technique that, he realized, Sode no Shirayuki knew he could use, having taught him herself; and a grin formed on his face as he realized that, with it, it was easy to tell that all of the ground copies were fake, while one of those in the sky was different from each of the other... but then he realized something. The flying avatars did felt different from the snow ones, and one of the flying ones felt different from them all... but the emotional feel it was sending out was very smooth, a perfect shell of disdain. Too perfect.
He sent a pulse of reiatsu out, while still keeping the passive sensing up; using both at once left him winded, but he couldn't help the smile on his lips as he replied, self-satisfied:
"None of you here is the real one."
"Progress. And yet, all you've done is recognize what is not me; that's hardly the same as knowing who I am, or finding me."
Ichigo looked back at the avatars who had, once again, addressed him at once, and answered back:
"No, but now it's just a matter of looking for you."
"And you think I shall let you do so freely, do you?"
Before he could answer, the avatars started to attack him by flinging shards of themselves again, but at much faster speed this time, while the wind picked up, and the temperature quickly dropped. Ichigo started dodging, but the avatars didn't let go, continuing to target him.
He wasn't sure how long he kept running over the snow while dodging the attacks from the avatars, but it was a long time; he barely had time to catch his breath as he did, and for the whole time, he had to keeping up both the Hoho and passive sensing, while also having to continuously pulse his reiatsu out to see if the real one wasn't hiding among the copies. Sode no Shirayuki didn't let out at all, giving him no time to catch his breath or formulate a plant of action; it even stopped speaking as the chase continued endlessly, and he soon realized that she was just going to get him by exhaustion if he didn't find a different solution. He needed a plan, and to come up with one, he needed time.
And suddenly, as he dodged past a spear of ice that easily went through the entire snow covering to smash into the ground below, he had an idea. With a glance around, he quickly figured how the closest two roofs were positioned in relation to one another, he redirected his run and, once he was exactly between them, he suddenly dropped his Hoho, falling through the snow in a point where he knew he'd be falling in between the buildings, to have more space to fall through.
With the snow limiting his falling speed quite a lot, he had a moment to try and think of how he could possibly find the Zanpakuto's spirit... and realized he'd known the whole time. He let go of his passive sensing as well, instead focusing all of his attention on the sense of his connection to the sword itself, and suddenly, Sode no Shirayuki's location light up in his mind like a glowing beacon.
Immediately, he focused on his Hoho again, slowing and then stopping what had already been a slow fall as he gained traction over the snow, and then dashed upwards, heading diagonally through the snow to reach the right location without being targeted by any more attacks.
Of course, the moment he emerged, all of the avatars were surrounding the point he arrived from, and unleashed a flurry of power straight at him - one he knew he couldn't dodge. Which is why he wasn't planning to; instead, he used all of the focus he had left to try and copy the trick Chad had shown him, collecting his reiatsu inside himself and pushing it outward, only to grasp at it as soon as it reached past his soul to shape it into an armor. Without an actual body, it didn't work as well as he'd seen Chad do it, but it was just enough to give him a split second of armor to deflect the spikes away, which left the real Sode no Shirayuki surprised just long enough for him to charge at her.
Still, she recovered fast enough to dodge his charge, and she continued to dodge his following up attempts, still looking down at him with disdain, although it was perhaps less than usual, as she said:
"You have proved that you can listen, at least, and that's not bad, but it's also not enough."
Ichigo wondered what more he could have to learn, but he still focused on expanding his passive sensing again, even as he continued attacking her in an effort to hit her with something. And as he did, he realized that the connection was vibrating with every move he - or she - made; as long as he was using it to locate her, she could use it to predict his movements, and while that went both ways, the Zanpakuto's spirit was just faster than he was.
Which meant, he realized, he had to trick her... and suddenly, he knew just how.
She smiled in amusement as his determination redoubled, and commented:
"You think you've found a plan? No matter what you try, I'll know it before you can put it into action. That's the trouble with facing a superior opponent on equal grounds - you will only ever lose. You never had any chance to pass this test to begin with, but I must applaud you for having come this far."
"I'm not done yet!"
Then, with every punch or strike he attempted, Ichigo occasionally started releasing a pulse of reiatsu before attempting a feint; sweat was running down his brow, his muscles were trembling, and his stomach was grumbling from hunger - he had to have been doing this for more than a day, hadn't he? - but he didn't stop, and Sode no Shirayuki glared down at him, getting annoyed even as she dodged even as he attempted the trick again and again and again, and said:
"Your attempts at confusing me won't work. They might have on somebody with a lesser ability to read the fluctuation along the connection, but I've been studying it ever since you first stole my power for yourself, in the hope of breaking free from it. You can't fool me."
Ichigo didn't answer, making another attempt by releasing the pulse and making the feint, knowing the attack wouldn't reach... and then, just as his opponent dodged of the barest measure, failing to hit as they both knew he would, he used Shunpo on just his arm, letting it reach forward just enough to compensate for the slowed reaction caused from her surprise, and barely graze the edge of her clothes.
Then, he fell to his knees in front of her, thoroughly exhausted, and Sode no Shirayuki watched down at him, genuine surprise etched on her face as she said:
"That was Shunpo. You never used it once during the entire battle; you used Hoho aplenty, but I thought you couldn't do much more. It could have helped you escape from the copies faster if you had."
Ichigo was still recovering his breath from all of the exertion, but eventually he answered, with a grin:
"You weren't pressing me enough. I didn't need it, and since you had refused any contact with me, you didn't knew I had it, so I kept it in reserve."
