Chapter 9: A Wandering Soul - Spirit 1.7
Calm, I must stay calm.
I knew getting involved with the events of canon would start involving me with some ridiculous situations. I knew that interfering at the start was unwise since it would impact the growth of some important allies we would need in the future. I even knew that Rukia was horribly unprepared to deal with her duties.
These were things I had prepared for in advance. Since I was unable to use kido, the only additional work generated by situations caused by Rukia failing to kill a low Hollow like a rank amateur was for me to keep track of where incidents took place and deploy Tessai to repair them.
It was actually nice that despite Ichigo being even more of an amateur than Rukia, none of the Urahara shop group needed to intervene to any great extent to keep up the illusion of Rukia not losing her powers. True, I spent much more time hunting Hollows at the edge of her assigned territory. But I just viewed it as combat practice and time to get used to Haste, especially since I had a version that was fine for simple movements.
No, what angered me the most was the tiny things I had forgotten about the show. Kon was a particularly unwelcome reminder of that. The mod-soul caused such a mess during his joy-ride that I was still tracking down and removing evidence to ensure word of this doesn't make it back to Soul Society.
That Yoruichi was no doubt running along behind me getting whatever I missed failed to lift my mood since I was still tasked to do it, despite not being the super assassin with actual training in information removal.
Another one of these things was I had simply forgotten about was a surprise visit from an Onmitsukidō agent since Rukia had apparently not notified her superiors about an extended stay in the World of the Living. It wasn't even that hard to get approval! All she needed to do was fill out a form and have one of us confirm she was staying at an approved outpost and not just taking her deployment as a vacation.
No! Calm! Stay calm. Don't turn the irresponsible Reaper into a pincushion. Even if it does mean she didn't actually read all the briefing materials I gave her.
Little things like that. Things totally avoidable that just a little common sense would have prevented some annoying headaches for everyone. Common sense like, oh I don't know, NOT actively attracting murderous creatures who for the most part exist to devour souls near a town FULL OF PEOPLE!
A swarm of blades fly towards another group of Hollows, tearing them to pieces in the process. Some individual Hollows a bit further out are pierced by arrows and quickly killed. It seems that whatever is drawing these cannon fodder Hollows to the area has plenty of bodies to throw at us, and since Urahara is certain Aizen has something to do with this I am trying to hold some tricks in reserve.
I take aim at another fleeing Hollow and take a second to watch as the arrow imbeds itself in the back of its head. I think that was the last one fleeing this direction, I should probably make my way back to Urahara just to see what is actually going to stop this example of idiocy.
Looking around I spotted everyone from the shop minus Urahara and Yuroichi gathering nearby cleaning up some stragglers.
"I took care of the runners," I announced as I landed next to them. "What is the next step?"
Tessai stopped to talk to me while the kids continued after more small-fry Hollows. "We finished setting up a large scale barrier Kido, that should keep the rest of the Hollows from moving into more populated areas of the town. Now we just finish cleaning up."
"Finish cleaning up. And what about the Menos? Why is that not a priority?!"
Seriously, that thing is stupidly huge. How did I forget that a goddamned Menos showed up? Why couldn't Ichigo and Uryu just beat each other up instead of causing so much trouble!
"Boss said to let Ichigo Kurosaki handle the Menos. We just need to keep the surroundings secure."
"Oh he did, did he? And where exactly is Urahara-san right now? I have a question for him."
Yep, calm. Just had to stay calm. Tessai should take note of that, he seems to have started sweating a bit from stressing so much.
"U-um, he is over there with Rukia-san"
I follow where he is pointing and see Urahara standing in the treeline next to Rukia who seems to have collapsed. Ah, no she is caught in a Bakudo technique. Not that she really had a chance of preventing this outcome in her current state, so I guess I won't hold this incident against her. Kisuke on the other hand…
The Menos is still making its way through the dimensional breach. From how slow its moving it seems we got a very young one luckily enough. An older one would be more decisive and much faster. Still, I don't know if its because of some weird butterfly effect from me being in this universe but Ichigo isn't nearly strong enough to do more than superficial damage to a Menos at this point. If we don't step in soon he might get killed.
Unless that's Urahara's plan? Show Ichigo that there are things out there you can't just brute force with an oversized sword and take him on as a student? I know that in canon Ichigo only got to spend a few days training under Urahara but maybe Kisuke wants to bring him up to speed earlier now?