"If I had known, you would not have been able to win."
"I know. But that's the whole point of the test, isn't it? I knew something about you: that you didn't knew everything about me. I don't know you as much as Rukia, and I probably never will, I know that. But maybe I know you enough for us to work together?"
The woman stood still and silent for a long moment, and then said, her expression undecipherable:
"I suppose you do, at that; you did pass the test, after all."
Ichigo grinned, even as the snow around them slowly disappeared, the wind calmed down, and they found themselves back on the rooftop; slowly, he got back to his feet, while the red chains started to reappear around Sode no Shirayuki, which eyed them with clear annoyance.
Ichigo considered the matter for a moment, then turned to the zanpakuto spirit and said:
"Well, I guess I need to be going now, but hopefully we'll keep in touch."
"That is what I agreed upon, yes."
"Good. But, you know, since this was such a nice workout, I had a request for you."
"Oh? And what request would that be?"
"Please, until I came back, take the time to use all of your powers to prepare another such test for me; maybe I won't have the time to take it, but if that's so, you can just keep perfecting it until I finally have the time for it. Can you do that for me?"
As soon as he finished speaking, the woman's eyes widened in surprise, even as the chains surrounding her fell to pieces, once again leaving her only with the collar; she regarded herself with surprise, as if she couldn't believe that he was letting her have as much freedom as he was able to, and Ichigo merely grinned and said:
"I told you - I never wanted to keep you imprisoned. I'll be looking for a way to free you, I promise."
And then, he reached for the connection and let himself be pushed out, opening his eyes to be once again in front of Urahara, who looked at him with a smug grin as he asked:
"It worked, didn't it?"
"Yeah, it did."
He glanced at the zanpakuto at his side, whose voice he could finally hear, and added, in his most determined tone:
"I'm ready."
*****
Tatsuki didn't usually practice at school, but with Ichigo's recent revelation that he'd been lying to her his entire life, she had been feeling restless the last few days, and she knew that if she didn't let the rage out with exercise, she was going to end up punching a few faces.
That was why she'd picked a most isolated spot to practice, and was thus surprised as a voice said to her, in a respectful tone:
"You look like you really want to use your hands to hurt something."
Tatsuki turned, to see that it was one of Ichigo's friends, the big one - Yatsutora Sado, she thought his name was - who was looking at her with an assessing gaze. She frowned, placing her hands on her hips and shooting back:
"So what?"
"Strength shouldn't be used to hurt others, only to protect them."
She let out a long huff at that and answered:
"Yeah, well, that's sorta hard to do when you discover the people you were protecting were treating you like a fool the whole time, isn't it?"
Sado seemed to consider the matter for a moment, then said:
"Ichigo didn't mean to hurt you - he was just trying to protect you."
"I don't need his protection, if anything he needs mine! And how do you know it's Ichigo I was mad at, anyway?"
"He told me. And of the ghosts, as well."
She kicked the ground in frustration at that.
"Yeah, now he's going around telling everybody, apparently."
Sado seemed to consider that, and then said:
"You'll never settle this alone, you need to speak with him."
Tatsuki frowned again; the truth was, she was very stubborn, and when it was important to him, Ichigo could be too. And while she wouldn't call either of the two of them violent, she also knew they both had something of a temper, and when you mixed it all together...
"I know that, but I also know that, if I see him now, we'll get into a fight before he can explain a damn thing."
"What if I was there? I could stop you from fighting each other."
Tatsuki let out another annoyed breath, but then decided that, really, she might as well get this over with as soon as possible.
"Alright then, come along."
However, when they reached Ichigo's house, they found that he wasn't there; when they asked, his sister Yuzu, who had opened the door, told them he'd left with his new friend Rukia.
Tatsuki frowned at that, then Sado asked, in his reasonable tone:
"Do you know where he could have gone?"
She was pretty sure she didn't... but then, she couldn't help the smirk that formed on her lips as she answered:
"No, but I think I know a person that would."
And that was how they found themselves knocking on Orihime's door; Tatsuki's friend was happy to see her, and when Tatsuki asked her if she knew where Ichigo might have gone, she answered with a smile:
"Of course! He and Rukia were supposed to meet with Ishida at that café he likes so much, to go on their very important mission for catching ghosts!"
Tatsuki was surprised at that - she vaguely knew Ishida as the best student in their year, although he wasn't in their class - but then shrugged; clearly this whole ghost thing was way more widespread than she thought.
And, she decided then and there, if it had become such an important part of Ichigo's life, then she was going to meddle with it; that'd give her a chance to make peace with him without either of them having to admit they'd been wrong about anything, which was just how she liked it. So she asked to Orihime, with a smile:
"Could you lead us there then? I really want to talk with him right now - it's important."
Orihime frowned and answered, uncertain:
"I wanted to go with him too, but Ichigo said it'd be safer if I didn't; the ghosts are dangerous, and I can't really defend myself from them."
Tatsuki frowned, unsure as to how to answer that, when Sado suddenly piped in:
"I can defend us from ghosts, if one of you can see them."
"Oh! I can!"
Tatsuki grinned then, smashing her fists together as she said:
"Alright, it's decided then - let's go speak with Ichigo, and see what this ghost thing is all about."
The other two nodded, and soon enough, they were on the road, Orihime leading them to the café were Ichigo, Ishida and Rukia were planning... whatever it was they wanted to do. Tatsuki couldn't wait to learn.