Coming up behind the two of them I question, "Is there a reason we are letting the rookie get slaughtered by a Menos? Cause while he isn't bad for less than a month of being a Reaper, he doesn't have the strength to go up against one of those yet."
By now the Menos is fully out of the breach and proving my point by kicking Ichigo across the park. I don't think it even realized he was there.
"Its fine!" Urahara cheerfully exclaimed, "This is an important battle for Kurosaki-san. Just wait and see."
Rukia on the other hand, is screaming for Ichigo to run. Given that the Menos has finally taken notice of Ichigo and Uryu and is charging a Cero, isn't bad advice. Still looks like it's falling on deaf ears, since Ichigo has reclaimed his sword that Uryu was using as a hat for some reason and is charging the Menos again.
Sighing, I trace a bow and take aim at the Menos, ready to kill the stupid thing before it wipes the kid out of existance. Only to have Urahara step in front of me just as the oversized hollow fires. Surprisingly, Ichigo manages to hold off the Cero instead of being erased by it. Even if it does look like he is struggling to hold it back.
"No need to be hasty, Alex-chan. It's just about time."
With that, Ichigo explodes into a hurricane of swirling power. A beam of condensed Reishi striking the Menos and carving a deep wound from it's feet to shoulder. Now heavily wounded, the massive Hollow retreats back through the dimensional breach closing the majority of it as it left. It was an impressive show of force. Definitely leagues ahead of anything Ichigo has done before this, which begs the question what the hell just happened?!
"Kisuke, explain."
Urahara looks at me and for some reason pales slightly. "Uh, right, well you see Kurosaki-san has yet to learn how to forcibly raise his Reiatsu out of its normal passive state. So I thought that if an outside stimulus forces him to draw out that latent power it would increase his overall abilities."
I stare at him for a bit. "...So you mean to tell me you gambled the kid's life on the hope that he figured out how to increase his power mid fight?!"
"Well it sounds so mean spirited when you say it like that! And don't worry, if he really couldn't take it I was ready to step in at any time."
"You should have stepped in from the beginning then!", shouts Rukia "Menos Grande are not the kind of things Ichigo should be going up against alone! Even for a training exercise, that was too much!"
"Gotta say I agree with her," I interject. Even if I'm finally relaxing after this stupid incident, far too much went to chance for me to be comfortable.
Urahara just waves of our concerns, "Like I said, everything was fine. Now Kuchiki-san please go tend to Kurosaki-san. It seems he is exhausted and will need help getting home. Alex-chan, I have something to discuss with you."
With that he releases Rukia from the binding technique, easily ignoring the glare she sends his way as she runs off to help Ichigo.
"I'm guessing Aizen is behind this somehow?"
"Yes," Urahara confirms "There is no way the Hollow bait used by the Quincies would be capable of drawing the attention of a Menos Grande. That it was young enough for us to deal with so easily means he was more interested in causing a scene than actually harming any of us. Likely it means he is advancing his schedule by drawing the attention of Soul Society to an incident we can't cover up. I expect we will see a response to this in the next couple days.
That being said two of Kurosaki-san's friends have demonstrated spirit powers of their own. Any chance you want to take on a student for a time?"
Right, Orihime and Chad. I rack my brain for anything that I might be able to teach them in a short amount of time. Unfortunately outside of just basic combat discipline I don't come up with much. Both of them still use Reiryoku as the source of their powers while I use mana. Our powers are just too different for me to teach them the basics.
Telling Urahara as much, he simply nods his head. "I figured that might be the case. I guess I'll ask Yuroichi to help them out. For better or worse they might become involved even if they don't directly join forces with us."
Giving me a serious look Urahara continues, "After a spectacle like this, Rukia-san will likely be unable to avoid going back to Soul Society. If you have any preparations to make I suggest doing so now."
I nod, seeing his point. "I have some last calibration tests to run the latest test device through. Give me 5 days to work through any bugs in the spell matrix and finish some one offs. After that I should be ready at any time."
"Mmh, we definitely have that much time. But first we should clean up here, we made a bit of a mess after all!"
I looked around the park, noting general destruction from arrow strikes, impacts, blasts from Ururu's cannon, wind from Ichigo's energy pulse, and other various effects feeling my shoulders drop further in dejection with every new bit of damage. Ugh, this is going to take forever to clean up. Heading back to Tessai and the kids I start calling out our new instructions.
Faster we get this over with, the faster I can go back to my lab.
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